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January 24, 2023 Sini. M
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How to Save Costs and Increase Direct Bookings

As a small accommodation provider, we understand the struggle and pressure to find better strategies to enhance your hotel’s profit to the next level. With so much paperwork and management bureaucracy, communicating with the guests, and providing invoices and reports, we are sure that direct booking is one of your least but not less important things to worry about.

The Online Travel Agencies (OTA’s) play a very important role on getting you more bookings and there’s no denying that they help you reach a worldwide audience. However, they can be quite pricey and you’re looking for a way to get the perfect balance between OTA bookings and direct bookings.

By thinking on how you can save the commission from these tools we present to you this article with a few tips on how to not depend entirely on OTA’s and boost your direct bookings.

Go mobile

I’m sure that your accommodation business has its own website, but is it optimised for a faster mobile viewing?

If you’re not familiar with web development, you might be wondering why is it necessary. It really sounds mysterious and complicated, but luckily it is easier than it seems. Take a look on the fact sheet below.

  • Data from 2017 shows that 57% of the online traffic comes from smartphones and tablets.
  • In fact, 60% of mobile users expect a site to load in 3 seconds or less. (Forbes).

Websites that are not mobile optimised usually have longer load times and smaller text size, making it difficult to read. Unfortunately, If your hotel website takes too long to load, you’re most likely to lose that booking, since the visitors will get frustrated and might want to leave your website faster.

It is also important to mention that mobile optimisation will improve your website ranking on search engines like Google, so it’s safe to say that this improvement is vital.

Spice up your photo gallery

Imagine yourself coming from a long trip, what is the first thing that comes to your mind?

Make sure to choose the best pictures that can give you that comfortable feeling you get when you enter in a hotel room. A fluffy bed, good atmosphere, cleanliness, good lighting… It all counts.

If your property rooms looks smaller in pictures than it actually is, check this visual trick that can help you: In case you’re taking photos alone, always take pictures from the corners of your room, it will make them look wider.

Use a booking engine on your website

Contact forms are often used on hotel websites, but why not make it better? A booking engine is a hotel reservation software that can be implemented on your hotel website, and there are so many advantages. Leave the paperwork behind with all the stress (and costs) that comes with it.

  • Pay 0% commissions on those bookings.
  • Show your guests faster results on room availability.
  • Increase customer confidence by giving real time booking confirmation.
  • Save costs and time by reducing your employee’s job loading.
  • RoomRaccoon it’s an all-in-one solution for your hotel, apartment or B&B that will definitely help you with that.

Enable bookings via Facebook Page

Facebook is one of the first things that come into your customer’s mind when they want to know more about your hotel, so you should be active on it and take advantage of this platform.

Did you know that you can also add a “Book Now” button that integrates directly with a Booking Engine system like RoomRaccoon? RoomRaccoon is user friendly and can definitely help you on increasing direct bookings.

Offer discounts for direct bookings

On the website or for walk-ins, everyone loves a discount, it’s a fact. You can entice your customers by offering special perks that are only entitled if they make direct bookings.

Book using our website and get 5% off”

“Book direct for Sunday-to-Thursday stays and receive 20% off from our best available rates”

You might also want to consider the number of people in the group, if they’re a couple, it should be a great moment to offer a bottle of wine or a special discount at the restaurant. It’s a great strategy to upsell your hotel features.

This can also help you with low occupancy rate, one of the most feared challenges for hoteliers.

RoomRaccoon allows you to easily promote your special packages according to your needs. Check how it works by requesting your free demo.

About RoomRaccoon

Smart hotelier, we are here to help you with our all-in-one hotel solution made for independent hotels, B&B and apartments.

Property Management SoftwareBooking Engine and Channel Manager. No hidden costs, no service costs and no 20% commissions.

Incredibly easy to use, you are only one button away to get your automatic invoice printed or sent by mail, with City Tax and VAT% included.

And it’s cloud-based, which means you can access it from anywhere in the world, as long as it has an internet connection.

Want to improve and automate your hotel business? Ask for your personalized free demo now!

Author Image

Sini. M

Sini is an accomplished Content Manager at RoomRaccoon. As an agency-hailed talent, her work brings a fresh creative flair to the world of SaaS. And she brings her very own brand of sass to the SaaS world. While not on the clock, Sini enjoys a glass of fine wine, and well, her privacy.

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