Proactive tactics you can do to get bookings when the lockdowns are lifted

Foreign. Welcome one and all to the Boosted podcast. You will have noticed that for the last five or six episodes now I've had a little friend helping me with these recordings and I just cannot get rid of it. I've tried everything. We even tried toothpaste. So if any suggestions please put it in the comments or on Twitter. Ostleruk Checked out this by Fuel Travel Shocking findings from the COVID19 Consumer Sentiment Survey and I wanted to break it down. I wanted to talk about it. A massive shout out for Fuel Travel for this and for the outstanding work that they do. You can go check out more. Just go to Fuel Travel, Google Fuel Travel. They're an American based company. I've been listening to their podcast for years. I've chatted to Stuart, one of the co founders there a few many a times. I'm a big fan of their work but I pulled out a couple of stats I and I wanted to break down exactly why it's important and we go for it in detail. But most importantly I wanted to give my commentary on the other end and give proactive tips and advice for what you need to be doing. Getting bookings for when the lockdown restrictions lower. I also gave away a little gift tonight. It's a totally free video. You have to watch it to find out and listen to this for the full duration. I'm not going to give you any hints and tips on where it is, but it's a video that you can download and use for your social media that will stop the scroll. So so please look out for that. Let me know when you use it@Boostly UK. Tag me on the social media when you do. But also as well before you do go onto this full video with myself. Go check out hostly.com one free digital guidebook for everybody from Boostly. You go there, sign up, you get your free guidebook, you can create it, amend it, you can show your future guests exactly what you're doing to keep your property clean. You can talk about the cleanliness, you can talk about all of the things local recommendations that are doing delivery and talk about all those really important things that are needed for right now. But most importantly you can get it to them before they arrive so you don't have to wait and have that laminate waiting around on a kitchen table. Please do go and check out hostfu.com they are the sponsors of our podcast. If you put Boostly2M in the promo code, you get two months absolutely free. If you're going to upgrade to their premium offering for now, really important that you make lots of notes, but you mostly implement all of this advice that I'm going to give you. I give a lot of advice in here. So booster.co.uk podcast is where you can get the show notes. All right, let me flip over to the live recording of the Boost Hospitality podcast. Thank you so much for listening. Please make sure you rate, review and subscribe the stats that I want to share. So there was a couple of recent surveys done, but the one that stood out for me was fuel travel did one and they surveyed roundabout. I think the average in the end was about 15,000 travelers and guests. What was really interesting to me was a lot of the numbers that were coming back, the stats that really were surprising for me. And I've got them written down on a piece of paper here. The first one is that out of nearly 15,000 people that were surveyed, only 3% of them, 3% said that they would not be traveling in 2020. Obviously, we as hospitality owners, you watching this live or on the replay, you have been affected by COVID 19 for your hospitality business. 97% said that they would be okay. And I think the other important thing about this survey as well is that 75% of those same people said that they right now were wanting to book, but they were just sat on the fence. They were waiting for either lockdown to be reduced so that they are allowed to travel and go and stay again, or. Or that they were waiting to see what the accommodation themselves were going to be offering. This again is playing a big part. 75% of people that are sat on the fence, they are waiting to see, see what happens. So obviously different countries and different states are going to come out of lockdown and allow people to travel at different periods. You know, I'm obviously in the UK and we are still on lockdown. Now, some of you are watching in America, different states are coming out of their lockdown already. Obviously people over in Bali and China and from Australia tuning in, you're coming out in different periods of lockdown. Europe, France and Spain again are pointing, recording at the first of May, starting to lift the restrictions. But it's very, very slowly. So again, depending on where you are in the world, depending on where you are with your lockdown, and you've got to obviously look at your current guidelines for this. But when we do start to come out of these lockdowns, I really do feel that you've got to be playing on these two things again. 15,000 people interviewed surveyed, 75% of them said that they were sat on the fence. Three percent of them said that they would not travel. And the two big words that are coming out of it is safety and cancellation. So again, you've got to be looking at this, you've got to be putting this into your marketing moving forward. Now the next one again leads me on to another bit of big news. So 90% of them, and I got to read this 90% said that they would help a property that they had stayed at in the past and were in financial difficulty. What I would be recommending that you do him is contacting previous guests that have stayed with you in the past. And we're going to talk about and sort of double down on this in a second, but contacted them or maybe somebody that has stayed with you for a few times but has had to cancel and hasn't yet rebooked him, you could go to them and just say, hey, you know, it'd mean a lot and would help us. And I know you want to come and stay with us, I know you want to rebook. So at the moment we haven't got dates. But what you can do is if you follow this link, you can book in a gift card, you can book in some credit. So when we do reopen, you can use that credit to a future stay. So again, you're getting that, that revenue now. So it's in the bank now. The guest has got the credit against their name. And as soon as the lockdowns are restricted, lowered and people know that they can come and travel to you, then again it's a no lose situation for both parties. And again it's 90%. So that's, you know, nine of every 10 guests are saying that they would, they would help. And again, I want to keep this kind of short because I want everybody as possible to watch this. So if you're enjoying this and if you think this is helpful, all I want for you to do is hit that thumbs up button and leave a comment that is saying yes or hashtag no. So I can, so I can tell it the points. If you also find this useful, then what I need for you to do is I need for you to be sharing this in a Facebook group again, if you haven't done so already. There's tons of Facebook groups that are out there. There's Airbnb groups, the service accommodation groups, those rental groups, those BNB groups, there's the free to book group, there's the Avivo group to share it in as many as you can. Because this needs to be Spread because there's so many people I see that are still not got the confidence that they think that they can come out the rest of, but the business will be on, on the other side. So what I want to do now is I want to give everybody some ideas on what they can be doing, potentially be saving these bookings. Now, the first thing, and it's got down on my notes right here, the first thing which I'm saved on my notes is that I put a challenge out earlier and I just want to go and tell you about this now. I put a challenge out earlier that I wanted this video to be shared into 10 different Facebook groups. We surpassed that, which is amazing. And I said for everybody that did, then I'm going to have a little treat for you. So what I've done is I've gone into the Boostly Academy archive and I pulled out one of the videos that I created that everybody can use on their Instagram, on their Facebook or on their LinkedIn or Twitter to get attention. And it's the caveman video. So if you've not watched the caveman video, and I need somebody's help here in the comments, who's going to help me put boostly.co.uk forward/caveman, that will take you to a Dropbox video. You can download it onto your phone, you can download it onto your tablet, you can download it onto your computer for absolutely free, zero cost, and then you can upload it onto your Facebook, onto your Instagram, LinkedIn, wherever. It's basically, it's encouraging or explaining to people why they should book direct. And it's totally generic. You can link it back to your website, you can tell the benefits of booking direct, but you can use that. And that's my present to you for sharing this more than into 10 groups. If you go into your PMS, if you go into your property management software, you can run a report and you can get a list of everybody who has cancelled. Now, again, we all know from the stats that have been given out that a large majority of them are waiting to rebook. Now, your job now is to not let them go back into that booking.com ecosystem or that Airbnb ecosystem and find somewhere else to book. We want them to rebook with you. So thinking back to that 90% stat that I gave you, where 90% of them would look to support a business that is in trouble right now, I would be making a list and I would be looking to contact each individually, one of them via text message or phone, or via Email over the course of the next week or two weeks. And I would be going to them and saying, I know you had to cancel your stay because of the current situation, which is totally cool. But what I wanted to let you know is that we have created an online gift voucher system where you can purchase credit that you can use on a future stay with us. So we know that you were looking forward to coming and stay with us. This is the option. And again, some people have had a couple of cancellations, some people have had 10 to 20 to 30 cancellations, some people have had even more cancellations, which is crazy. But if you can just adopt this tactic and if you know calling would be best, text messaging, great. If you have to email, email. But if you can just put the message out there. Again, being fully aware that people are more than willing to help. The cancellation thing was one of the main concerns and one of the situations that the survey asked was what would you be looking for? And people instantly go to pricing. People think that it's pricing, but it's not. It's that cancellation thing. So people are willing to spend money. People are willing to spend. When it comes to purchasing, I think we're just all in the assumption that everybody has no money, which is not the case. People are willing to spend. It's the safety of them and their family. It's the option to be flexible. So can they rebook if they need to? That is what's the main concern on a large majority of people. So you've got to into that mindset. It's not about money. So don't try and offer crazy discounts to rebook, but give that option where they can buy credit, book credit in, and then they can use it. Contact your future bookings that are coming up and again, say to them that, listen, we totally understand the current situation. We've got this new cancellation policy. If you need to move it, you can do so. Again, if you're proactive in this, the guest will be more again, in your favor on this situation because you've proactively reached out. And again, if you've already done this, if you've already reached out to your guests, let me know in the comments, say, tell the situation, explain what you said, share your results. If you've had somebody that has been able to move a booking because of this, please let us know. And again, I'm going to be sharing some good news with everybody soon from a Boostly Academy member just to give you even more confidence that there are so many people out there that is waiting to book him. There is obviously people that are able to book right now. Okay? And this does depend again on where you are in the world, which country, which state, which county. Everybody's got different rules and regulations. But and I have said this in a previous video, there are eight type of travelers right now, people that are looking for accommodation. And as you'll remember on the boostly episode when I got in six hospitality owners. Liam is watching this live, you're part of them. And we got in six people who have been able to bring in income during these crazy times. And again the eight different types of people that are traveling right now and I'm going to list them off and I want everybody who is watching this live in the comments to list this off with me. So eight different type of travelers. Number one, airline crews, number two, long haul lorry drivers, number three, family support for medical staff. So it could be family that live out of town, but their son or daughter or nephew or whatever, they work at the hospital and for whatever reason they can't be around their family. So they've come in from out of town to help support. It could be family support for care staff, etc. So again somebody from coming in from out of town because their son, daughter or family member or friend is, is working in a care home and can't be near their family so they're coming in for family support. It could be university kids. So university kids that have just can't be in their accommodation, their universities are locked down, they can't get back home for whatever reason and they can't stay in where they currently are. They need accommodation right now. Number six, relocation stays. Again, people that have sold their house have moved into certain area and their purchase has fallen through because of all of this because mortgage companies are not signing off on house purchases. Vain could nude with places to stay. It could be family separation for first responders and expats who are stuck. So it could be people that Travel in an RVs can't get back to their house and again the caravan sites and all of those are closed up and again they may need some site. So there's, there's eight different types of people that we've identified that are still traveling or need accommodation right now. And again if you want to go back to the live video where I explain this in a lot more detail, I'll make sure that I put the link in the comments to here and in the post and in the show notes@boosted.co.uk podcast. But there are so many different ways that you can be getting in front of these potential people that need accommodation. One of the easiest things for key workers, if you can take key workers right now. Now again I stress this is not for everybody. Different rules, different regulations of other places. But I think there's the, the one thing. And again I've been on, I've done all these live videos this week and I've also been on this week on loads of podcasts and webinars. People inviting me in to do their webinars and their podcasts and their conferences, virtual conferences. And the big message that I'm saying to everybody is that the, the one industry that is going to be really hard to get kickstarted as soon as say staycations is going to be the, the flights. So again, I know there's a lot of people who are watching this that heavily rely on people flying onto the island or flying into their, into their area to come and see them. You've got to do your ultimate best right now to try and get, who can just jump in a car to get to you. Mainland, mainland Europe, Spain, Germany, France, etc Italy, you're okay because you know, you're all connected to get from, to get from Holland into France, it's just, you know, it's a couple of hours. So again I would be looking at re tagging or refining different types of ways, Facebook groups being one, you know, looking at other forms of marketing, how you can get in front of a different type of guest if you are relying on. Now we have Jasper from Get paid for your pad did a podcast interview with him and he will tell you he's got a property that is in Thailand and he has been able to get that fully booked because somebody that is in the area needed accommodation. Again, couldn't be. He wanted to be with his family members. And again it's the same with Colombia, two areas that are heavily reliant on people flying in to come and stay with them. He had somebody in Colombia who needed to be near his 80 year old grandma and again he would never would have thought that that would have been a booking. But that situation has happened. So these are situations that could potentially present themselves to you. But the big takeaway is that you're going to have to do marketing tactics that you've never done before. It's not going to be as simple now as just listing on Airbnb and booking.com and waiting for the bookings to come in. You're going to have to be utilizing the tactics and tips that I've talking about for four years now. For those of you that are lucky enough to be part of the Boostly Academy or the Book Direct membership, you know where to go. You've got the vaults of information. For those of you that want to go and get some really good free advice, just go to boostly.co.uk YouTube. If someone could please put that in the comments. That's a link to the YouTube channel if you want to. If you prefer written, written word, you can go to booster.co.uk for again, if someone could put that in the comments. And if you prefer audio, you could go and get hold of the Boostly podcast, which is on itunes and Spotify and Google Play and all of that. So again, you can go and find out all of those and you can just go back on the back catalog and just listen to the tactics and tips that I've shared with you over the years and you can start to put those things into practice. The most simplest thing that everybody can do right now, number one, focus on the guests that you have had in the sort of last 12 months or the ones that are booked to keep hold of them or to get them to rebook. But also as well, I'd be looking to utilize the guests that have already stayed with you to try and get that social proof going. So something that I've always recommended to so many people is don't always try and focus on new money or new reservations. Instead try and focus on the guests that have stayed with you in the past. So one of the most easiest things you can do is look back on the last 12 to 18 months of your reservations and you're going to try and pick out your top 10 customers. Okay? And what you're going to do is those top 10 customers and they could be top 10 from reservation, how much money they gave you. It could be on the reviews, it could just be for ones you remember. It could be the ones that have stayed with you the most time. But find those top 10 and you'll have their records for your PMS, your property management software provider. You can call them, pick up the phone and have a conversation with them. And just if they can't book with you, then you can just ask one simple thing and just go, Ali, I totally understand you're not looking to travel anytime soon. Can you do me a big favor? Could you just go onto your Facebook or go onto your Instagram or go onto your somewhere, just post up a picture of your stay here, tag us in and tell everybody why you stayed here and give them the link and just tag us in because that would mean a lot. And again, that social proof is going to be so key because it's not just you posting online, that's your top 10 guests, your top 10 people that absolutely love you, adore you, but they just for whatever reason can't stay. They're going to post online. If that's 10 different people doing that and they've got say on average 500 friends on that social media, then you've got so many thousands of potential new people that can discover your business. And again, because it's them doing it with their social proof, then it just means that there's much more chance and likelihood of a friend picking it up, who can travel, who is wanting to travel, who's been stuck at home for two months and is, you know, is looking for something to look forward to and they just see that perfect opportunity and it's all a case of us just asking. And again, that is the main thing that I want to, want to get across to everybody is just ask, don't be so reactive anymore. Let's get proactive. That is pretty much it. I'm going to leave you with one more stat is that in 2019, 30 million people around the world went on a cruise. Now if you can think of any other industry that's going to be so affected by coronavirus, COVID 19 and the cruise industry, I can't personally think of it. So 30 million people. Now what are those 30 million people looking to do? Right now they are going to be looking for a different type and style of holiday. So what I encourage everybody to start doing would be to maybe have a look and see if there are any cruise online publications, any cruise blogs, look for any bloggers that go on cruises, look for any influencers, go on cruises, maybe look at Facebook groups around cruise holidays and look to see if you can put your property in there, add it to the mix because you know nobody's going to be wanting to go on a cruise anytime soon. So they're going to be and they still want to go on a vacation. So if you can put your details out, then again you just put putting yourself in front of that potential opportunity. That is what I want to leave you with. Do remember your prize, your gift, my thank you to you. Go to boostly.co.uk caveman go and grab that free video. So boostly.co.uk caveMan if someone could put that in the comments again, please do so that's a free video that you can use on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, anywhere and you can put the copy around it. But it's a generic video. It's a scroll stopping video, It's a funny video and it gets attention. When you do go and use it, please make sure you tag me in Ostleruk because I'd love to see video live. That video I normally reserve for Boostly Academy members. But I want everybody to utilize this. Share this. But I want everybody to promise me that you're going to be proactive for May. If you do anything else, just get proactive, get posting every day, be visible, contact those guests, contact those ones that have cancelled, contact those ones that have not yet cancelled and contact all of the previous guests again. So Boostly B O O O S T L Y forward slash caveman C A V E M A N All one word. It'll take you into Dropbox. You download it to your phone, you download it to computer, you download it wherever you want to. Just please make sure that you use it. But in the meantime, thank you so much. I'll be back on Monday. Thank you for tuning in and I shall see you on the other side.