Best Book Direct- Your Guests Have Gone Mobile On You...

There are hundreds of pages outlining how the guest browsing and booking experience has moved from desk to mobile. We're not going to outline the arguments any more because this is not something you need to consider; it's something you need to do!

Who needs a mobile website? Businesses of all sizes. Mobile is the fastest growing method of accessing hotel information online. This is not the future – it is very much the present.

The Bookassist mobile version integrates the same availability that will be on your website, your Facebook (and your VisitScotland channel from June 2013) and configures it for the mobile user. Simple swipes and a couple of touches and the room is confirmed.

The guest gets confirmation, can check Facebook updates and even be routed directly to the property with the integrated mapping software. You can now tell your guest just to log onto your website and they'll be automatically redirected to the mobile site and the map with directions.
Customer care and added value alongside mobile bookings!

The Open Rooms Mobile website is built within the Content Managed System giving you the opportunity to introduce new pages and drop them into the navigation as well as managing your late availability and rates utilising the full power of the integrated Bookassist Booking Engine and also includes mapping, image galleries and whatever additional pages and content hotels wish to put on it.

The Mobile hotel site features:

• Full content creation and editing with Drag and Drop page management
• Location-aware mapping with automatic routing from current location to the hotel (where supported by the phone)
• Live online availability powered from by the Bookassist Extranet
• Room descriptions and photos and integrated customer reviews
• Integrated photo gallery
• Fast and easy-to-use full transaction engine for booking
• PCI-DSS compliant security, credit card verification and SMS booking confirmation
• Feature entire hotel groups, seamlessly interlinking each hotel.
• Integrated Google Analytics for all bookings
• Properly built platforms drive DIRECT conversion and Open Rooms mobile will help you get your business working on the move.

Things To Do Today

• Activate your mobile booking strategy now with your Bookassist booking engine if your system doesn't offer mobile version maybe you should be asking some questions.
• If you're not using Bookassist call 01292 521404 to find out more about the award winning solution to your booking problems

Downloads, Links and Reference

Latest updates with award winning Bookassist Mobile web app

Download the PDF guide to Bookassist Mobile Version
Find out how Bookassist could help your mobile conversion - Read More

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 - Update your Facebook Booking Engine

It may not be the highest converting distribution channel that you have but if you're going to use Facebook for your accommodation you should utilise all the functions you can and that includes at least offering DIRECT booking from your own page. All users of Bookassist have free access to the easy to install Facebook Apps.

The Suite of Bookassist Apps for Facebook gives your hotel or guest house four separate applications that are simple to install and use, and require no additional maintenance.

Your Facebook page can now be set up to offer your followers:

• Online Booking 
• Special Offers 
• Voucher Sales and 
• Customer Reviews 

And because the Apps take information directly from your Bookassist Hotel Admin system, you don’t have to worry about keeping your Facebook apps up to date - changes made in your Hotel Admin appear in Facebook immediately, just as they do on your own website.

And it is simple to install so it really is worth taking a few minutes to do - if you're looking for a new booking engine to replace your old one you can have your Facebook bookings and exclusive offers up and running even before you get your own website live. 

• Simply Log in to your own Facebook page and then click on the link to the Bookassist Facebook Apps page 
• From there choose the Bookassist App which you want to install and you will be directed to that App’s profile page. 
• Go to the bottom of the left column on the Facebook App page and click "Add to my Page" and if requested, click the "Add to Page" button for your Hotel page. 

Repeat this for all of the Apps you wish to install. Once you have done this you are now ready to activate your apps. 

Activating Your Apps for Facebook 

Bookassist client hotels can activate the Apps using your hotel's unique Activation Code, available in the Social Media Integration section of the Reputation tab in Bookassist Hotel Admin. Log into your admin as usual and you’ll find the Reputation tab. Click on the Social media Integration button under this heading. 

When you enter the page you will see an Activation Code. Simply copy the Activation Code and enter it where requested by the App in your hotel’s Facebook page.

Return to your Hotel Facebook page, click on the newly installed Bookassist Apps one by one and when asked paste in the Activation Code.

Your Bookassist Facebook apps are now ready and you'll see from the graphic below it's not just for the big hotels either. It's jsut as practical and convenient for the small operator.

Bookassist now has a commission free booking engine option for businesses (in Scotland only) with less than ten beds and it includes FREE access to the Facebook Apps.

Now you can make sure that, in your email marketing, your departure invoices, your Facebook pages and blogs, you are advising your customers that they can now book direct through Facebook with your Best Available Rate…

Things To Do Today

• If you're using Bookassist already make sure that your Facebook apps are activated
• If you're not using Bookassist call 01292 521404 to find out more about the award winning solution to your booking problems

Downloads, Links and Reference

Download the PDF guide to Bookassist Facebook Apps
Find out how Bookassist could help your conversion - Read More

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.
Get Daily Updates and Comment on Tourism Matters Facebook

Best Book Direct- Maximum Availability DIRECT

You do all the work to get visitors on to your site; you shout that your rates are better when booked direct and then you don't show your availability. It is essential that you show maximum availability at all times on your website right up to the last minute.

The first thing you should be checking in your booking engine admin is that you have maximum availability within your own website at all times. Your last available room should always be bookable through your own site right up to the time that you stop taking bookings.

Go to your admin panel and maximise the available rooms. There is NO reason why a room should be available through a third party site or by telephone and not bookable through your website. 

Bookassist allows the accommodation provider to do the following to ensure that you can maximise your availability and your sales

Set the Last time for Booking

Decide when you take booking until - Bookassist will allow you to take booking right up to midnight if you so wish. Stop selling 24 hours out or at 6pm on the same day. You decide what's right for your business but we would always suggest keeping the rooms open as lote as possible

Confirmation by Text 

We'd suggest taking bookings til as late as possible - remember even if you're not always at your computer to check for reservations you can arrange to have any bookings sent to your mobile phone via a simple text message

Update Your Availability Easily

Two clicks and you can open and close out your rooms. Remember if a room is sold online it is automatically updated in the booking engine system; it cannot be sold twice.

Sell Through Mobile Version Websites

Last minute reservations are becoming more important as mobiles take over from laptops and PCs. Bookassist's mobile version web site and booking engine allows the easiest possible route to market from a mobile device.

Read More about Mobile

Things to Do Today

• Go onto your hotel admin and increase the number of rooms available throughout 2013
• Make your rooms available to purchase online right til the latest possible time. Remember they are mobile and you must offer what is being looked for.
• Utilise the Bookassist Text Confirmation service if required.

Downloads, Links and Reference

Find out how Bookassist could help your conversion - Read More

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.
Get Daily Updates and Comment on Tourism Matters Facebook

Best Book Direct - Guaranteed Best Rate. Own it!

Guaranteed Best Rate. You Control It... So Make It YOURS

Guaranteed Best Rate or Best Available Rate is the most misused and arguably most lethal weapon used against accommodation businesses across the world. But need it be? Not in our opinion. The principle behind Best Available Rate is clear; it is used by the OTA's to "assure" their customers that they don't need to go anywhere else. You need to do EXACTLY the same.


Guaranteed Best Rate. The most misused and arguably most lethal weapon used against accommodation businesses across the world. But need it be? Not in our opinion. The principle behind Best Available Rate is clear; it is used by the OTA's to "assure" their customers that they don't need to go anywhere else. You need to do EXACTLY the same.

We've already highlighted earlier this week how you can ensure that your webpages can promote your own Best Rate Book Direct Statement but what you can learn from is how the chain hotels have developed their own strategies to counter the third party bookings. Perhaps ironic as they are perhaps culpable for providing so many rooms at rock bottom prices in the first instance to fuel the OTA bonfire of room revenues but that’s historic.

If you do search for a chain hotel near you, you will notice the difference in searching for your own business name.

Quickly try searching for Ramada Inverness or Hilton Dundee or Macdonald Aviemore or Sheraton Edinburgh.

No Booking.com adwords campaign on their names (destination maybe but no brand names) and they will have their own adwords campaign running invariably pushing a best rate guarantee.

Fair? We don’t think so and that’s why Best Book Direct is about more than just a few blog articles; it must be about changing the attitudes of both the consumer and the accommodation owner.

Anyway, we’ll look next week at whether you can get the OTA’s to stop bidding for your name and why you should set up your own Google Adwords campaign to protect your business name (however small you are) but for today it’s YOUR Best Available Rate or Best Rate Guarantee that needs sanctioned.

And here you can learn from the big boys and act. We are suggesting that you look at your room rate policy and absolutely enshrine a best available rate by booking direct guarantee into your 2013 plan.
No ifs, no buts, just a straightforward and clear promise with no strings attached that the customer will receive the very best rate if they BOOK DIRECT. By phone or by email you’ll match any available price online, online you’ll ensure more rooms and the best price through your own website booking engine.

The best example we've found is Holiday Inns. Are you in any doubt where you would book? No. It’s clear and not only clear that it’s the best price but they are emphasising added value with their Advantages programme.

What do they offer?

• A Guaranteed Room
• Rewards Program
• Secure Transactions
• Any Room, Any Price, Any Time – 
• No Booking Fees
• Information guarantee

Why would any accommodation business not do the same. Your director customer is your most important customer  and you need to make sure they know it in the same way that Holiday Inn, Hilton or Ramada do

Out of the above you may not be able to offer a Rewards Programme (although Bookassist web booking engine users can see below) but you can certainly emphasise the rest.

What else could you guarantee?

Room Upgrades to direct bookings? Discounted or complimentary add ons for direct bookings? Simple things like adding a FREE morning newspaper to your online booking add ons? How impressed will the guest be? Exclusive next stay discount voucher for direct bookings?

It is your business and you know your guest and there must be advantages that you can offer to increase your direct business.

So what we’re suggesting is that you create a policy. Nothing too fancy and ensure that you explain it everywhere you can

Things to Do today

• Write a Guaranteed Best rate promise to your customer
• Create an online page linked from your Homepage and your outgoing emails
• Create a single A4 sheet for room packs
• Create an A4 PDF to attach to all enquiries
• Create a QR Code linking directly to your guarantee and put that on your print and sales materials
• Ensure all staff know what your Best Rate Guarantee is and ensure that any unconverted telephone calls end with the confirmation that our best rates and availability are guaranteed on the website.

Again this is not rocket science. Ten bullets points, maybe even less to ensure that you have not only levelled the playing field but have got wind advantage. Surely it’s worth the time to reduce those cost of sales.

Downloads, Links and Reference

• A Sample Best Book Direct Policy
• Holiday Inns Advantage
• Ramada Guaranteed Best Rate
• Hilton Promise
• Bookassist Loyalty Programme

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.
Get Daily Updates and Comment on Tourism Matters Facebook

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.
Get Daily Updates and Comment on Tourism Matters Facebook

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.
Get Daily Updates and Comment on Tourism Matters Facebook