It’s the time of year again when everyone is planning their Black Friday deals and hotels are being contacted by their market managers of every OTA to offer a steep discount for campaigns that used to last one day but has extended from Black Friday to Cyber Monday to Boxing Day and beyond.
NB: This is an article from Rate Yield
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So why should you participate in one of these deals which will help OTAs get traffic and drive business away from your direct channels? And if you do believe there is value in the visibility, then how can you ensure there is also value in the guest who books?
First let’s tackle the why of it. The major OTAs are investing a lot of money to market these campaigns. They have marketing budgets far beyond what an independent hotel could ever dream of having. So if they will be driving traffic to specific landing pages, as an independent hotel, it makes sense to try to be on that page. Also, people who have been considering booking a trip and are waiting for the deal are likely to prioritize hotels in a destination that are offering a deal.
Personally, when I am shopping on Prime Day, I am going to filter for Prime Day deals. There may be a cheaper option of a similar product without a deal, but if I am going to purchase something on Prime Day, it needs to have a Prime Day Deal. And I doubt that I am alone in this thinking. OTAs have also done an incredible amount of research on what tagging and merchandising works best on their users to drive traffic to your hotel. Promotion details aside, it just makes sense to participate in campaigns where the OTAs are investing.
Now, let’s talk about how you can make it worthwhile for you. Booking 30 rooms at a 50% discount on a one night stay in your high season isn’t a great outcome of this campaign. So how can we be sure that if we decide to take advantage of this marketing opportunity, we are getting the kind of business we want from it?
Consideration 1:
You can put a minimum stay restriction on your promotion so that it only applies to stays of 2 nights for more. But if you are in a seasonal market that is in low season, you may want to capitalize on the opportunity to get those room nights booked, even if it is just for one night. So protect your high season dates by making sure you have restrictions in place. It’s all well and good to have automated restrictions, but if your system is waiting for demand triggers to turn on a length of stay restriction, it might be too late. If you aren’t watching your future dates with precision, turn on the minimum stay for now and readjust after the promotion ends.
