What are the secrets of a successful direct sale?

Sonia Mateos, our Sales Account Manager, was presented at Tecnohotel Ontour Malaga with a presentation that sought to reveal some of the secrets behind a fruitful direct sales strategy. We tell you the most relevant data you shared.

A solid foundation

To promote direct sales, the work begins in the hotel itself, through my team, which must receive and in turn transmit, that philosophy of accompanying, and encouraging, the reservation process of potential guests, directing them towards the direct channel.

A client who enters directly from our website is a client who will have a more direct relationship with us, increasing the connection and the possibility of retaining him, generating a long-term relationship.

These are the foundations on which I will be able to build a good direct sales optimization strategy, but without these steps, there are no trends or technology that takes me to the next level.

Compete with Booking

Many times we find establishments that get a high percentage of their reservations through Booking, with the idea that it is an unbeatable operation, something that is not real.

At Neobookings we work with thousands of hotels whose direct sales, thanks to the strategies executed and the appropriate technology, increase their direct sales year after year.

Online image

One of the most important aspects in this sense is the online image beyond web design. The design does not position, so our website must be worked at the level of positioning, optimization of content for searches, a transcendental factor when competing.

A good content strategy will take me organic traffic, which has two great benefits: it is free, and specific. with a higher probability of conversion.

Booking Engine

The reservation engine has to be adapted to my hotel, not the other way around.
It must have all the functionalities that my hotel needs and more:

• loading speed.
• that the client can modify his reservation.
• Not having limitations at the level of offers, fees, loyalty, upselling, etc.
• Agencies and Professionals Module.
• Customizable design.
• Sale of complementary services and gift vouchers.
• A design that maintains the functionalities in mobile and desktop versions.

Online Marketing Campaigns

Once we have the base of our hotel, we are clear that we want to focus on direct sales, and we have controlled our disparities, in neobookings we recommend investing in online marketing campaigns: search campaigns, from displays segmented to customers at the different stages of the conversion process, both in Image as in video format, and campaigns in Google Hotel Ads.

Online marketing campaigns do not require large investments, and they obtain great results. There is no limitation per dimension.

In the following table we can see the example of a client, who saved 53% of the commissions that he would have paid to OTAs, not to work with this type of campaign. We can see in the graphs, how the direct reservation increased, the dependency of Booking decreased by 15%, and one of the intermediaries was eliminated.

Online reputation

As important as working direct selling, as we mentioned before, is the aspect of caring for what is said about my hosting on social networks, and the monitoring and care of reputation.

The lack of presence in social networks, the poor positioning in OTAs, obtaining bad reviews that are not answered by the hotel staff, are points that can bring down all the positioning and optimization work mentioned in this article.

Conclusions

The advantages of direct selling are many:

1. lower distribution costs.
2. have ownership of customer data.
3. Inventory control (plus Revenue action, less disparity, etc.).
4. control of charges (deciding how to charge, how much and when).

At NeoBookings we work with an integrated solution, which starts from the hotel as the main focus, to the outside. We implement both technological solutions -specifically adapted to the reality and needs of each accommodation, regardless of their size or characteristics-, such as content marketing campaigns, and loyalty.

You can see the complete presentation of Sonia Mateos, in the following link.