Revenue Reality Check: What to Do When Revenue Plans Do Not Go as Planned with Julie Brinkman of Beyond

Revenue Reality Check Kickoff

Alex Husner 0:00

Today we're back with another edition of our bi-monthly series, the first of the month revenue reality check presented by Beyond. Because if there's one thing that AK drone managers know, it's that your revenue strategy does not happen on autopilot. Markets change, booking windows shift, owners ask hard questions, and guests get more price sensitive. And suddenly, the rate strategy that looked great a month ago needs a second look. That's where Beyond comes in. Beyond gives property managers the tools, data, and dynamic pricing technology to make smarter revenue decisions across their portfolio, from protecting peak dates to filling need periods to understanding what's really happening in the market. And that's exactly what this series is all about. Each month, we're going to take a look at the moves that matter most right now, what to stop doing, what to start paying attention to, and where managers may need to double down. Okay, let's get into it. Welcome to Alex Dini, the Realman of Vacation Rentals. I'm Alex. And I'm Annie. And we are back today for the first of the month revenue reality check. And today we're going to be talking about backup plans for your revenue. But before we get started, we've got Julie Brinkman here, who is the CEO of Beyond. Julie, it's so good to see you.

Julie Brinkman 1:16

So good to see you, Alex. And hey Annie, how's it going?

Annie Holcombe 1:19

It's great. Hopefully, it's a little cooler in Chicago than it is down here in humid, humid Florida. It's not sunny, but it's definitely humid, having a bad hair day. But um Your hair looks great,

Airbnb cancellation policy changes and what flexibility means for operators

Annie Holcombe 1:30

girl. Well, thank you. Thank you very much. Um so I I think like what we wanted to do this month was we we want to talk about kind of like hot news going into summer. Like we, you know, we're we're in the thick of it right now. Um, a lot is going on. So we've got some like hot news items, and then we wanted to dive into what it means to have a backup plan. Everybody needs a backup plan for everything, but I think sometimes people take it for granted that they need a backup plan on their revenue strategy and they really need to have things kind of prepared for whatever scenario could come their way. So we want to talk about some of those things. So um maybe like first we just talk about the hot news of like off the presses recently was Airbnb's um, I gotta say, forcing people over to a new cancellation policy, the extended cancellation policy. So I think that goes into effect in September for partners. How do you see that affecting your partners?

Julie Brinkman 2:24

It's interesting that, you know, they're so the way that I'm understanding is they're offering now guests the opportunity to buy insurance, right? And so they can have better uh flexibility when it comes to potentially canceling their trip. How that affects operators, I think is pretty meaningful. Um, number one, it obviously increases the cost of any trip consideration. And so guests themselves will have to pay for that flexibility. And, you know, there's only a finite amount of money. So while that might seem great for operators in that they get the money back, that's also, you know, might limit the amount that that guest is able to spend in terms of additional days or experiences or so on and so forth. I think there's also just like an operational challenge, right? So now all of a sudden you have an open day, regardless of having the money, your calendar is open and you your ability to sell that inventory sort of last minute is greatly diminished. You know, what we're seeing not just from Airbnb, but the other OTAs as well, at Booking pretty much said it was without a super flexible cancellation policy, you're just you will not be ranked above the fold. Whether they're responding to guest demands or trying to make them more competitive with hotels, it's it's hard to say. But it's it's clearly a trend that we're seeing continue to emerge and how short-term rental operators respond will be will be something to really watch because operating, obviously, a short-term rental is not the same as operating a hotel, as you as you very well know.

Alex Husner 3:54

Yeah, and I think, you know, at the end of the day, it's like I feel like every summer we're just waiting to see what's coming down the pipeline, you know? Like it always seems to be this time of year when I don't know if that's done strategically or not, but it's like it's a it's a tough time of year to be putting something like this in place when you know operators are very busy putting out fires with guests that are in market in busy locations right now, and now to have to go back and look at things and change their policies on the fly and how that applies to the other channels that they're on. It's like, you know, it becomes pretty complicated. But what are you guys advising your clients at Beyond to do about this, Julie?

Julie Brinkman 4:32

Yeah, I mean, you're you're actually right. So from my understanding, the May really like their Q1 earnings always coincides with a product announcement that is usually focused on guests. Um whereas their uh their Q2 earnings announcement usually has a host focus product announcement. So you're you're picking up on the trend there. Um we're you know, we tell our customers that we want you ought obviously to be as responsive as you need to be with the channels, but that your rate needs to obviously reflect the flexibility that is now sort of embedded in in the channel. And for more flexible cancellation policies, you have the ability to charge more and guests have shown that they'll pay more and you'll have better visibility and so on and so forth. So we are, you know, we're advising our clients to stay on top of it and then obviously make sure that you're aligned across your channels. So you don't have one cancellation policy on Verbo and another on Airbnb, and that you're continuing to push push your clients, obviously, to your direct booking

Direct bookings, OTA visibility, and finding the right channel mix

Julie Brinkman 5:38

site. I have a question.

Annie Holcombe 5:39

Um, and it kind of goes to like the parity, the the parity issue. And so I've always been of the mindset, you know, and the channels don't like it when I say this, but like, you know, F the parody. I mean, come on. It's like you you'd it at the end of the day, we're all saying to people, drive your direct booking. So if you if you don't really care about the channel bookings, then parity doesn't really matter. But but when you're starting to get into this situation with policies and stuff and then considering um, you know, different commissions. And I actually was told last week that Virbo is now offering an 8% versus like the higher, like they're doing a different commission now, and I don't know if it's purposely to undercut what Airbnb's rolled out. So you've got all these like moving pieces and parts. And so from your perspective, when you're working with partners, are you helping them put together a strategy that'll ultimately help them get the most bookings of the time, but help them wean off of channel dependence so they can drive direct, or do you try to like just find a good balance in in it across the board? I mean, what is the strategy from your perspective?

Julie Brinkman 6:40

Yeah, I mean, I think I think diversification does matter. It's not, I think in a case where you're almost 100% direct, you're probably not getting all of the eyeballs that you want. And so, you know, there is a cost to gaining exposure, and that cost is real. Whether it's 8% on Virbo or 15 to 20% on Airbnb, you want to make sure that you have the right balance. And so we say, okay, max you want 20 to 30, depending on your market. So this is where we're talking super general, very difficult. Yeah, 30%, up to 30% of your traffic is is coming through the channels, whereas the other 70% is hopefully coming direct. Obviously, that's a lot different in urban markets. It's very different in Europe where it is highly booking.com dependent. Um, very different in traditional markets where it's very direct booking dependent. But, you know, I think when you have almost an exclusive direct booking distribution strategy, your ability to be more dynamic with your merchandising, with your pricing strategy is more limited because you have sort of the same eyeballs constantly, because we all know you're not going to win the SEO game. But you, you know, I think that's the other, that's the other component is now booking engines offering the ability to connect into the LLMs, into um the foundational models, you like uh ChatGPT or Claude or Gemini to become discoverable. So making sure that your booking site is discoverable. So you're not having to spend money on Google and bid against bid against the OTAs because you, you know, we all know that's not going to really work.

Alex Husner 8:10

Yeah, yeah. And I mean, I would say this year probably I've seen the most radical changes as far as even the companies that most of the companies that I work with, they are legacy, they've been in their market for a long time and and high high direct bookings, but even these companies, they're getting more and more from the OTAs. And you know, I there's in my mind now, I that I think is a good thing as as long as once those guest book with you, that they do rebook. And we just did a deep dive into uh one company that we were trying to figure out okay, we've there's more OTA bookings, but like really trying to understand are is it cannibalizing our direct bookings or are these new people? And if it's new people, that's a good thing. But then also looking at the booking window, the booking window of OTA guests in this market at least has expanded significantly. And it used to be that like we looked at Airbnb in particular, of it's the last minute guest, it's the deal seekers. In this case, it's not. I mean, like those the OTA guests are gobbling up some of like the best inventory and weeks. And so now it's like, okay, we need to kind of think about earlier in the year, you know, we're never gonna be able to compete against Airbnb and paid spend, but what are we doing to really drive that back to the company? And you know, the hard part is like, you know, most companies are marking up their rates anyway. So a guest who is knowledgeable is gonna go find it and book direct. But a lot of people are still choosing not to book direct, even if the price is higher in the OTA. And I think in the case of Virbo, you know, having the points and the one-key is part of it. They would rather get the points so that they can use it down the line or something. But I think the other part is it's the professionalism of the Airbnb's website, Virgo's website, the OTAs, they are investing millions of dollars in testing on conversions on their websites that it's just not possible for an independent property manager to do something like that. So, I mean, I feel like I'm in that boat sometimes too when I buy things online or if I'm booking a vacation. Like, you know, I notice more now when a site doesn't look like it is up to 2026 standards. And I think that just it raises concern. And especially in our industry when you hear about people arriving at a destination, they don't even have a place to actually stay. So it's it is a it is a conundrum, but I think the most important thing is just really looking at the data of like, you know, those guests, like, are they rebooking for next year? If they are, then that's a win, you know. But if they're not, looking at how you're gonna be able to get them back and how you can fine-tune that mousetrap.

Julie Brinkman 10:41

Absolutely. Yeah, I mean, you never want to pay for a guest twice. And as long as your pie is growing, you know, you you're winning. And then it gives you the opportunity to look at your direct booking site, pull it up on your phone. That's where people want to have, you know, want to book a trip. And is it pretty easy? Can you get three clicks to a checkout? Or are there forms you have to fill out? Do you have modern payment infrastructure? Is it Apple, Google Pay? Like those types of things outside of just the trust factor bring you up to the modernity of what the OTAs provide. And and to your point, Annie, on the parity side, I don't even know how you achieve parity when you have booking.com offering discounts that like outside of a property manager's control, for example.

VRBO paid placement, attribution, and why marketing and revenue need to work together

Annie Holcombe 11:24

So Yeah, I know when I was at Expedia, they did that a lot with, you know, when you start to look at like Meta because you can flex with the margins on the back end and stuff. And so it's like really nothing anybody's control. But that brings up another release that came out was um Virgo offering paid placement. And so like Expedia has been doing that for the on the hotel, like on their standard brand site for years. That's nothing new. But to have that in Virgo, and it's like, okay, so now it, you know, now it really becomes really, really competitive in market, but that's where managers can start to use like marketing funds that they do have that maybe they would be using towards Google. And because the the, you know, you're in most markets, you're throwing money out the window every time you try to buy Google. I mean, it's just unless you've been established for a really long time, it's just it's hard to do. So, you know, I think this is a good thing. But from a revenue management perspective, and I think that sometimes, and this is where I I think Alex and I have always always been trying to get people aligned, is that your marketing and your revenue management team, they have to be aligned, they have to be talking and be synced up like Siamese twins going through, and so this I think is a good a great example of why that that is necessary. And anybody that hasn't done that connection needs to think about it. Um, but what would your guidance be in terms of utilizing these paid ads?

Julie Brinkman 12:35

Yeah, I mean, I'm surprised it's taken this long, right?

Annie Holcombe 12:39

I was like, haven't they already? I thought it was already done. I didn't even think about it.

Julie Brinkman 12:42

You know, like the these are these are marketplaces, and so why wouldn't you pay for boost? I mean, LinkedIn, now you can pay for boost, right? So I think you have to test and measure. And I think where where we fall short, you know, is a lot of times with marketing promotions, there's there's the test and then maybe not so much the measurement. How do you actually know what you would have got without that spend? And so making sure your attribution is all ticked and tied, and making sure you're in coordination with your revenue manager because God forbid, you boost the ranking, and then all of a sudden, you know, the revenue managers trying to drive bookings, they drop the price, and now you're you're literally paying out of both ends, you're getting lower top line, and you're paying more for that visibility, and you might not even get that booking, um, which we see a lot of where you know there's promos being run out of sync with the revenue managers. I think it's a really interesting opportunity for sure. And I think showing the visibility of how it actually either impacts or doesn't the uh the booking or revenue or occupancy of these listings will be definitely something that we're gonna be taking a look at on our side.

Annie Holcombe 13:56

I'm assuming that like from their account support, their account management teams will be working with partners, like larger partners that they have an actual person to go through reviews to be able to give them the data on these paid ads. But is that something that you guys would be able to extrapolate or pull to do any reporting from?

Julie Brinkman 14:12

Yeah, that's interesting. I know so with Airbnb specifically, we are able to surface where you are ranking. Um it's not a tricky, it's not an easily done art and it is an art, more of a science, because it obviously you have to take into account a bunch of different factors. What we try to do is surface the opportunities for a um for a host to increase their ranking through better pictures, through better content, and uh through honestly better availability. Like if you don't have availability, your rank is not going to show up. Um when it cut I I want to see how the attribution comes through the Virgo sponsorship and um you know how it comes through GA or through to the PMS and then help our customers really try to pick apart what did they pay and then how did that actually impact the booking or not. That's something we'll be looking at for sure.

Alex Husner 15:04

More to come. More to come. I love having you on because I think it's it's it's really cool this the place that Beyond operates in and the experience that you guys have because you really do talk to both sides of the marketing and the revenue. And I think you know, that's we like Annie said, we know that's important, but it's it's super important. So anybody who's not connecting your revenue and management or marketing, uh, this this is the time to do it. Um and I'm sure Julie.

Annie Holcombe 15:33

Yeah, yeah.

Alex Husner 15:34

I'm sure you guys have um some guidance on that too. So I I would defer to reach out to Beyond to get some tips on it as well. But so we've got something really interesting and fun that we've been working on now that this is a new segment that we're gonna try out this month with Julie that we polled our audience and we asked, we told them we had Julie coming on. She's the revenue guru queen, and we wanted to hear some some use cases of issues going on and things that they are struggling with. And I've got a whole stack of these papers. Uh, and I'm gonna shuffle them and we're gonna pick one, and you're gonna just have to answer it on the spot. So here we are. I was gonna try and do like origami or something, like to make these better.

Julie Brinkman 16:24

Remember the MASH game when we were younger? Okay. Yeah. I feel like I've had like watch what happens live with Andy Cohen. You know, oh yeah.

Annie Holcombe 16:32

We won't ask anything that provocative. Okay, maybe I don't know. I'll give you a yeah, we don't we don't know what they're gonna

What to do when a major event weekend does not pace as expected

Annie Holcombe 16:39

say.

Alex Husner 16:39

First question. Dear Julie. We we had them all label it that way. Dear Julie, we manage about 140 properties in Nashville, and we planned around a major event weekend that has historically been one of our strongest revenue opportunities of the year. Based on last year's performance, we expected this weekend to book early, hold a strong ADR, and give us room to be confident, but pacing is behind. Owners are starting to ask why their calendars still have availability, and our team is getting nervous because the event is getting closer. Some people want to start discounting now so we don't miss the window. Others think we may be overreacting because the booking window could be shifting or because guests may be still shopping. We're also wondering if our minimum stays, fees, or cancellation rules are creating friction. So the question is when a peak week or major event doesn't perform, what do we do?

Julie Brinkman 17:31

This situation, Dear Nervous at Nashville. Um, this situation that happens more often than I think that is really actively talked about. Events. Events are incredibly important. So events overall, like for beyond, events drop about like a third of our revenue. It it and so when you miss an event or you misprice an event, not only do you miss revenue, you also lose trust with your owners. Um I was talking to an owner down in uh the 30A area, and there's this graffiti fest. Have you heard of it? They have an NPCB and then an Alice Beach. No, no, no price increase for it. And the owner's like, what the heck? I don't understand. And, you know, that can that can very quickly, even if you've delivered incredible returns to your owners, that can very quickly erode trust with owners and they start shopping around. And so I do want to validate the concern that you have around this event not performing the way that you've historically expected or that you've historically seen that that it performs. The first thing I I look at is, you know, what date, what day is the event on versus last year? So I'll use this year's 4th of July for uh a good kind of corollary. This year of July 4th falls on a Saturday, which for traditional markets is probably about the worst day it could fall on, especially when you have Saturday to Saturday check-in, check out. And so, you know, being proactive with identifying what are these peak events in my market as a revenue manager, as a property manager, A, you should know them off the top of your head, which it sounds like you already do, which is fantastic. But understanding where they fall in the calendar. And then if there are other competing demand events that are near or popping up around the area, which uh which could be pulling demand away, but that sort of is outside of your control. I think the ability to quickly look at your dashboard and wherever you manage your revenue and see how you performed last year to how you're trailing, uh how you're pacing this year is critical. Your tooling should absolutely be able to surface that for you. And it sounds like it is. So you're already able to tell, hey, we're pacing behind where we expected. The other consideration to look at is supply. So uh one of you know, another another little anecdote, Sundance is moving from Park City to Boulder. Um, I can't remember if we talked about this two months ago, but or you know, what happened with the World Cup, you have all of these now sort of short-term, short-term mental licenses being granted. And so because this event performs so well, there is a there is a not zero possibility that there is now more inventory available. And so you might actually just be competing with with more inventory. And so I would look overall at supply. And then I would dive deeper into your quote unquote market. And your market isn't Nashville, your market is your competitors, and so your your tooling, your revenue management tooling should be able to service to you how your competitors are pacing for this event, looking at ADRs, looking at occupancy, and then revenue. And if you're pacing behind, maybe that's the signal to marketing or to your revenue manager that you need to take action to potentially lower prices. But you brought up a couple other interesting things that you also need to take a look at, which is the minimum stay requirement, especially if the the event's on a Thursday and you have a, you know, a five-night minimum stay, that's not going to happen, right? So you want to make sure your minimum stay requirement aligns with when the event falls. Cancellation policies, everyone is really playing with those. I think as you get closer to the event, being more flexible with cancellation policies could boost, could boost ranking. And then there's the non-pricing side of the house, which is there are certain units, you know, you can run through uh AI tools beyond has an AI tool that helps you understand if your content or your pictures or your reviews are putting you at or above the competition. So those are all of the things I would start to do before you really just start panic discounting. And you know, being proactive with this messaging. You don't let I think this is uh a term I I heard someone use the other day. You don't let the bad news beat you home. So you know, you want to be proactive with your owners about we're seeing this event uh pick up slower than we. Did last year. Here's the full three things we're doing about it. Here's what we expect. And you can expect further communication about this as we go forward. That's a myriad of things to look at and to do. And it's all really complex. And this is why it's really important to have automation across all of the sort of X's and O's of revenue management so that when things like this literally pop up, you're able to be strategic and thoughtful and proactive with your owners, with your marketing team, and then potentially, you know, with how you are framing your listings.

Annie Holcombe 22:31

And one thing I would add, and this I think came up really robustly in the World Cup situation. And I think it's relevant for nervous in Nashville, is that when you are in a convention city, when convention blocks drop, inventory all of a sudden looks like it just pops open and the occupancy for the city just drops. And that's what people saw, and everybody panicked and said, oh my gosh, you know, like in every town they dropped like 2,000 room nights. Well, it wasn't that the room nights canceled, it was just like the blocks didn't hold and they released the room. So when they did that, all of a sudden the hotels went from looking like they were 100% occupied at $400 a rate to, oh crap, we're only 20% occupied and we need to drop, and so they dropped their rates. And so I think you have to be mindful of what, even though you're maybe not competing directly, like if you're in a studio or a one bedroom, you're definitely competing with the hotels. But if you're in the larger ones, don't panic if you see a report that all of a sudden drops it if you are in a convention town. And I think some SDR operators don't take that into consideration when pricing and looking at dynamics of a of their destination. And that's very prevalent with any of these large cities.

Julie Brinkman 23:34

Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, seeing how hotels are pacing and um understanding the dynamics of how hotels manage their inventory is a really good point, Annie. Yeah. Okay.

Alex Husner 23:44

So we've got two more questions

What to do when part of the portfolio is falling behind

Alex Husner 23:46

from our audience. Okay, the next one in the shuffle is from Myrtle Beach, where I am. And it says, Dear Julie, we manage around 220 properties in Myrtle Beach, and the market doesn't look terrible overall, but our inventory is telling two different stories. Our oceanfront condos and newer properties are pacing pretty well, but our older condos and second row homes are lagging behind. When we look at the portfolio as a whole, the numbers don't seem alarming, but once we break it down by property type, there's a clear group that is underperforming. I remember this being in those shoes very well here in this market. The team is debating whether this is a pricing issue, a product issue, visibility, or just a sign that guests are being more selective. Some owners want us to lower rates immediately, but we're worried that if we apply a broad discount across the whole portfolio, we'll give away revenue on properties that don't actually need help. What would you do?

Julie Brinkman 24:37

Yeah, yeah. Hey, um, first of all, I mean, I think a lot of operators, especially in, you know, destination markets, do struggle with this, where you have the premium, the premier inventory performing well, and you know, the second row um uh and other and other sort of maybe aged inventory doesn't perform as well. And you want to you want to apply a blunt instrument to the problem. But I think the caution here uh is warranted. So the ability to analyze your inventory, not just by bedroom, but by hyperlocal locate, you know, hyperlocal cluster and amenities, and then have your revenue management system or dynamic pricing system understand the differences between second row, first row, behind the highway, and really embed that into the pricing, I think is really important. So you should make sure that if you're using a dynamic pricing tool, that they're understanding all of those um dynamics and that the algorithms themselves are looking at specific um demand by bedroom types. We admittedly beyond up until about two years ago, used to just look at overall demand. And we got this, these issues from our customers saying, hey, that's that's not can that's not nuanced enough. Sure, my three or four bedrooms are performing great, but my one and two bedrooms are really, really suffering. And when you look at different markets, you can certainly see those curves. So, you know, not all inventory is um the same, obviously. This is this is our world, this is short-term rental world. And while you spend time trying to convince your owners to update their units, that's not going to happen this summer, right? So, what can you do to try to accelerate the booking pace? I would look at the listing overall. So, you know, running it through the AI tools that give you perspective on the reviews, on the pictures, how you're framing the views versus like the floral bed spread, how you're responding to reviews, and then being pretty targeted in offering discounts for those units that are underperforming. And I think the other thing to consider is your distribution. I mean, this is where we started our conversation. These units might need a wider distribution than you currently have for your higher performing homes. So you might think about not just Airbnb or Burbo, but also booking.com, home to go, things like that. I think the the what I would hesitate, I do hear people say, well, I have an underperforming home. I'm going to push it to the top of my, you know, newsletter for my guests. And I'm like, I, so I used to work at Groupon, and that is like um, that is a no-no. That you're literally just putting inventory that people don't want right in front of them. So they're not even going to look at your your um with showcasing, you know, lower performing properties, although that owner might say, Hey, I'm not getting enough visibility, and you're like, Well, there's here's not three or four other things that we can do in order to increase your visibility um uh and pick up that demand and and hopefully book. Um and you know, I think owners they get attached to their units. We've talked about this time and time ago. Emotional, yeah. Getting them to relax anything that they can, being proactive with minimum stays, with minimums, showing them the data. And you know, in BI, you can you can you can cut the data by value, mid, lux, you can cut the data by bedroom size and saying, hey, here are the minimum stays for these types. That's that's your comp set. Those are who you're competing against. And that helps owners know that it's not just Alex saying, hey, I need you to like put in a jacuzzi. This is literally what the market is saying.

Annie Holcombe 28:32

Yeah, and I and I would say also like make sure you, when these things are happening in real time, keep notes because these are helpful, you know, conversations at the end of the season to be able to say, like, okay, we can look back and this is why performance was what it was. And that's the stuff where you can say, here's the three things that you as an owner could do to help performance for next year. And a lot of times it is the flexible policy, but most of the time it's something simple like getting rid of the flowered couch, you know, like rolling the carpet that's been in the living room for 10 years. I mean, and uh in these condo markets, that's a huge, that's a huge thing because some of these buildings, you've got owners that recently bought them, gutted them, and redid them, but then there's units that have been in there since the day that building opened, you know, 10 years ago and they're tired and they're worn. And if somebody stays in a tired, worn unit in a building, all of a sudden all of those units become that in that portfolio for that owner. So you really have to, you really have to think about like not only the data that you can provide, but like keeping note of it so that you have this post-mortem, if you will, report to give the owners for next year. So you can plan effectively and be prepared.

Alex Husner 29:37

Yeah. And I think another important takeaway from this too, and you know, admittedly, I'm I I was guilty of this when I was CMO here at Condo World that, you know, every day we would look at the the booking comparison of what we booked the day before compared to the to the year before. And it's really easy to look at that and be like, oh, we're up, you know, revenue's up, bookings are up. But it wasn't until you really start to like look at things because like I'd be, you know, thinking everything was great. And then revenue would be like, I mean, our two bedrooms, they're dying over here on the vine. What's going on? But I that that really just shows the need for marketing and revenue to work together closely because you know, some of the optics that you see from the business perspective, you know, you're not seeing the full picture of what's actually happening within the inventory. And if you wait too long to find that information, it could be too late, you know, that that homeowner's already made their decision, they're gonna move on.

Julie Brinkman 30:27

100%. Yeah, that you need, I mean, you need to be able to have smart, dynamic groupings, right? And uh give you that picture. And the way that we visualize it and beyond is like what needs like immediate attention. So a stoplight sort of um uh report where it needs immediate attention, what is what is potentially going to need your attention soon, and then what what's what's what's good to go? Because it's it it is you can have uh the revenue overall performing, but then the units dragging down and you're leaving a lot of money on the table and then end up with an owner churn problem.

Alex Husner 31:01

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. All right, well, on to card number three.

Julie Brinkman 31:10

I feel this is like you know, what we get in our support channels. I and we all do at least two days in our customer support team uh beyond. Um, and so this is like real life.

Alex Husner 31:22

This is the revenue reality check.

Annie Holcombe 31:24

There you go, making sure Julie knows what she's talking about.

How to talk to nervous owners without making reactive pricing decisions

Alex Husner 31:28

Yeah, this is this is a good one too. This is from Park City, so a little bit of a different market. It says, Dear Julie, we manage about 75 luxury homes in Park City, and one of our owners just emailed because they still have open dates during a period they expected to be booked by now. The owner is comparing their calendar to last year and asking why we haven't lowered the rate yet. They're nervous and they want action. Our revenue team believes that the dates still have value, but we also don't want the owner to feel ignored or like we're being too passive. The challenge is how do we explain the strategy clearly without overwhelming them with data? We want to show that we are watching pacing, ComSense, booking window, and demand signals, but we also need guardrails so one anxious owner doesn't push us into a reactive pricing decision.

Julie Brinkman 32:11

Um, first of all, 75 luxury units in Park City, can I come stay at one just to tell you how? Research, right? So we we the term we use here is helping owners hold their nerve. You have obviously these large homes, they are very expensive, they probably have a lot of fixed costs, and certain owners get very attached to having full calendars. We all know that booking windows are very dynamic, and especially in a ski market, um, which with some summer and fall activities like Park City, there there can be changing dynamics and when uh when people book. So before, as you are proactive in your communications with your owners, I think that's like first and foremost is making sure that you have a proactive owner communication strategy, that we aren't just calling owners when something needs to be lowered or something uh we need to deliver bad news, or we're not just being reactive to inbound inquiries, but we're giving them a sense of what's actually going on in the market. And so you've already got this inquiry from your owner. So now we have to actually give them information that makes them calm enough to hold their nerve, knowing that this date is going to sell. So the things that you want to make sure that you're considering in pulling in to tell the story. So we talked about Naioba last uh month when we were chatting. Um, this is a great use case for Naioba is drafting emails to owners that sound not like a robot and not like a data analyst. But I have this owner who's very concerned about this date. Tell me three reasons why she should hold her nerve and let the date kind of ride. Um, what the pricing assistant will likely look at is your comp set pacing. So the auto, the automatic comp sets that we generate comparing this listing. We're gonna look at the booking lead time, see whether we're in it or we're not in it. And it sounds like we're not quite in the booking window. Um, or if we are, we've just entered it. We're also going to want to look at how you compare how the current price compares to the other units that are being priced that are in your comp set. And then obviously some of those policies that are very important and impact, uh, impact the bookability, the minimum stay, the cancellation. And then, of course, last but not least, you want to make sure that the listing in and of itself is showcased in the best possible light. And there are there are simple things. You know, if we're talking about a fall or a winter date, the pictures that you show in the in those seasons should be different than the pictures that you show in the summer seasons, that you want to highlight different amenities. Um, so I think all of those things can help an owner stay at ease and you don't want to undersell the night, not only for the owner's sake, but also for, you know, for for your other owners who now all of a sudden think that there's some fire cell happening and that everybody needs to fill up their calendars. So helping owners hold their nerve through a simplistic way of explaining and showing the data is is a great use case for agents. Um, within beyond, you can connect your Claud, um, you can even visualize it. You know, I like charts and graphs versus uh versus just uh a wall of text. But those are some of the things I think you can do to be proactive in advance of these owners coming to you. And when they do come to you, that you're they know that you're on it. I validate their concerns. Everyone wants it to be validated, right? Right.

Annie Holcombe 35:45

Yeah, I love the hold your nerve. I think that's that's so great. It's like I feel like more often not we want to tell owners to hold their tongue, but hold their nerve is like really important. And and it's interesting because I think Park City is a great example in that I hear all the time like, oh, well, the booking window is X, because the conversation about changing the photos, you know, I'm always like, you need to change your photos. And they're like, well, my booking window is you know six months out for these homes. It's like, is that direct or is it on the OTA? Because I guarantee that that's not the same. And I think that they don't take that into consideration that maybe one, they get to tell the whole story on their website, but on the OTA, they're having to tell the customer that's working at that time. And that customer is definitely different. So I think that it's like the owner may come with all this feedback, but the if you have the data to be able to show them the things to back it up, it it's it the conversation goes much, it doesn't always win and it doesn't always land because sometimes these people are just so either emotionally attached to it or they're coming at you as the educator and they know more than you could ever possibly know about the business, you know. So depends on on the owner. But I think there's just like you have to really understand that when you're doing your your um your strategy, you do have to look at direct different than your OTA, but then you just put all that data and kind of find the happy medium with what you want to share versus what you don't want to share.

Julie Brinkman 37:02

Absolutely. Yeah, it's all about balance.

Stop, Start, and Scale: building more proactive revenue plans

Alex Husner 37:06

Well, those were three great letters. And to the audience, if you have a revenue question, please go ahead and send it in to us. You can send it on LinkedIn or you can go to our website, um, send it through the contact form. We'd love to hear more because we've got Julie coming on for several more episodes over the next few months to talk about revenue. So um that's kind of fun. Life in the field. Um, but the next thing we want to do that we've done for uh the last revenue reality check is we look at three things from Julie that she suggests that you should stop, start, or scale as far as your revenue management. So what would you say to stop right now?

Julie Brinkman 37:51

Yeah, I mean, I think what these examples point to is the need to stop being reactive with your optionality. Uh the more that you can build trust with your owners and build in the ability to be flexible with stays, with rates, with content, the better chance that you have to be proactive and to be strategic with the um with optimizing revenue. I think what trap we fall into when we're treating flexible, you know, flexibility or sort of like, hey, this isn't selling, so we need to discount it. We're backed up into a corner, the owner feels backed up into a corner, and that's their only option. That's not a great dynamic between you and the owner. And so being, there's a customer we have down in North Carolina who is worked toward, you know, North Carolina is especially the outer banks, notorious for owner needs to approve everything. The rate card is in the contract. And they do it for three years to get the owners to give full, full bore uh control to the property managers. And that's this was something that they said that they were going to do and they've done year after year, get just getting more and more owners to relinquish that control by building that trust, by delivering returns. And so I'd say, I'd say stop being reactive with those um with discounts by being proactive and building trust with your owners.

Annie Holcombe 39:24

Okay. So they stop that. So what should they start?

Julie Brinkman 39:30

Yeah, I mean, I think so. This the start is it really goes back to start building trust and start really using that data in your conversations with your owners. Start to communicate this is what your market is and and show them their comp set. Show them what their comp sets are uh showing from a cancellation policy from a minimum stay um standpoint, you know, the the the number of available nights that they have, all of those things are incredibly important. So start to speak in data, not in anecdote. You know, I think data applied through anecdotes, but not in sort of um beliefs or assumptions, but rather like really grounded in data.

Alex Husner 40:12

Yep. It just makes the conversation so much easier when you've got something to back you up. That's the main thing.

Julie Brinkman 40:18

Yeah. And what do they scale? Yeah. And I think that goes, I think that is where, you know, I'm telling you to use data to back up your conversations with owners. And more often than not, I run into folks who are like, okay, well, I have seven systems I need to look at in order to tell the story. And so that's not scale, that's not efficient, that's not streamlined. You need to scale your team's ability to get the story quickly and get the data quickly through a single system. And so scale your team's ability to get the data and the story through one system versus having to pull from GA, from your data provider, from your RMS, from your PMS, and then stitch together the story. That's how you can really empower them to have these proactive data-backed conversations with owners.

Alex Husner 41:05

Yeah, I mean, that's the thing. It's like if you already, you know, these notes that we got today, if you already build out those scenarios and work through them with your team and you've got those playbooks ready to roll. I mean, when it's peak season and you don't have time to think, you've you keep a binder, you know, do a notion notebook online or however you want to organize it. But it's like if you already have these things planned out, it makes it so much easier when the when the time is.

Julie Brinkman 41:28

Yeah. Playbooks, playbooks for days.

Alex Husner 41:31

Yeah. And sometimes you can experiment with it. You know, it's like if you go with one playbook and you say this is what we're going to do in this scenario, and then you know, iterate off of it, see how it worked, come back to it, and then revise as needed. So it just helps bring more collaboration, I think, within the company, too, to make sure you're doing the right thing.

Annie Holcombe 41:49

So I think um for for beyond, it would be really great if there was like a help tool that was Julie that people could just make up. Yeah, a helpline that they could talk to Julie within the tool, just ask them their question and you could pop up and give them the answers. This is all kind of stuff.

Julie Brinkman 42:04

I'm gonna go, girl, you email me, I'm answering you. I love it. I love it. It's been great.

Annie Holcombe 42:09

Well, it's great to like get into your brain because I know that that's there's a lot in there, and you guys are doing tremendous work to help partners really navigate this stuff because it is an ever-evolving topic. And so I think it's super important. And you answered these questions great. And hopefully we'll get some more questions for the next time. So come prepared with that knowledge bank of yours.

Alex Husner 42:29

Yeah, I love it. I love it. Awesome. Well, until next time, Julie, if anybody wants to get in touch with you, if they want to reach out directly, they can't wait until the next one. Uh, what's the best way for them to reach out?

Julie Brinkman 42:41

Yeah, you find me on LinkedIn. Um, you can always email me, Julie at beyondpricing.com. And I really enjoyed getting these questions. I mean, it's my love language, it's it's what I spend my time thinking about and waking up to. Um, so uh thank you, Alex and Annie, for for asking your listeners to send in these questions. Because it's, I mean, this is all real stuff we deal with, right?

Alex Husner 43:02

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And especially, I mean, this time of year, there's not a lot of conferences going on, and I think people feel like they're on an island. But you know, part of when we started the podcast, we wanted to help people not feel like they're on an island. So if you have questions, send them to us and we will get them answered for you. But uh in the meantime, if anybody wants to get in touch with Annie and I, you can go to alexandypodcast.com. Thanks for tuning in, everybody.