There was an interesting concept raised on Travolution today.  Will companies like Expedia jump on the growth in the vacation rental market and start targeting owners, given the increasing popularity of this type of vacation? 

It’s difficult to see how this could work since there are quality issues on both sides to start with. The travel company would have to inspect every property in their inventory which would be a massive undertaking in itself, but how could owners feel confident that the guests who have booked are the right ones for their property?  Perhaps those owners who already entrust their rentals to an agency would give this a try, but those who advertise privately – the bulk of the vacation rental suppliers – do so because of the autonomy it gives them to pick and choose their rental guests.  Would they be prepared to pass this over to a third party?

There’s changes coming, for sure, and it’s going to be an interesting couple of years as the online travel industry jockeys for position in this growing market.  I’ll be keeping a close eye on the industry and reporting on developments. And I hope my readers will let me know when they get the call from Sell off Vacations or Expedia. I’d love to know what they are offering!

Looks like the weather will be great this week – a bit of an Indian summer for the first week of November – and will then deteriorate at the weekend with some rain. So….where better to spend a rainy weekend than at the Fall Cottage Life Show.

It’s on at the International Centre in Toronto from Friday 7th – Sunday 9th November, and I’ll be on the CottageLINK Rental Management booth (508). Please drop by and say hello; I’d love to meet some of my readers and talk about winter rentals and how to improve bookings overall!

I cheerfully call myself a technophobe. I’ve never sent a text message but I am being encouraged to learn. Getting this vacation rental enquiry yesterday may have changed my mind:

Comments:  hi  i was wondering if u ent out  weekend(fri, sat) night and wt ur chage is and also  do u rent out to the ages 17-18  we r gof kids n do not party plz respond asap

Since I don’t speak text, I elected not to respond, but it gave us some food for debate in the office this morning. Are we moving to a time where we have to learn abbreviated language?  I posed this question to Craig White of CottageLINK – here’s his response:

"It will be interesting to see if our reaction is still the same a few years down the road when text lingo is an even more accepted way of communication. Language always evolves to fit the needs of people, and given the character limits on texting, it makes sense for people to create words that can be easily/quickly/cheaply texted. I guess my answer would be that when "gof" shows up in Funk’n'Wagnell, it’s time to listen."

Can anyone tell me what "gof" means anyway?

Photo by Nesster on Flickr

 Yesterday’s Globe and Mail article, ‘Brace Yourself, Huntsville – The G8 is coming’, highlighted the buzz surrounding the recent announcement of the 3-day event in 2010. The Deerhurst Resort will be the venue but the date has not yet been announced, and cottage owners are speculating wildly on the rates they could charge for rental.

Real estate brokers and cottage rental agencies are already hearing from owners planning on renting out their homes and cottages for the duration of the Summit, and it’s likely there will be massive opportunities for boosting rental income. I would imagine the dignitaries and VIP’s will be hosted within the Deerhurst complex given the huge security issues, but no doubt the thousands of aides, support people, media folk, and lobbyists will be on the lookout for accommodation as soon as that date is released.

I’ll be following this one closely, and it was interesting in the research I did after hearing about the Summit, to see photos of previous G8s. If I had a cottage up there, I think I would be battening down the hatches, locking everything up, and leaving for Costa Rica.

Watch this space……..

Photo by Philip Leroyer on Flickr

On the vacation rental news front this week are high end rentals in Apsen; how owners advertise and market in the UK and Europe; the growth of vacation rentals in north America according to a report in USA Today, and a couple of new listing sites.

The Aspen Daily News reports on the trend in ‘private’ hotels in this hot ski area:
 
“Aspen Signature Properties offers rentals of large private homes in Aspen at rates of $20,000 per night over the holidays and up to $160,000 for one month during the winter. The average holiday stay at a large Aspen home costs about $40,000 per week, according to Bryant, and a strong demand exists for homes in that price range.

….. a five- or six-bedroom home or private hotel can be competitive with a five-star hotel, from a price standpoint, especially if a family needs to rent three or four hotel rooms to accommodate the whole family plus friends and a nanny. In addition, many heads of wealthy households need, and want, to do some office work while they’re on an extended ski trip.”

Greg Shove, CEO of The Helium Report, which tracks luxury travel trends such as destination clubs and private hotels, says the market for luxury ski home rentals and private hotels with very high levels of service is strong and growing,

 ”People are working more while traveling and they want a place where they can work from,” he said. “A house can do that and a hotel room doesn’t do that very well.”

 Finding budget vacation rentals in Europe

Smarter Travel addresses the issue of finding a budget rental in UK and Europe. The article compares properties found on listing sites with those advertised with agencies. From an owners point of view it is always interesting to check out how vacation rentals are marketed in other parts of the world .

“These (listing) sites almost always offer the lowest prices. Many of the sites I list below feature studio and one bedroom cottages for as little as $500 a week. But they also entail the highest risks. Florid language may overstate a property’s charm, and wide-angle lenses can make closet-size rooms look spacious. Some of these sites claim zero tolerance for complaints, so if a renter complains about a property, the site banishes it.”

A USA Today article discusses the growth in vacation rentals in the US travel & tourism industry:

“Travelers are benefitting from more choices and better websites, including some with video tours of each property. They’re also demanding and getting a higher degree of assurance that the vacation property they rent meets expected standards, and that they won’t be fleeced.”

New sites this week 

Each week I come across new listing sites, each one extravagantly claiming they are the most comprehensive and widely marketed, bringing you new clients from their highly Google-ranked site. Some of the new sites are offering increasingly sophisticated tools for tracking bookings, allowing credit card payments, and monitoring availability. On the surface these look good and are attractively presented. However in a crowded market, there is more to it than developing a pretty site with some nifty features. The value of a $99 listing only reveals itself in the level of enquiries you receive, and this is worth monitoring in your marketing strategy.  There is a lot more to choosing where to advertise beyond the marketing hype of the new sites. I am researching a lengthy article on the sites that offer the most value for money,  as well as bringing you the most visitors.  In the meantime, and please don’t take this as recommendation, here are the latest press releases:

Vacation Centric – this is a free listing site at the moment so you have nothing to lose by trying this one out.

Villa4Vacation.com

I’m always interested to hear what’s in the news about cottage rentals, so if you hear something newsworthy, please let me know.