Escapia Announces Release of Escapia IntelliRate™ Advanced Rate Management for Vacation Rentals
Breakthrough Release from Leader in Web-Based Vacation Rental Software Brings Power and Simplicity to Rate Management for Vacation Rental Agencies.
SEATTLE – August 12, 2008 – Escapia Inc., the #1 provider of web-based management and marketing solutions for vacation rental managers, announced the release today of Escapia IntelliRate™ - the latest advance in the leading EscapiaONE vacation rental management platform. Escapia IntelliRate provides powerful and sophisticated rate management previously available only to major hotels, while dramatically reducing the time it takes to configure and manage rates for vacation rental agencies. As a fully integrated web hosted solution, rates developed using Escapia IntelliRate can be easily managed from one place and displayed across an agency’s own web site and online distribution.
Evan Gull, Escapia's Director of Products, stated, "As property managers expand their connectivity to the web world, it's ever more important for them to have flexibility and control in setting pricing and booking policies. Escapia’s new pricing engine is the next generation tool providing powerful features while simplifying the entry and ongoing management of rates."
A first for the vacation rental industry, this new rate system allows property managers to employ advanced rate rules designed to maximize rental income and save enormous time in the complicated process of setting rates. The new technology brings significant benefits to vacation rental managers:
- Revenue maximizing rate rules: Vacation rental managers can establish rates and policies that increase revenue when demand is normally strong (e.g. holiday periods) and reduce rates to increase occupancy when demand is weaker (e.g. mid-week or off-season). Escapia IntelliRate even allows managers to do basic yield management by establishing rules that adjust rates based on occupancy conditions and lead times.
- Simplifying rate management: Escapia IntelliRate lets managers set base rates and choose to adjust them on a dollar or percentage basis. Rate plans build on one another naturally, making it easier than ever to introduce a new rate without scrapping previous work. And applying rate rules to scores of units at the same time is a snap with the IntelliRate Launch Manager, which lets you set rates in advance and schedule when you want them to take effect.
- Accurate rate assurance: Escapia IntelliRate includes sophisticated validation and verification tools to ensure the rate rules created by managers have the intended consequences. And Escapia IntelliRate lets managers queue up test rates and put them into action exactly when they want.
- Breadth of rate applications: Because Escapia IntelliRate is part of the integrated EscapiaONE platform, the rates established by managers are put in place everywhere – within the agency’s office, on its web site and across its EscapiaNET online distribution.
"This new rate system will help take the guesswork out of setting rates, since it offers a systematic approach and automates the process of adjusting rates based on changing business conditions," said John Suzuki, Escapia’s VP of Sales. "For marketing vacation rentals, the best part is that updated rates are automatically distributed to all online partner sites in real time. It is remarkably powerful."
"At Escapia our goal is to give our customers the best tools to help them book more business and manage those bookings efficiently," commented Bill Furlong, CEO of Escapia. "This latest release shows our firm commitment to that goal, and our clients are thrilled since they expect Escapia IntelliRate to provide them with a major competitive advantage."