The future of Vacation Rental with Matt Landau of VRMB

We've made it 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 PODC podcast. If you are watching on the YouTube, please make sure that you hit that subscribe button. If you are listening on Apple, please just go in again download and subscribe to these podcasts. I will be back very, very soon with with season nine. I've got some ideas on what I want to do. I've got some really cool thought processes sort of running around and some ideas machine. But for now this is the finale of the the Boost hospitality podcast season eight. Mr. Matt Landau, please do listen. And as I have done with every single episode of this season, I just want to thank our podcast so sponsors which is hostfully, hostfully you get cool digital guidebooks that you can wow your guests before they arrive. For them to arrive to get that little laminate that's on the kitchen table, you can actually send it in beforehand. It's on their phone, it's on their tablet, it's on their computer. And before you go, before you leave me go sign up to the book Direct Membership. If you like what I talk about, if you like the advice that I give, then the book Direct Membership is the next step. You get social media content provided for you every single month. Over 30 fresh pieces of content on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. You get tutorial videos by the dozens on how to create Facebook, how to do well on Instagram, how to do well on Twitter, how to make booking.com work for you, email marketing and so so much more. And you also get listed on bookdirectmap.com so please do go and check that all out. It is only nine pounds and 99 pence a month. In fact, by the time that you'll probably listen to it, it's getting very soon that price is going to to jump up. So please do and do, please do go and join before the price increase. We give you a full money back guarantee. I guarantee your return of your investment in new direct bookings or I'll give you all of your money back. So on the back of that blatant plug and that blatant pitch, I just want to say thank you for tuning in. Thank you for listening. If this is your first time listening, you've got a lot of episodes to go back on. Enjoy this wide ranging conversation with Matt Landau. Have a great day. Listen to this advice, make notes on what you're going to do and most importantly, put it into practice.

Well, I am at the moment in Maryland on their Eastern shore, specifically the Chesapeake Bay. And if you hear a low hum in the background, it's because the pool men are officially de winterizing the pool for the summertime. Very excited about that. This is my parents home. I'm actually based in New Orleans, Louisiana. Started to sense the direction that that city was heading with the crisis. Decided to take this chance to come up and be with my family. Not unlike you, Mark. It's been two plus months now living with my family, but it has been a lovely time indeed. I have my own space just above the garage so I can do my work and not go too crazy. In terms of vacation rentals, I purchased my vacation rental business in 2007 in the historic district of Casco Viejo, Panama. This is Panama, the country, not Panama, Florida. A lot of people think that you could drive there, but it would actually take a long time and a passport.

What age were you when you traveled down to Panama to open up the.

Property one year after graduation, which was in 2005. That means I would have been 21, 21, 22.

So if you could go back to.

Young 22 year old self. Idiot.

Yeah. If you could go back now to that 21, 22 year old self and if you, if you could sort of give that person that one bit of advice. Seeing that 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 and achieved since then. 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.

So most people, when they would follow the vacation rental road, they may start up in their local town of a local city or maybe even the county. You went to a whole other country. What was the thinking behind that?

Yeah, 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 rooted in the legal situation. Because as vacation rentals have emerged over the last few years, certain destinations have become way less friendly than others. And what I wouldn't want to see is somebody investing a bunch of time and energy and money into a vacation rental business only to learn that vacation rentals are illegal in that destination or that they're standing on shaky ground.

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 their operations. But do not become dependent on them.

For everybody who wants to go. You know what? I like the sound of this Matt Landau fellow. Where can I go and get more of your podcast? Where's the best place and what's the name of it?

Or they're like, God, I've had enough of this guy. I want to hear anything. I'm going to avoid the Unlocked podcast. You can hear it on all the platforms. Just type in Unlocked by Matt Landau. I sit down with industry luminaries, people that I really respect almost all of Them are managers themselves talking about what they are doing to get through this crisis. It's a special season, important time, and we're launching season five in about three, three or four days next Wednesday.

And the blog you mentioned about the PMS and the full assessment and where people can go in and choose their preferences, how can they find that?

Yeah, head on over to VRMB.com blog. You'll see a couple things. You'll see a post part of a new series that we're publishing. Like right now, I just published part one, I'm getting ready to publish part two. It is analysis of our property management software data. 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 and anytime soon. So any of the softwares that were mentioned in our Keystone Awards were basically vetted across the board. Are fantastic softwares. Be patient with these softwares. None of them are perfect. I can tell you that for a fact. Be patient with the fact that they're all young companies. So if they're not getting back to your customer service requests immediately, chill out. These are all small companies that are desperately trying to grow with the demand and some of them are doing better in that capacity than others. But really do take your time in selecting the right one and one that you can grow with. That's actually a great bit of advice that I would have given myself my 21 year old self.

So let's talk about Will, Mr. Will Slickers. Like I said, he was our mutual connection. He's the one who put us in touch. I said, what question would you ask Mr. Matt Landau? So I've got his question right here for you. 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. Maybe that has some positive side effects, but more often than not in our space, I've noticed that it has some downsides. And let me elaborate on that. Sykes Cottages, a company on your side of the world that I have seen in the headlines of late. I don't know exactly how many properties they manage. I know it's a lot in the tens of Thousands, I think. But they're certainly not the Marriott. They're certainly not a company of that size. But because they are perceived to be a big company, that's why they were in the news. For all these people ripping on them for not refunding their businesses. And we know that running small businesses refunding guests was ridiculous. Like, if you had clear cancellation policy and you felt strongly you were in a fair position to keep that money, if you had refunded all the money, maybe you would go out of business. So it was a survival technique. Maybe you just felt like it was the right thing to do. That is your prerogative. 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.

Now, you mentioned about companies, big companies that have made the wrong decisions in 2020 and all of this. And I want to move on to Airbnb. So what have your thoughts on how Airbnb have acted and how do you think Airbnb will look this time in 2021?

The message I've been preaching now for five years at conferences is one of listing site non dependents. I don't use the word independence because we've seen that people actually need to use those listing sites in their marketing portfolio to propel themselves forward. That if you can carry an OTA booking into a repeat guest, all you need to do is begin filling up the calendar and you will have reached something of a sweet spot. The dependency on an OTA has become exploited right now. If you didn't get paid by Airbnb, if they universally, across the board, decided to refund guests, and that was at your cost, that hurts. And Airbnb likes to use the phrase partnership a lot. This is a partnership. We're in this together. I think people need to get over the fact that it's not really a partnership. With that kind of behavior, if you think of it like a romantic partnership, your spouse, if somebody does something like that to violate your trust, that's a serious problem. You got to have serious conversations about that. You don't just sweeping under the rug. So I think that this is a Big reminder for folks that maybe these large organizations don't have their singular best interest at heart. It's not to say that you should completely cut the cord, but you should use it as a reminder. Back to the very first day I started sharing listing site non dependents. The presentation began with a hypothetical question, what happens if, if your top listing site disappears tomorrow? And it was always a theoretical question like what if?

Now, before we move on to the quick fire questions, I just wanted to quickly mention about Cottage Industry 3.0. Now, we're not going to go into it in too much detail because on Tuesday, so Tuesday coming up, you're going to be premiering this at the vrma. So if you could just very quickly just give us a little tease of what, what it is without going to too much detail and then just quickly mention what is the vma, what is happening on Tuesday and how can people find out a little bit more information about that, please?

Cool. I don't know exactly where they go to sign up. I'm sure we can find the link. The VRMA is Vacation Rental Management association based in Washington D.C. here they have a European chapter as well. It's the biggest, most organized industry association that we've got. We all stand behind them, support them in any way that we can. This coming Tuesday, I'll be opening their spring summit. Virtually was supposed to be in Chicago, but of course that's not happening, so we're doing it remotely. I'm going to wear my shorts. It's going to be the first time I've ever worn shorts. Giving a keynote and looking forward to that. Cottage Industry 3.0 has been a slow hunch, mine now for several years. It is a bold vision for the future of hospitality with vacation rentals perfectly positioned to win. So the original cottage industry, this took place in England back in the early 1800s, was comprised of individual cottagers out of their own cottage, creating specialty items. Maybe it was a textile, maybe it was a watch, maybe it was a shoe. Most of these cottagers had jobs in the field. So this was actually something that they did on the side because they really enjoyed it. To bring them in additional money, they could do it from the comfort of their own home on their own clock. And they got to stamp each item with their own little touch of personality. This was the beauty of, of the cottage industry. Of course. Eventually the machines came around and a group known as the Luddites began attempting to tear those machines down. They tried burning the factories, they killed the machine loom owners, but that didn't work. In the end, the industrial revolution made all of the cottagers obsolete. So if you fast forward over the years, there has been kind of a brewing movement of small batch businesses, artisanal companies who are doing things not unlike the cottagers. I'm bringing it up today to Cottage Industry 3.0 now, which really brings in the most beautiful aspects of the original cottage industry. The individuality, your own definition of success, doing things on your own clock. All the best parts of what those original cottagers had, but turbocharged with technology that our ants that these predecessors never could have ever imagined. And this goes back to our point earlier that we have more tools at our disposal right now to promote our vacation rental businesses than has ever existed. So we must utilize all of them possible to get where we want to go. So the cottage industry is just this new kind of way of thinking about the future. My hope is that it can act as a magnetic north for everybody who's listening to say to themselves, yeah, that is what I represent, that is what I want to achieve. And when we have a gigantic group of diverse vacation rental managers all around the world who want one core thing the same, that's when the community really begins to take shape. That's when we can all start singing as a unified voice. So my hope is that cottage industry at this very unique time brings that to all of us in a way.

Nice. Well, good luck with it. I'm looking forward to finding out more. I think I found the website for VRMA. If you go to vrma.org and right at the very, very top there is a banner which is talking about the Virtual Summit, which is happening. So this is Tuesday, 1679, 20th, 20th.

I think it's the 19th, but it lasts three weeks, I think. I think there's speeches and learning experiences for three weeks long, if I'm not mistaken.

It's been so inspiring to see so many events that are obviously conferences, which are in person, how they've pivoted online and there's been so many cool ones. Elaine Watt from the HLS podcast, she's just coming off the back of a free day virtual conference, which has been, which has been fantastic. We've got Damien Sheridan who's got a book direct show coming up in Barcelona in, in September, which is going to be online as well. So, yeah, it's been, it's been super cool to see that. So I just want to say thank you so much for doing this, really appreciate your time. And you know, I think so many people that have been able to discover you from. Obviously, my audience is heavily uk, Europe, Australia. We've got a smattering of around, around the USA and Canada. But I want to say thank you very much for doing that. But before we let you go, as I do with every guest, we're going to finish with some quick fire questions. So, Mr. Matt Landau, are you ready for your quick fire questions?

I'm so ready. I was born for this. All right.

We go. All right, the first, first one. First one. First one. If you could be on lockdown with one celebrity or one famous figure, this could be dead 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.

You've got the next best thing just right there with you. I like that. You're the first one to say Larry David. I like that. Okay, so these are obviously for everybody who's tuning in for the first time. These are quarantines that are locked down. Quick fire questions. Next one. And I'm intrigued at this, this next question. So obviously you're a busy guy when it's when we're not all on lockdown and you're traveling around and whatnot. What is on your Netflix or maybe on, you know, the Catch Up TV or an Apple or whatever. What's TV series or movie have you had on there to watch list for a while now or is there anyone that you've recently watched that you could recommend? That's not Tiger King.

I've got two no Tiger Fuck Tiger King. I'm Wild poop. I'm currently in the middle of Chapo. That's the story about Chapo Guzman, the drug czar. And I like that one a lot. It's a couple seasons long. It's a little gory at times for me, but it's helping me keep my Spanish going because since I left Panama, I haven't been able to be speaking Spanish nearly as much as I would like to. I've also got a great recommendation on on Amazon prime is a show called Secession. Probably the best show about business that I've ever seen. Saying it's about business is a bit of a stretch. It's very much drama, but it's really great. Two seasons I watched that entire thing in like a week.

Two brand new recommendations. So again, we'll be checking them out and they will be on the show. Notes. And again, those of you that are watching live, even on the replay. Put yours in the comments, whether it's on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Instagram, TikTok, wherever. Just pop them in the comments and let us know what you've been watching. Next one. We've got two. We've got three more after this. So what is the one thing that you've missed the most since being on lockdown? 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. I would also say underneath the travel umbrella food, I have been cooking for my family pretty much every night. I love to cook, but I'm really missing some of my favorite dishes from my favorite restaurants, both in New Orleans and just throughout the world. So I. I would say I'm going to go on a tour and begin supporting those restaurants as soon as it's okay to do so.

Yeah, 100%. I know from previous experience there's some good food to be eaten in New Orleans, so do definitely match that recommendation of food. Next one. In the last year, last 12 months, what has been your favorite purchase under $100?

I purchased a exercise ball. You know, like the big one that you do abs with. I purchased that when I read. Well, actually, it was a friend who initially turned me onto it, but I purchased one for my house for back posture. And the first few times when you're sitting on it working, it's uncomfortable and you get like kinks in your back. But that's kind of an indicator that you have a weak core once you start sitting on it regularly. And you really are challenged to keep your back upright so long as you position your computer at eye height. It has helped with my posture. I've even got people commenting that my posture is better without even telling them about the ball. So I have to give credit where credit's due there.

As soon as anybody says posture, you instantly decide it up. You know, when anybody talks about it and it's a. Yeah, I think, yeah. Now my Instagram ads. And I don't know why, I don't know if because my phone's listening to me or what. But again, my Instagram ads are. Now if you got bad posture and I'm just like, hang on a second. What is going on?

You see me and it's like that little white thing that they put on the back. Yeah, I think Mine's got me on that too.

We've got the same ads targeting us. Okay, so obviously apart from the Boostly podcast and your own Unlocked podcast, is there any other podcast that you like to, to listen to? Have you got any favorites? So when you're traveling that you like.

To listen to, you can recommend my shout out to my vacation rental peeps, Heather Bayer Vacation Rental Formula. It's a fantastic podcast. Heather has been doing the podcast thing longer than everybody probably combined. Yes, she's amazing. Sarah and T, two very advanced property managers here in the United States. They, they interview lots of other managers and they've got a really nice pulse on that. Outside of vacation rentals, I like a podcast called Reply all, which does these little stories about completely random things that you get so obsessed with and by the end of the podcast you feel like you've been on a journey with them. And Conan o', Brien, that's the one that I listened to for, for laughs. And actually this coming season of the Unlocked podcast, we've stolen a few of the features that I've always admired about Conan and tried to weave them into our own. So some inspiration there too.

I like that and a good answer. Yeah, Gimlet Media. I'm a big fan of what they do. Reply all. And they've got startup and so, so many cool, cool stuff that they've got going on there. Final, final one, and this is the final question, and then we will wrap this up. 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? And it can only be one, which I know is hard because I can feel it running through your brain. All of the ones, all of the suggestions.

Okay, this is going to 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 going to 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. 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 travel sphere.

I think. I am so glad that we got you as the final guest on this season. We've got 44 episodes of season eight and that is by far the best answer we have had to that question. So thank you very, very much. A big shout out to Vicky Price. I know that she is watching. She put a post up in the hospitality community, I believe it was last Thursday and she had done just that. She had gone a little bit further. She managed to get these little cards, like a mini postcard printed up, delivered to her. And she was going through the process of just writing to previous guests, sending like 10, 20 a day. Gone through the records and it's, it's such a nice, nice feeling. And again, the best time to send it is now because everyone's on lockdown, everyone's in their house, they're going to get it. And it's such a nice, nice thing to get through the post.

I just heard somebody who turbocharged this idea. They were on the beach, they made their handwritten notes, they put it in the envelope and then they included a shell that they collected from the beach. Oh, no, sorry. A piece of beach glass. That's what it was. That made for what we call lumpy mail. Lumpy mail, which is to say it's not just a flat little envelope that they're going to throw out with all the other junk. There's something in there, they're tempted to open it. They open it, they see the special sea glass that they remember from their stay with you.

They.

It didn't cost you anything other than a walk on the bay and maybe breaking some laws, who knows? And it really works. It just endears you to those guests and it forms meaningful relationships. That's what it's all about.

My tip, if you want to get an envelope opened, send a bright colored one. Don't send a plain white one that look, like Matt says, looks like a bill. They will just get messed up with everything else. If you're going to send one, send a bright colored one that stands out and, yeah, 100%. And again, if you can put a little bit of lumpy maleness into it, even better. Matt, thank you. Thank you so much, buddy, for doing this. Really, really appreciate it. Anybody wants to go find out more about. You want to go find out more about the business? Where, where, where's the best place to go? This is your time to pitch. Let's do a Little mini pitch. Where's the best place to go?

I got one place, VR and b dot com. That's my home online. I'm on social media, I'm on Twitter. I think it's themat Landau. Now that I'm second guessing my Twitter handle, I think it's the Mattlandow. I'm on Twitter, I'm on LinkedIn. But other than that, my website, my blog, that's where I'm at. And people who follow my newsletter know that if they reply to anything, I read every single email and I respond. So that's a simple way to get in touch.

It's a good email. It's a good email. I get that email. I'm a big fan of it. I like the stuff you do.

Yeah, you respond quite often. I appreciate that.

I'm a responder. I like to respond to an email. So. All right buddy, I'm gonna, I'm gonna let you go. I just want to say thank you so much for doing this and I just want to say thank you to everybody who is, who has tuned in tonight and this series. It means so much and I recognize the voices, I recognize the, the people commenting, I recognize the faces. Everybody that is, is in, is in the live right now. I know those that have been here every single night with me. This is the last one, this is going to be the last one for a while. I think people are fed up of my face right now. So I'm going to, I'm going to let you all go and basically go back to normality. But I'm not disappearing fully in next week on the 20th of May, I'm starting Project Kickstart, a free, totally free five day training challenge that I'm going to help everybody get their businesses, hospitality businesses kick started for the back of this COVID 19. And when the world goes back to some form of normality, I'm going to show everybody how to get going with email. I'm going to show everybody how to create an online gift card. I'm going to show everybody the true power of Facebook and we're all going to do it within five days. So if you want to find out more, just go to booster.co.uk kickstart if you are tuning into this after the 29th of May, I'm afraid you've missed it. But for everybody that is listening to beforehand, please do come and get involved. If you want to find out more about the show, notes from this episode and from every other one from this podcast, all you need to do is go to booster.co.uk podcast. This is season eight. If this is the first time you are ever listening to me or watching me, then you've got seven more seasons that you can go and check out over 100 episodes. So thank you very much and please do share this video. Please do tell everybody about it. But for the meantime, we're going to have the season leave us with another.