Latest / Host Planet: Airbnb, Holiday Let, and Vacation Rental Insights / Mastering OTA Strategies for Direct Bookings and Brand Growth

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Mastering OTA Strategies for Direct Bookings and Brand Growth · Host Planet: Airbnb, Holiday Let, and Vacation Rental Insights

• 0:00
  When you put your properties up on Tuesday, you'll have a
• 0:01
  Bentley by Friday. They're not looking at customer
• 0:04
  service, they're not looking at building a sustainable brand.
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  They're just looking to drive revenue and those are the people
• 0:09
  that have muddied the waters for people's understanding of what
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  this industry can be and should be.
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  How do you create a smart OTA distribution strategy?
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  Should property managers focus on revenue or building their
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  brand? And what are the common mistakes
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  scaling vacation rental businesses are making on a day,
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  daily basis? Annie Holcomb has 30 years of
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  STR experience to share, and she's the special guest on
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  today's Host Planet podcast. Annie, thank you for joining us
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  on the Host Planet podcast. How do you create a smart OTA
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  distribution strategy? Oh my gosh.
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  So I the first thing is setting goals is understanding what you
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  want out of your distribution. I think that there's a, there's
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  multiple directions that people go, want to go to.
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  And So what I talked to people about is really what are your,
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  what are your core goals? If it's just revenue, then like
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  let's just put you out everywhere and drive revenue.
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  If it's about building your brand, then you want to work
• 1:12
  with channels that'll help build your brand.
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  If it's about, you know, trying to get more, more units on your
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  plans or your business development from the owner side,
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  there are channels that make sense to do that as well.
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  You know, a lot of owners are going to say, I've got to be on
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  VRB, I've got to be on Airbnb. And they're saying that solely
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  from the standpoint of like, that's what they hear.
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  But there's also a sense in the Americas at least.
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  And I think it's, it's getting, it's, it's spreading globally is
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  Marriott homes and villas. A lot of the people that own
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  properties are Marriott Bombay members.
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  And so for them it's prestige of being on that Channel.
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  So if you can get your properties on those channels, a
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  lot of time that'll kind of be a business development tool for
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  you. So I really think, again, I'd
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  like to sit down with people and understand what are their goals
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  and then we can kind of create that menu of offerings for them
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  for distribution from there. You mentioned there and some
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  people they want to chase the revenue, some people they want
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  to build their brand. Can you do both?
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  And is it important to build your brand even if your goal is
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  just revenue, revenue, revenue? Absolutely.
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  But I think what we've seen since COVID is this sense of,
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  and I, I joke about it a lot on LinkedIn is the sense of
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  building this Airbnb empire that you know, you can make
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  $1,000,000 and they're selling you these packages of how you
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  can put your properties out there, make $1,000,000.
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  And Alex and I joke about it on our podcast is that, you know,
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  you put your properties up on Tuesday, you'll have a Bentley
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  by Friday. And a lot of these people are
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  rental arbitraging or they're, they're really just solely
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  looking out for the bottom line. They're not looking at customer
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  service, they're not looking at building a sustainable brand.
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  They're just looking driver revenue.
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  So I don't think that the two are mutually exclusive.
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  I think that they should go together.
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  But I do think that there's a subset of people in the industry
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  that are solely focused on driving revenue and not really
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  concerned. And those are the people that I
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  think I feel like have muddied the waters for people's
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  understanding of what this industry can be and should be.
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  So yeah, I mean, I I think they can work together.
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  I just do think that there are some people that
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  compartmentalize the two. OK, real talk now for all you
• 3:13
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• 3:16
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• 3:20
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• 4:27
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• 4:30
  So next question then, how would you approach adding rentals to a
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  new OTA or listing platform? And maybe the example to use
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  here is booking.com, which over here in Europe and the UK were
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  very familiar with. In the US maybe not so much, but
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  it is growing and trying to get some more traction there.
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  So if you had a client in the US, he says, right, I want to
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  try this thing. Booking.com Where would you
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  start? So again, it goes back to goals,
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  but it also goes back to what's, you know, is the market.
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  Is their market correct for that Channel?
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  Booking does a really great job in all the traditional markets
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  and they're do they do a really good job in the urban market.
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  And I think that, you know, they have a focus on some of the US
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  events in terms of like NBA and MLB.
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  And so they're working a lot within what, you know, US people
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  like to travel to for urban centers.
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  So I was talking to somebody actually this morning who said,
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  oh, I've heard all these horrible stories about
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  booking.com. Like I shouldn't use them.
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  People tell me I shouldn't. And I said, you know, every
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  channel has a Horror Story that you're going to hear from
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  somebody. But what I would say is that I
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  think from my dealings with booking is they've done all the
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  right things to sort of address the concerns of a property
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  manager. They've addressed failed credit
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  cards by offering payments by booking.
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  They've, they've addressed some of this communication with the
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  guest because let's face it, vacation rentals and I don't
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  know a lot about how it is in Europe, but there's rental
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  contracts, there's rental agreements and state by state
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  that that varies based on real estate laws and, and various
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  rules for payment processing and those type of things.
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  So they allow for a request to book, which is something that
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  the RBO is always done. And so I think that they
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  understand the need to customize their offerings in the US more
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  so than some of the other channels have done.
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  So I would caution everybody, if you, if you're looking to try
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  the channel, you know, pick out a couple of pieces of your
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  inventory that maybe are underperforming and see what
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  they can do for you. I have always been of the
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  experience that when you go live with booking, you're generally
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  getting a reservation within 2448 hours.
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  So it, it proves itself out pretty quickly.
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  It's, it is one that you're going to, you know, you might
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  get more than you bargain for in the beginning just because it's
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  different. But I think that overall it's a,
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  it's a great, it's a great lever to have in your toolbox.
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  Going back to branding and marketing then, a common theme,
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  and it's something that we've discussed on this podcast with a
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  few different people, is that with property management
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  businesses, I think particularly here in the UK and probably
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  globally as well, is that often they rely on word of mouth and
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  don't particularly do much from a marketing branding point of
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  view. What's your take?
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  And for property management businesses out there, what are
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  the tactics that you'd be using to help them grow their brand?
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  Well, one, I would get away from this, this thought that your
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  listings need to say, you know, just a 2 bedroom with a pool.
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  I it should be two-bedroom with a pool by ABC Resorts or
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  whatever your company name is. Include your company name
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  wherever you can get away with it.
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  But I would also say, I get this.
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  So more often than I can count is I'll say people say, will
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  you, will you help me with my listings?
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  Will you help me with my brand? Will you help me with my
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  bookings? I'll say, great, send me your
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  website because I always want to see what your website's like and
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  they'll send me a link to Airbnb.
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  Well, that's not your website. That's not a direct.
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  All you're doing is feeding the machine, so to speak.
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  So yes, Airbnb should be part of what you're doing, but you need
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  to have a direct booking website and most of the property
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  management systems out there, especially for smaller host,
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  have a functional, you know, very simplistic website builder
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  that you can utilize. And you should always do that
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  first before you do anything else.
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  Also, you know, make sure you have your, about yourself on
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  your, on your website. I have dared to say there's
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  really nobody that I've encountered that doesn't have a
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  really compelling story or neat story about how they got in the
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  business. It's there's very few people
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  that said, you know, this is a choice I'm making to get into
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  this business and, and, and went about it methodically.
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  It just sort of happened to organically or they inherited a
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  business or, or whatever that people want to connect with
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  that. And that's how it goes back to
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  that conversation of trust. And you build that trust by
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  being authentic and being yourself.
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  And people get to know, oh, these people are in it for the
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  right reasons. They're not in it to get a
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  Bentley by Saturday. Yeah, it's funny, I was having a
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  conversation with the host in Be a Ritz yesterday and one of his
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  tips was, you know, have a personal profile on the OTAs,
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  you know, don't have your company logo or anything like
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  that. Show your face and personalize
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  it because people are going to be more likely to respond well
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  to a person than they would to A to a company.
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  OK then. So you've obviously worn like
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  quite a few hats in your your STA, your career.
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  Talk to us about the Annie and Co, the business that you've
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  launched, and tell us what problems it's going to solve for
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  people. So gosh, my husband and I were
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  talking about that my husband is a is a marketing genius and web
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  designer advertiser. And so he's always thinking
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  like, what is a whole package of something look like?
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  And so when we started this, I chose a name and he kind of went
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  for it and, and created this, this thought of, like I said,
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  you know, this is built for property managers and it's
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  backed by experts. So Annie and Co is Annie me
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  obviously, but the Co is my network.
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  I've spent 30 plus years in the business and I've built out a
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  pretty large network of, of, of friends and collaborators and
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  partnerships that, you know, it might not be right for
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  everybody, but it might be right for just one person.
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  And so I love to be that kind of bridge to introduce people.
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  So Annie and Co will will bridge the gap and help people get
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  connected with the right people, but it'll also allow me to
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  utilize all the, the multiple hats that I've worn in my
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  career. So my, my career's kind of been
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  divided into 3 buckets. Property management.
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  So how to property management company worked at property
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  management companies, did business development, did all
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  the things on the property manager side.
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  Then I worked at OTAs and then I worked in channel management.
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  So the technology aspect of it. So I kind of understand all the
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  pieces of the puzzle. And it was kind of at just
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  numerous friends who were doing various things that said you,
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  you know, you know so much. Why give yourself to just one
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  organization when you can give it to other people?
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  So this is kind of my way of taking everything that I've
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  amassed in my head and sharing it with other people.
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  Who's your ideal clients in your mind?
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  You know, I have kind of two, I think it's those people that are
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  at the, you know, 25 to 50 unit range that want to take it to
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  the next level. So they want to do more
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  distribution, maybe they want to grow their business, but they
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  just haven't done any business development.
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  Because I think, you know, a lot of the people that started in
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  the industry post COVID, they didn't have to go out there and
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  try to find business. There was just people throwing
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  units at them all the time. And then all of a sudden it's
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  like, wait a minute, we need to think about a plan.
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  Do I have I taken on the wrong unit?
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  So trying to help people really kind of right size their
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  business. And then the other part of me
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  that I really want to focus on, and this is kind of become like
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  a side passion of mine is making sure that these new entrance to
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  the space have access to the education and the information
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  that they need to be effective in the business.
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  But also to, you know, to to connect with the right people
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  and know that you know, you, yes, you can go on YouTube and
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  get a lot of pointers, but that's maybe not giving you long
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  lasting a knowledge base to work from.
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  So I want to focus on sort of what in the US there's this big
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  divide of STR versus VR. All vacation rentals are short
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  term rentals, but not all short term rentals are vacation
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  rentals. You know, so it's it kind of I
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  want to work on making that STR more tied together with VR
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  because I think that whatever happens on either side of the
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  business affects the other. You know, if it's happening in a
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  VR market, it's likely going to happen in a short term rental
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  market, which, you know, you could, you could argue that it's
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  kind of urban versus traditional, like destination
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  vacation destinations. But that's that's a piece of the
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  business that I really want to really want to dig my dig, dig
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  in into and work with. So those ideal customers then
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  who are in the 25 to 50 properties range, what are the
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  most common mistakes that those companies are making?
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  I think just not having a plan. I mean, I've actually talked to
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  some other consultants and the number one thing that I heard
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  was a lot of these people don't have a budget.
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  They have no idea what they're spending.
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  And they get so focused on the customer acquisition that they
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  forget about owner acquisition and, and really owner retention
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  and they become scared to have this communication.
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  So I think it's really about setting those goals from the
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  start, knowing what you what you want to be when you grow up, you
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  know, and if you don't want to grow up, that's fine.
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  I mean, some people are very happy with being in that 25 unit
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  range and and don't want to be big, but I think it's just
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  really sitting down and understanding what is it.
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  Again, I was speaking to somebody this week who their
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  business, they kind of fell into it.
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  Friends asked them to manage units.
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  All of a sudden they're managing 20 or so units.
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  They have a little bit of a website, they have a little bit
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  of distribution, but they just don't know what they don't know.
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  And they're seeing that they have got to make a they have to
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  make a decision. Did they want to stay where
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  they're at and be comfortable and, you know, satisfied with
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  day-to-day or do they want to grow and take it to the next
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  level and really build a brand? So I think it, you just really
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  need to define what you want out of this business because
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  there's, there's multiple ways to take it.
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  And I think it's it's success is is is defined by the individual
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  and, and what their, you know, what their wants, needs, wants
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  and wishes are. How much is a How much of a
• 13:52
  killer is churn for property management businesses and how
• 13:57
  can they avoid owning a churn? You know, I think it varies
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  probably by market. This is churn season for the
• 14:06
  traditional like beach markets, they're going into their
• 14:09
  offseason. So if owners didn't have the
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  season that they were hoping that they would have, which I
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  know in a lot of the beach markets, they there's a lot of
• 14:18
  owners that bought post COVID, they bought at the height of the
• 14:21
  real estate market. And so unfortunately, they were
• 14:23
  probably never going to make the money that their realtor sort of
• 14:26
  promised them. So I think that the, you know,
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  turn varies by market, but the ways to avoid turn is, I said
• 14:33
  this to somebody the other day. It was like the ABC, it's like
• 14:35
  always be communicating. So make sure you're always
• 14:38
  talking to your owners. Like don't be afraid to tell,
• 14:40
  give them bad news because if you give them only good news and
• 14:43
  then they find out about the bad news, they feel like you're
• 14:45
  trying to hide something from them.
• 14:47
  And that trust gets eroded. And trust is the biggest.
• 14:50
  I think it's the biggest currency that we have in this
• 14:54
  business. And for those property
• 14:56
  management companies out there who want to grow, they want to
• 14:59
  acquire more owners, what's your advice in that area in in terms
• 15:03
  of acquisition? You know, really make sure that
• 15:07
  again, you're speaking to your existing owners because they're
• 15:09
  going to be a really great tool for you to acquire.
• 15:11
  They they talk to each other. They always have these little
• 15:13
  private Facebook groups or WhatsApp chats or, you know,
• 15:16
  they've got things going on on the side.
• 15:18
  But another thing is really make sure that when you are
• 15:21
  onboarding team members, they understand what your business
• 15:25
  is. They understand the value
• 15:26
  proposition of your brand, of your market and that they're
• 15:30
  always on the lookout for new units.
• 15:32
  I, you know, I think that there's nothing more empowering
• 15:35
  to say to, you know, your housekeeping or maintenance or
• 15:37
  customer service staff like, you know, if you can help us get
• 15:41
  good units like we have good, we're, you know, guard return
• 15:44
  guests, we're going to get good bookings.
• 15:45
  Like it's a, it's a full circle thing.
• 15:46
  So I would say always have your your staff be part of your
• 15:51
  business development arm. Talk to us about AI.
• 15:55
  What questions are you getting from property managers about AI
• 15:58
  and how is it going to change the way that people in STR do
• 16:02
  business? Oh gosh, you know, it's, we were
• 16:04
  just at the women's summit a couple weeks ago and Alex and I
• 16:07
  actually presented about, hey, how AI is kind of already just
• 16:10
  taken over some aspects of it. I think that the great thing
• 16:14
  about it is it's going to help people operationally be more
• 16:17
  efficient. It'll take away some of the
• 16:19
  things, you know, there's, there's probably, you know, 50
• 16:22
  questions that are easily answered by AI that are the same
• 16:25
  questions people have been asking for years and years and
• 16:27
  years. Is this property really on the
• 16:28
  beach? You know, like just things like
• 16:30
  that, that you don't need to have an hourly employee tied up
• 16:33
  doing this way. They can be more customer facing
• 16:36
  and get out there and really do the things that are important.
• 16:38
  So what we're seeing is people utilizing it for reviews.
• 16:43
  You know, in the Enterprise Oregon, the larger operators,
• 16:46
  they are challenged by responding to reviews on, you
• 16:50
  know, Airbnb and VRBO and the other channels.
• 16:52
  And I think that AI is going to be able to step in and it might,
• 16:56
  in my opinion, I think it's going to flip where you'll see
• 16:59
  these charts that say people that have less than 5 units have
• 17:03
  a much higher review score because they are, they're
• 17:05
  responding every single time. And the, the other property
• 17:08
  managers aren't getting to it. I think with the advent of AI,
• 17:11
  they're going to be able to respond and they're going to be
• 17:12
  able to interact with that guest more frequently than they have
• 17:15
  been able to. And it's going to raise those
• 17:17
  scores. I think it'll kind of it'll,
• 17:18
  it'll even it out where these enterprise operators actually
• 17:22
  are going to show that they're really providing the level of
• 17:25
  service is at the same level as a smaller operator.
• 17:28
  But the guest review scores aren't aren't telling that right
• 17:31
  now. Talk to us about podcasts then
• 17:34
  obviously you're well known for being 1/2 of Alex and Annie, the
• 17:39
  the real women of vacation rentals.
• 17:41
  And I'm interested to know how much has the podcast helped you
• 17:45
  from kind of a business development point of view and A
• 17:48
  and a networking point of view. Oh.
• 17:49
  My gosh, it's, it is then something that I could never
• 17:52
  have even imagined just from my personal brand.
• 17:58
  You know, I, I remember start when we started the podcast,
• 18:00
  there was people that from like my, my, you know, working for
• 18:04
  other companies world, I'd try to reach out to these CEO's
• 18:06
  before and never get a response. All of a sudden it was like,
• 18:10
  absolutely, I'll talk to you, you know, like I just had this
• 18:13
  power that I didn't know was coming along with this
• 18:15
  microphone. But it's also taught me a lot
• 18:17
  more about the business. I get to talk about more things
• 18:20
  in the industry and you get to hear different viewpoints.
• 18:22
  And what I what I find that I love about it is that we've been
• 18:26
  able to talk to people from not just the US, we talked to people
• 18:29
  from all over the world. So we get a better view of
• 18:31
  what's happening on day-to-day. And it's not about looking at
• 18:35
  like, you know, what article came out from, you know,
• 18:37
  whichever, you know, outlet or whatever post that somebody's
• 18:42
  making is from more factual. And then hearing the stories of
• 18:45
  the people that are building these businesses.
• 18:47
  And, and I having been a supplier for a really long time,
• 18:50
  I know there's there's been a lot of frustration from the
• 18:53
  supplier standpoint in conferences where it's expensive
• 18:56
  and people feel like they're not getting these operators to come
• 19:00
  to them. And so on the flip side, as an
• 19:02
  operator or they feel like, oh, they're being, you know,
• 19:04
  assaulted, accosted, whatever you just run over by opera by
• 19:08
  these suppliers. But I think just being able to
• 19:11
  see the two sides in that most of these companies that are
• 19:14
  suppliers were built and founded by people that were property
• 19:17
  managers that had a problem and they found a solution and they
• 19:20
  solved it. And I think that that needs to
• 19:21
  be more talked about. And I feel like Alex and I try
• 19:25
  to talk about that pretty frequently, but it's it's just
• 19:27
  open doors that I didn't even know existed and put me at
• 19:30
  tables I didn't know I would ever be able to sit at.
• 19:33
  Fantastic. Yeah, lovely.
• 19:35
  And yeah, yeah, definitely, definitely opens doors and gets
• 19:37
  you the conversations with the with the decision makers, which
• 19:40
  is which is pretty amazing. OK, then just before we get to
• 19:44
  the questions to finish, Annie and Co tell us where people can
• 19:48
  find out more information. Annie and Co solutions.
• 19:51
  It's Annie cosolutions.com or they can e-mail me at Annie at
• 19:56
  annie@anniecodesolutions.com. Sorry, it's a big notfall.
• 20:00
  We will put all that in the show notes and we'll put your
• 20:02
  LinkedIn profile there as well, so people can get in touch with
• 20:05
  you directly. Thank you.
• 20:07
  All right then, a few questions to finish might be tricky
• 20:10
  because of all your connections, but your favorite brand in the
• 20:12
  STR industry? Oh my gosh, that is so hard.
• 20:16
  There's so many of them that are so good in so many ways.
• 20:19
  I would say my favorite one right now is a boat luxury in
• 20:22
  Park City. They've just built a culture it
• 20:26
  within their within their brand that it, you can see it as a as
• 20:31
  a consumer, you can see it as a supplier.
• 20:34
  You can see it when you meet their team.
• 20:35
  I just think that they are really focused on all the right
• 20:38
  things and not trying to be all things to everybody.
• 20:41
  A really great job. And then I would a shout out to
• 20:43
  one other one that is, is, is a totally different type of
• 20:46
  entity. It's Antebellum's cabin rentals
• 20:49
  in Gatlinburg, TN Lauren Madewell and her family.
• 20:53
  It's a family owned business, been around for, you know,
• 20:55
  numbers of years, but they just have, they just have fun with
• 20:58
  what they're doing and they have fun with their guests.
• 21:00
  And if you haven't seen any of their stuff, they do a lot of
• 21:03
  videos on social. They have a, a bear that they
• 21:07
  dress up in and do kind of guest videos about how to use the
• 21:11
  Wi-Fi and how to use the toasters and all the things.
• 21:13
  And they've made it really fun and engaging.
• 21:15
  And so I, I like it when people mix up the way they do business.
• 21:18
  So those would be my 2 shout outs for the moment.
• 21:21
  They're using the toaster. I love it.
• 21:23
  Yes, it's great. I love that an individual in the
• 21:27
  STR industry you'd like to give a shout out to and why.
• 21:30
  Oh gosh, right now my just like hat goes off to tie Anne Marcink
• 21:36
  Hammond. Everybody knows her as the kind
• 21:37
  of the queen of guest experience, but I've known her
• 21:40
  for several years and she's one of the people that sits kind of
• 21:43
  on on my personal board of directors to help me navigate
• 21:46
  things. But I what I love and respect
• 21:48
  about her is that she's always thinking big picture.
• 21:50
  She looks at that, whatever she's doing for her business,
• 21:53
  she thinks like, if I can do it, then other people can do it.
• 21:56
  She wants to share her knowledge and she's doing, I think she's
• 21:58
  doing some stuff with you, like for the FIFA World Cup coming to
• 22:00
  the US. And she just really just jumped
• 22:04
  out and decided to put together an education platform for this
• 22:08
  and is going to build it out and let other destinations utilize
• 22:12
  it. And she got Airbnb involved, she
• 22:13
  got booking.com involved. And this was just solely her
• 22:16
  just networking and trying to do it.
• 22:18
  And I said to her recently, you know, typically you would think
• 22:23
  that something of this magnitude would come from a booking or an
• 22:26
  Airbnb, like one of the channels, but she was the one
• 22:28
  that organized and she's bringing all the people to the
• 22:30
  table. And I just, I just admire her so
• 22:32
  much for all that she does for everybody in the industry.
• 22:35
  Yeah, she's doing an amazing job.
• 22:37
  And yeah, we can't wait for that event.
• 22:38
  We'll be there in Kansas in November.
• 22:40
  So yeah, it should be fantastic. And finally then, biggest lesson
• 22:45
  learned from your STR career? There are no certainties, there
• 22:51
  is absolutely no certainties. And, and I found this very
• 22:54
  evident working with companies in Europe because there's a
• 22:57
  mindset there of how things should be.
• 23:00
  And they'll say, why is it so different?
• 23:02
  And I just because we're Americans, we just like to have
• 23:04
  everything different. So I would just say that, you
• 23:07
  know, go in, go in into every situation with an open mind and
• 23:10
  knowing that what works one place doesn't necessarily work
• 23:13
  another. So it's it's all about being
• 23:16
  agile and flexible and, and knowing that, you know, there
• 23:20
  are just no certainties in vacation rentals.
• 23:23
  Fantastic. And I think that's a good way to
• 23:25
  finish and it has been a real pleasure.
• 23:27
  Good luck with the new business and thanks for joining us on the
• 23:30
  podcast. Thank you for having me.
• 23:32
  Great to chat to Annie Holcomb there.
• 23:33
  Make sure you check out her new business.
• 23:36
  I hope you found that episode useful.
• 23:38
  All right, that's it for today's show.
• 23:39
  Remember, this podcast is brought to you in collaboration
• 23:42
  with House Philly, which is trusted by short term rental
• 23:45
  professionals across the globe. As a House Planet listener, you
• 23:48
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• 23:58
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• 24:03
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• 24:06
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• 24:10
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• 24:14
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• 24:16
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• 24:20
  managers. That's it for today's episode.
• 24:22
  Until next time, happy hosting.