6 Ways To Have More Direct Bookings
Hoteliers always look forward for more sales & revenues and if we reconsider the history of hotel industry then Hoteliers have came ac-crossed a high commission concept which has ultimately affected their profits. But, now the hotel industry is taking a steep turn in their marketing tactics and among them the trending way to increase the revenue is “Direct Bookings”.
Though direct booking has always been proved the best way to generate more revenue but it sometimes has also affected the hotel badly. If the Hotel Website is not up to mark then user ends up booking rooms from other hotels. So, we are listing some of the major ways which has to be considered by hotelier while launching their website. These are the best marketing tactics to generate more revenues -
1) User Friendly Website -
The basic goal of creating a website is to convert your visitor into a customer. If you have a user friendly interface then the user will end up booking rooms from your website itself. A user always want to have their booking process seamless and if they are able to book their rooms within seconds then they will prefer to book rooms directly from site.
The search field should be highlighted on the site and user should have the fields to select the location & dates to search the rooms in the hotel. The rooms should display all the required and necessary data in a very beautiful manner. Once the booking process starts the user should not face any obstacle such as “site crashing” or “slow server”. If user can complete the order process as soon as possible on your website then you have a very compelling website.
2) Mobile Bookings -
Technology is changing very fast and so the use of mobile also. Now, the mobile is not been used just to call it has been used for all sort of works such as shopping, social involvement, bookings etc. It is very necessary to have a website which is mobile friendly. Your website should be compatible to any device whether it is Android/IOS mobile phones, tabs etc.
You should provide an option to your users to book rooms from anywhere at anytime using any device.
3) Billboard Effect -
This is the most popular tactics of increasing the sales in Hotel Industry. The billboard effect is a phenomena where Hotels list their rooms on OTAs (Online Travel Agencies) and ultimately have bookings from their own website as user want to visit the hotel website before proceeding further with the bookings. Hotels can list their rooms and manage inventory on OTAs to market their rooms to have billboard effect but it is a very hectic job.
The best way is to manage minimum inventory on a OTA using a channel manager. Hotelier can manage their listing on various OTAs using channel manager and can also easily synchronize their rooms inventory and prices between their own website as well as hotel booking website. The billboard effect will take place and ultimately hotelier will have increased in their sales.
4) Content Marketing -
There are various reasons which will prove that the content marketing is very important for a hotel website -
— — A compelling content will always increase the traffic on your website. The website ranking will increase in the search result and hence the visitors on site.
— — Hoteliers should display the photo gallery of their hotels. This will provide an inside view of the hotel to the end user and affect the user booking decision. The gallery will show your transparency to end users as they will get what they expect for and it ultimately increase the trust.
— — Hoteliers should display all the hotel amenities as well as room functionalities they have in their hotels on the website, so that user can have an idea what they are going to get on booking rooms.
— — Your social existing will always attract more customers. Now a days users are concerned about the existing of any hotel or property on social media as through this get more insight of hotel. The attractive photos available on the social media lure users to visit your website for booking.
5) Discounts -
If user go through any OTA listing and the particular hotel website they will always see a difference in room price as the price on your own website do not include the commission which has to be given to the OTAs. This discount rates always attract users to book room from the website itself and not from the OTA. This will automatically increase the revenue generation of your hotel as now from this booking you do not have to give any commission amount.
6) Online Reviews & Comments -
As a user I always prefer to go through reviews provided by others, so that I can have user experiences. Hotelier should have a proper panel to display their customers reviews on their products and hotels. They should response to the customer reviews if required. This will definitely increase the end user trust on their hotels who are visiting their website first time. You can also display the testimonials on your website.
A personal comments from your customers will always looks good and trustworthy to your end users, improving your brand’s perception. At the end those visitors will visit your website, share their views & email address and can become your loyal customer.
This takes lot of efforts and insight knowledge of hotel industry. Due to lack of knowledge and wrong booking system leads the failure of Hotel brand and fail to increase the hotel revenue.
So, we recommend you to choose the correct software for yourself that can launch an elegant website for you covering all the required features to gain more traffic, more direct bookings and so the more revenues.
Webkul Software Pvt. Ltd. has developed an Open Source Hotel Reservation System named as Qloapps. Qloapps help hoteliers to launch their beautiful website and manage all the on-desk and online bookings easily.
You can take test drive to know more about the Qloapps -
Front-end -> http://demo.qloapps.com/
Back-end -> http://demo.qloapps.com/adminhtl/
