As some of you know, my company, Savour Partnership, is a sponsor of /brand partner with Jessica Duce’s Vacation Rental Designers Collective this year.

The Vacation Rental Designers Collective is a membership site for those designers whose specialty is vacation rental design, although all designers are welcome to join it.

At the recent Fall 24 High Point Market, Jessica and I were talking about buying groups.

One advantage of joining the Vacation Rental Designers Collective is that Jessica has negotiated very, very favorable trade pricing for designers with many of the brands who desire to do business with this group of designers.

HOW DOES BELONGING TO THE VACATION RENTAL DESIGNERS COLLECTIVE DIFFER FROM BELONGING TO A BUYING GROUP?

This is the difference:

In a buying group, the account holders hold the account relationship with the manufacturer. When a non account holder member buys from an account holder within the buying group, that is building the buying volume of the account holder, not the designer buying from the account holder.

When you join the Vacation Rental Designers Collective, there are no account holders. The account holder is YOU. Therefore, when you buy with the favorable pricing Jessica has arranged, you are building your own relationship with the manufacturer and your own buying volume.

Similarly, when you buy through the trade program of a brick and mortar retailer or an ecommerce retailer, you are building their volume, not your own.

Each way of buying has pluses and minuses. For instance, some retailers and buying groups handle all logistics and return issues which is a definite plus for some designers who are willing to forego some margin for that convenience.

Jessica was sharing with me how she hoped to increase her membership this year because, with increased membership, comes increased desire on the part of more and more brands to want to negotiate ever more favorable pricing and other perks for VRD members.

ON BEING A SPONSOR OF THE VACATION RENTAL DESIGNERS COLLECTIVE

Over the years, my company has been a sponsor of several different events, industry organizations, etc. Never have I gotten the kind of support for my own business that I’ve gotten for my investment in being a sponsor of the Vacation Rental Designers Collective.

For instance, without my input and as a total surprise to me, Elissa Bedwell, who works for Jessica, wrote this post about my business which was sent to all members and posted on their social channels.

https://www.vacationrentaldesigners.com/post/digital-marketing-public-relations-influencer-marketing-for-interior-designers

In addition, an entire series of beautiful graphics got created and shared across their social channels, and example of which is below.

I am in good company as a brand partner/financial sponsor, as you can see from the other brand partners/sponsors below, including my very close friends from Thompson.

Another wonderful benefit for the members is being on this map on the VRD Collective site.

Are you interested in becoming a member? Click here to find out more.

For those that are just finding out about the Vacation Rental Designers Collective for the first time, I want to share a brief story to end this post.

When Jessica hired me to work with her professionally in early 2022 [ some of you have seen her testimonial about that in my Facebook Group, #designwealth ], we never discussed the formation of the Vacation Rental Designers Collective.

This was entirely Jessica’s idea, but never have I seen someone form an idea in their mind and then execute on it so incredibly well, so quickly, while also making it a GENUINE win for every stakeholder involved.

I truly hope those of you reading [ and finding ] this post will consider supporting what Jessica has put into motion.

The ability for sponsors to come together to support the designers involved in the vastly growing worldwide vacation rental design industry - part of the hospitality industry - is unparalleled.

The ability for designers to partner for best pricing with those sponsors is also unparalleled, so they can build their own accounts and their own volume with those sponsoring brands.

Leslie Carothers
Named One Of The Top 40 Most Inspiring Women In Home
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