What Have I Learned from This Vacation Rental Season?

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Now that summer if officially over, it’s a good time to reflect on the season as a Vacation Rental Owner. There is no doubt that the industry is changing (is maturing the right word?) and that has implications for Vacation Rental Owners everywhere

 

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So, what have I observed this season?

1.       Consolidation in the Vacation Rental industry continues. With Homeaway surpassing 1 million listings and other key players such as Holidaylettings in Europe also growing, it’s clear that the big guys continue to get bigger. That’s not to say that there are not good niche options (there are many listed on COHR) out there, but it’s clear that more of the market is moving to the big players. This is to be expected, as the industry “matures” and , although there are downsides to listing with the big guys, unless you are prepared to invest considerable effort in marketing your property yourself, it’s probably the easiest way to generate bookings

2.       Commission only listings work for me! My experience (particularly with Holidaylettings) is that the commission only option generates bookings at the same revenue to me as my listings on annual fee sites.  I also have a lot less hassle in chasing payments and tracking security deposits and even receive some enquiries where all I have to do is click an “accept booking” button!

3.       Commission only listings also work for the Listing Site! Booking fees, commission, added value services to the renter: these are the ways for the Vacation Rental Listing site to make money. It’s far easier for them to do this than to increase their annual listing price to me! 

4.       Reviews matter. Although guests are becoming more used to booking Vacation Rentals, there primary worry remains to be that, because each property is individually managed, when they get there, it just won’t be what was sold to them. Reviews give them some assurance that they won’t be drastically disappointed and vacation rentals with good reviews will consistently be chosen over those with none. On the flip side, a single bad review can do untold damage to your business (particularly if not balanced by some positive reviews).   Build up a selection of positive reviews

Collecting Positive Reviews for your Vacation Rental

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Many vacation rental owners are scared of receiving reviews of their vacation rental. It’s bad enough if there person is being fair and unbiased, but there are lots of stories out there out owners receiving bad reviews that are totally unjustified.

However, building up a portfolio of positive reviews is actually fairly simple.

Many owners avoid asking their guests to post reviews on Tripadvisor or another vacation rental site. However, this is a very risky strategy. Firstly, without positive reviews, you are missing out on many potential bookings from guests who use reviews as their primary way of reassuring themselves of the quality of your vacation rental. More importantly, it is becoming increasing difficult to avoid someone posting a review of your property. If one bad review slips through before you have had a chance to build up a portfolio of positive ones, this could be a disaster for your vacation rental business.

So, how do you build up such a portfolio?

 

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Here’s what I suggest. After your guest has returned home, send them an email, thanking them for their business and asking them to confirm that everything was to their satisfaction. I also usually offer a nominal (5%) discount if they want to book again with me. (I ask them to book directly with me, rather than through the website, as this means I can avoid commissions/ bookings fees associated with Commission-only listing sites, enabling me to pass on this saving to the guest without impacting my revenue.)

If they come back to me to confirm that everything was okay, I then ask them if they would be prepared to complete a review and send them the requisite links.

If they come back to let me know about problems they had, I thank them for their feedback and try to prevent these problems from happening again.

If they don’t come back to me, I don’t take it any further.

My experience is that most guests a) are happy with my vacation rental and b) will come back to confirm this and do a (positive) review.

In this way, over the course of even a single season, you can build up a nice portfolio of positive reviews!

Washington Post Vacation Rental Article and Reviews

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Following on from my recent post about Vacation Rental Scams, the Washington Post recently had an article about a Vacation Rental that was also "too good to be true". However, in this case, the main issue was that, according to the renter, the reviews of the rental property (posted on Homeaway) turned out to be far too favorable and hence misleading.

The apartment that Frank Leibsly rented in London turned out not to be the "five star" experience he expected. He posted a suitably negative "one star" review on Homeaway, which was as first removed and then re-instated.

Most owners worry about recieving a negative review and  this can, in fact, deter them from even asking for a review from their renters.

However, this article highlights another potentially disturbing issue with reviews: are they real or are they, in fact, posted by the vacation rental owners to create a misleadingly positive impression of the vacation rental property?

There is anecdotal evidence that the number of misleading reviews is increasing.

However, Research indicates that overall, posting reviews has a positive impact on attracting renters. Nevertheless, if there are more experiences such as this one, those impressions may change.

All Holiday Rentals - Reviews, Free Listings and Special Offers

Since it's launch earlier this month, All Holiday Rentals has been busy adding new features and now has pages featuring Holiday Rentals Site Reviews, a directory Free Listings sites and a directory Special Offers for Holiday Rentals Owners.

The Holiday Rentals Sites Review page currently lists reviews of holiday rentals industry leaders Homeaway and Flipkey, together with one of the leading Free Listings sites, Adventure Pads. It is planned to add more reviews in the coming weeks.

The Free Listings page currently lists more than twenty holiday rentals sites that offer either a free trial or a completely free listing. Free sites listed include Adventure Pads, Holiday Cube and HolidayHomeAds. Sites that offer trials such as VacationHomeRentals, Rentalia and Flipkey are also listed.

The Special Offers page lists offers that are available to COHR subscribers.

Flipkey Trial

Flipkey, owned by Tripadvisor, began offering a 60 day trial a few months ago and I decided to sign up with my 2 bedroom holiday apartment in Nice, France.

So far, over the course of two month, I have recieved 21 enquiries, one of which turned into a booking, which I think is pretty good for a free trial! (Some of the enquiries were for dates I already had booked: because I wanted to gauge the level of enquiries, I did not keep my calendar fully up to date.)

Flipkey is one of the larger vacation rentals sites, with more than 100,000 properties listed and it comes with most of the features you would expect of such a site.

Sign up with Flipkey is fairly easy: I mostly just cut and paste information from my listings on other vacation rental sites. Also, there is a dashboard for managing your property listing and enquiries.

As you would expect from a site owned by Tripadvisor, there is an emphasis on soliciting guest reviews. Because mine is a new listing, I have not yet collected any guest reviews, but there is compelling evidence that vacation rental properties with more guest reviews get more enquiries.

Flipkey also provides badges that you can put on your own website, indicating that your property's guest review count and average rating by Flipkey. (Of course, this is also a good way for Flipkey is build links from your own site to theirs!)

Many sites allow you to pay for "Special Offers", such as limited time discounts or free nights. Interestingly, Flipkey provides this facility for free and these special offers are then highlighted on your listing. I just discovered this feature and posted a special offer today: it will be interesting to see if this generates a specific response.

A full listing on Flipkey costs $299.99 (that really $300!) per annum, which is not cheap. However, my experience so far is that would indicate that it could be good value. My recommendation would be to avail of the free trial, see how it works for you and then decide at the end of the trial period.

(Tripadvisor also owns HolidayLettings .)

Vacation rental reviews: Data from Flipkey and Escapia

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Many vacation rental sites now include the ability for renters to write reviews and, while good reviews can help bookings, one single bad review can do a lot of damage. Hence, many vacation rental owners are reluctant to use reviews. However, my advice is, if the vacation rental site you use offers renter reviews, don't shy away from them.

I recently came across some interesting data from Flipkey (owned by Tripadvisor) and Escapia (owned by HomeAway) on this topic that is worth considering.

Escapia reported that about 39% of renters who were requested to complete a review actually did so. (They also indicated that higher priced properties tend to get both higher average ratings and a better response rate.)

Across 142,000 reviews analysed, the breakdown of overall ratings was as follows:

5 Star : 64%
4 Star: 25%
3 Star: 8%

Flipkey's data is remarkably similar, based upon 320,000 reviews:

5 Star: 63%
4 Star: 23%
3 Star: 11%
2 or 1 Star: 4%

This is consistent with the view that most reviews are positive. However, how does this impact on the level of interest generated?

Flipkey looked at the impact of the number of reviews on enquiry volume and found that vacation rental listings with:

3-5 reviews received 34% more interest
6-10 reviews received 159% more interest
11+ reviews received 246% more interest

That's quite an impact! Clearly, when reviews are available, renters have a preference for vacation rental listings with lots of reviews. Hence, if the vacation rental site you are listed on offers the facility for renter reviews, soliciting lots of reviews should generate more enquiries (and hopefully bookings!)

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