10 THINGS YOU MUST DO TO GROW YOUR
HOTEL’S DIRECT BOOKINGS IN 2017
WHY WORRY ABOUT DIRECT BOOKINGS? Cheaper Acquisition Costs
These guests are your customers – not the OTA’s
Lower Cancellation Rates
Easier Retention Rates for these guests
Higher ABV and Spend at your property
TODAY’S GOAL:
To arm you with practical action points to increase Direct Bookings in 2017.
We want to improve your bottom line.
Take a look at where your property stands at the moment by analyzing statistics across your different channels, especially your Brand.com & OTAs. Look at:
Volume of Booked Revenue
Volume of Stayed Revenue
Lead Times on Bookings
Cancellation Rates
Lead Times on Cancellations
Room Types booked
Rateplans Booked
Geographic Source of Bookings
Review Freesale v Allocation given to OTAs
1 – Analyse Performance between Channels
Guests should always be able to get the best deal when they book direct. Don’t train your guests to look elsewhere for better deals!
Ensure that rates are not cheaper anywhere else – through OTAs or through FITs available publicly. Regularly check these channels yourself.
Consider more restrictive cancellation policies on OTAs:
• This is especially important if they have larger cancellation rates than direct
• Protect your high demand dates with non-refundable rates on OTAs
2 – Best Rate Direct
What’s in it for them? Make these clear on your site and on other touchpoints with guests.
3 – Reasons to Book Direct
4 – Total Stay vs Per Person Rates Our Analysis has shown that hotels with Total Stay Rates convert better than other methods of rate display. Avoid showing rates Per Person Sharing or Per Person Per Night Don’t make your guest do any mental arithmetic!
5 – Protect your High Demand Dates There are a number of ways to protect high demand dates without risking violating rate parity clauses:
Add 2 Night Minimum Length of Stay to your OTAs and not on your own site to drive one night stays direct
Close out your lower / most popular room types on OTAs so that guests looking for these must book direct.
When you have achieved a comfortable level of occupancy, close out all OTAs leaving only your direct channels open.
When you receive as Low Inventory Warning from an OTA, consider if these bookings would come direct instead.
Most importantly: add these restrictions ahead of time.
6 - Does Brand.com have the Right Level of Inventory?
Ensure they’re enough to cover the demand that you are seeing on your own site for any day
Ensure that you are not giving too much inventory to OTAs,
particularly for peak dates. If you fill your hotel with these less profitable bookings too early, you
won’t have the availability left for your direct guests.
7 – Booking Abandonment Net Affinity Clients avail of our Booking Abandonment Tools:
Leave Message when closing Reservation Form One Email after 30 Mins Second Email after 2 days Voucher Abandonment Email after 30 Mins
Brand this Message: Add an incentive for guest to book direct.
Add 5%-10% Discount Give a value ad, e.g. a drink on arrival Free Breakfast
8 - Mobile For most hotels, mobile traffic is 50%
of overall traffic and growing!
Cross Device Conversions are becoming more important – guests are researching on mobile & completing on Desktop
Ensure that your mobile site represents your brand as well as you desktop site does
Net Affinity Clients avail of our Mobile App & Booking Engine is optimised for Mobile
Consider Responsive Design for Mobile
9 – Paid Marketing The traffic landscape has changed –
Organic traffic is dropping and paid is becoming more important.
Ensure that you are investing the right level into paid digital marketing for your property.
For most hotels, this means that you need to increase your budgets for 2017 and are incorporating all channels
Brand Search, Remarketing, Facebook, Metasearch
Are you targeting the correct geographical markets?
10 – Website Content
Rateplan Descriptions
Clear and Concise
Correct & Consistent Tone
Include Relevant Details only
Include Main Info in Title
• Midweek Escape – 2 nights with Dinner
Regularly Update Content
Google rewards up-to-date, relevant content that is regularly updated
Review Page Views & Bounce Rates to improve page content
Consider a Blog
Imagery – High Quality Images are imperative
SUMMARY - DRIVE DIRECT BOOKINGS
1. Analyse
Performance by Channel
2. Ensure Best Rate is
always Direct
3. Highlight Reasons
to Book Direct
4. Display Prices as
Total Stay
5. Protect you High Demand Dates
6. Ensure Correct
Inventory Levels
7. Booking
Abandonment
8. Consider Mobile
Traffic
9. Reconsider Paid
Marketing
10. Regularly update Website Content