PackLate uses Google maps for mapping the location of our great deals on last minute vacation rental inventory. We are always exploring new ways we can give consumers more information about the location of their last minute deal and how far they are from the most interesting points of interest around the property they want.
Someone on our customer service team was doing research today and stumbled upon this Google map hack. Too funny! This has been around since April 2009, but in case you have not seen this…
Go to Google Maps. Do a search for Seattle, Washington. Now get directions to New South Wales, Australia. When the directions come up, look on the LEFT side of your screen for the step-by-step directions. Pay particular attention to step 8 on how you are getting across the Pacific! (Here is a shortcut to the directions if you don’t feel like manually typing in the points yourself).
If you follow the directions exactly, when you get to Hawaii, may we suggest you get a great deal on a last minute vacation rental for a few nights? PackLate just opened in Maui. We think you may need the rest before you continue the trip! 
Do you have a favorite Google Maps hack? Feel free to share in the comments below!
– The PackLate Customer Service team
Have you ever taken your dog on vacation when grabbing a great last minute vacation rental deal and had them stay in a “vacation kennel?”
We just had a customer inquire about a property in Winter Park, Colorado asking if she could bring her dog. Unfortunately, the property manager has a “no pets” policy.
Taking your dog when staying in a vacation rental. Vacation kennels as an option?
Our customer service team could not help themselves. They went into the Map tab on the PackLate property page and searched on kennel. It turns out the Rocky Mountain Dog Ranch is 0.7 miles from the property she just rented and it sounds like her dog may have a nicer vacation than the family! The customer inspired us to add “Kennel” as a standard point of interest for mapping in all of our nearly 30 vacation destinations as “can I bring my pet?” is a common question.
Now we’re wondering if vacation kennels offer great last minute deals and if prices fall as the check-in date nears… `
Ruff! Ruff!
The PackLate Customer Service Team
While in our early phases of PackLate.com we have discovered that besides great last minute vacation rental deals, customers love our forward-leaning customer service. We admire Zappo’s and are taking a “Zappos approach” to customer service in the travel space. Great customer service in the vacation rental / travel space is very unusual.
But, the conundrum we face this week is: Where do we draw the line?
A family booked a great last minute deal on a large home in Orlando. They had a confirmed reservation for a particular home. At PackLate, you are typically booking a “door” (like a condo with a unit number, or a particular home). That’s different then in a hotel-centric world where you book a unit-type (like a room with a king bed at the Hilton).
When they got to Orlando, unfortunately, they did not get the exact house they booked. Instead, the local property manager placed them into an extremely similar house just a few doors down (still 5 bedrooms, still with a private pool). They were understandably upset. They “fell in love” with the one they booked and that’s what they wanted.
They called the property manager about getting moved to what they booked. That interaction did not go well. Eventually, they called PackLate for help. PackLate leaned forward hard, immediately got involved, and got the problem resolved, in under an hour, to the customer’s satisfaction. We were not able to get them into the actual house they booked, but we got the problem resolved to what they felt was a satisfactory solution given the late hour on a Sunday evening and their needs for the week. They did mention at the end of the interaction, they were hoping for some type of compensation for their troubles and for not getting the house they booked.
We spoke to them the following day and said, for their troubles, we would be happy to refund their first night’s stay. That was not good enough.
Normal check-in for these houses is 4 PM. They managed to get an early check-in (to the “wrong house”) at 2 PM. They told us yesterday they had Universal Studios tickets for 15 people at an average price of $54, and we should at least split those costs as they could not use the tickets since they were not sure if they should unpack or not and were left in a “waiting pattern” not knowing if they would be moving or not.
So, here’s the conundrum: If you are a young start-up, trying to differentiate with great customer service, where do you “draw the line” when a customer (who is understandably upset) keeps asking for “more?” We want to do what’s right by our customers, build a great brand and reputation, and be reasonable, but at the same time not be taken advantage of.
What would you do?
Love to hear your thoughts and comments.
When consumers use PackLate.com to look for great vacation rentals in places like Aspen, Park City, Breckenridge, Keystone, and other locations in the US Rockies (we’ll be expanding to other markets soon), guests continually ask questions like “How far is x?” or “Is y nearby?” Besides providing great last minute deals and prices for vacation rentals, we are also looking to provide a great user experience.
We want to answer consumer and guest questions as quickly as possible (and also anticipate those questions). Towards that end, we are constantly rolling out new functionality to get questions answered more quickly. So, we’ve enhanced the way we provide mapping functionality. Built and just released, when PackLate.com shows the map for a property, users can now click on “Nearby points of interest” under the map and PackLate will instantly map those items and their relative distance from the property. Want to find out how far the closest restaurants are, how far to ski rentals, where you can find a cafe / coffee shop? Just click on that category (right below the map), and PackLate will instantly map those locations and how far they are to your vacation rental. And, if we don’t have the item you are looking for on our lists, there is a “search window” just below the map where you can type in anything you want to search for. Looking at a property in Lake Tahoe and want to know how far it is to Harrah’s Casino? Just type in “Harrah’s Casino” in the search window and PackLate will instantly give you the distance.
So now consumers can instantly get answers to their “How far is x?” and “Is y nearby?” questions so they can make sure to get what they want, at a great price, and in a great location that works for them.
If you have functionality you would like to see, please post your ideas, suggestions, and comments to our Get Satisfaction forum at http://www.getsatisfaction.com/packlate
We hope you enjoy this new PackLate enhanced mapping.
Sincerely,
The PackLate Team
Packlate.com — A fun and exciting marketplace for last minute vacation rental deals.
While Gmail still can’t sort your inbox we’ve had multiple users reach out to us over the last few weeks and ask us if we could please add the ability to sort search results. Consumers, deal hounds, and procrastinators alike are searching for great last minute deals on vacation rentals and they want to be able to sort the properties & deals. So, today we rolled out a small change to our production servers so you can now sort on several criteria.
PackLate.com now sorts deals
Now when users search for great deals on last minute vacation rental properties in places like Lake Tahoe, Park City, Aspen, Breckenridge, Telluride, and more, they can sort the results by Discount (highest first), Price (highest first), or Price (lowest first). Enjoy! Please let us know what else we can do to provide you with better details and a better experience. And, we look forward to expanding to additional markets later this year. Please stay tuned!
http://www.PackLate.com
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@PackLate
February 2010
Consumers are in a great position to benefit from the huge oversupply of vacation home rentals in places like Aspen, Breckenridge, Telluride, Park City, Lake Tahoe and others across the US
US vacation rentals represent a $24 billion market but, in today’s recessionary economy, many vacation rental markets are seeing only 50% occupancy during prime season. Vacation rental demand is down while supply is up as more second homeowners put their properties into rental programs. Before PackLate.com (www.packlate.com), the vacation rental market was extremely inefficient at dynamic pricing based on supply and demand. PackLate.com brings new efficiency to the market matching last minute supply with demand in a fun and exciting environment.
PackLate.com today announced it has raised $685,000 of seed capital to build out and launch its travel marketplace focusing on last minute vacation rentals. Philadelphia-based Genacast Ventures led the round along with First Round Capital and ETF Venture Funds. PackLate.com will use the financing to drive customer awareness, fuel the growth of its supplier network, open additional markets, and continue building marketplace functionality.
“Consumers save money by finding and tracking great deals, and confidently booking closer to their vacation date,” said PackLate.com founder and CEO Steve Barsh. “This funding will allow PackLate.com to provide greater options and better vacation rental deals for today’s cost-conscious travelers. PackLate.com is building on the existing trends of today’s vacation traveler booking closer to their arrival date and looking for deals to save money.”
PackLate.com has turned the vacation booking experience into a game that challenges players to watch for opportunities and to book at the right time to get what they want and win a great deal. Prices fluctuate with market conditions. When there is an oversupply situation, prices drop transparently as the arrival date draws closer. PackLate.com empowers consumers to closely track moving vacation home rental prices all the way down to hugely discounted levels and to play with and against other members trying to book last minute vacation rentals.
Gil Beyda and Peter Giamalva are joining PackLate.com’s board of directors. Beyda was CTO, EVP Engineering, and eventually EVP Corporate Strategy & Development of TACODA driving its groundbreaking, behavioral targeting ad network technology culminating in a partnership with eBay and the acquisition of TACODA by AOL. Prior to that Beyda helped pioneer Internet advertising in 1995, founding Real Media which he helped grow to $54 million in revenue before selling it to 24/7 Media (NASDAQ:TFSM). Giamalva joined Wyndham’s (NYSE:WYN) Group RCI in 1999 and held the positions of chief marketing officer; general manager, leisure rental division; and chief operating officer, RCI – Europe and Middle East. As Chief Operating Officer, Giamalva managed a business with a vast array of leisure accommodations including more than 60,000 vacation homes and hundreds of resorts affiliated to the RCI exchange network.
Gil Beyda, Managing Partner of Genacast Ventures, emphasized the company’s win-win proposition: “It was the large market opportunity – giving millions of consumers a new platform to save money and confidently book closer to their travel date – that motivated us to invest. PackLate.com is also helping vacation rental managers sell their surplus vacation rental inventory providing greater revenue to those firms and the owners they represent.”
Peter Giamalva said “I’ve been in leisure travel for over 20 years. The PackLate.com business model embodies innovative solutions and out-of-box thinking that addresses historic vacation rental distribution needs. I’ve watched the PackLate.com team execute over the last 5 months and I’m extremely impressed and excited to join the board.”
“Gil and Peter have strong track records in growing technology-related and global leisure travel businesses and brands,” said Steve Barsh. “We are incredibly fortunate to have them both as board members.”
About PackLate.com
PackLate.com is a last minute vacation rental marketplace where consumers watch prices change as the check-in date nears. PackLate.com empowers consumers to save money, find and track great deals, and confidently book closer to their vacation date while realizing they are not alone in their quest to find what they want at a great price. The company launched its first geography, The US Rockies, in January 2010. PackLate.com is backed by Genacast Ventures, First Round Capital, ETF Venture Funds, and several angel investors.
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Source:
PackLate.com, Inc.
Web: http://www.packlate.com
Blog: http://blog.packlate.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/packlate
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/packlate
Media resources including logo, photos, and screen shots available at http://www.packlate.com/pages/media-resources
Over the last few weeks, we quietly opened PackLate.com with inventory across many markets in the US Rockies. We are satisfied with our performance and tweaks over the last several weeks. We have deal hounds that have been on the site booking properties, setting price drop watches, asking questions, and giving us their feedback. Now we want more! 
We are just starting to get a bit of press coverage, and look forward to more deal-seeking consumers checking out what we are offering. We have plans for a lot of exciting functionality on the site and new markets that we are planning to open. We’ll make sure to keep you up to date through many channels including this blog, our Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/packlate) and Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/packlate). If you want to share ideas or issues with us, please post to our Get Satisfaction area at http://www.getsatisfaction.com/packlate
Thanks for stopping by. We look forward to bringing you great deals packed with fun and excitement. Remember, why book now, when now you can pack late and save!
The entire PackLate.com team has been hard at work this week readying the marketplace and content around last minute vacation rentals. After 5 months of work, we are nearly ready to show you what we have been up to. This is just v 1.0 of PackLate.com, and we have a long list of ideas and features that we want to implement. But we want to take PackLate.com live now so we can see what you think and start delivering value. Your feedback will be invaluable to us so we can fine tune what PackLate.com is all about and deliver maximum value to everyone.
