So I thought it would make sense to write a blog and include a few of the very important steps that companies should know before making the switch. After all, if you rely on you website as a major source of online booking revenue, you’ll want to ensure that the transition is smooth and doesn’t adversly affect reservations. I have seen this in many cases, especially when customers are in a rush to launch a new website and ESPECIALLY when web development companies are eager to meet their deadlines.

With that being said, here are a few major things to consider before launching:

Redirecting Indexed Pages

Your website no doubt has many indexed pages in Google. A typical vacation rental management website might contain from 200 to 2000 indexed pages. When launching a new website, often times page names change. Therefore, it’s imperative that all previously indexed pages are redirected to the new page names.There are several ways to do this, but there are two specifically that I will point out: 1) by implementing 301 Redirects. Essentially, what this tells Google (and other search engines) is that the page name has changed to a new name, so please update your index. Another option for ASP.NET developers is to use Custom URL Redirects in their Web.Config file. Basically, what this does is allow the new pages to be displayed even when the old page name or URL is accessed.An easy way to find out which pages of your website are indexed in Google is to type the following search into google: site:www.yourdomain.com

Identify Popular Landing Pages

These are the pages that most of your website visitors arrive to your site on. For the vast majority of websites, this would naturally be your homepage. However, there generally are other pages on your site that are popular landing or entry pages. To see which pages are the most popular, you can use reporting software or services such as Google Analytics.Once you identify any major landing pages, ensure new pages with similar content are created on the new website and redirect to them (see item #1 above).

Updating Sitemaps Many sites now rely on XML sitemaps to deliver updated page changes to search engines, specifically Google using WebMaster Tools. When launching a new website, it’s important to update your sitemap to include your new page names. When creating XML sitemaps for Google, you can even label which pages are more important, which helps Google to more accurately crawl, index and position your pages. For instance, setting your homepage to a priority level of 1.0 and your contact us page to a 0.5 will help ensure that your organic search results display your homepage link in the listing, thus channeling your visitors the appropriate way.Many web developers have the ability to create dynamic XML sitemaps that change automatically as you add or remove rental properties to your site. This can be an invaluable tool towards keeping your pages updated and newest pages indexed within Google.

These are just a few of the many important things to consider before transitioning or launching a new vacation rental management website, but there are many more. Feel free to shoot me an email for more ideas on the subject.

The part about this new website for owners and managers is that it’s absolutely FREE to list their property! They may include as much property information as they’d like and even link back to their own website. They may also include up to 20 photos per property!

As a result, many rental management companies have set-up programs to work directly with the by-owner or have provided programs that provide the owner the best of both worlds. How is that?

Many management companies who typically would charge from 25-35% commission are now letting their owners advertise and accept bookings on their own at a reduced commission rate. I’ve seen from 10-20% with local management companies here in the Destin, Florida area. For property owners, you get the best of both worlds in that you can rely on the management company to market and rent your property, while at the same time you can advertise your property online, take as many bookings directly as possible and save yourself some commission.

For the property owner who likes the idea of by-owner vacation rentals but doesn’t have the time or energy, this is a great solution. I’d encourage to find a local and experienced management company that offers this type of program if it fits into your rental property plan.