Distribution
Deciding where, when, and how to distribute your short-term rental inventory across channels is only half the battle. You must also decide how to present those properties, which amenities to list, what wording to use, and which photos to feature. Every decision along the way can have a big impact on your success.
Unfortunately, channels are all different companies with different contracts, policies, fees, and algorithms. Integrations can help manage listings to an extent, but their capabilities are often limiting, especially when you need to make a change across listings. The result is often a clunky, time-consuming process that in some cases is its own job.
As part of TrackSuite, TrackDistribution makes channel distribution much less of a chore. Let’s see how.
Ch-ch-changes
Let’s say you manage 200 properties with listings across all the major channels—Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, etc. You want to add a policy change to every listing, like changing the check-out time from noon to 11 a.m. How do you do it now?
Probably one of three ways:
- Make the changes listing-by-listing from a PMS with a channel integration
- Log into every channel and make the changes to each listing directly
- Use a channel manager to make the changes
In each case, a change—even the same exact change to all listings—must be done one listing at a time. Even if the change takes just two minutes per listing, on average, that amounts to nearly 7 hours of work. Often, this falls to the marketing department, temps, or junior employees.
For this reason alone, TrackDistribution is a game-changer. Bulk editing allows you to push out inventory-wide changes with unprecedented ease and control, potentially saving hundreds of hours annually. Big concert headed your way? Easily add a temporary block of text or a new headline to showcase area events.
Of course, you can make your changes permanent just as easily, such as policy changes across your portfolio. Push them out to all listings, all channels at once. Yes, really. Pinky swear. And if channel distribution isn’t your thing, we can do the heavy lifting for you.
Errors and Alert Notifications
Fees can be a value-add for guests and a critical part of your bottom line. But adding a new fee and having it passed on correctly to the channel, say nothing of realizing that revenue, can be hit or miss.
Through a single dashboard, TrackDistribution can catch fee errors immediately and help you fix them before a week’s worth of bookings (or more) slip through the cracks without the fees included.
The system can even alert you to errors or technical issues preventing listings from going live, along with advice about resolving the problem.
Reviews Management
Each listing can have dozens or even hundreds of reviews that are exclusive to that channel. Reading and responding to them in a human and thoughtful way can also be a full-time job for the same reasons as managing listings.
Too many channels, too little time.
TrackDistribution’s included Reviews Management feature makes this critical, but tedious part of the job easier than you can imagine. Did you know that responding in a timely manner to reviews can have a big impact on your SEO? Now, you can see—and automate responses to—new reviews from across channels on one central dashboard. No more logging into every channel.
The time- and hassle-saving features built into TrackDistribution have quickly established it as the premier channel distribution platform on the market. Contact us for a demo today and see for yourself how much easier distribution can be.
