Contact forms are rubbish

You have tailored your web site to show off your self catering accommodation in it's best light, whetting your visitors appetite and displaying your properties in exactly the way that you want... this is when they are most likely to be excited at booking and you are presenting them with... a contact form?!

Contact forms and simple availability calendars are not enough:

• your potential guests don't care when you are available through the year - they care if they can book. They want to book, let them book;
• it is a terrible start the relationship with your guest - they have to wait for you to respond, which even if you are super vigilant will be hours if they are in a different time zone to you;
• when doing a big marketing push, you could be faced with responding to hundreds of availability requests... with two, three or four popular properties - it is just not scalable;
• eliminate double bookings and don't let guests down.

Bookster Self Catering on your iPhone

Improving the experience of our console on the small screen

We have made some small changes to the console to make it easier to view Bookster Self Catering on the Apple iPhone.

While you are out and about, it is now possible to keep an eye on your bookings.

New! Recently visited drop down

We have added a great new drop down menu that expands on the recently visited tabs to give console users access to the previous fifteen items they visited.

New! Next seven days widget

New features are coming thick and fast at the moment!

We have added a widget to the "My Bookings" tab in the console that lets you see at a glance who is arriving at your properties over the next seven days.

Property managers have always been able to search for bookings easily, but this is great to get a feel for what is happening at their properties over the coming week.

When searching in "My Entries" and "My Bookings" users can now filter their results in a more refined manner using the advanced filters.

Analyse Booking information from Bookster and Bookster Pro

Yo get a better picture of your bookings it is useful to manipulate bookings in a spreadsheet application like Excel or Open Office.

Under the "My Bookings" tab in Bookster Self Catering, there is the ability to download booking data as an Excel Spreadsheet. This information is easily imported into many other spreadsheet applications.

As I don't have Excel and Open Office is free, I am using Open Office for this example.

I have used the "Data Pilot" feature in Open Office to produce some summaries of booking data.

Some useful tips:

• To change any of the summaries, right-click anywhere in the table and click "start", this will bring up the Data Pilot interface
• Grouping of dates into years, months etc. can be done by moving the spreadsheet active box to the date zone and selecting the menu item "Data -> Group and Outline -> Group"

» more information on support.tribalogic.net

Sage Pay Integration

We are now offering anyone using Bookster Self Catering or Bookster Pro to use Sage Pay as a payment gateway option.

• take deposit payments directly into your bank account
• no waiting for payments from Tribalogic

See our forum post on how to set up Sage Pay for use with Bookster Self Catering.

If in doubt, ask us about Sage Pay integration.

A Guide To Writing Online

If you are unsure of how you should be phrasing your descriptive texts or blog posts, Travel Online Partners have written a guide to writing online (Write Right Online) , worth taking a look

New Feature: More In Booking Excel Export

Get all booking info into your systems

As well as allowing more details to be stored with each booking, we have also added more columns to the bookings list Excel export.

The following columns are now included as part of the Excel export:

• Outstanding balance
• Party size
• No. of extras
• Arrival time
• Departure time
• Security deposit received
• Security deposit refunded

New Feature: More Booking Details

Your booking info in one place

Bookings in Bookster and Bookster Pro now allow the storage of some additional information.

This allows for use of Bookster / Bookster Pro as more of a management tool.

• Arrival time
• Departure time
• Security deposit received
• Security deposit refunded

Look for the "management" link when viewing a booking in the console.

Useful Resource: Jayne Brodie from Booked Solid

Just read the excellent book by Jayne Brodie called Booked Solid Rentals. A must have for any self respecting vacation rental owner. Jayne is very professional in her approach and offers follow up consulting and webinars if you need more support.

Some interesting ideas when it comes to increasing your self-catering bookings up towards the holy grail of 100% occupancy

Check out her blog and PDF book at www.bookedsolidrentals.com

Record Bookings

Bookster users can now add bookings from 3rd party sources.

This allows the use of Bookster as a management tool to record all bookings.

We have provided a form in the secure console that:

• suggest a price from defined rates;
• allows the displayed price to be overridden;
• allows the collection of customer details;
• displays a selection of extras.

New Feature: Two Month Calendar Widget

We try to listen to our users and a number have now requested a narrower version of our embedded calendar widget.

The Bookster widget can now fit neatly into smaller width websites using the "two month wide" widget. The HTML code has been added into the console for Bookster users to easily utilise.

Example

Free Promotion of a Self Catering Website

Bookster users are always asking us how to increase traffic to their site, there are many free methods to promote your website that complement the paid for methods (e.g pay-per-click banners or commission based directories) - below I will look at some ways to get your website out there and prospective customers visiting it.

I would not recommend using free methods alone, but it is a good way to start. I will address paid for methods in another blog post.

For the experienced holiday home owner, the following advice may be obvious, but for those slightly less confident about promoting their site online, read on...

So you've got your holiday property website up and running, with Bookster ready and waiting to take those bookings but how do you go about getting people to find your site?

Search Engines

The most powerful way to get visitors

Submit the URL (domain) of your website into the popular search engines to ensure your site is being "indexed" and will show up when users search for it:

• Google
• Yahoo!

Content (Blogs etc.)

Content is tied closely to search

The only way to be seen above the crowd on search engines is to have fresh and relevant content.

The way to consistently attract traffic above and beyond your competition is have better content than them.

Start blogging on what is great about your holiday home:

• attractions
• events (sports, theatre, festivals etc.)
• walks, cycle paths etc.

Free Directories

Linking from popular directories can only help

Take advantage of the directories that give you the ability to get links back to your site for free.

There are many of these directories out there, here are some of the the larger and more popular ones to try first:

Examples of Free Business Directories

• Google Local
• DMOZ Open Directory
• Gum Tree
• Free Index

Examples of Free to List Self Catering / Accommodation Directories

• Your local tourist board website
• The e Self Catering Directory
• Rent Me A Vacation
• Self Catering Directory
• We Go Round

Public Photos

Show off your pictures of the area

Having great photographs of your property and surrounds is essential for your website - it is one of the main drivers for people sending you an enquiry or making a booking.

I am sure your photographer (or you) has taken great pictures of your properties... make sure he/she takes some of the surrounds of your properties - post them to popular photo sites with links to your site:

• Flckr
• Panoramio

Newsletters

Keep reminding people you exist

Many of your bookings will come from repeat stays, collect email addresses and regularly email your previous guests.

Ensure you put a form on your web site to get people to sign up to your news letter (just as we have done for Bookster!)

There are some great mass mailing web applications out there, here are a couple of popular ones:

• Campaign Monitor
• Constant Contact

Social Media

Keep your eye on the new search

You probably hear term "Social Media" cropping up all the time, and with social media you really get out what you put in.

It can bring you instant, relevant visits so here are a few to get you started.

• Facebook - Make up a page and get your friends to join... do they even know you have a holiday home?
• Twitter - great for chatty types who have lots of little things to say.
  You could start by following us - booksterhq! Some examples of "tweeting" holiday home owners:
  • Darwin Lake (DarwinLake)
  • Sarah Peppin (HolidayCottage)
  • Ros Sones (TorreTwit)
• LinkedIn - Aimed at the business user so get befriending all of your colleagues and tell them about your holiday home!

Good luck getting those visitors to your holiday home website and the bookings rolling in!

Times Online: Let the good times roll

I spotted an interesting article from the Sunday Times by Cherry Maslen on letting your holiday home.

"Despite recent tax changes, buying a holiday rental in Britain can be a smart move, says Cherry Maslen"

A couple of highlights:

"The market has dropped substantially in some of the second-home areas that had the biggest bubbles. Prices in Devon are down by 24% from the 2007 peak and those in Cornwall by 21%, according to research by Savills estate agency, based on its own sales figures. Although the prime coastal spots will have held up better, almost nowhere is immune. The Cotswolds, for example, recorded an 18.6% fall; in Suffolk, Norfolk and Dorset, prices were down by 15%."

"... he [Ross Elder, Holiday Lettings] reports an increase in bookings for both country cottages and city flats, he says that both are trumped by the seaside, because people tend to stay longer and return the following year if they like it."

See the article in full.