Where is the Vacation rental (VR) industry at?

From a traditional market to billions spent in online advertising

VR became mainstream mostly due to the emergence of AIRBNB. Until then, the industry was relatively traditional and experienced few changes in its essence and model. There were a handful of market places and direct contact between all parties were at the core of the relationships.

In the pas few years, the environment changed drastically. We saw large acquisition and investments within the industry major actors (AIRBNB, Tripping) and Online Travel Agents (OTA) as up-coming competitors (Priceline, Trip Advisor, Expedia). These investments also drove the radical change in the way guests were booking their holiday lettings with the rise of book-now models. This is turning the fixed subscription model into a pay-per-booking commission. During that period, the number of properties on offer sharply increased due to the emergence of an economy.

Finally, with billions spent in online advertising these market places ensure they dominate the top positions in search engines. VR proprietary websites end up with little space which meant that the OTAs became a necessity in any distribution strategy.

Needless to say that this combination quickly impacted VR professionals with an increased cost of distribution. Some also reduced their gross income due to price discounts, as a mean to generate conversion. Eventually, they are also faced with the need to onboard technology to deal with the multi-facets of VR competitiveness.

Hotels are doing it, Vacation Rentals will too

This being said, the VR industry is atypical! While it is a long way from maturity, it has another similar model to base its evolution upon. Hotels have experienced this situation a lot earlier and already have established means and technology to counteract these tactics; allowing them to compete with OTAs.

Today, while many VRs are simply focusing on the connectivity to market places to follow the industry Goliath, others are the David of this world and are advocating the Listing Site Independence (LSI).

We firmly believe that the solution is in between! The dominance of the OTAs can not be avoided and we must ally ourselves to them, while implementing direct marketing strategies to increase a higher net income.

Our foundations

Far from the opportunistic eye, our experiences working as and with VR managers, owners and agents provided our unique foundations. This created a proven business model which clearly generates mutually beneficial outcomes for all parties.

From our inception, we focused our work on the development of booking platforms, VR management tools and marketing services. We also believe that a collaborative environment is a key to sustainability. We have successfully established partnerships with industry pioneers which extended our offer in the marketing and distribution of properties. Combined with our tools, we give professionals the means to enhance their control over direct and connected marketing; thus over time reduce their dependancy from the market places.

On time for the industry (r)evolution

It is clear that the perspective of the industry will be one of a challenge for VR professionals. For everyone to remain within a high level of competitiveness, working habits and business model need to evolve.

Our company is providing management tools that increase communication, efficiency and save time at an operational level. We also witness that our integrated marketing tools are showing the premises of an ever increasing need to grow direct business in a cost efficient manner.

We have already started to synchronise the essential VR tools under one umbrella in order to:

• strengthen our market position with our management tools and the systemisation and automation of necessary tasks;
• embrace the changes to come by integrating direct marketing technology from our current partners and third party providers

Ultimately, the goal is for VRs to use one umbrella to manage their back & front office, distribute their properties to channels and interact directly with their ever increasing client base.

We aim to reach a business volume which will ensure that these solutions are not only efficient but also remain cost-effective. Using such tools will become an integral part of any business growth to increase the owners and managers bottom line. It will not be an option anymore!

The fundamentals of our community

While there is a high respect for corporation who seek investment promises, our philosophy has always been to remain close to our clients and specifically work on quality rather than quantity.

Too many times have we seen larger corporation take-over and radically change the essence of a company. Sadly, too often, this turned to the detriment of too many of its clients.

For these reasons, we have structured our equity sharing around affordable and meaningful levels so everyone may participate.

As such, the participation starts at USD 2,000 and is capped at USD30,000. Operational partners who can bring either IT development or a sales structure can join our venture at a higher level.

We will unlock the funds to develop our proven model and kick start our business growth. Technically this means enhancing the existing functionalities and release new system modules. At the same time, we will create a sales and support team to grow our community of users.

As a token of appreciation, participating VRs will immediately benefit from preferential discount of up to 30% for our current products and services as well as for our future launches. This benefit comes in addition to the expected return on investment.

Step-in and be part of Klik.villas community!

You can now pre-register your interest and receive our full business pack for the next 5 years.

We look forward to welcoming you within our venture and expand our like-minded community.