I had poked around a little, but was not sure what the commission was....
I was contacted to be part of this as Amazon is focusing on trips within 3 hours of major destinations and we are exactly what they are looking for - a higher end property less than 3 hours from a major city. The commission is 15%, you have to maintain the availability calendar on their site and you get paid AFTER the guest checks out.
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Is this going to work with MyAllocator? I didn't see them listed there.
Obviously, we desire to have the webwite calendar, OTAs, and everything else all feed into Rezkey (whatever). And not have to manually monitor or enter it yourself (double booking, in an inconvenient place, etc.).
That is why I plan to let the voicemail answer, with a suggestion that booking through the website represents the discounted price. So I don't have to manually enter people myself, as much as possible...
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Just realize that many folks are simply calling for more info that they are not able to suss from the website or aren't very computer savvy. There are also those who simply refuse to reserve online due to CC security concerns. We've booked many a reservation via phone calls because our competitors have an answering machine in the early evening and people told us that they were frustrated or immediately turned off by that lack of accessibility.
And speaking to guests directly on the phone is an excellent marketing tool, giving them the sense of who you really are personality-wise. Plus I've been able to convince tons of people over the years that a 1 (or even 2) night stay here is simply not long enough to enjoy all that our area has to offer, so many increased $$ multiple night bookings via the phone that would not have happened online.
Manually entering info into ResKey etc, is not such an onerous task comparatively.
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Momma Smurf said:
Just realize that many folks are simply calling for more info that they are not able to suss from the website or aren't very computer savvy. There are also those who simply refuse to reserve online due to CC security concerns. We've booked many a reservation via phone calls because our competitors have an answering machine in the early evening and people told us that they were frustrated or immediately turned off by that lack of accessibility. And speaking to guests directly on the phone is an excellent marketing tool, giving them the sense of who you really are personality-wise. Plus I've been able to convince tons of people over the years that a 1 (or even 2) night stay here is simply not long enough to enjoy all that our area has to offer, so many increased $$ multiple night bookings via the phone that would not have happened online. Manually entering info into ResKey etc, is not such an onerous task comparatively.
And that is why it took me so long to actually sign up with an online reservation agent. There is much we can convey to callers. When we tell them what all to expect in the area, they, more often than not, add nights to their stay.
Most important to us was to make sure that we don't get guests who we do not want here. The ones that don't fit. I was afraid that this would not be the case if peeps could book online without speaking to one of us. I like talking to guests by phone. It gives us and them a pretty good picture of who we are dealing with.
On the other hand, I absolutely love the flexibility rezkey gives me and as time progresses, so do the guests who wish to just go online and make the reservation. Hopefully what we have on the website satisfy their questions
JB wrote,
"I have an elderly couple here today which I am sure will try to check in at noon. No computer, I took it all manually and mailed their confirmation in the post, and honestly the fun is only just beginning... they told me they cannot do stairs. They are not my target audience, at all, but their $ is as good as the next persons. And we are happy they chose us!"
For some reason, I have had 3 of these last week. No computer/internet access. So, back to the old ways of sending confirmations via snail mail. Since these peeps had no idea what to expect, I actually printed out some stuff off the website, since all we use now are rack cards. Ugh, just ugh.
I don't want just anyone's $ because I don't want bad reviews because these shtoopid (insert my German accent) people chose the wrong spot for them. It has happened before and I want to avoid that with all I got.
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