STAAH Blog
  • Home
  • MANAGEMENT
    • OTA commissions – can you cut back?

      Top 5 Questions Your Hotel Reservations Team…

      9 hotel pricing strategies you should know…

      An In-depth Guide to Hotel Revenue Management

      Upselling – The New Challenge for Hoteliers…

  • Marketing
    • Hotel marketing | 11 Tips to Kickstart…

      Hotel marketing | Local SEO cheat sheet…

      Digital Marketing: 10 Things Hoteliers Should Be…

      6 Hotel Marketing Trends to try for…

      Top Hospitality & Travel Marketing Trends You…

  • Tips & Trends
    • Mobile-friendly hotel website: what it means and…

      11 Travel terms & Hospitality industry trends…

      5 Tips On How to Target Corporate…

      The 2022 guide to attracting Gen Z…

      7 Awesome Tips To Improve Your Hotel’s…

  • News
    • Thoughtful Thursday: Easily Manage your Booking.com Content…

      STAAH Product Updates June

      The Big Travel Rebound Kuala Lumpur &…

      STAAH Integrates with Situ – a leading…

      Are you making the most of your…

  • Vacation Rentals
    • 7 Tips & Tricks To Make Your…

      Facebook Marketing Tips For Your Vacation Rental…

      Why Guest Screening is important for Vacation…

      Digital marketing for hotels & vacation rentals…

      Don’t let energy bills soak up your…

  • Success Stories
    • Lift in direct bookings & customer satisfaction…

      Hotel Polo Towers Group Maximize Growth &…

      Crescent Spa & Resorts Saw Average Annual…

      KLoe Hotel, Malaysia Boosts Direct Bookings By…

      GCC Hotel & Club, India gains an…

  • Resources
    • All BLAAH BLAAH @STAAH e-Books Podcast Testimonials Webinars

      BLAAH BLAAH @STAAH with Avijit Arya and…

      STAAH PRODUCT MASTERCLASS – SERIES 2 REVENUE…

      Smart Distribution & Building a Resilient Business…

      STAAH Product Masterclass – Series 1 How…

      BLAAH BLAAH @STAAH with Avijit Arya and…

      BLAAH BLAAH @STAAH with Mauro Risch

      BLAAH BLAAH @STAAH with Tunku Iskandar

      BLAAH BLAAH @STAAH with Jimmy Mistry and…

      STAAH E-Guide: A-go-to-Communication Guide for Vacation Rentals

      STAAH e-Book How To Set Up Your…

      Opening Checklist post COVID-19: Things To Keep…

      EBOOK: BEGINNERS GUIDE TO REVENUE MANAGEMENT

      BLAAH BLAAH @STAAH with Suwamana Wahyu Putra…

      BLAAH BLAAH @STAAH With Matthias Dybing And…

      BLAAH BLAAH @STAAH with Vikramjit Singh and…

      BLAAH BLAAH @STAAH with Suhail Kannampilly and…

      D Elegance Hotel Johor Malaysia STAAH Testimonial

      Plume Villas New Zealand STAAH Testimonial

      Tunamaya Beach & Spa Desaru Malaysia STAAH…

      de Laxston Hotel Indonesia STAAH Testimonial

      STAAH PRODUCT MASTERCLASS – SERIES 2 REVENUE…

      Smart Distribution & Building a Resilient Business…

      STAAH Product Masterclass – Series 1 How…

      STAAH Webinar Utilize Integrated Technology Ecosystem to…

  • Free Demo
LATEST
Thoughtful Thursday: Easily Manage your Booking.com Content from...
Mobile-friendly hotel website: what it means and why...
11 Travel terms & Hospitality industry trends you...
5 Tips On How to Target Corporate Meetings...
Lift in direct bookings & customer satisfaction for...

STAAH Blog

  • Home
  • MANAGEMENT
    • OTA commissions – can you cut back?

      Top 5 Questions Your Hotel Reservations Team…

      9 hotel pricing strategies you should know…

      An In-depth Guide to Hotel Revenue Management

      Upselling – The New Challenge for Hoteliers…

  • Marketing
    • Hotel marketing | 11 Tips to Kickstart…

      Hotel marketing | Local SEO cheat sheet…

      Digital Marketing: 10 Things Hoteliers Should Be…

      6 Hotel Marketing Trends to try for…

      Top Hospitality & Travel Marketing Trends You…

  • Tips & Trends
    • Mobile-friendly hotel website: what it means and…

      11 Travel terms & Hospitality industry trends…

      5 Tips On How to Target Corporate…

      The 2022 guide to attracting Gen Z…

      7 Awesome Tips To Improve Your Hotel’s…

  • News
    • Thoughtful Thursday: Easily Manage your Booking.com Content…

      STAAH Product Updates June

      The Big Travel Rebound Kuala Lumpur &…

      STAAH Integrates with Situ – a leading…

      Are you making the most of your…

  • Vacation Rentals
    • 7 Tips & Tricks To Make Your…

      Facebook Marketing Tips For Your Vacation Rental…

      Why Guest Screening is important for Vacation…

      Digital marketing for hotels & vacation rentals…

      Don’t let energy bills soak up your…

  • Success Stories
    • Lift in direct bookings & customer satisfaction…

      Hotel Polo Towers Group Maximize Growth &…

      Crescent Spa & Resorts Saw Average Annual…

      KLoe Hotel, Malaysia Boosts Direct Bookings By…

      GCC Hotel & Club, India gains an…

  • Resources
    • All BLAAH BLAAH @STAAH e-Books Podcast Testimonials Webinars

      BLAAH BLAAH @STAAH with Avijit Arya and…

      STAAH PRODUCT MASTERCLASS – SERIES 2 REVENUE…

      Smart Distribution & Building a Resilient Business…

      STAAH Product Masterclass – Series 1 How…

      BLAAH BLAAH @STAAH with Avijit Arya and…

      BLAAH BLAAH @STAAH with Mauro Risch

      BLAAH BLAAH @STAAH with Tunku Iskandar

      BLAAH BLAAH @STAAH with Jimmy Mistry and…

      STAAH E-Guide: A-go-to-Communication Guide for Vacation Rentals

      STAAH e-Book How To Set Up Your…

      Opening Checklist post COVID-19: Things To Keep…

      EBOOK: BEGINNERS GUIDE TO REVENUE MANAGEMENT

      BLAAH BLAAH @STAAH with Suwamana Wahyu Putra…

      BLAAH BLAAH @STAAH With Matthias Dybing And…

      BLAAH BLAAH @STAAH with Vikramjit Singh and…

      BLAAH BLAAH @STAAH with Suhail Kannampilly and…

      D Elegance Hotel Johor Malaysia STAAH Testimonial

      Plume Villas New Zealand STAAH Testimonial

      Tunamaya Beach & Spa Desaru Malaysia STAAH…

      de Laxston Hotel Indonesia STAAH Testimonial

      STAAH PRODUCT MASTERCLASS – SERIES 2 REVENUE…

      Smart Distribution & Building a Resilient Business…

      STAAH Product Masterclass – Series 1 How…

      STAAH Webinar Utilize Integrated Technology Ecosystem to…

  • Free Demo

Are you winning the Direct Booking Game?

17 July 2019
Direct Bookings

Hotels around the world have started making bigger moves to win back lost grounds from online travel agencies (OTA). But is enough being done to own the customers entirely and emerge as winners?


OTAs play an important part in driving bookings by attracting lookers with appealing features – convenience, intuitive interface, multimedia components. Hoteliers will have to do much more than this to keep the customers they have and acquire more in the process.

While it is easier said than done, what can hoteliers do apart from adopting that which the OTAs are already doing?

Below are some tips to help you up your game and entice guests to book directly with you.

Offer Best Prices Direct

Hotels 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 remains as the top driver in the booking decision, independent of other offers and deals. It is a good idea here, to work towards adjusting your inventory and pricing, to portray direct bookings to be the best option always offering the best rates in the market.

STAAH’s ConvertDirect Booking engine helps enhance the guest experience with a simple & powerful design, built to convert lookers to bookers.

Show the Difference

Be transparent in your communication and prove your offer to be the best, by displaying comparative rates on your website.

STAAH WatchMyRate widget displays live rates from five different channels, which can be seen by all visitors, helping them make a decision instantly by choosing the best deal.

STAAH WatchMyRate Widget

 

Pictures tell the story

Visual content is a critical factor in keeping your user stay on your hotel website. Having low-quality images or generic stock images will only create apprehensions in the looker’s mind. Use your website to boast of a “book direct” advantage by offering potential guests to “look” at individual rooms, either as a photo gallery or as a 360-degree PhotoScape tour. This will not only let guests experience the candour but will also leave no space in the mind for any conflict.

Easy Booking and on Fingertips

Not having a user-friendly interface is another important reason hotels lag in the direct booking game. Evaluate to take corrective action if your booking process is slow, dated, unnecessarily complex or filled with bugs. Likewise, for the mobile journey. Make sure it’s streamlined and that the number of clicks necessary to complete a booking is as low as possible. Do not forget to optimize your content for the mobile view.

Load the Page Fast

Internet users are impatient and hate to wait. Statistics prove that a website visitor leaves the page within 3 seconds if there is a delay in the loading time of the page. Thus, your probability of losing a potential guest if very high just because your page didn’t load.  So, keep your page optimized and make sure you test your website’s speed regularly.

Reviews Matter

Travelers like information to be available at fingertips these days. And if they are unfamiliar with the property in consideration, then their decision depends a lot on reviews available or the lack of it.

An increasingly popular trend is having separate review pages for every room type or room category. This helps lookers to upgrade their choice and consider booking of a room type that either they haven’t tried before or suits their needs better.

STAAH ReviewMinder

STAAH’s ReviewMinder, also available on the mobile app, helps hoteliers manage their reviews, good or bad, with platform alertness that helps keep the reputation intact, if not only help make it better. This system gives real-time alerts across multiple sites, in one single easy to use dashboard. The mobile app helps you remain connected even when on-the-go and respond directly to customers.

Brand Presence on Google

With OTA’s battling for the top search results, it is possible that your website does not make it to the first page. Building a brand presence on search engines, especially on Google, becomes crucial for visibility. Try the paid search campaign with Google Hotel Ads! Since you would only bid on your brand name, it will be the most cost-efficient option. Google’s algorithm automatically recognizes your hotel website as the most relevant advert from the keywords thus helping you be among the top search list.

The above is just a start to win in the direct booking game. You should lure your guests back by building loyalty programs and offering reward points. There’s no better time than now to strengthen your relationships and own them completely. Try Google Analytics for optimizing your platform


Like what you read? We would love to know of any topic or challenge that you face, so we could cover that going forward. Reach us on marketing@staah.com

 

Are you winning the Direct Booking Game? was last modified: September 8th, 2021 by staah

Related Articles

STAAH at Booking.com’s Click. event 2019

How to Attract Chinese Tourists to Your...

Meet The STAAH Team: John Clune, Director...

How to Increase Rooms Revenue & ADR...

STAAH Products

Channel Manager
Booking Engine
Instantsite Website
Gift Voucher Engine
Review Minder

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER FOR WEEKLY UPDATES

 
 
 

E-Books

  • Beginners guide to Revenue Management
  • Set-up your Channel Manager like a Pro
  • Hotel SEO for Beginners
  • Understanding Hotel Distribution
  • Digital Marketing toolkit for Independent Hoteliers
  • Communication Guide for Vacation Rentals
About Us
  • About Us
  • Blog
  • Login
  • News
  • Contact Us
  • Careers
Integrations
  • Online Travel Agencies
  • Property Management Systems
  • Payment Gateways
  • Internet Booking Engines
  • Global Distribution Systems
  • SuNEW
Solutions
  • Hotel Channel Manager
  • Hotel Booking Engine
  • Instant Hotel Websites
  • Gift Voucher System
  • Review Management System
Get In Touch

Sales Enquiries: sales@staah.com

Customer Support: support@staah.com

Billing: accounts@staah.com

Careers: people@staah.com

Commission Savings Calculator
Truspilot - STAAH Capterra - STAAH Top Rated - Channel Management Software PCI-DSS
Fernmark Logo

Instant Channel Manager Mobile App

Instant Channel Manager Mobile App Instant Channel Manager Mobile App

Max Channel Manager Mobile App

Max Channel Manager Mobile App Max Channel Manager Mobile App

Reputation Manager Mobile App

Reputation Manager Mobile App Reputation Manager Mobile App

© Copyright. All Rights Reserved. STAAH Limited | Privacy Policy | Cookies Policy