Four Strategies to Combat Price Disparity on Your Website

A key aspect of increasing the performance of your live channel is being able to control the variance and with it the price of your online rooms. If your potential guests can find lower rates on online travel agencies or other channels, they will likely leave your hotel website to book there.

Fortunately, when you find yourself in this scenario, you don’t have to sit back and accept it. Where Hotel Network Offer four strategies to combat price discrepancies on the hotel’s website and increase your direct bookings.

1. Sharing with others is essential

To regain control of your pricing strategy, you must first understand the performance of your variances. With BenchDirect, you can easily compare it to the performance of the market and your competitors.

Understand where your performance is lagging and identify opportunities and areas for improvement. Measure your performance in terms of frequency of variances and amount (price difference), and compare yourself to multiple groups. It is always useful to delve deeper into the analysis.

For example, identify trends based on the market or take a closer look at what type of reserves it affects. This information will help you identify patterns and give you a clear action plan on where to focus your efforts.

2. Act fast and match your rates

If you discover that the OTA is lowering your rates, check if it is violating the parity clause. Pricing tools like THN automatically give you a screenshot of the OTA channel variance, which is very useful when negotiating with third parties.

In the meantime, when online travel agencies lower their prices on your website, make an offer to your potential guests to prevent them from booking on other channels. THN’s price matching function allows you to do exactly that: in real time, the tool detects whether there is a price discrepancy, and if there is, an automatic offer is proposed to the user for price matching. With one click, the discount is applied within the booking engine. A simple process that will not allow any of your users to leave without a reservation.

3. Allow visitors to compare prices

Congratulations, online travel agencies are not lowering your prices! In this case, communicate it to your web visitors. With a THN price comparison, you can guarantee your users that you are giving them the best available rate, preventing them from leaving for a price comparison.

Add the benefits of direct booking to give them an extra reason to book. The secret is to show your unique selling points and reassure your visitors that your website is the best channel for booking their next stay.

4. Provide a customized web experience

To ensure your fair share of direct bookings, you need to know who your visitors are and give them something they like so that they end up booking. This is where our customization features come into play.

Example? A user browses your booking engine, explores possible dates for their stay, but decides to leave the web. With checkouts, it is possible to detect when this is happening and display the appropriate message to grab their attention and prevent them from leaving without a reservation. Remind them of the exclusive benefits they can get when they book directly like free Wi-Fi, free cancellation or a personal discount. Not only do these personalized messages entice the user to stay on the site and complete a reservation, but they are also a great way to make your online experience more personal.

So here are four of the most effective ways to counter price discrepancies on your website. The disparities are inevitable, but with these practical tips available to you, you can combat them and ensure that more visitors book directly with you.

Submitted photos: Artem Beliaikin on Unsplash