Vacation Rental Surveys: Why They Need to be Resurrected from the Dead.

I just read a short article by a respected vacation rental management colleague, Michael McFadden, entitled: Do you have a good guest survey? His work is always thought provoking as he caters to the luxury end of the vacation rental market and getting things just right is his business, but his article left me thinking...not about what I want to know from a guest survey (which is the focus of the article), but what information I'm getting from collecting online guest reviews and how does this information serve my goal of providing a BETTER vacation rental experience? This was an "aha" moment, because surveys and reviews aren't the same, and I've been trying to kill two (or three) birds with one stone since the rise in popularity of online vacation rental reviews.

What does an vacation rental owner or manager want to know from a guest:

• Why did you choose to stay with us; was your reservation and arrival made easy; were you comfortable; was the place clean; does anything need repair or replacement; do we need to supply something we didn't; can we book your next stay now; will you give us a quotable testimonial?

What a guest wants to be assured of when they read an online review:

• Is this vacation rental for real; will it meet my family's needs and expectations of a place to stay; will I be able to reach someone if there is a problem; is it clean; will I get my deposit back without hassle; is the rental safe; is the vacation rental a good value; is the place the same as in the pictures and description; will we enjoy our vacation?

Back in 1999 when I first started with a vacation rental cottage in Maine, my collection of information from guests after arrival came in 3 forms:

1. A quick phone call to check in on the guest during their stay (satisfied guest's need for being able to reach someone);
2. A paper and pen guest book left at the property year after year, which I checked at the end of each season (satisfied my need for a quotable testimonial);
3. A paper survey mailed with a SASE (satisfied all of my other needs regarding guest feedback).

With those three methods, I had the perfect trifecta of information:

1. Fix any problems the guest was having and answer property or area questions;
2. A collection of guest thoughts, activities, emotions, while enjoying our property for use in marketing;
3. Comprehensive information for our own needs regarding why they booked with us, what maintenance we needed, what they enjoyed most, and even what they wished we could improve or provide.

For years, my system seemed perfect. Happy guests. Happy owners. Continually improving property and service. Over 90% of our paper surveys were returned, our guest books filled up, and our phone calls were more like welcomes than anything else. That said, it still took a leap of faith for guests and make the initial booking. 

Over the last 12 years things have changed just a little: 

• guests can now do extensive research and even book online;
• scams are easier to carry out with the anonymity of the web;
• guest reviews are easily collected and shared online via a multitude of sites and social networks, whether the owner or manager asks for them or not;
• guests expect to see reviews from other guests online before they make their decisions;
• guests new to vacation rentals are expecting stays to be more hotel like than "old school" guests.

I embraced the world of online reviews. Before TripAdvisor was in the vacation rental marketplace,  the big four online vacation rental marketplaces (now owned by HomeAway) supplied a free place for owners to manage calendars and reviews online. We at first entered reviews from our guest books (which of course were all glowing), and later provided the link to leave a review directly to guests. Then a few years ago, FlipKey (who's majority shareholder is TripAdvisor), began offering an easy and free system to collect guest reviews and publish them online. Included in this was a little whisper that yes, TripAdvisor would start carrying these reviews soon. "SIGN ME UP"...without abandon, I was all in. Confident from years of good reviews, with a business platform based on being "Better" (company is BETTER Vacation Rentals after all), and knowing from lodging industry research that quantity of reviews was even more important than quality of reviews, I was happy to quit using paper surveys and guest books. I had already switched to in room questionnaires instead of mailed surveys in an attempt to catch maintenance needs, and the phone call had become intermittent as I grew Better Vacation Rentals from 1 rental, to 3 rentals (by owner), and then to about 25 rentals and a full blown management company. 

What I didn't count on was that fewer people would respond to my requests for online surveys (I'd like to know why) and that the surveys would not have the same feel as the in rental guest books. Instead, electronic surveys intended for review publishing seem to elicit less personal and more functional responses, including a list of even the tiniest maintenance issues.  My first response was to take it all personally and begin to believe that the company was failing in critical areas like cleaning and maintenance.  After today's epiphany, though, I know this isn't the case.  We began failing in communication with guests. My zeal for collecting guest reviews for the number of stars and number of reviews (as a marketing tool to satisfy potential guests) left out what I needed for information and what current and former guests needed as a feedback mechanism, while satisfying the needs of only future guests.

Current (in house) guests need a forum to tell you that a lightbulb is out or that the drain ran slowly. To many guests on vacation, these small things don't warrant a call to management or owner during their stay, but when asked in an online survey about cleanliness, maintenance, service...the guest has found an easy forum. A guest review becomes a performance survey and small things end up looking bigger than they are.  If a minor issue is cared for properly, instead it's either skipped in a review or turned into a "moment of truth" story. In addition, a third party online review provides a certain level of anonymity and lack of personal relationship that tends to pull out gripes rather than praises. How often do YOU leave glowing reviews vs less than glowing reviews. How many times have you told friends of bad service vs good service? My point exactly...

We're getting it all wrong. Online guest reviews are great. I'll keep collecting them. They are an invaluable source of information for potential guests to vacation rentals and hotels alike. Never, not once, have I personally experience, nor know anyone personally whose experience has been lower than the expectations set by TripAdvisor reviews. However, online guest reviews are NOT enough for the vacation rental industry. We still need guest satisfaction surveys that are used as a feedback mechanism for owners or management, and we still need to touch base with vacation rental guests during their stays to enhance the quality of the stay and let the guests know we are available to them for even the littlest things.

I've stayed in dozens of vacation rentals myself. Some great, some less so. NOT ONE ever called or emailed during my stay, and NOT ONE ever left or mailed a survey for me to complete. Several have asked me to leave reviews (with an easy link) on the vacation rental management site or on a review site like TripAdvisor, HomeAway, or VRBO. I think there is still a lot of room for BETTER achieved via satisfaction surveys and not just reviews. What about you?

HomeAway Launches More than Just a SuperBowl Ad..."it's a bird, it's a plane, wait no, it's a test baby."

Update 2/8/11: HomeAway issues sensitive apology AND changes their ads and social media campaign. NICE SAVE. Perhaps they should choose to support a preventing child abuse charity too. Read the HomeAway Superbowl Apology

I'll admit it, I'm a bit of a critic when it comes to $3 million dollar ad buys, but even more so when the company doing the buying is an important part of my own advertising plan. On top of that I'm a bit of a vacation rental nerd. Since 1999 I've been immersed in this world of vacation rental ownership, marketing, and management. When HomeAway placed their "Chevy Chase Vacation" ad in 2010's SuperBowl, I was unimpressed, but never the less very excited for vacation rentals to get national attention and press. After all, according to PhocusWright research, only 10% of US travelers even think of a vacation rental as a lodging option.  So when word started to leak out and the hype for SuperBowl XLV begain, I was a bit surprised, and excited to hear HomeAway would be launching their second ad for the Big Game, and that it would be interactive and have the potential to go viral in social media (since I'm a social media nerd too). Then I watched the trailer for the ad online.



Hmmm.

HomeAway didn't launch an ad campaign: they launched a "test baby."

Daring! Smushed test baby? British accents in the US? Ministry of Detourism? (I suspect they'll be running the ad across the pond). Not promising. Though I have to admit, I laughed the first time the test baby flung at the glass, even though I'm a very serious mom. I didn't laugh the next time when I watched it on the big screen during the big game.  I don't like the ad. I don't think it targets my audience. It feels like it was written by 12 year old boys (kind of like GoDaddy). My guests are a bit more sophisticated and much more family oriented to really think this is funny and want to go book a vacation rental instead of a hotel because of this kind of ad.

Showing a miserable crying baby in a hotel room, waking up the other kid in the hotel room, and the parents trying to have a glass of wine in the bathroom so they don't wake them up would make a commercial that rings true. That's of course because it really is true (Chicago Marriott c.1994). This ad reminds me of the tragic story of a mom recently shooting her two teenagers for talking back. Every mom can at first relate to a mother's frustration with teenagers, but carrying through with frustration with an act of violence? No we get disgusted.  The smushed test baby is pretty disgusting (even if we all know it's a test baby and meant to be funny). I don't see how gramps, mom, auntie, or golf buddies getting away are going to connect to that baby and remember vacation rentals supply more space when they make their next lodging choice. Plus smushed has taken on new meaning compliments of Jersey Shore and I have no patience for ad companies that don't properly vet everything.

There is a saying in publicity that no publicity is bad publicity, so at least HomeAway has some definite buzz happening. In fact "test baby" trended on Twitter for quite a while after the commercial.

What do you think? Is this ad a good thing for vacation rental owners and guests? If you are a vacation rental owner, are you excited about the message and buzz? If you are a guest, does this ad call you to take action? Will you play the games online (you can put your face in and choose the baby's fate or put your vacation rental in the ad)? Will you consider a vacation rental for your stay?

Looking forward to the buzz on this launched test baby.

Update 2/7/11

As the buzz comes in I wanted to share some more links with discussion on the HomeAway test baby ad. It looks like a cold blast is coming into Austin.

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/2011/02/07/2011-02-07_super_bowl_2011_commercials_top_five_best_and_worst_ads_of_the_game.html

http://www.facebook.com/HomeAway (comments section)

http://yourlife.usatoday.com/parenting-family/babies/story/2011/02/Parents-recoil-at-Super-Bowl-test-baby-ad/43392036/1

http://www.sbnation.com/2011-super-bowl/2011/2/6/1979154/super-bowl-commercials-2011-test-baby-homeaway

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/theticker/entries/2011/02/07/homeaways_super_bowl_ad.html?cxntfid=blogs_statesman_business_blog

http://wallstcheatsheet.com/breaking-news/will-these-super-bowl-ads-make-advertisers-money.html

http://mypostpartumvoice.com/2011/02/06/test-baby-superbowl-commercial/

@LizSzabo is tweeting about the issue and wrote the USA Today article.

http://kelloggsuperbowlreview.wordpress.com/2011/02/07/kellogg-super-bowl-advertising-review-2011-results/

http://travel.usatoday.com/destinations/dispatches/post/2011/02/homeaways-smushed-baby-super-bowl-ad-creates-controversy/141996/1

HomeAway is it all hype?

View from Palm Desert Golf Condo

I just did an analysis of vacation rental stays in my Palm Desert California vacation rental home for the last 12 months. I've been in this particular market for 5 years now, so I've seen a lot change. Just when you think you have an advertising and marketing plan figured out for your particular location and property(ies), something changes. Like the formation of HomeAway in 2005. They bought up the big 4: Cyberrentals, A1 Vacations, VRBO, and GreatRentals. Next in was vacationrentals.com, and it continued. By 2010 the VRBO and Vacationrentals.com brands were still holding their own identities, but the others were really now distant memories and HomeAway got it's big launch with a SuperBowl ad.

By all measures things are good at HomeAway. Their inquiries are up, I'm told their inquiry per property is up, and the number of homes listed is up. However, as a homeowner, I wondered if they were up for me, since in the past the individual companies that made HomeAway worked.

So here are my top producers for the last 12 months. The numbers are based on revenue generated, not inquiries as I certainly got plenty from all parties.

VRBO 63.5%
FlipKey/TripAdvisor 10.7%
Bettervacationrentals.com 8.9%
Vrconnection 4.6%
Coachella 3.9%
Unknown 3.1%
Craigslist 1.3%
Email Marketing 1.3%
Referral 1.3%
Repeat 1.3%

Keep in mind if we add up Bettervacationrentals, Coachella, Craigslist, Email, Referral, and Repeat we get 17% of revenue generated by efforts under my own control. I truly wish that number were much higher as advertising costs have become out of hand for VRBO because of their charges for photos (which are what sells a listing).

Interestingly 37% of my inquiries were from VRBO, whilst 50% of my bookings were. That's a high quality lead. Ironically, I don't like the payment and listing priority model of VRBO, nor their stiff arm management, but that's another blog post. FlipKey/TripAdvisor for whom I have so much hope yielded 19% of inquiries but only 13% of bookings which means they are a lower quality lead. I noticed that even though my calendars are up to date on both, I received more inquiries via TripAdvisor for dates that were already booked.

How is it, though, that there was not 1 single booking sourced from HomeAway? This is the biggest vacation rental listing site in the world! I received at least 30 inquiries from HomeAway guests in the last 12 months. I should have statistically booked 3 stays if they were an average inquiry source. How can the biggest vacation rental listing site underperform so badly? Is it all just hype? Bad luck? A poor presentation of my property? The wrong customer base?

Finally, should I renew my listing with HomeAway?

Would love to hear. Please weigh in.

Tax Reporting Burden Buried in Health Care Reform Impacts Vacation Rental Owners

2/11/11 STATUS UPDATE: According to Accounting Today in the 2/2 issue:
"Senate votes to repeal 1099 reporting requirement
The Senate has approved a measure that would repeal the expanded Form 1099 reporting requirements that were part of last year's health care law. The move has broad support because the Form 1099 rules, which are set to require businesses to report any purchases of more than $600 of goods and services from vendors in a year to the Internal Revenue Service, are expected to increase accounting costs for small businesses. The AICPA supports repeal of the expanded Form 1099 reporting requirements; however, it has asked the Treasury Department for guidance on several pressing issues if the rules are not repealed."

Vacation Rental Owners and Property Managers who pay for goods with cash or checks now have an extra IRS reporting burden in 2011. Our solution: use credit cards for every purchase possible. Unfortunately, we all know that using a credit card is not always possible and often can cost us more as cash prices are often lower because the retailer saves the processing fee.

You should already be issuing 1099s for service providers that are not corporations. Keeping good records and saving receipts just got more important, all at a time when our costs are going up, rentals are still soft, and rates have come down from historical highs...

For an excellent review and explanation of the changes visit HomeAway's Community forum.

Super Bowl Ad Brings Vacation Rentals to Hotel Guests

Did you catch it? Super Bowl 44, 3rd Quarter, 2nd "time out" aka commercial: The Griswolds visited "Hotel Hell" and America was introduced to vacation rentals as a lodging alternative to hotels, at a cost of 50% less than those hotels.




Funny thing is, the HomeAway Video has started to spurn other videos...could vacation rental videos go viral?

Here's a Super Bowl Vacation Rental Ad from the kids of Second Porch's founder:




Here's an ad from VacationRental.org - funny, says banned from the Super Bowl.


Here Escapia, a leading vacation rental management system provide, starts to address what "mainstreaming" of vacation rentals might mean to the professional manager (and owners):
Escapia Blog - Vacation Rental News and Trends: Super Bowl Vacation Rentals

So what do you think? Will guests leave their tiny over priced hotel rooms and flock to vacation rentals? Will these same guests be willing to change their own lightbulbs or empty the trash? What's the best way to position vacation rentals to hotel guests? After all only approximately 10% of US travelers have stayed in vacation rentals in the last year surveyed.(Source PhocuWright)