If you checked off any of these boxes, your current website isn’t serving you at the level it should be.
Mark has an excellent understanding of the hospitality sector, appreciated the needs of our individual business, and understood what we wanted to get out of the relationship with Boostly from the very first meeting. He’s a good listener, which probably helps!
We knew social media and channel management had to be addressed for us to meet our own ambitious targets. We knew we could probably do it ourselves, but the fact is that we didn’t and couldn’t find the time! However, there was no stopping Mark. He just got on with it. He accomplished more for us in the first month than we had in an entire year!
Mark doesn’t only do what you ask him to – he’s positively proactive! He gives us ideas, suggestions, recommendations, as well as challenging our thought processes.
We are pleased with the increase in traffic to our social media pages, as well as the increased bookings through the booking channels thanks to the advice and changes Mark made to our listings. It brings us much closer to achieving our goals.
Mark’s passion for online marketing is evident, you could say he put the “mark” in “marketing”! He’s a natural.
Our involvement with Boostly started in December 2016. We felt that we needed more exposure to keep our business moving forward, but with the many demands of running our properties, this was becoming increasingly difficult to manage.
Our understanding of the more delicate points of social media left much to be desired. We did not have the time or inclination to develop this area, although we were acutely aware that the current trends indicated that we were going to be increasingly reliant on social media to generate awareness of the brand and eventually bookings.
There is no more powerful booking tool than a personal recommendation, but we needed to keep in our customer’s eye line rather than wait to let word of mouth continue at a slower pace. We needed something more for our loyal customers as well.
Since Boostly has been keeping us in this eye line, we have prompted many past customers to return this year, and by sending our monthly email, we have significantly increased our reviews on various platforms.
With a little technology “magic”, we have incorporated reviews directly onto our website – this has had an impact on our bookings. We also see more direct enquiries from Google searches, and we look forward to developing our website with a blog very soon.
We are looking forward to continuing our association with Boostly. Mark is a “can do”, positive person who is continually striving to achieve great things for us. We would recommend Boostly to any hospitality business struggling with marketing demands in the fast-paced world of the internet and social media!
Boostly provides us with lots of practical help, which saves us time. These included a new booking system and links to sites such as Facebook, TripAdvisor, and other OTAs.
Mark has also given us plenty of tips for working with OTAs and online listing websites.
Mark is great to work with, even just for a short-term consultancy. He is very knowledgeable on the tech side of things which gives you the confidence to use it yourself. As well as tools you do need, there is plenty of stuff that you don’t; Mark won’t push a hard sell on anything that you don’t want.
Since using Boostly, we have enjoyed our busiest half term. I would recommend Boostly to any other holiday businesses in the area.
Mark from Boostly is very knowledgeable about the hospitality industry and the issues one faces within it. He helped me to formulate a marketing strategy to increase direct bookings and focus my time on the things that would give me the best return.
He has assisted me in using the right tools to help achieve the goals of the Rose Dene.
There are so many tools available with new ones becoming available all the time and I, along with many other people in small establishments, have not got the time or experience to keep up with them, as we have so many roles to fulfil.
We have increased direct sales via our website in only a few months. Marketing and commercialisation platforms have changed so much in recent years, that even those of us with a marketing background can benefit from help and advice from Boostly.
Mark is very friendly and accommodating and is interested in what it is you want to achieve before advising a course of action. I would recommend him to all hospitality providers, and I will no doubt be seeking his advice again in the future.
I’d like to say a massive thank you to Mark for the work he has done for our business so far, the Riviera Guesthouse. Mark has found a niche in the market which was so desperately needed.
We attended a few of his free workshops, which were packed with indispensable information which we were so grateful for. Attending these, made us realise how useful some one-to-one specific advice could be, so I asked Mark for some “Riviera”-specific guidance.
The tips Mark managed to inform me of in two hours was incredible. Mark did a lot of work before attending our meeting but only charged me for the two hours he was with us, which again, I found fantastic customer service and value.
Amongst the areas we work on, were Google Analytics, Instagram, Facebook Pixels and Trademarking. Mark goes out of his way to help accommodation providers and appears to revel in their success which is incredibly refreshing indeed.
I am now successfully working on our Social Media page with rich content which is now providing many more impressions on the content we post. Our business is currently in the middle of the Trademarking process, which will ultimately drive more direct bookings rather than losing 17% to Expedia and the like.
We have all the basics in place now for my next meeting with Mark, where I shall hopefully get to grips with publishing successful Facebook Ads and driving the business further forward. Thank you once again.
“When Mark first came on board, Morndyke Shepherd was dead in the water.” She had a Facebook page, but it wasn’t generating any business. Mark took her by the hand and looked after her. He sorted out the business and taught her how to market effectively.
He gave her some fantastic ideas, good training, and videos. Without Mark, Tricia’s business wouldn’t have survived. Now, the bookings are finally coming in.
Polly says that joining Boostly Academy came at just the right time. She didn’t know which direction to take with the gite. In addition, she had no marketing experience whatsoever.
“The Boostly Academy helps you with OTAs. Also, it helps you set up your website and all other critical things that are important to running a successful business.”
Zein is the owner of Villa 33, a bed and breakfast in Blantyre, Malawi.
He joined Boostly a year and a half ago, and for him, it’s been a lifeline. For bed and breakfast owners in the current environment, where OTAs are taking 20% of each booking, and with the added factor of Airbnb properties opening everywhere, owners really need to level the playing field online. Boostly helped him with that.
Lorraine learned marketing tips, how to manipulate Online Travel Agents to get them to do what she needs them to do, and more about using social media to her advantage and of Gite Le Bois Vert.
She says that hospitality owners should join Boostly Academy because increasing bookings is the name of the game and the business.
She has gained more bookings in the past year thanks to Mark’s training, and now she can go back to revisit the training any time she wants and teach it to others, too.
The training is delivered in a clear, sharp, short way that suits her and her business!
What she likes best about the Boostly Academy is that she can pay monthly and can leave whenever she wants. She can also pick when and what she wants to learn in small steps or little bites. She can stop and go back to it, and there’s no time limit.
Sharon runs a busy farm and has a teenager, so she has other things taking up her time. So she can do the training whenever she has an extra moment.
She would strongly recommend that anyone looking to improve their marketing skills join the Boostly Academy as well. Mark is constantly available on messenger or email. He always responds and explains everything in very simple terms. Having that resource at hand is extremely helpful. What formerly seemed impossible is suddenly clear as day thanks to Mark.
Hannah Flohr runs Hall Farm Cottages in Norfolk. She has been a member of Boostly since December 2017. Hannah says her life has become much easier since joining. She runs a very, very small family business where she tries to keep on top of everything. Previously, she has joined many courses and thought that she was learning something, but forget everything once the course ended.
By working with Mark, she can learn at her own pace, and she is happy that she has the tutorials to fall back on. She says that Boostly is fantastic and has been absolutely brilliant.
Paula Butler has been in the hospitality industry for fifteen years. However, recently she converted her property from a Bed and Breakfast into holiday cottages. She found that although it’s within the same industry, the challenges she faced as a cottage owner were slightly different than those with which she was already familiar. In addition, she knew she needed a consistent marketing plan to support the change she is about to go through.
At this digital age, she has been struggling with the latest technology and marketing techniques that she can use for her business.
So, she decided to join the Boostly Community because of Mark’s hospitality marketing advice, which she found truly inspiring for her business. As a result, she never regretted her decision.
Callum joined Boostly halfway through 2017 and has now been working with Boostly for 6 months. He has had his house for 10 years. It sleeps 18 people in nine bedrooms.
He states that the Boostly Training Site is exceptional and has helped him come a long way.
Jules Gibson of The Beaches Guesthouse joined Boostly because she liked the ideas Mark has. She loves how the videos are broken up into little chunks, which allows her to tap in and out of the whichever video suits her.
When she signed up, her main goal was to increase direct bookings, which she has done by promoting herself on social media. Facebook is an especially big one for her. She has also made sure her website is super user-friendly by having a massive book-now button so it’s obvious how to book. Her phone number is also displayed right next to it.
Melanie and her husband Mike have been running Trevorrick Farm for 17 years and had never taken marketing advice before now. They had previously taken a few courses, but never really did anything about the advice they received there.
Melanie states that she loves the Boostly training site because the videos can be viewed whenever you want, and more importantly, can be viewed over and over again. This is important because they lead very busy lives, but can fit in the videos in the evenings or whenever they get a chance to do it on their own time.
Since starting the course, Melanie has learned how to use MailChimp, make videos, and run Facebook competitions. She has even received direct bookings from these actions.
Nicola was a complete technophobe. She struggled with everything digital before she started using the Boostly training site. She now says that she has the confidence to market her property’s digital and online presence herself!
A total beginner in the world of advertising in hospitality, Nicola has nevertheless managed to follow the beginner’s videos and step-by-step guides to market her property. She finds these brilliant because she can watch, pause, and pick the video back up whenever she has 5 free minutes. Nicola also says that she also appreciates that she can email Mark, who will help her whenever he can.
She says that the videos are really sinking in. Everything she has learned are linked to watching the videos.
Maria joined Boostly in June 2018, and before this training, she was not very familiar with digital marketing.
Not only did I build her website for her, but she has also used Boostly to learn how to bid on her own brand name, how to use MailChimp, and how to optimise her use of her website.
The biggest takeaway from the Boostly training site is that she’s learned about Google Analytics and Google AdWords. This means that she can now monitor the traffic on her audience, and can offer discounts on her website, instead of paying commission plus VAT to the online travel agents.
Boostly Limited
71-75 Shelton Street
Covent Garden
London
WC2H 9JQ
