Hospitality Is Changing - Booking Trends You Need To Know About

Welcome back to the Boostly Podcast, the podcast that gives you, the host, the tools, the tactics, the training, but most importantly, the confidence to increase your direct bookings and cut down on that over reliance on the OTAs. And I wanted to record this special little episode today because there is a an emerging trend that is coming back in the guest booking process. And if you don't know what the guest booking process is, please do go check out the Boostly back catalog. Just type in Boostly guest booking process. I've laid out all of the steps from 1 to 5, from where they're just trying to discover where they want to go on their stay, to buyers remorse after they've actually made the booking with you. And there's something that is definitely happening and this has been reported by a lot of people in the Boostly community. It's something that we are noticing more and more on our Boostly websites. And I wanted to let you know so you can get prepared and you can put this into action. Now, if anybody has heard my videos or watched my videos about the guest booking process, and if anybody has paid any attention to what Airbnb, Booking.com and Expedia have done to the hospitality and short term rentals industry over the last 20 years, is that Instant Book has now become the norm. If you're in the industry 10 years ago, 15 years ago, 20 years ago, you'll know that it was different. There was a point in time where if you were listed online on a listing site, et cetera, the only way that the guest could make a booking is if they filled in an inquiry form. And what the OTAs have done, booking.com and Airbnb and the Expedia Group is that they have sped up Instant Book. So as the old saying goes, money loves speed and it hates friction. And all booking.com did, all Expedia did, all the Airbnb did, is they took the Amazon model of one click, make a payment and then you're going to get your parcel in the post. What Instant Book means is that you can A start A search B find a property, C make a booking, things are done, taken care of, and then you can go on your staycation, workcation, whatever occasion it is going to be. And this has been where everybody has been moving towards. In fact. Now if you go to many of the listing sites that aren't the top OTAs, they've now brought in Instant Book in some way, shape or form, which is another thing that we've been working towards with Boostly websites over the Course of the last, say, three to four years, however, there looks like there is a new trend emerging. And anybody right now who's watching this, who is a host or is part of a management company, you will start to resonate more with this is coming out the last couple of years. The guest now, and this is not 100% of the time, but it's definitely becoming a thing. The guest wants to ask questions, they want to ask questions. And I'm really looking forward to seeing the next skiff survey or the big travel survey that comes out is that they want to ask the questions before they're clicking the book button now. Boostly websites, where, you know, the technology we've created, we've been able to create a system that they can start on the website and they can finish making a payment on the website. All great. But what we're noticing, even when somebody is getting to the booking page where they're about to type in their credit card details, they still have have got a question to ask. Whether they are cherishing the money to make sure it's going to be spent in the right place, or whether they just want to simply ask a couple of questions. There was a survey a couple of years ago, some along the lines of 65 or 66% of people of booking a stay, said that during the booking process, if they had a question to ask, they would like a phone number or a live chat box to be able to do so. And, you know, I've got a very strong feeling that that number may be increased by now because it's happening more and more. And when it comes to direct bookings, when it comes to your website, what advantage can you hold over Airbnb and booking.com because if it gets to the booking section, say somebody is on your Airbnb listing right now and somebody has found your property. They've come to your area, they found your property, they like the look of your property, whether it's an apartment or a house or whatever it may be. And they're going down to fill in the dates, say they've got a question, there's no live chat, they can't speak to Airbnb customer support. There's no way for them to to ask you without filling in that inquiry message box. So you've actually got an advantage if you make that adjustment to your booking process now. And the simplest, most easiest way to do so. Let me just share my screen is one of these little things, which is a live chat box. So if I just move my face out the way. So this is one that we've just recently done Again, all Boostly websites. Now, whether you go for a DIY option or if you have one of our done for you, API options are all going to come now with live chat capability. Now, the problem with live chat and the mindset that people go into is that they need to think that they're going to have to have to bring in and introduce all of these new features into their, into their setup. Well, that's not the case. This is a real easy plugin that once activated, will send people through to your WhatsApp number, your WhatsApp device that you're already using. And this is just one of the many options. I mean, if you go to something a little bit more fancy. So this is Luke's days, this is another boostly website. There they are using Zendesk. So this is a fancy tool. So those of you that use in Zendesk, you know that it's got a lot more automated features in X, Y, Z. For those of you that don't want to have a very complicated option, this just sends some, somebody straight in to a WhatsApp chat where you can communicate or you can change the number so where it's a member of your team. Again, if I show another Boostie client, rather at night and rain, as you can see here, as we, as we scroll down, there's going to be a WhatsApp logo pop up here. And of course it doesn't pop up now, but it will pop up here and basically you'll be able to start a WhatsApp chat from there. But that goes through to a member of his team that doesn't go straight to his mobile number. So whether you want it to be yourself or a member of your team, then you can do my one piece of advice. If you go with the, the fancy Zendesk or the Twerk, which is Twa Q, then you can do that. If you want a simplistic version, have somebody just come through to your WhatsApp so they can send a message. Worst comes to worst, just make sure that your phone number, landline, whatever is visible on the site so they know that they can book you if they have a question. When it comes to the actual section, it's, it's like now, and this is crazy. I was thinking about this the other day, how, how to best explain this on, on the podcast, it's like we're, we're back to having to become like personalized travel agents. People are wanting to ask questions, as in you know not only the standard questions, but, you know, what else can we do when we come? What else can we do? Can you arrange transport X, Y or Z? So it's like you're becoming your, your personalized travel agent and building out a customized guest itinerary for your guests. And obviously there's, there's loads of ways and routes that we can go down, but the most important thing is just make is so clear how somebody can contact you and ask a quick question. Doesn't matter what part of the booking process that they're at, whether it's a phone number, link through to live chat. There's loads of different ways that we can do this, but this is the most important thing, is to make sure that it is visible and clear how somebody can contact you if they want to make a booking with you. And the most important spot and place to have that is on your website. And if your website doesn't give you the ability to do so, you need to make a change as soon as possible. If you want to have a chat with us about this, then head to boostly.co.uk website. Fill in the form, we'll be in touch, we'll set up a call. If your website has that power but you don't know how to do it, then I encourage you to get in contact with your website designer as soon as possible. Or if you're doing it all yourself again, if you need help and advice, jump into the Boostly community and we'll be able to show you how. This is really important. Whether you're watching this now in 2022 or you're watching this in 2023, this is something that is not going away. This is definitely something that is going to be big demand moving forward. So make sure you act now. Those of you that act sooner rather than later, fantastic. You know, June 2022, if you're listening to this and you've done this already, brilliant, well done. You're ahead of the trend. For those who haven't yet done it, make sure you do whatever you do. Whatever I advise is don't sleep on this, don't wait. Take action now, put it into your practice, because at the end of the day, money loves speed, it hates friction. And if there's a guest who is on your booking page who is ready to hand over the credit card details but has got a question to ask, but they don't know where to go, they're going to leave your website and as soon as they bounce and leave your website, they never come back. So always bear that in mind as always. My name is Mark Simpson, the founder of Boostly, the author of the book Direct Playbook, which is over here. If you haven't yet picked up a copy, please do go so and do so boostly.co.uk book thank you so much for tuning in. Thank you so much for part of being as a community. All I ask as a massive favor for all this content as we're coming up to 500 free episodes is if you could share this video. Share it in a Facebook group that's with a host community around it. Give this video a thumbs up. If you're watching on a YouTube video, leave a comment below with what tools you're using and let's share the advice. Let's spread it around the community. And at the end of the day all that I want to do is I want to make sure that hosts can cut down on our over reliance on the OTAs, can increase their direct bookings and that way we can re educate not only other hosts, but we can help re educate the guests. This is all part of it. Thank you so much for being part of the process and I'll be back very soon with another Bruce Lee podcast episode. Thank you.

Having a blast gonna get it on the Boostly podcast Bruce Lee like Bruce Lee cause it's so hard and the tea is loose leaf Making up those rhymes don't write it, just do it loosely.