JZ Vacation Rentals Blog

When you think of today’s travelers, who comes to your mind?   Are you picturing your 18-year-old niece boarding a flight to London for a college semester abroad?   Or is it that 20 something-year-old solo backpacker you follow on social media? It’s fun to watch him eating and drinking his way through Italy, France, and Spain, right?   Perhaps it’s business travelers, taking to the skies to close the...

What does the average day of a vacation rental property owner look like? Are you waking up before the sun and kids to have a bit of quiet time to organize your accounting books? Or perhaps you sneak out during your lunch break to check in new guests to your home? Later that night do you stay up after everyone has gone to bed watching The Late Late Show, while...

Last summer a friend called me and asked if I wanted to accompany her to Mexico City to live and work remotely for the summer. Without hesitation and a strong craving for authentic Mexican food and some sunshine, I packed my bags and hopped on a flight two weeks later.   As someone who works online from their laptop, and really only needs a strong wifi connection to make a...

How often do you hear a new vacation rental property owner asking where they can cut cost due to the already demanding property start-up costs of renovations, amenities, and rental necessities? More often than not, in any business or industry, especially vacation rentals, the expenses get cut from the growth budget… AKA marketing and sales. And we understand why: A decade ago with traditional marketing, marketing expenses were a sure...

If you’re currently working in the vacation rental industry, it should come as no shock that more and more studies are coming out of the woodworks that center around the desire to stay in a vacation rental over a hotel movement. On average, these statistics are showing that about 54 percent of active travelers prefer to stay in a vacation rental over the 23 percent of whom prefer to stay...

I remember being told stories from my grandparents, and even my great grandparents, about what it was like when they were growing up. You know, the stories of “I had to walk 10 miles up a hill both ways to get to school.” Oh yeah, you can bet I heard that one almost every time I would even THINK about complaining about anything.   What really stuck out were the stories...

One of the biggest misconceptions people have when starting a new venture, such as starting a business, losing weight, or hosting your very own vacation rental, is that if you fail, that means you should not continue. Making mistakes in a new venture is one of the most critical ways we learn and become more successful down the road, but through a little research, some can certainly be avoided. So,...

Ever since the turn of the century, everything, obviously, has moved online. Can you think of anything you CAN’T do online? We do our banking online, never having to see a physical dollar all month if we choose. We can order trinkets from Asia or Latin America and have them in our home the following day, just by the click of a button. And who are we kidding, we all...

If you currently own a vacation rental or perhaps considering listing your own property, it’s natural to have so many questions concerning the variety of options you have when listing your home. “What is the best price to list my rental at? What are the necessities that need to be revamped in my home? Do I have the time to meet with the guest when they check in? What are...

The backbone of any successful business is growth. From innovation to taking massive action and collaboration, and possibly the most important, growth from the past. Growth from successes and failures that turned into lessons learned. Growth in the form of feedback or reviews, in particular, is truly the backbone to the success of a vacation rental property. Vacation rental reviews give you an accurate depiction of your business from the...