There’s no denying that in a time when the hotel operators are finding it hard to boost their results in the world, it all comes down to them to find solutions and strategies that will implement marketing properly and thus increase their sales.
Some of the major trends right now are the global distribution systems, websites and online travel agencies.
CLV and CAC
CAC (Cost of Acquisition) is basically a price paid by the hotel in order to acquire new customers, something that is made via marketing. The CLV on the other side is the gross profit that the site makes from an individual customer from beginning and up until the end. Using these values is mandatory if you want to device a great, reliable and professional business plan which will offer great results in the long run. It all comes down to managing and using these values properly in order to get the best experience, not just the gross revenue the hotel booking will make.
The hotel website
Obviously the website of a hotel is a major marketing tool and one that can deliver a great ROI as a whole with the lowest CAC. It allows you to market your business the right way by focusing on the great experience that you can deliver and at the same time it will include testimonials and social sharing that make people convert a lot faster. The conversion ratios can easily be obtained from a variety of dedicated sites. Make sure your website loads fast and looks great on every devise with a responsive web design.
OTAs
Even if some hoteliers feel that the online travel agents (OTAs) are quite expensive, the great benefits of exposure that they can offer are indispensable for this business. Some of them have a commission structure that delivers great results for normal users while others tend to have a commission structure around 15%-25%. Additional pay per click (PPC) programs can be looked into, depending on the hotel’s budget. The cost vary from 0.25 USD – 2.00 USD per click. Make sure you have a constant communication with your market manager, give sufficient room inventory, reply to reviews and provide enough high quality pictures.
GDS
The global distribution system offers pricing, availability as well as reservation features for a wide range of users. The transaction fees can be costly here so the hotels need to maintain a close relationship with the travel agents in order to get the best possible results.
Distribution channel management
Aside from using any of the distribution channels above, you also have to focus on managing them properly. That can take quite a while to master for sure and it might not be able to obtain the results you want, but in the end it does come down to how you can address the situation and the outcome that you can obtain. It might take to obtain the focus on results you want, but that is possible so just give it a try and you will not be disappointed.
And the end of the day the entire idea is to focus on delivering a wonderful set of results for the end users. Even if it might take a while for you to deliver the outcome that they expect, you always need to invest in the proper channels. All channels we talked about in this article are very good, so you have to invest in them the right way and make sure that you obtain the best possible result, just give them a try and you will not be disappointed!
