Adriaan de Jager
Do you own a vacation home or condo? When you rent your property, a booking calendar on your website is a must. Here’s why.
Sounds obvious, but if you want more bookings adding a booking calendar to your website is the way to go. With a booking calendar, your website visitors can see at a glance whether your vacation home, cabin, boat, or beach house is free on the date they have in mind. Is it already booked? Big chance that they’re going to look for a period when your rental is free. It makes it easy for your visitors to adapt their plans to yours and book the stay anyway, which leads to more bookings. Did you know that a booking calendar on your website can generate up to 75% more bookings in comparison with a website that has no calendar at all? Also very handy: with a booking calendar on your website, visitors can easily make requests. That saves time for you and them, which results in a smoother booking experience.
A booking calendar makes your website look professional. And it makes the process of adding a booking way easier. You present yourself as a professional homeowner with your affairs in order. Potential clients don’t have to e-mail or call you to ask about the availability of your vacation rental. They can make a booking in a few clicks, and you have another satisfied client. A lightweight and easy process. And let’s be honest, that’s exactly how it should be in these times when everything needs to be as smooth and clear as possible.
Do you collaborate with big platforms like Airbnb or Booking.com? Good for you. It will probably get you a lot of visitors. Those websites run on booking calendars – and the good news is, those can be synchronized with most calendars. This automatically avoids any double bookings, which are the last thing you want messing up your availability and often resulting in unhappy clients. You can’t find the right booking calendar and think that manually syncing your bookings is a better idea? Don’t go that road. Look a little further – try to find a booking calendar that syncs automatically. Choose the right booking calendar and never experience double bookings again. And it saves you tons of time!
Not keen on using platforms like Airbnb because of their high fees for every booking? That’s fully understandable. These platforms can take up to 16% commission for each booking. That’s a lot of money you’ll never see back. And we’ve noticed how those commissions have increased significantly in the past couple of years. Luckily, there are several great alternative calendar tools you can add to your website. Adding a good booking calendar to your own website creates your own independent booking channel, completely adjustable to your preferences, allowing you to add specific price information like early-bird discounts or reductions in the low season. If you work with clients, colleagues, cleaners or others, add them as team members so they can see what’s going on in one or more of your calendars. These are all the ingredients you need to create the perfect booking channel.
How useful is it to know who is booking your holiday home? And how important is the feedback from your clients? With most booking calendars, you can easily check your site statistics and client details and use the information to offer your customers more and get more in return. Need to lower your rates or charge more on specific dates? Important information for optimizing your website, calendars, and overall user experience. The better this is arranged, the more bookings you will receive.
If you’re interested in a flexible, user-friendly, easy-to-manage booking system, give Bookingmood a try. Sign up here, and start your 14-day free trial today.