Vacation rental vs. hotel tech: What's the future of PMS?

If vacation rental property managers want to distinguish how they do business compared to hotels, the first step is to rethink how they use technology and data.

That was the overarching theme from a panel on the future of vacation rental property management software at HomeAway’s Rezfest in Marco Island, FL, last week.

“The answer is simple: We aren’t property management software companies,” says Vinny Dicarlo, chief operations officer at Ciirus Vacation Rental Software. “We’re using the concept of ‘property management’ based on what hotels or long-term rentals were doing. We should change the term; it should be vacation rental software.”

The goal for property managers, he says, is to go from managing homes to managing vacation experiences. “We’re there to manage the backend of a vacation. With vacation rental software, the goal is to dominate the vertical and have no confusion with us [the short-term industry] and the hotel industry or long-term industry.”

Brett Parry, chief marketing officer of Streamline Vacation Rental Software, says property managers are at the center of the industry and are therefore responsible for delivering experiences to travelers.

“We get caught up in industry battles and forget we’re fighting bigger battles in the travel space. Property managers are the ones that are going to keep [people coming to] vacation rentals.”

Technology is “indispensable” to how property managers do business, HomeAway Software general manager Cliff Vars says, because “it’s something you rely on every day.”

Data is going to help property managers understand what’s happening in the market and help them make better decisions, ultimately allowing them to build their brands. “It’s going to give you a competitive advantage if you can get insights and act on that quickly,” he says.

Dicarlo cites one example of how data can help property managers make money in mid- or low-season: “It’s all about Asia and working with a channel in that market,” he says.

“If I didn’t have data, I’d assume Chinese people travel in summer, but they travel in February or March.”

Ultimately, vacation rental technology is in the newer stages compared to hotel tech, Dicarlo continues, which is the major advantage. “There have been hotels since day one. That industry is set in stone. To get them to change how they do business is very hard,” he says.

“We’re getting in the weeds and building this amazing [vacation rental] technology. We have the ability to change because we’re not a 4,000-year-old industry or old technology. If we use data correctly, the way we do business isn’t set in stone.”