New booking website launched for Silverdale Holiday Cottages.

Property owners Tony & Ann wanted a website to promote their two holiday cottages. They wanted to be able to take direct bookings via the website, but to maintain their presence on Airbnb for both cottages.

We created the new website in WordPress, using a booking plugin that synchronises both properties to and from Airbnb via an icalendar method. This means that whichever platform the customer books on, the dates are blocked out on the other one, to avoid double-bookings. The website pulls through the customer reviews from Airbnb to each property in a neat carousel, providing clear social proof of the holiday experience, the host welcome and the standard of the cottages.

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

The system also provides them with a reporting tool, to analyse sales and customer behaviour. This will be particularly useful after the first year, when there is a body of data to work with and analyse.

In addition to the website work, we also helped them create a Google Location listing, so that it is easier for visitors to find the property in Google Maps (it is not on a specific road) and also to allow them to gather independent Google Reviews on the location listing, which benefits their SEO (search ranking).

Great to work with two passionate, local property owners who provide an outstanding guest experience according to their reviews.