To increase direct bookings, hotels need a website that is as easy to book as Booking.com and a direct price at least equal to, preferably lower than, the OTA rate, says Jonatan Joseph Tsuff. Manish Gupta blames OTA dominance on hotel websites that are not optimized. Khalifa Saqer would use OTAs to bring in guests and convert them, and Serge Berezhnoy points to social media, where OTAs cannot compete.
What 4 hotel leaders say
Jonatan Joseph Tsuff
CEO, Noovy
“It all starts with making sure that the the the booking process on their website is as easy and frictionless and fast as on the OTAs. ... So it needs to be as easy to book on your own website as this to book on booking.com. Otherwise, they will not book on your own website.”
“And then I think the second thing is that regarding pricing, and and still, I see that hotels are, unfortunately, not getting a grip on this, but the price on their own websites always be at least the same price, but preferably lower than on the OTAs.”
Manish Gupta
CFO & acting CEO, Aureum Palace Hotels
“the OTAs are they're integrating, and they are not replaceable at this moment because hotel themselves are too lazy to adapt. We I mean, they are not really optimizing their website. They're not really giving the APIs or or giving enough information on their on to allow the easiness of booking. That's why the OTAs got a chance to, you know, to footfall to control the the hotel booking space.”
Khalifa Saqer
CEO, HostelHop
“if you see nowadays people are focusing so much into direct booking and not depending on OTAs. My view on this is like you need those kind of partners, OTAs or transportation or whatever it is to actually bring on more customers and convert those customers to direct booking ... Having those OTAs is actually a free advertising. Yes, you're paying a commission.”
Serge Berezhnoy
Founder, InsightArc
“social media, this is a unique channel for hotel because OTAs can't compete with you because it's a very personalized channel. They can't buy demand how they traditionally buy, you know, on Google, paid channels, meta search, etcetera. That's why the hotel should play in that game. This is the strategic leverage for them.”
“if you go in that way, you receive a lot of impressions, but results in direct sales about zero because TikTok is very personalized style of content. ... the most economically effective way for the hotel is not going to some kind of expensive guys but really find some kind of normal regular creator from your local city, region, you know, sphere.”
