The Pros and Cons of a Lodgify Website

Welcome to Boostly Podcast Season 11 Episode 131. This is a recap of my Facebook live where I talked about the Pros and Cons of a Lodgify Website.

Here's the audio for this episode:

Here's the video for this episode:

Timestamp

00:00 Start
02:30 Pros and cons of a Lodgify website
04:10 Pros of a free PMS website
05:00 Cons of a PMS free website

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Transcript from the Episode

Okay, welcome everybody back to another episode of The Daily podcast. And today what I'm going to do is I'm going to walk you through the pros and cons of having a lodgify website. But more importantly, a PMS free website I'm going to delve into I'm going to show you what I mean. And I'm going to give you a little comparison to what you get when you get a WordPress website. Just so you really aware of this because, again, I think what's really important to state is that every PMS is very, very clever. They sell as an additional benefit for you choose him with them a free website, because again, they know that when you're looking to start a business, when you're looking to start a hospitality business, there are all these costs start to tally up, you know, and I'm not even talking about getting the property ready. I'm talking about everything else on top of it.

For example, when you have to then think about using smart b&b which has an additional cost on top of everything. So when it comes to a website, a lot of the property trainers and the cost providers out there, they tell you you don't need a website, which I don't agree with, you know, I think it's very, very important that you start to build your brand. As soon as possible, you start to build your list as soon as possible. I think everybody needs a PMS. But what is really important is that whether you've got one property, you've got 7, 10, or whatever, you need to have a website that you're in total control of, you need to have a website that you can amend and you can structure how you like. And this is the problem with a PMS free website is that you are literally having a glorified landing page. Now there are pros and cons.

Pros of a free PMS website

So first and foremost, let's look at the pros. So as a host, when it comes to the creation of it, it's super simple. One of the biggest time elements that we found with a WordPress website is that you're always having to duplicate but when you've got a PMS website or lodgify website, this is a lodgify website. Again, it's all synced in everything for you see here is synced directly into lodgify, PMS and again, from the outside in. If you are a guest, this looks great. And it does I mean compared to a couple of other PMS websites that I see booking page, a diary booking site, whatever you wanna call it lodgify have got a nice little put together one. But it does still have problems.

Cons of a PMS free website

So for example, this is the backend, this is the action of Casa4u and on lodgify. And if I wanted to amend anything or add anything, I haven't got the ability to do. So as you can see, I'm very limited, I can change the colours if I like, I can amend the fonts if I wanted to, you know, I can change the picture, etc. But as far as structure and layout, and the bits and bobs that I want to go in, I haven't got that freedom.

For example, I can't add in a plugin that I want of real-time reviews to come and sync in from Airbnb and booking and Facebook and Google etc. So again, it is very, very limited in what you can present and do. Okay, so this is the Csa4u lodgify website. Now if we were to compare this to, say, a WordPress website, so this is a WordPress website. Full disclaimer, this is a Boostly WordPress website. We've been doing this since 2018. But when the host gets one of our WordPress websites, they're in total control of the layout and everything that is coming in here.

So Ryan, Luca is the founder of Luke Stays, wanted a video to show his i-Prac certificate, you can do that. He also wanted to break down not only the property highlights, so the highlights of the business. But he also wanted a section on the benefits of booking direct. And again, you do not get the opportunity to do that with a PMS lodgify website.

So again, how are we meant to convince the guests to book direct with us, instead of booking through Airbnb, etc, you get to do so with one of these, you also get to add in these FAQ's, as many call to action prompts as you want. And again, this is the real-time reviews coming in from Airbnb, Facebook, and Google etc.

So these are, these are some of the benefits that you get. And again, this is one in Myrtle Beach, nice video, nice map, etc. So one of the big pain points like I say that we've been doing one of the pain points that we have been noticing is that the WordPress website clients, however having to waste a lot of time by having to duplicate everything from their PMS over to their Boostly website. So this is why one of the big things that we've been doing this year, is solving that problem. So now, whether with these Boostly websites that you see, these do sync directly thanks to the power of API straight and directly into the PMS.

So Alpine lodge in Myrtle Beach they use Hostfully, Luke stays uses uplisting all of this syncs in directly. So the host doesn't have to keep repeating itself over and over again. And he also the cool thing is is that these rates, they sync in directly into the PMS. The latest availability syncs straight to the PMS. And it also means that you can actually make a booking now 99% of the booking can get made on the Boostly website so so again, these free websites, they may sound tempting because they are free. But if you really want to start increasing your direct bookings and have total control, when you need to have a WordPress website, don't go square don't go Wix or anything like that, get a WordPress website. And if you want to cut out a lot of faffs, and you want the experts to do it. We are the market leaders in web design for Hospitality businesses.

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