In the serviced accommodations sector, one’s earnings risk getting capped by depending on third-party sites such as Airbnb and booking.com. Creating a direct booking system for your serviced accommodation is a tactical action that can enhance the revenue and also offer better control over the business. In this article, you will find step-by-step instructions on how to develop and design your serviced accommodation website to encourage on-site booking, focusing on ease of navigation and conversion rates.

Why Create a Serviced Accommodation Website?

Before going into the details of how to create a serviced accommodation website, it is necessary to have a direct platform to get more profit from vacation rentals. The following are some of the major advantages:

• Maximize Revenue: For tourists who would like to avoid the commissions of online travel agents (OTAs), give the option for them to make direct bookings.
• Brand Control: The guest is always protected in the way that he/she makes no expenditure that is not related to the business from inception to the very end of the transaction.
• Direct Relationships: Maintain contact with your customers through various future oriented strategies that are recruit-oriented by sympathetically inviting back your customers.
• Custom Marketing: You can use a booking site for direct marketing but only as an advantage and not for promotion to offer promotions email lists, etc.

Step 1: Please Select the Platform of Your Choice

In this section, only one step is involved when considering how to build a serviced accommodation website, which is the choice of the right platform. Numerous website builders and Content Management Systems (CMS) exist. A few of the popular ones are as follows:

• WordPress: Very flexible with countless designs and plugins for usability and has many booking systems.
• Wix: A beginner-friendly tool offering a great opportunity to design websites through dragging.
• Squarespace: Provides beautiful websites but has fewer features for hotel booking systems.
• Shopify: Preferred for online stores, Shopify is further versatile for designing hotel websites for online booking portals.

Some other factors need to be considered about the platform. For example, WordPress is less of a systems restriction, as one can find plenty of plugins dedicated to serviced accommodation websites.

Step 2: Develop an Easy to Use Interface

Having a nice-looking website is not enough on its own. It has to be efficient as well as uncomplicated and straightforward. As you are designing the website for serviced accommodation these factors need to be taken into account:

• Responsive Search: Make sure that the design of the website is also appealing on mobile devices. Quite some users use the phone to book accommodations.
• Search Engine Optimization: Include a proper menu layout with the following pages like ‘Home’, ‘Rooms’, ‘Book Now’, ‘About Us’, and ‘Contact’.
• Graphic Content: Ensure that there are good quality photographs of the property. Since people do want to know what they will be getting for their money, the images should be clear and attractive.
• Minimum Wait Time: The site should open in a couple of seconds. This is because slow opening websites create a very negative image on the potential guests and they might as well drop the booking especially if they have to wait for too long.

Step 3: Integrate an Efficient and Ideal Booking System

As you build more of the components of a serviced accommodation website, it is evident that one of the most important parts is including a reliable booking engine. This system allows the users to check available rooms, make necessary payments, as well as receive booking information all in one go. There are several systems for taking bookings, such as:

• WordPress Plugins: If you are using WordPress then you may integrate, WooCommerce Bookings as a plugin or WP Simple Booking Calendar or Hotel Booking Lite plugin to have the booking features added.
• External booking Engines: Systems like Cloudbeds or Lodgify, which provide integration features for handling different types of bookings including automated bookings, direct bookings, etc.
• Payment Gateway: It is foremost to integrate a payment gateway (like Stripe or PayPal) since any vacation home needs transactions.

In addition, the reservation system must provide a facility for management, rescheduling, and even cancellations where applicable.

Step 4: Put into Practice SEO technologies

To bring visitors, the sites must perform well in search engines. When one is figuring out how to create a serviced accommodation website, SEO is a very important aspect. Below are some fundamental principles of SEO:

• Keywords: You will need to include the primary keyword, how to build serviced accommodation website” in your content at least 20 times. It should naturally fit into headers, body, images, and meta descriptions.
• Page Loading: A website that loads quickly is appealing to the users and as a result, it positively impacts the ranking of the site.
• Mobile Friendly: Mobile search is gaining prominence, hence optimize your site mobile devices search user interface well.
• Meta Tags and Description: Make head tags both informative and short on how to build a serviced accommodation website with some primary keywords in it.
• Links: Use internal links strategically to enable visitors to navigate through your website without any challenges For example, on your booking page link it to the home page or room description.
• Writing Style: Always develop quality content for the intended target audience. For any website, google considers the audience and what information is helpful, and quality content is rewarded.

Step 5: Establish a New Blog

A blog can become a very useful means of directing visitors to your serviced accommodation website. Create blog posts regarding famous sites or events or just provide travel guidance that encompasses the region in question. Consistently, earnings from the blog as a revenue generator will come from the constant posting of content that is SEO optimized. Some interesting ones are:

• Highlights of the Area
• Why Go for a Serviced Apartment?
• Budget Traveling Tips

Each one of the articles ought to have their respective keywords incorporated and also should address the questions that the prospective clients are most likely to type in the search box.

Step 6: Use Google Analytics

When the serviced accommodation website is completed and running, it is crucial to monitor its activities. Google Analytics is a great free application that provides statistical information on the number of site visitors as well as the actions they take. It enables you to determine what factors to improve on your site.

Step 7: Leverage Social Proof

One should include social proof in as much as it is important in getting the potential guests especially to book directly on the Serviced Accommodation Website. This is how you can do it:

• Reviews: Put reviews from former guests on the homepage as the first thing or/and create a page called Testimonials.
• Badges of Trust: Add trust badges like secure checkout and other industry based badges.
• Connecting Websites to Social Media: Post links to your Instagram, Facebook, or any other social account directly on your site. It could be helpful with suspicion etc. to see how actively you are using social networks.

Step 8: Promote Your Website

After identifying all the requirements for creating a serviced accommodation website, the very next step is how to promote it. Here are some techniques for bringing audience and web direct bookings

• Social networks: Post every day on Facebook, Instagram, or any other traveled website, Pinterest in this case. Post nice photos of your property, and talk to your followers.
• Emailing: Create an email subscription list by giving special offers, vouchers, or discounts. Regular sending of newsletters might make the guests book with you again.
• Google and Facebook Ads: The paid advertisement option lets you target a bigger group of people. Try using ads to target people seeking for a place to sleep around your area.

Step 9: Test The Website

Make sure to verify the accuracy of all the components of your website before it goes live. Check for the proper functioning of major linkages, quick and easy online booking completion, and the absence of error pages. It is also good practice to get a couple of people who haven’t seen the website before to explore the site and voice all their opinions on its aesthetics and usefulness.

Conclusion

Creating a dedicated direct booking Serviced Accommodation Website for your vacation rentals is one of the most useful steps that you can take so that your business can progress and bring you maximum income. If you stick to this guide, in building your serviced accommodation website, you will be well poised to offer a good experience for the stakeholders, increase bookings that are direct to the business, and enhance the brand recognition of the company.

Also, as soon as you build up your website, make sure to work on its further development in terms of SEO, and watch your performance indicators so that the competitors will not get an advantage over you. Serviced Accommodation Growth Partners Like GrowYourBnb can help you to make direct bookings Serviced Accommodation Website. It can also help you grow your Airbnb Business with effective marketing strategies.