Trends for Vacation Rental 2020
Do you already know the vocational rental trends for 2020?
- Direct Reservations
- Local Experiences
- Stay Customization
- Sustainability
- Smart Locks
At the beginning of a new year, fresh innovations and trends emerge in all industries and the vacation rental market is no different.
After the recent year’s boom, the hotel and vacation rental industries are expected to continue to grow at a steady pace. According to data from Turismo de Portugal, there are currently around 90 thousand vacation rental units registered in our country, compared to 24 thousand in 2015 – an exponential increase of 375% in just 4 years.
Given this growing sector competition, it is even more important to know the main trends for vacation rental, to be one step ahead of the competitors.
Here are the main trends that will define the future of vacation rental management in 2020:
1. Direct Reservations
Online Travel Agencies (such as Booking, Airbnb or Expedia) continue to have enormous relevance in this sector. In addition to being able to expose your vacation rental on various platforms and obtain a worldwide reach, tourists can also consult feedback from other users and compare prices immediately.
However, not everything is a bed of roses. Being exclusively dependent on these channels is the same as being limited to paying the commissions imposed on you.
Vacation rental owners developing their booking channel is the trend for 2020. This cuts intermediary costs and focuses on developing their own identity. Developing your channel implies an investment of money and resources, but it can generate a great return in the medium and long term and also give you more up-selling and cross-selling margins.
The idea is not to abandon the other booking channels but to develop your brand and depend less on OTAs. The most important thing is not to put all your eggs in one basket and to develop an overall and balanced strategy.
2. Local experiences
This trend for 2020 is based on studies carried out with consumers and has been following the recent year’s growth: Tourists increasingly prefer to experience the authentic way of life in the place they visit, then staying in luxury or higher segment accommodation.
And if vacation rentals are a genuine and local experience in themselves, on the other hand, our country has excellent cultural conditions to become a perfect ally. Forget the usual tourist guides and think about activities, leisure places, restaurants and bars frequented by locals, and suggest to your guests as an alternative. You can also make questions to various travel agencies and learn about their solutions.
3. Stay Customization
Customization is a cross-industry trend for 2020, and the hospitality sector is not indifferent. With the progressive popularization of “big data” (huge sets of data and information), there is a certain fear to become one more number among so many.
If you have your booking channel, you can make a set of preferences available to your guests at the booking time – intolerances, allergies, parking space and cribs are just a few examples.
4. Sustainability
As consumers, we are increasingly aware of the environmental impact we cause and the need to adopt a sustainable lifestyle. Consequently, the trend in 2020 is for more and more tourists to look for ecological and environmentally friendly solutions, regardless of the accommodation segment.
The greatest advantage is that, as a vacation rental owner or manager, you can start implementing this trend at any time and with small changes.
Some suggestions:
Review all the plastic-wrapped consumables that you provide for each stay, and consider swapping for other more environmentally friendly materials.
Encourage your guests to reuse bath towels and request less frequent bed linen changes.
Replace the main bulbs with Smart LED that turns off automatically when guests leave. If possible, invest in renewable energy and install solar panels. In addition to helping the environment, you will have a return on your investment in the medium / long term.
5. Smart Locks
The latest trend that we highlight in 2020 for vacation rental is smart locks devices.
With the vacation rental fast-growing market, there are more and more attractive offers. With a quick search on Airbnb, we can find apartments and rooms at very competitive prices, which creates difficulties in keeping up with the market.
With all this competition, vacation rental managers are looking for solutions to automate one of the most cost-intensive tasks in property management: delivery and collection the keys.
Smart lock use emerges as a major trend for 2020 as it allows property managers to save money in key delivery and collection managing. See here how Vacation Rental Manager Filipa Aguiar has improved her property.
Some issues solved with homeit:
– Guests who lose their keys and forget them inside;
– Last-minute changes to guest arrival time;
– Staff shortages to receive the guest at certain hours;
– Control cleaning entry time;
– Key delivery for emergency cleaning;
Trends are mere market indicators, so you should not take them for granted and proven data. The consensus is that the hospitality industry is changing, evolving rapidly and needs to reinvent itself to explore opportunities and address the challenges it faces.
