VRMA Executive Summit
Recently, Jabin, PROACTIVE Vacations Owner, and Greg, Our Property Manager, attended the VRMA (Vacation Rental Managers Association) Executive Summit. During this experience, 2021 rental trends and 2022 rental predictions were at the forefront of discussion. PROACTIVE Vacations, as a company, is dedicated to staying on top of the vacation rentals market and keeping you informed every step of the way.
What Is VRMA?
VRMA is the Vacation Rental Managers Association, and they host an ‘Executive Summit’ each year as a meeting of the minds style conference to further the development of the vacation rentals industry. The VRMA Executive Summit offered an experience to learn from rental managers from around the world, as well as share experiences through market trends in the year 2021. Please view the video below to learn more about the overall knowledge shared during their time at the Executive Summit.
“Long” Term Plan
As a whole, through recent trends, the vacation rental industry is seeing a much shorter “long” term plan for renters. In the past vacation rentals would see booking windows as far as a year in advance, however, the “new norm” of booking windows in 2021 transitioning into 2022 is in the range of 120 days.
Is This True For Holden Beach?
Over the past 18 months PROACTIVE Vacations has seen a drastic drop in booking windows. In the past, these windows would sit around 150 to 180 days where as now Holden Beach is seeing regular booking windows around 90 – 150 days. Emerging from the vacation trends during COVID, renters are much more short range in their planning for vacations.
Industry Growth
The vacation rental industry as whole is a growing phase. Within the next three years, we’ll see a lot of technology and the current processes in the industry.
PROACTIVE Is Ready
While talking to other owners, we were delighted to learn that we already have the technology of the future in place. Our processes are good for today and the future. We are Hyperlocal and we work to build relationships with our homeowners and our guests and that is what will carry us into the future along with the technology and updated processes.
VRMA Exclusive Homeowner Information
PROACTIVE Vacations is not only dedicated to bringing the best rental experience to Holden Beach, but we are also dedicated to serving our homeowners to our highest ability. The video below discusses exclusive homeowner only information that we are not sending out to the public. We care about our homeowners, and we care about being the best in vacation rental management on Holden Beach.
Guest Expectations
We learned from both our own experiences and those of other property management company owners that more guests have higher expectations than what we’ve seen in the past. The challenge is for us to meet those demands on us a property management company and the higher expectations from the vacation rentals themselves. Consumers around the country are looking for a more enhanced experience, but they don’t mind paying for those better experiences.
What About Holden Beach?
Holden Beach has really benefited from the travel restrictions and the cruise ships being closed over the last few years.
Vacation Culture
As people are unable to take cruises and travel internationally, more and more people are choosing to vacation in domestic resort areas. In addition, more people are choosing to rent vacation homes as opposed to hotels where they are in closer proximity to other people. This has benefited us in the short term, but we believe it may become a culture change that will continue to benefit us in the future as well.
Does This Affect Holden Beach?
As more and more people travel domestically and discover Holden Beach, we will be able to edge our prices up which benefits us as well as you, the homeowners.
Moving Forward: Looking Toward 2022
As travel opens up and more people are able to travel longer distances and internationally, we’ll have to continue to find ways to stay competitive and innovative. We’re looking at ways to continue to attract people to the Holden Beach area and hold onto the market share we’ve gained through COVID.
Closing Thoughts
We are confident that this conference and our learning experience is going to enhance us to be better equipped to handle the 2022 rental season. The relationships that we built with other property management companies that are willing to share information and their knowledge will help carry us into the future.
We thank you for allowing us to be your property management company and we look forward to growing with you!
