NightsBridge Tips from Knysna Country House
The Knysna Country House website has a Book Online link to NightsBridge on every page of its website
Erik Ekkelkamp and Ypie Kingma from Knysna Country House have been very successful in generating direct online bookings using NightsBridge. We asked Erik and Ypie to share their tips about how they use NightsBridge as a marketing, sales and business management tool. This is what they had to say:
How long have you been using NightsBridge?
We have been using the NightsBridge front desk booking system, online distribution tools as well as the booking link on our website since December 2010. NightsBridge was already installed when we took over our property. Ypie had used NightsBridge at another B&B for four years already.
What have you found to be the best position for the online booking feature on your website?
We have a “Book Online” link on every page of our website. This is located prominently on the right under the main image. We think that it is important that this link is on every page to increase direct online bookings.
Approximately how many channels do you link to via the NightsBridge links manager?
We link to about 30 different channels.
Which of these deliver the best business for you?
Booking.com delivers the most business for us.
What percentage of your marketing activities is online?
We focus mostly on online marketing. We spend 90% of our marketing time on digital activities.
Knysna Country House is ranked #4 for Knysna hotels on TripAdvisor
Do you think TripAdvisor reviews influence bookings for your business?
Yes, definitely. We promote our TripAdvisor status on every page of our website. We are currently ranked #4 of 28 hotels in Knysna. We are proud to be the most affordable hotel compared to the others listed in the top 5 in our category on TripAdvisor. We are excited about the latest partnership between NightsBridge and TripAdvisor to encourage guest reviews and integrate TripAdvisor content on our booking form.
What is the best feature of NightsBridge for your business?
The best feature is definitely the links manager. We also really like the automated forms (confirmation and registration) and invoices.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts Erik and Ypie! We hope Knysna Country House will continue to grow from strength to strength.
If you’re a NightsBridge client or accommodation owner, we’d like to hear your thoughts and tips on how NightsBridge has worked for your accommodation business. Please post your comments below or add them to our NightsBridge Facebook Page (www.facebook.com/nightsbridge).
Thanks to all the people at Nightsbridge! We can highly recommend the system to any guesthouse, b&b etc. Without you guys it would have been MUCH harder – if not impossible – to reach the occupancy levels we are currently experiencing. Thank you once again!
Erik & Ypie – Knysna Country House
Thank you for the support and great tips we could share with others!
Greetings All, yes , I think that goes for all of us registered with Nightbridge and then linked to the other web based sites, its the only way to go, in fact when we are asked to register with new service providers, we refuse unless they are linked to Nightdbridge. With regards to Trip Advisor, there are too many self reviews being done to help lift their ratings.
Thanks Nightsbridge for an excellent service, Gary, Ridgeview Lodge
Thanks for the positive feedback Gary!
Thank you Erik and Ypie for sharing your “tips”
Also a BIG thank you to Julia at Nightsbridge for your patience and excellent service, Brenda, Blackwaters River Lodge