HomeAway Insights

Sneaks at the 2013 HomeAway Summit: Mobile and Insider Guides are live!

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Fri, 24 May 2013 15:08:05 GMT

At the HomeAway Summit this past weekend, owners and managers gathered in Scottsdale Arizona to connect, learn, and share with each other and HomeAway employees. We'll be posting the presentations and a wrap up in the coming days.

Brian Sharples held forth on the evolution of the vacation rental industry, and Brent Bellm shared some awesome market research, while HomeAway employees and vacation rental experts shared best practices on topics ranging from social media marketing and online security to new HomeAway products. Everyone made new friends, toasted old ones, networked and kibitzed. There was even an impromptu “ideas” panel pulled together by spirited Summit attendees to generate ideas for enhancements and improvements to HomeAway’s service.

On Saturday, teams of HomeAway engineers and product managers showed off some “fresh from the lab” ideas for products in the Sneaks session. A hybrid of American Idol and a Hackathon, the Sneaks are always a popular session at the summit. The teams pitch their ideas, and the audience votes with their applause to select a winner. Some of these features are live right now so go ahead and give them a spin! (Insider Guides and the iOS Mobile App)

Sneaks are real time market feedback for HomeAway and a chance for owners and managers to influence our roadmap of coming releases. After each demo, the Applause-o-meter was put up on the screen to measure how the audience felt about each team’s efforts. We pay close attention to which sneaks get the most applause - so the audience yelled, stomped their feet, and jumped up and down for their favorite features.

After the 2012 sneaks, four of nine sneaks were released as products – Automating reservations via online booking, Traveller screening via profiles, filtering and searching on VRBO, and the mobile owner app have all made their way out to owners and managers. A fifth sneak, “fighting phishing” is nearing beta, while the others are still over the horizon.

In 2013, two of the sneaks are available today for you to try out. See below if you want to get an Insider Guide on your listing or get our new iOS mobile app (it works for VRBO, HomeAway, and HomeAway UK) that enables you to manage you calendar, inquiries, reply with quotes, and send payment requests.

Here’s the list of 2013 sneaks and presenters:

The VRBO team (Melissa, Paul, and Kirk) showed how the VRBO traveler site optimizes the experience across iPads, Iphones, Android Phones, Android Tablets, and devices of every size and shape
Matt of the HomeAway Traveler team illustrated a way to view the properties that are the most popular with travelers, with HomeAway Leaderboard,
Kate showed how Panoramic 360 photographs (see an example here) enable owners to really show off their properties
Dustin, leader of the HomeAway Traveler Team, created an Insider Guide revealing a new way to market your properties and provide your guests with information for their stay (learn how you can add an Insider Guide here)
Dave from the mobile team showed how owners can manage their inquiries, calendars, and bookings from their iphone. Learn how to get the mobile app here.
Patrick, Tim, and Michael of the social team showed a way for potential guests to learn if they know anyone who has stayed at or reviewed your property, increasing trust for reviews
Jason and Patrick of Glad to Have You showed a vision for how mobile apps and home automation from BeHome247 can make for hassle-free stays and save money
Jacy, product manager for HomeAway owner tools, showed masked email addresses, unlimited templates, and attachments as part of a new Inbox could make your lives easier while helping secure the vacation rental marketplace.

It was too close to call a single winner, so the judges awarded a three-way tie to Panoramas, Home Automation, and the Inbox. It was a great session, and thank you to everyone who participated for all of their hard work, creative ideas, and energetic pitches.

Most of the sneaks were future concepts, fresh from the lab. But two of the products that were sneaks are live today!

If you want to create an Insider Guide like these (standalone guides here: vrbo.com and homeaway.com; and how they appear on listings on vrbo.com and homeaway) simply follow the instructions here for HomeAway owners or these ones for vrbo owners. Or just check out some of the awesome guides below:

Guide to Honokeana Cove in West Maui

Guide to to San Francisco and East Bay

Guide to Ilmington and the surrounding area

Guide to Greater San Diego

And if you want to start managing your VRBO, HomeAway, or HomeAway UK listing from your iPhone, open up itunes, and search on "homeaway vacation rentals" or learn how to get it here. Or if you are reading this on a mobile device, go here.

We hope to see you next year at the summit!

Introducing Insider Guides

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 13:08:29 GMT

Today, we’re very happy to announce the immediate availability of Insider Guides. Launched in partnership with Gogobot, this new, free product enables vacation rental owners and managers to create custom online guides that enable authentic, local experiences for travelers.

Most of us are familiar with the binder of “things to do, nearby restaurants, and helpful information” found in almost every vacation rental in the world. Because owners and managers are familiar with the property and the area, they can save travelers time, point them at the best restaurants, and highlight hard to find “off-the-beaten-path” experiences that really make a vacation rental stay special.

However, the binder approach does have a few drawbacks. They take a lot of work to assemble, usually involving printouts, or menus, or handwritten notes and maps. They are hard to keep up-to-date as new restaurants and attractions open (or close). Your guests can’t see it before they arrive or access it on a smartphone because the guides are not online.

Insider Guides make it easy to build a visually compelling, online guide that is rich with information (like addresses and locations) and enhanced with reviews submitted by one of the most passionate travel communities on the planet: the 2.5 million-strong Gogobot community.

What is an Insider Guide?

There are two key elements to an Insider Guide: The first is a list of points of interest (POI) on your VRBO.com or HomeAway.com listing. These POIs have thumbnail photos, distance to your property, and your star ratings and reviews. All POIs are displayed on your map creating a quick and easy way for you to market your property and the activities, attractions, and restaurants around it. This is designed to entice travelers with exciting and fun attractions and search engines with SEO-friendly reviews. See the screenshot below to see how POIs appear on your listing or visit a listing on VRBO.com or HomeAway.com.

The second is the Insider Guide itself. On this page, there is more information about each place (the address, for example), larger photos, and more interactive and social features. This guide is designed for the traveler to use when planning their stay or while they are on vacation.

Travelers can view the Insider Guide on a mobile device, tablet or PC, or download it into the Gogobot iOS™ or Android™ smartphone app. There are map views, a print view (very handy for your binder!), and options for travelers to create their own trip plan or share it with friends or fellow travelers.

The screenshots below show the various views of the Insider Guide or see an example of one here <link>

List View:

Map View:

Mobile Version:

Creating a Guide

Creating a guide is simple. As an owner or a manager, you simply head to the listing editor in your dashboard to get started.

Dashboard View:

Once you’ve named your guide and uploaded a photo, you can quickly add places from Gogobot’s extensive database, write your own review, provide your own ratings, or upload photos. Only your ratings and reviews will show up on your listing - so make sure you take the time to add your personal and local knowledge. Gogobot built this part of the product, and it’s really slick because they provide you with suggestions that can really get your creative juices going.

Since there is no one who knows your property quite as well as you do - each guide is as unique and special as you make it. Some owners and managers will curate a list of popular attractions, while others will add “off the beaten path” attractions like the blueberry patch, flea market, coffee shop, or hike. These unique and special attractions are what unlock the deep local knowledge that will make for truly delightful and relevant experiences - which in turn will result in great reviews, happy travelers, and more bookings.

How can you take advantage of an Insider Guide?

Once you’ve created your guide, it’s up to you to determine when to share it with your guests. Some of you will include it in all of your communications from your first inquiry response onward. Others will want to provide the link to travelers only after booking. We’ve provided a helpful “shortcut link” to make it easy to embed the link into your inquiry or ReservationManager™ response templates or any email you send to your guests.

Not only does an Insider Guide allow you to market your property, but it also reduces the time you have to spend answering those frequent questions guests always ask: where is the nearest grocery store? What activities do you recommend? What are the best restaurants? With an Insider Guide, the answer is simple: check the link!

How do I get started?

You can get started building your guide right now. Many owners and managers have already started (see below for some examples) so don’t delay. Here are a few tips: Make sure you add reviews and ratings! Use the photos that Gogobot provides, or add your own for that personal touch. Send it to your friends who live in the area to get them to comment. And best of all, since you have a VRBO.com or HomeAway.com listing, Insider Guides are included free of charge.

Here are some resources to help you create a great Insider Guide:

http://help.homeaway.com/articles/en_US/Solution/Insiders-Guide-FAQs?knowledgeHome

And here are some examples to inspire you:

Enjoy creating your Insider Guide, and make sure you send us your thoughts and feedback!

Tom Hale

Chief Product Officer

Online Booking is Live

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 20:57:46 GMT

As you probably know, HomeAway’s mission has always been to make finding and booking a vacation rental as easy as booking a hotel. With our latest product release, I believe we’ve made great strides towards achieving that goal and am pleased to announce the introduction of online booking on HomeAway.com and VRBO.com.

With online booking, travelers have the convenience of paying securely online, and the booking process is more streamlined for both you and your guests. While we are aware that this particular release isn’t a “win” in the innovation category, it is a relatively new offering in the vacation rental industry and will indeed be a game changer for some guests.

As we’ve posted in the past, the Internet has fundamentally changed the way we do business. We demand speed and convenience, and the ability to pay online by credit card makes booking a vacation quicker and easier. Plus, it enables travelers to finance vacations, accrue credit card reward points and feel confident in their purchase. Online booking delivers this to the vacation rental category.

Because we know conversations between owners and travelers are so important to the reservation process (in fact, 70% of travelers said it was the best part), we made sure to include a review period so there’s time to answer any questions they have about the property or questions you have of them.

The product is an extension of ReservationManager™, which enables you to accept credit card payments and eChecks through our secure interface. Online booking is a free service, but because we understand you demand choices in terms of how you want to manage your rental business, it is not automatically added to your listing. However, you can easily sign up through the owner dashboard.

The Nuts and Bolts of How it Works

With online booking, prospective renters click the “Book It” button on a listing, which instantly generates a detailed quote and enables travelers to agree to your rental contract (which you store ahead of time). Travelers then submit their payment information directly from your listing and you are notified about the request. You have up to 24 hours to accept or decline it.

When you accept a reservation, the payment is processed immediately and your availability calendar is updated accordingly. Any additional payments are automatically scheduled and invoiced, reducing the manual work involved with confirming a guest.

If you aren’t able to confirm a booking within the 24-hour period, ReservationManager will automatically decline the reservation request and the traveler will not be charged.

To learn more, check out the video below:

Again, while it’s not a required service, I highly encourage you to take a look at the product and see if it’s for you. We know travelers want a simpler, easier way to book a vacation home and online booking solves that problem. Ultimately, we believe it is the right choice to delight travelers, simplify the booking process for you, and make the entire vacation rental category more efficient and competitive. As always, we welcome your feedback.

Hurricane Sandy’s Destruction Inspires Housing Directory for Evacuees

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 15:36:50 GMT

Over the last couple of days, I was (as I’m sure many of you were) glued to the television with much anticipation to see how Hurricane Sandy, appropriately named “Frankenstorm,” would play out. After ripping through the Caribbean, the storm barreled straight up the east coast and in the last 48 hours, made a hard left turn right into Atlantic City.

According to our count, there were 13 states in Hurricane Sandy’s path, causing the destruction of countless homes and businesses all over the east coast.

News reports have revealed many travelers have been stranded due to transportation cancellations to and from the northeast, and thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes until the roadways are cleared and once again safe for passage.

Everyone said this was going to be an epic storm, and sure enough, it was. However, now that the worst of Hurricane Sandy is over, and the sun has once again started shining on the beautiful coastline, it’s time to start assessing the damage and figuring out what we can do to help.

As we’ve done with previous disasters like the Bastrop, Texas Fires, Gulf Coast Oil Spill and Flooding in Vermont, we’re creating a directory of homes that are available to assist the evacuees in need of temporary housing.

While we know this isn’t feasible for everyone, we’re looking to those of our customers, whose vacation rentals were not damaged, to help provide shelter for their displaced neighbors in the way of complimentary or heavily discounted stays in your properties.

We know this is a sensitive time for everyone near the storm’s path, but if you would like to support the recovery effort by donating your home, you can do so by clicking here.

We really appreciate your compassion and generosity in this great time of need.

Our sincerest thank you,

Brian

Why all the change?

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 21:55:24 GMT

As always, I want to thank our customers and the loyal users of this Community for using our products, providing feedback, and helping us understand your marketing needs. I recognize the last several months have been frequented with change for our customer base, and change can be scary. I want to assure you there are reasons behind these changes, and I hope to use this forum as an opportunity to explain how we got where we are today.

Our goal has always been to serve, as best as we can, the vacation rental industry. Since the start of the company in 2005 and over the course of the following years, in addition to focusing on our organic growth, we employed a strategy of acquiring other key vacation rental websites. This resulted in HomeAway, Inc. becoming the umbrella company for over 20 sites in an effort to be the best marketing partner for owners and managers all over the world.

While this set a strong foundation for broad traveler reach and global recognition, it also created lots of complexity for our company and our customers. The acquisition of 10+ vacation rental sites resulted in managing multiple technology platforms, owner dashboards and versions of the listing manager. I can’t tell you how many times I was asked by owners why they couldn’t manage their listings in one place or purchase listings as a bundle, and how much it pained me to answer those questions. But I knew it would take time for us to consolidate these systems and make the right solutions for the most users.

The consolidation of our platforms and technologies caused some challenges over the years, but we have entered the next phase of this company’s evolution where we can focus on bringing additional value to our customers with new tools and marketing options. This year, following the migration of the VRBO.com platform onto the HomeAway.com platform, we launched Network bundles. This was a crucial step in offering a global presence for your rental property to maximize your return on investment with our sites. Happily, the time and cost-savings associated with this change is one that has been well-received.

Other changes, though, have not been as well received. As part of our goal in enabling owners and managers to manage their listings in one place, we also have to standardize the listing manager tools themselves so that they are the same across the globe. This, in turn, means change for just about everyone and most recently, this happened in the update of our rates structure.

The goal of our new rates format was to provide a more consistent experience for travelers, while generating higher demand and more qualified inquiries to you with quotable rates. Additionally, the new format was designed to:

* Reduce the manual work of providing quotes to travelers

* Power our search results with more accurate prices based on stay dates

* Display consistent prices to a global audience of travelers

* Enable your property to be bookable online, if you choose, while providing control over who stays in your

rental home

* Provide full credit for the rates component as part of your sort order

Unfortunately, the outcome of this change included some unanticipated results for which we sincerely apologize.

Each employee at HomeAway, including me, spends a couple days on the customer support line as part of a program to bring us closer to the needs and concerns of our customers. By coincidence, I happened to be manning the support lines on the day that we launched the quotable rates format.

I fielded some challenging calls and learned first-hand about your concerns. I also gained an appreciation of the importance of rates, the wide range of approaches to setting rates and providing quotes, and some of the challenges you’ve had in using quotable rates.

We are disappointed that we failed to anticipate the complexity of many of our customers’ rates, and we are working diligently to fix this. You can read more about the changes to come from our Chief Product Officer, Tom Hale.

The good news is there is light at the end of the tunnel. We are offering a solution for those of you who wish to revert to the traditional rates structure until we get it right. Quotable rates are our ultimate goal in improving the traveler experience, but we first need to ensure it works for our paying customers. In the next few days, you will be able to switch back to the previous rates format if you feel that quotable rates does not work for you at this time, and we will continue to make improvements to better serve you.

Please hang in there with us and look for my blog post in the next few days on online booking, an exciting new marketing option we are offering. With online booking, travelers will have the convenience of paying securely online while still providing you with a 24-hour reservation review period to establish a personal connection with your guests if you so desire. The feature will be 100% optional, but we aim to make the booking process more streamlined for both you and your guests, and quotable rates play a huge role in this endeavor.

We ask for your patience as we continue to work through these changes together, and we ask you to trust that we really have your best interest at heart. The changes over the last year have been a valuable learning experience for us, and we will use these learnings to continue to improve our products and better serve you.

And as always, we welcome your questions, comments, and feedback.

Update on new quotable rates

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 21:48:22 GMT

To the HomeAway and VRBO user community:

In the past few months, there has been a steady drumbeat of concern rising in these forums from the owners and managers who use HomeAway and VRBO. In the past few days since we launched our quotable rates, it’s risen in intensity and frequency.

For those of you experiencing these concerns, please know that we are listening to your feedback, we understand your frustration, and we’re working hard to fix it. Since the beta launch, we have already made some great headway with improvements, and we plan to continue in this manner. We think that quotable rates will have a dramatic impact on our industry, and together we can get it right.

As we’ve sifted through all of the feedback in these forums and on the phones, much of the concern around quotable rates centered on the following key themes:

Rates are not flexible enough to accommodate the way I price my property (pricing by person, setting a changeover day)
Rates as displayed are based on a nightly rate, not a week or monthly rate
The transition to quotable rates was abrupt and the tool is not intuitive, especially for people who have complicated pricing models
The process of getting the rates to display on your listings in a way that matches your desired presentation takes too much work, especially for customers with many listings
The display of the rates on the page and the calculation of special rate cases (event rates) does not always match your expectation
Minimum stays are not prominent enough
Once you've committed to the path of changing your rates, there is no “undo” to go back to the previous state.

As we designed the quotable rates product, we consulted with customers in 1:1 meetings and focus groups, we launched it as a beta in August to get early feedback, and we found and fixed defects. While thousands of our owners managed to get their rates into a format they were happy with, roughly 1 in 5 are contacting us on our support lines to get help as they wrestled with one issue or another.

Since we launched quotable rates in a limited release in early September, we’ve made the following changes:

Integrated feedback into a simplified rates interface (removed confusing “advanced options” and implemented clearer price break options)
Increased the number of seasonal rates up to 52 in order to support weekly pricing and increased the number of event rates to 12
Added a notes field for owners utilizing online payments to provide their guests with more context and information
Added video tutorials specific to rates in the owner dashboard
Addressed a defect that delayed the population of rates to the property listing page
Addressed html characters (such as <br>) appearing in the rate table on your listing
Corrected a defect that displayed the incorrect currency on international sites

We are in process on the following changes, some to be released in the next few days, some in the next few weeks:

First and foremost, we will add the ability for you to revert back to the traditional rates format. We recognize that the changes we have made may not be sufficient for many of our users, so it is our top priority to allow you to switch back to the format that may have worked better for your property.
We will update the quotable rates tool to set rates in weekly and monthly increments, not just a base/nightly rate.
We will implement the ability to set changeover days. For most customers we will simply display this information on the traveler site. For those who have opted in to Online Booking, we will enforce that a reservation request honors the changeover date.
We will increase the flexibility of weekend rates so that you can select “do not apply weekend rates to stays more than: X nights" – this means that your price breaks for longer stays will not be “trumped” by higher weekend rates.
We will increase the visibility of minimum stay on your listing so that travelers cannot miss it.
In search results, when a traveler does not select a date range, we will display the lowest and highest rates for a property, instead of an “average” over 365 days.
We will implement an update to rate calculations that will ensure consistency between standard, seasonal and event rates based on the dates a traveler entered.
We will update the quotable rates tool to include the option to set rates "per person." For most owners and managers, we will simply display this information on their listing. For those who have opted in to Online Booking, the system will dynamically update a quote based on the number of guests entered by the traveler. Of all of these, per person rates are the most difficult to get right, so this feature might take longer than a few weeks.
We will continue to monitor these forums and our support lines to prioritize and fix defects as they arise.

While I humbly respect the desire to avoid the disruption that comes with change, I’d like to take a few words to discuss why we are moving to quotable rates. It’s pretty simple: when people are making a purchase, they like to know how much it costs, and we’re trying to make it easy and consistent for travelers. Why are we doing this? Because it should result in higher demand and more qualified inquires for you.

In addition, quotable rates should allow us to:

accurately price your properties to reduce manual work for owners and managers in providing quotes to travelers;
power our search results with accurate prices (based on a date range, number of people, etc) so that our search engines can accurately sort and filter properties based on price;
consistently display prices to a global audience of travelers; and
offer the option to make properties bookable online, while giving owners and managers control over who stays in their homes

It’s this last point that deserves some discussion.

First off – we believe owners and managers like choice. And we also believe that the personal, human interaction between traveler and host makes the vacation rental experience special and different from other forms of accommodation. It’s one of the things that makes our industry (and our community) great.

If you want to – we have built a system to enable you to provide travelers the convenience of booking online, while giving you the control over who stays in your property. You can learn more about it here. http://toolkit.homeaway.com/reservation-manager and by watching this videos and reading the information there.

If you’d rather not, that is your choice, and we respect that.

As a final word, I want to emphasize that we do our best to gather feedback about what is important to you, to discover issues that need to be addressed, and to learn about needs that our customers have that we can work to serve. We do our best to build systems and software that make it possible for you to market your listings and run your businesses. We do this because we are passionately committed to the vacation rental industry and to the owners and managers who use our tools and services. We are also committed to continuously improving, and to working hard to earn your loyalty, trust, and business.

Stay tuned for more information about reverting back to the old rates format. In the meantime, your support, feedback and comments are welcome.

HomeAway.com & VRBO.com Join Forces

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 20:24:25 GMT

I know my blog posts generally begin with me saying how excited I am to announce our latest news, but this time, I’m not sure if excited truly captures my emotions.

At the end of the day, the word that best describes how I feel is proud. Proud to tell you all that after years of operating HomeAway.com and VRBO as two separate sites, our team has made it possible for the sites to join forces – giving travelers more choice when they want to find a vacation rental and you all the opportunity to have an even more efficient way to manage your vacation rental businesses. The changes won’t go into effect for another month or so, but we couldn’t wait to tell you all about it!

What does this mean for you?

While the sites will continue to operate as independent brands, the changes will make it possible for you all to update your HomeAway.com and VRBO listings simultaneously, using one interface. For you HomeAway old-timers, the idea is similar to the calendar function we introduced with HomeAway Connect, a few years ago, but now your listing will be identical on both sites making it easier and faster to update photos, rates, etc.

Also, by popular demand, we’re introducing a new “bundled” pricing structure so you can have listings on both HomeAway.com and VRBO.com for $80-$750 less per year than before. We are even offering a global bundle so you can have a listing on 15 additional international sites. The goal was to give you more flexibility and choice with your marketing needs.

We’ve created a microsite dedicated to explaining this change in further detail and how it affects each of you. You can check it out here: http://network.homeaway.com

Finally, as we’ve said before, we value customer feedback and speak with hundreds of customers about our plans prior to releasing a new product or service. I’d like to share with you the feedback we received from THE pioneer of the vacation rental industry and original for-rent-by-owner customer, VRBO.com founder, Dave Clouse:

“This will be a huge time saver for both owners and property managers and will increase the accuracy of listings. Renters can now have more confidence that listings on all sites have the most current information and photos. It's a win-win situation for everyone, and makes both VRBO.com and HomeAway.com even better!”

We hope you’re just as pleased with the news.

Look out for an email announcing the launch of these changes and the opportunity for you to take advantage of them. Also, if you have any questions feel free to contact our customer support team here.

Thank you all for your business and continued support of HomeAway and VRBO.

Sincerely,

Brian

*Dave and Lynn Clouse founded Vacation Rentals by Owner (VRBO.com) in 1995.

Phighting Phishing

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 19:43:07 GMT

The phishing storm is brewing

The vacation rental industry gathered in Austin, Texas last weekend for the HomeAway Summit. Owners, Property Managers, HomeAway staff, and HomeAway partners discussed the state of the vacation rental industry, saw old friends and made new ones, and compared notes.

But this year, a new word entered the conversations in the halls, over drinks, and in the content of the Summit: phishing. Phishing, loosely defined, is the attempt by criminals to steal your online identity, most frequently via accessing your email account. While our industry continues to thrive, the threat of hackers gaining access to owners’ or property managers’ email accounts continues. If we do not pull together to fight this threat, it will affect the way travelers feel about the vacation rental industry, and ultimately, about booking your property. A storm is brewing.

For some, the storm has already come – just ask anyone who has had their email password phished. Scammers have intercepted inquiries, and ruined vacations by stealing money from trusting vacation rental travelers. Owners and property managers have had to scramble to re-secure their email accounts and protect their reputations. And the reputation of the vacation rental industry is in question.

For most, the HomeAway Summit marked the first time that they ever heard of phishing, but they understood how both owners and travelers are at risk because of our industry’s reliance on trusted communications via email. (If you are not familiar with phishing, click here for an overview of how it happens, or read Carl Shepherd’s post on phishing.

Today, losses due to phishing are small: in Q1 2012, phishing scams affected less than 0.1% of travelers who found a vacation rental via a HomeAway website.

But even one ruined vacation or theft of an owner or property manager’s identity is totally unacceptable. Everyone in the vacation rental industry – from owners to property managers to HomeAway – has a role to play in stopping phishing scams. While phishing may be a relatively small problem in absolute numbers, recent activity tells us that the phishers are getting smarter and more travelers, owners, and managers are being affected. It is clear that scammers and criminals have figured out that the vacation rental industry is a great target.

Why? Because:

the standard practice in the vacation rental industry is for travelers to pay large amounts of money for vacation rentals, long before the stay and sight unseen;
not everyone understands or uses safe and secure payment methods;
many people conduct their business in email accounts from email providers that have been repeatedly compromised; and
cybercriminals are good at exploiting communities that rely on trust and a personal connection.

Phishing is not new; vacation rentals are not the first industry to be targeted by cybercriminals. Phishers have attacked many online industries ranging from online auctions, banking, social media, travel, e-commerce, even medical and government institutions, impacting major brands like eBay, PayPal, Barclays, Wells Fargo, Chase, and Bank of America.

Everyone of us in the vacation rental industry has a lot at stake, and we will all need to work together to stop phishers. You can do your part by guarding your email password with the same care as you protect your social security number, your bank account, and your most valuable possessions.

Our vision on how to fight phishing

So what can HomeAway do to fight phishing? To be clear, we’ve been fighting scammers ever since HomeAway was founded. But as we look ahead, we have come to the conclusion that HomeAway needs to take a strong stance against phishing.

We believe that we can fight phishing by:

safeguarding the traveler’s money by providing safe payment methods protected by strong security, such as ReservationManager™;
protecting owner and traveler email addresses so that phishers cannot readily target those accounts;
continuing to provide secure authentication so that HomeAway can ensure that only legitimate owners, travelers, and managers can access information; and most critically
moving interactions between owners or managers and travelers into a secure environment where everyone can be confident they are talking to each other, not a crook.

Our vision is that we can create an environment where we can protect owners, property managers and travelers with something we are calling “HomeAway Secure Communication.” This would be a new system, envisioned only in the last few months, and which is now in development. We plan to make it available starting in the second half of this year.

This proposed system is similar to sites you may use, like Facebook, LinkedIn and others, where authentication is required by both parties before they can connect. On these sites, once two parties have decided to “trust” each other, they can converse via email. But until trust is established, they CAN still communicate keeping key elements of their identity protected.

In our vision, owners and travelers would still receive notifications and messages from each other via email and text message, but they need to reply via a secure system that does not disclose their email address. This way, HomeAway would be able to ensure the legitimacy of the owner or property manager and the traveler.

We’ve already started: we showed one early prototype of HomeAway Secure Communication at the Summit during the HomeAway Sneak Peeks session. We demonstrated how the system will enable owners and property managers to:

communicate safely with travelers and only reveal their email address when they choose to;
have a persistent record of the conversation, payments and other events that have occurred;
manage their conversations, bookings and payments via mobile app; and
reduce manual and repetitive work for responding to inquiries, sending information about properties and managing bookings and payment.

We recognize that many of our customers rely heavily on email to manage their interactions with travelers. We also know that a system like this will represent a significant change for many owners and managers.

But it is precisely because your email account is so critical to your business that it must be protected.

We are highly sensitive to the needs of our customers and are aware of the scope of change that this solution represents. We are also laser-focused on making this solution as convenient and beneficial as possible; but we are counting on you, our customers – property managers and owners – to help us design and implement a solution that improves the efficiency and effectiveness of responding to inquiries and managing communications with your customers – the travelers.

We’re doing something different than what we normally do. We are announcing our intentions and inviting our community and customers to participate in the process of creating a solution because we believe it is critical to your future success as an owner or property manager: if travelers don’t trust, they will not rent.

And if you have ideas, you can give us your feedback directly by emailing us at secure-feedback@homeaway.com or via the feedback links on all of our sites. While we don’t respond to every email we get, we do READ every one.

If you want to learn more about our vision for HomeAway Secure Communication, check our FAQ here.

And please sign up for the Secure Communication group on Community from HomeAway to join the discussion – we’ll post updates there as we go forward.

What can I do now to fight phishing?

We all have to pull together to fight phishing. HomeAway has worked hard to educate the industry via emails, messages on our website, and via the Security Center. We continuously invest in technology to actively monitor fraud, to surface suspicious activity, and to harden our systems and protect our customers. More recently, we have introduced new products, such as ReservationManager and Traveler Profiles, and processes such as Phone Verification to support safety.

Here are a few steps you can take now to join in the fight:

Educate yourself – visit our Security Center to learn about phishing
Read our FAQ to learn how to spot fraudulent inquiries
When you receive a suspicious inquiry or email, please let us know
Accept safe payment methods like those offered through ReservationManager
Include an up-to-date phone number on your listing. We recommend that travelers call the telephone number published on your property listing page to confirm their reservation and payment details
Use two-factor authentication on your email accounts. See this article on how. http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2012/04/make-your-email-hacker-proof.html
If you list on vrbo.com or homeaway.com - log into your dashboard to check your inquiries to make sure you (and not a phisher) are receiving your inquiries.
Never enter your email password on any webpage via a link sent to you by email, or even if a login page that looks like your email provider’s website pops up unexpectedly. Always go to the email provider’s website to log in
And don’t ignore warning signs or red flags - if you have a bad feeling, it never hurts to double check

Together we can fight this threat to the vacation rental industry, and we’re counting on you, just like you count on us.

Sincerely,

Tom Hale

Chief Product Officer

U.S. Vacation Rental Weekend Phone Support

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:52:29 GMT

On February 4, we launch weekend phone support across our three U.S. vacation rental brands: HomeAway.com, VRBO.com and VacationRentals.com. Property owners, professional managers and travelers will now be able to call Customer Support between the hours of 7 a.m.-7 p.m. CST, seven days per week, making it more convenient for customers to contact us to get the help they need.

The addition of weekend phone support across all US brands is the next step in our increasing efforts to serve our customers. In the winter of 2010, we launched VRBO.com phone support, and followed it up with VacationRentals.com phone support in the spring of 2011. Late last year we also redesigned our U.S. Help Portal to make it easier for customers to get online support. Community from HomeAway and a new customer feedback mechanism on our global sites also offer customers the opportunity to share their opinions on our products and services. 

Please continue to provide us feedback on ways we can best serve you! 

Jeffrey Mosler

Vice President of Global Customer Experience

I’m Proud to Introduce HomeAway’s ‘Let’s Stay Together’ Campaign

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 16:03:23 GMT

I have to say I am REALLY excited about our new ad campaign that launches on January 15th during the 69^th Annual Golden Globes! Kudos to our advertising team and new agency of record, GSD&M, for really nailing the essence of HomeAway’s business with the new tagline, “Let’s Stay Together.”

This time I feel like we’ve really got it RIGHT! Truth be told, we’ve resorted to some pretty gimmicky stuff in the past couple of years, preying on the hotel industry and trying hard to stand out in the pack of Super Bowl ads with something shocking and memorable.

Two years ago it was the Griswolds, an award-winning campaign starring the one and only Chevy Chase. It received a ton of buzz and even won an EFFIE (for most effective ad campaign), and we sure had fun making it! But for the most part that ad was a way to simply introduce the brand and poke fun at hotels versus vacation rentals. And with only 30 seconds at the Super Bowl, we had little time to really highlight the positive benefits of renting a home.

Last year we stayed with the “Why hotel when you can HomeAway” theme and introduced the “Minister of Detourism” as a character tasked with saving family vacations. In the process, we made a major faux pas when a (fake) baby was flung into a window during the ad. That caused quite a stir, and in retrospect rightly so. We quickly pulled the ad and apologized.

This year is very different! We’ve decided to skip the Super Bowl – it forces you to try and be provocative to stand out. Rather, we have a much longer and broader campaign, and have really taken the time to focus on what our business is really about – promoting togetherness with families and groups.

So this year it is all goodness, togetherness, and happiness – and emphasizing where you stay is as important as where you go while on vacation. As an added bonus, we got Al Green to agree to license his classic song “Let’s Stay Together” for our campaign. The end result is a beautiful and artistic scrapbook montage of families and friends having the time of their lives while on vacation, and of course staying in rental homes!

Most importantly, this campaign is as much about the industry as it is about HomeAway. If we can simply get people to associate vacation rentals with better togetherness, then we will have succeeded with the campaign. I think it is going to be a real winner for our industry; I hope you enjoy it too.

You may read the press release and view the 60-second ad here: http://www.homeaway.com/info/media-center/press-releases/2012/lets-stay-together

I look forward to reading your comments.

Best,

Brian

Introducing VRBO.com Subscription Levels and Price Changes and How they Impact Your Listing

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 23:51:24 GMT

Dear VRBO Customers,

As any longtime vacation rental owner knows, VRBO.com pioneered leveled pricing. On VRBO.com, the combination of the purchase of additional photographs—up to 16—and your number of years as an advertiser, determined the sort order. Each level was based upon the number of photographs, and gave our members more control over the listing order.

However, in study after study of travelers, it became clear that photographs were critical to people seeking that perfect vacation experience. By charging for photographs, we inadvertently short-changed travelers on what they wanted most. Photos (and the more the better) enable your guests to better envision the house and imagine themselves on the deck, in the beautiful kitchen, or watching an amazing sunset. More photos help travelers choose one property over another and you better showcase your property.

So we decided to make a change. Starting on Thursday (January 5) search ranking on VRBO.com is no longer based upon the number of photographs you buy. All listings will include:

16 photos, including a thumbnail
a Google Map within your listing showcasing the location of your property and proximity to local attractions
the option for a video tour providing your potential guests with the best possible understanding of the property

Instead of photos, search ranking is now influenced by the subscription level you choose along with the length of time you have been a VRBO.com customer. You don’t have to do anything to take advantage of subscription levels immediately, because your listing is automatically matched to the level of the ranking you had under the previous system. For example, if you previously purchased the 16 photo-subscription you are now in the top level, just as before. Also like before, within each subscription level, the length of time you’ve listed on VRBO.com impacts your search ranking.

Sixteen photos are included in each subscription, but we are slightly changing the base pricing: the VRBO Classic subscription rises from $299 to $349. Each additional level costs $29.99, which is from the same as 2011 prices for additional photographs. You are now able to choose the VRBO.com subscription level that best meets your unique requirements to deliver the number of inquiries and bookings you need. You shouldn’t have to think twice about which pictures you put on your listing. Subscription levels allow you to post them all, making the listing better and providing potential guests the best info to make a decision. We believe this change from photos to subscription levels will make VRBO.com an even better site for travelers and for you.

Since the changes don’t go into effect until January 5, you will need to wait until 8:00 AM on that day to upload your additional photos and take advantage of these included features. If you upload photos before then , you will be charged for them and automatically upgraded into the corresponding subscription level on the 5th.

Thank you for your business and your continued support of VRBO.com and HomeAway.

Sincerely,

Carl Shepherd

Co-founder and Chief Strategy and Development Officer

RezFest 2011 – Wow!

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 22:28:38 GMT

When HomeAway Software for Professionals™ was born in late 2010, we decided to continue the Instant Software® tradition to hold RezFest® as the premier software user conference in the industry. In doing so, we had a simple goal in mind: to make RezFest 2011 bigger, better, more fun and more professional than ever! Thanks to all of you showed up in Vegas for RezFest 2011, we surpassed expectations on all fronts!

Now that we have rested for a couple of weeks, gathered our thoughts and received survey feedback, I can share why RezFest 2011 was so successful. On a year-on-year analysis, conference attendance increased by 60%, with 80% more individual companies and 78% more sponsors attending than last year - thank you! We also provided more networking opportunities. Check out some of the fun photos from the opening night reception featuring the Blues Brothers impersonators to hitting the lanes on bowling night. Was that fun or what? Many clients thought RezFest was the best industry event they have attended and several of them were hugging us by the end of the conference! Here are a couple quotes from actual attendees that capture the moment:

“This was our first time at RezFest and we are now making sure that event is in our budget from now on. Worth every penny spent.”

“If you only attend one convention next year, it should be RezFest. It is the premier event for the vacation rental manager. You will meet wonderful people and learn so much. At RezFest you work hard, and play just as hard. Don't miss it!”

With 76 track combinations, we tried to offer a diverse and interesting agenda. Presenters did an amazing job and your appreciation was reflected in your survey responses. The large computer lab manned by the customer support team was also a tremendous success, giving clients the opportunity to be trained and/or ask questions about your particular software. Again, based on your feedback, the software lab was regarded as a valuable addition because it provides staff members from all levels of your organization a chance to work hands on with our team of experts. The agenda was so packed with engaging material that some of you asked that we make the show a day longer next year! Wow, that is a first where attendees ask for more time at a trade event!

During HomeAway CEO, Brian Sharples’ keynote, he explained why HomeAway acquired Escapia® and Instant Software and addressed industry fears to demonstrate how committed HomeAway is to the PM segment. By the end of his presentation, everyone seemed to have understood HomeAway’s strategy and felt much more comfortable with HomeAway’s acquisitions from about a year ago. Throughout the show, clients were able to mingle and with HomeAway’s executive team. I think customers were surprised by how accessible and down-to-earth Brian Sharples, COO Brent Bellm and the other executives were in person.

Peter Greenberg, the other RezFest speaker, was an energetic and informative speaker as he emphasized that the “personal contact” property managers provide to their guests 24/7 is key. He also focused on “selling value to the right demographics,” particularly to Boomers. Greenberg’s bullish perspective on the travel industry in the coming years was encouraging and the 2011 performance of many PMs in the room this year prove that he may be on track with his predictions.

I hope HomeAway demonstrated our commitment to your success and have your interests at heart. We will continue to operate in a professional and straightforward manner, with the 120 employees in HomeAway Software for Professionals dedicated to building the best possible software solutions and keeping dialog going with you and the Support and Relationship Manager staff. To use a construction analogy, we feel 2011 has been focused on building the foundation of a great house of the future. Next year will be a year of INNOVATION that will add marble counter tops, state of the art light fixtures and simple details to save you time and money. Our goal is to take your software solution to extraordinary levels of efficiencies using a modular approach that builds on top of your existing platform. It is not an easy and it takes time but like we said in late 2010, “judge us by our actions.”

Thank you for attending RezFest! For those of you who could not attend this year, please join us next year. You will not regret it!

What is Phishing? And Why It's Important to You...

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 15:06:05 GMT

Phishing is a way criminals attempt to acquire your personal information such as usernames, passwords, bank accounts and credit card details. Criminals do this by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication to which you respond. The simplest form of this is when the crook creates an email that has the exact look of an email from a company you trust, but, when you click on it, you go to a website that is not hosted by the company, but instead, is a phony website designed to get you to sign in using your username and password from the trusted site. HomeAway members make an attractive target for “phishers” because the average transaction value for a stay at a vacation rental is significant. A crook with access to a HomeAway member’s email account username and password is a recipe for disaster.

HomeAway has invested in trust & security technology, people and processes to help protect consumers against criminal activity on our sites. We cannot disclose the details but we are very successful in identifying fraudulent listings; in Q1 2011, less than 0.01% of our worldwide listings were both fake and cost a traveler any losses. It is our responsibility to keep fictitious listings off our site so we offer both the free basic rental guarantee and the purchasable Carefree Rental Guarantee to protect travelers from outright Internet fraud we could have prevented.

But HomeAway cannot prevent criminals from phishing your personal email account because it doesn’t occur on our site. Therefore, the traveler loss that arises from an owner giving his email password to a criminal is the owner’s responsibility. Your house is real and you are in the business of renting it. When the criminal uses technology to step between you and your customer, they are effectively standing at your virtual cash register while you are out of the store.

HomeAway has made it difficult to phish our accounts, but crooks are clever, which is why we continually improve our own security processes. But there is no technology available to us that will keep you from giving a phisher the username and password to your personal or business email account.

Like all Internet companies, HomeAway needs you, the advertisers, to do your part to make our websites and this industry safer for all travelers, who are your potential guests.

If a phisher can get your username and password for the email account you use to communicate with travelers, they can use this information to steal from travelers.

Two Victims

Phishing results in two victims. The traveler loses money and often their vacation as well. At the same time, the owner/advertiser has had his online identity stolen, and that thief has not only access to his customers, but to all the information he keeps in his email account.

Because the owner is a victim, too, it’s perhaps understandable that some owners do not believe they bear responsibility when their email account has been used to steal from a traveler.

In our view, it is the owner’s responsibility to provide restitution when his email password has been phished. After all, the email account was used to steal from a traveler who responded to an email from your email account and but for the criminal getting access to your email account the traveler would not have experienced any loss.

HomeAway’s guarantees do not apply to traveler losses due to the theft of your identity via phishing. We have no way to stop your email account from being phished. Only you can do that.

Protect Yourself from Phishing:

Never share your email account password to anyone.
Only enter your email username and password after verifying that you are on the website of your email provider. Check the URL. If you want to respond to a request that came via email, open a new browser window and go to your email provider’s website to sign in.
Only change email information after initiating a session with your email provider.

Help Protect Travelers:

Do not ask a traveler to wire money via Western Union or another third-party service.
Sign up for a merchant account and accept credit cards. HomeAway offers one through Reservation Manager, but if doesn’t meet your needs; use one of your choice.
Respond to telephone calls promptly. Travelers often want to speak to you before they pay; the call could be your first notification that you’ve been phished, and crooks have better odds when they can get to the traveler first.

HomeAway’s Policy Regarding Phishing

While HomeAway cannot prevent a phisher from tricking you into giving up your username and password to your personal email or HomeAway account, we will continue to do all we can to insure a fair and trusted marketplace. It may sound harsh, but listings from owners who ignore their role in maintaining a marketplace that is safe for travelers are not welcome on our websites.

When we have reason to be concerned your email account may have been phished, we try to move quickly to limit the possibility that travelers are harmed; we need for you to move quickly, as well. This is how the process works:

When we receive information indicating either your HomeAway or personal email account has been compromised, all of your listings will be suspended. This is to keep unsuspecting new travelers from falling victim to the thief.
We will work with you to verify which of your accounts has been compromised. Sometimes the information we have received from a traveler is wrong; in that case, the listings will be reinstated as quickly as possible.
Once we’ve verified your email address has been phished, we will notify every traveler who has inquired on your property so they can avoid sending money to the thief.
If a traveler has paid a thief using the email address you placed on file with HomeAway before receiving a warning notification from HomeAway, it will be your responsibility to either reimburse that traveler for verified losses, or to provide some sort of in-kind value (a free stay at another time, for example) to the traveler.
If you choose not to work with or provide restitution to the traveler, then your listings are at risk of being removed from or not reinstated on HomeAway websites. This is a determination we make in our sole discretion on a case-by-case basis in order to make our websites and this industry safer for all travelers.

Warm Regards,

Carl Shepherd

Co-Founder and Chief Strategy and Development Officer

** UPDATE **

The TODAY show recently highlighted a case in which some travelers experienced fraud in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Luckily their story had a happy ending, but we wanted to share it with you as a reminder to always protect yourself online. When booking a vacation rental, always remember do the following:

Pay with ReservationManager™ from HomeAway, whenever possible
Pay by credit card, check or bank transfer, and never by cash or wire transfer
Call before you pay - After you send an inquiry, call the homeowner or property manager via the phone number on the listing to confirm they've received your reservation request

Also, we wanted to update you that as of now, the HomeAway Carefree Rental Guarantee now covers phishing incidents. For more information, visit http://guarantee.homeaway.com

HomeAway's Ethnography Research

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 16:56:22 GMT

When HomeAway wanted to develop a deeper understanding of vacation rental homeowners, in order to understand drivers and barriers to renting a vacation home to travelers or listing it online, ethnography-based research seemed like the perfect fit.

In the past 10-15 years there has been increasing use of ethnographic techniques in market research. Ethnography is the science of contextualization and ethnographic research, which collects data through participant observation, interviews, questionnaires, etc., allows market researchers to collect insights about customers in context – where that context is broadly defined as when, where and how customers make purchase decisions and use products. After all, Jane Goodall did not send surveys to chimpanzees in Tanzania, but spent years observing their behavior in their natural environment.

HomeAway ethnographic research process

A total of 55 vacation homeowners were recruited, representing 4 categories:

Homeowners who were currently considering renting their vacation home for the first time
Homeowners who were currently renting a home, but were not listing it online
Homeowners who recently decided to list their home online with HomeAway.com, VRBO.com or VacationRentals.com
Homeowners who list online but not with a HomeAway site.

Homeowners were given two weeks to complete a Decision Journal that was designed to explore homeowner behaviors and values toward the rental process. Participants were encouraged to bring their experience to life with photos, emotion stickers, charts and assignments including, family portrait, introducing my second home, to rent or not to rent and my experience finding guests.

Following the completion of the journal, 21 homeowners engaged in a one-on-one, 90-minute interview based on the homeowner’s journal assignment. We sought to dig deeper into the behaviors and attitudes around the decision-making process.

After combing through hundreds of pages of journals and watching the interviews, the team uncovered 2 key findings.

There is a common decision path that vacation homeowners take as they move from acquiring a vacation home to renting it for the first time. How a homeowner moves through that process, depends on what type of homeowner they are.
There are 4 homeowner segments that broadly define vacation rental homeowners:

Sentimentalists - Their second home is their prized possession and they just don’t believe anyone will respect it as they do. These emotions are juxtaposed with their need to rent – either a few times a year or the majority of the year. They can be so overwhelmed by feelings of fear and mistrust, that they have trouble making decisions when it comes to choosing tools to find renters for their home. Any difficulties in the process, coupled with their anxiety about renting in the first place, can be paralyzing and even cause them to stop the process.
Cautious Converts - They have evolved into a place of acceptance with the rental process. They’re still wary of others and emotionally attached to their homes, but they have a more optimistic outlook as they have become more familiar with renting.
Realistic Reasoners - While still sentimentally attached to their homes, Realistic Reasoners also enjoy sharing their homes with others. It’s not a full-time venture but once they commit to rent, they want to be very involved in the process. While not as sentimentally attached to their homes, they still value the time they spend there when it’s not rented.
Business Attitudes – They view their second homes as an investment first and vacation home, second. They have feelings for their homes, but approach the rental process more pragmatically with less feeling and emotion.

The Talk Show

In order to share these findings in an engaging and powerful way with HomeAway staff, we invited 8 homeowners who participated in the project to also participate in a talk show in Austin. The homeowners shared their personal vacation homeownership experience and rental experience with HomeAway customer support, marketing, communications, finance, strategy and product staff in the US and Europe - an eye-opening experience for all HomeAway employees. We look to take their stories/perspectives and use it to improve upon the service we provide for existing customers and to better understand the needs and fears of those who are not renting. Specific projects being considered as a result of the insights gained from this research include revising the sign-up process for new customers and changing the tone of some of our email marketing. We realized that while every owner has his or her unique story there are also many similarities in the decision making process. In fact, we thought their stories were worth retelling, so we asked them to write a blog about their experience – which will be posted in the coming weeks.

Sincerely,

Karen Fuller, Director of Global Marketing Research

Part 5: Social Marketing 101 for Your Vacation Rental

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 13:53:46 GMT

In this final post in the Social Marketing 101 series I’ll provide you with lists of tools to assist with managing your content, monitoring the social web and determining which of your efforts are effective.

Monitoring the Social Web and Managing Your Content:

There are many free, or inexpensive, tools available to help you monitor the social web for mentions of your vacation rental location, travel and events that are relevant to you. There are also free or low cost tools that can help you schedule in advance the content you want to publish on your accounts, as well as keep track of engagement happening with your accounts. This is by no means a comprehensive list of tools available; these are just some of the more popular ones on the market now.

The best thing to do would be to test these tools and see which work best for you. Scheduling content ahead of time is a helpful time saver, and I’d recommend trying the tools below that allow you to both schedule content and monitor your account. Another time saver is finding the best tool that will allow you to keep track of the interactions happening with your accounts in one location.

Determining if your Efforts are Effective:

Once you have started your social marketing efforts you’ll want to determine what is working well and what isn’t, so you can focus on the most productive activities. Within Facebook and YouTube are in depth analytics data that will provide you insight into your account growth, content that is most engaging, where your fans are located and more. Beyond using the information that the networks provide, there are more free tools that help you gauge your overall social presence. For Twitter- there are countless free tools to help you measure performance. Below is a list of some of the most used tools, but again, this is not a comprehensive list and you might find additional services that work better for your needs.

With that, I’ve covered the basic phases to getting started with social media marketing. I look forward to seeing the conversations about what works for your vacation rental in the Community Forums.

Cheers,

Jennifer Stafford

HomeAway Social Media Manager

Find me on Twitter @HomeAway or @JennStafford