Remember Book Direct Guest Education Day 2022

Remember Booking Direct Guest Education Day 2022 

Wednesday, February 2nd, 2022, is the fifth Annual Book Direct Guest Education Day! It is once again time for lodging professionals to educate their guests on the value of booking directly through your property’s booking engine. 

The #BookDirect movement is a social media-based campaign that is designed to encourage lodging properties to promote booking direct options to prospective guests.  

Booking Direct Guest Education Day

Spread the news! 

In years past, many properties have gotten creative when it came to promoting Book Direct Guest Education Day. Here are ten ideas from the pros of what you can do at your properties this February. 

  • Create and hang up posters with QR codes linking to your booking website. 
  • Use a dynamic QR code when creating any posters or displays that you plan to reuse each year, so you can change the link if necessary. 
  • Add imagery and wording to your website that highlight your direct booking advantages. 
  • Ask your marketing team to add lightboxes and/or buttons on your website discussing the rewards of booking direct, with the CTA (Call to Action) being “Book Direct today.” 
  • Post about #BookDirect on your social media accounts. 
  • On Instagram, the hashtag #BookDirect has over 214,000 posts, and you can check them out for inspiration here.  
  • Increase direct interaction with guests. 
  • When guests check in or out of your property, inform or remind them that they can book their next stay directly through your website instead of using the OTAs (Online Travel Agencies) like Expedia or Travelocity. 
  • Reach out to local news purveyors to promote booking direct to locals. 
  • Your local news station may only charge a nominal fee to air an ad spot for you to attract guests in your local community to book direct. 

Explain why your guests should want to book directly with you.

Not every guest books direct. The goal here is to stay in front of them and remind them why it’s important. If your guests are not already booking directly through you, then you are more than likely paying OTA fees to obtain reservations as you read this.

There are benefits to listing your properties with OTAs like increased visibility and ease of access for travelers to book through whichever online agency they are comfortable with. Still, while there are advantages of OTAs, it is crucial for your team to convey the importance of booking directly through your website.  

By removing the OTA middleman, you are removing fees that can be upwards of $75 just for one booking! You are also bringing the control of your bookings back in your hands. 

If you want to boost your profits, streamline your operations, and offer special rewards for guests who #BookDirect through your website, make sure that your company’s Marketing or Website professional promotes your direct booking capabilities by showing the customer what the value is to them to book this way. 

Need some help?  

Let the professionals at rezStream take care of this #BookDirect Initiative for you; get started by reaching out to us at www.temp.rezstream.com/contact or schedule a demo with us today. 

Published: January 19, 2022