Guest houses

Successfully digitising your business, because guest houses are arriving later than hotels when it comes to online sales and multi-channel distribution,

Protecting themselves against OTAs, because guest houses are well aware of the problems that hoteliers face when it comes to commissions,

That's why it understands the importance of developing its direct bookings, in particular by creating its own website and optimising its Facebook page,

Enhance its offers and adopt hoteliers' sales methods to make them more attractive,

Improve security of payment for bookings,

Diversify sources of income, such as selling packages or gift cards,

Digitalising your offer is a major challenge, because consumer habits have changed at breakneck speed: customers call less and less, they want to know immediately if a room is available and at what price... In this environment, it is often difficult to make the right technological choices to react and adapt. That's where we can help...

We need to make it easier for you to sell through as many channels as possible, such as OTAs (Online Travel Agencies), but you must avoid falling into the hotel trap and not be too dependent on OTAs, which can bring you a lot of bookings, of course, but can also cost you a lot in terms of commission,

In addition, like hoteliers, you have to face up to the emergence of new competitors on collaborative platforms such as AirBnB: so it's important to show by all means why it's better to book in a guest house than in an anonymous flat,

We can also help you boost your direct bookings: by optimising your offers(last, early, other) and equipping you with a booking engine that potentially offers a better conversion rate for your visitors,

we can also provide you with solutions to help you save time in your day-to-day organisation: for managing your online schedule, your multi-channel distribution or creating attractive new offers (gift cards, gift vouchers, etc.)

finally, we know how difficult it is for you to have a website that meets current needs (particularly in terms of responsive design and real-time booking), to control its production costs and its day-to-day running, but also its referencing... We can help you in this area too, to make the right choices, to test inexpensive solutions, and to help you gradually gain independence in these areas...

helping you take the first step towards digitising your guest house: although most guest houses are aware of the challenges, almost 40% of them still don't have a website worthy of the name. When you add in the sites not equipped with a booking engine, this rate rises to 60% and ... to almost 80% when you talk about the notion of a responsive booking engine . For the guest house, not being equipped is often a question of knowledge and confidence: which tool should I choose, will it be easy to use, will it cover most of my needs, etc? In its 'basic' version, elloha already provides 80% of the answers to the problems facing a guest house (see below)

distribute on OTAs without risking commissions: guest houses are particularly attracted by OTAs. In 2017, 1/5 of guest houses were already distributed on Booking, Expedia and TripAdvisor. Their aim is to attract a new, more international clientele. The other side of the coin is that guest houses are also seeing the arrival of customers who confuse hotels with guest houses

optimise bookings received directly on your own website or Facebook page:Guest houses often have little or no website equipment (i.e. responsive, with a proper booking engine, etc.). Its traffic is rather low due to an often minimalist natural referencing. Lastly, its Facebook page is often little or poorly exploited, even though its potential remains really important for this type of professional.

be able to easily apply promotional offers that boost its overall offering: the ambition of a guest house is to position itself as an alternative to a hotel or (dry) holiday rentals. To compete with a hotel, a guest house needs to offer the same range of prices (standard prices that can be cancelled, special offers and promotions that cannot be cancelled or are subject to conditions). This price diversity will also distinguish it from its new competitors, the holiday rentals that are proliferating on AirBnB. These can still only offer a single type of rate, which can make them less attractive than a guest house when compared. Variety is therefore a key issue for this type of professional. This challenge is often difficult for them to meet, either becausethey do not necessarily master the 'concept' of price variety , or becausethey do not necessarily have the time to anticipate the promotions and special offers to be proposed (this is where the network head can play its full role), or because the technology available to them does not make it easy to do so. The end customer is always looking for the best deal, and is always surprised to find that it is not as easy to find on the guest house website itself.

securing and guaranteeing bookings: this is a common problem for guest houses, which are often ill-equipped or poorly equipped to deal with the upsurge in credit card fraud. The impact of a cancelled booking (with a very precarious bank guarantee) is worse for a guest house than for a hotel, as cancellations often come at the last minute and do not allow any of the 5 rooms in the establishment to be re-let. Furthermore, guest houses are rarely equipped with electronic payment terminals because, in some cases, they refuse to open 'business' accounts as required by their bank branches. It is therefore difficult for them to combine increased sales (on OTAs in particular) with total security

have a website worthy of the name, on which the owner is completely autonomous: There are countless examples of guest house owners whose website has taken months and months to get off the ground and, once online, to get it referenced and see its traffic gradually increase. Every guest house owner has had this experience at least once in their life. Not to mention the expensive bills from local web agencies or the repeated costs each time a page has to be added or a section updated... For the more experienced, creating your own site using current market technologies (Wordpress, 1&1, Weebly, etc.) doesn't provide total satisfaction, because you have to keep adding modules (or plugins) in order to offer a user experience similar to that of the best hotel websites (availability, special online offers, etc.)

on the "basic" package offered by the network

on the "optional" packages