Insights: Blog updates

Expertise in Google Ads Extends Value of Atlas Digital Marketing Services Cottage Grove, May 18, 2021 — For property managers and hoteliers, effective digital marketing campaigns demand expertise across platforms. The breadth and quality of the services offered by TravelNet Solutions (TNS) has earned it Google Partner status. Companies that qualify for the Google Partner program must have demonstrated “skill and expertise, met Google ad spend requirements, delivered company agency and client revenue growth, and sustained and grown its client base.” Google Partners have proven they can keep up with the platform’s constantly evolving ad tools, and that they have used those tools effectively in their own business. In other words, they practice what they preach. Jay White, Director of Atlas Professional Services, hopes this new designation will put a spotlight on the extensive digital marketing services they offer clients. “Hotels and VR property managers can’t be expected to keep up with the ever-changing world of digital marketing. Hospitality is a very human industry, so our Atlas Digital Marketing Agency aims to bridge the gap between the personal and technical aspects of running a successful hospitality company.” During non-peak times, more profitable direct bookings can make the difference between getting by and thriving. Pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns can be an effective way for hospitality companies to reach guests, but showing ROI can be a challenge. Google Partner status opens up new avenues for reporting and analysis, ensuring that PPC campaigns through Google Ads don’t turn into money pits. TravelNet’s Atlas digital marketing division marries two critical functions: The latest digital marketing strategies to attract and convert more business; and a booking engine to seal the deal. For more information, visit tnsinc.com/product/atlascommerce/. About TravelNet Solutions Celebrating its 21st year serving the hospitality industry, TravelNet Solutions, Inc. (TNS) provides integrated software and marketing solutions for the hospitality industry including the TRACK Property Management System, CRM, and Call Center Software as well as a full suite of digital marketing services, booking engine, and high-converting websites. TNS is on a mission to transform how hospitality works and our vision of the future is a world where every hospitality company is able to compete on a level playing field. To learn more about how TNS can help you, please visit www.tnsinc.com.  

According to an Expedia study, 69% of travelers turn to a search engine when starting to think about a trip. In this Marketing Monday, we are going to go over three ways that you can turn these lookers into direct bookers.  Avoid paying OTA commissions by investing in your website. Along with your booking engine, your web storefront should be your top priority to showcase properties and drive direct bookings. Bookings made through your booking engine are likely channel commission-free. Speaking of booking engines, use a commission-free one that’s also mobile-friendly. If you do not have a mobile-optimized booking engine, you run the risk of a bad user experience which can turn website visitors away. And to maximize conversion, make sure the booking process is limited to two or three steps. Also, include a rate checker so consumers can compare prices right from your website. These tactics help turn lookers into direct bookers. If you are looking to improve your website, we would love to chat! Our ATLAS Website and Booking engine has helped over 350 Vacation Rentals, Hotels, and Resorts with their critical marketing and website needs.

Company: Rented Name: Talia Lockard Position: Director of Business Development

Your website is the most important marketing tool that your Vacation Rental has in its pocket. By keeping your website optimized, this will lead to higher traffic. In today’s Marketing Monday, we are going to discuss page speed and the importance to your Vacation Rental business. In your experience, have you ever found yourself on a website that takes thirty seconds to load? Probably not.  When your guests land upon your website, you have a few seconds to spike their interest or they will move on to the next property site. Another risk you run is that your bounce rate will sky rocket. You will want to make sure that your pages are as technically optimized as possible, including image file sizes, page structure and the functionality of third-party plugins. The faster your site loads, the better. If you are looking to improve your website, we would love to chat! Our ATLAS Website and Booking engine has helped over 350 Vacation Rentals, Hotels, and Resorts with their critical marketing and website needs.   

Industry Veterans Still Dazzled By ‘Software of the Future’ Cottage Grove, MN May 11, 2021 —Back in 2019, TravelNet Solutions’ TRACK software earned a prestigious Keystone Award from the Vacation Rental Marketing Blog (VRMB), a resource dedicated to helping property managers choose the best software for their evolving needs. Just two years later, they’ve done it again, earning top marks for mid to large companies with 50+ properties. VRMB’s award program, run by vacation-rental industry veterans Terry Whyte and Matt Landau, is dedicated to the notion that software is “empowering owners and managers of all shapes and sizes to move more efficiently, profitably, precisely than ever before.” In their recap of the award, Whyte noted that TRACK is the only product he’s seen that can launch a campaign and follow a customer through their entire journey without ever leaving the platform, drastically reducing the need for clunky integrations to make everything work. Audio from their commentary follows: “We’re deeply honored to receive our second Keystone Award from VRMB,” said Ryan Bailey, CEO of TravelNet Solutions. “Terry and Matt call TRACK the ‘Software of the Future’ and we couldn’t agree more. Our mission has always been to transform how hospitality works. This award proves we’re walking the talk.” Landau stated there is a “parade” of customers flocking to TRACK, but the accompanying write-up also correctly notes the company is being deliberate about its growth. “TRACK has been onboarding new members at record pace, but we also like how they've limited the speed of their growth in order to maintain full quality control (something any VRM can admire).” TRACK combines all essential aspects of running a vacation-rental company into one deeply integrated platform. To learn more about what makes it the “Software of the Future,” visit trackhs.com. About TravelNet Solutions Celebrating its 21st year serving the hospitality industry, TravelNet Solutions, Inc. (TNS) provides integrated software and marketing solutions for the hospitality industry including the TRACK Property Management System, CRM, and Call Center Software as well as a full suite of digital marketing services, booking engine, and high-converting websites. TNS is on a mission to transform how hospitality works and our vision of the future is a world where every hospitality company is able to compete on a level playing field. To learn more about how TNS can help you, please visit www.tnsinc.com.

Consistency is key to providing a five-star experience to guests, and maintenance/housekeeping is at the heart of being able to deliver this promise. TRACK is providing multiple ways to ensure that your maintenance and housekeeping program never misses an opportunity to wow your guests and owners. We offer automation to generate work orders based on reservation events occurring. Numerous conditions can be applied to fine-tune work orders for very specific properties based on events occurring. Additionally, Track offers the ability to create recurring maintenance work orders, repeating based on a schedule. Or to create bulk work orders on the fly.  To find the work order trigger, it is as simple in your TRACK PMS platform to go from your configuration screen, company setup, business rules, then lastly click on triggers. It is not limited to maintenance, housekeeping orders can be created with this automation tool as well. Taking it back a step, the simplest way to understand a work order trigger is to realize that when X event occurs it immediately creates a work order. An example would be the event of the guest checking out immediately creates the work order to housekeeping to change the bedding and clean the home. If you are a current TRACK client, please visit our client support resource article here to learn more. If you are not a current TRACK client, we’d love to chat. Please send us an email at learnmore@tnsinc.com.

A common question we get from our Property Managers is “Do I really need blogs in my marketing strategy?” This Marketing Monday, we are going to go over two of the most important reasons why you should be blogging regularly. Let’s start out with #1. It helps your SEO, which leads to more traffic to your website. (Who doesn’t want more of this)  #2. Blogs not only build brand awareness, but they lead to direct bookings by building trust with potential guests. By regularly sharing relative content about your property, attractions, local festivals, restaurants, day trip ideas, parks, etc. you will generate interest and demand for your property. According to Hubspot, 56% of individuals who looked at a blog post from a company purchased a product or service from them. Are you looking to spruce up your blog strategy and content? ATLAS Commerce has helped over 350 Vacation Rentals, Hotels, and Resorts with their critical marketing needs. If you are interested in learning how to take blogging to the next level, let’s connect you with a Digital Marketing Expert.

High occupancy demands quick turnovers and clockwork communications with housekeeping. But with automations, you’ll never miss a beat. Well, the explosive demand we all knew was coming is upon us. High occupancy and consistent revenue has us breathing a sigh of relief. But that upswing creates its own set of challenges, like ensuring that housekeeping turns properties over as quickly as possible. The more complex the logistics, the more room for error. No wonder cleanliness is usually the top guest complaint, and with increased demand for contactless communications, that’s not likely to change. Housekeeping plays a huge role in the guest experience. But when you’re trying to capitalize on a resurgent travel market, real-time communication between you and your staff, housekeeping, guests, owners, and platforms has never been more critical. You can’t get rid of complexity, but you can manage it through automations. Are automations and integrations the same? An automation is a set of instructions that occur in response to a trigger, sort of like a ripple effect. Some call it a “conditional workflow.” They occur in the background and can be as simple as an email auto-reply or as sophisticated as you can imagine. Integrations, by contrast, are a way for two disparate systems to “talk.” In the bad old days of software implementation, everything was proprietary and almost nothing worked together. Many of us still have nightmares about that, and rightly so. Integrations have made implementation much simpler. Consider your current system. It’s quirky, but it works, and the people you rely on for day-to-day operations know their way around it, right? But every manual operation or clunky integration introduces complexity that can lead to errors and oversights that cost real money. You already use automations in some form. For example, a direct booking triggers an email confirmation to the guest, and another email goes out three days before check-in with gate codes, etc. If you’re really fancy, you might integrate with a system that sends texts to your guests or owners either by date or in response to other actions. Automations are a powerful way to link your operations to platforms and devices in real time.  Automations for housekeeping The same automations that send emails and texts or collect data can enable real-time communication between you, your staff/company, your CRM, and your PMS. They also empower your housekeeping team to be better. A new booking hits your PMS. Instantly and automatically, housekeeping is scheduled. As soon as the guest checks out, the property’s status switches to dirty. Housekeeping adds pictures of damage to the record, triggering a notification to you. On their way out, they tap their phone and the property switches to clean. If a guest is checking in that day, they get a message that it’s ready. Meanwhile, you never lifted a finger. If this, then that. Triggers upon triggers, all happening in the background, with little opportunity for human error. If you’re still using a shared spreadsheet and some system of fill colors and borders to show bookings and track cleanings, this might seem like voodoo magic, but it’s real. Automations take critical, but repetitive tasks off your plate and makes them easy to reproduce across properties. And at scale; the more inventory, the greater value! A recent UC-Irvine study showed how expensive interruptions are, sometimes costing 2.5 hours per day of productivity. No wonder it’s so easy to get mired in the day-to-day. Imagine how much time you could open up just by “delegating” notifications and status changes to automations! In Summary As we inch toward high season, the question you should be asking is, “Is my current system an asset or a liability in terms of the guest experience?” When occupancy isn’t an issue, turning over properties becomes an even bigger challenge than it already is. But that means staying on top of manual processes, and if you’re like most PMs, you already run around with your hair on fire. To help you visualize what could be automated, try this exercise: Write down everything that happens once a guest books. All communications between all parties, from the moment of booking through to fully turning the property over. Cutting, pasting, phone calls, texts, everything.  If it involves devices, applications, or platforms, it can probably be automated. Now write down all the different platforms involved, from your booking engine to how you send emails. We’re betting you’ll wind up with a long list of processes and platforms that cost you a lot of time and money, and depend heavily on your team’s organization skills. It doesn’t have to be so hard. TRACK Vacation Rental Property Management Software can automate repetitive tasks through one unified platform and dashboard. Faster and better usually wins. Get your house(s) in order through automations and finally move some of those back-burner projects to the front. Your guests, owners, staff, and housekeepers will thank you.

Direct booking campaigns have been part of marketing strategies for the Vacation Rental Industry for quite some time. The “Book Direct” push for guests stems from reducing OTA commissions and also really focuses on the customer experience. Today in this Marketing Monday, we are going to go over one way you can adjust your website to gain more direct bookings, while increasing your profitability! Compel website visitors to book direct with pop-ups or calls-to-action. As guests research places to stay, they’ll likely visit your vacation rental website to view photos and other amenities. You must grab their attention fast using CTAs or pop-ups to alert guests to cheaper rates on other competitor sites. Make sure they use eye catching imagery, bold text, and showcase urgency. Educating travelers about cheaper direct bookings and influencing the way they search online for vacation rentals won’t be easy or quick, but it’s an opportunity to attract new guests and make them lifelong customers. TNS has helped over 350 Vacation Rentals with their critical digital marketing needs. Our experts use proven data and strategies to keep you in front of your guests! Get your free marketing assessment today!

There are thousands of Vacation Rentals to choose from nowadays–so how are you marketing your property to stand out? Travelers use listing sites to find properties, so making sure your listing is optimized with the most beneficial features is critical. In this Marketing Monday, we will list a few ways you can make your property stand out. Post clear, well-lit photos. You don’t need an award-winning photographer to shoot your property. Good photos can be taken with a basic digital camera or even a smartphone. The key is to make sure you shoot everything that is potentially of interest to a guest. Showcase your décor, the family room, bathrooms, etc.! People want to get a feel for what their experience will be like before they book. Create a page on your website, booking platforms, and property promotion pages that provides the distance in miles and travel time from your property to all major attractions. Include shopping centers, restaurants, and convenience stores. This allows your guests to pre plan activities that they want to do and are more likely to book if the attractions spike their interest! Showcase your property with video. Creating buzz around your vacation rental property generates interest, which can boost your bookings and overall profit. One way to do this is by sharing your story. How did your company get started? Why should your guests stay with you? You can keep it short and sweet, but it will help gain attention. We hope you learned a few tips today on ways to make your property stand out. Don’t forget to tune in next week! If you want to learn more about our Digital Marketing Services, you can view them here.