by Vacation Rental Pro on January 12, 2012
Vacation Rental Inquiry Templates and Automation
Work and testing are underway of a new feature that will allow Lodgix subscribers to route their inquiry emails through Lodgix. This will allow a subscriber to:
- Run reports by custom periods for inquiries received by source
- Calculate ROI by source as Lodgix will have smarts that track inquiries as they turn into bookings.
- Apply templates to responses for easy and quick responses in the event a property is available or not available
- Quote inquiries. Currently if a phone or email inquiry arrives, there is no ability to send out a custom quote via email. The new system will have this functionality.
- Track inquiries separate from guests. Inquiry tables will be sync’d with email marketing module to allow for email marketing after the fact
- Access mobile friendly pages for super fast response times when receiving inquiries on your mobile device
- Setup complete automation, allowing inquiries to be answered with templates applied with NO subscriber intervention
- Enable a feature called “Rental Switch” which will automatically suggest (and quote) other “like” properties in your inventory when an inquiry arrives for a property that is not available.
and of course, much, much more.
This is truly the most robust inquiry management and conversion tool available anywhere. Best of all we are providing it at no charge to existing customers. Estimated time to arrival: January 25, 2012.
Screenshot showing new Inquiry menu item with ability to map your source IDs to specific properties on Lodgix. Using the Cost tab you will be able to define the cost of your annual listing for ROI calculation or also define the per inquiry cost by source.
by Vacation Rental Pro on January 12, 2012
Yosemite’s Enchanted Forest is located in the Yosemite National Park. For those of you who have never visited Yosemite, I suggest you change that immediately! Yosemite is amazing. I’ve been there twice myself. For this project we were tasked with designing a logo and a website that would the jaw dropping beauty of the place.
After several designs were nixed we came up with a bright, vibrant color scheme and sourced some amazing images from local photographers. The site is search engine friendly and the client is busy building back links and adding content to boost their organic search engine rankings. I am going to help them out by linking to their site here and featuring a nice screenshot of the site. Please visit EnchantedYosemite.com for all of your Yosemite Lodging needs!
by Vacation Rental Pro on January 12, 2012
Actually this site launched awhile back, but it’s a great looking site and the owners really take care of their guests and rentals. Make sure to tell Lois & Larry at TopHillCabins that you like their website next time you are looking for a vacation rental in the Cook Forest State Park in Pennsylvania!
This site gave us a bit of trouble mostly because the Cook Forest is just that – a forest. Thus most of the imagery tends to be a little dark and brown. If you look at most vacation rental websites for properties in the Cook Forest, they are dark and less than inviting. We really wanted to change that and highlight the many rivers, streams, hiking trails, fall colors, etc. that dominate the Cook Forest State Park landscape.
The Cook Forest has a soul, like all environments do, and so we worked hard to really bring it to the surface! For all of our web design projects, we want the website visitor to experience the true essence of the area through imagery. We’ve done that with TopHillCabins.com!
by Vacation Rental Pro on December 1, 2011
Lodgix provides a default list of amenities that can be selected for each property. However, we recognize that many of you have amenities that are unique to your units and so once again we listened to your feedback and launched the Amenities Manager.
The Amenities Interface
Each property has a tab for Amenities that can be found under Properties > List All Units / Rooms and then clicking on the pencil (edit) icon next to the property you wish to edit. This interface provides a list of amenities on the left. Your job is to choose which amenities apply to your property and move them to the list on the right.
You can move an amenity via drag and drop or by clicking on the "+" or "-" images next to the amenity. If you feel that the majority of amenities apply to your unit, it might be easier to "Add All
and then remove those amenities which aren’t pertinent.
Make sure to click "Save" at the bottom of the screen to save your selections.
WHAT HAPPENS IF I NEED TO ADD A CUSTOM AMENITY THAT IS NOT ON YOUR LIST?
The Amenities Manager
This interface is found under Properties > Amenities Manager.
Step #1: Click on the green "+" icon to add a new amenity
Step #2: Name your new amenity
Step #3: Save the new amenity (disk icon)
Step #4 Select the new amenity
Step #5: Add the new amenity to all properties iva POPULATE ALL PROPERTIES button or choose individual properties and click on POPULATE ONE PROPERTY button.
The newly created amenities will be added to the designated properties and you are good to go! The "population" feature is nice for property managers with many properties. Using this feature a PM can create an amenity and add it to hundreds of properties at the click of a button!
Don’t Forget the Copy Icon!!!
Many times your properties will have common amenities. You shouldn’t have to spend countless hours selecting amenities for each unit. Once you’ve setup the amenities for a unit that you feel represents the majority of your units, then use the copy icon!
Choose the unit you wish to copy FROM and then copy it to the new unit. Whalah! All you need to do is tweak for any amenities that need to be added or removed.
by Vacation Rental Pro on November 30, 2011
Some property managers simply do not have the staff to accommodate same day online bookings. With that in mind, we’ve added an option to not allow online bookings within 20 hours of the stated check-in time for each property.
Open the Important Settings Interface (settings > important settings)
Allow Same Day Bookings? by default is set to YES, if set to NO, then guests will receive a message when attempting to book a property online within 20 hours of property’s stated check-in time. That message is show below.
Message to Guest When Attempting to Book within 20 Hours of Property Check-in Time
