Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Verified™ Apartment and Priority Owners

If we were to single out the two most important Trust factors an apartment listing can weigh in after travelers' reviews, they are certainly the Verified™ tag and the Priority Owner status.

How do you get them turned on for your own listing?

Verified™

Assumed that all apartments go through a verification process to be live on Cities Reference which encompasses among other measures cross checks on the web, valid and tested phone number and identity, etc. An apartment owner can further get the Verified™ tag on his apartment description by either

  • meeting one of our representatives and show the apartment's paperwork;
  • at least 3 completed and successfull rental bookings and/or receive at least one verified traveler's review (we will contact the travelers directly for further confirmation).
What you get in return is that your apartment's listing will be marked as Verified™.

Priority Owner
Getting the Priority Owner status is more challenging, but reaps great benefits at the same time.
To qualify as Priority Owner you have to:
  • Grant a 5% discount on the grand total to qualified and repeat customer travelers. Qualified travelers hold a personal coupon that is assigned to them only if their identity has been verified and/or they have already rented successfully through us in the past. They represent roughly 30% of our customers' base. Unqualified travelers' bookings will not get any discount from you.
  • Qualify. Only optimized apartment listings will qualify to join the Priority Owner program. You can set up an appointment with our Optimizers' Team here.

On the other hand you will get:
  • Exposure on the homepage with dynamic rotation depending on the availability of your calendar and the general ranking.
  • Verified customers, who will be incentived by the discount will prefer your apartment to the one that is not Priority giving you a edge and a more trustworthy clientele.
  • 10% worth of Ranking. Becoming Priority will give your listing a boost to your apartment's ranking.
Interested in turning on any of the above? Contact us and we'll set up an appointment!







Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Instant Bookings Advance Notice

Good news for Instant Booker owners: the much touted and long awaited advance notice is now available in your back end!
In other words you can put a gap between the booking and the check in that goes from none to 7 days, if you want to avoid last minute bookings that get you unprepared for check in.

  • Just log into your account
  • go to your apartment, 
  • Details
  • Top right where it says 'Allow last minute bookings?' use the scroll down and pick the minimum advance notice you require
Not clear enough? Just contact us.