For years other industries including hotels/resorts, rental car companies, airlines, supermarkets and restaurants have implemented loyalty and guest retention programs while the vacation rental industry has lagged behind. That appears to be changing. Visual Data Systems (VDS) recently launched GuestAdVantage, which provides the ability to manage the complete guest lifecycle from inquiry, to booking, to stay, and to their eventual return. It is designed to help vacation rental companies maximize their loyalty and guest retention while also improving efficiencies for staff and guests.
For an exclusive look at the features of the new program, click on this link and use the password: VRMintel (Password is case-sensitive).
Password: VRMintel
According to the VDS website, some of the components of this loyalty marketing tool are:
- Members-only portal where members can plan and manage their entire vacation experience.
- The ability for vacationers to invite other members of their party to join in on the planning of their vacation. Now you can capture information from everyone staying in the property and not just the reservation owner.
- Saved shopping carts and searches for easy access.
- Vacation planning tools such as shared calendar, tasks, and to-do lists. All customized specifically for your company.
- Automated Emails: Pre-stay, post-stay, abandoned shopping cart, reminders.
- Custom coupon development to provide members with exclusive offers. Save them to their smartphone directly or print it out and use traditionally.
- Rewards program – Set your business apart from your competitors by giving your guests the ability to earn points to be cashed in for Vacation Rewards. The Guest Advantage interface automates this procedure to keep it simple and easy to manage.
Password: VRMintel (case-sensitive)
- Communication tools – Following the social communication model, allow everyone in your party the ability to comment on their favorite properties, share task lists, pay as a group and much more.
- Custom Reporting
- Ongoing consultation and a Pay-For-Performance pricing model
In the near future we can also expect to see:
- Mobile Website Integration
- iOS and Android APPS
- Concierge Integration
- SMS Texting Capabilities
The vacation rental industry has been slow to embrace loyalty marketing. For many years, vacation rental managers assumed that people would come back to them year after year. With increased online competition and rising marketing costs, vacation rental managers are more likely to explore the implementation of loyalty programs as a way to differentiate themselves from the competition.
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