iTrip Park City is taking proactive steps to address concerns regarding the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Our goal is and has always been to deliver sparkling clean vacation homes to our guests. In light of current events, we wish to instill confidence with our guests by detailing our full list of cleaning & disinfecting guidelines and procedures.

Our cleaners are using CDC recommended cleaning processes and EPA approved disinfectants to sanitize areas. Our cleaners are also taking extra time to sanitize entry points and heavily used areas.

See below for the Housekeeping Process utilized by iTrip Park City…

Looking for more details regarding cleaning measures implemented by iTrip Park City? Please see the following resources for additional information:

iTrip Vacations Vacation Home Cleaning Guidelines 

Vacation Home Operating Guidelines during COVID-19

COVID-19 Business Survival Guide for Vacation Homeowners

Questions regarding cleaning procedures or vacation home availability with iTrip Park City? Send us an email at [email protected] or give us a call at 435.245.1713

COVID-19 Business Survival Guide for Vacation Homeowners 

iTrip Park City is an industry leader in property management and vacation rental services. We’ve operated in Park City since 2011 and manage just under 80 properties. iTrip Vacations is a multinational technology and marketing company and iTrip Park City is a franchise of iTrip Vacations. 

Our goal is to be a true business partner with each of our homeowner clients. With that goal in mind, our team is working very hard directly (in a safe, socially distant fashion) with each of our homeowner clients to navigate this COVID-19 crisis. COVID-19, as you know first hand, is having an unprecedented impact on the hospitality and vacation rental industry. We are sharing the following survival tips with our homeowner clients as well as other owners of vacation homes in our markets.   

What Can Vacation Homeowners Do to Navigate the COVID-19 Crisis? 

1. Explore Resources Being Made Available to Small Business & Homeowners.

The Small Business Administration loans & grants and other federal & state resources for small businesses will be available to vacation homeowners. We encourage homeowners who have established their vacation home as a separate business to research & explore these benefits. 

• Here are links to Utah.gov Small Business Resource Guide for COVID-19: Utah Economic Task Force and its page with resources for small businesses. 
• This article from the National Association of Realtors outlines resources available to homeowners.  (Not all of these resources will be available to owners of investment properties but it is still worth taking a look.) 
• Check out this article from the U.S. Treasury Department about its joint efforts with the Small Business Administration to mobilize relief for business owners through the CARES Act. This article also does a great job at answering questions about the CARES Act relief resources.  
• Silicon Slopes also has a terrific COVID-19 resource & action center for local businesses on its site.
• Keep up-to-date at visitparkcity.com COVID-19 and sign up for Summit County Emergency Alerts here. 

2. Investigate your Mortgage & Insurance Options.

We suggest that you contact your bank or mortgage servicing company to find out if they are offering deferment or interest-only payment options on mortgages and home equity lines at this time. It doesn’t hurt to ask them what resources are available to you. You should also review the specific terms of your homeowners insurance or umbrella policy to determine whether you have coverage available for the loss of rental revenue as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. (Few policies provide this coverage but you’ve got nothing to lose by checking the specific details of your policy.)     

3. Make Sure You Are Up-to-Date on the Emergency Short Term Rental Restrictions Now in Place in Your Vacation Home’s Municipality.

Summit & Wasatch County have implemented several emergency ordinances that restrict short term rentals to reduce the transmission and health risks of COVID-19 for its residents.  See below for a summary of the emergency regulations in place in Utah overall as well as the restrictions on short term rentals enacted by local municipalities in the Park City, UT area. 

4. Consider 30+ Day Rentals in Your Home for the Next 60 Days.

We continue to receive inquiries for 30+ day bookings for our homes.  When we receive a 30+ day rental inquiry for one of our homeowner client’s vacation homes, we contact the homeowner and work through the proposal with them.  Please know that there is now a much larger supply of furnished homes in the area and a diminished level of demand for rentals. That means that the 30+ day rental rates that we are seeing for furnished homes are now much lower than the 30+ day rental rates you’d otherwise expect to see during the months of April or May. We are actively making adjustments to the rental rates for our homes in response to the changing market conditions.   

5. Review Your 2020 Reserved Dates for Your Vacation Home. 

We suggest reviewing the 2020 dates that you’ve reserved your vacation home for your own personal use.  iTrip Vacations does not restrict homeowners’ use of their homes — under our marketing & management program, you are free to reserve whatever available dates you’d like to stay in your home.  If you do have changes to make to your reserved dates, however, now would be a great time to make those changes as guests who had booked your home for stays during March or April are now attempting to reschedule their stay to a later date in the year.      

6. Make Sure Your Vacation Home Management Company is Offering “Cancel For Any Reason” Travel Insurance.

iTrip Vacations strongly encourages all guests that book an iTrip Vacations managed vacation home to purchase travel insurance.  We offer our guests the option of purchasing standard travel insurance and “cancel for any reason” travel insurance.  Guests that purchased standard travel insurance on or before January 29, 2020 are receiving coverage for cancellations relating to the COVID-19 crisis.  (In most cases, standard travel insurance that was purchased after January 29, 2020 does not provide coverage for COVID-19 cancellations.)  Those guests that purchase our “cancel for any reason” travel insurance are able to receive partial coverage for their travel expenses if they cancel their planned trip due to fear of traveling as a result of COVID-19.  Needless to say, we are seeing an uptick in the number of guests purchasing the “cancel for any reason” travel insurance, which is a terrific way of protecting future rental revenues for our homeowners.

We understand that local property management companies have laid off team members and are limiting their hours of operations. We are a small, family-owned business and we’ve not furloughed or laid off anyone from our company. Our team is tiny but mighty!  If there is anything we can do to assist you in securing your Park City vacation home, then please contact me.  

We hope you and your family remain healthy, safe & positive during this COVID-19 pandemic.  

 

 

State and Local Municipal Emergency Ordinances & Restrictions

State of Utah

Gov. Gary R. Herbert issued a “Stay Safe, Stay Home” directive to all Utahns on March 27th. This is not a shelter in place order, but rather the next step in the Urgent Phase laid out in the Utah Leads Together plan. This directive seeks to make clear what individuals and businesses should do to slow the spread of COVID-19 in our state and communities. Click here to view the full directive. 

Summit County & Wasatch County

• Summit County issued a “stay at home” order, closing all non-essential businesses on March 27th, 2020. Effective May 1st, 2020, Summit County lifted the ‘Stay at Home Order’ and the new Joint Public Health Order went into effect. This new order transisitons Summit County to the Stabilzation Phase of COVID-19 response and lowers the risk level to Moderate. 
• Wasatch County has issued a “stay at home” order, closing all non-essential businesses on March 30th. Effective May 1st, 2020, Wasatch County lifted the ‘Stay at Home Order’ and moved to the Moderate Phase, which includes specific guidelines for individuals and businesses. 
• Utah’s COVID-19 infection curve is flattening and the state is moving towards the Stabilization phase from the Crisis phase of Gov. Herberts three phases of response (Crisis, Stabilization, Recovery) discussed in Utah Leads Together plan. 
• Key Data Dashboard, a leading provider of real-time vacation rental data for the short-term rental industry, is showing bookings are currently on par with last year for August. You can view Utah booking and pacing activity here.

 

MUST ASK THEIR PROPERTY MANAGER

• How long has the management been in business managing vacation rentals and what is their track record?
  • Be sure to ask if they have local staff to care for your home and vacationing
    guests.
  • Ask when payments are made to the owner and do they have a record of
    paying statement balances on time.
  • How many guest reservations have they completed over the last year?
  • What is their star rating on vacation rental sites like AirBnb, Homeaway, VRBO, and Trip Advisor?
• How would they keep your home secure?
  • How often do they perform physical inspections when the home is not rented? In Park City there are long stretches between summer and winter when your home may be vacant.
  • Is access to your home controlled through an audit capable lock? Cleaners, contractors, inspectors, HOA’s and staff should have unique codes that track who entered the property and when. Each guest should receive a unique access code that activates the day of check-in and expires at the time of check-out. This prevents overstays and guests returning later creating unnecessary risk.
  • How does the manager monitor your home to watch for parties that can damage your home or create a menace to neighbors? There are available technologies that can monitor guest activity in your home without infringing on privacy. Noisy guests are the number one complain of neighbors and HOA’s sometimes will fine homeowners for noise policy violations.
  • Water leaks cause more property damage than fire and theft combined. Systems are available to monitor water flow in your home and automatically shut off the water in case of a broken pipe.
• How will the home be maintained?
  • Typically, a home needs a full inspection every year in the Spring and the Fall. All mechanical systems need to be checked and the owner needs to be notified of any potential issues that need to be addressed. It is far better to keep the home’s systems in good working order and avoid an emergency later.
  • Does the manager use in house or outside contractors? Many times, use of outside contractors is a superior solution where an expert can be deployed vs staff generalists. Also, contractors are likely less expensive in the long run because you only pay for them when needed. Always ask the rate for typical services and service calls.
  • How is the home cleaned after a guest reservation?
    • Does the manager use in house cleaners or contractors? Managing cleaning staff in season is very challenging particularly in Park City where unemployment is low and labor costs are high. If in house employees are used are there background checks conducted? Are they bonded and insured? Similar questions should be asked if contractors are used but also inquire about the number of staff available to handle workload during peak seasons.
    • Often there are back to back reservations during season where the home must be cleaned from a departing guest in the morning to prepare for another arrival in the afternoon. Ask for an explanation of how this type of situation is handled to ensure the property is cleaned on time.
    • The quality of amenities is important to guests. Ask to see a list of the items stocked in the unit prior to arrival of each guest. Insufficient or cheap looking supplies give the guest the impression that you are a cheap operation cutting corners in this area leaves a bad impression.
    • According to research linens are very important to visiting guests. Ask your manager about providing good quality sheets and towels for guest use. Linens are a significant expense in setting up your home for rental. Be sure to ask options available and understand the cost of linens that will be required to manage your home as a vacation rental. Durability is also important so be sure to ask when replacement may be necessary. Also ask about linen rental as an option.
• How will the home be marketed to attract guests?
  • In the past simply purchasing an ad on major vacation rental portals like VRBO, HomeAway and losing on AirBnb was sufficient. Today marketing has become much more sophisticated in the competitive Park City market. If simply listing your home on major portals is the approach to market your home it will likely underperform in terms of rental revenue. Much more is required today to display your property where vacationers are searching for a rental.
  • Does the property manager know what is necessary to achieve high page placement on major vacation rental portal sites? HomeAway/VRBO has a different formula than AirBnb as do all the portals. Ask you manager if they understand the requirements and if they have a way for their operating system to feed information to the portal that will improve page placement. If your listing is not near the top of search results chances of being seen by the inquiring traveler drop significantly.
  • Ask the manager if the software used provides inquiring guests live real time information. Vacationers are no longer content to send an email and wait for a response. Real time API connections allow the traveler to instantly reserve the home making the transaction friction free.
  • Ask the manager to describe the sales funnel used after a potential guest inquires. Research shows that on average a guest views the listing multiple times before making a decision to book. The sales funnel is a structured way to reconnect with the guest to maximize results.
  • Inquire about retargeting in their marketing practice. This tactic sets a cookie on the inquiring user’s computer and sends targeted ads at timed intervals in the future. This marketing technique is used by the best marketers to secure bookings.
  • Search Engine Optimization has been a buzz term for the last few years. Everyone says that they perform SEO but the challenge is that the algorithm is constantly changing. Ask your manager to describe the team of engineers that maintain SEO in their operating system and if they work full time on SOE or occasionally refresh the code. The dynamic evolution of SEO requirements requires considerable and frequent effort. This could be a combination of in-house programmers and outsourced resource.
  • Ask how the management company invests in social media engagement. Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter have become important supporting marketing elements when a traveler is inquiring about a vacation destination and their influence is on the rise.
  • Ask how they would determine rental rates for your home. Vacation rental portal sites have made it easy to compare rates in the market. The best managers us a comparative pricing system to set rates benchmarked form competitor properties. These systems, modeled after airlines yield management software, allow the best possible price for a given period of time. Inquire about automated filters available to fine tune your property rates for maximum results.
• The vacation rental industry is evolving at a rapid pace. How will your management firm keep pace? Look for an organization that is connected to industry leaders that will drive innovation as the business evolves. Also, inquire about their programming staff. The best management companies maintain their own IT teams to make changes to their software to keep pace with the industry.
• How much do they charge?
  • 1. The commission rate is the most important element but is just the start.
  • Ask what services are included in the rate.
  • Ask what expenses are not included. There are a range of additional items that may be charged as an expense One important expense is post rental cleaning and inspection. Some management companies charge the cost to the owner as an expense with each rental which is a significant expense. Others charge the expense to the guest. Also significant is expense for maintenance in the home. Ask how much is charged for a routine and after-hours service call. If contractors are used is there a markup?
  • Also ask about all startup costs associated with listing your home for rental.
• Ask if you can cancel the management contract?
  • Most rental companies in Park City operate on annual contracts. However, in the event that you need to cancel you need to understand the fine print in the contract. Look for a flexible contract that allows you to exit the agreement if necessary, without penalties.
• What services are offered to prepare your home for marketing and rental and what are the costs?
  • Staging the home with color helps present your home in the most positive manner. Ask how the rental manager will help prepare the home for photographs.
  • Professional photography is essential. Pros know how to use the best possible angles to present your homes features and have the software to process images that are bright and clear.
  • 3D imaging from Matterport or similar providers gives the potential guest a virtual tour of your home. This popular feature is growing in popularity and professional management companies offer this service to all homeowners.
  • Ask how descriptions are written.
  • Emphasize any unique features/ amenities in your home.
  • Ask the management company for an honest evaluation of the condition of your unit compared to other homes in the area. Ask your manager for their professional opinion of steps necessary to make your home as competitive as possible. Inquire about services they offer to perform a decor upgrade or renovation if necessary.
• In Park City vacation rental home inventory is growing rapidly. How will you make my home stand out in a highly competitive market?
  • Often owners have designed their home for their personal comfort. A trained vacation professional will evaluate your home to determine features that appeal to travelers.
  • Expert vacation rental professionals can recommend features that make your home distinctive using your budget.