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Insider Secrets from Vacation Rental Marketing Blog Founder Matt Landau 

This year’s first-ever KigoWorld conference in Barcelona featured vacation rental guru and Vacation Rental Marketing Blog founder Matt Landau as a distinguished speaker.

Landau is a guiding force in establishing best practices for the vacation rental industry. Watching the industry crystallizing as a vacation rental manager in the Republic of Panama, he began to document what was working not just in Panama but in other markets as well, ultimately creating the Vacation Rental Marketing Blog (VRMB.com). This interactive blog has since become the premier hub for exchanging tips and advice about marketing a successful vacation rental business.

Landau also recently completed the first season of “A Sense of Place,” a slickly-produced travel series about vacation rental businesses around the world. Now entering its second season, the series is produced in partnership with Booking.com. Learn more in a recent article from VRMintel.

Predicting the future of vacation rental management

In his KigoWorld presentation, Landau addressed what he calls a pivotal moment in the evolution of the vacation rental industry. He sees the VRM industry diverging into two categories. There are the more generic “commodity” businesses that fulfill basic expectations such as cleanliness and online bookings; and there are what he calls "Limited Edition” businesses that distinguish their brands with individualized and personal character.

It's this second category that Landau argues provides an inherent advantage, a protective shield against the incursion of the large companies that loom over and threaten to engulf smaller businesses.

One differentiator of a “Limited Edition” vacation rental business is having properties that cannot be duplicated because they are special in one way or another: beachfront properties, penthouses and “one-of-a-kind” properties would be examples.

But not all properties will fit this description. And this leads to the other big differentiator that can ensure your success: a mix of “intrinsic” qualities that wrap you, your company and your properties with an aura that no big company can replicate. Landau says many of the most progressive property managers are probably leveraging some of these already – they simply need to pursue them more deliberately.

Eight principles for success

In his presentation, Landau unveiled the eight components of his "Theory of Limited Edition" – making independent managers invulnerable to big competitors and helping them stand out even among other expertly branded smaller businesses. As the big players become more aggressive and new players increasingly grow their market share, Landau says that these eight principles are key to protecting and expanding any vacation rental business going forward.

With Kigo Marketplace, vacation rental platforms can manage, market and deliver a complete experience for guests. Get a free trial today!

Editors note- this article has been updated and republished for those new to the Kigo blog. 

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