People in the hotel industry are definitely familiar with OTA. However, most practitioners do not have a thorough understanding of OTA operations. They tend to simply believe that taking more orders, modifying prices, and responding to reviews are all the content of OTA. In fact, OTA operation is a very complex and profound subject. For the profound knowledge of OTA operation, below are ten hotel OTA operation tips shared with all hotel staff. However, most practitioners do not have a thorough understanding of OTA operations. They tend to simply believe that taking more orders, modifying prices, and responding to reviews are all the content of OTA. In fact, OTA operation is a very complex and profound subject. For the profound knowledge of OTA operation, below are ten hotel OTA operation tips shared with all hotel staff.
Convert OTA customers into direct customers
The role of OTA should be to advertise, attract traffic, and supplement customer sources. We cannot overly rely on OTA, and pricing and inventory allocation rights should not be controlled by it.
2. The value of OTA should lie in bringing additional customers to hotels, rather than snatching customers from direct sales channels and then buying them back with commissions.
3. Hotels should strive to increase customer loyalty to their direct sales channels, rather than loyalty to OTAs.
4. To study the characteristics of OTA customer sources, develop corresponding processes and performance evaluation standards, and strive to convert OTA customer sources into hotel direct customers, such as members, company agreement customers, long-term guests, teams, etc., and cultivate their habit of booking through hotel direct sales channels, including official websites, WeChat, manual booking, etc. Set goals, conduct performance evaluations, and strive to ensure that new guests make their first and second bookings on OTA, and book directly at the hotel for the third and subsequent bookings.
5. Resolutely eliminate the phenomenon of hotel employees asking guests to book directly on OTA for fear of trouble, and actively book directly for guests.
Image: A good image is worth a thousand words
1.High pixel, high-definition, highlighting the hotel’s unique features.
2. The latest photo, not from a few years ago. Not even a rendering.
3. Properly select some photos of surrounding tourism resources and put them on, not too many, too excessive, and not without them.
Content: Content is king
1.Putting oneself in the other’s shoes, starting from the needs of customers, using popular search terms, connecting attractions, transportation hubs, equipment and facilities, prices, etc., to increase the probability of being searched.
2. The reviews written by customers on OTA are an extension and supplement to the hotel’s promotional and display content. Study them and use them for me.
Price: One bowl of water is flat, fair competition
1.Adhere to price consistency and prevent price inversion. Obviously, if the hotel’s direct sales channels (official website, phone, WeChat, etc.) have higher prices than OTA, guests will definitely leave for OTA booking and become loyal to OTA, causing the hotel to lose the price difference and commission.
2. The promotional price provided to OTA should also be offered through hotel direct sales channels. The principle is the same as the previous one, a bowl of water is flat, allowing customers to choose whether to book through OTA or direct booking.
It is better to increase the commission ratio than to lower the price of OTA compared to direct sales channels
1.If it is predicted that there will be a trough and business is not good, the commission ratio of OTA can be increased during the selected period, or the price of all OTAs, including direct sales channels, can be reduced during a specific period based on the principle of price consistency.
2. When conducting promotions with specific OTAs, it is necessary to set production targets for OTAs during the promotion period. Follow up on production and adopt tiered commission rewards.
3. Do group buying appropriately, if it’s difficult to break even. Drive popularity through group buying. However, the price should not be too low and should not be done for a long time.
Utilize interactive online reviews to effectively manage customer relationships
1.Timely reply to customer reviews on OTA, preferably within 48 hours.
2. Timely thank them for their praise, take proactive measures to remedy their complaints, and do a good job in repairing customer relationships.
3. The response and handling methods should be personalized and humanized, not procedural or rigid.
4. We need to find a way to convert guests who write reviews, especially those who write positive reviews, into hotel members and direct bookings.
