16 | Hospitality Today | Oct/Nov 2015


Consistent pricing with the accommodation’s own website enables companies like Booking.com to grow along with them and to continue operating as an effective marketing channel for finding them new customers.


Why competitive prices are the answer for growth OTAs understand the very natural desire for accommodation owners to offer a lower price on their own websites. It makes perfect sense. In theory, by offering slightly lower prices, they can entice more consumers to book with them directly and avoid paying commission for those bookings. For customers who know exactly where they want to book, are extremely loyal to the brand, and/ or speak a language supported by the accommodation website, this strategy makes sense.


But what about reaching out to new customers who don’t already know about their brand? What about those customers who don’t already know where they want to book and want to compare different options? What about customers from China or Japan who want to stay at a quaint B&B in Scotland, but aren’t sure if the details are right for them, because that B&B’s website is only in English? How will they even find it if it doesn’t show up in the search results on Baidu. These are the new customers that OTAs like Booking.com can find for properties both big and small.


If accommodation owners choose to benefit from the services of an online platform to market their rooms to a global audience, then it is only fair to ask them to offer the same prices there that they do on their own website. Yes, this means that they have to pay commission on those bookings, but in terms of the cost of acquiring new customers, Booking. com is an extremely affordable and effective marketing platform, especially in comparison with other more expensive channels. In addition, with Booking.com, accommodations only pay commission for the guests they receive from their listings on the platform, and only after customers have actually stayed at the property, making it easy to measure and track their return on investment.


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