VacationRentPayment increases security with tokenization

April 24th, 2010

usEdited Press Release
Technology & Internet services

VacationRentPayment , a leading electronic payment processor in the vacation rental industry, today announced it has added tokenization capabilities to its existing API, enabling the end-to-end protection of data, such as credit card numbers, in our customers own applications and databases. According to VacationRentPayment, this addition makes it the most secure payment processor in the vacation rental industry, giving customers the ultimate in data protection and peace of mind.

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Elliott Beach Rentals Uses Micro-Sites to Enhance Marketing of Resorts and Condominium Complexes

April 15th, 2010

usEdited Press Release
Operator

Elliott Realty, a full service Vacation Rental and Real Estate company located in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina has announced the recent launch of their sixteenth condo or resort specific website. All of these condominium complexes or resorts featured in these ‘micro-sites’ are located in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and feature vacation rental properties professionally managed by Elliott Beach Rentals. Read the rest of this entry »

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VacationRentalIndustry.com - quick update

April 15th, 2010

Since our coverage of the vacation rental industry is expanding we decided to categorize each post more precisely to improve the reading experience. From now on we will add a flag representing the country the post is talking about and the type of vacation rental business, e.g. whether it’s a vacation rental chain, management, technology, marketing company, etc.

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VRMA’s 2010 reports milestone developments for the industry

April 11th, 2010

Edited Press Release

The vacation rental lodging industry is in for a number of advancements this year, according to the nonprofit Vacation Rental Managers Association (VRMA), which celebrates its 25th anniversary through 2010. In fact, representatives of the organization say there are more tools and resources supporting vacation rental managers than ever before, all aimed to help businesses in this growing category to be more profitable in today’s challenging travel marketplace.

VRMA logo

VRMA logo

Following are examples shared by the VRMA of new developments for vacation rental managers this year, which are detailed on VRMA.com:

FRESH TOPICS AND BEST IN INDUSTRY PRACTICES AT CONFERENCES

The Keynote address at the VRMA’s upcoming Regional Seminars will discuss a hot topic for the vacation rental industry – one that continues to challenge both the hotel and airline industries: the risks and opportunities of distribution through online travel agencies (OTA). This topic is among other new session content planned for this year, including a “Best in Class” panel session to be presented featuring speakers who have been nominated by industry peers.

NEW TOOLS TO LOWER OPERATIONAL COSTS

Wholesale distributor HD Supply Facilities Maintenance has joined forces with the VRMA to help members manage their operational costs, and in the initial six months of the partnership, VRMA members have saved more than $100,000 over HD Supply’s retail prices. The program includes specially negotiated rates for members on HD Supply’s inventory of more than 20,000 maintenance, housekeeping and operational products. Among other benefits, managers are provided with free delivery within two days on most items, to most areas. Through association membership, the VRMA offers opportunities for members to forge relationships with numerous supplier partners in the vacation rental industry.

FREE ACCESS TO LOCAL AND NATIONAL BOOKING TRENDS

Vacation rental managers in 2010 receive a brand new trending benefit from the VRMA: Geo-Analytics for the vacation rental industry. Courtesy of NAVIS Research, LLC, participating companies will receive free monthly reports that detail the sales trends of the nation as a whole, their region of the country, their specific state, as well as tailored local data. NAVIS reports that 14 reservation software companies support the program, automatically enabling members connected to such systems.

PUBLIC RELATIONS LEADS AND RESOURCES

The vacation rental industry’s public awareness initiative, “Discover Vacation Homes,” is open to all members of the VRMA this year, providing the first-ever representation of the industry through a concentrated PR effort. As a result, members receive media leads from the association with the chance to tell their story to journalists and, ultimately, to travelers. The program also provides resources on an ongoing basis to assist members with their individual company PR efforts including “how-to” articles, customizable press releases, new media tools, tips and more.

SUPPORT WITH LOCAL LEGISLATIVE CHALLENGES

The VRMA has formed a Committee to assist members in dealing with legislation changes in their communities. Not only have industry professionals shared their “How To” on recent successes with such challenges, they have assembled a collection of informational tools and resources, and readily volunteer to assist colleagues facing similar issues across North America.

About the Vacation Rental Managers Association - The Vacation Rental Managers Association (VRMA) is a professional trade association for the vacation rental property management industry. Headquartered in Indianapolis, Ind., the VRMA has more than 600 property management and associate members in the United States, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean representing approximately 150,000 vacation rentals, condos and villas.

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HomeAway launches real estate website

April 2nd, 2010

Edited Press Release

Recognizing that buyers and sellers of vacation properties are increasingly looking for specialized information on the rental income potential of prospective homes, HomeAway is launching HomeAway Real Estate. The online marketplace dedicated to buying and selling vacation homes, HomeAway Real Estate offers an extensive database of more than 200,000 vacation and second homes for sale in popular travel destinations, as well as specialized information including vacation home occupancy, rental rates throughout the year, and destination information.

homeawayrealestate.com

homeawayrealestate.com

The Internet plays an increasing role in the purchase of vacation homes, with nearly a third (32 percent) of vacation home buyers first looking online for properties for sale, up from 22 percent in 2008. One out of four (26 percent) vacation home buyers found their home on the Internet, up from 21 percent in 2008.

“With more buyers looking to offset ownership costs with rental income, the HomeAway Real Estate platform uses HomeAway’s extensive knowledge of vacation rentals to help those buyers make better decisions about where to buy,” says Sharples, CEO of HomeAway.

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Barefoot Technologies and Intelsys Announce Data Interface

April 2nd, 2010

Edited Press Release

Barefoot Technologies and Intelsys Inc. are proud to announce a joint venture between their respective companies to establish a ‘data interface’ between Barefoot Technologies Agent 3.0c vacation rental property management software and Intelsys Inc.’s Status Tracker housekeeping management system. This interface will allow clients using both systems to automatically transfer information between the two programs, creating a synergism that will dramatically enhance the capabilities and user experience of both programs.

Barefoot and Intelsys team up

Barefoot and Intelsys team up

“We are thrilled to have the opportunity to transfer information between Status Tracker and Barefoot Agent,” stated Ed Ulmer, Director of Business Development with Barefoot Technologies. “Our clients have been using Status Tracker successfully for quite awhile and had been requesting a way to share information between our two systems. This data interface will allow us to request the current housekeeping status of all properties from Status Tracker and integrate this into the Agent thereby consolidating property status information into one convenient location for non-housekeeping users.”

Barefoot Technologies and Intelsys Inc. Announce Data Interface Between Two Industry Leading Software Programs
The interface will also allow Status Tracker to transparently request a list of properties needing housekeeping attention directly from the Barefoot Agent. Seamlessly identifying these properties will significantly facilitate the housekeeping manager’s ability to automatically create all required housekeeping task assignments with a single button click.

“Providing the connection to systems like Barefoot’s Agent is the first step to integrating Status Tracker with vacation property management systems and will allow us to expand our market exponentially over the next 24 months,” stated Richard Winnick, CTO of Intelsys. “Implementing this information transfer between our two respective programs represents a significant step in facilitating our clients use of both systems.” Winnick further explained that this joint effort also demonstrates the commitment of both companies to creatively consider options and opportunities outside their own companies to provide the best services possible for their clients.

About Barefoot:
Barefoot is a provider of browser-based reservation and asset management systems in the vacation rental industry. It claims of being the first browser system in the industry, the first to provide online booking, tenant, owner access and to offer social media tools and is designed to be tailored to meet clients’ exacting needs.

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HomeAway reveals selected stats and figures

April 2nd, 2010

In a recent article in Travolution by Linda Fox HomeAway’s CEO Brian Sharples reveals updated stats and figures on HomeAway:

  • inquiry growth increased 40% in the past year with 45% of business now coming from Europe.
  • addition of 10,000 - 15,000 new properties to its sites every month
  • HomeAway’s sites account for 470,000 properties. According to Sharples that is approx. a tenth of the properties being rented in the US and Europe

Read the full article at: http://www.travolution.co.uk/articles/2010/03/30/3368/homeaway-to-slow-acquisition-strategy.html

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SaveOnResorts.com partners with LeisureLink’s ABetterStay.com

March 25th, 2010

Edited Press Release

ABetterStay.com, a vacation rental website owned and operated by LeisureLink, today announced that SaveOnResorts.com has joined its affiliate program. SaveOnResorts.com expanded their offering of discounted stays by including ABetterStay.com properties.

abetterstay.com logo

abetterstay.com logo

“SaveOnResorts.com reaches a unique audience of frequent travelers looking for value-priced lodging. Our properties are a perfect fit for that audience, since they offer spacious accommodations, kitchen facilities, and family togetherness at low per-person prices. We expect this to be a valuable partnership for both companies and our respective customers,” said Erik Hovanec, CEO of LeisureLink, Inc, parent company of ABetterStay.com.

“Since we focus on vacation travel, ABetterStay.com is a natural partner for us. Their inventory supports our core mission of providing affordable vacations that are tailored to the individual traveler. We are always looking for ways to broaden resort choices for our customers, and our partnership with ABetterStay.com adds a wide variety of new properties,” said Kevin Schneider, Chief Executive Officer of SaveOnResorts.com.

“We are already hard at work with the SaveOnResorts.com team to add special promotions and packages that will provide real value to their consumers, while bringing new guests to our client properties,” Hovanec concluded.

ABetterStay.com properties went live on SaveOnResorts.com as of March 13, 2010.

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Swiss-based Vacando cooperates with vacation rental aggregator NextPax.com

March 18th, 2010

Edited Press Release

VACANDO, the Swiss-based Online Holiday Home Marketplace owned by Interhome has concluded a cooperation agreement with the Dutch operator NextPax.com. Thanks to this cooperation, VACANDO will be able to increase its offering to more than 100,000 holiday homes around the world. The available range is being greatly expanded in popular destinations such as Scandinavia and Croatia.

Nextpax Logo

Nextpax Logo

In order to fulfil its role as an online holiday accommodation marketplace with the most diverse possible range of accommodation, VACANDO also offers customers holiday accommodation from established agencies like Inter Chalet, Interhome and Sol og Strand. Well-known operators like Dancenter, TUI Ferienhaus and Villa Vacant will now be added to this listed, thanks to the collaboration with NextPax.com, thus increasing the number of holiday homes on offer to more than 100,000. Most striking is the growth in Scandinavia as well as in popular beach destinations in Greece, Croatia and Hungary.

The Dutch operator NextPax.com is bundling the product data from leading European holiday home operators and will update and provide these every day to business partners. At the present time NextPax.com has integrated the offerings from Bungalow.net, Dancenter, Interhome, Topic Travel, TUI Ferienhaus, VipHolidays, Villa Vacant and others into its system. The intention is to integrate more operators, such as Inter Chalet or Muchosol. “By working together with NextPax.com we can save ourselves the trouble of making direct connections with each of the individual operators and so we can offer our customers an even more comprehensive range at minimal expense,” explains Kilian Eyholzer, CEO of VACANDO AG. The holiday homes of the new partners can be booked online via VACANDO from now on.

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Vacation Rental Facebook App Closes $1m Funding

March 17th, 2010

Edited Press Release

Today Second Porch, the vacation rental Facebook app, announced that it has closed a one million dollar Series-A investment, led by the Oregon Angel Fund. The investment will be used to continue the company’s expansion into the vacation home rental and home exchange markets, which are among the fastest growing segments in online consumer travel.

Second Porch seeks to harness two strong trends: the mainstreaming of social networking, and vacation home rentals, one of the fastest growing segments of online travel. Second Porch enables owners and renters to tap into real world relationships in order to rent and trade vacation homes, where trust between owner and guest is of paramount concern on both sides of the transaction.

Second Porch Facebook App

Second Porch Facebook App

Second Porch offers vacation homeowners an easy way to generate and manage high-value rental inquiries. According to the 2009 research report “Vacation Rental Marketplace: Poised for Change” published by travel research firm PhoCusWright Inc., homeowners who rent their own vacation homes reported that 73% of their inquiries come from friends, family, referrals and previous guests.

“Second Porch tackles the unsolved piece of the marketing opportunity for vacation homeowners by bringing an easy to use system to effectively and tastefully market to the best possible source of guests: people you already know and with whom you have some degree of trust”, said Brent Hieggelke, CEO of Second Porch, “The typical Facebook personal network comprised of ‘friends of friends’ reaches almost 17,000 people, all of whom can be vouched for by a friend in common. For a homeowner, this is an obvious opportunity to find prospective guests to rent to with a higher level of comfort and peace of mind. Second Porch also complements sites like HomeAway and VRBO, by giving homeowners the controls to integrate their existing calendars and even link back to their listings on those sites.”

Second Porch comes at an ideal time for the second home market. Due to the recession, many of the estimated 16 million second home owners globally who previously avoided renting or trading are now being forced into the market for an additional source of income. Second Porch provides a perfect entry point for travelers and owners who have hesitated to rent vacation homes due to trust concerns: renters can choose to view only homes owned by friends, and owners can choose to limit visibility to only friends only.

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