How to stand out from the crowd on those busy online travel agents (OTAs) S7E5

Hands up if you have a guidebook that you leave for your guests when they enter your property. Now, keep your hand up if you've got a digital version of that. Now, I have always had a printed guidebook full of places to visit, the WI fi code and all that jazz. But at the start of this year, I wanted to set out and look for a digital guidebook because the amount of times that I've had to replace those guidebooks in the rooms or in the properties because of things going out a day or people walking off of them was crazy. A good friend of mine recommended I check out Hostfully and, and I've been playing around with it now for a while for myself and my clients and I love it. So much so that I reached out to them and I asked if they could put together a little promo code for Boostly listeners. So if you head over to Hostfully.com put in the promo code, Boostly2M the number two, and then M you get two months off their premium service. But the even better news is, is that you can go over to hostfully.com so h o s t f U-L-L-Y.com and you can get one digital guidebook for free. So you can start playing around with it, see how it feels. And then if you want to upgrade, you get two months free just because you're a Boostly listener. So again, hostfly.com, boostly2m is your promo code. Let's get on with the Boost Hospitality podcast.

All right, welcome everybody to the Boost Hospitality podcast. We are in season seven, episode five and and in this episode we're gonna be talking about how you can optimize your OTA listing to make sure that you can stand out from the crowd. And today's guest is the director of Marketing at Bookful. Bookful is a new and up and coming service that is helping short stay accommodation owners all over the world. Ronnie Bartles is based in South Carolina in Charleston, South Carolina. Lovely part of the world. And and Bookful has been on my radar for a while. I'm a keen reader of their blog. I believe that it is one of the best blogs out there for short stay accommodation owners. Please go and check it out. Bookful.com in this episode you're going to learn about how to stage your property on these listing sites. You're going to learn some of the key terms for what you need to do for the different rental software out there. Airbnb being one and booking.com and HomeAway. You're also going to learn about what photos are so important and you're going to figure out as well a little bit more what Bookful are doing to help you. So please sit back, relax, whatever you are doing, whether you are on the couch, whether you might be active, you might be busy, you might be driving the car, whatever you're doing. Enjoy this episode of the Boost Hospitality Podcast. Before you do go, please make sure that you rate, review and subscribe. And just want to say a quick thank you to Hostfully who are the sponsors of the Boost Hospitality podcast. Thank you very much for joining us. We're going to get straight into this and I just wanted to say a big massive welcome to Ronnie Battles, the director of marketing at Bookful. Ronnie, if you could just do me a massive favor and just let everybody know where you are in the world and a little bit more about yourself and what Bookful does.

Sure. So I actually I live in Charleston, South Carolina and today I'm visiting in Savannah, Georgia. So we are definitely a Southern company, but we're very lucky to be in Charleston. And so Bookful is a free property management software for short term and vacation rentals.

Lovely. And yeah, where are the majority of your customers? Where the majority of your clients would you say from around? Is it very much America based or is it everybody in all areas of the world?

Really it's to be honest, it's everybody in all areas of the world. We've been really surprised because we are, you know, a small company. We're brand new, we just launched, we've been a company for a couple of years, but just launched the software last month. And so we were really very surprised. Once we started getting some new users in there from everywhere. We kind of figured it would mainly be the U.S. but that's not the case. We've just all over the world, I think we've counted up not long ago, probably 20 or 27 different countries.

And that is probably down to the work that you and your team have done in the marketing. I know this is how I discovered Bookful is via the blogs and the writing is one of the blogs that I do go to to find out more about the world of hospitality and short stay accommodation. And so we're actually going to talk today about one of the blogs that I read and the topic is how to stand out on those crazy busy OTAs. So when I say an OTA for those who don't know, it's booking.com, it's Airbnb, it's Expedia, it's home away. We're really going to delve into that. But before bookfill, what's your personal career? How did you get to book for where were you beforehand? Just sort of shed us a little bit more light into that, please, if you don't mind.

Sure, yeah. So actually I was a consultant. I've been actually on my own for 12 years. I come from actually the marketing research background. So I spent 15 years in consumer behavior research, doing online surveys, focus groups. I was the girl that sat in the back room behind the two way mirror. So my background really is concentrating and understanding consumers and kind of how they buy, how they shop, their psychology behind the marketing side of all of that. And so I spent many years in that and then kind of ventured off on my own, did some consulting for some small B2B, a few things that were retail as well. And about almost three years ago, a friend of mine came to me and said, I have this opportunity, I think you might be really good at and really like and enjoy. And so they persuaded me to come onto Bookful. I was hire number two. And so I've. The one really great thing about the company is from day one we've concentrated on positioning ourselves in marketing and not using it as like oh, a secondary thought of oh, we've got to develop software. Marketing will come later. But we've really concentrated on at least trying to create our brand perception and our presence in the market from day one. So that's been really nice to be able to build that.

I like how from your previous career, it's going to really help loads in this one, you know, studying guest guest behavior to book patterns that people go through. And we're definitely going to delve into a little bit of that with what we're going to talk about today. But for everybody that is tuning in for the first time, this is season seven, episode five of the Boosted Podcast. If this is your first ever podcast, please go and check out the other episodes from this season and from the other six seasons. We've spoke to some many amazing people from the world of hospitality and short stay accommodation. It's helping you increase your direct bookings. Now, I know this episode, you may think that this is not a direct booking episode, but this is the time of the year we're filming this. We're recording this in November 2019. So this is what's otherwise known as the shoulder season. And the shoulder season is where you need to rely on these OTAs to bring in the bookings because it's not as easy as the summer. The summer bookings could come in two, three, four times. You could fill out your property so many times. But in these winter months, you need to be a bit cleverer on these OTAs to stand out. So the first thing that we're going to go on and Ronnie, if you could just delve into this a little bit more. You've had a really good blog on the, on the bookful website where you talk about listing quality. Now, if you could just delve into what listing quality means for me and just explain it in simplistic terms just so everybody can get on board what we're talking about here, please. Sure.

So the listing quality on any OTA is really going to dive into one. You're a really good head, a really great description. We're obviously going to talk about photos. That's always a big topic. And with any website, any ota, anything is photos. But really making sure that your listing is completely filled out, because in the algorithm of all those OTAs that is actually weighted within that algorithm is making sure that your listing is filled out. So the higher quality that you have on that listing, the more likely you're going to show up in a search for somebody that is looking for your area, your neighborhood, for specific times that you have availability. So making sure it's completely filled out, you've got all your amenities in there, your options, your headlines and everything. So that it's really robust. And the algorithm goes, oh, this is somebody that really knows what they're doing. And I can, I can pull search results now based on what you've given me.

I think that's a really, really good one. And one bit of advice that I've got from, from having our family business is that you've got to keep up to date. Booking.com prime example, I logged in once and they're always adding in into the booking.com extranet opportunities. And you always avoid them because it's always trying to get you to lower your rates. But every now and again they put something in there to let you know, hey, we've just added these amenities. And if you don't stay on top of it, then somebody else in your area or your county will. And then it could affect how you get seen because it may be a whole list of potential visitors that are your target audience that you just weren't in front of. Prime example for us, the story behind it is that booking.com updated their accessibility section of their website. And my family business has got four rooms that are catered for all disabilities and needs. And because we hadn't updated that properly, then we weren't showing when people were going down on the filters on the left hand side. So, you know, take on my error on that one and keep it updated. So, I mean, you've been doing this for a while. I know the product is new, but you've been doing this for a while and you can see a lot of things that people are doing. What would you say from the time that you've been doing the research on this? What is the biggest mistake that you see people make when they come to list their properties on these OTAs?

I think the biggest mistake they make is that they go into it thinking, okay, I have 10 minutes. I'm going to take these 10 minutes and just get it up. As opposed to really taking the time to think about what am I actually writing, what am I actually putting. I'm finding that travelers are different now than they used to be. They're very savvy. All the research is showing that millennials spend more on travel than any age or generation. They'll spend anywhere from about $5,000 a year just on travel. And they're big on expansion experiences. That's what they really are looking for. They're looking for an experience. They want to feel like they're living like a local. And so I think that when you're going to put up your listing, you're like, oh, I walked around my house and I took some phones on my great camera phone and just slap them up, which I can get on board with. At least have it done. Doesn't have to be perfect, so I can get on the board with that. But I do think photos are really the crux, particularly on Airbnb. Look, you just can't get away with amateur phone photos anymore. You've really got to invest in some professional photos and it'll come back to you twofold for sure.

So when you talk about in the blogs that you wrote, staging, staging, your short stay properties, is this what you mean about that? If you could just delve into a little bit more. What does staging mean, in other words?

Yeah, so staging, as far as, like, making sure that you have everything in the property that a guest is going to want or need, but not overdoing it. I think that one of the things that we talk about in a lot of our staging blogs is to get rid of the clutter. We do it in our, in our homes. We do it everywhere. But get rid of all the stuff you just are personal to you. You don't really need. People don't. They don't want it. Too much clutter. They want more space. They want the necessities they need, but they don't need all the other stuff. So getting rid of a lot of knickknacks and clutter, staging things that look modern and clean and light. People don't like really dark rooms. They like everything to be light. And I think we're living in the Instagram world, where really, I've been using this term quite a bit lately with a lot of people. When you go into your property and you're looking to design it or stage it, you want it to be Instagram worthy. Like, that's how people judge where they're gonna stay anymore. Can I post this on my Instagram? You know, because everything there is beautiful and it's the IKEA world of being Instagram worthy.

Instagrammable. Hashtag Instagrammable is what I noticed. I spent a lot of the first part of 2019 in Bali. And a part of Bali is called Shangu. And every villa, every restaurant, every cafe, every bar has got something in there that is Instagrammable, Whether it's a big flowery wall or there's something pink flamingo ish. And you've got to do it because you want to make your guest walk in and go, that's going on my Instagram later.

Exactly.

Which is crazy. Is in the world we're in. But like you say, millennials are the ones that are dictating this travel industry right now. And next it's going to be the gen zers. This is what you've got to sort of pay attention to. Now, obviously, I'm not saying go and get a big flowery wall and put plinth flamingos around it, but you've got to pay attention to it. There was perfect. Keep it light, keep it bright and minimal. We've. Me and my family have just done a road trip all the way through France and Spain. We stayed in loads of places, but in some of the places that we have stayed, we've just got everything. And I've got a one year old who is now on tornado mode. And you just instantly you just go up and it just, it's just in the way. You just want it to be minimalistic. You don't want to have every episode of the TV magazine from the last 20 years. You in the place where a one year old is going to go in and just rip it to pieces. You've got to, like you say, be, be Be minimalist. Awesome. So when it comes to Airbnb, which is different to booking.com which is different to Home Away, what advice? Let's focus on Airbnb for a minute. I think Airbnb is just going to grow and grow and grow in popularity over the course of the next few years. What would be some of your advice when listing your property on that platform compared to all of the other platforms that are out there? What do you really have to pay attention to with Airbnb?

I think that on Airbnb, the top things to really pay attention to are good quality photos that are very modern, light and bright. The other thing I think that is very important on Airbnb is when you're doing your headlines and you're just description of your place to really tell a story, I think that is really. And I think the travelers there really hone in on experience, so you want to make them feel something. So if you create your description like it's a story, like you're telling the story of your place, why it's yours, why you love it, what's the uniqueness about it, that's when you can really stand out. I mean, you still need to kind of like give the basics of what everybody needs to see, how many bedrooms have a bath, all that kind of good stuff. But people want to feel like they're in that experience already and get excited about going to it. So it's really telling the story behind what you're doing in that space. And I think that's really important on Airbnb, more so than any other platform.

It's funny that you spoke earlier about experiences because that's Airbnb's whole philosophy now is edging people towards Suzet. You're talking about pictures and light and this is exactly where the sort of Airbnb are going down. What I notice really with a lot of these OTAs is that they are really heavyset. And we mentioned about it earlier at the amenities. Different websites really push other amenities. Like for example, in the uk, over the course, I would say the last four years, there's been a massive push towards properties that have got hot tubs. Now, I don't know what it's like in America or elsewhere, but that is a real big thing. If you've got a self catering unit or units around the uk, they really push the ones that have got the hot tubs. That was a feature that was put in recently. Now, what from the research that you've done and from the studies and things that you can see what are the other amenities that are popular at the moment, which is the ones that people should be maybe looking to bring into their properties that maybe others aren't. Just from your experience.

Yeah, well, and I think this is where we also get into kind of really knowing who your guest is. Because if we look at the oldest millennials will be 40 years old next year. And so when you're thinking about a 40 year old versus a 25 year old, they're in a very different life stage. So those older millennials are going to be geared more towards family activities. So amenities that are definitely family geared will resonate with them more. The younger millennials who are also spending a lot of money on travel are just in a different life stage. So kind of if you' is there then things that are captivating like hot tubs actually makes a lot of sense. The one thing I think that universal across the board and I look for this when I'm booking anything as well, is free WI fi. I just don't think you can get away without having WI fi.

Doesn't matter what level of a millennial you are, whether you're 25 or 40, if you've got, you know, me with three kids and there's iPads everywhere, you want to have a bit of quiet time, you want to put an iPad, you've got to have WI Fi because otherwise you'll be tearing your hair up.

Even if you think about business people, I mean business people aren't like, even if they're traveling and staying in a short term rental, they want free WI fi. That's their livelihood. So business people, families, young millennials, gen zers for sure. Free WI fi is just one of those things. I think that's what we all look for. We still have a few of our clients that are still charging for WI fi. And I'm like, look guys, you'll be much better off if you just offer this free. It's not that big of a deal. You're not losing that much money. So that's, that's always my big key is free WI fi.

I think as well, just to narrow down on what you said there about knowing your guest. So for example, if you are catered for business travelers, if you really want to attract the business people into the town for a conference or whatever, not only just have WI fi, but what else are you doing? Do you have a work desk? Do you have those plugs that have got loads of USB ports at the top? Do you, you know, have you got it where they can hook the laptop up to the TV if you've got that sort of amenity. So you just look at it and just don't go yet. Business person will want WI fi. You've got to go to the next level. Okay, so how do you make it the next level of what can you do? So can you arrange to get a free pickup from the airport? Can you arrange to have earlier check in so they can get to that event or that conference? And I think you put it so perfectly. Go to who? Your ideal client. I think the problem with, I see so many business owners make not just hospitality is that they start up a business and you say to them, okay, where's your customers gonna come from? And you just go, I want all the customers, I want just anybody. But if you appeal to everybody, you appeal to nobody. You've got to take some time like you say, treat this like you would your listings. Don't just throw it up in 10 minutes. Spend a day on this, block out, you know, hours on this and really focus down on it. You can easily do a Google search and type in customer avatar or ideal customer and there'll be loads of blogs that you can read up on this. Well, I like that. Now let's focus a little bit on Bookful. So I've seen all the tools that you guys are offering is really exciting. There's loads of beta things going on and everything. I just would love for you just to fill us in on what you guys are doing and why you decided to focus on these. I really want you to focus on the listing review because I think that's, that's a beautiful little addition to what's not out there at the moment. So just let us know what Bookful are doing to help short stay accommodation owners all over the world, please.

Yeah, sure. So Bookful is the industry's only free property management software. And so we, like I said, we just launched last month. So software has been kind of our main focus in the past few years is to really develop that and make it into a platform that for people. And kind of how we started was our CEO Kevin High owns a property management company in Charleston. They have, you know, around I'd say 80 properties at any given time. And you know, he had tried several different softwares out there that it just didn't do all of the things that he really needed or wanted for his business. And so he was like, I'm gonna solve this problem and started developing the software and wanted to has, you know, a lot of property managers in the industry. So he wanted to able to offer it for free. And so really it's a robust software that's like any other software out there. We just happen to be free. And I always, every single time, the very first question people say to me is, so then how do you make money? And kind of how we do that is we do have additional services. And so the listing review service is one of those add ons that you can hire us to do. And it's really just review and an audit and we kind of take our team, we're still kind of in beta on that. We're getting a few people in to get a few under our belt and kind of see how it goes. But it's a really exciting service because I think from an OTA perspective, it's really helpful. Each OTA is different and the algorithm is different. I mean, we talk about this even in the marketing side of things. The algorithm for every platform is like the challenge of the day for all of us. You know, the Facebook algorithm, the Instagram algorithm, the Airbnb algorithm, like these, like the algorithm is the talk of the day. And so really kind of looking at each one of those listings and going, okay, where can we, where can you improve your listing here so that you can show up better in the algorithm? Not that I can say we figured out the algorithm because we haven't, but we have as best as we can only for it to probably in six months, which is how they all kind of work. But there are certain things that are weighted and so kind of looking at, everybody's looking at that and going, okay, here's a checklist of things that you can do to improve this listing and show up higher end results and really driving that. Very simple, I'm going to give you actions for you to follow to make this better for you. And that's really our goal for all of our customers is to help the industry. I mean it's growing industry, we're all still learning and figuring out and it's moving so fast because it's growing so fast. And that's really our goal is to help people, you know, do better, make more money. Like that's all of our goals. We want to make more money. And so that's kind of what we're hoping to do with all of it.

So if I am a short stay accommodation owner, whether I'm a week in or I'm 10 years in, and I want to find out more about Bookful and what you're doing, where's the best place to start.

So the best place to start is definitely@bookful.com that'll kind of give you the overview of our software, have a services page on there that you can see all of the services that we offer and then kind of dive into our blog. I mean you, you've read our blog, We've worked, my marketing team has worked really hard on that blog for the past year and creating good content and content that we really kind of go into a lot of the groups out there and go, what are people asking in these groups? And we try and write our content around that because if they're asking it, they want to know. And so we can write blogs on that. And then I am really big on content where reading a piece of content is great, but I love it when I get like a little one page worksheet that can kind of like summarize it for me and help me out. So we really try and get each one of our blogs to have like a piece of content that somebody can really just download and they can use it right then, you know, an inventory checklist, a housekeeping checklist, all of those kinds of things to really kind of help them get organized and just do their business more efficiently.

I definitely would recommend everybody to go to the blog. For those that can't understand how I'm pronouncing it, it's B O O K f u l l.com bookful.com head to the blog. Tons and tons and tons of really good advice on there. That, that is definitely where I would recommend you get going. Ronnie, I just want to say thank you so much for doing this. Really appreciate you coming on today and sharing the information. And what I would love everybody to do would be to go back on this episode, go to the blog and for the notes that are on the blog for the show, go through everything that we've discussed here about looking at how you are telling the story on your listing. Go and have a look at your photos and again, if you feel like the photos aren't doing your property justice, then you need to do something about it. Now we're not saying go spend a ton of money. Don't go and try and hire the best professional that you can. In fact, if you want a little guide that I put together on how to hire professional photo shoot for free, just go boostly.co.uk photoshoot there's a Dropbox of a video that I put together about 40 minutes long and it's five little tactics and tips on how you can get a really good photo shoot done for free. Follow that, put it into practice, come back to us, send us a before and after. Send it to Ronnie, send it to Bookful, send it to I. You know, I'm sure you go into the website, you can go and find out the Instagrams and the Linkedins and all of that for all of these and we can just show you results. That's all I ask from doing this full podcast series is that you listen. But like Ronnie says, you you take it to action. So thanks again for tuning in. Thanks so much Ronnie, for taking part. This has been the Boost Hospitality Podcast season seven. This is episode five. All I ask if you found that this has been a bit of value, go rate, review and subscribe so you can get all the podcasts that we've got coming up. I want to say thank you to Hostfully, who are the sponsors of this podcast series. Really does appreciate everybody that has tuned in because Hostfully now is sponsoring the show and we will be back very soon for another episode of the Boost Hospitality Podcast.