Vacation Rental Industry News This Week

There's lots of exciting things going on in the vacation rental industry which means keeping up on industry news can be quite time consuming. To keep vacation rental managers in the know, we thought we'd compile together a digestible list of some of the news buzzing around the vacation rental industry this week.

150 million reviews on Tripadvisor, a first look at vacation rentals on Expedia, and China's Airbnb style listing site, have taken the spotlight this week in vacation rental industry news.

Industry Buzz for February 20-27, 2014

TripAdvisor has reached 150million reviews

The unbiased holiday review platform TripAdvisor announced this week that they have reached a staggering 150million entries. Considering that an average of 90 reviews are being submitted every minute, it is prevalent that the sharing economy is growing in more ways than one. Tnooz have created a great breakdown of statistics that really put the power of a review into perspective.

This article reinforces that there is no sign of online reviews dying down any time soon! For vacation rental managers, it strengthens the importance of keeping on top of anything being written about your business. After all, a negative review can really affect a brand image.
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China has its own version of Airbnb

Airbnb fever has reached China in the form of short-term listing site Tujia. Founded by Beijing-based Tujia Technology Co. in 2012, Tujia now lists more than 80,000 properties in China and beyond. The staff at the listing site even change towels, arrange cleaning schedules and keep the property spotless for the vacation rental manager.

This is excellent news to hear as it reinforces that the vacation rental industry is growing globally. Plus, it's brilliant that China have recognised the sharing economy trend and have decided to jump on board.
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Matt Landau shares tips on price anchoring

Fellow vacation rental manager Matt Landau published an interesting article this week on using price anchoring to convert more booking inquiries. Matt goes into how setting a price and limiting a product could potentially be used in vacation rental marketing.

We are big fans of Matt's work as he comes up with some innovative vacation rental marketing ideas. In this article he shares 5 ways price anchoring can be tailored to your vacation rental business such as multi-night or slash competitors pricing. After all, every property manager wants to fill booking calendars so this article is definitely worth a look!

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A first look at Expedia vacation rentals

Luckily for us, Skift shared an insight into the progress of the recent partnership between Expedia and HomeAway this week! In their article they provide screenshots of a beta version of the yet to be launched Expedia vacation rental site.

It's still in motion and as Skift point out there is room for improvement but even so, it's great to get a sneak preview of what's to come! Furthermore, it reinforces that the vacation rental industry is slowly gaining a strong presence in the mainstream tourism sector.

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Have we missed any important news articles relevant to the vacation rental industry this week? Please feel free to share your articles with us in the comment section below!

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