10 years
Thanks John!
Scary... I'll stay with my good old tripconnect... I'm curious to see what are your thoughts...
Tripadvisor new booking option
Hostel Reviews, Booking Engines, and Directories
Tripadvisor are now implementing another new booking paid option on their website.
As there are a few options I will briefly explain thr two current options
Business Listing - This is a monthly or yearly subscription and the price depends on a number of factors so varies a lot.
With this you get the put your website address,e-mai address and contact phone number on the Tripadvisor page .
You also get to promote special offers and announcements for your hostel.
Tripconnect - Firstly to use Tripconnect you need to have a business listing which is outlined above. With Tripconnect you connect your channel manager to Tripadvisor. You then pay per click and bid against the OTA's such as Booking.com and Hostelworld. You can set your limits and depending on your bid you change your position. You can also specify the countries you want to bid in as they can vary a lot in price mine went from .12 euro to 1.20 euro depending on the country.
So they are the current two offerings and now comes a new option similar to Tripconnect and is called Tripconnect Instant Booking
Tripconnect Instant Booking - Instead of having a button saying Book on Hostel website this will be a very prominent button which shows Book on Tripadvisor. The connection is still between your channel manager and Tripadvisor. You do not pay per click but you pay a commission once the customer has stayed at the hostel. For a 15% commission they will show the button to 50% of people on your page and for 12% they will show it to 25% of guests to your page. You will only pay after the guest has stayed at your hostel so you wont be paying per click but on the cost of the booking.
http://www.tripadvisor.ie/TripAdvisorInsights/n2518/introducing-tripconnect-instant-booking
- Comments
10 years
So TripAdvisor decided to take nice big bites instead of little nibbles. Smart on their part.
John, have you looked through the fine print? (I have not yet)
Does TA currently include a rate parity requirement for this feature?
Do you have to give TA the right to buy keywords with your brand name like HW and Booking require? If you do, then this isn’t really any better than the other OTAs who poach your direct bookings. If you don’t, then this would help you to wean your hostel off reliance on the OTAs.
Assuming that TA isn’t going to bid on your brand name or require rate parity, this sounds okay to me, at least at face value. You could simply include the commission for the TripAdvisor channel the same way that you include it for HW or Booking. Depending on the commission that you elect (12% or 15%) the price would be the same as at least one of those other OTAs but TA’s immediate booking process would be simpler and therefore more likely to happen. (And you still get to keep the same amount as you would from a direct booking.)
Denis Moz pointed out in another thread that if you use two or less OTAs, then your own lower direct booking price will also be listed (on a pay-per-click basis). Does the Instant Booking feature take the rate from the price that you feed as the Official Site price? If it does, then the pricing strategy with included commissions wouldn’t necessarily work.
10 years
Does TA currently include a rate parity requirement for this feature?
There is technically no rate parity clause with them as it is taking the prices directly from your website.
So for the likes of myallocator it is the prices from your booking widget and it is not specifically a separate channel.
Do you have to give TA the right to buy keywords with your brand name like HW and Booking require?
No they wont be buying keywords.
What it does is remove the OTA'S from the options to book from 50 % or 25% of guests who look at your tripadvisor page depending if you pay 15% or 12%.
I guess the positive is as well it is only on completed bookings and people who stay.
If you were using PPC in the old way whether a person stays or not you are still paying for the click.
I wont be using this myself as I already add the commission on to the other channels I send booking to so after commission is the same as my direct price.
If I was to implement this I would be cutting my income by another 12% or 15%.
For some hostels I guess the PPC might be similar to the 12% or 15% but mine would be very different.
On average a booking of mine would be 75-100 euro so PPC of 1 euro is the same as a 1% commission .
Hopefully I have explained this as well as I can
10 years
My website rates come from MyAllocator's Book Now app. So TA is taking their Instant Booking rates directly from that app too instead of having their own channel? Interesting. In that case, you wouldn't know if that booking came from TA or from your own website. So how do you determine if you owe them a commission or not?
I can definitely see the advantage of paying the lower PPC commissions instead of 12-15% on each booking, assuming that people who click actually make a reservation.
10 years
My website rates come from MyAllocator's Book Now app. So TA is taking their Instant Booking rates directly from that app too instead of having their own channel?
Yes this sounds like the way it is done.
From TA
Once travellers make their bookings, the booking details are passed to you directly through your connectivity provider. You own the relationship with your customer from the beginning. Any customer service enquiries or changes will be managed by you. - See more at: http://www.tripadvisor.ie/TripAdvisorInsights/n2518/introducing-tripconn...
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