Author: David Ciccarelli
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The 2026 Opportunity: How Property Managers Can Capitalize on the Biggest Year in Vacation Rentals
Executive Summary The 2026 vacation rental market presents unprecedented opportunities driven by two mega-events—FIFA World Cup across North America and Milano Cortina Winter Olympics—alongside fundamental market stabilization. With 5 million tourists expected for the World Cup alone, €281 million in Olympic tourism spending, and AirDNA projecting continued RevPAR growth through 2026, property managers who execute…
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Solving the Marketplace Cold-Start Problem: A Product Marketing Playbook for Two-Sided Platforms
How Lake.com activated supply through partner-led growth—and what it reveals about breaking the chicken-and-egg cycle The Idea in Brief Every entrepreneur building a two-sided marketplace confronts the same existential dilemma. Travelers won’t book accommodations on a platform with limited inventory. Property owners won’t list their homes on a platform with no traffic. It’s the business…
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Travelers get conversational: search and discovery habits are changing. Are online travel agencies ready?
AI chat is becoming the front door to travel. As booking windows compress and platform shares shift, the winners will redesign the end‑to‑end journey around dialog—not clicks. Why this matters now Across U.S. short‑term rentals, demand is volatile, and the planning clock is ticking faster. In Q2 2025, forward occupancy slipped, down 6% for August…
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How We 5x’d Our Brand’s Organic Traffic and Took the Lead in AI Search
In a stunning shake-up of the vacation rental landscape, Lake.com has surged past Airbnb and Vrbo to become the most cited brand in AI-generated travel recommendations across the United States. With its citation share skyrocketing from 8.6% to 35.0% by July 2025, Lake is now the go-to source for travelers seeking lakeside stays—dominating key categories…
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How We Increased Voices.com’s Conversion Rate by 400%—And What You Can Learn From It
In the early days of scaling Voices.com, we faced a universal challenge: turning interest into action. Our platform—an online marketplace connecting voice talent with businesses—was gaining traction, yet our conversion rate was stuck below 5%. We knew we were onto something powerful, but something was broken in the customer journey. In 2009, we partnered with…
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Mobile Optimization: How We Increased Revenue by 180% with Responsive Design
At Voices.com, we recognized early on that mobile wasn’t just another channel—it was becoming the channel. As a B2B e-commerce platform serving clients like ABC, Google, and Microsoft, the shift in user behavior toward mobile devices presented both a challenge and an opportunity. By 2013, mobile traffic to our site had increased significantly, but conversions…
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How We Grew Mobile Transactions by 140% with Responsive Design
At Voices.com, we connect businesses with professional voice talent around the world. From e-learning modules to video game characters to interactive voice response systems, our marketplace serves clients of every size—from Fortune 500s to startups. And while the quality of a voice can evoke emotion and spark imagination, the digital experience surrounding that voice must…
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Overcoming Technical Speed Bumps to Reach the Next Stage of Growth
In every entrepreneurial journey, there are familiar stages—ideation, prototype, beta release, product launch, product-market fit, and, if all goes well, scaling toward maturity. Each stage brings its own set of challenges, and each requires a different kind of leadership, decision-making, and adaptability. At Lake, we’ve recently passed a pivotal milestone: product-market fit. We’ve built a…