Domain Names for Vacation Rentals by Owner

Having a private domain name for your listing on ivacationonline.com is a great way to "brand" yourself and it will help make your business a more personal transaction between you and your guest.

We have created http://www.ivoldomains.com/ for this reason. You can buy a domain name here and "point" it to your listing on ivacationonline.com. This will help you when you are talking to a guest or emailing them back. Here is a great example: http://www.bluetides411.com/ This owner has his domain "pointing" at his listing, so it looks like his private web page. He also has it "masked" so the prospect has the URL, http://www.bluetides411.com/ on the page.

With all the tools we provide on ivacationonline.com, there is no reason to send them anywhere else. Many owners are shutting down old websites and using the domains they have had for years and now pointing them to the listing on ivacationonline.com .

If you get a call from a prospect, or an email, you can respond by saying/emailing, just go to my site, http://www.bluetides411.com/ and you can see my slide show, guest book, Google Map and book it online. That way the guest can easily find your listing and not have to navigate to it. Once on your site, they can view the photos, and book it now. The less "work" you give your prospect, the more likely you are to get the booking. Sending them to the site where you do the booking makes the most sense.

If you still have a regular website, consider shutting it down, saving the hosting fees and "pointing" your domain to your listing on ivacationonline.com. This will not only save you money, but it should increase your bookings as they have less to navigate to book your property. If they have to find your regular site, look around, then find your listing on ivacationonline.com, there is some chance they may not make it there and not book with you. Less clicks, the better!

Buying a domain, if you have never done this is, very easy. Go to http://www.ivoldomains.com/ and start an account. Then search for a domain that you like. Then buy it. It is only $8.99 per domain. Try to keep it as short as possible. Try to use words that are easily spoken on the phone. They have to easily understand what you are saying and be able to type in in their computer. So the shorter the better!

Once you purchase a domain name you can add "domain forwarding" (it is free). You just copy and paste your URL on ivacationonline.com into the space that will re-direct someone when they type in your new domain name. I would also suggest the "masking" (also free) so they do not even see they are on ivacaitononline.com. You can add keywords too. This all helps in the search engines.

After you have your domain name you can start a FREE GOOGLE ANALYTICS account and then you can track the traffic on your site. This is a great service too! It will show you what search terms the public is using to find your site. It shows you where and how they find you. The information it provides is endless. The combination of a private domain and GOOGLE ANALYTICS is a powerful way to run your vacation rental. Just go to GOOGLE and sign up for the ANALYTICS account. Then enter your private domain name to be tracked. They will give you some code that needs to be entered into your description on your ivacationonline.com listing. You will need to use the SOURCE button on your description to enter the html code. It is invisible to you and me, but GOOGLE will pick it up and track your traffic after that is in there.

Here are a few examples of listings that are using this service:

http://www.tobagosun.com/
http://www.bluetides411.com/
http://www.waves411.com/

The domains are only $8.99 a year and everything thing else we spoke about is free! We have set up the domain service to be as reasonable as possible. Try it! I think you will like having a more personal approach to your business! Let us know if we can help in any way!