#2 My Number 1 Tip To Converting an OTA booking to a direct booking

This episode of the Boosu podcast is sponsored by xivu. Zivu is the direct booking revolution. They have got PMS Channel Manager. They've got a fantastic service that I recommend that everybody check out. I've known Naim, who's the founder of xivu for a long time now and I've told him since day one, listen Naim, just crack one thing, get really good at one thing and focus on that. He goes, no, I'm going to do everything. So not only do they have properties, they property management, they do a PMS channel manager, they've got an academy, they do everything. And also as well they now integrate with Google Hotel ads which is really exciting because Google Hotel ads is going to be a very key area of your marketing in 2021. So if you haven't already, go to boostly b o-o s t-l y.co.uk explore e x p L O R E. That'll take you to a landing page where you can find out a little bit more about Xevu and how they are revelation revolutionizing the direct booking journey. And you can also book a call in and have a chat with them to see if they will be the right PMS for you. I'm also excited to say that XIVU and Boostly websites have now combined together. We have, they and us have come together, We've linked our APIs and it just means that you're direct booking WordPress website with Boostly is now straight connected into Xevu so the guest doesn't have to leave the website to create and complete the booking, which is a game changer. I cannot tell you how much of this is a game changer. It's going to save time. It means that everything will be so smooth and it just knocks out any traction in the guest booking process. So please do go check out Booster Cody K for Slash Explore and if you want to go check out boostly websites, boostly website.com okay everybody, are you ready for today's episode? It's going to be a good one. Leave a hashtag live in the comments if you're watching with us. Leave a hashtag replay if you're watching on the replay with us. And also as well let us know where you're tuning in from in the world. If you're on the audio, if you're listening in the car or walking the dog, then just literally pick up the phone, send me an Instagram message and let me know where you are watching or tuning in from this so uk. Thank you so much. Let's get on with today's show. Hello, my name is Mark Simpson and I give hosts just like you the tools, the tactics, the training, but most importantly, the confidence to go and increase your direct bookings. And today is a really big episode because I'm going to show you today the most simplest way of converting an OTA book into a direct booking. And it all goes down in the email. Now, I've spoken about this plenty of times before, but it's always good to have a refresh. So what happens is that when a booking comes in via an ota, the PMS provider will automatically send out a automated email and it's a confirmation email. And in that confirmation email, what you'll find is that it normally just gives the basic information. So in that basic information it will say something along the lines of, dear Mark, thank you so much for your reservation. Just to let you know that your check in dates are X, your checkout dates are Y, and your price, your cost of your stay is X, Y and Z. Okay, that's very standard. But what you've got the ability to do, you've got the ability to amend these. Now this is something that we've been doing for years and it, and it really works very, very, very, very well. And here's what you're going to do. So in that automated email, you're going to change the wording slightly. But before you do this, it's really important that you go and make these changes in your PMS and on your OTA sites as well. So let's just talk about incentives for a second. Now, when it comes to booking direct, we naturally assume, and wrongly, that the reason why a guest would maybe book direct is to save money. Now, money does play a part, but it's not the only part. What guests really want and what we want is incentives. So, for example, you look at what the Hilton, the Marriott and these big chains do, and when you book direct with them, you get free WI FI access. You can get earlier check in time, you maybe get a free breakfast, for example. So nice incentives. And people do book direct because of it. So I saw these big chains doing it, Marriott, Hilton, et cetera. And I thought, well, why don't we do it? Why don't small hospitality owners do it? So we started doing this. When a guest would make a booking view in ota, we would send them an automated email. Now what we did at the Grain room is we put our check in. Time has always been 1:00pm, always has, always will 1:00pm we went to the OTAs and Airbnb, booking.com, expedia, et cetera. We changed our check in time on their sites to 4pm so we moved it back three hours and in the email confirmation that we sent out, we put in there. Dear Guest, thank you so much for your booking. Just to confirm your reservation with us, your check in date is 1st April and your checkout day is 5th April. Total price for your stay is X. We have some very important information. Check in information about your stay. Please do read. So we've got to make sure that they read and the first thing we talk about is the check in time. If you have checked with us via directly with us, which is email, phone call, website, your check in time is 1pm if you're booked with us via a third party and we named them ie booking.com Airbnb Expedia, your check in time is 4pm and we said something else little minor and it will be. If you would like to discuss your stay with us, here's our direct line. Please call now when a guest gets that email. And if you think about, you know, what happens when you go on a drive, et cetera, and you come to a vacation, you don't want to be hanging around. So they hate to feel like they're being hard done by and they want to have that incentive. And a lot of the times they never, they don't know the benefits of booking direct. So what you would find is that that guest would call you and they would say, hey Mark, I got your email. Thank you so much. But I want to have the direct booking check in time. So you then very simply just move them over. You say no problem. So all you need to do, can you please confirm to me your email address? Number one, you get their real email, which is key and say number two, can you just confirm to me for security your card details so I can verify you. So then you've got the card and you've got the email. Fantastic. So Mr. Guest, all I need for you to do just so we can switch you to this earlier check in time, just head open up booking.com Airbnb and you can do it with them while they're on the phone. Just hit that cancel button for me because I can't do it for you and then I'll book you in. Now you may be thinking, well that sounds fantastic, but what happens to my ranking? Will Airbnb or booking.com tell me off? No, because it's the guest that's canceling the stay. You have not initiated it, you. You have not forced it, they have done it themselves, they've contacted you. An average of 38% of all bookings on booking.com get cancelled and they get canceled by the guests. So the booking rates are high and the booking cancellation policy doesn't affect your ranking in any way, shape or form. The only way that your ranking on Airbnb booking.com gets affected is if you cancel that stay. That is the worst of the worst. That's how you lose super host status. That's how you lose all of the statuses. So by the guest canceling, no, it doesn't affect you. You get the direct booking, you save on the commission cost, the guest gets the earlier check in time, and if you even want to sweeten it slightly, you could say, oh, I'll knock off 5% off your fee as well. You don't have to, but it helps now and again. So that is one of the best ways of flipping an OTA book into a direct booking. Doesn't work every time, but it works enough at the times for you to give it a go. And the cool thing is, is that once you set it up, once in your automated email triggers, it's a set and forget you don't have to keep going back to it. So that's one tip. And tomorrow what I want to do is I want to share with you another fantastic tool to make sure that a guest will never, ever book via an OTA again. So please come back tomorrow. You know how to find me. We've got the YouTube channel, we've got the Facebook page, we've got Instagram, we've got the Apple podcast, we've got Spotify podcasts, we've got Google podcasts, we've got LinkedIn, we've got TikTok, we're everywhere Clubhouse, you name. You can find Boostly, so please make sure you subscribe. Please make sure you follow. If you'd like to get more from Boostly, go to Booster Co uk. I've got seven tools and tactics and tips that you can go and get access to right now by going to there. And I shall see you tomorrow for another episode of the Boostly podcast. Thank you.