The past year has seen the cancellations of many conferences, expos, festivals, weddings, concerts and other events. More than ever, we have learned that we must prepare for derailment by uncontrollable or outside forces. The legal term for this is the “force majeure clause.”
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While Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) have been around for years, more and more travelers are using them to plan and book their trips each year. In fact, the market size of the global online travel agent sector is expected to exceed $820 billion by 2023.
Recent research from Expedia Group also reveals that travelers are 57 percent more likely to book through an OTA than before the pandemic. If your hotel isn’t using OTA marketing, now is the time.
Since Expedia Group (Expedia, hotels.com, Travelocity, Orbitz) and Booking Holdings (booking.com, Priceline, Agoda) are the major OTA players, it makes sense to start with them.
Following are some tips on how you can use OTA marketing to increase brand awareness and drive bookings to your hotel, hotel group or resort.
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To stay competitive, hotels of all sizes must use metasearch sites. These sites (e.g. Google, TripAdvisor, Trivago, etc.) aggregate and list hotel room rates from various online travel agencies (OTAs) and other booking sites all in one place. From there, guests compare prices and availability before booking.
Travelers can enter search terms (e.g. travel dates, location), then the metasearch sites present hotels that meet the criteria. The listings show a hotel’s rate (plus guest reviews, amenities, photos and policies) on several different booking sites, like Booking.com. If the traveler clicks the link to one of the channels, they can complete their booking there.
Here are ways hotels can effectively use metasearch websites to increase bookings and gain brand awareness.
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