Instant Software Blog

Why Get a Bagel When You Can Have a Beer?

Vacation Rental Industry Happy Hour & Discussion: Why Get a Bagel, When You Can Have a Beer?

Instant Software hosted its first happy hour for the Vacation Rental industry in Palm Springs, California. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the format of a panel discussion and forum mixed in with some casual networking. Beer, wine, food and peers all gathered to share market related information, issues and trends. What a great way to end the day!

Trends and Tips. Before discussing California statistics, George Volsky, Instant Software's Director of Research, reviewed the latest national trends, including the trend towards pushing costs upward while lowering revenues. Volsky shared several tips that would allow managers to increase fees without attracting the kind of attention that can drive away renters or homeowners.

Interpreting Statistics. Using the latest booking statistics, Instant Software shared how to recognize the practical implications from the data, how to effectively compare the data with that of an individual company, and how to use the information to make educated business decisions.  

Technology Trends: the Next Evolution. The panel also discussed third-party distribution websites and shared predictions about how the provision of "free" services by Google and CraigsList as a business model may force third-party booking agents to keep fees low in the future.

Selling Choice. The discussion also analyzed other industries and their best practices and identified aspects of these industries that can be emulated in the Vacation Rental industry. For example, airlines, hotels and insurance carriers are now breaking down fees to sell "choice" to keep basic prices low. Rental managers can and should do the same. This strategy can prevent managers from losing customers who want to pay less and are willing to take less.

Real Estate Sales Agents Helping Homeowners Bypass Managers. The forum addressed a hot-button topic facing local managers, the growing tendency of real estate agents finding renters for higher priced homes. One of the implications discussed was the danger of encouraging homeowners attempting to self-manage or book owner weeks that deprive managers of commissions. As the real estate market recovers, sales agents are likely going to lose interest in rentals, which can cause long-term damage to the agent-homeowner relationship.

Search Engines Changes. Instant Software encouraged property managers to stay on top of the newest developments in Search Engine Marketing (SEM). Local and paid searches are appearing in many Google location searches "above the fold," and it is important to have a strategy and subsequent actions to keep yourself visible in those areas. See Amber Leto Mayer's latest webinar, "SEO for the Vacation Rental Industry," for the latest search information from Instant Software. 

Third Party Bookings.The panel encouraged property managers to use these distribution sites and discussed the impacts of third party websites on visibility in search engines and how important it is to consider the strategy of working with Partners such as HomeAway, and the OTA's such as Orbitz, Travelocity and Expedia.

Proactive Ways to Retain Homeowners. To close the discussion and forum, Volsky presented property managers with a successful Homeowner Retention Strategy for Vacation Rental Managers and offered suggestions for shaping homeowners' views about the pros and cons of self-management.

Instant Software is excited about the new casual, panel/discussion format and intends to provide more of these Happy Hour Vacacation Rental Forums in destinations around the country. As George Meshkov, Director of Online Business Development said, "Palm Springs was a huge success. Discussing best practices, new and relevant market issues, what we as an industry are facing right now, and how to move forward in the business with success in this type of setting was extremely valuable."

Instant Software looks forward to sharing more Happy Hour Panel Discussions and Forums and hopes to see you there!

State and Regional Vacation Rental Trends: May 2010 Report Released

 

Instant Software Research Center is pleased to release its May State and Regional Vacation Rental Trends Report. Find out more about how your state and region have performed by reading these reports, which measure revenue, reservations, night stays and other trends to date from 2010 against those in 2009.

These reports are the most useful and accurate resource for trends in the vacation rental market because Instant Software is the largest technology provider in the industry. Our leadership position provides you with the greatest amount and broadest range of data available. 

Instant Software releases Monthly, Quarterly, Semi-Annual, and Annual Trend Reports. Check back monthly to get these reports for your vacation rental business.

Get Trend Reports Here

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Florida Overturns Requirement of Sprinklers in Vacation Rentals

As Gold Sponsors of the Florida Vacation Rental Manager’s Association, Instant Software, Inc. is proud to share the exciting news from Florida Governor Charlie Crist, that he has signed the bill into law that overturns the requirement of sprinklers in Short Term Vacation Rental Homes.  

This action is a true testament to the American spirit and proves that, even today, when we all band together to fight for what is right...we can make a difference. Please feel free to share this information with your employees and homeowners as we all breathe a big sigh of relief as millions of dollars are saved in Florida and a precedent has been set to protect Vacation Rental Managers and Homeowners nationwide from this very costly requirement.

Thank all of your for your continued support and know that as your business partners, Instant Software, Inc. is providing the necessary support to your foundations and associations to ensure the sanctity of your businesses.

   

Top Ten Reasons to Attend RezFest

By Amy Regnier, Director of Field Marketing

Instant Software provides the Vacation Rental industry with the one and only combined technology and educational conference. RezFest returns to one annual event in fabulous Las Vegas, offering at least eight classes for each of our vacation rental software solutions, a selection of sessions on current industry trends and key issues, and education on a variety of vacation rental industry business solutions.
 

If you have not attended in prior years, you are probably thinking to yourself…”What is RezFest and why should I attend?” Well, I am going to give you the top ten reasons you absolutely can not miss RezFest 2010! Let the countdown begin…

10. Red Rock Casino, Resort and Spa, the host venue, is an extraordinary Las Vegas destination providing the ultimate guest experience (trust me, I experienced this first hand!). When not in sessions, enjoy the three-acre backyard pools, 91 massage therapists at The Spa, 10 remarkable restaurants, state-of-the-art 24-hour casino, 16 screen movie theater, luxury bowling suites, complimentary shuttle to and from the strip and airport, and much more. Because it is amazing –that’s why.
 

9. You will be situated at the gateway to one of the most beautiful national parks in the country, Red Rock Canyon, and only 12 miles from the Las Vegas strip. Check out our very own ISI team member, Karen Miller, and my recent trip to see the real beauty of Las Vegas.

8. RezFest is THE best industry conference providing you next-to-none networking opportunities with other vacation rental and property managers that use the same solutions you do, come from a variety of vacation destinations to give you new ideas, and attend with the same goal in mind….new tools for success.

7. Find out about industry trends from true experts (instead of those fakes in the industry offering dangerous and inaccurate advice) to learn about Yield Management, SEO and the top issues facing vacation rental companies today.

6. Kick back with the Instant Software team and Partners at enjoyable receptions, such as Casino Night at South Beach, Red Rock Lanes Reception…and of course, a long-time favorite, karaoke at the Closing Night Party. Pick a song, choose your favorite ISI Team Member to join you on stage, and don’t forget your vocals! (Don’t judge me.)

5. If anything…come for the extraordinary food. Throughout the event, breakfasts, breaks, lunches and receptions are included with your registration. Dessert? Yes, please.

4. Meet the entire Instant Software team from the Executives, Developers, and Account Managers to the knowledgeable and dependable Support Teams. Finally...put a face with the name!

3. Product training can cost up to $150 per hour remotely or $1,200 per day on site. You will get at least eight hours of classroom training with a variety of topics over two days for only $275 in registration fees per attendee.  Hello value!

2.  “Beat the Dealer” to win a Smart Car for your vacation rental or property management company at the Welcome Reception on Tuesday, September 21. Someone will win! P.S. We will brand it with your company logo, too!

And the number one reason to attend RezFest is (drum roll, please)…

1. What happens in Vegas…goes back to the office!

Learn More, View Agenda and Register Online

Volsky's View: Why the VR Industry Responds Better Than Other Travel Segments

Why the Vacation Rental Industry Responds Better Than Other Travel Segments to Declines in U.S. Travel Spending

By George Volsky, Instant Software - Director of Research

During 2009, U.S. travel spending declined 9% over 2008. Many of our decisions can be influenced by trends in other segments. So it is helpful to review why other industries responded differently.

 
While this table’s metrics were not calculated the same way for each travel segment, they demonstrate how cuts in travel spending affect different travel segments.
  
When travelers reduced spending by 9%, airline revenue declined twice as fast (18%) and cruise line prices dropped 10 to 20%. Vacation rental revenues fell 24% less than U.S travel spending (6.8% vs. 9%). Why did vacation rentals survive drops in travel spending better than other travel segments? The reasons can be largely found in the unique structure of each industry, as summarized below.

Airlines. At least 10 U.S. airlines were forced out of business in 2008 and 2009. The Air Transport Associaion of America said passenger revenue for the major U.S. carriers fell 18% in 2009, exceeding the 14% decline in 2001. Apart from rising fuel costs and low-priced competitors, airlines rely heavily on business travel, a component of U.S. travel spending. Business travelers pay more than leisure travelers, so airlines lose a bigger share of their revenue when business travel declines. Plus, leisure travelers often save money by foregoing air travel in favor of vacation drive-to destinations. During 2009, a year when consumers wanted to save money, 70% of survey respondents identified the car for domestic vacations, according to Mintel.

Cruise Lines. Cruise lines have grown faster than vacation rentals because they offer a good travel package for the price, at least if travelers don’t drink or gamble. But ships require massive capital investment, and a small decline in bookings can be disastrous. Unlike rental managers, cruise lines have to pay for ships whether rooms are filled or not. Unlike rental managers, destination ports often pay for each passenger delivered. Plus cruise ships generate “supplemental spend” from liquor sales and gambling. So when leisure travelers cut back, cruise lines have a financial incentive to drop prices as far as necessary to fill cabins. Cruise lines had a tough year in 2009 but are expecting to increase prices this year. The industry forecasts 6% passenger growth for 2010. 

Hotels. Like airlines, hotels depend on business travel, which generates more revenue per room than leisure travel. So hotels lose a bigger share of their annual revenue when business travel declines. Like cruise lines, hotels must recoup construction and operating expenses whether rooms are empty or full, and they often generate revenue from food sales, shopping, and spas. So hotels make this calculation before discounting to get “heads in beds”, a 35% discount of room rates often translates to a much smaller drop in hotel revenue. Hotels may drop prices to any level that exceeds the cost of making and servicing the reservation. This lowers average daily rate at a faster pace than for vacation rentals.

Vacation Rentals. Rental managers aren’t under the same pressure to fill empty bedrooms as hotels and cruise lines. Managers aren’t expected to cover mortgage payments through rental income, and empty homes don’t cost managers much. When supply exceeds demand (which it does 65% of the year during normal years), managers must only discount prices to maintain their historic share of rentals (to keep homeowners from changing management). The vacation rental industry is well structured to survive swings of the economy. The vacation rental industry also has a safety net in that financially stressed vacationers save money by substituting a vacation home for plans to fly to a hotel destination.

Hotels vs. Vacation Rentals: Different Monthly Occupancy Patterns.  At the end of any given year, revenue for both hotels and vacation rental companies tend to rise or fall in the same general direction.  But on a monthly basis, trends can very dramatically. Business travel occurs at different times than leisure travel, so swings in business travel will dramatically change hotel occupancy without affecting vacation rentals. Plus, hotels’ higher occupancy rates (50% for 2009 vs. 35% for vacation rentals) means that hotels are more heavily occupied during more weeks, so changes in travel spending  will affect monthly occupancy rates differently for the two lodging segments.

Different Forecasts: Hotels vs. Vacation Rentals. We expect vacation rental bookings, revenue and nights to improve in 2010 over 2009. At the end of Q1, vacation rental revenues were up 10% and arrivals were up 7% (Instant Software Research and Trends Reports). By contrast, the U.S. hotel industry posted negative trends for January and February and is projected to end 2010 with decreases in two of the three key performance measurements, according to Smith Travel Research’s monthly forecast update. Why is one lodging segment recovering when the other is still declining? The negative hotel projections are tied to that industry’s dependence on higher occupancy rates. PKF Hospitality Research says that national occupancy level below the 60% mark means that rate discounting will persist. Remember that hotel occupancy was 50% for 2009.  

Join Us at Upcoming Vacation Rental Industry Shows!

Instant Software is brining you MORE in 2010...and we can not wait to show you! Look for announcements about exciting ISI Sponsored events at each of these upcoming shows!

VRMA Eastern Seminar, Myrtle Beach, SC
Sheraton Myrtle Beach Convention Center
April 20 - 21, 2010
WE WILL ALSO BE PRESENTING SESSIONS & ON PANELS AT THIS EVENT!
- "Website Fundamentals"
- "SEO - The Future"

* * * * *

2nd Annual NCVRMA Conference, Myrtle Beach, SC
Sheraton Myrtle Beach Convention Center
April 21 - 22, 2010

* * * * *

FVRMA Annual Convention, Lake Buena Vista, FL
Disney's Coronado Springs Resort
April 25 – 27, 2010
WE WILL ALSO BE CO-PRESENTING ON PANELS AT THIS EVENT!
- "Sales and Marketing Data for Florida"
- "Revenue Enhancement: How to Drive New Revenue"
- "How to Compete Against Rent By Owners"

* * * * *

VRMA Western Seminar, Reno, NV
Atlantis Casino Resort Spa
May 5 - 6, 2010
WE WILL ALSO BE PRESENTING SESSIONS & ON PANELS AT THIS EVENT!
- "Website Fundamentals"
- "SEO - The Future"

Instant Software Expands to Continue Providing the Highest Rated Customer Service in the Vacation Rental Software Industry

Instant Software announces that it has increased its overall headcount by 20% in 2010 and added to the industry’s largest client care and account management staff, furthering its commitment to providing its clients with the best solutions and most responsive support. 

Instant Software announces the expansion of the largest account management and client care teams in the industry by increasing overall staff by 20% and appointing a new Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing.  The additional staff will provide expanded account management coverage, more customer care representatives, and increased research and development capabilities.

ISI’s expansion is the result of its continued growth and commitment to offering clients the most responsive and knowledgeable team in the vacation rental industry.  ISI has already set an unsurpassed standard in the industry with the largest support staff and processes that enable 99.48% call completion rates and an average hold time of only 8 seconds.  With their recent expansion in support and account management, ISI now has more people solely focused on assisting and consulting clients than all of the leading industry software vendors combined. 

“Our clients’ success is our number one priority.  We take tremendous pride in the fact that they have the trust and confidence that ISI is always there to solve issues and educate them on industry trends and best practices,” explains Dave Hopcroft, CEO, Instant Software, Inc. “As clients continue to discover that no other provider in our industry can satisfy their needs and help grow their businesses better than ISI, we are more than prepared to manage our growth and maintain our investment to constantly improve our services.”  

The new account management team will cover 11 geographic territories in the U.S. and International markets with two regional managers as well as additional marketing services.  It will be managed by Scott Gerber, recently appointed as Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing.  Scott has been with ISI for two years in various strategic executive roles and brings over 20 years of sales and marketing experience from companies such as Oracle.

Other new employees will join the industry’s largest Client Care and R&D teams to ensure continued support, responsiveness, product development, and feature enhancements.

JUST RELEASED! February 2010 State and Regional Vacation Rental Industry Trends Report

Instant Software is pleased to announce the release of the February 2010 Vacation Rental Industry Trend Report. This monthly report discusses State and Regional trends, highlighting the top and bottom performing states in comparison with 2009 Vacation Rental activity, focusing on revenue streams, number of arrivals and length of stays.

This and all other ISI trend reports are the most useful and accurate resource in the vacation rental market because Instant Software is the largest technology provider in the industry. Our leadership position provides you with the greatest amount and broadest range of data available.

Instant Software releases Monthly, Semi-Annual, and Annual Trend Reports available for the Vacation Rental industry. Visit our website to get February's Trend Report and other industry reports and White Papers on a monthly basis!

Get the February 2010 Trend Report Now!

Instant Software Partners With RentExpert, Adding Additional Marketing Programs Through ISILink

Instant Software, Inc. (ISI) announces its partnership with RentExpert, a website that provides only “professionally managed” vacation rentals for popular destinations worldwide.  RentExpert offers free branding on their website for Vacation Rental Managers and promotes their properties through affiliate sites such as Yahoo and AOL, growing mobile device market, email campaigns, and on RentExpert.com.  RentExpert also has increased search engine optimization compared to Rent-By-Owner listings sites and a Hot Deals program to help Vacation Rental Managers sell their inventory at a discount with no commission to RentExpert.

RentExpert will be integrated with Instant Software’s ISILink, the largest web distribution system for the Vacation Rental Industry.  Through ISILink, RentExpert will have the ability to access over 200,000 vacation rental properties running on ISI’s market leading business management systems for real-time automated availability and reservations.

RentExpert is dedicated to promoting the advantages of renting professionally managed homes and firmly believes that professional vacation rental managers are the best in the industry when it comes to taking care of guests.  Some threats to the continued growth of the vacation rental industry are unmemorable guest experiences, poorly set expectations, and properties that are not well maintained. RentExpert enhances what managers already do well and helps grow the vacation rental business by properly setting the expectation of a guest’s vacation experience.

“Vacation goers are looking for professionally managed properties and our partnership with Instant Software gives us the ability to offer the greatest number of integrated properties,” said Ganapathy Krishnan, CEO of RentExpert. “Instant Software clients consist of first-class vacation rental managers and we are thrilled to send vacationers to them for bookings.”

“We welcome RentExpert into the Instant Software Channel Partner network because of their capability to work with the unique elements of the Vacation Rental industry and ability to guarantee great guest experiences,” explains Dave Hopcroft, CEO of Instant Software, “this partnership is yet another advantage that ISI offers our property managers through ISILink and adds to the growing dominance that ISILink represents as the Vacation Rental Industry’s only true Global Distribution System.”

RentExpert is a member of VRMA and only works with vacation rental managers who maintain high standards of cleanliness and hospitality. To learn more about RentExpert, please see this video:  http://www.rentexpert.com/video_intro.

Annual Report: State and Regional Trends for 2009

Instant Software Research Center is pleased to release its Annual Report: State and Regional Vacation Rental Trends for 2009:

• 2009 Guest Arrivals.  These reports analyze advance booking windows and the year-to-year trends that shape 2009 profit and loss statements: guest reservations, revenue, and nights.
• 2009 Bookings.  We also analyze 2009 booking activities, which influenced 2009 results and are the best measure of consumer booking trends going forward.

The attached report is the most useful and accurate resource for trends in the vacation rental market because Instant Software is the largest technology provider in the industry.  Our leadership position provides you with the greatest amount and broadest range of data available.

Another software company recently reported “national” trends.  While we commend them for their effort, we urge you to be careful making any conclusive business decisions based off of that report which only measures a small handful of industry data with a limited cross-section of client-types.   While there are similarities in the reports, that company reported markedly more volatile booking swings, different proportions of weekend arrivals, more 1-3 day stays, fewer 4-7 day stays, and a heavier balance toward short vs. longer advance booking windows. 

Moving forward, Instant Software will be making Monthly, Semi-Annual, and Annual Trend Reports available for Instant Software clients (Entech, PropertyPlus, First Resort, and V12.NET users).  If you are not currently an Instant Software client, and would like to receive these reports, please feel free to contact us at 866-746-6347 or Sales@InstantSoftware.com.

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