Memorable Moments from VRNation 2024

VRNation rebrands and pushes back on Airbnb

One message that came through clearly was a push for property managers to differentiate their business from Airbnb and get away from competing on price. For VRNation, (formerly North West Vacation Rental Professionals), the organization’s rebranding is a signal to the world that it’s time for vacation rental managers to come together. Refocused, the organization is working to facilitate more direct relationships between guests and property managers while shifting away from OTAs.

The new VRNation booking website was announced on the first day of the conference. Developed in collaboration with Scouted and Beyond and exclusive to members, the platform already has over 360 properties listed across 6 states. By prioritizing fairness, affordability, and a sense of community, VRNation seeks to usher in a new era of independence for the vacation rental industry. 

Tubes and tubers with Casago

This won the award for best booth game at VRNation, hands-down. No shiny bells and whistles, just tubes and tubers. Anyone passing by could put a potato in one of three tubes to vote on which option is the biggest challenge for vacation rental managers:

• Scaling & Systematizing: This category had an immediate lead, highlighting the maturation of many short-term rental property managers and their need for more sophisticated, yet cost effective solutions. 
• Door Growth: Common challenges related to door growth include interest rates, low inventory of new homes to rent, and finding and closing new owners. 
• Accounting: There’s a lot to unpack from this one word. Accounting means something different to everyone, but it seems like a good number of property managers agree on one thing: it’s a headache.

Based on this potato poll, Scaling and Systematizing took the cake, with Door Growth and Accounting tying for second. Where would you cast your vote?

Familiar faces and industry celebrities

In today’s increasingly virtual world, in-person meetings are becoming more rare. So, events and conferences like VRNation are a great opportunity to meet in-person with others in the industry. If you were there, you probably ran into well-known figures, like Justin Ford, from Breezeway,  Colter Robinson, with Hostfully, and David Angotti, with Guesty. In the Exhibitor hall, you probably stopped by the booths to see what’s new with technology partners like:

• Hostfully – Join an upcoming live-only webinar on June 20th for exclusive insights from the Google Travel team to help increase your direct bookings!
• Guesty – Guesty recently raised $130M in funding which it will use to further global expansions through acquisitions and organic growth and broaden its enterprise-level offerings. 
• OwnerRez – Paul Waldschmidt appeared on Unlocked by Matt Landau, a podcast highlighting innovative leaders in the vacation rental space. Listen Here
• Track – Introducing, TrackSuite. The new branding reflects Track’s expansion over the last 22 years into a true powerhouse of functionality for short-term rental managers.

Want to learn more about the property management systems Ximplifi partners with? Visit our F.A.Q here.

Thanks for the memories, Boise!

Between listening to the Boise State University Jazz Band perform, getting a free printed copy of Brooke Pfautz’s Vacation Rental Secrets book, and savoring potatoes made a dozen different ways, there were a lot of great memories to take home from this event. Supporting the long-term growth of our industry will take more than just showing up to events, but these gatherings are nonetheless vital to building and strengthening the threads of our community. After all, how can you know what’s happening in hospitality if you never leave your office?

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