booking

So, months after we first started to see the impact of the coronavirus, what are the signals that hotel bookings are really in recovery – and what may just be a false dawn?

Whilst actual bookings are a stronger sign of consumer confidence, travel searches show an early sign of intent. These forward looking insights will hopefully help marketers shape their strategies

Early March we wrote about the first impacts of COVID-19 on OTA vs Website bookings. What an unpredicted turn things have taken since then. We expected things to be bad, but this bad?

If this crisis has taught us in hotels anything, it is to think the unthinkable. Only a few short weeks a drop in RevPar might have been our biggest concern

Similarly to targeting customers looking to stay in the future, you can target potential guests now with the option to buy gift credit or vouchers for your hotel, restaurant or spa which can be used later.

Even if you have been running retargeting campaigns, there are so many things, initiatives and strategies that you can adopt, that might wonder “how have we not been doing this already”

Hotel Sales teams should still be selling, developing relationships, and prospecting. The only thing to consider is where you focus. Localization in your sales processes is the key to minimizing impact.

Analyzing hotel data from previous two months, we’ve identified trends of when guests are still booking hotel rooms – and how lead times are changing in countries that are on road to recovery.

By having a clear cancellation policy, you can give confidence to potential guests and increase your bookings. You may need to change your cancellation policies for the time being to ease concerns

Years into an ongoing tug-of-war over direct bookings, it’s fair to say that OTAs still stir up a lot of angst within the hotel marketing community