Owner Newsletter March 2011

The year got off to a terrible start for many of our southern cousins, with floods, cyclones, bushfires, and now the devastating earthquake in New Zealand. Our thoughts and hearts go out to everyone whose families have been affected by these terrible disasters, as well as to those of you here who were affected by Cyclone Carlos.

With all this bad news on our television screens, I want to share some good news with you:

Confirmed bookings		Jan-Feb 2011	Jan-Feb 2010	% increase
	Qty	213	116	84%
	Avg Lead	113	111	2%
	Rm Ngts	1886	881	114%
	Avg Stay	8	7	14%
	Amt	$487,116	$205,245	137%
	Avg Rate	$258	$234	10%

This year, DHA bookings have more than doubled compared to the same time last year. From 1 January to 28 February there were 213 confirmed bookings through the DHA website, totalling close to $500,000 in value – more than double the same period last year. The average length of stay has increased to 8 nights (from 7 – yay! less changeovers!), and the average nightly rate has increased by 10% or $24 per night, to $258 per night! Well done everybody – this is an outstanding start to the year DHA.

Email templates – save time and reduce errors!

Email templates save heaps of time and reduce manual errors by:

having emails auto-filled with details from the booking system (no manual calculations, no cutting and pasting)
enabling you to create your own customised emails
sending emails from within the booking (no need to log in to outlook, hotmail, gmail, etc)
automatically schedule emails (no need to remember to send check-in details!)
keeping a log of all sent emails in the one place.

Sample email templates have also been created which you can use as-is, or as a basis for creating your own. Click here to learn how to use email templates.

Demand is up - but guests are also more demanding

Demand has more than doubled, but we’re seeing a dramatic shift change in what guests want. Where in previous years guests were inclined to book based on price, now they’re booking based on added extras. In fact our luxury properties are doing much better this year than the budget properties – the average rate for confirmed bookings has jumped to $258 per night (up from $234 last year). The quality of the property and facilities provided make a big difference to bookings – things like free wi-fi, free cable, arrivals packs, airport pickups and so on.

So it’s worth considering what facilities you provide. Take wi-fi for example – if you don’t provide free- wi-fi already, would you be prepared to spend around $35 a month, to get an extra $24 a night ($720 a month)? If not free wi-fi, then what about a pre-pay USB modem (a small device you can purchase for around $90)? Think about what facilities you can offer guests that will make your property stand out, bearing in mind that although guests are willing to pay more compared to last year, they’re wanting more as well.

Your own website for free

Our offer of your own website went off like hotcakes! Take a look at these fabulous websites – and congratulations to Amanda for taking this on, you’ve done a great job:

www.horizondarwin.com.au - www.luxuryeight.com.au – www.pahuwayhouse.com.au – www.theviewdarwin.com.au – www.homeonhickory.com.au
www.jingilicottage.com.au – www.gardeniaescape.com.au - ww.nightcliffbeachside.com.au - www.ananyadarwin.com.au – www.amungeedarwin.com.au
www.greenwooddarwin.com.au – www.panoramadarwin.com.au – www.allevidarwin.com.au – www.dragonflydarwin.com.au

If you’d like to take advantage of this offer, just give Amanda a call o 0410 368 475 – and start taking bookings from your own website today!

Pre-pay rates

Just a reminder that our properties that have pre-pay rates are getting many more bookings than those that don’t. The idea is that the guest pays in full at the time of booking, in exchange for a reduced rate. For you this means no follow up emails, no chasing payments, and higher occupancy rates. To set a pre-pay rate, refer to the December newsletter, or contact Amanda for help.

Looking good? – Get a FREE review, and a FREE feature spot!

Properties that present well on the website and have accurate, detailed, and up to date information get much better bookings. The single most important decision factor for guests looking to book your accommodation is your photos, followed by an up to date calendar (refer to our November Customer Survey for details). Sadly some of our nicest properties are the most poorly presented!

We are encouraging all property owners and managers to review and refresh your property listing, including your photos. To help, we’re offering to provide a free review of your listing, PLUS two free feature spots in April, one for the best property listing, and one for the most improved property listing in March. To be eligible, just login to your owner account and update your listing, then send us an email. Property listings must be updated before 15^th March to be eligible.If you’d like a free review of your property listing, contact Amanda on 0410 368 475.

Who we are, where we’ve come from, and where we’re going

We’ve had several new property owners come on board in the past few months, so we thought it timely to share a little of our story.

We are Cathryn and Amanda, mother and daughter, Darwin born and bred. We’re passionate about sharing “our” Darwin with visitors and helping them have a great stay by providing unique independent accommodation that isn’t “just another hotel room”. Amanda’s role is Operations Manager – she is the interface for customers and owners, and looks after the day to day operations of the business. Cathryn’s role is strategic – she looks after business development, compliance, and growth.

There are three aspects to our business – the properties we own or lease and operate as holiday accommodation, the properties we manage for other people as holiday accommodation, and the properties that get bookings through our website but are managed by the owner or someone else.

We started in January 2007 with just one holiday property. That booked up straight away so we bought another in February, and another in March, and by August we had seven properties and Darwin Holiday Apartments was born. To keep up with the ever growing demand we started leasing properties to operate as holiday accommodation, and again our numbers doubled – suddenly we had 14 properties that we either owned or operated. Then other owners started listing on our website in exchange for a small commission on successful bookings.

In November 2009 we launched our new-look website built on Seekom’s Ibex technology, and haven’t looked back since. At that time we had 30 properties listed on the website. Now we have 60, and anticipate over 100 by the end of this year. Guests love our website because it’s easy to use, and they can book online with instant confirmation which they can’t do with any other “holiday home” type sites (such as stayz or rent-a-home).

Whilst we continue to operate our own Darwin properties our focus has now shifted to growing the website side of the business. To this end we’ve launched several “sister sites” for Darwin-listed properties (www.darwinholidayrentals.com.au, www.darwinexecutiveapartments.com.au, and others), and are in the process of launching nationally. This includes www.adelaideholidayapartments.com.au, www.melbourneholidayapartments.com.au, www.brisbaneholidayapartments.com.au and so on, as well as www.australiaholidayapartments.com.au which is already operational.

The national launch requires considerable investment and development in partnership with Seekom. To this end, Cathryn has just returned from a trip to New Zealand to meet with the directors of Seekom. Changes that will be rolled out over coming month include:

automated payments to owners
a new ‘availability / calendar’ view for guests to search availability, similar to how wotif works
advanced search capability, including ability to select multiple search options (eg pool, 3 bedrooms, waterfront, etc)
the establishment of an Owner forum, and a guest forum
development of a Simple Owner Interface that makes it easier to add properties, manage your listings, and manage your bookings
development of more comprehensive reporting options
incorporation of social media into the website eg facebook, twitter
optionally to be able to receive notifications by SMS
development of a mobile-device (eg iPhone)-friendly version of our websites

The new version (V4) of Seekom’s booking system is required to support these changes, and it’s on its way – for a sneak peek go here.

No Vacancy Conference 2011

We got so much value out of the TravelTrends “No Vacancy” conference last year that we’re off to Sydney again in March for the 2011 conference. If you want some seriously good intelligence on what’s happening in the short-term accommodation and online booking systems world we can’t recommend this conference highly enough. It’s also a great opportunity to get out of Darwin and network with some seriously big players who know the industry inside out. Speakers this year include:

- Robbie Cooke, CEO, Wotif.com

- John Feenaghty, GM Quickbeds.com

- Kirsty Shaw, Managing Director, Stayz.com.au

- Rachel Argaman, CEO, Toga Hospitality

- Peter Blackwell, CEO, AAA Tourism

- Justin Butterworth, Co-Founder, Occupancy.com

- Alvin Ch’ng, Commercial Director APAC, TripAdvisor

- Johan Svanstrom, Managing Director, Hotels.com Asia Pacific

- Jerome Wise, VP Global Internet Marketing Services, TravelClick

The conference this year is being held on 23^rd March at Dockside, Darling Harbour. Click here for more details.

DHA Website Statistics

From 1 January 2011 to 28 February 2011 there was an increase of approximately 50% website traffic, compared to the same period last year. This is represented by 4,783 unique visitors to the website.

From 1 January 2010 to 31 December 2010, there was an increase of approximately 100% website traffic compared to the same period in the previous year. This included approx 21,000 unique visitors to the website.

That’s all from us, from all of us – Happy bookings!