Among all the different market niches that make up the tourism industry, vacation rental certainly registered one of the biggest growth. The cause of such a powerful expansion can be found in the new needs arising from travellers, who keep on pushing towards innovation, and technology, which follow the trends introducing new solutions which often end up influencing the tourist needs themselves. All these changes have slowly brought back to life a niche that was apparently fossilized, turning it into a totally green market full of opportunities. Throughout the upcoming year property managers will continue to assist this evolution which presents a series of particularly significant tendencies that involve both the demand and the offer. 

If we were to analyze the phenomenon from a wider point of view we would realize how travellers have changed to begin with. We shifted from FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) tourists, frenetic individuals who reserved all visits, activities and attractions they could because afraid of missing out on things, to a slow tourist. This more recent profile enjoys doing things at a slower pace because it prefers enjoying experiences and because is sensible to the environment preferring means of transportation with less environmental impact for example.

In the meanwhile the sector is discovering new client typologies such as the Bleisure travellers, those who travel for work but end up extending their stay to discover the destination. We then have the Sabbaticals, people who decided to take a sabbatical period to travel and learn about the world. Another example is the digital nomad, those who don’t necessarily need to be in an office to work and therefore can afford to travel to different destinations. Despite these new client typologies are not that significant in number yet, it could still be interesting to follow their evolution since these are destined to grow anyways.

Another need that keeps getting more and more significant is the desire for the tourist to feel like part of the destination, and not like a foreigner anymore. In response to this need, many APPs to meet and do activities together with locals are born. This evolution also influenced vacation rental because it brought property managers to change their strategy passing from a totally core product oriented vision, the property, to a wider one including the experiential part of the stay.

Furthermore, once the demand and offer reach a determined level differentiation keeps being the key to survival. As the market became more mature property managers began to differentiate themselves. This adaptation has many advantages: it allows to know the target a lot better which also grants the opportunity to go deeper on how their needs can be satisfied and, consequently, truly generate higher satisfaction among clients. This brings us to those property managers who offer products gay friendly, pet friendly, ideal for families, singles etc.

In order to go towards all these changes Icnea users can begin by selecting the right sales channels to concentrate their efforts towards the public they retain more fit for their product. At the same time, if channels are correct, the commercialization of the properties will always go towards the ideal client profile. To know more about this topic we invite you to read this post.

Also, in order to promote the business as eco-friendly property managers can use descriptions, which for the most important channels can also be differentiated to highlight further specific product characteristics that demand is sensible to. Another way could be through an automatic email or by inserting an eco-friendly logo on the website.

Another important aspect that can be easily managed with Icnea concerns the experiential products. There are many different strategies and best practices depending on the property, its position, the surrounding environment etc. One of them can be found in this other article.

Finally, for what concerns technological solutions, Icnea puts at your disposal the possibility to use other products created by third companies which have been integrated in our system. Solutions include APPs to automatize property access (Staymyway), keep noise under control (Roomonitor), intelligent price management (Pricelabs) etc. Being supported by external products can be essential to diminish costs, environmental impact, noise pollution and many much more. It is easier to stay behind this fast paced evolution in vacation rental if you exploit tools such as Icnea’s PMS Channel Manager.