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Guests have more choices than ever and their expectations and demand are changing quickly.
Choosing a holiday resort is no longer just about location or price. Today’s guests conduct extensive research before booking and can start looking months before booking. They compare resorts, read reviews, explore accommodations, and expect a seamless (online) experience from start to finish.
For recreation business owners, this is both an opportunity and a challenge. Every point of contact before a guest arrives can influence their decision. What are guests really looking for, and how can you meet those needs?
Moment 1: Attracting the right guest
Your adverts are normally the first impression your customers have of your business and if done incorrectly can easily be the last. Who is the audience you are trying to reach and what impression do you want to leave? In today’s attention economy, stopping someone mid-scroll and reaching the right person at the right time to build your brand and drive conversions can feel like threading a needle. What's more, as your guest profile shifts with the seasons, it’s a needle you have to thread again and again.
A multi-channel marketing approach of Meta, Google, SEO and GEO, working together learning from each other in order to ensure you get the right people coming to your website is essential to driving direct bookings.
Here is how to do it
Your marketing channels should not be working in silos. For example, when Google Ads insights reveal a new opportunity, your SEO and content teams should immediately build targeted, highly optimised landing pages for SEO and GEO plus tailored ads to capitalise on it. It’s equally important to understand how your target audience and booking habits shift throughout the year, adjusting your campaigns accordingly. Treat your budgets as fluid changing them across different seasons and reallocating spend between Meta and Google to maximise ROI and direct bookings.
How Booking Experts helps
Our BEX CMS, doesn’t just boost SEO with the fast loading times; it also makes creating new pages quick and simple, allowing you to take advantage of new opportunities. Essential SEO elements such as broken URLs, H1 titles and alt tags are fast and easy to manage in our CMS to help raise your search rankings.
Additionally, our CMS is designed to simplify Google Hotel Ads integration. Combined with our marketing team Booking Boosters who have Google Ads, Meta and SEO/GEO specialists, backed by data from over 150 parks and industry wide insights, we help get the most out of your CMS and drive direct bookings.
Moment 2: The first impression on the homepage
Your website acts as an extension of your park and for most visitors gives potential guests an impression of your park before they visit. It is essential that your adverts, websites and parks are all aligned painting the same image. Within seconds, they decide whether your park comes across as professional and reliable and is therefore worth exploring further. Slow-loading pages, outdated content, or confusing navigation will quickly send potential guests back to Google.
A modern, intuitive website marks the beginning of the guest's journey and sets the tone for everything that follows.
Here is how to do it
Look at your website as if you were visiting it for the first time. Do visitors immediately understand what makes your park unique? Is important information easy to find? Does the experience work just as well on a mobile phone as it does on a desktop? If you have access to data can you see if the homepage reflects what people are searching for?. Small improvements in usability, navigation, and loading speed make a big difference.
How Booking Experts helps
Our BEX CMS, part of Booking Experts, gives leisure business owners full control over their website’s content. Your team can update accommodation pages, facilities, seasonal promotions, events, and local attractions without having to rely on external developers for day-to-day changes.
Because the BEX CMS is integrated with the BEX PMS, your website, booking process, and operational systems are all interconnected. This eliminates duplicate work, ensures information remains consistent, and guarantees that what guests see is up-to-date and accurate.
To help you track who is searching on your website and for which dates, we provide Booking Analytics. This gives you valuable insights into peak search periods, allowing you to highlight the right dates and promotions at the right time. While our CMS is designed to be intuitive and easy to use, making regular data-driven adjustments is key. That’s where our expert marketing agency, Booking Boosters, comes in; they analyse your search data and amongst other tasks continuously optimise your homepage to maximise conversions.
Moment 3: Exploring the accommodations
Guests aren’t just booking a stay, they’re booking an experience. Whether it’s a family holiday or a quiet weekend getaway, guests want to be able to imagine what it’s like at your resort and how they’ll enjoy their time there.
High-quality photography, engaging content, and authentic storytelling all help create this experience.
Here is how to do it
Go beyond simply listing amenities. Showcase the experiences that make your park unforgettable. High-quality images, engaging content, and information about the local lifestyle help create a genuine experience.
With the right visuals, you can better connect with your target audience. Are you primarily looking to attract families with children? Then make sure they can relate to the experience you’re creating. In our blog on concept marketing, we offer more tips on this.
How Booking Experts helps
With the BEX CMS, you can quickly update photo galleries, launch seasonal campaigns, create special landing pages, and spotlight new accommodations or local experiences. Thanks to the filtering options in the Search & Book, your guests can immediately make the right choice, from amenities to accommodations. An up-to-date website encourages guests to spend more time exploring your resort online and gives them greater confidence to book immediately. Your team also has the flexibility to quickly capitalise on new opportunities without waiting for website updates from third parties. If you are under time constraints or want an expert hand backed by CRO tests and experience then you can always speak to the Booking Boosters team.
Moment 4: Finding the Confidence to Book
Booking a holiday is an important and expensive decision for people; guests naturally want reassurance before they book. They compare accommodations, read reviews, want to understand cancellation policies, and look for clear information about what’s included in their stay. If that information is hard to find or inconsistent, trust quickly disappears.
Here is how to do it
Look at your website from the guest’s perspective. Are the descriptions of your accommodations accurate? Are the terms and conditions clear? Is the price transparent? Can you easily find reviews? Trust is built through clarity, consistency, and accurate information.
Small optimizations make all the difference. Feature guest reviews prominently on the homepage. Add an FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) section in an easily accessible spot, where you can directly answer their questions.
How Booking Experts helps
Booking Experts integrates website content, booking features, and operational data. This ensures a consistent guest experience across all channels. Maintain greater control over the information guests see, with less risk of outdated data, conflicting information, or manual updates. Our Booking Boosters marketing team does website checks for any backlinks and makes sure your guest process is smooth. In order to strengthen your understanding of your guests' experience you can have your own review form. After each stay, guests automatically receive a form to fill out. So you can improve the guest experience and boost your online reputation.
Moment 5: Book quickly and easily
Guests expect online experiences to be simple. Whether they’re booking a flight, ordering groceries, or shopping online, people want to find what they’re looking for quickly and complete their purchase without unnecessary steps.
Booking a holiday is no exception. If guests have trouble checking availability, comparing accommodations, or completing a reservation, many will simply look elsewhere.
Here is how to do it
Regularly walk through your own booking process. Count the number of steps required to complete a booking, test the experience on mobile devices, and ask colleagues for honest feedback. Removing unnecessary obstacles can have a significant impact on your conversion rate and nothing should be a surprise in the checkout process.
How Booking Experts helps
The Search & Book feature within the BEX PMS is specifically designed for recreational businesses, continuously enhanced through CRO A/B testing. Guests can check availability, compare different types of accommodations, add extras, and complete their reservations through a clear, intuitive booking process. In addition, when a requested accommodation is unavailable, the Search & Book feature automatically displays suitable alternatives to keep potential guests on your site. Availability and prices are linked to the BEX PMS.
Moment 6: Evaluating everything
The guest experience begins well before arrival and continues until guests are back home. Booking confirmations, arrival information, check-in instructions, and follow-up communication, all of these factors influence how guests perceive your holiday rental business. Managing these touchpoints manually takes a lot of time, especially during busy periods.
Here is how to do it
Map out the entire guest journey, from the first visit to your website to post-stay communication. Look for opportunities to improve consistency, eliminate manual tasks, and make every touchpoint easier for your guests. Small improvements across multiple touchpoints often have the greatest impact.
How Booking Experts helps
Our BEX PMS is the central platform for managing reservations, accommodations, guest information, and day-to-day park operations. Integrated guest communication automates confirmations and pre-arrival emails, while linked workflows streamline repetitive administrative tasks. Your team spends less time switching between systems and more time focusing on guests, who, in turn, receive the right communication at the right time.
The Bigger Picture
These expectations influence how guests experience your park and whether they decide to book (directly) with you.
To meet these expectations, you need technology that supports both your team and your guests. When the website, the booking process, and the operational systems are aligned, your staff spends less time on administrative tasks and more time delivering an outstanding guest experience.
Everything your recreation business needs, all in one place
Booking Experts was developed specifically for the recreation industry and is now used by more than 800 vacation parks in 13 countries across Europe. The platform brings together all the tools that the staff need to manage website content, direct bookings, rental accommodations, guest communications, park management, owner management, and more, all within a single, integrated system, rather than using separate tools side by side.
Our BEX CMS helps create an engaging online experience through fresh, relevant content tailored to the guest journey. The Search & Book feature helps convert more website visitors into guests, thanks to a simple booking process with real-time availability. And the BEX PMS gives your team a clear overview of reservations, accommodations, and guest management. If you want to attract the right audience to your website to grow your direct bookings then Booking Boosters can always lend a hand with the marketing. The result? Manual work decreases and efficiency increases.
The systems use the same data, which allows them to complement each other. Content, the booking process, and operations run in sync, rather than requiring your team to keep track of three separate systems. This gives your team more time for what really matters: providing guests with a personalised experience.
Would you stay at your own park?
Imagine you're visiting your own website for the first time today. How would you find out about the park? Can you quickly find what you're looking for? Do you trust the information? Would you complete the booking without abandoning the process?
Are you having doubts? Then it is time to dive in and get started. Contact our team to discuss your current guest experience and find out how Booking Experts can help your park attract guests.
