Best Book Direct VisitScotland Online Booking Changes

Ensure your lookers are landing directly on your Booking Page

The inspiration for this morning's blog is the latest VisitScotland letter advising accommodation providers that they can now link their booking page to the tourist board's destination website. It is important - and not just for your VisitScotland entry - that you use your online booking system to the maximum and know how to land your guests onto your specific reservations page.

Visitscotland will be ceasing operation of their own booking engine and instead replacing the function with  direct links to the accommodation providers' own booking pages something that perhaps they should have been doing for the past decade? Anyway it is happening from the 13th of December so it is incumbent upon Scottish accommodation providers to ensure that they maximise the opportunity for this new DIRECT business.

So this is a very short tip today and it is just to make sure that you use your own booking page.

It is best if your landing page is within your website rather than linking to another site. However you need to be careful about what link you use there are examples of booking pages where the visitor doesn't actually have a link back to your website. If that's the case you may be best settling with the poorer option of landing on your homepage.

If you're using Bookassist landing on the booking page is simple as all the availability and booking information is embedded into the accommodation's own website. Bookassist believe that having your booking process embedded into your own website plays a really important role in increasing conversion rates - in situations where you're directing the booker to your booking process from a third party site it can be even more so.

Normally the landing page can be easily worked out just by checking availability on your own site but if you need some assistance just mail us and we'll send you the suggested link you should use for not only the VisitScotland site but any other sites with links to your bookings pages such as the excellent Welcome to Scotland.

Examples of the URL used for landing directly on your booking page.

• Inn at Lathones near St Andrews - http://www.innatlathones.com/booking.php?
• Mar Hall Golf Resort - http://www.marhall.com/booking.aspx?
• Callater Lodge Guest House - http://www.hotel-braemar.co.uk/booking.php
• Craigielaw Lodge in East Lothian - http://www.craigielawlodge.com/booking.html

You can see from the above that your guest has landed on the page you wanted them too - the booking page!

This can be taken even further with guest being directed to Special or Exclusive (public or private) offers when required. You could for example direct guest directly to a VisitScotland rate or offer from their page even including a logo to reinforce the exclusive nature of the deal.

These "Price Groups" allow you the accommodation provider to direct your customers to very targeted price or added value promotions. In this instance the rate is only visible when clicking on the link. great for exclusive offers and set up in a few minutes.

Try the virtual VisitScotland Offer link for yourself and imagine how impressed the customer is that you have given them a special "branded" exclusive.

Things To Do Today

• Check out your bookings landing page - is it on or off your website?
• Test and embed the link to your booking page into the VisitScotland extranet and your Welcome to Scotland page
• Consider creating an exclusive rate button to convert visitors

Downloads, Links and Reference

Find out how Bookassist could help your conversion - Read More

Read the VisitScotland Guidelines for integrating your booking link - Read How

The Best Book Direct series is being produced in conjunction with the on-line marketing team at Plan B and the award winning Bookassist Booking Engine. 

Email or call 01292 521404.
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VisitScotland.com online booking changes - further information

Here's the latest advice from VisitScotland regarding the switch over next week to driving books direct to hotel's own websites.

In our opinion this is the way that it should have been and should be in the future. It is therefore important that accommodation providers ensure that the link from VisitScotland is going DIRECTLY to the booking page on their website and not just the homepage.

If you don't know what the URL is off your booking landing page contact your web booking engine provider for some assistance.

An example on our own test web site for the mythical but very competitively priced Celtic Links Demo hotel gives an idea - the customer wants to check availability and make a booking so make it easier for them. Ensure they don't have to go searching for it and use three more clicks than they have to!

Click on Best Available Rate Book Direct with Celtic Links Demo Hotel

Our demo hotel uses Bookassist Booking Engine to power the online availability and the booking engine will be one of those integrating with the proposed VisitScotland availability search in June 2013.

Anyway, the advice from VisitScotland's Chief Executive Malcolm Roughead is as follows

Dear Provider,

I wrote to you recently concerning forthcoming changes to the way in which bookings are processed on www.visitscotland.com. The purpose of this email is to give you further advice on what you should do in preparation for the removal of our online booking functionality (including Web in a Box) on 13 December 2012.

Consumers will still be able to find your business through the search function on VisitScotland.com and it is vital that you continue to keep your details up to date, accurate and have a description that best portrays the products and services on offer to the consumer. You now have the facility to set up a link directly to your own preferred online booking website.

To recap, from 13 December 2012 we will be removing our online booking functionality (including Web in a Box). In future to make a booking consumers will have the following options:
Call or email you directly to make a reservation

• Contact you directly via your own website
• Click on a new ‘book’ button providing a direct link to your online booking website
• Or continue to use the VisitScotland Contact Centre or a VisitScotland Information Centre to make a booking.

VisitScotland.com is, and remains, a showcase for Scotland, boasting a rich source of information for visitors and reaching out to some 14 million internet users. Our international and UK & Ireland marketing will continue to drive visitors to the site using a range of print, online communications and campaigns all year round.

What we advise you to do

Keep updating your room availability and pricing on the VisitScotland Extranet as our Contact Centre staff and VisitScotland Information Centre staff will continue to use the search facility to find available accommodation for customers. Information on how to do this can be found in the extranet user guide.
If you have a property management system or online booking website we recommend that you add a direct link to your booking website - for a short step by step guide on how to add the link to your listing go to http://vslastminuteoffers.briefyourmarket.com/Goto/90987-1257-HRZYIG .

If you do nothing just now, you can still receive booking enquiries via telephone, email and links to your own website. In this case, we would only advise that you ensure your contact details are up to date.
If you would like to talk through these changes in more detail, please call one of our Advisors on 0845 602 3779 (available Monday - Friday 9am - 5pm) or email updates@visitscotland.com.

From June 2013, our national tourism website, http://vslastminuteoffers.briefyourmarket.com/Goto/90987-1258-0NYTTY will offer integration with a number of accommodation booking systems.

If you use one of the systems that integrate, then your own pricing and availability will display on visitscotland.comdirectly from the third party booking website, and the customer will be able to book your room online instantly.

A selection of property management systems (PMS) has been published on our corporate website here. This is not meant to be a definitive list, so please use it as a guide only. A confirmed list of supported PMS providers who are planning to integrate with VisitScotland.com from June 2013 will be published on this page from the end of January with additions made throughout 2013.

Best Book Direct - Make Maximum Use of Your Everyday E-Mails

Make Sure Your Email Signature Promotes Your Best Rate

Converting more direct business through your own website is not done with a single large change in strategy but just a whole lot of small and sometimes very obvious actions. So the very simple consideration today is how to make the most of your outgoing emails.

Accommodation providers need to use every possible channel of communication to get the message across that booking direct provides the best rates, the best deals and the best service.

The message should be on all printed materials, it should be on every invoice you issue to departing guests it should be on every letterheading sent out.

It should also be on every email every person in your organisation, however large or small, sends out every day.

Every email should be a call to action. Use a graphic message to reinforce the book direct message and always embed a link straight back to your Booking Page or even a specific offer. Don't just link back to your website - take them straight to the point they can reserve online - reducing the number of clicks can increase the conversion. Keep this in mind on your Facebook, Twitter and blog pages as well.

Dropping in signatures is quite easy in Outlook or your Google Mail account but even if you're not dropping in a graphic make sure there's a Direct Link.

With Bookassist web booking engine you can link directly to your booking page or using Price Groups direct the customer straight to the offer, package or date. It makes it so much easier for your customer to book quickly. Try the test links below.

Click to Book Your Room - Best Rate Guarantee or for a special offer
Book Your 2013 Golf Package Online - Two Nights & Three Rounds

Things To Do Today

• Add a link to all your emails going straight to your booking page
• Ensure all your invoices state the your best rates are always available direct
• Link to offers directly from your emails 

Bookassist web booking engine allows easy management of your rates, rooms and packages and has been designed to increase your conversion rates.

The Best Book Direct Series is being produced in conjunction with the on-line marketing team at Plan B and the award winning Bookassist Booking Engine. 

Email or call 01292 521404.
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Best Book Direct - Promote Your Own Best Rate on Your Own Site

Ensure Your Customer Knows You Are Offering Guaranteed Best Rate Direct

It is just a simple fact that customer will search third party sites looking for the best deal but that deal is not always about price it can be about value. They will look about and that does mean that very high percentages will find you on the third party site and then open your website for more information. The opportunity to switch sell your booking is being all too often lost. Capture and keep that customer and you can switch that customer to booking direct with you at a lower cost of sale.

The whole thing about generating more Direct Bookings through your own website is about just doing the obvious things.

We've already shown that the Online Travel Agents are bidding for your name in Google Adwords and prominently promoting a "Best Rate Guarantee" and that you need to counter that by asking them to stop, bidding against them for your own name and always making sure that your Page Title also pushes the best rate by booking on the direct and official website.

The consumer is often more discerning and one bad experience on a third party website may be enough to change their behaviour permanently - they will not do this however if your price on your website is more expensive.

Let's look logically at the consumer journey. In fact let's look at your own consumer journey for the last time you booked a hotel away from your own location.

Scenario One

You know the name of the hotel and search for it in Google or you even just search for hotels in Edinburgh

As we discussed on Day Two you will then be confronted with

• A Paid Advert from usually Booking.com at the top offering Guaranteed Best Rate and Savings
• A Google Places Map on the right hand side 
• And the hotel website in the normal listings - it may even say Best Rate Guaranteed Book Direct in its title!

(Note: many of you will never have seen the Google Hotels entry above before - we shall come back to Google Hotel Finder and how it could change the game later in the month)

You are discerning and want best value so you open the top paid listing and are offered the rates for your stay at the chosen hotel or destination. We've all used booking.com or lastminute.com as a search engine looking for what's available and where. At the moment your accommodation website cannot do anything about this other than appearing on these listings (we're not advocating getting rid of them as they can be useful!)

But once your availability comes up and is of interest to the booker it is what the customer does next that gives the operator the chance to take that business back DIRECT.

The discerning or curious customer will invariably check the the property out in more detail by doing a quick search for it. Your hotel is found but it says nothing about best rates it just says  Celtic Links Hotel Edinburgh.

They click on the link and open the official site.

• They can't find an availability checker in less than three clicks so they give up and close it down or; 
• They find the availability checker and there is no availability and close it down; 
• They find availability but the rate is £20 per night more expensive direct and they close it down.

With any of these scenarios, there is just no contest. The hotel website gets a sharp click on the close tab button and the booking is made with the third party and the hotel has lost:

1. A direct booking
2. A direct customer (the OTA can now market directly to them the next time)
3. Profit through high commissions paid to the OTA

Scenario Two - The Switch Sale

And it would have been so simple to switch that sale if the hotel had offered a Best Rate Guarantee of their own, ensured the prices were the same and that added value options were available.

1. The customer open both sites
2. On opening the hotel site they are confronted with a bold statement (as in the example on the right) ensuring them that a Direct Booking is the Best Booking. There may even be statement explaining what best Booking Direct actually means to them. (See Day Five)
3. They click on the booking page and the price is the same but there are also packages that add better value.
4. They buy the room at the same price but add on the Book Direct Extra

The accommodation has retained a Direct Booking, retained the customer information, reduced the costs of sale and increased the secondary spend.

Does it happen this way? you are the best judge of that. Does it sound familiar in your own bookings history?

Direct Sell by Adding Value

Some of the best converting Bookassist clients will use every opportunity open to sell more rooms direct by adding value to the basic room proposition. Give more whenever you can and ensure that the option to book direct is given more value.

• Book Direct and Receive Upgrade Offers
• Book Direct and Receive a voucher towards dinner
• Book Direct and Receive 20% off your next stay
• Book Direct and Receive Free admission to a Local Attraction

Remember not all your potential guests are looking for the lowest price and as we all do, we will pay that little bit extra for the service, the extras, the personal touches. 

With Bookassist web booking engine you can add unlimited extras - flowers, champagne, flowers, rounds of golf, gift vouchers - to the booking process even restricting them to specific packages. All of these little extras can help the customer differentiate between booking third party and booking direct.

In the eyes of many OTAs are driving accommodation providers in an ever faster Race to the Bottom and discerning operators need to start adding more value on their own direct business. They provide a distribution channel for your products but it is up to you to ensure that you are managing the balance of that relationship proactively.

It is after all Best to Book Direct!

The Best Book Direct Guide is being produced in conjunction with the on-line marketing team at Plan B and the award winning Bookassist Booking Engine. 
Email or call 01292 521404.
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Two Championship Links Golf Courses Choose Bookassist

Bookassist in Scotland are delighted to announce that they have entered into two great new contracts with some of the very best golf related accommodation in Scotland at Castle Stuart in The Highlands and Craigielaw in East Lothian.

Both golf courses have been developing their own on course accommodation and both properties will offer the golfing visitor to Scotland an even more enhanced experience.

Craigielaw Golf Lodge

Opening in May 2013 this is a 25 bedroomed addition to what already is a superb clubhouse and meeting facility overlooking the golf course and the Forth of Forth.

Situated at the entrance to the village of Aberlady, the high quality accommodation will offer 25 en suite twin or double rooms with 13 sea view and 12 courtyard facing bedrooms.

We've been working with General Manager Derek Scott in setting up the rooms, rates and availability and soon they'll be adding a range of golf inclusive offers on to the site complete with a range of guest adds which can be added to each package.

The Craigielaw Lodge website is already live and taking on-line bookings and we look forward to a great relationship with the team on the East Coast.

Castle Stuart Golf Lodges

Simultaneous to getting the booking engine live on the Craigielaw site we've been working with Stuart McColm and Steff at Castle Stuart Golf Club to create a really strong booking proposition for their wonderful new golf and accommodation product.

Castle Stuart itself hardly needs much introduction as it captured the imagination of the golf market even before it opened and has hosted the Scottish Open over the past two years and will again in 2013.

The magnificent course is now additionally supported not only by first class clubhouse facilities but also by three luxurious self catering accommodation offerings - Golf Lodge sleeping up to six and the Farmhouse and Castle Cottage sleeping up to eight.

The flexibility of the Bookassist booking engine allowed us to configure each accommodation unit to the needs of the management and more importantly the golfer. The wonderful Stay and Play Castle Stuart packages will be bookable by accommodation type for up to eight golfers in eoither single bedded or twin rooms and then the golfers can add on the number of rounds of golf to their package. Add ons such as caddies, welcome hampers, cases of beer can easily be added onto the module as and when required to add value to the DIRECT booking experience.

The Bookassist Booking Engine will go live on the Castle Stuart Lodging Pages over the next few days and once again Plan B and Bookassist look forward to building yet further the relationship we have with Castle Stuart which was cemented over a year ago with the development of the Highland Golf Links brand and online marketing campaign

This blog article is presented by Plan B and Bookassist. The Bookassist Booking engine is managed in Scotland by Plan B and with nearly twenty years involvement with Scottish hospitality marketing, Plan B can provide full support for your online marketing requirements from website design, relationship building through to increased conversion with Bookassist Web Booking Engine.

Best Book Direct - Google Places For Accommodation Businesses

Improve How Your Customer Views Your Business Name - Part II

In our travels, in our day to day support calls and in our ongoing research we still find dozens  of businesses who have found themselves immersed in a Facebook campaign yet are still without an up to date or quite often NO presence on Google Places. If your brow has just furrowed and you've just thought I'm not sure whether we're using Google Places then you really MUST read on. It is free, easy to set up and it really is an absolute MUST DO TODAY job.

If there's one thing you need to check before the year's out it is that you're using Google Places to its full (and FREE) potential.

We have presented at workshops all around the country and still businesses are not using the free tools that Google have given them. And to be quite brutal it's unforgivable!

"You've got a Facebook account yet you haven't updated or claimed your Google Place?" Time to prioritise better!

Google Places is playing an an increasingly important role in searches for the hospitality sector on both PC based searches and increasingly in Google Apps on mobile devices. It is not just important that hospitality businesses manage their Google Places account it is truly criminal not to.

It's an old blog posting but Laurian Clemence, Corporate Communications & Public Affairs with Google UK highlighted the importance of Places more than a year ago, “By having an on-line presence via Google Places, hotels are enabling users to find and interact with their business,” says Clemence. He recommends keeping listings simple, accurate and consistent.

From a tourism and hospitality perspective Google Places is taking, and is likely to take even more, prominence as Google identify means of improving their social media offering with search offerings such as Google+ Local, Google + Pages for your business and Google Hotel Finder.

As we've said however, the starting point for us however is getting the basics in place so start with setting up or editing your Google Places information

Test It Now for Your Business

Google Place information is visible in the top right corner of the search screen - and must surely be a positive one for hotels seeking direct bookings through their own website.

Once again use your own business name and see what your customer sees. On the right is the Google Paces result for The Oak Tree Inn Balmaha. This search data is free and managed at the core by your business. It offers reviews and new ratings out of 30 based on a host of customer inputs.

If your business doesn't appear in this way you really need to get this listed as an A+ priority and that means TODAY.

This is not intended to be a detailed guide to how to set up Google Paces just a call to action to ensure you do. Google explain in the easiest possible terms how to do it.

Do you need to understand how it interacts with Hotel Finder, Google + Reviews, Google+ pages? In time yes but for now get the building blocks in place and make sure that your business details, map, and descriptions are up to date. Upload your best most recent images and video if you have some.

To start creating your free local business listing, go to the Google Places and sign in with your Google account. If you don't already have a Google account, click Sign up now to create a new Google account.

Things to Do Today

1. Search for your business names (include separate searches for your restaurants. pubs and leisure facilities and see how you are represented in Google Search and Google Places
2. Set up or update your Google Places account fully for each business you operate - content, images, categories, video, tags and descriptions  special offers, the lot. Set an hour (or very maximum two) aside to do it properly.
3. Check your Google Places account and the statistics and advice on it regularly

Downloads, Links and Reference

This article is a call to action rather than a detailed briefing. We have previously written articles on Google Places in this blog. Simply type in Google Places in the search field top right of this page for more detailed info. Google's reference guides are definitive and really easy (on the whole!) to follow so to get your entry up to date click on the links below.

Google Reference Links

• Google Places for Business
• Google + for Business
• Understanding Google Hotel Finder

Additional Reading

• Google Local for Hotels 
• Google Local is Replacing Google Places
• Google is Going Places
• Hotel Tips for Google Places

The Best Book Direct Series is being produced in conjunction with the on-line marketing team at Plan B and the award winning Bookassist Booking Engine. 
Email or call 01292 521404.
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Best Book Direct - Your Business Name in Google Search

Improve How Your Customer Views Your Business Name - Part I

Search for your business name and location in Google and note the results. How are you seen, who are your partners or competitors, how is your business name represented, how does your Google Place entry look. This is your continual and ongoing reference point. Once you have your business name sorted and only then should you start moving to being found for more general terms. Start from your business out.

One of the most challenging issues facing accommodation providers in 2013 and beyond is how to reduce the cost of on-line sales by switching your guests from third party websites and on-line travel agents to booking direct.

We will be looking at the shady practice known as Hotel Brand Jacking later in the week at how the accommodation sector - and the industry bodies representing the sector - could and should be taking this practice head on but regardless of the way the big boys act, operators should be doing what they can for themselves in areas of search and "brand" or business name awareness. Let's start with the very basics.

It seems logical to start with your own business name. You may think that it's simple - a potential customer is looking for your business specifically and they'll find you? Maybe but increasingly your name is being hijacked. Bit of an overstatement?

Well if you've seen a drop in bookings over the past two years from your own website you may be blaming your website or your booking engine. The truth is that your DIRECT customer, those looking for your business, are being "seduced" or more accurately "bought" by the online travel agents running Google Adwords for YOUR business name.

Let's look at an example of a smaller independently owned hotel on Loch Lomondside, The Oak Tree Inn at Balmaha. We did a Google search for their name "Oak Tree Inn"

The first thing you'll notice is that you are being shown in a number of ways. Paid advertisers will show always first; The business featured on Google map will be on the right hand side and the organic search listings will be listed below the paid adverts.

Google Search for "Oak Tree Inn" or "Oak Tree Inn Balmaha"

We'll look at how businesses can maximise their content on Google Places on the right later in the week so we'll focus on the paid adverts and the generic search listings for now.

The first thing that your searchers will find are the paid adverts with the big boys buying your business name.

Do your customers know that it's an advert? Do they care? Or are they going to be drawn by the Best Price Guarantee or Book & Save statement?

What would you do? Go for the most likely best price?

Your own website may always appear first in the general listings but what does it say to the customer?

You must ensure that it emphasises that it is Best to Book Direct so while the OTA's may be able to promote Best Rate Guarantees, so should you; and only your site can claim to be the official one so why not use it.

The Oak Tree Inn has done just this and there is little doubt that it helps convince the customer that they are assured of the best rates by booking direct.

The series of Best Book Direct features is intended to focus businesses on the issues and actions that they DO have control over and by creating a course of small changes (some with big gains) there can be a gradual but inexorable movement toward a much more balanced accommodation reservation position.

So acting on a Google search on your own business name may not be high on the Richter Scale but it is a start that states a determination to take more control of your online marketing and sales conversion. Over the next days and weeks some other equally small changes may combine to make the big differences in direct sales that all accommodation businesses need in 2013. 

The next few Days in the Advent Calendar will look further at maximising your Google Search opportunities and protecting your business name.

Things To Do Today

1. Do a Google Search for your business name
2. Note what other sites are being found and how your customer sees your name
3. Amend your Home Page Title to encourage more DIRECT business
4. Regularly revisit how your business is being found.. 

Downloads, Links and Reference

• Get Your Defensive Strategy Right
• Hotel brand hijacking in search – look out for a revolution
• Hotel Brandjacking: Online Marketing Pitfalls
• Brandjacking Index Report - May 2011

(NOTE: The Brandjacking Index study con­cludes that brand­jack­ing re­sults in more than 580 mil­lion vis­its from highly-qual­i­fied travel­ers be­ing si­phoned from ho­tel book­ing sites to the book­ing sites of chan­nel/mar­ket­ing part­ners or com­peti­tors. The study pegs the over­all an­nual cost of lost book­ings and un­nec­es­sary com­mis­sions at $2.2 bil­lion.)

The Best Book Direct Guide is being produced in conjunction with the on-line marketing team at Plan B and the award winning Bookassist Booking Engine. 
Email or call 01292 521404.
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