Meta Search Marketing is becoming a popular way for many hotels to distribute rooms and increase direct bookings. Using services like TripAdvisor TripConnect to feed rates directly to TripAdvisor has significantly increased direct hotel bookings and regularly returned ROI of 1000%. If you can sell rooms at a 10% CPA as opposed to the 20% that OTA’s sell at with minimum effort, then why not give it a go.
Publishing rates on TripAdvisor
Historically, the only thing that has put hoteliers off using such services is not knowing where to start. The good news is that there are many Tripadvisor connectivity partners available to guide you through the set-up process. It’s also worth asking your booking engine provider as they may already have a connection to make this happen. TripAdvisor provide guidance on feeding rates and availability into their API (which must be completed by an Official Partner) and are keen to get your official hotel link listed.
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Results
One of the most important things to make sure is that you have the conversion tracking set-up through the service. This will allow you to clearly see the results and ROI for the spend (as opposed to just number of clicks). Working with a professional and experienced agency will help you to optimise you spend, Cost-Per-Click (CPC) and most importantly increase the bookings that come through. In addition to the obvious booking results, my hotels have found that feeding their direct rates into Tripadvisor helps to show the potential guest that the hotel has rate parity with other channels and can often be the cheapest place to book online.
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