When it comes to pricing, travel brands are currently facing two sets of online competition. The first is fellow travel brands within their competitive set, with whom they’re vying for visibility and popularity among the same group of customers. The second is their own rates, as represented across the rest of the web from other advertisers.
The travel industry is notorious for the proliferation of systems and services that its members have to navigate on a daily basis. It’s never as simple as one room, one rate; there are a multitude of distribution technologies pulling data from each other at any one time, and it is easy for pieces to fall through the cracks.
But maintaining rate parity is crucial for both maximising the value of advertising spend and for achieving a healthy conversion rate.
Competitive pricing for metasearch
Metasearch publishers are becoming an increasingly larger piece of the online travel pie. The number of customers interacting with a metasearch site during their online hotel booking journey is growing year over year. Appearing competitively in the search results of these sites will become more crucial as time goes on.
The rate displayed by a hotel advertiser can have a much bigger impact than simply attracting a customer. Being price-competitive can also lead to:
- Higher click-through and conversion rates
- Lower cost per click, and improved positioning
- More profitable campaigns
How? Let’s find out.
With competitive pricing, users click through and convert a higher rates
According to a recent study, 61% of consumers still consider price to be the most important factor when booking a hotel. It’s no surprise that when users see a lower price, they’re more likely to click through to a hotel’s listing. The uplift on click-through, however, can reach as high as 20-30%.
This effect can be magnified, depending on the treatment of the lower rate by the publisher. For example, Google automatically applies a ‘deal’ badge to significantly lower prices, while TripAdvisor and Trivago both display ‘Top Deal’ badges to entice customers to click through.
