In the last decades OTAs have been born and developed like Booking, Expedia, Priceline, we have lived the transformation of other companies, like TripAdvisor or Google, that has become of a useful source of information for the travelers in a competitor Of OTA’s, first acting as price comparators and then offering the possibility of direct booking on their website.
Today OTAs have gained great importance due to their ability to provide reservations to hotels, as they invest many more resources than a hotel or hotel chain. It is understandable that hotels have seen OTAs, years ago, an outlet to increase reservations, because they did not have the resources at that time to do so at the individual level, but nowadays they have the opportunity to take control And with lower costs than previous decades.
The timmings and therefore the costs for the development of a web are smaller than in the past; booking engines have evolved incorporating advanced features, have significantly improved the conversion rate, uploading inventory has become an easy process for all hotels thanks to the channel managers and PMS. Likewise, the possibility of investing in segmented campaigns with an excellent return on investment and costs lower than the OTA’s commissions, should end up turning these intermediaries into secondary players.
In Hotel’s Performance we know that successful hotels try to create exceptional experiences for their guests, experiences that have to be communicated in a clear, detailed and close way something that standardized platforms such as OTAs do not allow, showing the establishments in an identical way, without being able to differentiate one from another.
The experience of a trip goes far beyond the simple choice of a destination and some tourist goals to visit. The expectations of the traveler have evolved, it is necessary to assume that in order to conquer our guest and get them to book directly on our website, we have to put at your disposal more information, the best price and cutting-edge technology.
A decade ago a customer was making the search “hotel in Paris”, but today a customer performs the search “hotel in Paris next to Sena with views pet friendly reviews”. Why? For the simple fact that the consumer has evolved, he is much more informed, he knows that he can look exactly what he needs and that he will find it.
The informed consumer will start planning his trip in search engines, once the destination is decided, will select and compare prices of hotels that interest him in sites such as Tripadvisor, Trivago, Booking, etc. Once the initial selection is made, an important part of the users will visit the sites of the hotels that they liked and fit in their possibilities, to expand information, to be able to see images / videos of the establishment in high resolution and above all to see if it offers a better price and conditions than comparators and OTA’s.
This is an opportunity that hotels can not pass up, at the moment the potential client visits your site; If customers have searched for the name of your establishment, they may be valuing it in comparison with other establishments; Is the opportunity to seduce them by offering all the information they may need about your hotel and convince them by offering them an offer they can not refuse, the best price and conditions.
To achieve this there are many tools that hotels can use; Customized offers, advanced booking engines, optimization of the booking process through A / B and multivariate testing, microsegmentated campaigns, retargeting onsite, etc. If you want us to help you make the most of it, you just have to ask us for a proposal.
Call us now, we will be happy to assist you.