OTA Audit Services
OTA’s or Online Travel Agents are websites dedicated to travel booking, such as Agoda.com, Booking.com, Ctrip.com & Expedia.com. More than 1.5 billion people book trips each year and 70% of those bookings are now made online!
Certain OTA’s now have significant market share and now have a significant role in the hospitality and travel industry in helping drive awareness and supply for hotels across the globe. Online travel agent listings are free, but commissions between 15-20% are levied each time a booking is made for your property. Hotels provide their partner OTA’s and meta search channels with content, rates and availability using software systems such as channel managers, which gives global distribution.
Why is OTA Audit important?
Now more than ever, global travelers are researching locations and booking hotels online and hotels who fail to adapt to this change in trend/behavior will not be able to survive. The hotels who maximize their exposure with pro-active OTA strategies will be able to beat the competition and gain relative market share.
OTA’s provide hotels with a global reach and serve as both a marketing and distribution channel, allowing properties to take advantage of the large marketing budgets, international exposure, and extraordinary online presence to drive revenue. Studies have shown that hotels which are present on OTA’s also benefit from a “billboard effect”, which is an increase in direct bookings by virtue of OTA presence.
Whether you represent a hotel, tour operator or one of the many other companies within the tourism sector, the interactions you have with leisure, business or millennium travellers must reinforce the message of excellence in performance, standards and quality. Get a free quote now or start chat on Whatsapp!
What is included ?
OTA’s are online travel agencies or 3rd party companies whose websites allow consumers to book travel related services such as accommodation, flights, packages or car hire.
These online channels have become an important element in the revenue management and marketing mix of hotels, lodges and guesthouses and provide a valuable means of distributing rates and availability. OTA’s also assist to increase and enhance marketing efforts and sales revenues.
We set up, manage and monitor your profile on leading OTA’s, whether you already have established relationships with OTA’s or need assistance with the set up and integration. We can assist you and advise the best distribution channels for your property.
Track Revenue Analysis
Monitor and evaluate key metrics to make effective decisions on your hotel rates and improve business growth.
Rate Parity
We compare your hotel rates among your competitors to know your online rate parity and to see where your hotel ranking.
Ranking
We improve the ranking of your hotel on Tripadvisor by providing training on the reviews about your hotel.
Comp Set Analysis
We compare the price of your hotel and build the price value that your hotel can provide in front of its main competitors.
Promotions
We create OTA promotions to help drive in business on lean days. They also improve ranking and visibility across all listed channels.
Pricing
We use different pricing strategies to get more business in during lean periods and price rooms accordingly.
Are you searching for solutions to boost your online reach and visibility, while driving traffic, engagement, leads, mobile app installs, event registrations, and sales? Then look no further. We have you and your business goals covered.
To learn more about our social media advertising services click here.
How Siivo protect and improve your hotel’s reputation?
Prioritize review sites
As discussed, review sites should be your chief concern, especially those that also let the customer book. These include Booking.com, Airbnb, Expedia, and a constantly evolving roster of alternatives. You know that customers make their choices based on these. And compared with other media that affect your reputation, you have a good amount of control over them. And first, you need to know what’s being said.
Watch for negative reviews
If you’ve built a good name for yourself – and a good star rating to go with it – negative reviews can be particularly harmful. For one, reviews are typically listed in reverse chronological order (newest first). So when a harsh review is fresh, it’s also easy to find. It’s important to keep a close eye out for particularly negative reviews. the sooner you find them, the better your chances of improving the rating (more on this in a moment). Make sure you use a reputation management tool that will watch review sites for you, then be ready to pounce when negative comments are posted.
Respond quickly to the bad ones
It’s never nice when someone slams your business in public. A few seconds for them can turn into an ongoing headache for you and your team. And the reviewer either doesn’t care, or actually wants to cause you harm. While it’s tempting to return fire, there are actually positive things you can do improve the worst reviews. And it starts with a quick response.
Encourage happy guests to leave reviews
Here’s another positive step you can take to improve your reputation. If done respectfully, there’s nothing wrong with actually asking for reviews. It works in ecommerce, and it works for hotels too. The key is to explain how much a review would mean to you.When the customer feels they got to know you during their stay, a few moments to post a review isn’t really a burden.
Track social media
Review sites should be your main focus. But that doesn’t mean you can ignore all the other conversations, critiques, and complaints being posted online every day. These can be a valuable source of hotel feedback, and harmful comments will actively damage your reputation.
Find conversations you’d otherwise miss
This is the whole point of social listening. Social media has become such a broad, widespread behemoth, that it’s almost impossible to see everything said. And unfortunately, customers won’t always tag you in their Instagram and Facebook posts. Without the precious @ symbol, you’d likely never know they talked about you. Good social listening tools let us catch these mentions and respond right away.
Respond and help them resolve issues
A quick response should help this customer solve their issue. Not only will this help you fulfill a necessary customer service responsibility, it shows future customers that you’re responsive and willing to help.
Monitor competitors’ coverage as well
Wonder why people talk about the hotel next door, and not yours? Marketing isn’t magic, and they may be doing things that you can replicate. You just need to figure out their strategy.
Did you know, a huge 68% of users will often go straight to a business’s social media profile to read reviews. Whether your business sells a product or offers a service, customers online want to see real people talking about your brand. They want to see what you have to offer and if it’s worth their time and money.
If your business isn’t set up on social media and you feel your business could benefit from a strong social media strategy, get in touch with us for a chat