The Features That Kept Us Busy for a Year

Time flies. It’s has been an incredible year-long ride since we officially launched our new website last year.  Not only have we  learned a lot, we’ve also realized that customer feedback is a huge source of inspiration. Thank you for contributing your time and efforts to becoming a valuable part of the Rentini community.

Do you remember some of these milestones and new features we’ve developed along the way?

We Are In 70+ Countries and Counting

Sometimes it’s hard to believe that a single platform could be a common marketplace for people from such diverse cultural backgrounds. We are all in the same business and our love for the vacation rental experience is without boundaries. Who wants to stay in a cookie cutter hotel with their entire family? No wonder vacation rentals are becoming more and more popular for travelers across the globe.

You Told Us, We Listened

The most exciting part of building a vacation rental platform is that all of you, our great customers, are also seasoned entrepreneurs. You are smart, experienced and full of fresh ideas about improving the business. We took many of your ideas and developed them into useful tools that will help you run your business even better. Below we listed a few features that came out of your valuable feedback. Keep pouring it on us, we do listen!

The Lowest 2.4% Credit Card Processing

I hope you don’t miss out on this one! After negotiating with our merchant bank, we secured a 2.4% credit processing rate, which is a better deal than PayPal or VRBO. Paypal charges approximately $30/month plus 2.9% – 3% per credit card transaction. VRBO charges somewhere in a range of $400-$1,000+/year and 2.5% per transaction. We are so happy to save our clients on credit card fees with a low 2.4% flat fee on Visa, Master Card and Discover credit card payments.

Calendar Synchronization Tool

This is an awesome tool we launched last year. Recently redesigned, today it is even more user-friendly. No one wants to update their calendars on the zillions of vacation rental sites manually. This tool takes the headache away from busy owners/property managers. Just copy/paste a link from HomeAway / VRBO and never worry about double booking again.

Reservation Confirmation: Accept, Reject, Discuss More

Everyone has his or her own style of running a vacation rental, but after regular feedback, we realized one thing is for sure: Homeowners and Property Managers want full control over the situation.  In response, we developed a better way to handle reservation requests. When accepting or rejecting vacation requests, no word is final until homeowners or property managers say so and there is a 24-hour time frame to do so.

Automatic Damage Deposit Processing

No longer do you have to refund damage deposits manually.  Now it’s as easy as 1-2-3. Just check it out:

1. Two days prior to check-in, the guests’ card is automatically authorized for the amount of the damage deposit.
2. The owner will then get an email confirmation and issue check-in instructions for guests.
3. 48 hours after check-out, the damage deposit will be refunded to the guest’s card if no damages have been incurred.

Pro Plan: Links And Direct Contact Info

Rentini started off as a transaction-based platform on which we charged 1% commission plus a $5 reservation fee. Quickly, however, we learned that some of our users were not happy to pay a commission for each payment processed via Rentini.  In order to accommodate our homeowners and property managers, we began charging a small monthly fee of $9/month and, in return, we list all their contact details in the ad. This way, homeowner & property managers are able to use their normal reservation flow. This change has been awesome for Rentini and it has also been great for the homeowner & property managers who are pleased not to have to introduce a new element to their existing business procedure.

Pro Plus Plan: No Commission And Unlimited Listings For A Single Monthly Payment.

It couldn’t get any better for property managers and homeowners who have multiple listings. List all 20 properties and pay no commission to Rentini for payment processing. Every Pro Plus subscriber gets all of this for a flat $20/month fee along with access to many exciting features on the Rentini platform not accessible under a free plan:

• Personal Website Domain Support
• Featured Listing
• No Commission Payment Processing
• Last minute Deal Promotions

Testimonials

Based on the research done by TripAdvisor, guests’ reviews are the second most important thing after photos that travelers rely on while making their selection. At Rentini, all reviews are verified. We also added a Testimonials feature that is an easy way for new listing owners to improve their credibility. This feature also allows homeowners and property managers to contact their previous guests or personal friends to solicit testimonials.

Last Minute Deals

This could be the most celebrated new feature of the year! Last minute gaps are not easy to fill, especially because travelers are accustomed to getting a deal on last minute bookings. At the end of the last year, we introduced a feature to promote properties with last minute availabilities on our homepage.  As a result, we received a great return on new bookings and lots of happy customers.

Hints And Videos Are Added

The first few months after our official launch were tough. Many features that looked obvious to our engineers were not as user-friendly as we thought. As a result, we included a short explanation next to each entry field. If you are ever in doubt regarding what a field or sentence means, just roll your mouse over the question mark icon and the hint will pop-up. The same goes for video tutorials.  After adding a video tutorial on every page, we managed to improve our conversion rate by 45%.

Custom Cancellation Policy

This was one of the most requested features in the early days. Originally, we had 4 pre-designed cancellation policies, but we learned that homeowners and property managers didn’t want to fit into cookie cutter solutions.   After realizing we needed to be more flexible on this topic, we allowed homeowner & property managers to upload his or her custom policy.

Reply To Inquiry From The Email Inbox

Another thing we learned about homeowners and property managers’ business challenges is they all want to simplify the inquiry reply process.

At Rentini, we developed two ways to reply to messages from a potential guest:

• Hit the reply button in your browser
• Login to Rentini and reply via our messaging feature

Whether you reply via email or the Rentini messaging page, all communication is stored in your Rentini account. The only trick to remember is that when you reply via email, the recipients address is encrypted for privacy purposes. But, don’t fret.  We know how to deliver your message to your guest.  Just hit the Send button!

Craigslist Ad Generator

Many homeowners and property managers have a love /hate relationship with Craigslist. Many say that there are a lot of scams and others don’t want to deal with low-ball inquiries. Despite its issues, Craigslist can still be a very effective advertising platform for your vacation home. With 60+ mln unique visitors per month Craigslist is one of the most visited classified sites on internet. At Rentini, we developed a simple tool to generate a professional Craigslist ad in a few clicks. It’s a great way to promote your last minute availability or just improve your ad’s SEO in the long run. More visits to your ad page means more love from search engines.

We Love Our Unique Properties From All Around The World

The beauty of our vacation rental business is that all the properties are very unique.  Whether it is a stunning villa in Paraty, Brazil, a private boat in Barcelona, or an agritourism villa in Tuscany, Italy, they are all inspiring…and your personal touch is what makes your guests enjoy it so much!

There are many more features being developed,which are great additions to our core functionality. Thanks again for your patronage during the last year!

Do you have a feature in mind you know could be useful for your vacation rental business? Share it with us by leaving a comment below or by sending us an email at feedback@rentini.com.

An empty vacation rental calendar leads to double booking

Why keeping your calendar up to date is so important?

Empty calendar? Chances are you will be double booked

Updating a vacation rental calendar is a tedious task we all dread.

What is even more time consuming is replying to inquiries for dates that are not available. While I have had clients who were considering changing their dates from time-to-time, it is not common place at all. However, failing to  update your calendar at all is a mistake. Inevitably, you will end up sending replies about unavailable dates and updating your calendar anyway.

To solve this problem, rentini recently released a new version of a calendar synchronization tool that makes it very easy to set things up so you can focus on other priorities.

A New Calendar Synchronization Tool

Here’s how it works, quite simple.

Step 4 of Create Your Listing page flow now has two options:

• Update manually
• Setup HomeAway calendar synchronization

If listing(s) is/are already created, then simply click on the Calendar link under Helpful Links on the Dashboard, then you see

Two new options on the calendar page

Who wants to do anything manually nowadays? Let’s discuss how to setup the synchronization.

First login to VRBO or HomeAway and find the Export Calendar section.

Find the Export Calendar Data section

Then just copy/paste the link – very easy!

As simple as copy/paste

This will create a set of blockings that will show dates unavailable. Along with the existing reservations from Rentini it may look like a christmas tree. See how my calendar for the month of February looks like. I selected two properties to show and the final result is a merge of reservations with different statuses and synchronized blockings. Fun, huh?

A merged calendar with reservations and blockings for two properties

From the first sight it looks a bit overwhelming but once you know what every color means it becomes very simple to deal with multiple types of entries on your calendar. Check it out here:

Every color indicates a different status for each entry. Blockings are shown in red.

We are interested to learn from your experience:

• How do you keep all calendars up to date?
• Where do you keep your primary calendar?
• Can you share what are the biggest challenges with your calendar synchronization method?

New homeowner from Glendale inspires creation of Rentini School

It wasn’t my first time visiting Los Angeles. Nor was it my last. This time was a bit different though. This time was particularly special because I received an invitation from my friend Viktor to stay at his house. It was a special privilege for me since I would be one of the first people staying at his own house. He had moved to LA about half a year prior to my visit and had recently bought a house for his lovely family of three. However, being a very social and lively person he made sure that his residence had a separate smaller house for guests. I couldn’t be happier for him! I must admit, that I also felt pretty lucky that I could stay at his house as a guest of honor.

In the morning, as Californian sun started beaming through the shades of the cozy one bedroom guest house, I walked out into the small garden and stumbled upon an orange tree. Breakfast was served and all I had to do was just raise my hand and take a fresh orange ball full of flavor. It was very refreshing waking up in an environment that felt like home–well it was home.

Later on, while working on rentini.com I often talked to Viktor about various bells and whistles that the site offers and one day suggested that he try it out. Viktor didn’t consider leasing out his guest house since the intention was for friends and family. However, he agreed to give it a try to see if he liked the experience. His concern was that he didn’t know how to start and what to do. At Rentini we make it our goal to help out new homeowners who have little or no experience with the process. Every feature is carefully thought out to make sure that things are easily understood both by an expert homeowner and by someone who is just getting started.  

Rentini school is in session at school@rentini.com (C) loop_oh

In fact, we were so inspired by this experience that we decided that we wanted to give a helping hand to anyone who has any questions regarding property rental experience. We opened Rentini School – you can email us at school@rentini.com to get answers to your questions.

No matter what your level of experience with property renting is, whether you’re a seasoned vacation rental owner or new to this line of business or if you’re a traveler who likes vacationing in comfortable environments of house rentals, we’d like to hear your questions and comments. Go ahead, start the conversation!

More cool features!

So, what’s new at Rentini? A great deal as usual. We’re out and about–trying new things and aiming to make Rentini the website you’ve been waiting for! New features are our forte, but we’re setting our sights on creating interesting experiences, building on current relationships and establishing new bonds.


With this in mind, our developers have yet again released a bunch of awesome features.


The developers have enabled cropping of property images. Cropping is a helpful tool for removing unwanted details or subjects of an image. If you’re uploading a photo of your house, but neighbor Joe can be seen scooping up his dog’s business in the side of the picture – crop it out! You may want to focus on different parts of the image; cropping will help you do that, too. Another important use for cropping is to change the aspect ratio. Aspect ratios are the dimensions of an image. Sometimes an image may seem too tall or too wide and too repetitive. Cropping is useful for eliminating waste and keeping things simple for viewers. Once you’ve uploaded photos for your property listing on Rentini, clicking on the scissors icon next to an image opens our cropping tool.

Another new development is that vacation rental owners can now see their past reservations. As a homeowner or manager, simply go to Rentals on your Dashboard and you will see your schedule of past and future reservations. Clicking the tab “Past Reservations” reveals your rental history. At the bottom of your Rentals page, you can filter information for Reservations, Blockings, and Rates. This will show your past schedules. Clicking on one of the reservations will bring you to your Reservation Details page for that reservation. This page, as I’ve mentioned previously, shows your Reservation, Billing, and Contact info relative to the booking you selected. 


We’ve recently added our social networking buttons, too. These buttons allow you to share Rentini with the world at large. “Like” a property photo on Facebook, “plus one” a property page on Google+, “Tweet” about Rentini on Twitter, send your friend an email about booking a reservation. All this is now possible thanks to these buttons! If you like what you see, we encourage you to click and share it.


Finally, we have a couple of new domains: http://www.rentini.eu for European Union members, and http://www.rentini.travel for travel enthusiasts. We’d like to create a truly global travel network based around travel and vacation rentals. This is good for business, good for country and good for international cooperation. A little something for everyone.

A helping hand…or note

Over the New Year’s weekend a friend of mine organized a getaway to the Poconos Mountains in Pennsylvania. I have been there multiple times and it never gets old–fresh air, friendly people, blue skies, beautiful nature. What an excellent way to get away from our ordinary lives in the busy metropolis. There were 10 of us, including 3 restless children. When you go with a group like that, a vacation home is just no comparison to any other option available. So we rented a house–a beautiful three story house, open and closed terraces with three different types of grills, a lake view, and a fireplace to boot! That would be enough to please most people. However, the owner realized that a house that accommodates this many people would require leisure activities readily available. So they converted the garage into a game room–ping ping table, pool table, darts. Mini basketball hoops with 2 score counters side-by-side provided some healthy competition. My top score was 87 points in 30 seconds. I do have to admit, scoring was a little weird, but for the sake of argument let’s assume it was legitimate 🙂

As soon as I came into the house, I noticed index cards everywhere–attached to the fridge, walls, kitchen cabinets, and electronic devices. As I started reading them I realized what a brilliant idea it was–these index cards gave very brief, concrete instructions related to various aspects of living in the house. For example, since I’ve always lived in an apartment, I never knew what was required for an operational fireplace (don’t laugh at me, I feel bad enough already). A little index card explained that in order to use the fireplace I would need to open the chimney. It may sound trivial to you, but I didn’t realize that the chimney would need to be opened. I assumed it would just be ready for me. Chances are that I would have just started burning wood with the assumption that everything was already done for me.

Oranges make strange instructions sweeter © lukatoyboy

The homeowner predicated this practice on the notion that all kinds of people would visit and that these notes would be helpful. Other cards talked about the electricity, the boiler, and other essential parts of a comfortable stay. One thing I would recommend to the owners is to make the index cards a bit more inviting. The house was so beautiful but I felt that the white index cards took away a little bit of charm from the atmosphere. Perhaps a simple paper frame would do the trick. Either way, these notes are a much more direct way to get people’s attention than a lengthy manual. Or if you do opt for a manual perhaps it could have pictures. I always love to look at furniture assembly instruction that have some stick figures.… But that may be too much.

Have you noticed any interesting ways that homeowners communicate important messages that have made your stay a little easier? Or, if you’re a homeowner, do you have any tips to share?

New Features in the New Year

With a new calendar on the wall, Rentini is ringing in the year with a fresh bunch of features.


This time, we’ve added profile photo-cropping, public profile pages, improvements in reservation management such as the ability to issue damage deposit refunds, and to remind guests of payments due.


With the new photo cropping tool, now when you upload a profile photo you will be given the option to crop your image. Clicking “never mind” will leave the full image size as the default. 

When your profile is complete, you will get to make a public profile. This is great for inspiring confidence in your guests or homeowner, etc. It also gives you a little personality and character. Here is an example of what a public profile looks like:

As a homeowner, on your reservations page you can simply remind a guest that a payment is due and you can issue damage deposit refunds with the click of a button. Notifications of your actions will be sent out and a documentary record is readily available to you.

Finally, we’ve dropped the “beta” from the domain. This doesn’t mean we’re out of beta but rather now you don’t have to add beta to www.rentini.com in order to see the latest version of our website.

Taste of travel

What does travel taste like? That’s an odd way to begin a post. Many of my travels have included a very important piece of preparation — researching unique places to eat. I’m sure there are others like me — many people probably do the same tedious exercise of looking online for travelers tales of discovering something tasty and refreshing, of reading through guidebooks and noting the recommendations, then doing cross-comparisons with other recommendations. That’s what I do.  Another thing that I do takes place after I return home. In my previous post I wrote about how I preserve my travel memories through various visual and auditory reminders. In this post I’m focusing on the tasty and yummy….  I find that the best way to recall my travels and to share it with others to relive the experience associated with trying new and unusual foods. After coming back from Hong Kong and Taiwan, for example, I felt compelled to gather my friends at my apartment and introduce them to the Chinese tea ceremony. Various teas packaged in tin cans with writing entirely in swirling Chinese characters, tiny tea cups, tea pots with boiling water, and even the  Lucky Money Toad, Chan Chu, all made a lasting impression on everyone who came that night. Granted, my Chinese tea ceremony was very amateur, to say the least. I was adding my own twist to what is, in reality, an ancient, elaborate, and complex custom. Yet it sparked some curiously in my friends and allowed me to prolong my travels. Mission accomplished! 

Taipei’s night market is a tasting heaven © Ilya Katz

I had always found corn to be yummy but since visiting Peru I’ve rediscovered just how much I really love it. The large, round, toasted kernels taste even better if they are complemented with chicha — “corn beer”. As much as I like to experiment, I don’t think I could have a beer brewing ceremony at home. I sometimes find it difficult to reproduce what I’ve tasted abroad.  When the cost and effort of trying to reproduce a meal I had abroad is too much, that is when I become hugely grateful that I live in the large, multicultural, great city of New York. So I headed out with a friend to West Village in search of Peruvian corn. My reward was nourishment in the form of cancha — toasted corn common in Peru. Naturally, when I finished my first bowl I asked for another. As I munched into the tastiness, in my mind I traveled back to South America, to Cuzco, imagining myself adjusting to the altitude by drinking coca tea (tea made from the coca plant which you certainly can’t find over the counter in the US of A, sorry, something about not allowing it over the boarder).

Peruvian corn is a mixture of colors and a tease for corn lovers © Jenny Mealing

My association of food with emotions and special occasions is so strong that if I merely hear of an authentic restaurant featuring ethnic cuisine from somewhere I’ve visited before, for a moment I travel back south or east to a place far from home but close to my heart. Do you have a favorite way to relive tastes of traveling? I’d be curious to read your comments.