🟦 What are the requirements to join Smoky Mountain Cabins By Owner?

The SMCBO website is a DIRECTORY of privately-owned cabins whose owners...

1. Own and self-manage short-term vacation rental(s) in the Tennessee Smokies.

2. Offer direct booking on their own website using OwnerRez software. 

3. Do not charge booking or service fees on their website.

4. Do not have links to other online booking sites on their website. (Vrbo, Airbnb, etc.)

5. Have at least 5 reviews and an average star rating of 4.5 or higher.

6. Pay the annual fee of $5 PER PROPERTY.

7. Have the OwnerRez shared widget and menu link installed on their website.

 

🟦 More details about the shared widget

The Availability/Property Search Widget features a tiled view of property thumbnails along with a short description. The default sorting is 12 random properties per page and the sort is changed throughout the day. Users can choose to sort the properties alphabetically. Most users will choose criteria in order to filter their search.

■ The shared widget plus additional information is found on our standalone "book direct" directory website. Guests can be easily referred to the site. www.smokymountaincabinsbyowner.com

■ Example owner pages with widget installed:

www.smoky-mountains-cabin.com/rentals-by-owner

www.highviewcabins.com/morecabins

 

🟦 What are the benefits of the SMCBO Shared Widget?  

■ REFERRALS MADE EASY

The Property Search helps with referrals when your property is occupied or doesn’t meet the guest's specific needs. Just mention the site to inquiring guests and you are done! No need to remember peer property sizes or availability. Guests can search by themselves. It is THAT simple!

■ FACEBOOK & INSTAGRAM POSTS

SMCBO regularly does Facebook posts promoting members' properties on a rotation basis. Our FB page currently has over 2,900 followers.    www.facebook.com/SmokyCabinsByOwner

www.instagram.com/smokymountainsbyowner

■ SHARING ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Our admins and group members follow many of the FB groups and Instagram pages for Smokies travelers and often post a link to our website in response to someone’s search for a cabin. We encourage all of our members to share the website in the various FB groups when their own properties don’t match the traveler’s needs.

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🟦 Can owners who use other property/ channel management software join? 
The short answer is NO. While there are many other property/channel management types of software used by owners (IVOL, Lodgify, etc), the property sharing/ referral site ONLY works with OwnerRez because its programming is based on OwnerRez. 

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🟦 What this site does NOT do... 

■ SMCBO is NOT a listing site and is not an Online Travel Agency (OTA). 

■ We have no way to track how many site visitors actually visit any owner's website linked here. 

■ SMBCO does not have any type of customer support and does not handle inquiries or bookings. All inquiries/bookings are channeled through each respective participant’s website and their OwnerRez portal.

■ We do not do any paid advertising through any search engine or social media sites.

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🟦 What does the annual fee cover? 

Smoky Mountain Cabins By Owner is a DIRECTORY of by-owner properties. Those who join this alliance of owners should understand that this site is not for profit and is managed by several owners who volunteer their time and efforts. 

The annual fee covers the cost of the domain name and website hosting. The current fee is $5 annually per property.

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🟦 What is OwnerRez Software?

OwnerRez is "vacation rental software that is beautifully fast and flexible. Explore features like channel management, messaging, websites, branding, reporting, automation and so much more. OwnerRez vacation rental software has all you need to manage your properties in one spot without spreadsheets and clunky software."  
Click here to read more about OwnerRez