When you are looking for a vacation rental, there are certain specifications that you need or want. Location, the number of rooms, price and amenities are all ways that people describe what they want.
My goal when I worked with VacationRentalPros.com was to take their immense wealth of data for each rental listing and make sure their users could find, sort and refine through different listings. We implemented Learning Search and Rich Auto Complete onto Vacation Rental Pros’ site.
Vacation Rental Pros’ users most frequently search by location; queries like “St Augustine” and “Palm Coast” are common. We worked with them to understand how their data was structured and how we could reference it to ensure users were served results in the correct area and given the option to refine by adjoining neighborhoods.
The results sets we serve to users are focused and relevant. If a query matches a property attribute, such as “number of bedrooms” or “pet friendly”, users are only served properties with matching criteria. An accurate result set makes it easier for a user to become qualified. It prompts customers to narrow their results by price and availability – two factors inevitably on a user’s mind while making their purchasing decision. Secondary refinement options, like property rating, are also clear and visible.
Working with the team from VacationRentalPros.com was great; they gave me useful feedback on unanticipated search queries, which helped me understand what users might be searching for but not finding. With this information, we made modifications to our search to create more accurate results.
Part of the value of SLI is that while we give a client a very strong product out of the box, we believe in tailoring the search to meet our customers’ needs. Once the main features are set, the merchandising console gives our customers the tools to continue improving their site search and merchandising to make their site really work for them.
The Vacation Rental Pros team was very clear about what was important to them and what they wanted their users to see so we could give them the best end result. Because of the collaborative work of the team, site visitors will now see a streamlined site with well-organized information that leads them to their dream destination.
2 thoughts to “CSM of the Month – John Michael Santora on Vacation Rental Pros”
We can definitely see the difference, now it’s easier and more refine to do any search on the site and the auto complete feature is a plus. Great job guys..
Great info thanks. We make sure the website we list with has the right tools, like availability calendars, online booking system and obviously the ability to alter our listing positions. Online search is so broad these days that using the right features can make your holiday rental more visible. Thanks for posting this.
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