Hotels have to regain their authority on pricing
Hotels have to regain their authority on pricing
With a few fast clicks through the data highway and the internet surfer has reached his goal. Now he only has to select the desired travel dates and send off the request and already the hotel has been booked. As advantageous bookings via internet portals are for hotels, they can have their problems. There are so many different internet portals on which a hotel can present itself and therefore it is hard to keep an overview.
Some hotels are partly present on dozens of internet sites. To control these sites and to update them can cost unnecessary time. You do not have to be present everywhere. Sometimes it might be better to restrict your distribution presence on only a few sites and maintain those perfectly. It becomes extremely challenging if some electronic distribution partners try to differentiate themselves from its competition and make deals with hotels for especially low rates. This causes different rates to be created for one of the same room. A potential client who tries to make a room reservation via the internet will be confronted with many different prices and will get the impression that he is not being taken seriously anymore. The winners are only the guests who have seen by coincidence the cheapest room offer and of cause the internet portal with the cheapest rates, as it gains more visitors. All other distribution partners will feel cheated. Also for the hotel itself it can have uncomfortable consequences. The revenue margins decrease and the hotel becomes an unreliable partner.
Hotels must regain their pricing authority. Clear pricing strategy shows integrity and increases credibility. It is important first of all to create a distribution strategy for your hotel. In order to do that you have to be aware of your client target group and how this group normally makes their reservation. Otherwise you will only find a movement of business from one distribution channel to another and price dumping continues.
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