This episode of the Boostly podcast is all about the actual booking process. If you and your booking engine mess this up now, then there’s no way to get the guest back.
What is the Booking Process? There’s a very high chance you’re using freetobook, eviivo, or another automated booking engine. These companies have a booking engine that your guests can go to from your site.
The most important factor is that your vacation rental website needs to be mobile-friendly. There are some engines out there that aren’t suitable for mobile devices. We all know that people use mobile phones more than desktops nowadays.
You have to make sure that your booking engine is doing the same thing as the OTAs. The guest needs an easy process. They should only have to enter the basics, such as their first name and email, in the first stage of the booking. Make sure you only ask for the essentials. You don’t need to know their arrival time and full address at this stage.
Another good thing to know is that every booking engine supports Google Analytics. Go to your Google Analytics page to find information on your website. Navigate to behaviours, and then to behaviour flow. This page will show you from which page the guest is leaving on your website. Make sure you check this regularly. You will not know how effective your vacation rental website marketing is unless you know the details of its bounce rate.
Also, make sure that when guests book, they book the room and time they really want. Make sure the price is accurate, the booking cancellation policy is correct, and the card input form is easy to use. If you get this right, you will get the booking. But if you check Google Analytics and find that of 100 people visiting your site, only 10 bookings go through, that means that your guests are leaving your website and going to an OTA, where it’s easier for them to book. Time to fix your website and get those direct bookings! Educate yourself about this process! Grab all the episodes from our hotel marketing podcast series by clicking here.
