Leading Channel Manager, ResOnline and world leader in the vacation rental industry, HomeAway, have released their highly anticipated two-way direct connection to over 1,500 eligible Property Managers in 52 countries.

ResOnline is one of the first Australian channel managers to offer a two-way connection with HomeAway and their international network of booking platforms.

ResOnline and HomeAway collaboratively developed a real-time connection for room rates, availability and bookings between HomeAway and their Property Management System (PMS).

This new connection allows accommodation providers and Property Managers to list on HomeAway and their network of vacation rental booking platforms, including Stayz, Bookabach and Vrbo, seamlessly and promptly, with no more manual management of rates, availability, enquiries or booking approvals.

Andrea Wilson, Founder and Managing Director of Holiday Shacks Luxury Accommodation worked with ResOnline during development as a pilot property manager;

"Working with the ResOnline team to establish our two-way connection to the new HomeAway platform was made easy with the constant level of communication and updates we received from ResOnline to ensure our properties were accurately marketed and all online booking criteria requirements were met. ResOnline are certainly invested in ensuring the short stay industry has been catered for with their new software developments.

We received great qualified family summer and weekend bookings as soon as we went live totalling over $50,000 in the first few months. It was a pleasure to be involved in the pilot testing program to ensure our business and other short stay business software needs are met when making the switch."

Tony Shine, Director

ResOnline

ResOnline is delighted to provide further opportunities for Property Managers to distribute their holiday homes to an ever increasing market of travellers looking for unique experiences.

They play such a significant role in the Australian tourism landscape, and with today's digitally connected traveller seeking more non-traditional abodes and wishing to ensconce themselves within a destination, ResOnline delivering this seamless real-time connection is a great benefit to all parties involved.

Ross McDonald, Regional Director

HomeAway Australia and New Zealand

We're delighted to partner with leading technology provider, ResOnline. The direct connection with HomeAway will bring ResOnline customers greater efficiency by automating updates of rates, availability and content, while accessing domestic and international travellers across the global HomeAway network of sites, including Stayz, Bookabach, Vrbo, Abritel and many more.

We're equally thrilled to be offering our key traveller segments of families and friends – who typically book earlier and stay longer – more choice of quality holiday accommodation.

About ResOnline
ResOnline was established in December 2003 and was the first two-way channel manager in Australia. Currently, there are more than 9,000 hotels and properties using ResOnline, across 52+ countries, to distribute via industry-leading connections. We are proudly Australian owned, with our Head Office based on the sunny Gold Coast in Queensland.

About HomeAway
HomeAway, a world leader in the vacation rental industry, is the place to book beach houses, cabins and condos with more than two million places to stay in 190 countries. The site makes it easy to find and book the perfect vacation rental for any getaway, often for less than the cost of traditional hotel accommodations. HomeAway is part of the Expedia Group family of brands.

July 2018, Gold Coast

Leading Channel Manager, ResOnline has been working with Airbnb to launch this highly anticipated real-time connection. ResOnline worked with Airbnb to collaboratively develop a new way for property managers and traditional hospitality businesses such as independent boutique hotels, bed and breakfasts, apartments, cottages, homestays to have real-time connectivity of room rates, availability and bookings between Airbnb and their property management system (PMS).

This new connection with Airbnb allows hospitality businesses to list on their platform seamlessly and promptly. 

Tony Shine, ResOnline's Director:

“In an ever-changing and technically advanced world, ResOnline’s robust work with Airbnb provides a fantastic opportunity for accommodation providers to grow their online presence by offering their priceless local knowledge and notable hospitality that sets an Airbnb listing apart from the rest. This seamless integration is an exciting connection that will enable hospitality businesses to reach the millions of customers around the globe who utilise the Airbnb platform on a daily basis”

 Sam McDonagh, Country Manager for Airbnb Australia and New Zealand:

About ResOnline
ResOnline was established in December 2003 and was the first two way channel manager in Australia. Currently, there are more than 9,000 hotels and properties connected, across 52+ countries. We are proudly Australian owned, with our Head Office based on the sunny Gold Coast in Queensland.

• Visit cm.resonline.com.au
• In the URL bar, you will see a 
• Click the  and it will open a Bookmark menu and click 'Done'
• The page is now bookmarked!
• You can access your bookmarks through the menu button  - Bookmarks
• Make it even easier by showing your bookmark bar directly under your URL bar, for access with a single click.  Turn on through the menu - Bookmarks - Show bookmarks bar

 

Firefox:

• Visit cm.resonline.com.au
• In the header bar, you will see a 
• Click the  and it will automatically add to your favourites
• You can now access your favourites through the 'Show your Bookmarks' button 

Internet Explorer:

• Visit cm.resonline.com.au
• In the header bar, you will see a 
• Click the , and a menu sidebar will open.  Click 'Add to Favourites'
• You can now access this bookmark by clicking the  and you will see it in your favourites link!

The team at ResOnline are excited to advise that we have transitioned to a new software support solution.

Although the current support system has served us well we've decided to go for an industry leading 3rd party solution after pretty vigorous comparison testing.

Note that we are making changes to the system itself and not the people behind it! Rest assured you will still be dealing with the same old friendly, helpful and awesome crew when you contact us.

There are several reasons why we moved to this new system but the driving force was our desire to provide the best support possible for our clients. The benefits with this change are:

•     greatly improved self-help tool and search features
•     a rating system
•     social media integration (Facebook and Twitter)
•     chat support features
•     a new online forum
•     and a much smoother overall experience for you

Not all of these features will be available from day one (such as the new online forum) but it is our hope the transition will start making everyone‘s support experience better immediately.

Our online Chat Support is live during business hours. Should you use chat outside of business hours, we will receive your message and respond during business hours.

Please keep in mind that this is all work in progress. Although the basic setup is ready, we will be adding content and streamlining the system as we move forward. While we hope that the transition will be smooth, if any further issues do pop up we hope that you'll be patient with us while we work to resolve them. On that subject, if you do run into any issues or if you have some great ideas for us, please let us know at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Powered by Freshdesk, the new help portal can be found at help.resonline.com where we highly encourage all inbound support requests to be channelled as we build the self-help features that will provide you with instant answers to the many questions we receive!

The airline industry has implemented a highly successful yield management strategy over a number of years, with passengers knowing they will secure a better price by booking early.  Early-bird pricing, particularly for long-haul flights, and general sales/specials reflect that airlines want seats filled at a base rate, increasing pricing as the demand increases and the availability becomes limited.

The accommodation industry has struggled to turn around the 'last minute' buying behaviour brought about by the introduction of online bookings, OTAs and increased competition.  However, with the success of the airline's strategy, travellers are becoming more savvy in the benefits of long-lead bookings.

The only real way to turn the trend around is by implementing your own strategy at property level to:

•     Secure base business for better yield management
•     Secure revenue in advance (dependent on your payment policy)
•     Increase your average length of stay with long-lead bookings, who tend to stay longer
•     Secure bookings over your competitors for travelers planning in advance
•     Reduce the stress of trying to fill rooms last minute
•     Boost your ranking on OTAs who include your availability in their algorithm

Below is a list of the top channels and the number of days they accept inventory for:

Find out how many days every channel ResOnline connects with can accept under Distribution, in each channel's welcome page.

Head in to your ResOnline console today to open rooms and rates for up to 720 days!  

Nowdays, people are more time poor than ever, and a slow booking experience will quickly put them off.  

From an outsiders perspective, try using your website.  Or better yet, have a friend or family member test your site for you that isn't overly familiar with the site.  How quickly and easily were they able to find your booking engine to make a booking?  If the answer was anything other than "instantly" with one-click, you may be losing potential guests before you've even started!

Here are our top tips on best practice with your booking engine:

Make it easy to find

Think about how easy it is to find your booking engine on your website.  Do you have a Book Now menu item, or button, easily found on your homepage?  Or to book, does a guest have to go through numerous menus and pages to eventually find themselves at your booking engine.

Best practice tips:

• Have a Book Now menu or place a prominent Book Now button (image) on your site
• Embed a search widget on your homepage (embedded widget only)
• Ensure the Book Now button or search widget is above the fold (area visible without further scrolling)
• If a guest clicks your Book Now link - take them straight to the booking engine

Examples;

Breakers North feature a prominent Book Now button in their menu bar:

Q1 Resort & Spa had their web developer embed a search gadget to their homepage.  This option would only work for those properties using an embedded booking widget on their site:

Make it yours with customisations

It doesn't matter if you are using the standalone booking engine or the embedded booking widget, you should customise it for your brand.

Tips for customising the standalone booking engine:

• Add your logo - if you have a png version with a transparent background, even better!
• Change the background colour to match your brand
• Customise the defaults - auto ticked number of nights, guest numbers, change label names in the grid and more!
• Ensure all your property details and room descriptions are up to date within your ResOnline console, as these appear underneath the booking engine

An example of a customised standalone booking engine is Alure Stanthorpe;

 Make changes to your booking engine from within the Booking Button menu in your ResOnline console.

If you have the booking widget embedded, please speak with your web developer about customisations.