How to become listing site independent

In terms of vacation rentals, I purchased my vacation rental business in 2007 in the historic district of Casco Viejo, Panama.

Final episode season 8:44 episodes in ever since the March 17th, we've been doing daily live videos on Facebook and I wanted to end with a bang. And we've got Mr. Matt Landau joining us. He is the founder of VR&B has been somebody that the audience has asked to get on for some time now. It was really good to speak to him because he is at the peak of his potential visibility. You know, he does TV shows and he's headlining conferences and whatnot. So it's really good to have him on and I'm really looking forward to you to listening to this podcast. What age were you when you traveled down to Panama to open up the.

Property one year after graduation, which was in 2005.

Seeing all the things that you know now, all the things that you've learned over the years, you know, you've everything that you've done since then of achieve since and if you could go back to that 21 and 22 year old self and just give you that one bit of advice, what, what would that be?

I wasn't aware of this at the time, but I think I fell into really good timing and positioning. But follow the vacation rental path. In the early days, it was just getting started. Now, even despite the fact that it has blown up, it's still at the very, very nascent stages. And now is a time if you want to start a small business, if you like the idea of hospitality, if you have access, whether you know somebody, maybe your parents know somebody, maybe you put together a formal business plan and pitch somebody, now is a wonderful time to start a small vacation rental business. Well, this is actually a really good tip for people who are thinking about getting started. Work in a destination that you love. That is the core of vacation in general. You need to really love the place. And if you don't love the destination where your vacation rental is located, you can't communicate that juju to guests. So it lacks the luster in that sense. So step one, make sure it is a destination you really love. You want to share with folks. So in choosing a destination that you really love, that's a great start. But also be firmly, firmly rooted in the legal situation.

Apart from air DNA, is there any that you recommend or use at present?

So I sold my vacation rental business. I am no longer a vacation rental manager as of about 2 and a half years ago. So there's none of the tools in that capacity that I'm using today. But I will say this. We have more tools at our disposal right now than any entrepreneur in history. And whenever I see people complaining about these tools, oh, Airbnb did this. Oh, this company did this. It's like, get over yourself. Use those tools to your best advantage. Know what you are getting yourself into. Utilize the listing sites. They're probably the best gift to startups ever. And plenty of the most sustainable vacation rental businesses have them as part of of their operations, but do not become dependent on them. Choosing the right property management software is probably the biggest choice. You want to make sure that you get it right, that you do your research, and that you don't have to go through that arduous process of switching anytime soon.

So when it really comes down to transparency with the guests and the property manager, what do you think is the most important aspect or feature?

Learning to create businesses. The culture tells us to sell, sell, sell, and win, win, win at all costs. What they don't tell you is that in that process, people inevitably feel like they lost. There's a tendency with small companies to try to act bigger than you really are. The biggest thing that you can do as a small business that has a family, that lives in the area, that has a dog, is share all of that and be open about that and let them know who you are, why you do this. And this has to do both in marketing, how you're presenting your company to begin with, but also in your correspondence with guests, maybe even as a little rationale when you're making your decisions. It's not unprofessional to share a little bit about who you are.

If you could be on lockdown with one celebrity or one famous figure, this could be dead or alive. Who would that be?

I'd say Larry David. He is my absolute favorite comedian slash TV media guy. He reminds me a lot of my father. And I am actually locked down with my father. So I've got the next best thing.

So what is the one thing that you've missed the most since being on lock down? That one thing.

Certainly travel. That's just one of my absolute favorite things to do. And when I can't do it, I get antsy. So I've been like, going on extremely long runs and bicycle rides, and that's like, about the closest that I get to traveling right now.

What is the one piece of advice that you would give to anybody listening now? Any hospitality owner who wants to boost their direct bookings.

Okay, this is gonna sound simple. But I'll bet you'd be surprised at how many people haven't done it. Create a report and calculate your ratio of direct bookings to OTA bookings year upon year, as far back as you can go. Now, most people have this functionality in their pms, but don't always look at it. And most people are constantly just hungry to get more direct bookings, like Cookie Monster. First of all, it's important to calculate and track because if you're not tracking it, there's no way to know that you're doing a good job. If you back date, you will hopefully see that that ratio of direct bookings to OTAs is going up even by a small amount each year. If it is going up year by year, even if a few percentage points, that means that that line, if it continues at that trajectory, it will eventually cross the OTA line in your business and you will officially become non dependent. Keeping an eye on those two curves gives people the effect of a compass. Because you actually have an idea the direction you're going in, and kind of like an odometer, you kind of know how far you need to go in order to reach your goal. That doesn't answer your question in terms of how to get more direct bookings, but I think that's the first part of actually tracking them so that you know actually what you're trying to achieve. And if people haven't done that right now, fantastic opportunity during the lull. Now you begin looking at the ratio of direct to OTAs. You have to look first and foremost at your former guests. Trying to scramble and get new bookings costs more money and time and energy than anything else. The cheapest, quickest, easiest kind of direct booking you're gonna get is from a former guest who has either stayed with you before or who has recommended you to a friend, or who has sent your website to a friend who then inquires, so how do we engage those former guests? Here's a nice little idea that costs nothing and takes a little bit of time in the downtime. Hand write a few notes, hand write a few notes saying, dear Mark, hope all's well in the Simpson household here in Maryland. It's a little bit crazy. We've gotten through the worst of the crisis. We're opening our pool up for the summer. We're really excited to begin the season again. Just wanted to make sure you guys were doing okay. Don't even throw any sales pitches in there. This that single gesture of sending a handwritten note. And Mark, I don't know if you've received a handwritten note from anyone anytime recently. It's amazing. It's like such a special feeling that nobody gets anymore. This is a simple, inexpensive, easy thing that you can do. Reach back out to all of your former guests, write a couple handwritten notes per day, and simply reach out and stay in touch with your email address and your phone number in case they have any questions. I guarantee that investment of several hours over the course of a week or so will generate more direct bookings without even spending any money apart from postage than any other initiative out there. And at the very least, it creates that wonderful bond so that when that person is ready for this day, they come back to you. So it sounds simple, it takes a little bit of time, but this is our chance to go back to basics. Right now, this is Our Cottage Industry 3.0 brought out to an entirely new new travel sphere.