Jeffrey V. Fallis 
Benchmarking your property against your competitors is one of the most important tools for developing a strong direct channel strategy. With real-time analytics and never-before-seen insights, Bench Direct transformed the direct booking landscape and allowed hotel brands to not only compare their bottom lines, but also clearly understand how they came to be.
As a hotelier, the amount of data and information BenchDirect provides you with is essential to understanding yourself and your competitors. But even the most experienced hotelier may not know how to analyze these results and identify where to make improvements to their direct channel strategy. This is where the Ultimate Hotel Benchmarking Checklist A handy step-by-step guide to how to assess your hotel’s direct channel performance so you know exactly where to focus and what you need to do.
At its core, benchmarking is a two-step process of learning and then acting on what you’ve learned. Let’s dive into some of the best practices from the guide and see how you can take your direct channel to new heights by turning BenchDirect insights into action.
1. Breakdown of research by date of stay below average? Encourage more reservations on specific dates.
By analyzing your hotel’s upcoming calendar and identifying specific dates where there is a clear drop in demand relative to the market, you can easily create exclusive offers around those dates to give rates an extra boost. of occupancy. Imagine finding yourself running out of bookings during the month of May. What action can you take here? Display of a Layer on the homepage allows you to specifically highlight offers that entice visitors to book on the specific dates you’re trying to sell. If the package makes as much noise as in the example below, those direct bookings will arrive immediately!
2. Below average mobile conversion? Adapt your user experience to mobile devices and get creative!
Mobile dominates online traffic to hotel websites, with recent data trends indicating that an incredible 75% of traffic volume comes from a portable device. But has your hotel taken the necessary steps to optimize the mobile experience? Your site may look amazing on a laptop, but are you seeing below-average conversion rates on mobile?
It is crucial to adapt user experience and messaging to mobile traffic and look for creative ways to increase sales on this device. By using the targeting options, you can display carefully curated and unique offers that are only visible to your mobile audience. Embedded messages appear as native content and don’t overload the UX, which is vital for a good mobile experience that engages and drives conversions.
3. Do you notice a higher than average frequency of disparity? Fight price disparities on the spot.
So you have all the ingredients for a great website, and you should be fine. But looking at the benchmarking data, you notice that your hotel rates are more often undercut by OTAs and metasearchers than those of your competitors. What can you do to prevent this from negatively impacting your direct conversions? Activate an ingenious solution known as Price match.
With this feature, your hotel can combat price discrepancies in real time by implementing it directly into the booking engine. Each time a price mismatch is detected, the user is offered a corresponding reduced rate. One click on the special offer link and the discount is automatically applied to combat the lower rate. By effectively stopping other offers in their tracks, you’ll easily discourage users from third-party sites and increase your direct bookings instead.
The tips above are just a few of the great ways to act on your benchmarking insights and take your direct channel strategy to a whole new level.
THN’s Ultimate Hotel Benchmarking Checklist has been carefully curated to go hand-in-hand with analyzing your direct channels so you can get the most out of your data. Ready to start? To download the complete guide today.
About the hotel network
Working with over 14,000 hotels worldwide, The Hotels Network offers its customers a comprehensive growth platform to power their direct channel. By leveraging a suite of built-in tools and analytics, hospitality brands can attract, engage and convert guests throughout the user journey.
In addition to price comparison, review summary and a full suite of personalization options, THN’s Oraculo product leverages machine learning techniques to predict user behavior and then automatically personalizes the message and content. offer for each user. The company’s latest innovation, BenchDirect, is the first benchmarking product for the direct channel, providing hotels with unprecedented competitive data that is a complete game-changer.
THN’s mission is to improve the online booking experience, increase direct bookings and strengthen the relationship between hotel brands and their customers.
For more information on hotel rates, visit: https://hotelier-rates.thehotelsnetwork.com or contact [email protected]. For more information about The Hotels Network, visit https://thehotelsnetwork.com/fr or contact [email protected].
