Vacation Rental Management for busy people!

I use MyVRZone and there is no doubt it is a HUGE part of our success with bookings. Not only does it streamline the booking and management process incredibly well, I have found a number of ways to use it to enhance my marketing effectiveness. For example I just created an email template and used it to quickly send off a follow-up email to fourteen inquiries from the last two weeks about a special offer they are eligible for that will soon be expiring... and one of them emailed back to book their dates in March, just like that. A good use of 30 minutes of time.

I currently have 18 customizable email templates that I have created for my own use within MyVRZone, and I built many of these off of the 16 ready-to-go ones that come with MrVRZone.

The automation MyVRZone provides allows me to manage like a pro without doing a ton of work. Our customers book and pay for their reservations completely online with automatic reminders and confirmations sent out, and when they have made their final payment, they automatically receive three emails from me:

1. one with all arrival information
2. another separate one with their custom Resort Lock code
   (automatically generated within MyVRZone from their reservation details, I don't even have to visit the Resort Lock site to generate it) and their alarm system code - all sent separately from the email with the villa address, and finally
3. one with departure/check-out details plus a link to a PDF of my home manual.

At the same time as these are being generated and sent, I have a set of custom maps with directions to and from the airport, the parks, stores, etc., a PDF of instructions for the alarm system, and the home manual (eight files in all) which automatically become available for viewing and download at my customers "Guest Zone" web site just prior to their arrival, and the emails that are automatically sent contain direct links to these files as well as to their Guest Zone.

It used to take me at least an hour for every booking to generate and send all of these email, even from my own templates... now it happens automatically without me having to do anything!

As for customer service, I can tell you emphatically that Neil has the MOST responsive customer service I have ever seen, in any venue. And I know because I am probably his most demanding, pain-in-the-ass customer. Neil's customer service leaves me feeling like I have had a part in helping to evolve MyVRZone to suit my needs. I continue to find ways to incorporate it into what I am doing, and Neil is right there as an active partner.

MyVRZone may seem a little intimidating at first glance, but this is because it is so powerful. It really is easy to use, and the learning curve is not difficult because Neil has peppered everything in the site with pop-up guides to help you along the way.

I have my MyVRZone availability calendar, my rates, and my MyVRZone inquiry form embedded in my own website, along with a link to the free MyVRZone site created for my house by MyVRZone for those web surfers who can't view my graphically intense main site. It is seamless and professional.

Is MyVRZone perfect? Truthfully, no... I don't use its customer survey and review system because I find it too limited and confining for my purposes, but if you asked me if I would bet money that some day I will be using it then I would put the money down. I have explained to Neil what I am after and I know (based on past experience) that he will eventually evolve and improve the system until it exactly takes care of my needs.

A last piece of icing on the cake is a booking I received from one of MyVRZone's partner listing sites which you get listed on for free and only pay a small commission if a booking results, plus a referral fee that I received for sending a booking to another of Neil's customers through the included automated referral system.

If you think I must be on Neil's payroll for such an enthusiastic review, I'm not, but I am also incredibly grateful for the superb product and service that Neil provides, all for only 10 bucks a month, and that does make me an evangelist for his services. I must admit though that I have mixed feelings about praising what he does so much... Neil deserves all the success in the world, but part of me wants no one else to use his system so I can keep all of its competitive advantages to myself!

User since: November 2009

MyVRZone is awesome.

Since we have been signed up with MyVRZone we have been able to effectively double our business since last year.

The ability to coordinate all inquiries from the differing rental sites from one source is indispensable and has allowed us to book more often and more efficiently.

In regards to customer service, there is none better, Neil is always helpful, professional and friendly. Whenever I have a question or am in need guidance his response is extremely prompt if not immediate.

Finally, MyVRZone has everything you can think of in regards to short or longer term rental booking needs. It's been proven to me time and again that this site does it all and then some, to the point that now I don't consider IF the site has the capability (of whatever I might want), I just find out HOW the site provides it.

From custom quotes, to varying charge options, to tax and security deposits-options galore and MyVRZone has them all.

Our business has become so much simpler and less time consuming since joining MyVRZone, we wouldn't do without it.

User since: February 2010

MyVRZone has been the best purchase I have made since becoming an STR owner, the system takes away all the stresses of running a Vacation home business and keeps all the Quoting, Guest info, in fact all the documentation you need in one secure " professional " booking system, you know when you have found a fantastic product , when you just cannot do without it.

From the initial getting acquainted with the system, which took about a couple of evenings, i just have not looked back, Neil provides a customer service that is second to none and very rare in this day and age, whatever problem, may it be a guest or system question, his response is instant and works at the issue until resolved.

I just can't praise MyVRZone enough, a superb booking system for any owner of a STR Home.

User since: November 2009

Thanks to Neil and MyVRZone.com, I have been transformed from a vacation rental side job to a business in a matter of days.  I now have proper accounting, an integrated multimedia presentation, instant quotes, calendar control, the ability to track when and where I got my inquiries from, and most importantly a way to close the deal immediately and paperlesslly and in about 1/3 of the time I previously spent.

Three weeks ago I got an inquiry, answered questions, booked and signed a contract, collected payment and sent directions and the door code in 15 minutes.  Done, period no excuses.

No more checks to deposit, contracts to mail,  or scheduling errors with the guests and housekeeper.   Even the Key/door code has been seamlessly integrated into the service so that it is uniquely generated for that guest, and sent automatically with instructions on how to use it.

I did have a lot of questions when I first started and I have to say Neil provides better customer service than Apple Computers.  I’m not  sure when he sleeps or if he has cloned himself but he responds to EVERY question (and I will admit I have contacted him about 100+ times with a question) within an couple of hours, and 90% of the time within minutes.

I wish Neil and MyVRZone.com the best, but hope that my competitors don't pick up on this amazing product as it will diminish my advantage.

User since: May 2010

For years I always wanted to contact potential guests and get my own bookings but could never figure out how I would keep track of it all.  I ended up just letting my management company get my rentals for me.

Finally I found MyVRZone and it was the answer I was looking for.  There is so much detail and thought that has been put into it.  I can keep track of everything in one place.

The support from the site is awesome.  They are always happy to help when I have questions.

I reccomend this service highly.

User since: May 2010

Myvrzone has been amazing. Neil has thought of everything – reminders, reports, quotes…everything is automated, well-organized, and easy to use.

Customer support from Myvrzone is truly exceptional. Neil responds immediately to any questions and is always working on improving the site.

Frankly, I can’t imagine running a vacation rental business without it.

User since: July 2010

I am so happy to have found MyVRZone.com.  I receive multiple inquiries every day for my one condo.  I had already set up excel spreadsheets and standard email templates.  Even so, I was frustrated about the amount of time it took to update the calendars from every web site my property was listed on and to respond to inquiries.

With MYVRZone, this process involves a lot less work for me.  The credit card payment and calendar update is totally automated and that is a huge time-saver for me.  The quotes and email responses are also less work than before.  And support from Neil Robinson is prompt and appropriate.  I recommend MyVRZone.com to everyone I meet with a vacation rental condo.

User since: January 2010

I want to let you know that my whole booking/inquiry process has been streamlined thanks to your fantastic system. I am grateful for your amazing, knowledgeable, timely response to questions/problems, and feel extremely fortunate that you developed such valuable software, that's well worth the yearly fee. Thank you.

User since: January 2007

Now that I have been using the system for a week I have to say WOW!!!!
It has made my work soooo much easier!

User since: February 2007

I needed to find someone who could make changes (enhancements and updates) to my website. I was so lucky to have found Neil!

He thoroughly understands the vacation rental space, so he was not only able to quickly understand what I was trying to accomplish and easily do the technical work, he also had good insights into potential improvements I could make.

Whenever I needed something done, Neil always responded very quickly and did quality work. He is extremely responsive to questions and/or work requests and turns everything around very quickly. He lets me know up front when he can get something done and what he would expect the cost to be, and he is just a pleasure to do business with.

I have been more than 100% satisfied with Neil's services.

User since: December 2006

MYVRZone has taken the drudgery out of running my vacation rental business, www.5mins2disney.com, and accelerated it to a whole new level. It has taken what was becoming a huge burden, managing the emails, quotes, guests, and was consuming 2-4 hours a day and reduced the time I spend by at least 75%.

The website has given me my time and my life back, literally, I now have my free time back to spend with my kids and family, whereas previously, more and more of my free time was becoming consumed by our 4 Disney townhomes! Additionally, the tight integration with my own website and business processes, allow our guests to book and manage their own reservations, all automated and online, everything is tightly tracked and controlled, and I can get to the information from any computer with a web browser, anywhere in the world.

I used to manage reservations tasks manually, which I used to use Excel for mostly, and there's a high likelihood of making a critical mistake, missing an important email to a guest, or worse yet, it's all on one computer, and if it gets lost, corrupted, etc, you could lose everything! (I ended up in this unfortunate situation last summer when my town lost all power for 3 days straight, the rental business was kind of crippled for those 3 days, and guests didn't really hear much from us).

Once I got past automating the guest reservations with MyVRZone, and this took me a month or two to get fully adapted in parallel and a lot of hard work, as I ran both systems in tandem for a while, I moved on to the next stage of MyVRZone, quotes.

Quotes are amazingly powerful, they allow you to take emails, direct them to MyVRZone where the system automatically reads the email and composes multiple quote options to the guest, even suggesting nearby open dates if your home is booked on the dates requested. The guest can then book fully online from the email quote. This means no entering the information again manually for me, a huge time savings. I can't even begin to estimate how many 100s of hours I've spent sending manual email quotes to guests in Microsoft Outlook (email), involving lots of cutting, pasting, calculating rates and options, etc. Take that same quote and convert it to a foreign currency and the time spent doing it manually goes up even further, and now the system can quote in any currency, effortlessly on my part! I can now whip through 50-60 quotes in about 10 minutes, pretty amazing!

On the backend of the system, the reports give you a great overview of really managing your rental property business. I can see summary or detail information in areas like payment status, check-in checkout reports, tax status, referral summaries for marketing purposes, and more, and all of the information can be viewed online, or easily sent over to Excel for further analysis or whatever use you can think up.

User since: February 2007