Streamline partners can easily leverage their direct booking website when they use Bluetent marketing services and websites. From optimizing your property descriptions to creating new taxonomy pages, the Streamline – Bluetent integration is strong and robust. Keep reading to discover how your property management company can get the most of a direct booking website and your vacation rental software.
Note: You will be able to use most of these tips and tools even if you don’t have a Bluetent website.
OPTIMIZE YOUR LISTINGS IN YOUR VACATION RENTAL SOFTWARE
Whether you have a cloud-based or a custom website with Bluetent, Streamline partners can deploy several strategies that will have a dramatic impact. Your website, after all, is your direct link to guests! It is important to consistently look at the features within your Streamline property management software that will allow you to optimize for best practices.
SPECIFIC FEATURES TO FOCUS ON
Property Titles – Put Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to work for you when you optimize your property titles. Within Streamline, you have the option to assign a HOME NAME and a WEB HOME NAME. The HOME NAME is the place where you can assign a numerical name to the property, most often used internally. The WEB HOME NAME is where you can assign the property its public-facing name. You can include SEO elements within this field.
Property Descriptions – Keyword dense property descriptions are going to be your new BFF. Details about the property, in paragraph and bullet format, is text that can be searched by Google. Therefore populate search engine inquiries. By including keywords in your property descriptions, you can help guests find the information they are looking for and ultimately lead more people to your website. You will also want to check for outdated information or add new information. If the property is recently renovated, be sure to include that information for the guest.
Images – The quality, order, and naming of property images matters. Always choose the best image to be the first image when displaying multiple images. Typically, you would choose a zoomed-out, exterior image of the home to be first. This is the “money shot”. Be sure that you are using high-resolution professional photography. A picture is worth a thousand words. When naming the photo, use a naming convention such as sea-breeze-exterior-outer-banks.png instead of 000IMG.png. Filling in the Alt Text field is also essential. An example of a good Alt Text will give a brief description of what is in the photo and will also use keywords. For example: Sea Breeze Exterior, Outer Banks Vacation Rental.
Amenities – It may be time to clean up and optimize those amenities lists. Check for duplicate content, spelling or grammar errors, extra characters or spaces, over capitalization, and outdated information. You can also add icons to your lists. This is a great way for guests to see what is offered with an at-a-glance view. Highlighted “featured” amenities is another way to leverage the information on your direct booking website.
MORE THINGS YOU CAN DO FOR YOUR DIRECT BOOKING WEBSITE
Taxonomy Pages – Taxonomy pages are simply category pages like “Oceanfront” or “Pet Friendly”. Creating these pages is an excellent way to have high-ranking pages available for guests to view properties by category. When you build a “Private Pool” taxonomy page get a link that can be used on your main search menu on your website. These are also great links for social media, paid social advertising, and email marketing. NOTE: Any amenity or unit attribute in your Streamline vacation rental software can be pulled into a taxonomy page. Bluetent can help you effectively and efficiently marketing your business.
Availability Calendar – This special Bluetent feature allows your availability data within Streamline to be pulled directly into your direct booking website. Give your guests an at-a-glance view of unit availability during their preferred stay dates. Guests appreciate the option to shop based on arrival and departure dates versus by property. For guests who must travel during every specific dates or who must coordinate dates with other family members, the Availability Calendar is a huge time saver! This is also an excellent resource to promote your marketing channels.
Out of the six ways to optimize your direct booking website using your favorite vacation rental software, which will you focus on first? To hear a little more directly from Bluetent and Streamline, check out this webinar!
03.23.23 – 2023 Partner Webinar XV – Bluetent from Streamline VRS on Vimeo.
Would like to learn more about Bluetent’s websites, any of their digital marketing services (including email marketing), or channel management? Please click below to start a conversation with one of their vacation renal industry experts today!