Daily Archives: July 7, 2011

With so many property owners on FlipKey, you can imagine that we get all sorts of questions on a daily basis – regarding the website, publishing tools, individual property listings, and even whether the weather is nice in Boston (it’s gorgeous today, thanks for asking!).

Recently we updated our mapping function on listings to make it more dynamic, aesthetically pleasing, and easy to use. With the changes came many new questions about mapping! People often write in to us mere moments after their property has been put up onto the website asking how to tweak the map, so I wanted to give you all a brief tutorial on how to map your property so that travelers get the right idea about where your rental is located.

Updating your map is as simple as logging into your account and clicking on the Edit Listing button. Once there, the map is displayed along with a check box with the option to “Show Exact Address.” In order to update the map properly, this box must be checked! Also check the box that says “This Map is Incorrect.”

Once those two boxes are checked, you should see an orange needle (and not an orange circle) indicating the property location. You can move the orange needle to the exact location of your property.  The map will automatically save and re-center your map image online. Now, here’s the trick: do not click the ‘Update Map’ button! Clicking this button reverts the map to automatically plotting your address, and erases all of your manual adjustments. Instead, once you have moved the orange needle to the proper location, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click the Save and Continue button.

And that’s that – pretty simple! For best map-editing results, you should edit your map in Firefox or Internet Explorer (Version 6 or higher). If you’re a visual learner, we’ve also got great step by step instructions on how to update your map here.

Taryn Collins is a FlipKey owner services specialist and vacation rental marketing expert. Her bi-weekly blog, Ask FlipKey, aims to answer the difficult questions that vacation rental owners and managers ask every day. Submit your questions in the comments!