Welcome to Boostly Podcast Season 11 Episode 158. This is a recap of my Facebook live where I talked about how a place in Stars in Portugal can become more instagrammable.
Here's the audio for this episode:
Here's the video for this episode:
Timestamp
Welco
00:00 Start
01:00 Helping a property in Portugal
02:50 Website
04:30 Social media
08:10 My recommendations
Whilst you’re here
Follow Boostly on the following channels to get more tips, tactics and knowledge on how you can increase your direct bookings
Visual – YouTube
Audio – Boostly Podcast
Transcript from the Episode
Okay we are back for another mini-marketing review and yesterday if you tuned in you will have noticed that we were in Australia if you missed it go back a day, go for mini marketing reviews were over the prime tourist Park.
Today we've come over to Europe country over from where I am currently at the moment we're gonna be in Portugal and we're gonna be helping out Karolina Perez of Luca, NASS Estrada's which translated from Portuguese into English is a place in the stars and Karolina filled in the form for us ticked on the box to say that she would like a marketing review.
Helping a property in Portugal
For those of you who are not that familiar with Portugal, they are located Karolina is located here, so a little bit. So in between Portugal, Porto and Lisbon in the hills, very close to the Spanish border. As you can see Madrid is not too far away. It looks like there's a main motorway coming in here which is interesting. And let's go and have a little look at what Karolina would like to improve.
So first and foremost, she's got these stunning property issues his little hotel here as a PMS. The website was created in 2019. So the levels of occupation so total level occupied location is 26 to 35%. So it's very low. And the percentage of bookings that are direct is up to 50% 41 to 50%, which is good. We're gonna have a look at Instagram we'll look at Facebook, where do they struggle doing everything to check into marketing and revenue management, the goals are doubled last year, so if they're hitting sort of 35% now when we get up to 70% in 2021, they do do email marketing with MailChimp, they email once a month. We don't spend any money on advertising but obviously they do use the otas so let's just have a little quick look at what we are looking at here. So as you can see here the the nearest town nearest location they are up here in the nature park Natural Park not so small little area just coming off here off the 18 etc etc.
Website
Now it is very much Portuguese based their website is very much in Portuguese this has been translated into English by Google automatically. Let me just flip so this is what the website looks like. So obviously, their target audience and their clientele, mostly Portuguese which is good that they've hit the nail on the head straight away. And the website again, looks fantastic. They've got the click to action button here, reservoir reservation, let me just very quickly flip from here to there so it brings it and it translates it automatically into English for us. My one suggestion would be again if you could just move all of this down to the bottom into what we call the drunk draw which is here which then just leaves it really nice and clear. You've got the name you've got the book now it is clear and obvious what you are looking at. So comfortable studio suites are available for four people you can see that here. Again what they do very well at the breakfast the food, they have extras, you know it is a very nice social environment definitely family-friendly you get that from looking at the pictures. What I again, like what I said with Sandy yesterday I would be looking to have 80% of the information on the homepage of the website here. Use Repuso or reviews to get some real time reviews in there. Maybe having a little bit more as in terms of what is there to do in the area, etc etc. Maybe many blogs I will be looking to put down definitely want to go over to the social media.
Social media
Instagram here. They've got 128 followers, nice, nice images and obviously brand new images, but the problem is is that this was posted two weeks ago. So again, consistency is key. Always consistency is key. It doesn't have to be an all singing all dancing. You know what I do love when they do post is They very much do give behind the scenes. Again, mixture of videos and posts really do get a chance to sort of see behind the business. And again, view stunning stargazing, all of the things that you would associate in a place in the stars.
One thing that I did notice, though, is that there were no photos of being tagged. So again, Instagram is great for this, you can have the ability, your guests can post pictures, and they can tag you and if you're in a picture s location, family friendly, is no excuse to have your guest not tagging you in a one thing that could be stopping you is the username handle is a bit mad. So the way that you could get around this would be in the property. So, for example, let's have a look at one of these here. On the back of the doors on a fridge, you could create like a nice little fridge magnet somewhere to go on the fridge and just say tag us in on Instagram, we pick a winner once a month, especially if you're making like yams, etc jams or whatnot, honey and whatnot, you can post something coffees like little memory or whatever it could be fridge, magnet postcard of the view whatever it could be, and get people to post up because at the end of the day is really good social proof. But you can use those images as well for your own. So again, you're not having to always come up with content etc. which is maybe a reason why you haven't posted for two weeks.
I've done places to stay pezzo Portugal, just to see what comes up. So you've obviously you've got the likes of booking.com. This is an ad, Airbnb, they're spending money on advertising. Now you've got home to go again, spending money on an ad, you go down to the organics booking.com booking.com, the hotel guru, interest in TripAdvisor, hotels.com, agoda, kayak, etc, etc. So definitely have a look at this. And then you've got some personal blogs, June, jewel, Dawn, Fox, and all of this. So definitely checking these out, make sure that you are listed on the best places, if you want to. Little zoom out for a second.
Now, I did want to check out the Facebook because again, this really helps me to see who the people that are liking the posts. So again, we just go to the one that was on a couple of weeks ago. 29 likes, 4 shares, which is always interested on the shares. But if we go look at people who are liking it, again, without delving in and looking at every single one of these portfolios, you just literally going on name basis, a lot of Portuguese names are popping up here. So again, it does sort of reconfirm the assumptions I had in my mind that the majority of Carolina's guests are coming in Portugal, as far as marketing goes.
My recommendations
So the question is, how do I go from 26 to 35% occupation in the last 12 months? How do I get to that 70% we want to double how do we get there? Number one word of mouth recommendations referrals you're already emailing which is great. Try emailing a Do you know anyone email obviously in Portuguese. if you want inspiration o check out Boostly content creator five pounds or like six euros a month. You can do it for a couple of months, get the inspiration, get the social media content, get the email templates and send them out. Word of mouth referrals is definitely going to be key for an area like Portugal. I would definitely be doing that listing search listing sites little video to see to make sure that you're listing on the correct places. I mean, you use a little hotelier as your booking engine. Now a little hotelier does have a PMS and a channel manager built into it. So again, it will be able to make sure that your calendar is synced out to all the places which is fantastic. But I'll be focusing on those and you know you have got an instagrammable location, beautiful, the mountains, the views to stargazing. It's a place in the stars. definitely get more of your guests to add pictures onto Instagram. And it's just by asking it really is that simple.
Let me just go have a quick look on your TripAdvisor so again, TripAdvisor we've only got 12 reviews already good reviews, which is obviously fantastic. But let's see your guests are leaving pictures on that. So why can't they leave them also on the Instagram as well. Again, you've got such a beautiful location take advantage of it become instagrammable and if you need any help on that currently that you've got many many, many episodes to go back on and how to begin instagrammable on the Boostly podcast.
Before you leave
Please go and rate, review and subscribe on iTunes, Spotify Google Play or Anchor or visit Boostly Hospitality Podcast for the full list of episodes!
If you have enjoyed this post and want to feed my caffeine addiction you can “Buy me a coffee” ️
