RezStream | Blog

2010-2011 RezStream Travel Itinerary

2010-08-27T17:00:01+00:00

Meet the RezStream experts in person!

Through March 2011, RezStream has an exciting travel schedule that will take the RezStream experts to a variety of states and cities across the country. RezStream will be participating in hospitality conferences, trade shows and presenting seminars in California (Anaheim, San Jose and San Diego), Texas (San Antonio), New York (New York City), New Hampshire (Nashua), South Carolina (Charleston), Pennsylvania (Lancaster) and Hawaii (Oahu/Honolulu).

Below is a detailed list of the events RezStream will be participating in. We hope that you will join us at one of these highly educational (and social) hospitality gatherings. A convenient link has been included that will direct you to the home page of each conference, which provides specific registration information. RezStream hopes to see you in the next coming months!

2010 Southern California Hotel & Lodging Association
http://www.calodging.com/events/socal_conference.shtml

When: … Continue Reading

The Benefits of Using jQuery

2010-08-27T16:27:56+00:00

What is jQuery?

jQuery is a new kind of JavaScript library that makes it easier for designers to control HTML events, animations, and other interactions on a web page by adding and removing style sheet handlers. These handlers are either HTML classes or IDs; the handlers are specified in a style sheet, which then tells the browser how to position and style HTML elements. With jQuery, web designers can quickly and easily write these handlers to the document on specified events, such as a mouse click or a hover, and when we do so, it will change the style and/or position of that element. jQuery also simplifies AJAX--the client-side web development techniques for creating interactive web applications. AJAX applications can retrieve data from the server quietly in the background without interfering with how a web page displays or behaves. AJAX uses HTML and CSS (cascading style sheets) to… Continue Reading

Microsoft Bing and Yahoo Merger

2010-08-25T15:13:28+00:00

Unless you are living under a rock in the Internet marketing world, you have probably heard rumors about a Microsoft Bing and Yahoo merger. The current status is that the deal has already transpired and Yahoo’s organic search transition begins this week! What this means to you is that the Yahoo organic search results will now be powered by Microsoft Bing.

Yahoo and Microsoft with merge their pay per click campaigns. Current Yahoo search marketing advertisers will be able to import Yahoo campaigns into Microsoft, if you are not already marketing in the Microsoft platform. This has already started with a number of accounts. The full switch to the Microsoft platform is expected to occur by the end of the year.
The combined market share realized… Continue Reading

How to Select a Good Internet Marketing Company

2010-08-10T15:44:46+00:00

Selecting and Monitoring Internet Marketing Companies

by Bill Mitchell, RezStream's Chief Operating Officer

Through my various travels to work with RezStream clients or when I speak at hospitality conferences, one of the most common questions I’m asked is how to select a good Internet marketing company. People are equally as curious about how to monitor the performance of the Internet marketing company that they decide to hire.

Successful Internet marketing has become a complex discipline. The search engines are constantly changing their criteria, new trends seem to appear almost daily, and there are many tasks that must be completed in a regular and consistent manner if you want to achieve increased visibility in the search engines. No single Internet marketing element is rocket science. However, most Internet marketing companies struggle to do the work when no one is actively monitoring them. Other companies lack the all-around… Continue Reading

How to Avoid the TOP FIVE Mistakes Hotels Make in Internet Marketing

2010-07-28T16:34:46+00:00

How to Avoid the TOP FIVE Mistakes Hotels Make in Internet Marketing

Internet marketing is an ever-changing science that requires constant research, consistent effort, and multi-faceted knowledge if you plan to gain and maintain a competitive edge in your specific market. Unfortunately, most hospitality businesses do not follow sound IM principals, often resulting in gross errors that cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars.

MISTAKE 1: Failing to understand that USABILITY of a website is more important than its artistic elements. Customers don’t like music, excessive flash, bizarre navigation, websites that need instructions to use, scroll bars that hide text, hard to find contact information, and poor web page layouts that significantly reduce conversion rates.

Best website design practices:

Use standard layouts on your home page with nice photos, limited flash, and a clean simple presentation. No more than 200 words on the… Continue Reading

Past Travel Trends Help Marketing Strategies

2010-07-26T16:08:28+00:00

Utilizing past travel data allows a property owner to study trends in the hospitality world. This timely information permits us to understand which groups of people are traveling and why. Analyzing these facts can help you capture more of the active travelers by making adjustments to your marketing strategies.

TOP INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL MARKETS IN 2008

Canada 18.9 million
Mexico 13.7 million
UK 4.5 million
Japan 3.2 million
Germany 1.8 million
Italy 780,000

These facts can also help determine who to target in your link building campaigns or geo-target in pay per click endeavors.

AGE OF TRAVELERS IN 2008 BY BIRTH YEAR

Before 1946: 21% leisure travel and 14% of business travel
1946-1954: 15% leisure travel and 16% of business travel
1955-1964: 21% leisure travel and 21% of business travel
1965-1980: 31% leisure travel… Continue Reading

Google Social Networking Sites

2010-07-06T13:53:55+00:00

Google understands the power of great social networking sites like FaceBook and MySpace. In the past, Google has attempted to create its own rival social networking site with Google Profiles. Google even endevored to purchase a portion of FaceBook to no avail. Now there’s talk that a "Google Me" project (that for all we know is well underway) that might give FaceBook and MySpace a run for their money.

Current Google social networking elements:

Google Profile: This is a public page where you can share your information with the world. It allows you to promote your Flickr account, Twitter, LinkedIn, FaceBook and others. Even with all this flexibility, Google Profile is not the rival to FaceBook as Google had hoped it would be.
According to Google, this feature allows you to find "relevant public content from your friends and contacts and highlights… Continue Reading

Google Local Business Center Changes To Google Places

2010-05-26T22:38:44+00:00

If you run a business, having exposure in Google Places is a great way to generate additional business. The Google map function appears when searchers type certain keyword searches. Using the map feature is advantageous as it is located at the top of the page on Google. This free listing can have an incredible impact on increasing your sales volume. Beginning on April 20, 2010, Google changed their Google Local Business Center to Google Places

What is new on Google Places?

Google Places now has additional features that will be beneficial for businesses. Some of the new features are listed below.

Tags: for $25 a month in select cities, businesses can make their listing stand out with tags. These tags are a separate marker under your listing that highlights important aspects of your business. You can showcase coupons, photos and more.
Business Photo Shoot:… Continue Reading

RezStream Support Tip: Tracking System Activity and Managing User Accountability

2010-05-07T18:17:48+00:00

There are many shortcuts built into RezStream Professional property management software that may not be readily apparent to even the most experienced user. In this installment of RezStream Support Tips, we will demonstrate the ability the software user has to view the history and changes made to a specific invoice as well as changes and activity in the system as a whole.

A commonly used term in the information systems industry is “GIGO,” or Garbage In Garbage Out. In other words, inaccurate information entered into a system equals inaccurate reporting. The first step in being able to keep an accurate log of activity in RezStream PMS is properly managing its list of users and to make sure that all users are always logged in as themselves. Users can be added via the Tools menu, choosing the Configure option and selecting the Users tab.

RezStream Pro… Continue Reading

The Benefits of Call Tracking – Part Two: Essential Strategies For Your Bottom Line

2010-05-04T19:06:55+00:00

When it comes to Internet marketing, it is important to be familiar with the various channels that result in bookings, which in turn, make you more money. For those travelers who still prefer to call and speak to a live person to book a reservation, you can now precisely track where they found you online. How many of your guests say they found you on “the Internet?” Knowing which channels actually produce reservations can help you maximize your incoming revenue.

Know where calls come from that result in a booking: pay per click, Google, Yahoo MSN, major directories and any other online campaigns.
Track if phone calls result in a booking.
Hear the recorded calls again, if necessary.
Have the ability to assign calls to a person or group.

Statistics: This web-based application is straight-forward to use, easy to track… Continue Reading

The Benefits of Call Tracking - Part One

2010-04-28T22:50:12+00:00

Do you know how to effectively measure your online and offline marketing efforts to correctly determine your return on investment? If you are unsure of the best way to achieve this measurement, call tracking is an extremely effective tool to monitor whether or not your marketing campaigns are delivering a sound return on investment (ROI).

We all know that one of the benefits of ecommerce is the ability to have customers purchase directly from your website. However, there is still a large population of web users that will research a product on the Internet, but prefers to call the business directly to make their purchase.

Call tracking works by dynamically replacing the phone number on your website with a unique trackable number. You can assign an exclusive number to each of your marketing campaigns like Google PPC, organic listings, banner advertising and so forth, which then makes… Continue Reading

Google to Possibly Acquire an ITA

2010-04-21T15:15:27+00:00

Breaking News: ITA is the name for what most people call GDS, the abbreviation for Global Distribution Services. ITA's are resources like Orbitz and Expedia.com that aid travelers in searching, reserving, and purchasing travel products. Google is in private negotiations to acquire ITA Software Inc., which would enable Google to showcase available flight information, hotels and more travel services in their search engine. This ITA acquisition would allow Google to compete with similar travel search features that Microsoft currently offers. According to Henry Hartevelds, an analyst at Forrester Research Inc., “Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and ITA does that for travel."

What does this mean for you as a hotel, bed and breakfast, property management company or resort? If you are marketing in the ITA or GDS channels, you could gain additional exposure in Google. Better or supplementary exposure in Google, when done properly,… Continue Reading

The Future of Web Design - CMS, Flash, Graphics

2010-04-16T22:34:37+00:00

The web has seen vast improvements in the past few years in terms of delivering visually rich and engaging content, search engine optimization, and the overall management of websites. In this article, RezStream identifies some of the major shifts the web has taken in the past and what the future of web design holds.

Typography: Throughout the history of the web, web designers had to work with an extremely limited set of fonts that would function in the various browsers. With this lack of font variety, designers had little choice but to either use basic fonts on websites, which appeared boring and plain, or instead employ graphics to display fonts that would achieve branding a certain look and feel to the site. But this method of using graphics is not ideal for many reasons:

Graphics do not contain the same value as text in the search… Continue Reading

RezStream COO Featured Speaker at CABBI Networking Event

2010-04-08T20:39:09+00:00

Bill Mitchell, Chief Operating Officer at RezStream, will be a featured speaker on Tuesday, April 20, 2010 at a networking event held in San Francisco and hosted by the California Association of Bed and Breakfast Inns. This gathering will bring together innkeepers and industry experts for a day of informative workshops and all participants are invited to attend Bill’s presentation.

Bill’s topic on “How to Select and Monitor an Internet Marketing Company” will provide innkeepers with helpful hints about the best way an Internet marketing customer can select and monitor a good Internet marketing company. Bill Mitchell’s vast knowledge on the subject comes from over 30 years experience in the hospitality industry. At RezStream, Bill works directly with properties of all sizes to offer solutions geared toward helping property owners increase their revenue.

Bill will be joining other industry experts for this fun and stimulating educational event hosted… Continue Reading

RezStream is the Solution for Exclusive Vail Rentals - As Seen in USA Today

2010-04-08T20:27:15+00:00

View the video in USA Today about Kathy Standage and her challenges with starting a new business in today’s difficult economy. Kathy opened Exclusive Vail Rentals, a property management company in the Vail Valley, which offers high-end luxury vacation homes and condominiums rentals. She chose RezStream as a solution provider for her property management software, online reservation booking engine, and Internet marketing services.

Exclusive Vail Rentals offers one to more than five bedroom Vail vacation rentals, many of which are ski-in ski-out, some are on golf courses and all guarantee an incredible getaway destination in the Colorado mountains. Exclusive Vail Rentals offers a concierge service superior to any in the valley so that your vacation experience is second to none.

10 Practical Ways to Boost Online Reservations - Part 2

2010-03-31T16:23:47+00:00

In a blog we posted on February 10, 2010, RezStream provided five practical ways to boost online reservations, with the promise to follow up in March by sharing five more helpful tips. We hope you enjoyed part one of this two-part article last month and that you find equally as useful our tips six through ten!

6. Search Engine Optimization: Are you aware of the EXACT keywords people are searching in relation to the product you are selling? Choosing keywords incorrectly can equal incredible losses in online revenue. A well optimized website yields more revenue than any other source.

HOT TIPS:
• Test organic keyword options in pay per click first.
• Don’t guess. Use tracking tools to show exactly what people are searching for. You will probably be surprised!
• Make sure you are not competing for a keyword… Continue Reading

Video Marketing for Hospitality Businesses

2010-03-22T14:57:29+00:00

Video marketing is quickly becoming one of the most effective ways to promote your hospitality website. This form of advertising engages the online visitors with enticing video, which sets off emotion triggers by allowing the viewer to examine the property, rooms, amenities, area events and attractions without physically being at your property’s location.

From the graph below, you can see the number of people watching online videos increases with each year.

To grasp how important video is becoming in marketing strategies, it is useful to understand how universal search works. Universal search is when the search engines return non-textual results with images, news feeds, video and more. Here is an example of how a search for “New York hotels” returns a video that pushes textual-only websites out of the natural search results.

Follow these best… Continue Reading

Increase Online Business with Professional Photography and Online Videos

2010-03-18T17:08:39+00:00

The importance of making a good “first impression” may be over emphasized, but its concept rings true, especially within the hospitality industry, where positive first impressions of your property can turn viewers into visitors. Utilizing professional photographs, along with a well designed website, is the perfect combination to entice your viewers to spend more time on your site and convert lookers into bookers. Photography gives you the opportunity to help your guests visualize their stay at your property. With the plethora of information made available online these day to potential guests, it is rare that a booking is made without someone first looking at pictures of rooms, amenities, and property location.

Professional photography may be one of the most crucial components for your online business to be successful. You may ask yourself if it’s worth paying for something that you could do on your own. Will the cost of… Continue Reading

RezStream Professional Software Support Tip: The Best Way to Bill a Travel Agent

2010-03-11T17:49:00+00:00

To take advantage of the many features within RezStream Professional, the best way to now bill a travel agent is to utilize the new split billing and direct billing features under the Contact Invoice History area on the Contact Data screen.

Create a new travel agent contact, for example “Expedia,” in your database:

Go to the Contact Data screen.
Click on Add New Contact in the top-left corner on the toolbar.
At the New Contact Record screen, enter Expedia in the Last Name field and click Save.
Back on the Contact Data screen for the new Expedia contact, go to the Notes tab on the bottom left side of the screen (under the various contact information fields) and click on the radio button for “Business.”
This action sets up Expedia as a Business Contact Category.

Create a blank POS invoice for the new Expedia contact:

Click Add New POS invoice… Continue Reading

Sell More to your Customers Using Twitter

2010-03-11T17:41:35+00:00

There are many facets to Internet marketing: pay per click, search engine optimization, link building, website design, coding, tracking, content analysis, content building, article marketing, and the ever-popular social media marketing. If you have the basics of Internet marketing in order, you should consider diving into the realm of social media marketing, as there is a TON of social media websites to try. We recommend you start with Twitter, FaceBook and LinkedIn. Use this article to find out more about Twitter today and then stay tuned for more social networking best practices from RezStream.

Here are but a few of the social networking channels available:

If you are ready to set up a new Twitter account or even if you have an… Continue Reading

All Things NOT Google

2010-02-26T23:28:00+00:00

Google is the most dominant player when it comes to the Internet, but it is definitely not the only game in town. This is especially true when discussing search engine optimization and conversion rates.

There are many factors to optimizing and converting successfully that are not related to Google. To learn more about this concept, John Knox, RezStream’s new Director of Internet Services, will be presenting a highly informational workshop about this topic at the 2010 PAII Convention & Trade Show, featured this year in Austin, Texas.

Be sure to attend his presentation on Wednesday, March 10th between 4:00 PM – 5:15PM. John’s presentation will be held in the San Antonio room on the Plaza level of the PAII conference facilities.

Key workshop topics include:

Biggest Bing for the Buck
The Do’s and Dont’s of Bing
Yahoo Local
Universal Search (blogging,… Continue Reading

RezStream Discusses Key Benefits of CSS Driven Websites

2010-02-18T21:14:06+00:00

RezStream’s design department is eager to share helpful tips about how to get the most out of your website. Our main topic this week is CSS (cascading style sheets) website designs. While the benefits of CSS driven websites are undeniable, those advantages are not always clearly understood. Let’s explore the key benefits of updating your website to a CSS driven one, which loads faster, is visually more appealing, and is more efficient for the search engines.

What is CSS?

CSS or “cascading style sheets” is the preferred web design method for a variety of reasons. CSS is used to specify the layout and presentation of the basic browser language, HTML or XHTML. CSS then allows web developers to separate the content that is written in (X)HTML, from the presentation, written in CSS. CSS is placed outside of the (X)HTML document, which keeps the document shorter and clean, better… Continue Reading

Increase Return on Investment with a Professionally Managed Pay Per Click Program

2010-02-11T22:43:53+00:00

Do you wonder if your pay per click (PPC) advertising is worth the money spent? Do you struggle to understand what the results of your PPC campaigns mean? Having a professionally managed pay per click program will save advertising budget dollars and make you more online bookings. With the many options available through Google, Yahoo, Bing and other PPC platforms, RezStream’s Internet marketing professionals can take your PPC campaigns to the next, higher-income producing level.

RezStream Internet marketing specialists:

Lower your cost per click
Maximize your online bookings
Conduct competitor research (bidding, keywords and more)
Use keyword research tools (we know exactly what people are searching for)
Understand the different PPC platforms
Research to determine geographic targeting (local, state, national, & international)
Write competing ads that convert to sales
Continuously monitor campaigns to seek new opportunities
Track click-throughs with propriety software to monitor if conversion takes place
Design… Continue Reading

10 Practical Ways To Boost Online Reservations

2010-02-10T19:38:16+00:00

There are many simple strategies you can use to increase your online revenue. RezStream helps by sharing ten easy and effective ways to make this happen. We will publish the first five tips this week and follow up next month with five more sure-fire ways to increase your online reservations.

1. Improve Your Website Design: Never underestimate the importance of “on page” design elements. It is a known fact that people look at several websites before they purchase. How does your website compare to your competitors? The answer to this question could be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars! Your website is the most important path for capturing new business.

HOT TIPS:
• Make sure your website clearly explains points that set you apart on the home page. You only have 15 to 30 SECONDS to capture the interest of your visitor.
• Be confident… Continue Reading

Join RezStream at the Annual PAII Trade Show in Austin!

2010-02-05T20:21:57+00:00

RezStream has just returned from a successful session at the California Association of Bed & Breakfast Innkeepers (CABBI) conference and trade show in Napa, California. Currently, RezStream is preparing to head back out on the road to attend the Professional Association of Innkeepers International 2010 Annual Conference and Trade Show. This year’s four-day event will be held at the Renaissance in Austin, Texas from March 8th through March 11th.

The PAII gathering attracts professional and aspiring innkeepers from around the country, who are interested in the innkeeping business or eager to learn ways to increase business for their properties. RezStream will be exhibiting its suite of hospitality solutions and products during this highly anticipated annual event.

In addition, RezStream will be presenting a workshop on “10 Practical Ways to Get More Online Reservations” during an exhibitor tutorial scheduled Wednesday, March 10th… Continue Reading

RezStream Client Receives TripAdvisor Travelers’ Choice Award

2010-02-03T15:28:19+00:00

TripAdvisor issues their annual Travelers’ Choice Awards based on reviews that they receive by millions of people. TripAdvisor has become the world’s largest travel community and for that reason, many people turn to TripAdvisor for advice before booking travel online. Today, travelers are trusting reviews more than property websites when deciding where to stay. As such, TripAdvisor has become tremendously influential. To receive a Travelers’ Choice Award is a huge honor. There is also a “Dirtiest Hotel” list, which is a crushing blow to a company’s reputation!

One of RezStream’s clients, Dunton Hot Springs, located in an idyllic setting outside of Telluride, Colorado, made the Travelers’ Choice list for 2010. They are honored as the #7 world’s best All-Inclusive Property. Dunton Hot Springs is a Colorado comprehensive luxury resort with on-site hot springs, luxurious private cabins, gourmet dining,… Continue Reading

A TripAdvisor Business Listing: The Next Step To Increase Your Online Presence!

2010-02-01T17:31:17+00:00

Anticipated by many, TripAdvisor has now made it possible for businesses to enhance their business listings on the TripAdvisor site. This added functionality offers properties the opportunity to add important information about their business including phone number, email address and a direct link to the property website from their TripAdvisor page. To entice businesses to sign up for this new service, TripAdvisor has discounted the annual rate by 50% for customers who sign up by February 2010.

For businesses that choose to make this wise marketing investment, it is then prudent to maintain high standards at your property so that postings on TripAdvisor remain positive. Complimentary comments from guests will only ensure and encourage TripAdvisor users to click through to your property’s own website.

In the list below, RezStream provides tips for business owners to use to help enhance their expanded listing on TripAdvisor and receive… Continue Reading

Link Building Strategies

2010-01-27T18:00:30+00:00

With Thousands of Directories Available - Which Ones Do You Choose?

There are virtually thousands of places to purchase links online. Without careful consideration, a hotel, bed and breakfast, inn, resort, or property management company could spend their entire marketing budget on these resources alone. However, you must remember that there are other more important channels to consider like pay per click, search engine optimization (SEO), blogs, and website design. A balanced marketing budget, which includes using paid links, is the best way to ensure the most bang for your buck. It’s always a smart practice to track your results to make certain you are allocating your marketing dollars to the correct resources.

Purchasing links online can be beneficial for a number of reasons: establishing trust, increasing traffic and revenue, and creating quality… Continue Reading

Select Registry and SynXis Criticism Unfounded?

2010-01-20T23:09:09+00:00

There has been recent criticism of the Select Registry/SynXis partnership, an alliance that will enable Select Registry to offer online reservations on their website and SynXis to provide optional Global Distribution System (GDS) reservation services to Select Registry members.

RezStream believes that some of this criticism is misleading and biased.

The agreement between Select Registry and SynXis does not require any Select Registry member to exclusively use SynXis as their online booking engine; nor does the agreement mandate that Select Registry members sign up for the optional SynXis GDS services or use the SynXis booking engine on their individual property websites. SynXis is simply providing options, which innkeepers can utilize if they desire. Nothing is mandatory and inkeepers can keep their existing booking engine on their own website.

What is factual is that SynXis agreed to give Select Registry members a very competitive, low per reservation… Continue Reading

Benefits of a Professionally Managed Website

2010-01-20T21:34:17+00:00

Your website is an important component in the success of your business and choosing a professional website management company is equally as important to ensure your website’s income-earning success. Websites not correctly managed by an amateur company could end up causing a negative impact on your target customers, which makes your website a less effective business tool. With many do-it-yourself website development software options available these days, it may appear a simple task to run your own website. While these options are tempting, you run the risk of making your website appearance and functionality far less successful than if you employed a professional website development team.

When the Internet first emerged and business websites became popular, self-made websites generated success for most businesses. But with an increased presence of professionally designed and managed websites, the Internet has now become a competitive marketplace controlled by sophisticated search engines. Without proper… Continue Reading

RezStream Support Tip: Setting Your Screen Resolution

2010-01-12T16:20:15+00:00

RezStream consistently provides updates to RezStream Professional, our reservation software. Over the past year, RezStream has added various new and enhanced features to its property management software. Current information about RezStream Professional’s newest features and updates can always be found at the RezStream website’s release notes. Following every software update, it’s typical that RezStream support receives questions from RezStream Pro users about changes to the software and how to best adapt to the updates. Our support staff is using the RezStream website blog to provide you with information on how to best utilize the changes that occur after updating your software. This will ensure you are getting the most out of RezStream Professional.

Here is a helpful tip from RezStream support in regards to screen resolution. Please use these information below to take advantage of this enhanced feature of RezStream Professional!

RezStream… Continue Reading

Happy New Year from RezStream!

2009-12-30T22:29:01+00:00

As 2009 draws to a close, the staff at RezStream would like to thank all of its customers for their support and business this year. We not only appreciate the continuing relationships with our long-standing clients, but also are excited about the new properties that have chosen RezStream to fill their hospitality needs.

The New Year marks a busy time for RezStream as we focus on introducing new products and improving current product lines that will benefit our clients by maximizing revenue potential. Be on the lookout for big savings with our special offers, changes to the functionality of the RezStream website, and as always, regular support updates to RezStream Professional property management software. We’ve set our sights high for 2010 to make it even more successful than last year!
What’s your New Year’s resolution?

Why not increase bookings and online revenue this year? RezStream’s… Continue Reading

Hospitality Marketing: Blogging for Profit and Search Engine Optimization

2009-12-30T19:13:26+00:00

BLOGS. You certainly hear about them and have probably even read a few. Perhaps you are wondering if you should create one for your property, but really are not sure how a BLOG would be beneficial for your business. In the list below, RezStream helps explain the many benefits of adding a blog to your website. We will explain how they can increase your exposure online, which in turn make you more money!

Benefits:

It is easy! With some guidance about best practices, you can be blogging properly in no time. The result is more traffic and revenue.

Blogs ping search engine spiders, which means it alerts the spiders that there is new content on the website. As such, they index the site incredibly quickly. The benefit is faster indexing of pages. The more often the spiders are on the website the quicker we see results in the search engines. … Continue Reading

ExpressionEngine 2.0: What’s New for Content Management System Websites in 2010

2009-12-17T23:24:01+00:00

All About ExpressionEngine

Rick Ellis first developed ExpressionEngine as a blogging tool under the name “pMachine” in 2001. An early prototype of pMachine was installed on Nancy Sinatra’s (Frank’s daughter) website. After some real world testing and success, pMachine was released to the public in 2002.

By the end of 2002, pMachine had been featured in a few books and magazines and was having some success, but at that point, the Web was young and still developing. Ellis noticed website owners and developers wanted more control and management over their content. That’s when Rick Ellis developed a more robust tool called ExpressionEngine and the web development community took notice.

The first version of ExpressionEngine was first released to the public in 2004 as a general-purpose content management system written in object-oriented PHP and using MySQL for storing data.

ExpressionEngine’s publishing features are robust, comprehensive, and highly flexible. Where other content… Continue Reading

TripAdvisor Business Listings

2009-12-15T22:14:03+00:00

Beginning January 4th, 2010, hotels will be able to enhance their TripAdvisor listing to include their website address, telephone number and email address. This is an excellent opportunity to provide a convenient link with additional information about your property to the 25 million monthly searchers who use TripAdvisor for their travel needs.

To help entice properties to utilize this new feature, TripAdvisor is offering a 50% discount on their introductory rate for a one-year subscription. This special runs until January 31, 2010. The discounted rates start at $300 for a ten-room property and increase in price based on property size. TripAdvisor has seen great success throughout its existence with over 75,000 hoteliers registering on the TripAdvisor Owner Center since it was launched in March 2009. This center allows hotels to monitor their online reputation and communicate with reviewers.

For those of you concerned about the cost… Continue Reading

RezStream Prepares for Annual CABBI Innspire Conference and Tradeshow

2009-12-11T22:19:55+00:00

At the end of next month, RezStream will travel to California as part of its national tradeshow tour. RezStream is excited to return to the California Association of Bed & Breakfast Inn’s annual InnSpire Conference. This year’s CABBI event is scheduled to take place at the beautiful Meritage Resort in Napa, California from Sunday, January 31st through Monday, February 1st, 2010.

RezStream enjoys participating at the CABBI conference as it is a perfect place to reconnect with existing clients and forge relationships with new customers. RezStream’s suite of hospitality products and services including affordable reservation software, online reservations capabilities, custom website designs and hotel Internet marketing plans are ideal for any California bed & breakfast or inn.

If you haven’t registered yet for the CABBI event,… Continue Reading

How to Avoid Cancelled GDS Booking Fees

2009-12-09T16:03:59+00:00

One of the most frequent inquiries at the RezStream billing department is disputes over GDS cancellations. What properties need to understand is if a guest wishes to cancel, they must do so by way of the original site of the booking or your property will still incur the GDS $15.50 per booking fee. If the guest calls your property directly to process a cancellation instead of cancelling through the original portal of the booking, and the cancellation is entered into your desktop software, the original booking agent (InnLink & RezStream) will have no knowledge the cancellation occurred and will still process the GDS $15.50 booking fee as if the cancellation never happened.

It’s important that your front desk staff members know that GDS reservations must be cancelled through the original booking site. RezStream also recommends that your property maintain a set cancellation policy to offset these charges… Continue Reading

Sell Gift Certificates Online for the Holidays!

2009-12-02T18:47:49+00:00

Did you know that 80 to 90% of gift certificates are sold during the holiday season? What better time then now to offer customers the convenience to purchase gift certificates directly from your website. Gift certificates have become a gift giving must for anyone on your holiday shopping list.

RezStream offers the capability to sell gift certificates directly from your website. We’re currently running a special for existing booking engine clients to activate the gift certificate feature with no setup fee and only $5 fee per gift certificate sold. Learn more or contact us at 866.360.8210.

Make more money this holiday season and start selling gift certificates now!
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Off-season: A Time to Focus on Your Property

2009-10-28T19:39:39+00:00

It’s that time of year when our hallways have become quiet and arriving guests are fewer and farther between. You’ve said your goodbyes to late summer and fall customers and are anxiously anticipating the holiday rush that always comes faster than expected.

Anyone who has worked in the hospitality industry is probably all too familiar with the characteristic off-season lull. Resort communities across the country and reaching to the far corners of the world expect bookings to drop this time each year. This industry-specific period gives us a moment to reflect on the summer season’s highlights and take a deep breath before diving head first into the bustling holidays and extended winter season.

Off-season can be a love-hate relationship that any innkeeper, general manager, or property management company looks forward to as a break and time to unwind, but also eagerly anticipates bookings to increase once again. This… Continue Reading

Google Video in Paid Search

2009-09-17T21:27:47+00:00

According to Reuters, Google will eventually enable companies to add video to their paid search results. Nick Fox of Google stated, “Our search ads have largely looked the same over the course of the past seven or eight years.” As the current style of Google will more than likely adopt the popular trend of using online videos, it would be a smart practice for travel websites to prepare in advance by having well-developed videos ready before Google launches its new ad program.

Custom Video Benefits

Get an Increase in Exposure

Generate More Booking

Stay Ahead of Your Competitors

Having a custom video on your website is beneficial for companies that use pay per click (PPC) as part of their marketing strategy. It is commonly known that videos are popular with website visitors and this favorable response leads to more conversions. Videos also perform well with Google Universal Search,… Continue Reading

Social Networking Craze

2009-08-21T15:56:28+00:00

Just about everyone these days has heard about social networking sites or has accidentally stumbled upon one. What many people do not understand or grasp is just how social networking sites can help and/or actually hurt their business.

Examples of Social Networking Websites

Del.icio.us

Digg

Squidoo

FaceBook

Twitter

This list names only a few examples of the hundreds of social networking sites that are available. From bookmarking sites, to writing blog posts, to keeping in touch with constant updates of events, it is easy to see how businesses can get into trouble by wasting too much time managing their social networking sites. While it is a great way to stay in touch with past guests and encourage people to book again, hotels, resorts, bed and breakfasts and property managers who have not effectively executed the basics behind Continue Reading