Mobile-focused vacation rentals company Dwellable surveyed 100 vacation rental management company (VRMC) executives to see how mobile is impacting the way that they list their rentals.
The survey was specifically geared towards those executives that were already pushing the majority of their properties through online listing portals, with 95% of participants selecting "listing websites" as a top three source of bookings. And the surveying company has a clear interest in proving the value of mobile listings. Even so, the results offer a compelling case for adding the mobile channel to an existing listing marketing strategy.
When asked whether it was important to reach vacation renters via mobile, another 95% said yes - clearly highlighting the importance of mobile to this cohort of VRMC managers.
Here's how the rest of the survey breaks down.
Mobile's role in growth
Mobile is clearly an area of excitement for the surveyed executives.
The same goes for where the cohort wants vacation rental search companies to deploy their assets:
And yet only 32% of those surveyed have a mobile website - another case of a clear understanding of the trend without an accompanying tool to leverage it.
So there's a clear expectation that mobile is going to account for significant growth in the next 5 years - what do these professional vacation rental managers do to get to customers on mobile?
Even so, a surprising 63% are confident in their ability to plan and execute a mobile strategy - a case of no strategy being a strategy, perhaps, or simply that the strategy is to act only once the financial impact of not being on mobile is more calculable.
Or property managers are just cheap:
Nonetheless, the results are grim. Were the results somehow skewed given the sample chosen by the surveying company? It's most definitely possible.
What's clear is that efforts on mobile are vital to growth - which can be seen by Airbnb's focus on the mobile booking experience - and that successful companies must follow users onto mobile if they want to be where customers spend much of their digital time.
To read the full survey, click here.
NB: Smartphone property rental images courtesy Shutterstock.