Are you ready to take control of your vacation rental business and grow your direct bookings? This episode of Get Fully Booked with Sarah Orchard delves into the 3 key benefits of prioritising direct bookings over relying on online travel agents like Airbnb.
Sarah stresses the importance of maintaining control over your brand, pricing, and guest relationships, which often gets lost when using third-party booking platforms. She outlines three key advantages: regaining control of your marketing, maximising your brand visibility, and ultimately increasing your profitability. With insightful tips and sharing personal experiences, Sarah encourages listeners to embrace direct bookings as a way to enhance their business success and keep more profit in their pockets.
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Key Takeaways:
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Are you ready to take more direct bookings?
Take Sarah's FREE quiz here to find out how ready you are with your marketing to ditch the likes of Airbnb! Put your business to the test...
You're listening to Get Fully Booked with Sarah Orchard.
Speaker B:Are you ready to master your marketing so you can ditch your reliance on.
Sarah Orchard:The online agents and grow your direct bookings?
Speaker B:I'll be sharing with you exactly what.
Sarah Orchard:It takes to grow your direct bookings.
Speaker B:And the simple marketing steps to get more profit in your pocket.
Speaker B:Hello and welcome to another episode of the Get Fully Booked podcast.
Speaker B:I'm your Orchard.
Speaker B:Thanks for joining me today.
Speaker B:I'd love to know what you're doing whilst listening to my podcast.
Speaker B:Are you doing the ironing, a changeover, maybe doing some pesky admin for your business?
Speaker B:So do come over and DM me over on Instagram etfullybooked or hop onto LinkedIn and tell me.
Speaker B:I'd love to know.
Speaker B:Every year on the first Wednesday of February, vacation rental owners and property managers worldwide come together to promote One key message, BookDirect.
Speaker B:So today I'm back with a solo episode and I wanted to chat about the massive benefits of taking direct bookings and why it's so good for you as a property owner and host.
Speaker B: pened the Hideout in February: Speaker B:So there are lots of reasons to to take direct bookings, but I'm just gonna focus in on the three main ones that I think are key.
Speaker B:So the first one is about control.
Speaker B:And for me, one of the beauties of being a small business owner is your business, your rules.
Speaker B:So when you use an online travel agent like Airbnb, they're promoting their brand, not yours.
Speaker B:Let's face it, they're not in business to benefit your business, they're in business to benefit their shareholders and to get their financial results.
Speaker B:So you're just a vehicle for them to achieve their business goals.
Speaker B:And in fact, Airbnb has become a genericized trademark and actually a verb.
Speaker B:Just like if you're based in the uk, we all refer to the Hoover instead of the vacuum cleaner.
Speaker B:So the actual brand name has become the verb.
Speaker B:People are now starting to refer to all non hotel holiday accommodation as Airbnbs.
Speaker B:I've had so many people say to me when I talk about the Hideout and they refer to our tree houses.
Speaker B:Oh, you run an Airbnb?
Speaker B:And I'm like, no, we don't run an Airbnb.
Speaker B:But that's how it has changed and how dominant some of these agents, and particularly how the Airbnb brand in itself has become sort of synonymous with actually vacation rentals and whether you own A glamping site or a holiday cottage or you have a classical Airbnb.
Speaker B:That's what people are now talking about.
Speaker B:So our brand and our business gets completely lost and we are actually supporting them to grow theirs.
Speaker B:They tell you and give control of your.
Speaker B:You give control of your pricing away because often if, unless you switch off some of the settings they'll have like dynamic pricing, they might not be benchmarking you against something that is actually comp.
Speaker B:From the guest experience point of view.
Speaker B:Because obviously they don't know your guest experience as well as you do.
Speaker B:They won't understand some of the differentiators that you've put in place to stand out in your marketplace.
Speaker B:So they're purely benchmarking you against similar size of properties in a particular location and they'll start to take control of your pricing.
Speaker B:They tell you what images you can show, what messaging and content you can use to actually just, you know, to actually promote your business.
Speaker B:So you're losing that control as the business owner.
Speaker B:And they also own the guest relationship.
Speaker B:And I think this is one of the biggest things that I see.
Speaker B:You know, they hold on to the email addresses.
Speaker B:You know, they're not stupid.
Speaker B:They know how valuable those email addresses are.
Speaker B:That for me, they are like marketing gold.
Speaker B:So they hang on to them and they do not want you to have a direct relationship with the guests so that they can potentially come and book with you direct, either then or in the future.
Speaker B:If you'd like some ideas of how to convert OTA guests and get their email addresses, do check out episode four of this podcast where I've got some really useful ideas and tips of how you can do that.
Speaker B:But you know, for me, control is one of the big things that I am not prepared to relinquish as a business owner.
Speaker B:It is my business and it's my rules.
Speaker B:And by taking control of your own marketing, you actually can regain control and decide exactly how you position price and market your business.
Speaker B:That's what marketing is all about.
Speaker B:That the four P's it is about how you actually the product that you develop, the price that you charge, how you distribute it and get it into the hands of your consumers, your actual potential guests, and how you promote it.
Speaker B:That is what marketing is.
Speaker B:And you know, by using an online travel agent, you are losing control of that.
Speaker B:The second point is about maximizing your visibility and your brand.
Speaker B:And I've touched on this a little bit, but the online agents don't want your brand to be visible.
Speaker B:And in fact, unlike when you use an advertising listing site.
Speaker B:And if you don't know the difference between the two, I'm not going to go into a great deal of detail about that in this episode.
Speaker B:But do check out episode 17 because I'm actually interviewing a guest who helps really well to explain the differences between an advertising listing or directory site versus using an online agent.
Speaker B:But actually the agents are competing for visibility.
Speaker B:They often will do Google Ads on your brand name and on your location or type of accommodation.
Speaker B:So they're actually competing with you in the search results on Google or any other search engine for visibility.
Speaker B:So even if someone types in your brand name, they can be hijacking your search engine optimization and going head to head with you.
Speaker B:Whereas a directory listing site actually supports it rather than trying to hijack it.
Speaker B:And I have heard instances and I won't name names.
Speaker B:But there are a few agents who, when you don't list with them anymore, they actually keep your listing page live and when obviously because the traffic that they are more dominant.
Speaker B:So and they have a bigger website with a bigger page ranking Google.
Speaker B:So ultimately they will get the traffic and they then say, oh, this business is no longer here.
Speaker B:Whoops, it's not here anymore.
Speaker B:But have a look at these other great businesses that you could stay with.
Speaker B:And they're the ones that are listing with them.
Speaker B:So they're actually hijacking your SEO.
Speaker B:And I don't think that people realize that's what happens, but it happens a lot of the time and that has a massive impact because we, let's face it, you know, we don't have the big budgets that the online agents have.
Speaker B:You know, we're small businesses so we, you know, we will struggle to compete with the ad spend that they have.
Speaker B:So sometimes when you go with them, even if you change your mind and decide to grow your direct bookings, it can have a long term effect in terms of your traffic and actually how much business you you actually get direct because they have hijacked your search engine optimization, your SEO.
Speaker B:So if you're listening today and you're not sure if you're ready to grow your direct bookings, I have a free quiz that would help you work out where you're at at the moment and what you need to focus on.
Speaker B:So do go over to my website and check out my direct booking roadmap quiz.
Speaker B:Like I said, it's free.
Speaker B:It only takes a couple of minutes to complete and it will, I will give you a score and some personalized tips on where you need to focus your to grow your direct bookings.
Speaker B:So if you head to my website, it's get-fullly book.com quiz and I'll put a link in the show notes and you'll be able to see where you are at the moment and what you need to do to start to grow your direct bookings.
Speaker B:And my third point is about money.
Speaker B:It's about profit in your pocket.
Speaker B:Something that I'm very, you know, I use it as a bit of a strap line.
Speaker B:I'm really passionate about it because there are lots of benefits to taking direct bookings, but actually one of the massive ones is actually your profitability.
Speaker B:Because if you have the time and the willingness to master the basic marketing skills so that you can actually go direct, the financial rewards can be huge.
Speaker B:You know, out of interest, I just did a little calculation because when we were looking to launch the Hideout, although I'm a professional marketer, I've been in marketing for 30 years, I spoke to an agent and the reason I did that was, you'll probably be a bit surprised to hear that I had a conversation with a specialist glamping agent about listing the Hideout with them when we launched.
Speaker B:And the reason was because I knew they had like this massive ready made audience.
Speaker B:And that's one of the benefits.
Speaker B:You know, I'm not someone who goes around, you know, putting down the agents.
Speaker B:They have a really strong role in our marketplace and I think that if you have maybe your, your holiday business, you have a full time job.
Speaker B:So your holiday business is sort of something on the side.
Speaker B:It's, you know, I'll say a side hustle.
Speaker B:It's something that isn't your core, you know, and therefore you have very limited time to look after bookings and to do the marketing.
Speaker B:An agent is a great solution for you and that's what you're paying for.
Speaker B:At the end of the day, you're paying for a service and for them to do that for you, and that is not a bad decision.
Speaker B:If that's right for your business, you've got to pick what's right for you.
Speaker B:But if you have the time and you have the willingness, and it does take a mindset to be willing and receptive to learning.
Speaker B:And it's not, you know, I make it easy to learn what the techniques need to be, but if you have the willingness to do it, you can save a huge amount, amount of money.
Speaker B:So in, as I said, I looked at using an agent and based on their commission, which is in the region of 25% plus VAT in the UK, I worked out that in the first three years of US running the Treehouse business, the Hudnalls hideout, we would have paid them 65,000 pounds, which is about US$85,000 in just three years if they had been handling all of our bookings, rather than us being 100% direct.
Speaker B:And I don't know about you, but I'd much rather have that 65k in my pocket than in someone else's.
Speaker B:And I've also worked out that, you know, just on average, most short term rental businesses or glamping businesses, if they can get to 70% direct bookings, you could save at least £5,000 or around just probably shy of US$7,000 in commission every year.
Speaker B:And I've got case studies, you know, just proof of how powerful this can be with some of my marketing club members who've saved far more than this.
Speaker B:Some of them were 100% reliant on using an agent and they've now transitioned to over 70%, 74, 76% direct bookings.
Speaker B:So if you want to find out a bit more about how that works in practice, you do take a listen to episode two of the podcast where I interview a lady called Wendy Bates who has a, a single holiday cottage in the uk and she's done exactly that and it saved her a significant amount of money in terms of the, of the commission.
Speaker B:So, you know, profit in your pocket is, at the end of the day, you do need turnover in any business to stay afloat.
Speaker B:But ultimately for me, profit is still a really important factor and we have so many costs in our holiday businesses.
Speaker B:You know, if you run a short term rental or glamping business, there are lots of costs and we do try and do everything ourselves, but sometimes, you know, maybe outsourcing something else like the cleaning or, you know, outsourcing your laundry if you're doing all of that, or getting some support with maybe some of your admin with a virtual assistant, can make the difference for you to be able to spend some time on your marketing, which will have a much, much bigger impact on your bottom line.
Speaker B:We do not spend £65,000 on laundry and cleaning, and we do outsource both of those so that we can actually focus our efforts on growing the revenue in the business and making more profit.
Speaker B:So just to recap, there are three main benefits of taking direct control, maximizing your visibility and having more profit in your pocket.
Speaker B:So happy Book Direct day this Wednesday.
Speaker B:Remember to use BookDirect and I'd love to know what you'll be doing this week to promote your direct bookings.
Speaker B:Do drop me a message and that brings me to the end of this episode.
Speaker B:So I hope you've enjoyed listening in today.
Speaker B:Thanks for listening.
Speaker B:I'll be back next week with a guest episode and I'm looking at how you fill your booking calendar when you have more than one unit or property.
Speaker B:It certainly gets harder, but we share plenty of tips to help you with your short term rental or glamping business as it expands.
Speaker B:If you enjoyed this episode, I'd love it if you could leave me a review.
Speaker B:You know how much us hosts love those five star reviews.
Speaker B:See you next time.
Sarah Orchard:Thank you for listening to Get Fully Booked with Sarah Orchard if you want.
Speaker B:To see if you are ready to.
Sarah Orchard:Ditch the likes of Airbnb and grow your direct bookings, put your business to the test with my free Direct Booking Roadmap quiz.
Sarah Orchard:Head to my website get-fully-booked.com quiz and let's get you more direct bookings and.
Speaker B:More profit in your pocket.