I love studying what is going on in the vacation rental space because it is so closely related to my niche of home rentals. I have been looking over FlipKey.com and thought I would put my thoughts in a blog post.
My first impression is that is has almost a Oodle.com feel to it, perhaps it is the color scheme or the filtering processes on the right sidebar – I am not sure.
But I always admire sites like this one that have the guts to post reviews about properties like apartmentratings.com does. Anytime you put up reviews you are going to tick someone off. Clearly the site is built for the person looking for a place to stay – which I think is a great approach. But you need thick skin from all the vacation property owners about all the comment you will get.
I know that HomeAway.com that owns VRBO has a rating system on their site, but the rating is based off the accuracy of the info the owner provided and not the person’s experience at the vacation rental. I know if I am looking for a vacation rental I would love to hear what others thought of it before I rented it out.
I spoke with TJ Mahony from FlipKey and he gave me some insight on the name of the site which I like:
We want to help people feel more comfortable renting someone else’s home and the word “Key†is synonymous with security… Because the vacation rental experience is substantially more personal than staying in a cookie cutter hotel, we want people to feel confident about sharing / staying in each other’s homes. As a result, we choose “FlipKey†as our name to conjure images of someone ‘flipping’ their house keys, stories and personal experiences with a rental home to someone else…. It’s all about community and trust.
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5 users responded in this post
Thanks for the mention. I’m the CEO of FlipKey and we agree that there is tremendous value in understanding the experiences of past guests in helping vacationers identify and book the ideal vacation home.
RE: Sensitivity of comments
A core attribute of FlipKey is it’s neutrality in providing an honest environment to cultivate honest opinions regarding vacation homes. As such, we allow managers/owners to post responses to critical consumer reviews to clarify their position when a negative review is posted. This exchange helps provide context to negative reviews, upgrade information (e.g. “the AC has been replaced with a new unit) and helps establish the credibility of all the positive reviews. Over 90% of reviews on FlipKey are positive and in the instances of critical reviews our response features allow managers/owners to manage their “reputation”. It’s a wonderful exchange and extremely useful for future guests.
Site reminds me of apartment reviews..
Pretty cool!
Great website.. yes I strongly agree about the review system. I have found people are more likely to purchase or rent from a vendor etc if there are real reviews from previous customers. I have been looking into a website called RentorHire and they have have just implemented this Review System including a Star Rating for each Hire or Rental item. This I think is imperative for any website is the rental space or purchase space for that fact. Good job Flipkey..
I listed my 2 vacation rentals on Sanibel Island on Flipkey for two reasons. The first being the affiliation with the dowager giant TripAdvisor. With that many travelers utilizing TA, how could FK fail? And I must say after a month of idling in “neutral”, my properties have done very well with Flipkey.
The other reason for listing on Flipkey is that I think reviews, when verified and manageable by owner, are the best marketing tool an owner has.
For that reason, I have also listed my properties on Second Porch, a Facebook app. There, not only the vacation rental guest but the vacation rental owner has an ability to see what other people they know— or know of—are saying about the vacation rental. Transparency in vacation rentals (on both sides of the fence) is instrumental in providing confidence.
FlipKey.com is a tremendous website. I feel like people are help back from renting homes vs hotels because of fears of making bad choices.