fbpx

CHILCHILL

Mon - Sat 8.00 - 18.00
Sunday CLOSED

Hotel Direct Booking Strategy

Hotel Direct Booking Strategy

For the chain and independent hotels, the move to direct bookings has been an important one. Not only has it saved money by reducing the cost of commissions paid out to Booking, Expedia and other online travel agencies (OTAs), but it has also resulted in hotels getting more control over their inventory and managing their own bookings.

Direct booking also allows a hotel’s brand to be better promoted via its own website, a benefit that far outweighs having any lower commission rates paid out to OTAs. If you’re a hotelier and are thinking about making the move from a traditional distribution model to direct booking, there are several things to consider before making the switch.

Hotel Direct Booking Strategy Wins, But How?

The first thing is that it’s not as simple as just turning off your OTAs; you will need to have an effective way of promoting your own website and driving traffic there. In this article we’ll take a look at how to use Hotel Book Direct strategy.

The next thing to consider is the commission. While OTAs may offer lower commissions, this isn’t always the case.

Hotels should research what other hotels in their area are doing and how much they pay out.

If you have a large number of bookings through an OTAs then it might not be worth switching over to direct booking unless you can get a similar amount of direct bookings through your own website.

In some cases you may be able to get more direct bookings than through OTAs, but this will depend on the type of property and location. If you have a luxury hotel in an upmarket area then it might not be worth switching over.

These days, hotels must always be looking for ways to improve their yield management – from how they are displaying the availability of rooms on their own websites, to identifying how they can rotate supply more regularly through letting more rooms be available for direct booking at any one time.

Hotel Book Direct Strategy

If you are a hotel, one of the most important things to do is to book direct. That’s because when you book direct, you can guarantee a full-selling rate, every time.

Hotels can save up to 30% commission paid out to OTA’s (online travel agencies). However, it’s not all about the money; hotels who don’t use an OTA will also be able to retain more customer data and are less likely to lose bookings due to cancellations by customers.

But how do hotels go about booking direct? Here are some tips:

Focus on Maximizing Bookings Made Directly from Hotel Website

Make it easy for customers to book direct from your website. This means ensuring that the customer has all the information they need in order to make a decision about their stay at your hotel.

  1. Make sure that your website is mobile-friendly and easy to navigate, with clear information about the hotel and what makes it unique from other hotels in the area. This can be done by adding images of your rooms, facilities, restaurant menu etc.
  2. Make sure that your website is easy for customers to find, whether through search engines or through social media.
  3. Have a clear call-to-action to encourage customers to book direct from your website, such as “Book now” or “Check availability”.
  4. Make sure that your website is mobile-friendly and easy to navigate, with clear information about the hotel and what makes it unique from other hotels in the area.
  5. This can be done by adding images of your rooms, facilities, restaurant menu etc.

Booking directly through a hotel’s website is one of the most important ways to increase revenue.

The reason for this is that when you book directly through a hotel’s website, you can control exactly what information is displayed and how it’s displayed.

This can be especially useful if you want to highlight amenities or local attractions that are unique to your hotel.

You also get more control over the booking process, which means you can set up rules for cancellations, refunds, and other policies as necessary.

The main goal of this strategy should be to make booking directly through your website as easy and convenient as possible for guests.

Steal Market Share with a Hotel Booking Direct Campaign

Hotel bookings are at an all-time high. As such, it has never been more important to use your resources effectively and efficiently—and that means finding new ways to steal market share from other hotels.

The most effective way to do this is by implementing a book-direct campaign. These campaigns have proven to be extremely effective in capturing the attention of guests who are looking for deals online.

Since these guests are already on their computers and searching for deals, it’s easy for you to capitalize on their desire for savings by offering them something they can’t find anywhere else—a discount on your hotel rooms!

Booking directly with you will save them money because they won’t have to pay any fees or taxes when booking through you. They will also get perks like free Wi-Fi, breakfast, and other amenities that they may not get when booking elsewhere.

This can help you stand out from the crowd and entice more people into staying with you instead of going somewhere else where they might have to pay more money upfront but don’t get anything extra back in return!

Hotel direct booking strategy, Hotel direct bookings, hotel sales strategy

Introduce a booking direct campaign that targets guests who are already looking for hotels in your area and offer them an exclusive added value offer. You don’t want to compete for price; instead, focus on the value of being able to book directly with you.

Stepping up your revenue management game is a great way to steal market share from your competition. CHILCHILL Hotel Revenue Management Consultants know how to maximize your hotel’s revenue by managing rates and availability, as well as driving direct bookings from guests. Reach to us TODAY.

30% more Hotel direct booking and 15% less OTA bookings

The hotel industry is in the midst of a monumental shift.

The rise of online booking has led to more than a few changes in how we do business, but one thing that hasn’t changed is the fact that hotels are still at the center of it all. As the industry continues to evolve, hotels need to be ready to adapt or risk being left behind.

There’s no better way to prepare for this change than with revenue management consulting.

Revenue management consulting helps you optimize your hotel’s revenue stream by providing actionable insights into your current operations and allowing you to make informed decisions about future growth opportunities.

This type of consulting can help you get ahead of this change by increasing direct bookings and decreasing OTA bookings, or any other discount segment, so that you can stay ahead of the curve and take advantage of new opportunities as they arise.

The CHILCHILL Hotel Revenue Management Consulting firm is a full-service solution for hotels looking to increase direct bookings and decrease the discounted segment like OTAs. With our experience, we can help you improve your hotel’s revenue management through the use of data analytics and predictive modeling.

The Opportunity to Increase Loyalty – book direct strategy

As the hospitality industry continues to grow and evolve, so too does the need for revenue management solutions. In particular, hotels are looking for ways to increase loyalty without swelling program costs by offering more engaging rewards and experiences.

Chilchill is a hotel revenue management consulting firm specializing in customer engagement through reward management.

By working with our clients to build personalized rewards programs based on guest profiles and preferences, we help them build stronger relationships with their guests—and drive repeat business.

Create a Hotel Website for Booking Conversion Strategy

Running a hotel without a website is silly. Having a website without a booking engine for your hotel is even sillier. So why do hotels do it? And why do hotels keep not having bookings?

They seem to think that having a website helps them increase their revenue but they never want to bump up the conversion rate of their website visitors into bookings. Instead, the hospitality industry has traditionally focused on the spend per booking, rather than providing an effective tool for potential customers to stay at the hotel.

A website is essential to any business success. It is the first impression of a hotel and its staff to a potential guest. The faith and trust an online visitor has on the hotel depend mostly on the expertise of website creation services offered by CHILCHILL Hotel Revenue Management Consulting firm which offers professional website design for hotel business for booking conversion strategy.

Book Direct Strategy At Your Hotel Through Your Website?

The first step towards booking conversion strategy is to create an appealing and responsive website. It should be easy to navigate, attractive and most importantly user-friendly. The website should have all the information that a guest needs regarding your hotel such as amenities, location, room types, rates and offers etc.

best hotel booking website for direct booking that convert

Book direct strategy

Best Rate Guarantee Offer & Matching OTA Rates

As a hotel manager, you want guests to feel comfortable booking with your hotel. Some of this comes from providing them with the best rates available online. While your rates are great, you know that websites like Expedia or Kayak take advantage of situations like this by offering lower or matching rates for selected stays. You don’t want that, and neither do your guests!

That’s why Chilchill has organized a list of the top 10 revenue management strategies for hotels that want to offer the best rate guarantee. Get in Touch Today

Treat Repeat Guests Differently by Offering Them Special Prices + Perks

As a hospitality professional, you want to treat your repeat guests different from the first time client. This allows you to incentivize guests to become repeat guest in your hotel. Repeat guests are always a great source of additional revenue in the long term, as they can bring more guests or upsell.

Repeat guests are the life blood of hospitality businesses. However, there has been a long standing problem with inviting repeat guests.

Many hospitality businesses don’t know how to treat their repeat guests differently while still catering to their first time customers as well. This has resulted in missing out on large amounts of revenue.

Contact us

Collect Valuable Customer Data with a Simple Signup Form for Email Accounts or SMS Numbers

Collect valuable guest information with a single signup form. Collect guest’s email addresses or mobile phones for SMS messaging throughout the stay.

Have you ever thought about collecting valuable customer data for your hotel? Getting the data from your customers is simple, but making the most of it with our revenue management tools is where the value lies.

Many hotels aren’t as in control of their customer data as they should be — if they have any at all. When a guest books their trip, their name, email address and phone number are stored in the hotel’s reservations system.

Sounds about right so far, but what happens when a guest selects the option for email notifications? Are the emails captured? If not, there’s no way for hotels to monitor the number of guests who opt into this permission — even if that permission is required for booking a room.

Sure, hotels can have a form on their site asking for more information from guests if they like, but that usually gets ignored.

How valuable are your customer data? That depends on how well you gather, analyze and act upon it. hotels can learn a lot from cross-referencing guest data with their marketing efforts.

For example, where does your guest spend the most time during his stay? Answering questions like these requires that you collect as much relevant info about your guests as possible, and this is where CHILCHILL Hospitality experts can help.

Train onsite Reservation Team to convert hotel direct booking

The reality of managing revenue is that not every direct booking will convert. This can be attributed to a multitude factors such as price perception, availability, or just plain ignorance. Because of this, it’s important to have a consistent strategy in place to make direct bookings truly seamless.

We’ve seen firsthand the benefits of training your hotel’s reservation team to convert direct bookings.

This means that the first person guests speak to when booking a room should be as knowledgeable about all available options as possible.

For example, if a guest calls and asks for a room with two queen beds and an ocean view on their next visit, have someone who can easily search availability for this type of request and provide it immediately.

The best way to do this is by training your reservation team on how to convert these direct bookings. The more comfortable they are with the process, the higher conversion rate you’ll achieve.

Budget hoteliers face a lot of challenges managing their reservation center. Many budget hotels are not able to monitor conversions and revenue per phone call or email. Further, they have limited capabilities that prevent them from training their reservation team to maximize conversions.

The CHILCHILL team has 16 years of experience in premium hotels and understands the needs of hospitality brand managers. We recognize the pressure many budget brands face trying to manage the growing demand for direct bookings from online travel agencies (OTAs) and third party reservation providers. Get our Training or Outsourced Reservation Service Today

Use the Power of Positive Reviews! Feedback Your Guests Have Uploaded to TripAdvisor (Or Similar).

Have you ever wondered if the positive reviews your hotel receives from guests on travel sites like TripAdvisor actually result in a higher number of conversions? Of course you have, or else you wouldn’t be reading.

Every guest before they book your hotel online, or even with B2B offline, they check what other guest did experience and what is there feedback.

If your hotel has a lot of positive reviews, it will give the guest confidence in booking with you. If that’s the case, then shouldn’t it be important for you to know how many guests are actually leaving feedback on these sites? You can’t expect everyone to leave feedback, especially if they have a bad experience.

Real feedback is probably your strongest hotel revenue management tool. But do you even know what your guests are saying about you on independent websites like TripAdvisor? Probably not.

That’s why it’s so important to get your hands on that information. For example, if you notice a large number of negative reviews from guests who stayed at your property in the last year or so, it might be time to rethink your business strategy.

On the other hand, if you have a ton of positive feedback and no complaints, then you can rest easy knowing that all is well with your hotel revenue management.

Summary Hotel Book Direct strategy:

Direct hotel booking is the best way to get more direct bookings, which usually means more revenues. However, just putting your listing on Expedia and similar sites is not enough.

You need a direct booking strategy that will also convert your direct bookings into direct revenues.
We think the next wave of hotels that are successful will be those that use dynamic pricing strategies to take control of their direct bookings.

It is the wave of the future, and it’s one that you shouldn’t ignore if you want to remain competitive.
Done correctly, it can increase revenue, improve profitability, and create a loyal customer base.

The days when online travel agencies were just a thorn in the side of hoteliers are over. They can no longer be ignored, especially now that they’re advancing with their own direct booking solutions. So if you want to stay in business—and stay relevant—you need to act now.

Chilchill Hotel Revenue Management Consulting firm offers the above services and more to hospitality management – CHECK OUR SERVICES