Attention all short-term rental operators—your Dtravel direct booking website builder just received a facelift!
First impressions count, that's why we’ve added an eye-catching home page, enabling you to express your brand through a new header, subheader, and image gallery. These new customization options will let you put your personality on display to attract guests who resonate with your values. You can choose to toggle these settings on and off while ensuring your hero properties are the first thing your guests see.
The Portfolio Page (previously known as the Merchant Page) is the second guest-facing page of your direct booking site from which your potential guests can view all your properties in one place, both in list form and map form.
We’ve put together this article to let you know what’s new and what’s coming up to help you get the most out of your direct booking website.
What’s New
There are several new customization options to personalize your Portfolio Page and show off your unique properties, including:
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Landing page with hero images, headers and subheaders
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Ability to personalize your business and tell more of your brand story
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Standout with a branded subdomain URL
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Add a logo to your direct booking website
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Customize your display name
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New filters for guests including location, price, beds, etc.
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Imported reviews to build trust with guests
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New guest-facing contact module
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Customize whether you or your guest pays the credit card processing fee
Home Page
Display high-quality images of your hero properties or their surroundings. Add a header and subheader to better communicate to guests the experience you’re offering.
Custom URLs
Establish trust and communicate your brand to guests by personalizing your website URL. Consider matching your custom URL with your display information to avoid confusion (e.g. hopevacationrentals.dtravel.com). Self-hosted domains are coming soon.
Display Information
Let your guests know you’re a professional. Add a logo to your direct booking website, customize your display name, and control how you represent yourself as a brand.
Improved Discoverability
We’ve updated the Portfolio Page by adding new filters and tooling for guests to easily discover the perfect listing.
Choose Who Pays the Credit Card Processing Fee
If you accept credit card payments, you can now choose whether you or your guest will pay the ~3% Stripe credit card processing fee. By default, this fee is charged to guests as a separate line item. Consider absorbing the fee to increase your conversion rate.
Security and Spam Protection
We’ve added reCAPTCHA V3 for account login to enhance security. Guests with 3 blocked transactions will be reported to Stripe and prevented from making bookings for 30 minutes.
What’s Next
We’re working on providing you with even more customization options, with the following updates on the horizon:
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Self-hosted domains to build trust and improve discoverability
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Upsell features, allowing guests to purchase add-ons at checkout
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Lead capture email forms and pop-ups
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Blog feature to improve SEO and help acquire new guests
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FAQ section to provide useful information and increase conversion rate
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Announcement bar to highlight special offers or charitable givebacks
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Ability to add new pages, allowing you to host other content
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Chat bots for improved communications with your guests
How to Connect to Dtravel
Another major recent update is the introduction of email registration. Previously, registrations were only possible via the MetaMask wallet. We now provide both registration options to reduce the barrier to entry for new operators wanting to build their own direct booking site with Dtravel.
If you signed up with MetaMask, simply add your email in Settings and you’ll then have the option to log in with either email or MetaMask.
If you’re new to Dtravel, you’ll need to connect your properties via one of our property management system (PMS) partners. See the guides below for a step-by-step walkthrough on how to import your properties to Dtravel.
If these PMS systems aren’t a fit for your business, don't worry—we have a fourth PMS going live soon (with many more to follow).
For property managers who prefer not to switch from their current PMS solution to one of our current integrations, we've made it easy for anyone to build a Dtravel integration using the Dtravel OpenAPI. Simply email your account manager and ask them to consider building toward the Dtravel OpenAPI.
How Property Managers Are Driving Bookings
With Dtravel, property managers are responsible for guest acquisition. So, how are operators getting bookings? Many of our earliest adopters have built out their direct booking site and are marketing it just like any other website. Property managers are driving new bookings through SEO, social media, and by letting their brand be known on OTAs.
Even short-term rental operators who rely on third-party booking platforms like Airbnb are using their Dtravel-powered website to process repeat bookings. For example, when a guest wants to extend their trip or rebook, property managers simply provide their direct booking website URL through email or SMS. One of our earliest adopters has even used his PMS to automate this process by scheduling an email the day before guests check out. By processing bookings through their direct booking website, guests pay lower fees and vacation rental businesses grow their earning potential. It's a win-win!
Finally, we just announced the first of many web3 demand channel partnerships which will help drive demand and increase discoverability. You can read all about our upcoming integration with Travala here. On top of this, we’re also working toward building a metasearch engine that will return all Dtravel-powered direct booking websites in the search results, further improving discoverability.
In the meantime, we’ve created the Direct Booking Directory (DBD), an open source directory that enables property managers to list their direct booking website to enhance discoverability for travelers who prefer to book direct.
Complimentary Marketing Consultation
To help you get started with setting up Dtravel and advertising your Portfolio Page, we’re providing onboarding support to property managers.
Contact us for a FREE marketing consultation to see how you can use Dtravel to drive more direct bookings to your Portfolio Page.
Get in touch: Book a consultation today!