hotel otas online travel agencies

Ranking on the first page of Google’s results has become an increasingly difficult task over the last few years. With competitor sites, third party vendors, and algorithms to worry about impacting your hotel’s triage within search results, it’s imperative to consider every option available at your marketing disposal.

Paid search is one of the utensils that has become increasingly effective in combating these bedeviling certainties due to its propensity to secure valuable real estate at the top of pages and the ability to achieve results quickly.

That said, online travel agencies have continued to occupy most of the organic results for hotels even when a property is using a sound search engine optimization program coupled with paid search possibilities.

What if, as a hotelier, you were able to leverage your results in online travel agencies while simultaneously improving your performance in search results? That’s where our friend paid search comes back into play.

By optioning to use specific programs present on certain online travel agencies, a hotel can improve their visibility in both instances thus yielding the opportunity for a property to amass more revenue.

Before executing a strategy that is best for your hotel’s needs, it is important to understand the difference between online travel agencies and paid search as well as their accompanying benefits, hotel brand standards, and finally which online travel agencies offer paid search opportunities.

Once schooled in these elements of digital marketing, you’ll be able to take the knowledge you’ve accumulated and apply it to your hotel, taking it to heights you never thought possible.

Hoteliers have many marketing channels available to them when promoting a specific property. They can get the word out about how they have been recognized as one of 2016’s best hotels by creating a tweet or showcasing the hotel on social media.

Perhaps an email blast filled with summer specials is the ticket to bringing in thousands of prospective guests. Or maybe meeting and event transactions have been low compared to last year and ownership is seeking to generate more leads through event space marketing.

Whatever the case may be, online travel agencies and paid search remain as approaches that are misunderstood by most within the field of hotel management.

Learn how you can leverage paid search opportunities present on online travel agencies to improve the performance of your listing and also boost your performance in search results!

What Makes Online Travel Agencies A-Okay?

For those accustomed to the old fashioned way of exploration, i.e. booking directly over the phone or hiring a travel agent, the concept of an internet business may be new to you. Simply put, an online travel agency, commonly referred to as an OTA, is an ecommerce website that allows a user to book a variety of travel related conveniences such as hotels, flights, vehicles, etc.

What exactly draws people to these web based companies? The reasons below are indicative of not only the travel industry, but purchasing behavior as a whole:

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