The OTA hotel agency market is worth a try

In recent years, economic growth and the development of tourism have given birth to a large number of economical hotel chains. Competition in the hotel industry has become increasingly fierce. In addition, many high-star hotels have gradually been opened. Hotel room occupancy rates have been significantly affected. Many low- and mid-range hotels are not bad in terms of conditions, facilities, or service levels. However, due to their lack of stable customer support and poor marketing and promotion, some hotel room occupancy rates are not high.

This article is excerpted from the public account (OTA Online Hotel Operation Encyclopedia)

In hotel operations, the selection of marketing channels is the most difficult part. In order to broaden marketing channels, some online hotel agents have been spawned. Let’s first understand what an OTA platform is: Ota is also called an online travel agency. There are many OTA platforms. Anyone who knows about them knows that the commonly used ones like Meituan, Fliggy, Ctrip, Elong, Qunar, etc. are all OTA platforms.

OTA hotel agency is a new project derived from the ota online platform. It is between the hotel and the ota platform. In short, it is to obtain the qualification to be listed on the OTA platform and then negotiate cooperation with the hotel. The agent negotiates with the hotel to obtain the hotel's agreed price, and then adds the hotel's price increase to sell it on the OTA platform to earn a profit from the difference.

So why are hotels willing to cooperate with OTA agents?

1. Many agency channels: Generally speaking, agents have more than 20 different distribution channels online and offline, which can increase the number of hotels. The number of room nights and occupancy rate can effectively solve the problem of insufficient customer base in the off-season.

2. The agency settlement method is flexible: Compared with direct procurement, the agency settlement method is more flexible and can reduce the pressure on the hotel’s capital flow to a considerable extent.

3. Agent operation has great advantages: Agents have professional OTA operation teams, which can solve the current problems of high OTA operation costs and lack of professionalism in most hotels, and increase the number of hotel online OTA orders.

4. Hotel fixed costs are too high: The hotel industry is an asset-heavy industry. Rent, decoration, water and electricity, and labor are all fixed costs of the hotel. If the hotel occupancy rate is too low, it will easily cause the hotel to lose money. In order to prevent losses, the hotel must seek cooperation with some travel agencies and third-party agents to increase hotel income and prevent losses.

5. Performance pressure on hotel staff: Each hotel will set performance goals for store managers and sales managers every month, which is the number of room reservations. In order to achieve performance, these people will take the initiative to contact agents to cooperate. .

In general, the OTA hotel agency project is still very good. It has a blue ocean market, takes up less funds, is easy to get started, and is suitable for individuals or team companies to try.