We all love the feel of getting a great deal and the same goes for potential bookers on your website. The truth is Special Offers drive direct bookings, that’s why we make it super easy to create them in freetobook. Simply visit tab “Specials” and create a new offer, it’s live and available in seconds.
Here are 3 top tips to help you create a successful Special Offer.
1. Keep the Offer Active – Special Offers help differentiate you, help you stand out against the competition….. so try to keep an offer running all the time.
2.Give a good deal – The best offers give guests a great deal, but don’t worry if you don’t have a big budget even a small amount can make all the difference.
3. Better deals in low season – If you think you have periods where you are not selling then focus your offers on those dates eg. off-season, weekdays or other low demand dates.
On freetobook you can easily open and close your offers (in Close-Outs under the tab “Availability”), so why not set-up a couple now and just open/close them when you need them most. Remember, if you don’t need to have the offers open on peak dates…. just close the high dates out.
I have a 10% discount for all direct bookings and it is more than visible on my wesite this means at times people can get a room for as little as £31.00 for a four star gold award guest house which makes it the cheapest in a popular upmarket seaside town. But booking.com is just too strong for us and many of my returners find that they are confused and so book through them not realising that it’s b.c. I haven’t increased my bookings since going with them the only thing I have increased is my losses and I have lost also my high position on the internet so my usability us only through booking.com.
I have a direct booking offer on at all times but B.C still overrides my website and many of my returners go to B.C, when they realise their mistake they try to cancel but many of them are very confused. So my b.c bills are very high in comparison to my turnover