Icnea added a new tool in its PMS Channel Manager which allows users to create, manage and sell experiences of all kinds. The objective of this new feature is to see property managers differentiate further and manage products outside of the stay to increase revenue. Each product is first categorized within culture, family, gastronomy, services and sport, and later sold during the reservation process or separately from the stay.
Each experience can be configured differently starting from the reservation method, immediate or on request, and later personalized with descriptions, photographs, additional bookable extras, rates and availability.
The operative side is quite simple, it is based on rates, extras, sessions and availability. For example, below we can see the calendar for a horse back riding activity:
Dates in grey represent those days that have a price inserted and therefore are available for sales. On the other hand, dates in white, are those days without price and in which it is not possible to book the ride in this case because temperatures are too low.
In this example we have 2 rates to distinguish and differentiate adults and children cost wise. Furthermore, there are 2 additional extras to rent the gear and to enjoy a snack made of typical products to end the day in total relaxation. The horse back ride, in this example, can be done in 4 different moments: morning, afternoon, evening and during the night, each with their own availability in this case dictated by the number of available horses.
Experiences, as mentioned before, are grouped within the following categories:
Culture - museum, park or castel entrances, etc
Family- activities suitable for families with children
Gastronomy- activities based on enogastronomy such as wine routes, wine cellar visits, cousine courses etc
Services - miscellaneous services of all kinds
Sport - tickets to attend a sport event or practice open air activities such as rafting, climbing, horseback rides etc.
Some of the experiences can be sold directly by the property managers so, in this case, the entire income goes to the rental business, however the activity may be offered by a third party as well. In this case, our system allows the creation of third party profiles and the configuration with a commission in favor of the property manager. Each supplier can be configured with commission that may be different from one experience to another, if these propose various activities, like in the below example:
All experiences and activities inserted in Icnea’s PMS Channel Manager are later available for sale directly in the website of the vacation rental business or through a dedicated, separated, iFrame/booking engine. Clients who visit the homepage will therefore be able to book the activity during the booking process for their stay or through an exclusive iFrame/booking engine that doesn’t include the stay.
This new module is very powerful and wants to guarantee a real, true, qualitative jump for the entire vacation rental business. It gives the opportunity to differentiate further, improve website traffic and therefore its positioning, increase revenue and improve overall guest experience just to name a few competitive advantages. to include extras in a reservation always was a great advantage but now, with experiences, the business may reach whole new levels of client satisfaction, both qualitative (guest experience) and quantitative (revenue). The better the guest experience is and the more visible the entire business is.