This article is not about whether to have a website or a Facebook page. There is a separate comparison for that choice, and a separate piece on the order in which to start (the links are below the text). Here we assume that you have both, and we ask something narrower: what exactly the guest who has just seen a nice post of yours has to click in order to get as far as asking about available dates.
The most common reason the guest does not get there is mundane: there is nothing to click. The post is beautiful, but there is no address under it. Or the address leads to the website’s home page, while the guest wants to see the rooms.
First link: the address on the page itself
Open your page on a phone, without being signed in as an administrator, and see what is displayed at the top. You are looking for three things: a website address, a phone number and an action button. If the button allows a link, point it to the rooms page or to the enquiry form, not to the home page. Put the website address in the short description as well, as a full address with https, so that it is clear both to a person and to the app that turns it into a link.
Check it on two different phones. Sometimes the button shows on one and not on the other, and you have only tested it on your own.
Second link: a pinned post to the exact page
The pinned post is the first thing the guest sees after the photos. Use it like the sign at the entrance. A short template that you can rewrite in your own words:
- First sentence: what the place is and who it is for (for example, a guest house for families, how many minutes from the centre).
- Second: what the guest finds on the website (the rooms with photos, the terms, how to get to you).
- Third: how to ask (the address of the rooms page and the phone number).
Two rules. The address should lead to the specific page, not to the home page, and the post should be reviewed at least when the season changes, because a pinned post with an expired offer is worse than having none.
When you want to highlight a specific offer, first add it to the website and then post on Facebook with a link to it. That way the website page remains the place where the full information is, and the post is only the invitation.
Third link: from the website back to what is alive
The bridge also works in the opposite direction. A guest who has reached the website from a recommendation or a search sometimes wants to see that the place is alive. Give them a visible link to the Facebook page, for example at the bottom of every page and on the contact page. It should open the page in a new tab, so that the guest is not lost from the website.
One place the answer comes from
The bridge breaks when the two places say different things. So keep one notebook with a few facts: phone number, reception hours, the “from” price, what is included, the cancellation rule. When something changes, you update it first in the notebook, then on the website and then on Facebook. For the part of the problem that concerns the menu, there is a separate piece on changing prices without reprinting.
How to find out which bridge works
No complex tools are needed. With every enquiry, whether by phone, in a message or from the form, ask one question: where did you find us? Write the answer down in the same notebook, with the date and one word (recommendation, Facebook, search, map, other). After two or three months you will have a rough picture.
Do not take it for exact statistics. Guests often remember only the last place they were at, and with a small number of enquiries a single case changes the whole proportion. The picture is useful as a pointer, not as proof: if Facebook is mentioned often, but there are no enquiries through the website, the bridge is probably broken somewhere between the two.
Where ISKA fits in
If you maintain your website through ISKA Website, the rooms page and the enquiry form have an address of their own, which you can point the button and the pinned post to (check the address before you pin it). Changes are made as drafts, reviewed and published. An enquiry from the form is not a reservation and does not hold a room: it is the start of a conversation that you confirm. ISKA Website is offered by individual quote.
What to start with tomorrow
Open your page on a phone and try to get to an enquiry for specific dates, counting the taps. Then do three things in this order: fix the button, write the pinned post, add a link from the website to Facebook. And start asking the question “where did you find us?”