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How to attract hotel guests with different rate plans and policies?

The rollout of vaccines and reduction in travel restrictions means that hotels are starting to see pent-up demand turn into bookings. It is important that you boost your property’s visibility on all demand channels and offer different rate plans and policies to attract varied guest segments.

We are glad to list out the top 3 trends that we have seen in our discussion with various hotels as well as channel partners like Booking.com, Agoda etc.

1. Flexible Booking Policies

With travelers looking to be able to adapt their travel plans depending on circumstances, flexibility in hotel booking policies is crucial.

A great way to stand out to potential guests is by offering flexible cancellation policies. Adding a new, more flexible policy or updating an existing policy to make it more accommodating can help you secure more bookings in times of low demand and high uncertainty.

You can offer flexible rates and policies for Booking.com and other key channels. The Flexible – 1 Day policy is a great way to attract guests to your property. This policy allows guests to cancel for free up to one day before their arrival date. If they cancel within one day of arrival, they’ll be charged the cost of the first night.

By offering guests with flexible booking policies, you can increase the chances of attracting more reservations as well as repeat guests.

2. Long Stay Rates

Reservation trends and data show that travellers are booking longer stays, given the many accrued vacation days. A high proportion of bookings are being made for seven days or more. Hence, it is important for hotels to set-up long-stay rate plans that are specifically designed to attract this customer segment.

OTAs like Booking.com has created the option for you to set weekly and monthly rates to help you take advantage of this significant rebuilding trend and get in front of bookers who are increasingly searching for long-term accommodations. These rate plans help you to be more visible to the increasing number of people who are searching for stays longer than 7 days.

Set-up long-stay rate plans to attract this customer segment for your property today.

3. Mobile Rates

The use of mobile has changed how travel is being searched and booked and by managing mobile rates for your property, you too can improve reservations coming from mobile bookers.

Over half of all bookings on Booking.com are made on mobile devices. 80% of travelers use a mobile app when researching a trip and 50% of accommodation searches and bookings are made on mobile. Mobile rates give hotels 28% more bookings from mobile traffic. Attracting these bookers can positively impact your revenue.

If you do not already have a Mobile Rate set up for Booking.com and other channels, you can easily create one. Activate mobile rates for your hotel to tap into this valuable and expanding traveler segment.

 

 There are a host of additional solutions through which your property can benefit and attract more bookings. We are happy to share Booking.com rebuilding together initiative, where you will find insights and advice on attracting demand. It is packed with research from thousands of travellers, statistics from trusted partners like Google as well as trends from Booking.com search data.

Go ahead and start experimenting with these policies and rate plans to optimize online sales and revenue. Reach out to us for any advice or solutions on distribution connectivity, direct bookings, revenue management or to have a simple chat – https://goo.gl/3gKUJZ

Know more about Hotel booking channel manager software.

 

 

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How Google Hotel Ads Impact Hotel Bookings in 2021?

Good news first. People want to travel. The global search for “where to travel” and “can I travel” are at a record level as per Google. While Google doesn’t share the number of searches, its research report shows that during the summer months, travel demand was nearly at 100, indicating a peak.

Travel Demand

As millions of people worldwide search for hotels on Google, it is important to know how to grab the attention of your potential guests. Thanks to Google Hotel Listing which has been made freely available to all hoteliers earlier this year, it is now possible to attract them to your direct booking channel as well. Sounds interesting, right?

Domestic travel on the rise

It might sound cliché, but the fact remains that the pandemic has changed guest behaviour and preferences. After a year and more of travel restrictions, people want to visit and meet friends and family and create new experiences. As travel restrictions keep on changing, domestic travel is on the rise.

Travel Demand Compare

travel Demand Compare

This is where Google Hotel Ads can help hoteliers get more exposure. Done correctly, Google will show your direct hotel booking link prominently along with other bidders when someone searches for accommodation.

Google Hotel Ads works with the same AdWords auction model where businesses bid for listings. If their bid is higher, provided other boxes are checked (like higher relevance), their name shows up on SERP when someone searches for the target keyword.

There are four types of paid hotel campaigns on Google –

  1. Commissions (pay-per-conversion): Pay only when a traveler books your hotel, depending on the payment model you choose.
  2. Commissions (pay-per-stay): Pay only when a traveler completes a stay that they booked through hotel ads. Available only to select partners.
  3. Max CPC bid (fixed or per cent): Pay when a traveler clicks on your ad. For the CPC bid strategies, you can adjust your bid by factors such as device type, traveler location, length of stay, and other factors.
  4. Enhanced CPC: Automates bid adjustments for a Max CPC bidding strategy.

Convenience in research

3.5 billion searches are made on Google every day, which is 92.47% of total searches on the internet. As travelers search for accommodation, Google Hotel Ads display rates and availability of properties on Google Search, Maps, and Assistant.

By providing intensive and comparative data right up and front based on user’s search query, as well as other factors, aiding their decision-making process, Google becomes the first touchpoint of the guest’s booking journey. It offers them higher convenience to browse through different hotels, check their amenities, and compare pricing – all from a single place.

This level of convenience, in fact, is one of the biggest factors why most people now book hotels online rather than choosing phone calls or relying on travel agents.

Enhanced experience

Did you know an easy-to-use website matters more to high-value travelers than online reviews or loyalty programs? User experience is clearly a key factor people consider when booking hotels online. Google Hotel Ads delivers here in a big way. It provides a consistent (and excellent) experience to the users. If a traveler is checking hotels for a city, it will show properties based on categories like Budget, Luxury and Top Rated.

Google hotel ads connector

 

If your property appears on the organic search result, upon clicking, the user will be taken to the Hotels Details Part which shows prices from various sites including potentially your own brand website.

Hotel Featured Ads

You can have a fair chance of converting lookers into bookers by rich content, hotel photos and reviews. New and returning customers can be redirected to your brand website to book direct – or they can book on Google. The Book on Google option is a useful feature mitigating the risk for hotel owners of losing prospects because of poor-performing websites and unoptimized booking processes.

Boosted conversion

One of the biggest benefits of Google Hotel Ads is the conversion rate for hotel owners. Users would be redirected to your landing page after they have done thorough research on Google; after they have learned about your hotel, pricing, offers, and facilities and read the reviews. With all such information, if they decide to go to your landing page, they are likely to have high buying intent making the lead more qualified.

 

In Summary

With a lower than 8% acquisition cost, Google Hotel Ads can significantly help in the hotel’s digital marketing effort. If you haven’t already used it, take a step forward and tap on the power of Google Hotel Ads today. You’ll be surprised by the results.

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3 Essential Tips to Choose the Right Hotel Booking System

As hotels pave their way to recovery, occupancy and profitability remain the priority. However, with guest behaviour and preferences going through a rapid shift, hotels need an efficient sales strategy to optimize revenue.

For years, hotels have been trying to increase direct sales. However, to boost direct bookings, hotels need to have a user-friendly website with a sound booking engine.

The first obstacle in the path though is how to find a good hotel booking system!

3 Essential Tips to Choose the Right Hotel Booking System

There are so many options out there and they have their own set of features. It makes picking one more challenging.

Direct sales strategy for room sales is one of the most preferred tactics in the hospitality industry. The goal of a direct sales strategy is to boost direct online bookings from as many guests as possible.

Direct bookings are a great option for hotel owners because these bookings generate the most revenue. There are no agents or other distribution partners that must be paid a percentage or commission. Every guest you host has booked directly online, so you can pocket all the profit.

However, for this strategy to work, it is important to have a user-friendly website that travelers can access. Users get driven away by a slow, confusing, or complicated website. Make sure your website is intuitive, mobile-friendly, and has clear action buttons such as ‘book now’ for potential guests to click.

If you are focused on direct bookings, your website must be a priority. Once you have your website running, you will need to invest in hospitality software that syncs your existing website and other channels. If you’re looking to buy a hotel booking system but are confused about which one to choose, follow these essential tips:

1) Focus on the user experience

Yes, you want to buy a hotel booking system that increases direct room booking from the brand website. But the solution can be much more than just that, with its unique features.  One reason guests prefer to book from OTAs is the user experience. A good booking engine would be intuitive, easy-to-use, responsive and mobile-first. Make sure the booking system have the capability to feature special deals & promo codes when guests book directly with you.

2) Ask the right questions

Before choosing any hotel booking system, there are several questions that must be asked and answered. Such insights are necessary to help you make a fitting decision.

Will the solution connect with your hotel PMS? Can it handle multiple currency? Is it easy to use? Can the content be shown in multiple languages? Can it be integrated with your hotel channel manager so that inventory is always up to date? Can you offer different discounts?

These are some of the several questions you should ask before choosing a hotel booking system.

3) Ensure you have ongoing support

This is one of those things many hotel owners overlook, only to regret later. Some of the hotel booking systems can be challenging to use and getting used to. The more features they have, the more confusing they can get. Also, some of their interfaces may not be too appealing.

So, it’s a good idea to ensure you always have support from experts. Meaning, make sure the hotel booking system you plan to go with has a backend support team that extends their support so you can optimally use the system.

Final Words

  • These are three essential tips you should consider while choosing the best hotel booking system.
  • So, take your time, think things through, consider all the factors, and then make the right decision.
  • Remember, the kind of hotel booking solution you use may define the growth of your business. So, be careful and very certain of your decision.
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eRevMax expands Partner Ecosystem with – TUI Group, Guestline and StaySavvy

Highlights introduction of Room – Rate Management feature

eRevMax is glad to introduce a new Product Feature called Room and Rate Management API through which you can create, update and delete room types or rate plans in different OTAs directly from your RateTiger dashboard.

With travel recovery gaining pace, it is imperative that hotels have a clear understanding of market. After over a year of closures and restricted travel, every hotelier needs to implement sales strategies that work best for their target market as well as for their local destinations. Hence it is important for hotels to know which channels and partners can bring maximum exposure to their property. Here are some of our technology and channel partners leading in their specific markets. Get in touch if you wish to connect to any of our 450+ hospitality technology as well as distribution channel / OTA partners.

TUI Group

Our newest channel partner TUI is one of the world’s leading tourism group. Headquartered in Germany, the group consists of tour operators, 1,600 travel agencies and over 400 hotels which are in major holiday destinations. TUI Group offers integrated services and unmatched holiday experience from a single platform for its 28 million customers in 180 regions. Expand your hotel distribution with TUI to attract more bookings and market share.

Guestline

Rexlynx PMS by Guestline is our featured partner for this edition. It provides independent hotels and small groups with the tools and insights and automates routine tasks, liberating your staff to focus on the guest. Fully configurable and PCI compliant, Rezlynx PMS is a mobile-friendly cloud-hosted solution that supports hotels or groups of any size. You can create and manage bookings for multiple properties, easily develop rate plans and apply region specific accounting rules, among various other relevant features. Contact us today to know more.

StaySavvy

One of the first booking platforms to focus on eco-conscious travel, StaySavvy is a new addition to the eRevMax Channel Ecosystem. StaySavvy promotes sustainable travel by helping reduce carbon footprint and rewarding guests for travelling in an eco-friendly way. 2% of every booking is allocated directly to an environmental initiative, such as tree planting or wildlife conservation. It is a revolutionary new room booking platform, generating social impact with every booking. Enlist with this channel to grow your domestic bookings and promote sustainable travel.

Are you looking to manage any new channel from your RateTiger platform? CONTACT US – https://www.erevmax.com/erevmax-contact.html

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Airbnb predicts historic travel rebound in 2021

Airbnb, the home-sharing and accommodation rental giant, has predicted an unprecedented travel recovery in the coming months as more countries ease travel restrictions due to vaccine roll-out. The pent-up demand for travel after a year of uncertainties are making people get back out there. This trend is also captured in the eRevMax Hotel Sentiment survey where 2 out of three BnB and Home Rental owners have reported significant increase in bookings and occupancy compared to last year.

Airbnb has recently published its customer survey report which shows a shift toward more meaningful travel. As more people work remotely from home, they want to go out and stay at another place, not necessarily a hotel, for a longer than usual duration.

More than a year of restrictions and lockdown have made people prioritize personal trips over mass tourism. People want to reconnect with family and loved ones and are willing to take trips while keeping the safety and security in check.

Among the key points that surfaced in the Airbnb research:

People miss traveling and plan to travel. More than bars, restaurants, sports, or other live events, people miss traveling. In one survey, 54% of people said they either already booked a trip or expect to travel in 2021.

What this means: There is a significant pent-up demand as people can’t wait to travel again.

People will be flexible on where and when they travel. With remote work and learning here to stay, people will have more flexibility with travel. This will likely impact where, when, and how long people stay—for example, there may be more demand for off-peak days of the week and times of the year. Nearly 25% of those surveyed said they envision longer stays.

What this means: Be ready to adapt to new guest needs, like offering longer stays, upgrading wi-fi, setting up a laptop-friendly workspace, and including amenities suitable for families and people with disabilities.

People will want to travel nearby. In the survey, 56% of people said they prefer a domestic or local destination. Just 21% said they want to travel farther away and internationally.

What this means: Guests will go anywhere—as long as it’s nearby. This means travel will likely disperse to thousands of smaller cities, towns, and rural communities.

People will prioritize affordability. Those surveyed said affordability was the top priority in choosing accommodations for future travel. The pandemic has hit a lot of people financially, but the desire to travel and connect is universal.

What this means: Offering a great value would help accommodation providers to attract family and group of friends traveling together.

People want to travel to connect with family and friends. In the survey, 41% said connecting with family and friends will be “much more important” post-pandemic.

What this means: There is a shift from mass travel to meaningful travel, and bookings from families and groups of friends who want to reconnect.

As people begin to make plans to reconnect with friends and family, Airbnb is launching the Summer of Responsible Travel, an 8-point plan to help hosts, guests and communities they call home stay safer. The Summer of Responsible Travel plan includes new tools to help travelers and hosts stay healthier, systems to crack down on bad behavior and more help for people if some part of their trip doesn’t go as planned.

You can now manage your property on Airbnb via RateTiger/ LiveOS. Contact us today to connect to Airbnb or manage your existing connection via RateTiger –https://goo.gl/3gKUJZ

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Connect to niche travel channels to generate more bookings

Explore Verychic and HalalBooking from the eRevMax Partner EcosystemAs the world slowly recovers from the impact of the pandemic and international borders are starting to open, travel is expected to pick up. In the post-COVID-19 world, travellers will be extremely conscious of safety protocols, hygiene as well as social distancing norms.

Travel and tour operators will have a big role to play in designing itineraries that avoid public forms of transportation and crowded tourist areas. Further, hotels need to find new ways to market themselves to multiple audience types. Hence it is important to consider niche travel channels that cater to specific guest segments and could be a potential source to generate new bookings.

eRevMax works with a variety of digital travel platforms to offer its hotel partners a whole range of demand sources to choose from. Today we are featuring two such niche OTAs that you may want to consider adding to your distribution mix.

Verychic

VeryChic organizes private sale of outstanding hotel rooms exclusively for its select upscale members, offering attractive deals. It is one of the fastest growing online travel agencies in the French market with over 5000 hotels partnerships attracting 12,000 bookings per month. Verychic has a loyal customer base of over 9 million members across Europe. Verychic enables its luxury and upscale hotel partners to optimize distribution and provides them access to new guests via its private sales.

HalalBooking

UK based HalalBooking is a leading travel booking website for halal-conscious travelers, and allows travellers to find hotels, resorts and villas suitable for their individual needs. The website lists over 71,000 properties in 50 countries. Over 2000 travel agencies worldwide are part of its affiliate partner programme. You can now manage HalalBooking directly from your RateTiger / LiveOS platform.

If you are looking to add any of the above or manage a new tech partner or channel from your RateTiger platform, do contact us today

 

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How to get onboard with Google Hotel Link for Free

Last month, Google has made hotel listings free for hotel businesses and travel agencies. If you are a hotel owner or a travel agency, you can now display your rates and availability in the All Options section. While the results shown in this section is based on organic search results, this is a major opportunity for hotels to showcase their properties on the world’s biggest search engine without worrying about metasearch budget.

In this blog, we have shared a quick guide for hotels to get on Google.

Why Booking links?

For long, hotels have had to compete through PPC campaigns to appear on Google Hotel Booking listings, where cost was often a big factor. This new development removes the cost barrier and gives hotels a level playing field to appear in Google when users search for accommodation. Based on the search query, a listing of various hotels appear along with property photos, ratings, prices, and a map. While the hotel website’s SEO would play a role in appearing in the top results, if done correctly, it helps hotels to connect with more travelers and drive more bookings at no cost.

Google Hotels immersive view

When a user searches for hotels in a particular location, Google shows an immersive view including both a list and a map of hotel search results that contains hotel names, photos, prices, and ratings. Often these results include property promotion ads, which are paid hotel ads on Google. The traveler then either books from the options or can further filter prices by check-in date, occupancy, price, amenities, user rating, brand, and hotel class. Clicking on a hotel sends the traveler to the hotel booking module. The overview section on the booking module shows four paid listings under the Featured options and two organic search results. Clicking on the Prices Tab, the traveller would be able to see all four paid listings along with all search results.

How to get started: Existing Hotel Ad Users

For hotels already displaying rates and availability and booking link through metasearch, they do not need to do anything as they are automatically eligible to show free booking links. Any property with a bid in a hotel campaign and participating feeds will be eligible. Bids also have no impact on the ranking of free booking links.

Hotels and travel agencies who do not take part in Hotel ads

If you are a hotel or a travel agency which does not take part in hotels ads, the first thing you need to have is a Hotel Center Account. Hotels and hotel booking partners who do not have a Hotel Center account but are interested in getting started with free booking links should fill out the interest form. Google has integration with multiple third-party integration partners including RateTiger and recommends hotels to work directly work with these providers to connect to Google. At RateTiger, we are helping many of our client hotels to set up Hotel Center Accounts. For onboarding, you need to provide us with the following:

  1. The hotel list containing all the properties that the hotel/ group/ travel agency wishes to show on Google.
  2. Selecting an option for sending hotel pricing updates to Google.
  3. Customize landing pages that will be shown to a traveler after they click on a hotel’s price on Google or Google Maps.
  4. Maintain an excellent Price Accuracy score

To know more or to get started, contact us today – https://www.erevmax.com/erevmax-contact.html

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eRevMax expands Partner Ecosystem with Discovery Loyalty, GuestPlus PMS and World2Meet (W2M)

With future booking numbers picking up across key destinations globally, domestic travel continues to aid travel recovery. The increasing number of technology requirements that assists hotels to manage their business efficiently can be mind-boggling. It is important that hotels choose their tech partners judiciously so that they are cost and time effective while leading to revenue generation.

eRevMax continues to expand its partner based to offer hoteliers with integrated solutions so they can manage multiple facets of hospitality operations seamlessly, directly from a single platform. Here we bring some of our newest technology partners – feel free to contact us to connect with any of them.

Discovery Loyalty

With more focus on domestic tourism and growing importance of loyalty programs, you may want to have a partner that can help you create and manage Loyalty Programs for your hotel. Our newest partner – Discovery Loyalty, provides 16 million members exclusive opportunities to immerse themselves in local culture wherever they travel. With over 570 hotels in 85 countries, the award-winning DISCOVERY programme generates approximately $2 billion in revenue and over 8 million room nights annually. Get your property listed with Discovery Loyalty and boost your hotel occupancy today.

GuestPlus PMS

A popular technology provider in the UAE, Armada GuestPlus PMS, is a fully configurable, PCI compliant Property Management System that can enable any sized hotel, holiday home, inns and resorts to manage their bookings and operations efficiently and profitably. GuestPlus PMS helps its hotel partners to boost revenue by up to 150%. Known for its user-friendly interface, Armada GuestPlus PMS might just be the right partner for your property. What’s more – you can continue to manage your OTAs seamlessly through RateTiger even with this new PMS. Contact us if you want to schedule a demo with the PMS.

World2Meet (W2M)

If you are looking to connect to a Spanish tour operator, look no further. World2Meet (W2M) – our new demand partner is connected to over 6000 travel agencies in Spain and Portugal and works closely with bed banks, OTAs and wholesalers. With direct contracts with more than 30,000 properties, this could just be the right partner for your hotel. Contact us today to know more about this channel.

Are you looking to manage any new tech partner or hotel channel manager software from your RateTiger platform? CONTACT US TODAY – https://www.erevmax.com/erevmax-contact.html

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5 tips to optimize your hotel’s profile on Booking.com – Part 5

We aim to bring to hotels quick and easy ways to optimize their presence on Booking.com and get more reservations for their property. Through this series, we are highlighting tips that you can leverage through the various promotional options that Booking.com provides.

In the last part of this series, we will talk about the Payment solutions available through Booking.com

Allow Booking.com to take care of online payments

Data breach and payment security have been one of the biggest concerns of the hotel industry. In the last 2 years, many hotel chains have been victims of data compromise. A robust payment solution is a must-have for hotels to avoid security breach and guaranteed pay outs.

Booking.com has recently introduced guest payment options which can help hotels reach more guests, reduce cancellations, and save time on administration related stuff.

Secure, reliable, and easy to manage, the payment module gives hotels a wide range of options including internationally recognized PayPal, Alipay and WeChat Pay.

To know more about this, please check out this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgKfMcRLebY&feature=emb_title&ab_channel=Booking.comPartners

Benefits for Hotels choosing Booking payment solutions –

  • Put an end to chasing down guest payments
  • Eliminate dealings with fraudulent online bookings
  • Avoid guaranteed payouts according to the hotel policy

Benefit for Guests –

  • Choice to select from a wide range of payment options

According to Booking.com data, guests who make online payments are much less likely to cancel or have no-show than those who don’t – ensuring more secure revenue for the hotel.

Booking.com offer properties two payments solutions to choose from:

  1. Guests can only pay online (i.e. Booking.com facilitates all payments),
  2. Guests can either pay online or at the property (i.e. Booking.com only deal with the hotel’s online payments).

To know more about how you can get started, contact us on marketing@erevmax.com

 

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5 tips to optimize your hotel’s profile on Booking.com – Part 4

In this series, we are focusing on easy recommendations that you can leverage for driving more demand to your property through Booking.com.

In the fourth part of this series, we will discuss Non-refundable Rates and how you can benefit from it.

Non-refundable Rate

According to a recent survey done by Booking.com, the two most important considerations for making new bookings are flexible cancellation policies and competitive pricing offers. In the third part of the series, we discussed the benefits of Flexible Rate Plans. However, for 40% of travelers, pricing is a major factor, and this is where non-refundable rate comes into play.

Benefits of Non-refundable Rate

Non-refundable rate typically offers lower rates than fully flexible rates and are quite popular with travelers with fixed plans. Hotels often offer non-refundable rates to secure guaranteed bookings and revenue.

According to Booking.com data, hotels who offer this Rate Plan reduce cancellations by an average of at least 9% and have experienced overall booking boost by up to 5%.

Booking.com recommends participating hotels to combine at least two of three rate plans: Free Cancellation, Non-Refundable and Early Booker. Data shows that hotels who have efficiently used all three have seen a 5% increase in bookings, an 11% increase in visibility and a 9% reduction in cancellations.

Hotels can activate the Non-refundable rate plan from their RateTiger dashboard, by simply selecting the option from the promotion tab. They can also monitor and modify all existing campaigns on Booking.com from the View and Apply Promotion Module on RateTiger.

To know more about it, contact us on marketing@erevmax.com