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Maximum Revenue Through Direct Online Bookings

Direct business in the hospitality industry has seen an immense increase over the past few years as more properties are now offering guests the possibility to book direct through their website. Online hotel bookings have become popular as travellers opt to shop and book online rather than rely on traditional brick and mortal channels. There are three main methods for a hotelier to sell online today; either through an Online Travel Agency (OTA), Internet Distribution Systems (IDS), or Direct Booking through their property’s own website.

Companies like Expedia, Booking.com and Travelocity, supply travellers with a wide range of accommodation options, allowing them to make an informed decision by comparing prices and facilities of a comprehensive list of hotels within a destination. This new breed of travel agents supply pictures of hotels, room descriptions, prices and deals, as well as reviews from other travellers, making the whole booking process easier for the traveller. Or not?

Direct Hotel Bookings 

As the number of OTA’s and travel portals keep on increasing, the marketing information supplied is practically identical and limited, travellers once narrowing down their selection prefer to research further to verify the marketing information that was provided is correct and to ensure that they have found the best deal before making their final decision. It is here when the online booker visits the hotel’s website and it is here where the real marketing process begins. 

Direct hotel bookings attract frequent, loyal customers, who focus more on additional value and personal attention. Hotel websites are usually targeted towards this audience, but some still fail to convert their visitors’ interest into a booking. This lack of conversion becomes even more preoccupying in a web 2.0 scenario where hoteliers are now mastering social media to attract higher traffic to their website, but fail to convert.

The answer to this is to balance out the hotel’s reliance on intermediary sales by making the property directly bookable. Here are some of the major advantages;

• Increase in profits by eliminating high commissions
• Possibility to retain rate parity across the online segment whilst increasing added value
• Higher chance to convert visitors into clients, repeat clients
• Opportunity to up-sell and cross-sell
  
  

Offering Much More

In a day where the traveller has become more knowledgeable and demanding, offering ‘just’ accommodation does not always maximise revenue potential. An innovative online booking engine like addaJet provides the hotel with such direct sales in real time, by dynamically packaging accommodation with scheduled and low cost flights to Malta, airport transfers and other inbound services such as excursions and activities. AddaJet brings to the single property a one stop shop solution with the technological power of a full-fledged travel portal.

Mr Martin Farrugia Randon from Ramla Bay Resort claimed that since they

"integrated the addaJet booking system on our website 2 months ago, our online revenues have increased considerably compared to the online revenues we achieved during the same period last year using a different booking engine.”

Similarly, Mr Stefan M. Fenech from Paradise Bay Resort Hotel confirmed that

“with the implementation of addaJet to our website we have seen an increase of bookings by an average of 30%”. 

Maximising revenue is not only about pricing, but also about maximising the potential to sell more through the least number of intermediaries.