The Blog

About Maureen Regan:
Maureen Regan is the President of Seaside Vacation Rentals located on the beautiful southern Maine coast. The company, founded in 1983, now handles several hundred properties and recently added a dedicated realty arm to its offering (“Regan Real Estate”). Maureen is currently serving her second term on the VRMA Board of Directors. She is past Chairman of the Greater York Region Chamber of Commerce, has served on boards for York County Community College, Southern Maine Tourism Association, and the Maine Tourism Commission. She and her family are recipients of the 2003 Maine Tourism Award, the 2005 Business Advocate award, the 2008 Maine Governor’s Conference Award for her contribution to tourism growth in the state and numerous other awards.

Q: Maureen, I have been to the Maine coast and it’s one of the most beautiful and un-commercialized areas I have ever visited. However, due to the long winters/cold springs it also has one of the shortest high seasons. How do you economically manage the short high season? Any interesting promotions to attract guests during shoulder season?

A: You’re right! The winters are long and our high season is extremely short. As you know, we are primarily known as a family oriented vacation area. We have had some success in promoting September to mid October and late spring by linking to local festivals and trying to reach more of the “young professional” audience. We also offer numerous packages to attract them, such as having your own chef come to the house and cook a real New England dinner for you. Another includes hiring a Maine Guide to take you on a private kayak adventure to view islands, estuaries, rugged coastline and our (unique to southern Maine) long sandy beaches.

This year we are sponsoring the Seaside Arts Program which will promote cushion season weeks by working with a famous local author who will give workshops in screenwriting and playwriting. Also, we will offer, with the York Art Association, free special gallery viewings to Seaside guests only.

Many of our properties convert to what we call “Winter Rentals” in the off season. This is a school year long rental and is popular with people moving up to the area to buy or build.

Q: You are serving your second term on the VRMA Board of Directors. What are the main issues you have addressed in your tenure and how would you like to see the association grow?

A: VRMA members are a group that is very diverse in size, geography, years in business. However, the synergy, and excitement of everyone together at the last Conference (record setting attendance for the second year in a row) is contagious and shows that while diverse, the group melds into “the best of the vacation rental industry” and they learn, network and relate as an industry. The educational opportunities VRMA offers at conferences and seminars are unmatched and extremely important to our membership.

The VRMA Board as a group has addressed many issues affecting the Vacation Rental Industry and we will continue to provide our Members with an association that represents our Members best interests in education, marketing and all the other areas Members look to for industry leadership.

Nothing would please the VRMA Board more than a growing membership of professional vacation rental managers working in an industry that truly is recognized by the public as the best lodging option.

Q: One of the challenges of property management is encouraging owners to keep their units up-to-date (wi-fi, HDTV, new furniture, etc). What techniques have you found are effective in motivating owners to invest in their homes to make them more ‘rentable’?

A: I truly wish I had the answer to this, but it is an ongoing struggle. The best motivator we have found so far is to show an owner that they will be able to make more money by attracting new guests and keeping more return guests if they continue to upgrade. We break it down into categories for owners: free (cleaning), low cost (painting, landscaping, and minor upgrades) and higher end choices (adding a bath, new kitchen) they can make and basically keeping our owners informed as to what guests are requesting. We also remind owners that guests have a greater respect for a well maintained and appointed house.

Q: You recently added a realty arm to your business (“Regan Real Estate”). Can you describe the strategic fit you see with Regan Real Estate and Seaside Rentals?

A: Thanks to a workshop I attended at VRMA given by Stewart Couch of Hatteras Realty and Richard Hess from Sun Realty, I realized our company was leaving a lot of money on the table by not offering our own real estate option. Also, we were not really taking care of our guests and homeowners who needed this service.

We were increasingly frustrated when new homeowners came to us from other realtors who didn’t know the rental market and had told these unfortunate buyers that they could get unrealistic prices for their homes and then we had to break the unhappy news to them.

Now we are able to offer a full service operation and when we sell a property that is a rental, we know that the rental information is accurate; the returning rental guests will be taken care of, and we’ve increased our bottom line. We make everyone happy (or at least we try)!

Q: During your downtime you have cited painting as one of your hobbies. What are your favorite subjects (e.g. Maine coast line, light houses, ?) and have you ever sold a piece? FlipKey is moving into new offices and we are in the market for some new art work

A: It’s impossible to live in this beautiful area and not paint the coastline and lighthouses! I love doing landscapes and bits of architectural interest like an interesting old door or piece of a building. One of my real joys is teaching my two grandchildren 6 and 8 years old to paint. That is so much fun! So if I don’t have the right landscape to sell you, maybe one of them will!

About Ross Twiddy:
Twiddy & Co. is a family owned property management company representing over 770 properties in the Outer Banks region of North Carolina. Twiddy has been in operation since 1978 and has grown into one of the most reputable and popular management companies in the highly competitive Outer Banks market. Twiddy operates a sophisticated web site at www.twiddy.com and is recognized as an early adopter of the power of Search marketing in the vacation rental industry. In fact, Twiddy is cited by Google as a case study in the effectiveness of Adwords.

Q: Ross, you represent homes in the highly competitive Outer Banks market. What challenges do you face that are unique to the Outer Banks market compared to the industry at-large?

A: Cleaning over 4,200 bathrooms between check in and check out, every summer weekend. Because of the Outer Banks’ isolation, the cleaning force drives from over 3 hours, one way. The individuals who clean, support, or facilitate this weekly feat are amazing. To get up at 4am and then clean a 12 bedroom, $19,000/wk house where the guests’ expectations are inline with the price is Herculean. I’m sure the entire industry has this, but cleaning homes is the hardest and most rewarding thing we do. As the guests’ expectations continue to increase with the size, sophistication, and price of the homes the cleaning standards continue to rise as well.

Q: You are recognized as a pioneer in Search marketing in the vacation rental industry. How have you stayed on top of the ever changing Search landscape?

A: Lewis and Clark were pioneers, I just have big ears, eyes, and I’m slow. Last time I thought I was on top, I was the last one at the poker table with no money left. I stumble a lot, I have some scars, but more importantly I surround myself with folks much smarter than I. Then I try to hard to hang on and make sure they’re happy and they enjoy the partnership.

Q: Beyond Search, are you investing in additional online channels to drive awareness of Twiddy’s services and properties?

A: We’ve tried a number of different channels but have really scaled back compared to two years ago. It seems that the internet has calmed down a bit and streamlined based on what is working now. We’ll always be looking for the next or new avenue, but I think Staples’ website is the only one with the “easy button.” There are some folks out there now approaching websites with the guest in mind, and I think they’re getting closer to scratching to discover something shiny. So as usual we’ll keep stumbling around hoping to pick up some jewels. However don’t forget the basics. Search and data is an addiction and fortunately, we get to play in it every day.

Q: Twiddy tends to represent top quality homes – do you ever turn away clients if their properties do not meet a certain standard? If yes, how do you justify turning away business and do you refer them to a different company?

A: We’re in a very fortunate position because a great numbers of folks have been working extremely hard at Twiddy for a long time to get things right. Last year we turned down about 30 homes because the partnership wasn’t a good fit for either of us. You can’t be all things to all people, so focus on what you know and work hard towards it. If Twiddy doubled in size and the folks at the front counter aren’t smiling, the folks on the phone aren’t friendly, and the houses aren’t clean then we just lost. If we don’t think we’re the right fit, we point them in the direction of the folks who we think can help them the most. Fortunately, there are a great number of solid companies on the Outer Banks and there is enough room for all of us.

Q: Twiddy has been a family business since 1978, so it runs in your blood. If you weren’t in the vacation rental industry what profession would you have chosen?

A: In the sense that your blood holds the genes of your parents, I’ll totally agree. Anything I have or will do is a credit to their intelligence, patience, generosity, and vision. But there’s a powerful stereotype to the boss’ son for a reason. Blood doesn’t entitle. Pride in the family business should propel and the continuation in the family business is a function of performance. They put me in the right direction so in regards to the drinking well of another business, I just don’t think I’d have any thirst.

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!”

About Rick Fisher:
Rick Fisher is the President of Vacation Home Expo – the travel industry’s first and only consumer travel show solely focused on the condominium, villa, and vacation home rental segments. Prior to co- founding Vacation Home Expos, Rick was a Vice President for Expedia’s Specialty Lodging division which included vacation rentals and bed and breakfast. He has been a visible spokesperson and strong advocate for the vacation rental category for the last twenty years.


Q: The industry is excited to see the launch of the Vacation Home Expo. How did you go from working at Expedia to launching the Vacation Home Expo?

Although I came from the leading online provider for vacation rentals in Expedia I have always felt that the opportunity to create more awareness of the growth and popularity of vacation rentals with consumers and the media was via offline exposure. It’s very simple…we believe that approximately 85% of North Americans have never stayed in vacation rental type accommodations and have only experienced a traditional hotel stay .Most of the focus in our industry has been on pushing out product to the market place via the internet. Along the way there’s been very little commitment from our sector to do more in creating more offline awareness with consumers, the media, and travel trade about the benefits of the “vacation rental experience”. Vacation Home Expo represents the ideal venue to help contribute to that needed effort. The fact that the Expo in Atlanta is being endorsed and presented by the Atlanta Journal Constitution also lends a tremendous amount of credibility to our category.


Q: The first Expo is in Atlanta this coming April. Is this an annual event or can we expect to see additional showcases in other major cities in 2008?

Our intent is to make the Atlanta show an annual event and we are already exploring dates for 2009 and beyond. Our plans are also to expand the Vacation Home Expo to other key cities and markets around the country. We have just formed an industry Advisory Council comprised of seasoned executives representing a broad cross section of the vacation rental space. One of the assigned tasks of the council will be to provide us with critical feedback regarding future potential venues as well as other ideas and recommendations that will position the Expo for continued growth and success.


Q: How will you measure the success of the Vacation Home Expo?

That’s a great question and for me it won’t be based simply on numbers that can be easily quantified like the total of consumer attendees to the show and the final tally of exhibitors. Instead, I envision the Vacation Home Expo as a step by step process that will be instrumental in introducing more consumers to this phenomenal accommodation lifestyle. Anyone will tell you that, like cruising, vacation rentals reflect a high level of consumer satisfaction and the propensity for strong repeat and referral business. The challenge has always been and still exists today to attract new customers who will experience this lodging option for the first time. As I’ve always said once you taken them to “the promised land” you will most likely have a believer and convert for life. Our hope is to have the Vacation Home Expo act as a key catalyst to rally an already diverse and fragmented industry around this common cause and purpose. In addition to servicing the needs and interests of existing vacation home renters true success will come with our ability to touch that tremendous untapped pool of new customers and further grow the category.


Q: Between the various VRMA events, RezFest and other industry association events, it seems like there is an opportunity to migrate supplier focused conferences into hybrid events that focus on property management and industry awareness. For instance, in New Orleans there could have been a day dedicated to exhibiting property managers and vacation travel services to consumers. Are there discussions with VRMA or other associations to create this type of partnership?

At Vacation Home Expo we believe that we need to remain inclusive which translates into getting more of our industry association partners and representatives from the supply community to join us in getting our messaging out to the market place. Too often we meet and exchange ideas amongst ourselves while consumers, the media, and travel trade are left on the outside looking in. We have already considered the concept of potentially co-locating future shows around association conferences or vise versa. This would result in not only creating more industry awareness but also maximize participation by consumers and suppliers alike.


Q: You live in Connecticut, a state notoriously split between the Yankees and Red Sox. FlipKey is not shy about its love of the Red Sox… Who’s your team?

Although I’m from Michigan I grew up with Mantle, Maris, Ford, and have always been a hard core New York Yankees fan and supporter. At the time of this interview there’s not too much to celebrate but as they always say … “There’s always next year”.

We are introducing a new feature to the FlipKey Blog. We did not want to limit the commentary on the FlipKey Blog to our research findings and internal observations, so we are featuring a guest interview every few weeks. Our hope is that we can share the thoughts and opinions of some of the industry’s most enthusiastic participants.

We are happy to announce Steve Trover, CEO of All Star Vacation Homes as our first guest interview!

About Steve Trover:
Steve Trover is the CEO of All Star Vacation Homes – a well known and reputable property management firm in Orlando, Florida. Steve represents over 150 vacation rental properties and serves as a Board Member of FVRMA, and on the Osceola Resort Area Council (ORAC). Steve is president and one of the founding members of a public relations and marketing association, Discover Vacation Homes. He is also an active member and regular presenter at VRMA conferences.

Q: How did you first become involved with the vacation rental industry?

Steve Trover: “I started three businesses prior to All Star and I was always looking for another opportunity. At the time my mother was in the general real estate market here in Central Florida. She would occasionally sell a vacation home and not have a good management company to refer her clients to. We started discussing the business potential of operating our own and decided to jump in. All Star began as a marketing company first, with a focus on Internet marketing for many management companies around the state of Florida. This allowed us to see how different managers operated and helped form our early business model.”

Q: Steve, you represent homes in the highly competitive Orlando market. What challenges do you face that are unique to the Orlando market compared to the industry at-large?

Steve Trover: “The Orlando market is one of the most competitive vacation rental markets in the world. There are an estimated 700 management companies and thousands of vacation rentals. On top of that, there are over 135,000 hotel rooms and a multitude of other lodging options. Although we have an industry-wide lack of awareness of the vacation rental product, this is even more acute in central Florida as compared to most mountain and beach destinations. I will say that it’s a great place to cut your teeth.”

Q: You are an active member in several industry associations. How would you characterize your charge in the industry? In other words, what are the main topics/challenges you focus on?

Steve Trover: “First and foremost I would say awareness. We are seeing the vacation rental product become more of a consideration in the mind of the consumer but we are just getting started. It is our biggest obstacle and our greatest opportunity.

I would also say standards. It is critical that our industry starts to identify and adopt a group of standards that consumers can expect when they rent a vacation property.
Having our own unique identity is important but we must improve the overall quality of the products and services we provide in order to achieve a higher level of adoption of our product. We need to understand that we are more than managers of property, we are hospitality providers. We are the new hotel.”

Q: What can we, as an industry, do to create more effective PR and service awareness to make vacation rentals an ever greater mainstream consumer lodging option?

Steve Trover: “There are opportunities to work collectively to promote our industry on a national, state and local level through the various associations and emerging alliances. We should be working with our destination marketing organizations to make sure we get equal or greater exposure compared to other lodging options in their marketing efforts. We should be pitching all forms of media, both online and off, about the great story of vacation home rentals.

We, as a company, and through our local and state vacation rental manager associations are participating in the first annual Vacation Home Expo in April 2008. This event, held in Atlanta in conjunction with the general consumer travel show, will focus specifically on our industry and give us the opportunity to speak directly to travelers about the vacation home accommodation. We are very excited about participating in this first of its kind show!”

Q: If you could start a new property management company in any area of the nation – other than Florida – where would it be?

Steve Trover: “We have been asking our guests where they would like to see us go for some time now, and they will have a substantial say in that decision. I will tell you that we will consider locations that have an inherently strong visitation, a longer than average season and a strong ordinance and zoning allowing for vacation rentals.

Outside of that I do have a certificate of ownership for ten acres on the moon and I hear Virgin Airlines is planning flights there by 2050. ☺”