Working as partners — testimonials from hoteliers on the relationship with online travel platforms
A new study by EY Parthenon in cooperation with Booking.com analyses the challenges Europe’s small and medium sized accommodations face in succeeding in a global marketplace and substantiates how online travel platforms (OTAs) such as Booking.com contribute to overcoming these challenges. In this article we share additional feedback from 600 interviews with hoteliers across Europe that were surveyed for the report. It complements the analytical findings from the report by providing direct stakeholder observations on the relationship between hoteliers and online platforms. The full report is available here for download from EY Parthenon.
Online travel platforms help accommodations attract travellers from around the world — travellers that they would otherwise have a hard time reaching.
The exposure to customers worldwide is the most important reason to use an OTA. We have guests from 30 different nationalities. That would otherwise never have been possible for a small accommodation in Brugge. — Smaller sized accommodation at tourist destination, Belgium
Our guest mix has changed due to the OTA platforms. I am always surprised by the guests that find our accommodation. Around 95% of our Asian guests book via the OTA platform.” — Accommodation with loyal customer base, Germany
When we launched a luxury accommodation in Amsterdam, distribution via OTA platforms was part of our strategy. You immediately have exposure to a very large audience with limited efforts. — Medium sized accommodation at tourist destination, The Netherlands
Online travel platforms help accommodations increase occupancy — whenever it is needed the most.
OTAs helped to increase the occupancy rate throughout the year since we get more bookings in the off-season and I can top off the occupancy in the season. — Medium sized accommodation at tourist destination, Portugal
OTAs are a very flexible platform. I can post the rooms that I could not sell direct on the platform a week in advance. I almost always sell them with limited efforts. — Medium sized accommodation at tourist destination, France
OTAs are really convenient to market a new accommodation. Last year we opened an accommodation and that became a top seller on Booking.com. — Medium accommodation at tourist destination, Spain
Online travel platforms offer their services at a price below what it would cost SME accommodations to do so on their own. Partners make a conscious choice on how to use online platforms to optimize their distribution mix.
We will have to invest more in marketing than the commissions we are now paying to the OTA to get the same number of bookings. — Medium sized accommodation at tourist destination, Spain
We get enough guests via OTA platforms so we don’t need to invest a lot in marketing. — Medium sized holiday resort, France
OTA platforms account for around 50–60% of our bookings, however this has been a conscious decision as it is the most cost efficient channel for us. — Rural accommodation, Portugal
I rather pay the commission to Booking.com than I would have to invest in the marketing myself. — Rural accommodation, Portugal
We have found the right mix between the OTA platforms in terms of costs and commissions. OTAs are one of our main distribution channels, that is the most optimal way of generating bookings for us. — Smaller-sized accommodation at tourist destination, Italy
We choose to do a large part of our bookings via Booking.com, as that is part of our distribution strategy. We believe OTAs are the most efficient channel for us. — Medium sized accommodation at tourist destination, France
Data driven insights and free services provided by online travel platforms are of substantial value to SME accommodations.
The analytics help us to competitively price our rooms and thereby attract more guests. — Medium sized accommodation at tourist destination, France
We do not have a mobile application for our accommodation, but we have many travelers that book last-minute while they are already in the city. The OTA apps enable our guests to easily book real-time. This is immediately visible in our reservation system. — Smaller-sized hotel at tourist destination, Belgium
The virtual credit card of the OTA platforms helped to significantly reduce the number of no shows. — Accommodation with loyal customer base, UK
The guaranteed payments options are a benefit for the guests as well as for the accommodation provider. We also know that we will get paid. — Medium sized holiday resort, Portugal
The OTA platforms have a multilingual website and customer service that enables guests to read and communicate in their own language. I believe this lowers the barrier for guests to book abroad. — Medium-sized holiday resort, Portugal
SME accommodations benefit from the visibility provided for by online platforms and derive substantial direct bookings from it — at zero cost.
A lot of the guests that book direct found my accommodation on an OTA platform. So the OTA platforms are also an effective marketing channel for direct bookings, which comes at zero costs.” — Rural accommodation, France
OTAs do an excellent job of realizing incremental bookings for accommodations. Apart from that, they also bring guests to the accommodation who “never” have booked directly. To clarify, there are millions of hotels on this earth. This number is narrowed down by selecting a location but then there are still too many. Most guests don’t have a specific accommodation or brand in mind. These guests will use an OTA to search for an accommodation. As this is a very efficient channel that brings together all the accommodations and can easily filter by specific criteria. Once an accommodation is selected, a large share of the guests do visit the accommodation website or call the accommodation for special requests, questions, deals etc. and end up booking directly at the accommodation. So exposure on the OTA platform not only results in more bookings via the OTA platforms, but may also result in direct bookings. — Rural hotel, France
