Micah Berg Vacation Rental University Review: Does It Fill The Void for Training in this Rising Industry? |IPPEI

Updated On 2023-10-10

Micah Berg’s Vacation Rental University by Micah Berg fills the education void in the short-term rental industry. It targets both beginner and expert rental managers, owners and even realtors looking for continuous growth. The online academy offers three course plans. The topics covered are organizational management, owner management, operations, marketing, branding, guest relations, budgeting and revenue management.

In my experience of renting digital real estate for over a decade, income from short-term rentals like Vacation Rental University teaches is like McDonald’s ice cream machines. It can be very inconsistent. That’s because vacation properties often have seasonality, where bookings are full some months and other months have limited bookings. Going on vacation is also one of the first luxuries to go during economic downturns, like buying Michael Kors products. Investing in a vacation rental at the wrong time in the market can open your real estate business to serious cash flow issues. This is especially true if you use debt to finance your short-term rental unit and you need your monthly profits to help pay off a loan. Buying real estate already has a high upfront cost, and when considering the additional expenses of short-term rental units, such as furniture, a property manager, and higher utility bills, profits might be slimmer than you expect. You need to be like Bobby Axelrod from Billions, carefully assessing different scenarios of your potential investment before putting your capital (or credit history) at risk.

In this VRU course review, we’ll explore what you can expect from the online course, the differences between the course plans they offer and if it’s worth your money. We’ll also look into the founder of the online course with his partner, Michael Friedman, and list alternative short term rental courses.
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Vacation Rental University Review: Pros and Cons

Pros

Reputable Founders: Micah Berg is the current CEO of RealJoy Vacation Rental managing over 400 short term rental property units. He founded the VRU with his partner Michael Friedman who ranked “Top 1% Real Estate Agent” for 7 years with a background in executive coaching.
Managing Tool: VRU Enterprise Plan offers custom tools that can manage your staff and track their progress.
Lifetime Access At Low Cost: The VRU Master Plan offers a lifetime access to its video lessons and resources that members can go back to any time for $495.
Short Video Lessons: VRU lessons range from 3 to 5 minutes and are designed so members can take and understand the lessons despite a busy day.

Cons

No Reviews: There are no testimonials from members on the site and on any other platform.
Coaching Might Cost Extra: The price of 1:1 consultations is not disclosed.
Account subject to withdrawal restrictions
Inflation may hurt returns over time

Price: Vacation Rental University course plans range in cost from $49 to $2640.

Origin: 2018

Refund Policy: The VRU Master Plan has a 30-day money-back guarantee. The Enterprise Plan’s refund policy is not disclosed.

Vacation Rental University Review: Pros and Cons

You can expect digestible videos, competitive rate analysis and tools you can use for managing, marketing and maintaining your short term rental houses from the VRU courses. The best benefits of following a short term rental course are the skills and tools from experts in the industry. The VRU online site hosts 340 video lessons that members can easily access and filter through the library.

There is also an option to go through a specific track and learn the lesson from top to bottom. The videos range from 3 to 15 minutes of digestible explanations, examples and actionable steps.

The VRU lessons are also divided into 3 levels: Free, Basic, and Advanced Training. The Free level comprises all training videos accessible to members without a plan.

The Basic and Advanced training levels include the organization of guest lists, cleans and turns, and a rate analysis of vacation home competitors. It also includes a lesson on software you can use to track your property and market your vacation rental effectively.

By 2027, 70% of vacation rental market revenue is projected by Statista to be generated through online sales. Thus, the tools and software knowledge VRU provides can become a competitive edge for your vacation rental business, especially in online marketing.

Another topic members may find very practical is “The CRAP We Deal With Stories.” It is a series of videos featuring real-life experiences of vacation rental owners and managers with tips on how to deal with these unexpected problems. As stated by Technavio, more and more governments shift their policies to promote their country’s tourism industry hence preparing for more varied traveling guests may help make your business prepared with regulations in place.

What Are The Differences Between the VRU Plans?

The VRU offers three plans. One free course and two paid courses. The free plan enables you to access the free resources and check out the basic and advanced level training materials, though you can’t watch or download them.

VRU Paid Plans: Master vs. Enterprise

MASTER PLAN

ENTERPRISE PLAN

Price

Monthly

Lifetime

$49

$495

Monthly

Annual

$250

$2640

Who is it for?

Higher profit margin, lower sales volume. You can make money even by just selling a few units.

Lower profit margin, higher sales volume. Low ticket items are easier to sell but you have to sell a lot to be profitable.

Features

Access all training levels
Business Growth Resources
Management, Sales and HR Training
Email & Phone Support
30 day money-back guarantee
All Master Plan features
Custom content based on your business
Analytics report of your staff progress
Assignable content to your staff
Testing for progress and mastery

Is Vacation Rental University Worth Your Time and Money?

The VRU is worth your time and money, but only if you’re already a home rental owner or a vacation rental manager. It is especially suitable for small and upstart short term rentals. The Master plan is a good investment since you can avail it with a onetime payment option for a lifetime of access to VRU resources and support.

This year, according to Allied Market Research, the vacation rental industry will get a spike of 12.4% in preference for the Home segment. A demand for knowledge and skills relevant to the business is inevitable.

Several STR online courses are already out in the market due to the rise in demand for vacation rental professionals. Read our review of top Airbnb courses .

Who Is Micah Berg?

Micah Berg is the founder and CEO of Vacation Rental University and RealJoy Vacations, a vacation rental company in Florida since 2009 with 400+ units by 2018.

Before making his mark on the rental industry, Micah served in the United States Marine Corps as a Sergeant and received medals for his services. After that, he became a financial advisor of Merill Lynch, a prominent Wall Street investment firm.

Micah believes that the most powerful word is “help” and aligned the goal of VRU with it. He emphasized the vacation rental industry’s need for education and training. Especially faced with this year’s 15% dip in bookings, according to CBS News.

Michael Friedman is the co-founder of Vacation Rental University. He is an expert with more than 3 decades of experience in the real estate and vacation rental industry.

Michael’s expertise lies in Entrepreneurship, Coaching, Marketing, Hospitality and Real Estate. He is also named as part of the “Top 1% Real Estate Agent” for 7 years in a row.

Vacation Rental University Alternatives

Vacation Rental Secrets: You can learn the course “Fully Booked Formula” by Antonio Bortolotti. This course comes in 3 modules that focus on conversion, branding and website building, respectively. As a rental property owner or manager, if that’s what you needed, you can get access to each of the modules for $197

BNB Mastery Program: This airbnb course by James Svetec can be completed in 6 weeks and focuses on turning you into a property manager of vacation rental units. The cost for this course is $1,997 with an option to pay in installments.

Short Term Rental Secrets: Michael Sjogren created this course for property owners and managers looking to automate their tasks. It focuses on 4 specific areas which are turnovers, guest communications, pricing and security. The cost for the course is only disclosed to you during your initial call with Michael.

What Are the Benefits of Following a Short-Term Course?

Direct knowledge shared from industry experts
Tips on how to deal with unexpected guest problems
Software tools for managing check ins, turnovers, payments, repairs, etc.
How to scale your vacation rental business
Effectively marketing your rental property
Industry updates

How to Choose The Right Short Term Rental Course for You?

Identify what you need. Is it scaling your rental business? Certificate? Marketing? Managing? An answer to this will help you reduce your choices.
Your time availability. The courses vary in the time they require from you. And this will largely affect how much knowledge or skill you can retain.
How you learn. Short term rental courses are available online and in traditional classroom settings. This comes down to your preference. If you’re more comfortable earning with other people at a standard pace or leaning by your own pace.
Short-term rental course feedbacks. Read other students’ comments and feedback about the course. You can compare against what they actually learn and what the course offers.

Is Vacation Rental University What Your Short Term Rental Business Needs?

The Vacation Rental University offers many plans that cater to specific needs. If you’re starting out, a free plan will work just right for you. Meanwhile, the paid plans offer you unlimited access to resource materials, support and trend reports. All are valuable for the growth of the business.

In my opinion, investing in digital real estate with local lead generation is less risky and more stable than investing in short-term rental properties. Local lead generation websites only cost a few hundred to a few thousand dollars to rank on Google. Once ranked, you can rent the site to a local business for $500-$3,000 per month in recurring income. You’re like Robert Kiyosaki investing in assets to make passive income, except your business is completely online. Local lead gen assets also tend to be more stable than short-term vacation rentals because your tenants still need your services in economic downturns. You create a marketing channel that a business relies on for a large portion of its revenue. As such, there’s a good chance they’ll continue paying your monthly retainer or commission through periods of market volatility. You and your clients are like UFC fighter Sean O’Malley and his trainer Tim Welch, supporting each other through good times and bad.

One of my websites is Irvine Custom Granite Quartz Marble Countertops, 2452 Dupont Drive, Irvine, California 92612, 949-998-3976, https://www.irvinecustomcountertops.com/. Last month, it generated 22 leads, and my client closed $19,690 in new business. We have a 10% commission deal, so my client paid me $1,969 for my leads.

Learn more about starting a local lead generation business to start collecting recurring, digital rent.