Take back control.
Reservation and relationship marketing for vacation rentals.

In the beginning

It all started with a double booking

and the chaos that it caused. Our reservation system had failed us again. It also spurred us to look for a better way. While we looked at many options, they were all very expensive and simply didn't focus on the core communications needed to do a better job.

Like many others, we don’t have people to keep track of and communicate with our guests, to find out where they come from, how they found us, and provide business intelligence on how to most effectively reach out to them. For many small businesses, one of the biggest challenges is how to effectively market your business. What channels should you focus on, which of them is producing best? When is the right time to do your marketing? How can you bring your existing customers back and have them help you gain new ones?

The answer is Relationship Marketing. So how did a small business step it up? We created makeRez, a cloud based approach to organizing all the valuable information you have collected from your guests and using it to more effectively get "Heads in Your Beds". It is available anyplace there is an internet connection, anytime you want to use it on a variety of computers, tablets and phones.

MakeRez Tools

Take Control Back

A Common Sense Reservation System

It’s critical that when a potential guest comes to you directly on the phone or over the internet you have a way to easily get their booking without having to involve any of the booking services. For example, sending someone to airbnb simply raises your guests costs unnecessarily and even more exposes them to advertising for other properties. Plus being in control allows you to communicate more directly, effectively and more often, analyze information to better understand your customers, target them with email campaigns and build a relationship with them that enhances your business. Make folks that come to stay with you your guests, not airbnb’s. But working with a variety of booking approaches has its own challenges.

None is more daunting than the dreaded double booking. Manually juggling multiple calendars flawlessly is a daunting task. Going down this path requires automation to keep your sanity intact. The backbone of MakeRez is a "common sense" reservation system that offers anytime, anywhere reservations, a wealth of management tools and allows you to manage your business more productively


Guest Management

The Search page allows you to provide partial information for a guest (like a fragment of their name) and see what guests match that search. Once found, you can easily display the complete guest information for that guest on the Guest page. The Calendar page also has a "Get Guests" button. Selecting it will produce a listing of all the guests who are arriving at your property during that month. More information for each of those guests can be shown by selecting their line in the guest listing. The Search page is also used to select the folks you want to send out a custom email campaign to.

Reminders are notes in the system that “reminds” us to perform certain actions. The Reminders Tab on the Guest page lists any reminders that you have posted for this particular guest/inquiry. It may be a reminder to have them to make another payment, for you to contact them again to see if they have come to a final decision and want to book your property or simply to book a massage two weeks before their arrival. The Dashboard page lists all reminders that are past due and also ones that need to be completed in the next week.


Relationship Marketing

is simply trying to use your most valuable resource, your guests, to help you spread the word. We often say “if you simply meet a guest’s expectations” then you have lost a golden opportunity. For most folks it is easy to “Meet Their Expectations“, whether they are going to a fast food restaurant, the grocery store or choosing where to stay on a trip. The real key is to find a way to DELIGHT them so you stand out from the crowd and build the loyalty that is so critical to your success. So you look for the little ways to make their stay special. Sometimes it's the things you provide like offering them a special coffee and a treat in the afternoon, or providing maps to local attractions. But most often it's in a caring and thoughtful staff who are seriously interested in your guests experience with you. A friendly face, a smile, a conversation about things to do, a sincere interest in learning more about your guests and letting them know how pleased you are that they choose to stay with you. By setting yourself up as a special place for them, not only are you well on your way to earning their loyalty, but you also have the opportunity to reach through them to others in the circle of friends and family. Even better, by taking that extra step you make it all so much more likely that they will report on their delightful experience by writing a great review.

Learn More