Tips for boosting direct sales

Here are some tips from Xotels founder Patrick Lamdman for increasing your direct sales this year.

Tightening the screw – why hotel distribution is about direct sales

Hoteliers are getting back in the trenches and fighting to regain a healthy balance in their business segmentation, not least because the contribution level of direct sales has an immediate impact into the profitability of a hotel.
…
So, with 2014 finally upon us, here are our hotel distribution and revenue management tips for boosting direct sales:

Key points of the article are summarized below:

Protect your brand
1. Trademark claims - File trademark protection claims on the search engines to protect your brand name from advertising.
2. Advertise on your own brand - Run pay-per-click campaigns on search engines advertising your own brand name to get your site listed above the OTAs in search results and drive bookings directly to your own site.
3. Manage the OTA relationship - Enter into a dialogue with your distributors to persuade them from advertising on your brand.
{ [Note: according to the new HW contract, you have already given your permission to use your brand name in PPC marketing unless you notify HW in writing that you do not want them to do so }

Metasearch

The metasearch phenomenon has truly (and finally) taken off. The platforms in this new level in the distribution chain are nothing less than price comparison websites, benchmarking which channel has the best price for a hotel for your travel dates.

1. Participate directly on price comparison websites feeding in the rates from your hotel website
{Note: It is unclear to me how a hostel can do this. If anyone can provide more information, please share that with us here}
2. Counter rate manipulation and adjustments by OTA - Monitor meta-search websites constantly, and if you are being undercut, simply raise the rate for that channel

Reputation is a key to success
1. Oversight - Monitor review websites, preferably with a tool
2. Hands-on - Manage your profile by responding to guest feedback (positive & negative). Ensure information is up to date and use beautiful photos.
3. Swiftness - Take quick action to improve shortcomings (in-house)
4. Volume - Make sure you get more reviews than the competition by asking guests to share their experiences on the various review platforms.

Multi-device strategy
1. Don’t leave market share up for grabs to others - Make sure you have websites optimized for mobile and tablet devices. You should basically have three websites: desktop, tablet, mobile.
2. Reactive and responsive - All sites need to adapt seamlessly to various screen configurations. Mobile and tablet devices come with many different screen resolutions an operating platforms, and your website must function well on all.
3. Let them book there - A hotel’s internet booking engine needs to be mobile and tablet-friendly. Preferable, again, there would be three versions.

BRIC and beyond

BRIC has been the hot acronym to cover the emerging markets of Brazil, Russia, India and China for a number of years. New source markets which are now getting on the hot lists are Peru, Argentina, Colombia, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam.

1. Localisation - Provide your website and booking engine in the languages for secondary and emerging feeder markets.
2. Focus - Identify distribution channels that can help you capture travelers from these markets.

Flash sales are not dead. Seriously
1. Targeted - Use flash sales only in low demand periods
2. Bundle - Package the offer with other services and include restrictions so you don’t dilute your regular bed-only sales.
3. Scheduling - Make sure the lead time does not overlap with the normal booking window.
4. Size isn’t everything - Work with smaller flash sale websites that are more flexible.
5. Do It Yourself - Carry out direct flash sales to continue to build your own brand.

Target niche market segments

These are easily identifiable and targetable. Think about the specific individual reasons why people are coming to your destination and build a sales strategy only for them.

OTAs are large companies and generally cannot compete on such a micro-level. So it is an effective way to drive extra direct sales.

1. Targeting - Identify niche target markets for your destinations and hotel by looking at travel motive or demographics. (examples; culinary and gastronomy, incentive, active break, museums, live music, travelling with their pet, senior citizens, families, etc.)
2. AdWords - Identify related keywords they might search on for your destination. (use Google Adwords as a resource)
3. Bundles - Build a package for each individual niche target market.
4. Optimisation - Build optimised landing pages to attract these niche market segments.
5. CRM - Segment your mailing list based on information preferences, so you can market each package to the right audience.
6. Nu-marketing - Retargeting through Google Adwords to these specific consumers after they have visited your landing page to increase conversion.