“How can I get more visibility for my property on trivago?” It’s a common question we hear from hoteliers and rightly so. According to our own research, 75% of registered hoteliers who regularly use trivago Business Studio indicated that trivago is a relevant marketing channel for their property. So, of course, the desire to catch the eye of potential guests worldwide is top of mind.
To put this topic into perspective, here are four steps you can take to proactively influence your property’s visibility on trivago as well as travelers’ interest in you.
Make the best first impression
Fact: The guest experience starts online. And that makes it all the more important to keep up appearances on the platforms where you make your presence known. trivago is no exception.
A full and up-to-date trivago profile is key to capture travelers’ attention and, of course, holding it. Let’s get to the nitty gritty on how to make yours stand out.
Basic Information: When travelers search on trivago, they use the filter system to find the accommodations with the services and amenities that meet their needs. Therefore, you want to give trivago a greater chance of promoting you in search results by making sure this section in your Business Studio is always current.
Description: By nature, we’re all curious to learn more. Which is why you have the space on trivago to tell interested travelers what your hotel is all about. If you haven’t added a description to your profile yet, we offer tips on how to structure yours when you choose the language in which yours will appear.
A bonus tip for you: Avoid using free online translation tools for your description, as they tend to create grammar mistakes and misunderstandings. You can learn how to have your description translated effectively in our blog article The Right Way to Reach Global Travelers.
Images: A neurological study by Michigan State University revealed that our brain’s visual vortex, which is responsible for interpreting and processing visual information our eyes receive, is “more powerful than previously believed.” In essence, imagery can influence our decision-making just like the traditional, higher-level areas of our brain.
To help potential guests picture a memorable stay with you, your image library should have a minimum of 17 high-quality photos that show your property at its best (seasonal photos add a nice touch, too). And if you spot photos with a red filter in your image library, we highly recommend replacing them with ones of higher quality.
For dos and don’ts on photographing your property, have a look at our 5 Tips for Hotel Photos That Sell.
Don’t be mediocre, be marvelous
Do bed pillows need a bit more fluff? Do guests feel like they’re using a dial-up Internet service like it’s 1995?
Negative reviews like those about the guest experience will undoubtedly end up online, only to hurt a property’s overall rating, confidence among travelers, and hotel revenue over time. The best way to handle lackluster reviews is to jump into reputation management: acknowledging and replying to those in a positive way, as well as addressing issues that need attention. This not only makes guests feel that you’re listening to them, but it also demonstrates to travelers that you’re guest-centric and focused on remedying what requires improvement.
Reputation management can pay off, too. When a property raises its review score by one point on a five-point scale, it can increase room rates by 11.5% and keep the same occupancy or market share, according to a study by Cornell University School of Hotel Administration. What’s more, if a mid-scale hotel improves its online reputation by one percent, it can see its revenue per available room (RevPAR) go up by 1.42%.
On a trivago level, our research found that the higher a hotel’s online rating, the higher the profile’s click-through rate (CTR). Even when a hotel increases the number of guest reviews from 20 to 100, it can raise its CTR by up to 3%. So, a little reminder for guests at check-out to post their positive reviews and ratings online will go a long way.
Two points to remember: 1) Travelers can’t leave reviews on trivago, and 2) trivago can’t remove old guest reviews from your profile, and so you’ll need to reach out to the sites where those were posted. The reason is that we show ratings and reviews as we do for rates, by aggregating them from third parties across the Internet.
Find the sweet spot with your rates
Rate management isn’t exclusive to big hotel chains. Small and medium-sized hotels can set up their “Goldilocks pricing strategy” with rates that aren’t too high or too low but just right.
Though the actions that go with rate management may seem daunting, they don’t have to be. Every hotel is unique, so it’s a matter of finding a pricing strategy that works best. Let’s have a look at a few common practices to follow:
Revenue management forecasting is your starting point to plan for the coming year or for the next season if that’s how your property operates. Coupled with historical data as your guiding light, you’ll be able to make key decisions on your room pricing, promotions, and distribution based on anticipated demand and performance.
Once you’ve set your future rates, you’ll want to see if your forecasting is accurate. When you’re evaluating those, whether in your channel manager, rate shopper, or daily reports, consider them in two ways: With a “horizontal ranking,” you’ll be able to assess how your rates appear across your partner booking sites for consistency and competitiveness. Keep in mind that to increase direct traffic for your property, your website rates need to be more appealing than the rates you’re advertising on OTAs.
When you analyze your room rates on a “vertical ranking,” you’ll be able to measure how those compare to your competitors. Although you don’t want to let them dictate your pricing strategy, look at them in terms of the products and services they’re offering because that’s what your potential guests are checking, too.
For instance, are your room rates the same as your main competitors’ but yours exclude breakfast? Then you ought to consider lowering your rates to be more attractive and, of course, reasonable.
Put your website rates in front of travelers
The multitude of reimbursement issues travelers faced at the beginning stages of the global pandemic of 2020 certainly left their mark.
When homebound travelers were finally able to pack their bags and hit the road again, the distribution landscape experienced a shift. Hotels noticed an upswing in travelers reaching out to them not only to get the latest conditions of the area firsthand, but to also book direct. In fact, an industry report by d-edge reveals that in Europe 32% of the total reservations between January and May were generated via a hotel’s website. For Asia-Pacific hotels, it was 41%.
How can hoteliers like you keep the momentum going to drive direct traffic?
trivago’s Rate Connect, for example, enables you to advertise your website rates on your profile. As soon as potential guests click on those rates, we’ll send them straight to you.
When they book directly with you, the first-party data that comes with the booking is yours to keep, too. This puts you in the driver’s seat to engage with your future guests leading up to check-in, as well as motivate them to stay again in the future. What a great way to build loyalty, generate repeat business, and grow the fan base for your property.
If you’d like personalized assistance with starting Rate Connect or even expert tips on how to optimize your current Rate Connect campaign on trivago, let us know today. Just click on the Support button on the bottom right, fill in the short form with your contact details, and a trivago Account Manager will be happy to get in touch with you.
Promote your official direct rates to boost bookings.
As a leading metasearch, trivago is a marketing channel for hoteliers to connect with the millions of travelers worldwide who come to search for and discover their ideal accommodation. By taking a proactive approach towards increasing your visibility on trivago, you’ll be able to benefit from attracting and then activating potential guests to book their stay with you.
Featured image by: Bruno Maceiras from Pexels
