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Last posts
The Vacation Rental Owner: Before & After
By Matt Landau In my years of operating my own vacation rentals and consulting hundreds of owners/managers on a daily basis, I’ve come to get a pretty good idea of what it takes to succeed in this industry. Take being hospitable for instance: if you aren’t inherently hospitable to your guests or if you don’t learn how to be artificially hospitable to your guests, you will never succeed with vacation rentals. But the anatomy of a successful vacation rental owner goes far beyond bullet-point characteristics. Because many of us never had any experience with tourism or marketing before we got started, the learning curve of today’s property owners more resembles a dynamic, ever-changing scatter chart of ups and downs than it does a smooth upward curve. Being new to the vacation rental industry means a certain level of naivety. With an upsurge in popularity of sites like Only-apartments, HomeAway or AirBnB, many owners tend to forget that they also need to be proactive. It can be easy, if your property is doing well, for instance, to lay back and become complacent about your business. It can be easy to run your rental like a hobby, enjoy the passive income and even perhaps think about acquiring a second or third property without any real business-like acumen. It can be equally just as easy to slip into frustration mode at the lack of inquiries or bookings because a listing site’s lead generation seems to be slow. Many new owners start freaking out when their property isn’t filling up as expected. But there is a very tangible shift that takes place somewhere... read more
Japan’s strangest vending machines
Vending machines are a very important part of everyday’s life in Japan, because they are the most practical way to purchase products anywhere you go. There are over 5 million vending machines in Japan, which means that there is 1 vending machine per 23 people. These machines are protected with a security system that sends a signal to the police if they are attacked. Technology rules the vending machines in Japan to the point that it is possible to use rechargeable smart cards to buy products. All you have to do is recharge a card, touch the card to the sensor and voilà you have purchased a drink. The modern vending machines are equipped with touch screens to select the item you want to buy. Besides this, these machines are able to suggest you a beverage; as a camera on the top of the screen can detect your age and sex, as well as the current weather. Photo: Ben Garney Japan has one of the highest concentrations of vending machines in the world, so it is actually possible to get a wide range of products that go from bananas to women´s underwear from them. Let´s take a look at the weirdest of all: 1. Lettuce Vending Machine It is common to knowledge that most of the vegetables that are available in the vending machines are not as healthy as the fresh ones you could get in the market. However, many Japanese people love the lettuce vending machine called “Chef´s Farm”, which not only sells lettuce, it also grows them, in fact it can grow up to 60 heads of lettuce... read more
International Recipe Contest with Wanderlust Marriage
We at Only-apartments always try to share great travel tips and we strongly believe that one of the greatest things about travelling is discovering amazing food. Most exciting is not the food that is served in restaurants, but ingredients that you discover at the local markets, and the inspiration to recreate recipes at home. Every week on our Facebook page under the hashtag #traveltaste we are sharing all sorts of things related to food and travel. And now we have teamed up with Bell and Alex from wanderlustmarriage.com for a contest where you can share your favorite travel inspired recipes. As the food should be a feast for the eyes, too we would like you to not only share a recipe, but also include a photo. The lucky winner receives a 200€ voucher for our website. That said 2nd and 3rd place will not walk away empty-handed. For all details on the contest, please read the original post on wanderlustmarriage.com where Bell and Alex explain how to participate. You have time to submit your recipe and photo until next Monday, September 9, 2013.... read more
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