There are a number of blogs and news articles posted on our website about direct bookings vs OTA bookings – and how hotels should be managing the challenge of guest acquisition vs cost of acquisition.
This article posted on Accom News lists four great points of action an hotel, hostel or apartment operator can adopt when taking a booking from an OTA
This is how hotels make their OTA addiction worse
There is of course point 5 which could be added – relating to ensuring when the guest calls to book direct / looks up the hotel website having seen the hotel rate on the OTA (and the guest will) ensure the hotel staff know they can match any rate advertised online:
5. Take the direct booking
All to often, a guest will look online to find a rate for a hotel and location, will then call the hotel direct or look at the hotel website only to find out the OTA rate is cheaper. The call response “if you book on the booking site xyz.com, you will find our rate cheaper” is one which should never be uttered by the hotel staff. For the 5 mins taking the call, managing the booking, the hotel can increase revenue by 10-25%
