Our typical clients include ocean front condominium associations, boutique hotels, resorts and large property managers. Our scope of work can include marketing strategy development, go to market planning, search engine optimization, web site design and reservation systems.
Sanford Realty
Cape Coral, FL
Harbour Island Realty
Harbour Island, Bahamas
Dream Bay Resort
Key Largo, FL
SummerPlace Resort
Holland, MI
Typical client #1. An example of a typical Lodgix.com consulting client would be an oceanfront condominium association consisting of 50 one and two bedrooms units. The association is compromised of owners who are both time challenged and not real technically savvy in the ways of the Internet. Usually there are one or two members of the board that are responsible for the condo web site, as well as a property manager who takes reservations, sends out owner statements and manages a small staff.
Typical Client #1 problems. Typically this client will have an outdated, poorly constructed web site with dismal search engine rankings and little or no web presence. The site will not be cross browser compatible or search engine friendly and there will be no online booking capability. Many times the property manager will be manually producing owner statements, manually updating availability and manually entering credit cards. There will be lots of dual entry and bookings will be lost due to the lack of online booking capability and the delays associated with returning phone and email inquiries.
Cost. An initial 30 minute consultation is free. If we don't think we can help you, we'll refer you to someone who can.. If we can help you, we'll put together a detailed quote that breaks down the services we'll be providing. We can also be made available on a monthly retention basis if you have a short term (2 to 12 months) project that requires additional marketing or operation expertise and need to scale quickly.
What are the payment terms? In general we'll bill for an estimated 25% of the overall project cost up front and then provide monthly electronic invoices. We accept payment via check or credit card.
What's included? Our time. We are consultants. This means that you have a problem related to vacation rental marketing and guest management that you need solved quickly and efficiently. If you do not know how to accurately define the problem, or maybe you don't have the time to research all of the possible solutions, then you might want to consider hiring us to help you! We'll define the problem and provide a clear path showing how to fix it.
What's not included? Ancillary service fees such as web hosting fees, domain registration fees, web site design fees, booking system fees, merchant account fees and payment gateway fees are all not included within the consulting contract.. All of these expenses are secondary expenses that are the responsibility of the client.
What is covered in the free 30 minute consultation?
We need to get a firm grasp of what sort of outcome the client seeks from the consulting engagement. Once we've agreed on the outcome, we can work backwards to determine what resources will be required to meet the client's objectives. At that point, we can put together a comprehensive scope of work. Many times after spending 30 minutes with a client we can give you a ballpark estimate on what your project might cost as well. It's a meet and greet, to determine whether or not the client's desired outcome and budget are in-line with our deliverables and rates.
Must I use the Lodgix.com vacation rental management software?
There may be situations where the Lodgix.com software is not the best solution for your business. Of course we'd love to sell you on Lodgix, but if our application does not best suit your needs, then we'll gladly recommend competing platforms. Our goal is a happy client. We know that while some firms offer a decent product, they might have horrible customer support or ridiculous pricing, in those instances we'll inform the client of our experiences and let the client decide.
How does off-site consulting work?
If required, we'll make a trip to your location. Depending on the nature of the engagement, there may be times where an on-site visit will help us to get a unique feel for your property and the messages that should be present in your marketing materials. For the most part however, we can use a variety of screen sharing and video conferencing tools to reduce costs and make more efficient use of our time.
