Use added value to entice customers to your website

As most hoteliers undoubtedly already know, online booking agents are vehemently trying to defend their profit margins by demanding ‘Rate Parity’ from their hotels. The aim is to prevent hotels offering a cheaper rate for guests to book directly, circumventing the agent’s commission while still benefiting from the exposure they provide.

Online booking from your own website is essential in order to limit the amount of commission that is sliced from your own profit margin. As more and more of the population become IT literate and more internet savvy, more and more people are finding hotels on an agents website, then making their way to the hotels own website in search for a better deal. Booking agents of course realise this, and demanding rate parity as a pre-requisite to join their system provides them with some protection against this.

However, although you need to keep prices the same across all of your distribution ‘channels’, there’s nothing to stop you offering better value to customers who book direct. Getting a little creative with your packages and offering guests more for their money can be all it takes to persuade them to book with you rather than an agent. Experiment with offering Dinner, Bed & Breakfast packages, including tickets to local attractions such as theatres, museums or theme parks, or including extras in the room on arrival. What works for you will entirely depend on your type of hotel and the clientele you attract but there’s no harm in experimenting.

Of course, the Welcome Online booking system will allow all of this and more. Creating and maintaining additional packages couldn’t be easier, and with the additional features like discount codes and optional extras, there’s plenty of reasons for guests to use your website booking engine over any internet agent's.

Welcome Online is available either integrated with your Welcome 21st booking chart, or as part of the Welcome Anywhere booking system for smaller establishments. If you’d like to hear more about adding Welcome Online to your website, feel free to contact our sales team on 0845 458 21 21.

Click here to see Welcome Online in action

Chris Willis 14th January 2010

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