About Weekend Oasis

About Weekend Oasis Vacation Rentals

About Weekend Oasis Weekend Oasis was officially founded in 2009 in the state of Virginia as Weekend Oasis Vacation Rentals, LLC. After owning a rental home and purchasing a second rental home, Weekend Oasis vacation rentals was formed. Our concept is simple: we focus on giving guests the best vacation rentals possible.

We offer weekly, monthly, and long term rentals - but traditionally we offer 2 - 3 night weekend stays. Weekend Oasis rents cabins, houses, condos, and cottages in Virginia.

Our goal is to allow guests to easily book, check-in, and ensure everything they need for a pleasant stay exists. In doing this, we offer the best pricing so we can ensure guests can get away for the weekend and relax without stressing out over the price!

Everybody deserves a Weekend Oasis and we are going to give you one!

Our best employees:

Bernard taking reservations

Oliver and Bernard inspecting the cabin

Community Responsibility

Community Responsibility

Weekend Oasis Vacation Rentals offers rental cabins in Front Royal, Amissville, and Basye Virginia.  Our cabins are nestled into beautiful country side with mother nature controlling the land.  

Our properties feature sustainable living products such as Seventh Generation household paper products, detergants, and cleaners. We use low emissions lawn care equipment and only remove and prune trees that are required.  Mother Nature is allowed to control the land and we maintain some down trees as they would exist in the forest for natural forest break down and wildlife.

We believe it is our duty to allow guests to enjoy the beautiful mountains in the Shenandoah Valley and do our part to maintain it's natrual beauty and do our best to be as green as possible.

Weekend Oasis Vacation Rentals also likes to give back to the community and help local organizations. Please find a list of our parnterships we've established below.
 


 

Partnership formed:
March 20, 2011

Involvement:
Donations for silent auctions to raise funds for the Washington DC Green Corps

"Green Corps was launched by U.S. PIRG in 1992. The mission of Green Corps is to train organizers, provide field support for today’s critical environmental campaigns, and graduate activists who possess the skills, temperament, and commitment to fight and win tomorrow’s environmental battles."

Partnership formed:
April 2008

Involvement:
Donations for silent auctions to raise funds

"St. Luke’s House, Inc., (SLH) was founded in 1971 by concerned citizens from St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Bethesda, MD to address the needs of persons  being released from state psychiatric hospitals who were at great risk of homelessness,  the lack of basic human needs, accessible mental health services, meaningful daily activities, and employment."

Partnership Formed:
September 2006

Involvement:
Cash Donations

"The Washington Humane Society (WHS), the only Congressionally-chartered animal welfare agency in the United States, has been the area’s leading voice for animals since 1870. As the only open-access shelter in the Nation’s Capital, the Washington Humane Society provides comfort and care to nearly 30,000 animals each year through its broad range of programs and services including sheltering, adoption, spay and neuter, CatNiPP, Humane Law Enforcement, lost and found, human–animal therapy programs and Humane Education."

Weekend Oasis: 

Jobs

Weekend Oasis vacation rentals is currently hiring part-time work from home staff. If you would like to join us, please inquire about one of the openings below:

Link builder
Weekend Oasis is looking for a candidate to help with our on-line link building efforts. This candidate will seek out quality websites that would benefit from sending web visitors to our website, WeekendOasis.net. Your goal will be to contact them (any manner you see fit) and request a text link on their website, pointing to WeekendOasis.net. Upon each successful link you obtain, you will be paid a flat rate. No HTML/Coding skills required, you simply have to build the connection with the website and get them to add a link. E-mail info@weekendoasis.net if interested with the subject line "Link building job for weekend oasis". Tell me a little about yourself, your location, and why you would be a good candidate for this job.

Content creator
Weekend Oasis is seeking an individual to build content for the website. We want to continue to populate the things to do section and create fresh content for the homepage. You will update this website using a web based tool that is much like creating an e-mail. No coding skills required. This candidate will work 8 hours per week, anytime they want, with target goals of content creation to stay on track. You will be paid hourly. E-mail info@weekendoasis.net with the subject line "Content creation job for weekend oasis" and tell me a little about yourself, your location, and why you would be a good candidate for this job.

Brochure handouts
Location: Washington, DC / Northern Virginia
Weekend Oasis is seeking an individual to handout brochures.. You will be paid a fixed hourly rate. E-mail info@weekendoasis.net if interested and for more information.

House cleaner
Weekend Oasis is searching for a house cleaner to help with a new/future property in Shavertown, Pennsylvania. All cleaning supplies are provided. E-mail info@weekendoasis.net with some information about yourself, your rate, and anything else you would like to find out.

Weekend Oasis: 

Links

Rental cabins in Virginia

Weekend Oasis Vacation Rentals offers rental cabins in Front Royal, Amissville, and Basye Virginia. 

We would like to share some partner websites we work with.

Cabin rentals front royal va

Cabin rentals front royal va

The cabin rentals front royal have been offering their guest marvelous facilities, that are not only worth considering but will also fit to your budget appropriately. However, even if the rates seem comparatively high, they are worth all the investment. The reason for earning has always been to achieve life satisfaction and happiness, and this goes for everyone. So, when life is inviting you to a relaxing and dreamy place, why not go for it? The cabin rentals front royal va, are one such location where you would desire to go again and again. The place appears to be a dreamland. Immaculate built of the cabins, the astounding furnishing and the tasteful furniture combines up to give a holistic picture of a serene environment where you can go to find solace for few days. Or in other words, cabin rentals front royal va, offers shelter to those who have been exhausted from the regular hassles of life. So, do not wait for long, get the cabins reserved now!

Dog friendly rentals front royal va

Dog friendly rentals front royal va

 

Before you plan a travel trip with your pet, you must find wonderful pet-friendly lodging. There are several dog-friendly rentals front royal va, in Virginia. The place which are pet-friendly are also known as cat-friendly or dog-friendly rental locations. When you are finding a pet-friendly lodging, you must also look for a fun place for your pet. Now, in case you plan to take your dog along with you on the trip, you would not want to leave him locked in a hotel room all day, while you stroll out in the open air! So, find a place which have garden area and can prove to be a wonderful place for you and your pet. The dog-friendly rentals front royal va, provide remarkable beaches and parks for your pet! Hot tub heaven cabins are one of the few places where you and your pet can enjoy tremendously. This hotel is located near the Shenandoh river and national park. The Blue Ridge Mountains and Appalachian Trail are also very close to this hotel. So, check this and get booking for yourself, as well.

Front royal cabin rentals

Front royal cabin rentals

 

Everyone loves to spend their holidays at locations, which resemble dreamlands! The Mountain View country retreat is a marvelous expansive Green Estate. This estate expands at an area of 328 acre with places for hunting, spacious stable and other attractions for guests. Blue Mountain Oasis, our rental cabin in Front Royal,  is a wonderful place, with 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms that make it very accommodative for the guests. Moreover, it is located in a mountainous and rural area, where you can find the ultimate solace for few days. The lush green gardens of this particular estate provide a serene sense of peace for the visitors. Poe's Mountain Lodge is an estate comes near the breathtaking Rappahannock County that has been almost 70 miles on the west of Washington DC near the Blue Ridge. So, make your vacations worthwhile by spending this time in marvelous surroundings of this estate.

Front royal rental cabin

Front royal rental cabin

 

The front royal rental cabin (Blue Mountain Oasis) provides an awesome place of retreat for those who desire few days in peaceful surroundings. The Shenandoh Chalet is a marvelous and expansive property that is located in Virginia and has been categorized as the front royal vacation rentals. The reason for this estate to be labeled as a royalty is its beauty and the artistic woodwork around the property. In this estate, you feel the ultimate nearness to nature and every time you wake up, the fresh and soft fragrance of mountains will greet your days! This front royal rental is comprised of a cabin, with 2 comfortable bedrooms that can accommodate 4 guests; there are two bathrooms as well. The estate is a short drive to the Shenandoah River, and is situated in the rural area on 2 acres. This cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, is definitely worth a visit and stay.

Front royal va cabin rentals

Front royal va cabin rentals

 

When it comes to a peaceful vacation, you need to get booked some remarkable place, such as the Exquisite estate in the Shenandoh Valley, Blue Mountain Oasis. This estate gives view of a paradise on earth and you get transfixed in its natural beauty and fresh environment. This estate covers approximately 2 acres of land and gives you the pleasure of Boating and Swimming at Deer Lake.

Good luck cellars

Good Luck Cellars

Good luck cellars are almost like “good luck”! Well, it is an understatement, when you are content at heart and have peace of mind, you really feel lucky! So, when you get reservations for yourself in one of these good luck cellars, you sure will desire to redo this thing! These good luck cellars expand to an area of almost 100 acres in the region of Kilmarnock VA. These cellars have been established in 2004. Apart from the luxury and comfort that you may have in these cellars, you will be able to enjoy the natural vineyard that covers an area of more than 12 acres, now! The ground breaking and the tasting room inauguration is about to begin soon. The luxuries at the good luck cellars will make your vacations memorable. With all the hassle in the outside world, you will sure love to have a few days of solace in these beautiful and refreshing good luck cellars.

Poe’s Mountain Lodge

Poe's Mountain Lodge

Amissville Virginia Rental Cabin
 

When it comes to vacations in peaceful surroundings, everyone would love to have reservation at some wonderful place. Poe’s Mountain Lodge is the perfect destination for you! You will enjoy this luxurious rental cabin in Amissville and the fresh surroundings. Generally, the rate is around $250 per night during the weekends. However, you must check with the availability calendar for Poe’s Mountain Lodge and the latest offers to know whether there is any new offer waiting for you. Some people would wonder, what makes our Virginia rental cabin in Amissville unique from others? Well, if you are in search for seclusion, peace, tranquility and luxury, this place is something that is truly remarkable and worth a consideration. Poe’s Mountain Lodge is located in Amissville, Virginia and is situated on 25 acres of land with astounding facilities. The lodge has comfortable 3 bedrooms, and two bathrooms, with spacious dining and a marvelous deck area. Check the availability calendar for our rental cabin in Amissville now and get reservations for yourself.

Vacation rental Virginia front royal

Vacation rental Virginia front royal

When you desire to turn your vacations into a dreamtime and enjoy the best time of your life, you need to consider the vacation rental Virginia front royal. Like its name, the Virginia front royal provides everything royal to its guests and visitors. The Virginia front royal rentals have two luxurious bedrooms and a relaxing bathroom (there are other accommodation rooms as well). The cabin has been furnished so that it casts an upscale glimmer. Tiffany lamps and the white colored leather couches add in the glamour of the cabins. Just like the untouched wine, the cabins appearance makes them seem like a virgin! It is this closeness to nature and the purity, that makes these cabins stand out in number of other accommodative facilities, as well. The guests may either spend the time outdoors hiking or they may choose to sit by the fireside and enjoy the warm glaze. So, join in this marvelous experience and share the real glamour of life.

Vacation rentals front royal va

Vacation rentals front royal va

When you are in search of some luxurious and well furnished accommodation, you need not go any further! The vacation rentals front royal va, offers their guests a “royal” accommodation facility, where you will have countless facilities and luxuries that could add to the warmth and memories of vacations. So, in this holiday season, just round up at vacation rentals front royal va and get the best facilities! With three marvelous bedrooms, this place provides its guests comfortable home environment. Now many of you would be wondering, if it is a “home-environment”, what different facility does it offers then?! Well, there are more facilities than you will be able to chew at a time! That goes for a joke! But, on a serious note, the vacation rental front royal cabins have been offering their guest luxurious facilities that include fully furnished cabins with spacious living and dining areas, along with a wonderful kitchen and recreation facilities. So, this season make you bid now, and get yourself a reservation to memorable vacations.

Weekend in Poe’s mountain lodge

Weekend in Poe’s mountain lodge

 

If you want to have a weekend in the seclusion, tranquility and luxurious surroundings, then a weekend in Poe’s mountain lodge is what you need. This place is in true words a wonderful mountain oasis, where you can shed off the worries of life and get back to your element. This paradise has been located in the Amissville, Virginia. It is a nice estate that expands on an area of 25 acre. However, for mountain lovers, this is the perfect place! This area provides a wonderful mountain retreat to those who loves to have it. There are three bedrooms and two bathrooms with a large living and dinning area, modern kitchen, a huge deck, a magnificent stone fireplace and central HVAC. This estate is located just right off the route 211, which is almost halfway between Washington Virginia and Warrenton. It is a perfect location where you can find a escape way and a place for peace and solace. So, get your booking now in order to make your vacations enjoyable and worthy.

Property Management Services

Weekend Oasis property management

Our service offering is extremely focused: We represent a limited and select group of owners who enjoy the opportunity to create income by renting out their vacation homes when not in use. Over the past few years we've had TREMENDOUS success renting our personal properties. While building our business we have perfected a process, ironed out all the logistics, and have one of the best on-line footprints so guests will find your property and will book it!

My goal is to offer consulting services to clients that own vacation rentals and need to grow the business further, find more guests, and be successful.

Our services fall into 4 distinct buckets: internet marketing consultation, process consultation, cleaning services, fully managed solution (join our network)

My goal is to have a complete portfolio of rentals for a diverse group of people: couples, families, retirees, and anyone looking for their own personal OASIS!

Working with Weekend Oasis isn't going to be like a training seminar. It's not like reading a book or watching a video.

It's a one on one relationship with you to discuss your needs and develop a solution.

Call me at 703-468-1823 anytime with questions or e-mail info@weekendoasis.net

Please make a selection below to learn more about our individual services

Weekend Oasis: 

Cleaning Services: cleaning crew for hire in select markets

Finding a cleaning crew for your vacation rental is a big undertaking. When we first started it took us close to a year to find the proper cleaning service. How did we do it? We started our own crew! Every property we own is cleaned before and after each guest. This ensures the BEST quality.

Now that we have our own cleaning crew in place with our own equipment (down to the truck!), we are looking for select properties in Louisa County (Lake Anna), Warren County (Linden and Front Royal) and Shenandoah County (Bryce Resort) to service while we maintain our other units.

Are rates are priced right to ensure this cost isn't a burden on your business.

Don't leave your VR business up to a cleaner that isn't familiar with the business! Cleaning is one of the most critical elements and can be costly to your business if not done properly.

To learn more or request service please e-mail info@weekendoasis.net or call 703-468-1823.

Weekend Oasis: 

Join our network: complete turnkey solution

Do you have a vacation rental in Virginia? Would you like to be part of our fully managed turnkey solution?

We can do all the behind the scenes work that would keep you away from your family, your work, and your free time.

Weekend Oasis will ensure we keep a nice consistent rate of bookings to help generate income for you, the owner.

1. Processing of each guest lead
a. Initial e-mail
b. Phone call to screen guest
c. All necessary follow-up calls and e-mails
d. Processing of payment
e. Custom itinerary delivery
f. 24x7 guest support
g. Survey sent after each guest check-out

2. Cleaning services after each guest by our select cleaning lady

3. Participation in all SEO and SEM search engine campaigns

4. Targeted web content to geographic regions in our rental area via the internet

5. Direct advertising of your property on major paid rental websites

6. Weekly advertising on community posting websites

7. Use of Weekend Oasis booking engine

8. Consulting services for on-going rental business

9. Monthly e-mail newsletters to database of potential guests we’ve collected over the years

10. Creating guest welcome book for property and all instructional document

11. Quarterly review of rentals and rental income

12. Initial walk-through of property and creating any signage required for property

13. Spreadsheet of recommended house wares

14. Supply check-list

15. Maintenance requirement check-list for seasonal maintenance

16. Initial inventory of all property and documentation with photos

Contact us today to inquire.

Phone: 703-468-1823
E-mail: info@weekendoasis.net

Weekend Oasis: 

Marketing: Learn about Weekend Oasis Marketing

Weekend Oasis Marketing

Weekend Oasis has a strong foot print in Virginia for our vacation rentals. We partner with some of the best names to ensure guests find us, learn about our properties, and rent from us. Our occupancy rate is among the highest! When you decide to rent your property it is important to ensure the company you've selected isn't:

1. Over saturated: 50+ units to book -- will they focus on yours?
2. Marketing: Are they investing marketing dollars on-line and off-line?
3. Are they respected in the state tourism industry?

Weekend Oasis offers management services to select individuals which keeps us laser focused on ensuring the best tenants for our property owners. We can afford to turn guests away -- we have a fire hose of inquiries coming in from our marketing efforts and make absolute certain each guest is fitted to the right property so they will have a superb trip. Traditional rental agencies are only concerned with "getting the booking" and less concerned about the welfare of the guests and ensuring it is a right fit.

Weekend Oasis invests heavily in marketing. We advertise on all the major vacation rental booking websites, we invest in buying keywords on Google, we buy billboards in PA to attract the PA market, we send regular postal mail, we advertise with local colleges, we partner with local tourism offices and build a relationship, we have an active partnership with the Virginia State tourism office in Richmond Virginia, and we fully optimize our website so guests can find us.

Some recent marketing efforts include:

* Participation in the "tourism blitz" taking over the Manassas Virginia welcome center for 2 months with other partners in Virginia. Flyers, t-shirts, banners, brochures, and actual employees wearing Weekend Oasis t-shirts were present for 2 months.

* Vineyard partnerships: We have active partnerships with several vineyards with our brochures placed in the tasting rooms.

* The Apple House: Partnership with The Apple House in Front Royal (off I66, popular tourist stop, famous donuts) with brochures inside the restaurant.

* Virgina Tech: We have partnered with Virginia Tech and advertise our properties in several newsletters that are sent to parents as well as VA Tech alumni.

* Virginia Traveler Magazine: Weekend Oasis has actual print advertisements in this publication that goes out in the mid-Atlantic states.

* Front Royal Tourism Center: Strong partnership with the staff at the tourism center and brochures placed.

* Front Royal VA Brochure: This is at EVERY tourism stop in the state of Virginia. Over 1 million tourists stop at all the various tourism centers in the state and we have an advertisement in the Front Royal VA Brochure.

* Fido Friendly Magazine: Weekend Oasis is a Fido Friendly tourist stop and we actively advertise in the magazine.

* Google: Geographically targeted keywords were purchased so when users search for those terms we show up as a sponsored link.

* Billboard Advertising: We purchased a billboard in North Eastern Pennsylvania, at a stop light, to advertise Weekend Oasis vacation rentals.

* Weekend Oasis Schwag: Hats, t-shirts, coffee cups, posters, embroidered shirts, car magnets, huge 2010 efforts on promo items.

* Virginia Vineyard Blitz: We partnered with Vineyards offering a 10% discount to tasting room guests

* Road tour: Weekend Oasis hit the road from New York City to Kiawah Island, SC. Branded convertible Mustang with Weekend Oasis advertisements and we promoted the properties in NYC, NJ, WV, MD, VA, PA, NC, and SC. Brochures and gear were left at various stops.

* Partnership with Front Royal Cinema - advertisement on movie schedule that all movie goers see.



Billboard in Northeast Pennsylvania - actual billboard goes up August 2010 - we will post a picture













Process consulting: Discuss the logistics of the reservation

How do you handle a lead once it comes in? How long should you wait before you e-mail? Once they want to book, how do you handle this? Should I offer an on-line booking process? How do you manage keys? Do I sent a survey after a guest checks out? I had a lock-out, what do I do? How the heck do I offer 24x7 support?

Logistics. Have a solid foundation to ensure your success with your vacation rental.

We understand all the questions you might have. Perhaps you are renting and still don't have a solid game plan.

Our customized consulting package will ensure you have:

1. A step by step process from the time you get the lead to the final booking. Everything you need to do.

2. An itinerary format you can edit and send to guests for booking.

3. Inventory check-sheets

4. Welcome binder creation

This is not an e-mail we send you or a video you watch. It's a one on one conversation we have (in person, via the internet with webcam and voice, etc.) to ensure your success. Part of our service will include a session on questions and answers where you can ask every question you might have.

You will walk away from this session with a level of comfort knowing you've had every question answered you had about the logistics of the vacation rental business..

Contact us today for further details.

E-mail: info@weekendoasis.net
Phone: 703-468-1823

Weekend Oasis: 

Publications: articles that I've published for the VR industry

Please make a selection below:

Weekend Oasis: 

Leveraging local tourism websites

Please see the attached PDF version for proper printing and to view graphcs (click here)

By: Jason Miller Leveraging Local Tourism Websites
March 2, 2009

Analytics.

Without them I wouldn't be able to successfully convert website visitors into actual guests. Every week I run various reports to determine how my paid advertisements are doing (such as VRBO) and how much traffic is converting to my website. While VRBO does great things in terms of bookings, the actual conversion to my website is nearly non existent. Potential guests use VRBO to submit leads (that we owners hope to convert) and very rarely click over to your actual website. While this is great we must also consider how to find visitors and send them directly to our websites.

I have a pretty aggressive on-line marketing program for my rentals. Together I have a total of 3 properties all in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. My goal is to capture as much traffic on-line when guests search for rentals in the Shenandoah Valley. A very simple goal, but yet a very challenging goal. My marketing program consists of a main website that is used 100% for SEO purposes and constant web based updates I publish. This site links to the dedicated websites for each of the rentals. Each rental website is linked from local tourism websites, VRBO, and any dedicated advertisements I run.

Interesting enough I'm finding a trend that is worthwhile to report on. Over the past year my website traffic to the dedicated rental pages is nearly all coming from local tourism websites! This past week I ran a report on my website which consisted of 350 unique visitors to the website.

If you look at the report shown to the right you will see that 70.67% of my traffic during this week was a direct result of an advertisement on Virginia.org. Another great number is the local valley websites coming in at 4.80% and 3.47% of my website traffic! The rest of my traffic is pretty much from direct loads (user types www..) or my landing page site for all the rentals (www.WeekendOasis.net).

One question you might be asking is, "That is great but do those users convert?" Yes! While I do not have the firm numbers for this year in regards to conversions from the local tourism websites I can certainly tell you that I am getting a lot of confirmed bookings from these sites. In the next week I'll have actual numbers to publish.

What does this tell me? It is absolutely critical to leverage every single local tourism website. It also tells me to leverage any paid advertisements on these websites this year to see if the increased exposure continues to drive conversions. If you are not taking advantage of local tourism websites it's time to start doing so. Seek them out, publish advertisements, and keep an eye on your analytics.

Jason Miller
Jason@jamz.net
703-468-1823
www.WeekendOasis.net
Contact me for private consultations with vacation rental owners and B&B's-- jumpstart your rentals!

Weekend Oasis: 

Vacation rentals during tough economic times

Please see the attached PDF version for proper images and printing click here

With gas prices close to $4 in much of the country during the summer and the recession well underway in 2009, how can you possibly keep your vacation rental occupied? This is the question thousands of vacation rentals owners have asked themselves and continue to ask themselves.

My name is Jason Miller and I’m a vacation rental owner. I’m going on my fourth full year and personally own two properties and manage another. My rates go anywhere from $75/night to $250/night. I’m fighting higher utility bills, higher cost of advertising, competition dropping rates extremely low just to cover operating costs, and an economy that has everyone wondering if they will have a job tomorrow.

After constant strategy realignment I want to share my story to other VR owners. This is about the drastic changes I had to make from accounting, marketing, screening of guests, all the way down to my gas fireplace in my condo.

You have to ask yourself, after all this did I end up getting more reservations or just stay flat?

The Journey Begins

During July 2008 gas prices hit a national average in the United States at $3.87 per gallon. My bookings started to feel the impact as guests started considering the $40 in gas they will use to get to my properties (2 hours outside of Washington, DC). My rates were staying constant and the reservation requests were streaming in, but each guest was asking for discounts. I started to feel the pinch and had to wiggle my pricing down a little.

August and September of 2008 started showing major signs the stock market was in trouble. Stocks were tumbling, Lehman Brothers files for bankruptcy, the United States government takes over AIG, and the unemployment rate continues to climb.

The market was tough and is only getting tougher. Tough economic times were sure leading to tough decisions.

Change

Over the past year I’ve had to implement several changes to my business model for my vacation rental business. The changes are anywhere from minor tweaks to complete changes of a particular process (i.e. booking process). My rental business focuses heavily on Weekend Escapes (3 nights). A booking mid-week (Monday – Thursday) is only considered a bonus. I’ve setup my business model to only rely on revenue from the weekends and you will see a lot of my marketing strategy reflects this. While my model may be different than yours, I truly believe these overall concepts will help your rental business in the coming year.

Reservation process

My old process was very manual. Guests would look at my calendar, e-mail or call, I would send a rental agreement, they would complete and send back, payment would be processed, and an itinerary sent. It was common to take 3 days to close this booking.

Bookings started coming in at the very last minute. Guests were no longer booking months in advance or even weeks. Instead I started having an incredible amount of bookings with only 7 – 10 days before the actual reservation.

As a result, my process was failing. I couldn’t have such a manual process and keep up with the demand of so many last minute bookings.

I made a major change to switch to a totally automated booking process on my website. Guests would visit the site, view the calendar and review the rates for the nights they selected, electronically agree to the rental agreement, complete the reservation form with payment information, and book the reservation.

Immediately they would have an e-mail in their inbox and I would have an e-mail of the booking. I would still manually process the credit card and once confirmed I would send a detailed itinerary.

My process went from 3 days to less than 30 minutes.

I was able to leverage this for “Last Minute Specials” and target an entire new group of guests that waited ‘til the last minute to plan a weekend.

This new group of guests dramatically increased my bookings and gave guests the ability to book instantly, something they have come to like with major on-line travel sites. Guests also commented they wanted to finalize plans after hours and since my process was on-line they picked me over the others.

On-line Marketing

My on-line presence wasn’t strong and I heavily relied on other websites I paid to be listed on. Each property had an individual website but I wasn’t able to easily market unique websites for each property. Mid-year in 2008 I launched “WeekendOasis.net” which was the main landing page for all properties. I used a content management system so I could easily add content from any computer. With this new website I leveraged search engine optimization techniques to place my website organically on

Google and other leading search engines.

Website traffic went from 3 unique visitors a day to 30+ unique visitors a day. The amount of guests booking because they found me on Google led to an average of 1 out of 10 inquiries.

CraigsList became a major player with my on-line marketing. I would post 2 ads per week for each property in the vacation rentals section for my region. The ads were tailored to the time of year and offered a lot of “Last minute deals” that were generally 10% off. I would average 3 – 5 e-mails off each ad, and my closing rate was about 35% from those leads. The leads greatly helped increase my database of potential guests I e-mail.

Analytics became an extremely important tool for website marketing. Using Google Analytics (FREE) I was able to slice my traffic and understand what regions they were coming from. I discovered a lot of potential guests from areas I never targeted such as Pennsylvania and Richmond Virginia and was able to start on-line marketing on CraigsList and other free websites.

Contacts, contacts, contacts! I became a member of Constant Contact and would log all e-mails of each inquiry and send out monthly newsletters to potential guests.

Partnerships with the local state tourism website also allowed me to increase my bookings. Placing ads on this website was free (www.Virginia.org) and immediately increased my website traffic and actual reservations.

Tapping repeat guests also proved very beneficial. Instead of sending e-mails I would send out actual cards in the mail that I purchased from a discount print warehouse on-line. When guests would open the card it would be a graphical present and say, “Here is a gift for you” and instruct guests to go on-line and use a specific promo code to reveal their present. It would also thank the guest for being loyal to our properties. Website traffic would spike during each card drop and generally I would wrestle in 2 – 3 bookings per drop. My out of pocket costs would be about $110 total.

Reduce costs

My operating costs continued to climb in 2008 and I estimated they would only climb in 2009. Immediate action was required and resulted in:

1. Changing all phone service to a package that was less than $20/month (with taxes).
2. Changing all cable packages to the basic family plan.
3. Replacing all bulbs in properties with energy efficient bulbs.
4. Offsetting cleaning charges by charging a cleaning charge for each guest. Previously I charged nothing for this. I had no guests question this charge once implemented.
5. Renewing only 1 of my paid listing websites (VRBO).
6. Going on the budget plan at my electric company to keep consistent pricing.

The changes resulted in savings of close to $2,400 per year.

Up-sell

With various marketing programs I started to offer 10% discounts on several properties. In order to off-set this discount I had to figure out a way to up-sell an additional item. I turned to gift baskets for guests when they check-in. We created gift baskets in the $35 price range that were customized for each guest (name/card). During the reservation process all users passed through this page and could instantly add this to their reservation. We are still experimenting with thus but thus far I am getting positive results.

Personal Touch

We completely changed our itinerary to a more custom solution for each guest. The directions were changed to show actual directions from their home. We included a lot of information about our favorite restaurants around the property. The primary goal of the itinerary turned into trying to ensure each guest could check-in and never have to call us with any questions but refer to the itinerary. Of course we were still available; however, guests really appreciated the itinerary. We also published “sample weekends” showing what couples of various age groups would do at our property. This really allowed us to heavily market specific groups and give them ideas of what they can do at our property.

Additional amenities

At each property we added one major new amenity. At our mountain oasis we finally were able to install high speed internet via satellite. This was a risk, due to a high monthly cost, however, we can now market high speed internet and we are the only property on the mountain with this. This gave us an amazing competitive advantage in the market place.

We also installed an LCD Flat Panel TV at our condo, an amenity we are learning a lot of our guests are coming to expect.

The Result

With the on-line booking process, aggressive marketing on-line, cost reductions, personal touches, amenity upgrades, and up-sells, we have turned a stone and able to actually increase our reservations during these hard times.

Any discounts are off-set with up-sell opportunities (if I discount a weekend I entice the guest to stay an extra night, into the weekday, with a gigantic discount. Since I don’t generally book weekdays this played to my advantage).

To sum it up, yes, I am having a strong year thus far. The biggest change in terms of bookings is the bookings are coming in at the last minute.

My best advice to any VR owner is to be prepared to market to the last minute vacation guest. Your process must be simple and effective for quick reservations. Take credit cards, allow the guest to reserve on-line, have a quick turn around, and you will find a totally new group of guests.

Food for thought

Even during these hard economic times not everyone is experiencing this. Understand the market and try to market to these groups of people. Review your website analytics and understand what users are actually going to your website and deliver content they will enjoy!

Entice early planning guests that call for vacations in advance. Some guests are starting to plan early in these economic times because they want to budget. Taking the reservation now and offering a $30 - $45 savings will at least guarantee the reservation. Perhaps you can off-set that discount with an up-sell? Even offer to spread the payment over 4 payment terms? Ensure you have a firm commitment and a no cancellation policy if you do this.

Run special last minute discounts on websites and search for those late planning guests. If they want to go out of town at the last minute they are more likely to pay your asking price.

Explain the unique differentiators of your vacation rental clearly. Separate your rental from the others.

The road ahead

I am confident we can all excel in 2009 with the right strategy. I truly hope you found some nuggets of information in this article that you can put to use.

Happy renting!

Jason Miller
Jason@jamz.net
703-468-1823
www.WeekendOasis.net
Contact me for private consultations with vacation rental owners and B&B's-- jumpstart your rentals!

Weekend Oasis: 

The Internet: Creating your on-line footprint consulting services

SEO. SEM. Google. Twitter. Myspace. Facebook. Yahoo. CPC. UAR. CTR. UCTR. Yahoo. Ask. Live. Blog. Wordpess. Drupal. Analytics. Social Networking. Web 2.0.

Where the heck and how the heck do you get a handle on all this? Where do you start? How do you maximize your opportunity?

This can keep you up for hours.

I'm a professional in the .com realm. I started my own web design firm in 1997, created major on-line websites, published in various publications, and during the day work for a major website company consulting with fortune 500 companies.

Sounds like a lot of other folks calling you to offer services or others you find on-line, right?

Pair that experience with a passion for vacation rentals and you have the keys to success.

Let me put my experience in the field to work for you. My services include:

1. Overview of SEO and SEM and initial setup.

2. Discussion around website analytics and how to leverage them.

3. Installation (when applicable) of website analytics
platform (free)

4. Discussion about Google adwords and how to setup campaigns that WORK.

5. Targeting your content to your visitors (user searched for "Shenandoah Mountains" and you have images, headline text, and content geared towards this).

6. Social networks: What are they, should you use them, how do you properly use them.

7. Twitter: Micro-blogging, the pros and cons.

8. Your first website? Perhaps you need an on-line presence. We can help you get on-line quickly and within budget.

9. On-line reservations: Everything you need to now and how to deploy this mission critical service.

10. Increasing website traffic.

11. Converting web visitors to actual guests

12. E-mail marketing

This is a one on one approach where I work directly with you. The outcome of this service is an actual on-line marketing game plan catered to your rental, your needs, and most importantly one that fits within your budget so you can actually execute upon it. I will also maintain my partnership with you on a monthly basis to ensure success.

What does this cost?

The service is catered to your needs so actual pricing is customized for your solution. However, it's billed as a "solution" and not an hourly rate. Most packages start at $400 and it includes your entire on-line game plan that can be executed flawlessly. This includes 10 hours of actual one on one consulting. We also offer a monthly package where we work with you on an on-going basis, review all analytics reports, and adjust our marketing efforts as required.

At the end of our session, which is completely customized for your needs, you will walk away with a clear game plan for your on-line marketing goals and ready to successfully execute upon them. You will also have your initial marketing programs setup (Google Keywords, etc.) prepared to have your website content listed organically on search engines, and the ability to analyze your website traffic and make proper decisions from the data. You will no longer be confused but a seasoned expert in the field.

Contact us today at:

E-mail: info@weekendoasis.net
Phone: 703-468-1823

Weekend Oasis: