History of the Billion Dollar Vacation Rental Industry
A Colorado couple looking for a better way to rent their ski condo launched Vacation Rental By Owner in 1996. This famous site became known as VRBO. Indeed, an entire industry formed with the blending of the VRBO concept and Internet. However, ten years later, HomeAway acquired VRBO in 2006, along with many others, creating a semi-monopoly, and formed the industry’s dominant listings hub. Then last year, Expedia devoured HomeAway, paying nearly four billion dollars for the purchase!
Today, the Expedia-HomeAway combo tops Booking.com as the world’s largest accommodations listing site. Expedia, Inc. now offers an estimated 1.3 million proerteis–compared with Book.com’s 821,400. Propery managers are starting to feel the pinch. As these giants hide info, to protect their empires, property managers are losing their profit, identity, independence, and guest relationships.
Unfortunately, property managers feel they are losing control of their business. Enter Anthony Vaarwerk.
Anthony Vaarwerk, Property Manager Advocate
Tony’s primary focus has always been to support and promote property managers and their listings. Thankfully, In 2018, Vaarwerk is stepping up his game. To combat the OTA dominance, Anthony Vaarwerk has developed a new method called transparent booking. What does this mean? It means that all property managers who list with Find Rentals.com include their direct contact information, logo brand, as well as name of the property. THE COMPANY INFO IS NOT HIDDEN, therefore transparent. In addition, the program has been beta tested through 2017–and it works!
Suprisingly, many travelers now search Google for properties they know about, or property management agencies they trust. This is an attempt to ditch the monopoplies who now charge fees to the guest. Additionally, many guests feel a lack of hospitality, and do not care for that 24-hour email “help” desk.
What is Transparent Booking?
Tremendous transformation has hit the vacation rental industry since the day Mr. Anthony Vaarwerk founded Find Rentals in 2002.
Interestingly, before the Internet, vacation rentals were a mom-and-pop industry. Organically popular in Europe, many were advertised by word of mouth. In the United States, real estate agencies advertised via classifieds or other listing services. Some mailed promotions to travel related lists. However, the Internet has changed everything.
Along with Transparent Booking Package, Anthony also advocates branding tools for property managers Consequenty, he includes a free Branding Tools Package with his Transparant Booking Pacakge for those who meet certain qualifications. Click on the Find Rentals Transparent Booking Package (only $3.95 per month per property–with some minimums) to learn more.
| SUBSCRIPTION | MONTHLY | YEARLY | INCLUDES |
|---|---|---|---|
| Subscriptions billed monthly or yearly until cancelled. Call 716-741-4287 to cancel 30 days prior. | |||
| BASIC 5-10 Listings | $5.95/MO per property | $44/yr per property (60% off) | FR Transparent Listings FR Transparent CO Profile Branding Tools Workshops Branding Bombs E-Course |
| PREMIUM 10-30 Listings | $4.95/MO per property | $42/yr per property (30% off) | FR Transparent Listings FR Transparent CO Profile Branding Tools Workshops Branding Bombs E-Course |
| GOLD 30+ Listings | $3.95/MO per property | $40/yr per property (15% off) | All of the Above PLUS: $499 Branding Tool Package |
| VIP TOP TIER BRANDING PACKAGE | $6k Down and 1K/MO | $60/yr per property plus monthly branding | All of the Above PLUS: FR & VRTG Sponsored Pages Monthly Newsletters Branded Logo Redesign VRTG Property Reviews Social Media Branding And More |