Worldwide: To mark the fourth Book Direct Day, the founder behind the Book Direct Show has officially launched the Book Direct Network, an educational platform aimed principally atย property managers to help them generate more direct bookings.
Damian Sheridan, who held the inaugural Book Direct Show virtually from Barcelona in September, said the new community will be dedicated to property managers who are interested in learning about the many routes to generating more direct bookings and reducing their reliance on online travel agencies [OTAs]. The stand-alone platform will also allow short-term rental managers, B&B owners, independent hoteliers to learn from video tutorials and articles provided by a host of experienced industry professionals.
Book Direct Show director Sheridan, whoย is also a search engine optimisation [SEO] consultant in theย short-term rental industry, ย said: “While we hope industry conferences will return sooner rather than later, there remains significant doubt over in-person events in 2021. Instead of waiting many months to finalise a format for our next show, we wanted to develop a go-to community where industry experts could share their direct booking strategies all year round.
“Actionable education is at the heart of The Book Direct Network. Our community of contributors are passionate #bookdirect advocates with vast experience to draw upon.
“The OTAs provide a hugely valuable service for nearly every short-stay accommodation business. Our community is simply an alternative option for property managers to explore and diversify,” he added.
More than 50 industryย experts from around the world spoke at September’s Book Direct Show, focusing on a number of popular topics of interest, such asย booking conversion, branding, contentย marketing, email marketing, Google, guest experience, repeat guests, SEO, social media, technology and website design.
The Book Direct Show was the rebranded online event of the firstย More Bookings Direct conference in Londonย which was held in February 2020 and drew delegates representingย 33,000 properties globally.
The announcement coincides with the fourth annual Book Direct Day, which takes place annually on the first Wednesday in February. The event is led by an online movement with a collective goal to teach guests about the benefits of booking direct with property owners and managers.
Also known as Guest Education Day, short-term rental managers and independent hoteliers are encouraged to use the #bookdirect hashtag on posts across social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter. Posts typically include exclusive deals, customised creatives and the reasons why guests should #bookdirect.
Sign up to the Book Direct Network for free at this link.
Damian Sheridan is also on the expert judging panel for the 2021 Shortyz Awards, taking place virtually on Thursday 22 April 2021. For more information on the awards, follow this link, and to submit your entries for the awards by the deadline of Sunday 21 February [23:59 GMT], visit our official awards platform.
