Below we briefly explain the importance of having your own direct booking website and why it’s important to connect a vacation rental channel manager
and booking engine for optimal performance which will also save you time to do the things you love doing. Like growing your business!
Direct Booking Website and OTA Listing Platforms
Your very own direct booking website
that includes the location of vacation rental properties has to opportunity to be seen online via Google search results and other search engines. It is as easy as your potential guest going to their favorite search engine and using dedicated keywords to find your rental properties. If your direct booking site is properly optimized for search engines, then your vacation rental website should not have a problem being displayed on the first page of any search engine such as Google.
Another good idea that can attract guests is listing your rentals on platforms frequently used by travelers, including popular websites like Airbnb, VRBO, and Booking.com. Managing the listings can prove to be difficult without software to help you, especially if you have more than one rental property. There are more things to accomplish than uploading photos, writing descriptions and other important details.
There is also the responsibility of regularly updating the listings for reasons like availability and price changes (which you could also use dynamic pricing). Keep in mind any changes for each property must reflect on all websites where the property is listed.
Potential Problems with Guest Communication
Failure to communicate effectively with potential guests, current and past guests, on-ground staff and homeowners could affect sales and performance. Guest relations can become overwhelming! So, there are hosts and managers who keep all their guest communication in one inbox by using a piece of sophisticated software. A good vacation rental channel manager should be able to solve this communication problem.
Let us explore a little deeper!
Vacation Rental Channel Manager Software
There was a time that channel manager software was exclusively used for hotels. These days, however, vacation rental hosts and property managers for vacation homes are already allotting time and money for the best vacation rental channel manager that will fit their business model. A good channel manager software will allow you to effectively handle your daily operations with ease!
Vacation rental channel managers were originally created and used by hotels to let potential guests know their room rates and availability. It would distribute the inventory of hotel rooms to Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) to keep listings updated. So, when someone booked a hotel on a hotel booking website, the room availability on a listing’s website would automatically have one less room available preventing double bookings.
A good channel manager allows vacation rental hosts and managers to close more bookings because of its seamless functionality resulting in increased sales.
How Does a Vacation Rental Channel Manager Work?
A vacation rental channel manager allows for the distribution of listings to more channels to widen a channel manager’s promotional reach and get more bookings for your vacation rental business. Hosts and property rental managers only need to create their listings in a property management software (PMS) to be able to distribute listings to different channels.
Furthermore, directly linking to more online channels gives you the capacity to update your property details only in one place and have the rates reflect across the internet in real-time. The best vacation rental managers allow you to do just that.
Property details that can be updated include the following:
• Rates
• Availability
• Pictures
• Description
Sometimes, the reservation process within listing websites can become a bit confusing. Bookings through platforms such as Airbnb, TripAdvisor, or HomeAway
may also happen on the original platform listing site but not directly on your own booking website. When guests book on your listings via these mentioned OTA platforms, your guests will not be redirected back to your direct booking website.
Truth is… the best vacation channel managers will keep all your reservations in one place for you to see and manage with ease.
What Makes a Vacation Rental Channel Manager Worth the Money?
Proof is in the pudding…
iCal synchronization is simply not enough! A good vacation rental channel manager has the capacity to distribute to more channels, offers support and training and provides solid reports and direct integrations.
When choosing the best vacation rental channel manager for your business the software must have an up-to-date API connection for accessing new features of all channels. The product must have tools and resources to help managers expand their business, such as a booking engine that can be placed on your very own website, guest messaging capabilities, and provide good integration partners. It also must be recognized by major OTAs like Airbnb. And it must offer reasonable onboarding time and pricing structure.
Why You Need a Vacation Rental Channel Manager?
We are sure you like earning more money with your rentals, right? Trying to manually update each listing for every channel is a time-consuming task and you will ultimately waste money in the end. A vacation rental channel manager offers you a way to automate channel distribution and information changes for your vacation rentals. Furthermore, a channel manager prevents double booking problems because it allows for instant updates for all listings. Sweet!
Another benefit of having a channel manager is access to more channels! The channels include those that may have not been considered by hosts and managers but are a good fit to the business. The reservation system of a vacation rental channel manager can even allow access to channels that do not accept manual upload of listings. Finally, a channel manager integrates with other software products being used by hosts and managers alike, including tool such as PMS and housekeeping.
If you are looking for a good all-in-one channel manager that will handle your needs with less hassles and headaches, we suggest checking out Smoobu. They provide great customer service and their booking engine
integrates well with our vacation rental booking websites.
