HOW To Convince Your Guest To Book Direct 🚀

So, okay, so question 2. People tend to trust the OTAs. How do I build that trust? And this is really important. And the reason why the public, the general public think that it is safer and better to book via an ota. And not only much the general public, but hosts as well, is the marketing message that these OTAs promote.

Having a blast. Gonna get it on the Bruce Lee podcast. Bruce Lee, like Bruce Lee. Cause it's so hard on the T is loose leaf making up those rhymes. Don't write it, just do it loosely. If you want my respect, you'll better. But direct.

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If you want the best example, just look at the podcast episode that Brian Chesky did with Sway. I believe the podcast was called. You can go and check it out. It was. It was on LinkedIn. I saw Damien Sheridan talking about it on LinkedIn. And it was the question that she asked. She asked directly to Brian Chesky, are you concerned that hosts are now doing the book direct? And she mentioned the book direct movement, which was fantastic. And his riyara and his is his kickback to that was. No, because that when a guest books via us, you get that protection. You get that cancellation policy. You get that. You know, you get. You get a protection on both sides. Now, everybody in here right now who is watching this, you know that the guest is as much protected by booking with you directly as it is on any of the OTAs. The problem is, is that the OTAs spend millions and millions and they've got teams upon teams coming up with this market NPR campaign, and they've spreaded it and they've worded it really well. Now, now what we need to do is we need to fight fire with fire and we need to explain explicitly. But when a guest books review directly, you get all of the same benefits and you get more benefits and you get the same protection as you would do on an ota. Now, the problem is, is that Brian Chesky is talking about this left, right and center. They spread the message you're not. So what can you do right now to amplify that trust? The easiest place to start is on your website. And you can very clearly on your homepage talk about the key reasons why someone should book with you and what happens when a guest books with you. The problem is when we look at our website, we try and turn it into a sales page or a glossy magazine ad. We try and have flashing buttons and we try to have these spinning images and we try to have Drone video, foot shots and all of that. When really at the end of the day, all the guest needs to find out is who you are, why they should book review and how they can book with you in most simplistic terms. And that's what you need to do. We're very lucky now in 2021 that there are softwares and tools and services that can help bring that trust in. The number one that stands to mind is iprac. I P R A C. You can just Google IPRAC and the company will come out and it's all about that trust. And again, I know the founder of Iprac and you can just Google his name, Chris Maughan. Iprac and his story about how he created this is literally all around witnessing a guest that got stood up by a fake Airbnb listing way back in 2013-14. So if you can combine it, and I know I've seen a couple of people in the audience who use iprac, that is a great way because that you can put that trust certificate on your website and it builds up the trust. The main thing is, even without all these services and tools, is just talk about it. So please do start talking about it, because that's the way how you will start to build that trust. The software kicks in from Super Hog and it gets the guest to take a selfie, to get facial recognition, to basically say who they say they are. And when they do that, you as the host are then covered up to £1 million worth of damages. And the cool thing is, is that you don't have to pay for this service, the guest does. So they just pay a three pound service charge. And it looks just like a service charge. A service charge is, you know, anytime you use a credit card or you buy an event ticket or anything like this, they just had the service charge on. So it's a minimal service charge. You as the host, I believe you actually get 25%. No, you get 25p per time. It happens. So it's like an incentive for you to use it and it gives you that coverage. I've not investigated it on a deep, deep, deep level. I've seen it on a surface level, but that's the one to me that stands out most. And I know the guys who run it, really good guys who run it, and I think the way that they are bringing this out, I think is really exciting. That's just one. I'm sure if you speak to someone like Terry White, go on to Terry's website and please, Terry, if you're watching. Put the web link in the chat. Terry's fantastic. He, he, he loves geeking out on all of this and, and like, researching every commodity and every service and tool that's available, and he'll be able to expand it and go into more. I know there's some more that are in the, in the US that are more well known, but the one that springs to my mind straight away is Super Hog.