What makes a guest trust your website enough to enter their credit card details?

That’s the question at the heart of this conversation with Amber Knight from Bookings Cloud - and it’s one every property manager should be asking.

Amber has been in this industry long enough to remember tape charts and highlighters (yes, really). From growing up around her father’s vacation rental business in Sun Valley to helping build corporate development initiatives at Vacasa, she’s seen this industry evolve from fully analog to algorithm-driven.

And through all of that change, one thing hasn’t shifted:

If you don’t own your guest relationship, you don’t own your business.

In this episode, we dig into what really drives direct bookings - and why trust is the single most important conversion tool on your website.

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In This Episode We Cover:

• Amber’s journey from family-run vacation rentals to scaling tech-driven initiatives
  
  
• Why companies with stronger direct booking channels are worth more
  
  
• The real reason guests leave your website (and how to fix it)
  
  
• What trust actually looks like online
  
  
• The role of reviews - especially 3-star reviews - in building credibility
  
  
• Why your About Us page might be your most underutilized asset
  
  
• The danger of “pretty but pointless” websites
  
  
• PMS websites vs. custom-designed sites - what to consider
  
  
• How to diagnose whether your marketing or your website is the real problem
  
  
• Understanding booking path friction and incremental direct booking growth
  
  

Links:

‍Bookings Cloud

Amber Knight Linkedin

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