We identified in What is a Hotel Direct Booking Strategy that Direct Booking Strategies have proven to be successful since they were launched in 2016 and that, according to TripTease co-founder Charlie Osmond, “Hotels are now for the first time in five years, taking more direct bookings than via OTAs.”

But, how easy is it to develop and execute a direct booking strategy?  Is it all about the marketing and investing in running campaigns encouraging customers to book direct, ala Hilton ‘Stop Clicking Around’, or is it more complex than that?

The short answer is that it’s most definitely more complex than running marketing campaigns - though, they can be complex enough - and, it should be noted that, Hilton’s ‘Stop Clicking Around’ was an example of a tactical campaign part of a much broader strategy.

Key Considerations for your Direct Booking Strategy

There are a range of tools in the marketplace that can assist you with your direct booking strategy, but first and foremost, it’s important to focus on those areas that are within your direct control and influence, and then - once you’ve formulated your strategy, you can look to add tools that support your specific strategy and will help you with the execution.

TECHNOLOGICAL INFRASTRUCTURE

Your direct booking strategy is going to struggle to get off the ground if you don’t have the right technological infrastructure in place, and this is not a small investment.  Your website is your shop window and is where you will want to engage and interact with many of your customers but we operate in an omni-channel world, which requires you to have other owned channels and assets, such as a company blog, multiple ‘branded’ social media accounts, and email.

Each of these channels will act as a shop window and it’s important to be consistent in terms of your tone of voice and visual identity across your various owned channels.  Thought will need to be given to how you acquire customers across each of these channels, in addition to how they are best used and integrate with your back-office systems.

In respect to back office systems, you will ideally require investment into a range of different tools that will help facilitate various elements of your customer engagement, management and intelligence, such as;

• Customer Relationship Management (CRM) for managing customers from prospects to close i.e. SalesForce, HubSpot, InfusionSoft
• Automated Marketing tools, for running marketing campaigns across your owned & paid media channels i.e. HubSpot, Marketo, Customer.io
• Property Management System (PMS) for booking reservations, guest check-in/check-out, room assignment, managing room rates, and billing i.e. Opera, Cloudbeds, Roommaster

There are a range of other tools that would prove useful from website heat mapping tools, to lead generation software, customer identification software tools, to automated chatbots, and more.  An omni-channel approach requires a greater degree of sophistication and you need the technical infrastructure in place, which is holistically thought out and integrated across the organisation.  

UX (user experience)

Your technical infrastructure, particularly the channels you exert the most control over, and - particularly for direct booking strategies - the eCommerce aspects of your channels need to be delivering excellent user experience (UX).  

It is often forgotten that digital channels are frequently the first touch point for a customer and the beginning of their guest experience. Therefore, you need to ensure it is as flawless and frictionless as you strive to make check-in/check-out and the whole guest experience in between.  A large percentage of potential customers can be lost if careful thought and attention hasn’t been put into the design and flow of UX. Many hotel websites have not been well thought out when it comes to UX and so many lose customers at various stages. There are significant gains to be made by investing into high-quality UX.  The customer wants an easy, painless experience, which means being able to find key information quickly and easily, and to book and make payment within a few clicks, hassle free.

CONTENT CREATION

An often overlooked, yet critical aspect of a direct booking strategy is content creation.  Travelers want to understand why they should book a specific hotel and yes, even, a specific type of hotel bedroom.

• KNOWLEDGE & UNDERSTANDING

It may seem obvious, but understanding your customers is imperative.  Your marketing teams should be creating 3-4 customer personas so that you can identify each of your main types of traveler, assisting you with your content creation and storytelling.  As outlined in <link to: How to transform venue marketing with storytelling>, storytelling is a must for venues, as travelers want to understand more about the destination and hotel in which they are staying.  Travelers want to connect and feel part of that story, even if it is in some very small way. Every hotel has a unique and individual story to tell, and it’s important to connect with the traveler and leave an imprint.  Travelers also need context and it’s important to provide that in your storytelling. How does your hotel connect to the wider destination that you’re located? What’s the importance of that to each of the customer personas?  Think about how that is packaged for each.

Knowledge and understanding also extends to the medium(s) that you utilise for your storytelling.  There are a range of different mediums that need to be considered from blog content and FAQs, to still photography and motion picture (film).  Each will have its own set of pros and cons based upon your target customers, and should be used interchangeably.

• DISTRIBUTION

Once you’ve created your stories, you then need to think about how you distribute them.  Your company blog is a good place for written content, still photography and video, as are your owned media channels, such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, for which you can also create individual campaigns utilising your curated content.  However, this can be very time consuming if you have not got the right expertise internally to manage your marketing. Beyond owned media, you can focus on paid media, which will include some of the aforementioned social media channels, where you can invest into boosting campaigns and/or targeting customers through timed campaigns, but again, this can be costly and time consuming if you don’t have the right expertise and/or audience.  There are also a range of other specialist paid media channels who can provide a quicker and higher return on investment (ROI) than utilising social media channels directly (although, specialist paid media channels will likely also utilise their own social media channels to amplify what they’re doing for you), but also because of their own uniquely curated audiences and/or subscribers. This is important to remember when considering doing everything yourself.  It’s often counterintuitive, and many hotels who follow this route often find they’ve spent more money and are further behind their competitors by the time they swallow their pride and seek out external assistance. Finally, and usually the toughest to achieve is earned media (because it’s free media). This is less likely to have less relevance to a hotel direct booking strategy, unless there is a big news story related to the strategy, as Hilton achieved in being one of the first to launch such a strategy, and - in so doing - reporting some strong results.

• ITERATIVE PROCESS

The mediums you utilise along with the distribution channels used to reach customers are part of an iterative process that you need to be constantly reviewing, analysing, improving and tweaking.  What worked yesterday may not necessarily work today, and is less likely to work tomorrow. Travelers and their habits evolve quickly, as do trends and preferences, so it’s important to remain on top of these fast changing trends and monitor what does and doesn’t work.  

LOYALTY

Implementing some form of customer loyalty scheme is an important step in attracting more direct business, as it is important to provide special offers and added value to existing customers, in order to gain their loyalty and adopt the behaviour you want them to adopt; booking direct and avoiding OTAs.  You have the opportunity to provide a host of additional services to enhance the guest experience during their trip, which - despite their own loyalty programmes - OTAs cannot do. Again, it’s important to understand your customer, but you must understand them intimately so that you can tailor bespoke added value to each.  It won’t suffice to provide generic added value offers to all customers, as this will be very hit and miss. Guests can easily be wowed by a little bit of thought and personalisation, which is where your CRM and business intelligence systems will come in useful, as well as guest feedback surveys and the multiple touch points you have with your guests throughout their stay.