All Forum Posts by: Ken Boone

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Good tips!

Yea I always let the guest know I will send someone over to take care of it right away.  If they are lying, they change their tune and will decline the offer and will be insistent that they don't want to be bothered.

 It seem to always be someone new and I guess they see a thread they feel like they can join in on not seeing the date.  One of the problems with BP is the search function.  It is absolutely the worst search function of any forum, well of anything.  When you search for something your results come back in a random order and you will see responses from 3 years ago show up on the front page of results and stuff from 2 weeks ago show up 3 pages later.  I think that is helping with this here anyway.

 Will you are responding to a post from 3 years ago....

My VRBO account manager got back with us today and let us know that the A/B testing of AI choosing photos ended this morning.

Yea as long as they don't put the same AI team on it that they used on the AI photo fiasco! 

I think residential homes are skewing the numbers. I get those emails from a realtor too and sometimes have to scratch my head. If you go through the MLS what you see are a TON of homes with high prices that are not pending sale. Then all of the sudden you see a home that is pending and you look and see it's a shack of an STR that is selling for like 360k. There doesn't seem to be any movement in the 2-4 bedroom cabins as far as I can see. Of course I am not realtor not do I see any other reports other than probably the same one you got.

I think we are seeing more inventory due to people who bought last year freaking out and realizing they made a mistake.  The problem is they are wanting the high price in order to come out somewhat even.  The buyers right now don't want that high price and want a deal.  To me it looks like the market is still stagnant with the exception of the bottom end STRs - and I mean very bottom end STRs.

A lot of new building is finally getting completed as well which is also adding homes on the market.  But they still expect the high prices and most of those are sitting as well.

I think largely the listing prices right now are unrealistic except for all cash buyers who only want to make a small return.

So I think they want it to be on the move but I am not convinced that it is at this point.  I could be wrong though.

I think there really should be a logical flow to the pictures right?  Obviously your top 5 or 7 in front to capture a guests attention, then pictures seem to  show the way the property flows not random, then usually floor layouts and misc stuff like that at the end for those folks that want to look at everything.

3 of my 4 properties have kitchens for the lead view instead of a pool.  The one with the pool as the lead has everything else jacked up and out of order with the floor layouts thrown somewhere in the middle.

I just got off a 30 min call with our VRBO account manager.  I explained to her the situation and she said I was the 3rd person that shared this with her.  I told her there will be hundreds more.  I explained that as my account manager her job is to help me be successful, and this AI change which is in "testing" as she said, is not helping at all.  People will scroll right past my new AI picked kitchen lead picture.  I asked to get opted out as well and told her this is complete garbage

She said her eyes were opened now and she was going to take this feedback back up her chain and get back to me.  I also told her that we are seeing a shift to more AirBnb bookings in my market (Pigeon Forge area) and it used to mainly be VRBO.  She said she was aware of that and faults where expedia has been spending ad money.  I told her these kinds of changes were going to make me push my airbnb listings heavier which is something I don't really want to do.

Again, another case why building a direct funnel is important.  We are always at the mercy of the OTAs.
If you are still reading this I'll tell you one more change VRBO did silently that I found out after the fact.   I don't know when this happened, but at some point if you had a sleeper sofa, VRBO changed it to show up as "futon".  When you go back in to your listing to "fix" this, there is an option for "sleeper sofa".   The problem is "sleeper sofa" does not show up in your listing.  What shows up in your listing is "double sleeper sofa".  Doesn't matter that I have a queen sleeper sofa they have decided to show it as a double sleeper sofa.

Anyway my VRBO account manager verified that as well and is looking in to it.

 Well check your others, because one of my properties kept the same lead pic, but jacked up everything else in my photo order.