How to improve my Hotels Listing/Positioning on the OTA platforms?
This is one of the most common questions that team Revnomix comes across on an ongoing basis. The business mix share through online channels is growing at a tremendous pace and thus it’s increasing the complications and it’s becoming a huge task to manage multiple channels simultaneously and optimally.
We, Hoteliers, have to understand a very basic concept; OTAs are also practicing Revenue Management within their function. Hotels that are generating higher revenues for the OTA will be prioritized in the listings. There are several reasons that will be taken into consideration while priority listing a property.
<strong>Commission, Bonus & Sale</strong>
The prioritization of the hotel hugely depends on the base commission that Hotel has agreed with OTAs at the time of contracting. Hotels will also need to participate in other Performance Linked commissions such as ‘Performance Linked Bonus’; Free Room nights (10+1; 15+1 etc); Money in Bank; Seasonal Sale; Coupon Coding etc. Depending on the Hotels commercial situation one can decide and participate in the relevant programs. Many Hotels have benefited Hugely and were able to improve on Positioning and Revenue Performance by participating in the right program.
<strong>Content and Visibility</strong>
The hotel, which is correctly positioned across online channels, tends to be booked more frequently than its competitors. Providing updated information like pictures, content, and facilities information combined with reviews will improve your hotel’s ranking on online channels. This improved ranking will lead to better positioning and higher bookings and revenues. OTA platforms also provide Metrics like Content Scores that can be easily sourced from the OTA Extranet platforms. The content such as Hotel and Room Type descriptors must be Specific, Accurate, Compelling, Pleasing, and Easily differentiated. Hotels should also take advantage of KeyWords, SEO, and other programs run by OTAs.
<strong>Online Reputation </strong>
Reputation can have a much greater impact on demand than some advertisers want to admit. If the total demand for a market is 1000 Rooms per night, but one of your properties has a few bad reviews, your addressable demand can decrease. Some guests simply will not consider a hotel if their minimum rating or density of reviews is not met. Hotels must anticipate generating reviews and respond to all of them promptly. Whether good or bad all the reviews should be taken very positively and intend to improve on the feedback on an ongoing basis.
<strong>Dynamic Pricing</strong>
Hotels should be priced dynamically as per the demand conditions, Season, Day of Week, Price Sensitivity, etc. A flat rate strategy is as good as leaving monies on the table; Hotel will lose volume towards nonbusy nights and otherwise rates across busy nights. Pricing hotels emotionally will not help; pickup and pace should be monitored on a daily basis. Hotels should also consider participating in RevPAR driving promotions like ‘Advance Purchase’; ‘MinLOS Discounts’
<strong>Parity</strong>
Providing the same Price and Inventory across all channels is ethical and should be practiced and promoted. Parity will provide equal opportunity to all the channels thus demand materialization will also be proportional. Not only Price Parity should be looked at; Hoteliers should ensure that even the content, cancellation policy, child policy and promotions participated are in parity across channels
