Rental site: the choice of communication, top 10 of the best features for rental sites.
The features of rental sites,
Owners of accommodation, whether seasonal or not, whether it is an apartment or several houses, short or long term, each need certain functionalities for rental sites, specific to their websites. The goal of every owner is to have their accommodations filled all year round. Here are some essential features that will help you get there.
In France, cities such as Paris, Lyon, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Nantes and Marseille alone account for 19% of rental searches (according to the study by locservice.fr.) Tenants are always looking for the best price, the best deal. Real estate agencies attract less and the consumer. Indeed they tend to go on individual sites to avoid agency fees.
Faced with this observation, a website specially designed for rental accommodation is a solution. A site accompanied by a booking engine and a good SEO will both increase your notoriety on the net but also increase your direct bookings.
It is possible to have a website with the best features for rental sites. That is, both a booking engine that will allow visitors to book directly on your site. But also an interface for managing reservations and customer follow-up.
This solution has already been adopted by several owners of rental apartments or houses and seems to work well.
The functionalities
1
A booking engine
The booking engine is the essential tool for all players in the hotel and catering. It is a module grafted to your site allowing you to show the availability and the price of your rooms to your visitors. In addition, it will provide access to your customers to book directly on your site without going through OTAs. The booking engine is a door which once crossed by the visitor transforms him into customers. This is the best way today to increase direct bookings and improve the customer experience. For more information, I invite you to look at our articles Comparison of the best booking engines & Reservations Engine For Hotels & Accommodation Structures.
2
A multilingual site
With no less than 324 million overnight stays in tourist establishments in 2021 in France, expect to receive a lot of strangers. To be sure not to miss any reservations, your seasonal rental site must be in at least 2 languages. The French obviously is the English to facilitate the understanding of foreigners. If you are used to having a large clientele from a certain country, do not hesitate to add their language to your site to improve their experience and retain them.
3
Centralization of reservations
OTAs have become essential tools for all tourism stakeholders around the world. And platforms like Booking; Expedia; Air BnB continues to multiply. To cope with this influx and manage it as well as possible, there are channel managers that allow you to centralize, synchronize and manage your reservations in one and the same place. I invite you to find out about the different channel managers in our article Comparison of the best channel managers
4
Automatic email sending
Emailing is a good way to retain customers and remind them of the good times of vacation. Sending a special offer, newsletter, or thank you allows you to personalize the customer experience. In the tourism and travel sector, the average the opening rate of emails is 23.60% and the click through rate is 1.39%. Which ranks it 10th out of 20 industries for click through rate. This means that compared to other sectors, customers are going to interact more with the emails received when it comes to tourism and travel. So automating emails will allow you to reach as many people as possible and save time.
5
Invoice in 1 click
Business customers are a significant part of the tourism sector, they represent 20% of total tourism. Business trips, congresses and professional events very often push companies to have to travel to other countries. For their accommodation, some opt for short-term rentals. But who says professional says invoice and having to write an invoice by hand without forgetting a comma can be simple, or stressful. To avoid making mistakes, generating fractures in one click from your website thanks to the booking engine is a real time saver.
6
Choice of mode and method of payment
Stipe, Paypal or most French banks, these online payment tools will allow your customers to pay directly from your booking engine in a 100% secure way. Thanks to the booking engine you can also impose your conditions, for example: a deposit of 30% of the price of the stay when booking. This feature also allows you to obtain the customer’s bank imprint to carry out bank pre-authorizations or to be able to debit the card at the end of the stay if there have been extras.
7
Blocking reservations on all platforms at once
Probably the most important feature of your site. The booking engine must be able to synchronize all reservations from the different booking platforms. booking on your site. Like a channel manager would. OTAs like Booking, Expedia, Airbnb are concerned. If a reservation is made on your site but it is not updated at the OTAs, you risk having duplicate reservations. It is therefore important to have this feature to block the reservation on all platforms simultaneously.
8
Added live bookings
From the moment a visitor makes a reservation and validates all the reservation steps, you will be informed. You would receive a confirmation email and the reservation will automatically appear on your calendar. Regardless of the booking platform, your site or the OTAs, the booking will be visible on the calendar instantly. The visitor will then officially become your customer.
9
Manage your additional services
Breakfast, activities, special service, extras are features to take into account and integrate from the moment of booking to increase your turnover. This is a strategic part for those who want to practice Yield management. Maximize his profits and filling his establishment.
10
Google Hotel Direct Booking Links
Google has set up free booking links that appear during visitor searches, « Google Hotel ». Hotel Web Design has a partnership with the search engine so that your establishment is directly referenced on the Google Hotel space. This feature allows those looking for a rental to find your accommodation directly. Google will then display the booking rates and availability and a link leading directly to the booking engine on your official website.
They have entrusted us with the management of their online communication
Ready for more direct bookings?
Contact us today
