Vacation Rental Bookings Solution Now Includes Insurance Option at Time of Reservation

LiveRez, Inc., redefining professional vacation rental property management solution, today announced LiveRez will integrate CSA Travel Protection (CSA) travel insurance plans into its tailored website and marketing solutions for rental managers.

CSA travel plans are now available at time of reservation, allowing for real-time connectivity and an additional revenue stream for vacation rental managers.

“We couldn’t be more pleased to work with such a trusted, up and coming name in the vacation rental market,” said Lee Hughes, CSA’s vice president, sales division. “Rental managers are looking for ease-of-use and additional revenue streams, and this combined solution delivers just that.”

“CSA’s track record and dedication to customer service make it an excellent partner for our valued customers,” said Tracy Lotz, CEO and founder of LiveRez. “We’re excited to offer rental managers a truly integrated, real-time solution for travel insurance. This is the first of what will be a set of added value services our partners will experience as part of the LiveRez network.”

Vacation rental managers working with LiveRez can conduct business with a professionally designed and hosted website that includes all the marketing and sales benefits required for success, including local guides and coupons. And now, they can offer travel insurance when customers call or book online in LiveRez to reserve their spot, ensuring the trip – and helping grow the rental managers bottom-line.

Vacation rental managers can find out more about integrated book solutions at www.liverez.com, and more about vacation rental insurance at www.vacationrentalinsurance.com.

About CSA Travel Protection

CSA Travel Protection (csatravelprotection.com) is dedicated to providing affordable travel insurance and emergency assistance services to protect travelers’ valuable investments and provide the peace of mind one deserves while traveling. Since its inception in 1991, CSA has developed a reputation for standing behind its customers and evolving products and services to meet their needs. Through superior customer service, extensive experience and industry-leading innovation, CSA is with its clients every step of the way, whenever and wherever they are needed.

About LiveRez

LiveRez Inc. is redefining the solutions available to professional vacation rental property managers. Our partnership approach aligns our success with the success of our customers, and allows property managers to take advantage of new technology and best-practices with a minimal upfront investment and risk.

Sign Up Here: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/479502131
Well, it’s 2010 and we are getting the webinar series all fired up again. We have planned a rousing round of webinars for 2010, that will embrace topics that are pertinent to Vacation Rental Managers Getting More Bookings. Our webinars will usually take place on the last Thursday of the month at 12pm Mountain Time.

January’s Webinar
The January 2010 Webinar will focus on SEO and 8 tips and tricks that vacation rental mangers can use to increase their page rank. Many property managers look for ways to increase bookings and revenue while keeping their marketing and advertising costs low. Search Engine Optimization is a brilliant way to do this. When you increase your page rank, you increase your page traffic, when you traffic goes up, you bookings should also go up.
During this webinar LiveRez will highlight 8 tips and tricks that property managers can do themselves to increase their page rank and get more visibility online.

One Free tip today:
Have you listed your home in the Google Map feature. Using the map will show up before the organic listings with a list of the applicable companies on the right.
As you see in the image below, www.RentHelen.com, is #1 in the map listings which drives tremendous traffic to her LiveRez.com site.

Google Map Listing for Helen, Ga

Please Attend the LiveRez webinar. January 28th @ 12Pm MDT

Thanks,

Tyler Hurst

LiveRez at the VRMA in Washington DC

The speakers were wonderful and it is encouraging  to see Discover Vacation Homes doing so well.  Despite tough economic times this industry is growing! It was also amazing to meet so many great people including the vacation rental managers, vendors, and VRMA staff. Altogether, it was superb event.

LiveRez was again a huge hit as a vendor of Vacation Rental Software. We were able to connect and share our message with many property managers.  One of the biggest take aways that we had from the show is that utilization of the Internet how it is the key to success now and in the future. By using LiveRez property managers around the world  have amplified their bookings with use of our fully online reservation system that focuses on online bookings. LiveRez Partners enjoy the benefits of:

- Website Optimization

- Online Bookings

-Amazing Websites

- 3 Click Booking Process

All in all another Wonderful show! Thanks again to the VRMA!

On October 24th there is only one place to be if you are a Vacation Property Manager.  The VRMA annual conference and Trade Show, which will be hosted this year in Washington DC at the Omni Shoreham Hotel This proves to be the most elaborate and spectacular event yet for the VRMA.  This years VRMA show is jam packed with great activities and speakers from many industry wide experts and can be a great learning experience for all who attend.

COME SEE LiveRez!

LiveRez will be attending and talking about our Vacation Rental software and WHY we are the fastest growing vacation rental software in the industry!  LiveRez has been very successful at helping property managers have a robust website with a strong and intuitive reservation system. Some of our greatest features include Pay for Performance Pricing, Integrated website without pop outs or domain changes, QuickBooks Integration and more. Learn about LiveRez by calling 208.854.7721 or visiting us online at www.LiveRez.com

Learn More about the VRMA and Upcoming Conference @ www.VRMA.com

You see that the higher you rank on the page the better your clicks your clicks are, and in turn more business for you. The question that I always ask myself is; how do we fair? and how much better would we be if we were higher?

Although we also recognize that Pay-Per Click Campaigns are helpful and someday required or needed. That SEO will be helpful to reduce your advertising cost and increase your click-through rates. LiveRez vacation rental software allows all partners to edit their Meta Tags, and ALT Tags to images, and edit the on page HTML at anytime!

We put a lot of a stock in to helping you succuedd and gaining more business! Please learn more by talking to someone at LiveRez today

Thanks,

Tyler – 208.854.7721

I would like to spend a few minutes talking about website conversion. Everyone has a site, but now there are some basic rules that apply to convert web visitors to customers.

1 – Click Count

How many clicks does it take for someone to enter their Credit Card info? The optimal # would be 3 or 4. Thus giving the guest less opportunity to get lost or leave your site. With LiveRez a web guest can usually book within 3 or 4 Clicks.

2 – Find the info you need

When someone visits your vacation rental website can they find what they are looking for quickly and easily? When someone lands on your site it should be point blank for them where to go and what do do.  Notice below the difference in where your eyes attact to and where you want to click first. Notice that on the first site, you dont know where to click.. on the Second you know right where to go to get the info you need.

Not a Good Example - Notice you don't know where to Click.

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Notice that you know right where to Click - A LiveRez Site

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3-Make a Pathway

One very common theme that we are seeing is website leading. Instead of just letting people land on your site and pick to do whatever they want, many people are creating pathway. They do this but getting the web guest to click on what they want and then leading them down a path, creating value and options for there product before eventually selling it. You can do this by using good site structure but also color colors and layout engineering. If you follow a LiveRez Built site, we put web guest in a path to give them all the info they need and eventually asking them for a booking!

Website conversion is not an easy task but is obtainable. Directing your guests into the right direction can really help increase your website conversion and also your sales. To learn more about online bookings visit our Vacation Rental Software site and see what LiveRez can do for you to Build  you an amazing site with an amazing Reservation System

Thanks!

Tyler Hurst

http://www.LiveRez.com

After my recent visit to Florida for the 2009 FVRMA trade show in Destin, I understand why everyone goes to Florida; It’s Amazing. This was my first ever visit to Florida and I’d like to think that I got a good cross section of what it’s all about. I experience many personal firsts that I would like to experience many times; first time seeing the gulf, first time in Florida, first time in a Hurricane type storm.

We landed just as tropical storm Claudette was spinning over the Destin/Fort Walton Area. I experienced torrential down pours & gale force winds, I saw a Seahorse, I enjoyed the moist humidity and warm weather, I tasted the salt water of the Gulf of Mexico & met some of the greatest individuals Florida has to offer, and I would to it over again in a heartbeat.

TAKE AWAYS:

   I think that much appreciation and Kudos goes to the FVRMA board and staff for a great event. The show was held in the beautiful grand hotel at the Sandestin resort. The food was great, the events were amazing, the speakers were informative and enlightening. It couldn’t have gone better. My biggest take away was: as an industry, were not going anywhere; through the tough economy we survived and Survived well. The mood was good and the future is optimistic, and we as an industry will continue to thrive.

My other major take away was the SEO and Websites are crucial part of the total package that makes a Property Manager competitive and successful. The last year has brought many to look for ways to cut cost and increase review. I think more then anything, to make the Very Most of every lead to visits your site. In the web world there are 2 games to play : 1 Get People to your Site! & 2. Turn them into Customers. LiveRez capitalizes in both departments with are SEO friendly websites and ease of use and simple booking process. Learn more @ http://www.LiveRez.com

Thanks!

Tyler Hurst

LiveRez

A fire at Seattle Fisher Plaza late Thursday night disrupted Internet service for several companies – including one that handles online credit card transactions for hundreds of thousands of businesses. LiveRez.com was one of those businesses.

LiveRez, a complete online vacation rental property management solution, is focused on increasing online bookings.

Due to proactive company owner Mr. Tracy Lotz, business at LiveRez.com has continued without a hiccup.

A manual switch was programmed during the creation of LiveRez.com, which gives the Property Owner the option of handling credit card processing in house. Early Friday morning, when news broke of the fire, the LiveRez.com support staff went to work contacting each of their property managers via telephone, e-mail and Twitter– walking them through the simple step of clicking the manual credit card option, and its business as usual.

“We averted a major disaster,” says Tracy Lotz, Founder and CEO of LiveRez.com. “4th of July weekend is the biggest travel weekend of the summer, and in these economic times, property managers cannot afford a problem on what could be the biggest money maker of the year.”

Lotz averted another disaster on the accounting end.

Other online vacation rental software companies require clients to switch from proven accounting platforms like QuickBooks to their own accounting platforms, which reside online.

Thus, property managers must incorporate their mission critical accounting into online rental software, leaving it vulnerable to events similar to last night’s fire.

Lotz has always held that this was not a great idea because companies like QuickBooks and Peachtree have already perfected this aspect of the business. The LiveRez QuickBooks Integration is one of the many reasons Property Managers choose LiveRez.com.

Microsoft’s new Bing Travel service was also knocked offline by the blaze.

The small electrical fire started in the basement of Fisher Plaza at an electrical vault- the section of the building where city power lines meet the building’s transformers, said Seattle City Light spokesman Scott Thomsen. Thomsen said it appears equipment failure on the part of the customer caused the fire.

Day after day I get the pleasure of receiving email marketing letters from Vacation Rental Property Managers around the country. I love it because I get so see the different destinations and where some vacation rental markets are. I love to take a look to see who is sending good email vs. not so good and how much they send. I look at email marketing as a great resource to contact potential guests, brand yourself and give others awareness of your existence.

I may not be an expert by any means for email marketing, but I have picked up a few tips and tricks along the way that may be useful to others.

THE SUBJECT LINE:

In the subject like, make sure that you give people a reason to open your email. Use call to action phrases if needed. For Instance…”20% Specials on Vacation Rentals for the Next 3 Hours”.  Instead of something like “California Vacation Rentals”.

THE MESSAGE:

Once you have figured out what you want to say make it visible and readable. Focus their Eyes. Use Structure that is simple and readable. Make sure you have a realistic call to action that is in plain sight and easy to see.  It’s important to use pictures and different color fonts and font faces but try not to completely make a rainbow out of your email. The end goal of your message should be to have the reciever to do something: Call you, Email you, book a home, visit your website or even something else.

YOUR TIMING:

The first step to timing your email right is Identifing your market. For instance: if you rent homes in the Hamptons to New York business people, then you should send your email at a time when they would read it and see it. Also make sure you send it at a time when it wont Pile up with all the other email that is being sent. For Business contact usually the general rule is Tuesday – Thursday and 9AM-1PM.

Either Way, Email marketing works. I get the message and I open them. Most email marketing programs have stats where you can view the open rate and the click rate on any links you put in the site.  With LiveRez Vacation Rental Software we give our partners the ability to export the emails for their leads and customers so they and then import them into their email marketing program.

We also have held and now pubished a webinar on email marketing, check it out: http://www.liverez.com/vacation-rental-software-downloads.asp

Thanks,

Tyler

http://www.LiveRez.com

In the vacation rental management world getting people to your website is crucial. It become a very daunting task if you are new or in a very competitive market. So how can a property manger capitalize in SEO in a competitive market? Long Tail.

Search Engines use many different factors to determine your page rank. One major part of your page rank is the keyword that you use. For example: if you are a property manager in Island Falls, Maine…(not likely) but you would think that people would be searching the Keywords “Island Falls Vacation Rentals” so then you would want to optimize your sight to those keywords.

Another Examples.. If you have homes near Disney World, people may be searching Vacation Rentals by Disney World. So you can optimize your site to those “Keywords”

Now, Lets imagine that there are 500 Vacation Property Managers in Orlando optimizing their websites for Orlando Vacation Homes. Now, the S.E.O. becomes very competitive also. So, then you can narrow down your home type or locations to cut down on your competition. For instance you, instead of ORLANDO VACATION HOMES, a very broad term, you could use ORLANDO Luxury Vacation Homes…see what i did there? that is the LONG TAIL.  To get an even longer tail “keyword” try “Orlando Vista Cay Luxury Vacation Homes” and then optimize your site to that… Not as many people search that, but not as many people will optimize their sites for those “Keywords”.

How Can I Optimize My Site?

Good question, The best place to start is your Meta Tags. Use spread your keywords throughout your Meta Title, Description and Keyword Tags. Next, I would distribute these Keywords and their different variations around the content or text or your site and especially on your front page.Then I would try to use these same keywords and variations on your Image Alt Tags.

Many LiveRez Vacation Rental Software partners can easily log in and make these changes themselves. You can also contact your web administrator to help you make these changes. If you are interested in partnering with LiveRez Vacation Rental Software we would be happy to share more instruction with you. Contact us @ 1-800-343-2891

Thanks,

Tyler