We have prepared a list with the top 5 recommendations on how to improve your direct room sales.
Study the sales statistics
The first tip does not have anything to do with making settings. Go to TravelLine Analytics to find out what room types, rate plans and payment methods are the most popular. How do users get on your hotel website? What are the most popular days of the week to stay with you? For how long do guests typically stay at your hotel? What is an average booking check? Then, decide on the sales policy after taking all these data into account.
Monitor your competitor hotels
Do not forget about hotels located close by. Using TravelLine Rate Shopper, you will not have to do anything by hand to keep up with the price changes of your competitors. By monitoring them, you can manage your pricing strategy with confidence. For example, if the competitors’ price rates are lower, you can attract more guests with a special offer. In case you have your best occupancy, you can raise your prices a bit higher.
Set prices for a year ahead
Here is a question for you: can your website users book the dates 6 months in advance? To answer, check for how much time ahead you have set the prices and availability in TravelLine Extranet.
As soon as you may not have prices for the dates you need, your potential guests will look for rooms somewhere else.
Six months ahead is a bare minimum. We recommend setting prices and availability for a year ahead. The important thing is not to forget to set ahead the restrictions along with prices. This way, your rate plans will be available on the dates you need and on the condition you need. Learn more about setting the prices ahead in the “How to extend a rate for the next year promptly” article.
Encourage guests
Study your guests and take into account the client segmenting to adjust your hotel services to their specific needs. TravelLine Platform allows creating guest bases with their contact details. Use them to send email newsletters with special offers and discount promo codes or just wish them happy birthdays or merry holidays.
Pay extra attention to guests who book directly on your hotel website. Encourage their independence, and next time, they will book on the hotel website again. A hotel loyalty program is also great to increase the loyalty of repeat guests.
When managing your guest base, do not miss on incomplete bookings. When this happens, you get an automatic email with a user’s contact details telling you to get in touch with the potential guest and help him/her complete the booking. Let’s say, you get a bunch of emails on incomplete bookings with the same contact details. If there is no way to call the person, send a hotel registration form to his/her email. As it is evident that the person took many attempts to make a booking with you — so, try to help him/her.
Manage your rate plans
Take into account local events and create special offers on these dates. For example, it may be a little too late to create a New Year’s special offer in November — do that at least six months in advance. As for seasonal demand changes, it is easier to adjust to them if you manage dynamic rate plans.
Do not forget to offer extra services and appealing bulk deals.
To make it convenient for guests to book at any rate plan, add a “Book at the special offer” button. It comprises all the special offer conditions and redirects users from the special offer page to Booking Engine.
To make your guests even happier, you can benefit from the RateMix feature. Due to it, users see the best deal possible if the dates of stay fall on the validity periods of several rates.