After spending the morning ducking the bombardment of conflicting information, advice and suggestions about what we should expect in 2009 in our vacation rental market, this article caught my eye.
"Tough Times Open Doors for Bargain Hunters" comments on the movement by some of the large listing sites to create discount pages to highlight special deals.
It’s interesting because, on the one hand we’re being told how popular vacation rental will be amongst the ’staycationing’ public, while the doom and gloom merchants are agonising over the potential for gaping availability calendars.
I know it’s going to be tougher in certain areas than others and there will be some that will have a hard time to attract rental clients in a packed market. I’d be interested in hearing from those in other parts of the world with their views on this.
A post on the Vacation Rentals Community was pertinent to this topic too:
"……in the last couple of months it seems like half of our callers are demanding discounts, usually in the 40% to 50% range. Had one this week that wanted 60% off."
Should we be prepared for this as a norm for next year?
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
This makes it even more important that you find something to make yourself different to your vacation rental competitors. Competing on price is always difficult – they say there’s always someone willing to go out of business quicker than you! Of course I care about the website angle to this. Once you’ve found your difference, make sure you articulate it on your vacation rental site
Dr Richard’s last blog post..Website Keywords – Do They Pass the Test?
Earlier this month I conducted a bit of my own research into this topic and found that the whole industry is in trouble and Vacation Rental Properties are just as immune to the troubles as traditional Vacations (Hotels & Resorts). Take a look at the research.
http://activerenter.com/index.php/2008/12/how-is-the-economy-affecting-your-vacation-rental-business/
Here I analyzed website traffic reported from compete.com. What became overwhelmingly apparent is that that interest is not only down in traditional resort and hotel Vacations like expedia, but also in Vacation Rental Properties like Home Away.
It’s certainly time to clamp down and get creative!