Google Shakes Up The Internet Tourism Business By Allowing Free Ads

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 get more direct bookings. And today we're going to talk a little bit more about Google. So a couple of weeks ago I told you about the big news that Google are going to be releasing some free links into their Google business listing or Google hotel ads. I've got an image here of what it may look like. So again this was taken from euroweeklynews.com and again this is, is basically what it could look like when this comes into action. Now this is obviously taken from a Los Angeles based property but as you can see right up at the top official site will sit there and Google will allow it for free. Now they will monetize this and the rumor is that what they will do is like Google Ads, they will let you bid and pay a little bit of money to have it. Here, here and here, end here and obviously booking.com TripAdvisor, Hostel World and everybody's going to have their say on this. But one thing that we have noticed, you see what booking.com are doing here, they are under charging the guests. So what they're basically doing is as we all know, booking.com take a 15% plus commission. And what they're doing is they're still paying the property 15% commission but what they're doing is they're taking the money to so the $11 here out of their own pockets to basically try and bring the rate down. This is naughty, this is cheeky. But again they sign the T's and C's they can do what they want. You sign the T's and C's, they can do what they want. So again the whole rate parity thing may be going but what this means is that booking.com can under mark you. So again my advice would be when you do see this, when you've got the ability to do it, pay to get top here and always try and manipulate the text to say best rates guarantee or best incentives. I always like to play on the incentives rather than the rate because you know if, if you're focusing purely on rate then it always brings in the, if you're trying to go to the bottom, it brings in the wrong type of guest. I've always found that. But if you play on the incentives as in a free welcome hamper earlier, check in time, later check out free wi fi, then that always works in well so this is interesting. Like I say, this is new developments. I'm forward to seeing this live so I can play with it. We've got a lot of clients, website clients that I'd love to delve in and really have a look at this. But please let me know what your thoughts are. If you missed the episode where I where I announced this or well, not announced this, but I spoke about this first, please do go back a couple of weeks on the Boostly YouTube channel and we will link it as best as we can do in the comments in the notes below. But for now let us know your thoughts. What do you think about what Google are doing? How do you think this will play out? It's causing quite of a stir. There's a lot of blogs about it, there's a lot Barkles about it. I'm obviously contributing and talking about it. I'm very excited. I think this is a real nice little process and a nice little step to the book Direct Movement. And as I said two episodes ago, Mr. Brian Chesky does not believe in the book Direct Movement. So let's go and show him, eh?