Increase Your Market Share with OTAs

This can often be broken down in different ways. Does a unit that typically has a 7-night minimum stay need a boost in business? Consider moving the minimum to 3 or 4 nights during slow periods. Take a look at your competitors. Is your pricing competitive in the marketplace?

Another area we routinely see as being a big hurdle in converting customers is turn days. Are your customers limited to checking in and checking out on Saturdays, and only staying in increments of 7 nights? That may have worked well in the past, but travelers are putting an extra premium on flexibility in 2018 and beyond. Do you really want to exclude the majority of your potential guests, who would prefer to check in on a different day? The marketplace is changing, and guests want flexibility with check in/out days and length of stay. Keep that in mind as you are making changes, or pitching the value of being more flexible to your property owners.

The importance of high-quality optics cannot be overstated when it comes to converting on online booking channels. Customers only have so much data to base their decision on when they are looking online at your property. With online reservations rapidly moving from desktop and laptop computers to smartphones, photos are becoming even more important as users are going to be viewing your listing on a smaller screen, on average. According to EMarketer, as of 2016, more than half of online travel bookings were made by a mobile device, and that number continues to climb.

In this business, everyone will get a not-so-flattering guest review at some point. Instead of dwelling on it, the best course of action is to correct the error and respond in a courteous, concise way to the review, acknowledging the mistake and noting that you have corrected it. This is the course of action that will let future shoppers know that you care, and fix issues as they arise. Guests do not expect perfection, but they do expect a certain level of engagement when there is an issue with their stay. Most potential bookers are reasonable people, and if they see a level-headed response to an unflattering review, they can usually look past it.

Another avenue to differentiate you from the competition is in the area of offering extras to add value, such as discounts at local restaurants, attractions, or activities. You may be surprised how willing local businesses are to offer 10-25% off for your guests. It is a win-win as it is a benefit for the guest, it allows you to offer something your competition may not be offering and sends more traffic to the local business. In fact, you may already have some local business owners or managers in your network of contacts that would offer this for your guests. I challenge you to reach out to those folks in your network that own local businesses that would be appealing to your guests, and find out!

Placement, or the ranking of your property on a 3rd party booking platform, is the most important factor when it comes to volume of reservations received. All of the points above will help your units on the most important metric of all, which is placement within the search results on an online booking channel. As with any product, if the visibility isn’t there, the transactions will not be there. In other words,  if a customer does not see your property, they will not book your property.

Your ability to convert a customer rapidly deteriorates the lower you are on the search results, on any platform. The specific algorithm that determines placement is typically a closely guarded piece of information for each major OTA (Online Travel Agency, AKA Expedia or Booking.com, etc), but there are commonalities from one to the next. Typically, each booking engine algorithm will take into account the following points, to varying degrees, when determining placement:

• Content Completeness
• Photo Quality
• Guest Review Score (not to be confused with property Star Rating)
• Conversion
• Competitiveness of Rates and Availability VS other booking channels

This is not a complete list of data points that determine property placement but is a good starting point when trying to determine why a property falls where it does in the search results on a booking channel.

Another point to consider is highlighting anything unique or unusual about your properties that will pique the interest of potential guests. Guests in 2018 want to have an experience different from everyone else’s and unlike they’ve ever had before. If you have unique amenities and features that truly set your rental apart from the rest make sure those are front and center as you present the property to the world.