rezStream’s take on The Alternative Distribution Landscape

As a Premier Vendor Member of the Boutique & Lifestyle Leaders Association (BLLA) rezStream recently had the opportunity to attend their 2020 Boutique Lifestyle Digital Summit. The theme for the conference was Dare to Adapt, which seamlessly fits into today’s climate as we are all looking for ways to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic.

While there were several engaging speaker sessions, The Alternative Distribution Landscape was one we found to be especially relevant today.  Given our expertise and experience on this subject matter, we are offering some additional perspective on this important topic by answering the questions that came up during that session.

1) How would you describe Alternative Distribution?

For rezStream, Alternative Distribution means having a healthy balance of 3rd party channels to engage with guests to promote your brand and encourage them to book with your property. In many cases hotels find themselves leveraging a combination of metasearch engines like Google Hotel Ads and TripAdvisor Trip Connect, online travel agencies (OTAs) like Expedia and Booking.com, and global distribution systems (GDSs) like Sabre and Galileo.  Hotels must understand the unique cost structure associated with working with each channel and ensure the hotel is getting a positive return on its investment. Lastly, all 3rd party channels a hotel chooses must automatically synchronize with the property management systems and eliminate all manual work.

2) How would you recommend hotels focus on Direct?

For any hotel we work with, we encourage a tailor-made online marketing plan suited to the property’s needs and budgets. The goal is to help lodging operators achieve the right tactical focus to drive more visibility and quality traffic from their ideal clientele.  Tactics should vary in intensity, but hotels should consider these cornerstone functions: Search Engine Optimization; Email Marketing, Paid Advertising, and “Everything Else” (things like social media, blogging, and remarketing, to name a few).

Next, hotels must focus on their brand website and booking engine to ensure they are ADA compliant and accessible on every device.  An optimal guest experience is achieved when these components are seamlessly integrated with each other. In addition, there are several considerations a hotel should be mindful of to maximize their direct bookings efforts:

  1. Communicate what you are doing to address COVID-19 safety measures
  2. Boast about your “Book Direct” benefits with a detail page and banners
  3. Offer exclusive perks that you can only get via a direct booking
  4. Promote your guest review keeping visitors on your website
  5. Use exit-intent technology to grab the attention of visitors who are about to leave your website
  6. Include a price checker on your website to showcase rates from 3rd party channels

With so many opportunities to capture direct reservations, it is in every hotelier’s best interest to find a partner agency to work with that will address these areas.  When they do, they can turn all their attention to what’s most important; the guests.

3) What about rates, should you raise them, lower them, or leave them alone?

With occupancy at an all-time low, many hotel operators have started to reduce their rates in hopes occupancy grows. While this may yield some short-term results, the long-term ramification could be severe. Why? Most people connect price with quality, even in today’s climate. So, if you lower your rates, guests might very well think that you don’t have the resources to adhere to new safety standards, or that the end product is not what it promotes to be. Instead you should consider:

  1. Softening your cancelation policy to provide peace of mind to bookers
  2. Adjust your package offerings to lower the cost
  3. Add additional amenities or services to justify the original rates

4) What are the most important bells and whistles for any distribution technology you’re considering?

The number one thing we would recommend is finding a trusted partner/vendor who understands the entire guest journey – how consumers research lodging, make purchase decisions, communicate with hotels, travel and stay, and behave after their trips. Once that is accomplished, your technology provider should have:

  1. A thorough understanding of Google and search engine optimization efforts
  2. Connections to multiple 3rd party channels that synchronizes data with your property management system
  3. Automation for guest communication
  4. A robust reporting system to deliver key insights on performance

With so much to consider, we are glad that BLLA provided an opportunity to touch on this topic. As you continue to look at ways to improve your Alternative Distribution Landscape we encourage you to schedule a demo of rezStream’s Ecosystem of Lodging Tools to better understand how we can help you achieve a healthy mix of direct bookers and those that come through third-party channels.

Published: October 7, 2020