F E AT U R E A R T I C L E
Key Takeaways & Recommendations
• Metasearch can help you drive more traffic to
your website. Metasearch is to become the most
important advertising channel for hotels. Select
the different digital players that are most pertinent
to your business according to your sales area and
your objectives: mass volume or high return on
investment.
• The efficiency of your direct booking strategy
depends on your price. We have noticed a
substantial difference in return on ad spend for
hotels that chose to give advantages to direct
bookings. Lowering rates for direct bookings is
one of the most efficient ways to make metasearch
generate substantial direct revenue. We have
noticed a return on ad spend by an average of
2.5X. As a general rule of thumb, if one is selling at
higher rates on one’s website the results will not be
profitable. At rate parity, the results are acceptable,
although this lowers the direct booking percentage.
• Look for professionals To secure a hotel’s direct
bookings or simply to increase revenue across
multiple sources, metasearch and digital advertising
channels have become mandatory channels for both
independent and chains hotels. We recommend
hotel groups and chains to create an internal team
for campaign management and optimisation. For
independent hotels, it would be wise to use an
experienced digital agency.
• Keep monitoring Metasearch, like all online
advertising platforms, is not set-it-and-forget-it
platforms. It requires optimisation to ensure that
the return-on-ad-spend is kept profitable.
Food For Thought
The constant change in technology has kept hoteliers
on their toes with constant adaptation. Different shifts
in digital strategies to maximise direct traffic includes
metasearch in the hotel distribution mix.
We have witnessed that if digital marketing
strategies are handled with experience, paid traffic can
represent 30-50% of market share per hotel. This is
definitely worth the effort and attention.
Metasearch, notably Google Hotel Ads, are strong
allies to Independent hotels. This would provide high
visibility and conversion as compared to OTAs.
Now the question that remains is “How to be
connected to Metasearch?“
• Engage with Marketing specialists such as
FASTBOOKING Digital team.
• Hotels can benefit by partnering with Specialist
who works incessantly to improve the efficiency
of advertising platforms. They have the expertise
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Better Revenue I Better Industry I APAC I www.revenuemanagement.com.au
to manage and optimise the campaigns to provide
maximum returns on investment. This is shown in
our current survey where professionals manage the
digital campaigns, the cost per click is decreased for
either a higher or similar return on ad spend.
Hotel distribution is not going to get simplier;
it would require a constant shift of strategies and
adaption. Mobile, new technologies such as chatbots,
etc. will continue to transform the digital landscape.
But this also mean new opportunities and improved
performance possibilities for hoteliers that embrace
these new trends and technology.
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ABOUT FASTBOOKING
FASTBOOKING offers leading edge e-commerce solutions
for hotels to boost their direct sales strategy. Our solutions
are based on a cutting-edge cloud platform and our
proven expertise in digital marketing enabling hotels to
increase brand visibility and promote online sales through
online and mobile channels. Our local experts offer
daily support to hoteliers, in more than 100 countries,
to help them leverage our solutions and retain their
independence.
Founded in 2000, FASTBOOKING is a specialist for digital
solutions dedicated to independent hotels and regional
chains.
www.fastbooking.com