The fundamental aspect of a property rental website is the search feature. It must stand out loud and proud on the homepage, impossible to miss. The homepage may have plenty of other good and useful information, but people nowadays are in such a rush – when they want to find a new property to rent, they want it now! Once on the website, they want to be able to get down to business quickly and start the all important search to find their new home.
Since geographical area is typically the most important requirement for a would-be tenant, the search feature should request this first: either by prompting the typing of a zip/postal code or by offering a list of locations from a drop-down list renting in warrington. Once the visitor has entered the right zone, they are well on their way to locating a promising rental.
However if the user can’t move forward to narrow down their search options they will become frustrated and simply leave. People who are looking to rent will be browsing on several websites to see what is on offer and will stick with those that deliver a great search experience.
When you are in the business of renting properties online, get into the mindset of your target market. What would YOU want to search for when looking for a new home? Before you call in the website designers think carefully about the criteria you feel is important for customers to search by – do a little research and check out other websites to see which you think work well.
The best rental websites offer extensive options to allow the user to refine their search. You name it – someone out there wants to know if the property has it! So it is essential that your website offers sophisticated filters to allow people to see exactly which properties match their mental checklist.
The Deal Breakers
After choosing the right location, there are a number of ‘deal breakers’ for the potential tenant. If a property doesn’t match exactly what is being searched for, the user won’t look twice at it. These typically are:
• number of bedrooms
• number of bathrooms
• furnished or unfurnished
• pet policy
• rental price
The Nice-to-Haves
Then there are a range of supplementary features which may not be essential but could help swing the deal in either way such as:
• distance to town center
• garage
• gated access
• fitness centre
• high speed internet access
• emergency maintenance service
The only way the user can efficiently plough through the many rentals on offer to get a perfect match for their requirements is by having a search filter option to cover each and every feature.
Keep Tabs on the Current Search
A requirement for top-notch user-friendliness is to create a handy section on the website which lists the criteria of the current search. This should be shown alongside the search results and allows the user to keep tabs on which filters are switched on.
The Point of No Return
Another requirement is to make it easy for the user to switch off individual filters without cancelling the whole search. Perhaps they were dabbling with the idea of having a garage for their car, but this narrows the property choices too much. By allowing them to cancel the ‘garage’ filter, they merely take one step back to re-admit other properties into the results. There is nothing more frustrating that spending time and effort to narrow down a search, than having to go back to the beginning because the search feature doesn’t allow you to uncheck one single criteria.
When you are creating a website for renting properties, it is essential that you make it as easy as possible for the website visitor to easily search your property portfolio against their specific requirements. If your website can’t deliver, your rental success will be severely affected. Use an experienced website development company and work with them closely every step of the way to ensure that online visitors can easily choose their perfect rental. And this way you will delight the property owners with your rental successes time and time again.