The results of a recent survey* of guests who booked accommodation online through SuperControl booking pages gives us a very interesting insight.
When asked if they would have made an enquiry by email or telephone if the website didn’t have the facility to book online, only two thirds said yes. Which means that 1 out of 3 of those bookings may not have been made at all.
Furthermore, if when they made that telephone call they were put through to an answer machine, only half of them would leave a message; and half of those would continue to search online for alternative accommodation in the meantime.
Let’s talk money
If during the course of the year you received 30 online bookings (at an average of £500 per booking) that is a turnover of:
£15,000
Without online booking (and if you were available to answer every phone call, day and night), based on our survey results that figure would be closer to:
£10,000
Take a look at the busiest time that bookings are made online (i.e. when the people we surveyed were looking):
Source: SuperControl
It’s from 8.00pm – 9.00pm. So you’d probably have to put your social life on hold. If you did go ahead and have a night out would you really enjoy it if you thought you might be missing out on bookings coming in?
And if you weren’t available to answer every phone call (we all need a bathroom break every now and then!), half of those guests said they wouldn’t leave a message on your answerphone so you may never know they were interested in the first place.
Even if you called back everyone that did leave a message, and every one of those proceeded to place a booking, at most that turnover would be:
£5,000
But we’ve forgotten something. Of those that said they would leave a message, remember that half of them said they would continue to search for alternative accommodation. If all of them found it, and booked it before you were able to phone them back (because they could do so there and then), you might be left with a turnover of just:
£2,500
Remember – if you had let them book online (they want to) you could have had £15k!
Enabling online booking on your website makes it easier for your guests. Make the process as straightforward as possible by removing any reason not to book and watch your calendars fill up.
If you have been holding off adding online booking to your website because you didn’t think you needed it, maybe now’s the time to make that move.
If you don’t take online bookings, book a FREE trial to find out how SuperControl can work for you.
*Survey results from December 2013.
