What is a Mobile Site Anyway?
Your website is set up, looking great and is fully functional with a booking link to encourage online bookings. Well done! The hard work is over now, right? Mmmm not quite…
What Does My Website Look Like on a Mobile Phone?
Have you tried to access your stunning site from a mobile phone’s browser? Yes, it will definitely show up. But chances are it will:
* display pretty horribly on the screen
* possibly not load completely or very slow
* be missing some features that don’t translate well to mobile
The problem is the limited amount of screen space on a mobile device. The phone or tablet will either shrink everything or display it in regular size which will mean you’ll have to scroll up and down and sideways to see any of the information. All in all – not a very user-friendly experience! Read more 
Why You Need Rich Content
“Content is not just king, it is the emperor of all things electronic”
~ Rupert Murdoch, 2010
It is becoming more and more important to have rich content (photographs, videos and text) available to a potential guest surfing the net. The online world is changing so fast that one of these days a guest will choose between you and your competitor only based on what you have uploaded to the Web. You only have a few seconds to capture attention, so make sure your content would capture yours if you were simply browsing. Read more
International Trend Predictions
There have been a few international articles since the beginning of the year about the most important concepts in hospitality and tourism. Let’s have a look at some of the predictions for 2013:
Quality over Quantity
Studies show the 2013 traveller would rather save up for one special experience than go on more than one cheaper trip closer to home. Which could lead to more international visitors to South Africa – good news!
These travellers will then also spend more on each trip, so make sure you offer them a variety of optional extras. Cross-sell our ActivityBridge activities on your booking form to earn extra commission that would have been lost to you if they booked directly with the provider. See our blog post for more. Read more
The A-Z of Marketing Your Property – Part II
Last week we handled the A to K of marketing, this week we’re back with L to Z to complete the list of 24 great ideas to market your establishment.
One of the world’s best social and business networks with more of an emphasis on business. Visit www.linkedin.com, register and see the impact networking can have on your business.
Maps
The good news is Google has made it easy – put maps on your website showing where you are located and where tourist attractions are – a graphic picture means more than hundreds of words.
We have more helpful articles on Google Maps and Facebook Places to further assist. Read more
5 Ways to get Your Website To Work for You
Your establishment website probably cost you a lot of money to put in place, and in return it should provide a return on this investment by earning income! We share 5 tips on making your site work harder.
1. Don’t over-SEO
Take a careful look at the first impression your site creates. Who is the site aimed at? Is it overpopulated with search terms for SEO? Remember, it is not Google that will come to stay! Sure you want the search engines to guide people to your site, but visitors will pick up on this and might get irritated by overuse of certain phrases.
Your site should be aimed at getting 3 important factors across in the shortest possible time:
1. Location
2. Comfort and
3. Value Read more
The A-Z of Marketing Your Property
Here is a helpful A-Z guide to help you market your establishment.
All Things To All People – Know Your Market Segment
The expression that you can not be all things to all people is never truer than with an accommodation establishment. Guest houses and B&Bs are selected over hotels for their “personalities”.
A businessman may seek the home touch whilst on his travels, but also need a quiet environment to carry out his work. If your guest house or B&B targets families you can be sure the business person will only stay once.
Become an Expert
Know your stuff – what’s good to see, where’s good to go and where’s a waste of time. Maybe compile something for your guest to browse through (whilst sipping on a nice glass of white from the honesty bar). Read more
How Blogging can Increase your Website Bookings
“No one comes to your website to be entertained. They have questions they think you can answer. Content answers questions.” ~ Jay Baer, Convince and Convert
The Phantom Forest Eco Reserve’s blog posts include mouthwatering recipies and green living tips
Regular, relevant and useful content published on your website will ensure that visitors will want to share items from it, revisit it and be comfortable enough to book through it.
If people spend more time on your site, they are more likely to become a customer. Provide them with useful information to read through and they will be more likely to book online. The simplest way to group all of this additional content together is in blog format. Read more
Facebook and Twitter Time Saving Tips
Post images of views in your area, or the events and activities in your area. Who doesn’t love a cute meerkat?
Engaging with potential and past guests on various social media networks can take time — which we know is in short supply. At NightsBridge we like to save you time and effort, so here are some tips to make it quicker and easier to manage Facebook and Twitter.
Tip: Post lots of lovely images
People love photos. Images are by far the most popular content on Facebook. Make sure you add pictures of your property, your view, the local area, events and other eye-catching images. If you talk about what a beautiful, sunny day it is in your town, post a photo to illustrate your point. Take the photos yourself or use images posted by others on Facebook. Read more
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. Read more
More Tips on Great Content
As we discussed in our previous blog post, rich content is very important in all your online marketing efforts.
Let’s discuss a few more tips on upgrading what you have online at the moment: Read more