Presentation made at the HSMAI Digital conference in the World Travle Market in London 2015. We present the booking journey and what this implies in terms of opportunities for hotel chains to include rate comparison widget such 123compare.me in ther sites in order to increase direct booking

1. Are you offering the best value?
HSMAI Europe 4th Annual Digital Marketing
Conference
London 5th November 2015

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Are you offering the best value?
Whether or not to showcase
rate comparison on your site.

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Index
• The booking Journey
• Implications
• Comparison tools
• Reasons to have it / pros and cons
• Hotel Case
• Results & examples

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The Booking Journey
It generally takes a family more than three weeks to book
a holiday, from deciding to travel to clicking the “pay now”
button, in which time they may visit seven websites
Source:The Economist
Picture:https://www.flickr.com/photos/derekbruff/

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Before booking in an OTA,
Did you visit the hotel web site?
NO
55%
YES
45%
Source: http://blog.miraiespana.com/cuantos-clientes-de-booking-crees-rozan-la-reserva-directa-el-efecto-escaparate-fallido/

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The Hotel Challenge:
Get the most of the booking journey
Book HOTEL
Hotel site
Search & Compare BookSearch
Book HOTEL
Hotel site

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Current situation
“Big Giant” OTA’s & Metasearch have larger marketing
budgets to attract travellers than specific Hotel Chains
New threads by Google Hotel Finder or Amazon entering
the market will increase traffic diversion
“Price parity rule” is not well known by end traveller
Travellers want to be sure they are getting the best deals and
all the information in a single place

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Current situation
Hotels are seeing
their margins
decreasing by
increased market
share of OTA and the
rise of Meta-
Searchers

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Rate Comparison tools
- Since e-commerce specialists and revenue managers
are constantly monitoring their prices and OTA prices,
some software tools frequently includes price
comparison at their back end
 Then: Why not show this rate comparison to your
user ?

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Whether or not to showcase rate
comparison on your site.

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Some Reasons For NO we have received
Not sure to
show 3rd party
prices in my
website
What if their
prices are
lower?
I prefer not to
have troubles
with OTA’s

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Some reasons to get it ASAP
- Your visitor is already checking & comparing prices
- You are planning (& giving) prices to OTAs according to your direct
price.
- The main practice is usually sell at same or higher price to the
OTA
- Many Hotels are including a “best available rate guarantee”
- You will Gain transparency with your customers
 You will increase your conversion rate and get more direct
booking

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16 HOTEL CASE

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Hotel Case
• Small 4* Hotel in the center Barcelona
• Best available rate policy
• The Hotel is actively Promoting direct booking

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Active Best Rate
Direct Best Price vs. OTA 1 Best Price
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
120%
140%
0
100
200
300
400
500
Direct
Prices
% Direct vs.
OTA
By date

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Active Best Rate
Direct Best Price vs. OTA 2 Best Price
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
120%
140%
% Direct vs.
OTA
By date 6 months

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Hotel Case
Where to Include OTA Price Comparison
• In the first step of the booking funnel
– Comparison is done when dates, rooms
and guests are known
• Showing directly the comparison
to all web visitors “widget is
open by default” :

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The Tool: integrating price comparison
Step 1
1000 sessions
Step 2
200 sessions
Confirm booking
100 sessions
Hotel Sites
High % exit to other
travel sites to compare &
continue searching

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The Tool: integrating price comparison
Step 1
1000 sessions
Step 2
300 sessions
Confirm booking
200 sessions
Hotel Sites Increased
Direct
Booking from
10% to 45% in
most cases

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Other Cases:
“Folded widget” : comparison is made if visitors click to
compare
• Around 1/3 of visitors clicked to compare prices in
“folded” (click to compare) implementations
• Increased conversion rates in both folded + unfolded

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Hotel mobile
site
Other Cases
Mobile Version
Responsive or Adaptive
approach:
Widget “floating box”
appears and:
- Disappears if no action is
done in order to leave
“clean” the smaller screen
of a mobile device
- Comparison is shown if
box is clicked
Direct

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Room price comparators in the market
TECHNOLOGY: FRONT END
This service has a very simple frontend: Only a widget (with their requests for the backend).
The technologies used in the frontend are well-known by the industry: Javascript, CSS and HTML.
 How the widget works:
The widget has a very simple set up: The customer, includes the script that shows the widget on
their website
 Implementation in your own site is fast and simple

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Room price comparators in the market
Features and recommendations
Some widgets can be shown or hidden
& customized
 (if hidden) When the user clicks on
“Compare” button, a background
request is executed.
 Rules set by: what OTA to show ?
 Colors & background adapted to
page
 The service should NOT affect
your page performance
 Specify when to show
comparison
 Ideally design is adapted to hotel
page

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Powered & developed by you or for you ?
Signed “not by hotel Chain”
• to avoid “channel clashes”
• 3rd party independent comparator
Developed by 3rd party
• Any issue with OTA has nothing to do with your web
• Derivate services are being developed:
– Reports of specific OTA vs client prices disparity
– CustomizedAlerts

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34 Questions?

34. Want to know more?
Contact us:
eMail : jordi@ubiqua.es

35. Are you offering the best value?
HSMAI Europe 4th Annual Digital Marketing
Conference
London 5th November 2015