The Insider's Guide to Taking Back Your Bookings from Otas
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The Insider’s Guide To Taking Back Your Bookings From OTAs The Exact Strategies You Need To Increase Direct Bookings And Profits For Your Accommodation Business LIVINGONLINE.COM.AU © LIVING ONLINE 2 / The rise of online booking aggregators It was in 1996, that Microsoft, In 2008 another disruptor driven market. the most high-profile was to enter the hotel With heavy fees and technology company on the market; the launch of commissions associated planet at the time, unveiled AirBedAndBreakfast (soon with these OTAs and its attempt at an Online changed to Airbnb) provided booking aggregators, Travel Agency (OTA); with property and house owners it’s now more important this, Expedia was born in the with the ability to rent out than ever for those in the USA. The launch of Expedia whole places or rooms to a accommodation industry to set the pace for countless rising new breed of travellers focus on growing their direct imitators and the beginning who were looking for a bookings, allowing more of of the travel industry’s move different way of seeing a their revenue to go straight into the digital age. destination. into their own pockets, and not into those of these 2001 and the 9/11 tragedy Now, 11 years later, hotels aggressive online giants. was a pivotal moment in the are facing an online history of online travel, not domination of OTAs and So the question is, what just for the United States alternative accommodation can you do to increase your but world-wide, including providers. The OTA direct bookings? Australia. For the first time, systems originally the whole travel industry designed to sell excess OTAs or Online had to deal with new inventory in times of Travel Agencies are security measures and how slow demand are now the travel websites that to cope in a downturn in primary source of hotel specialise in the sale both leisure and business bookings. The online world trips. Suddenly OTAs has become a battle of the of travel products became marketplaces for booking aggregators, where to consumers. hotel suppliers to try and individual accommodation The average OTA offload huge amounts of providers are struggling to unfilled inventory. make their mark directly commission is with guests and differentiate around 18% of the themselves from a price booking value. / 3 A new type of guest As a result of online review platforms and increased competition across all types of accommodation, guests are now driving the success or failure of hotels and accommodation providers. Guests are expecting providers to exceed expectations, which means additional staff training, room renovations, and increased costs for high quality room products. Today, even the budget room is expected to be up to a high standard. Little issues like WIFI not working can cause guests to leave low star reviews and make it harder to compete within individual OTAs. With booking aggregators allowing payment on arrival, free cancellation periods, and rewards for repeat bookings through their systems, hotels, resorts and even caravan parks are having to provide similar options and even more benefits to drive direct bookings. 4 / There is a place for OTAs, but use them wisely Hoteliers and other A successful marketing OTAs are good for gaining accommodation distribution strategy reach to certain markets providers must analyse balances distribution; you such as: both distribution and should not put all your eggs • Non-brand loyal marketing costs. According in the OTA basket, but you travellers to PhoCusWright, hotels should consider how you • Young travellers spend on average 6-9% of use it in the marketing mix. • Package travellers their revenue on sales and For example, OTAs marketing, whereas OTAs provide resources that OTAs are often the first spend approximately 35- most hoteliers don’t have stop when travellers are 40%. It is wrong to assume access to, in particular researching travel plans, a booking made through an their extended reach. OTAs and they can offer value to OTA would have happened create culturally appropriate consumers at all stages of without OTA participation, online experiences including the buying process. but it is also wrong to currency conversion, assume that those bookings language support, and As a rule OTAs should only do not create future direct a personalised booking drive 30% of your revenue; booking opportunities. experience based on if you are currently getting previous history. a larger percentage from OTAs then you need to find out where your site isn’t optimised and where your online marketing is failing to bring the balance back into your favour. The higher the percentage of your customers coming from OTAs, the more money you are losing out on directly. Only 30% of revenue should be driven by OTAs / 5 Monopolise the ‘Billboard Effect’ “As per a recent Google survey, 50% of travellers will visit your hotel’s website after seeing you on an OTA.” When guests discover hotels on OTAs, most of them then do further research about the hotels using search engines. This is when 20% your website, your direct of direct consumer marketing, your bookings are social media channels, and your own managed online from OTA presence become integral to referrals converting those searches into direct bookings. The user gets frustrated if they don’t find the same room types, names, pictures and cancellation policies that they’ve seen on sites like booking.com. This frustration then causes the user to leave your site and head back to the OTA where they will either “ WIHP conducted a make the booking there, or use it to find a different three-year survey on the accommodation provider. billboard effect. We found that over 20% of direct bookings occurred after the guest found the hotel on an OTA. 6 / ” But why aren’t people booking direct? The number 1 reason is that travellers think they can get a cheaper price elsewhere, but there are some other key reasons they might not be booking directly with your property. Here are the top 6 reasons that aren’t price-related. 1. YOU DON’T HAVE REVIEWS ON YOUR WEBSITE People want to know what other people have to say about you. If you don’t include reviews on your site, the user is going to go somewhere that does… like an OTA. In this age, reviews and testimonials are a critical part of the research process, so if you are failing to provide these, you are failing your prospective customers’ needs. 2. THEY WANT SPECIAL OFFERS The guest of 2019 is used to getting value-adds and personalised experiences when it comes to travel. Make sure you consider this with your website offers and make these clear and easy to find. See what special “perks” your competitors are offering, both on their own sites and via their OTA profiles, and see how you can one-up them to make your property more appealing. 3. YOUR WEBSITE LOOKS OLD OR CONTAINS OUTDATED EVENT INFORMATION If your website contains ‘upcoming events’ from 2012, that’s a sure-fire sign that your content is not updated and users will think that everything on the site is irrelevant or incorrect. Internet users are used to receiving real-time information on their phones and desktops, so make it a regular occurrence to review your site and ensure you have the most up-to-date / 7 information and a modern web presence. 4. NO INCENTIVE TO BOOK DIRECT If you want people to book direct you need to educate them on the benefits of doing so – are these better rates, extra inclusions, VIP treatment, upgrades, or simply that you match the payment and cancellation options of OTAs but make it quicker and easier to complete the booking directly on your website? If you don’t have a determined incentive yet, it’s critical you think of one as soon as possible, then promote it on your website and social channels. 5. SLOW, MOBILE-UNFRIENDLY SITE More people are using their phones to research holiday options and booking on the run – it is therefore incredibly important that your website works well on mobile and loads fast. Customers are impatient; if they don’t get what they want fast, they will leave and go to the OTAs who have teams of people working to provide these customers with an A-Grade user experience. 6. YOUR WEBSITE ‘BEST RATE GUARANTEED’ ISN’T ACTUALLY YOUR BEST RATE 4 out of 5 people will leave your website to check on an OTA site to see if they can get a cheaper rate. If the OTA lists the same room with the same inclusions and benefits but for a lower price, they won’t come back to you. Again, it’s important to be continually reviewing your room prices across different OTAs and booking aggregators to ensure there haven’t been any competitive price decreases that you aren’t aware8 of./ So how do I get direct bookings? There are many factors and platforms which lead to driving more direct bookings for your business. Because of this, it is integral that you approach direct bookings with an integrated digital marketing campaign. Your business needs to have a strong presence in owned, paid and earned media to provide you with the best platform for direct booking success. / 9 Own your brand online 1. Protect your brand & differentiate yourself Even if people are searching Use your own social media, Is your property relaxing, for your brand name directly website, Google My Business in a unique location, have through a search engine listings, YouTube accounts, an exclusive menu, or such as Google, you might and Google Hotel Ads architecturally uncommon? be invisible in the search campaigns to ensure your Define what makes you results until halfway down own online assets are top different to ensure you the page as a result of the of brand related and local clearly present this message aggressive paid advertising searches.