Getting Found Online By Your Guests And How AI Is Changing Everything #77

We’re tackling a hot topic that’s causing a stir across the experiential travel world—from glamping hosts and retreat leaders to boutique accommodation owners: Is traditional SEO… officially dead?

Today’s episode is brought to you by Sarah Riley, a UK-based expert who helps people start and grow profitable glamping and unique holiday rental businesses designed to help your business found online.

Listen to this and previous episodes here:

____________________

Get in touch with Sarah Riley

Glamping, retreats, events, and guest attraction – Courses. Guided Growth. Done-for-You Marketing.

Glamping Academy & Owners Club https://inspiredcourses.com

Boutique marketing studio https://inspiredcollectiveltd.com/

All show notes: https://www.inspiredcamping.com/category/podcast/

The Glamping Business Podcast Shownotes

Additional Resources And Links Mentioned

• Contact Sarah Riley through Inspired Courses
• The Ultimate Glamping Business Guide
• Guest Booking Success Marketing Masterclass
• The Glamping Business Facebook Group (+ Unique Holiday Rentals)
• Tools and resources in the Inspired Courses VIP Lounge
• How To Start A Glamping Business

Listen to the The Glamping Business podcast here:

• iTunes (Apple)
• Stitcher (Android)
• Libsyn (App for smartphones)
• Spotify (Smart Player)
• Soundcloud (Smart Player)

Want To Feature On The Business Of Glamping And Unique Holiday Rentals Podcast?

If you have something inspiring to offer the world of Glamping and Unique Holiday Rentals, then get in touch with Sarah Riley and share it on the Podcast. For more information contact Sarah here.

Inspired Camping

TRANSCRIPTION

 The glamping and luxury outdoor hospitality industry is entering a bold new chapter. Sustainability is no longer optional. AI is changing how guests find you, and travelers are seeking more than just a stay. They want a connection, meaning, and transformation. With fewer clicks, rising expectations, and a flood of new competition, staying visible and relevant has never been more vital.

The future isn’t coming. It’s already here, and the question is, are you ready to meet it?

When who moved my cheese first hit the bookshelves, it was a simple parable about navigating change in work and life. But in today’s fast moving AI driven post pandemic world, its message is more relevant than ever. We are no longer just reacting to occasional shifts.

We are living in constant transformation from changing guest behavior and search algorithms to new booking patterns and the rise of digital first discovery. The cheese is being moved daily for those of us in luxury, outdoor hospitality and glamping,

the question isn’t if we need to adapt. It’s how quickly we can and the good news, the principles in this little book still hold the key who moved My Cheese is one of my favorite books. It’s short, it’s powerful. It’s a business fable that explores how people deal with the change in work life and relationships. It’s something I’ve pulled upon many, many times when I’m thinking about my own situation, trying to figure out which of the characters I am in the book.

And how I am behaving in the face of change. The story follows four characters, sniff and scurry, who are mice and hem and hawe who are little people. They all live in a maze and spend their days looking for cheese. Now that is the simple life. This symbolizes what we want in life. So, for example, do we want success, happiness, love, job, security, money, whatever the cheese symbolizes, whatever that is for you.

So one day, their cheese supply just disappears without even any warning, sniff and scurry, quickly adapt. Moving on to search for new cheese in different places. Hem, however, refuses to change, feeling entitled and maybe a bit resentful that things are changing. And actually he’s quite sure if he stays where he is.

Things will return back to normal hawe struggles with fear, but eventually realizes change is necessary and sets out to find new cheese learning valuable lessons along the way. So the key lessons from the book, which I always take, are that change is inevitable. Cheese will always be moved.

If you think about it in terms of sniff and scurry, and hem and hawe adapt quickly because the sooner you let go of the old, the sooner you can embrace the new and overcome fear, because fear of change is often worse than the change itself. It holds you back. It stops you from becoming all that you can be.

And actually, as the old adage says, feel the fear and do it anyway. The book also talks about how it’s important to keep things simple, so

don’t overthink it like hem. Instead, act like sniff and scurry when necessary, but always monitor change. Smell the cheese often so you know when it’s going stale and you know when you need to go off and find a different supply. And also visualize your success. So imagine yourself enjoying the cheese and think about how that will be good for you, good for your situation and what you’re trying to get out of it.

And it also helps you to take the right kind of action when you know what success really means, smells and tastes like for you.

The book is very motivational, and it’s something I used a lot when I was in a previous corporate role many, many years ago. I was helping people to adapt, to change, and to try to make things happen based on new legislation that was coming into a country.

Dealing with things which people didn’t really wanna have to do and didn’t wanna have to adapt to, but it’s one of those things that they were required to do. So I always used to observe those people that were like hem and haw, or sniff and scurry. So the book always became my companion read when I was thinking about how to apply the changes that were required.

So in the luxury outdoor hospitality industry, things are changing the same as they are changing in every single industry around the world. Essentially, what we are facing with this new technological revolution is immense change that will touch every single person in every single industry in some way.

So we are all facing incredible change right now.

And if you found yourself thinking recently. Why is my traffic down on my website? I haven’t changed anything. Or why are my bookings a little bit slower this year when I used to be on the top of Google? And why is it that I’m not having so much impact with the emails that I’m sending out? If that’s you, then that’s the change that’s happening everywhere that’s impacting your business and your systems.

So if that’s the case, then this episode is especially for you.

You see the cheese has moved again, just the same as in the book Who Moved My Cheese. If you’ve ever read that book, you’ll remember it’s always about dealing with unexpected change, and that’s exactly what we are facing at the moment. In our industry and across all of the others, in our case, the cheese is online visibility, and for a lot of glamping hosts and unique stay providers, it’s being moved by something you may not have considered.

AI powered search. Yep. Tools like Chat, GPT, Google AI Overviews and Zero Click Search results are giving people answers without them even having to visit your website. And this means fewer clicks to your pages, fewer page reads, fewer page views, and potentially that means. Fewer bookings unless we adapt and go out and look for different cheese in different places.

But here’s the thing, just like characters in the book, we have a choice. We can freeze like hem wishing it would all go back to the way it was. Or we can take a deep breath, grab our virtual backpack and go and find some new cheese. So let’s talk about how we adapt and let’s talk about what we need to do to survive this change.

We need to create some fresh visibility and we need to future proof our brand. We also need to think about what we can do in terms of our efforts to make sure that we are showing up where our audience hangs out. So if people aren’t clicking through to your website like they used to, then you need to meet them where they’re already spending their time, which means the email inbox, social media, YouTube, podcasts, websites, social media ads.

Influencer campaigns and all the rest you see, your website isn’t the only place you can build a relationship.

So if you know where your audience is hanging out online, especially if it’s on social media, then a quick tip here is just to start sharing short story-driven content in some way, either on Instagram or in reels, and to give your potential customer a sneak peek into what it’s really like to experience your property and experience your services.

This is one of the quickest ways to be found online, especially if you’re boosting it through ads, and especially if you are connecting it with content. And that content has to then be built for humans, not just search engines. So we know what search engine optimization is all about, and we know how important it is, and it’s.

Been the lifeblood of so many businesses, but because AI search pulls from the higher value, trustworthy content and puts it in the search engine itself, people are no longer having to go to a website to find the information they need. So this is why the information you provide needs to be put into multiple places, but.

Ingrained within that, and at the core of that needs to be human led stories. This will always cut through the noise and it will always help people be attracted to your content and to follow up and find out more. But this isn’t necessarily about putting in a lot of extra hours to create content.

It’s about repurposing the content you’ve already got or that you plan to produce in the future. So for example, if you’re talking about creating a blog post for your website, then you turn that also into a reel, into a social media post, into an advert. They are also putting online and so on and so forth, and that’s all from one piece of content.

So it means that you can be omnipresent, you’re going to be in a lot of different places, so no matter where your potential audience turns, they’re always going to see you there hanging out.

I know this sounds like a lot of work, but there’s lots of places that you can go to get the help you need and more about that soon. So another way to deal with these challenges is to look at leveraging direct bookings through different tools and guest nurture sequences and everything else.

As we know, generating leads from people who have been in contact with you before means that they are warm leads and they are most likely going to be the ones who will book if you’ve got any special campaigns coming up. ’cause they already know you, they trust you, they like you, they know your service, and they’re much more likely to make that booking.

Certainly it’s going to be better to do that than to rely on random cold traffic that you might be finding from another source.

But the most important action from all of this is to make sure you are focusing on building your list

collecting those emails, nurturing your audience

and giving them access to exclusive offers and also unique deals that only they have access to.

Now more than ever, the email list is becoming more valuable. It’s something that if you’re not collecting emails from your customers or potential customers, you are missing out on a major business asset. So if you’re not doing that, please do it as soon as you can.

Think of it this way, when it’s getting harder and harder to reach your audience and to turn them into customers because what’s happening online? With the changes that AI is bringing, it’s more important than ever to have your own list of emails so that you can speak to your potential customer and customers directly.

It’s one of the most important things you can do for your business, and it will mean that you will always be able to speak to the people you wanna speak to, and they will always be able to reply. Without being blocked by third party in between, it gives you full control over everything you do, and it means that you can attract more bookings directly, which helps you to remove some of those costs from the OTAs

and those booking platforms.

And one of the great ways to build your list and to increase the amount of people that are signing up is to collaborate with others to get some shared visibility. So if your website visits are down, think about how you might be able to get in front of someone else’s audience. So you could either partner with local suppliers, you can get in touch with influencers who have an audience who are your ideal customer.

Let’s not forget that that’s a key part of the process. Or you can get in touch with a tourism board or co-create content with somebody else. Maybe go on someone’s podcast as guest or go live together on social media. Or maybe offer some joint packages. So you may offer the holiday side of it, someone else may offer the spa or wellness side of it.

And together you’ve created a really lovely little offer that people can access when they give you their email address.

This will help you get in front of new people without relying on Google traffic at all. And it will help you forge some amazing relationships with people who you are already working with right now.

One of the things you shouldn’t forget as well is that you can get your brand featured in AI reference content. So if this happens for you, it means that you will have. A lot of traffic coming from that particular source because AI is effectively recommending what you are supplying. So this means that you can.

 Pitch to blogs or get featured in media or join roundups of top UK glamping spots, for example, and if AI rates that content and wants to put it first in its overarching summary. You’ll find that your website will get the most clicks. So thinking about how you might wanna do this is quite strategic. You have to think about what’s there in the top results and how you can emulate what they’re doing, but make it better so that you can go first.

Being able to get credibility and to prove your expertise and experience is absolutely gonna help you get there. But.

There are quicker ways to do it too. So a number of shortcuts, and that’s obviously to  get a great relationship with a business or an individual that’s already there in that position at the top of the list, who is already being recommended by ai. And that means that you could jump on their coattails, offer them something

in return for a link or something else that allows you to benefit from that traffic.

So the key to all of this is to understand that change isn’t an end. It isn’t a negative thing. It actually is something that we need to think about in a positive way. It is a beginning, a beginning of a new thing, a new way of working, a new set of rules that we need to follow, whatever that might be. Yes, the landscape is shifting, but it’s not something to fear because often in these times of great change and turmoil, there is also great opportunity.

So those people who will be out there first will be the ones that will be picked up the quickest. They’ll be the ones that will have the most rewards for their efforts.

And the wonderful thing about this industry is that AI can’t replace what you provide. It can’t replace that feeling someone gets when they arrive at your dome in the woods or the magic. Of your fire pit or the magic of being up in the canopy in a tree house or anything that you share with your storytelling and your imagery and your content, and also your community of customers.

AI can’t replace that. So although there’s going to be change, it’s not change that you need to be worried about in terms of this industry. It’s just about how are you going to get found. In this industry by your customer, that’s where you need to adapt. So the industry as a whole, I believe, will continue to go from strength to strength as people feel.

More desire to spend time in nature, to cut off, to switch off, to have a rest, to de-stress, and all of those good things.

So that will mean there will be more demand for this kind of service, but there will be more competition. And also it means that people need to be omnipresent in multiple places to get the kind of visibility that you need for your business. So this is something that’s gonna be really important in the future. Obviously that means that you’re gonna have to spend more time creating your marketing materials, creating your content, making sure that you are going to be in all of those places and recommended by AI and anything else that people are gonna be using to search the web.

And that is going to take time.

But instead of worrying about what’s changed and how much time you’re going to have to put to this. Let’s focus on what’s still in your hands, your message, your brand, your ability to show up in new, more powerful ways. But yes, this can take time and it can feel overwhelming.

Especially when we are seeing such a shift in traveler behavior, guest behavior,  on top of all the other things that are happening in the digital world. So it can feel a little bit like you’re up against it. You’ve got a massive to-do list. So much to do. You know that you need to do that to stay visible and relevant to your customer or your audience, but actually, how do you find the time to do all of that work and do it in a way that is right for this kind of industry and for the services that you provide in a sympathetic way to what your brand is and to what your storytelling is in your voice.

This isn’t the easiest thing to do.

There’s no doubt that when you are running a unique hospitality, glamping or retreat event business, it can feel like a juggling act with no safety net at all, because you wear all the hats, you manage all the guests, and yet you still need to figure out all of this online stuff. You need to create content.

You need to think about all the changes coming into the world because of ai. And then there’s the endless list of things to do on site to do with. Welcoming your guests to do with cleaning, managing staff, but you still have to do those marketing tasks and then often they just never get done ’cause they always go to the bottom of the list.

Bookings start to dip. Algorithms shift, and then competition in your local area starts to get more fierce. And some nights it can feel like you are carrying this whole thing on your shoulders. And then when people like me come along and start talking about all these other changes that are coming in, it can feel really overwhelming.

It can feel as if, what’s the point because everything’s changing so much and you feel you’re getting left behind. But I can tell you that after 20 plus years in this industry, one thing is crystal clear and that staying visible online is your key, but it is now harder than it’s ever been. And that’s why after a complete wave of requests from people asking if I can help them out with their marketing instead of just telling them what they needed to do, i’ve now created a boutique marketing studio with a small, creative focused team. They are flexible, they’re agile, they’re results driven, and we have a mission. And our mission is to take the pressure off your shoulders to handle the marketing execution.

You don’t have time for.

This means you can just finally enjoy running your business again. We can do SEO friendly content, help you with your email campaigns. We can help you set your ads.

We deliver what you want, so it’s completely tailored. It’s done for you and it’s marketing that boosts your bookings and lightens your load

it’s going to give you peace of mind knowing that your marketing is being handled by somebody who knows exactly what works in the industry.

It’ll give you confidence that you’re finally moving in the right direction and getting those things off your to-do list that have been on there. Let’s face it for months, if not years, it will help you enjoy your lifestyle. Without the overwhelm, you’ll be able to enjoy the day to day on your site dealing with customers and everything else that comes from running a luxury hospitality brand, that’s why you got into this in the first place. You didn’t get into this to be sitting in front of a computer doing all of the marketing and with better visibility. This will give you higher returns on your marketing efforts and a greater customer lifetime value through the different nurture campaigns that you can set up.

Now, customer lifetime value is something that so often gets forgotten is the fact that one customer. Needs to be more than just a customer wants. They need to be a customer time and time again. And you can do that by setting up loyalty schemes and making sure that you are nurturing them long after they’ve left your site.

But if you are not launched yet and you’re just getting ready to launch, well, I’ll have to ask you this. Do you think you’ve really been paying enough attention to your marketing during the whole process of building and getting your utilities in and making your stay the most amazing stay for your guests?

I’m willing to bet you haven’t been, and this is something that so many people. Don’t get right because they’re so involved in the build stage, they completely neglect their marketing stage. It’s a really important thing to do because this will help you hit the ground running, and it means that you won’t be launching to tumbleweed.

You will manage to generate a. Buzz. So this is something that we are also going to be very heavily involved in the launch programs for different businesses to help them get that buzz and that noise that they need and so deserve at the beginning of their business journey.

I’ve always been educating people, helping them understand how to do it themselves, and now. This is true done for you services. It’s making sure that someone who knows what works in the industry is able to implement for you.

So if what I’m talking about sounds like something that you need, then get in touch as soon as you can before our diary fills up. And one thing I will say to you, and that is our promise.

We will work alongside you as a partner to understand your business and to provide your personalized support that gets real measurable results. That’s what matters for us. No more last minute panic posts. No more wondering what to say.

Just beautifully done. Marketing that gets you the results that you want.

So if this is something you’d like to find out more about, all you need to do is go to inspired courses.com/team because this is the team. That you know, you need the team that will help you do all that you need to do and more. And can you imagine what it will be like to start crossing off those things on your to-do list that you really don’t wanna have to do, or you just don’t know who can help you do those things?

Well. Inspired courses team are the team for you. So inspired courses.com/team. Go there and find out exactly how we can help and get in touch.

So until next time. Enjoy the busy months ahead. Make hay while the sun is shining, and I’ll see you here again soon.