Why having a free website is a bad idea

So you have a website, you have a free website from your PMS provider, whoever that may be, and you are thinking, well, why is it not actually working? Why is it not generating any bookings? I'm getting people coming onto the site because it's telling me, but no one's booking. And here's why. Those free PMS websites are all well and good because it gives you a free website, you don't have to pay any money and you can have a website. The bad thing about that is that you get what you pay for in this world. Now the PMS has started to provide a free. A free website or a free website, as I may say, because it was a real good selling pitch when there's over a thousand other competitors to say that you get a free direct booking website. It sounds and looks good because as a host, when you've created this business and you've spent a lot of money getting them ready, whether this is something that you own or if you're doing a management model, you still got to, you know, deck it out. Especially if you're getting a property unfurnished, if you're doing one that's furnished, you know, you still got to spend a lot of money to get, to get going. And so when it comes to the actual market inside and you invest, you know, $100, $150 a month into a PMS and then you go, you get a free website. That's fantastic. But the problem is that it's very templated, it's got nothing to do with, with Google and, and also as well, you cannot do anything on it. So if you want to make amendments, you can, because you are restricted, because it's free. So my first piece of proper advice that I will give you is that invest a little bit of extra money and get a WordPress website. Get a website that is something that you have got full control over. Now there are lots of different providers. There's a WIX website that may be a bit cheaper, but, um, there may be a Squarespace website. But WordPress is the best. Over 62% of the world's whole websites are based on WordPress. So that's got to tell you something. Now what I would love to know below in the comments is if you have got invested money on a website and if it's not a free one with a pms, then what do you use? Are you using squarespace? Are you using WordPress? Are you using website Wix? Let me know what you use below. WordPress is, is best. WordPress is our top recommendation. I can understand why you may eventually, especially if you're doing a diy, you may have ventured into the world of WIX or Squarespace etc because again, when you look at the technology for the first time, if you look at the dashboard of a WordPress website, you go, whoa, what am I looking at here? But believe me, WordPress is the best investment you will do. Google favors it more than any other and as well, um, it's one of those that you are going to get more benefits of from in the long run. So there's no right or wrong. I'm not going to call you out if you've got a WIX or Squarespace website. As you know Boostly, all of our websites are built on WordPress. We've got fantastic results, we've got fantastic feedback from our, our clients, but most importantly the guests when they come to arrive at the property they all say your website is fantastic. So that's fantastic to hear. It's done on WordPress. So if you want to find out more about our websites, go to booster.co.uk websites. From there you can book a call. It's a 15, 20 minute call, nothing too major and it's just a case of figuring out if you're a right fit for us for our website design business and if we're a right fit for you with 700 clients, we're the only ones offer a money back guarantee if it doesn't work. And also as well, we are not a market leaders in what we do. We have connections to some of the major PMS's out there. So again, we know what we're talking about when it comes to this. So thank you very much for stopping by this podcast episode. Whether it's video, audio or you're reading the blog on the website. Thank you so much. If you could do me a massive favor. If you can, hit the thumbs up button. If you can download, subscribe and most importantly share this video, share this audio into a Facebook group LinkedIn group on your social medias in an email to a friend, a colleague, anybody in your area that you think may need our help, it would mean the world. The Boostly podcast is the top rated hospitality podcast in the world. So thank you so much for being part of it. I'll be back tomorrow as always with another episode. But until then, stay awesome, stay positive, let's go get proactive and let's go get some diet bookings. Take care. Bye bye.