Hospitality Briefing
Guaranteed Best Rates Will Maximise Conversion
Make Sure More of YOUR Guests Book Direct on YOUR Website
In current times some accommodation providers still wonder why they get so many bookings from third party sites as opposed to their own.
As we’ve said before in other areas of online marketing simply put yourself in the place of the online customer and make it as easy as possible for them to find you and book with you.
One of the most asked questions we get is why am I getting more bookings from third party sites and not from my own website?
There are a number issues around website visibility, Search Engine Optimisation, content, design and others. This briefing simply looks at Guaranteed Best Rate or Best Available Rate.
Hotels offering online reservations on their own site have to make strategic decisions about what rate they offer to website visitors. Quite clearly many hotels are found in third party websites or Online Travel Agents (OTS’s) such as, for example, Booking.com, HotelRooms, LateRooms, VisitScotland and Hotels.com.
Whilst hotels this year in particular have been glad of the third party marketing undertaken on their behalf the market will continue, as with other travel sectors, to move towards booking direct and a growing shift to actually source the hotel they have found via the third party website.
Increasingly, if your site can be found by name and it offers the same or better deal, the customer will be more likely to book direct with you. By making your best available rate prominent on the key landing pages you can maximise your website conversion as with The Inn at Lathones above
Potential customers however will by nature browse and whether we like it or not this will often involve price comparisons. If they can book your hotel somewhere else cheaper they invariably will. They close down the hotel’s own booking engine and books through the third party site at a higher commission level. Sound familiar?
Okay it’s a booking but here’s the impact
- Higher commission paid; lower room rate achieved
- Lower conversion on your website
- Customer details now shared with third party
The reverse is also true.
A customer searched for a hotel in your area and finds your property on a Price Comparison site. They like the sound of your property and wish to make a booking. Do they just click Book Now? Actually, no. They will still search out the best price and many will then type in your hotel’s name into their search engine, click through to it and check price and availability DIRECT! If you have Guaranteed Best Rates on your site you will have increased the chance of securing a direct reservation at a higher rate and the knowledge they are your direct customer!
So for the independent or smaller hotel that is trying to drive increased traffic through their own website is it essential that they offer a Guaranteed Best Rate assurance through their own website. If some of your marketing contracts insist on you offering them guaranteed best rates then the worst your own website should offer is “rate parity”.
It’s simple really, if the booking comes through your website, you retain the customer details and avoid future third party marketing diverting them away from you; you make the direct contact, retain the booking information and the booking is clearly direct with the hotel – something that increasingly the online buyer is considering valuable.
Online Promotion
We would suggest that all accommodation providers should be strongly considering their pricing strategy and giving serious and immediate consideration to ensuring that the Best Available Rate is available at all times on their own website.
- Analyse rates on third party websites and ensure there is at least rate parity on your own website
- Heavily promote the Best Available Rate on your website. Consider making the statement site wide with deep linking directly to the booking page.
- Install a Best Available Rate banner on your homepage with a direct link to your online availability.
- Create a Guaranteed Best Rate banner for third party websites and make it available for them to use
- Put Guaranteeed Best Rate on every outgoing email – make it prominent and graphic with a direct link to your booking page
Off Line Promotion
Online sales must always be supported by off line activity. It must become a way of life for your business.
Promote the message everywhere! Everywhere you promote your website promote your Best Rate Online Guarantee. Here’s a few ideas to start with
- All leaflets, brochures and promotional materials – make sure it’s a clear call to action
- All invoices, envelopes and letters – create a banner and add it to the foot of every piece of correspondence going out or even onto your mailing labels or SmartStamp postage
- All receipts from tills, check in, check out
- Internally on Room cards (when you next go to print), key fobs and room information packs
- All offline advertising in newspapers, magazines or radio
- Non converted telephone enquiries should end with the assurance that you can get guaranteed best rates online
Contact Us
If you need further help with developing graphics or strategies for your Guaranteed Best Rate or any part of your online marketing strategy send us an email to info@GetTheEdgeOnline.com or follow us on Twitter, Facebook or our blog - see Stay Informed at The Edge