If you list your hotel, hostel, or bed and breakfast with Instant World Booking, or other online booking agencies, here is some advice for maximizing your reservation potential:

1)  Ensure your listing is up to date and accurate.  Include as much information as possible, not only about your property, but also about local attractions, restaurants, etc.

2)  Make sure to spell-check your listing.  Incorrect spelling signals to guests that the property is not professionally maintained.

3)  Add photos.  Listings with photos gain at least 4x more traffic than those without photos.  Make sure your photos are large and complement your property and location.

4)  Add a complete calendar of availability.  Your calendar is important, since guests prefer instant booking over online requests.  Make sure you have complete availability online, and at least 6-9 months of availability.

5)  Include an accurate street address on your listing, as well as local directions.  Guests will not book properties that they can’t easily find.

6)  Use Instant World Booking’s low-cost options for accepting reservations on YOUR OWN website.

Remember, it can take several weeks to several months for Google and other leading search engines to effectively index your page on our network of sites.  Instant World Booking has proven to be very successful in gaining top search engine rankings for its listed lodging partners.  One last reason it is very important to use the instant booking method is that we use pay-per-click (PPC) advertising to market your property on Google and other sites.  Effectively use of a PPC campaign can cost you hundreds of US dollars.  However, for our partners who use instant booking, we advertise your property in PPC campaigns for free.

One last note, persistence and patience is the key to success.  Online marketing is “collective”.  This means it is more effective to advertise your property on 2 services than 1.  Persistent online presence is necessary to achieve online name (brand) recognition, and to gain higher search rankings for pages containing your property’s name.  Advertising with Instant World Booking is an extremely valuable, and free, method of increasing your online presence.

Everyone knows how online booking works these days.  A small deposit is collected from the guest at the time of confirmation.  If you use one of the services that requires you to manually confirm bookings, contact your guests, and get deposit monies yourself, then your booking method is still in the stone ages.  And believe me, there are still quite a few of this type of reservation service that claims “instant booking”, but cannot deliver.  Furthermore, if your online booking method involves a Paypal interface, know that this method still does not work for guests in many regions around the world.  You might also have heard that a Paypal payment interface instantly signals to many that your website is amateur and unprofessional.  This is not exactly the reputation you want to develop for your website.

First, let me tell you that you absolutely need a professional third party service that is able to collect more than just Visa and Mastercard.  You need a service that is able to collect at least 4 major global card types.  If you feature online booking on your own website, know that almost all booking services are able to collect 5-10% deposit for your bookings.  But is this enough?  No.  You should be collecting from 30% to 75% deposit for every booking taken on your website.  This is for 2 reasons.  One, guests who have found your website, and are interested in booking with you are serious about staying with you.  They know that if they’re paying on your website, they’re going to have some personal interaction with you, and their reputation is on the line.  Fraud transactions on a hotel’s own website is low.  Second, since you know the guest is serious, you want to collect a reasonably high deposit to secure their booking, and eliminate any possibility of problems in the event of a cancellation or no-show.  Instant World Booking recommends collecting either 35% or 50% as the optimal deposit for most hotels, hostels, and bed & breakfasts.

Instant World Booking is one of the only services that enables you to collect more than 10% deposit at time of booking.  In fact, they can enable collection of up to 100% of your bookings at reservation time, effectively enabling you to collect credit cards right online from your own website.  Instant World Booking takes this service one step further, offering full no-show and cancellation protection.  With this service, Instant World Booking guarantees you receive your deposits, even in the event that a guest cancels late or does not show up.

We’ve been giving the latest on some controversial topics about marketing your hotel or hostel online.  We uncover the world of online booking and marketing in a way that hasn’t been done before.  Check out more advice at our blog.  We’ll lead you to the most effective and low-cost solutions for marketing your property.

Why is InstantWorldBooking.com better for online booking and marketing your property?  The answer is simple. We bring more features, better technology, and lower costs than any competing provider.

It is widely known that a correctly executed online booking and marketing strategy can increase a lodging’s profit margin by at least 20% in the first year. Here are the top ways Instant World Booking helps you achieve your income goals.

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1) Lowest Cost

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Cost is always the primary concern when selecting online marketing services. You already know some of the big names in online booking for B&B’s, hostels, and hotels. One of the biggest online providers for budget properties charges 10% commission. Others charge even more. For example, in the bed and breakfast market one big provider charges 25% commission, plus an annual fee ranging from $99 up to over $500 annually. Stop overpaying for online booking and marketing.

Instant World Booking commissions start at only 8%. There are no membership fees.

What about costs for a booking engine on your website? Again, one of the biggest budget providers charges you 10% for one booking each day, and 2.5% thereafter. Your cost is therefore between 2.5% - 10%. Two other major players in this market charge 5% and 9% respectively. In the bed and breakfast market, the biggest provider charges as much as 30% commission, arguing that 70% of any booking is better than no booking at all. You already know who these players are. Stop overpaying for booking engines on your website.

Instant World Booking commissions start at only 1.9% for a fully integrated booking engine on your website.

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2) Accept Credit Cards Online

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Here’s a little know fact about online booking services. Of all the providers mentioned, only Instant World Booking can set you up to accept credit cards from your own website. Of course, we’re not naming names. If you think you have a better arrangement at a better price from another provider, just call us. We’ll be happy to discuss how our integrated booking and credit card collection service is not available anywhere else. And, our integrated booking engine will cost you less than if you try to acquire credit card services yourself. No matter what region or country your property is in, you can accept credit cards and online bookings from your own website today.

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3) Cancellation & No-show Protection for your Booking Engine

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In combination with a customized booking engine on you own website, Instant World Booking offers full no-show and cancellation protection for your reservations. This means, if a guest cancels or fails to arrive, you still receive payments according to a cancellation policy that you specify. This service is so advanced that no other provider dares to offer it. No more worries about no-shows or late cancellations.

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4) Pay-per-Click Advertising

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We understand that getting your property to the top of search engine rankings is a priority. Organic search rankings are not enough any more. You need pay-per-click advertising to really bring in guests on the internet. When you use our instant booking service, Instant World Booking advertises your specific property name in Google pay-per-click campaigns. To set up a Google pay-per-click campaign can cost you hundreds and even thousands of dollars each year.

This is a value that cannot be matched elsewhere. You pay nothing to list with Instant World Booking. Instant World Booking then develops and maintains a Google pay-per-click advertising campaign for your property that would cost you hundreds if not thousands of dollars. Even if you never received a booking, the public relations value of having your property advertised at the top of Google search pages has an intrinsic value that you could never achieve on your own without paying large sums. Again, no other competing provider offers this service.

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5) Affiliate Programs

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Instant World Booking offers a varied array of affiliate programs, arguably the most diverse set of affiliate options available today. For example, we offer affiliate programs for online booking directories, individual hotels, and other tourism websites. Our affiliate programs are fully customizable and can be fine-tuned to any online offering.

We lead in online innovation. We recently introduced our Auto-Affiliate Program, the first program capable of being automatically set up in seconds on your website, with virtually no requirement for sign-ups or registrations.

As an added benefit, our Auto-Affiliate Program pays an unprecedented 25% of earnings to the affiliate partner.

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6) Traveler Reviews

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InstantWorldBooking.com features one of the newest and most intuitive online review systems for guest travelers. Our ratings system includes a proprietary algorithm for weighting review components whether it be for location, guest services, dining options, etc. This results in a fairer basis for ranking properties based on guest satisfaction.

As an added bonus, if you use Instant World Booking as your booking engine for your website, you can also feature your guest reviews on your own website.

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7) Exposure and Traffic

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When you list your property for free with Instant World Booking, you get the benefit of simultaneously advertising on several of our highly targeted web portals. For hostels and budget lodging, HostelTraveler.com is a leading brand recognized worldwide. Similarly, for bed and breakfasts and inns, BedBreakfastTraveler.com is our premier B&B brand. We also include regional, country, and city sites in 6 continents, which span over 3 dozen web portals. We’re adding new websites every year.

Our unique blend of regional and global internet branding is a strategy which you cannot attain individually with you own website, or with any competing online provider.

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8 ) Customer Service

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Internet firms offer varying degrees of customer service for their hotel partners. At InstantWorldBooking.com, we support our partners through the listing process. Regardless of what assistance you need in getting set up, we can assist you through the whole process. For example, if you’ve never used instant booking before or worked with an online availability calendar, we’ll help you every step of the way in getting it set up. Other services leave you to contend with online help screens.

Another service we provide which no other online booking engine provides are periodic notifications that help you keep your calendar up to date. We even let you know what types of accommodation guests are looking for, so you may best customize your availability calendar to match guests’ needs.

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9) 2 Great Methods for Online Booking

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Instant World Booking has published a lot of information about the benefits of using true instant booking on your website or on marketing sites. In fact, instant booking is a must if you wish to maximize your online capability to attract guests. Nevertheless, there are properties who for various reasons wish to use “request-basis” reservations. For those who require online requests, and not instant confirmation, we offer one of the most efficient and automated processes for accepting request-basis reservations.

No competing service offers a highly automated process for offering both instant bookings and request-basis bookings.

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10) Free Online Marketing Strategy Consultation

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A well-executed online marketing strategy, including online booking capability, is now known to be able to increase a tourist accommodation’s profits by at least 20% in the first year. Instant World Booking is a recognized leader in online technology and strategy. Whether you are a novice just new to the internet, or you currently use a variety of online services to publicize your property, we can help you develop the right strategy. The correct approach for your accommodation can be a low cost, yet high impact strategy, carefully implemented.

We offer any tourist accommodation that is new to our services a free consultation by telephone to help you develop the right online marketing strategy for your property. If you’re considering switching from another service, or looking to try online marketing for the first time, a one-half hour consultation, without cost or obligation, can change the way you think about marketing permanently.

For your free strategy consultation, please call 1.941.866.0010 today, or send an email to info@instantworldbooking.com.

Even if you have no intention of changing your current provider or approach, why not call us to find out how we can beat your current economics.

Click Here to add your listing today.

1)  Can you collect more than 10% deposit online, or as much as 100% of the entire reservation?

2)  Are bookings confirmed automatically online, or is manual review or intervention required?

3)  Do you have no-show and cancellation protection?

4)  Can you avoid having to obtain your own costly merchant account, and having to contend with chargebacks?

5)  Do you have free setup, no support costs, no monthly fees, and no software upgrades?

6)  If yes for all the above, is your total cost no higher than 5% of total reservation value?

The answer to each of these questions should be YES.

There is a wide array of booking engines and online marketing tools available today for hotels and hostels.  Educate yourself first, and be smart with your questions, and smart with your decisions.  Remember that any service looking to install software on your desktop computers are vestiges of 1980’s-style travel industry technology.  To succeed in the competitive tourism industry of the new millenium, you need to purchase 21st century technology, and make sure you’re only paying 21st century costs.  Remember that there’s more to taking bookings online than making the sale.  You need to be able to accept credit cards online, and also ward off fraudulent activity with no-show and cancellation protection.

Read more about the latest booking engines for your hotel or hostel website.