The Secrets of Direct Bookings – Part 4 Integration of the booking process on the hotel's website
It is a fact that the Online Travel Agents (OTAs) with Booking.com in the lead have prevailed in the field of online hotel reservations. This has led many properties to put their direct bookings on the side, abandoning considerably a very important channel of reducing their sales costs and increasing their profitability.
Standard practice of the booking process
This trend is evident not only in the low quality that many hotel websites have, but also in the booking process followed by the vast majority of them.
In most hotel websites, the room booking process takes place in an external link, which apart from the different url, has a different aesthetic, enhancing the guest’s insecurity for the completion of the transaction.
It is not difficult to understand how a guest may end up having second thoughts – especially when coming from abroad – when the transaction that he is asked to complete is in a url that he does not recognize, this may automatically be misunderstood as electronic fraud breaching the security of the transaction.
Therefore, there is really a good reason for several guests to choose the solution of OTAs to ensure the protection of their credit card data.
Integration of the booking process on the website
The alternative that can directly solve this issue is the integration of the booking process within the website. Thus, the website and the booking engine are no longer two different things in the eyes of the guest, increasing their trust in the booking process, while improving their image of the property’s brand.
It is important, however, to pay particular attention to the quality and safety of the integration. In the past, there were several implementations during which the addition of the booking process to the website was done through iframe. This practice, which apart from the bad aesthetic result presented issues of safety and compatibility with various types of screens, is still used in some websites.
Another similar case is the incorporation of only part of the process in the hotel’s website and its completion in an external link. In this case, the customer checks availability and prices on the accommodation’s website, chooses room type and offer through the same website, but when asked to put his credit card details, he is transferred to an external link, a practice that can again bring up some trust issues.
Hotelwize’s Liquid e-Commerce proposal
Hotelwize, the company that is distinguished for its technological superiority, its impressive design and its expertise in hotel websites, presents the Liquid e-Commerce solution which turns hotel websites into e-Commerce websites.
Through Liquid e-Commerce, not only is the booking process fully integrated into the website, but the prices are dynamically entered in multiple points, giving the guest the opportunity to complete his reservation from every page of the website that refers to accommodation or prices.
Prices are dynamically presented based on the guest’s search:
- On the accommodation page with the presentation of all the room types
- On the inner page of each room type
- On the page of each offer
- On the photo gallery’s images that show some particular room types
Hotelwize’s team is at your disposal at +30 2160704050 or at [email protected] for more information about its Liquid e-Commerce proposal and how it can lead your property’s website to increase the Conversion Rate by at least 50%!
Iason Milionis, CEO, Hotelwize
