As a new developer at FlipKey and a new member to this industry, I am excited to report on my first experience staying in a vacation rental. My friend and I spent the New Years holiday near Steamboat Mountain in Colorado on a snowboarding trip.

The trip was last minute, and as such we rolled into Vail without any reservations. However, we were lucky enough to find The Summit Resort Group had a two bedroom condo available in Dillon, CO. It was perfect! It ended up being more affordable and substantially more comfortable than if we had rented a pair of hotel rooms.

I was amazed at just how smooth the process was. Making the reservation, picking up the keys and an information packet at an after hours lock box, and finally finding the complex was a seamless process. The only trouble we did run into was finding the right condo unit and with one quick call to the 24 hour help number provided in the packet we were quickly in our vacation rental.

We enjoyed our very own kitchen, cooked our own dinner, washed and dried our snowboard clothes with the in-unit washer and dryer, and each had our own comfortable bedroom to sleep in. Although the weather attempted to wreak havoc on our vacation thereby adding unneeded stress, being able to relax in our very own vacation rental after a great day of snowboarding was exactly what we all needed. (click here to check out where we stayed)

The entire experience was much more personable than a hotel and the management company genuinely wanted to help our group enjoy our trip in Colorado. Count me as another satisfied vacation rental customer!

Most major airlines and online travel agents (e.g. Orbitz, Expedia) are now offering travel insurance before you complete your vacation plans. For years I have seen these offers, but never found myself compelled to purchase a policy.

A few weeks ago I purchased a “too good to be true” flight from Spirit Airlines and suddenly I found myself in need of added security. Spirit was offering round trip airfares for $0.99. (Note: That’s 99 cents - not dollars). I was skeptical of the offer and wanted to avoid being stranded should my flight be canceled, so I purchased a travel insurance policy from AIG Travel Guard.

As luck would have it, I was forced to cancel my travel plans with Spirit Airlines. Although my ticket only cost me a $1, I wanted to test out the range of my insurance policy. “Would my $15 insurance policy cover my $1 flight“?

Summary of my call with AIG:

Nay on the refund. AIG would have refunded the ticket if my change in travel plans were due to a death or some type of disaster. Covered claims usually involve canceled flights or extreme delays (due to weather or maintenance).

In the event you do qualify for a claim you must provide evidence of your flight and the conditions that caused your inconvenience

• If a flight is canceled you must get the airline to write a note confirming the conditions that lead to the cancellation.
• If you have a sudden emergency (typically health related) and need to cut your trip short, the insurance company will require medical documents

The general theme is that you need third party documents to successfully submit a travel insurance claim. Obviously AIG can’t just hand out claims, but I have to imagine the last thing the airline wants to do - with 200 screaming passengers looking for a new flight - is to write you a note confirming they have stranded you. This is the catch of any type of travel insurance - everyone needs proof of your inconvenience. We recently wrote about new vacation rental policies that offer protection from falsely advertised homes, but these policies also come with fine print that require proactive leg work on the consumer’s side.

Insurance helps us feel secure with our travel plans, but should you ever purchase a travel insurance policy remember to be proactive. If any thing goes wrong ask for documentation, take pictures and collect contact numbers in case additional follow-up is necessary.

Typically we pick topics for the FlipKey blog based on things we think are important and relevant to the vacation rental industry. This isn’t necessarily one of those times.

Earlier in the week a friend sent me a photo of the top pictures on National Geographic in ‘07. The following pic caught my eye (and luckily not my hand).

The bad news: This is a real photo.
The good news: They were able to recover the hand and successfully re-attach it to the original owner (not joking).

Ultimately the photo reminded me of the misconceptions between alligators and crocodiles. Florida represents one of the largest vacation rental markets in the world and is also one of the only geographies were both alligators and crocodiles exist.

Typically, when I return from my Florida travels friends and family often ask me if I had any crocodile run-ins. Before I answer “no”, I take the time to explain that Florida’s population of alligators far out numbers the population of crocs. In addition, Florida is only home to saltwater crocodiles which are significantly less aggressive than freshwater crocs found in Africa and Australia. The above picture is of a “Nile Crocodile” in Africa - you will not find this type of croc in Florida.

Alligators are not particularly aggressive creatures. Between 1948 to 2005 there were only 17 recorded “deaths by alligator”. That’s about 0.3 deaths per year. Comparatively, crocodiles have been responsible for 51 recorded deaths between 1990-1994. That’s nearly 13 deaths per year - nearly all of them occurring outside of the U.S. In fact, I could not find a recorded ‘death by crocodile’ in the United States.

Taken from Yahoo Answers, here is a breakdown of additional differences between alligators and crocs:

• You can’t see an alligator’s teeth when it’s mouth is closed; its lower teeth fit snugly into pits in the upper jaw. In contrast, a crocodile’s lower teeth are always visible.
• Alligators have a broad snout, while crocodiles have a thinner snout
• Alligators tend to be grayish black in color, whereas crocodiles have a light tan appearance.
• Alligators can only be found in the southeastern United States and in some parts of China. Crocodiles can be found all over the world.
• In the wild, alligators tend to run away. While not exactly wallflowers, they certainly prefer their own company. Some species of crocodiles, on the other hand, have legendary tempers.

On these pages we often discuss new services, both for the specific vacation rental market and the larger online travel industry. Today, we’d like to highlight what’s been happening with Farecast.com.

Similar to Kayak.com, which we wrote about several months ago, Farecast is a “meta” search engine. Farecast provides “Smart Travel Search” by searching flight and hotel information from other online travel search engines and aggregating this information for consumers. Then comes the special sauce: by analyzing historical airfare and hotel rates over the prior 90 days and future trends, Farecast provides predictions on whether airfare prices will rise or fall or whether a quoted hotel rate is a deal or not.

Farecast also has a number of tools to help you plan the best times to travel, and presents the information in a clean, consumer-friendly format. Currently, predictive features for airfare is available for domestic travel between 75 airports. Hotel rate predictions, still in beta, are available for 30 US cities.

Through a partnership with MSN, Farecast has an integrated flight search module on the MSN Travel homepage. Data from Compete.com indicates that in September, MSN Travel was responsible for 10% of Farecast’s estimated 630,000 unique visitors for that month. The graphic below highlights Farecast’s continued popularity and surging monthly visitors.

With these predictive tools, Farecast increases consumer confidence and eliminates some of the guesswork in searching for the cheapest flight for your travel. This is incredibly valuable for converting online consumers from browsing to actual booking. And vacation rentals? Hmmm, sounds like just the industry that could benefit from an online service that increased consumer confidence!

Online video has become increasingly more prominent over the last few years, as evidenced by sites like YouTube and Hulu. As online video becomes even more popular, its role will expand into niche marketing purposes, such as the vacation rental market. According to a survey of over 2,900 people conducted by TNS research, three quarters of respondents said they watched more online video today than they did a year ago. Of that same 75%, half also said they expected to watch more online video in the coming year. Why are users watching video online?

Some of the reasons mentioned were:

• Convenience
• Relevance
• Control of Content

At FlipKey we are committed to “expanding the vacation rental market”, and we are keeping an eye on the potentially significant role of online video to aide the market’s expansion. One of the problems facing the industry today is attracting people who have never stayed in a vacation rental. A short concise online video outlining the services that a property manager provides could be a dynamic tool to help instill confidence in this group of people.

The TNS survey also highlighted that nearly two-thirds (63%) of people said they have taken some action after seeing an online video advertisement. Traditional TV advertising boasts nearly 80% of people taking some action after viewing an ad, but has been around much longer.

“Some Action” was defined as the following in online video’s case:

• Going to the companies website (44%)
• Searching for more information about a product (33%)
• Going to the brick and mortar store to look at a product (22%)
• Talking to friends and family about the product (21%)

Online video can serve as a tool for property managers to help the public learn more about their hospitality services and properties. FlipKey is interested and excited to see the impact that online video can have on the industry.

Unfortunately, this post comes 29 days after the article was published on USATODAY.com, but better late than never. Over the weekend I came across a nice, comprehensive article published by Gary Stoller of USA TODAY highlighting the growth potential of the vacation rental industry.

Titled, ‘Staying at a real home away from home’, the article provided one of the most thorough public reviews of the vacation rental industry and its growth potential.

Article Highlights:

• U.S. vacation rental market is estimated at $63B

• Vacation rental management companies expect to manage 12% more rental homes this year than in 2006, according to a survey of 129 companies by the Vacation Rental Managers Association.

• Rental inventory is growing because of a boom in vacation home sales, which have been largely unaffected by a downturn in the real estate business. Sales of vacation homes rose nearly 5% to a record 1.07 million last year, and 18% of buyers said they bought them to rent to others, according to an April survey by the National Association of Realtors.

• According to Steve Holmes, Wyndham Worldwide’s CEO, about one of five European vacationers rent a condo or house. Holmes estimates U.S. adoption rates with match that of Europe in “about a decade”.

Click here to read the full article.

FlipKey applauds the great coverage of the vacation rental industry by USA TODAY. With all the activity and recent publicity of the vacation rental industry, FlipKey sees 2008 as a cornerstone year for vacation rentals. Bring on the New Year!

We can all agree that Search is important in the vacation rental industry. Ask a property manager how they attract visitors to their site and ‘Search’ is likely the first word you’ll hear. As a result property managers are beginning to explore more creative ways to climb the Google rankings.

Earlier this week we were contacted by Best Coast Rentals of Port Aransas, Texas. In the interest of improving their search ranking, Best Coast Rentals wants to link to complimentary vacation rental sites - with the agreement that these same sites will link to Best Coast Rentals. This arrangement is referred to as a “link exchange”. Link exchanges are popular ways to boost “back links” - a key ingredient to Google’s Page Rank algorithm - however, link exchanges have their pitfalls.

Be Aware of BlackHats!!

As the market began to understand the importance of back links, so did the number of people attempting to “game” search engines by including all kinds of irrelevant links from other sites. Soon Google began to identify “link farms” - irrelevant sites linking to thousands of unrelated sites. This helped inflate the perceived popularity of participating sites within search engine rankings, but did not improve the relevance of Google’s search results. People attempting this strategy were label “black hats”.

Through the maturation of the Search industry, these techniques have been exposed and Search leaders, such as Google and Yahoo, developed techniques to effectively identify link farms and now ding participating websites effectively lowering their search ranking.

Why Best Coast Rentals is Legitimate

Best Coast Rentals link exchange program is not a black hat offer. Best Coast Rentals is only interested in linking to complimentary vacation rental sites and its Travel Links page not only links to participating websites, but also includes a blurb about the site. By including this additional content Best Coast Rentals maintains ‘relevancy’ - the golden word at Google.

FlipKey encourages Search collaboration within the vacation rental industry, but we advise participating companies to be careful to avoid Black Hat status. Focus on relevant and quality sites and you should be ok. If a participating site appears as a link farm, you will want to request that your website be removed from the site.

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.

For the average property manager, a guest booking a vacation home represents the end of the sales process. Congratulations! But for the average guest, the booking of their vacation home is just the beginning of their vacation planning. Next comes the flight, the rental car, the tickets, and all the other essential itinerary planning.

Enter Kayak.com. Kayak represents everything that is great about the internet - it’s quick, it’s comprehensive, and it is pretty much guaranteed to give you what you want. Kayak is different than Expedia and Orbitz. Kayak is what is called a “meta” search engine. Kayak’s charge is to search all other travel search engines to help the consumer find the best option. As such, the Kayak search engine covers more ground than all the other travel sites out there. Thus you are almost always assured of finding the cheapest flight.

Kayak is a great service to help your guests book the rest of their trip. Luckily, Kayak provides some simple tools that can allow you to extend its service to your own website. By simply copying and pasting some simple html into your site you can help your guests find a cheap flight and car rental service.

For one example:

Embedding a widget like this on your web site makes it very simple for your guest to begin their flight search. It costs nothing to add to your site and can help compliment your primary service (providing great lodging accommodations).

Since most vacation home sites are regional, you can even pre-populate Kayak’s tools with the airport nearest your vacation homes. Kayak offers several simple widgets you can embed on your website. Click here to see more options.

In addition to helping your guests, you can earn money by signing up for an affiliate id via linkshare. By inserting the id into the widget on your site, you can ensure you earn a commission on anybody you send to Kayak.

Your guests look to you as an expert. By providing them with easy access to the best-in-class tools on the internet, you are setting high standards that will keep guests coming back to you every year.

FlipKey was born out of my own experience as a vacation home owner/renter. For the last year I have rented out my Boston condo to people from around the globe. When friends hear of my little side business they are quick with questions:

• Has anyone trashed your place?
• What happens if there is a problem?
• How can you trust a complete stranger?
• Has anyone tried to scam you?

It’s human nature to focus on the negative, but I’m happy to say that my experiences have been 100% positive. I have met people from all around the world that wanted to taste Boston - all have been respectful - and in some cases I have made life long friends.

Moira L.: A wonderful woman from Australia who was in town for four weeks to promote her personal care product line. She called once a week with a general question about the home and then took me out for coffee to say thank you. Moira left my home in better shape than the day I moved in.

Dolores G.: In town for a week to help her daughter find an apartment. I needed to pick up my bike in storage and met them in my home. Dolores had a wonderful family that left behind a bottle of wine to thank me for a great experience.

Elizabeth D.: Arrived in Boston during a cold and rainy Spring week. I was in San Francisco during her family’s stay. Unfortunately my furnace broke down and the family was stuck in my 40 degree condo for 24 hours while I arranged a contractor to replace the broken unit. Elizabeth helped me coordinate letting the contractors in and stayed in good spirits throughout the ordeal. I refunded their last two nights.

The people who have stayed with me have been great, but problems do arise - a broken furnace here and a lost key there. I am fortunate enough to live within 10 minutes of my vacation condo, but my experiences have highlighted the necessity for ‘assistance’. Although occasional rentals can be managed directly by the owner, a seamless experience can only occur if a dedicated service/individual is available for the various mishaps that can occur during a vacation rental.

As renters we have a responsibility to ensure a great vacation experience for our guests. Bad guests do exist, but they are few and far between. Below are my recommendations for ensuring guests receive the support they deserve:

• Use a property manager. Although property managers will charge a 15-30% service fee on the total room rate, they provide end-to-end services that will remove the back breaking chores of cleaning & maintenance and will take care of onsite problems. You get what you pay for, and more importantly your guests will get what they paid for.
• If you are independently renting your home make sure you have a trusted contact within 15 minutes of the home. Your ‘back-up’ should have key access and be aware of when guests are in the home. Should a problem arise your back-up should have previously agreed to manage the situation.
• Before a guest arrives provide them an emergency contact and explain your process in the case of an unfortunate event. If you are a property manager this is a key communication to emphasize the reputation of your service and advantages of using a professional management service.