Since we started to build our platform back in 2015, we’ve had one mission — to streamline the process of long-term renting and make it transparent for everyone involved. And it seems like we’ve already made huge strides towards this goal.
But it turns out that good is not great, and we want the latter. As soon as we launched all the features that were a part of the initial plan, we realized there was a room for improvement. Our own standards of quality changed on the way, and now we want more property listings, better user experience, and improved findability on the web.
To cut a long story short, that’s exactly what our new release is about: search redesign, another round of MLS integration, and improved SEO. More on each point below.
Search Redesign
It’s been one of the biggest milestones in our development plan to change the way people search for properties with Rentberry. Initially, right after the platform’s launch in 2016, you had to know a precise address of a rental to be able to find it and apply for it through the platform.
Today, thanks to our improved search tool, you only need to start typing a name of a city you’re interested in. The system then provides autosuggestion and you choose a line that corresponds to your search criteria the most.
As a search result page is divided into two screens, you can save time and effort when searching for your perfect rental. In the right part of the screen, you see a map showing a precise location of each property relevant to your search query. And as you move the map, the left part of the screen changes to show listings available in the area highlighted on the map.
In case you see too many options to choose from (which is quite possible thanks to our ever growing number of listings), you can filter the results by price, bed and bath number, pet policy, and more than 20 amenities. With new filters, you don’t waste time on looking through listings that don’t really match your search criteria.
“Rentberry’s new search takes you one step closer to your new home. Dynamic maps and multiple filters allow you to narrow your search down to properties satisfying your most specific requirements. It saves time and helps you find a perfect match among the large variety of available options.”
Alex K., Product Designer at Rentberry
MLS Properties Integration
We are proud of our collaboration with Listhub, the national leader in real estate marketing. But our efforts are not limited to working with the biggest and the strongest. We also work with regional MLS (Multiple Listing Service) providers to ensure that our platform covers all major and minor cities coast to coast.
Thanks to that approach as a whole and our most recent MLS integration, in particular, we’ve broken through the 100,000 properties barrier. It is a huge milestone taking us one step closer to becoming America’s biggest rental platform. That’s why this release is significant for our team and, hopefully, for the rental industry as a whole.
And it is worth mentioning that we pay special attention to individual property owners coming to our platform. If you’re a landlord who’s recently joined us, the next line is for you: your trust and interest in Rentberry mean the world to our team.
SEO & Content
For the simplicity’s sake, we can just say that our recent release made Rentberry even more search-friendly. This means you’ll be able to find relevant Rentberry listings via Google, Bing, or other search engine platform easier and faster.
What’s more, as a part of our SEO release, we’ve rolled out a series of landing pages. Now, when potential tenants are searching for rental properties in one of America’s major cities, they see a brief guide featuring the most important and interesting facts about a chosen location. We hope it will help people looking for rentals outside their hometowns feel the vibes and taste of a city before actually moving there.
Insights from Denis G., Senior Backend Developer at Rentberry
What was the biggest challenge during this release?
Since we develop a rental platform, it’s rather natural that properties and geographical locations are a big deal for us. That’s why we have integration with Google Maps API. This API, in its turn, has numerous object types such as regions, counties, areas, neighborhoods, and etc. And that makes a whole lot of data we have to sort and classify. So, while working on this release, we had to come up with the best possible logic to process and classify all these object types, so they can make up SEO-friendly URLs.
Was there anything else?
Another challenge we’ve been through is related to clusterization. Here at Rentberry, we look up to industry leaders and standards they offer. We aim for the same level of quality at the very least and the higher one at best. But all of the industry leaders have been up and running long before Rentberry’s launch. Needless to say, such companies have more resources in terms of money and employees. We didn’t want this fact to get in the way of our progress. What we wanted instead was a well-thought-out clustering algorithm that would make our platform meet and exceed the highest standards. And in spite of being limited in our resources, we’ve managed to build a solution our team is content with.
What lessons have been learned?
Over the course of a few months, we’ve been testing the new approach to rolling out new features. Instead of working on one big release and postponing it until everything is perfect, we’ve tried working on small releases that are a part of a bigger milestone. And it turned out that this approach works better for our company. We’re moving forward way faster, and it keeps the whole team more motivated and organized.
What helps your team be efficient?
If I can only name one thing, it is communication. Seriously, communication is key. Talk to your team, double-check everything you’re uncertain about, be clear about your expectations. This is the only way to make sure that all employees stay on the same page.
Originally published at rentberry.com on May 24, 2017.
