The Misconception Of 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 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, as this 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're feeling helpful. Boostly b o o s t-l y.co.uk PMS I interviewed a hundred 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. 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, etcetera, In there, which is great. There's tons of others 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 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. We just had a website client come to us. It's got 300 properties, Vector Travel, which is. Which is huge. And, you know, it really doesn't matter where you are in the journey. 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. Having a blast. Gonna get it on the Boost Lee podcast. Bruce Lee. Like Bruce Lee. Cause it's so hard on the T is loose leaf making up those rhymes. Don't write it, just do it loosely.