Hotels face a constant challenge with the dominance of Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) taking share in every market.
NB: This is an article from Cogwheel Marketing, one of our Expert Partners
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And then paying 18-23% of their net revenue back for the privilege of getting these bookings. With just a small investment that is much less than these commissions and shift to a more strategic mindset, share can be shifted back to the hotels where it belongs.
This branded property near Boston and Logan Airport was no exception. By leveraging a strategic approach to people searching their market for rooms, the property sought to head off and engage potential guests before they even realize the OTAs are there or they finalized their bookings on the OTAs.
Challenge & Overview
The hotel was having challenges with reservation growth happening through OTA channels and not through direct Brand.com channels. While occ index was getting better, the bottomline revenue production was suffering as commission payments went up with it.
Increased traffic growth to OTA channels also carries a risk of cross-selling. Every visitor to every OTA site is given multiple properties to compare rates against. This can slow long-term guest acquisition and return guest stays.
The property needed a proactive way to reach general market guests before or just as they were considering shopping OTAs and bringing them to Brand.com to book instead.
Research: How Guests Make Booking Decisions
Average Window for Research & Decisions:
(Data showing the average booking window is based on extensive research by Expedia in 2023)
- 71 DAYS on average to do research
- 1 DAY on the actual booking
- 73 DAYS on average from the date of booking to the date of arrival
The 71-day period of research consists of:
- Visiting 277 travel content pages
- >500 minutes consuming content
- 3 in 5 guests have multiple locations in mind
The time frame that guests recall seeing ads and report being influenced by ads to make a booking:
81%: >4 weeks before booking
39%: 1-3 weeks before booking
7%: the week of booking
Findings from research:
- If you want your hotel to be considered for a direct booking when a guest is ready to book, you must be promoting yourself 4-10 weeks out to guests doing general market research online.
- The longer you wait and the less you promote yourself, the more likely you are to lose your direct booking to OTAs that run ad campaigns 365 days per year. And the more likely you are to lose a booking to the OTAs cross-selling your guest.
- ROAS must be measured by total brand.com lift over time and NOT as tracked campaign revenue. This is due to the best tracking available being limited to 30 day windows only. Well under the 4-10 week average window for ideal campaign influence on a booking.
Methodology in Action
Working with the Cogwheel Paid Media Team in Q1 2024, the property focused exclusively on “non-brand” keywords in their paid search campaigns on Google. This would intercept new guests before they narrowed their search to a single property, and at the ideal time to have maximum influence on their decision.
