The folks at Marketing Experiments are focused on eCommerce - which also includes online vacation rental vacation bookings in my definition of getting online bookings. 

I have always liked their 'Conversion Index':  Conversion = 4m + 3v + 2(i-f) - 2a is a great way of looking at how to dissect the various aspects of what gets prospects to book a vacation on your site. 

Here are the definitions for the Conversion Index (above) there are four elements that are critical to increasing conversion:

•  Motivation (m) of the prospect visiting your website to make a purchase.
• The clarity with which Value Proposition (v) is expressed. After motivation, it’s the most important factor in determining whether a customer buys from a site or not.
• Incentives (i) such as specials, rewards, etc. are used to mitigate Friction–producing (f) elements such as finding information, clicking many buttons, etc. in the conversion process.
• Anxiety–causing (a) elements, such as asking for personal and credit card information.

Evaluate your vacation property rental website with these principles in mind. 

Thanks.

Ralf
www.liverez.com

OK, I am back from a crazy April of traveling, moving, and all the excitement that comes along with that.  First of all, let me get the move out of the way.  Last week, my family (my high-school sweetheart wife, and four kids ages 13-3) moved from Salt Lake City to Boise, ID.  The most amazing part is not all the stuff I realized we had, it was that we consciously chose to move so much of it.

In April I had the opportunity to attend the Eastern VRMA, Western VRMA, FloridaVRMA, and the Atlanta Vacation Home Expo.  I will go into some detail about all these show in future bog entries.  However, one overriding observation I have is that there is an incredible opportunity for our industry.  This opportunity comes from two direction:  (1) we have a great product, and (2) we are currently very much under-utilizing the power of the Internet and the ability to create a public movement for the vacation rental market.

One of the things I am trying to do is help educate the vacation rental community on some web marketing basics that can help us drive more bookings and awareness.  Last month I hosted a webinar on Driving Website Conversion,  this month I am hosting a webinar on Search Engine Marketing Basics.  If you are interesting in attending this free webinar, please register and join us.