1.Direct bookings save costs!
It is important to have a presence on the main online travel sites like booking.com, airbnb.com, Expedia.com etc. because of their popularity and convenience – on some of them you can book your whole stay, including flights and car rental. However, from a hotel owner’s perspective, the most important question to ask is whether it is also valuable to them?
- OTAs’ commissions are between 10-20% per each booking. It means if your apartment, guesthouse, or a hotel room selling price is 100€, you pay 10-20€ commission to OTAs from each reservation.
- If you ask the prepayment handled by OTA, you pay an additional 3-4%.
2.Hotel website booking engine helps to build direct relationship with your guests
If a customer books a room through a third party, it is a missed opportunity to establish a personal relationship and communicate further offers and packages with your property. Instead, the customer has a direct contact with the OTA itself and receive their future emails only.
3.Get more insights into your business
Usually, booking engines come with analytics tools that keep track of each reservation and all the related details. You will therefore have all the information to better understand your guests, their preferences and what upgrades they have purchased if any. With this data, you will be able to highlight areas where you need to focus on and grow your business.
So how to motivate clients to book directly and make having a direct booking engine worth it?
First, establish why customers book directly with you in the first place. Most likely, the customer who is already on your website isn’t only interested in reserving a room but the whole experience that you offer – be it a spa, excursions, food and beverage, or the atmosphere itself. This is your opportunity to upsell!
Many hotels that use ED BOOKING engine are also listed on main OTAs and still generate more reservations through their own website because of better rates and more flexible booking conditions.
Don’t worry about being overbooked
A good booking engine allows you to manage availability across all your channels without causing an overbooked situation. It´s definitely worth having an online booking engine on a hotel website and use the money saved from OTA commissions for online marketing efforts to drive more direct revenue. Direct customers are valuable for a hotelier because when they book through your own website you have an opportunity to build an interest and form a strong relationship with your customers, understand their needs, habits, and preferences deeper, and offer better packages and services
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