It is time to focus on yield and attract direct bookings

The pandemic has catalysed an increase in direct bookings, SiteMinder’s senior director of global demand partnerships, James Bishop said reflecting on 2020 “With international travel restrictions in place and rising cases of coronavirus around the world, many consumers were drawn to local hotel accommodations where the direct hotel website has always performed well, or through local booking channels, which, after an initial slump, saw an uptick from pent-up travel demand.

As Sarah explains in this free seminar Apple, Facebook and Google are putting more emphasis on customer privacy, relying on third party cookies is unwise and that it is time to begin to build a marketing strategy that does not rely on them.

How does this all relate to the Responsible Tourism agenda?

“Direct bookings reduce your breakeven point because they eliminate intermediary commissions that eat into profits, but they also allow for healthier local development because those extra commission dollars that would have been paid to a distant Online Travel Agencies (OTA), now enter the local economy as your purchasing power is stimulated, and that, in turn, means that more local people get a little piece of the pie.”

You can find Sarah’s advice about how to raise your profile on Google here.

Sarah argues that we need to work with the OTAs but also to build direct bookings and capitalise on repeats and referrals.

Sarah Habsburg, is Founder of The School for Responsible Tourism