All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

Yes l push “ Emaiilcollect” because 95% of people don’t know they exist. I use them, I have 14 appartments and collect all guests data. As a result of a monthly newsletter to past guests I increase my direct bookings about 5% every 2 mths. Aim is to get to 60%. Best investment in my business I’ve done besides good quality beds.

 Use a direct booking site to book past guests. The best guests you’ll get. Don’t get caught up in the excitement of marketing your direct booking site to the general market. Airbnb, booking.com etc spent 14 billion last year advertising so trying to compete against that is crazy. Use a email collection system like “Emailcollect” to get your guests data and remarket to them about local events etc in a simple newsletter every month. That way you can increase your income by 10-15-% without increasing your occupancy or having to worry about what type of guest you’re getting because they’ve stayed with you before.

Hi Scott,

Get EMAILCOLLECT . Cost you $60 per yr. My wife and I use it in our 14 apartments and build our data base like crazy. Moved us from 10% to 20% in 3mths direct booking. Of course you need to market to your past guests, we do it ourselves as all our apartments are in the CBD so people return for birthdays, Anniversaries, shows etc. There are companies that have recently entered the market that do a full service marketing like GOSRT and MARKET MYSTR and others that provide templates and help but you have to actually do some work like STRDIGITAL and BOOSTLY. Good luck.

Scott congratulations, learning from others, and in this industry many are happy to help, is certainly the best way forward. Just remember email and phone data is the best to help you build an independent direct booking presence. The earlier you start collecting this data the better. I’ve been using Emailcollect and get email addresses from everyone that stays in my properties.

If you want to slowly build a direct booking business you need to get the emails and phone numbers from all your guests. The OTAs aren’t going to give them to you so use a data collection system like Emailcollect that will do it for you. A QR Code the takes you to a contact form that’s the gateway to the free WiFi is all you need to get data of every guest staying.

The point of a direct booking website is not to spend money on SEO etc the point is to rebook past guests. By collecting emails etc from OTA guests using Emailcollect you then have the power to remarket to them for another stay. This is a way to steadily grow your direct bookings using the OTAs to help you. You will always need the OTAs to help you build and refresh your email list but over time the dependency will shrink and you’ll create a solid independent direct booking business.