Nary a hospitality conference is found without the token debate about OTAs and their impact on hotels’ direct bookings. This trending topic has become so prevalent and so fierce, in fact, that the majority of today’s hotels have all become thirsty for the very best ways to quench their biggest online booking competition.
NB: This is an article from IDeaS
Has your hotel been struggling to find effective strategies that increase your direct bookings? Here are four different ways you can evolve your revenue strategy to incentivize online shoppers to book directly with your hotel:
1. Identify Your Hotel’s Ideal Pricing Strategy
Every hotel has unique guests, special room types, exclusive restaurants and distinctive locations – and when these custom selling points need to be woven into today’s intricate web of technology and distribution channels, your pricing strategy can’t afford to be limited to a one-size-fits-all approach. Decide how to price just right for your hotel and guests, whether it’s by day, by length of stay, or room type (with or without rate levels), and make sure all of your selling systems can accept those decisions.
2. Offer Guests Incentives to Book Direct
With so many travel websites offering online shoppers today’s biggest deals, attract guests to your brand website with strategies that think outside of the booking box. Evaluate your opportunity to offer value-adds with direct bookings that don’t affect rate parity. When you target your guests with valuable add-ons that are important to them, it not only incentivizes them to become loyal members of your hotel, but it also encourages them to always book direct when they do.
3. Have a Best Rate Guarantee in Place
With travel metasearch engines promising online shoppers a “search one and done” booking experience, it can often feel like hotel websites are left fighting for the 3rd page of the search results. Remember: While you may not be able to control how people are searching for your hotel, you can control instilling a sense of confidence that the best price is always going to be found on your own website.
4. Track Channel Production & Costs
It’s an adage that spans the test of time: You don’t know what you don’t track. For a successful revenue strategy that drives optimal and long-term profitability, make sure you’re tracking production by channel and source – and make sure you evaluate and understand those costs per transaction.
