Starter Kit. Idea 175 of 500. Cluster 7
Website and booking-engine templates for guesthouses, in Sinhala, Tamil and English
The mechanism, from the book
The tiny business pathway. A rural woman with an exceptional product should not need photography, English copy, packaging design and a distributor before the world can find her.
The first step
Build one simple guesthouse website with a booking form, in Sinhala, Tamil and English, for a guesthouse owner you know, free. Help them put it live and send the link to past guests. After a month, count the direct bookings that paid no platform commission. Then offer the template to 10 more owners for a set-up fee and a small monthly charge.
- Who pays first
- A small guesthouse owner who pays commission on every online booking and wants guests to book direct.
- What leaves today
- Commission on every online booking leaves the island for foreign platforms; a direct booking keeps the whole room price at home.
Ask first
- Information and Communication Technology Agency. Ask whether they support websites in Sinhala, Tamil and English for small businesses.
- Data Protection Authority. Ask what rules apply to holding guests' booking details.
Check before you spend
That payment and booking data are protected, that the translations are checked by native speakers, and that templates work on cheap phones.
Find out these three numbers
- What will a guesthouse pay for a ready website?
- What do booking websites charge guesthouses now?
- How many guesthouses have no website of their own?
A comparison from the book
Sri Lanka. Appendix
"If you are not findable online, nobody can help you, buy from"
Being findable online is cheap, and it is the step most often skipped.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.