Travel Protection is an important piece of booking the perfect trip. If guests want to protect their vacation investment, they should strongly consider purchasing travel protection. Property Managers are the subject matter experts when it comes to booking a trip to your local destination.

Since your website or reservationists are the trusted advisers in this transaction, the guest is depending on you to help them navigate the process and protect them.

Smart property managers offer travel protection to their guests, so it protects them from the unforeseen.*

Smart property managers also give their guests every opportunity to buy travel protection for the previously discussed reasons as well as the referral fees that can be earned for each coverage purchased.*

The primary ways to offer travel protection include:

1. Offer travel protection within your website’s checkout page (as part of the booking process);

2. Offer travel protection through your reservationists;

3. Offer travel protection via a microsite;

4. Offer travel protection via follow up emails;

5. Offer travel protection via follow up texts.

Offer travel protection within your website’s checkout page (as part of the booking process)

When property managers add travel protection within the booking path, they can achieve much higher conversion rates. Its best to offer it as a step within the checkout that is required to be made before completion of the booking.

This offering cannot be made as “opt out” where the travel protection is already pre-checked. Its best to have two selections (both unchecked): purchase travel protection or choose to decline travel protection.

Your travel protection provider should offer you brief descriptions to use on the checkout page. Some property managers also offer three options: purchase travel protection, purchase cancel for any reason, or decline travel protection. Having three options rather than two increases your conversions even more.

Offer travel protection through your reservation agents

Your reservation team is typically the first person guests connect with when making a new booking. These team members advise guests on accommodations, restaurants, things to do and much more.

Reservation agents should also make travelers aware of travel protection and why its so important to purchase. Most travel protection providers have small scripts that reservation agents can incorporate into their conversations with guests.

Offer travel protection via a microsite

Some travel protection providers offer simple microsites that only offer travel protection. These travel protection microsite links can be incorporated into many places. Use the travel protection purchase links within your guest follow up emails or on a travel protection tab within your website.

These can be gentle reminders on why they should reconsider buying travel protection in case they first declined with the original booking.

Offer travel protection via follow up emails

Most property management software platforms offer messaging systems where property managers can remind their guests on the many reasons why travel protection should be considered. If the travel protection provider also offers a microsite link, you can include the link as an immediate “buy now” button for even more travel protection sales. Some property managers also include their reservation hotline if they want to make the purchase by phone.

Offer travel protection via follow up texts

A cutting-edge new way to offer travel protection is via text. Property Managers can deploy new software applications being offered in the industry to send text messages to their guests about the advantages of travel protection. These texts can be set up to only message those that initially declined travel protection.

Property Managers that enable all of these methods ensure their guests get the protection they want. These property managers also create another strong revenue source for their company.

To learn more about travel protection and cancel for any reason options, please contact your RentalGuardian account manager today at 888-885-5550.

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Article written by Brady Stump, CEO @ RentalGuardian

*Per InsureStays, only licensed agents holding travel insurance lines of authority, or authorized retailers of a licensed Supervising Entity like InsureStays may offer, solicit, or sell travel insurance.

When a guest makes a booking with your property management company, there are many considerations they make. How many rooms do we need? Do we want a pool? Oceanfront or second row from the beach?

There are also considerations a guest must make as it relates to protecting this trip. I wonder if anyone has a pre-existing condition? What happens if there is a mandatory evacuation while we are visiting the Outer Banks?

When property managers offer travel protection, it shows that you not only have everything handled with their accommodations but have also considered the investment they have made to pay for this vacation.

Guests will be much more confident in their booking if you offer travel protection during their booking process. Basics of travel protection cover things like a death in the family, someone in your party gets sick and cannot travel, hurricanes, natural disasters, jury duty, mandatory evacuations, and much more.

Property Managers also receive many benefits from offering travel protection. Property Manager can earn a referral fee on each coverage issued. This can quickly add up to be a very substantial revenue stream.

By offering travel protection, property managers also eliminate possible very uncomfortable conversations they may have had with guests. We have heard stories from property managers who have had guests experience a tragic death in the family or was forced to leave their unit and there was nothing the property manager could do. If the guest would have been offered travel protection and purchased the coverage, they would have simply filed a claim and reimbursed.

Our industry is growing exponentially and converting thousands of “hotel travelers” to “vacation rental travelers”. Many of these first-time vacation rental travelers do not know that majority of the funds go to the owners and property managers do not have the same flexibility to do reimbursements.

When you offer travel protection, you are choosing to protect your guests vacation investment and ensuring they have a great experience at your destination!

To learn more about travel protection and cancel for any reason options, please contact your RentalGuardian account manager today at 888-885-5550.

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Article written by Brady Stump, CEO @ RentalGuardian

RentalGuardian digitally-automates all facets of sales and service of travel protection and damage protection programs, between property managers and their travelers. Learn more at: www.rentalguardian.com.
To learn more about how RentalGuardian automates travel protection and cancel for any reason programs, please contact your RentalGuardian account manager today at 888-885-5550.

InsureStays partners with leading technology partners to provide outstanding, up-to-date, transferable training and information to its travel retailers.A key starting point for retailers is to review our travel retailer training guidance and to disseminate this guidance among all staff authorized to present travel protection to your guests. Attached is a link to our travel retailer training guide. This guide can be shared with all authorized staff of your agency. We recommend present the travel retailer training video, followed up by a review of our travel retailer training guide: LINK. Please review this guide and email licensing@insurestays.com with questions.

CFAR Purchase Rule Update

Reminder that per the notice released on our Stay Feed blog, as of April 27, 2020, no sales of CFAR are permitted within 30 days of the trip departure date (the date your guests leaves for their stay with you).

Due to industry trends and current circumstances, Nationwide has directed that InsureStays cease permitting sales of PTNW CFAR and other Nationwide® underwritten CFAR programs for bookings made within 30 days of trip departure date (aka trip start date).

In summary, the purchase rules for CFAR are as follows:

Purchases of CFAR at time of booking are permitted.
Purchases of CFAR made within 14 days of booking are permitted, so long as the booking is made more than 30 days prior to the trip start date.
No Purchases of CFAR made within 30 days of trip departure date are permitted.
Retailers of InsureStays are encouraged to offer CFAR to eligible travelers and to offer standard travel protection to travelers not eligible for CFAR. In doing so, you can add revenue, motivate your travelers to book with confidence, and help your guests obtain superior coverage and peace of mind. You can review CFAR training HERE.

Retailers onboarded with RentalGuardian are responsible to provide complete, accurate data to facilitate the timely delivery of coverage documents. Fulfilling these requirements includes the responsibility to check your API failure log to ensure all travelers purchasing travel protection or CFAR receive their coverage documents and information.

Technology that Makes Travel Protection Easy

RentalGuardian makes offering travel protection easy. By powering integrated solutions, RentalGuardian helps property managers automate document delivery to guests, manage and administrate payments, and assist guests in obtaining superior coverage.

Platform Focus: Checking API Failures

Whenever a coverage open, modification, or cancel API request is denied, an API failure notice is delivered to the property manager (PMC). For those using Property Manager Software (PMS) systems fully integrated with RentalGuardian, the reservation record is flagged within your PMS system. RentalGuardian’s platform, aka PAM, sends a notification with specific API request details to the Data Notice email listed in your RentalGuardian account. Quickly correcting all API failures is mission-critical, as failure to do so may jeopardize your guest’s coverage or may cause a guest ineligible for coverage to think they have coverage when in fact they are ineligible

This video provides valuable instruction for handling API failures: LINK. Remember: it is the responsibility of the property manager to review all API failures and to correct them. The RentalGuardian support team is ready to help you: just email your request to support@rentalguardian.com or contact your account manager.

Product Spotlight: The Liability Bundle

Property Protection Liability bundles add to our classic first dollar damage protection two other vital additional layers of coverage: liability and bed bug.

Liability protection responds with up to $1million of protection for situations where you or the homeowner become liable for bodily injury, medical payments, and damage to adjacent property and the primary homeowners/property which arise during a contracted stay and for which the homeowner’s primary coverage does not respond.

The Bed bug section responds to cover specific bed-bug infestation related losses including extermination, replacement of ruined furnishings, alternative accommodations, and lost revenue.

The cost of these bundles only adds $10 per stay to our standard retail pricing. Contact your sales rep for more information or email support@rentalguardian.com to apply for the program.

We have put together a collection of some of the best marketing material, cleaning practices and business operational tips to help ensure your property management company rebounds quickly after the COVID-19 outbreak.Travelers are going to be looking for destinations where they can social distance and stay with just their family or immediate friends.  The vacation rental industry has a unique opportunity to be the accommodation of choice in a post COVID-19 world.

Please check out these tools to better position your management company!

 

• RESET by VRMB: COVID-19 Resource Hub for Vacation Rentals: LINK
• VRHP/VRMA Cleaning Guidelines for COVID-19 (VRMA): LINK
• Essential COVID-19 Disinfection Protocols for Short-Term Rentals (Properly): LINK
• Positive Marketing for Post COVID-19 (ICND): LINK
• Post COVID-19 News and Tips (VRM Intel): LINK
• COVID-19 and Vacation Rentals: What you can do (Hostfully): LINK
• 6 Guest Types to Target During the Coronavirus Crisis (Lodgify): LINK
• Vacation Rentals likely to be “Accommodations of Choice” in a Post COVID-19 World: LINK