There are dozens of ways for travelers to book accommodations. From online travel agencies (OTAs) and metasearch engines to a hotel’s website and social media channels.
It’s common for hoteliers to focus mainly on OTAs, finding it difficult to diversify their booking sources to include direct channels. This strategy, however, can eat into profits and limit a hotel’s control over the guest experience. Finding the right mix of direct and third-party reservation sources can help lodging businesses maximize occupancy and profitability.
A modern, integrated booking engine is a fundamental part of a hotel’s direct booking strategy. In this article, we explore nine ways a booking engine can help hotels drive more reservations and the benefits of doing so, such as control over the brand narrative, personalization of the guest journey, and increased revenue.
While OTAs and other third-party distribution channels are crucial for lodging businesses, having a solid direct booking strategy is equally important. Direct bookings bring a ton of benefits, including:
Owning your guest data. Direct bookings empower hotels to take full ownership of their guest data. This data can be used to conduct personalized marketing campaigns and pre-arrival communications. When reliant purely on third-party channels, this data isn’t available until guest arrival, resulting in missed upsell opportunities pre-stay.
Increased profitability. Depending on the percentage of bookings that come from OTAs, commissions can eat into a significant amount of revenue. Balancing OTAs with direct bookings helps hotels save on commission rates, money that can be reinvested into the property and its marketing efforts.
Diversification. Relying solely on one or two OTAs for bookings can be risky. If an OTA’s business declines or its strategy changes, hotels that depend on it could lose a significant portion of bookings. By diversifying your distribution strategy across OTAs and direct channels like metasearch, social media, and your website – hotels can ensure a steady flow of reservations regardless of one channel’s decline.
Control over brand and messaging. Direct bookings give hotels complete control over their brand and messaging. They can establish expectations through marketing campaigns, website content, and pre-arrival communications to ensure that guests are prepared for their stay and aren’t met with any unwelcome surprises.
Shape the guest experience. From the moment a traveler lands on your website to when they leave your property, hotels can shape the guest experience. From using chatbots to answer booking questions to sending personalized email confirmations and pre-arrival messages, hotels can make a big impression before a traveler sets foot on the property.
A booking engine is software used by lodging businesses to facilitate the direct booking process, making it easy for travelers to book online.
For a booking engine to be most effective, it must be integrated or connected with other systems, including the property management system (PMS), channel manager, and payment gateway. This integration ensures reservation details and payment information are collected and processed automatically, and changes in rates and availability are updated across channels (both direct and indirect).
Hotels can then use the information collected from the booking engine to send confirmation emails and pre-arrival communications via SMS, WhatsApp, or Messenger from the PMS or guest engagement platform. If you utilize a customer relationship management (CRM) system, you can also store information here to create personalized marketing campaigns.
The integration of these systems is vital because it provides a frictionless booking experience for guests and automates hotel operations, leading to increased direct bookings and revenue.
Direct bookings sound great in theory, but getting travelers to book directly is easier said than done. Here, we explore how an integrated booking engine helps lodging businesses drive more direct bookings.
Direct bookings offer unparalleled benefits for lodging businesses, from owning guest data to enhancing profitability and brand control. An integrated booking engine serves as a crucial tool, streamlining the booking process, maximizing revenue, and fostering guest loyalty. As hotels navigate the complex distribution environment, investing in a booking engine that integrates seamlessly with the rest of its tech stack will be a game-changer in increasing efficiency and driving more revenue.
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