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Direct bookings through hotel’s own websites using Hotel Perfect’s Direct Booking Engine have seen an “immense” increase over the past few years, according to the company.
Following in-house developments from Hotel Perfect, studies from the company have found a 45% increase in booking revenue for January to February 2016, compared with the previous year.
A statement from Hotel Perfect said: “This statistic is no surprise as the costs saved by avoiding online travel agent (OTA) commission rates really do add up. Capturing commission free bookings directly is a big objective for hoteliers and guests are also starting to see benefits too.”
The company has developed new features for the booking engine in recent months, including streamlining the booking process for hotel guests, increasing package visibility and also allowing hoteliers to upsell on their existing products.
The 45% increase in booking revenue for early part of the year has been in part, due to the company’s new ‘All Terms’ feature which it said has “greatly contributed” to hotels generating above average revenue margins.
The feature has made the booking process smoother, showing all available packages for the chosen dates and duration of a guests’ stay. Customers are now offered greater visibility of value-added packages, which the company said generally results in a more valuable booking being made.
Another new feature is the addition of minimum and maximum stay restrictions. Hotel Perfect said the function is “great” for achieving longer average stay rates during busy months, or for restricting self-catering bookings to an exact number of nights.
The Direct Booking Engine allows hoteliers to add value to their packages in the form of discounts, extra items or varying length of stay restrictions. This can save a hotelier money and also increase website traffic, according to Hotel Perfect.
Hotel Perfect added: “These revenue generating features are available now as part of our new Direct Booking Engine. With an increase in revenue, bed nights and booking value why wait any longer, get in touch for more information and start to capture more direct bookings and increase your revenue.”
