I know I generally write about Internet business with a Hawaii theme, but I’ve been wanting to move to Diamond Head, and I came across this fabulous beach home that I wish I could afford!
Of course I thought this one was the best because it’s in a place I actually want to live.
I’ve been to Poipu, Kauai and it’s an amazing Hawaii vacation destination. So I can see why The Parrish Collection (TPC) is banking on the several Poipu resorts in the area. TPC manages vacation homes and condos in popular locations like Poipu Kai and Nihi Kai Villas. From what I know about the business, property managers are paid roughly 20% (only) when an accommodation is booked. The property manager is then responsible for marketing, providing customer service and cleaning the vacation rentals.
The site itself is easy to navigate and there is great information about the properties including detailed descriptions and very nice photos. The problem with the site is its booking system which was not only slow and clunky, but a bit confusing to use. It was manageable, however, by improving this system they could up their conversion rate and therefore bookings. I’m guessing their current booking engine creates a lot of phone orders as well. So an improvement with this part of the site would reduce staff costs also.
The one thing that makes this site successful are the photos, floor plans and virtual tours. The photos are amazing and make me want to stay in their properties. If you don’t believe me, check out these pictures of their Donohugh home! The floor plans are a nice touch and something that most other vacation rentals sites don’t offer. Read More
I’ve been wanting to do an evaluation of a Hawaii activity company for a while now, and I’ve finaly got my chance. Safari Helicopters has been taking people on Hawaii helicopter tours to “inaccessible wonders” in the islands for 22 years. Reading through the elaborate company section, you learn that this is a family run operation you takes pricde in their service and safety. The business itself works by selling their service directly to clients through their website. I’m guessing this direct sale is more valuable then selling through an activity desk or website which I’m assuming would charge a booking rate of about 25%.
The site is done very nicely and there’s a lot of information to help make a buying decision including video, photos, description and customer reviews and rating from TripAdvisor displayed directly on the site. I really like this last feature because it gives you the opportunity to see unbiased remarks about what others have experienced. From the reviews you can tell Safari Helicopters is a reputable company selling a good Kauai helicopter and Big Island helicopter tours.
The one place the site fell short was in the booking system. Not that it was bad, but it could definitely be improved which would lead to higher conversion and more sales. Read More
Uptake is one of my favorite types of websites, a data aggregator (a site that compiles information from multiple sources into one place). If you take a look at their Hawaii activities section, for instance, you’ll see data pulled from Travelocity, Yahoo!, Trip Advisor, Yelp, Epinions and CitySearch as well as other information directly from Hawaii based websites such as HonoluluZoo.org. It’s pretty easy to see how a website like this can be useful, but how do they make money? A representative from Uptake told me that they worked on a CPC model. But if you look closely at their Hawaii romantic hotels or Hawaii family hotels sections, you’ll see a yellow button that says “Check Rates”. Clicking this button allows you search for hotel prices on TripAdvisor, Priceline and Expedia. So it appears that they are also working an affiliate angle.
Uptakes use of information from multiple sources makes it a winner in my book. You can also see that with a lot of traffic, their CPC and Affiliate models could be very lucrative. After surpassing 1 million monthly visitors in less then a year after their launch in May 2008, they’re well on their way to becoming a profitable company. Read More
I had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of Ted at Hawaii Destinations - a Hawaii travel and tourism site which is a guide for independent travelers visiting the islands. The goal of this website, as stated on their about page, is, “to become a respected destination and vacation guide, providing a quality and quantity of information without peer amongst independent websites”. Hawaii Destinations has made a good start with a respectable amount of information on Hawaii travel insurance as well as a nice selection of Hawaii accommodations. The site uses 2 monetization models:
Overall, the site has a nice theme and is easy to navigate. I appreciate the simple straight forward navigation and everything is just one click away. The buttons to “book” and “learn more” are also easy to see which leads to high conversion ratios. Read More
Hawaiian Beach Rentals is the largest Hawaii vacation rental company in the state with more than 4,000 accommodations for you to choose from. They use the following business model:
There are two things that really set Hawaiian Beach Rentals apart from other vacation rental booking companies:
Hawaii.com is an advertising based Hawaii travel site owned by the Gannett Company whose flagship publication is USA Today. They use 2 Internet business models:
For their affiliate program, Hawaii.com co-brands with Expedia.com and also uses Pleasant Holidays. This is pretty straight forward on the website. You can search for vacation packages, airfare, hotels and rentals right from the home page or choose package deals from internal island pages.
The CPC’s are setup as ads around content and whenever a client clicks on one of these ads, Hawaii.com receives a agreed upon payment. Read More
The overall purpose of this component is to assure public awareness of, and input to, the overall project … to consider the social and cultural effects of Hawai`i tourism (past, present, and especially future) … and to see if the ideas generated during the project are supported by the overall public in meetings and a survey of residents on all islands. The consultant for this component is also responsible for “overall project coordination,” but just in the sense of preparing a final report summarizing all three components, in a consistent format.
The Infrastructure and Economic/Environmental components are intended to produce some hard facts and figures. They are the “bones” of the Sustainable Tourism project. The Socio-Cultural and Public Input component puts some “flesh” on those bones by analyzing some of the human issues and by gathering resident input. Some parts of this study include facts and figures, but other parts have to do with beliefs and values.
Critical activities include:
1. Developing a public information and input effort, including this website, to deal with all three components of the Sustainable Tourism project.
2. Holding public meetings on all islands.
3. Assembling a Study Group of “stakeholders” from different interest groups – various parts of the tourism industry, environmentalists, Native Hawaiians, etc. – who are meeting throughout the life of the project. They are working on a statement of “Sustainable Tourism Goals and Indicators” which can represent agreement among many groups about how to maintain a good balance of economic, environmental, and social outcomes as tourism changes.
4. Preparing a two-part Socio-Cultural Report investigating evidence about the likely effects of tourism growth and/or change on social factors known to be of particular concern to residents – e.g., crime, housing cost, Native Hawaiian issues, etc.
The first part deals with impacts on Native Hawaiians and was written by a Native Hawaiian advisory group. The second part deals with tourism’s socio-cultural impacts on Hawai`i’s general population.
5. Compiling ideas and recommendations from all the above activities, and then conducting a survey of residents of all counties.
6. Preparing a final report, covering all three components, including recommendations for action by public and private organizations, along with ideas for future studies or public activities that could not be done during this initial Sustainable Tourism effort.
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The purpose of the Overview study was to compile an inventory of selected public and private infrastructure, as well as environmental features, in order to establish baseline data for 2000. This component was intended to identify infrastructure/environmental capacity, usage, problems and future plans, compare visitor and resident impacts and define major assumptions throughout the State. This study provides a basic understanding of the conditions and issues related to the infrastructure and environment around the state. The study addresses the following areas:
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