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Strategic Management of Occupancy: Leveraging RateTiger for Overbookings and Cancellations

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Strategic Management Overbookings and Cancellations

The hospitality industry is a complex ecosystem where managing occupancy rates is constantly challenging. Overbookings and cancellations are two significant hurdles that hotels face in their quest to maintain optimal occupancy levels. RateTiger offers robust solutions to address these challenges, providing a strategic approach to maximize room bookings while minimizing potential revenue loss.

Understanding Overbookings and Cancellations

Overbookings occur when a hotel accepts more reservations than the actual number of available rooms. This strategy is often used to offset the anticipated no-shows or last-minute cancellations. However, excessive overbooking can lead to guest dissatisfaction and operational complications.

Cancellations represent a different challenge. They impact revenue forecasts and directly affect occupancy rates. Effective management of cancellations is crucial to prevent revenue loss and ensure a balanced occupancy level.

Leveraging RateTiger for Strategic Solutions

Real-time Data Insights: RateTiger Channel Manager provides invaluable real-time data on market trends, competitor pricing, and demand forecasts. This data empowers hoteliers to make informed decisions, adjusting rates dynamically to optimize occupancy.

Competitor Analysis and Rate Shopping: By analyzing competitor rates and understanding market demand, RateTiger Shopper assists hoteliers in setting competitive prices, preventing overbookings, and attracting more bookings.

Overbooking Prevention Strategies: RateTiger Booking Engine allows hoteliers to set precise controls to prevent excessive overbookings.

Dynamic Pricing Strategies: Utilizing RateTiger Channel Manager’s dynamic pricing capabilities allows hoteliers to adjust rates based on demand fluctuations, maximizing revenue and occupancy.

Best Practices for Strategic Utilization

  • Data-Driven Decisions: Rely on real-time data insights RateTiger Channel Manager provides for informed decision-making.
  • Flexible Pricing Strategies: Implement adaptive pricing strategies to respond to market changes and guest behaviour.
  • Overbooking Controls: Utilize RateTiger Channel Manager to set limits that balance maximizing occupancy and minimizing risks.

By leveraging RateTiger Channel Manager, Booking Engine & Rate Shopper, hotels can navigate challenges and maintain a balanced approach to maximize occupancy while minimizing revenue loss.

 
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Tips and Tricks for Optimizing Your Hotel’s Channel Manager Setup

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Tips and Tricks of Hotel Channel Manager Setup

Hotel Channel Manager is a software tool designed to enhance a hotel’s online presence, optimize operational efficiency, and boost revenue and pricing strategies by managing listings on various online travel agencies (OTAs) and other distribution platforms. It can save hoteliers significant time and effort and help them improve their visibility and bookings.

This blog will explore valuable tips and tricks to help you make the most of your hotel’s Channel Manager. Whether you’re new to channel management or looking to fine-tune your existing setup, these insights will prove valuable. However, to get the most out of your Channel Manager, it is essential to set it up correctly and optimize it regularly. Here are some tips and tricks:

1. Choose the Right Channel Manager

Selecting the right Channel Manager is the foundation of your success. Consider factors such as the ease of integration with your property management system (PMS), compatibility with the online travel agencies (OTAs) you intend to work with, and the level of support and training the provider offers. A robust Channel Manager will simplify the management of multiple channels and reduce the risk of overbookings. Recommending the RateTiger Channel Manager solution for several compelling reasons. It offers a range of features to help hotels efficiently manage their online presence and maximize revenue. With RateTiger Channel Manager, you can ensure real-time inventory synchronization and rates across all channels, reducing the risk of overbookings and rate disparities. It offers a user-friendly and intuitive interface, simplifying the process for your staff to handle and oversee your distribution strategy efficiently.

2. Set Competitive Rates

To maintain competitiveness, your rates on your Channel Manager need to align with those of your competitors. Various tools like rate parity tools and OTA Metasearch Engines can help you research your competitors’ rates. Additionally, RateTiger offers Rate Shopper tools, which are software solutions designed to assist you in monitoring and analyzing your competitors’ rates in real-time. These tools provide valuable insights into how your rates compare to those of other hotels in your area, enabling you to adjust your pricing strategy accordingly. Utilizing a Rate Shopper tool allows you to stay competitive in the dynamic hospitality market, attract more guests, and optimize your revenue.

3. Optimize Content and Visuals

Attractive visuals and compelling content are essential for drawing in potential guests. Ensure that your listings on OTAs are rich in high-quality images, accurate descriptions, and up-to-date information about your hotel’s amenities, services, and local attractions. Consistency across platforms is critical.

4. Use Rate Plans and Restrictions

Rate plans and restrictions are essential tools that can help you maximize your revenue while avoiding overbooking. For instance, you can create different rate plans for various guest segments, such as business travelers, leisure travelers, and groups. Furthermore, you can implement restrictions to manage room availability on particular dates or enforce minimum night stays for guests.

RateTiger Shopper is a valuable tool for simplifying and monitoring your competitors’ pricing strategies. This tool lets you make real-time rate adjustments to ensure your hotel remains competitive. By leveraging RateTiger Shopper, you can make informed pricing decisions crucial for maximizing your hotel’s revenue.

5. Monitor Your Channel Manager’s Performance

After configuring your Channel Manager, it is crucial to conduct regular performance monitoring. This practice will enable you to discern which channels deliver satisfactory results and which require enhancements. You can use your Channel Manager’s reporting tools to track your bookings, revenue, and other vital metrics. With RateTiger’s Channel Manager, you can efficiently manage all channels from one platform, benefiting from its 2-way XML connectivity with over 400+ OTAs.

6. Invest in Analytics and Reporting

Leverage your Channel Manager’s reporting and analytics features to gain insights into your hotel’s performance. Analyze booking patterns, revenue trends, and the effectiveness of different marketing channels. Use these insights to make data-driven decisions and adjust your strategy as needed.

RateTiger Insider Tips:

  • Use a property management system (PMS). A PMS software solution helps hotels manage their operations, including inventory and rates. If you have a PMS, you can integrate it with your Channel Manager to automate updating your list and rates across all channels.
  • Use a pricing tool. A pricing tool can help you set competitive rates to maximize your revenue. Pricing tools consider factors such as competitors’ rates, historical demand, and upcoming events.
  • Run promotions. Promotions can attract more bookings and increase your revenue. You can use your Channel Manager to create and manage promotions.
  • Track your results. It is essential to track your results regularly to see what is working and what is not. You can use your Channel Manager’s reporting tools to track your bookings, revenue, and other vital metrics.

Conclusion

Ensuring the optimal configuration of your hotel’s Channel Manager is a continuous endeavor that demands detailed attention and a willingness to adjust to evolving market dynamics. By choosing the right Channel Manager, maintaining accurate inventory, and staying informed about industry trends, you can maximize your hotel’s online presence, increase bookings, and boost revenue. By employing these helpful strategies and techniques, you can fine-tune your hotel’s Channel Manager setup and fully leverage the capabilities of this potent tool.

 
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Capture the Fastest-Growing Segment of Bookers with Mobile Rates on Booking.com

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Mobile Rates -B.com Dec

70% of travel searches start on mobile phones. In the last five years with mobile phones jumping in, there has been a steady rise in online travel bookings.

The use of mobile has changed the scenario of how travel is being searched and reservations are made, hence by managing mobile rates for your property, you too can improve reservations coming from mobile bookers.

Over half (59%) of all reservations made on Booking.com are now made on a mobile device. Capturing this market is crucial for strengthening and growing your business. Mobile Rates make properties more visible to customers and can help them reach 30% more mobile users.

Benefits of Mobile Rate

On an average, properties that offer a Mobile Rate see:

  • 3% more click- throughs from search results
  • 24% more customers making an attempt to book
  • 50% of accommodation searches and bookings are made on mobile
  • 22% more bookings from mobile customers

Attracting these bookers can positively impact your revenue.  Activate mobile rates for your hotel to tap into this valuable and expanding traveler segment.

Mobile phones are a constant companion of everyone everywhere. Opting for the mobile rate scheme, your property has leverage to get bookings over the ones that require the traveler to login via a desktop or laptop. The number of bookings made on mobile apps is much higher and faster. 

If you do not already have a Mobile Rate set up for Booking.com, you can easily create one from your RateTiger dashboard.

If you would like to know more about it or how you can set it up, read further – refer to this detailed article.

Subscribe to RateTiger today and start using this feature. Reach out to us for your connectivity needs to make the most of your online revenue.

 
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Photo API: Upload, Edit & Manage Your Hotel Images

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RateTiger - Photo API - integration

An image speaks a thousand words. And when it comes to securing guest attention, visuals give hotels the power to tell their property’s story. Whether potential guests are searching for a property on metasearch, OTA, Google or on social media – the first thing they are going to notice is the visual content. It’s what they can see and can greatly influence their booking decisions.

Hence visuals are crucial to the success of a hotel’s online presence. To start with, visual media makes potential guests to see and comprehend information which helps them to develop their own perception of the property and make an informed decision.

Where a high-quality image clicked from a proper angle can attract the guests, a flawed image clicked in dark from a poor angle might skip the traveler’s eyes and discourage them to book a room in your hotel. The photos you upload can make or break your reputation affecting your business, yet many hoteliers overlook the importance of hotel photography.

Photos attract the eyes faster than any other detail of the hotel. It’s a proven fact that the human brain can process an entire image within 13 milliseconds. So, is the same with the hospitality industry. The guests start imagining how the hotel will be and how their vacation will precede just by seeing the images of the hotel.

However, adding, editing and managing media content can be tricky. Thanks to Photo API though, content management has become easier for hoteliers.

What is Photo API in Hotels

Photo API is a means of communication between the system and the front-end website. In the hospitality industry, it is a way for the flow of photos from the dashboard to multiple distribution channels. All you need to do is integrate the API with the hotel channel manager or CRS for it to work. Most of hotel channel managers already have this feature integrated for you to showcase the best view of your hotel.

On a photography level, you need to click images that appeal to the guests and they start visualizing their stay. On a technical level, you need an API for the channels to seamlessly talk to each other and share visuals.

Key point: Highlight the best areas and features of your hotel on your profiles on OTAs, GDS, and others. Property media like images of the lobby, recreational areas, reception, entrance, garden, and conference hall. Under “room media” upload the images of the different rooms belonging to the respective room types.

Steps to Upload Media to the API

  • Open the dashboard of the channel manager you are using
  • Click on the property name on your left side
  • Click “Media” under “Property Settings”
  • Go to Room Media to add images of the rooms
  • Go to property Media to add images of the hotel
  • Click on the “Add Caption” button under every image to add the name of the area the picture belongs to or add the room type and give a small description to it.

To edit or replace any image click on the edit button corresponding to that image. Hotel photos can be managed under the head “Property Media”. Room media can be managed under the head “Room Type”.

Deleting any image removes it permanently from the dashboard and you need to follow the above steps again to reuse it.

Photo API - RateTiger

Image Format: PNG, JPG, JPEG, GIF

Takeaway

With hotel bookings transforming from the traditional to the digital method, technology is a major part of the hospitality industry. Speaking of technology software like Hotel Channel Manager, Booking Engine, PMS, Rate Shopper and APIs (Application Program Interface) like Photo API, Content API, Room Rate API are the foundation stones of the hotel industry.

 
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Tips to Choose the Best Hotel Channel Manager

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RateTiger Hotel Channel Manager

Are you a hotel owner looking forward to growing your business in this modern, tech-savvy age of travelers? If yes, then you might want to spend more time with your guests understanding their needs and demands, and not behind the system entertaining the bookings from multiple distribution channels. The solution to this is implementing the apt hotel channel manager for your property.

What is a Hotel Channel Manager?

A hotel channel manager is a software solution that connects your hotel’s reservation system also called PMS (Property Management System) to other distribution channels like OTAs, GDS, hotel website, Booking Engine, CRS. Its role is to update rates and availability across all room booking sites at a go eliminating the chance of error and overbookings.

However, there are tens of channel managers available in the market. As a hotelier, it’s important you select the right solution as it is critical to your revenue and profit. In this article, we help you find the best channel manager software for your property.

Factors to Consider for the Best Channel Manager

  • Size of the Hotel

The size of your hotel plays a big role in deciding the hotel booking channel manager software. The size includes the number of rooms in your property and the distribution channels you are selling at.

The number of OTAs you are selling at and if the channel manager provides integration with it or not are vital points to start with. The pricing of the software will vary as per the size of the hotel.

  • Budget

Budget plays a big role. However effective or feature-rich the hotel channel management system may be it isn’t of value to you if it doesn’t meet your requirements or fall within your budget.

It is important to list down your requirements and the price you are ready to spend especially if you are new to the industry. Being a new hotel owner, it is advisable to go for hotel channel manager companies like RateTiger that not only provides software as per your needs but is also reasonable.

A cost-effective and feature-effective channel manager software will save your investments, time and enhance the guest experience.

  • 2-way Integration with PMS / CRS and Online Sales Channels

A hotel channel management system with 2-way of XML integration with your PMS and distribution channels is ideal for hotel management. The dual connectivity gives you the advantage of updating your room data and availability details once and for all.

It means you do not need to manually update the booking details individually on the channel manager and your booking system. The hotel channel management software will act as a bridge between your property management system and sales channels.

Some channel managers do lag in syncing the details with the PMS and distributing them across other channels. Choose your software that is compatible and flexible with your requirements.

RateTiger 2-way Integration
  • Channel Compatibility

Majority of the top channel management system is compatible with almost all popular sales channels. It is also true that different hotel online distribution sites rule in different regions of the world and all hotel management software is not compatible with all sites.

Make a list of the global and national distribution sites you want to target and ask for quotations accordingly. In case you are selling your rooms on a not-so-popular OTA or a popular site in your region, then check in advance if the OTA channel manager is compatible with it or not.

Once you sync all your hotel booking platforms to the channel manager for hotels, you will be able to handle bookings from a single dashboard.

  • Automated Pooled Inventory

Pooled inventory model is the feature that allows all your rooms and their status to be available on all hotel distribution sites in real-time. The moment a particular room is booked on any OTA or your hotel website that room status is updated across all sites to avoid cross-selling.

The automated pooled inventory feature gives true meaning to the concept of one dashboard for all your hotel booking platforms. Till date, all hotel booking software does not support this feature. So, if you are planning to buy one add pooled inventory to your requirement list.

  • Booking Engine

IBE or Internet Booking Engine for hotels is the software that works on the backend facilitating the booking process the moment a traveler clicks the “Book Now” option on any website. Collecting the user data and payment information it completes the booking process.

Integrating the hotel booking engine with the hotel management system along with PMS is essential for the real-time update of availability and booking details across all channels.

Taking both the software (channel manager + booking engine) from the same vendor simplifies the integration and speeds up the process.

  • Analytics and Support

Analytics and reporting are becoming the heart of revenue management for all industries. The more information you get about the market structure, competitor strategy, booking volume and room rates; the better position you will be to strategize your bookings and revenue.

24*7 support should not be just for saying, make sure the vendor actually provides that. Figure out the level of support you will be receiving and if there is any add-on cost for it. A good support team enhances the work 2x time.

  • Security and Safety

The hotel industry has been a target for fraudulent activities with even the big chains not escaping data breach and credit card security issues. It is important for hotels to ensure cyber security for guests as it not only has an impact on reputation but also on financials as means of penalty.

Since channel manager tools process guest information and payment details, it is vital for hotels to invest in software with robust security. Check the PCI – DSS certification and GDPR compliance of the channel manager before you sign us.

Make Your Decision

Now that you know your needs, budget and the features you need in your hotel management system, it’s time to choose the best channel manager for your hotel. If you are looking for a budget-friendly, feature-rich hotel channel manager, you can try RateTiger Channel Manager.

What are you waiting for? Go get ready to transform your hotel management ways with the best-in-class hotel management software.

 
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BAR- Best Available Rate Pricing for Your Hotel

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RateTiger-hotel-best-pricing

A hotel’s real challenge is pricing the rooms in the best interest of the hotel and the guests. While as a hotel owner you would like to charge the highest rate for your property to maximize your RevPAR (Revenue Per Available Room), as a guest one would want value for every penny spent. Plus, there is always the pressure of competition next door from your fellow hotel ready to welcome the prospective guests.

This calls for a pricing mechanism that delivers satisfaction to guests without compromising on the hotelier’s income and position in the competitive market. With multiple pricing schemes available, the hospitality industry is going more and more intricate towards revenue maximization. Today here in this article, we are going to discuss the BAR (Best Available Rate) rate.

What is BAR?

BAR is the acronym for “Best Available Rate” which is also known as BRG (Best Rate Guaranteed). Going by the terminology, it is the lowest rate for a day at which the guests can book a room.

It is a pricing mechanism used by the hospitality industry to set the best room rates in line with the demand. This system was first used by the airline industry to set the fare by forecasting the bookings during a particular season.

As per Sheryl E. Kimes, BAR rate is an “attempt to reduce confusion and to guarantee that the guest is quoted the lowest available rate for each night of a multiple-night stay.” It is the lowest rate paid by a guest for a particular day of their stay, without any prepayment or cancellation fees, or rescheduling charges apart from the normal cancellation fee imposed by the hotel itself.

What is the Purpose of BAR?

The BAR pricing strategy is an attempt by the hospitality industry to remove the confusion among guests caused by the complex pricing strategy including various clauses.

Ratetiger-hotelbar-pricing

How does BAR Work?

In simple terms, BAR rate is the flexible rate that varies on a day-to-day basis depending on the demand. There are 2 ways to find the BAR price: either by setting a fixed price or by going dynamic following the price ceiling and price floor concept. The price ceiling is the highest rate for the room and the floor price is the lowest possible rate for the same room.

It is the basis of setting the room rates and includes the price of only the room. It does not include corporate discounts or breakfast charges or anything. It is exclusively the best rate guaranteed for a particular room type on a particular day. The best practice to set the BAR rate is via a percentage or a fixed markup above/ below the floor price and ceiling price.

The BAR price depends on the following 3 factors:

  • Occupancy rate
  • Season or day of the week
  • Events

For example, there is an ongoing event of company XYZ in your hotel on a Friday night which went long after the scheduled hours and all the attendees of the event book a room in the same hotel. This will increase the occupancy rate of the hotel. Going by the demand the BAR rate will simultaneously increase for the following day.

Benefits of BAR

  • Benefit of BAR to Consumers

The feeling that you are paying extra for a room than the actual price is always frustrating and affects your trip experience. Providing transparency, BAR pricing gives the guests clarity of how much they are paying and what they are paying for.

The best part of BAR is that this rate is available to everyone, and you do not need to be a premium member of the hotel/ hotel group to avail this room rate.

  • Benefit of BAR to Hotels

Going transparent and setting the best available rate or rather say the lowest rate for their rooms the hotels are making a profit in terms of goodwill and customer loyalty. Plus, revenue too.

Would BAR Rate Break Rate Parity?

Rate Parity across all your sales channels is a predominant to keep selling your property on multiple channels like hotel websites, OTAs, metasearch, and GDS. With OTAs being an indispensable sales platform, you cannot sell the rooms at a lower price on your website or booking engine and afford to lose the guests here. Therefore, it is advisable to better not to sell the “room only” prices on OTAs and maintain parity.

You can reserve your room-only rates for the website and booking engine giving the traveler the choice of booking the room at a lower price or better say at the best available rate and maintaining transparency and parity.

 
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How does Hotel Metasearch Work?

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RateTiger - hotel- metasearch

To facilitate their planning and booking processes, people use a range of solutions. While the planning or inspiration often starts with general search and travel review sites, over the years metasearch has emerged as the one of the most important channels during the shopping and selecting products phase.

Hotel Metasearch Engine is a tool that aggregates rate and availability data from various travel sites including hotel website and OTAs and presents it to the user based on various parameters like popularity, rate and reputation. Popular metasearch sites of 2022 are Google Hotel Ads, TripAdvisor, Trivago, Skyscanner and Kayak. Without having to browse through multiple sites, it gives you the feasibility to check a hotel’s price, images, services offered, ratings and reviews across different sites all at once.

RateTiger - metasearch - hotel bookings
RateTiger- metasearch - travel bookings

How Metasearch Works?

A metasearch engine works by taking a traveler’s query and generating the related search. For instance, if a traveler is looking for hotels in a particular place for so and so dates, then these metasearch websites will generate search results showcasing the property name, location, room type, room rates and so on.

Your hotel may have its property listed on different OTAs like Booking.com, Expedia, MakeMyTrip, Hotels.com, and more. When a potential customer visits any particular site to find a hotel in any region, the hotel name and room rates are shown. Along with this, the OTAs also participate with the lists curated by metasearch sites.

Suppose your hotel is listed on five online travel agencies and you have different rates for the same room type on each of the five platforms. Once a prospective guest clicks on the hotel, metasearch will show him/ her the price at all the sites taking part in the metasearch campaign.

It gives the travelers the ease to compare the rates of the same hotel on multiple channels on a single platform, more extensive, multi-brand choice, the inclusion of traveler reviews, ratings, and trip ideas. Plus, the seamless experience of the one-stop-shopping process that allows multiple products to be booked in one place. With price being a major factor during the booking process, users have the tendency to compare prices during the booking process and hence it is advised to maintain Rate Parity.

When the prospective guest finds a deal and clicks on a link to book a hotel, the metasearch directs the guest to the particular website to complete the process. You can also integrate your hotel’s booking engine with metasearch redirecting the customer directly to your brand’s website. In the first instance, the metasearch website works on CPC (Cost per Click) or PPC (Pay per Click) model and in the second case, it works on the CPA (Cost per Acquisition) model.

Best Ways to Work with Metasearch

As mentioned above, CPC and CPA are the two main types of cost models for metasearch campaigns. There is also a third type called CPM (Cost Per Impression) where the focus is on the number of impressions.

The hotel owners used to follow the CPC/ CPM model before Google and TripAdvisor started with the “Book Now” feature allowing customers to book directly on their platform. With this model, whenever a hotel received a booking, Metasearch received a commission for the booking made and the traveler received direct and seamless booking experience.

Let us now have a look at the best cost model to begin a metasearch campaign:

RateTiger - CPC -model
  • Cost Per Click (CPC)

Under this model, a hotel is charged every time someone clicks on the ad. The metasearch shows the hotel ad to the maximum number of visitors and charges the hotel a fixed price per click.

Pros – It is the most transparent way to increase visibility and leverage the advantage of showcasing your property to prospective guests and maximize your revenue.

Cons – If you haven’t set the price aptly (i.e., your rate isn’t effective in comparison to competitor’s or if you are better priced on OTA than your website) then you are going to lose your revenue and sales in return.

  • Cost Per Stay (CPS)

Under this model, a hotel is charged only when a booking is made. The metasearch charges the hotel a fixed commission or a percentage of the amount of booking made. Guests can book on the metasearch channel without leaving the platform, and hotels can advertise on a risk-free “no booking no fee” basis by opting for Pay Per Stay bidding instead of Pay Per Click.

Pros – The USP of this model is that you are charged only when a booking is made and you get return for every penny spent.

Cons – Your visibility goes parallel with your ROI and the revenue generated by the metasearch. There is a possibility that the provider may be earning better with CPC for another hotel than the commission received by you. Therefore, you lose your position and visibility on the site.

  • Cost Per Impression (CPM)

Under this model, the hotel owner pays a charge for the number of people seeing the ad irrespective of clicking on it or not. A predetermined charge is set for a certain number of impressions.

Pros – This model is the cheapest way to broadcast an ad and to display it to a maximum number of people, increasing your hotel’s visibility.

Cons – There is no guarantee that the number of people seeing your ad will click on it or visit your website or make a booking, thereby affecting your ROI.

  • Hybrid model (CPC + CPA)

This model is a combination of both the pay per click and cost per action. The hotel leverages the advantage of pay per click in line with the commission factor.

Pros – The hotel can set the maximum budget and freely invest in the ad media. As long as the campaigns are running below the maximum cost the hotel is making profits. This way the hotel grabs the benefit of maximum visibility and revenue maximization.

Cons – The target CPA model comes with its own share of risk. Firstly, it directs a way to conversion but doesn’t guarantee conversion. Secondly, if the conversion turns out to be bad it is a total loss for you.

Top Travel Metasearch Engines Worldwide

RateTiger - websites- google

Launched in 2010, Google Hotel Ads has become the largest hotel metasearch engine accounting for 57% of the hotel bookings. For millions of people Google is the starting point to plan their trip: from destination selection to flight/ train/ bus to hotels people start their search on Google. With the introduction of hotel booking option directly on Google and CPA scheme, this search engine grew to become one of the most preferred platforms by most travelers and hotel owners.

As the name suggests, founded in the 2000 TripAdvisor has become the online travel guide for the people. Traveling to different parts of the world, it has more than 1.4 million hotels and properties listed. Showing the best rate for a hotel by compiling the rates and availability on different sites, and the direct booking option brings more than 463 million visitors per month to this platform.

Owned by the Trip.com Group this Scotland based travel metasearch engine was founded in 2003. As the name suggests, this travel metasearch was started with showing the best price for flights and is known for its security in online purchase. Evolving over time, they started with Skyscanner hotels in 2014 becoming one of the most popular global hotel metasearch engines.

Takeaway

Now when you know how metasearch works, make sure to choose the right metasearch website and invest effectively in the pricing model to grab your share of success. All hotels in your area are running this race and winning maximum booking. So, are you ready to win this race?

 
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Metasearch – Hotel’s Best Friend to Drive More Direct Bookings

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RateTiger- metaseach-hotels

Hotel Metasearch is a popular term in the travel industry! Though the usage of this aggregator tool is multiplying day by day, the concept of metasearch isn’t new. It dates back to the mid-nineties when there were search engines/ crawlers like SearchSavvy, Hobot, Metacrawler and others. Even to an era when Google was an unknown. But this tool started making a visible impact in the travel and tourism industry since 2004 with Kayak, a metasearch for hotels, flights, rentals and more. Since then, metasearch is a common hotel booking platform with new brands having made their way: TripAdvisor, Google Hotel Ads (previously called Google Hotel Finder), Trivago, and so on.

Now when online booking is a major source of hotel bookings, metasearch plays a major role. The moment a user types a location on Google, multiple options are displayed along with the price and details of the same hotel on different sites. The facility of comparison before booking makes 94% of the travelers find the best deal on metasearch.

RateTiger- hotel-travellers

Metasearch Bookings are Growing Rapidly

Hotel metasearch engines are highly polarizing! With Google dominating the market, and around 15% of the hotel reservations coming from metasearch, you are losing on a big number of bookings if your hotel is not marketing on metasearch.

A majority of the travelers are of the age group 18-35 and this age group is known to be taking maximum domestic tours. Being tech-rich, around 47% of this demography has been reported to be using price comparison tools while booking an accommodation. One reason being at this age budget is a big factor. Just behind them is the age group of 36-55, 45% of which are known to be booking their stay via metasearch. Even the oldest generation of 55+ aren’t quite below, with 36% reporting to be using metasearch sites.

Looking at the consumer trends and behavior, the percentage of metasearch traffic is growing rapidly coinciding with the fall in organic traffic to brand.com.

Popular Metasearch to Market Your Hotel

Speaking of the hotel industry, only a handful of metasearch engines are there to market your hotel for the best revenue in return. These are:

With the increasing number of metasearch users and the advantage of easy price comparison metasearch hotel ad is outrunning the traditional ad style day by day. The campaign models like CPC (Cost Per Click), CPM (Cost Per Impression) and CPA (Cost Per Acquistion) give the hotel owners some control on where to show the ad, whom to show and how much to spend on which ad type.

RateTiger- metasearch

Hotel Metasearch is Trending

A lot is happening over here. With big companies stepping in, like Expedia taking over Trivago, there has been an influx of money in marketing. Accepting direct bookings TripAdvisor is targeting to become the one stop platform for hotel research and bookings. Undoubtedly Google is the master player. Witnessing all that is going on and the number of reservations hotels are getting via metasearch can be said to hotel’s best friend to seek direct bookings.

Tips to Win Metasearch Bookings

i) Strategize Your Channel

Strategy matters! Metasearch platforms like Google and TripAdvisor offering direct booking are more preferred by the travelers than those offering combined hotel, flight and other services like Kayak. Invest a larger sum of your advertising budget on sites with “accommodation only” and CPA ads with guaranteed return. If you are a small/ independent hotel focus on platforms that provide full connectivity with your Booking Engine and bid management to maximize your ROI. Evaluate the investment and return before selecting the channel.

ii) Do Not Miss on Rate Parity & Integrity

Rate Parity is one of the key requirements to rank on a few metasearch channels. For instance, Google pays high value to Rate Parity and hotels with different room rates on different channels tend to lose the game on Google. Remember your rates should be in line with the competitor’s pricing for the prospective guest to not move to the next property. Changing your room rates too frequently also has a negative impact on your ad positioning.

iii) Connectivity Partner Plays a Big Role

Hotel Booking Engine provided by a channel manager approved by the metasearch platform is one of the reliable ways to integrate with metasearch and pull-in direct bookings. Using the right CMS/ PMS will not only help you integrate data and drive direct bookings but also provide you with the much-needed customer statistics.

iv) Research the On-Going Bid Price

Everyone wants to be in the top position of the search engine. To be on the top you will be competing with the leading OTAs which is nearly impossible unless you are a big hotel chain. But that doesn’t mean that independent hotels have no chance. If not on the top, you can definitely try for the position below the Online Travel Agency. For this your bid price needs to be nearly equal to the one raised by the leaders. Play around with the bid within your budget to win the booking and this requires a thorough study of the market rate.

Ready to Start?

The value of metasearch has kicked up in years, changing the style of hotel bookings. It has immense opportunity for your hotel to drive direct bookings and maximize your revenue. Make sure you have the right connectivity partner to effectively integrate the Booking Engine and redirect the prospective guest directly to your website. Roll the dice and get ready to claim your position.

 
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Future of Online Hotel Marketing Without Third-party Cookies

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Google’s announcement of the retirement of third-party cookies from the online world comes with a lot of ifs and buts. This brings us to dive into cookies. In our last article, we discussed cookies and their role in the world of marketing. While some believe that this will begin an era of targeted marketing as third-party cookies delivered anonymous user data that couldn’t be completely relied on. Others are of the opinion that this retirement will turn the world of online advertising upside down. What do you think?

In this article, we are going to learn about how the hotel owners are adjusting to changes and restrategizing the digital advertisements to run ads and reach the right traveler from 2024- the year Google finally bids farewell to third-party cookies.

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How Are Marketers Planning to Deal with Cookie Withdrawal?

The withdrawal of cookies creates room for people-based marketing campaigns. Collecting data directly from the customer, tracking their web activity via a unique digital identity and mapping them with past booking records will help the hotel owners target their ad campaigns directly to prospective travelers. In the upcoming third-party cookie-less world, first-party cookies and hashed emails are going to be the main players of the marketing team for online advertising.

Hashed Email Becomes User’s Digital Identity

It is now accepted that your email id is one of your most valuable identities. Just like your real name, you don’t keep changing your email address. Almost all users have one fixed email address that they usually use to log in to access information, social media, e-commerce, streaming, education, shopping, health, travel – in short for anything and everything.

Hashing email is the process of encrypting the email address into a code of 32 characters. For example, if your email id is xyz@ratetiger.com, the algorithm will convert it into a unique code having a mix of alphabets and numbers like “xdf2hj45bh8gh0965njlg3ddbjte5ji6” which isn’t easy to decode. This will function as your digital identity just as your passport in the offline world.

Wherever the email id will be logged in, the browser will track the activity and help the digital partners create more accurate and precise customer information. Hiding the user identity and respecting the privacy clause of the consumer, hashed email will help the hotel owners track the customer journey and prepare a more customer-centric user persona based on their interests and behavior.

The advantage of hashing email is that it will track the customer journey across all devices where the email address is logged in overcoming the restriction of device-based tracking of third-party cookies. But how to get the email id? As a hotel owner, start with prompting a login on the website once the user is on the booking page or asking for subscribing to special offers or promotions.

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First-party Cookie Replacing Third-party Cookies

While Google is to bid farewell to third-party cookies, first-party cookies remain. As explained in our last article, first-party cookies are the cookies used by the owner of the website. Once logged in, it stores the user’s information and preferences like language settings and others saving the traveler from logging in every time they visit the hotel website.

This user data is safe and accurate as it is entered directly by the user. Share this data with marketing partners to match the customer journey against the unique ID (hashed email) generated for this email. This will provide hoteliers with the added advantage of targeting and retargeting the traveler to book a room.

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Takeaway

Maintaining user privacy, this partnership of hashed email and first-party cookies will help the hoteliers shift their online advertising focus from cookie-based to people-based targeted marketing. This can be a win-win situation for both the user and hotel marketers. The user will be happy that his identity is protected, and the marketing team will be happy to run their ads to a more precise and specific audience list.

A third-party cookie-less world is coming for sure and it’s time for you as a marketer to start revamping your marketing strategy to sustain from the 2nd half of 2024.

 
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The End of Third-party Cookies: Marketers Growing Conscious

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Cookies are everyone’s favorite. Whether you are a kid munching on them or a marketer using them to track users’ online behavior and run your ads to them, we all love cookies. But unfortunately, Google is ready to say goodbye to third-party cookies by the second half of 2024. Whether you like it or not, being a hotel marketer, you need to accept this and plan your next move accordingly.

Let’s Have a Taste of the Cookies

Cookies are a digital marketer’s best friend giving them all the details of a customer’s online journey. An internet cookie is a small text file added to your browser from the website you are visiting. These files track a user’s online journey on the web: which website you visit, time spent, ads clicked, products purchased, collecting data, and initiating targeting, retargeting and cross-site tracking.

As a user, you must have witnessed that once you search for a travel destination on your desktop, you come across related ads to that venue everywhere whichever site you are visiting. Have you ever wondered how they manage to know what you are up to? It is the cookies doing their work. Many a time when you revisit a site the browser automatically fills in your username and data without you having to do so. Again, all thanks to web cookies. Let’s see how cookies work.

First-party cookies: These are the cookies dropped on your server by the host website you visit. It allows the website to collect your data, store language settings and preferences to autofill and ease the customer journey.

Third-party cookies: These are the cookies created by domain owners apart from the website you are visiting and are explicitly used for advertising purposes. For allowing third-party cookies on a site, the owner needs to load the server’s code on their database. It is only when a user clicks on accept cookie button, a site can drop third-party cookies on your server to access your data.

Is it Really the End of Cookies?

A digital world without third-party cookies is nothing new. Firefox and Apple’s Safari have already stopped supporting cookies in 2017. Given the fact that Google Chrome – the largest web browser is used by 64% of the global web users, Google’s announcement of withdrawing third-party cookies will bring an end to the era of third-party cookies which has been ruling the digital world for 30+ years.

For hotel owners who rely a great deal on Google ads for booking, this news might come as a shock, but to your rescue, Google is only crumbling third-party cookies. First-party cookies will still be there ensuring customer privacy and giving the marketers the required data to run target-based ads.

Though Google is crumbling cookies, this is your opportunity to reshape your advertising skills and focus on direct booking building a one-on-one direct relationship with the travelers.

RateTiger- firstparty-cookie

Grabbing More on First-party Cookies

With Google crumbling third-party cookies, it’s time to shift your focus to first-party cookies directly targeting people’s preferences. As explained above, these are cookies used on your own website and collect data directly from the user increasing the reliability of the data you use. Grabbing the user information on your website tells a great deal about users’ travel behavior: where they like going, which type of rooms they prefer staying at and how they prefer traveling. Using this you can create a segmented user persona and target your ads accordingly.

To create a perfect user persona hashed emails and first-party cookies are going to be your perfect partners in the coming days. Hashing an email is the process of converting the email address into a unique code of 32 characters that cannot be decoded to recognize the user’s identity. Together they will store a user’s traveling behavior against their specific digital identity and help the hotel owners run their ad campaigns to a more targeted segment.

We all know that advertisements are the biggest source of Google’s revenue. Speaking of online ads, the majority of advertising and marketing agencies rely on third-party cookies. So, will Google let it go easily? With a year-on-year increase in Google’s advertising revenue from 80.5% in 2020 to 81.3% in 2021 even during the pandemic and anticipating a 10% rise in 2022, there is something definitely in store for the marketers to kick the ball in the right court. Let’s wait for that.

 
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