Here at Touch Stay, it feels like we’ve only just reached the tip of the iceberg in achievement and growth. Yet with 2022 all wrapped up, we’re clearing the cobwebs, commencing our changeovers and making way for what will surely be a brilliant new year!
We’re pretty jazzed about all that we accomplished in 2022. Have a look at some of our amazing figures below – we ended the year with:
- 4800 customers
- 28,000 active guidebooks
- 2.3M people having opened and used a Touch Stay digital guidebook
While we certainly worked hard and played hard too, we also faced challenges along the way, gleaning valuable lessons and learning experiences in the process – after all, we are only human!
We hope you’ve enjoyed the ride as much as we have. Our team is eternally grateful for every cheery and positive review left by our customers resulting from their guests’ usage of their digital guidebook, and for every suggestion or new idea put forward by our Touch Stay Rock Stars.
Your interactions and experience with our digital guidebooks is what gets us out of bed in the morning (even more so than a delectable cup of coffee) and drives us to continually analyse, tweak and iterate our digital guidebook templates and software for the better.
While we truly can’t wait to see what’s in store for 2023, in the spirit of reflection, let’s take a peek at some of the exciting moments 2022 delivered at Touch Stay!
Table of Contents
New Guidebook Features
From the release of Memo 1.0, to the addition of new language options, to extra special integrations with industry partners, let’s look back at a handful of the amazing updates that unfolded in 2022.
The Release of Memo 1.0
We preach about the importance of developing a guest communications flow on a fairly regular basis – hopefully we haven’t talked your ear off yet!
We can’t reflect on 2022 and the ability to develop a cohesive guest communications journey without mentioning the launch of Memo 1.0! It was a significant turning point in Touch Stay’s growth as our very own guest notification system first saw the light of day.
The introduction of Memo meant you were now able to schedule unlimited, customised emails (or take advantage of our Memo templates to get started!). It also entailed the ability to send unlimited SMS messages containing your Touch Stay guest welcome book link.
Memo enhanced your ability to communicate with guests at all stages of their stay. From the moment a guest booked to long after their departure, Memo helped lay the groundwork for the development of your very own guest communications flow.
In addition, Memo amplified your ability to set your guest communications flow in motion, answering guests’ questions and queries before they’d even think to ask them and helping you to create a winning guest experience in the process.
Memo 1.0 Updates
Since its initial launch, we’ve continued to tinker with Memo to bring it up to speed, in order to meet the needs of you and your guests.
For starters, we added the ability to include deep links in Memo’s message templates, enabling you to point guests in the direction of highly valuable, specific pieces of information, located within your digital guest welcome book.
In the event a last-minute guest booking came in and you were nowhere near a computer to kick off your guest messaging journey, we also optimised Memo for viewing and usage on mobile devices.
Ensuring no time is wasted between guest booking and guest communications flow commencement, we enabled you to easily create templates and schedule guest invitations from your mobile phone.
Since its initial launch, we’ve continued to tinker with Memo to bring it up to speed, in order to meet the needs of you and your guests.
For starters, we added the ability to include deep links in Memo’s message templates, enabling you to point guests in the direction of highly valuable, specific pieces of information, located within your digital guest welcome book.
In the event a last-minute guest booking came in and you were nowhere near a computer to kick off your guest messaging journey, we also optimised Memo for viewing and usage on mobile devices.
Ensuring no time is wasted between guest booking and guest communications flow commencement, we enabled you to easily create templates and schedule guest invitations from your mobile phone.
Mobile Hub Optimisation
In 2022, you requested, we listened! A regularly sought after update, we didn’t just make Memo work from your mobile, we mobile optimised the entire hub! With an easier to use interface and accessibility on the go, this greatly improved the user experience as it enhanced your ability to edit or update digital guidebooks on the fly.
Our Touch Stay Rock Stars were simply jazzed over this new update. Here’s what some of them had to say:
“This is amazing! It’s so easy and convenient. Thank you Touch Stay Dev team and everyone involved.”
“Just tried it. Looks great and perfect for quick modifications on the go. Already added to my homescreen”.
Languages
Behind the scenes, Touch Stay is a truly diverse team spread across multiple time zones, countries and continents. We keep this in mind as we continue to design and create digital guest welcome books that speak to all guests, regardless of their backgrounds, cultures and native languages.
In 2022, we released 3 new language choices in Chinese, Bulgarian and Indonesian, ensuring our digital guidebooks continued to offer an inclusive guest experience.
Additionally, our multi-language selection was transformed into a drop-down menu. A simple scroll option rather than numerous checkboxes, improved the user experience of our digital guidebooks and saved you time.
This update will become more important as time goes on, as we continue to add new languages to the drop-down menu.
We also enabled users to view their current location on the map tab. This provided a quick and efficient way for guests to get their bearings, regardless of if they were located on your property or exploring offsite.
Maps
Further adding to an enhanced guest experience, the map tab of your digital guidebook also got a makeover in 2022!
Custom Zoom Level
For starters, we granted you the ability to set custom zoom levels on your guidebook’s map tab.
If you’d already added map pins to your map but the zoom level didn’t accurately reflect your pins, the zoom level could now be manually adjusted to a fixed value. The map would also self-adjust depending on if it was being viewed on a laptop or mobile device.
We also enabled users to view their current location on the map tab. This provided a quick and efficient way for guests to get their bearings, regardless of if they were located on your property or exploring offsite.
Hidden Map Tab
On the other hand, if you didn’t use your map tab in a way that warranted keeping it in your digital guidebook and wanted to remove it, we gave you the power to do so in 2022!
Armed with a new and improved ability to hide the map tab altogether, our digital guidebooks improved the user experience for those interacting and engaging with a guidebook that wasn’t accommodation or venue specific.
Indeed, our guidebooks get used for all manner of communication challenges, like an instruction manual for cleaners of your holiday let.
Guidebook Updates
Let’s take a closer look at how we tweaked, primped and preened our digital guidebooks for your usage throughout 2022! A lot of exciting updates took place thanks to our development team – let’s get into it!
Browsing Experience
The overall browsing experience of our digital guest welcome books received a glow-up. In particular, upgrades to our server’s infrastructure offered a huge performance boost!
Adjustments made to our progressive web app technology equaled a smoother guest experience when guests viewed your digital guidebook. For example, guidebooks no longer loaded twice when opened in iOS, and guests’ offline access to digital guidebooks became more robust.
Our development team also moved the search function to its own tab, and added a ‘Share’ option to the info tab in our guidebook templates.
This not only made it easier for your guests to search value-rich keywords leading to information specific to their wants and needs. It also made the straightforward process of sharing our digital guidebooks even more effortless.
Field Codes
Originally added as a feature to be used as part of our Memo templates, in 2022 we expanded field codes for use in our digital guidebooks, as well.
While your Touch Stay account comes automatically equipped with a number of standard field codes, we granted you the ability to add and edit your own customised field codes to meet the wants and needs of your guests.
This added an exciting new layer of freedom when customising your digital guidebook, as you could now choose where the data would be set and the type of data, depending on the purpose of the field code.
New Integrations
What a year it was for integrations with our digital guidebooks! 2022 saw the introduction of new Touch Stay integrations with industry faves Hostaway and Anytime, alongside updates to existing integrations like OwnerRez and BookingSync.
As the all-in-one vacation rental software solution for growing property managers, the Hostaway integration with Touch Stay provided ours and Hostaway’s existing users the ability to import properties, then automate the sending of invitations for confirmed guest bookings.
It also enabled users to match any existing Touch Stay guides to their Hostaway listing once authorised.
We also enabled Hostaway mailboxes as customer’s reply-to addresses within each Memo template. Our customers likely did a little jig over this one as it meant if a guest replied to a Memo email, the guests’ reply appeared in their Hostaway inbox for that reservation.
Another epic Touch Stay integration released in 2022, Anytime provides simple, fully-supported booking management tools to streamline direct and third-party bookings.
Used and loved by property hosts spanning from holiday homeowners, glamping managers and camping and caravan site owners, the Anytime Booking integration enabled users to import their properties and send automated invitations and emails to guests with confirmed bookings.
Integration Updates
As part of our integration updates in 2022, Touch Stay’s existing integration with OwnerRez was upgraded to optionally pass a Touch Stay guidebook invitation link back to OwnerRez for use in the platform’s messaging system.
This option granted OwnerRez customers more freedom to keep their messaging centralised, as well as the option to use the OwnerRez messaging system instead of (or in addition to!) Memo.
Our integration with BookingSync also received a glow-up in 2022 with the ability to connect custom field codes.
This update enabled the creation of custom field codes that allowed you to import certain unique information from a CSV file or from your BookingSync account.
This was a game changer for BookingSync and Touch Stay users, as you could now embed your Memo message templates with customised field codes, personalising your content and your guest communication flow in the process.
Looking Ahead
It’s going to be a spectacular year, we can feel it! So, what can you expect from Touch Stay in 2023? With new integrations, updates and refreshes on the horizon, one thing’s for certain – a brilliant guest experience will continue to take centre stage in developing our digital guidebooks.
We hope you’ll come along for the ride as we hit the ‘refresh’ button and do it all over again in 2023!