Check-in’s e-green light
Thursday, 1 May 2008
Last Updated: Thursday, 1 May 2008
By Amita Tandukar
Ask Check-in founder Simon Isaacs about his business’s greatest asset, and top of his list will be his business’s in-house knowledge of which tools drive the web. He tells how Check-in – and how your business – can thrive online.
A smart online marketing strategy has allowed Check-in.com.au to attract internet traffic and prosper in the competitive online accommodation market.
Simon Isaacs, founder and managing director of Check-in, knew from his experience as a manager of budget hotels that there was room for alternatives to the upstarts Wotif and Last Minute. For instance, those two sites did not allow bookings beyond the two week or one month discount window.
Check-in.com.au went live in March 2003 with offers from 450 hotels. Its automated quoting system allows users to gain quotes from hotels for dates beyond one month. Isaacs says this delivers a higher proportion of leisure travellers than its rivals – 40% business, 60% leisure.
The website became profitable 18 months after its launch and has not used any external investment to fund its growth. Check-in currently lists 3000 hotels, employs 25 people and expects to take $30 million in bookings this financial year.
Until two years ago, Check-in only used online marketing tools to build an audience of Australian users that ranks fifth among accommodation websites, according to online rating firm Hitwise. (Check-in now spends 10% offline on travel magazine ads.)
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Isaacs tells SmartCompany how to attract clicks:
Subscription newsletter
From the beginning, Isaacs started a weekly email newsletter to advertise special offers and encourage return customers. A simple link on the homepage and tick box on the booking form allowed Check-in to build a base of 180,000 subscribers.
In-house search engine optimisation
Isaacs ranks specialist knowledge in search engine optimisation (SEO) for accommodation sites as one of the company’s greatest assets and vows to maintain control of the process himself.
He says the company would no longer consider outsourcing SEO for free search engine listings. In the beginning, however, it was a financial decision. “It was a very big job and with $30,000 of my own money as capital, I didn’t have a lot of choice.”
It was a steep learning curve. Isaacs then read as much as he could about SEO on the internet and learnt basic programming skills with the help of his part-time technical director.
His simple SEO tip is to give people what they want. First, research offline industry statistics to know what categories are likely to be popular. Second, make sure your landing page shows a genuine product for the search term, otherwise people will bounce off and the brand will be damaged.
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