About Us
A Night Out - 2008
BIO: I was born in 1979 to the same house that my father still lives in, although the area is unrecognizable. I was raised in Houston, Texas and went to school in what was considered a very comfortable middle class area called Alief. The area is now extremely depressed, but it was once a vast farmland with cotton fields, cow pastures and equestrian centers. For anyone who is familiar with the area – when I grew up, Highway 6 was a two lane road. It is now a double decker disaster that I have no idea how to navigate, I just let Joe drive.
My brother David is three years older than I am and is quite a shy, introverted individual. I was his shadow and to this day I credit him for my outgoing, no holds barred attitude. When I was twelve years old my brother told me that no matter what – I never had to do anything I didn’t want to do, that life was a menagerie of choices and consequences. I took that very literally and spent the majority of my teenage years being a royal pain. (Quit smirking – I know! Not much has changed)
School was always very easy for me, although I went through stages where I was uninterested and therefore very unproductive. I believe I have a form of ADD where if I am not interested, I have absolutely no attention span. I believe it has been formally named, prefersnottobeboreditis and currently has no formal treatments. Home life was interesting and diverse (being very politically correct here if you can’t tell) – so I graduated high school in three years instead of four. I had been telling people I was going to be an attorney since I was four years old – I even had a keychain that said, “I plan on being a lawyer when I grow up”. My favorite hat was a Harvard baseball cap. I spent time at both, Houston Baptist University and Purdue University before I landed in Destin, Florida with two children and a spouse going through some sort of midlife uselessitis.
Divorced by 25, I focused on being grateful and dedicated myself to being an integral part of growing our industry into a mainstream accomodation choice for leisure and business travelers. The most poignent observation for my growth was that everyone in our industry was somewhat the same and we had failed to progress with the rest of the travel world or atleast at the same pace – Vacation Rentals were and still are, for the most part – behind the times.
- Amber’s Seascape Staff
Work is a passion for me and not just a paycheck. I truly love what I do and appreciate that every day is different and I get to meet so many fantastic people. I also know that it is a tough industry. I constantly remind my staff that kudos will have to come from within and each other because once someone checks in – if you see them walking back through the doors or they are calling on the phone – it is not because something is so wonderful they can’t wait to tell you…. they have a complaint.
My infatuation with the World Wide Web began with the book, Search Engine Optimization for Dummies. I read the first edition of the book when I realized how much money we were spending on Pay Per Click and yet we had no “organic results” at all. I started working on SEO over six years ago – before most of the world was paying attention and certainly well ahead of my peers in Vacation Rentals. There were no classes on the topic, so I went to BNU (Barnes and Noble University) to diversify my knowledge and formulate a strategy to save money and move up on the rankings. Our plan worked within six months and that original site still dominates our market for many extremely competitive keywords. My involvement with this process was my first experience with my “other Joe” – yes, there are two. The “other” Joe is my business partner and the genius behind our programming capabilities and web design skills. He is the most talented programmer I have ever encountered and I am so blessed to be in business with him. “Other Joe” can literally build anything I dream of – and with very little direction. He gets me and the way that I think so definitely that when I share a vision with him, he can produce the technology with a keen accuracy to what I built in my head.
Even today, I spend a remarkable amount of time reading about marketing strategies, travel trends, website development changes and Search Engine algorythms, although I have to tell you – I think I have figured out a large part of the method to the Google madness. (Please see the page entitled, Think like a Search Engine for more elaborate details!)
My family is unique, eclectic and filled with love. Joe is my biggest fan, and I am his – and it is absolutely the foundation to my ability to balance working so hard and enjoying my life. For anyone looking to really “conquer” their dreams, I highly suggest you find a “Joe” – appreciate them every day out loud, hold your head up high, get a great coffee maker and hold on tight for the ride. The world is a forgiving place, dream big – be brave enough to fail, and listen more than you speak.
Follow our Life on our Candid Mayer Family Blog
EXPERIENCE:
I’m never sure whether you should start from the beginning or the present when you are describing your experiences without the defined parameters of a typical resume. So, in advance, if I am offending blog resume etiquette by actually starting at the beginning – then you’ll really know that despite my best efforts, I’m not perfect. =)
Newman-Dailey Resort Properties, 9/03-10/06 www.destinvacation.com; www.jadeeastcondos.com,www.southwaltonvacation.com, www.destinbeachsideinn.com
I was blessed with starting as an executive administrative assistant to the owner of Newman-Dailey, Jeanne Dailey. Truly a founder of our industry, Jeanne provided me with the opportunity to analyze, manage and experience every aspect of our business. I evolved into an Owner Relations Manager, led the acquisitions campaigns, marketing, website development and search engine optimization for the company for several years.
Seascape Resort, 10/06 – Present www.Seascape-Resort.com, www.PreparetoVacation.com,www.DestinGroups.com, www.DestinGolfGroups.com, www.EmeraldBayGolfClub.com,www.DestinResortCondoRentals.org , www.GolfinDestin.com, www.ArielDunesResort.com,www.MajesticSunSeascape.com
Seascape Resort recruited me specifically for my skills on acquiring additional units on the rental program, as well as running the rental division for the entire resort. We had two brand new buildings under construction and coming online when I accepted the position. On my second day of the job I learned that running the rental division, actually meant “building” the rental division. As a professional, I wont go into details, but lets just say it was a lot like starting a business from scratch. I quickly realized we needed graphic design 911 (our logo was designed on a type writer!), a marketing plan, a website that functioned, a fax machine, new computers, some working knowledge of our property management software, a housekeeping manager and I could go on but I suffer from post traumatic stress disorder due to the overwhelming dramas of 2007 and any futher elaboration could cause an episode.
BidMyRental.com, 200? – Present www.bidmyrental.com
I really don’t remember how long we’ve been working on this project. It has grown from a simple thought to an intricate project over a number of years, although it was not until early 2008 that we organized the entire process into one national portal. We designed this interface after studying the interaction between VRBO clients and the “owners” on the other end. Most of the time, we found that vrbo guests were a completely different genre of guests and they really always wanted to play, “lets make a deal” – even if all they got was an extra bag of ice waiting for them in the refrigerator. At the same time, EBay had really taken off and everyone was infatuated with bidding on anything they needed to purchase – toilet paper, colorful paperclips, garbage disposals, used books – vacations. So we molded these two ideals together, walked the fine line between property managers, owners and potential guests – and came up with BidMyRental. Potential clients get to bid on their favorite vacation rentals using suggested rates as a guideline and property managers get to haggle over the price while collecting extremely hot leads regardless of whether or not the bid is accepted. Win, win for everyone and with very little cost or obligation.
ViaVacanza, 2008 – Present www.ViaVacanza.com
After leaving Newman-Dailey and organizing our brain child into BidMyRental – we had other project requests hit us all at once, and we decided to formalize our partnership into ViaVacanza, LLC. This company mainly revolves around the booking engine and content management system that we have been developing for over six years – ViaggioNet. This system is a property manager’s dream, and everyone that gets a peek, instantly gets hooked. Since I spend the majority of my life actually performing as an excutive in Property Management, I know all the tools we need – and Joe built them specifically with the idea in mind – that all of us in this industry wear six million hats on a daily basis, so everything we do needs to be efficient, simple and perform well. We don’t have time to wait on other people to make changes for us, we need to be able to access all of that important information at our fingertips – and ViaggioNet gives property managers that power.
Current ViaggioNet users -
Destin Luxury Beachfront Condos
Destin Beachfront Condo Resort
Majestic Sun Destin Condo Rentals
Seagrove Beach Vacation Rentals
Santa Rosa Beach Vacation Rentals
Marketing Consulting, 2008 - Present
Needless to say, this addition to my profile came about from the daily interaction with some of our ViaggioNet clients and other industry partners. I provide services for companies that need someone to come in, tear apart their books and help them find every last penny to save while increasing their effectiveness. I spend a lot of time helping clients understand what I am doing for them, how I get my info, where they can find data, how I interpret the data, and how I get my conclusions – I want them to be a part of the process. Regardless of how detailed my marketing plans are, or how proficient I am with search engine optimization – I will never know their business like they do, and having them involved makes me a much more productive part of their team.
Current Marketing/Consulting Clients
Please note that we will only work with one marketing client per business type, per area – I’m not a magician and there are only so many spots on page one for a keyword – so to be fair, we are not taking any more Destin, Florida or Santa Rosa Beach (30A) companies as marketing clients unless you are a completely different type of business than the ones we currently represent. We do, however provide small updates, words of advice and microsite building services for all clients at this time regardless of a marketing retainer. If you’re reading this and you are located in Colorado, the Outerbanks, Canada, Mexico (actually, look – I’m over my quota of copy I could possibly write that would be original or interesting for the Destin area, so we want ANYONE outside of Destin) - please contact us if you need marketing assistance – we are intrigued with those markets and would really like to diversify our portfolio into those destinations!
