Busting the Myths of Outdoor Accommodation

Delving into our more than 1m bookings, we take a look at some myths in the outdoor accommodation sector.

Transcript

1. Busting the Myths of Outdoor Accommodation
2. • 4,400 locations in 65 countries, including 1,800 in the UK • Market-leading scale, growing rapidly: ◦ Over 1m bookings ◦ 22m visits and 100m pageviews each year ◦ 3m annual nights sold ◦ Customers in 117 countries • Website available in 17 languages and 22 currencies • Multi-award-winning ◦ FT 1000 2018 and 2019, Financial Times' 1,000 fastest-growing companies in Europe ◦ Deloitte ‘Fast 50’ UK winner Pitchup is the leading OTA for outdoor holidays around the world
3. • Founded in 2009 by lastminute.com staff with a background in holiday parks ◦ now a team of 50 in 13 countries + 30 professional translators ◦ team experience: Groupon, Booking.com, Secret Escapes, Expedia, Mr and Mrs Smith • Founder got the online bug at his family’s park in Croyde, Devon ◦ ranked #1 for “holiday parks” on Google UK in the late ‘90s ◦ 50% of bookings submitted online by 2002 Background in holiday parks and online travel/leisure
4. In the news
5. Who we work with
6. MYTH #1 Glamping is taking over
7. MYTH #1 Glamping is taking over ‘Glamping’ searches on Google UK (2014-2019) Source: Google Trends
8. MYTH #1 Glamping is taking over ‘Camping’ vs ‘Glamping’ searches - Google UK 45 8 Source: Google Trends Camping Glamping
9. • Customers love immediate confirmation, but allocation must be kept accurate • Pitchup clients report only 1 in 500 bookings is a double booking (0.2%) • How? ◦ Integration: over 60 booking systems* link with Pitchup ◦ Allocate a subset of vacancies - update when sold out ◦ Update instantly via mobile ◦ Get bookings via SMS ◦ Weekly email statement of allocation ◦ Arrival reminders + multiple email recipients ◦ Rules to prevent last-minute bookings (but loss of last-minute market) MYTH #2 Online bookings mean double bookings *https://www.pitchup.com/integration/
10. MYTH #3 Bad reviews harm my business’s reputation • Average Pitchup rating is 9/10 • Just 1% of reviews are rated 4/10 or below
11. MYTH #4 Online travel agents are expensive • Commission-only model means online travel agents only paid when you are - a never-ending incentive to maximise promotion for your business ◦ no listing fees, no joining fees, no booking fees, no support fees, no commitment, no exclusivity • What we learnt running holiday park websites: ◦ huge appetite to search and book online ◦ running a popular website well is not cheap ◦ 99% of the effort and expense come after launch
12. ◦ Pre-booking enquiries ◦ Availability and pricing search (including extras) ◦ Booking confirmation ◦ Balance collection/reminder ◦ Reporting, including bank reconciliation ◦ Email deliverability ◦ Website hosting, performance and backup ◦ Website updates and maintenance ◦ Conversion Rate Optimisation ◦ Regulatory compliance ▪ Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) ▪ Payment Card Industry (PCI) standards ▪ Data Protection ◦ Translation/localisation (Pitchup is in 16 languages) ◦ Design, copywriting and merchandising ◦ Public relations (Pitchup has 6 PR agencies) ◦ Online advertising ▪ Google ▪ Bing ▪ Facebook ▪ Instagram ▪ etc. ◦ Offline advertising ◦ Newsletter promotion ◦ SEO, with optimisation for international markets What does an online travel agent (OTA) do? MYTH #4 Online travel agents are expensive
13. • A French business school professor, Peter O’Connor, describes OTAs as hyper-efficient sales and marketing machines that cost less than people think: ◦ "OTAs' average cut... was cheaper for hoteliers than if you added together all marketing, merchandising, upselling and continuous website design costs together" ◦ “My advice is very simple… we are great at playing the blame game, but stop thinking about it, stop talking about it and just do it. The perception that online travel agents are “horrendously expensive” is false and they should be embraced by hoteliers, a business expert says." • Billboard effect - guests finding out about a location via an OTA, then booking direct ◦ in studies, this has been shown to account for up to 35% of direct hotel bookings** • Cannibalisation - investing twice or competing for the same lead - minimal in practice ◦ major group found an overlap of only 3% between years of Pitchup customers and their own database *http://www.travolution.com/articles/100528/hotels-should-embrace-otas-and-stop-the-blame-game-says-business-professor **http://www.ettsa.eu/policy-issues/publications MYTH #4 Online travel agents are expensive
14. Watch the video >> https://youtu.be/k3epDB8HHzI (or search “Pitchup.com” on YouTube) “Pitchup has been a tremendous help since we've been a member, bringing new customers to the area to our business. The percentage of bookings we take through Pitchup is about 50% of our total bookings” MYTH #4 Online travel agents are expensive
15. • Farm campsites on Pitchup earn up to £100k p.a. • Average of £12,422 MYTH #5 Farm diversification is still getting going Note: *equivalent to net profit Source: DEFRA Diversification Farm Business Income* per English farm (£)
16. MYTH #6 It’s all families Image source: Creative Commons
17. • Most Pitchup bookings (60%) are adult only • Of bookings with children: ◦ 87% of children are 5+ years old ◦ 13% under 5 MYTH #6 It’s all families Bookings by number of children
18. Proportion of overall bookings Source: Pitchup database MYTH #6 It’s all families
19. MYTH #7 It’s all Brits
20. MYTH #7 It’s all Brits Pitchup users by location Sample booking tab of customers for a Pitchup campsite
21. MYTH #8 Mobile is for browsing, not booking Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) Consumer Trends Survey 2018 - online survey of 2,001 customers
22. MYTH #8 Mobile is for browsing, not booking Pitchup bookings by device used (2019 YTD) Image source: Creative Commons
23. “We have had more bookings in the past two months than we probably took in a year before being with Pitchup.com.” Knowler Farm. “Pitchup has given us more than 80% of our business and they pay you in a timely fashion which at the end of the day is the way we fund our business.” Hafod Hall “When we saw that we could sell our static holiday homes through Pitchup.com, we jumped at the chance to give it a try. The results were outstanding as we filled completely to capacity." Auchenlarie Holiday Park Come and see us on Stand H1462 Email: join@pitchup.com Phone: 0208 434 7444 Join Pitchup: www.pitchup.com/join/ Starting your site: www.pitchup.com/start/ Slides link: speakerdeck.com/pitchup Thanks for listening!