As we approach our third year of using booking.com (bdc) to help promote out SA units it’s finally dawned on me how ignorant I’ve been in regards the capabilities of the platform. From the get go, it’s probably fair to say that I’ve seen bdc as little more than a platform to throw up a property listing to a large audience, along with some pricing and availability. This is in part due to the fact that we have been fortunate enough to have grown the majority of our business out of direct contractor type bookings.
For all the niggles SA operators might have with bdc ie fraudulent bookings, the high commission rates etc, there’s no getting round the fact that it’s a powerful ally in you wider SA marketing power team. And we need to make the most of it.
This week we (our Operations Manager and I) met with our bdc Account Manager at their Edinburgh office. I didn’t have high hopes for the meeting, thought we might iron out some of the recent fraud related niggles we’d had in the last few months and not sure what else, however the hour meeting delivered so much more than we expected.
Here’s a quick summary of the learning insights that other SA operators might benefit from (if you’re not doing everything covered here already).
#1 MAKING THE MOST OF BDC ANALYTICS (using the Pace report)
First, here’s a definition of ‘Pace’ as it relates to the hospitality industry, courtesy of xotels.com
‘In most industries, speed is of the essence! Hospitality is no different. Pace – the rate at which reservations are made for a particular date – is important to control and also to monitor. Why? Because if you can see a pattern forming as reservations build for a certain date, weekend, week or even an entire month each year, this can be immensely helpful when it comes to forecasting: trying to accurately foresee and calculate projected demand and therefore revenue in future years. Also, Pace can determine aspects such as required staffing levels at certain times.’
Our bdc Account Manager talked us through the Pace Report for the Edinburgh area – essentially a chart showing the average room nights booked for each month in 2018 vs this year so far, and what’s booked for 2019 to come. It also showed the ADR – average daily rate that bookers are paying for accommodation in our area.
It was interesting to see that across all types of accommodation for Jan and Feb in our area, bookings are down this year compared to the same period last year. It’s worth noting that if you are running these reports yourself then be sure to not only look at the whole accommodation market but also for self catered only. In our area self catered bookings were actually a little bit up.
You can use the Pace reporting to look data from a number of different angles ie:
-Portfolio Pace – to look at room nights booked this year vs last year
-Peer Group – to look at all the properties of the same type and in the same location as you
-Competitive Set – you can select up to 10 specific competitors (that are listed in bdc) allowing you to compare your property’s performance against others
Clearly there is a lot of data collected by bdc so be sure to delve into it within your extranet and take some time to understand more about what the figures are telling you.
#2 MAKING THE MOST OF RATE CATEGORIES
We have always been on the strictest possible flexible rate category ie non refundable after 60 days or less before check-in. Our Account Manager explained how we are excluding many potential bookers from even seeing our properties so suggested that we use a blend of two rate categories as follows:
-a flexible rate that can be cancelled from 30+ days out (non refundable less than 30)
-offer a non-refundable rate with a discount for those guests happy to book and pay in full 30 or more days out.
The theory here being that we cover all the market in terms of rate categories and boost our conversions. (If you have multiple properties in your account, your bdc Acc Manager can add the policies at a group level for you to save individual editing).
#3 MAKING THE MOST OF PAYMENT METHODS
Bdc are hearing more and more from guests that they want to be able to pay differently ie, often in full at the time of booking, and with different payment methods like PayPal, Apple Pay and other similar offerings from around the world. Again, we were unsure of all this and didn’t have it enabled until now, but there are big benefits of accepting online payments:
-Guaranteed payments, guests pay when they book so no chasing payments or invalid credit card details
-Fewer cancellations, when bookers pay online they are 4x less likely to cancel
-Potential of more potential guests, ie opening up the market to bookers who can’t or don’t want to pay with credit card
In short, be sure to say yes to accepting alternative online payment methods.
#4 MAKING THE MOST OF THE BDC OPPORTUNITIES SECTION
There are two main opportunities to increase bookings through bdc as outlined below. Quickly before I highlight those, be sure to have your listing content scores up at 100% to optimise the conversion of those who do view your listing.
Preferred Programme– Designed to increase occupancy by boosting property visibility, you also get a ‘thumbs up’ sign next to the listing (preferred partners get an average of 65% more page views and 35% more bookings). Property rankings increase with better visibility to all bdc users. Commission to bdc is increased to 18%.
Genius programme– Designed to increase occupancy by ranking boost and better visibility to genius users (on average genius partners increase bookings by 18% and their revenue by 17%). Properties appear to bdc genius guest members (a select group of customers who travel more often, book further in advance, and spend more when booking) with a 10% discount on prices. As a Genius partner, your property will get a special Genius tag, ranking boost and better visibility in search results.
This is far from an exhaustive coverage of what you can do but hopefully serves as a helpful starter for ten.
What else are you doing to optimise your bdc results?