Updated on May 31, 2021
“We Will Literally Go Anywhere.”
This was the title of a recent New York Times article quoting a New Jersey interior designer with four trips on the books for her family this year. She’s not alone. According to Vrbo’s 2021 Trends Report, 82% of families already have travel plans for 2021. With the talk of vaccine passports and a promise of “normalcy” now seemingly within our grasp, millions of travelers are gearing up to go anywhere to escape their all-too-familiar home offices.
We as short-term rental operators can go anywhere, too. STRs largely remained the singular bright spot in the tourism black hole of 2020, welcoming self-isolators, quarantines, remote workers, and countless others who might not otherwise have considered private accommodations. This year, many of them and others are turning to our properties in droves for both continued social distancing and the opportunity to make up for family gatherings lost to the pandemic.
That means now is our time not just to survive but to shine. Consider this season the one to put the nail in the coffin on the term “alternative accommodations” and forever cement STRs in our rightful seat at the table of sustainable tourism.
✔️ Win repeat guests by providing an extra something special to their stay to make up for missed vacations last year. See the full NYT story for ideas.
✔️ Get nothing but great guests by implementing our checklist to catch red flags prior to booking.
✔️ Make sure your pricing is on point for your market’s demand. Grab a free demo with Key Data, provider of real-time vacation rental data analytics and a Rent Responsibly Founding Partner. (Learn more about them below!)
Oh, the places we’ll go
Please join us as we welcome Abbi Booth to our team as our new Chapter Manager! Abbi will help local alliances get set up and navigate their journey to becoming a self-sustaining organization.
Before joining the Rent Responsibly team, Abbi served as the Executive Director of ACES: The Society for Editing and Program Manager at the Society for Professional Journalists. Abbi’s background in association management sparked her passion for helping volunteers come together to achieve their goals.
Abbi is a native Hoosier who relocated to the Lake Tahoe area. Outside of work, she enjoys hiking and traveling with her husband, spending time with her two dogs and cat, cooking, and, of course, some good red wine.
Onward and upward,
David Krauss & Alexa Nota
Co-Founders, Rent Responsibly
News You Can Use
Trend Report: What a year of vacation daydreaming and pandemic-era habits will mean for travel
Travel is healing – and by that we mean two things. 1. The travel industry is healing following a previously unthinkable global shutdown. And 2. Its recovery is due in large part to travel’s healing nature, especially for those who missed treasured time with others to grieve or celebrate or simply be together.
In Vrbo’s 2021 Trends Report, we’re starting to see exactly what that will mean for STRs:
- Flexcations, or longer trips that mix work and play, could be here to stay.
- No more wasted vacation days: travelers are ready to spend more, travel more often, and take their bucket list trips.
- Top destination of choice: space – space to reunite with family, keep a social distance, and get out into nature.
On the Record: Freedom of Information Act and Sunshine Law Requests
As more cities and states seek to regulate short-term rentals, the debate over proposed ordinances can sometimes center on perceptions rather than facts. Those seeking to separate perception from reality will likely need to obtain local data and governmental records to get a clearer picture of what’s actually going on. You can seek this information yourself with a public records request, also known as a Sunshine Law or Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.
Checklist: Catch Red Flags and Prevent Problematic Guests
As STR operators, it’s our responsibility to make sure our guests are nothing but great neighbors. The good news: knowing the red flags can greatly reduce your risk of inadvertently accepting a questionable booking.
Data for the Win
One of the most-requested things needed at every stage of a community building effort is accurate, reliable, and detailed data. So, it was a no-brainer for us to ask data experts and long-time advocates of the short-term rental industry Key Data Dashboard to join the Rent Responsibly team as a Founding Partner.
And we are honored they did. Key Data is the world’s #1 trusted data source for vacation rental data and analytics. Through direct integrations with over 50+ property management systems for vacation rental professionals, resorts and hotels around the world, Key Data aggregates historical and forward-looking data in real time to create the industry’s leading analytics dashboards for professional vacation rental managers and tourism organizations.
This newsletter is powered by our Founding Partners
