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Updated July 2, 2020
On March 11, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak of COVID-19 to be a global pandemic. We understand this crisis brings uncertainty to travel and your property management business, and invite you to use this page as a resource for industry guidance on COVID-19. We will also use this page to keep you up-to-date on Escapia enhancements released in response to this challenge.
According to VacationRentPayment, the best practices for avoiding cardholder payment disputes and chargebacks are to provide flexibility for future travel plans or to allow guests to receive a refund for a booking. If the traveler does not want to rebook for a later date and they purchased travel insurance, they should contact the insurance provider for coverage questions. Travelers can also contact their credit card provider to understand if there are any coverage options associated with using the card even if they did not purchase travel insurance.
For more information on managing chargebacks during COVID-19, you can review this VRMA article and Vrbo’s new article Understand and mitigate the risk of successful chargebacks.
Per VRMA's article: “If you are issuing a refund for a reservation made with a credit card, always process the refund on the credit card provided by the traveler. Do not issue a check as the traveler may initiate a chargeback even after receiving the refund payment.”
Based on feedback from property managers across the country, Escapia quickly released a number of product improvements to address new challenges related to COVID-19. Contact us to learn more about these new additions and core Escapia functionality.
Comprehensive cancellation reporting: To help track the impact of COVID-19, this brand-new Escapia report gathers all important cancellation data into one report, including associated revenue, guest information, reservation information, and more. That means hours of time savings, plus an easier way to pull important data for financial assistance applications and loan forgiveness.
At-a-glance pace reporting: Escapia’s Performance Dashboard provides a quick visual of business performance compared to previous years. To make it even easier to view the impact of COVID-19, the Escapia team added a cancellation view in March 2020.
Easier owner and guest communication: Escapia expanded automatic email functionality to help simplify guest communication. For example, users can now trigger an email when a booking is canceled that includes a coupon code encouraging guests to rebook at a later date. Escapia also includes the Owner Portal, a central communication engine for owners to ask questions and get regular updates on their properties.
Automatic cleaning day holds: In response to COVID-19, Escapia now has the ability to automatically create cleaning holds before and after each reservation. This will help property managers follow self-imposed or regulatory guidelines by adding a buffer between guest stays. Clean days can be customized at the business or unit level and they will be automatically removed if a booking is moved or cancelled.
Health and Safety amenities: We’ve heard from travelers that cleanliness matters and now you can highlight enhanced cleaning practices using amenities in Escapia. Following Vrbo’s announcement, Escapia users will now be able to select from 7 new COVID-19 Health and Safety amenities that will map directly to Vrbo.
Here’s what one customer had to say about the recent enhancements:
“Escapia’s new Performance Dashboard is extremely helpful. In just a few clicks, I can see how my business is trending year over year in terms of nights sold, rent, unit occupancy, and more.
With COVID-19, this tool has been essential for tracking the virus’s impact on my business — especially the new cancellations view Escapia added to make it easier to see affected bookings. They even rolled out a brand-new reservations report that contains all the cancellation data I need in one, detailed report.
I wish we had Escapia back in 2010 for the BP oil spill, what took us days back then can now be done in a matter of minutes! Having all this information at our fingertips helps us provide regular updates to our owners, which is so important in times like these. Plus, the booking and cancellation data is super helpful for our vendors, especially housekeeping, so they can prove their losses as well.”
— Bill Bender of Bender Vacation Rentals, Gulf Shores, AL
From housekeeping services to marketing optimization, we partner with hundreds of best-in-class solutions from across the industry. Here are some COVID-19 resources developed by these industry experts:
Vrbo: Stay up to date with Vrbo policies and helpful information, including this on-demand webinar focused on preparing for travelers looking to book.
VRScheduler: Explore online cleaning certification courses designed to support housekeepers and vacation rental maintenance departments.
Rentals United: Read about post-crisis trends and see distribution tips for property managers affected by COVID-19.
Breezeway: Visit Breezeway’s COVID-19 resources for cleaning checklists and guidance on how to communicate with guests, owners, and staff.
NAVIS: Explore the COVID-19 resource center with webinars, blogs, whitepapers, and other tech resources to help the industry recover.
Bluetent: View Bluetent’s resources page for webinars and articles covering topics like digital advertising, social media, and traveler communications during COVID-19.
KeyData Dashboard: See COVID-19 Impact Reports on Short Term Vacation Rental Regions.
PointCentral: Read about Social Distancing with Smart Tech.
Intercoastal Net Designs: Watch webinars covering strategies to get through COVID-19, crisis marketing, and more.
To provide more resources to assist with COVID-19, we’d like to hear your questions. Please submit them in this form, and we will do our best to address your question and update this page.
If you would like to learn more about Escapia or see a demo of our software, please contact us here.
This COVID-19 information is not endorsed by Expedia Group/Vrbo. Neither Expedia Group nor Vrbo make any representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability of this information. For up-to-date information, please refer to the World Health Organization (WHO), the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and your local health authorities.
