Congratulations to two vacation home property managers on their exciting announcements this week.

First, in Outer Banks vacation rentals… Outer Banks Blue reported that the summer season of 2008 broke all previous occupancy records with a forty-eight (48) percent increase in occupancy. It also announced that for the first time it recorded full occupancy throughout the entire month of August.

“The summer season of 2008 was phenomenal and true tribute to our professional staff and homeowners. As a company we live by the motto ‘The Vacation Rental Firm Where Customer Service, Never Takes A Vacation’ and we believe that is one of the many factors that lead us to this record breaking summer. We have quickly become the vacation rental firm of choice for discerning vacationers who not only vacation with us season after season but have also taken the time to recommend our services to family, friends and colleagues. We look forward to our summer successes translating into a record breaking fall and an even better 2009,” stated Tim Cafferty, President of Outer Banks Blue Realty.

Read the full announcement.

Secondly, in Scottsdale vacation rentals and Phoenix vacation rentals… Specialty Lodging announced that in direct response to its discerning clients wanting to expand their Arizona vacations to include all that Arizona has to offer, Specialty Lodging is in the process of expanding to other parts of Arizona. Specialty Lodging represents 100s of luxury homes, condominiums, townhomes, villas, resort rentals and estates throughout Arizona, and will soon expand to California, as well.

Specialty Lodging has been so successful in the Arizona marketplace that it has become the choice of major luxury resorts and hotels when they need help marketing their own specialty properties. “The major luxury resorts and hotels have experience marketing their ‘cookie-cutter’ or standard inventory – but when it comes to finding the right guests for their non-traditional luxury accommodations, they have turned to the professional team at Specialty Lodging,” stated Jim Kempski of Specialty Lodging.

Read the full announcement.

There’s no doubt more and more travelers are choosing vacation homes over hotels for their vacation lodging. Congratulations to both PickPackGo partners, Outer Banks Blue and Specialty Lodging!

Posted: September 25th, 2008 under Property Management, Vacation Homes, Vacation Rentals.
Comments: none

I enjoyed talking about our site and the value of vacation homes to renters and property managers on Friday with the friendly hosts of Lakefront Radio. From their studios in Atlanta, Mary Thompson, Chuck Thompson and Lee Kantor profile lake and waterfront professionals weekly, providing insight around lakefront living, recreation, real estate and business.

Click the image below to listen to the LakeFront Radio show podcast, and thanks again to the Lakefront Radio team for visiting with PickPackGo!

Posted: June 9th, 2008 under Family Vacation, Property Management, Vacation Homes, Vacation Rentals.
Comments: none

Online search engines have become one of the most popular forms of advertising for small businesses. So it’s no surprise that property managers have readily embraced search engine marketing (SEM) as a way to attract new customers. The question, however, is whether it is cost-effective and manageable for them.

SEM campaigns work particularly well for businesses that have unlimited inventory to sell. A few years ago, we were selling packaged software applications as downloads from our website. Our “inventory” was limited only by the network bandwidth available to customers interested in downloading the software from our website. We paid a few dollars whenever someone clicked on one of our ads, and as long as at least 10% of those visitors bought our software, we were bringing in more money than we were spending.

However, SEM tends to be far more challenging (and costly) for businesses with perishable or limited inventory. Take for example, property managers with vacation rental homes. Many property managers sell out their inventory on popular travel dates (e.g. Memorial Day weekend) a year in advance. However, if they advertise their property looking to book dates that are still open, those ads attract a significant volume of clicks (at significant cost) from renters interested in traveling during times the property is no longer available. As available inventory gets sold, it costs more and more to generate each additional reservation, because fewer and fewer dates are bookable.

For example, if you have a property for rent in Maui, you’d probably need to pay about $10 anytime someone visited your site after clicking on a search engine ad for a Maui vacation rental. If one in 10 visitors generates a booking, your advertising cost per reservation is $100. However, near popular travel dates, such as the week before Memorial Day, the majority of clicks would likely be last-minute travelers looking for homes that are available for Memorial Day. If your campaign is still running, you could easily spend a few thousand dollars for traffic interested in houses that you’ve long ago booked for Memorial Day.

PickPackGo is an efficient, cost-effective, pay-for-performance online advertising solution. Property managers never pay for unqualified clicks from travelers interested in travel dates that are no longer available. Instead, they define travel seasons and bid what they are willing to pay for qualified inquires during specified travel seasons. With traditional SEM programs, advertisers pay for relatively unqualified clicks, which can lead to exorbitant costs for a qualified lead when there is limited inventory available. With PickPackGo, advertisers can bid for qualified leads, and know for certain that the cost for each qualified lead is capped at their bid amount—regardless of the how much inventory is available.

For small businesses with perishable inventory, online advertising services that cater to their markets can be a more effective and ultimately less costly way to reach customers than search engines.

Posted: April 24th, 2008 under Property Management, Vacation Rentals.
Comments: none

There is a lot of discussion (and often angst) among vacation rental property managers and owners about whether to allow pets at vacation rental homes. As a family that likes to vacation with our yellow lab, we appreciate when we are allowed to bring our dog. We also understand our responsibility as pet owners to take extra care to make sure we don’t ruin that privilege for others.

This past weekend, we packed up the whole family to head to a Lake Tahoe vacation rental. In addition to each person’s suitcase, I packed our dog a bag containing items we use to ensure the rental home remains as we found it.

In addition to her food, our dog’s “suitcase” includes:

• A leash: Required for most areas.
• Two large beach towels: Great for wiping dirty paws after a day at the sledding hill or beach, and for unexpected rain or snow showers.
• Two portable dog bowls: Collapsible bowls for food and water are ideal for pit-stops on the drive to and from a destination, as well as for dining on non-carpeted, kitchen floors in the rental home.
• Extra clean-up bags: Absolutely necessary for proper disposing in appropriate places when nature calls. And like camping, with a rental home or condo, it’s sometimes necessary to “pack out” with it. Extra bags make this task easier and more sanitary.
• A crate: An ideal way if your pup was crate-trained to make him/her feel comfortable and contain them in the house when you go someplace for a short time, and can’t (because of time or temperatures) have them wait in the car.
• A dog bed: Pets, like children, are more comfortable when they have familiar objects when they travel. The dog bed also helps to minimize hair on the rental home’s carpet.

Once we arrive at our vacation rental, we follow the rules of common courtesy for other people’s homes:

• No animals on the furniture, including the beds, couches and chairs
• No ’special surprises’ in the driveway or yard—and definitely none left in indoor receptacles
• Immediately wipe up any paw-prints
• Vacuum when leaving

If you’re fond of traveling with your pet, vacation rental homes are an ideal alternative to hotels. But before you pack up your pooch, make sure you can honestly and confidently answer “yes” to each of these questions:

1. Is your dog well-behaved enough to stay in someone else’s home? (If he/she’s a chewer, probably not.)
2. Does your dog have accidents? (Both puppies and older dogs can have bladder issues, and it doesn’t mean they aren’t great dogs, it just means you should think twice about taking them to a rental home.)
3. Is your dog comfortable in unfamiliar places? (If your dog will spend the whole time stressed out, and possibly barking at unfamiliar sounds at the rental home, you might want to consider a pet-sitter or kennel at home.)

To find pet-friendly vacation rentals on PickPackGo, simply type in your location and “pet-friendly” on the home page search box to get a list of homes in that area that will consider allowing you to bring your pet.

Posted: March 3rd, 2008 under Family Vacation, Property Management, Vacation Homes, Vacation Rentals.
Comments: 8

The process travelers go through searching for, comparing and booking a vacation rental home is vastly different from booking a hotel room. Unlike hotels, vacation homes aren’t identical down to the hallway paintings. Personally, that is what I love most about them. They’re homes; they’re not cookie-cutter rooms with lamps nailed to the tables.

Working with renters every day gives me a chance to hear the questions they need to have answered before they can comfortably book their reservation. Most could be handled by a better listing. The more complete the listing, the more qualified inquiries and bookings vacation rental property managers and owners receive.

If your listing can provide the renter with all of the information he or she needs to make a decision, then you are likely to get the online booking straight away before the renter even hears back from managers and owners of their other choices. For property managers, this may mean engaging the owner in the process of creating the initial listing.

The most important part of any listing is the photos. This ”window” to your property gives renters the best idea of what to expect when they arrive. The more photos you can include, the better, which is why vacation rental site PickPackGo doesn’t limit the number you can show in your listings.

I recommend including the following types of photos:

• Exterior front
• Interior living and dining areas
• The kitchen
• Each bedroom to show sleeping arrangements
• Master bathroom (and others if they have an elegant vanity or Jacuzzi tub–no toilet photos required)
• Exterior back
• And (if applicable) photos of the game room, outdoor views, the pool and/or hot tub

I recommend shooting the exterior shots during sunny weather and using adequate lighting for the interior shots. Use your “artistic eye” to critically review your photos. We aren’t all professional photographers, but you can tell if the photos aren’t portraying the wonderful qualities of your property. You make your first impression on renters through photos, so take the time to capture all of the detail.

The next area to focus on is the property description. It provides valuable additional detail to potential renters. In many cases, a renter may not go beyond the photos and the property description, so you’ll want to include all of the most important information here (except rates – I’ll address that later).

Your description need not be excessively long, but it should include all of the most pertinent information. The most helpful property descriptions include:

• Approximate car-driving proximity to local attractions (e.g. Walt Disney World)
• A mention of the development and any extra amenities it may offer (e.g. community pool, play areas)
• Details of the master and other bedroom accommodations, including sleeping arrangements in living areas (e.g. rooms with king, queen or twin beds, sofa beds, futons)
• Details of the master and other bathroom features (shower, jetted tub, tub)
• Entertainment available in the home (HD-TV, cable, DVD player, game room, private pool, spa, etc.)
• Special items for small children (high chair, crib, pool safety gates)

Lastly, a few lines to set the scene of the surrounding area is helpful. For example, describe the view. This type of descriptive languages helps renters imagine themselves there enjoying your home with their family or friends.

Providing accurate and complete rate information for your different travel seasons, as well as keeping your availability calendar up-to-date will ensure you receive only the most qualified leads from potential renters. It also ensures that when potential renters make inquiries that they have a fairly accurate idea what their entire stay will cost them (including rent, pool heating fees, taxes, cleaning fees, pet fees, etc.)

For example on PickPackGo, you can enter all of your rates and fees for every travel season into a rates table to ensure renters receive an accurate rate quote when they initiate the inquiry process. When there are no surprises and no hidden fees and taxes, leads convert to bookings at a much higher rate. Using a low season rate to attract attention, and then presenting higher rates or additional fees at the time of booking just frustrates renters–and believe me, we hear from them!

While you may think that leaving an availability calendar open helps attract the most potential renters, it’s actually not true. Renters are skeptical of completely open calendars for two reasons–they think your place has something wrong with it or they assume you aren’t a very responsive property manager or owner, so they don’t even make an inquiry.

By updating your availability calendar, you are indicating that you want renters during particular times of the year, and for sites like PickPackGo, it ensures you only receive inquiries from renters for dates for which your home is available to be booked. No more time wasted answering yet another inquiry for that popular three-day weekend that is already booked up.

When you approach the process of creating a listing with these points in mind, it will help to maximize the impact and productivity of your listing on our site. We’re always here to help, so don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions. Just drop us a line at listings@pickpackgo.com.

Happy renting!

Posted: February 27th, 2008 under Property Management, Vacation Homes, Vacation Rentals.
Comments: 2

It’s tax season, an ideal time for property managers and second home owners to reflect on how better to maximize vacation rental property income and profit.

With an increasing number of travelers seeking more affordable and spacious accommodations than hotel rooms, savvy property managers and homeowners can generate more rental revenue.

Today, we offer some practical suggestions for how vacation home property managers and owners can attract more renters, while saving money:

• Reach renters online without up-front fees
• Attract weekend travelers using free regional boards
• Offer online booking
• Consider allowing minimum stays of less than a week
• Target shoulder season and off-season travelers

If you are a property manager or owner interested in learning more, contact PickPackGo or read the press release.

Posted: February 25th, 2008 under Property Management, Vacation Homes, Vacation Rentals.
Comments: 1

A major differentiator for PickPackGo is our ability to allow renters to immediately book properties online. Our Book Now feature helps renters make vacation rental reservations directly with professional property managers online using a major credit card.

In fact, the Book It button that appears on our listings is an early indicator to potential renters visiting our site that this vacation rental home, condo or villa is managed by a professional property manager. I have written before about the advantages of renting from professional property managers, and continue to believe that renters should try to avoid entering into private-party transactions that involve a check, money order, cash or equivalent.

If you have visited our site before, you know we have had Book Now available for awhile for property managers using Instant Software’s property management software. In addition, when we announced our partnership with Escapia, we committed to delivering Book Now capabilities for those using the EscapiaONE™ platform, which we have also now released.

Book Now offers peace of mind for both renters and property managers. If you’ve taken advantage of this feature, please let us know about your experience.

Posted: February 11th, 2008 under Property Management, Vacation Rentals.
Comments: 1

I’m a frequent traveler, so I was excited when I saw yesterday’s headline at the Elliott Blog about “8 things travelers should expect in 2008.” I, like so many other travelers, was looking for a little good news after some of the major travel headaches and rising costs of last year. While it seems in most areas I may be disappointed again, the post offers some good strategies about how to get around each roadblock.

My personal favorite was this:

Hotels that take you for granted
This is probably the last thing you want to hear before checking into a hotel, but I might as well tell you: your resort doesn’t need you. Next year will be another seller’s market for hotel rooms, according to the influential lodging analyst Bjorn Hanson of PricewaterhouseCoopers. He’s looking for a jump of nearly 6 percent in average daily room rates. Let me connect the dots for you. Higher room rates and near record-high occupancies (about 63 percent) means hotels can pretty much charge you whatever they want. They can invent new surcharges and fees and they can get away with them. And they know it. How to get around it: Look for a lodging alternative. I wrote about several of them recently.

He’s exactly right! As frequent travelers or once a year vacationers, we don’t have to stand for outrageous hotel price hikes and surcharges in 2008, we simply have to invest just a little bit of time seeking a lodging alternative.

Professionally managed vacation rental homes, like those listed on PickPackGo, are that perfect lodging alternative. They are maintained by local property management companies with staff on-site to help any time of the day or night if there is an issue. Property managers help to ensure the homes and condos we choose are in good shape and ready for our visits. With a vacation rental, we travelers can enjoy more spacious and affordable accommodations than hotel rooms, particularly when we’re traveling with our families or groups of friends.

That’s a better way to travel in 2008 that I’m definitely behind!

Posted: January 23rd, 2008 under Property Management, Vacation Homes, Vacation Rentals.
Comments: none

Today kicks off the 2008 vacation planning season. There are a number of advantages to renting a vacation home rather than a hotel room, including cost savings, convenience and privacy.

As you search for your 2008 vacation accommodations on PickPackGo or elsewhere, consider these tips:

1. Rent from professional property managers. They have on-site staff to help you deal with anything unexpected. They are often regulated and are businesses that can provide insight (and often deals) into local restaurants and attractions.
2. Use a credit card. It’s a safer, more convenient form of payment. Most major credit cards are accepted both domestically and internationally, if you are considering renting abroad.
3. Ask questions. Professionally managed properties are likely to meet government requirements (such as the Americans with Disabilities Act), but vacation homes are not like hotels, and you need to ask about things that matter to individuals in your party: Allergic to pet dander? Are there child safety gates for the stairs and pool area? Is there room to park an RV?
4. Consider purchasing travel insurance. Cancellation policies for homes are often far more restrictive than hotel rooms. Don’t let your effort saving, planning, booking and looking forward to your vacation be wasted if things don’t go according to plan.
5. Invest in damage insurance, also known as a security deposit waiver, to cover unexpected damages. This also helps you avoid paying potentially large cash security deposits to cover accidental damage.

See more tips.

Enjoy your stay!

Posted: January 2nd, 2008 under Family Vacation, Property Management, Vacation Homes.
Comments: none

As our site continues to grow and we gain more online exposure, a few of our users have written in to tell us what they think about our site.

Frequent family traveler and technology product manager, Jen was kind enough to share:

• Overall I really like the design. It’s very clean and lightweight and the site performance is pretty impressive given how many images you are loading.
• The map tab didn’t seem to work for the few properties I selected.
• I actually like seeing the outside pictures of the house…with the more details providing inside shots. Perhaps that’s (because) going to a new place, I won’t know how to recognize the house upon arrival without a picture.
• Personally, I would never rent a place where no pictures were provided.

As Jen points out, she’ll make quick decisions about a property based on photos and what she can see on the map. So it is in the best interest of property managers and owners to represent their vacation rentals with clear and visually descriptive photos, as well as provide accurate location information, so we can map their properties.

Mapped results for a search in Orlando:

The design of our site, with its open and clean layout, helps show our properties in a way that users can quickly navigate to find their ideal vacation rental. We are currently working on “Property Listing Tips” that will help managers and owners get the most out of their listings. And for renters, we will soon be implementing “Help Bubbles” to highlight some of our enhanced features on the site.

Thanks for this additional feedback:

• “I like the smooth image map fading, further more nice use of colors and text and the overall use of images.” –”Vexed” reviewed us on Designsnack.com
• “I really like the site design. I think you guys did a great job of simplifying the listing sign-up process and the overall look of the site is great.” - jc
• “I’m a designer and I think your site looks very clean, and easy to read and navigate. Two thumbs up.” Brenda, Academy of Art University

We love to get feedback, comments and suggestions about our site. Keep ‘em coming.

Posted: December 7th, 2007 under Property Management, Site design.
Comments: none