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In this competitive industry, it is important to stand out from the crowd and generate more direct hotel bookings. In this blog, we will explain benefits of direct bookings, what challenges hotels may face and how to overcome them with a comprehensive strategy on all fronts.
Hotel direct booking means a reservation made directly through a hotel website or email/call/walk-in and NOT through any third-party online travel agencies like Booking.com, Hotels.com, etc.
We can observe significant changes and trends in the hotel booking process. While OTAs remain the most popular source of hotel bookings, hotels have started focusing more on direct reservations. Reasons are as simple as enhanced control, guest data privacy, more revenue, and so on!
According to a few studies, bookings through OTAs declined, whereas direct bookings through hotel websites increased during 2019-2020. COVID-19 had a drastic impact on this. Guests want to ensure safer environments, know precisely what cleaning protocols they are following, etc.
Also, after the pandemic, people are inclined to want more tailored stay options, leading them to make direct hotel bookings.
This shift enhances guest trust and allows hotels to increase direct bookings, fostering a more personal connection with guests and improving overall satisfaction.
| Factor | OTAs | Direct Bookings |
| Booking Platform | Reservations are made through a third-party online travel agency platform. | Reservations are made directly with the hotel or property. |
| Commission Fees | Hotels typically pay OTA a commission fee for each booking. | No commission fees are involved, resulting in higher revenue for the hotel. |
| Guest Data | Guest data is shared with the OTA. | Hotels have direct access to guest data, allowing for better personalization and targeted marketing. |
| Customer Loyalty | Guests may have less loyalty to a specific hotel, as they can easily switch to another option on the OTA platform. | Guests who book directly are more likely to develop loyalty to the hotel and return for future stays. |
| Guest Experience | The guest experience may be influenced by the OTA's policies and procedures. | Hotels have more control over the guest experience, allowing for personalized service and tailored offerings. |
Let's see how direct bookings help hoteliers
OTAs charge commission fees anywhere between 10% and 30% for each successful booking they generate through these sites. So, the charges you see on the OTAs are typically higher than the prices you see on the websites.
Apart from these commissions, hotels also need to pay for marketing and advertisements on OTAs for higher ranking and discovery.
On the other hand, with the hotel’s website, hoteliers can create more efficient campaigns and packages that benefit both guests and hoteliers: best prices for guests and more business for the hoteliers! It's a real win-win situation!
As mentioned before, direct booking excludes OTA commissions. This increases the profit margin behind every guest room sold.
Moreover, direct bookings provide hotels with greater control over the guest experience. This lets hotels avail themselves of personalized recommendations, targeted upselling opportunities, and seamless cross-selling of additional services like dining, spa, and sightseeing, further enhancing revenue.
When a guest uses a hotel website to book their stay, it’s a sign of loyalty, there are higher chances of them returning back to the hotel, and booking directly through the website = more revenue!
If hotels focus majorly on direct bookings by creating a strong online presence, they will not have to rely heavily on OTAs to derive bookings. OTA advertising reduces the hotel's profit margin. By cutting this off, hotels can generate more revenue.
Issues regarding payments and bookings are common when booking through OTAs. When a guest books a room directly, the hotel has direct access and can promptly resolve guest issues.
Hotels can give special discounts or loyalty points to those who book through hotel websites. This ensures repeated business and enhanced customer relationships.
You can also send your guests emails and messages post-stay seeking feedback. This way, your guests will feel that you want to work on improving your services and actively enhancing the guest experience.
Direct bookings build trust between guests and hotels. When guests book directly, they know they are dealing with the hotel directly, eliminating any intermediaries that could potentially compromise the booking process or guest experience.
When guests book their rooms directly, hotels can gain complete control over their room inventory. They can then effectively manage their reservations, prices, discounts, promotions, etc.
Imagine a scenario where a guest has made bookings for certain dates through OTA. Now, the guest wants to modify the dates. There is a significant chance that the OTAs will charge them for this modification. On the other hand, if it was a direct booking, a hotel may just check the availability and would make the change.
This flexibility is possible only when the bookings are made direct.
Hotels can offer the best to their guests when they have complete control over their operations from the moment guests check in. They can resolve guest complaints immediately when there is less dependency on OTAs.
A website is a guest's first impression of the hotel. When a guest makes a direct booking through the website, they interact with the brand directly, strengthening the hotel's brand identity.
Guests may only get the hotel's contact details once they make a booking through the OTA. This reduces the chances of maintaining the brand image.
As we mentioned earlier, hotels can create a solid online presence when bookings are made directly, which is not possible with OTAs.
Imagine a returning guest making a reservation at your hotel. You have past data about their room, food, and other preferences, so you interact with them accordingly.
You can show your commitment to exceptional customer service by anticipating their needs and offering tailored recommendations. For example, if the guest previously selected a smoking room with a balcony, you can proactively offer that same room type.
This will make him feel very personal, and it will also save a lot of time in the reservation process.
This is all possible when a hotel creates comprehensive guest profiles based on data. These profiles may include booking preferences, past booking history, contact details, etc.
Hotels can also create marketing campaigns for a particular segment of guests, such as business travelers and solo travelers. You can offer them customized loyalty programs, personalized services, amenities, and experiences.
And guests love experiences that feel personal to them. This can lead to positive word-of-mouth and increased revenue.
OTAs are still dominant in this industry for many reasons, such as competitive pricing, a variety of stay options to compare, convenience, etc.
It becomes difficult for hotels to derive direct bookings, especially from those unfamiliar with the hotel or looking for more options.
Hotels need a proper strategy and a powerful reason for guests to make a booking for your hotel. Creating strong customer relationships, a great social presence, and word-of-mouth publicity are some of the strategies hotels can use.
If a hotel website is new, it takes time to discover online and create brand value. This could concern some guests who are cautious about their data being shared. So they can prefer established OTAs such as Expedia, Booking.com, etc, over a new website.
OTA deals could be smart, as guests may feel they are getting a better deal even if they're paying more than the direct prices from the hotel.
Plus, a hotel website's booking process could be more complex if not implied properly than any OTAs. For the sake of convenience, guests may choose OTAs over a hotel website, leading to lower conversion.
There needs to be more than just having a website. To keep it optimized and user-friendly, hotels must constantly work on the website from all fronts. This may cost them a bit.
Plus, a hotel may need to invest in social media marketing, paid advertising, and content creation. These costs can be significant, especially for the smaller hotels.
There are certain factors that hoteliers must consider when creating and maintaining a website. They must track a website's performance from time to time. A slow website frustrates everyone and it can create a bad impact.
Integrating booking engines, such as property management systems (PMS) and revenue management systems, can be complex and time-consuming.
Also, hotels must consider robust security to safeguard guest data along with other factors like mobile optimization and technology updates.
Most OTAs have already established a strong presence in the market, and guests feel safe browsing them when they want to make a booking. Plus, these OTAs have mobile-friendly interfaces, a significant factor that can be a great challenge for you if your website is not mobile-optimized.
Nowadays, travelers are more value cautious. They will likely choose the better deal if they find competitive prices elsewhere.
The hotel and travel industry is highly competitive and creates marketing campaigns that succeed.
Small-scale hotels with limited staff can find it challenging to put in extra effort for the marketing strategy. Moreover, such small hotels may also need help with hiring experts in this area and having limited or no budget for campaigns.
Even though there are numerous challenges hotels may face in determining direct bookings, here are some proven strategies to overcome these challenges to a great extent.
A well-optimized website is crucial for driving direct hotel bookings. Use high-quality visual content like images and videos while maintaining the website's loading speed. Remember, no one likes a slow-loading website! If the user feels frustrated, then you will lose a booking!
Consider adding virtual tours to various areas of the hotels, including the surroundings. This will give guests a better idea of where they are going to stay!
Other Strategies to Increase Direct Bookings for Hotels include:
Your website should be responsive and look great on all devices, from desktop to mobile. Consider having it designed by someone with extensive experience in hospitality website design.
You may ask why!
Because hospitality industry experts know what guests are looking for and design accordingly, agencies like INNsight have over a decade of experience in the hotel industry.
When your website is Powered by INNsight, you will get a brand new, custom-designed, responsive website with zero upfront design costs, no long-term contract, and a reasonable monthly subscription cost with these fantastic features and benefits.
Ensure your reservation process is easy to navigate. It should have clear steps and minimal distractions. If your website is powered by INNsight, then you can integrate the Booking Engine at no additional cost.
These are the basic factors you must consider when choosing your booking engine. It should be all-inclusive. It should have inventory control, hotel discounts, email confirmation, fax confirmation, reservations management, and so on.
When you can manage everything on a single platform, the process becomes a breeze for both hoteliers and guests.
Here are the tips to choose the best Booking Engine for your hotel.
Many travelers make bookings on the go. That means while traveling or after being in the area. They use their smartphones for this purpose. To acquire this segment of guests, you must have a mobile-optimized hotel website!
Use clear and precise calls to action, such as “Book Now,” “Contact for Reservations,” or “Get a Quote.” Aim to provide at least 2 CTAs and Asks on a page that does not sound repetitive yet effective.
The most important and challenging part- SEO! Consider investing in professional services from reputed agencies that can help you with Hotel or Restaurant website SEO.
Even if you dont have resources, you can take care of the following factors to enhance search engine optimization!
Identify and use keywords that your guests might use to find hotels in your area. Use these keywords strategically in your website content. But don’t overdo it! You can use free tools for keyword research like Semrush, Ahrefs, Google Keyword Planner, etc.
Once your keyword research is done, use the target keywords in different headings, titles, descriptions, alt texts, etc. This is your on-page SEO.
Build high-quality backlinks from reputable websites. Create a backlink strategy and imply. This will improve your search engine ranking and domain authority.
Optimize your website for Local SEO by incorporating local keywords. Keywords related to the nearest attractions, activities, neighborhoods, and experiences are known as local keywords.
Local Schema Markup helps crawlers to understand what your website is about. It helps enhance search engine rankings.
We all know how important social media is for marketing nowadays. This is the most convenient, easy, and affordable way to reach a wider audience. Here are some of the social media strategies for generating direct bookings.
Email marketing is important for hotels because it is one of the direct ways to communicate with guests. Build relationships, promote special offers, provide essential information, and gather valuable feedback by implementing effective email marketing campaigns!
Here are some of the strategies you can use to derive more direct bookings.
A. Building an Email List
Build a strong email list by collecting email addresses from guests through your website, social media, and in-person interactions.
Guests like receiving personalized emails, texts, etc. Even mentioning their names in the emails goes long way! Use guest data, such as their name, previous bookings, and preferences, to create tailored content that resonates with them. This can include personalized recommendations, offers, and messaging.
Email automation tools can help you save time and improve efficiency. Set up automated email campaigns for tasks such as welcome emails, booking confirmations, post-stay surveys, and abandoned cart reminders. This ensures that guests receive timely and relevant communications without manual intervention.
It is important for hotels to offer package deals to ther customers to drive more bookings. But that’s not it! It matters, how you offer it! Spicing up this proces a bit, goes a long way!
Gamification is a process of making the process fun and game-like. Rooth the feeling of achievement in guests’ minds every time they finish a challenge or earn a new badge. It will motivate them to gain more and you will eventually have more business from them.
Do you want your guests to return to your hotel again? Here’s a simple cue: provide them with a great stay experience.
Guests remember small gestures, too, and it aids in word-of-mouth publicity!
Make their check-in and check-out procedures easier by implementing web-check-in services or hotel apps.
If available, recommend activities, attractions, dining places, and room upgrades.
Anticipate their needs, like luggage assistance to arrange local trips, etc.
Save both your and your guest timing by offering them the online guest directory, where they can find everything they need during their stay including restaurant timings, tv channels to local attractions recommendations!
Give your staff some leverage and ownership so that they can make decisions and go the extra mile to offer personalized services to your guests.
Always offer high-quality amenities and facilities. You dont always have to have many amenities at your property. But whatever you offer should be functional and of good quality!
Also, always run periodic quality checks on all the facilities you provide. If a guest has to come to the front desk for small things like a non-working air conditioner, remote, television, etc., it will be frustrating for them.
Last but not least, cleanliness! Keep your premises and guest rooms clean all the time. Unclean rooms and premises are some of the significant guest concerns that guests face during their stay.
This is easily achievable and helps your hotel's reputation for a longer period.
We cannot say this enough! Encourage your guests to leave reviews and ratings. Actively monitor them and respond empathetically.
You may neglect this, but the impact of online reviews on hotel businesses is huge!
Invest in Reputation Management Tools that can help you manage your online reputation professionally.
By doing this, your guests feel that you care for them and their concerns and are constantly working on providing better service and enhance guest experience.
Here are the top 12 reputation management tips for hotels!
As mentioned in the challenges, OTAs are still dominant in the market. While you focus on direct bookings, ensure you also partner with OTAs to reach a wider audience.
Here’s how you can do that-
Being a partner with OTA is an investment. Make sure you are investing in the right platform. Analyze all the functional OTAs in your area and know their weaknesses and strengths. Then, choose what aligns best with your interests.
Know your target audience. Then, check the user demographics of each OTA. This will help you choose the best suitable platform.
Understand the commission rates and fees charged by different OTAs to assess the profitability of each partnership.
Check what other hotels in your area are offering. Then, figure out your USP and how you can stand out from the competition.
Check different platform commission rates and find what works best for you. Maintain consistent rates across all the OTAs to avoid penalties and maintain brand image.
Do not depend on a single OTA. Invest in multiple platforms to reach a wider audience.
Consider partnering with niche OTAs that cater to specific market segments, such as luxury travelers or family-friendly properties.
Measuring and analyzing your success from time to time is important for hotels to identify areas for improvement.
With this, you can make data-driven decisions and optimize operations. By tracking key performance indicators (KPIs), hotels can gain valuable insights into their performance.
Measure the effectiveness of marketing campaigns and strategies and ensure they are meeting guest expectations.
1) How to encourage direct hotel bookings?
To encourage direct hotel bookings, offer exclusive perks like discounts, free upgrades, or complimentary amenities only available to guests who book directly through your website or by calling your hotel. Additionally, highlight the benefits of booking directly, such as the ability to customize your stay and receive personalized service.
2) Do hotels prefer direct booking?
Yes, hotels generally prefer direct bookings. This allows them to avoid paying commissions to third-party booking sites, giving them better control over pricing and guest experience. Direct bookings often lead to a more personalized and seamless guest experience.
3) How to boost direct hotel bookings?
To boost direct hotel bookings, offer-
Highlight the benefits of booking directly, such as customizing your stay and receiving personalized service.
Use effective marketing strategies like
to reach your target audience.
4) What percentage of hotel bookings are direct?
The percentage of direct hotel bookings has steadily increased in recent years. While it varies depending on the hotel and region, it's estimated that around 30-40% of hotel bookings are now direct, with a growing trend towards even higher percentages.
Driving direct bookings is important for hotels as it can give better control over operations, more revenue by cutting out unnecessary expenses and ultimately enhance guest satisfaction.
By creating and implementing a cohesive marketing strategy by incorporating above mentioned points, a hotel can maximize revenue and direct footfall to their properties.
Author
Roshan Patel
CEO & Founder
Meet Roshan Patel, the dynamic force propelling INNsight to new heights. As a co-founder, his pragmatic and cost-focused leadership shapes the company's technical strategy and product architecture, ensuring a seamless hotel digital experience. With a hotel management and technology background, Roshan is a driving force in providing INNkeepers the tools they need to economically showcase their properties to cost-conscious travelers. Roshan's impact goes beyond tech, raising INNsight as a game-changer in hotel digital marketing.
Follow him on LinkedIn - Roshan Patel - INNsight
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