Planning to Plan: Lake Ozarks Vacation Rental Survey

Ever wanted to know exactly how many Lake of the Ozarks Vacation Rentals there are? Or what the mix is between condo rental units and home rental units? How about the distribution of nights rented per year (with an accompanying look at rightly rates)? Or just maybe you’re interested in finding out what percentage of the vacation rentals on the lake have boat slips available so as to better differentiate your property.

Despite a rather thorough search, we’ve yet to come across any answers to these questions. And while that’s not entirely surprising, it is among the information that every vacation rental owner and their agent ought to have at their fingertips. They ought also know whether, in aggregate, advertising ROI is higher on VRBO.com or VacationRentals.com and what the exact ROI figure is for each. They ought know if it’s PMG or CIA Rentals who drives not only more rentals, but more income revenue to the owner on an after-fee/commission basis. They ought know how much of an increase in rental volume a 10% decrease in nightly rate drives (known as the demand elasticity).

Along with the Lake Ozarks Map complete with GPS coordinates for each of the mile markers and dozens of establishments (the latter part is still in development), delivering actionable information like this into the hands of Ozarks vacation rental owners is among the key to-do’s for this venture during the 2010 season. As such, a research and analysis plan has been developed and an Ozarks Vacation Rental Survey is in the works to detail answers to these and other critical questions.

That’s our role … now let’s talk about your role. What can you do? A few things:

1. If there are any specific questions regarding the Lake of the Ozarks vacation rental industry that you’ve been dying to know but unable to answer, shoot us an email via the contact form to see if we can incorporate it into the research plan.
2. If you are among the owners contacted to be included in our research, we ask that you please help us out and submit your information in a timely manner. We’re doing our best to keep the questionnaire manageable so that it can be completed in 15 minutes or less, and we think you’ll find the results of our analysis well worth 15 minutes of your time.
3. To test a sampling methodology (for use in future years), we’ll also be randomly asking certain participants to invite other owners to participate in the vacation rental research. If you are among the lucky few, please take the opportunity to do so.

To show our appreciation to our respondents, we’ve decided to give (as in gratis, free) the results to those who participate and share their data. Granted, this wasn’t a very difficult decision to come to. All the same, we believe strongly that to optimize the performance of your business (large or small, your Lake of the Ozarks vacation rental condo or house is an income-producing property) requires that you have access to the best information. And that’s our reasoning behind offering this service; look for it, The Lake of the Ozarks Vacation Rental Survey, in the Spring of 2010.