🍂🍃 We're loving the autumn colours around New Zealand at the moment! Bring on the mulled wine and autumn festivals!
With the economy also cooling down, it's a good time to look at ways to combat lower demand and work on your marketing. This month we share:
ResBook Community News: Ownership Update & New Feature Coming Soon
Marketing Your Accommodation in a Declining Economy
ResBook Quick Quiz: Win a Month of Free ResBook!
Customer Spotlight: Marchburn Country Lodge
Most Popular Knowledge Base Articles in April
Our Latest Business Intelligence Data
ResBook Community News 👀
ResBook Ownership Update & Future System Developments
In case you missed the news...ownership of ResBook is now 100% with Tomahawk Directors John Hayson & Gina Paladini. Having been major shareholders for much of the last 15 years, they are now excited to announce their full ownership and commitment to the platform. Their investment in ResBook signals confidence of its position in the market and lays a foundation for future development.
One of the most popular requests from our ResBook Wishlist at the end of last year was to depict on your calendar screen if a booking has been paid in full, partially paid, or no payment using different colour coding. This will allow you to see at a glance the payment status of each upcoming booking.
Keep an eye out for it's launch!
Marketing Your Accommodation in a Declining Economy
With economies declining and an ongoing rising inflation environment, it's tougher to attract bookings and refrain from heavy discounting that ultimately affects your bottom line. That's why it's important to find ways to keep the bookings flowing and use cost effective strategies to achieve it. Check out our 6 tips to marketing your accommodation in a declining economy.
Graeme & Donna are hosts of Marchburn Country Lodge, located on the Otago Rail Trail in the heart of Central Otago.
We are proud to enjoy an ongoing partnership with Marchburn to provide ResBook and their themed website, both key online tools to drive direct bookings. Marchburn are a themed website subscriber and their recent new website was launched at no extra cost as a result of the 3-year free website offer available with our monthly subscription plan. This is a great way to manage website costs in tough times with a monthly fixed price, be assured of a new fresh website every 3 years, and take advantage of exclusive ResBook customer pricing for the subscription fee.
What do you see as the biggest challenge for next season?
Graeme: The big challenge for next year is establishing a new level of quality for our customers. It is inevitable for quality to drop over time due to the effects of (daily) repetition. So we need to examine each process of our customer experience and reinvent it. This will give both us as hosts, and customers, an invigorating freshness through the elimination of tired and uninspired behaviours that have crept into our hosting routines over time.
What is one piece of advice you would give someone who is looking to start an accommodation business?
Graeme: Ask yourself what it is that would make you happy enough to remember your visit forever. For us, we look for our customers to be genuinely delighted by some thoughtful acts we can provide as hosts. If you can demonstrate that you have understood who your guests actually are, your thoughtful acts for them will remain as a pleasant memory for them forever. So, because this personal approach matters most for us, embark on an enterprise that truly reflects your own interests and beliefs so that it never becomes an effort to be kind. Effortless service is the goal.
How has ResBook helped you and your business?
Graeme: Because of the answers I have given to both questions above, I need administrative tools that are effortless to work with, and are fun to use. I put ResBook in this category (alongside Xero accounting). Both these apps do much more than I could ever use. But what small amount of functionality of each app I do use, it is easy to work with, fully functional for all parties, and most of all, fun.
Admin and back office duties have been made into effortless tasks thanks to ResBook.
What is your favourite feature / function of ResBook and why?
Graeme: My favourite feature/function of ResBook is the Invoice. One push of the invoice button and seconds later, an accurate and fully informative invoice has been emailed to it's destination. In 10 years of operation, we have never had an invoice unpaid. And that fact confirms that our service goals in our business have been successfully met. Moreover those goals have been proven to be what the travelling public desire and cherish. Our original instincts have proved to be correct. And ResBook is a key player in that achievement because it is "effortless fun" to use.
Get Your Business in the Spotlight! 🔦
Get in touch if you'd like to share your pearls of wisdom and experience with like-minded accommodation hosts & on our website!
Can't find something in the Knowledge Base? Get in touch with Client Services, we'd be happy to help 👍🏼
Four months of 2024 is now complete and it's still looking soft out there with Quarter 2 for 2024 starting off a bit lean! There is a lot of commentary right now about how people are struggling financially, with discretionary spending on travel being affected. Let's look at it a bit closer:
Despite Easter and School Holidays, April was noticeably lower than April 2023 for both booking volumes (down 13%) and revenue (down 27%)
On a positive note the average booking value YTD for 2024 is showing a consistent upward trend with a 3% increase compared to the total 2023 average booking value.
Forward bookings revenue for May is currently sitting at 27% of 2023's May total (& at 28% of booking volumes). Still some work to do for May!
Contacting ResBook for Support Issues
If you need support help with ResBook you'll find answers for most questions in the Knowledge Base. Helpful articles with screenshots and videos can assist with resolving the most common issues, however if you still can't find your answer please refer to the following Support Guidelines for next steps. These guidelines also cover what to do for urgent issues.😊
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