August 2023 Update
We're excited to share that we hit a number of significant Dtravel Direct milestones in August including Airbnb sync and Google Vacation Rentals integration!
August was a milestone month! Not only did we make Dtravel Direct more accessible to anyone operating a vacation rental business, but we released the first distribution channel aimed at supporting property managers in driving direct bookings.
We’re excited to share all the big wins with you this past month as well as some much requested feature updates and highlights.
Recent Updates in August
- Google Vacation Rentals
- Airbnb import
- Promo codes
- Guesty Connection
- Min-night stays for manual listings
- ETHWarsaw
- EuroSpark
- Departures: M3
Product Updates
Google Vacation Rentals
We hit a major milestone this August and released the first of many direct booking distribution and demand channels available to all Dtravel Direct customers. Closing August with a splash, we launched an integration with Google Vacation Rental opening a massive opportunity for our existing customers and waitlisted property managers.
This is significant in two major ways:
- We are enabling anyone with a Dtravel Direct account to list on Google Vacation Rentals at no extra cost (atypical of the industry).
- Google Vacation Rentals belongs to the largest search engine in the world, meaning, this could lead to increased visibility of any listing powered by Dtravel Direct.
As a property manager, getting your listings on Google Vacation Rentals is nearly impossible without paying a monthly PMS subscription or having 5000+ properties in your portfolio. For the majority of property managers listed on OTAs such as Airbnb, VRBO and Booking.com, this wouldn’t have been possible before our integration.
We’re excited to offer this incredible channel to all Dtravel Direct users for free and know this feature will be an incredible value add going forward.
If you’re a vacation rental operator or property manager, you can now get your listings added to Google Vacation Rentals simply be creating a free directly bookable listing or complete direct booking site:
Learn more about the Google Vacation Rentals integration here.
Airbnb Listing Import
It’s never been easier to create directly bookable listings or a complete direct booking site powered by Dtravel Direct. This month we streamlined the onboarding process further with an update that enables new users to add listings simply by importing their data and assets from Airbnb.
This feature is especially useful for those property managers with 5+ listings. We’ve had some customers with 200+ listings that have been waiting for this import feature and we’re excited to now onboard them within minutes.
If you’re a vacation rental operator, you now have three ways to get started creating your own directly bookable listing or end-to-end direct booking site:
- Import existing listings via Airbnb
- Create listings manually
- Import existing listing via PMS
Learn more about this update here.
Promo Codes
We’re excited to announce that another highly requested feature went live in August — promo codes!
Dtravel Direct users can now easily create and send discount or promo codes for use in marketing campaigns, social media and more.
Learn how to configure promo codes in this help article.
Guesty Support (Beta)
We’re excited to announce support for Guesty, one of the leading property management software (PMS) providers in the vacation rental industry. Through our partnership with MovingLake, a cloud-based data management platform, we’ve been able to offer all Guesty users access to Dtravel Direct via PMS connectivity!
Learn how to connect Guesty PMS to Dtravel Direct here.
Min Night Stay (Manual Listings)
Property managers can now set minimum night stay requirements for any manual listings created on Dtravel. There are two options for property managers to set minimum night stay rules.
- Minimum nights per stay: the global setup which defines the minimum number of nights guests have to stay for the whole calendar, except for specific date range(s) (if any)
- Minimum stay per date range: the specific date range with specific minimum night stay rules (for example setting a longer minimum night stay than your usual during summer holidays and Christmas and New Year)
Learn how to set up minimum night stay rules here.
Growth and Marketing
Ethereum Vacation Rentals
In partnership with one of our Polish Dtravel Direct users, RENTUJEMY, we brought vacation rental properties on-chain to Ethereum in time for ETHWarsaw.
As part of the rollout we ran a 3-day contest and gave away $250 USD in ETH and a free stay for the duration of the conference in Warsaw.
Rentujemy also used our new promo code feature and offered 15% off bookings to all ETH Warsaw attendees.
DEPARTURES: M2
We’re excited to see the growing success of the Dtravel Ambassador Program in partnership with Galxe. August saw the launch of Departures: M2 where five lucky winners claimed 1000 TRVL for their participation in a series of tasks.
In case you didn’t win Departures: M2 then don’t worry, September is a new month!
The Departures M3 Series will run a little differently in that four sub-campaigns will make up the entirety of M3.
Complete M3.1, M3.2, and M3.3 to secure your eligibility for the final campaign, M3.4, for a chance to win 2000 $TRVL!
Here’s how it will work:
- Departures: M3.1 - 200 Points
- Departures: M3.2 - 200 Points
- Departures: M3.3 - 200 Points
- Departures: M3.4 - 5 Winners | 2000 TRVL Each
FYI - There will be 1 week between each sub-campaign starting.
Visit Galxe to participate in Departures M3.1 today!
EUROSPARK
We’re partnering with Eurospark for an upcoming conference in Lisbon, Portugal on September 15-17 on accommodations. If you have a place available that you’d like to rent to attendees of the conference, reach out to us so we can share your listings with attendees.
We’ll be partnering with more conferences on accommodations so be sure to set up your directly bookable listing or website with Dtravel so you can get your listings in front of these conferences when they happen.
Do you have a conference you’re organizing and looking for accommodations for attendees? Reach out to us to partner!
What's Next
- Dtravel Direct referral and affiliate program
- Improve Dtravel Direct content display
- Personalized booking terms & privacy policy
- Add-ons to help drive more ancillary revenue
- Closed-beta of Dtravel’s own software agnostic distribution channel
- Optimize SEO and improve direct booking site discoverability
- Property Management pages for all Dtravel Direct users
Direct Booking Sites Primed for Distribution
We're making it easy for vacation rental operators to start and grow their direct booking business. To do this, we're not only focused on improving the features that come with Dtravel Direct, but also how we can help property managers drive more bookings.
Create a premium direct booking site with Dtravel Direct in minutes and get ready for our distribution network.
Join the Community
Website | Twitter | LinkedIn | Telegram | Discord