At LSI, we’re always working with clients to find new applications and additions for our suite of tools, and this partnership lets us tailor our tools to provide what property managers need to work at their efficient best.

And two of our most powerful and popular tools – Readiness Plus and Schedule Pro – are undergoing a host of additions, starting with the “Advance Ready” option in Readiness Plus.

The Advance Ready option is a perfectly timed addition for the wintertime off-season.

This time of year, many of our clients are winding down their business, with just a scattering of reservations instead of 100% occupancy across the board.

As a result, housekeeping and maintenance departments have more flexibility when it comes to scheduling cleans, inspections, and other required tasks. Instead of a flood of activity on check-in day to get everything accomplished in between the past guest and the incoming guest, housekeepers can tend to properties days or even weeks before the next guest’s arrival.

And this is where the Advance Ready feature comes into play.

The new Advance Ready feature in Readiness Plus allows you to mark that a home is ready before the actual check-in day. This option will appear if the home is ready for occupancy, and has a future arrival, and not an arrival on the current day.

Once the property is marked as Advance Ready, it will not display a checkmark as a confirmation that it is ready for check-in. Instead, it will display a message starting with “On__” followed by the month and day for the next reservation check-in (I.E. “On 12/02.”) This way, you can tell which rentals are advance date ready properties, and which are current date ready properties.

This feature seems simple enough, and can certainly help housekeeping, maintenance and reservation departments stay organized, but it also has the potential to be an upsell feature as well.

After all, this is the time of year when many visitors have a little bit more flexibility when it comes to vacation time. With holidays and school breaks, guests might be able to squeeze in a couple extra days at their favorite vacation spot, and can make last minute additions.

We can imagine property management companies sending out a marketing email or phone call letting guests know that their house is open or available days before their check-in, in case they want to extend a stay.

We can also see property management companies using this application as a way to entice more last minute reservations for homes that are ready days or even weeks before the next check-in. With little effort, reservations can know at a glance which homes are ready to go for visitors who may be in the mood for a spur-of-a-moment getaway.

Of course, the success of our tools and added features all depends on our clients’ feedback. So if you like this option, have suggestions for new features, or have innovative ways that you use this or any of our other tools, please let us know!

We’re always excited to find new ways to help our clients, and it’s because of your insight that we are able to grow and enhance our tools to new heights and applications.