Welcome to Boostly Podcast Season 11 Episode 59. This is a recap of my interview with Hostfully where I talked about the main tip to increasing direct bookings.
Here's the audio for this episode:
Here's the video for this episode:
Timestamp
00:00 Start
01:50 Main tip to increase direct bookings
02:35 Utilize your contacts
04:00 Do you know anyone?
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Audio – Boostly Podcast
Transcript from the Episode
If you want to know the best way of increasing your direct bookings, and I don't have my phone to hand, when I'm working, I like to leave my phone in the car. But that is your best device right now to increase in your direct bookings is your telephone. It's the contacts that are in your phone. And it's something that I've just recently revisited. I've been sort of rehashing and recapping almost 12 years of of hospitality, because obviously I'm putting together my first ever book, the first draft has been put together. And it's going to be released in November, which I'm excited to tell more about when it is ready. But to put the book together, I had to sort of like really, really dig into things that I've done in the past for the family business that worked.
Utilize your contacts to increase your direct bookings
And one of the best things that that I've done. And one of the things that I've talked about quite a lot since to increase your direct bookings is utilizing your contacts, your relationships that you already have. Now, they may be friends, it could be acquaintances, it could be people in the local area, it could be past guests, I think what stands the test of time in any industry is not so much of what you know, it's who you know. And it's the same in any environment. And I've worked in lots of different environments. I used to be a soccer coach. You know, I used to work in offices, I even used to do garden, back in the day when I was a backpacker, travel around Australia. And again, it's the same thing all the time. It's not who you know, it's not what you know, it's who you know. And this is fantastic for direct bookings. Because again, you can just literally get your phone out, you can just pick 10 contacts, and it could be close friends, or it could be just acquaintances, or just anybody like that. And it can be simply a case of picking the phone up. Or if you're not confident in picking the phone up, you can send a text message or a WhatsApp. But again, you can do a WhatsApp or voice note, you know, and just literally reach out to somebody and just there's four little words that are really, really, really important.
Do you know anyone?
Do you know anyone? Do you know, anyone that's coming to the area? Do you know anyone that needs accommodation? Did you know that we've got accommodation, and we're looking for guests? Do you know anyone who's come into town? And you know, if you ask 10 people? And you'd be surprised at what the answer maybe, if you ask 10 people and they all say no, and you're over 10 people, if you keep going down that train, eventually someone will go, you know what I do know somebody. And again, because that know like and trust factor is there, you've already established that. And it's really, really powerful. And that's even before we get on to previous guests. You've got guests that have already stayed with you. They know you, they like you, they trust you. And again, it's super powerful and really popular. You don't even have to rely on email for this. Because again, a lot of the times if a guest books review via an OTA, you don't get that email address, really. But you all get the phone number, the WhatsApp number. And again, it's a simple thing picking up the phone having a call. And when I do this tactic, I always used to adopt the 80-20 rule. So I wasn't just calling up everybody. I wasn't calling up people that came for a one night stay. So I was looking at the 20% of guests that either brought in 80% of the revenue. So a real big booking, or it was 80% of people that I knew that were just really nice people always had a really good time they left that amazing review or just you know, if for those who've been in hospitality for a long time, those guests that you know, but now but because they keep coming back kind of regular, they just become friends. And that's what I love about this business and hospitality is that we had guests come year after year after year to our family business and they were invited to mine and Laura's wedding, my wife Laura, because they we've got to know him so well. And again, it's just a case of picking up the phone when you really need it and just go.
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