Using Google Analytics to track bookings and website performance.

If you’re spending money and time to attract potential guests to your website, you should track whether you are getting a return on your investment. Installing Google Analytics on your guest house or establishment’s website is the best tool to track this.  For example: do you know how many visitors your site receives? Do you know which pages get viewed and which ones your potential guests spend the most time on?  Insights like these will give you a good idea of what you might do better online so that your guest house, bed & breakfast or hotel will get more bookings.

How do I track my site’s performance?

It’s easy with a tool like Google Analytics.  It’s free to sign up (Visit the Google Analytics website). Once you have an account, you’ll get a script to put in your website, which tracks where your website traffic comes from and what guests do once they’re on your site.

You can also track performance on your booking engine:

We’re able to put this script on your NightsBridge booking engine so you can better track the path clients followed before they clicked to view availability or book online.  Just send us your Universal Analytics tracking code which you’ll get once you’ve signed up on Google Analytics.

10 Tips for getting started with Google Analytics at your guest house or establishment

If you are looking to take the plunge and have the code set up, then here are 10 ways Google Analytics can help you:

1. Track Website Traffic Sources: Google Analytics helps track where website visitors are coming from—whether from search engines, social media, referral sites, or direct visits. How this helps: By understanding which channels bring in the most traffic, you can allocate more marketing resources to those high-performing channels, perhaps your paid ads or social media posts, and reduce spend on underperforming ones.
2. Analyse User Behavior on the Website: This shows you how visitors interact with your website, including which pages guests visit, how long they stay on certain pages, and where they drop off (ie: leave the website). How this helps: Identifying pages where users drop off (e.g., booking page) allows you to rethink that specific section of your website. Perhaps by streamlining the booking process, offering specials or promo codes at key moments to reduce abandonment.
3. Measure Conversion Rate: The conversion rate is the percentage of visitors who complete a desired action, such as booking a room. How this helps: By setting up goals in Google Analytics (e.g., form submissions, booking confirmations), you can track its conversion rate. Low conversion rates highlight areas of improvement in the booking funnel, like clearer call-to-action buttons or better booking flow.
4. Optimise for Mobile: In South Africa there is a very high volume of search that happens through cell phone use, or tablets. Google Analytics shows how many visitors are accessing the website via mobile devices. How this helps: If a significant portion of website visitors comes from mobile, your guesthouse can optimise for a mobile user experience. A smooth, mobile-friendly site increases the likelihood of bookings, as potential guests can easily browse and book rooms from their phones. Take the time to look at your website on your cellphone or tablet and make sure all the functionality is there and easy to use.
5. Show who is visiting your website: Google Analytics provides insights into the demographic data of visitors, such as their age, gender, location, and interests. How this helps: By knowing the demographics of your website visitors, the guesthouse can create targeted promotions or personalized marketing campaigns, such as offers for specific age groups or regions, potentially leading to higher engagement and more bookings.
6. Understand Customer Acquisition Channels: It helps identify which channels (e.g., organic search, paid ads, referral websites) drive the most conversions and bookings. How this helps: Your guesthouse can focus more on marketing strategies that bring in qualified leads (e.g., optimising SEO for organic traffic or investing in targeted Google Ads) and fine-tune campaigns for the best ROI, ensuring that marketing resources are effectively spent.
7. Set Up Remarketing  Google Analytics allows you to create audiences based on visitor behavior (e.g., users who visited the booking page but didn’t complete the transaction). How this helps: You can use these insights to run remarketing ads on Google Ads or other platforms to re-engage visitors and encourage them to complete their bookings, boosting the chance of conversion. A remarketing campaign is when you place an advert in front of a potential guest who visited your site, but didn’t book directly.
8. Monitor Seasonal Trends:  Google Analytics provides insights into how your website traffic fluctuates over time. How this helps: By seeing your seasonal trends and patterns, you can better plan promotions, offers, or special packages during high-demand periods, or launch marketing campaigns to target low-traffic seasons to maintain consistent bookings.
9. Improve your Content: Google Analytics can reveal which blog posts or content pages are getting the most traffic. How this helps: Your guest house can create more content around topics that resonates- by extending pages or blog posts that are getting good traffic (READ: Blog Post ideas).
10. Track and Optimise Campaign Performance: Google Analytics allows tracking of campaigns, such as email newsletters, google ads, or social media campaigns. How this helps: By analysing the success of different campaigns, your guesthouse can focus on the most effective channels and tailor future promotions accordingly, optimising its marketing spend to drive more bookings.

Using Google Analytics for your guest house means your establishment can make data-driven decisions to improve your website, marketing campaigns, and guest engagement. Tracking visitor behavior, understanding your audiences, and thinking about how guests visiting your website are as important as guests that visit your front door. This mindset about the importance of your website can lead to a better user experience, increased traffic, and ultimately, more bookings.

READ: Powerful Direct Booking Engine | Learn about NightsBridge tools