What are the advantages of using my own booking system on or

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shar
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What are the advantages of using my own booking system on or

Post by shar »

Hi 'LMH'ers'

The 'when-will-it-ever-really-be-ready' guesthouse IS going to open in a few weeks.

It is listed on FlipKey and Airbnb. We also have a link on our FB page for booking and had a booking option on our website.

So far we have about 6 bookings and they have all come from Airbnb, along with a few more inquiries. We have had a couple of enquiries from FlipKey but none converted into bookings. Nothing, not even enquiries from our FB page or website.

Recently the booking app on our website was updated and we lost the ability to use it. I have been planning to resolve this issue, but now wonder if we should bother. Instead I have just put links to Airbnb and Flipkey.

Are there any good reasons why I should make sure bookings can be made through the website?[/i]
Expat NZ/Aussies living in Dubai with a holiday home in Unawatuna, Sri Lanka.
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Nemo
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Post by Nemo »

Couldn't you have cheaper prices if guests come to you direct? Fb and your website will take time to grow, these are not overnight results. You should be looking for a slow burn. Having control of your bookings, via your website. should be the holy grail for any business though.
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shar
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Post by shar »

Thank you for your reply Nemo. I expect I am going to sound very green here (which I am), but, in what ways can you be more in control of your own bookings on your own web, that you can't be on Airbnb (for example)?

Yes, we could offer lower rates - but would that be much of a benefit?
Expat NZ/Aussies living in Dubai with a holiday home in Unawatuna, Sri Lanka.
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Nemo
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Post by Nemo »

In a nutshell, when you list on external sites, they have some/ a great deal (delete as applicable!) control over what you offer and you are bound by the site terms and conditions, whether you agree with them or not. You are at the mercy of any changes they make to the site (you only need to read some of the longer threads about Owners Direct to see how many hours of work and heartache they created owners when they rolled out a brand new website!) They take a cut (quite a generous one!) of your income. That's just off the top of my head. Others would add more I'm sure.

When you bring people in via your own site, it costs nothing but your time in maintaining it and the small cost of hosting it. You can offer whatever you want, give your guests far more information and generally add your own unique twist to what you offer compared to everyone else. Above all you are building your brand and effectively adding value to your business instead of adding value to someone else's business. Airbnb and the like are a business based on the back of others. They have nothing without you. You on the other hand own and run your unique property and business. Why waste that opportunity to grow it?
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shar
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Post by shar »

Thank you Nemo for taking the time to share your experience - all things I hadn't thought of.

The same could be applied to our website. We purchased a guesthouse template. It took considerably less time than building our own with a look we loved, but now I cant customise (well I probably can, but not with my skills) and we lost the booking app without notification - which now means lot more work.

Such a steep learning curve.

Thank you again. I am so grateful to have the good advice I have received via this forum :)
Expat NZ/Aussies living in Dubai with a holiday home in Unawatuna, Sri Lanka.
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French Cricket
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Post by French Cricket »

The other great advantage to bringing guests via your own site is that you create and keep your independence. Many (most) of the big sites want to have more and more control over how you run your business - how you charge, when you get paid, what your cancellation policy is and your terms and conditions are and all the rest. You really are a pawn in their hands - and at the mercy of any changes they feel like making, so that your business may not feel entirely your own. If you're independent, you can choose your own guests, and reject any bookings that you don't feel good about too.

You only have to read through some of the threads on here to see how so many of us are doing our damnedest to be free of the big boys for all these reasons!
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shar
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Post by shar »

Thank you French Cricket for your reply. :)

I have to say that at the moment I am loving Airbnb (not so much FlipKey) as I am learning as I go. It feels like trainer wheels. That said, I am starting to see (thanks to feedback here) that there will be a time when it could feel like a constraint.

Will plug on with the website so I a 'ready'! :)
Expat NZ/Aussies living in Dubai with a holiday home in Unawatuna, Sri Lanka.
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Nemo
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Post by Nemo »

Everything is part of our learning curve but with LMH by your side, you can make a lot less errors and have someone around to pick you up when you do!

My first website was very basic, but did the job for several years. If nothing else, it establishes you and your domain on Google. That is priceless even if you rebuild your website. I went for a new site last year, it took me months of building, but it's going from strength to strength now.
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Bassman
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Post by Bassman »

Hi Shar i took a look at your site and was surprised to see no prices, personally as a possible guest (Sri Lanka was on my short list for my 60th but we opted for Costa Rica) i would like to see at least a range of prices.
It looks a beautiful place!
Just one other thing if i may, ive been looking at loads of properties over the past few month and one thing i really find helpful is a embedded google map you can zoom out/in, yours is static.
rammy100
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Post by rammy100 »

I agree with Bassman that it's important to display prices and an availability calendar would be good too.

At the moment potential guests who have located your site have to take that extra step and link through to another site to find out whether your place is available and affordable, and then pay commission for the privilege of booking.

Booking for a week with Airbnb adds over £70 to the price a guest pays and whilst this may not be a deal breaker it may make some look elsewhere. Added to this are your own commission charges which surely you would prefer to avoid or at the very least allow you to reduce your prices a little further without any cost. Why pay commission to Airbnb if you don't have to?
Here we go again........
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shar
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Post by shar »

Thank you Bassman (happy 60th!) and Rammy100.

I have felt like a bit of an imbecile reading through the replies. A few 'doh' moments. Can I blame two weeks to go and a hundred things to do stress? :shock:

I did have a booking page with prices, a calender and booking option BUT, it was a plugin that came with the template I purchased. A few days ago I went to update the calender and discovered that I had lost everything. It seems that there has been a new version of the plugin released and that it is not working with the template.

Obviously I cant have this happening, I need something reliable that is going to cost more money - not appealing after 3 years of outgoing and no incoming money.

Which led me to posting.

What I have on the website is a quick bandai,. You are both absolutely right, we do need rates and availability at the very least. I will too. get onto that

And thank you for the suggestion re the google map. It is another question to pose to the forum as google doesn't seem to want to pin a guesthouse!
:shock:
Expat NZ/Aussies living in Dubai with a holiday home in Unawatuna, Sri Lanka.
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Nemo
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Post by Nemo »

shar this may be early days for you and maybe you have loads more important things to do, but do you have a booking management system behind the scenes? If not then get one before you start! There are many out there, but quite a few of us here use PIMS, created and run by e-richard a LMH member. http://www.holidayrentalmanagement.com/

Once you've got to grips with it (it seems a bit daunting but it's all doable, we can testify to that!) then you could embed the calendar and rate card from PIMS into your website. I managed to do that all on my own on my new website, as the instructions are within PIMS.

There are so many other advantages to using it, so I and others are a bit evangelical about it! You can try it for free. If you're interested PM me for a referral code as that benefits us both.

Otherwise, if it's wordpress you're on then there are other plug ins out there. I searched and came across this one, which looks like it'll do the job and its been around for years. https://wordpress.org/plugins/booking/
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Post by MoonFish »

I agree with the concerns raised above, I have experienced increased loss of control over the listing sites, and their ever-increasing rates (HA) are an issue. I have dropped Flipkey entirely, since they dumped my page for over a month starting in December when I normally get most of my late-winter/spring bookings. We were down over 10000 this year. They also dropped our ranking as we refused to move to commission-based listings.

Another issue with listing sites is the increased difficulty in screening. If you don't know the guest's name or contact details, how do you screen before accepting the booking?

AirBnB has cancelled our agreed 'no refund ever' cancellation agreement without telling us, so I've 'hidden' my listing again. I had to pay a higher percentage commission to them for this, but they changed their policy anyway. I don't get the highest quality quests through them as it is, I certainly don't need to be punished further.

Your own website is invaluable, as you are not sharing the spotlight with anyone else. You are in control, and you have a completely different stream of income should the listing sites crash, add or remove amenities (like all the bathrooms - Flipkey), move your marker pin next to a huge freeway in another country (Flipkey), etc. I just use an email contact form, no official booking form but I am working on one. With a book it now form, I cannot screen or make sure they aren't trying to sneak in extra people without a conversation of some kind, and it allows me build a relationship and share information that might close the deal - and helps to build repeat guests.

Sorry, running on a bit here. What do you have your website on? I've got my own domain running on wordpress, there are several good map plugins, the one I've just installed (still updating) allows me to include custom pins so I can share favourite restaurants & attractions in the area...

Hope it helps!
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Post by cpelwood »

I can thoroughly recommend Freetobook to keep your bookings in order. As implied the basic online diary is free, however it really comes into its own when you use their Fabpay system to take online credit card payments. Once set up it really does keep life simple and the cost I reckon for a credit card is roughly 1.8%, a lot better than PayPal.
It also lets you sync your availability calendar with people like Airbnb which use a iCal format.
A great system!
Jake
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Post by Essar »

Hello Shar

I know it can be daunting when first setting up; you have a great advantage in LMH and all the help the members will give you. I wish I had found it earlier.

I have been operating 2 properties for over 7-years and used a local agent for the first years which gave me lots of exposure to the industry and helped me plan my strategies.

I started my own website 5-years ago and it now provides roughly 50% of all my bookings - it does take years for a website to get established; but, it is worthwhile in the end.

I am also a user of FreeToBook - I use this for managing my diary, FabPay payments (Visa/Mastercard/Amex) through WorldPay and iCal updates for AB, BC, HT, HL, IKnow & FK. I update HA separately through a different gateway that also gets it feed from FTB. So when I take a booking myself or on any of these sites all calendars are updated within 24-hours.

I display the HL calendars on my website because they get updated the quickerist by FTB. I also have the FTB "Book It Danno" button on my site.

Because I have a good website name I get often get on page 1 on Google and always page 1 on Bing. The nice thing is that all the listing sites will also show my properties on the same pages. I have been with most of these listing sites for years and my intention is to maximise exposure to my properties through them using a commission basis where possible. My only exception is HomeAway which is on subscription and brings in the majority of the listing sites reservations.

BC can be hard work but is extremely useful for filling the off-season.

I now tend not to have a great "GiveA$hi7" value attributed to the commission listing sites abilities to provide anything other than an SEO capability. Any reservations I get - and I do get some - are just icing on the cake. Now I know this strategy will not work for a newcomer as it takes time to establish "a presence" on-line, but you should get your website sorted out sooner than later. Get a management system PIMS/FTB are great. List on as many commission based sites as you can be bothered with (the big 'uns I means), don't bother with free sites they are a waste of your time keeping calendars in synch.

I'm a late comer to social media - I still don't get the point of it really - but anyway I now have a Twatter and FB business page. I have had several enquires through FB and 2 that turned into bookings; this will take sometime and effort to build up and I don't know whether I can be ar$ed really. Anyway evidently it's the latest must have thing to write drivel on about alsorts of nonsense relating to holiday rentals. I now have 56 followers - it does worry me on dark nights. :lol:
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