If you are a smart hotelier or any type of accommodation provider, you would not want to miss the chance of converting your website visitors from an OTA (or any other source) and bag the commission-free direct bookings. Have a robust online booking system like the STAAH SwiftBook Booking engine to help you with it.
The STAAH hotel booking engine system (SwiftBook) has a wonderful list of features you might be missing out on that can help you drive more direct bookings. The most common ones used by our Booking engine users are
1) Packages
Are you offering package deals?
Inclusive Packages are one of the most common deals that can attract customers to book directly from your property website. You can create a variety of packages on your Max Booking engine for your customers. Some common package deals are Room Only, Non-refundable, bed and breakfast, stay 2 and save, etc.
2) Extras/Add-Ons
You don’t always have to lower your rates to attract audience. In fact, during the low season when there is a drop in occupancy, you may not be able to sell enough to compensate for the decrease in revenue. Hence offer package deals with add-ons, providing more value. Add-ons are a great way to attract customers, especially towards the end of the booking journey.
For example: Don’t have a restaurant on site? not a problem, you could tie up with a local eatery and sell a meal. This allows you and them both to flourish and generate some revenue. Do you offer onsite Breakfast or meals? airport transfers/ spa treatments/ activities around town etc, all of this can be sold via extras/add – ons.
3) Promo Codes
Promotions and Discounts are undoubtedly one of the most powerful marketing tools for the hoteliers, helping them in filling their rooms faster. Promo codes when marketed using the right channels, strategy and amplified to the right audience through social media platforms results in attracting more visitors to your hotel website, increase direct bookings, and save on OTA commissions.
Read an in-depth article about How to market Promo codes here.
The common type of promo codes are Partnerships / Tie-ups with Corporates & SMEs, Special Discounts for frequent Guests or repeated guests & Referral Discounts, Event Discounts, Weekday/ Weekend Discount, Season Discounts, Travel Agent Discounts etc.
4) Smart Pricing
Whether you want to target a set of guests from a specific region and offer them discounted deals or create deals for advance purchase. Smart pricing is the perfect tool that would help you in setting up discounted rates at ease and attract visitors to book directly from your property website.
Read an in-depth guide on what is Smart Pricing and why you should seriously start using it. Read here
5) WatchMyRate
Sometimes the Hoteliers fail to capture direct bookings simply because OTA sites give the feel of offering the best rates. And it is a fact that room rate still remains the top driver in the booking decision. The WatchMyRate widget displays live rates from five different channels of your choice, which can be seen by all visitors, driving direct bookings and maximizing revenue for your property.
Find out more about this superb tool here.
6) Get Google
STAAH is a Google partner and the Get Google feature is available with STAAH hotel booking engine, that helps you maximizing visibility with a free Google listing.
The Get Google feature, once enabled, allows property owners and managers to sync their rates and availability feed to Google, providing more visibility on google and helps in driving direct bookings through your website.
Get started by enabling the feature in your STAAH extranet or emailing the STAAH team at sales@staah.com with the subject line Get Google, providing your property details.
New properties/Non-STAAH Customers can signup for STAAH Get Google feature here
Here are some Benefits of using STAAH Hotel Booking Engine – SwiftBook:
1) Simple Booking process –
Set up your booking steps simply with a 3-step process and reduce booking abandonment.
2) Easy rate compare options for users-
With conversion boosters such as the WatchMyRate widget, which displays the lowest direct booking rate for your rooms vs OTA rates. Result – increased retention and bookings.
3) Sell an experience with easy-to-use features –
Features like Packages, add-ons, Viator, etc (yes, we connect with this activity sales platform) to provide value-adds to your guests via a top hotel booking engine.
4) Flexible Cancellation policy –
A good online hotel booking engine gives you an option to set up a flexible cancellation policy, that helps guests to book with confidence.
5) Track reports & analytics with a booking funnel-
The Booking engine funnel shows at a glance the data of visitors to the booking journey on your website. It also helps in understanding your bookers.
6) Designed to sell –
STAAH hotel booking engine is intuitive and can be tailored to fit your website design so we deliver an experience that is seamless – and highly bookable. The Booking engine widget helps you customize according to your website colour etc.
7) Price smartly –
Features such as Smart Pricing enable you to target and apply specific discounts per region/ device/ advance purchase or multi-options type. Setting up deals doesn’t get easier!
8) Sell on all devices –
The STAAH SwiftBook Booking Engine is responsive to whichever gadget your guest comes from – mobile, tablet or desktop.
9) A single, intuitive dashboard to manage your distribution needs & reviews –
Manage online reviews using ReviewMinder, another feature that provides you with the ability to manage and respond to online reviews, and also push them to your website as needed.
