New Build Released 12/2

Late today we released a new build to the platform that has many 'enhancements' which will give you additional support and control over many of the features you are already using. As mentioned in the last update a significant effort in this release was working with additional hardware to optimize system performance. We plan on having phase 1 of this completed this Friday, with the 2nd addition finalized by the end of the year. Some other changes you may notice as part of this release are:

Leads - additional information added to your lead notifications emails. Also a better lead confirmation screen for your website visitors.

Development pages - additional information now available in development summary screens.

Fees - additional support added so that fees may be applied to more than or less than a 'x' night booking.

Property Finders - support to now turn inactive and not show on your site (great for seasonal searches).

Tomorrow a full list of the changes will be posted.

System performance (your site and Control Panel) is always a high priority concern for us. Each month we make modifications to our platform and server infrastructure in keep up with the increasing demands as we add more customers and data. It starts with keeping details metrics. Over the last 2 quarters we have made incremental progress and we have several other performance enhancing initiatives underway for early December. Coming soon, you will be able to see this performance data in your Control Panel.

Additionally, on Sunday morning there was an issue at Bookt's datacenter that either caused our services to perform slowly or to be suspended. Due to a failure in our monitoring procedures, it took longer to detect the problem. Upon review, we identified one core server that was getting overloaded, which rippled out to other dependent servers in the system. After clearing up this core server, Bookt's services were fully restored.

As a consequence of this, we are initiating steps to upgrade our server infrastructure. This will be done in two stages. The first stage will be performed on Tuesday, Dec 1st between 9 and 10pm EST and will focus on reconfiguring our load balancers. During this time, there may be short outages.

The second stage will be performed later this month. We will be adding additional servers to our infrastructure. This will help to improve both performance (site speed) and redundancy.

Are You Social?

It is becoming more and more important to keep your company (and website) connected through social media. Once you are active blogging (using the integrated tools in the Control Panel) setup a Facebook Fan Page for your company. Here are two really helpful articles on how to setup a Fan Page and how to enhance it....

Setting up a Fan Page
Enhancing a Fan Page with Applications

Once your Facebook Fan Page is setup, ask your Success Manager how you can import your website blog to your Fan Page (can also be done with Twitter).

Don't Stop There!
While your at it, continue by setting up a business profile on Linkedin.

Blogging for Traffic - Are You?

Over the last month, we have noticed significant traffic to many of your sites coming in from blog postings using the integrated Control Panel blog editor. "Hi 5" to everyone for their creative and keyword rich blog titles and topics. Remember, blogs are meaningful for your website's visitors and also for the search engines... they love fresh, updated, and original content. If you are not blogging, you can get started today. In your control panel, go to Customize>>Website Content>>Blog Postings, and select 'New'. Add a title and start blogging! Remember, there are no rules to blogging, they can be as short as paragraph or as long as a couple pages. Additionally, we now have added support to upload photos to your blog!! Just click on the photo upload icon on the blog editor.

Furthermore, we have created a new page to showcase your blog postings on your site. If you have already added blogs, you can view this page by going to www.yoursitename.com/blog (remember to use your site name). If you do not have your 'blog' page available from your website menu, ask your Success Manager to have it added.

No Spam for Thanksgiving

This holiday season, you can take spam off the menu... at least as far as your property leads are concerned. We have been working on a sophisticated spam filter that doesn't require the need for an intrusive Captcha form (common form that contains alpha-numeric values a user much type into a security field to process a submission). After the last system update, we have not recorded any spam emails getting through our system. We know how obnoxious it is to receive flurries if spam emails, and we thought we would share this pleasant new feature with you as it may have otherwise gone unnoticed! Please contact our support team if you receive any spam leads moving forward.

NEW Video Tutorials

October is a BIG month for our platform! With new features being released each month, we understand the need for clear documenation in order for you to immediately take advantage of the new updates. On top of maintaining an updated reference guide, we have started with a series of Control Panel Video Tutorials. You can find these page specific videos by referencing the lower left column, Community Tips. In many cases there will be a streaming video link there for your support.

In addition, during the next system release we will be publishing a 'Help' menu that contains, support tools, success guides, SEO & SEM optimization techniques, and strategies for making your business more effiicient.

Here are some recent control panel videos:

Editing Property Information

Adding & Editing Photos

Adding & Editing Amenities

Setting Up Rates

About Lead Capturing

Points of Interest Tutorial

New Release - Important Updates

Today, Monday October 5th, we will be releasing a new build which will embody new features, control panel updates, and website additions. There are a few control panel changes to take note of that will have an immediate effect.

1. On most of the pages the action buttons have changed. This is in order to give the control panel greater flexibility as new features and controls are released.

Here is a screen shot of the old version that is changing.

* There you have a 'New' and 'Delete' button on most of your screens.

Here is the screen shot of the new version that will be live later today.

* Here you have:

1. 'New' - add a new record

2. 'Set Status' - active or inactive

3. 'More Actions' - In all cases this is where 'Delete' will be stored. However, there will also be various screen specific functions found in that tab.

NEW BOOKING SCREENS

In an effort to make the reservation process more efficient, we are releasing new booking screens. This include a new "Make a Booking" screen, a quick "Make Owner Booking" screen, and a "Take a Call" screen.

The new "Make a Booking" screen consolidates mutiple pages in a master booking screen. This should simplify the flow of creating a new booking.

Make an Owner Booking

This new page is dedicated for making owner bookings. The major change here is that it will generate an initial statement for $0. From there you can add a fee for any additional services that the owner should be charged for during the visit.

08/11/09 - New 'Rates & Availability' Screen

New and Improved Rates & Availability

As you may have noticed, we have officially launched our new Rates & Availability screen. This new tool allows you to: have greater granularity with your price structure, edit 1 or multiple properties/units quickly, and have better visualization of your rates and availability over a 12 month grid. To start, enter Control Panel and click Properties>>Rates & Availability, and select a property/unit from the Pick List in the left column. Here are a couple cool pieces:

1. Update Rates by Date Range - You can select a day range and LOS for a unit, and update rates in bulk. Make sure to Save to commit the changes

2. Copy Rates to Multiple Units - After updating the rates for 1 property/unit, you can Copy the rates to multiple others.

3. Color coded rates - We have included a Legend so you can identify your rate breaks by percentiles. This helps you see at a glance where your rates are high and low, which gives you better information and control while on the phone with potential guests.

*If you are using a 3rd party reservation system, your activity on this screen will be limited.

Contact your Success Manager with any questions.

8/3/09 - Emailing Out Booking Statements

We are continuously adding more efficient ways to create bookings via your Control Panel. In addition to directly creating bookings from the "Make a Booking" page in the control panel, you can also turn leads into bookings on the lead processing page, or create bookings straight from your tape chart. To better accommodate your reservation processes, we have added a "Email Statement" control which allows you to email the reservation statement out to your guests, including all booking details. Here is how to create a booking, and email out a statement:

1. Add the general information regarding the property, including the status and lead source

2. Add a customer name. If you have additional guest information handy, click ‘new’ in the panel and add full contact information

3. Enter the dates of travel and click ‘search’. This will prompt a list of available properties for those dates. Then click on the applicable property which will load into the ‘Property Info’ panel

4. ‘Save’ the booking record

5. Review the Statement (tab) found on the horizontal blue navigation bar. If needed edit the statement to create a customized rate. To add a fee, input a value in this format “111.11”. To add a credit which will reduce the end cost, input a value in this format “-111.11”. Review the statement and then click ‘Save’

6. Navigate over to the Credit Card tab and enter payment information. Then click ‘Save’

7. Once the booking information is complete, you will be able to email out a detailed statement to your guest. Click on the ‘EmailStatement’ option that will quickly send your guest a confirmation email with all the details

New Blogging Controls

Get Blogging! Are you currently utilizing a syndicated blog on your Bookt website, or are you interesting in starting a blog? Great news, we have completed our internal blog feature and you can now manage a blog straight from your control panel.

Blogging can add meaningful content to your website for both site visitors and search engines alike. New blogs keep a steady flow of fresh content on your website, which in general, show search engines an active, and updated webpage. To learn more about blog benefits and strategies, view our corporate "blog on blogging" section.

If you are interested in using our integrated blog solution, ask your success manager how to get started.

7/6/09

Rates Management & QuickBooks Beta Testing!!!!

Hello All! Last week we worked hard on optimizing the navigation, and organization of your Bookt Control Panel. The major overhaul will likely be released early next Monday morning. Last night we released a small piece, Rates Management. In Control Panel, under your Properties tab you will see two new tabs for managing your rates by availability or by seasons. Simply click on your preferred method and load the rates for any property.


QuickBooks Integration!! As a few of you have come to know a bit early, we are pleased to announce that we have completed the majority of our QuickBooks integration. Do you currently use QuickBooks? Our seamless integration will allow you to establish a real time connection right from your control panel. We expect the development to be completed in the next couple weeks, with full release shortly after.

6/16/09 :: Peformance Enchancment

Just a quick note on performance: We consider improving the speed of our platform an important strategic initiative. We understand that conversion and growth are very contingent on generally responsive systems.

Therefore we are continuously working on ways to make our platform run faster (through hardware & software updates). Over the last week, we again have been able to further enhance performance and speed of our systems, including your control panel. We are please to announce that we have cut average page load time from over a second to the current value of .25 s/ page load.

As our system wide traffic increases each day, we will continue to monitor and further enhance performance proactively.

6/10/2009 - Bookt in the News!

Bookt has been receiving some great domestic and international press coverage lately. Today one of our consumer based articles was picked up by CNN!

These articles typically contain knowledge share from various industry experts and are a great way for you to stay on top of industry trends and strategies. You can read more Bookt media coverage here: http://www.bookt.com/AboutUs/BooktInTheNews.aspx

Friday 6/5/09 - New Exciting Build Released

TGIF, But before you break for the weekend... review this update of the recent development build released!

As of 1am this morning (6/5/09) a new development build was released with upgrades and adjustments to the Bookt platform.

NEW FEATURES AND UPGRADES!
1.) Perhaps the most exciting announcement this week, is again, a platform performance improvement. On the Tuesday night, we installed a significant amount of new hardware to our load balanced servers in our data center. The upgrade was successful and once again we were able to radically improve the speed of your site, and your Bookt Control Panel. After the server updates, we have tracked the average page load time to be 100% faster... thats a change from an average of 1 second loading time last week, to currently .5 seconds. Again, this will always remain a high priority for us and we are commiteed to increasing site speed indefinately.

2.) Property Details, location & mapping is now live! We have now released the Location & Mapping tab. When viewing a property, you will see this tab as one of 4 or 5 now available on your page, next to Rates. This page will map your individual properties in relation to nearby attractions. We are also currently working with a algorithm to to optimize the zoom levels of the maps to a more granular level.

3.) Minimum Stay Date Ranges - Do you have certain periods during the year that you want to require a minimum stay? You now have the ability to apply a minimum night stay to a specific property for a specific date range. As mentioned last week, the same rule also applies for property turn days. See Customize>>Booking Rules to setup.

4.) Optional Fees - Optional fees give you the ability to provide an opt out fee during the booking process. This is common for upsale items such as a Pool Heater, or Travel Insurance. The fee can be calculated on a flat or percentage basis. To setup an optional fee field, create a fee in Customize>>Property Fee, and select the "Bool Field" checkbox.

Other Adjustments
Search Results, Revised Search - Your revised search panel on your search results pages has now been moved to the right column, aligned vertically. This moves more of your search results above the fold... bringing more actionable items into the range of sight of your guests.

Search Results Mapping- Now, only the properties shown in your search results will show on the interactive mapping on the search result pages. Prior to, your entire inventory would show. The new adjustment will show only applicable results on the map, and make it much easier on the guests eye.

For any questions regarding the new features and/or adjustments, please contact your success manager.

Bookt Maintenance Window 6/2/09 10:00 PM to 11:00 PM EDT

Please be advised that tomorrow, our system engineers will perform a server upgrade of our data center equipment. The total number of visitors using Bookt websites continue to increase and in order to keep our systems running well, we need to add additional hardware to our data center. The upgrade will occur Tuesday 6/2/2009 between 10:00 PM and 11:00 PM EDT. During this period your site and control panel may operate slower than normal or not be available at all. Any data changes occurring in linked systems will automatically be synced up after the systems are fully operational again. If you have any questions re. this maintenance window, please contact support@bookt.com.

The Bookt Systems Engineering Team

5/28/2009

Platform Additions

1. Turn Day Support - We now have turn day support available. This gives you the ability to only allow guests to check in on certain days. This can be an effective tool in normalizing and streamlining your internal processes and also to break up seasons and holiday into rental periods.
2. Custom Statements - as of Monday, you now have the ability to create customized statements in the control panel. This gives you "wiggle room" when closing a rental deal via phone or in person. You can now credit an amount against the final rental cost to lower the end price to the guest. To use this, create a booking in the control panel and click save. A new tab will appear called "Statements". Click here and you will find a button, Add Credit/Fee. There you have the ability to add a cost to the booking, or to credit a discount, symbolized by adding a "-" before the numeric value.

Platform Improvements

1. Availability Calendar - On the property details page, the availability calendar has gone through several upgrades and improvements in the last 2 months. You may have noticed however, that when you >> to a new month, the entire page would refresh. That issue has now been resolved.
2. Site Speed - Over the last several weeks, we have been making radical changes to our data flow processes to increase the average page load time on your websites and in Control Panel. We are pleased to announce that we have improved the average page load time by 50% in the last week. We have also ordered additional hardware to further improve this important performance driver.

*For any questions please contact your success manager.

5/21/09 Link Building Inquiries and Strategies

Recently, and particularly this week, there has been a lot of talk and inquiries about link building. Link building is a valuable initiative that is an important part of your overall SEO and internet marketing strategy. Link Building can improve your web presence, increase your traffic, and optimize your site for utilized keywords. A few of you have received request to exchange reciprocal links from real estate sites. Its important to be able to identify what is a good opportunity and whats not. Any generic email you receive with predefined link adding parameters is probably not a good opportunity. You want to work with local merchants and business listings, and barter for a link that will work in your favor. To address this popular topic, we have published a 3 part series of link building blogs for your reference.

Series 1: Drink Milk, Build Links
Series 2: All Juiced Up
Series 3: The Natural Rule of Link Building

*contact your success manager with any questions

5/20/09

Fixes and Updates as of 5/20/09

Creat New Lead Support - You can now create new leads directly from your control panel. This feature is useful to further grow your Bookt CRM and contact database. When you receive a call from a prospecting guest, you can add their information directly to your leads screen. In your control panel, go to Leads>>Lead Requests. Then click on the New button above the aggregate list.

Additional POP3 Support - For importing external leads into your control panel, we have now developed new POP3 support. This technology will grow in the weeks to come, and we have more flexibile features scheduled on our roadmap. In order to take advantage of this, you need to create a new email address, that is dedicated to only external and internal leads. We will then interface with that email account and import all the leads into your control panel where they can be processed.

Lead Processing Adjustments - We noticed a few complications with the lead processing over the last week. They would be visible to you with an "Oops" message. All lead processing issues have been resolved.

Quick Lead Processing Tips:
1. We always recommend calling back guests as a primary lead response, especially on booking and property inquiries.
2. When responding to a lead, try to have coorespondence with the prospect within 30 mins of when the lead was generated.
3. Its generally not a good practice to delete any leads... even complete spam. We are tracking your lead processing time on all leads and actions. This will allow us to determine the correlation of conversion rate/response time on a large scale.
4. For spam or garbage leads, select one or multiple ones (check boxes on the aggregate list) and update status to Canceled.
5. Defer - "I dont want to work on this yet, but I will come back to it"
6. Discard - "This doesn't look like its worth following up on"

5/11/09 - Exciting Update on the Bookt Platform

Last week was another great week of development on the Bookt platform. Here is your weekly update.

Site and Control Panel SPEED – Over the last couple of months, site speed (webpage loading time) has become a top priority. We understand that a slow site can result in a higher bounce rate, higher abandonment, and ultimately fewer conversions on your website. We monitor the load time of every single page platform wide and capture a mountain of data that helps us more effectively optimize the speed of your site. Late last week, we put in place a series of tweaks that have already resulted in a vast improvement. By the end of this week we expect to see average page loading time reduced to almost half of what it was early last week. To quantify that, we expect to see the average page load time to drop to less than 0.6 seconds, with a overall goal over 0.3 seconds or less.

Property Comparison – Last week we announced the new property comparison feature as a new release available for your website. This feature has now been activated for your website and should be visible for you and your site visitors later today.

Instant Software Partial Sync – For those of you who use an application of Instant Software, we have now enhanced out connection and provided a partial sync solution. This means that instead of having to drive all of your content/data through your Instant Software application, you can now manage that content directly from your Bookt Control Panel. For instance, you can upload new, higher resolution photos to your website, and also setup limitless amenities. Please contact your success manager to understand all of the capabilities and limitations before working through.

For any questions regarding this new release, please contact your Bookt Success Manager.

New Feature Releases & Updates

As most of you have now come to expect and realize, each Monday we publish new website features to make the management and marketing of your website as efficient as possible. Each Monday we will publish a new posting that you can read right here on your Control Panel Homepage that will give you an update of new releases, capabilities, controls, and in some cases adjustments to your lodging website. If you have any questions regarding details please contact your Success Manager.

Monday 5/4/09

New Features

• Compare Property feature - the compare property feature allows you to select multiple properties from the search results page and compare them side to side. In the coming weeks we will be advancing the display of information to show at a more granular level. To have this feature turned on, please email your success manager.

Adjustments

• The "You May Also Like" control which is common on your property details page is now pulling with more accurate information. We are associating price, category, amenities and location with this feature. Applicable properties are show that carry a high relevance to provide other similar options for your site visitors.

• Smarter Calendar - The drop down calendar we are using now only shows dates that are current or in the future. A subtle change but one that will help the flow of consumers from the search panels to your property pages.