FEBRUARY 13, 2019 AT 1PM MST - PAST WEBINAR

Get Connected: Current Trends in Marketing Channels

ResNexus has partnered with AIHP for this webinar. See how the hospitality industry has evolved and the role OTAs like Expedia and Booking.com play in the guest decision making process.

PRESENTED BY: NATHAN MAYFIELD

FEBRUARY 13, 2019 AT 1PM MST - PAST WEBINAR

Get Connected: Current Trends in Marketing Channels

ResNexus has partnered with AIHP for this webinar. See how the hospitality industry has evolved and the role OTAs like Expedia and Booking.com play in the guest decision making process.

PRESENTED BY: NATHAN MAYFIELD

Marketing channels are called by many names, but they can be defined as anything that brings customers to find your business, such as your website, booking engine, marketing emails, social media, etc.

Let's focus on online travel agencies and how they can be used as a marketing channel.

Why marketing channels?

Expedia found in a 2015 study that most people are planners, and they plan trips at least 45 days out. However, only 37% of people know where they want to go when they want to book their trip, according to Expedia, which means everyone else is destination searching.

So how do people figure out where they want to go to plan their upcoming trip? They turn to marketing channels like OTAs.

OTAs have the search visibility that you need for future bookings because they rank high on Google; OTAs also have traffic that you can't compete with. The last thing you want is for a customer to overlook your property because your website or marketing channel wasn't visible.

Now you know why OTAs are good to use for your business, but let's look at why customers continue to use OTAs.

Why do customers use OTAs?

In the 2015 travel market report from earlier, Expedia found that consumers look at 38 websites on average before booking a trip. In 2017, according to another study, the average number of websites people look at before booking dropped down to 4.4 websites.

There are three factors for why people like to use OTAs:
1. Consolidation - Consumers don't have to book their flights, hotels, and car rentals on different sites anymore. An OTA is convenient for the user.
2. Instant Gratification - Searching for where you want to go on a trip with an OTA is faster than having to do a Google search on your own. Customers get a broader look at the possible travel inventory without too much work.
3. Improved sites - OTAs offer more than what they used to. Their sites are easy to use and constantly being updated.

But OTAs can be costly.

What's the cost of OTAs?

All marketing has a cost. You have to figure out the most cost effective way to get your word-of-mouth out there, whether that be through email marketing, OTAs or social media. OTAs are highly effective at getting people to look at a wide variety of businesses, but they do usually take 15 to 30% commission.

Now let's look at how you can use OTAs to their full potential while spending the least amount of money possible.

How to use OTAs to your advantage

1. Entice customers to want to stay with you.

You only have one shot to persuade them to stay with you. As soon as they decide they don't want to stay with you, they're back to the search and you've just lost a potential customer. So make staying with you worth it: offer packages, have a trustworthy website and make the direct booking experience easy.

2. Use them for reviews.

Get reviews from guests through OTAs, making your brand better known and trusted. Reviews help guests to cement their purchasing decision.

3. Use them to sell weekday rooms and slower weekends.

4. Block weekends so guests book directly.

Show your weekday rates, so people know that you're in the area, but block weekends so they are encouraged to book directly with you on your website. This is good if most of your guests are looking to book on the weekend and want cheaper rates.

5. Block rooms during the busy season, so that guests will book directly with you.

6. Determine your target audience and appeal to them.

Who are you going for? Each generation and type of guest has different wants and needs. Determining those and then marketing to those types of guests on OTAs can help you more effectively market and book rooms.

Let's look at a recap of the webinar.

In Conclusion

To recap, guests like to use OTAs for three main reasons:
1. Consolidation
2. Instant gratification
3. Improved sites

But how can you use OTAs to your advantage? You can:

Entice customers to want to stay with you.
Use OTAs for reviews.
Use OTAs to sell weekday rooms and slower weekends.
Block weekends so guests book directly.
Block rooms during the busy season, so that guests will book directly with you.
Determine your target audience and appeal to them.

We hope these OTA tips and insights will help you to grow your business.

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SEE WHY RESNEXUS IS TRUSTED BY THOUSANDS OF PROPERTIES

SCHEDULE A TOUR

CALL US 385.218.2637