Booking sites bring guests, and they take a commission on every booking. A website of your own wins the guests who look you up, the ones who return and anyone happy to book direct, and it keeps its calendar in step with the booking sites.
It is the sum worth doing before anything else, and it needs only three figures, all of them yours.
Multiplied together, they give what the booking sites would take in a year if every night came through them, and each night that books direct instead keeps its share. That is the figure to weigh a website against.
What the sum cannot tell you is how many of those nights would come direct. That depends on your guests, your photographs and your prices, and the booking sites carry on doing their job alongside your own website.
If you already use a booking engine or a channel manager, the website connects to it. If you do not, a booking system can be built into the website itself, with card payments. Both are working today on lets near Ely, while Booking.com and the rest carry on bringing guests.
One- and two-bedroom apartments in the centre of Ely, booked on their own website through the eviivo booking engine. The top bar offers a discount for booking direct, and the dates-and-prices form sits straight beneath the first photograph.
“Outstanding service. Always there when you need a little help getting to know the ins and outs of your website.”Keith WilsonThe Old Warehouse, ElyVisit The Old Warehouse (opens in a new tab)
A one-bedroom apartment and two-bedroom cottages a short walk from the cathedral, taking their bookings through eviivo as well. A band across the homepage says what booking direct saves, with the booking form beneath it.
Visit Windmill Cottage (opens in a new tab)A one-bedroom annexe in Littleport, near Ely, that sleeps four, with the booking system built into its website. Guests pay by card on the site, which checks the Booking.com calendar before it takes a payment, and Booking.com picks up the site's bookings in turn.
Read how it takes its own bookings
Property to let works the same way. Woodlands Farm Units (opens in a new tab) in Littleport lists its workshop, storage and commercial units and its shipping containers with their sizes and availability, so that a business looking for space can see what is free before it asks.
The questions are mostly about calendars, commission and double bookings. If yours is not among them, you are welcome to send it to me, and I will answer it plainly.
Calendars are kept in step using the calendar feeds that Booking.com, Airbnb and most channel managers provide. Booking.com reads those feeds on its own schedule, so there can be a short gap; a website with its own booking system checks the Booking.com calendar again before it takes a payment, which closes most of it. If you have several properties, a channel manager such as eviivo keeps everything in one place.
Every website is quoted to the job, whether it connects to the booking engine you already pay for or has a booking system built in. After a free 30-minute call you receive a written proposal within two working days, with one fixed price and a launch date. Most websites take about four weeks, so starting before the season is easier than starting during it.
It would be wise to check your booking-site agreements first. Some owners offer a small discount for booking direct and say so on their own website, as The Old Warehouse and Windmill Cottage both do; others keep the price the same, simply save the commission, and keep better offers for returning guests by email.
I will need photographs of the property, and I can help should they need refreshing; an account of how you take bookings now; your house rules and arrival details; and half an hour together, on a call or over a coffee in Ely. I write the words with you.
I look after it myself. At launch you have a 30-minute training session and a written guide, and afterwards a care plan, monthly and rolling, keeps the website fast, secure and backed up, with changes made by me, within the plan's allowance, rather than through a ticket queue. Every email is read and answered by me no later than the end of the next working day, and a trusted associate is on call for cover.
The new website goes live on the web address you already have, and the old one is kept so that it can be put back at once should anything be wrong. Every account ends up in your name: the domain, the hosting, the email and the analytics.
It begins with thirty minutes on a call, or a note in the form describing the property, how guests book at the moment and which of those bookings you would most like to take directly. If I can help, the proposal follows within two working days, and if I am not the right fit, I will say so.
Or write to enquiries@adamlord.co.uk. For a fuller picture, the project brief takes about ten minutes.
It has come straight to me rather than to a queue, and I will reply by the end of the next working day.