Change Log: Improvements we’re making to the website

October 31:

Taking a break from programming improvements for FractionalExchange.com due to a new project that’s consuming our programming energy for the time being. Anomalies (bugs) will be dealt with and corrected, of course, in due course.

September 10:

Starting work this week on a new module for FractionalExchange.com: fractional real estate listings (for sale). We’ll have Developer, Realtor and FSBO listing capabilities.

A module such as this starts life as a sketch on a legal pad. It’s something we’ve been pondering for over a year, but just now taking shape. An hour spent sketching, an hour meeting on where we’re heading and then another hour determining the data fields that we’ll program for. And now, off to the coding races with hopefully not too many “uh ohs” along the way as we discover things we hadn’t thought of during the initial design specifications.

Some companies spend a huge amount of time upfront with analysis and design. We’re lucky enough to be nimble enough and know our goals well enough that we can spend a half-day on analysis/design and then begin programming, fine tuning the design along the way.

September 3:

Great reviews at the Fractional Summit for our iPad work. A soft launch at this event, but judging from the responses looks like we’re on to something here…

August 30:

Last minute bug fixes over the last weeks related to the iPad programming. Unveiling the iPad tomorrow in Miami at the Fractional Summit.

August 10:

iPad development work is almost completed. This work is being done to pioneer a new concept for the sales offices of our affiliated resorts: ditching “coffee table” books that show exchange options and instead, utilizing Apple’s stunning iPad to display exchange possibilities within the FractionalExchange.com network. Pioneering work.

July 19:

Took some time off of major work, but time to delve back into new modules. Our work for the next few weeks will involving coding a portion of the website for display on Apple’s iPad. Fun stuff.

June 17:

Cool new promotional code invitation module completed and installed. Fractional owners can now click-and-create memberships quickly at participating resorts.

Working on different visual presentation for the “resort-level” view, introducing tabbed information as a visual element. We’ll make the change live and likely refine from there.

June 16:

Translation option added. Thanks Google, you saved us a ton of work.

Started programming of a new promotional code invitation system for use by fractional resorts. When completed, this system will create a membership quickly and efficiently for new members referred from participating/affiliating resorts.

June 10:

Several weeks spent working on our renewal billing module. Almost there.

Donate-a-Dream™ page added to our website.

May 19:

Our team spent most of April traveling, but returned with a renewed focus on website improvements. From scratch, we wrote a messaging module that will now allow us to communicate directly with our membership (in full, a subset or just certain members). We can now send newsletters and important announcements. Previous to this, we’d been limited to certain pre-programmed administrative messages related to new member sign-up, exchange offers and renewals.

We also instituted an easier way to log in to FractionalExchange.com for our members. Each and every email that is sent out will have a custom login link in the signature/footer line.

And, big news, we received our official trademark registrations for our name, logo and tagline. We spent a day updating our logos, graphics and communications to reflect the change from SM/TM status to ® status!

April 8:

New exchange search programming. Switched from an additive process (find where you want to go) to a subtractive process (show everything, then filter/narrow down the selection). This new search capability includes the ability to filter/narrow selection using many parameters (bedrooms, number of people a property will sleep, resorts, activities). We also added the ability to sort listings by date added (great for looking for listings that are new to the site) and by “most popular.”

March 18:

We’re working on implementing the ability to filter listings. For example, selecting “beach” and “fishing” will filter for those properties meeting that criteria. Select “3+ bedrooms” and you’ll narrow the selection further.  Unfortunately, we don’t have ANY properties that show when “beach” and “skiing” are selected (wouldn’t that be nice!).  Hoping to have this new feature implemented within a week.

Another improvement we will be implementing is the ability to brand individual listings. A listing may be part of what we call a “Fractional Residence Collection,” a group of homes that have been fractionalized and branded under the auspices of a development or fractional company; the individual listing will have the option to carry the brand of the FRC. This offers the opportunity for the member to display the brand, thus displaying the quality (and management) of the property listing, as well as gaining exposure for the brand.

March 12:

Created the ability to have default listings for resorts. With this improvement, members may select from pre-defined templates and save time in creating their listings. There’s even the option for default, resort-provided photos that members may use.

Created the ability to have a “default” photo for a resort. In the event a listing doesn’t have photos (yet), the default resort image will appear at the city- and resort-level viewing of listings. In the event there is no default photo, a “Image not available” placeholder will appear (this is unchanged from our original software version).

March 5:

Created, tested and implemented our invitation system. With this system, a resort can provide us with names and email addresses of their fractional (or other) owners and we’ll send out a personalized invitation to join, complete with personalized link and default listing templates (which they can edit to suit).

February 27:

Enabled bulk proposal sending for members. This improvement allows members to easily send an exchange proposal to all (or selected) listings in a particular city and/or resort with one click of the mouse. This improvement saves time by eliminating the repetitive sending of exchange proposals, one-by-one, to all listings in a city and/or resort.