What are the hotel ota operation skills?

1. Convert OTA’s customer sources into direct customers

The role of OTA should be billboards, traffic diversion, and supplementary customer sources. Don’t rely too much on OTA, and don’t let pricing and inventory allocation rights be controlled by them. The value of OTAs should lie in bringing additional customers to the hotel, rather than snatching away customers from the hotel’s direct sales channels and then buying them back with commissions.

Hotels should work hard to increase customer loyalty to the hotel’s direct sales channels, rather than to OTAs.

It is necessary to study the characteristics of OTA’s customer sources, formulate corresponding processes and performance appraisal standards, and strive to convert OTA customer sources into direct hotel customers, such as members, company contract guests, long-term guests, teams, etc. And make them develop the habit of booking through hotel direct sales channels, including official website, WeChat, manual booking, etc. Set goals, conduct performance appraisals, and strive to ensure that new guests book on OTAs for the first and second time, and book directly with the hotel for the third and subsequent times.

Resolutely put an end to the phenomenon of hotel employees being afraid of trouble and asking guests to book directly on OTAs. They should proactively book directly for guests.

2. Pictures: A good picture is worth a thousand words

High pixels and high definition, highlighting the characteristics of the hotel. The latest photos, not from a few years ago. Not even a rendering. Appropriately select some photos of surrounding tourist resources and put them up. Don’t have too many, too many, or none.

3. Content: Content is king

Think in other people’s shoes, start from the needs of the guests, use hot words searched by the guests, and contact attractions, transportation hubs, equipment and facilities, prices, etc. Increase the probability of being searched. The reviews written by customers on OTAs are an extension and supplement to the hotel’s promotion and display content. Study them for my own use.

4. Price: A bowl of water is equal, fair competition

Adhere to price consistency and prevent price inversion. Obviously, if the price of the hotel’s direct sales channel (official website, phone, WeChat, etc.) is higher than that of OTA, customers will definitely lose their reservation to OTA and become loyal to OTA, and the hotel will lose the price difference and commission. The promotional prices provided to OTAs must also be provided through hotel direct sales channels. The principle is the same as the one above. A bowl of water is the same, and customers can choose to book on OTA or directly.

5. Don’t create your own enemies on the same channel

Private rooms and travel agencies are not allowed to use vests or agents to sell on OTA’s public channels and direct sales with hotels. compete. It is allowed and encouraged to provide preferential prices to private room operators and travel agencies as needed, and sell through opaque channels such as rooms + machines + tickets. It can also be distributed through channels that independent hotels cannot operate themselves to bring additional customers to the hotel.

Putting an end to distribution between channels can easily cause customers to be unable to find the right owner, leading to customer complaints and trouble in resolving negative reviews.

6. Analyze the preferences, consumption habits, and booking habits of OTA’s customers

Different OTA customers’ travel purposes, length of stay, booking patterns, room type preferences, and sources They have different characteristics in terms of location, number of people in the same room, room type, catering and other consumption. Through analysis, different strategies can be adopted. The customer booking window of overseas OTAs is longer than that of domestic OTAs, with higher overall consumption and longer stay. Promotional prices for overseas OTAs can be launched in advance to attract customers in this area.

7. Try not to close rooms and prices.

If you want to close rooms, close low-priced rooms. If not, you can increase the price or set a limit on the number of days you can stay. Because once all prices and room types are closed, consecutive guests will not be able to make reservations, losing the occupancy rate and income in the past few days, and the hotel's online ranking will also drop.

8. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket

Try to cooperate with all OTA channels. Don’t not cooperate with some OTAs just because their output is not high. If an OTA can bring 3 orders a day, it will be 1,095 orders a year. In fact, it is quite a lot. A little adds up to a lot. If you only cooperate with one or two OTAs, you will easily get stuck.

The more OTAs we cooperate with, the greater the hotel’s exposure on the Internet, and the greater the role of billboards. This is especially important for independent hotels with low brand awareness.

9. It is better to increase the commission ratio than lower the price of OTA to be lower than that of direct sales channels.

If you predict that there will be a trough and business is not good, you can do it during the selected period. Increase the commission ratio of OTAs, or reduce the prices of all OTAs, including those of direct sales channels, during a specific period based on the principle of price consistency.

When engaging in promotions with specific OTAs, the OTA’s production targets during the promotion period must be set. Follow up on production and take tiered commission rewards. It is appropriate to do group buying if it is difficult to maintain capital. Use group buying to drive popularity. However, the price should not be too low and it should not be done for a long time.

10. Use online review interaction to do a good job in customer relationship management

Reply to guests’ reviews on OTAs in a timely manner, preferably within 48 hours. Thank them promptly for their praise, take active measures to remediate their complaints, and do a good job in repairing customer relationships. Replies and handling methods should be personalized and humane, and should not be programmed or mechanical. We need to find ways to convert guests who write reviews, especially those who write good reviews, into hotel members and direct guests.