To maximise direct bookings is to take control of your own bookings. It makes you less dependent on third parties to provide your next customer. A great position to be in.
Visitors to your site need to have the easiest route to checking availability and making a reservation, if you are looking to maximise your direct bookings.
What are “Direct Bookings”?
Direct Bookings are bookings that are made on your own website without any commission or fees going to a third party like Booking.com or Expedia.com.
Lets clarify I encourage you to include OTAs (Online Travel Agencies) as part of your distribution strategy. We are however saying that the balance of Direct Bookings to OTA bookings needs re-balanced more in your favor.
We can help with this.
Your booking engine provider does most of the heavy lifting by providing clear rate and date availability and easy booking process; once your potential guest gets that far. So it is important not to let your visitors down at the first step – on your website.
All of the best booking engine and reservation system providers offer methods to embed the first stage of the booking process into your web site. Implementing their code on your website can significantly increase your booking conversions.
However, that integration needs to fit seamlessly with your branding and your sites navigation. It needs to be easy to find on your page and straight forward to use. Positioning, colour, size and number and type of input fields should be correct.
Your potential guests should be given every opportunity to easily check the availability for their exact requirements and to make the fastest possible booking.
This is where our new “Booking Engine Integration” service can help. We have over 14 years of experience in all aspect of hotel websites and hotel booking online. So we know how to get it right.
Check out bookingranger.com for more details or contact us via [email protected]