Mr. Rosser

Technology

From the Other Side: A look at How Guests View Rate Distribution & Online Experiences with Hotels

By Drew Rosser, VP of Business Development, Whiteboard Labs

This certainly isn't the time to be confusing to your online shoppers. You must be clear about your rate structure and show added value when it's being offered. Show your hotel in its best light with good images, creative, clear rate and room type description copy.

With so many options out there these days for people to search for and book hotel rooms there's no wonder why so many would be travelers get confused when doing their online research. There are nearly as many sites out there to book a hotel as there are rooms at the hotel. Between the hotel's own site, online travel agencies, destination specific sites, an online shopper can easily get confused. So why make matters worse with a confusing convoluted rate structure, poor room type images and bad descriptive copy?

I think one of the main things hotels lose sight of when putting together a revenue management strategy is their source of the revenue, the actual hotel guest. Keep in mind despite the seasoned leisure and business traveler most people have no idea what a Rack Rate is or what the difference is between a Standard Rate, Best Available Rate, Promo Rate, Corporate Rate and so on. Use language that is understandable by the general public, be truthful and use good images to show off your rooms.

Think of it like this; you go to the grocery store to buy a gallon of milk. In the milk aisle you have a number of suppliers to choose from. Think of these as various hotels. Then within each supplier you have different types of milk: 1%, 2%, whole, organic and in some cases chocolate. These are your rooms. Each gallon is priced based on the type of milk. However, just imagine if you found your desired supplier, type of milk and you noticed that there were two identical gallons of milk, same expiration date and same type of milk, 2% organic but the cost for each one was different. Why?

Hotel guests get into the very same shopping scenario when looking for rooms. Same room, same arrival and check out dates but a list of rates. All different prices and no real clear cut explanation as to why. Even worse you'll see a number of different rates all at the same rate value.

Nomenclature as defined on Wikipedia; "can refer to a system of names or terms, or the rules used for forming the names, as used by an individual or community... " Hotels are a community amongst themselves but stop using hotel speak when you create your rates that will be displayed to the general public. Say what it is, Best Available Rate, really it should be, Corporate Rate Includes Breakfast, slightly higher than your BAR but it includes breakfast each morning. Be clear about the added value. Make sense to a shopper. Restricted Rates, AAA, AARP, Government...be very clear about these rates. Make sure in your rate description you state that "ID is required at check in." If these rates are exactly the same value as say your Best Available Rate then remove them from your booking engine.

I know that each distribution channel as its own particular searching protocols. Travel Agents use a GDS differently than say an online shopper interacts with a booking engine. If you're plugging in holes in your CRS so you show up on certain GDS searches then do your best to make sure your CRS feeds your online booking engine differently so it speaks to your online shoppers differently than it does a Travel Agent. The GDS's also have character limitations. Know what these are and write your copy accordingly. General rule of thumb is roughly three lines and about 45 characters per line. Ideally, you should have different rate and room type descriptions for the GDS than you do for your booking engine. The booking engine is where you're speaking directly to the consumer so take advantage of it. Be clear and not choppy with your words.

Good imagery. Shoppers love to look right? Give them what they want. I get so frustrated when I see the same room type image for different rooms types. Standard King Bed Room and the Standard Double Bedded Room. Same image with a King bed for each....wrong. Quite frankly you should have more than one image on your booking engine for each room. If you're a hotel known for it's rooms then make the best of what the Internet gives you and show the place off. There are a number of visual content distribution companies that specialize in the hospitality industry. There's no excuse not to have good images of your hotel. If an OTA site isn't showing your hotel images track them down and fix it. A grey box does nothing to sell you. And what about video? It's powerful and so easy to implement these days. Bandwidth is no longer an issue as it was just five years ago. And don't get caught up trying to create a Hollywood production. Yes it needs to look professional but you can get video created these days very economically. Videographers are everywhere. Think about using video on your booking engine, have the GM thank the guest for their reservation via the confirmation email. So many ways to effectively communicate to your guests. Take full advantage of this amazing opportunity.

Once again stay true to what you have. If a certain percentage of your property is renovated then I suggest creating a different room type for your renovated rooms so that you're not over stating what you truly have. You'll not gain loyalty by showcasing your newly renovated rooms on your Web site but booking guests in your non-renovated room types. The only thing that will increase is the negative chatter about your hotel on the social networking sites.

Be true to what you are. Don't create illusions by over representing your hotel with misleading copy and images. Sell to your target market. If location and budget conscious is what you offer speak to those buyers. Trying to up sell by showing off your one renovated room won't serve you well. But at the same time take the opportunity the Internet gives you.

• Try to remove hotel speak when creating rates
• Use good descriptive copy for room type and rate descriptions
• Use multiple images in your booking engine
• Add video to your booking engine
• Manage your OTA relationships to ensure you're being represented properly
• Be truthful with images and copy

The bottom line is think about your target audience. Don't be ambiguous, you'll just create confusion and possibly ill will with your guest. Look at guest retention not just the short acquisition of a head in bed.

Drew Rosser joined Whiteboard Labs to focus on iHotelier CRS sales. After the sale of iHotelier to TravelCLICK, Mr. Rosser became the Director of Operations for the iHotelier division of TravelCLICK. He started in Orlando, Florida, then moved to Atlanta, accepting a position at Holiday Inn's Corporate Flagship Hotel as the Assistant Guest Relations Manager. He was Guest Relations Manager at another Holiday Inn property in the Atlanta area. Mr. Rosser sits on the Boards of Linx Technologies and Force 10. Both are technology based and deal with enterprise level systems. Mr. Rosser can be contacted at 713-333-9944 or drosser@whiteboardlabs.com Extended Bio...

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