How to attract attract the maximum number of bookings via your website and booking engine

This month’s blog looks at how hoteliers can gain more direct bookings, increasing reservations while minimising outlay in commissions to OTAs.

Hotels attract guests from numerous platforms – not to mention from a wide range of demographics and geographical locations, all with their own set of traits and preferences. The key, therefore, is to not only attract as many guests within your key segments as possible – but also to encourage them to book direct via your own website.

Making the best use of the available technology

Therefore, the overarching goal of your marketing and promotions, and indeed of your booking engine itself, should be to make best use of the technology to drive more direct bookings through your website. The process falls into four stages:

• Attract guests to your website and to book direct with you, rather than via an OTA
• Make their booking experience seamless
• Up- and cross-sell as much as you can at time of booking
• Provide a guest experience that makes them want to not only return, but share their experience on their networks.

Attracting guests to your website

The first obstacle, of course, is drawing guests to your website in the first place, when you will already out of necessity also be listed with several OTAs such as Booking.com or Expedia. This is where a number of tactics can work very well together, including:

• Social media – be present! Share news, photos and promotions, from recent upgrades and improvements you’ve made, to key staff news (new head chef?), award nominations and accolades, to seasonal offers and promotions. Share the love with testimonials and reviews from delighted guests, and your new menus, foodie photos and – if this applies to you – seasonal photos from your gardens, or produce grown on the property
• Email and SMS marketing – share the good news! Use your database to share offers and special promotions, seasonal deals and more, as advertised on your website, and send out a regular newsletter to keep your guests feeling they are part of your journey. If you have the Rezcontrol booking engine, your offers can easily be set up and will add to the visual appeal of your website and overall brand, while our automated emails will keep your hotel at the forefront of your guests’ minds.
• Google Hotel Ads – spread the word! While you can allocate a budget to pay per click advertising in Google Hotel Ads, you may not have realised that unless you are listed with numerous OTAs which will, as paid services, rise to the top in the Google hotel search results, it is very likely that browsers will be pointed direct to your own website within GHA without you allocating budget. The Rezcontrol booking engine connects to GHA as well.
• SEO or search engine optimisation – make sure you are rising to the top in organic searches.
• Advertising – depending on your clientele and budget.

Creating a seamless booking experience

This was one of our goals when we set about designing the Rezcontrol booking engine. We set out to make the booking experience and process as easy, intuitive, seamless and all-inclusive as possible, to keep guests ‘in the flow’ while considering their booking options and reduce abandoned baskets as much as possible.

Once prospective guests have landed on your website, therefore, the more you can do to keep them there until they have booked, the more revenue you will generate. Guidelines to avoid abandoned bookings include:

• Clear and simple rates – avoid confusing guests with too many rate choices. Offer a couple of clear options, like a flexible and a non-refundable rate, to simplify the decision-making process and increase conversions.
• Easy payments – support straightforward payment options, such as including digital wallets and stage payments, to reduce drop-offs.
• User-friendly interface – Rezcontrol’s booking engine, for example, features a clear, intuitive booking calendar with highly visible booking buttons that are easy to find on your website, and clear pricing.
• Mobile optimisation – ensure your booking engine is fully responsive and offers a smooth, fast, and secure checkout process on any device.
• Special offers and promotions – a good booking system should be able to highlight seasonal and special promotions, and featured offers, flagging these to increase take-up.

 

New technologies are also having an increasing impact in this stage of the booking cycle, with AI-driven automations such as UserGuest.com offering personalised messages and incentives via a smart chat tool.

Up- and cross-selling

The more your guests can include at the time of booking, the more revenue you will generate to increase your bottom line. It’s often more fruitful to catch customers while they are visualising the break they are looking forward to, rather than trying to entice them into extras after the event when they may be being more cautious with their spending.

Therefore – fairly uniquely among booking engines – we have created a single basket check-out where guests can add dinner reservations, room extras (such as cots, sea views and dog-friendly rooms), occupancy choices and extra treats such as champagne and chocolates. We also ensure the admin is kept to a minimum for guests by issuing a single confirmation email and invoice/receipt.

Whichever booking engine you use, these are the kinds of things to look out for when setting up your tech stack.

Reviews and recommendations

Amplification is key, and no direct booking strategy can be considered complete without:

• A review platform to gather feedback and testimonials, which can then be published on the website, in emails and on social media
• A Google review invitation strategy – the more, the merrier!
• A loyalty programme for returning guests – this could include perks and membership discounts.

Finally, it is always wise to monitor and refine your offering. You can do this via:

• A/B testing – test different elements of your booking engine, such as button colour, wording and layout, to see what resonates best with your audience.
• Tracking performance – use built-in performance insights within your booking engine and elements such as UTM trackers within your promotions to understand what’s working and refine your direct booking strategy for better results.

In this way, hoteliers can combine their day to day promotional activity with easily accessible booking technologies to not only drive prospective guests to their website (and so reinforce their brand), but to book via their own booking engine and avoid paying commissions.

Not a customer and interested in the Rezcontrol booking engine? Call us on +44 (0)330 223 1456 or email sales@rezcontrol.com – you can also book a demo or contact us via the website.