Direct bookings have become practically a science among hoteliers. Everyone is trying to understand what to do to increase their direct channels because, while OTAs give you great exposure, you can be 100% dependent on them.
Why? It all comes down to one single principle: Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Just like in finances, when it comes to bookings, you need to make sure you are diversifying your efforts and not just relying on one single channel.
If you haven’t worked on your organic bookings strategy, haven’t optimised your website and rely entirely on OTAs for your bookings, you are completely vulnerable to anything that can happen to the OTAs. If the OTA decides to close, something happens with the website, and so on, this would hit your bookings profoundly.
Therefore, investing in increasing your direct channels is always a good investment. To do it, it is important to have the right technology by your side.
This is how Bookboost is helping hundreds of hoteliers around the world to boost their direct bookings:
An immediate source of answers and help to make a booking
Through the use of Unified Inbox and Website Messenger, hotels offer their website visitors guidance and quick answers to all their questions. All doubts are solved in an instant, while the visitor is still interested. This not only generates confidence but also helps to increase direct bookings.
Get inspired and learn more about our Unified Inbox.
Discount campaign to OTA bookers
With the Multi-Channel CRM, hotels can identify and communicate directly with their OTA bookers. This means they can collect their data and prepare a special campaign offering discounts for booking directly on their second visit.
Since they have the guest’s details, they can communicate directly with this group of guests. This enables them to prepare different campaigns like a birthday discount and other occasions that motivate guests to book directly to share with family and friends.
Discover more about our Multi-Channel CRM.
Multi-channel and segmentation to increase satisfaction and word-of-mouth
One big angle to increasing direct bookings has to be with word of mouth. If guests are satisfied, they will talk about it with their circle of influence. Bookboost helps hoteliers to communicate using the guests’ preferred channels and to send hyper-personalised messages that resonate with them. This helps to increase satisfaction as their experience is being tailored to what they want and need.
Learn how our Multi-channel CRM can boost your marketing operations.
How are other hotels doing it?
RoomRepublic, in Sweden, realised that one of their main problems was being too dependent on Online Travel Agencies. Therefore, they decided to partner with Bookboost to reach directly to their OTA bookers and be able to communicate directly with them, while at the same time growing their database.
If you want to know the results of their journey, read their case study here.
