It’s been a while since I last chatted with my buddy, Matt Landau and a lot has been going on since then. So this week we catch up with a few of the great blog posts featured recently on VRMB. In particular, I wanted to talk about the Keystone Awards for the top suggested software; an article suggesting we are creating ‘impossibly spoiled guests’, and whether the term ‘vacation rental’ is going to disappear any time soon.

Matt and his team at VRMB have been doing a great job of staying on top of developments in our industry, and in one area they’ve been delivering exactly what was needed – a comprehensive review of property management software.

Some time ago I interviewed Terry Whyte on this podcast and he shared his wisdom on what we should be looking for in a software system.

Of course, this depends so much on the size of the operation, and specific needs that may be based on the competitiveness of a market, the location and many other criteria.

So, this year VRMB, along with Terry announced the Keystone Awards following data collection from 100s of hours of demos, qualitative feedback and over 750 completions of the VRMB Selector Tool.

Matt shares the suggested software for different sizes of companies based on the outcomes of the data collection, and it’s interesting stuff!

Sallie Mitchell’s article – “Are we starting an arms race to create impossibly spoiled guests” resonated with me as we’ve been seeing a trend in our own guests to higher and higher expectations. Sallie suggests we may be creating these in our efforts to be unique and offer a ‘limited edition’ style of accommodation.

“As we upgrade our properties, add amenities, bestow presents, pile on guest services and arrange local experiences in the name of differentiation, engagement, and superior hosting, are we starting an arms race to create impossibly spoiled guests?”

There are ways around this and Matt offers his views on how we can still maintain our uniqueness and still maintain some control over expectations.

Finally, I’ve been noticing more and more how the term Airbnb has almost overtaken our traditional ‘vacation rentals’ and wondered if this trend will ultimately mean no-one will understand it anymore. The article Airbnb – The Verb articulates this perfectly and Matt discusses how he felt about writing the post which he felt was ‘incomplete’.

Links to resources mentioned in this episode:

VRS198 – Selecting the Right PMS with Terry Whyte

VRMB Keystone Awards

Airbnb – The Verb

“Are we starting an arms race to create impossibly spoiled guests”