A question that should be a statement by now. Hospitality experts around the world are working hard to trigger a paradigm shift in travellers’ way of thinking about direct booking and to help them realize that it is definitely worth reserving rooms on hotels’ own websites. In the first part of the article you could read about the key ingredients that according to Ákos Gyenes, acknowledged expert of hotel management and direct booking, and RESnWEB’s hospitality director help your future guests discover your hotel’s excellence, message and offers easily so they can reach the best decision on their bookings. At a BookDirect MeetUp 2016 he emphasized that hotels’ well-known and legally well-protected name, unique selling points, satisfied guests and professional staff all contribute largely to more and more guests visiting hotels’ own website. However, in order to convert travellers’ aroused interest into reservations, especially into non-commissioned, direct bookings you need to offer something more beyond the above listed: competitive rates, deals and a modern platform where guests can reserve their rooms fast and smoothly.
Logical pricing
Logical that is it motivates guests to book direct. Do your best to prove that your guests can find the best prices and deals on your hotel’s own website: exclusive direct booking offers with the most attractive combination of rates, services and (deposit and payment terms and cancellation) conditions. Moreover, you can offer additional benefits as well to encourage direct bookings: complimentary gifts, vouchers and services (extra amenities, digital perks, loyalty cards exclusively for direct bookers), just to add extra value to the already timesaving and convenient booking experience. It is important to draw your visitors’ attention to incentives on the hotel’s webpage with a catchy and snappy slogan, with pop-ups or floating windows and you can also take it to the next level and for example name your hotel’s wifi network “Book direct.”
Competitive online booking platform
You can offer the best rates and attract the most people to your website if all they are able to do there is to fill in an old-fashioned request for proposal form or call the hotel. We live in a fast tech world where people are used to having their needs and desires satisfied rapidly so they choose the quickest and shortest route to it; plus they tend to prefer web solutions to in-person ones. Knowing this makes it crucial to have a competitive online booking platform on your hotel’s modernized website where your guests are able to convert their decisions into immediate actions and book their rooms simply and quickly while they can see and understand different possibilities, add-on services and total amounts clearly and perfectly.
Direct bookings and nothing else?
Hoteliers’ main focus and goals should be guest satisfaction, profit and the optimum balance of these. You can maximize them by making direct booking on your hotel’s website as beneficial as possible. Spare no efforts to show and prove that it is favourable to book direct. However, do not exclude OTAs and metasearch pages completely. Remember that reaching your objective of increasing direct bookings is easier with them as they help your hotel be more visible online so those potential guests who have never heard about it before can also find your accommodation.
The answer to the question in the title is: It really pays to book direct. Period. Take a step to convert this sentence from a dubious question into a declarative fact in more and more heads since with well-planned pricing, excellent booking possibilities and good market positioning direct booking is advantageous for travellers and hotels as well.
