Direct booking is a trend that is becoming widespread among tourists. They wish to be given a full offer, without intermediaries and with 24/7 reservation access. Thanks to the widespread use of new technologies, direct booking is a solution that increases both the booking potential of hotels and their profits.
Why direct booking is worth using?
In today’s world, where many areas of life have moved to the Internet, you have to keep up with changes and trends. It turns out that direct bookings are widespread phenomena. Guests notice the prons of direct booking and are eager to visit hotel websites to check the offer in detail. It’s important to keep them and encourage them to book right there. Some guests use large booking sites as search engines. They use their functionality and make final reservations directly via the hotel’s website. It is therefore imperative that this potential is used.
Make booking intuitive
Nowadays, convenience and comfort are important in every sphere of life. A guest will not make a reservation if he or she encounters annoying difficulties. He always had the alternative in the form of competition with an intuitive booking system. He will use their offer if he has to deal with even the smallest problems. The reservation buttons should therefore be present all the time throughout the time user is on the website and always work. Booking should be intuitive, easy and hassle-free.
Fast payments are a must
Guests are more and more willing to use online payments. The popularity of quick transfers, and recently also the BLIK system, is growing every year. The launch of a quick payment gateway is a way to make your booking easier. The guests have their payment preferences and should be able to choose their preferred payment method. At this stage, they cannot give up the booking just because they have not found a convenient way to pay for it. Incorporating a payment gateway into your system is extremely easy thanks to services such as Profitroom Payments. It integrates with the entire system, allowing you to easily manage reservations.
Ensure the responsiveness of your website
The increase in booking transactions made on mobile devices is becoming more and more evident. Guests use their phones and tablets to book a vacation. If the website is not mobile-friendly, you will be excluded from this part of the market. Responsiveness, i.e. matching the website to the type of device, is therefore crucial. Thanks to this, your website will look good on a desktop computer as well as on a phone or tablet. This will make people who use mobile devices become your guests. You wouldn’t have reached them if the website wasn’t mobile-friendly.
Use various communication channels
Direct booking is related to building a brand image and communication. Before you decide what you want it to look like, think about who your guests are. Communication has to be adjusted to them. You have to speak their language and be exactly where they are. Use social media to communicate with them. Involve them in your activities, show your offer. Thanks to this, you will keep in touch with current guests and gain new ones who visit your profile. Also, reach for tools such as Profitroom CRM to maintain relationships. Thanks to this, you can send mailing campaigns to selected segments of guests or personalized offers.
It is also worth using chatbots, which will relieve staff from answering repeated questions, and additionally speed up communication. Today, guests expect instant – and you can provide that with the use of technology.
By using the appropriate tools, you can effectively increase direct bookings on your website, which, combined with the use of the potential of CRM in terms of contact with guests, will certainly increase the number of bookings, and this will translate into generated profits.
