It is early May. You spent an afternoon in your booking system changing the summer rates. Booking.com and Airbnb picked up the new prices. Then a guest opens your website and sees last year's price list, a room that no longer exists and photos from before the renovation. They call to ask which price is right. Or, more often, they do not call and book somewhere else.
The website is not the problem. The problem is that it lives apart from the booking system. Every change has to be made twice, and the second time is usually forgotten.
Why property websites fall behind
Most small-hotel websites were built once, by a friend or an agency, and since then they change only when someone finds the time. Prices are typed by hand on a page. Availability is not shown at all, or there is a "request a quote" form that sends an email. Photos go up when someone remembers to send them.
The result is familiar:
- Wrong prices: the guest sees one price on the website and another on Booking.com and does not know which one is valid.
- No availability: to find out if there is a room, the guest has to email or call. Many do not.
- Double work: every new room, new photo and policy change is made in two places.
- Bookings that go to the platforms: the guest who found your website on Google ends up booking through an OTA, and you pay commission on a guest who came on their own.
A website fed by the booking system
The fix is simple in principle: the website has no room or price data of its own. It reads them from the booking system. That is how the Bookmatrix.com hotel website works: room types, photos, prices and availability come from the same system you use for your calendar and your channels.
In practice this means:
- You change a price once in Bookmatrix.com. The channels get it through the channel manager, and your website gets it too.
- The last double room sold on Booking.com? It no longer shows as available for those dates on your website either.
- You added photos or changed a room description? The change shows on the website without sending anything to anyone.
- The guest books on your page, commission-free, and the reservation lands on the same calendar as the bookings from the platforms.
The booking engine is inside the website
A website you cannot book on is basically a brochure. The Bookmatrix.com website has the commission-free booking engine built in. The guest picks dates, sees the free rooms with the price for the whole stay, chooses a rate plan (with or without breakfast, refundable or not) and pays by card. They pay a deposit or the full amount, as your policy says, and get a confirmation email right away.
For card payments we connect the provider you use: Stripe or another provider we support. The payment is recorded on the reservation, so you see at once what is paid and what is still due.
Why does this matter? Because every booking made on your own website is a booking with no platform commission. We wrote more about the booking engine in the Bookmatrix.com booking engine, and about why direct bookings are worth it in direct bookings, zero commission.
Domain, hosting and Google: we handle them
Many owners put off the website because they do not want to deal with domains, hosting, security certificates and updates. With the Website Design & Hosting add-on we take these on:
- Domain: if you already have one, such as your-hotel.gr, you keep it and we point it to our servers. If not, we find the best offer and register it for you.
- Hosting and security: the website is hosted on our servers with Cloudflare protection and SSL. Photos are served through Cloudflare too, so pages load fast.
- Google: pages follow the SEO practices Google recommends, with titles and descriptions written for search, and we update them as those practices change.
- Statistics: we connect the website to your Google Analytics account. You see which pages visitors read, where they leave and how many complete a booking.
How you start, step by step
- You send us material: photos, room descriptions, amenities and the domain you want.
- We build the website: we design it, connect the domain, add the booking engine and put it live, usually within 48 hours.
- From then on it updates itself. Change a price or a photo in Bookmatrix.com and the website follows.
A practical example of the time involved: if you change prices 10 times a season and each time it takes 20 minutes to update the website too (or to email the person who built it and wait), that is more than 3 hours a year just for prices. Not counting the times the change never happened.
What it costs
The Website Design & Hosting add-on costs €180 per year plus VAT and is added to any Bookmatrix.com plan. Design, domain setup and hosting are included. The booking engine is part of every plan and is not paid separately. If we register a new domain for you, its cost depends on the ending you choose. All plan prices are on the pricing page.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to update the website myself?
No. Rooms, prices and availability come from Bookmatrix.com. When you change them there, the website changes too.
Can I keep my current domain?
Yes. We point your existing domain to our servers. If you do not have one, we register it for you.
I already have a website I like. What do I do?
You can keep it and put the Bookmatrix.com booking engine inside it. The booking engine also has its own address, which you add to a "Book now" button on your site.
How fast is it ready?
Usually within 48 hours of us having the photos, descriptions and domain.
Want a website that works together with your booking system? Try Bookmatrix.com free for 14 days at bookmatrix.com/demo, or leave your details at bookmatrix.com/form and we will call you on the next working day. Or call us at +30 2351 151525.