If you are a hotel owner or manager, then you will know how important it is to boost your direct bookings. It can be a bit challenging and requires an ongoing effort.
One of the first steps in boosting your direct bookings is to build a strong digital identity. This means creating a well-optimized website and optimizing your social media presence.
1. Optimize Your Website
Getting direct bookings from your website is one of the most cost-effective marketing strategies for hoteliers. It saves you from paying OTA commissions and allows you to build relationships with your guests.
Moreover, it gives you the opportunity to increase occupancy and improve your bottom line by building brand loyalty with your guests. These guests are often repeat travelers, and can be great brand advocates.
You can optimize your website for direct bookings by incorporating eye-catching images, clear calls to action, and a responsive design. These features will help your website load faster, and ensure that visitors have a positive experience.
Another important factor to consider is your hotel’s online reputation. Displaying your hotel ratings and rankings, client testimonials, social media followers, and case studies on your homepage will give the impression of a reliable business.
In addition, you can offer a direct booking discount for guests who book through your website. This incentive can significantly reduce your OTA commissions and encourage guests to book direct next time.
2. Create a Personalized Email Campaign
If you want to increase direct bookings while ensuring that your relationship with the online travel agents remains strong, you need to focus on sending personalized emails. This will help you stand out from the competition and give your subscribers the attention they need to make a decision about their future trips with you.
One way to do this is by using Personalization Tags in your email campaigns. This will allow you to use the subscriber’s name and any custom fields you have set up in their account to send relevant messages directly to them.
Another great strategy for personalized travel agency email marketing is to offer limited-time offers that are sure to grab the attention of your readers. This will trigger a sense of urgency and create fear-of-missing-out (FOMO), which is a powerful tool for increasing conversions.
Another strategy for promoting special offers and discounts is to segment your email list based on the subscribers’ location. This will allow you to tailor your messaging and promote the best deals to each user.
3. Offer Value-added Packages
The internet has transformed the travel industry and consumers have more options than ever before to book all aspects of a trip from their homes. This has shifted the role of travel agents and they now need to offer their clients personalized attention, time and money savings, insider destination knowledge, and more.
One way to encourage direct bookings while maintaining rate parity with OTAs is to offer perks and specials that only direct guests can receive. This can include complimentary WiFi, free breakfast for two or a room upgrade.
Ensure that your hotel website has these specials and promotions clearly displayed so that all guests know that they are exclusive to them. It’s also a good idea to promote these on your social media channels so that the word gets out even further.
The modern travel market is highly competitive and it’s important for hotels to stand out from the crowd by offering value-added packages. These can be simple or complex and can vary according to a guest’s preferences.
4. Offer Preferential Rates
One of the easiest ways to increase your direct bookings is to offer preferential rates. These can be anything from a special room rate to a set of free amenities or services.
These perks can encourage guests to book directly, as they often have greater value than the same accommodations advertised by the online travel agents (OTAs). For example, a free in-room massage or a discount on a local attraction can boost bookings.
Another way to incentivize people to book directly is to offer free WiFi or gift cards. These can be used to purchase local merchandise or for dining or entertainment options.
The best part is that you can offer these perks without affecting your OTA parity, which gives you a strategic advantage when it comes to encouraging guests to book direct.
If you want to increase direct bookings, it’s important to target your current and potential customers with new ads that broadcast your special offers. These can be targeted based on guest details, such as the reason for their visit and their rental history.
5. Create a Mobile-Friendly Website
With more than half of online hotel bookings now coming through metasearch engines, it’s important to maintain your presence on these sites. By promoting your rates on these metasearch engines, you can encourage guests to book directly through your website and avoid OTAs.
To increase direct bookings, hotels need to create a mobile-friendly website that is easy to navigate and displays accurate pricing information. This helps potential guests make quicker decisions and convert better.
A mobile-friendly website is also essential for generating leads from email marketing campaigns. Ensure your emails are optimized for mobile screens, as well as that the form is simple and straightforward to fill out.
Another way to generate more direct bookings is to create a loyalty program. This allows you to keep in touch with past guests and send them offers and incentives to stay at your property again.
Keeping guests happy is key to boosting direct bookings, so consider offering value-added packages or special deals only available through your hotel’s website. These discounts and promotions can help you boost direct reservations and increase revenue.
6. Build a Loyalty Program
A loyalty program is an effective way to drive repeat guests and direct bookings. Hotels can offer a variety of rewards to loyal customers, including free room upgrades and discounts on food and drinks.
However, a successful loyalty program requires a lot of effort. Hotels must promote the program to guests, and also provide an easy sign-up process.
Moreover, hotels must adapt the program to their guests’ behavior. For example, if a guest is only staying three nights with your hotel, it might be a good idea to add some spontaneous incremental benefits such as a free drink upon arrival or an extra hour later check-out time.
Loyalty programs can also help hotels limit OTA commission fees and bring down the acquisition cost per guest. They also provide hotels with data that can be used as an efficient Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool and as a Revenue Management strategy to optimize the hotel’s profitability.
7. Offer On-property Incentives
While it might seem counterintuitive, you can encourage travelers to book direct by offering on-property incentives. Free WiFi, a welcome drink, a spa entrance or an alternative activity/experience are some of the perks that will increase direct bookings.
These perks can be communicated effectively on your hotel’s website, and they can help your guests feel more comfortable booking direct. They can also help your hotel stand out from the competition.
Another way to encourage more direct bookings is to promote your hotel’s rates on metasearch engines. This helps travellers make an informed decision by comparing your prices with those of other OTAs.
You can also offer a discount or free extra night if your customer books directly. These perks are often enough to persuade guests to switch from OTAs to booking directly with you.
It can be a lot of work to increase your direct bookings, but the benefits are worth the effort. You will be able to keep more of your revenue and avoid the high cost of third-party commissions.
8. Create a Remarketing Campaign
A remarketing campaign can help you get your hotel website visitors to book directly with you. This is a cost-effective way to target customers that have shown an interest in your property and are at the end of your marketing funnel.
You can also use remarketing to reach out to previous guests and invite them to stay with you again. This enables you to build strong brand loyalty and increase your average spend per guest.
The key to success is to ensure your website is easy to use and has all the information guests need to make an informed decision. This can include user-generated content (UGC), reviews from previous guests and trust symbols like TripAdvisor badges or ratings widgets.
Direct bookings are more profitable than those booked via third parties, such as online travel agencies (OTAs). However, increasing your direct bookings requires a bit of creativity and cleverness. In the long run, it will save you a lot of money on third-party commissions and improve your hotel’s overall revenue and RevPAR.