Following the launch of Silverdale Holiday Cottages last week, this week we have been working on a full redesign for Brooklands Guest House in Penrith, and plans are progressing for another Airbnb sync project in Poulton Le Fylde.

Whilst Brooklands uses a system called Q Book as a channel manager, to sync their bookings across multiple platforms, the other two websites, Silverdale and the new Poulton one, will use the Airbnb platform to initially promote their properties to a wider audience, with the option to take direct bookings through their own websites. This is particularly relevant for repeat business, as it allows the property owners to market to existing customers and incentivise direct bookings, as well as reduce costs.

The benefits of having their own direct booking site are:

1. They don’t pay the Airbnb commission on direct bookings
2. The customer pays less, as they don’t pay the Airbnb fee which can be up to 15%
3. They can incentivise repeat bookings e.g. book direct next time and receive a gift/discount
4. They can create special price rates and discounts on their own site
5. They can issue coupons (voucher codes) either for global use, or directly to a specific customer

If you are in the accommodation sector and looking to escape the clutches of the big booking aggregators, talk to us to see how we can help.