How to make sure your guest never books via an OTA again

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. In 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. Okay, everybody, welcome back to a new episode of the Boostly podcast. My name is Mark Simpson and I give hosts just like you the tools, the tactics and the training to get more direct bookings. And today we're talking about direct bookings. And I'm going to give you another tip on how you can convert an OTA book into a direct booking so they never ever book with an OTA again. So I've always said this, that if you are a host and you get a booking through an OTA and they come and they stay with you and then they leave and if they ever come back and stay with you again and they book you an OTA, you have failed. The OTAs are very aware of the fact that as soon as they step foot on your property, you're going to be doing everything in your power to try and get their details, etc. So you can market to them. They're not naive. You know, I've been doing this game for long enough. I've got to know people at Airbnb and booking.com quite well. And you know, I've mentioned this to them and you know, they're not naive to the fact they're fully aware of this. But the problem is that we don't and we don't keep in contact, we don't email, we don't reach out, we don't, you know, do everything that the big hotels and the big chains are doing. My whole career in hospitality when I've come back and you know, since 2011, going back into like a full time basis in it, I've always been looking at these angles and what I do for my research is I always go and look at what the big boys are doing. Success leaves clues at the end of the day. And the, the tip that I mentioned, you know, yesterday obviously was focused around the Hiltons and the Marriotts and whatnot, but we can be doing these. It's just a slight change of mindset, a slight change of wording and a bit of systems and structures and whatnot, but it's it, we can do this. So the main thing that what I want to say to you is that I want to ensure that you never have a guest rebook via an ota. And the easiest way to do that is via email and text message. Simply that is put there are really, really cool and really effective and really cheap automation softwares that will do this job for you. For example, on your email triggers that you have with Your PMS provider, you can have one for where it's three months and six months after they've booked with you. And you can send them a little quick email just saying, hey, how are you doing? Well, if you want to rebook with us at any point, you know where we are, please do keep in touch, et cetera, et cetera. And again, these emails are automated, real conversation driven. It's not pushy, pushy sales. It's just keeping into contact with them. And these emails always go down really well and they'll get a response. Now you can also have reminders and systems and setups in place for where you can maybe even drop a call or a WhatsApp message. You can even go a step further now. And there's more CRM. So customer relationship management software platforms that have been built for hospitality businesses that have just been, you know, exclusive for the big hotels in the past, but now they're being made more readily available to smaller businesses that will again help with this. So you can collect your guests date of birth, you can maybe collect important date information like anniversaries and whatnot, load it into the CRM and then you can have triggers sent out. So say when it's a month before somebody's birthday or a month before an anniversary or a month before whatever, they will get an email to say, if you need somewhere to get away for your special day, you know where we are, give us a call. Here's a little coupon. Something like that that's experienced, that's personalized, that can go straight into the inbox via email, is really powerful. So have a little look, have a little look around. What can you do? What have you already got set up? If you haven't got anything set up mailchimp.com totally free, it can deal with a lot of these things that I'm talking about. If you can't even do mailchimp text message, super simple. You've got things like WhatsApp and Telegram that make it really easy to do. Nowadays you can contact anybody for free and just keep in touch with your guests as hosts. Our biggest problem, well, not just host business owners in general. We're always chasing new money, new customers, new money. When really the big profit, the big bookings are the ones that have already stayed with you, the people that already know, like and trust you. And if you can keep in contact with them, if you can make them feel like a million bucks, they will not only be your best guests, they'll be your biggest super fans for the rest of your career, so focus on that. I'll be back tomorrow with some more help and advice and tactics and tips and everything to help you. But for now, if this is the first time that you've tuned into a podcast or a lesson or an episode by Boostly, then please make sure you stick around. Hit like hit subscribe Turn on the notification bell. If you want to go and join our our email list, go to booster.co.uk on there you can input your email and I'll send you seven tips. Seven tips and tools. Free tools that I recommend right now. So head to booster.co.uk if you want to go check out the podcast booster podcast.com take care. I'll speak to you tomorrow.