Pre-stay, Post-stay and HTML email: what does that mean for your Booking Engine?

There's nothing worse than wasting time in trying to create something that, ultimately, does not work at all or just a little.

Email is an instrument aged as the web, so it's young if you think about it in absolute terms, but old when considered in relation to communication on the Internet and its evolution. Yet today it is an indispensable and irreplaceable tool, especially for business.

Any booking engine, as well as any e-commerce platform for online sales of any business trade, cannot do without email notifying both the buyer and seller.

About the hotel industry, the email a customer receive after its hotel reservations is always pretty standard: summary of the booking with travel data, references and contacts of the hotel and little else. Being a 'closed' text message, there's no so much work to do about its content, while there is about its shape.

Pre-stay and post-stay email in html format with the ability to insert images and links: they have become indispensable tools for hotel booking engine that all hoteliers want. But does it has only an aesthetic function? Or rather, the aesthetic end in itself really brings tangible benefits?

It requires the utmost attention, this could even be counterproductive and harmful. Do not forget that the html email are subject to spam risk. Many corporate servers block emails containing even a single image. In addition, a careless use of images can determine insertion into black-list by the server you are sending these emails.

Even the major portals, rather than the bigger airlines still prefer text-only booking confirmation email, which automatically eliminates the risk of non-receipt by the customer.

Then put yourself in the shoes of your customer who has booked online, who receive at least three email for one reservation only. Someone could think that it may look cute and funny, a symptom of great attention to the guest and his needs; however, it could also be a redundant process, almost annoying. We think especially to those regular customers who regularly book through the booking engine on your site, who receive at least three mail every time they book. Indeed it can be a bit hard to accept, especially if we consider that the e-mail content is often repetitive. The e-mail post-stay only can count on a different message from earlier ones. But even in this case, Can we truly say that sending multiple mails leads to tangible benefits?

Let's make it simple: even html, pre and post stay emails must have a goal. So they have to bring results. In short, they have to increase your online sales.
How? Encouraging the customer to purchase additional services, showing the real benefits and acting as a proactive sales tool that encourages customer to personalize his stay.

Your pre-stay email should contain a link to his same reservation made ​​through your booking engine, which gives the possibility to add additional services.

For instance: if you have a spa or wellness center, you may try to provide your guest with a relaxing treat for his arrival at the hotel, maybe with a little discount on the selling price, in order to show it as a real benefit you're giving to him.
Or a dinner at your restaurant, a taxi from the airport to your hotel, and so on.

Not necessarily services for a fee, but small gestures which surely will be appreciated, such as a daily newspaper that the customer can directly book from his pre-stay, an extra pillow for those who prefer to sleep 'high'. For sure you will not make extra revenue, but definitely it will be a much appreciated service to your customers, besides give them a valid reason to book on your site, instead of OTA. Whether the customer pays 30, 50, 100 or 1000 $ for staying at your hotel, it's a non-commissionable revenue anyway.

Although conceptually different, the goal is always the same even for your post-stay e-mail. For instance, in addition to greetings and thanks, you may provide your customers with a voucher for a free-drink for his next trip to your hotel, or a small discount.

Even small actions can lead to great results. Of course, you need the right instruments, a booking engine that allows you to create and manage your dynamic proposals, much less room-centric and much more customer-oriented, which gives a real added value to your email communications.

Everything else is figment of your imagination and your ability to sell and communicate with your customers.

Madeep.com

Booking Engine and Web Site: how to disintermediate OTA's

Today, the sharing of information through the internet is fast and wide. Especially in terms of blogs, forums and social networks, the expression of our own ideas, thoughts, considerations and even bad luck has become a sort of need.
Even for hoteliers that does not change, indeed. All over the world new Facebook groups were born,  dedicated to tourism industry professionals and employees, places where vent frustrations after a working day spent sipping customer complaints and troubles, sharing them with those who work in the same area.

Sometimes it's quite fun reading about these stories, real life and problems of everyday life, a kind of confession room of Big Brother, but for normal people who work every day and every day is faced with problems, whether large and small ones. And sometimes, in fact, it's sobering to see how increasingly hoteliers feel powerless in the face of reality, halfway between the customer and the broker.

Finally, I have to admit that some of these confessions give me a veil of sadness mixed with anguish: regular customers who start to rely on online intermediaries for their online reservations, instead of booking as they always have. It will be for convenience, fashion, immediacy. Anyway, one has the impression that, despite they are and remain regular customers, they have become clients of the intermediary.

Let's start with a premise. The total disintermediation does not exist, at least today. Let's try to understand how the booking process works and what brings the customer to book on a OTA portal rather than the hotel booking engine:

Such a theory is what happens in almost all of the booking processes. No wonder then to see a good number of visits on your site, but you have to intervene if your booking conversion bookings is not good. A good average conversion is around 3%, but there is no unique threshold for all situations and for all hotels since too many variables involved.

In the picture above, I have not purposely designed the last step of the process, the most important, where customer make the decision about the platform to use for completing his reservation, OTA site ​​or hotel site. At this time so many variables come into play that the hotel may seek to exploit, starting from:

1. Hotel Web Site: user visits the hotel website after having already seen the room prices on the OTA, trying to get more information on the hotel itself. Do not forget that any user have become "aware" of what happen since the web give them the possibility to be informed because the network allows them to obtain all the information they want when they want. If the hotel is not trying to give them the information through its website, the OTA will do in its place, thus increasing the chances that the portal will take your reservation. Last but not least, user is interested in visiting hotel website making some 'rate hoppers', trying to find more convenient fares, special offers or packages. User does not know that hotels are subject to the constraint of the parity rate, so the curiosity and the hope of finding the most affordable hotel is still alive and he knows that he can do taht through the network.
   
   
2. Booking Engine: web sites are not all the same, and being on the web it's not enough to be 'attractive' to your customers any longer. So are Booking Engines. A good booking engine determines the positive or negative performance of any hotel. The usability of a booking software is to allow the user to browse and book easily, speedly and immediately. For example, what may seem small technical details such as server response time to user's request (the time that passes from the moment user clicks a button until he gets to the requested page), on the web become the fundamental aspects of usability, so a wait of 0.3 seconds and a wait of 2 seconds make a huge difference. On the other hand, the booking engine must be as flexible as dynamic to allows hotelier to easily configure all of the best methods of online sales for its services, rooms, restaurants and so on.

All things being equal (room X at the price Y, both on the hotel website and the OTAs portal), the client will be in a position of having to decide where to make his reservation. Hence what are the fundamental aspects you should work on to start your own process of disintermediation:

1. Adequacy and completeness of the information: everything posted on your web site, whether they are photos, descriptions and items must be clear and understandable, should not be ambiguous and difficult to realize. The user must be sure of what he's reading and seeing, especially, he must understand it without difficulty;


2. Make sure you have a booking engine that is powerful and can satisfy the needs of online retail. It is NOT absolutely true that a more expensive booking means better performance. Rather, make sure that your booking engine can meet the today's needs and, at the same time, make sure it is constantly evolving, because tomorrow is another day and the time runs much faster on the web;


3. Do not simply sell only rooms, but try to offer all other services your hotel has such as restaurant, spa and fitness center, room service, transfer service from the airport or city center ... This is a focal point of the process of disintermediation. OTAs only offer hotel rooms, but they do not treat any ancillary service, unless they are included in some of your package rates. Make sure you have a booking engine that allows you to configure the sale of ancillary services. In addition to helping  you to generate ancillary revenue (or extra revenue), it is an aspect that can have an important influence in the choice of the customer to book on your web site, instead of the portal one;


4. Clear payment methods and cancellation policies. User does not have to feel cheated and anyway all your policies must be clear and easy to read ... This is the same concept stated in point 1: clarity and transparency. Otherwise, the user, even unconsciously, will feel "guaranteed" by booking through the OTA portal;


5. Do not 'spam' OTAs' sites with too many special offers and rate packages. Keep them for your own website. I'm not talking about violating the parity rate, rightly mandatory for all the OTAs, but exploiting your special rates to give your website an added value;


6. Put in evidence the special offers and packages on your website because they are easily identifiable and accessible;


7. Offer your customers corporate discount codes or codes to book on your web site with cheaper rates (opaque biddings). Give these codes to your occasional customers too, especially those who have booked through an OTA ... just a little present such as an aperitif or a small discount for their next stay. Make sure that your booking engine is able to support this objective.


8. Be visible and bookable from mobile devices, especially if you are a hotel with a lot of business customers who are used to move even at the last minute and who make use of BalckBarry and Iphone for their work;


9. Foursquare: the social network for mobile based on geolocation. It is not yet entirely exploded, but the 2012 seems to be the right year and for the hotel opens a new, huge and magnificent opportunity for disintermediation;


10. Social networks must be used as communciation tools, not even sales tools. The sale can be a direct consequence of the relationship that you will be able to establish with users who follow you. Give them the opportunity to book directly from social networks, but don't force them. It makes no sense to use social platforms to 'spam' offers, discounts, packages. This is not the way you could be attractive;


11. Find out, find out, find out: the web is out of step with the times because it is already in the future. Not a day goes by without news and constantly changing scenarios, but rather than the volume of these news, very often it's the little ideas, sometimes simple, that can reverse the situation. For instance look at what is going on with Google Hotel Finder and what kind of reactions it has generated;

I know, it's not easy, but starting from a clear idea of what you're going to do, for sure you're already halfway there.

Madeep.com

"YES AND..." & "NO, BUT..." - Imagine that...

Imagine that you have to book a hotel room for your next trip. The goal is simple: make an online hotel reservation, no matter what kind system you use and how you get to the final hotel choice. So, more or less the process is always the same: search engine, travel portal, set input parameters such as dates and nights and comparison of results, identification of attractive offers, hotel website and booking engine and, finally, the reservation.

Let's stop for a minute at the moment immediately preceding the conclusion of the reservation: I chose the hotel, I checked all the information about rooms, rates, hotel and property, the hotel is in a good location, it has rooms available for the dates of my trip and the price falls in my budget ... Ok, let's book!

Now imagine that you can enrich your travel reservation with additional services that you probably have not even thought about; for example, why not to book a taxi from the airport to the hotel? That would be great, you won't have to think about it any longer. Moreover, the hotel you chose has a magnificent Spa, so why not to book a nice relaxing package or a massage at the time you wish, for the lenght you prefer?

YES AND... a proposal like this, whether online or offline, automatically becomes a proactive sales process that increase customer's desire to purchase, as well as a key lever to make him choose your website for its reservations instead of the travel portal. All this without necessarily having to increase the number of clicks that the user must make before reaching the completion of booking, then having to leave unchanged the possibility of being able to book in just 3 clicks, regardless of the number of rates, rooms, offers and services displayed.


Imagine arriving at a restaurant for a nice dinner with your girlfriend, wife or lover ;-), but you don't have a reservations and, unfortunately, the restaurant owner tells you that all tables are occupied. Imagine then that the restaurant owner says: "as soon as I have an available table I'll let you seat, meanwhile I'm gonna offer you a drink at the bar" ...

Similarly, imagine entering into a beautiful hotel after a busy work day, but even in this case, the hotel is fully booked and you didn't make a reservation because maybe you forgot it or for a simple misunderstanding with your secretary who has failed to reserve the room or, again, you tried to book online but have not found available solutions for that date but you still decided to try to present yourself in the same hotel.
The receptionist, however, also tells you: "I just checked the availability of the last rooms at a hotel within walking distance of the same category, I'm going to book a room for you and in the meantime I call a taxi for moving to there"

NO, BUT ... What do you do when a user tries to book on your site through your booking engine when you don't have any availble rooms? Most of the time he's gonna leave or check availability at other organizations. Just as it happens in the two examples above, even in the online booking process, the concept of "NO, But" does not change. This rule is to be able to propose, for example, alternative dates to the initial request of the customer, different offers from the one selected for which there is no availability, or, in the latter case, you should propose a hotel near you.

As it stands for the offline, even the online consists of cascading and consequential steps, where the user always has an answer to the choice he made and the results obtained and, even if the answer is negative (no availability), he always has the possibility to continue his trial until his goal is reached (reservation), without having to leave the path and then starting a new one.

Try it yourself...

Madeep.com

Customer Care starts at the time of booking

Anticipate Guest requests is one of the main professional esteem in hotel industry. This is not only for a good customer service, but a real business opportunity if you have the right instruments.

Customizing rates, travel offers, packages and stay amenities and services is increasingly the focus of marketing strategies... especially on the web. In fact, while it's a good way to increase your customer loyalty when the Guest is there, the web is a wonderful opportunity to anciticipate his needs that are no longer only "room accomodation".

Providing the Customer with a wide range of additional services, increasingly opportunities to create his own tailor-made holidays or business trips, is not only a simple plus but a your special attention and the best effort you can do for your Guest.

Customer care (and business opportunity) starts at the time of booking before continuing during the stay in hotel. Nowadays, it makes the difference! The difference between expected service and customized service, so what a Guest is expecting to find when he looks for accomodation and you are able to offer to convince him to choose you.

Not all booking engines and online travel agencies are the same. Some one of that allows you to make better use of your sales skills by offering multiple rates, special offers, travel packages and, most importantly, additional services.

If a young couple newlyweds is looking online for your wonderful Luxury Hotel for their wedding night, why don't you give them the opportunity to book a special bootle of Champagne to be found in room at the time of arrival? Maybe when they'll come to you they will be too excited to remember to ask...

If a business man is going to relax in a Spa at the end of his working day, why don't you give him the opportunity to book a special massage into your Spa, at the time he wish (hour) for the time he wants (duration). Maybe when he'll arrive your Spa will be already fully booked...

Madeep.com