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Speed up your response time with text message alerts

Elizabeth Weedon | 7/1/2015

textmessagepicAdvancements in technology continue to accelerate the entire process of identifying and booking a vacation home, lickety-split. To prevent delays and to avoid having to check your email frequently, enable text message alerts on your listing. That way, every time you receive an email inquiry, you will also receive a text message alerting you that you have received a vacationer inquiry.

Success in converting an inquiry into a booking starts with your responding to the inquiry just as quickly as possible. To be frank, vacationers are impatient and expect instant responses. Text messaging can facilitate a fast and easy booking process. And documents and funds can be sent electronically to seal the deal in a matter of days, if not hours!

Most of us homeowners, too, are anxious to fill any last-minute vacancies and are therefore pretty good about responding promptly when we check our email and see the inquiry. But the text alerts enable us to respond that much more quickly.

A text message alert contains a link enabling you to directly access your listing. This way, you can read the full inquiry (in the “Email inquiry history” link in your Homeowner Center) and also double check your calendar to confirm your pricing and availability before responding.

To enable your WeNeedaVacation.com listing to receive text alerts, go to the “Contact Info” tab near the top of your Homeowner Center, and scroll down to the “Phone” section.

Keep in mind that you undoubtedly have a lot of competition and the vacationer has probably inquired about other homes in addition to yours. A swift response can make or break the deal!

About Elizabeth Weedon

About Elizabeth Weedon: I have worked for WeNeedaVacation.com since 2008, and I've been a loyal homeowner listed on the site since early 1998. An enthusiastic member of the Homeowner Support Team, I provide fellow Cape and Islands vacation rental homeowners with advice about online marketing and rental management techniques to ensure them a successful rental experience each season. In addition to phone and email support to our homeowners, I also create and edit much of the content on our website, as well as our Homeowner Blog and monthly newsletters. I am also the Press & PR Coordinator for the company, responsible for drafting our press releases and responding to press inquiries and interviews. I grew up summering on the Vineyard, where I have managed my family's rental home since the mid-1980's, and I'm passionately devoted to the Island. My husband and I live in Wellesley where we have raised our 2 grown kids and our Black Lab, Maisie.