OTA Strategy Project 2012

Project Purpose

Fáilte Ireland wanted to address industry

demand for more support and information on

the OTA channel options for Irish hospitality

businesses.

The Comparator

OTA Comparator

Booking Engine Comparator

OTA Comparator

1. The OTA's

In-depth interviews with the top OTA’s in

the Irish market

2. Irish Hoteliers

Telephone interviews with a mix of

hoteliers across Ireland

Asked over 400 hoteliers their opinion via

an online survey

3. International Research

Looked to international research on OTA’s

to back up our findings

The Research

The OTA's

all in

CONTEXT

Putting it

71% of all travel

research takes

place online

50% of all Travel

Bookings across

Europe are made

online

Travel Online

Ref: IPK

International,

March 2012

Ref:

Econsultancy

Toluna Travel

Survey

OTA's make up

37% of this

Total value of travel

bookings in Europe

2011

€238 billion

Travel Online

Ref: PhoCusWright Global

Online Travel Review

Total value is

€88 billion

Mobile Ownership

½ of all customers never visit a travel agent for holiday

bookings

½ of Italians booked their accommodation online making

it the strongest Ecommerce category

Customers prefer to go to a travel agent for more

expensive trips

yStats.com "Europe Online Travel Report 2012"

Main driver of growth in

Europe?

Booking.com

Took 27% of all Gross

OTA bookings

OTA growth – 19%

Supplier sites – 9%

OTA Growth 2011

Ref: PhoCusWright

FYI Jan 2012

OTA Growth

OTA Market Share by Country

Europe – 37% (+19% in 2011)

China – up 34% in 2011 (expected +45% in 2012)

Australia – 34% (+55% in the last 2years)

Ref: Traveltrends.biz, China Economic Net

of

MOBILE

The impact

Smartphone & Tablets

Mobile Ownership

By end of 2012:

Three out of four Irish will have a

Smartphone.

Two out of five Irish will have a

Tablet device.

RedC Report – Connecting the World, Winter 2012

The OTA's we spoke to

expect mobile bookings

to make up 20-25% of

total bookings by the

end of 2013

Mobile bookings are

expected to have

TRIPLED by end

2012, with 8% of all

mobile users booking

via mobile device

Mobile Bookings

Ref: Google Travel

Report

Channel Game Changers

Online booking

Google Hotel Finder

Google Hotel Finder

Meta Search Sites

Meta Search Sites

Roomkey Exit Strategy

Roomkey Exit Strategy

Billboard

Effect

The

75% visited an OTA

1,720 reservations at

IHG websites

Cornell Study

Ref: Cornell Chris

Anderson 83% web search

60% did both

1 OTA booking =

3-9 bookings on

hotel website

Ave. OTA visit

= 1 hour

= 90 pages of content

Cornell Study

"OTA's are now publicly projecting their job

as complementary to hotels, not

competitive. The tension in OTA/hotel

relationships – particularly during the

recession – are certainly justifiable, but at

the core, online intermediaries are meant to

be incremental business…”

"…so what does this change for hotels?

Nothing really. They still have to continue to

remind themselves that they control their

inventory, not the OTAs. However, the

OTAs taking this consumer-facing initiative

will be good for hotels if they are savvy with

their rate management and rooms

distribution”

Dan Marcec, Hotel Interactive, 6th March

2012

say about

OTA's

What hotels

477 Irish hoteliers were asked their views

on the OTA brands they work with in during

Dec 2011 - Feb 2012

2.

Breakout Session

Tips for dealing with OTA’s

1. Manage your own conversion

Today there is less brand loyalty to hotels and

to OTA’s.

Conversion is between 4-5% on the

international OTA websites, so many of the

visitors who find you on an OTA may also visit

your website.

What are you doing to convert them?

2. Reassure Your Website Visitors

What is your rate policy between your own site and the

OTA’s?

What reassurances are you giving your site visitors that

they are getting a good deal?

Can they cancel? Then tell them!!

3. Make sure you are on the correct OTA’s

What are your top customer markets and what OTA’s do they

use?

Ask the OTA’s you work with what nationalities are booking

Irish hotels?

Within the main OTA’s that we researched the the top

nationalities booking varies hugely - you need to work with

at least 3 of them to get good access to the main

international markets.

4. Match OTA terms

Match the deposit and cancellation policies of your

top OTA’s

5. Understand the OTA Customer

Load rates and availability strategically with

your OTA’s to ensure they have rates loaded far

enough in advance

For example: one site 16% are booking +60

days out &

10% are booking on the day – have you both

bases covered?

6. Create Excellent Content

OTA’s say conversion by property on their sites can be

+/- 3% based on the quality of the information and

photos available

Some OTA’s them will offer you a copywriting service,

but for others you must give them all the copy, so make

sure you know how to ‘write for the web’. You should

have a min. of 20 good quality, relevant photos loaded

with the OTA’s. Make sure you put time into making

your content great!

7. Understand the Algorithim

The OTA’s work on an algorithm to plan their property rankings. These

algorithmic are equations that may take into account all or some of the

following:

- Price competitiveness

- Promotional rates

- Conversion rate

- No. of cancellations

- Location (ie: distance to the search)

- Number and quality of photos

- Quality of the hotel description

- Ave. review score

8. Get Mobile

Expedia say that expect 20% of all their

bookings to take place on mobile platforms

(Smart phones and tablets) by 2015. You

need to consider what impact this will have on

lead times, rates and offers booked, and your

own mobile website.

9. Manage Your OTA Relationships

When working with OTA’s its not just about loading up the same rates as

you have on your site for the coming months, you need to make sure you

have the following loaded (where applicable):

- Seasonal offers

- Last minute offers

- Advanced purchase rates

- Multi night discount

- All room types

If you work through a channel manager, make sure you don’t leave the

machine to do the work! Several of the sites mentioned that the hotels that

work closely with them tend to be invited to participate in additional

Marketing campaigns across the site, social media and newsletters

10. Don’t let the Channel Manager to

all the work

OTA’s reported that hotels sometimes get lazy

when they have a Channel Manager. You

need to flex your rates and manage your

availability and room types in order to get the

most out of your OTA’s

Thank YOU