Quality of Guest Inquiries - The Good, the Bad, and the Un-Spam
July 17th, 2007 by TJ Mahony tj@flipkey.comI have been a vacation rental manager for the last six months in hopes of renting my condo during the tourist heavy summer in Boston.
I would estimate 80% of the inquiries I receive via the listing service I use are legitimate guests looking for accommodations. I find many are a bit ‘cheap’, aggressively trying to reduce my (very reasonable) rates, but they are good people for the most part.
The remaining 20% I would characterize as ‘Un-Spam’ - meaning, people that don’t realize they are sending me unreasonable requests.
- A man from Idaho asked me if he could rent my two bedroom condo for one night for himself and 20 of his closest friends. (That was not a typo - 20 friends)
- At least 2 people each week ask to rent my unit on a week that is already clearly booked on my calendar
- A woman from Texas offered $50/night for three nights in exchange to keep it ‘clean’
- A lot of house swap offers
My place is booked for the rest of the year and to cut down on the Un-Spam I have blocked off my calendar, but I continue to get about 3-4 inquiries a week. I don’t see this as a bad thing and more of an illustration of how demand for vacation rentals exceeds supply.
I believe there are some simple solutions to cut down on Un-Spam and I will explore potential solutions in future posts.
August 15th, 2007 at 6:01 pm
I guess I’d disagree here that demand for vacation rentals exceeds supply. I think it’s the reverse. Vacation home and condo supply is ample — evidenced by the fact that we’ve had historically low interest rates, record second home ownership, and extremely low annual occupancy rates in vacation properties (the typical vacation home is only rented out about 8-11 weeks out of the year in most destinations, which is a paltry 15% occupancy rate for the average home, compared with a typical occupancy of 80% or more for the average hotel).
Rather, I’d say the “consumer-surfaced supply” or the “easily searchable supply” is exceeded by consumer demand, which is perhaps what you meant.
The available homes and condos are definitely out there to be rented — and in numbers that would fully satisfy existing demand, but the electronic connection between the consumer and where most of the inventory is managed (in the case of professionally managed homes) is not yet fully built out in a way that makes shopping for vacation homes as easy as hotels. And this, in turn, keeps demand lower than it naturally should be, given that vacation homes and condos offer far better overall value and amenities (generally) for families and couples. At Escapia Inc., we’re trying to solve this imbalanced for the professionally-managed segment, by building world-class property management software, then connecting it in to various points of demand.
August 15th, 2007 at 6:02 pm
PS: I’d add that another thing holding back consumer demand is yield-based pricing, which also requires (at least for professional property managers) more sophisticated software than has been available… so far, at this writing
September 20th, 2007 at 12:41 am
I agree with Steve on existing demand but believe that the current supply would be far more utilized if demand were increased due to a substantial increase in product awareness.
I contend that only a small percentage of domestic travelers have ever stayed in a vacation home rental because they have little or no knowledge of the product. The lack of major brands or any apparent standards has a lot to do with this.
I feel the lack of product awareness is the biggest issue affecting the vacation rental industry today. This will change over time. I believe demand will far outstrip supply if it happens sooner than later.
February 6th, 2008 at 11:00 pm
That is a great thought.. I wasn\’t thinking in that direction.