Smart and Effective Advice to Get Bookings During the Coronavirus

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Season 8 Episode 2 We are in the Get Proactive series and tonight is.

Just me following on from the last.

Episode with Simon Saw who was fantastic guest. I wanted to do just an episode with you giving you actionable tips and advice on how you can combat the coronavirus crisis in the hospitality industry.

We go through many, many, many different.

Points tonight including how to deal with cancellations, how to go about finding new bookings, how you can stay top of mind for when lockdowns get lifted in your area. Get ready for that upturn. So much actionable advice in this podcast. Please make sure that you take notes, please make sure that you share it. Please just make sure that you.

About.

This as always really would appreciate it. Make sure if you are listening this go rate, review and subscribe on any of the places that you get your podcast. If you're watching the video format, go subscribe to YouTube, go subscribe to LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram so you can get more of this. But for now, enjoy this episode of the Boost Hospitality podcast. Before we go, I just wanted to say massive thank you to the sponsors.

Hostfully help you get digital guidebooks and.

I talk about digital guidebooks and the importance of it in this episode. Well, they help you get digital guidebooks that will wow your guests. You can tell them about Priest Day instructions, you can tell them about local places in the area and this episode will focus massively on why that is important.

So all you are, whether you're watching this live or whether you're watching this back on the replay, just do me one massive favor. If you're watching this on your computer and you've got your phone handy, take a picture of the screen, go and post it on Facebook Stories, Instagram stories, tag me in Ostleruk and I will share it on my social media so more and more people will become aware of it. Tell them why you're watching. Tell them why it's important that people are watching this as well. We're at a stage now that over the course of the next couple of weeks, over the course of the next couple of months, I'd say about 95% of, let's say Airbnb's inventory is fair game. It's ready to go. You as a hospitality owner, you have got a heck of a lot of people to stand out from. So what I'm going to do tonight and what people are watching this on the replay will be able to do is they're going to be able to find out the tactics and tips that they can be doing in the short and the medium and the long term, first and foremost, the first thing that we're going to go on to is cancellations. There's obviously been a lot of cancellations that have happened since, let's just say for the last, for the last week. What you can do on this is it doesn't mean that that person is just going to cancel and you're never going to hear from again. So one of the tactics that I've seen a couple of people talk about, and again, I think this is one I think that everybody should be looking at doing, would be if you've got a cancellation come in, I would contact them. I would contact them by phone call and make it, make it personal. What I would be looking to do and what I would be looking to achieve on this is just be 100% honest and just be 100% vulnerable and just say, listen, you know, we're really looking forward to your stay. As you know, we've got a crisis happening, an epidemic happening all over the world, and, you know, we would have really would have loved for you to come and stay with us. But I totally get it in this time. And it's the current climate that you don't feel comfortable in traveling or you can't travel because of lockdowns. What I wanted to do is I wanted to offer you a credit, and this is a credit, call it a gift voucher credit, whatever you want to call it, but you can put it to any time in 2020, 2021. You can, you can use it whenever you deem fit. And to show our gratitude is that if you let us keep this revenue that's already been put aside in our budget over the course of the next couple of months, when you do come to rebook, we' additional 5% discount. Now, you can do that because you're not paying the commission fees to the OTAs. And if they're booked via Airbnb, you can also stress the importance that they won't have to pay the service charge. So you could just say that you'd waiver the service charge that Airbnb was going to charge you and again, give it to a benefit of them. And again, if you've got, say, God forbid, like, 30 cancellations over the course of this weekend, and you call all 30, and even if 20 of them say no, but 10 say yes, then that's 10 saved bookings, and that's 10 credits. That's 10 people. That revenue that you will, you will get back. Now, if Airbnb have fully refunded or the OTAs have fully refunded them, then you can just say sure thing, we really appreciate it. If I can just take your card details, we'll take this down and this is going to be the credit. And again, 20 of them might say no, 20 of them might just say, you know what, I really, I really, really would love to but I got to think about our short term income for ourself, for myself and my family. What I will do is I will definitely rebook with you and you say, you know what, that's fair. Then what you can do on the flip side is still don't let it go there before, even if it's a no, just ask them really nicely and just say, hey, we really, really appreciate you picking up this phone call. We really appreciate your time. If you know anybody that is going to be traveling to this area, friends, co workers, for whatever reason in the short, medium, long term, please tell them about. Obviously you booked for a reason. You've seen something that we like, that you like in us. So if you know anybody that would like us as well, please recommend them. If you do refer, referrals and they mention you when they book, then we will look after you with. You could say anything, you could say gift vouchers, Amazon vouchers, you know, you could, you could offer a cash incentive but give that incentive because again if you ask and if you don't have an incentive then people won't do when it comes to these cancellations, be proactive in it. Don't just think that just because they've cancelled, that's the end of it, you still got the chance. Also as well, when I did this, this training with the Boost Lee Academy members, a lot of people were saying, you know, I only took a 50 pound deposit as an example if it was a direct booking or I took a very small deposit. I think with a lot of stuff that's going to come on the back of this, with a lot of actions that are going to come on the back of this crisis and you know, it is a big crisis. I think that a lot of businesses are going to rethink how they run their business. And I'm not just talking the small guys, I'm talking the medium and the large guys. And I've been saying this for a while. Evan David, a guy I've got to know really well, the found Shanek, he's been talking about this for a while but he's been championing that hospitality businesses start to look at their bookings like the like the airline industry do where they, where you take the full amount up front and you stress to a point that when you know whenever you book flight, you always will get your travel insurance. So I think that right now, but when you look to take bookings moving forward, plus with PSD2 coming in, with SCA coming in and real stricter card transactions online, I think what we all should be looking to do moving forward, we should reassess how we take bookings. You know, if you've got somebody who's right there and then who is ready to book with you, then they are more often than not going to be happy to pay in that full amount. So let's just start to reassess how we, how we take bookings, try and get more upfront because the more that the guest has to give up front, then it's going to be even less of a potential cancellation fee. You also as well can take this present moment in time to look at third parties that help with this. So there's Master Cancel. That is the service that super control that the PMS they're working with and it's a new product, it's a new service. Go and look at these type of companies where when a cancellation comes in, this insurance company will cover you between 70, 80, 90% of the total cover. So there's things like this, that there's products and services that are going to become available for the world of hospitality that you can look into and investigate now whilst it is quiet and look to be proactive for the future. At the end of the day with this cancellation policy and contacting them, the worst they can say is no. You know what I mean? That's the worst they can say is no. And then you can just move on to the next one. But try and save those value, those bookings moving forward. This is obviously a live stream. Obviously. This is the Boostly podcast. This is episode two of season eight. This is the Get Proactive season that we're doing and it's a live record and on my Facebook and there are going to be a ton of questions and comments coming in. So if you are watching this live or even if you're watching this on the replay and you're watching this on the video format, please do leave your comments, your concerns, your questions below. I know there's a lot of people that are doing it on the Facebook right now and you know, I will come back to these and answer these as best as I possibly can or tag people in that may know. All right, so that's the dealing with the cancellations part. Let's get proactive, let's go into these new bookings. So one of the things that I would be looking to do straight away, and again with this, this sort of covers bookings that haven't yet cancelled. And just before we go on to how to find these new bookings. So number one, for those of you that are allowed to take bookings, like I say, this is being recorded on the 18th of March 2020. And this is really important to say this and to stress this because tomorrow there could be new news. And as we are talking of this right now, there are so many people all over the world that have got different rules and regulations depending on what government that they are in. Okay, so for example, Spain, France, total lockdown today, the Spanish government ordered all hotels and short stay accommodation to close with an effect of next week. So these, these tactics and tips that I am going to be sharing with you, I wish that I could be super specific and speak right to you wherever you are in the world, but I can't. It has to be very generalistic and one that everybody can adhere to. So if you hear a specific tactic or tip that I'm going to share with you and it doesn't relate to you, don't just go into the comments and just go, nah, not for me. Think of who this may benefit and tag them in or share this with them. This is really important if you're tuning in. Even if you're tuning in and listening to this later than usual, now is the chance to hit that share button, share it into a Facebook group. This is your chance to grab the link, send it to a buddy, send it to somebody that you know, wherever they are. First thing that I'd be doing for all the guests that have got bookings coming up and if you can still accept bookings and people can come and stay with you and they have not yet cancelled, I would be proactive in this and I would be reaching out to every single person to reassure them. So contact all current guests at bookings, that's the first thing. And what I would love as well, if you are watching this on the video, please, please, please, in the timestamps, if you can put in there, just mention what each tip is. So if, number one, contact all up and coming guests. If someone can do that for me, thank you so much. Because then we can timestamp this and we can, we can document all of these steps together because I'm going to be giving a lot to you. So what I would be also looking to do as well would be to contact all your previous guests. So hopefully you watching this right now, you have got guests that have stayed with you in the past. You know, whether you've been in business for 1 year, 2 year, 10 years, 15 years, one thing that I'd be looking to do is be proactive in emailing all of your previous guests. You know, you can do this in a bulk email out via mailchimp or mail alight, make sure you've got marketing permission to do so, or you can take a more personalized view on this and emailing everybody one on one. So you could be looking at your guests that have stayed with you in the past six months to a year if you want to do the 8020 rule. So work down to the 20% of guests that brought in 80% of your revenue from bookings and you just know that had an amazing time and I'd be reaching out to them. And again, that's something that I think is really important. I think everybody doesn't matter what time of the year it is or what the current situation around the world is. I think everybody is obsessed with new money, new reservations, new bookings, not just hospitality here. I'm talking about business owners in general, when in reality some of the best business that you can do is focusing on your past customers, the ones that have already know, like and trust you, the ones that will want to come and stay with you. Again, it depends on how vulnerable and honest you want to be. You can say, listen, this is a really important time for us. If we don't get bookings coming in, if we don't get revenue coming in, if we don't get cash coming in, I don't think there may be into your business in 2021. So we would love to see you. So this is where we need your help. This is where the Together stronger really does come into. And I'm going to go and talk about that even more in a little bit. As again, as of today, 18th March, I'm speaking UK specific here. The government have just announced that all schools are going to close as of Friday. And as of Friday the schools have closed and they haven't put a time limit on it. As we all know, Easter holidays is two weeks away, so there's potentially going to be four week plus holiday coming up. This is like a mini summer holiday you throw into the mix that a lot of people are going to get asked if they haven't been done so already to work from home. There's just a sheer reality to the fact is that a lot of people specifically who are in the cities or just wherever they are, they may not have the facilities at home to work from home and be a parent at the same time. This is where people have got hospitality businesses or even more closer to, closer to home self catering accommodation. This could be where the short wins, definitely can happen. And again I would be right now utilizing Facebook groups, Facebook groups in your target areas. So hopefully by now you have been watching my videos, taking on my training and doesn't matter whether it's the Boostly Academy, the book, direct membership or even the free stuff that I put out in the hospitality community and on the YouTube channel, everybody should know who their customer avatar is, their ideal customer. You know, you should be able to know who's your demographic, should know the age ranges and if you're family friendly, if you cater for X, Y or Z now if you're demographic is family friendly, school age children, young school age children, working couples, then this is what you should be really doing right now is look at the areas that you get sort of 80% of your customers from, focus on those 20%. So those of you that have got accommodation, those of you who've got big accommodation, those of you have got maybe accommodation in the countryside or just big accommodation. You could even find the circumstance and the situation where you'll have people that have got the budget, that have got the money but can stay even in their own city, town or area. You can offer the following facilities, large space, fantastic short stay accommodation for the next couple of weeks to a month. If you've got good wi fi, if you've got an office then and if you've got a large garden for example that can facilitate or even better if you're in the countryside then these are the types of of bookings that I would be looking for in the super short term. So again utilize free Facebook groups, go and find where they are, go and even if it's the for sale ones, go in there, start spreading your business out. You can do three to five posts a day where you can find three to five groups a day, sorry that you can post in, maybe up to 10 that you can post in. Don't do the same message, find different demographics, find different messages that you can post out and talk about your business in there. I know at least two to three people from my world in the Boost Lee Academy that are ex teachers and are offering or potentially offering homeschooling from their properties. And again this is something that you can do. You're going to have people that are off school for an extended period of time. Obviously with all of this there's the caveat of safety precautions. Who are the people that are coming in X, Y and Z. And you know you can do what precautions that you need to do. I'm going to talk about cleanliness in a second as a new usp, but this is what I would be looking for everybody to do. Utilize local Facebook groups, reach out to them. There's the next tactic and tip that I'm going to share with you around this. This relies on a follow up video. So what I want for you to do is somebody who is watching this type in the comments. Boostly.co.uk FacebookAudience now what I'm going to show you in that video is how to use Facebook ads to get in front of your target audience even quicker over the course of the coming days, weeks and months. Now the next thing is something that I found out about less than an hour ago and Lisa Holmes is the person that shared it with me. I want to give you a big shout out. Thank you for sharing this information with me. Again, Boost, the academy member who just wants to help hospitals, care workers, care homes up and down the land. They are funding for their doctors and for their nurses and for their workers and for their staff members to get short stay accommodation for the ones that they do not want or the ones that haven't been affected. So there is relief here. So there is funding going into doctors, going into nurses and going into staff members of the NHS care homes, you know, these type of businesses. So there's funding going in for them to go and get short stay accommodation during these hard times. What I would be encouraging everybody to do, if you have accommodation that is near a care home, that is near a hospital, then I would be looking to reach out to the hospital trust telling them about your business, telling them about the key points, let them know where you're located. Now you're going to have to reduce your rate pretty heavily. Reduce your rates, but revenue coming in on a reduced rate is better than nothing coming in. And again, if you can set up good ties and networks within at these times, then it will reward you in the long. Let's talk about declinedness. Now I've mentioned it a couple of times and this is something that is something I never thought that I would have to say regarding marketing because as everybody knows, marketing is what I teach. Getting direct bookings is what I teach. Showing you how to Present your business online is what I teach. I always talk about the usp, the unique selling point. And normally a USP that would drive in your ideal client to you could be the views, it could be your comfy bed, it could be your fantastic breakfast, it could be customer service. Now, where we are right now in the world, it's cleanliness, it's the deep clean that you do in between stays, it's the cleaning stuff that you have. It's what you're doing additionally to make sure that people have got the trust and the confidence to stay with you. It's the toilet roll, believe it or not. I can't believe I'm saying this, but it's the additional things and the methods that you're going to and this is what you need to show off, this is what you're going to need to present to people. You're going to even have to present this in your picture. So the photos that you have got on the listing site, whether it's on your website, listing site or the OTAs, your first five pictures are everything together stronger. Hashtag together stronger. I think that everybody needs to start looking at building up more networks in your local and surrounding areas. Now. What do I mean by this? Well, every single business, whether you can spot it or not, is diversifying or pivoting very, very quickly. As an example, and I only just discovered this before I came online, just eat and Deliveroo have now added a filter in where it's non contact delivery. So basically where the driver will just leave it outside your door and ring the bell to say it's there. This is something that they've just literally added in on the back of the coronavirus. That's just one example that I can think of. But also as well, local restaurants are now starting to do delivery. They're doing meal prep. They are massively trying to figure out how they can stay afloat and how they can make money in a time where people are being encouraged not to leave their house, when people are being encouraged not to go into large areas where a lot of people are going to be. So again, this is where I think everybody now should be looking at how you can diversify and what you can be doing. So number one, I would personally be looking to call your favorite restaurants in the area, call your favorite cafes, just, just call the hospitality business that is still open and ask them, are you offering delivery, get their latest menu, get it sent over, whether it's a PDF or whether it's just a picture of the menu. And I would be looking to create digital guidebooks. So Hostfully is obviously the sponsor of the the Boostly podcast. H O S T F u l l y.com they give you one free digital guidebook so you can go on and you can create one. So if you haven't got a digital guidebook, if you've just relied on leaving something like this out in your, in your, in your, in your property, whether it's in the bedrooms or in the, in the self catering, then I'd be looking to get a digital version. Because then what you're going to be looking to do with that is to build up a little black book of businesses in the area that you recommend that are offering meal prep or offering food delivery so they don't have to leave their house when they come and stay with you if they don't want to. You know, then every single thing is going to be catered for. The more that you can do, the more that your neighbour could do and the more that your neighbor's neighbor can do, then this will be a fantastic way of making sure when all of this is over, the, the businesses that are being proactive, those are the ones that are still here. They may look totally different, but they're going to be here. Another thing that I've been thinking about, and I think that this is something that is going to become more prominent over the course of the last week. There's been so many different ranges of emotions that have been flying around, from anger to disbelief to shock to depression to everything. But I think that on the flip side of that, when we go for all these stages of emotions, the thing that's going to come out specifically if you're in my world, is going to be positivity and just being nice. All right? And there are going to be a hell of a lot of people in all industries, in all walks of life that are going to suffer on the back of this. So I recommend, and it would be good to see people doing this, that for a limited time, you don't have to say it's going to be forever, but you can definitely start from now up until July, that for every direct booking that you come in 5% of that, you are going to give the 5% of your profit in to food banks or to local charities to really, really help the people who need it most. And again, I would be, if you do decide to do it, I would be putting VA on all your listing sites. I'd be putting it everywhere on social media. I'd be letting everybody know that for the foreseeable future, from now until whenever, doesn't matter when people book to come and stay. But those that make the actual booking for whatever time period you want it to be, then 5%, 10%, whatever you want it to be, of that total money for your booking will go to a local food bank or to a local charity. Again, you're putting money back into the, into the local area. When I said this last night in the Bruce Lee Academy had mixed feelings. But I think that again, if you're proactive in doing this, I think the good karma will come back your way. And who knows, it could be just that one little thing that you're doing differently to everybody else that be resulting you getting the booking. And again, it's a great way of building local networks, local communication. Like for example, there's the local charity that you are working with, you don't know, but who's going to need to be coming in to travel to the local area to help run that charity or to help be part of that. If you're going to be directly helping them, then the word of mouth on the back of that will just mean that more people will be aware of you. And finally as well, when you do a direct booking, don't forget, Instead of paying 15% to booking.com, instead of paying 4% to 14% to Airbnb, instead of paying 15 to 20% to Expedia, you can be putting a little bit of that to a local charity, which again will pay back massively in the long term. Also, as well, build up these local communities of other hospitality owners as well. So find a network, you know, if you're in a hospitality community, start to ask where everybody is. You know, if you're on the book direct map, if you're listed on there, you can actually go onto the map and you can see other people from my world that may be near around you and again, reach out to them, send them a message on Facebook, drop them a call if you know them, just go around and say hi. If you're allowed to leave the door, that is, and just say, right, I'm going to share with you my availability. You can easily see it from now until whenever. If you get somebody that calls or wants to book with you, emails, whatever, but you can't take the booking, then please just take a minute to look at our availability. If we have it, please tell them, or even just go ahead and book it in. I'll give you like to book it in and tell them that. Listen, you don't have the availability, but somebody nearby who has exactly the same features you recommend it has and they're going to do it exactly the same rate. Share the availability, share the calendar and again you can work out how you can make sure that even if somebody calls or emails and you can take the booking than your next door neighbor or somebody nearby in your local area can as well. Obviously, and I don't need to be the one to tell you this, but there is going to be sacrifices having to be made when it comes to budgeting and looking at your numbers for your business, for the P Ls for every single month and quarter over the coming, who knows, months for the foreseeable future, weeks and months at least. The one thing that you cannot stop doing is your sales and your marketing. You've got to be online, you've got to be visible, you've got to be top of mind. So those of you that invest your time in social media, those of you are going to invest your time sending emails, you are the ones that are being proactive, you are the ones that are going to benefit when the upturn does happen. Now let's again just focus back and flip back to the short term. Those of you that can take bookings. When it comes to pricing, you have to price right now that you're going into the slow season. So don't think of it being April, May, June, July, August, think of it as being the quietest month. January, if you, if you've got a, you know, if you've not got a ski business, whatever, but you've got to think about the slow, the slow season, you've got to price it. I saw a really effective Facebook ad a couple of days ago and it was for an accommodation business and it said 40% discount for 14 plus night stays. So again, being very clever around the isolation period, being very clever around the target, but again, 40% discount for a 14 plus nights day. And again you may be thinking that's a really low price but right now getting a head on a bed is better than an empty house. You need to be getting that cash coming in because again, if you can again be proactive in this and even if you can just start to get bookings now, one of the other things that I would be looking for is everybody to be doing is contacting people and start selling gift vouchers, credit, you know, we are coming up. Mother's Day is on Sunday. The hospitality industry is going to get hit massively this weekend because the mothering Sunday is the second most Busiest calendar after bank holiday weekend. Obviously this is in the UK and Europe. Mothering Sunday is coming up. People for, I can think maybe the first time since maybe if it really, really snowed. But people aren't going to be venturing out like they used to. People are going to be having Mother and Son Day more at home, but people are still going to need present. If you've got family, if you've got somebody that you know who likes to come and stay at your place, then what better of an idea of a potential gift would be. But when all of this is over, you can buy for your mother this Sunday a place to go and stay at your property, specifically if you've got returning guests. So I'd be looking to push that message out. Something like this that is newsworthy. You could even contact your local paper at a time like this. Newspapers are looking for good news right now and they are looking for people in the hospitality sector that is being affected by the coronavirus. But what they're doing to turn it into a plus point, if you go and contact the local newspaper and tell them this is what you're doing, or even contact your local BBC news, then this is newsworthy and you get on the TV doing this. When everybody's watching the TV at the moment, you get in and around local radio on this. And again, when people are listening to local radio more, then this would be the time to be definitely be doing this and definitely something to pivot to. This is going to be totally free. There's going to be no charge, it's going to be behind no paywall, there's going to be no sales at the end of it. The reason why I'm doing this, and this is so super important, like I said at the very, very start, is that at times like these, there are scumbags out there that will try and make quick money from you. I've done this video tonight. I've done it where everybody can see it. It's not in a closed Facebook group, it's on my personal wall because I want every single one of you to share it. I'm going to get all of these tips documented and put in the post above. And I'm going to put a full blog post out around this so you can share it out there. So it is, if you want to join in on the daily group WhatsApp channel in there, you'll get notifications when I'm going to come live and do things like this. And also as well, I'll share other little tactics and tips, blogs, advice that I do. If you have got an Apple Apple phone, please just go take out a minute, go to the Apple podcast app on your phone, go and find the Boost Hospitality podcast and go and leave it a review. This will get it high up in the charts and it will get more and more people that maybe not on the world of Facebook or whatever, but people who do listen to podcasts get more and more people that do see it. Please go tell people about it. Go to booster.co.uk podcast if you want to get more free help and advice. Alright everybody, I just want to say thank you very much. I hope this has been worthwhile. If you want me to do more of these one on sort of a single interview styles, just let me know. But I'm going to sign off for now and I'll be back very soon for another video.