Like the others before it, the fourth and final session of our 2016 Homeowner Forum appears to have been a great success. The Wellesley session was streamed live online for all those who were unable to attend any of the Brewster or Vineyard Forums in person, and a Forum Video was created for you to view any time.
Our CIO Jim Reese introduced the theme of this year’s Forum: “Gaining the Competitive Edge.” He pointed out that renting out a vacation home is not what it used to be. It’s a LOT more competitive, and vacationers’ expectations are much higher than in the past. Due to recent changes and turmoil in the vacation rental industry, we’ve seen a big influx of listings on our site. So it’s more important than ever for us to think of new ways to both market and manage our homes.
In the first half of the presentation, our marketing experts, Becky Fischer and Tyler Pyburn, likened online rental listings to billboards on a vacation rental highway. They cautioned us to remember that there are many other billboards vying for attention and urged us to do what we can to have ours stand out from the rest. Becky and Tyler then provided a “roadmap for marketing success” – offering some simple but very effective tips to increase our listing’s exposure to vacationers and bring us more bookings.
The second half of the Forum was introduced by co-owner of WeNeedaVacation.com, Joan Talmadge, who suggested ways in which managing a vacation rental can have a significant impact on your marketing efforts for future bookings. With minimal effort and expense, she explained, homeowners can ensure the happiness of their guests so that they will return year after year – or at least submit positive guest reviews to then help attract new vacationers.
Stay tuned as we provide more detailed information about the Forums in future posts. Or feel free to view the Forum Video for the full presentation. It was a pleasure for all of us on the WeNeedaVacation.com Team to reacquaint with some of our familiar homeowners as well as to meet many of our new ones. If you attended one of the Forums, feel free to post a comment with any feedback.
