Generating direct bookings with the billboard effect
If you are going to rely on OTAs, you should at least generate direct bookings from them.
There is no doubt about it, you are doing everything you can to not let the coronavirus pandemic take down your hotel. Even with the release of a vaccine, we still have no way of knowing how soon lodging demand will return to normal and allow you to acquire more guests.
So, what have you been doing? We hope that you have doubled down on your ability to drive organic growth with online marketing and brand website optimization to capture online reservations. But if you have not and found yourself investing more in OTAs to address the short-term gains, then at least we hope you are leveraging the “billboard effect” to convert direct bookings from your OTA sources.
The Billboard Effect
According to research conducted by Expedia Group, 65% of consumers who booked directly with a hotel online visited an OTA prior to their purchase. Moreover, 18% of those consumers visited an OTA on the day of the booking. This is known as the billboard effect. This OTA-to-brand-hotel relationship is one you will need to master if you want to reduce your reliance on OTAs and associated commission fees. It also brings your website to the forefront, granting you full access to the guest so you can capture them as a direct booker. To help you maximize on this opportunity we laid out some guidelines.
- Chose the right OTA: Because of significant OTA commission fees, we encourage you to consider the following questions when selecting your channel?
- Who is their primary audience?
- What will the booking experience be like for guests?
- What features are included?
- How do booking cancellations work?
- What are the commission fees?
- Update your listing: Leveraging the billboard effect is most effective when your listing is updated and reflects your website to the best of its ability. You need to have matching photos, unit descriptions, safety measures listed, and your special offers on display. Some channels will even allow you to pay for additional links back to your website or other methods to contact you directly.
- Optimize your website: To avoid booking drop-off from OTA visitors make sure your website is easy to navigate. The important pages like COVID safety measures, book direct benefits, cancellation policies, and contact information should not be hard to find. Your booking engine should be seamlessly integrated into your website with strong calls-to-action and a widget for quick searchability.
- Collect guests’ emails: Because OTAs don’t always play nice when providing you with guest contact information, it is up to you to arm your staff with procedures for collecting this information during the check-in/out process. Important guest information to collect includes name, email, phone, birthday, anniversary, and favorite room.
- Stay in touch: If you are able to capture the name and email of your guest before their stay, add the information to your reservation software and schedule pre-stay and post-stay automated emails. Your software should also allow you to export a list of guests who booked through an OTA in the event you wanted to add them to a third party marketing tool like rezCampaigns or Constant Contact.
At the end of the day, it is important to remember that the billboard effect is just one of many strategies to consider when putting together your distribution strategy. For a more comprehensive approach to grow revenue and simplify operations, schedule a demo with rezStream to learn about our Ecosystem of lodging tools.