It’s early, it’s Monday morning and the last guests have left. Now you have to go about your monthly routine of looking at your revenue flowchart and working out how you can, somehow, increase that revenue intake. Your kitchen has suffered enough cutbacks and savings, your staff is at the lowest it can be while still keeping the hotel running the way it should, you have the best deals you can on linen and your bar stock count is exactly as it should be.
So what next? How can you scrape more off the top while still maintaining the level of room occupancy you need to maintain the revenue stream. It seems like there are no other options. No matter how hard you try you simply cannot come up with any solutions.
Then you see an email in your inbox. The title of the email simply reads:
‘bidroom.com and Visa have partnered and bidroom.com wants to offer you commission-free bookings’
Well, it strikes your interest at least, right? OK so you have been sucked in, you want to know more. Now, of course, everyone has heard of Visa, we all have one right? At least 522.6 million people in Europe have got a Visa card. But who is bidroom.com, I have never heard of them, have you? So time to investigate and find out how they might be able to alleviate your problem of increased revenue.
After a little investigation, you find out that bidroom.com is a private, subscription-based OTC (online travel community) and hotel booking platform, that gives its subscribers, in return for a small annual subscription fee, access to lower hotel rates than the major OTA players. Is that a good enough business model? Well in return for the subscription fee, the subscribers not only get access to lower prices, make savings by not paying hidden booking fees and help the hospitality industry as a whole by booking in a way that does not charge the hotel for their stay, but they also have access to some of the best hotel prices available to them on the internet with up to 25% discount on the prices displayed on other OTA’s. Not bad for only £59 per year which is easily made back within a couple of trips.
So it seems like a great platform for travellers, but the big question still remains, how does it help you as a Hotelier or Revenue Manager? It all seems a little too good to be true. Michael Ros, CEO and co-founder of bidrrom.com says;
“As a travel Entrepreneur, my co-founder and I decided that enough was enough with the duopoly OTA market, the extortionate commission rates charged and the control they have over the revenue of hotels. I set up bidroom.com as I wanted to make a change to the current market. I wanted to bring fairness to the industry, both for travelers and hoteliers alike. I got into the travel industry as I am a traveler myself and I love the industry as it is the only industry where you can offer the one thing that money can’t generally buy, memories. I felt that the industry needed a shake up, and with my energy, my drive, my passion and my belief, I knew I could make that happen and make a successful business model and business at the same time. I truly believe that what we are offering to hoteliers is a model that, if supported by hoteliers, can drastically increase their revenue while still offering low prices to their guests”
So in 2014 bidroom.com was born. They charge you (the hotelier) a small activation fee, and in return, the hotel gets lifelong, unlimited, commission free direct bookings and presence on the bidroom.com booking platform. A direct link to your own website or booking platform (free of charge) to increase your own booking traffic and increase your direct bookings as they do not need their subscribers to book through their platform.
All bidroom asks from you as a hotel is that you offer a minimum of 5% and anything from 5%-25% discount on the price that is displayed on other major OTA’s. So in monetary terms, it means that on a booking of £100, with other OTA’s you would pay, let’s say 15% commission, making your profit margin £85 minus overheads. With the same booking coming through bidroom.com, offering their community 5% discount, your profit on the same booking would be £95. That is, in an instant, a clear increase in revenue from just one booking.
Too good to be true?
It does seem that way. Commission-free bookings, a one time only, small set up fee and all while supporting the new way of thinking. A direct link to your own website, no future payments and access to over half a billion potential customers. And an easy, extremely cost-effective way of boosting your revenue and it’s only going to get better.
So if you are serious about boosting your bottom line, you want to join bidroom.com in its mission to change the OTA market and help them to make a difference to the OTA market, then join them. It couldn’t be easier, it is a simple 5 step joining process and you are live on the platform and your hotel has the opportunity to take less high-commission bookings and increase revenue at the same time. These guys really are the white-knights of the online travel world and they want to rescue your revenue for you.
For more information on bidroom.com and what they can do for you click here. If you want to go straight to signing up your hotel then click here and join the revolution.
About the author
Stephen Sydenham started working in the Hospitality industry back in 1997. Having spent many years running hotels, bars, and restaurants across the UK, he grew to understand marketing, sales, and PR and how to apply those practices to the hospitality industry. Now with 20 years of experience, he has taken to writing in order to pass that knowledge onto others.
