Why doing a DIY Website is the Worst Thing you can do for your STR!

You're listening to Get Fully Booked with Sarah Orchard. Are you ready to master your marketing so you can ditch your reliance on the online agents and grow your direct bookings?

I'll be sharing with you exactly what it takes to grow your direct bookings and the simple marketing steps to get more profit in your pocket. Hello, hello, hello, we're back. Season five of the Get Fully Booked podcast and I'm your host, Sarah Orchard.

I'm thrilled to be back in your ears with more practical marketing tips to help you boost your bookings and get more profit in your pocket.

Now, today I'm here with a solo episode and I'm afraid I think I'm going to probably ruffle a few feathers because I'm going to say something that I know a lot of you won't love hearing. Some of you may not even believe me, but doing your own DIY website is one of the worst things you can do for your short term rental business.

Yep, there it is, I've said it. And before you reach for the skip button or start mentally arguing with me, do stick with me because this is coming from a place of love.

Trying to help you and over 30 years of my marketing experience and having seen so many small businesses make this mistake that has cost them thousands potentially in lost bookings, wasting them precious time and spending, sometimes losing the money because they have to start over again.

Which is never a good place to be in business because obviously a website is a big investment and if you have to start over, you don't get that time back, you don't get that money back. But I totally get why people DIY their websites.

You know, you've built a business already and you're really capable and platforms like Wix, WordPress, insert, lots of these online builders, they say it's really easy. So you know, how difficult can it be to actually build a website? Or perhaps I often see this.

You've, particularly if you've been doing a build, whether you've been renovating a short term rental, a holiday let, maybe a cottage, or maybe you've been building a glamp site. By the time you get to launching, all of the money has gone and you just simply don't have the budget.

So maybe your only option is to DIY your website. And I do get it.

When we were launching the Hideout, money got very thin on the ground and we were living on our overdraft and a couple of credit cards to get all the final things finished before we launched and actually, the first website that I did was a DIY website, but obviously I've actually built about 20 websites.

So I sort of know this from both as a host and as someone who's obviously worked in marketing for 30 years, but has actually built quite a few websites as well.

I'm by no means a website developer, but I do understand the principles of the user experience and how to create a good user experience that will help to convert guests into bookings. But actually, recently we just redesigned our website and I actually got a professional web developer who I work with to do our website.

And I have to say, it's so much better than my efforts. And I'm going to sort of touch on why that's the case today in this episode.

But the thing is that, no one tells you this, no one's going to be honest and tell you, but your website is not hobby project, or an outlet for your creativity. It is your most powerful marketing asset, full stop. So today I'm going to be looking at three common problems.

One is the user experience of DIY websites and why that results in guests not booking, the actual impact in terms of the drain on your time that a DIY website actually can create, and why your website is actually your best marketing investment you'll ever make, and why a DIY option is not always the best way forward. So I hope that by the end of this episode, you'll see your website in a very different light.

It is a subject that I'm hugely passionate about and we're going to talk about it a little bit today. So let's start with the first biggest issue I see over and over again, and that's the poor user experience.

And before you think, actually, my website looks really nice, what's wrong with it? I'm going to stop you there, because looking nice is not the same as working well to convert a web visitor into a booker.

Your guest, who's someone who's looking to book, is not arriving on your website with a cup of tea, ready to admire your pretty logo, your creative fonts and your colour choices. They're not interested in that. And the reality is they're probably sat on their phone, they're probably half watching Netflix.

At the same time, they're comparing three to five other similar places and they're asking themselves one major question. Is this the one that I want to book? Is this the one for me?

So if your website doesn't answer this quickly and clearly, they're gone in a flash and they're back to Google, they're back to doom scrolling on Instagram or TikTok, whatever they were doing before they found you. And this is often where, you know, not having that immediate impact is where a DIY website will fall down. Because if you.

Someone lands on your website and your homepage doesn't instantly tell them, and they reckon that you've got within like six seconds, which is a, you know, such a short amount of time.

But basically when they land on your site, you've got six seconds for them to work out, like where you are, what type of, you know, do they like the look of you, who your place is perfect for?

So is it what I'm looking for as the potential guest and why your guest experience is what they're, you know, they want to book, otherwise, they're out of there and they're back to what they were doing before. And often a DIY website, a common problem that I see, I've actually audited over 80 websites over the last few years.

And one of the common things that I see is that DIY websites often have far too much text. We feel like we want to tell them everything, so we just chuck everything at them. Normally all on the homepage.

You explain everything in detail, but you don't guide the guest through. I think there's like three layers that you have to take them through to actually make them take action.

And your website should gently lead that person to, to take the action that you want, which is to book. And it could also be depending on the stage that they're at, it could be to sign up to your email list.

There's often, you know, multiple marketing things that you want them to do if they're not quite ready to book at that stage. But one of the things that I often see, not only is the text too lengthy, but sometimes the navigation.

So this is like the main menu is very confusing and guests have to hunt for things, so they have to hunt how to check availability. They have to hunt for things like what's included. Do you accept dogs? How many bedrooms? Is there a dishwasher? Can I walk to a local pub?

That's why I'm a huge fan of an FAQ section, which is also good for AI search as well. And most importantly is like, how to book. So if you create friction in the user experience, people simply don't book.

And the last one that I see, and this is very typical, is often when you're building a DIY website, you might use one of these builder tools, like I talked about Wix and there's lots of builders that you can buy like WordPress. We tend to maybe build them when we're sat at a desktop, you know, a laptop rather than on a mobile device.

And actually if the mobile experience is really clunky and doesn't work, this is huge. This is like the massive ultimate deal breaker because over 70% of short term rental or Glampsite bookings are done on a mobile.

You know, that's fairly typical now of most people's traffic is that a huge percentage is on mobile. The majority is on mobile. And yet most owners design on a desktop and they don't go and test it on a mobile.

And therefore when I look at websites, I often see navigations that don't work, so the menus don't work on a mobile. There's too many options, so it becomes confusing. The text is too hard to read, it's too small or it's too big and then it looks really nasty.

The pages become far too long, which means you lose people because people don't actually like to read a great deal on their mobiles, you make it too hard for them. The page design doesn't work, so it maybe cuts off that beautiful hero image that you've got on your homepage.

Content blocks don't render and load properly, the pages don't load properly. Calls to action buttons are now not visible or they end up in the wrong place. And worst of all, maybe your book now button disappears completely.

And potential guests who found your website, they don't complain, they just quietly leave.

Another thing that I see quite often is a lack of trust signals. So guests want reassurance.

So there is an art to including what I call trust signals into the content.

And at the right stage of the guest experience on your website, the user experience on your website, the guest needs to know that this feels right for them. Having things like reviews, their trust signals, having a good about page, you need to have really professional photography.

If your photography looks really iffy, like you've done it yourself and it's not showing your accommodation off in the best light, that's not going to make people book.

And actually, funnily enough, the web developer that I work with, when I speak to her, she sort of says that if the primary thing that a business owner needs to focus on is having the best photography that they can, because it's really hard for even a web developer to build a really effective website that converts, if the photography is really poor. So that photography needs to show your space being enjoyed and lived in.

So we don't want it looking like it's just been readied for a changeover. We're trying to actually sell the experience of staying there. What that looks like, what that feels like, almost even like what it could smell like.

So that means you need to stage it properly. So, DIY websites can, without intention, they can accidentally make you look like you're not a professional business.

And this is a bit of a side project. And people might not trust you when they find the website. And I think that's really important in this day and age because there's a lot of online fraud scammers, fake websites.

I found one the other day, that was a treehouse fake website and it was purporting to be our tree house but it had somebody else's images on it of another tree house, which was probably about 200 miles away from us, 150 miles away from us. So, you know, it does happen.

And people do need to be given confidence when they land on your website that this is a professional business and this looks legit and that I'm happy to spend. If they're spending £300, £500, thousand pounds on a stay, they're going to pick the option that feels reassuring.

And that's a lot of that is how it looks and how the website functions and the content and the professionalism. All of that adds up and it makes people either have confidence to book or they potentially might run a mile. So I've got an interesting stat for you, which I did actually touch on, that you have around six seconds to convince someone to stay on your website.

Six seconds. That's less time than it takes for me to say this out loud. You know, that's the reality.

And it's why websites that are built by professionals do convert better. Not because they're prettier or they've got the sexiest fonts or the best colour palette.

It's because they're designed around human online buying behaviour, not guesswork. And web developers, web designers understand that. And they're not asking themselves, does that look pretty? What do I like?

They know that what the guest needs to see first and in what order, where should their eye go next? What do we want them to do, if there's potential objections, how do we remove that?

And how do we use the content of the website to actually guide people through that.

Particularly that's relevant if you've got a really complicated or more complex, maybe like you've got a large house that has group bookings, and therefore that will require a different amount of sort of information, and how that's presented because of the buying behaviour of those guests will be different because they may be trying to coordinate lots of people coming to stay, and it's for a particular occasion.

If you've got multiple units on a glamping site or a campsite, again, information might need to be presented in a. In a different way.

And there'll be information that needs to be layered into the journey to make people ready to book. And the web developer will be thinking like, what's stopping them from potentially clicking that book now button.

And this leads me onto my next.

My second point, really, which is that DIY websites, let's talk about your time, because the DIY websites, although it is a cheaper option potentially, this is where they sort of quietly bleed you dry and probably send you into insanity when you're trying to do this all yourself. So you decide to do it because you're just trying to save money.

But actually, the reality is a DIY website becomes something that you hate. It costs you your time, your energy, your mojo.

A number of business owners that I meet who basically, once they've created the website, they never want to look at it again. And actually, given it's your biggest marketing tool, which we'll come on to talk about, that's really sad.

And actually, it means that you're not going to utilise it and use it to be a marketing sort of machine in your business. You're gonna sort of like, get it done and then think, right, that's it, it's finished. I never want to see that thing again.

And you shouldn't feel like that.

But, you know, the reality is when you've spent hours Googling, looking for YouTube tutorials, how to do something on your web builder that you're using, or you've been Googling the best booking plugins, you've been tweaking fonts and layouts and trying to, to work on mobile. You've been stressing about your SEO, you've been working out how to back up your site and do the technical stuff, which always used to flummox me a bit because it's actually, you know, that's not my skill set.

You're trying to connect your PMS, your booking system, and then you're also maybe like, battling with why your website is looking so bad on mobile and how you fix it, when actually your time could be better spent on doing other marketing, looking after your guests, making sure that you're developing your strategy for your business and you know where you're headed.

You could be just developing partnerships with other businesses and other brands that you could be working with or radically like actually just having a life and not sitting up till midnight creating web stuff that you know you're then hating. And those of you that know me know that I don't sugar coat the truth. That's not why I'm here for.

I want to help and support you and help you be more successful.

But ultimately you need to hear the fact that the honest truth is that even after you've spent all that time on it, most DIY websites will still not convert well. They won't rank highly in Google and they won't reflect the brilliant guest experience that you offer.

So you end up with something that, like I said, you finish the website but you quietly avoid, like sending the link to anyone because you're too embarrassed about it.

You might even still give them your Airbnb or Sykes or Canopy and Stars link instead of your own website because you're almost too embarrassed to, you know, to share it.

And for me, that's just like a massive red flag because you should be proud of your website and your website should really be the thing because you control it, that you actually feel it actually really does show off your business in the best possible light. It's not really a backup option. It's actually your, you know, it should be your pride and joy.

Okay, so my final point is, following on from all of this, really, is that why your website is your best marketing asset in your business? It's a business asset and it is your marketing machine. It's what everything should hang off of in terms of your marketing.

And when I work with a client or when I'm talking to my club members, they'll ask me like, where should I spend my time? And without doubt, I always say, start with your website.

And often I find when they're struggling and they've got problems with getting the bookings in and converting them, it's because the website is letting them down.

And often when I do one to one actual VIP days and I go and visit a site and it's amazing, sometimes when you go and visit an actual holiday let holiday cottage or a Glamp site, and you walk around the site and you think, my God, this is amazing. It's great.

But I've maybe looked at the website before I've turned up and then I can immediately see the disconnect between what's in front of me and what I'm seeing and hearing. And also maybe hearing the passion of the owner.

And then I'm looking at this website and thinking, boy, that's not really doing anything for this business.

And you know, if you get guests saying to you, oh, it was much better than I was expecting, that is a like another red flag that tells you that if they turn up and they think, God, this was really much better than we were expecting, that's telling you that your website is not doing a good job of actually conveying your guest experience before the guest arrives. So you're going to be leaving money on the table. You're going to be missing out on bookings because of that.

And if you get a professionally built website, you know it's working for you 24 7 we for the Hideout, we get the majority, our biggest booking source is actually organic search.

So that's Google and Bing, people searching and finding us. That's working like 24 7 when I'm sleeping. I've talked about this in previous episodes. I love that type of marketing.

The fact that I'm sleeping and people are still finding our business and booking when I'm not doing anything, you know that that is the ideal. But a good website should attract your ideal guests. It should repel the ones that are not. So it acts, I always say it acts like a bit of a filter.

And obviously a professional web developer knows how to create that. It will reduce your reliance on the OTAs. It will save you thousands in commission.

It helps to build your brand, it helps to differentiate you from your competition, and it makes all your other marketing work harder for you. So I'd like you to think about it like this. I mean, you wouldn't like having maybe spent months building your glamping site.

You wouldn't like, just furnish it with like cheap Ikea flat pack furniture and like, hope for the best. Or take a few pictures on your iPhone, you know, or write a rushed Airbnb description when you're creating a listing.

You'd invest time and energy to get that right.

So why would you DIY the one thing in your business and in terms of all of your marketing that is responsible for converting interest in your business into money, into income? So a good website, it pays for itself surprisingly quickly.

You probably wouldn't be our first website for the Hideout lasted us five years and then I realised that it needed an upgrade. I think typically you probably need to refresh your website every three to five years.

So the money that you spend with a web developer, you're not spending that money every year, but the money that you get back. I mean, I worked out that if we'd been using an agent, we've saved over £100,000 in potential commission by taking 100% direct bookings.

Now if we hadn't got a good website and good booking software that would help us to do that and we were using, I mean that I even my redevelopment of the website, £100,000 we've saved in commission. Just think about that number, that's £20,000 a year. Didn't spend that much on my website.

It makes you look established, you know, a business that's trustworthy, you know, to hand over their money to, it gives you confidence to market your business because you're going to feel really confident and proud about showing your website link off and giving it to people rather than apologetic that, oh, it's not quite finished or yeah, I meant to spend a bit more time on it but it's, you know, it's not done.

And the number of times I hear that like, yeah, we just created a bit of a one pager to start with and you know, we'll get it, we'll get it a bit better a bit later on and it's like actually just think about all those lost bookings that have gone elsewhere in the meantime, and your website becomes like the cornerstone of all of your marketing and it is a foundation for your long term success. So, you know, a good website doesn't have to be fancy, doesn't have to have like thousands of pages, but it has to be strategic.

So you have to think about your messaging. You have to have a really strong user experience so that you don't lose people by creating that friction.

You know, you need a simple booking journey and you need to build the website with the intention, the intention of what your goals are, intentions around who your ideal guests are and who you want to attract to your business, who you don't want to attract to your business and what actions you want them to take when they're actually on the website. So if you're currently got a DIY website. Sorry, I'm not judging you. I understand completely the motivations.

But I do think, I want to be honest with you, that it's misplaced prioritisation of where you spend your money. And it's amazing sometimes when I talk to hosts, like where they will spend their money.

And actually, if I think about it, if you're renovating a property, you know, a holiday let, or you're building a glamp site, the, the tens of thousands of pounds that you'll spend on that project, and then you won't spend two and a half thousand pounds on a website to actually market your business and fill it with guests that brings you money. For me, that's just, that's just like cart before the horse. It's just so misplaced in terms of where you're spending your, investing your money.

So I would urge you, if you are at that point of launching, please make an allowance in your budget to make sure that you can create a good website so that you actually can launch with a flourish and be successful from day one. But I understand that, you know, sometimes the reality of budgets makes it very hard.

But if you're serious about getting more direct bookings and if you want to be less reliant on just having to list it on an OTA like an Airbnb or Booking.com, Sykes, you know, Canopy and Stars, you need a website. And sometimes, you know, listing with those sites is an option because you haven't got the budget for the website.

And that's not necessarily a bad thing because you can then save up, take some revenue.

Make sure you do take some revenue that comes into your business through your stays and your bookings and put that aside to invest in a website so that you can extract yourself from being reliant on that OTA in the future and you will build a proper hospitality business. It's not just about creating a listing on someone else's platform. And I do encourage you to really think about your website in a different way.

And it does deserve to be treated as like the powerhouse marketing tool. It is your number one marketing activity and asset. So therefore, it needs due respect.

So I would like, just as a closing thought for you to ask yourself, is my website helping guests book or is it making it really difficult for them or maybe making them think twice? Second question. Does it reflect the quality of your accommodation and your guest experience? Does it really convey that?

Are you getting guests saying, oh, it was far better than I thought or this is much nicer than the pictures on your website.

You might get those comments which again in guestbooks might be telling you or in reviews might be telling you that you actually you're underselling yourself. And that will be primarily due to your website.

And if you were a potential guest looking at your website as it is today, would you book or would you skip on by or go back to Google? And if that answer to those three questions makes you feel a bit uncomfortable, that's actually a really good sign because you're now aware of the fact that that is a potential issue in your business and that might be just the thing that has been holding you back. But it is the first step to being able to move forward.

So I hope you enjoyed this episode and if you want to know how your website stacks up, I actually have a free resource for you.

So if you head to my website, get-fully-booked.com and have a look at my freebies section, you'll see that I've got a free guide and it's called the Ultimate Website Audit Checklist and it's how to turn your website into a direct booking magnet.

If you download that, it will give you a step by step checklist to really put your website under some scrutiny and highlight some of the things that you need to work on. I'll also pop the link in the show notes below so you can take a look at that in your own time.

So if this has hit home with you, I'd love for you to share this episode maybe with a fellow host that you know is currently doing battle with WIX at midnight trying to sort out their website. Thank you for listening and if you enjoyed this episode, you know what to do.

I'd love it if you could leave me a review because you know how much us hosts love those five star reviews.

Next week I'm back with a brilliant guest expert to discuss paid Facebook ads or like Meta ads, but we tend to always call them Facebook ads, don't we? Katie will be joining me to talk about all things to do with Facebook ads and paying for advertising on the Meta platforms, Instagram and Facebook.

So if you're relying on organic reach on your posts and you're not getting much traction, I think you'll want to tune into this episode. I'll see you next week. Thank you for listening to Get Fully Booked with Sarah Orchard.

If you want to see if you are ready to ditch the likes of Airbnb and grow your direct bookings, put your business to the test with my free direct booking roadmap quiz. Head to my website, www.get-fully-booked.com/quiz and let's get you more direct bookings and more profit in your pocket.