Stretch(bill)ing After Summer

As Labor Day weekend passes, the collective sigh of relief comes from property managers in summertime destinations that have been a revolving door of guests for the past 3+ months.? Coinciding with the end of summer, StretchBill is having more conversations than ever as property managers look at what changes to their website can increase bookings at a lower cost.??

Based on feedback from these property managers, we’ve identified three distinct StretchBill payment options to offer guests:

GroupPay: the best way to offer a turnkey solution that both handles notifications and payments for groups splitting a rental, paid in full within a week of booking.? Property managers benefit from the person booking setting up the names/email addresses of each group member, available via our property management dashboard.? Works well for any booking with a window of 10+ days (including last-minute rentals).

InstallmentPay: this is a booking paid in more than one payment analogous to layaway.? The booking is paid over time, but like layaway before the good/service is delivered (i.e. arrival for a vacation rental).? This makes the cost at booking more affordable with a typical payment schedule of four installments paid every two weeks.? Property managers can choose any number of installments and interval that works best for them and their guests.

SinglePay: this is a booking paid in a single transaction.? This is the best option for several scenarios:

• Last-minute booking (where it needs to be paid in full)
• Property managers that do not want to change how much the renter pays at booking but wants an alternative at 50% less than the cost of credit cards
• Property managers that need their payout as quickly as possible

It is very important for property managers to consider the balance of last-minute bookings to advance bookings to consider which options to offer.? To accommodate all bookings, we have designed StretchBill to automatically offer SinglePay for an arrival day just 2-4 weeks out when InstallmentPay would not be paid in full before arrival.

Ultimately, StretchBill’s approach of offering guests choice where affordability at booking is critical will attract more bookings at half the cost of credit cards.? Having the best solution for dealing with groups trying to automate splitting the cost of a rental is the icing on the cake.? Now is the time as shoulder season approaches to see how easy it is to add StretchBill and start saving money with happier guests.