We love spooky season here at Lodgify, but when it comes to your vacation rental software, there’s no room for anything remotely scary or worry-inducing. So, as always, we’ve been hard at work this October conjuring up new features and updates that will bring you nothing but peace of mind.
Grab your pumpkin spice lattes and let’s dive into the latest spells updates that will elevate your rental game this Halloween and beyond!
Stay organized with our new task calendar
You asked, and we answered: Ultimate plan users and their property management team members can now see their tasks in a calendar in our mobile app.
That’s right, we mean our main mobile app, not our PM Modules app. Your PM team can now log into our app directly from the sign-in page by clicking the Continue here link next to Are you a team member? Team members will be directed directly to the task calendar and won’t have access to see anything else.
From there, you and your team can view all your tasks in our new task calendar and then:
- Claim tasks as your own.
- Mark tasks as complete.
- Add photos and videos depicting complete tasks.
- Add comments for other team members.
Once completed, tasks are sent to you for inspection, so everything stays on track and organized!
Don’t have the Lodgify mobile app? Download it here: Android | iOS
(Further) improve guest communications with AI
Are you a fan of our AI Assistant’s Generate with AI feature? Good news: This feature just got even better!
We’ve enhanced the Generate with AI option to include the following new capabilities:
- Improve with AI: With this new button, you can now refine draft messages before sending them. Correct typos, add appropriate salutations and signatures, enhance the overall style, and ensure you address all guest inquiries and requests!
- Suggest with AI: You can now generate messages at all times—not just in response to guest inquiries. Our AI Assistant will craft potential messages by taking into account factors such as booking dates and rental details, ensuring your communication is always relevant and personalized.
Learn more about how to use our AI Assistant here.
Monitor the quality status of your Airbnb listing
Keeping your Airbnb listing in shape is essential, but staying on top of issues can be a challenge. Until now.
Let us present our new Listing Quality Dashboard, designed to give Airbnb users a complete view of their listings’ performance. This new dashboard lets you detect negative aspects of your listings early to prevent them from impacting your listing quality status.
Here’s what you can expect:
- Listing quality status: Monitor and improve your listings’ overall quality with the Listing Quality Status feature. This will show if your listing quality is good, requires improvement, or needs immediate action to avoid suspension or removal from Airbnb.
- Review scores: Keep track of average review scores and trends to ensure your property is meeting guest expectations.
- Guest feedback: Dive deep into guest comments to identify strengths and areas for improvement.
- Quality issues or CS violations: Be aware of any specific areas needing attention in order for you to remain compliant and competitive.
- Performance metrics: Stay updated on key metrics like response rates and booking conversions to keep listings performing their best.
- Calls to action (CTAs): Not sure what to do with the details the dashboard provides? Don’t worry—it also offers direct actions to improve your listing quality or submit an appeal.
Ready to improve your Airbnb listing and become even more competitive? You can access the Listing Quality Dashboard directly from our channel manager. Navigate to Airbnb and then look for the Listing Quality tab.
Ensure GDPR compliance
This one’s for our customers in the European Union, who are expected to comply with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the EU’s data privacy and security law. To help our customers ensure compliance, we’ve updated our cookie policy banner and template.
If you enable this feature, new visitors to your site will see the cookie consent banner with the option to customize, reject all, or accept all cookies, as shown below.
The cookie policy banner is automatically disabled, but you can enable it from the Settings tab of our Website Builder. Click Advanced and then select the checkbox next to Show Cookie Policy Page.
Note that you’re still responsible for creating your own cookie policy and linking to it through your banner! However, we provide a template to help you get started. And, as part of this update, we’ve renewed the template and had a lawyer review it to ensure GDPR compliance.
You can find the template and learn more here.
Woof, woof! Manage pet fees for Vrbo-connected rentals
Do you accept pets at your Vrbo properties? Thanks to this next update, it’s now easier than ever to set up pet fees for pet-friendly Vrbo listings, sync them, and stay compliant with local laws! This is especially important in places like California, where legal requirements around fee disclosures are more stringent.
Our new Vrbo Pet Fee feature allows you to apply a flat pet fee per stay or per night across your Vrbo listings directly from Lodgify. This feature aims to simplify pet fee management by ensuring fees are consistently applied across your channels, aligning with legal requirements and enhancing the overall guest experience.
To take advantage of this feature, you just have to make some simple updates in the Rentals section of your Lodgify account. Find step-by-step instructions here.
Check out our Contact page’s new UI
This is less of an update, and more of an FYI: We’ve updated the user interface (UI) of the Contact page in your Lodgify account to improve your experience.
Specifically, we’ve introduced a side sheet as a new UI element and list items to more clearly represent each contact person. But all you really need to know is that the look and feel of this page has improved.
To check out these changes, log into your Lodgify account and navigate to Rentals and then Contact.
Make the most of our new marketplace integrations
We introduced two new marketplace integrations in October: The Host Co and Hudson Creative Studio.
Grow your revenue with the Host Co
Have you ever wished you could sell products and services to increase your rental revenue? With the Host Co, this is well within your reach.
The Host Co enables you to instantly create a digital storefront customized to your listing, with options curated for your location and guest types. Your store can include products from an in-home shop as well as local services, rentals, and alterations such as late checkout.
Not only do these upsell options improve your guest experience—they also enable you to increase your revenue per booking by up to 30%. This could add up to as much as $120k per year.
Read more about our integration with the Host Co here.
Build a custom website with Hudson Creative Studio
For those in the market for a custom direct booking website, let us introduce you to Hudson Creative Studio. A technology and web agency, Hudson Creative Studio builds custom, high-converting direct booking websites that seamlessly integrate with Lodgify.
Hudson Creative Studio’s sites help you effectively show off your rentals, enabling guests to easily find their ideal property, confirm availability, get an accurate quote, and begin the reservation process.
As a result, you’ll increase your rentals’ visibility, direct bookings, and revenue.
What are you waiting for? Read more about our integration with Hudson Creative Studio here.
Try Lodgify today
As you can see, you don’t need magic or witchery to improve your vacation rental operations: just reliable software with the right features.
See for yourself by logging into your Lodgify account to check out these updates, or heading to our Integrations page to see all our new partners. Maybe while munching on some leftover Halloween candy?
And for those of you who don’t have a Lodgify account yet, you can start a commitment-free 7-day trial to check out our features and discover how Lodgify can revolutionize your operations. For a closer look, register for a free, personalized demo or explore our features with a product demo.
