A lot of hotels have opted to not bother with their own website and instead have gone down the route of Booking.com and TripAdvisor bookings to manage all their internet leads. Here’s a couple of things to consider when deciding what path to take online as a hotelier;
Third-Party costs
Obviously sites like Booking.com take commission on your room sales. The base rate is 15% and that is only the start for some. Card transactions through their site can also put you down a larger amount than you first predicted. From your own Property Management Website you can set your own rates and offers, only paying the usual card handling fees.
Decide your own look and feel
If you’re hotel is black and blue then your website should be too. Pre-built engines can sometimes lock you down to the default colour scheme, this can sometimes make your guests question they’re even on the correct website! You’d also make sure you were deciding the layout of your own site, putting special offers or events in the spotlight, marketing from your own website.
Create rates to follow the market
Whilst you can manually keep setting rates following seasons this can be an exceptionally time consuming task. With your own website and property management system you can create custom rates based off all kinds of criteria including;
- Amount of nights stayed
- Amount of guests per room
- Seasonality of the location
- Offers and discounts based of weekend/midweek stays