Want to know how to help in Haiti? We at Instant World Booking wish to express our sympathy and support to the victims and survivors of the earthquake in Haiti, and to those who travel there. Here is a list of some organizations currently providing relief and aid. Please help if you can.
The American Red Cross
www.redcross.org
Text “Haiti” to 90999 to donate $10 (billed to your phone)
The United Nations World Food Program
www.wfp.org
The Salvation Army
www.salvationarmyusa.org
Action Against Hunger
www.actionagainsthunger.org
Catholic Relief Services
http://crs.org/
Project HOPE
www.projecthope.org
Partners in Health
www.pih.org
This list is provided as a service to our readers. Instant World Booking is not affiliated with these organizations and does not specifically endorse them.
|
Want to go phishing? You’ll only catch some trouble. Instant World Booking’s fraud department has uncovered some attacks and scams that could cause you some serious trouble, so read on for how to keep your user ids and passwords safe.
A recent “phishing” scam involves a fraudster’s attempt to duplicate a similar-looking webpage to our homepage. They send emails to clients alerting them to new reservations, and direct them to the scam page to sign in. Obviously, if you follow their link and enter your password, the fraudster now has it.
Protect yourself. With any website you use with a user id and password, make sure you’re certain that you are on the correct site. Here’s how to know. Look at the address bar at the top of your browser page. If the page doesn’t start with the precise domain you are trying to access, then don’t sign in. Many scammers will purchase similar looking domains, but may have additional characters added to fool you.
To be more certain, use the “secure” version of the website. Any website that is serious about protecting your security will have a secure server. So, when you go to the InstantWorldBooking.comhomepage, use the login section at the upper right corner of the page. Once you click login, you will notice that you are then at https://www.instantworldbooking.com/. Note the “https” with an “s”. This signifies that you are now on a secure server. A little padlock icon on your browser will also indicate the server is secure, and by clicking on the padlock, you will be able to view security information about the secure server.
So, protect your security and personal information. Always make sure you know what site you are on, before logging in.
|
If you have a website, you probably already know that obtaining external links is very important. In fact, SEO experts always include link-building among the top 3 priorities in marketing a website. More quality links from 3rd party websites result in higher rankings for your website. Higher search engine rankings results in more traffic and more opportunities for you to increase earnings. So it’s simple. You need more links.
Instant World Booking already offers free links to your website
Free links display your webpage in a window on our page. When a user clicks the free link, they can see your website, but remain on our page. They are not directed to your website.
Paid Links for additional exposure and traffic
To maximize the profit potential of your website, Instant World Booking offers paid links. Paid links are better than free links, since they allow the user to be re-directed to your website. When users click a paid link on you property’s page, they are taken directly to your website. The value of direct links from quality sites like the 100+ Instant World Booking websites is significant. Paid links from Instant World Booking also bring highly targeted traffic, since users browsing your page on our website are ready to make reservations. Please note that Instant World Booking’s paid links do not transfer PageRank, and are created in complete agreement with Google’s guidelines on paid links. See: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=66736&hl=en
Purchase Paid Links Now
Log in at Instant World Booking to add your links today. If you’re not already a member, get more information on what Instant World Booking has to offer: Work with Us
Important note: All paid links on our network are created in complete
For hotels, hostels, and B&Bs looking for some timeless advice on link building, see SEOBook’s 101 Ways to Build Link Popularity.
|
With the explosion of social media marketing in 2009, email still remains a king amongst a court of princes in online marketing tools. No matter what methods you use to market your hotel, hostel, or B&B, building loyal customer relationships is on top of the list of ways to grow your business.
Email marketing is still on top of relationship building. Email creates a private dedicated moment with your customers. People are picky about which emails they read. So, if they open your email, you know you’re going to have their attention.
Email also commands a very high ROI. Recent reports indicate that email can return as much as 45x the amount you spend on it. It’s cheap and effective, and can build loyal customers.
Email is not going anywhere. It is the de facto method of business communication, and will be for years to come. Serious business people use email to communicate, not Tweets or Facebook.
Email complements social media marketing. Good content is more important than frequency of postings. Your email newsletter should be a centerpiece of for your communications, offering practical advice and meaningful insights that your audience finds important. Social media is used to spot customer trends, mine ideas for future newsletter articles, respond to customer concerns, and find new mailing list subscribers.
Two-way communication is key to your business growth. Good communication is more than talking about your hotel or B&B. It includes listening to your guests and inviting them to communicate back with you. Keep track of the temperature of your customers. Smart hotels frequently survey or poll their guests in their email marketing campaigns.
Personal touch is invaluable and very effective. The best performing hotels and hostels of 2009 made genuine connections with their guests, and turned many into repeat visitors. They communicated in a personal voice when they wrote their email newsletters. It always helps to make customers feel like people, not just subscribers.
|
The following is a list of calendar management systems currently linking to Instant World Booking. What this means is that these 3rd party systems, whether CMS, Channel Management systems, availability calendars, property management, or front desk software systems, provide an interface to automatically update your calendar on the Instant World Booking network.
If you are currently working with another 3rd party system like those described above, tell them you want to be able to feed your availability directly to Instant World Booking. Typically, services will respond positively to their clients’ requests of this type.
If you wish to check out one of the services listed above, please do so, and tell them you heard about them from Instant World Booking. Frequently, services will be happy to offer special introductory pricing if they know their partners are referring new business to them. So, it can’t hurt to ask.
|
A special discount is now offered to Instant World Booking clients for trying the BnB Manager online property management service. An added benefit is that Instant World Booking now interfaces with BnB Manager, and you can automatically upload your availability to Instant World Booking from BnB Manager.
BNB Manager offers 10% off the full first year cost to the first 50 IWB members who join and stay beyond the 90-day free trial period. All you need to do is enter the Promotional Code “IWB123″ on the BnB Manager sign-up page.
http://www.bnbmanager.com
BnBManager has created a feature-packed yet simple-to-use small accommodations management system. Offering state of the art security, functionality, and usability, BnBManager makes managing your guest information and reservations simple, while also providing a wealth of features to help you manage your back-office operations. Please visit BNB Manager today for a full list of features.
For more information about Instant World Booking’s XML feeds and other systems we integrate with, please see:
http://www.instantworldbooking.com/blog_iw/category/xml-feeds/
|
Some hostels and hotels have suggested that the solution to some of their email problems is to have their email forwarded to a “more reliable” email host such as GMAIL. The problem with this approach is when you want to reply to a customer or supplier email. Do you really want your customers to be receiving email from you from GMAIL? You then have the problem of the customer’s spam filters blocking that email.
The best solution is always to use your own domain name and email from that domain.
Note for those using shared hosting !!! Even when you have your own domain name, and use email with your own domain name, your hosting company’s mail is probably run on a separate server, along with a multitude of other email domains on the same IP address. This can still result in problems getting your mail if there are other spammers on the same domain.
Some might argue that the only solution is a dedicated server, with mail run on a dedicated IP with reverse DNS properly set up. Admittedly, this is not a cheap solution. For all other solutions, problems with sending and receiving mail will no doubt be a problem for years to come.
We have dealt with this problem for years. If anyone has questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.
|
Instant World Booking now offers a convenient new way to update availability calendars for hostels, hotels, and bed & breakfasts. Our XML API/interface for uploading calendar availability is available for:
- Property Managers
- Hostel chains and National Associations of lodgings
- Channel Management systems
- Other booking engines
In fact, anyone who is tired of managing availability manually, or updating systems on multiple booking engines, doesn’t have to. Don’t spend hours trying to manage availability manually, or learning additional systems. Our simple XML file format is easy to use and easy to upload. We can offer assistance to anyone in need of help integrating an automatic allocation of rooms/beds on the Instant World Booking network.
If you are currently using another front end system for managing your available rooms and beds, let us know. If we already interface with their system, you can upload your availability to us automatically. If we don’t currently interface with your provider, call them up today and tell them you want to upload your calendar allocation to Instant World Booking.
To get started with our XML API, begin by checking out our manual, or send it to your developer:
Instant World Booking API XML Manual
For more information, contact us today at: info@instantworldbooking.com
If you are searching for an inexpensive front end system for managing multiple booking engines, check out http://myallocator.com/. You can also contact us for other recommendations.
|
The Swine Flu (H1N1) has surged again this season. As Autumn and Winter travelers reach their destinations, it’s important to know the signs of the H1N1 Flu since the level of risk in various regions may sometimes be unknown. We encourage you to rely on your doctor as your main source of care and advice on seasonal and H1N1 flu vaccinations and treatment.
What to Do If You Get Sick
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that if you get sick with flu-like symptoms, you should stay home and avoid contact with other people, except to get medical care.
Most people with 2009 H1N1 have been only mildly sick and have not needed medical care or antiviral drugs. The same is true for seasonal flu. If you get sick with flu, call your doctor for advice. If your doctor decides that you do need drug treatment, medicine will be most helpful when started within the first two days that symptoms begin to show.
Here are some tips from CDC on what to do if you’re sick:
1) Know the signs. Flu symptoms include fever, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, body aches, headaches, chills, tiredness, diarrhea and vomiting.
2) Know the emergency warning signs. Anyone who has one or more of the emergency warning signs below should get medical care right away.
3) If you are not sure what to do if you or a family member is sick, contact your doctor. He or she will best be able to guide you.
Emergency Warning Signs of the Flu
|
Children
|
Adults
|
|
Fast breathing or trouble breathing
|
Difficulty breathing or shortness of breath
|
|
Bluish skin color
|
Pain or pressure in the chest or abdomen
|
|
Not drinking enough fluids
|
Sudden dizziness
|
|
Not waking up or not interacting
|
Confusion
|
|
Being too irritable to be held
|
Severe or persistent vomiting
|
|
Symptoms get better but then return with
fever and a bad cough |
|
|
Fever with a rash
|
|
|
|
|
