Free download · 18 pages
The direct booking plan we actually run — brand, then site, then traffic, in that order, because the order matters more than any tactic in it.
Written from a live 32-property portfolio across California, Arizona and North Carolina. Vendor-neutral: no platform, PMS or email tool is named as the answer.
Why this exists
Almost every guide starts by building the site. Build the site first and you produce a beautiful page nobody has a reason to visit — the single most common failure, and an expensive one. Brand comes first because you cannot write a homepage until you can name the person reading it and the problem they are trying to solve.
We should be straight about the context, because the guides that skip this part are the ones you should not trust. Direct is still a minority of our bookings. We are an OTA-dependent business that has decided to stop being one, and this is the plan we are executing — not a victory lap.
The 72% is the whole business case. Direct guests are not the same guests booking a cheaper way — they are longer-stay, higher-intent and more often repeat. Pull your own version of that number before you do anything else in the guide. If direct is worth the same as OTA in your portfolio, you should know that on day one rather than in month nine.
What’s inside
Not a logo — three finished sentences: who this is for, what it fixes, and what it sounds like. The five questions to answer from your last fifty reservations, and the only brand elements worth building before the site.
What the booking flow has to do, and the things that quietly cost you the reservation: the off-domain redirect, the surprise fee, the form fields nobody needed, the policy the guest cannot find.
The reason the site was never the hard part. Which channels are worth running, why you pick exactly one second channel, and the monthly routine that makes search work eventually.
Four two-to-four week blocks: find out where you stand, fix what you already have, turn on the list, then start the habit that compounds. Achievable alongside running your portfolio, which is the only test that matters.
Brand and guest experience, website and conversion, search and Google, email and SMS, social and partnerships. A menu you return to once the three parts are in place — not a to-do list.
One page to fill in before you build anything. If you cannot answer the first three questions, the website is premature. Plus the four numbers worth measuring and what to ignore for the first year.
Fit
Who wrote it
We own and run Rather Be Properties, a five-star vacation rental management company. First property November 2021, 32 today across California, Arizona and North Carolina. Every number in this guide is either ours or sourced on the page it appears.
18 pages, the 90-day plan, the 40 tactics and the worksheet. If it is useful you will hear from us when the next thing lands. If it is not, unsubscribe in one click.
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