What is Direct Booking and how do I use it?
As well as the Channel Manager, which allows you to publish your property listing and receive bookings through dozens of rentals websites, Your.Rentals also supports Direct Booking.
🎉 Find out how Direct Booking could save your business time and money below!
What is Direct Booking?
A Direct Booking is basically one which is made without using a sales channel or OTA. That means that your guest books directly with you.
Why is that a good thing?
If a booking is made through a sales channel or OTA, you have to pay the commission costs for that website (around 15% in many cases!). With a Direct Booking, you don't have to pay sales channel commission. Not only does that save you money, you can use Direct Bookings to build up relationships with guests so that you can receive repeat bookings in the future.
How do I get Direct Bookings?
Many property managers receive enquiries from guests through their website, Facebook, email or other sources. If you don't have Direct Booking capabilities, you then have to send them to a sales channel or OTA to make their booking, and then pay the costs associated with that.
With Your.Rentals Direct Booking, you can manage your guest's booking yourself!
How does Direct Booking work in Your.Rentals?
By using Your.Rentals to manage your Direct Bookings you can give your guests the ability to book online using a simple booking page.
They'll also be able to pay securely using our SSL-encrypted digital payment system. This means that your guests will be able to trust that their payment is made safely, and you will be protected from any potentially fraudulent behaviour.
To receive Direct Bookings via Your.Rentals, you can either share a link to your listing page, add a Booking Engine to your website, or create and send offers to potential guests.
What happens when I receive a Direct Booking?
When a Direct Booking is created, we'll automatically block the dates in your calendar and send that to all your connected channels, so you won't receive a double booking.
We'll collect payment from your guest, and you'll receive your payout 24 hours after they check-in. You won't pay any sales channel commissions for this. You only pay the Your.Rentals service fee.
You'll also be able to communicate directly with your guest using your Offers page Inbox. You can talk to your guest to answer questions or arrange check-in, and if you need to edit or cancel the booking you can do that easily too.
Find out more about adding Direct Booking capabilities to your website, or Learn how to send a Direct Booking Offer here.