Open approach to new Tech
“Companies will have more of an open approach to connecting via API, allowing service and product partners to connect to any platform. This will enable property managers to utilize a “best of breed” policy to run their business. They will be able to pick & choose the services that best fit their needs and all of these will be connected to each other with full data synchronization. There have been some early adopters, so as far as vacation rental industry predictions go, I think it will become more mainstream in 2019.
More fragmentation in 2019
“For 2019, I believe we are going to see further fragmentation, meaning more small property managers will emerge, since there are hardly any entry barriers, which will have an effect on the margins we are able to achieve. The OTA’s will continue to become stronger and will dominate the distribution of the product and therefore it is going to be harder to build a meaningful brand and they will drive the margin compression further. This will result in unbundling of the services, provided to hosts. Meaning, we will see the property managers starting to offer a ‘Chinese Menu’ to their owners, where they can pick what kind of services they want to buy: from marketing and distribution to cleaning and maintenance, from payment collection to guest communication and guest services. A standard commission will be a metric of the past!”
More fragmentation in 2019
“For 2019, I believe we are going to see further fragmentation, meaning more small property managers will emerge, since there are hardly any entry barriers, which will have an effect on the margins we are able to achieve. The OTA’s will continue to become stronger and will dominate the distribution of the product and therefore it is going to be harder to build a meaningful brand and they will drive the margin compression further. This will result in unbundling of the services, provided to hosts. Meaning, we will see the property managers starting to offer a ‘Chinese Menu’ to their owners, where they can pick what kind of services they want to buy: from marketing and distribution to cleaning and maintenance, from payment collection to guest communication and guest services. A standard commission will be a metric of the past!”
No Quality, No Sales
“(High) Quality is the main trend I see for the next year and I think it is
important to define what Quality actually means:
-Quality as property settings: great pictures, clear description, ‘right’
policies
-Quality as competitive pricing and availability: prices and restrictions
need to follow seasonality and customer trends. More competitive prices and
fewer restrictions lead to more visibility and more sales
-Quality as an online experience: it is important to provide as much
information as possible to our customers and to skip irrelevant info: “put yourself in your customer’s shoes!”
-Quality as an offline experience: check-in, key handling, cleaning, positive surprises are all important features to delight the customer during the stay
To be able to deliver great quality, it is super important to introduce processes and technologies that will decrease the amount of time spent on operations!”
Shakeup in Software
“With leadership changes within the leading property management software companies, we are not expecting to see much tech innovation in traditional, all-in-one software solutions in 2019. Instead, the real innovation in the vacation rental industry will come from specialized technology solutions/modules. I believe we will see enterprise-level vacation rental managers begin to move toward plug-and-play modules—instead of relying on all-in-one software—to meet their needs for property care, data/reporting, channel management & merchandising, revenue management, customer relationship management (CRM), customer service, and smart home technology.”
Shakeup in Software
“With leadership changes within the leading property management software companies, we are not expecting to see much tech innovation in traditional, all-in-one software solutions in 2019. Instead, the real innovation in the vacation rental industry will come from specialized technology solutions/modules. I believe we will see enterprise-level vacation rental managers begin to move toward plug-and-play modules—instead of relying on all-in-one software—to meet their needs for property care, data/reporting, channel management & merchandising, revenue management, customer relationship management (CRM), customer service, and smart home technology.”
Smart home and A.I.
“Jump into A.I. and start experimenting with gadgets like Amazon Echo or Google Home, as they are now more present in many homes and we’re beginning to get used to them. In the future, we’ll see more and more tech-enabled and smart homes and more travellers making good use of it.
As a frontrunner, you’ll get more chances to differentiate your business from many others and step up your game a little, at least for 2019; offer services and take advantage of upsells (extra services) as well as making use of something like Echo Spot to offer a pleasant surprise, i.e. personalized welcome check-in calls.”
2019 will be the year of Dynamic Pricing
“Just like the last couple years have seen listing on Airbnb, Booking.com, and HomeAway as table stakes for property managers looking to woo owners. In 2019 having dynamic rates will be equally as essential. With large and growing multi-destination (and multi-national) companies like Vacasa, Wyndham, and Sykes in the U.K entering new markets with the promise of higher revenue and better technology, the rest of the market will need to make sure they are able to compete with best-in-class websites, distribution, customer service, and dynamic pricing. Oh, and not having an electronic lock will be like not having wifi.”
2019 will be the year of Dynamic Pricing
“Just like the last couple years have seen listing on Airbnb, Booking.com, and HomeAway as table stakes for property managers looking to woo owners. In 2019 having dynamic rates will be equally as essential. With large and growing multi-destination (and multi-national) companies like Vacasa, Wyndham, and Sykes in the U.K entering new markets with the promise of higher revenue and better technology, the rest of the market will need to make sure they are able to compete with best-in-class websites, distribution, customer service, and dynamic pricing. Oh, and not having an electronic lock will be like not having wifi.”
Start the year afresh with an advanced vacation rental software. Manage your properties hassle-free on 60+ listing sites!
