LONDON—Hoteliers are constantly advised to streamline the booking process for guests, but what about streamlining management of distribution channels as well?
An audience of revenue managers and hoteliers sought that answer during a seminar last week at the World Travel Market. Presenter David Guilfoyle, from channel management company ParityRate, highlighted the importance of streamlining the online-booking price as well as the online-booking process in his “Increasing the bottom online” presentation.
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“If you’re going to make the highest (average daily rate) on any given day, you have to … log in three to four times a day to keep on top of those rates and keep your yield as high as possible”, he said. “Consolidate all of your Internet channels into one log in and one click”. Rate parity shouldn’t suffer just because different booking agents charge different commissions, Guilfoyle said. Prices should be consistent across various booking channels so as not to drive away sales.
For example, a hotel whose official website booking agent was offering a room at €80 (US$109) was contradicted by another booking agent selling the same room for €130 (US$177.21) and indicating no availability. Confusing the issue further was the listing on Expedia, which was also at €130 (US$177.21).
“The chances are that a customer is not going to pay 130 Euros (US$177.21) as the price is too high for the location of the hotel”, Guilfoyle said. “The hotel doesn’t make a sale, the site doesn’t make a commission. … The reason for this is that (the hotel) just doesn’t have time to manage all the websites used. Managing a lot of websites and selling them at different rates is going to leak sales”.
Free ways to increase online sales
Working for a channel management company, Guilfoyle inevitably wants to see more hotels employing his services. However, he suggested three free resources that allow smaller hotels to increase online sales.
1. Google AdWords
“(Google AdWords) will give you a lot of intelligence as to what’s going on in the market, who is looking at your website, as well as which markets you should be looking at”, Guilfoyle said.
“With Google Analytics, you can find out what pages the clients are looking at and what are the exit rates on each page of your website. You then need to look at that page and see why clients might be leaving a page.
“Google will also tell you what keywords that clients are using to arrive at your page and let you analyze what this tells you”.
2. Google PPC
Whilst not strictly free, another tool Guilfoyle recommends is Google Pay Per Click, where users can specify how much they are willing to pay for a click or impression. As a caution, he recommended being very strict on what websites are allowed to PPC their hotel name.
“Research different variations of your hotel name and see who is actually PPC-ing your hotel”, he said. “Every time that someone clicks on these links, the company who is PPC-ing your hotel is paying for the click. ‘London Hotels’, for example, is going to be costing a significant amount of money. If they are PPC-ing your name, your cost of PPC is going to go up as well.
“PPC your own hotel, and you can control your daily budget and target what areas you want to PCC and link this to certain keywords”.
If a hotel is paying commission of 20% for someone who is using its name, charging when something generic—such as “Hotels London”—is searched is going to cost a lot of money.
3. Trip Advisor
Guilfoyle highlighted TripAdvisor as one review site in particular that can significantly help drive online sales upward. However, he stressed the need for the hotel’s involvement and recommended use of the Hotel Account tools. Embrace TripAdvisor by directly linking to it from the official website and adding the review widget, he suggested.
“You’ve got to take the time out and show that your customers are important”, he said. “Whether the review is good or bad, take the time to respond as it really does benefit your hotel and your brand. Ask yourself: If you saw a bad review and there was no response there, or if you saw a bad review and there was a response there, what would you do as far as your booking was concerned, how would you feel about the hotel?”