Monday, March 17, 2014

Competitor Price Monitoring Can Help Hotel Websites to Beat OTAs

Competitive price monitoring is very important in the hotel and travel industry. This is because the hotel industry is a highly competitive one and proper pricing is of utmost importance. Online travel agencies and hotel websites are competing for the same market segment. They are both looking for people who want to book hotels and accommodations online. Surprisingly, people are choosing online travel agencies because they can be able to compare prices before making any bookings.

In countries like Germany, consumers will consider price more than anything when looking for any service online. That is why these online travel agencies are giving hotel websites a run for their money. So what can hotels do in order to boost their sales and make sure customers are making bookings via their sites?

One of the things that hotels have to consider is the sales messages that they place on their sites. People will not read lengthy descriptions about your services and products. Keep the sales messages and promotions short and simple.

It is also important to give previous guests an opportunity to review your business online. Reviews can help your business to increase sales and market your brand online. Your previous customers can give reviews on social media channels. These reviews will be read by your potential clients and give you better business online.

Reviews on third party sites like Trip Adviser are more trusted than the ones on your own website. Many potential customers will not believe reviews on your site because there is that assumption that companies are writing their own reviews. Allowing a trusted third party site to review your business is one of the ways to increase your brand’s authority and trust.

You must ensure that all your offerings are on online travel agencies. In fact hotels should not be competing with online travel agencies because they offer them business. What hotels need to do is to ensure that once they receive the client, they offer world class service in order to turn this client into a loyal customer. This is what helps you to get better business online.

However, online travel agencies are not for everyone. There are cases where the online travel agencies may not be suitable for your business. Have well defined goals and prioritize on the channels which you will use to advertise your brand. You can manage to do your own sales, without the use of travel agencies. However, you will need to track competitor prices in order to identify the most appealing pricing strategy for your business.

Custom scraping services can help you to evaluate the price offerings of different hotels online and then make wise decisions based on these findings. You can get custom web scraping services which are tailored to suit your unique needs. Your hotel business doesn't have to remain dormant online because of OTAs. A lot can be done to make sure you receive massive bookings through your website. Website scraping is one of the services which can help you to get proper pricing policies and make your hotel the most preferred one among thousands.