November 2023 Update
Read our November 2023 Update to learn how travellers will soon be able to discover any directly bookable listing in the world through the power of AI.
We've been hard at work so this month’s update is jam packed, making it a great wrap to the end of the year! The Dtravel ecosystem is growing quickly and as you’ll notice, we’re introducing updates for new initiatives in addition to Dtravel Direct. There’s a ton of alpha here so we hope you enjoy it!
Recent Updates in November
- Dtravel Sensei
- Nite Protocol
- Dtravel Direct v3 Onboarding
- NextPax & Track Integration
- Guest Screening & Damage Protection
- Dtravel Direct Collective
- Google Analytics
- Affiliate Program
- Media
Product Updates: Dtravel Sensei
Dtravel Sensei
Dtravel Sensei, our AI powered recommendation engine for discovering directly bookable vacation rentals anywhere in the world, has been moving full steam ahead. As a refresher, Sensei is a Metasearch engine with a twist. Not only does Sensei exclude OTA listings, but it leverages advanced AI, delivering results based on a travelers’ unique profile rather than using the traditional search model of “Where” and “When”.
Sensei v1 is live and operational in an internal-demo environment, featuring a seamless email and social signup flow, the ability to view past trips and start new ones. Right now, we’re working on the various travel profiles and moods a traveler can select from and upgrading the AI to produce reason based recommendations.
For example, by selecting a Digital Nomad travel profile and a mood for Adventure Sports, Sensei will explain why a particular property is a match, taking into consideration both your travel profile and mood.
Product Updates: Nite Protocol
Nite Protocol
A big thank you to all of our advisors who’ve provided invaluable feedback on the Nite Protocol. We’re very grateful for your support and are excited to share what we believe to be a completely revolutionary initiative with the community. The vacation rental industry is desperately in need of an open standard booking protocol, and Dtravel is perfectly positioned to lead change.
As a reminder, the Nite Protocol is designed to enable a single source of truth for booking and listing data across the industry. It will solve many of the issues related to data fragmentation and costly, inefficient infrastructure, of which both travelers and vacation rental operators bear the burden today.
Since decentralization is paramount to the success of the Nite Protocol it will be developed alongside industry participants. To achieve true decentralization, TRVL will be used as a governance token. In addition TRVL will be used for fee payments, developer incentives and revenue sharing. Finally, by bringing vacation rental bookings on-chain, the Nite Protocol makes way for new innovations and opens up new possibilities that enable greater flexibility and freedom for all travel participants.
The Graph
We’re excited to announce that The Graph Foundation has awarded Dtravel a grant to bring booking data on-chain via a subgraph powered by The Graph’s decentralized network. Publishing a subgraph to The Graph Network is a foundational step toward the development of the Nite Protocol, an open standard protocol, that will eliminate the fragmented infrastructure, data-walled gardens, and cost-burdensome connectivity structures of the vacation rental industry.
Read the full announcement.
Product Updates: Dtravel Direct
Dtravel Direct v3 Onboarding
Dtravel Direct, our suite of direct booking infrastructure for vacation rental operators has rapidly improved week after week. With Dtravel Direct, operators can create a directly bookable listing, upgrade their existing site, or build a complete direct booking site for free, all while accessing a growing network of direct distribution channels.
In October, Dtravel Direct’s onboarding flow received a much needed overhaul. Vacation rental operators come to Dtravel for a number of different reasons. A vast majority want a direct booking site solution, some with an existing booking site want the ability to accept crypto as a payment method, while others simply want more bookings and access to new distribution channels. Whatever the reason, we wanted to better guide operators new to the Dtravel ecosystem through their journey.
Dtravel Direct v3 released with enhanced a UI/UX flow that provides better navigation for an operator onboarding to Dtravel Direct, step-by-step. Every day there are new ways for an operator to personalize their directly bookable listings or site, but the most important and first step any operator should take are:
Step 1 - Create your listings
Option 1: Create listing manually
Option 2: Import your listings from Airbnb
Option 3: Connect to your PMS
Step 2 - Connect a payment method
Option 1: Add a payment method
NextPax & Track Integration
Vacation rental operators using both NextPax and Track PMS can now connect to Dtravel Direct by way of GuestSmiles. Dtravel has partnered with GuestSmiles to connect with many of the top property management software (PMS) companies at no extra cost to vacation rental operators using Dtravel Direct. The API connection is similar to a channel manager with the additional benefits of receiving direct bookings through channels such as HomeToGo, MyGolfVacations, and FloridaTravel.com at no additional cost. Read our help articles below to learn more.
Connect: NextPax to Dtravel Direct
Connect: Track PMS to Dtravel Direct
Guest Screening & Damage Protection
Protection for damages can be a major concern for many vacation rental operators new to direct bookings. OTAs like Airbnb provide some degree of security, which is why we’ve integrated with SuperHog to offer the Dtravel Direct customers the optionality to turn on a $5M Damage Protection Plan and free Guest Screening.
Previously, Dtravel Direct customers would have to activate these features for each individual listing. We’ve since updated the integration to allow operators to seamlessly bulk enable both the $5M Damage Protection Plan and free Guest Screening for all of their listings.
Learn more about how you can activate these features.
Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager
Vacation rental operators can now use Google Tag Manager to set up GA4 (Google Analytics) and gain a deeper insight into the traffic coming to their direct booking site and listings. Using Google Tag Manager, operators can accurately track booking conversion events and integrate a full suite of services like Google Search Console, Google Ads and even manage their Meta Pixel from one convenient location.
If you’d like to gain a deeper understanding of your Dtravel Direct powered booking site traffic you can follow our in-depth setup tutorial.
Dtravel Direct Collective
Dtravel Direct Collective is an experimental product designed to allow existing property managers to easily grow their portfolio without purchasing new inventory and will also enable anyone who does not currently have a vacation rental business to start one without owning any properties. This experimental new product was recently launched in partnership with one of Dtravel Direct’s earliest adopters Unwind Escapes.
Dtravel Direct Collective will enable vacation rental operators to easily add listings to their own direct booking site from an operator also participating in Dtravel Direct Collective. Operators will be able to grow their portfolio in just a few clicks and benefit from their marketing efforts. Anytime a booking is made on that listing sourced from Dtravel Direct collective, the payment will move from the guest directly to the listing owner with a commission fee paid out to the operator who influenced a booking to occur.
In addition to helping vacation rental operators grow their inventory by easily adding listings from the Dtravel ecosystem to their booking site, Dtravel Direct Collective will allow anyone with a deep understanding of a geographic region or market to create their own site and add listings that fit their niche. Consider an enthusiast familiar with wines from Sonoma, California. This person could decide to create a Sonoma Wine and Stays site powered by Dtravel Direct using listings sourced from Dtravel Direct Collective. In return for attracting prospective guests and generating bookings for the listings added to their site, this wine enthusiast would earn a commission on each booking they generated for operators.
Direct Booking Marketing Guide - 10 Part Series
Getting started in direct bookings can sometimes feel overwhelming to vacation rental operators coming from OTAs. Similar to building a successful ecommerce brand, growing a direct booking business to self-sufficient heights requires building an online presence and creating emotional connection travelers can trust.
We recently created the “Direct Booking Vacation Rental Marketing Guide”, a 10 part series to help get vacation retinal operators get pointed in the right direction:
Part 1: How to Create a Brand that Converts Guests
Part 2: How to Choose a Vacation Rental Brand Name
Part 3: How to Create a Logo for Your Vacation Rental Business
Part 4: Optimizing Your Direct Booking Site for Conversions
Part 5: How to Boost SEO for Your Vacation Rental Site
Part 6: Get More Traffic To Your Booking Site with a Google Business Profile
Part 7: How to Optimize Your OTA Listings to Drive More Direct Bookings
Part 8: How to Leverage Social Media to Increase Direct Bookings
Part 9: Boost Direct Bookings With Google and Facebook Advertising
Part 10: Get More Direct Bookings with Email Marketing
Growth and Marketing
Marketing Site Updates
We’re continuously working to improve the Dtravel marketing site. There are many elements required to actualize a decentralized vacation rental ecosystem consisting of operators, travelers, technology partners, and community members. With so many stakeholders, we need to be able to clearly communicate what we’re building and where we’re headed. Most recently, we made slight tweaks to the Ecosystem category of our marketing site including a new “Learn” and “Roadmap” page as well as updates to the TRVL “Token” page.
More updates are coming soon. If you haven’t already taken a look then please do so here:
Affiliate Program
Do you know any short-term rental operators and want to earn passive income?
Apply to become a Dtravel Direct Affiliate, share your personal link and earn 50% of our revenue every time an operator you sign up processes a booking!
Learn more about the Dtravel Affiliate Program.
Gate3 <> London
In October, the Dtravel Community hosted Gate3<>London, the first ever community-run Dtravel event. Gate3 <> London was a momentous event not only because it was the first Dtravel community hosted event, but also because it was the first time we’ve seen our long term vision of the Dtravel DAO in action with a community based proposal on how to help grow the Dtravel ecosystem.
Take a look at the full recap.
Media
IbizaNXT 2023
Cynthia Huang, CEO of Dtravel, spoke on a panel about “The Future of Tourism: Impact and Influence of Blockchain and Emerging Technologies”.
The Anyas Podcast
Cynthia Huang, CEO of Dtravel, appeared on The Anyas Podcast and spoke about her entrepreneurial journey into web3 and travel, lessons learned and how Dtravel is revolutionizing booking platforms with web3.
Listen to the full The Anyas Podcast episode.
HelloHosty Podcast
Cynthia Huang, CEO of Dtravel, appeared on the Hello Hosty podcast and shared a deep dive into web3 and how we’re reshaping the short-term rental industry.
Listen to the full Hello Hosty episode.
Ethereum Block Summit
Cynthia Huang, CEO of Dtravel, was asked to speak at Ethereum Block Summit, a conference during Lisbon Blockchain Week, focusing on expert insights, technical topics and workshops. She gave a talk on “Designing for Adoption”, what it means and how we can use design principles to increase adoption of web3 products.
Newconomics 2023
Cynthia Huang, CEO of Dtravel, was asked to give a keynote and participate in a panel at Newconomics 2023, a conference about emerging technologies like AI and web3 and how it will drive new economies. She gave a talk on “Why Just Building for Web3 Will Never Lead to Adoption” and shared her views on a panel about “New Tactics in Web3 Marketing”.
Listen to the talk here.
Women in Web3 Podcast
Cynthia Huang, CEO of Dtravel, appeared on the Women in Web3 Podcast and shared her journey as a digital nomad, Airbnb host, and co-founder of Dtravel.
Listen to the full Women in Web3 episode.
Boostly Podcast
Cynthia Huang, CEO of Dtravel, appeared on The Boostly Podcast about Dtravel and how operators can use the latest tech like web3 and AI to help them in their business and drive direct bookings.
Listen to the full The Boostly Podcast episode.
THE COIN REPUBLIC
Dtravel was recently featured by The Coin Republic in a guest post on CoinMarketCap.com.
Crypto News Bytes
Dtravel was recently covered on CryptoNewsBytes.com.
What’s Next
- WaaS (Wallets-as-a-Service), enabling easy digital wallet creation
- Nite Protocol Litepaper and development
- Dtravel Sensei Beta release
- Dtravel Direct Add-ons to help drive more ancillary revenue
- Property Management pages for all Dtravel Direct users
- AI-powered direct listing recommendation engine
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.