May 2023 Update
Over the last month we received further confirmation that everything we are building toward is helping property managers start and grow their direct booking business.
Over the last month we received further confirmation that everything we are building toward is helping property managers start and grow their direct booking business. With more customization and control, property managers new to Dtravel Direct are for the first time, capturing direct bookings and earning more profit than if they had been completely reliant on third-party booking channels.
In line with this theme, we added more customizations in May, along with the ability for property managers to integrate with Google Analytics, run Facebook ads and improve their SEO. We are also beginning to roll out a highly requested new product add-on “Property Management pages”, enabling operators to better sell their property management services and grow their portfolios. Finishing off the month we announced our latest partnership with Ekta Real Estate, an innovative project bringing real world assets on-chain.
With all of these improvements to Dtravel Direct, our focus going forward will be to improve connectivity. Get ready for more updates on how we plan to enable anyone, whether they’re using a property management system (PMS) or not, to use Dtravel Direct. Before we get into that, let's review what we achieved in May.
Recent Updates in May:
- New Room Night Streak
- New Customization Settings
- Analytics & SEO
- Data Sync Update
- Property Management Pages
- Channel Manager Update
- Ekta Partnership
- Media and Conferences
Room Night Streak
Our Month-over-Month room nights saw a significant boost from April to May.
MoM Room Nights: +52.5%
This month, the longest room night streak was processed using the Dtravel Direct booking engine by a property manager new to direct bookings. We’re always excited to see these milestones, especially when they’ve been achieved by a property manager who previous to using Dtravel was completely reliant on third-party booking channels for driving bookings.
The 40 room night streak was completed in a single booking, saving the guest a considerable amount in fees and putting significantly more profit into the property manager’s pocket than if the same booking was made through today’s most popular third-party booking channels.
If you want to get started with creating a premium branded vacation rental site powered by Dtravel Direct for free, then you can do so here.
New Customization Settings
Over the month of May we released significant updates to Dtravel Direct, increasing the amount of customization and control property managers have over their direct booking site. In addition, we’ve organized the settings panel in the Dtravel Direct dashboard to provide a more user friendly experience.
Here are some of the updates:
- Brand name and brand logo
- Custom URL (including self-hosted domains)
- Primary display color
- Hero content (banner image, head-line and sub-headline)
- About us content (bio copy and image)
- FAQs (field commonly asked guest questions)
- Contact (business email and phone number)
- Social media accounts (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok)
Google Analytics & SEO
We’re focused on providing property managers with all the tools they need to drive their own bookings. This month, we added functionality to add Google Analytics (GA4) tracking tags to any vacation rental site powered by Dtravel Direct. As of May, property managers can now take a deeper dive into the traffic coming to their site, helping inform decisions related to marketing and new guest acquisition.
In addition, we’ve enabled Facebook pixel functionality so that property managers can run and track Facebook Ads performance. Lastly, we’ve improved SEO by adding the ability to customize the Meta Title and Description for each direct booking site. This is only the beginning as we will continue to build out this category, bringing more control to property managers related to search engine optimization, analytics and advertising.
Data Sync Update
Property managers now have more control over when their data is synced with their property management system (PMS). Prior to this update, data would be synced from their PMS across to their direct booking site every two hours. For some property managers, this was a frustrating experience since listing edits made through their PMS would take time to appear on their site.
With the latest update, property managers can now sync the latest data of all listings or sync the data of specific listings within the Listings and Listing Detail page in their dashboard. When clicking the Sync listing button, all property data updates will be reflected on their Dtravel Direct powered website immediately.
Property Management Pages
Closing in on the end of May we released Property Management pages for select property managers who are focused on growing their portfolio of properties. This highly requested feature is intended to function as a landing page, helping operators capture interest for their property management services. This is the very first step toward supporting property managers in growing their portfolio of properties. We’ll be continuing to invest in this area with innovative product ideas that we believe will revolutionize the way property managers grow their portfolios.
You can see what the v1 of this product looks like by visiting Hersson & Marieve’s vacation rental site.
Channel Manager Update
We’re pleased to announce that our first Channel Manager integration, GuestSmiles, is nearly complete, with the engineering team preparing for the testing phase. This is the home stretch and we look forward to testing with a number of eager property managers who have been patiently waiting to gain access to Dtravel Direct.
GuestSmiles will unlock connectivity to a significant number of Property Management Systems, helping to onboard more property managers on our waitlist. To ensure a smooth rollout, we’ll be building onboarding documentation for each PMS and rolling out the connectivity in tranches. The first group of property managers should be able to connect in the next few weeks.
Ekta Real Estate Partnership
We recently announced that we’ll be partnering with Ekta Real Estate to make real estate accessible to everyone. Ekta Real Estate is a new web3 project that makes it easy for anyone to purchase fractional management of properties and soon, entire properties, quickly and at a much lower cost than exists today.
The partnership will enable anyone to get started in real estate for as little as $100 USD, while ensuring increased earnings potential through access to Dtravel’s direct booking infrastructure and distribution channels. Read more about the partnership here.
Media and Conferences
Skift Short-term Rental 250: We're proud to announce that we made the Skift Short-term Rental 250 this year alongside a number of influential leaders in the vacation rental industry. Skift is a well respected online publisher in the vacation rental space and their annual report lists "250 companies that are at the forefront of shaping the short-term rental industry".
Dtravel at Short Stay Week: Cynthia was invited to speak at the Web3 in Travel Conference, part of the Short Stay Week Conference in Barcelona.
Plug and Play Feature: Cynthia was interviewed by Plug and Play and shared her thoughts on being a founder and her experience going through Plug and Play.
Ekta Partnership News: The Ekta partnership announcement was picked up by several news publications:
What's Next
- New Dtravel marketing site launch
- Dtravel Direct onboarding flow
- Dtravel Direct damage protection and guest screening
- Property Management pages for all Dtravel Direct users
- New channel manager integration unlocking more PMS connectivity
- Ability to launch a direct booking site powered by Dtravel Direct without a PMS
- SEO improvements, including ability to add keywords
- Functionality to issue discount codes
- Ability to display OTA listing pricing comparison
Complimentary Consultation
To help you get started with setting up a Dtravel powered direct booking site and advertising your site, we’re providing vacation rental businesses white glove onboarding support.
Contact us for a FREE marketing consultation to learn how you can grow your direct bookings.
Join the Community
Website | Twitter | LinkedIn | Telegram | Discord