Wednesday, 17 July 2013

The Museum belongs to all.

Interesting venue. Put a note in your diary.



Don Quijote, pluralista by Roger Cummiskey.

Read more here.





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Saturday, 13 July 2013

Why?

I read an ebook by a guy called Matt whose Newsletter I have been getting for about two years into my email.

I have two apartments in Fuengirola but I really need to take a more professional approach to letting these apartments rather than the ad hoc arrangements I have been using up to now.

Lounge


Master bedroom

I just like looking at flowers!


This ebook by Matt has inspired me to try harder! Read on and you will get to know him.






Summary

“The Eureka Effect refers to the common human experience of suddenly understanding a previously incomprehensible problem or concept. The Eureka Effect is named after the myth that the Greek polymath Archimedes, having discovered how to measure the volume of an irregular object, leaped out of a public bath, and ran home naked shouting “Eureka” (I found it).”
As much as I’m sure you’d love to envision a 16th century Archimedes running around naked screaming Eureka, this book is about more than just the “Eureka” moments vacation rental owners experience in generating more bookings.
Sure it’s nice to have those universal secrets in your marketing vault (and trust me, this book is chock full of them). But more existentially, this book will help you to identify and establish the right conditions in which your own Eureka moments can and will organically flourish.
It would be imprudent of me not to mention that some inspiration for this book came from Good To Great by Jim Collins, which is a great resource if you’re interested in why some of the world’s most famous companies make the leap…and others don’t.
Your fearless vacation rental marketer,
Matt Landau


Introduction

Looking back over my years of vacation rental operations, I see peaks and valleys in my own learning curve. There were errors that cost me dearly, lessons that I learned the hard way, and chance happenings that unpredictably changed the very face of my business (for both better and worse).
This learning process sounds familiar to most vacation rental owners and managers: without even trying very hard, we all inevitably spend the first few months (or years) learning the ropes of the vacation rental business. We learn which kinds of clients are best fit for our rentals, where our biggest challenges lie, our strengths and our weaknesses…etc.
But what I’d like to focus on throughout the course of this book, are the positive learning moments I experienced – those spikes in marketing and profitability – that that took my rental fleet from a good, operational company to a great one. These are select, concrete, and actionable decisions that acted as the catalyst for my most significant growth.
What you’re about to read is a laundry list of those specific game-changing activities along with the ways you can implement them today. It is designed for anyone who is already running a successful vacation rental company, but who wants to take their business to the next level: to reach into higher occupancy rates, set record profit months, and turn on the proverbial afterburners en route to operating a great business.
Why did I write this book?
One of the over-arching themes I’ve noticed with vacation rental owners and managers nowadays is that many seem to be content with their vacation rental business. Bookings may be up or down, a month might be particularly busy or slow, but in general, we’re all making decent returns and running pretty good small businesses.
But therein lies precisely the problem.
A “pretty good vacation rental business” is not a great one.
The vast majority of vacation rental businesses never achieve greatness simply because it’s just so easy to settle for something good. Maybe you’re paying off a mortgage comfortably or generating a nice side income. But as I have concluded from working with hundreds of owners and managers, there is a very tangible next plateau that most owners typically never reach.
I decided to write this whitepaper because of a conversation I had with a subscriber who said roughly the following:
“Matt, I really admire all you do with your vacation rental marketing, but I’m a technology dinosaur who just started using email a few years ago. I’ve operated my rental now for a few years, but do you think I can achieve your level of mega success without any super impressive skills in online marketing?”
This was a really good question that got me thinking: is my rental fleet successful because I am an inherently good salesman? Or is my rental fleet successful because I did all the right things?
The answer to that question is probably a bit of both.
But in tracking the progress of my most successful clients, I saw a very clear and exciting trend emerge: regardless of their skill level, owners who have the right mentality can and do achieve greatness on a regular basis.
In some cases, that means booking their rental out 100% year-round. Other times, that means acquiring additional rentals, starting management companies, or getting huge commission checks off overflow bookings.
But no matter the specifics of their success, my greatest clients are just like you (and they’re just like me when I was starting off). They began with the right foundation (a good rental, the right destination, solid business ethics) and their vacation rental was operating just fine…
But at some point along the way, they took a step – perhaps intentional or perhaps by accident – which proved to be their “Eureka Moment,” that point of sudden realization, insight, or comprehension, that changed their vacation rental numbers for good. That sudden surge that set their business to the moon.
Here is a comprehensive list of those moments from my perspective, along with a handful of case studies from my clients to show how realistic going “from good to great” can be for you.


Foreward
Written by Heather Bayer, the veritable godmother of the vacation rental consulting and Founder of the famous Cottage Blogger
The vacation rental industry is changing dramatically and owners that are not embracing the changes and adapting their practice to meet the new demands are going to be left behind as the business gets more competitive.
When I started renting out my vacation homes in the 1990s I didn’t consider it much of a business – it was more of a means of meeting some overheads and expenses.
At that time, most ‘renters’ were trading up to staying in a vacation home after years of camping and considered a hard roof and indoor plumbing a luxury.
Sixteen years and seven vacation properties later I’ve had a  significant shift in attitude and recognize that the rental demographic is changing and most guests now have experience of boutique hotels and resorts.  This brings raised expectations and should encourage us, as vacation rental owners, to ramp up our standards and aim to be the best in our business.
My biggest Eureka! moment was when I began to understand I’d become a provider to the travel industry rather than ‘just renting’ my place out.
Appreciating that guests were paying their hard-earned vacation money to stay in my accommodation brought with it an acceptance of responsibility for their enjoyment, and a commitment to giving them a first class experience.
Matt’s eBook is a treasure chest of Eureka moments – every one of which will help an aspiring or seasoned owner to move their vacation rental business to a higher level.  Each chapter brings another valuable learning point that even the most experienced owner can apply to achieve better results for themselves and greater satisfaction to their guests.
- Heather Bayer


1
Talk Of The Town

Write Where Your Community Needs You
My rentals are located in a unique neighborhood called Casco Viejo where everyone knows everyone else. And no matter where yours are located, chances are, there’s some sense of community where neighbors run into each other at the grocery store and gossip about…whatever.
One of the moments I realized my business was taking off was when I started writing opinion pieces that got the town talking. I’m referring to articles about controversial subjects (like this one) or summaries of important news topics (like this one).
This content marketing tactic worked so well because communities like to share things and since the content was so poignant, everyone in my neighborhood felt the need to pass my link along.
Writing these kinds of articles (even if you need to hire someone else to write them for you and even if you share them via email as opposed to your own website) has a way of giving your rentals authoritative flare and establishing a voice for your community (because your words are representing a larger whole): we all know that if you become a leading voice, travelers and neighbors alike will be drawn to your power magnetically.


2
Highly Capable Helpers

Specialization Rules!
When small businesses like vacation rentals start to grow, they hit speed bumps: maybe you don’t have enough time to treat every reservation inquiry as generously as you would like? Maybe you don’t have the ability to create your own web presence? Maybe your rental — while very successful — is eating up your personal time with your spouse?
Whatever the case, one of the biggest “jumps” my company made was when I realized that hiring professional help (for a myriad of needs) can be incredibly liberating and efficient. Getting over the fear of delegating responsibility led me to some fascinating revelations…
In a most micro example, I found that outsourcing all my busy-work tasks such as writing descriptions (I hired a copywriter) and managing my booking calendar (I subscribed withReservationKey.com) did more than just save me time and headache: it actually elevated the quality of work!
In a more macro example, the moment I hired my first administrative employee (our manager, Paula) was the moment I knew our business was about to explode. Why? Because delegating various tasks to Paula allowed me to focus what I was best at (as the owner).
It was at that tough division of labor junction (emotionally, letting someone else run your rental is difficult!) that my company started to grow and resemble a real business fueled by the divide and conquer mantra. All the while, I was able to do what I enjoyed/excelled which led to personal gratification.


3
Doing Things Right Vs. Doing The Right Thing

The Difference Between Good & Great Rentalpreneurs
There are two kinds of thinking you can apply to your vacation rental operation: tactical thinking and strategic thinking.
Tactical thinking is embodied by the phrase “doing things right” and includes following protocol such as responding quickly to inquiries or hiring a good cleaning lady. Tactical thinking is what you’re already good at considering you run a profitable business with your rental at this moment. When your tactical thinking is strong (that is to say, you’ve established a pretty functional operation) strategic thinking — the more challenging of the two — comes into play.
Strategic thinking is not “doing things right,” but rather “doing the right thing.” This is a very slight but important difference. It’s often the difference between a manager and an owner; a simple employee versus a CEO.
I found that when I started shifting my decision making to strategic (in other words, What is the best decision for the long-term sustainability of my rental?) things really started to grow. And although it did not make me the most money in the short run (some of the most crucial strategic decisions I’ve made went staunchly against the opinions of my staff) it contributed to the foundation of my bulletproof brand.
Some examples of strategic thinking could be voiding your cancellation policy to refund money out of sympathy or choosing to host a blogger or journalist for free because it may result in good press. It’s amazing how, when you’re not penny pinching as a small business owner, you can really do “what’s right” much more easily.
Looking back, it was this intellectual shift – from doing things rightto doing the right thing – that I started looking at our rental fleet like a CEO whose brand was en route to the next level.


4
Change How You Look At Marketing Investments

Think In Nights Recouped

It’s no secret that the different between good and great vacation rental marketers is a lean and varied portfolio of inquiry-producing channels.
And since the free techniques have only one cost (your time), perhaps the biggest challenge is determining precisely which of the paid marketing opportunities actually pan out.
In retrospect, one of the first things I would have done in order to accelerate my learning curve and identify the most effective channels for my rentals would have been to contemplate every marketing opportunity in “rental nights.” By rental nights, I mean to ask myself the question, “How many nights booked do I need to generate for this marketing investment to pay for itself?”
This may sound like a simple perspective, but most people don’t adopt it because taking on new costs can be daunting. If that number is small (such as 1 or 3 or 5 nights) then you’ve got an easy mountain to climb and you should make the investment.
If that number is huge (say 20 or 50 nights necessary to earn back your investment) then the opportunity should be considered more thoroughly. My big Aha! Moment was realizing that the more sheer paid marketing avenues I could accrue, the higher the likelihood of finding a diamond in the rough.
And for those who have larger homes that average $300-$400+/night, you have it even easier: give a new paid technique a try and you’ll recoup your costs with a night or two booked!


5
Spend Half Your Time On Names

It's All In The Packaging
If you’ve ever heard of the spoof newspaper The Onion, their writers are rumored to create the title of an article first, and then write the stories later. And over the course of my vacation rental career and into my consulting business, one thing has become abundantly clear: people put way too much emphasis on the specifics of their rental and not enough on the packaging.
I’ve seen the case where a headline makes the difference between 100 pageviews and 1000 pageviews.
Considering that travelers go through tens (and maybe hundreds) of property listings before they find one that they like, it was a total Aha! Moment when I realized that if you don’t have a kick-butt name or title, your property details simply don’t matter.
This stretches from the very simplest point of writing a compelling VRBO listing headline to the more advanced challenge of figuring out the best words to describe your property.
For instance, for years, my website showed our 7 units by their actual names (Monjas 1a, Monjas 1b, Monjas 2a, Monjas 2b…etc.)
Upon realizing that “Monjas 1a” doesn’t mean anything to an unsuspecting traveler, I changed the names to more descriptive phrases on our dropdown menu. Monjas 1a became Colonial Chic, Monjas 1b became Subtle Charm, Monjas 2a became Cosy Studio…etc.
This tip is not to say you must change your name and your headline today. It is to help you recognize that most guests – prior to meeting you – have very little idea of what it is that you offer. Help them understand by providing the absolute perfect package: everyone wants to open a tempting package.


6
Spinning A Web Of Locals

When It Comes To Frequent Guests, No Discount Is Too Steep
We all know that good word of mouth is important to any vacation rental’s marketing prowess. And we all know that giving away free nights to influential locals or reporters can produce for your property a great buzz. You’ve probably had it once or two (or maybe more): a neighbor or local business owner or frequent guest recommending your rental to their friends…
But one of my greatest Eureka moments — a time when our low season started setting records year upon year– was a fusion of the two.
Just about every vacation rental city has a complementary destination. Complements are places which interact in combination with your destination: for instance, a city nearby (within a few hours drive) whose residents tend to visit your city for the weekend, migrate through for inbound/outbound flights, drop in for dinner…etc. If you don’t know what your complementary destination(s) is, you’re either located in the middle of the Serengeti or you’re just not thinking hard enough.
So upon identifying those complementary guests who pass through, I now realize that “investing” in these travelers was actually a very subtle yet sophisticated form of marketing. By giving them highly discounted rates or free bottles of wine or free massages (perks that should be naturally afforded to frequent guests no matter what) you’re actually “spending” on marketing because these people are the ones who preach your gospel to friends, on forums, and to neighbors in their home city. They’re also the web that you can rely on for low season or last minute specials.
My Aha! Moment here was realizing that no discount is too big (in the short run) in order to secure a loyal following (in the long).


7
Build Your List

Email Marketing Crushes Social Media
It’s been the better part of a decade that I’ve been poking and prodding at ways to generate more bookings and if I had to distill my biggest personal growth spurt down into one simple, concrete action (because who doesn’t like small tasks to focus on?) it would be this: build your list.
Back when I started marketing my rentals, I thought to myself,Why would I need to build an email list? I didn’t want emails: I wanted people to view my property RIGHT NOW!
But of all the greatest mistakes I see amongst my clients and subscribers, at the top of my list would be owners who don’t cultivate a database of previous guests with which to stay in touch. It’s been 7 years now and I still want to hit my head against the wall for not building my list earlier.
The truth is, email marketing outperforms social media by a gigantic margin. The reason is because those previous guests on your list already know and trust you in a business setting. If you compare how many emails those guests receive per day (maybe 100?) to how many Twitter/Facebook updates they get per day (maybe 5,000?), it’s clear which medium is more likely to generate leads.
Now, since guests respond to email so much better than social media, you’d think that building an email list is harder. But it’s not (and that’s where the Eureka effect sets in): realizing that you simply need to start asking guests if they’d like to be on your newsletter list is realizing that you’re about to generate a lot more money.
So how do you start growing your list?
First, ask any past guests to “opt-in” which is equivalent to giving permission to receive your newsletters. Second, provide a very easy check-box or “subscribe” link on all your inquiry forms or correspondence emails to secure new list participants.
I am going to put it very bluntly: the moment I started building my list of loyal rental guests was the moment I started connecting with HUGE amounts of frequent guests and making much more money. I just wish I had done it sooner.
You can also download The Definitive Handbook on VR Email Marketing, which I wrote myself (that’s how important this theme really is!)


8
A Booking Doesn’t Make Us Happy

Learning How To Generate More Bookings, Though, Generally Does
Here is one of the great themes that I have concluded (and have had validated from many great rental marketers): just generating more bookings is not gratifying.
Putting up a listing on VRBO or an ad on Craigslist takes minimal effort, basically no experience, and provides a hollow sense of success.
In the great proverb, “give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he’ll eat for a lifetime,” just accruing bookings means you’re eating for the day.
But when you learn how to generate bookings for yourself – when you decide to take a journey on the education train and accept a challenge that’s probably slightly above your skill level – there is not only the sustainable nourishment that will fuel your rentals over the long haul.
Further, there is a great sense of pride, accomplishment, and gratification along the way.
Some of the best energy I’ve experienced with my rentals is an intangible happiness I get from finding new ways to fill my rentals. For most owners, the fear of failure is strong enough to keep them away from learning new skills.
But if I could point at one philosophy that has not just made me more money but made the process itself a satisfying and enlightening one, it would be this one.


9
Cut It Out!

Trimming Fat Is Just As Important As Adding Bulk

So often I find myself searching the web, interviewing owners, and trying to glean from other industries ideas that might help us vacation rental owners increase our bookings. Sometimes I feel like I have tunnel vision: Must. Find. New. Techniques. (Grunt).
But the second half of the equation – the weeding out of things that just don’t work – is incredibly easy to overlook. Forgetting to do this (trim the activities and techniques that are not performing as well as others) can suck so much time and money from your marketing ecosystem that it can debilitate you…quickly.
One of my greatest Eureka Moments was when I took a 50,000-foot view of my marketing activities and eliminated the 80% of stuff that was not working (check out the 80/20 rule I like to employ). Like, quite literally, I deleted them from my repertoire never to waste time with again, focusing instead on that lean, top 20% of revenue producers. Some examples of these trimmed activities were Facebook, Twitter, print marketing…etc.
While this may seem extreme, it’s important to note that I had a bevy of data to make solid my conclusions (which is to say, I wouldn’t recommend making these cuts until you have at least 6-12 months worth of good, hard data).
While it often goes unnoticed, cutting slack from your marketing is just as powerful, if not more so, than adding bulk.


10
The Big Fish In The Small Pond

Seek Out Platforms Where You Can Be The Star
This analogy works for many aspects of the vacation rental business such as location (be the best rental in your area) and timing (be the first rental in your area) and PR (be the most talked about rental in your area). But the niche in which I think it resounds most is online marketing.
When I say, be a big fish in a small pond, I don’t mean it in a literal sense.
Rather, you should want to be present where very few other competitors are absent. The perfectly opposite example of this advice is social media (where your Tweet or your Facebook post is only one of tens of thousands the potential guest may read each day) or newspaper ads (where your classified ad will most likely get lost in a list of hundreds).
So it was a total Eureka! Moment when I realized that the smaller a vacation rental owner/manager is, the more intensely he or she must seek out new (unknown) platforms to promote their property(s).
Take the instance of Taxi Mike, who is pretty much the only taxi driver in town with his own printed travel guide. Or Joe Gatto in Costa Rica who is the only one in his region that offers an Amazon List of recommended travel books/products to his guests. Seek out places online (forums that no competitors are using), influential writers (that none of your competitors are approaching), or even locals in your neighborhood or employees in your community (that don’t have a favorite place to send guests).
The point is, when striving to be the big fish in the small pond, owners and managers should strive to be the only one in town doing any given marketing activity. Proportionally, this makes you stand out. Peripherally, it means you have no competition.


11
How To Know When To Grow

Start Calculating Your Potential Occupancy Rate

This one is for anyone who’s already running a successful vacation rental and thinking about possibly acquiring numero dos.
The best part about having operated a vacation rental is knowing the marketing numbers: you know it costs roughly $X in order to reach roughly Y% occupancy. Unlike how much it costs to run electricity, water, and maintenance fees for a year, these are statistics that most owners cannot find just anywhere.
So my Eureka! Moment was when I started calculating a very simply metric each month: in addition to my own Occupancy Rate (or how many nights I booked at my own rentals), I started tracking my Potential Occupancy Rate (or how many nights I booked at my own rentals PLUS how many nights I referred to other rentals nearby or how many nights I could have booked if I had say 10 more rentals).
When you have this statistic, you are able to see very clearly how hard it would be for you to fill a second or third rental. Knowing you can fill 60 room nights per month equates to two rentals at 100% close to occupancy (30 room nights for each). For the most part, your marketing costs should remain fixed (with the exception of perhaps a new VRBO listing for the second property?) and you’ll be set with the blue print to greatness.


12
Recalibrate Frequently

Once A Quarter, Have A Brutal Facts Meeting
OK so I have to admit, I totally stole this one from Jim Collins’ book. But it resonates so well with the most successful vacation rental owners and managers in the world. Every single one of them that I know, is constantly (in some cases more frequently than once a quarter) evaluating where they stand.
Sitting down (even if it’s just by yourself or with your spouse) and evaluating precisely what is working well, what is not working well, and what are some ideas that can help improve was probably the smartest thing I did from the very start.
Since it’s so easy to get lost in your day-to-day management of your rental(s), setting a “board meeting” of sorts is incredibly helpful in recalibrating your marketing regime.
The easiest way to become complacent and be sufficiently happy with your bookings is to ignore this rule: to just trudge along as if everything is fine and dandy. I promise, the moment you start having “brutal facts meetings” you’ll be forced to face your downfalls (even if it’s an item that falls outside the realm of marketing such as maintenance or annoying neighbors).
In terms of marketing, I would recommend the quarterly assessment to look at how much you’re spending on marketing, how many leads you’re generating, how many of those leads are turning into bookings, and where (across all these metrics) you could possibly improve.
Setting goals is something I talk about obsessively in Boost Occupancy, but it’s during these formal assessment sessions that your goals should be realized.


13
Plant The Seed

Be Patient In Watching It Grow
One of my biggest Aha! Moments was actually the product of a lot of annoyance and frustration.
You see, throughout the process of vacation rental marketing, things can get aggravating. Maybe you’re working your butt off to write a blog but no one is commenting. Maybe you’re running around like a crazy person trying to distribute your weekly calendar to business owners, but no one’s sending leads…
Whatever the case, there are bound to be times in your learning curve that leads are just not pouring through and frankly, it can have a very debilitating effect!
The Eureka moment came, however, when I started listening to all these master online marketers who agreed, unanimously, that online marketing these days is about planting the seed and being patient for it to grow.
Think about a farmer: how many seeds must he or she plant in order to have a fruitful crop? The answer to this analogy is that not every technique or activity or mindset in your vacation rental marketing is going to be fruitful. Most, in fact, will not.
But in planting the seed – in other words, working your hardest to practice sound techniques, proven methods, and helpful deeds – you will come out strongest in the end. Additionally, understanding that good marketing work needs the right conditions to really come to fruition is something that can really drive you through those slow periods.
Learning to see through the slow times to the light ahead was one of the most comforting and exciting conclusions I’ve settled on along the way.


14
Be Yourself

Share Your Authentic Identity With Travelers
In a lot of the work that I share with my vacation rental subscribers, one common theme always seems to run through although I never really articulate it. So it was actually a great exercise to stumble upon this Aha! moment via writing this book.
Travelers don’t want to associate with robots or automated phone systems or generic touristic centers: they want the authentic. And the good news for you and every other vacation rental owner/manager that you know is this: the best property marketers are the ones who are themselves.
Being yourself isn’t just a cheesy lesson you learned in school, but a lot of the same fundamental principles are there…
The most successful vacation rental owners and managers have taken their business from nothing to something (wonderful) using their identity as an engine.
They package their personality in their newsletter emails, they reflect their wonderful tastes in their restaurant recommendations, they speak for their whole family in sharing the story of how they acquired their property and what makes it so special. [Note: If you don't know where to start here, try writing a short letter to your prospective guests about what makes your property so special to your family. Chances are, you'll organically come across a number of authentic and heart-warming marketing themes that breathe authenticity.]
The best news of the day is this: to take your vacation rental from good to great, you don’t need to pretend to be someone else. You must embrace and highlight precisely who you are in relation to the product you are selling.
If you do that effectively, travelers will be drawn to you because everyone these days is drawn away from the sterile and into the authentic.


15
Try Everything Once

Expect 90% Of Your Marketing Efforts To Fail
I’d like to introduce you to Sophie Johansson, owner of Spanish Vacation Rental in Cala Las Mijas, Spain.
Sophie is an amazing example of an owner who has taken her vacation rental from good to great in a period of about 1 year. With no particular expertise, Sophie just sort of adopted this mentality that she was going to do whatever it took to generate more bookings. In reading her responses to my questions, I think any owner or manager with an already-successful vacation rental owner can explode to the next level:
What’s one any particular mindset that has given your marketing momentum and taken your vacation rental to the next level?
Sophie: The mindset that has given our vacation rental homes the biggest momentum is primarily that “we will try everything at least once.” After having tested out different techniques for at least a year, we then determine if it is worth continuing with.
At one point we were updating 20 calendars every single time someone reserved with us!
By adding everyone who contacts us into a database, along with the initial path they came by our apartments, we can then analyze if it is worth continuing with a certain method or site. The advantage is that we can mathematically weed out the things that don’t work for us. The disadvantage is that it takes a lot of time and marketing dollars to figure it out.
Are you able to apply any statistics or figures (estimates are fine) with this change in behavior? 
Sophie: We have gone from marketing on over 30 sites down to 6 paid sites and 6 free sites. The other sites either gave us no enquires or enquires that were a waste of our time.
You now have a few years operating the business: in the grand scheme, can you point at any particular time period that was the catalyst for major growth?
Sophie: The time period that was the catalyst for our major growth must have been May 2nd, 2012. That is the day that I purchased Matt’s Boost Occupancy handbook. The book had so many great ideas and concepts that I could implement very quickly, but also more complex ones that we been working on since then.
Can you identify any  factors that contributed to this jump?

Sophie: The main internal factor for us would be that we have a positive attitude and plenty of determination. We expect to find 90% of the marketing efforts to not bring in any additional renters. The idea for us is to find the 10% that does work, and then invest heavily in our time and effort into those areas. As Thomas Edison said: “I have not failed. I have just found 10,000 ideas that won’t work”.
When you began with your rentals, what kind of marketing skills/knowledge did you already possess?
I used to have my own business and had done some direct marketing with postcards. That was it as far as marketing background. Luckily for us we are both skilled with computers and software, which has been a great help when we have needed to sign up for many sites, format pictures, create videos, structure contacts into databases, and managing the everyday finances.


16
Congruence, Flexibility, And…Dogs?

Choose The Right Foundation & Stick To Your Guns
Debbie Lipscomb of Eastern Shore Rentals was in the hospitality industry for years prior to moving back to the Eastern Shore (Maryland).  A friend who had recently moved to the area was renting her summer home through VRBO, when she and Debbie got to talking.
“I knew from seeing the showing instructions on the homes at Benson and Mangold that many were “Vacant, Show Anytime.”  It got me thinking this could be a great way to earn income, bring tourism dollars to the area and mostly, use a resource that already existed.  Seeing these beautiful homes sitting empty seemed like a waste. I also grew up here and I wanted to share the area’s experiences with visitors!”
That was then and this is now. Today, Debbie’s company brings 7,000 people a year to the Eastern Shore, who dine in our restaurants, pay occupancy taxes, use the area’s services and shop frequently. I wanted to get at the real crux of how Debbie’s vacation rental business took off so I asked her to talk about the mentality that has been vital to her success:
Debbie: When we started this business, my business partner and I each had three young boys, and were doing this very much part time.  Our theory was that there was no amount of money that would be worth having an angry guest calling us in the middle of the night because the house was not what they expected.
“We built the business by being very clear about our houses, offering floor plans, detailed photo shoots and very honest descriptions about our homes.
“The properties we represent are all very quirky houses, some are even pre-Civil War era.  We carry that through today even though we have grown to the point of having on-call managers and staff to handle the angry guests.  We have a 40% repeat guest rate and I believe it is partly because our guests always know exactly what to expect from our properties, and in most cases, we probably undersell but exceed expectations.”
Note: This is what I refer to as marketing congruence. Debbie has managed to align her vision with her mission with her business culture with her marketing and the result is that repeat guests all say the exact same thing: “that was a great stay!”
“The other is flexibility.  We have a core of homes that are available weekly only, but the rest are flexible check in days and less than weekly stays.  We learned quickly that there is a pent up demand for less than weekly stays in the vacation rental market, and also for smaller homes.  Our competitors spend all their time cultivating the big houses with lots of amenities, we have a mix of homes—from two bedroom cottages to homes that sleep 20+.
“Guests that stayed with us for their big family vacation in the summer might book a weekend cottage in the fall.  We have a number of guests that stay with us more than once per year because we have a variety of programs to meet their needs.  We also offer consistency at all homes—linens and beds made are standard whether it is a 1940′s two bedroom cottage or grand estate.  The basic equipment list is the same, etc.
“Allowing dogs and not charging a pet fee was also a big turning point for us.  Unless there is an allergy issue for the owner, all ESVR homes must accept up to two dogs.  Homes that allow pets have a 15-20% higher occupancy rate, and these customers are also more loyal to us because they can bring their dogs.  We give biscuits at check in!”

17
Don’t Make Excuses

Take Control Of Your Surroundings
To continue the story of Debbie Lipscomb of Eastern Shore Vacation Rentals, what most impressed me about her growth (in such a short period of time) is how she managed to adapt to (what some might consider to be) difficult market conditions.
It’s a message I receive all the time:
Matt, the tourism market here is too slow or Matt, no one here wants to rent homes or Matt, the low season/bad economy is just killing us this year.
But guess what: owners and managers that take their rental from good to great (like Debbie) have a different mindset. They refuse to make excuses. They know they must leverage something and keep growing. Here is what Debbie felt made the real difference…
At what time period in your business development did you really start to notice significant growth?  
Debbie: “The third year was a big jump for us.  We went from 12 to 25 properties the first year, but the second, we jumped to 55!  Word got out, the real estate market was slow so clients were coming to us to rent their homes when the recognized that it would take a while to sell their homes.
“We developed an “integrated listing” program that addressed how to combine sales and rental so the homeowner could benefit while marketing their property.  Agents loved it too because if the client was earning income they were not pressuring the agent for the sale.”
Can you identify any specific reason or decision or activity that resulted in this jump?
Debbie: “We started this business in 2004 and have seen a variety of economic environments.  We have continued to grow throughout.  The key is to find the strategy for the environment: for instance, if real estate is slow, rent the houses on the market.  Real estate is hot?  Market to buyers to invest in vacation rental properties.  Gas prices high?  Market to the areas within 2 hours from you.  Gas prices low and flights are cheap?  Market to that.
“We have found unexpected benefits in many places—hurricanes for example.  We market to Floridians in late August and September who want to escape hurricane season (although there is risk here too, just not as high).”


18     
Run Your Rental Like A Business

Not As A Passive Income Stream
Corey Jones is not unlike a giant bulk of vacation rental owners: he had no hospitality industry experience when he started his fleet ofvacation rentals in Historic Savannah which I’ve featured several times on my blog.
But what sets him apart from his competition just 2 years later, is that in addition to his own property, Corey manages 30 units (and growing) in the area. And things don’t seem to be slowing down.
This kind of growth trajectory was precisely why I wanted to ask Corey a few questions about that specific Eureka! Moment and what, specifically, were the conditions in which his company really started to thrive. You’ll notice his points resonate very much with the Foreward written by vacation rental guru Heather Bayer.
What business mentality has set your rentals apart from the competition? 
Corey: “My general business background proved to be a great asset to our business. Our guests and customers can tell that we take a long-term relational perspective with them, compared to our counterparts who seem to be more short-sighted.
“Apart from that, the strongest mentality behind our growth has been something very simple: hard work. Working harder than the next guy has proven to be our biggest “secret.” There are plenty of people smarter (and richer) than us that could do great in our vacation rental field: but something holds 95% of them back and it’s almost always the choice not to put in the effort required.”
What specific activity or decision took your rentals from good to great?
Corey: “Well there were three things…
  1. (Unsolicited brown-nosing warning) Buying your Boost Occupancy Report, which changed the way we looked at vacation rental marketing
  2. Investing in a back-end reservations platform called Bookt,which allowed us to scale more efficiently.
  3. Hiring my first employee: getting comfortable with the fact that I’d take a small, short-term step backwards in profitability was hard. But the trade-off was a much, much steeper growth line soon thereafter.”
At what point (time-wise) in your company’s growth did you see the biggest shift in profitability?
Corey: “I spent 1.5 years managing my own property in addition to 5 properties of close friends and family as a side project. Since I was doing a good job, word of mouth buzz led to collecting properties outside the ‘friends and family’ network.
“Good results from those owners (relative to what they achieved on their own or with other agencies) created even more leads.
“The first 1.5 years I grew my company from 1 to 8 properties. In the last 8 months, we will have gone from 8 to 30 properties, with at least 1 new prospective owner inquiry per week. We initially had a master plan to go out and aggressively market existing owners and grab market share, but we simply haven’t had the time due to incoming lead activity through referrals and word of mouth (a great problem to have).”
What would you say was the key turning point around this 1.5 year mark?
Corey: “They key turning point between the slow/steady growth at the beginning and the steep growth today was due to one thing: when we decided to treat this as a business.
“When we noticed so many travelers coming to our door unsolicited, we became comfortable with the fact that there was an under-served market opportunity.
“Once we committed to treating our rentals like a business (this as opposed to discretionary or passive income stream) things simply took off.” 


19
Establish Independence…Now

Be Fearless. Be Courageous. And Be Committed.
Some of my subscribers like Andy Parr of Netamatix, are doing mind-bending work in the vacation rental niche and they’re obviously primed for this sort of sharing session. Andy’s Netamatix is an online booking, reservation management and soon to be channel management company that I’ve been following for a while.
I initially got hooked on Andy’s work when he wrote this articleabout establishing independence from listing sites (a topic near and dear to my heart). For me, the “listing site dilemma” or “establishing independence” is at the very real forefront of most owner/manager’s minds. It’s something everyone needs to do, but simultaneously, something that everyone seems to put off.
Andy seems to agree: “The influential “success” or Aha! decision that jumps out at me is removing the reliance on listing sites like HomeAway and others. “It’s like trying to remove an addiction. It takes courage and commitment from the beginning, and I say ‘beginning’ because almost inevitably, most owners start their bookings via one of these sites. The true “Eureka moment” is a hard won battle to reach the top.”
Now, because Andy has seen so many “good to great” owner and manager success stories, I asked him what seemed to be the average amount of time that it takes (from the beginning) to create flow and momentum in one’s vacation rental marketing program?
Andy: “The answer to this one lies somewhere in the region of 18 to 60 months. There are so many factors at play but they are dominated by three:
  1. The first is the owners vision. How quickly do they recognize the opportunities that exist around them (or perhaps more importantly, how long do they choose to stay tethered to a listing site).
  2. The second is the owners ability. Some, despite spotting the opportunity can’t leverage it because they really don’t know where to start.
  3. The final factor relates to the region. I know that all regions can be marketed but it takes guile and skill to leverage what it is you have to the right audience, fishing clearly where the fish are and in a way that those fish are going to bite.  Different regions require different tactics and strategies to find your fish!
So if the average time period is roughly 1-4 years (a large time span), can you characterize what that all-important first year should look like?
Andy: “This is an easy one. Capture as much exposure as possible. Deal in a personal manner with all enquiries and try to over deliver.
“If an owner has some spare cash they should use it to not just meet expectation but surpass it.
“Delight by over achievement.
“The key to a successful rental business is return guests. A return guest doesn’t just return. They talk positively about the experience and that leads to new bookings. It is priceless marketing that cannot be replicated by any logistic campaign.”
OK assuming an owner has all these right foundational elements in place, what is the most powerful thing they can do right from the start to capitalize on their development curve?
Andy: “Next, the key is to spot the ‘Pareto Effect’. The 80/20 rule. 80% of your business will come from 20% of your customers.
“A good owner will make sure they keep a good record of each interaction and market in a personal way to the best customers. Keep them coming and keep them talking: it’s priceless.
“Additionally, the very beginning of a rental businesses life needs to start with an email list, so the good owner will be collecting these, and information on their prospect, right from minute one.
“That information will enable the owner, in the future, to market personally to the best customers. It’s easy to think that email is passe but recent statistics still show it growing in importance and clearly being more successful at generating business than social media. A recent study has shown email marketing to generate seven times more customers than social media and be 12% more valuable in terms of revenue than the average customer value. An email list used intelligently is a must.” [Note: Andy's answer here resonates beautifully with Chapter 7: Build  Your List.]”
Lastly, if an owner does nothing else, what is one free, easy, accessible mindset that he/she can embrace to better their chances of having their own Eureka! moment and going from good to great?
Andy: “I think the marketing mix is a good place to start to get the owner thinking like a customer. If you do nothing else other than think like your prospective guest, then the decisions you take will be aimed at raising awareness and desire to book the rental.
“Anything that sits outside of marketing (and I mean marketing in a succinct way) is wasting effort.
“So the technical side of your website should not be taking up an owner’s time. Things like that need to be completed by outsourcing the task. I see regularly owners trying to manage search engines to get to the top on terms that the major websites are all over. This ‘technical’ side of things should be left to a provider and not be ‘tinkered’ with by untrained owners.
“Other technical aspects like trying to manage bookings without anintegrated booking system working in the background is doomed to take up too much time that ought to be spent on more ‘profitable’ activity.”


20
Maps & Minimum Stays


Juliana Raposo is one of my favorite subscribers: she’s really embraced the idea of self-growth when it comes to vacation rental marketing and her Convivial Stays Vacation Rentals has reflected this growth in profitability.
Before starting in the vacation rental game, Juliana, an artist, was a self-proclaimed “horrible marketer for her art work.” She got involved with vacation rentals fully aware that “marketing ain’t easy, even if the product (like her artwork) is great.”
When I asked Julia what seemed to be the catalyst — the Eureka! Moment — for her success, she pointed at two things…
“First is interactive maps: as you know, I use custom Google maps a lot. I created maps to describe our region and to detail activities like scenic drives, walking tours, etc. I have a master map with everything worth seeing in the vicinity of each of our two homes that I use in my inquiry responses. I also have a small collection of maps detailing a single activity (such as a day trip) and I use these to enrich the insider guide I give to our guests. Our guests love the maps and actually use them. They seem surprised by the feature and view it as a “plus”.”
She went on to say, “maps definitely help win guests who are unsure about the location. When people make lots of questions about the location before booking I direct the conversation to the map. I win about half of them.
“Because I have been using the interactive maps since I started renting, I can’t really do a before and after comparison. But I believe that it really helps me with picky travelers who might be considering three different rentals.
“My second Eureka Moment was, be flexible with your minimum stay.After realizing this, I never turn away a guest for 2 nights or 3 nights if their check in or check out dates are consecutive with an existing reservation. Even if my minimum for the period is 7 nights. That flexibility allows me to diversify my customer base and brings in more money.
“In 2010-2011, when I only accepted one-week rentals, I had 83% and 87% occupancy. That may look good, but I was only doing weeklies for 3 months followed by a 9 month student rental.
“In 2012 I started to do short stays only. I was insecure about the move (it’s inherently more risky and more work) but anxious to try something new. It turns out that my occupancy rate was 93% for that year. And because the average nightly price went up, my revenue for the year went up 24%!”
Juliana’s main reason for transitioning to short stays was because she hated renting to college kids in the off season. “Do I need to explain why? I resisted initially because I thought there wasn’t enough demand to match what I made with the students. Luckily, I was wrong…”
Juliana now sits in an enviable position as a vacation rental owner: 2012 was a record year, fueled by the switch to short stays. And 2013 is slated to do even better.

21
The Vicarious Local

Introduce Guests To The Local Scene
There are very few people in the vacation rental industry who have a grasp on the market like Joel Rasmussen. As the author of the Amazon #1 best seller “Vacation Rental Success,” Joel also and owns and manages Soco Spaces, a fleet of boutique guest homes in vacation rental mecca (aka Austin, Texas).
When I spoke with Joel about the theme of this book, he was psyched to contribute because he too works with a lot of vacation rental owners and managers, helping them over that “hump” from good to great. Without even giving Joel any particular instructions, here’s what he said…
“I think my biggest Eureka! Moment came within the second year of running my rentals. I love to stay in vacation rentals when I travel, which is how I go into this business in the first place. What I noticed about the rentals that had to most to offer, and that I had the most fun in, was how much the owner tried to include me and introduce me into the local scene.
“Even if they weren’t there on site, the rentals I loved the most had a comprehensive guide book, detailed maps (see Juliana Raposo), suggestions, coupons for local businesses, and anything else that helped me to feel a little more like an ‘insider’ or a ‘vicarious local’.
“As I looked at my own business I realized that I hadn’t done enough there, that my number one job in marketing my properties was to be the biggest fan and cheerleader I could be for Austin, Texas and then communicate that clearly to prospective, as well as past, guests.
“Practically speaking, this means that I now include a PDF area guide in my first correspondence with any inquiry. I’m giving them something of value even before they book in order to get them excited about their trip.
“It also means that I’ve ramped up my outbound efforts to past guests, letting them know about exciting things happening soon in Austin. Everything that I’m now doing or working on implementing is all based around this idea of being the most knowledgeable and enthusiastic promoter of Austin, and my central neighborhood Soco, that I can.
“The results have been a clear increase in not only conversions and referrals, but in the excitement and general engagement of guests, both new and returning.
“In order to do this you need to have a database of previous guests (see Building Your List) and you need to know what’s going on around you and hopefully have some meaningful connections there (see Spinning A Web Of Locals). Then, put yourself inside that community and communicate your passion for your properties and your surroundings (see Be Yourself).
“For me these things are the tactical pillars that support a strategy of cheerleading you and your space, and as a consequence filling your calendar with happy guests.”


Conclusion
Previous
Writing and compiling this book was a great learning experience for me.
I got to really reflect on the turning points in my own business success, while learning a ton from other owners who had their own similar (yet totally different) Eureka moments.
In the end, I can conclude that the true essence of a Eureka! Moment is what an owner makes of it.
Sure, I can give you a checklist of things to do or ways to think, but the truest indicator of real success lies in an owner’s perspective. I like to use the analogy of a plant: having that Aha! moment of your own is not something that appears out of mid-air. It’s the careful product of weeks, months, and years of honest and progressive work. If you’re prepared to put in the effort, with the right perspective your rental can do just about anything.
If you liked what you just read, you’re not alone.
My newsletter now has several thousand subscribers (both owners, managers, and industry folks) who are simply hooked on ways to increase their occupancy and operate better vacation rentals.
My philosophy is that leaders (like me) were put on this earth to help people. I’m finding my “helping” niche in vacation rental consultations the same way you may be finding your “helping” niche with your prospective guests. 95% of my work is free and designed for owners of every skill level to make leaps and bounds of progress.
In order to cultivate this community of thought leaders, please visit my self-designed store, VRLeap.com (and more specifically, theVRLeap Freebie Section where everything is…well, free!)
In addition to all those amazing products (that should really be selling for lots of money) you can take advantage of my blog newsletter where I release products, tips, and opportunities (who wants to be featured in a news article?!?!?) on a regular basis.
Thanks again for reading my work and for joining the largest group of vacation rental thought leaders in the industry!
Your fearless vacation rental marketing leader,
Matt Landau
P.S. If you have read through this book and are thinking to yourself, “I’ve had my own Eureka! moment!” please send it to me directly at matt[at]loscuatrotulipanes.com. I’d love to include it in the next edition.

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