The misconception of direct bookings

Welcome back everybody to the Boostie podcast. We've got something special today. So I was recently interviewed on Instagram, an IG Live by the amazing Tatiana. It was called Spilling the Tea and it was a as a chance to talk about direct booking tactics. She was so kind to share the recording with me and I said that we would put it on the podcast. So what you're going to get is a little segment of the chat. I had a lot of fun. Please do go check out Tatiana. I'll make sure that we've got links on the blog post, we've got links on the podcast, we'll make sure all the links is there. Amazing person to follow on Instagram and is just another person who's bringing tons of knowledge into this industry on how to get started, how to scale. And she brings such a really cool interior design background to it. So the chat that you're about to listen to, the chat that you're about to see is my Spilling the Tea, Instagram Live with Diana, all about the amazing direct bookings. So the first one is direct booking a good idea if you're just getting started? Well, this is, I knew this question was going to come and this is really important, this question because when I talk about direct bookings, I think when people hear direct bookings, I think the big misconception is that you've got to bin off, stop doing, go cold turkey on Airbnb or the OTAs. People assume that I'm saying that you only go direct and you don't, you don't list on any of these channels. It's, that's further from the truth. You have to be everywhere. You have to be listing your unit, listing your property on, on every channel. Now when I say that people go, oh, that's a little, that's a bit tricky. You know, that's a bit tricky. But it's not because the most important piece of kit tool software that you are going to get for your business when you very first start, and I can see how to host as USD is a pms. It's a property management software. Now I would love to know with the people tuning in, who you use as your pms. Now, the reason why I asked that question, the reason why I asked that question is because you can ask any five or ten people who their favorite PMS or who they use and you'll get five or 10 different answers. There's over a thousand property management software companies in the world of hospitality. Over a thousand. It is mental. There's not one company that's got one shoe fits all or does everything. But it's one of the most important bits of software that you will get, the reason being. And if you don't know what a property management software is, if you don't know what a PMS is, then I actually put a blog together. So everybody write down or type down or just remember this link or put it in the comments if you feel in, if you're feeling helpful. Boostly B O o s t l y.co.uk PMS. There's a. I interviewed 100 hosts, we did a survey, pros and cons of everyone that they use and we put it together on a blog so you can literally go in and find out the one that looks good for you, book a demo and off you go. Okay, so quick break. You hear me talk a lot about marketing and that's because attracting your own guests is how you generate true revenue for your business. But like with everything else that I talk about, it takes time. And it takes not only a little bit of your time, it can take large chunks of your time if you try and do everything yourself. One of the things that I have very quickly discovered is automation and delegation. And this is what I love about Hostfully. And this thing that I don't think a lot of people know is that a big part of their behind the scenes tools is automation communication. Tools that are set up and designed to automate the process. There are companies out there that charge a lot of money for this, but with Hostfully, it's all built in as part of your service. So if your PMS doesn't provide automation communication, then I would definitely look at maybe booking a call in with Hostfully as soon as possible. But as sponsors of this podcast, so go and check out hostfully.com make sure you tell them that Boostly sent you. And as always to Hostfully, thanks for sponsoring this show. I'm a big supporter and a big fan of everything that you do. And right now, let's get back on with that show that we're talking about. Thank you. Now, with a pms, which is really important, this will become your central hub. This will become like your bible. This will be the place that you go every single day. Now people are putting things like Avivo, et cetera in there, which is great. There's tons of them. And what that means with a pms, it means that you can link up via a thing called the channel manager and you'll heard this word channel manager before. Link up your, your, your central hub to booking.com to Airbnb, to VRBO, to Expedia, to anywhere else. So you've got a central hub. That means you'll never, ever get a double booking, which is key now also as well. What it will mean is that you can connect it to Stripe so you can take direct payments, which is amazing. And then finally, it will mean that you'll be able to create a direct booking website, which is where you will build your business, which is where you will build your brand. So we have people come to me, people come to us, whether they've got one property, two properties, three properties, five, 10, 100, we're getting. We just had a website client come to us, he's got 300 properties, Vector Travel, which is huge. And, you know, it really doesn't matter where you are in the journey. The you need to be having an avenue for direct bookings. And again, it doesn't matter whether you've got very little budget or a really high budget. It's very cost effective to do all of those things that I've just described, and it doesn't take up a lot of time at all, but it is so key for your business.