Mark Simpson says guests are asking more questions before booking instead of using instant-book. He recommends adding live chat or WhatsApp to your property website to capture those inquiries and convert them into bookings.
And this is something that I've been noticing from speaking to a lot of people. And what I'm noticing in trends as well, is that at the present moment in time, the diary bookings are coming in. They are on the back of an inquiry. So 10, 15, 20 years ago, before booking.com, airbnb, Expedia, everybody who was had a business back then, you will know that every single listing site had a phone number on it or had an email inquiry. There was no instant book because 10, 15, 20 years ago. What you'll notice is that people wanted to ask a question before booking. Obviously, Instant Book changed that and it went for a time where everybody was just instant booking, wherever that may be. But what we're noticing, and I've noticed this from speaking to quite a few people over the course of the last week, and not only that, but looking at trends that are going around, and this could be for a number of reasons, nobody's actually dug into why, but you can just maybe draw your own conclusions. I mean, you're speaking to the guests, you know what the questions are coming in. But ever since the pandemic, people are much more likely to ask a question before booking. There was a stat going around about 2017, 2008 and 2019, where it was 76% of people will want to ask a question at the point of booking. So this is where I want to give a little bit of a quick win for everybody. And this is something that we're doing at Boostly moving forward is install or add in a live chat or a WhatsApp link to your website. So just to give you a quick example of what one looks like. So I've got one up on the screen. We've got Luke stays here, you can see, Luke stays. You can see on the bottom right hand corner, it's got the, it's got the live chat option. And as well, he's taking it one step further. You've got the, the WhatsApp link here, you've got emails, you've got phone calls. So, you know, as you scrol, it's, it's sticky, it stays there, it shows that it's there. So if any time there's a question, they want to go there, it could be a number of reasons why, but the main thing to do is to go and get yourself a live chat added in. Now, Boost, the beauty of having a WordPress boosted website is that it's so simple and easy to do, easier than any other form of software that's out there. So talk is One that's recommended T A W K dot to you can also as well go and grab plugins for WhatsApp button. Again super simple to do. You've got social chat plugin which is right there and again you can add these into your WhatsApp site. Moving forward, all boostly websites are going to have this installed which is, which is good. But if you're currently got a boostly website and you haven't got a live chat, it's free and they're simple to add in. Just go to twerk to you got to sign up, you'll get a little plugin and what we'll do on the back end is that we'll show you how to install the plugin. I mean it's super simple. We'll get some up in the group but boost the academy people again go and go and get something like this because it will be much beneficial to you in in the in the short medium and long term. Again the whole point of this group and the whole point of you being here is that I try and keep you ahead of the game. This is something that we're noticing massively. This is why I throw the conversation over to you in the comments. Are you noticing this as well? Are you noticing that more people are I wanted to call wanting to ask a question or Even as a WhatsApp or a live chat etc. Now you may be thinking well this is a little bit extra work, but I think you'd much rather get ahead of this now and get this sorted now than have to basically lose the booking or then go to back to back to the OTA to do the actual booking. I mean obviously you're still going to need the direct booking aspect on your website because after you've had the chat with them and say right, we'll go to this link, make the payment, make the booking, etc. Etc. And in the medium to long term, how can you look to maybe automatize this? Or is this something that you're going to have to hire for get somebody in to be able to answer these questions. This is some really good food for thought, but make sure you're ahead of the game. Make sure you get a live chat feature on your website, whether it's talk, whether it's just a WhatsApp button, whatever you're going to do and if you've already got this set up, leave those examples in the comments below.
Having a blast. Gonna get it on the Bruce Lee podcast. Bruce Lee, like Bruce Lee. Cause it's so hard and the tea is loose. Le making up those rhymes. Don't write it, just do it loosely.
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