At FlipKey we like to frequently remind ourselves of the differences between hotels and vacation homes, and then think about how to leverage our industry’s uniqueness to promote vacation rentals. Today I’m going to talk about one of the larger differentiating factors between a hotel and a vacation home - the amenities.

When I book an average hotel room, I don’t need to think about the amenities I am getting because I already know exactly what to expect. A 25″ tv made in 1995, a phone, a coffee pot with those terrible coffee packets, tiny bottles of shampoo, etc. However, this is not true in the vacation rental industry. Amenities vary wildly amongst vacation homes, and they are an essential part of the selection process.

The “human touch” of vacation rental amenities is part of what makes vacation rentals so much better than hotels. However, this is also a large factor in making the selection process so difficult for many guests. The problem is two-fold:

1. Too many amenities to choose from makes it difficult to decide which are the most important.
2. Too little congruency amongst similar amenity descriptions found across multiple properties presents a real challenge when trying to compare apples to apples

Problem #1 is one of user choice. Only the individual guest can run the calculus that lets them decide whether they would rather have the smaller house with the Jacuzzi and the Grill, or opt for the larger house with the pool table and the Xbox 360. Problems of preference rarely have a universal solution.

Problem #2, however, is one that is solvable if the industry worked together to create a standard amenity taxonomy.

Allow me to illustrate the problem more clearly with an example:
Ben is taking his family to Disney World and is looking for a house in the Orlando area for his wife and 5 kids. One of the features that Ben wants to keep the family occupied at night is a nice home theater room. He wants surround sound, a 50″+ plasma television, and plenty of comfortable seating. However, upon sifting through the endless pages of available vacation rentals in the Orlando area, Ben sees property listings that use all sorts of different terms to describe what may (or may not) be a home theater system:

• DVD
• DVD/TV
• HDTV
• Color TV
• Cable TV
• LCD
• Surround System
• And many more variations

Ben quickly notices that he has no way to tell which properties actually have a home theater room. Does the listing with “HDTV” even have a DVD player? Is the “Home Theater System” in High Definition? This problem is not unique to Ben’s situation. Ambiguity reigns in the amenity listings for most properties found online.

What this mostly comes down to is the larger industry-wide issue regarding the lack of standardization. It’s something we have thought about a lot at FlipKey, and an issue that we would like to see solved one day.

It’s been six months since we launched the FlipKey Blog. We use the blog to share our thoughts and research on the vacation rental industry in hopes of supporting a broader discussion on how to expand the vacation rental market. To date, over 100 people subscribe to the FlipKey Blog’s RSS feeds and over 2,000 people visit the blog every month to see what’s going on.

With that said, FlipKey is soon releasing its highly anticipated vacation rental Reputation Service. We will soon feature posts specific to FlipKey’s service, ways to leverage the service and ideas for future enhancements.

OK, OK…. but when is FlipKey actually launching?

• In the next two weeks, FlipKey will be releasing access to the FlipKey service to a select number of property managers. Over 100 property managers have signed up as FlipKey Charter members and we have selected 50 to kick the tires before we release FlipKey publicly. If you are dying to check it out email us at chartermember@flipkey.com.

• In January FlipKey will be releasing a new research report on Marketing Effectiveness in the vacation rental industry. FlipKey surveyed over 400 consumers that evaluated a vacation rental home in 2007 and collected and analyzed their thoughts and opinions - the results are fascinating.

• FlipKey will then open up its doors to the public in January. We will keep our readers current on our progress via the blog in the interim.

The excitement and growth of the vacation rental market is exciting. Every industry trade show we have attended this year has attracted record breaking attendance. New services are being introduced every month and consumers are increasingly beginning to prefer vacation rentals over traditional accommodations. 2008 is going to be a great year!

SecondSpace is a new service to promote vacation home sales. Unlike marketing services like VRBO which attempt to acquire rental guests and maximize occupancy, SecondSpace gives realtors and developers the ability to promote their for sale land, vacation properties and second homes. They hope to help you discover your ideal “second home lifestyle”.

SecondSpace operates LandWatch.com and ResortScape.com which both provide solutions for sellers.

How it works:

• SecondSpace charges agents $50/month for unlimited listings.
• Sellers advertise their ‘for sale’ properties.
• SecondSpace offers a simple effective online marketing program.
• Prospective second home buyers search for specific areas or types of areas and are presented current land/homes for sale

By concentrating on second home land/home sales, SecondSpace promotes liquidity and consumer awareness of the second home market. In addition, SecondSpace is able to promote ancillary services within the second home market. For example, SecondSpace cross-promotes maintenance and service repair providers to help second home owners maintain their properties, as well as offering buyers’ tax advice and 1031 exchange strategies.

How SecondSpace Can Promote the Vacation Rental Industry

At FlipKey we feel SecondSpace could provide an effective channel to promote vacation home rentals. By adding an educational section of the economic benefits associated with renting second homes and referring prospective buyers to nearby property managers, SecondSpace can effectively promote the active rental inventory of the vacation home market. Providing second home owners with a ‘revenue generator calculator’ which would calculate expected rental revenue based on how much time they plan to spend at their second home would be a great mechanism to promote expanded participation in the vacation rental market.

SecondSpace is a new offering and traffic to its sites is minimal. Should SecondSpace emerge as a prominent service we’d love to see the integration of rental promotions. We’ll keep our eye on SecondSpace’s progress.

Last week, FlipKey attended the annual Central Florida Property Managers Association Conference and Tradeshow in Orlando. The event was fantastic, well-attended by vacation rental managers and oversubscribed with suppliers. We thank the organizers for putting together an educational, productive and fun event. Thanks also to the property managers who spent time at our booth learning about FlipKey. We look forward to continuing to work with you.

The conference took place at the modern Contemporary Resort at Disney, with several spacious and comfortable banquet halls dedicated to the tradeshow, group seminars and small break-out sessions on industry topics. This was a local chapter event, but with so many British property managers and national vendors in attendance it felt like, yes I’ll say it — a small world after all.

At the conference, the CFPMA announced its rebirth as the CFVRMA, with a new name and brand to align this large local chapter with the national VRMA association. Look for their new site in the coming weeks.

Below is a handful of our favorite photos from the event. Happy Thanksgiving from the FlipKey team.

Topiary Mickey welcomed us with open arms to the CFPMA Conference at Disney.

Bryan works the showroom floor.

The FlipKey booth with a constant stream of property managers learning about our service.

TJ discusses reputation and verification with a manager during the social hour.

Steve Trover from All Star Vacation Homes stops by the booth. Special thanks to Steve and Sara Moore for their hospitality.

Trent Blizzard of Blizzard Internet Marketing happily swings the sword on the floor while Sir Longhairs looks a bit anxious in the background.

For added safety, each All Star Vacation Home is outfitted with pool guards — electronic alarms that must be pressed as you open the sliding glass door to the pool area. Apparently my method of “pushing the button real hard” isn’t the proper way to disable the deafening alarm. Thankfully, All Star had maintenance personnel at our rental home within an amazing five minutes to replace the alarm.

Last month, Escapia, a long standing property management software company, launched its first consumer focused product - ClearStay.com. ClearStay is a consumer facing website that helps people find vacation rentals. At a glance, ClearStay is JALS (Just Another Listing Service), but it is unique in that it’s the first site dedicated solely to property managers. ClearStay will only list properties that use Escapia’s software and/or properties represented by property managers.

By not allowing RBOs (Rent By Owners) to participate on its site ClearStay is positioning itself as an advocate of property managers. The industry often finds itself at odds with RBOs, because RBOs disintermediate property management services and often don’t pay taxes (and therefore have pricing advantages).

From a consumer perspective ClearStay is positioning itself as a more trusted resource compared to open listing services like VRBO. In theory a consumer should feel more comfortable renting from a professional hospitality specialist compared to an independent owner. Concerns of fraud, guest support and overall process are diminished when the consumer knows someone is there to ensure they have a great trip.

ClearStay’s approach is compelling, but similar to all consumer offerings they are faced with some challenges:

- Marketing sites (e.g. listing services) are only as valuable as the traffic they attract. How will ClearStay attract traffic to its site given HomeAway’s SEO dominance and the SEO investment each property manager has made over the last several years?
- Consumers want security, but they also want choice. 33% of the market is represented by RBOs. When you exclude RBOs you exclude choices. Will consumers respond positively to the dichotomy ClearStay is promoting?
- From a supply perspective Escapia has the advantage of promoting its existing client properties; however, Instant Software and other market vendors represent the majority of vacation rental software solutions. Will Escapia be able to expand its inventory beyond its own consumer base?

ClearStay is a noteworthy addition to the FlipKey Blog radar. The ClearStay approach helps educate consumers on the advantages of property management and supplies additional promotion for our industry. In addition, offering a free marketing solution to its clients adds another quiver to the Escapia software value proposition. If ClearStay is able to establish consistent traffic they will introduce a new dynamic to the vacation rental marketing spectrum.

On Thursday the FlipKey team will exhibit its ‘coming very soon’ service at the Central Florida Property Managers Association Conference & Tradeshow in Orlando.

Whether you have been following our progress or haven’t heard about us at all, we are looking forward to demonstrating our service to the top property managers in Central Florida.

If you are attending the conference, please stop by our booth and say hi. We’ll be happy to take you through a quick demonstration of FlipKey. We’ve had over 100 property managers sign up as a beta members and will be accepting new charter members at the conference.

If you are unable to attend the conference, check back in with the FlipKey blog next week for a recap of the event.

Every once in awhile we take an afternoon break at FlipKey to catch up on what’s happening in the world. I was excited yesterday to read a link Carl found on cnn.com.

As featured on CNN.com:

Your next hotel might not be a hotel. It could be a condo, a rental apartment or a home.
Hotel rooms generally don’t offer as much space or privacy as renting a house or condo.

And maybe it should be.
It isn’t just that traditional hotels, inns and resorts turn off many travelers. There are plenty of reasons to check out of the lodge these days — through-the-roof room rates, being nickeled and dimed for every little extra item — and the alternatives are often roomier, less expensive and more convenient.
No one is predicting the demise of the hotel industry. Not by a long shot, but when it comes to overnight accommodations on your next trip, you might consider an alternate to a traditional hotel.

Here are five reasons why:
- Lots and Lots of Room
- More Privacy
- A Better Price
- You Can Go Native
- Extra Flexibility

*Article has been abbreviated.. Click here to read the full article on CNN

We recommend you read the full article. Thanks to Christopher Elliott for the great write up.

Compete, Inc. has been around for 7 years, but Compete’s Consumer-focused product, compete.com, is celebrating its first birthday! In just one year since TJ and myself launched compete.com, it has grown to support the business decisions of 500,000 unique visitors a month. In fact, as of September it has officially surpassed Alexa as the largest metrics service in the world:

To the right you will see a breakdown of the annual achievements of the service, as featured on the Compete Blog.
Although TJ and I have moved on to tackle new challenges, we remain enthusiastic about the value of Compete.com’s free services and we continue to advise the Vacation Rental Industry to leverage Compete’s data to help you with your web presence.

We also recommend you try out Compete’s new Search Analytics product. It is tailor-made for small businesses and represents the most cost-effective way to help promote your Rental Manager web sites via Search Engine Marketing (SEM).

Prior to last week’s VRMA show, we interviewed Steve Trover. Steve has been astute to realize that rather than having his primary concern be fighting over the 4-5% of the lodging market that goes to professional vacation rental managers or the 1-2% of the lodging market that goes to the rent by owner market, he is concerned with the 94% of the lodging market that isn’t going to vacation rentals at all. Imagine if vacation rentals share of the lodging market grew to just 10-12% of the lodging market - wouldn’t we all be better off?
Trent Blizzard’s presentation on smart Internet marketing repeatedly highlighted Trover’s All Star Vacations when he was giving examples of effective rental marketing. It’s been our observation that many of the presentations, such as Trent’s, focused on what is referred to in marketing parlance as top-of-the-funnel (click here for a visual & illustration of the “funnel”). While the top-of-the-funnel (i.e., early in the buying process) is important, a manager’s ability to maximize the look-to-book ratio is paramount. A higher look-to-book ratio enables your business to spend more to be in top spots on Google, for example. If you convert lookers to bookers more effectively, you can spend more than your competition.
We met another member of “Red Sox Nation” during VRMA that happens to help deliver the “secret ingredient” for All Star - Tracy Lotz.. This is the first time Tracy has publicly shared what he’s been up to with his company LiveRez.


Q: So how did you end up in the vacation rental arena, Tracy?
Tracy Lotz: The short version of the story is I concluded that a vacation rental web directory would be a meaningful business, but not so big that Bill Gates (my hero) would one day come in and squash me. I also wanted a business I could do from anywhere and I ended up moving it to Sun Valley, Idaho from Los Angeles. Dave Clouse and I were two of the early players. He launched www.vrbo.com and I launched 1st Choice Vacation Rentals (www.choice1.com) that went on to win several awards such as Forbes Best of the Web.


Q: Fast forward to today. How did you go from doing just a web directory to launching LiveRez and powering All Star Vacation Homes management systems and booking engine?
Tracy Lotz: All Star had been a web directory customer of ours. They grew with us when we got into the web development business. We’d been doing their website for several years when Steve reached an inflection point in his business.
Steve Trover: It was a few years ago when I realized that I wanted to build more than another lifestyle business. We felt that fighting over the 5% of the market that vacation rental managers get from the vacation lodging market wasn’t nearly as compelling as trying to get some of the nearly 95% of the market that still uses hotels for their vacation lodging. Whether the business is railroads or online auctions, I’ve seen other companies too narrowly define the market they are in and they give up the larger opportunity. I’m determined not to let that happen. Thus, I realized we were actually in the “hospitality industry”, not just the “vacation rental industry”.


Q: What did you see as the key differences between the “vacation rental” and “hospitality” businesses?
Steve Trover: In addition to the things we all know are advantages of vacation rentals such as more room to relax and have fun, the biggest difference is how hard we make it to book our properties. When we compared the process to book a hotel room versus one of our properties, we had to admit that we were far more difficult to book than our hotel competitors. Expedia, Travelocity et al have trained our guests that the booking process should be easily done and we realized the process of property research, email inquiries going back and forth and so on was so painful that many would abandon part way through and we’d lose them. Undoubtedly, this meant we were losing lots of business to them even though we had a superior offering. Duplicating what the hotel industry is doing right was not enough. We needed better content to make clear what our offering was along with a clean, user friendly booking engine.


Q: What did you do with that epiphany?
Steve Trover: We set guiding principles of what we needed to deliver to our guests both offline and online. I figured we could just buy our online solution off-the-shelf. With all due respect to the software vendors in our business, I didn’t find their packages met the guiding principles we wanted to achieve. To fill the gaps, we would have had to do a lot of custom development and dealt with a lot of complexity not to mention a lot of expense. Not being in the software business, I decided to give Tracy a call and see what they could do.
Tracy Lotz: Steve’s timing was fortuitous. Just as we’d realized we needed to get into the web development business to meet our customers’ needs, we were evaluating what was next. Around this time, we were also getting calls from what is now HomeAway about buying the 1st Choice Vacation Rentals business. While those overtures were attractive, I had a gut instinct that there was more to this business and that we could add some unique value and that we were in it for the long haul and not just out to cash out and check out.


Q: We often hear from vacation rental managers “we have to talk to travelers before we’ll let them book our properties” as they often have unique properties and/or they say consumers want to talk with someone before they book a property. It sounds like you have a different view.
Steve Trover: To the concern about travelers wanting to talk with a human before booking, we are always available to them via phone and will continue to monitor and improve our service there, however travelers have proven more ready than we expected. From day one when we enabled direct online bookings, we received over 30% of our business through direct online bookings and that percentage steadily continues to increase. In other words, we’ve found travelers are far more ready to book travel this way when we provided them with easy online tools and an easily navigable website.


Q: Tell me more about the guiding principles you mentioned. What were you looking for that you didn’t find?
Steve Trover: The biggest thing that we found is that the vendors’ interests and ours were not necessarily aligned. Not only did we want a modern system, we wanted a system that would allow us to provide what our customers were looking for. We live in an age when companies like Salesforce.com and Google dominate as they are more tightly aligned with their customers than the legacy companies they compete with. I believe we should apply what’s worked for their customers in our industry.


Q: We’ve talked a lot about building travelers’ confidence in vacation rentals. Does a reservation and property management system have a role to play in that?
Steve Trover: Absolutely. If you look at our website, you can see what we’ve done to help that. Detailed descriptions, lots of pictures, side by side comparison features and more. Providing the customer with all of the information they desire in an easy to get to manner shows that you are professional and are looking to meet their needs. We also have some exciting things in the works to help raise the awareness of the vacation rental accommodation through the newly launched Discover Vacation Homes public relations group. Increasing market share for the industry is our sole focus. We are hoping FlipKey and LiveRez can help us on that front. Stay tuned.


Q: Any parting thoughts?
Tracy Lotz: We’re out of stealth mode and would love to chat with anyone looking to have the kind of success All Star has had in producing revenue online. We view our relationship with vacation rental managers as a partnership and hope to work with more organizations of the caliber of All Star Vacation Homes. As word has spread that one can get access to what All Star has been using to gain competitive advantage, we’ve been forging many similar arrangements to what we have with Steve’s organization. You can email me at tlotz -at—liverez [dot] - com.
Steve Trover: “Go Sox!”