6 WAYS TO USE

YOUR BOOKING
ENGINE DATA
TO BOOST DIRECT BOOKINGS
YOUR BOOKING ENGINE
HAS A LOT GOING ON
UNDER THE HOOD.
SPECIFICALLY, IT HAS
DATA YOU CAN USE TO
BOOST DIRECT
BOOKINGS.
HERE'S HOW.
 Your booking engine is how you let your
guests search for availability and book
directly—and the more intuitive your engine
is, the more conversions you’ll gather.

Your booking engine can work for you

through:

- Your own website

- Your mobile website
- Completing meta search bookings
- Social media sites like Facebook that
facilitate direct bookings
Behind the curtain, though, it lets you gather
important guest information.

 You’ll get information on stay dates,

inventory types booked, and other key
information. Your booking engine is a gold
mine of information: dig deep and get
demand patterns, lead time information,
search patterns, customer insights and,
ultimately, more conversions.
  
ACTION POINT
Integrate your booking engine data with
your demand forecasting and sales strategy,
where it can enhance forecasting
performance and conversions.
  
KNOW WHEN
PRICE & VALUE
AFFECT
CONVERSION
 As hoteliers, you have to know when price
plays a bigger part in converting than value.

In some cases, price is king, and it’s the only

factor in the mix.
 However, at other times, what guests
perceive as the value can be more important:
uniqueness can trump price.

For example, if demand is high for the city

because a concert is in town, the price can be
secondary. If your hotel is a luxury property,
the guest’s decision will be more about the
product than the price.
  
SO... WHAT DOES
'VALUE' MEAN TO YOUR
GUESTS?

Along with building solid customer personas,

your booking engine can help. 

Tips on the next slide:

  
ACTION POINT
Look at which packages are the most
popular, and then look at their price points
and what you offer with them.

Look at less popular options, too: where

they too expensive for what they were
offering for most people, or did they not
offer enough for the price?
  
LOOK AT RATE
PLAN LEAD
TIMES:
Find out which rate plans convert furthest in
advance, and what the common
characteristics of these tariffs are. For
example, have a look at which ones are:

- Multi-night offers
- Packages
- Discount stay and save rates

Knowing which types perform best will help

you to convert more guests with more
relevant offers.
  
ACTION POINT
If you discover that customers are more likely
to convert based on value further in advance,
work with that information instead of
randomly running a sale or simply reducing
rate.

Use your booking engine information to define

the settings of your tariffs: find optimum days
to set advanced purchase rate plans.
  
LOOK AT
INVENTORY TYPE
LEAD TIMES
Think about digging even deeper, and review
the lead time conversion rate of your
various inventory types.

 Use this information to determine

distribution strategy of your most popular
inventory types. This will maximise direct
conversion rates.
  
GEOGRAPHICAL
BREAKDOWN
 Look to your booking engine to give you a
better understanding of the geographical
characteristics of your key geographic
markets. For example, your booking engine
can tell you the type of tariffs that people in
different countries and regions book most
often.
What do guests from different areas prefer?
Identify common characteristics, like:

Length of stay
Board Basis
Pre-Paid Vs Flexible Rate

All of this data gives a real, big-picture view

based on real data. Use that data to create
specific content for specific visitors to your
site.
  
ACTION POINT

You can set about targeting these potential

guests with specific offers at specific times
of the year. To do that, use the data you
have on peak search and booking times for
your key geographical markets throughout
the year.
  
DEMAND
INSIGHT
You should be using one or a combination of
your PMS, Channel Manager and booking
engine to review overall booking patterns.
These are critical.

One of your booking engine’s key strengths is

accurately tracking the overall pattern of
searches for future dates. Looking at forward
demand is as key as historical data is.
Revenue management is an essential part of
your hotel’s conversion rate strategy—don’t
neglect it!
  
ACTION POINT
The real value, though, is all in the level of
detail that you look at. Don’t simply take the
data at face value—look at:

- Searches patterns for midweek and weekends

- Bookings patterns for midweek and
weekends
- Conversion rate for midweek and weekends
NO AVAILABILITY
DATA
Compare these future demand and booking
stats along with your no availability data.

If you can, also review this data for each

individual day of the week. It may not be the
most exciting thing, but this level of data
mining gives you insight into key
opportunities.

For example, you’ll see where things like

holding out for two night stay reservations
will boost your revenue.
  
ACTION POINT
Look at your no availability data in detail.
Examine the dates with high levels of no
availability, and examine the number of direct
bookings compared to other channels.

Highlight the demand and conversion rate on

this date, and do the math: with a little more
availability on your own site, how many more
direct bookings could you potentially have
converted?
 THE DATA IN YOUR
BOOKING ENGINE
DATA SHOULD BE
USED TO BUILD
CONFIDENCE IN YOUR
PROPERTY.
 THANK YOU!
AT NET AFFINITY, WE'RE EXPERTS IN
HOTEL TECHNOLOGY AND CONVERSION
RATE GROWTH FOR HOTELS. IF YOU'VE GOT
QUESTIONS, EMAIL US AT
SALES@NETAFFINITY.COM