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Product Features & More from Kigo

What’s New

June 2022

We are excited to continue growing our integrations marketplace and welcome Safely as a new partner for Kigo clients!

Founded in 2015, Safely is the premier short-term rental provider, offering proprietary guest screening and comprehensive insurance coverage. Safely offers three products: Guest screening, Damage and Bodily Injury Insurance, and Travel Insurance.

Learn more here.

Booking.com Premier Partner 2022

With more flexible work and school arrangements, many families are embracing the idea of flexible holidays, an emerging travel trend where families rent vacation homes consider staying longer to mix work and play, and often get better value in high-demand locales.

Therefore, as soon as the channels evolved to allow it, we adapted to accept up to 60 days for Airbnb and Vrbo. Now, both, Kigo and Booking.com accept up to 45 nights for their reservations! Earn longer term, predictable and consistent revenue.

Learn more here.

Addition of UK market on the list of possible markets for the Geo Rate promotion

Kigo offers the possibility of creating promotions and assigning them to listings, that will be later synced with Booking.com. One of those is the Geo Rate promotion, which offers a set of markets (including Europe) for which discounts can be configured and offered. Now, we have added United Kingdom to the list of eligible territories. You will be able to define GeoRate promotions and apply them to the UK market.

May 2022
Booking.com Premier Partner 2022

Booking.com’s Connectivity Partner Programme (CPP) is the foundation of the partnership between them and their Connectivity Partners. The objective of the programme is to grow our businesses together and create more value for our mutual properties.

We are proud to share that this year Kigo achieved the Premier status once again. We will keep on working to maintaining and improving our relationship and connection with the OTAs!

March 2022

The new and improved connection to the Holidu channel is now available in Kigo Channel Manager in Kigo Pro platform! Take advantage of this direct integration to Holidu and Holidu Payments!

Check how this enhanced connection can benefit you with your Kigo Account Manager, or email us at [email protected].

Read more here.

TurnoverBnB is now an official integrated partner for our Kigo clients! It’s the premier tool for short-term rental managers and cleaners to connect and automatically manage their vacation rental cleanings.

With TurnoverBnB, vacation rental managers have access to an exclusive marketplace made up of local cleaning professionals. Automatically schedule, communicate with, and pay your cleaners all in one easy-to-use app. Key features include reporting and sharing problems, inventory tracking, and creating checklists for your cleaner to follow.

Read more here.

VRBO Elite

This recognition emphasizes our focus on building and maintaining a high-quality software connection, that empowers you to serve guests better and grow your business on their global travel platform.

The Vrbo Connectivity Partner Program recognizes and rewards top vacation rental software companies for maintaining high-quality software connections to Vrbo’s platform and helping vacation rental property managers grow their businesses. Only 9 companies qualified for Elite status this year, with over 90 global property management software companies eligible.

Get connected with Vrbo today! Read more here.

February 2022

Stripe is a global payments solution, that can help you accept guest’s payments and manage your online vacation rental business. We have developed a direct synchronization with Stripe in KigoPro to automate reservations-related payments management. This partnership and direct integration places you in the best of the positions to manage your business payments. Contact your Account Manager to learn how you can benefit from this integration!

Read more here.

Who does not like options when making a reservation? Airbnb launched the option to offer both standard and non-refundable rates when booking, so guests can choose their preferred option. We want to offer you all the available options to attract guests to your listings, so you are now able to sync non-refundable rates with Airbnb.

Read more here.

November 2021

Now you can also get guest messages from Booking.com imported into the Kigo unified inbox alongside with Airbnb and GuestXP communications.

This inbox ultimately allows you to maintain active conversations more easily with guests to enhance the vacation rental experience!

Read more here.

September 2021

We have introduced 2-Factor Authentication in Kigo via SMS and email to reinforce the security of our systems and your data.

August 2021

In order to better support the creation of Italian Police Reports, we have added the Property filter in the Police Report section (Italy) where you can choose to download the data for all your properties or for a chosen set of properties. Report(s) generated will also be at a property level and will have the name of the property in the title that it refers to.

You can now download a .zip file that contains a file per property with only the reservations of that specific property displayed.

Kigo is now integrated with Google so that guests can find your listings when searching on Google Hotel Ads. With Google Vacation Rentals, you have the opportunity to increase your visibility, drive direct bookings to your website and boost your revenue.

Learn more here.

July 2021

Travelstaytion is now one of our integrated partners in the Kigo Channel Manager in Pro. For vacation rental owners and managers, this Kigo vacation rental channel partner offers a simple, free service that proves the tools and exposure needed to reach a whole new audience.

Read more here.

You will now be able to set a cancellation policy tailored to your business instead using of a pre-defined policy structure.

Learn more here.

May 2021

Find now a new tab called “Services” in KigoPro to learn and connect to our third-party integrations Marketplace under: Settings > Services, or click here to read more.

Kigo has embraced the recent functionality developed by Airbnb that allows you to show the pinpoint with the exact address to the guest when checking for the listing’s location. This functionality was only available for Vrbo until now.

You can still decide to show the exact address or hide the location and show a circle with the general area instead. It is your choice!

Since Vrbo’s latest assessment, Kigo is now an Elite Connectivity Partner, the highest designation available in Vrbo’s Connectivity Partner Program. The Vrbo Connectivity Partner Program recognizes and rewards top vacation rental connectivity providers for maintaining high-quality software connections and helping property managers grow their business on Vrbo.

Learn more here.

April 2021

In late Q1, Kigo welcomed Find Rentals on Kigo Marketplace.

Publishing your listings on Find Rentals will help you be more visible, offer greater traveler experiences, and boost your brand through direct bookings. No booking fees, no traveler fees.

Learn more here.

March 2021

You are now able to edit booking statement line items for those cases required including, but not limited to, rent increases for longer/shorter stays, taxes or fees calculated as a percentage of rent increase/reduction in case rent rate changes, or add a specific fee such as extra guest increases because a guest has been added from guest count.

At the same time, we’ve made the process of adding lines much easier and visually easier to read as well with more intuitive management of changes in the reservation statements with history and activities.

Learn more here.

We continue to focus on improving our product usability, and during the first part of the year we have worked on the UI architecture to improve the breadcrumbs on the main navigation panel and the functionality to create items such as reservations or new leads.

April-December 2020

Get more insight from your “Channels” page and learn about the status of a given listing in Kigo Channel Manager. In addition to the property status of a given listing in the different OTAs, learn if there is any fix you need to do for the property to be live so that you start getting reservations.

Learn more here.

Introducing the new Kigo Leads section: the foundation for a full vacation rental contact management system.

With this new section, you will be able to create your own CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system by creating leads quickly and efficiently both from an existing contact or a new one.

You will also be able to improve the level of detail for your lead strategy by adding specific data such as a customized source, assignment to a booking agent, and notes.

An advanced system of generating proposals will give you the ability to select multiple criteria, create proposals for properties, and send them to the lead to review.

You will also be able to save time and manual work by automatically converting leads into reservations when the potential renter confirms the booking on the website.

Learn more about the leads section here and how to convert leads to reservations here.

We proudly announce that Kigo has officially become a Premier Partner of Booking.com, which is the top and highest-value tier in the Connectivity Partner Program launched by Booking.com.

At Kigo, we have worked hard to develop the latest integrations with Booking.com to help you strengthen your recovery strategy during these unstable times.

You can feel confident that you are benefitting from the best features of Booking.com, using Kigo Channel Manager!

Check out our brand-new and enhanced Kigo “All Reservations” page! Our goal is to make it easier to manage your daily reservations.

  • Improved navigation speed to access your results faster
  • New filter functionality so you can create your focused searches
  • Brand new design for reservations details list – access all relevant reservation information at a glance

More info

Promotions continue to be your ally in these difficult times, so offering relevant and competitive pricing is important as demand picks up again. We have focused on giving you more options in our recently launched promotions section in Kigo to define discounts and promotions.

Increase exposure to your listings and promotions!

  • In addition to the synchronization with Booking.com, you can now synchronize your Last Minute and Early Bird promotions with Airbnb. Learn more here.
  • Help listing conversion rates for listings published on your websites by creating your Basic, Early Bird or Last Minute promotions
  • Automatically receive door codes in your Kigo inbox from Kigo partners like Operto. Send information to guests from your Kigo inbox to the Airbnb platform via your preferred language (English, Spanish, Italian, German or French).
  • Benefit from the Kigo Inquiry AutoResponder to automatically respond to inquiries from Airbnb. In addition to creating a better experience for the guest by providing an immediate response, this new functionality will help you reach Airbnb Superhost status, which requires you to respond to 90% of new messages within 24 hours.

More info

  • Learn about the cancellation status of your reservations at Airbnb (cancelled by host, by guest or by admin)
  • Get a detailed breakdown of the reservation fees. Fees are now sent to Airbnb separately from the rent, helping you increase your ranking and perform better
  • Manage multiple Airbnb accounts within the same Kigo account ‒ assign your selection of listings to the different corresponding Airbnb accounts and synchronize them from one unique Kigo account

We’re happy to announce “YourWelcome” as a new official partner of Kigo

  • YourWelcome is a smart tablet for vacation rentals. The tablet is left out for guests and acts as the transactional and informational portal during their stay.

Learn more about this new partnership here.

We’re also proudly introducing our new partner SUPERHOG!

  • SUPERHOG is a global Risk Management platform providing unique real-time information on properties, hosts and guests for the short-term rental sector.
  • SUPERHOG is committed to making short-term rentals 100% safe for everyone and creating a future where it’s easier to make better decisions.

Learn more about this new partnership here.

For your convenience, you can now choose among “Online”, “Offline” and “Online and Offline” payments options for Vrbo/HomeAway reservations. Choose if you want to work with Invoice Mode and/or Credit Card!

You will now be able to more exhaustively control which kind of payments you want to accept for your Vrbo/HomeAway reservations.

We want to know your feedback regarding which elements of KigoPro software you love and which you would like us to improve. With this in mind, we have included a widget throughout the product for you to provide your thoughts around product usability and functionality.

Kigo has created a new promotions section to define discounts and promotions that can later be synchronized to multiple channels within the same platform (Kigo) instead of having to define promotions in each of the channels’ separate platforms and extranets.

The promotions setup in Kigo is extremely intuitive and user friendly; you can both create and assign promotions to the listings of your choice during the period of time of your choice, which will be synchronized with your channel of choice (now available for Booking.com only).

In addition to creating coupon codes for your website, you can now create the six Booking.com promotion types from Booking.com to meet booking preferences for a variety of travelers: basic promotions, discounts for early and last minute bookings, mobile users, country and geo, and for business travelers. Learn more here.

In Kigo, you can now define a minimum time between reservations so that the cleaning process can be taken care of with the extra measures needed for this pandemic. You can now create a “stay rule” defining time between reservations and Kigo will automatically close the calendar availability before and after each reservation for the defined period of time.

In addition to closing availability for the days assigned for cleaning, when you define a minimum time between reservations, this will automatically create an amenity that will be sent to Vrbo/HomeAway and will be seen by the guest (e.g. defining 2 days between reservations will create the “GUEST GAP PERIOD 48 HOURS” amenity).

Reassuring the guests is a key factor in order to attract them to your properties. Ensuring a proper cleaning is one of the important things that guests are requesting to ensure they can enjoy of a safe stay. Learn more here.

Guests can now cancel their bookings in the Vrbo/HomeAway platform: Vrbo /HomeAway has made the option available for guests to cancel reservations directly in the Vrbo /HomeAway platform, and Kigo has developed the ability to receive and manage those cancelled directly in Kigo. We are committed to helping you reduce your workload in these difficult times. Stop handling cancelations manually with the guest and handle them in Kigo.

At Kigo, we have recently added three new third-party integrations that you can now access in our platform.

HomeToGo: international exposure, direct guest communication, fast integration and enhanced brand visibility – all of this and much more is now only a few clicks away for all Kigo clients. HomeToGo also covers distribution on Wimdu and Casamundo so listings automatically go live on these sites. Learn more here.

Operto: a property automation system that provides intelligent control of smart home/IOT devices at scale, improves guest experience and operational efficiency for all types of short-term accommodations. Learn more here.

Apartment Ocean: artificial intelligence (AI) based marketing tool to help real estate companies increase customer conversion and satisfaction, while reducing customer acquisition costs. Learn more here.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Airbnb and Vrbo/HomeAway have been working to extend their Length of Stay Pricing Model to more than 30 days. Kigo’s system now allows for up to 60 nights reservation. Earn longer term, predictable and consistent revenue.

  • Some local authorities have established strict regulations and a minimum stay, such as 30 days, for bookings
  • Diversify your booking strategy and offer longer term stays
  • Healthcare and essential workers may need long term options to quarantine away from their families safely while fighting the pandemic

Kigo now allows the management of both internal messaging and Airbnb communications in the same platform, available in an upgraded and more user friendly design.

The new inbox also allows the display of messages from Vrbo/HomeAway inquiries so that you can quickly identify and manage your leads.

The Booking.com Reporting API helps property managers save time. You can now manage Booking.com reservation incidences directly in Kigo, and Kigo will then sync them to Booking.com.

The property manager can now manage directly in Kigo the following:

  • Mark a credit card as invalid
  • Cancel the booking when the credit card is invalid
  • Cancel the booking when the guest has not shown up

Virtual Credit Cards usage helps property managers reach more guests, reduce cancellations and save time on administrative tasks.

The following features are now fully compatible within the new Content API Booking.com connection in Kigo Channel Manager:

Property features
  • Property basic details
  • Photos
  • Amenities
  • Rate plans
  • Fees and taxes
  • Check-in and check-out dates
Property profile
  • Name of the host or hosting company
  • Photo of the host or logo of the company
  • Information associated with property profile
House Rules
  • Allows pets
  • Allows smoking
  • Allows parties/events

With Kigo’s integration to Vrbo/HomeAway, our customers are now eligible to benefit from “Price Consistency” which ensures that there are not price discrepancies in the traveler’s booking experience. With Price Consistency, travelers see the same consistent rate from search to checkout. Price Consistency also helps increase the listings’ conversions and allows:

  • Distribution through TravelMob
  • Distribution to HomeAway UK
  • Allows US-based Property Managers to access the “Boost” program
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