Disintermediate, disintermediate, disintermediate!
In the hotel management sector, there is a lot of talk about it, but in practice how do you manage to create a strategy to obtain more direct bookings for your hotel?
1.The Channel Manager as the first disintermediation tool
It may seem like a contradiction but being able to define how many rooms can be offered for sale in each portal, through a channel manager, allows you to have greater control over what are openings and closings based on the period of the year.
This is because being able to define how many accommodations I will put up for sale in the period of August on each OTA portal, allows me to have more control over the management of my structure. Cleverly balancing the number of direct bookings with intermediate bookings allows you to avoid the phenomenon of the “inverted pyramid“.
There is an inverted pyramid when at the base of my “book of reservations” there are not the direct ones but the intermediate ones. Commissioned reservations cannot be the hard core of our business, so we must use the Channel Manager wisely to maintain the right balance.
2. The Booking Engine, the ram’s head in our sales strategy
For many listeners, the booking engine theme is a topic already heard and well known, however we would like to say that in this case repetita iuvant.
A booking engine with a professional, responsive and simple to use interface is a determining factor in increasing the conversion rate, this provides the customer with a booking system from which it is possible to book accommodation in a few clicks.
Remember that a booking engine to effectively disintermediate must be intuitive, responsive for each device but above all reassuring (and safe) as regards the transmission of personal data and the credit card of the booker!
3. Modern website
The questions to ask on your site are:
1.Is my site responsive? Have I personally tried it from different devices?
2. Do you have clear and clear call to actions?
3. Do you respect security standards (https)?
4.Is it GDPR compliant?
5.Do I have updated and still active promotions?
If you have respected at least 4 of the 5 points above, then you are on the right track!
4. Email Marketing integrated into CRM
The way to disintermediate also passes through the definition of email marketing campaigns … but with an eye always open on the regulations introduced by the GDPR.
An all-in-one software tool allows you to create targeted email campaigns that capture data and therefore contacts directly in the hotel CRM. Email campaigns are created by identifying and segmenting customers based on information that guests have provided during their stay in the structure.
We also keep the second eye open for the analysis of performance and conversions after sending the campaigns, taking into account important aspects such as:
- open rate
- messages ended up in spam
- unsubscribe
Specifically, we will explain how an all-in-one management system, which integrates CRM and email marketing tools, can allow you to automate different aspects:
- If I send a newsletter to a customer and this unsubscribe, the CRM will update automatically, thus keeping the database clean and in accordance with the law;
- If a user at the time of booking through the booking engine, select the checkbox to receive promotional emails, the CRM will automatically update with the subscription date.
