Crisis Management for the Vacation Rental Industry

Crisis Managementfor theVacation Rental Industry
P.O. Box 1639 • Basalt, CO 81621 • 866-PHONE-ISI (866.746.6347) • sales@instantsoftware.com
Entech |First Resort |PropertyPlus |V12.NET|Rezolution

Introduction

The last few years have brought many challenges to the Vacation Rental industry as a whole. Economic downturns, natural disasters, disease and terrorism have all made it harder to sell destinations around the world, and this latest incident along the Gulf Coast is yet another setback.
However, your organization can take specific steps to effectively overcome the fears and worries of visitors and rebuild their confidence.

Overview
This webinar’s focus is helping property management companies (PMCs) through the first few weeks of a crisis. It includes:

• Looking after your customers
• Media messages and marketing
• Looking after your business
• Looking after your staff

Looking after your customers
News travels fast, so your customers will soon be in touch (unless you get to them first).
What are you going to say to them?
What should your staff say?

It is important to communicate with both customers and staff on the situation as it unfolds.
All your employees need to understand how inquiries are to be handled as they are your interface with the customer. They can easily win or lose business.

Customers that are with you at the time of crisis or arriving over the next few days

Safety
Your number one priority must be the safety and security of your staff, your
customers and yourself. To do the right thing you need reliable information.


What is your hub source of factual information?
Is it local government and/or tourism agencies? What
factual information are they sharing?
What facilities in your area are operating/not operating?
What transportation systems are affected in your area?
Use the answers to these questions to prepare information for your staff and customers.


The tone should be factual and calm with an absolute emphasis on following security advice.
Even at this early stage the aim should be to operate “business as usual” as much as possible.

Immediate Communication on your Website

We live in an era of instant communication and your customers will use Websites to inform themselves.
It is important that you review your own Website and post some information immediately. This can be developed over the next few days, but a brief statement reassures customers that you are knowledgeable, credible and well prepared.



If your local government or tourism agency has set up a factual page pertaining to the crisis, offer a link on your site.


Content Management System (CMS):
Just be sure to link to your information clearly on the home page without making it the main focus of your home page.
If you have a news/blog section - link directly to that page from your homepage, and place all information there for your clients to stay up to date with the progress.


Web Designers:
If you work with a Web designer to complete your updates, establish a protocol with him/her for crisis situations (i.e. a different fee to be “on-call”). Also, if you are faced with an evacuation, make sure you know how to contact him and what his availability will be.

If you are starting with a new designer, Crisis Management should be addressed in your contract. This protocol will be much more efficient if you address it before a crisis situation occurs rather than after.


Add photos and videos to your site.
Optimize them for the search engines.
Don’t worry about perfection.
Use keywords in the title of your blog, news post, photos and video (i.e. Oil Spill Update from Gulf Shores, Alabama, or Oil Spill Travel Updates from the Florida Panhandle).


Blog posts - technorati
Videos – Digg
Photos to Flickr.
All updates – Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Tracking Lost Revenue
It is critical for the future of your business that you track lost revenue due to a crisis. In certain situations, there are ways to recover some or all of your losses.
Your staff will be critical in documenting these tracked losses and communicating these to your owners.


Instant Software’s systems have the capability to help you document losses due to a crisis situation.
Sign in at InstantSoftware.com.
V12
PropertyPlus
Entech
First Resort

Instant Software’s systems have the capability to help you document losses due to a crisis situation.
Make sure:
Your staff understands the step-by-step process.
Your reports are apples-to-apples.
You back up your data.


Offering Alternatives

If the customer is entitled to a refund they may be persuaded to accept a credit towards a future stay. This has the advantage of keeping cash in the business and allows you to keep your relationship with your customer.

Expiration dates/fiscal year
Special conditions, i.e. is it transferable?
Seasonal policy


Goodwill and Flexibility

You and your staff will be operating under pressure. Try to remember that this crisis will not last forever, and your business is for the long term. If you can keep the goodwill of your customers in difficult times it will pay dividends in the end.


Customers that have bookings for the next few weeks
Be proactive
Review your bookings and identify any that are particularly valuable.
Prepare a message for your future bookings in letter, telephone script and Web form.
Identify the positive reasons why customers should still travel.
Contact all your customers and tell them that you are looking forward to welcoming them.


Customers that have bookings for the next few weeks
Reassure your customers and stay positive.
Adopt a policy of full disclosure about what is known and not known. The backbone of your message to your customers must be calm, factual information that is regularly updated.

It is sensible to put yourself in the shoes of your customer and think about what they might want to do. If some activities are restricted, research some alternatives. Check with your neighbors and area partners to come up with some ideas for your visitors, and brief your staff to suggest these.


Media Messages and Marketing
Dealing with the media

In an era of 24-hour news reporting there will be great interest in the tourism industry. You should work on the assumption that you or your staff may be contacted at any time by the media, and be prepared.
Journalists will always seek out their own sources and look for an original angle on a story, so do not be surprised if they contact you.


Dealing with the media

Designate an official company spokesperson.
Make sure your staff knows who that is.
Answer the following questions:
What does the crisis mean for your customers?
How many visitors normally stay with your company during the time period and what is that worth?
How many visitors will stay away/cancel?
How much business will be lost and how much revenue does that mean?
What are you doing about it?


Provide materials to your own employees

A simple one-sheet should be created for all your employees to give a consistent message to the media and in the community. Clearly state your company spokesperson’s name and contact number(s).
Keep it short and simple, and be sure to communicate any questions you do not want your staff to answer as well.

Positive Public Relations
Remember the victims and be sensitive to the loss and grief of others. Trying to keep your business afloat is the right thing to do, but this must be done with compassion.

Stay Positive:
Taking a positive approach means being realistic but optimistic. Try to develop a focus on what visitors will be able to enjoy and emphasize the welcome they will receive from your destination. You may be asked to give an interview to the press on how bad things are. Take this opportunity to tell your story, but emphasize the actions you are taking to overcome your problems.

Some ideas for generating positive PR:

Brag when your staff is part of a post-event clean-up process.
Highlight partnerships with area businesses.
Communicate positive statistics when they begin to occur.
Communicate any discounts you are offering volunteers or workers.
Talk about individual staff stories or visitor stories.

Crafting and Distributing Press Releases:
Print the release on company letterhead to clearly identify your business.
In the upper left-hand corner, write "For Immediate Release," or, if the release has time value, "Hold Until XX/XX/XXXX."
Flush right (on the same line) tell the editors who they can contact for further information: "Contact: Mary Smith, 800-123-4567.”

Feature an easy-to-read typeface such as Arial or Times New Roman in 12 points.
Keep the news release to one page if possible -- and if it's not possible, end each running page with "--more--"
Provide a short paragraph about your company and more detailed contact information at the end (this is referred to as a “boilerplate”)
Conclude with "###" centered at the bottom of the page (this signifies the end)

Editors and producers face looming stacks of news releases every day. How can you make yours stand out? Don't resort to using colored paper or folding your release into an origami duck; such attention-getting gimmicks are the mark of an amateur.
The headline is your first and sometimes only chance to hook the editor or producer and keep him or her reading. Make it newsy, clear and interesting. A short subhead below it in italics can also help to capture their attention/interest

Turn It Upside-Down:
The body of the press release should take the format of an inverted pyramid: critical information goes in the first paragraph (who, what, when, where, why), information of next highest importance in the second paragraph, and so on.

Turn It Upside-Down:
Sometimes an editor will print a news release as is, and the inverted pyramid format allows him or her to slice off the last paragraphs if necessary without sacrificing important information.
Rule of thumb: Spend 75 percent of your time writing the headline and first paragraph!

Do Target Practice:
It takes some effort, but slanting your release for your local market can pay off in more coverage. The releases that seem to get the most attention are the ones that are written as if they are news articles for the newspaper’s targeted publication.
Research the publication, make sure the readership is appropriate (age, income, interests, etc.), and then tailor the release to that publication

Cut the Hype:
You can't fool members of the media, -- so don't try to pass off a self-serving advertisement as news. When an editor or producer reads such a release, he or she sees that you're just trying to get a free ad and tosses it.

Cut the Hype:
Examples of real news items are:
An event
A new marketing campaign
Community service
A contest
A move to a new location
The results of a study or survey
A new product or service –but only if it's truly new and unique

Ready, Aim...
You don't need to spend a fortune to have someone distribute your release. You can compile your own list for nothing -- just be sure to make it targeted.
If you want to get coverage for your business, don't send a release to the automotive editor at Car & Driver, make sure it’s going to the travel editor.

Ready, Aim...
Don't have the faintest idea what media targets your audience? We suggest browsing through Bacon's Magazine & Newspaper Directory or Bacon's Publicity Checker at your local library. Or pick up a copy of a magazine directory such as Writer's Market, which is available at bookstores for around $30.

Ready, Aim...
Just be sure to confirm the editor's or TV news producer's name. It's important to call and get the name -- proper spelling, please -- of the appropriate party. You can always send a release to a title, but isn't it better PR to send it to a person? A personal note sure wouldn't hurt, either; especially if you reference something you read in their publication that spurred you to send them info on your activity or event.

Review marketing campaigns and your current marketing message
Appropriate advertising
Business trips and exhibitions
Your new marketing message
Act quickly to replace lost customers. In the short term you will need to offer customers incentives.
Develop your message over the days/weeks following a crisis once the extent of the damage from the event can be assessed and an informed position can be stated.

Review marketing campaigns and your current marketing message
If it is a long-term recovery process, show your company and your staff involved in the community and provide opportunities for guests and owners to be involved in volunteer efforts if appropriate.
After Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans offered guests, conferences and conventions volunteer opportunities for visitors. These opportunities keep your visitors involved in the area and assure their return to your rentals.

Review Marketing campaigns and your current marketing message
If the recovery process is short-term, you will want to redirect your marketing efforts from branding campaigns to informative campaigns

Build your relationships
Build and maintain your relationships with all your partners.
Tourism officials, area businesses, industry partners, travel agents and/or tour operators, will be able to give you good market intelligence, and you can talk to them about what you can do together to encourage customers.

Review your online presence
Make sure your Website is working for you:

1. Make sure that your Website provides online search that is relevant to your inventory and provides a booking process that is quick and simple with the least amount of clicks as possible.
2. Make sure that you have either a blog, news, or events section of your website where you can clearly update your guests on the status of your company during the good, the bad, the quiet and the weather/event sensitive times. This gives your guests the ability to make you the authority on what is going on in your area.

Review your online presence
Make sure your Website is working for you:

3. Be Candid. Make sure you are showing reviews, testimonials, photo contests, video contests and more - make your clients an integral part of your brand instead of just a customer.

Communications with Homeowners
VRMA Crisis Communications
Prepared by Ypartnership
COMMUNICATING WITH HOMEOWNERS. There is information that only homeowners need.
Post these messages on your company website in areas that only homeowners can access.
Create an electronic newsletter or e-mail blasts for homeowners and send them out every few days or when there are significant updates. These newsletters are invaluable and much appreciated by owners who don’t live in the area.

Looking after your business
When customers stay away, less cash comes into the business. This puts your business –and the jobs it provides –at risk.
The vacation rental industry has shown itself to be remarkably resilient, but prompt action is essential. The following steps may help you to be clear about your financial position.

Assess the size of the problem
The first step is to determine the nature and scale of this crisis. In the first few days all you will be able to do is arrive at your “best guess”.
No one will be able to give you certainty, so you will need to assemble as much information as you can very quickly.

Checklist
What is the government saying about this event?
What is your local tourism partner saying about this event and its likely impact?
How long will the current situation last?
Are there any similar examples from the past that you can compare?
What are your customers saying?

Working assumptions
Record your conclusions as a ‘Best Guess’ or ‘Working Assumption’. This should answer two key questions;

How long do I think the downturn will last?
How much business will I lose?

Best, middle and worst case (These are for illustration only.)

Best: 4 weeks, 10% cancelled reservations
Middle: 3 months 25% cancelled reservations
Worst: 6 months, 50% cancelled reservations in high season

Look at the effect on your cash flow
In an ideal world you will have a record of your cash flow for the last 12 months to use as a reference point. This is VERY useful in a seasonal business.
The effect on your cash position will depend on your assumptions.
For example, a dramatic drop in business and a quick recovery will mean that you may need a bigger overdraft but for a shorter time. You will need to work through your different assumptions and sets of figures to arrive at a range of possible outcomes.

Looking after your staff
Your employees are your biggest asset, but also your biggest cost.
Involve them as much as possible and communicate your position with them often and simply so that they are an integral part of the process, and if you have to make difficult decisions (i.e. shorter working hours) they will be more understanding.

Make a rigorous appraisal of the situation before making any decisions.
Stay relaxed, confident and calm – your staff will be anxious.
Keep yourself informed.
Listen carefully to staff.
Clearly and concisely keep staff informed.
Keep everyone motivated.
Let them get on with it.

Assess and create strengths
Know your staff (i.e. who has the skills to help you in a crisis).
Gather contact telephone numbers for them all.
Provide training for you staff (i.e. in health and safety, evacuation procedures).
Listen to your staff and keep them informed at all times.

Assess and create strengths
Monitor the interaction between employees and customers. Don’t assume they know what to say.
Give your employees the following:
Procedures for consistently and accurately documenting lost revenue
Scripts for talking to customers and handling the media
Important links and phone numbers for official updates and advisories
A go-to list of who will be handling specific situations
Frequent communication (i.e., daily memos, daily department briefings, email updates)


Review your staff costs
The biggest element of cost in your business is likely to be your staff. If there is a significant drop in visitors you will need to take action to control these costs. Failure to do so may put the whole business – and all jobs – at risk.
Consider all your options before making adjustments, and remember good quality people are hard to find. Make sure to keep the most valuable employees informed and involved.


Resources
For VRMA members:
VRMA Crisis CommunicationsWhitepaper
You must log in to your VRMA account to view.
Instant Software, your business partner:
V12support@instantsoftware.com
Entechsupport@instantsoftware.com
support@instantsoftware.com (PropertyPlus)
support@firstres.com (First Resort)
866.PHONE.ISI (866.746.6347)

Crisis Management for the Vacation Rental Industry

by Amy Mutual on May 11, 2010

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Crisis Management for the Vacation Rental Industry — Presentation Transcript