Did you know that more than half of the villas booked by our rental partners have Grade A status?

Our booking partners tell us that a home’s quality, condition and amenities all play a part in the overall customer experience. By bringing your home up to Grade A status, you can maximise the likelihood of our booking partners booking your home.

But what makes a Grade A home? In this blog, we’ll outline exactly what our booking partners are looking for, so you can think about any changes you might need to make to achieve Grade A status.

What makes a Grade A vacation home?

There are fourteen important factors that our booking partners look for in order to grade a vacation home as Grade A.

They are:

• Excellent curb appeal. Fresh exterior paint. Well-kept landscaping. Entrance is clean and tidy.
• Modern home with a new look and feel.
• Home fabrics and flooring are high quality and free from any marks or damage.
• Spotless bathrooms with clean grouting. Modern fixtures.
• New appliances, free from damage. Correct numbers of pots, pans, crockery and cutlery for maximum number of occupants. Excellent in appearance.
• Towels and linens are of high quality, damage free and spotless.
• Chairs and sun loungers are clean and comfortable. Enough for maximum occupancy.
• Large-screen Smart TV with high quality speakers/ surround sound in family room.
• Smart TVs in all bedrooms.
• Safe.
• Themed kids’ rooms.
• Games or movie room.
• Modern furniture in each room which complements the home.

Without all of these things, your home can easily drop down to a Grade B status. This makes it imperative to keep your home at tip-top condition, to replace towels and linens when needed, and make replacements to damaged items quickly.

Once your home starts showing signs of wear and tear, it will drift down to a Grade C status – and these homes will only account for ten percent of bookings. Once things obviously need replacing – whether linens or appliances or anything else – the home drops to a Grade D status and it won’t be booked by our booking partners.

That’s one of the reasons we’re so excited about the recent kitchen renovation we completed for one of our homeowners. Check it out here!

What next? Get in touch with our team

If you have concerns about any items in your house or if you’ve had any feedback that you’d like looking into, please get in touch with our team. We can also work with you on a plan to upgrade your home, if you feel it necessary.

We’re very happy to share more information about the grading criteria for homes. If you’d like to discuss our booking partners’ criteria or find out more about the way our booking partners grade homes, please contact the White Rose Villas team.

New year is typically a time of reflection and new starts.

For us, here at White Rose Villas HQ, we’ve been working hard over the holiday period to bring all accounts up to date as part of our start to 2022 so we can go into the new year with our best foot forward.

Like most of the travel sector, we’re hoping that 2022 marks a new beginning in the state of international travel. The good news is that, thanks to vaccines and our growing understanding of the virus and the way it spreads, nations around the world are beginning to learn to live with COVID-19.

Fluctuating cashflows over the last two years

The bad news, from our homeowners’ point of view, is that all the cancellations and re-bookings we’ve had to manage have taken their toll over the last two years. Cashflows have fluctuated much more than normal.

As a result, we’ve tried to be as flexible as possible with all our homeowners as we work together to support each other through these difficult circumstances.

However, even allowing for the changes and cancellations that have been disrupting all of our cashflows, we need to remind you that it is absolutely vital to maintain your escrow balance at all times.

Why keeping funds in escrow is important

Keeping your escrow account topped up is vital because it gives us instant access to funds we can use on your behalf. If your home requires emergency repairs, we will need these funds to be able to act quickly. Even in normal times, we need these funds to cover the ongoing housekeeping bills that keeps your house looking great and your guests happy.

The difficulties with escrow funds

During the pandemic, some homeowners have relied on us to undertake vital work and continue with ongoing housekeeping without ensuring these funds are available to us. This means that they are effectively using us as a free credit service.

Of course, this isn’t a sustainable business model for us and, as such, we’re taking this new year period as an opportunity to remind everyone of their responsibilities as a White Rose Villas homeowner.

Homeowners must keep at least $1,000 in their escrow account at all times (unless you have agreed a different minimum amount with us due to the size of your home). You’ve already agreed to do this when you signed your contract with us.

New rules around escrow

If you do not abide by your side of the contract, we are going to have to start passing on overdraft, interest and admin fees. Although this is our standard procedure as outlined in your contract, we have tried to avoid doing this until now.

We know it has been a difficult few years, but we do have to maintain efficient operations for everyone’s benefit – and this means that everyone needs to operate on the same basis. We simply can’t allow a few homeowners who want to use us as a free credit service to increase the costs of operation for everyone else.

We thank you all for your cooperation in this matter. And we look forward to a fantastic 2022 with you all.

New for 2022: we’ve recently completed a kitchen renovation and we’re excited to share the results with you. It’s a different, cheaper and greener way to keep your home at Grade A status.

We have recently worked with one of our homeowners to update and modernise the kitchen in their home. To save time and money, they chose to trial a new finish for the kitchen worktops called Miracle Method.

If you’re not familiar with Miracle Method, it is a special surface refinishing treatment for kitchen worktops and bathroom countertops, splashbacks, tiles and floors.

Why we like the Miracle Method approach

Instead of ripping out the old counters and worktops, Miracle Method simply resurfaces the existing counters so they look (at least) as good as new. We really like this idea and our first trial with the system has gone really well. The home looks great!

The homeowner here opted to paint the cupboards prior to refinishing the worktops, so the whole kitchen has enjoyed a modernising make-over. Instead of costing more than $10,000 for a new kitchen, the whole renovation cost less than $3,000. It’s a really affordable way to maintain your home’s Grade A status and keep amenities looking fresh and new.

For homeowners the advantage is obvious: the work is much less disruptive – so you won’t have as many days when your home is unrentable due to the refurbishment. You save money twice: first, because the overall refurbishment costs less and, second, because of the reduction in disruption means fewer unrentable nights.

We also love the concept because it’s greener. It means a lot less waste is going to landfill, so you can keep your home looking great without adding to problematic supply chains or excess wastage.

About Miracle Method

Miracle Method highlights the following benefits to its solutions:

• Refinishing saves time: imagine your kitchen and bathrooms beautiful again in just two to three days. No messy demolition or long lead times required!

• Refinishing saves money: in addition to being fast, you will save 50% to 75% over the cost of replacement – our customers save thousands of dollars.

• The results are beautiful: choose from over 30 colours and get the high-end look without the high-end cost. We refinish your existing bathtubs, countertops, showers, floors and tile making them look and feel new!

It’s important that only approved cleaning products are used with the finished surfaces. Bleach-based and/or abrasive products should not be used.

We’re currently updating our guidance for housekeeping staff and guests for all homes that have Miracle Method resurfacing on their countertops.

Are you interested in refinishing your countertops?

Are you thinking about updating your kitchen or bathrooms?

If you’d like to know more about Miracle Method, please get in touch with our team. We’re very happy to share information and results with all homeowners who are interested.

With bookings in Florida taking a hit from the pandemic again right now, we take another look at the RevMax dynamic pricing system with this guide for homeowners.

Have you signed up to use our dynamic pricing service yet? If not, this blog is for you. It explains how dynamic pricing works and why it can help you maximise returns on your vacation home.

The counter-intuitive profitability

Let’s be clear from the outset: we have to acknowledge that it seems unlikely that by reducing the amount of revenue you get per night for your home, you can actually make more money from it.

However, that’s the starting principle on which RevMax works: by agreeing to be more flexible on the rates you achieve, you can boost your occupancy rates. Since the discounts per night are relatively small, the increase in occupancy rates more than offsets them.

In fact, in practice, RevMax is a bit more complicated than this.

That’s because on some nights – especially during peak season or busy periods – you can earn more per night for your home than you would at your standard nightly rate.  And that’s what makes RevMax so clever: it identifies the trends in the market and adjusts your per-night rate accordingly to ensure you achieve top dollar whilst also boosting occupancy rates.

Why do we need such sophisticated tools?

Your vacation home is great. It’s unique to you. No doubt, you’ve enjoyed many wonderful family holidays there. And you’re totally committed to making sure your guests have the same great Orlando experience.

We get it. Unfortunately, so do the big theme park hotels. And the big tour operators. And they’re doing everything they can to win those bookings instead.

To do that, they have the latest tools and technologies at their disposal. And they act fast: adjusting rates so that they dominate quiet markets and achieve premium pricing during peak periods. 

In fact, they are using similar technology to RevMax. They have their own advanced algorithms. That’s why some of the biggest hotels dramatically and suddenly dropped their rates two weeks ago – because they saw the market slowing.

That’s what we’re up against. And that’s why last year we started working with RevMax to implement dynamic pricing for you.

RevMax is already delivering great returns for some owners

Most of you will know that we’ve been working with the RevMax dynamic pricing system over the last difficult year. Some of you may already be benefiting from it.

The beauty of RevMax dynamic pricing is that it uses advanced algorithms to assess the state of the market and then prices your per-night rental rates accordingly. This means that your house is always marketed at a competitive rate, based on current market conditions. The main benefit to this is that you’ll see a big uptick in your occupancy rate – and, consequently, the overall revenue your home generates.

The main requirement is that you need to be really clear about the lowest per-night rate you will accept and what promotional tools (like free nights for certain bookings) you’d be willing to employ.

It’s only by having all this information upfront and programmed into RevMax that we can act as fast as the big hotels.

We’ve already seen some great results. It’s hard to comprehend that some of our owners have been able to increase revenues during this difficult period – but that has been our experience with dynamic pricing.

As we progress with the system, we’re continually refining and developing what we’re doing to try to maximise revenues for you, our homeowners, whilst also delivering the very best experience for your guests.

Could you benefit from introducing dynamic pricing?

If you’re not yet using RevMax dynamic pricing but you think you might like to, please get in touch with our team.

There is no additional charge for using the RevMax service. It’s a cost we are absorbing for the benefit of our homeowners. It’s completely up to you whether you want to use it.

Our advice? The key to getting the most from RevMax is to have a deep think and be really honest with yourself – and us – about what you want your home to achieve.

Our team will work with you whatever you decide. Our goal is to help you achieve your goals.

If you have any questions about this, please reach out to us.

If you aren’t yet using RevMax, but you’d like to start using it, then please drop me an email as soon as you can at the usual email address: admin@whiterosevillas.com

We’re always on the look out for ways to make life easier for our homeowners and to make our operations even more efficient. That’s why we’re excited to bring you news about a new way for you to make payments to us: Zelle.

About Zelle

Let’s run through a few quick questions and answers about Zelle, so you can get a great overview of the payment option we are introducing. If you have any further questions, please reach out to our team at any time.

What is Zelle?

Zelle is a digital payments service. It has the backing of some of America’s biggest banks. As long as you have a US bank account, you can use Zelle.

Which banks are behind Zelle?

Zelle is owned by some of America’s biggest banks, including Bank of America, BB&T, Capital One, JPMorgan Chase, PNC Bank, US Bank and Wells Fargo.

How does Zelle work?

Zelle is an easy to use instant payment service and mobile app. It’s a little like Venmo, but payments are typically processed faster (thanks to Zelle’s backing by America’s biggest banks).

Simply download the app and you can send and receive money for free. Zelle is also found in the banking app of hundreds of banks and credit unions nationwide. You can send money quickly and for free – even if the recipient uses a different bank or credit union.

To get started, you’ll need to register your email or cell-phone number (either though your existing banking app or through the Zelle app).

Then you can send money to people you know using their email address or cell phone number.

Why are we implementing Zelle now?

By accepting payments via Zelle, it gives our customers another choice of payment options. Because payments are so fast and easy, it means we can act faster when there’s a maintenance issue. And you can keep your escrow accounts up to date much more easily. It will help to ensure that services aren’t affected by under-agreed escrow balances.

What’s more, the service is free to use. So you can avoid the hassle and expense of writing bank cheques. Instead of waiting several days for a cheque payment to be made, payments are usually made within minutes – or seconds!

We think this is a really important benefit because it means that if you need expensive or urgent maintenance work, it won’t be held up by waiting for a bank cheque to clear.

It’s going to be especially useful for those homeowners for whom we manage the home but don’t take bookings. If we don’t have an income for which to offset services and maintenance payments, it can be a real hassle keeping your escrow amount up to date each month.

Now, with Zelle, that’s going to be a lot faster and easier for you.

Is there anything else I need to know about using Zelle?

If your bank doesn’t offer Zelle, you’re limited to sending $500 per month. However, if your bank does offer Zelle, the limits are much higher (typically between $1,000 to $5,000 per day or between $5,000 and $40,000 per month).

Because the money is transferred directly from one bank account to another, Zelle is much safer than sending cheques in the mail.

However, because it is such a fast and easy payment option, it’s really important to only use Zelle to send money to people you trust. Once sent, the money can’t be recalled – so it’s also doubly important to double check the recipient’s details before sending.
 

What are the next steps?

If you’d like to use Zelle to make payments to us and to keep your escrow account up to date, you can find our Zelle details at the bottom of your monthly homeowner statement.

If you have any questions, please get in touch for more information. We’re happy to talk you through the next steps, so you can be confident when making your payments to us using this convenient new payments platform.

Our New Linens Service from Standard Textile in Conjunction with Marriott.

It’s great to be able to share some exciting news with homeowners this month. We’ve joined a new programme on preferential terms which enables us to source hotel-quality linens quickly and competitively. We’re eligible for the special terms thanks to our partnership with Marriott.

Standard Textile has been supplying Marriott hotels with high quality bed and bath linens for many years. The long-standing relationship is based on Standard Textile’s commitment to the quality of its products and delivery of service. The textile company now supplies 30 of Marriott’s hotel brands with bedding and bath products and is a preferred partner of merit.

About Standard Textile

Standard Textile estimates that more than 100 million people sleep on its sheets each year – many as a result of the company’s partnership with Marriott. In fact, it receives many enquiries every year from people who have enjoyed sleeping on Marriott linens so much, they want to recreate that hotel quality in their own home.

What’s so exciting with this programme is that you can now offer all your guests that same hotel-style sleep experience!

Standard Textile ranges include bath and bedding products and they already qualify for best volume pricing – no matter how many or how few you order – under the Marriott scheme. Given the prestige of the brand, it’s really exciting to be able to offer you their high-quality products at these preferential rates through our partnership with Marriott.

What bath and bedding products are available?

This week I was treated to a whistle-stop tour of some of Standard Textile’s most popular products for the hospitality sector – ranging from best premium quality through mid-range and performance products to affordable options at an entry price point.

The range includes:

• 100% cotton bed sheets and pillowcases
• 100% cotton duvet covers in a range of block colours
• Blended bedding options for excellent washing performance
• Incredibly soft, shrink-resistant towels
• Specialist makeup towels to minimise the problem of stains
• Larger pool and spa towels
• Bathmats that stay in place without the need for rubber backing
• Beautiful cotton bed covers with textured surfaces that eliminate the need for ironing
• Eco-friendly duvet inserts with filling made from recycled plastic bottles
• A huge range of pillows
• Pillow pads and protectors
• Super-soft cashmere throws
• Soft, all-season and washable blankets in a range of colours

I’m especially excited by the washable duvet inserts made from recycled plastic bottles. It’s great to see a company doing what it can to close the loop on this problematic product supply chain.

What to do next

If you’d like to know more about any of the options above, please get in touch. I’m really happy to share more information about the products and/ or the ordering process.

You can also see the full range of bath and bedding products on the Standard Textile website, under the hospitality menu item.

We need your help!

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the Standard Textile ranges and which you’d like to see in your home.

Please browse the website and let me know which products you like or are interested in for your own property.

Thank you for your feedback. It’s always appreciated and helps us serve you better.

Yes, it’s here again: recurring on the first Wednesday in February, it’s time to get this very important message across to your guests. Tell them of the many advantages to be gained by booking direct and abandoning third-party channels e.g. Airbnb, VRBO, Booking.com, TripAdvisor and Expedia.

Many guests (and owners) are rightly dismayed at the ever-increasing (often hidden) guest/traveller fees piled on by these platforms; how can they be justified when owners and managers are offering exactly the same properties at much more competitive rates, with a highly safe and personalised service?

What if hundreds of vacation rental providers sent out the same message on the same day explaining the benefits of booking direct? Hence, four years ago, #BookDirect Guest Education day was born. The campaign is intended to post multiple messages across social and email channels, to potential guests, promoting the many reasons to book their vacation rental direct with owners or managers. It only takes a few thousand mentions on these social channels in one day to create a ‘trend.’ Many frequent travellers will probably receive multiple similar messages from owners and managers they’ve booked with previously.

We at White Rose Villas are working with our direct partners to offer great discounted rates across our wonderful property portfolio; we’re certainly doing our best to maximise your booking opportunities!

However, it will only work if we all, owners and managers alike, post on 3rd February using the hashtag #BookDirect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc. So, it’s up to you; get posting/emailing and join us to participate in a tremendously beneficial campaign to fill your homes and help make 2021 a much more successful year for us all!

This year’s Black Friday falls on 27th of this month and, for many of us, it will be a very different experience compared to previous years.

At White Rose Villas we continue to proactively look to fill our homes with Black Friday travel bookers.

Black Friday is the busiest shopping day of the year and, while many will be staying close to home, there will be many bargain hunters looking for weekend (or longer) deals to take advantage of the fabulous shopping the Orlando area has to offer.

The current trend in vacation rentals is for either last-minute bookings (because people can’t plan far in advance in the current environment) or far-in-advance bookings (in the hope that things will be different next year, especially now we’ve had early news of a vaccination against the virus).

This means that, this year, we’re expecting Black Friday to attract lots of local travellers making plans for the end of this year. as well as more traditional vacationers making plans for later in 2021 and beyond.

We want to capitalise on both of these trends in a bid to book out your homes.

We’ll be showcasing your properties and, working closely with our travel partners, to offer attractive Black Friday deals to get your homes busy.

We feel that, with all bookings now being covered by our unrivalled Master Cancel scheme, we have a definite edge over other platforms.

This is where we really need your help: you’ll soon be seeing extensive social media campaigns. It would help enormously if you could like and share these posts.

If you haven’t already signed up to our Facebook groups, please do so here:

Facebook Group – White Rose Villas

Facebook Group – Ellis Exclusive Villas

Many thanks in advance for your help. Let’s work together so we can all get through this difficult period and emerge in good order next year!

The White Rose Villas Reservations Team has been back to school over the last few weeks!  We’ve been learning new skills in data analytics as part of the Rev Max Bootcamp.

You may be aware that we recently added the Rev Max software to our booking engine to help homeowners who are interested in using data insights to improve their results.  The Rev Max Bootcamp is an additional service which is designed to help users get the most from the data the software solution provides.

What is Rev Max Bootcamp and why are we doing it?

Rev Max Bootcamp is a twelve-week-long practical course and mentoring programme which aims to give reservation managers the skills they need to increase their bookings, occupancy rates, revenue and, ultimately, profits.

The course includes:

• an evaluation of current channel marketing
• the principles of effective pricing and length of stay strategies
• foundational data analytics
• how to ensure full utilization of system features and tools to maximum effectiveness
• advanced reporting to understand current position and measure changes
• how to target multiple market segments for the greatest revenue generation

The White Rose Villas Reservations team has already gained some great tips and insights from our work with the Rev Max team.  We’ve been learning new skills in data analytics and working with industry experts who have been coaching us on a one-to-one basis on how to use data to its best advantage.

You can find out more about the programme here:

What’s next?

While it’s fantastic that our team is adding to and enhancing their own skills, you might be wondering what’s in it for you? 

The great news is the team will be able to apply this knowledge to help all of our homeowners to use the data about their home and the local market to adapt their own marketing strategies and boost bookings and revenues.

If you are happy to be flexible on the rates you charge and the length of stays you accept, these new data insights can power some real improvements in your returns.  The Rev Max team report that the homeowners they work with typically increase revenues by 40%.

Obviously, we’re in a difficult market right now, so it might not be possible to achieve this type of improvement, but we’re really committed to giving it a go to get the best returns for our homeowners.

If you would like to work with us, and leverage the data insights available to you through the new Rev Max software, you simply need to be willing to be flexible in the rates and lengths of stays you accept.  Get in touch with us, and we can talk you through the basics.  Then we can get to work on applying the science of data to your home’s marketing.

What should I do next?

If you don’t think that data-driven pricing and marketing is for you, that’s totally fine too.  You don’t need to do anything and we will continue to market your home just like we always have and according to the criteria you have already set.

If you are aren’t sure and would like to know more before making a decision, please give our team a call and we can talk you through some further details.

If you’re super excited and definitely want to sign up to this programme of dynamic pricing and flexible booking, please send our team an email and we will get back in touch with you with more details.

We’re really excited and hope you are too!

This week on our blog, we’re absolutely delighted to bring you some thoughts from another of our homeowners.

Eric owns two fantastic family-friendly homes on Kissimmee’s Indian Point resort.  It enjoys a fabulous location, just a half mile drive from Highway 192 and close to the Orlando theme parks.

Like most of our homeowners, Eric has seen his bookings slow through the pandemic and, especially, through the various lockdowns.  As a result, he’s had to adapt some of his booking strategies.  We’re really grateful to him for sharing his tips here.

How to maximise booking revenue during the pandemic

I’m not a huge proponent of short stays but realise that the short-term rental guest base has changed with everything going on.

I am getting many rentals from local Floridians and folks from nearby states.

Guests are now booking with shorter lead time.  Many of these guests are looking for weekend family getaways and prefer to stay in a cosy private home instead of a crowded hotel.  

This trend should be good news for vacation-home owners as it could actually lead to an increase occupancy rates.  The days of staying in a 500-room hotel are over for the foreseeable future.

I’ve changed my policy on minimum stays

I chose to limit weekend stays to three night.  Three seems to be the magic number for me.

By limiting weekend stays to minimum three nights it reduces the number of party guests.  At the same time, it provides the opportunity for guests who may want to book longer stays.  By doing so, I’m also seeing bookings of 4, 5, 6 nights.

When I tried a two-day minimum on the weekends, the calendar was filled up immediately – and often with less desirable guests. However, when two-night gaps become available in the calendar I then allow two-night rentals for those specific days.  

One big pro for short stays is the opportunity to accumulate many more guest reviews.  Potential guests like to see properties with many reviews.

While we would all love to have five-night or seven-night stays, we must realise that this is a transitional period in the short-term rental marketplace.  Things are very different to how they were 12 months ago.

During this time, we must do what we need to do as owners to press forward.  This time will not last forever and better days are ahead of us.

I am already seeing more guests starting to return from other parts of the country.  This is a positive sign.  With a COVID-19 vaccine hopefully being available in the spring, occupancy rates should surely improve. 

How to book Eric’s homes

Eric owns the fab Summer Point home, which you can view here.  It’s recently been refurbished and has a lovely south-facing pool.

His other Orlando property is Lake Point, which you can view here.  This one is a great choice for families and has a fantastic lake view from the pool and lanai.

Share your thoughts!

We’d love to publish more homeowner viewpoints on our blog.  If you’d like to write for us, we’ll credit your homeowners account with $30.  If you would like to be published on this blog, please get in touch with our team in your usual way.