CEO and Project Manager
November 4, 2015
The hotels we speak to on a daily basis give us the impression that OTAs (online travel agencies) are one of their main problems. They tell us that they generate a lot of bookings and that they spend a lot of money in commissions.
At Asiri we believe that this type of intermediary is simply another piece on the board that we all play in tourism marketing. And it is the hotelier who decides how to play, so it is up to him to move the pieces according to his strategy (if he has one).
And here is the main problem that we find in many of these hotels: the lack of a defined strategy.
We give you 5 examples of how useful these online intermediaries can be to improve your hotel's online strategy :
Generating reservations on low occupancy dates
We all know that there are greece email address certain dates when, if it weren't for the OTAs, we would sell fewer rooms per day. We pay commission, yes, but we get a small profit, and the possibility of retaining a client who might not have arrived if it weren't for this means.
Search engine visibility
What we don't invest in paid advertising on Google, Booking.com does. That's right. Sometimes we have to see this commission that we pay to the OTAs as an investment in advertising. Whatever the case, they put our hotels in the first position on Google. What if we use this "pole position" to then take them to our website and make their final reservation there?
Online reputation
OTAs give customers the opportunity to make comments about our establishments, and they also allow us to see and respond to many of them. Thanks to OTAs we have this opportunity to defend our businesses and generate empathy with our customers. Do we aim to respond and improve, or do we just grumble and look at our navels?
Managing incidents with customers
On many occasions, the same OTAs also act as intermediaries with customers when they have a problem with their reservations or during their stays at the hotels. They contact a hotel manager and give them the opportunity to manage these incidents. They collaborate in some way so that the end customer is satisfied.
We have another opportunity to build loyalty with a customer who comes through an OTA. Don't waste it.
Payment guarantee for reservations
Almost all OTAs provide us with a credit card that guarantees the reservations they make with us. Obviously, there are also some that are not valid and that we are obliged to manage in the most efficient way to avoid problems with unpaid “no shows” or unnecessary overbookings. The ball is in our court and it will be our problem if we are not able to establish procedures so that these reservations come to fruition.
