Jan
15
Some travel agent websites are planning to allow you to link directly to your hotel from their pages so customers can book directly with you.
Are they mad? Certainly not - they're just following the money.
You see, the biggest problem travel agency websites have is that they are very good at scope. They are not very good at depth.
They can list hotels from all the corners of the world and they can use their affiliate network to reach deep into the bowels of the internet, but they can't afford to spend much time dealing directly with each customer in every hotel. They're not built to cope with that.
To understand what this means, you need to understand the buying process people go through on the internet.
Let me explain:
Are they mad? Certainly not - they're just following the money.
You see, the biggest problem travel agency websites have is that they are very good at scope. They are not very good at depth.
They can list hotels from all the corners of the world and they can use their affiliate network to reach deep into the bowels of the internet, but they can't afford to spend much time dealing directly with each customer in every hotel. They're not built to cope with that.
To understand what this means, you need to understand the buying process people go through on the internet.
Let me explain:
This is what happens:
Stage One The Need Your prospect decides there is a need or want to be fulfilled.
- A wife might say to her husband, “why don’t you take me away for a weekend?”
- An engineer might have to travel to your town to fix a piece of equipment, it will take a few days and he needs a place to stay.
- A sales manager needs to attend a meeting in your town. She lives a long way away and will need to stay over.
- Someone decides to plan a holiday.
None of these things involve the internet. In some cases they might be stimulated by an article on the internet, or in a newspaper, or an advert, or a conversation. Your prospect needs or wants to visit your area and decides to do so. None of us know who they are or what's on their mind, we need to wait until they start stage two to find that out.
Stage Two Information search Your prospect starts trying to find out what’s available.
They might look in the yellow pages, they might have a hotel guide book but if they have access to the internet, they’ll look at a travel agent website or two. Do you know which ones will they look at?
This is your first problem if you, as an hotelier, only use a small number of travel agent websites. How do you know which ones people do their research on?
You don’t. So the wider you can spread your net, the better. Take advantage of the scope they offer.
People will be looking for things to do and places to go. They won’t always be looking for an hotel straight away. Once they’ve decided on the right location, then they might be able to start thinking about options for hotels.
Because you don’t know where they’ll enter this search world, you need to be found in lots of different places.
If you aren’t listed in the places your prospects are looking, they might never find you. These lists on sales websites add credibility to your online presence and allow you to join the “I can be found” club.
Use a channel manager to help you reach lots of different places on the internet.
If they’ve been able to find you on a travel agent listing website, you might be on their personal list of places to consider. Now you have to work hard to stay on that list.
Stage Three Evaluation - Eliminating options and deciding who is best.
This is when people look for detailed information about the hotels they’ve found. They might look at websites such as Tripadvisor for example. Lots of sales websites have customer rating and feedback features.
They might also look up your own hotel website (now they know you exist!). They’ll check to look for special offers, they’ll compare prices, they’ll look at the detail. They might even phone you. What are they looking for? They’re looking for value. Options which don’t offer good value will be eliminated.
It’s important that you use your sales website listing and your own website to demonstrate the value you offer. Please don’t, under any circumstances, make a point of telling people your rooms have a trouser press and “tea and coffee making facilities”. Really, that’s not going to swing anything in your favour. They’re looking for a bit more than that.
Try to think about what your customers are looking for – where the value is – then tell them about it in your listing and on your website. Tell them:
- What is in it for them, and
- Why they should buy it from you
Don’t follow the herd with your sales copy. Dare to be a bit different (most hotel sales copy is very poor so it isn’t hard to stand out).
Stage Four Purchase! They actually commit to buying something. They make a booking.
Where on the internet will they be when they make that commitment? Remember, they could be anywhere.
It is increasingly the case that they might be on your website. If they’re buying flights or car hire at the same time they almost certainly won’t be. So you have to make rooms available in lots of places for them to buy. If they can’t buy your rooms on the travel agent website they’re using, they’ll buy somebody elses. Buyers won’t hunt around the internet to find you. But if they're on your website and you've done everything right - they're yours!
Stage Five Buyers remorse.
Have they made the right decision? Could they have booked a better hotel? Have they bought at the right price?
You can do a lot about buyer remorse by being prompt, friendly and efficient in your response to a booking. If you don’t make the right moves at this stage, there is a risk people might cancel.
That’s the five stages your buyers go through when they make a decision to buy a room on the internet. You can make your presence felt in 2, 3, 4, and 5, but if you’re not featuring in stage 2 you won’t be in play when the purchase decision is made.
To play a part in more peoples’ purchase decisions, they’ve got to be able to find you and they’ve got to be able to book your rooms. Wherever they choose to look.
--
So much for the buying process. The problem for travel agent websites is that lots of people look at their pages, after all they contain valuable information. Not as many people are actually using them to make their bookings. Instead, they are starting to make those bookings directly with the hotels.
I've complained bitterly over the years about the farce that is the "lowest rate guarantee" and the sheer stupidity of "rate parity". Both phenomena are designed for businesses who can't be bothered making the effort to actually sell something to someone.
It seems that - for travel agents at least - they are coming home to roost.
Rate parity means that the lowest rate will always be on the hotels own website. Everybody can match it, but how do they add value? "Lowest available rate" and "look no further" guarantees mean that there is no particular advantage in booking with an online travel agent if you've done your own research (it's the research and shallow local knowledge that lets travel agents add value).
These are the devices the travel agents websites used to make sure they could pile their pages full of hotels and not have to pay much attention to selling. In the same way as the hotels found it difficult to differentiate themselves on the travel agent websites, now the travel agents find it difficult to offer better value to buyers than you would find at the hotels. They can't differentiate themselves from the actual service provider.
So they're not turkeys voting for Christmas, they are following the money.
You see, they've worked out what happens between stage 2 and stage 4 in the buying process. They've realised the buying public is using them as a signposting service. They have been losing booking revenue because people like to go direct to the hotels (for information in more depth) and now they can see a way of recapturing it.
If people look at agency websites but book direct, why not help them to do exactly that with a direct link and charge a small percentage for it?
They're controlling the process and trying to make the best of deteriorating position. You would do the same.
Stage One The Need Your prospect decides there is a need or want to be fulfilled.
- A wife might say to her husband, “why don’t you take me away for a weekend?”
- An engineer might have to travel to your town to fix a piece of equipment, it will take a few days and he needs a place to stay.
- A sales manager needs to attend a meeting in your town. She lives a long way away and will need to stay over.
- Someone decides to plan a holiday.
None of these things involve the internet. In some cases they might be stimulated by an article on the internet, or in a newspaper, or an advert, or a conversation. Your prospect needs or wants to visit your area and decides to do so. None of us know who they are or what's on their mind, we need to wait until they start stage two to find that out.
Stage Two Information search Your prospect starts trying to find out what’s available.
They might look in the yellow pages, they might have a hotel guide book but if they have access to the internet, they’ll look at a travel agent website or two. Do you know which ones will they look at?
This is your first problem if you, as an hotelier, only use a small number of travel agent websites. How do you know which ones people do their research on?
You don’t. So the wider you can spread your net, the better. Take advantage of the scope they offer.
People will be looking for things to do and places to go. They won’t always be looking for an hotel straight away. Once they’ve decided on the right location, then they might be able to start thinking about options for hotels.
Because you don’t know where they’ll enter this search world, you need to be found in lots of different places.
If you aren’t listed in the places your prospects are looking, they might never find you. These lists on sales websites add credibility to your online presence and allow you to join the “I can be found” club.
Use a channel manager to help you reach lots of different places on the internet.
If they’ve been able to find you on a travel agent listing website, you might be on their personal list of places to consider. Now you have to work hard to stay on that list.
Stage Three Evaluation - Eliminating options and deciding who is best.
This is when people look for detailed information about the hotels they’ve found. They might look at websites such as Tripadvisor for example. Lots of sales websites have customer rating and feedback features.
They might also look up your own hotel website (now they know you exist!). They’ll check to look for special offers, they’ll compare prices, they’ll look at the detail. They might even phone you. What are they looking for? They’re looking for value. Options which don’t offer good value will be eliminated.
It’s important that you use your sales website listing and your own website to demonstrate the value you offer. Please don’t, under any circumstances, make a point of telling people your rooms have a trouser press and “tea and coffee making facilities”. Really, that’s not going to swing anything in your favour. They’re looking for a bit more than that.
Try to think about what your customers are looking for – where the value is – then tell them about it in your listing and on your website. Tell them:
- What is in it for them, and
- Why they should buy it from you
Don’t follow the herd with your sales copy. Dare to be a bit different (most hotel sales copy is very poor so it isn’t hard to stand out).
Stage Four Purchase! They actually commit to buying something. They make a booking.
Where on the internet will they be when they make that commitment? Remember, they could be anywhere.
It is increasingly the case that they might be on your website. If they’re buying flights or car hire at the same time they almost certainly won’t be. So you have to make rooms available in lots of places for them to buy. If they can’t buy your rooms on the travel agent website they’re using, they’ll buy somebody elses. Buyers won’t hunt around the internet to find you. But if they're on your website and you've done everything right - they're yours!
Stage Five Buyers remorse.
Have they made the right decision? Could they have booked a better hotel? Have they bought at the right price?
You can do a lot about buyer remorse by being prompt, friendly and efficient in your response to a booking. If you don’t make the right moves at this stage, there is a risk people might cancel.
That’s the five stages your buyers go through when they make a decision to buy a room on the internet. You can make your presence felt in 2, 3, 4, and 5, but if you’re not featuring in stage 2 you won’t be in play when the purchase decision is made.
To play a part in more peoples’ purchase decisions, they’ve got to be able to find you and they’ve got to be able to book your rooms. Wherever they choose to look.
--
So much for the buying process. The problem for travel agent websites is that lots of people look at their pages, after all they contain valuable information. Not as many people are actually using them to make their bookings. Instead, they are starting to make those bookings directly with the hotels.
I've complained bitterly over the years about the farce that is the "lowest rate guarantee" and the sheer stupidity of "rate parity". Both phenomena are designed for businesses who can't be bothered making the effort to actually sell something to someone.
It seems that - for travel agents at least - they are coming home to roost.
Rate parity means that the lowest rate will always be on the hotels own website. Everybody can match it, but how do they add value? "Lowest available rate" and "look no further" guarantees mean that there is no particular advantage in booking with an online travel agent if you've done your own research (it's the research and shallow local knowledge that lets travel agents add value).
These are the devices the travel agents websites used to make sure they could pile their pages full of hotels and not have to pay much attention to selling. In the same way as the hotels found it difficult to differentiate themselves on the travel agent websites, now the travel agents find it difficult to offer better value to buyers than you would find at the hotels. They can't differentiate themselves from the actual service provider.
So they're not turkeys voting for Christmas, they are following the money.
You see, they've worked out what happens between stage 2 and stage 4 in the buying process. They've realised the buying public is using them as a signposting service. They have been losing booking revenue because people like to go direct to the hotels (for information in more depth) and now they can see a way of recapturing it.
If people look at agency websites but book direct, why not help them to do exactly that with a direct link and charge a small percentage for it?
They're controlling the process and trying to make the best of deteriorating position. You would do the same.
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