The majority of independent properties are losing out on a lot of business for one very simple reason: their hotel websites are poorly designed. They’re not optimized. They’re not converting interested travelers into confirmed guests. From small bed and breakfasts to swanky boutique chains, few seem to have really mastered the art of the hotel website — which is a shame, since it’s the most important part of their direct conversion funnel. There are some hotels, however, that have found the secret to designing beautiful hotel websites that drive direct bookings. So that you can improve the look and function…

Most Revenue Management (RM) systems in the travel industry are based on seasonality (e.g., the third Friday in December is a “good day;” so, keep your prices up; people will travel), and the “booking curve” (e.g., 30 days before departure last year you were 70% full, but now it’s only 50%; so, watch out). The pandemic has clearly ruined the first principle for the last two years (nothing was a good day, really), so now companies naturally want to recalibrate their systems to 2019 when everything was “normal.” While search volume traffic is picking up and is back to 2019…

It’s only natural for hoteliers to look for ways to conserve cash during a crisis. One such way is by cutting their marketing spend altogether. While decreasing your marketing budget might be inevitable, cutting it entirely is going to harm your hotel business in the long run. In fact, discontinuing marketing and other revenue-generating activities makes it much harder to rebound when recovery happens. That’s why experts around the world consider marketing the best response to a crisis. In this article, we’ll explore how hotel marketing can support you in engaging with existing customers as well as reaching out to new…

After being cooped up at home for the better part of 2020, travelers around the world are itching to break free from their own four walls to go on a long-awaited trip. But does that mean they’re willing to pay an arm and a leg for a hotel stay? As tempting as it is to double (or triple) the price of rooms to make up for lost profits in 2020, price gouging will only backfire and hurt the recovery of one’s hotel business. The pandemic not only left world economies battered and bruised, but it also hurt travelers’ wallets. And…

Every hotel that wants to hold on to and grow its direct bookings is going to need a booking engine. A booking engine enables a hotel to accept direct bookings online through its official website. And as travelers increasingly book their hotels online, having a booking engine will make all the difference between staying competitive and giving up a growing amount of direct business. Not just any old booking engine will do, however. A main reason why OTAs have been so successful at capturing online bookings is that their booking pages are optimized for converting users. To compete with the OTAs,…

In our ‘Rebound after the Coronavirus Crisis’ series, we’re sharing tips on how to rebound once the symptoms of the crisis pass and events return to normal. It includes moving beyond crisis response to recovery and post-recovery planning. In the first article of this series, we shared tips on how to create a hotel distribution recovery strategy, and in the second one, we talked about the digital hotel tools you need for a quick and smooth recovery. In this article, let’s explore the essentials of an effective hotel revenue management recovery strategy to ensure a quick and smooth rebound after…