We are sure that there is always room for improvement and further development. In that sense, WP Rentals theme comes with a new update with 10+ added features, edits and fixes that offer even more functionalities than before.
Our updates are always inspired by our customers who we keep close to thanks to our customer support. Your suggestions encourage us to fine-tune our products, and we would like to present you with our new version of WP Rentals:
The latest changes and additions will make it easier for you to build a flexible and secure real-estate website. We have new shortcodes for new functions, new beautifully designed shortcodes and SEO increasing tools.
Fresh features in WP Rentals 1.21.1:
License key verification
License verification is done with your purchase key code only one time.
License verification is done in one single step by introducing the key code after you have downloaded the theme. You must use the same code in the registration form in the customer support.
Keep in mind to clear browser cache after you make the theme update to be sure you are loading the latest additions correctly and be able to enter the key.
Built-in caching system
This new feature improves the loading speed of your site, ensuring a better SEO score.
You can quickly delete cache with a dedicated button placed in the top bar in the admin area.
This system will automatically clear cache once in 4 hours and you can do it manually every time is needed.
A fast website will lead to higher user satisfaction, and this means more bookings and more earnings with your rentals site.
Contact owner button
With this new option website, users can contact the property owner directly from the property page. As a visitor, you are no longer required to log in to communicate with the homeowner.
Once you click on the Contact Owner button, a dedicated window appears that will send the message to the owner. A direct communication way will boost user experience as it makes it easier to engage with the site.
Duplicate email option
A renting business means loads of messages, inquiries, confirmations (or cancelations) sent between users: property owners and their customers. As the website owner, you will have to manage this activity too and keep track in case of errors and confusions.
With this new option, the site admin can receive a copy of all email messages sent through the theme. To activate it go to Theme Options – Social&Contact – Contact Page Details and fill in the email address you want to use. You will then receive an email notification every time a message is sent through the theme.
Date format management
The cultural (and legal) customs for date formats vary from country to country. For example, Canadians write the current date in YMD format while most European countries use the DMY pattern. The good news is that you can set your website to display various international date formats.
With this new feature, you will be able to manage how the dates will show in theme date-pickers. The default is yy-dd-mm, and you can set the time to be in the following formats: yy-mm-dd, mm-dd-yy, dd-mm-yy, dd-yy-mm, mm-yy-dd.
This option applies to the booking calendar on the property page, to advanced search form, and to user dashboard. The property owner can manually set bookings in his user account – use My Properties-Edit property-Calendar or to arrange a different price for a specific period.
Help: https://help.wprentals.org/article/theme-options-booking-settings/
Featured Property and featured blog post
Your homepage is the first page of your site, and it should make a statement of your business identity. Increase your homepage relevance with the best you have to offer: a featured property or the best article you have written lately.
To help you with that we have added two new shortcodes that you can place on any page. Just select the feature property shortcode and featured blog post shortcode from the element list and type property or blog id number.
Type 3 design will display a full-width slider with the property/article image.
Example: https://wprentals.org/featured-blog-post/ and https://wprentals.org/featured-property/
Properties slider design type 2
We have added a new design for the property slider that has a narrower text box and search form and different navigation buttons that give a more open space appearance.
The design type will be selected from the drop-down menu in General settings- Theme slider.
As for design type 1, you must make sure the image uploaded in theme slider has the recommended width (1920 px size).
New design for the places shortcode (city and area)
Now you can display the hottest cities in a new attractive style. Featured place shortcode has a unique design (type 3) that lets you add four place cards in a row to display on your Featured Place page.
When adding Featured Place page use the shortcode from the elements list and fill in the id of the place you wish to display on the front. Same as for type 1 & 2, you can take the featured image from the city /area menus, or you can set a featured picture as well.
Ex: https://wprentals.org/places-shortcodes/
New shortcode slider for the places (city and area)
On the featured places page, you can display the best cities to go in a beautiful slider. We have added a dedicated shortcode for this: Display places slider that is easy to add to your page.
Just select the shortcode from the element list and add the cities (or areas) you want to include.
Hit publish, and you will have an interactive slider with the featured places. Make sure the featured images have the same sizes.
White labeled wp-admin backend.
The personalization of a website is one of the first settings to be addressed by a website owner. You can manage your logos in General settings-Logos & Favicon.
You should keep in mind to always add your custom logos in all available places.
One such place is the wp-admin backend, and with 1.21.1 theme version, we have added the option to show custom client logo instead of WordPress default logo.
Quick Setup Guide
With WP Rentals you can use a quick setup in the wp-admin interface that helps you set up a basic theme configuration for your website.
The Quick Setup guide will take you through the essential WP Rentals features without the demo install. The basic settings are site appearance customization, add a new page, property and payment management.
Users are then encouraged to import demo content for built-in content that will simplify website building or continue to address the needed settings manually.
Schema.org
We have implemented Rent Action schema markup code, a great way to help your rentals website stand out in search results when people search for specific words from this business area.
The specific renting business terms used in the structured data mark up will make it easier for search engines to understand your content.
This exceptional SEO tool will create a detailed description which will generate rich snippets in the search page.
In addition to the new features, we have improved other functionalities including HTML support for emails (wire transfers and messages).
Instead of plain text, owners can now refashion the appearance of their emails to customers by organizing content with spaces, bullets, images, etc.
Full changelog is available in our help – https://help.wprentals.org/article/wp-rentals-1-21-1-change-log/
