Seekom

🌳Want to up your business’s sustainability efforts without leaving your desk? Seekom has partnered with Trees That Count to make it quick, easy and affordable for your NZ-based accommodation business to have a tangible environmental impact - something that's growing more and more important to guests when searching for somewhere to stay.

Every native tree funded is planted in a restoration project in Aotearoa - improving water quality, protecting land from erosion, enhancing biodiversity and creating shared green spaces.

👉Read full instructions on how to get started on our blog: https://www.seekom.com/seekom-trees-that-count-helping-nz-accommodation-guests-give-back/

⭐ Great news - Seekom users can now manage promo codes again! We've added the feature back onto our new booking screens, making it easy for guests to enter them when making online bookings.

Promo codes are a great way to support an advertising campaign, promotion, or offer a discount to a returning guest.

👉Read all about promo codes, as well as other recent enhancements on our blog: https://www.seekom.com/seekom-promo-codes-and-enhancements/

🔐 In 2024 security means much more than cameras and locking systems - it means ensuring your guest's data (and that of your business) is safe and protected from a potential cyber attack. As we lead into the busy holiday season, there's no better time to ensure your accommodation's cyber security is up to scratch.

Take a read of Hotel Tech Report's article to get up to speed with current threats and best practices in the industry. After all, the risk of a cybersecurity incident is too great and too damaging to ignore.

👉 Read the full article here: https://hoteltechreport.com/news/hotel-cybersecurity

Hotel Cybersecurity: Threats, Examples and Best Practices Browse by department, read reviews, compare products and get demos to find the best digital products to run and grow your hotel business

🎃Happy Halloween! For all the Halloween and horror enthusiasts out there, we thought we’d take a look at some spooky-themed hotels from the USA and Canada to get you into the Halloween spirit! 👻

🔸The Roxbury at Stratton Falls, New York, USA
Each of the cottages at this whimsical retreat boasts a unique theme - including ‘Dracula’s Fangs’, a cottage designed to fuel your vampire fantasies.

🔸Saintlo Ottawa Jail Hostel, Canada
Book a room in a real cell block! Housed in the historic Carleton County Gaol, this 150-year-old jail is a hostel experience like no other.

🔸Castle Wood Cottages, California, USA
The 'Haunted Manor' at Castle Wood Cottages is a two-story mini mansion complete with its own mausoleum, crypt, graveyard and necropolis!

Do you have themed rooms at your accommodation? We’d love to see them 👀

Over the past few months the Seekom team has been making some changes to make sure you have reliable and timely support for your accommodation business.

We’ve been busy reviewing our support processes, enhancing the training we provide to our staff, introducing a new remote support solution and updating our support KPIs to ensure you can be confident that if something goes wrong or you need help, you will receive the support you need, when you need it.

We know there’s still plenty of work to do but it has been fantastic to see some encouraging early results and positive feedback from customers using our support services this month. Your continued loyalty means a great deal to us, and we’re committed to providing you with the high-quality support you deserve 👍

Who doesn’t like a long weekend? Monday 28 October is Labour Day in New Zealand - when we commemorate efforts by workers to make eight hours the standard working day. Hopefully the 3-day weekend means more guests holidaying at your place 🚗

As it’s a public holiday, our New Zealand-based support team will be operating at a slightly reduced capacity, with support available from 10am to 5pm NZDT. Our emergency phone will still be available for any system outages – please visit https://web.seekom.com/support/ and scroll down the page for the phone number and further detail if needed.

We’ll be back as normal from 9am on Tuesday 29 October. Enjoy the long weekend and here’s hoping for some sunshine 😎

🤳 Did you know there are more than 7 billion phones in the world, 91% of adults keep their phones within arm’s reach at all times, and 98% of SMS messages are opened in the first three minutes?!!!

That’s a whole lot of reasons to consider using more SMS messaging at your accommodation business. Seekom’s latest SMS upgrade can help improve the guest experience and make life easier for your staff.

👉To find out how you can harness our new SMS messaging at your place, read the full blog here:
https://www.seekom.com/maximise-guest-experience-seekom-enhanced-sms-messaging/

Did you know that October is International Cyber Security Awareness Month? It’s a great reminder for all of us to make sure our devices and accounts are protected from potential cyber threats. 💻

You don’t have to do it alone though… Seekom has your back with a host of IT security measures to help your accommodation business stay one step ahead of scammers, eliminate cyber threats and protect your data. Behind the scenes we use extra layers of security as well as employing third party security specialists to run independent checks on our systems. We make it easy to comply with General Data Protection Regulation and Payment Card Industry requirements as part of our commitment to best practice.

Did your town make the cut? The Australian Tourism Industry Council recently announced its Top Tourism Towns for 2024! These annual awards celebrate the regional towns that help shape the landscape of Australian tourism.

A big congratulations to:
🥇Devonport, Tasmania - Top Tourism Town (population over 5,000)
🥇Exmouth, Western Australia - Small Tourism Town (population under 5,000 but over 1,500)
🥇Huskisson, New South Wales - Tiny Tourism Town (population under 1,500)
For a full list of winners, visit https://www.toptourismtowns.com.au

What makes the town your accommodation is in stand out?

🧳With the holiday season approaching fast, now’s the perfect time to dive into your Seekom system to ensure everything is set up for a stress-free summer (or winter, for our northern hemisphere customers!).

From express guest check-in and seasonal rates, through to minimum stays and management of any close-down periods, Seekom offers a range of features that can improve your profitability, save time for your staff, and add convenience for your guests.

👉Read more here: https://www.seekom.com/getting-set-for-the-summer-rush-at-your-accommodation/

⛺A big congratulations to all the New Zealand holiday parks that received honours at last week’s TOP 10 Holiday Parks Conference!

Seekom was proud to sponsor the ReviewPro Cleanliness Award, won by Himatangi Beach Top 10 Holiday Park. It was great to see the following Seekom users among the winners this year as well:

🏅The Supreme Award - Runner up: Geraldine Top 10 Holiday Park
🏅Most Improved Club Membership Seller - Small Park - Runner Up: Orere Point Top 10 Holiday Park
🏅Most Improved Club Membership Seller - Medium Park - Winner: Paihia TOP10 Holiday Park. Runner Up: Whangārei TOP 10 Holiday Park
🏅ReviewPro Cleanliness - Runner Up: Geraldine TOP 10 Holiday Park
🏅ReviewPro Customer Service - Runner Up: Geraldine TOP 10 Holiday Park
🏅Top Guest Experience - Classic Park - Runner Up: Whangārei TOP 10 Holiday Park
🏅Top Guest Experience - Superior Park - Runner Up: Kauri Coast TOP 10 Holiday Park
🏅Most Highly Recommended - Winner: Geraldine TOP 10 Holiday Park

Thanks so much to everyone who came to our booth to have a chat. The lucky winner of our Little Koha gift box was Gordon from Timaru TOP 10 Holiday Park. Enjoy! 🎁

AccomNews recently shared a story about an increase in scam attempts affecting accommodation providers and their guests. According to the article, some of these have involved scammers infiltrating accommodation providers’ Booking.com accounts, before sending messages to guests requesting credit card or other payment details.

News like this is a timely reminder to ensure your systems are secure, with strong passwords in place. It’s also worth prompting your staff about the risk of phishing scams and to think twice before clicking any links in emails from sources you are unfamiliar with. 🔒

👉 Read the full article here:
https://www.accomnews.com.au/2024/08/booking-com-under-attack-the-unseen-threat-to-australias-accommodation-sector/

Booking.com under attack: The unseen threat to Australia's accommodation sector Warning: $337K scam surge, online fraudsters are targeting Aussie hotels, how can the industry combat this escalating threat?

We’re thrilled to announce our upgraded Seekom property management software SMS system to help you improve the way you communicate with guests at your accommodation.

This latest enhancement lets you take advantage of opportunities to upsell and gather guest feedback through:

👫 Texting multiple recipients at once
📱 Receiving and managing replies to one-on-one messages
🗓️ Text scheduling

👉Keen to find out more? Have a read of our blog at: https://www.seekom.com/seekoms-new-smart-sms-system-is-here/

We're super excited to be at the TOP 10 Holiday Parks 2024 Annual Conference at the Grand Millenium, Auckland!

If you're heading along, we'd love to see you. Pop over to Booth #9, have a chat, grab a sweet and go in the draw to win a gift box from Little Koha 🎁. We'll be here until the end of day Wednesday - hope to see you soon 😀

If your accommodation's website is part of Seekom's managed service, you’ll be interested in this one! One of the latest enhancements we’ve integrated into your setup is the Ecommerce report feature in Google Analytics 4 (GA4). This new feature can provide valuable insights into your booking performance and is well worth exploring!

👉Read more about how this new Ecommerce reporting can help your business thrive here:
https://www.seekom.com/unlock-ga4-ecommerce-reports-accommodation-bookings-seekom/

👋 Is your business using schema tags on its website? If not, now's the time to start!

Schema tags (also known as schema markup or structured markup) are a powerful tool to enhance your online presence and improve search engine visibility.

👉Find out how schema tags can benefit your business by reading our helpful blog at https://www.seekom.com/maximize-online-visibility-schema-tags/

🧳Tourism comes in all shapes and sizes, so we thought we'd take a look at some of the quirkiest festivals from around the globe. With painted bellies in Japan, cheese rolling in the UK, a monkey feast in Thailand, fruitcake tossing in the USA, wild foods in New Zealand and a 'sh*tbox rally' in Australia - there's something for everyone in this eclectic mix.

Do you have a weird or wonderful festival that brings visitors to your town? We'd love to hear about it! 🎎🦗🏎️🐒

🔒Security is paramount for us here at Seekom, so we've recently taken some extra steps to keep both our systems and our customers safe in the face of cyber threats.

The consequences of a security breach can be major and include financial loss, reputational damage and losing the trust of your customers. It's not worth the risk!

👉Find out more about what we're doing to stay cyber-safe here: https://www.seekom.com/seekom-takes-security-seriously-phishing-simulations-it-health-checks/