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Bringing guests from abroad can be challenging for every hotel, but these clients are arguably the most profitable ones, and therefore attractive to target. By analyzing data you can have a better understanding of the different source markets and which of them can bring the most valuable guests to your door.

The opportunities and challenges of targeting international guests

As we wrote about in our article about the value of international guests for hotels, there are several good reasons why your hotel should focus on this segment:


	They have a bigger budget and stay longer&nbsp;
	International trips are not as frequent as domestic ones, but as a result an international traveler’s average budget per day is often much higher.
	Longer lead time and lower cancellation rate
	Due to the effort and budget behind an international trip, the guest is less likely to cancel, and more likely to book in further in advance. This gives you the safety of having a good base of occupancy so that you can be creative with your rate strategy for bookings with shorter lead times.
	They are likely to spend more on-site
	Long haul travelers are more likely to want maximum comfort during their stay, which makes them a much better target for upselling and cross-selling strategies.
	A wider audience will give you more opportunities to recover from difficult situations
	In the case of unpredictable situations, being able to reach out to a global and wider audience can be a decisive advantage. Every hotel’s survival chances to navigate through adversities are much higher when their potential customer base is global, and not just local.


However, targeting international audiences does present some challenges:


	Language barrier
	Determining the best language to communicate with your target can be tricky. Even if English can often work as lingua franca, customized ads, marketing materials, and multilingual staff members for target languages can put you on the front foot!
	Communication channels
	The internet has made it much easier to reach out to people on the other side of the globe, but that doesn’t mean everyone is using the same channels to gather information and engage with each other. Take the time to research where travelers from your target markets are hanging out online.
	Different habits
	Another key challenge of welcoming international guests is the diversity of habits and behaviors of each culture. Making sure that you're ready to host and make every guest feel comfortable can be difficult if you have limited information about your audience.




Through Hotelbeds’s network of travel agents, you can widen your global reach, and communicate directly to new potential customers everywhere in the world, with a partner that speaks the local language and knows the market. Check our article about the benefits of selling your rooms via travel agents.

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The importance of geographical segmentation for your hotel

In light of these opportunities, and overcoming the challenges, segmenting your audience and defining your targets, is key to your hotel’s success.

By using data to analyse the best performing markets for your hotel, correct segmentation can have a positive effect on your hotel’s yield.

More effective tailor-made marketing strategies

Knowing where your audience is coming from can be a great advantage! It allows you to know which language they speak, and to create advertising campaigns for specific markets. This allows you to deliver a message that is more engaging and resonates better.

Improves the return on your marketing investments and boosts your revenues

Investing in campaigns and in communication for a tighter audience is cheaper, and if you target the right segment correctly, your investment will have a much higher return.&nbsp;

Data-driven market analysis can provide your hotel with insightful information about what’s the ideal target audience for your hotel.&nbsp;

With more information on your audience, you can improve their experience

Knowing what’s the origin country of your guest can give you valuable information to make their experience comfortable and personalised from the very first moment.&nbsp;

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Find out more

To deep dive on how different channel distribution strategies can improve your hotel’s performance, check out the Hotelbeds guide to hotel distribution in 2020.&nbsp;


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Finding international source markets for your hotel

Imagine if you could organize your customers into unique segments, each clearly defined by their specific characteristics and their individual buying behaviors.

What is generation segmentation?

In this article, we’ll show you how to target guests more effectively by splitting them into generational groups, each of whom have different buying habits, unique spending patterns and personal preferences. We’ll also show you how you can identify the most profitable generation for your hotel.&nbsp;

Understanding generation segmentation properly is a great way to help you to identify the most effective triggers to attract profitable customers to your hotel.&nbsp;

What makes each generation different?

There are five main generational segments recognized by marketers. You’ve probably heard of some of them already, but just to make it easy, we’ve summarized their main characteristics below:











Which are the most profitable generation segments for hotels?

Generation X (who often spend more in destination) and millennials (who travel more regularly throughout the year) tend to be the hotel industry’s most profitable generational segments. In fact, according to Boston Consulting Group, millennials will account for almost 50% of travel spend by 2020. Generation X also tends to have strong purchasing power and spend as much as 25% of their total budget on hotels. They are more family-oriented, value work/life balance and generally take around three trips per year, often around the school holidays.

TOP TIP:
Generation X is very brand loyal so consider selling your rooms via loyalty plans or points redemption programs.&nbsp;

Millennials tend to:


	Combine business travel with pleasure travel (the birth of “bleisure”)
	Search for experiences, not just accommodation.
	Be more interested in exploring the local culture than staying by the pool
	Prefer email communication to face-to-face contact
	Love reading good reviews&nbsp;


If you’re looking to cross-sell leisure opportunities, millennials are worth targeting.

Key tips for attracting millennials to your hotel

Now that we know which are the most lucrative guests for the hotel market, let's dive more deeply into some common ways to attract them. Here are a few ideas:

Last-minute offers: 
millennials are a spontaneous bunch. In a recent survey by MMGY, 49% of them reported taking a last-minute vacation in the last 12 months. They also love flash deals, so drive that business with flash sales and watch your profits rise.

Partnering with a B2B distributor: 
millennials are loyal, which is good for business. B2B distributors or Bedbanks, such as Hotelbeds, offer easy access to a plethora of points redemption schemes. These distributors can also negotiate the best deal on your behalf, leaving you free to concentrate on giving your guests the best experience possible.

Limited-frills properties: 
make sure that millennials who want to spend their money on external experiences know that your budget-friendly hotel makes an excellent basecamp for their excursions. Millennials prioritize travel experience and location over luxury.

TOP TIP:
Consider working with a business-to-business distribution partner such as Hotelbeds, who can help you to access the best travel points redemption, loyalty and employee benefits schemes from the thousands that are available across the globe.

Key tips for attracting Generation X to your hotel

Try to differentiate between being a family-friendly hotel and distributing your rooms to tour operators that offer family travel packages.
Some ways of attracting Gen X guests to your hotel could include:


	Appealing to family groups: Generation X loves family travel, so building a proper environment which includes activities for family groups is a great idea.
	Promoting family-friendly amenities and services such as pools, complimentary breakfasts and laundry facilities to make your property more attractive.
	Using activities like “kids clubs” and babysitting facilities to create memorable experiences.&nbsp;
	Offering your rooms on a family travel package: family life tends to shape the way Generation X travels.&nbsp;
	Making sure that your travel distributor is including your rooms on a travel bundle addressed to families.&nbsp;
	Promoting family-friendly packages around school calendars, since that is when many Generation X guests prefer to travel.


TOP TIP
Try working with a B2B distributor such as Hotelbeds who will connect you with an extensive network of tour operators and give you access to all their itineraries and bespoke packages
&nbsp;


	Generation X still values its travel agents: the American Society of Travel Agents says that 22% of travelers have worked with an advisor to book a trip in the past year. As more and more people rediscover their travel agents, that number is expected to grow. They understand how to pull together all the individual pieces of an international trip to make sure it is both convenient and efficient.


TOP TIP
Working with Hotelbeds you will get access to more than 100,000 unique retail travel agents around the world. You’ll never have to close individual deals with travel agencies again.

Find out more

To deep dive on how different channel distribution strategies can improve your hotel’s performance, check out the Hotelbeds guide to hotel distribution in 2020.&nbsp;

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Generation X and millennials: targeting the most profitable segments for your hotel

In a fragmented marketplace, one of the major challenges facing hoteliers is ensuring distributors sell their rates according to the contracted conditions.&nbsp;As a response to this issue, Hotelbeds has introduced a range of initiatives to safeguard rate integrity in our sector.&nbsp;Why is rate integrity important?Rate integrity ensures a culture of trust in the marketplace. To guarantee competitive positioning and operational profitability, hoteliers have to ensure that the distributor is fully aligned to its rate strategy, while travel sellers need to honour contracted rates.&nbsp;Rate integrity:Protects the trust essential to maintaining a successful marketplaceEnsures an equal playing field for all participantsSecures operational profitability for all parties&nbsp;Misusing rates affects the whole marketA major issue for the industry is that the same room can sell at a wholesale net rate or a retail gross rate. So, trust between parties is essential to avoid channel conflicts and transactional partners attempting to gain an unfair advantage by discounting prices below the contracted best available rate (BAR).&nbsp;Hotelbeds is leading the way in preventing sellers from promoting discounted prices in unapproved channels. That even goes as far as terminating relationships with repeat offenders.&nbsp;“Amoma is one key example of us making sure that we’ve been significantly reducing our business with clients that hoteliers consider not to be generating value,”Carlos Muñoz, Hotelbeds&nbsp;How bedbanks promote rate integrityInvestments in technologyThrough the development of new rules-based technologies, Hotelbeds is taking a leading role in identifying malpractice before it has a chance to impact the marketplace.&nbsp;By dedicating whole teams to tracking compliance metrics and imposing stricter policies, bedbanks can prevent the proliferation of bad behaviour.&nbsp;Responsible relationship management with partnersIf sacrificing revenue is what it takes to rid the sector of duplicitous practice, then Hotelbeds is prepared to do that. In fact, Hotelbeds recently stopped working with companies misusing rates, which resulted in a reduction in annual sales volume of around 300 Million Euros.&nbsp;Strict rate integrity policiesIncreasingly, bedbanks are stipulating contractual terms that prohibit their partners misusing rates. While legitimate hotel revenue management errors do occasionally occur, Hotelbeds has introduced a strict ‘three-strike’ policy for channels that consistently violate distribution rules. We proactively exclude travel buyers from our network that repeatedly violate the terms of their contract.&nbsp;&nbsp;“Any online travel agent that distributes content intended for offline in an online B2C sales channel, just three times, will find themselves cut-off from distributing that hotel via Hotelbeds.”Carlos Muñoz, Hotelbeds&nbsp;What hoteliers can do to maintain rate integrityCommunicate contractual responsibilityRate discrepancies can arise during the onward distribution of group, unbundled or region-specific rates if conditions are not stipulated early on.&nbsp;That’s why defining opaque pricing agreements is crucial to avoid any misinterpretations of a contract, which could ultimately affect trust in the marketplace for all participating providers and suppliers.&nbsp;Practice and monitor pricing complianceTo foster confidence in the marketplace, hotels also need to take responsibility for auditing pricing compliance. And while it’s important to assume good intent, if hoteliers do suspect rate misuse, it’s crucial to verify and identify the bad actors.&nbsp;It’s worth noting that these types of violations are generally not isolated to just one property, so others are likely. And again, the knock-on effect is the erosion of trust in our industry.The Hotelbeds commitment to detecting and deterring rates misuseThanks to the development of market-leading automated technologies unavailable elsewhere, Hotelbeds is able to segment and accurately monitor how contracted products are distributed. These investments in technology, infrastructure and resources form part of our wider pledge to rid the marketplace of bad practice.&nbsp;

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Rate integrity: how bedbanks and hoteliers can maintain trust in the marketplace

Applying sound revenue management practices and having a clear idea of exactly which consumer groups drive the most value is vital to positively impact your bottom line.

But to optimize your hotel marketing effectively, you’ll need to cater for different needs and different budgets, while continually monitoring your efficiency and cost-effectiveness.

Every one of your defined market segments will contain several unique business sources and each of these will carry different costs. However, this article focuses on bedbanks, OTAs and direct channel.

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Weigh up the pros and cons of each channel

Hoteliers should not only know which market segments they should use to target their guests, but they should have a clear understanding of the advantages and shortcomings of each different distribution channel.&nbsp;
And knowing precisely where their guests originate gives them maximum flexibility when it comes to analyzing and managing their business.
For example, what if you could skew your audience so that:


	40% of all your bookings stay for at least six days in leisure destinations
	Your guests spend twice as much money on site
	You get bookings 55 days ahead




This is the typical profile of international bedbank customers sourced through the Hotelbeds network. And this is an audience that you can access more effectively with proper segmentation.
The better defined your market segments are and the clearer your insight into your distribution channels, the easier it will be for you to apply individual pricing per segment for successful revenue management.&nbsp;
So let’s take a look at how this all works.

What is hotel market segmentation and why is it important?

In simple terms, segmentation is the process of defining and subdividing a large homogenous market into clearly identifiable segments with similar needs, wants or demand characteristics.
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Once done, this process allows you to offer a unique price for each segment to reflect your different customers and their specific needs. It also means you can start to define and bundle specific sales and marketing efforts in a more targeted way according to the insight you get from a thorough analysis of each segment.

Done well, this allows you to create a specific strategy, relevant to the needs of your market, leading to increased bookings, higher revenue and improved guest satisfaction.&nbsp;
Effective hotel market segmentation helps you to:

Understand who is using your property


	Where are the highest number of bookings coming from?
	Why are your guests coming to your area?
	Why are they choosing your property?


Know who your most profitable customers are


	How much does each customer pay per booking?
	How much do they spend while at the hotel?
	How long does the guest stay?


Identify business trends


	Should you focus on rebuilding lost business or refocus on a different kind of customer?
	Which distribution channels usually serve the highest-value guests?&nbsp;
	How has customer behaviour changed over the past months or years?


Target market segments

Identifying the relevant market segments for your hotel gives you a solid base for an effective pricing strategy. Effective segmentation considers different approaches to booking behaviours and how sensitive to price your customers are.&nbsp;
You can segment customers in several ways, including:


	By booking channel (retail travel agency, tour operator, airline etc.)
	By rate type (double bedroom on half-board basis etc.)
	By reason for visit (leisure or business)


Ultimately, this will help you optimize your distribution mix and manage your distribution costs efficiently while enabling you to monitor inter-channel movements from one channel at a much more precise level.

Effective channel segmentation can also help you to reduce acquisition costs through an optimized strategy designed to deliver maximum profit.

Tip
Effective channel segmentation can help you reduce acquisition costs through an optimized strategy designed to deliver maximum profit. When you work with Hotelbeds, you can rely on a dedicated team of experts to help you tailor your offers to the most valuable customers.

Take a good look at these source channels:


	Your website, direct channel
	Online Travel Agents (OTAs)
	Bedbanks


Focus on understanding your acquisition cost per customer, average booking value and ancillary spend.

Track essential metrics:


	What is the lifetime value of customers?
	Are they loyal returning guests?
	How often do they come back to the hotel, if ever?
	What is the booking lead time?
	What is the average cancellation rate?
	What is the geographic location?
	What is the average length of stay?
	Are bookings midweek or weekend?


Segmentation in practice

So what are the real-world benefits of segmentation for you?

For example, if you’d like to access higher spending international travellers, you could start by finding out which channel your preferred source market uses most often.&nbsp;

At Hotelbeds, more than 60% of our bookings originate from non-domestic source markets.

Bedbanks drive incremental high-value bookings from B2B travel trade sources such as tour operators, travel agencies, airlines and point redemption schemes. Bedbanks also offer easy access to hard to reach travel buyers from source markets that would otherwise be difficult or too costly for a hotel to access directly. See how Mandar Vaidya, CEO South East Asia &amp; Middle East from OYO Rooms, explains it.



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Improved understanding of guests is your key asset

If you’re looking for more control over your business, then defining your hotel market segmentation is an essential first move. Try to establish which customers are already staying and what their buying patterns are like. &nbsp;It also pays to understand their maximum budget and how they made their booking.&nbsp;

The more you know about your guests, the easier it will be to decide on the best approach for your specific business mix. It will also help you to take the most appropriate and targeted actions for your particular business mix, leading you to greater efficiency and more profits.&nbsp;

Tip
Bedbanks like Hotelbeds offer more than just a powerful hotel extranet. You get bespoke assistance from a hotel revenue expert who helps you segment and optimise your revenue strategy and maximize your yield.

Finally, if you're interested in getting access to our portfolio with over 71,000 travel distributors, register your property today for free!&nbsp;


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Hotel market segmentation: how to target your most profitable guests

A tour operator puts together holiday itineraries and creates bespoke packages by bundling the individual services which make up those itineraries. Often, these services include accommodation, local guides and transport. The tour operator then markets and sells these directly to the traveller.&nbsp;Efficient distribution partnerships with tour operators are now a vital part of any viable hotel revenue strategy, especially for those with a focus on the leisure segment. That’s why it’s sensible to review your options and to diversify your distribution strategy to include tour operators. And since each tour operator focuses on a different segment, it’s worth spending some time upfront to find the best way of working with them to get the most for your business.So, what exactly are the advantages and disadvantages of working with tour operators to distribute your rooms?&nbsp;The prosAccess to new marketsWorking with tour operators can provide you with access to markets that you can’t currently reach, including high-value guests who often book ahead, cancel less and return more often.Better forecastingIn the past, annual demand patterns for tour operators were relatively consistent. Working with tour operators can be a great way to help to improve your forecasting, allowing you to predict occupancy rates more actively and manage your revenue more effectively.High volumes of guestsTour operators can provide significant numbers of guests at one time, allowing you to sell rooms through at high volume.Zero impact on direct channelsTour operators allow you to distribute opaque rates that do not directly impact the price perception of your brand and which have no impact on your direct channel activities.&nbsp;The consAll that glitters is not always gold, so while this is a valuable channel, it’s important that you are aware of some of the potential challenges that come with distributing your rooms via tour operators:Time-consuming and unproductiveDeals must be negotiated, renewed and closed one by one. This is complex, inefficient and hard to sustain. Negotiating multiple contacts individually can be time consuming and unproductive. Bedbanks like Hotelbeds release you from this inefficiency as they act as a hub, taking care of the negotiations and giving you access to more than 4500 tour operators via one unique contact point. Working with a bedbank, you'll never have to close individual deals with tour operators again.Less control of ratesLosing control of your rates is a threat you need to be aware of when working with tour operators. May occur that tour operators don't respect your agreed conditions, unbundle your opaque rates and sell them publicly. A discount that was meant to be only for B2B opaque channels is now competing with your brand.com rates. Hotelbeds is implementing a range of initiatives to ensure our tour operators respect your rates and sell them under the contracted conditionsAll your eggs in one basketGetting the right distribution mix for your brand is vital. Giving too much volume to one individual tour operator may be a risky strategy; you might have become over-dependent over a third-party company, and you might lose control of your revenue. Hotelbeds helps to avoid this and help hoteliers to diversify your distribution pie through their extensive network of tour operators.According to Diego Fernández, corporate revenue director at Palladium Hotel Group: “One of the keys to success in the hospitality industry is to have everything in balance. If one day the basket breaks, all your eggs are out. We are trying to do the same with our distribution strategy; if one market is suffering, we know we can replace this market with another one.”&nbsp;Find out moreGet access to over 66,000 travel distributors, including 60,000+ travel agencies, 4500+ tour operators and more partners, and start boosting your occupancy! Register your property today and benefit from a wide array of services designed for hoteliers like you.&nbsp;If you’d like to learn more about effective distribution strategies, which distribution channels are best and how to get the right mix of channels in place for your business, check out the Hotelbeds guide to hotel distribution in 2020.

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Pros and cons of working with a tour operator

Getting your distribution mix right is vital. Large OTAs can help you to increase your occupancy rates but in the process, they may erode your margins. So, how can you increase your direct hotel bookings and maintain your revenue per available room (RevPAR)?

Full occupancy is the holy grail of the hotel industry. But achieving it is never easy. There is a constant struggle between direct booking channels (your website) and online travel agents (OTAs). OTAs can offer you greater visibility and reach than you could ever achieve on your own. But beware of cannibalization. Your website is a strong branding channel and the only online distribution channel that generates direct sales with no third-party commission. However, when considering your website as your primary channel for bookings, it is important that you bear in mind the marketing costs linked to generating relevant traffic to your website.

There is a valuable third option, Bedbanks or wholesalers, who can help you to extend your reach and target international market segments that are hard to access via the other channels.

Turning your OTA bookings into direct bookings

OTAs charge considerable commissions, often between 14% and 20%. This can dent your profit margin, which is why it is important not to rely too heavily on OTAs if you can avoid it.

Direct bookings will save you the high cost of commissions and will also mean that you have full access to all your guest data. The higher the proportion of direct bookings for a property, the higher the profit margin. But, getting direct bookings via your website may not be as cost-effective as it first seems. To secure bookings through your direct channel requires major investment in traffic generating techniques to compete with the large OTAs advertising power.

However, B2B distribution channels such as Hotelbeds are compatible with your direct strategy, since they are targeting a different set of guests, who will have no effect on your direct channel.

Here are some ideas to boost your occupancy by reducing the dependency on OTAs.

1. Integrate booking engines to increase direct hotel bookings

It goes without saying that the best place for guests to book is your own shop window, otherwise known as your website. Some cloud property management systems allow website booking engine integration from within. This means that web visitors have real-time information on availability, room rates and so on. It’s an easy way to increase direct bookings. However, with third-party booking engines, the hotel often needs to integrate a booking widget, which carries a fee. Beware of these hidden costs, which occur not just in the form of commissions but in added staff costs and contract requirements. These can include agreeing to room availability and rate integrity clauses, a loss of direct relationships with your clients and building their own brand at your expense.

2. Work with bedbanks to access hard to reach customers

Bedbanks are often a great way to reach international travellers, who are often hard to find through other channels. &nbsp;In fact, 60% of bookings coming from the Hotelbeds network are non-domestic, with the booking originating from another source market. Bedbanks drive incremental high-value bookings from B2B travel trade sources such as tour operators, travel agencies, airlines and point redemption programmes.

&nbsp;3. Be seasonal

Remember your peaks and troughs and don’t use the same approach with OTAs all year round. You might want to try a more seasonal approach to OTAs. Getting a healthy base of early bookings can be a great way for your hotel to optimize its pricing strategy for its regular booking window. You might want to consider giving specific inventory to those distribution channels with longer lead times. Hotelbeds guests generally book earlier than guests coming from large OTAs and generally offer longer lead times than other channels. So, one approach could be to go seasonal. If you have peaks and troughs in your bookings calendar, consider changing your approach. If you know your higher value units will be sold out during peak months, don’t promote them on the OTAs. Instead, use them to get visibility with your lowest price inventory and then draw potential customers into your own website, where they can see other room types.


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4. Remember your reputation is on the line

An excellent guest experience is always a top priority for a good hotel. The better your online reputation, the better chance you have of getting direct bookings. One of the best ways of communicating your reputation is by partnering with trusted review sites such as TripAdvisor.

Every time a guest leaves a positive review on your website, it will also appear on your TripAdvisor page (and the same in reverse)
That’s why you should always respond to reviews, whether they are positive or negative. This sense of responsibility encourages trust in your business
Accept responsibility if you get it wrong. And give customers an incentive to come back so that you can get them back on side. Guests love it--and so do people who read those reviews

Key fact: 98% of travellers read hotel reviews and for 80% of travellers reviews are extremely important in making a reservation.&nbsp;

All that glitters is not gold

While at first glance it may appear that direct channels are the obvious choice, beware that everything is not always what it seems. In many cases, the hotel will need to integrate a third-party booking widget and these have fees attached, which can be a disadvantage. Additionally, it is important that you bear in mind the marketing costs linked to generating relevant traffic to your website.

It requires specific expertise and experience to get the direct channel right. If done properly, it can be a very efficient route to revenue. But it is difficult to scale and, if done wrong, it can be a very inefficient way of spending your marketing budget.

Find out more

To find out more about how different channel distribution strategies can improve your hotel’s performance, check out the Hotelbeds guide to hotel distribution in 2020.


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Getting the balance right: are online travel agents eating your lunch?

Travel agents: your key to improved RevPAR

Travel agents – along with tour operators, airlines and loyalty programmes – are an often-overlooked channel for generating incremental bookings from high-value international guests. Non-domestic travellers typically book further in advance, cancel less, stay longer, spend more at destinations and return more frequently.&nbsp;

And another important characteristic to bear in mind: they value personalised service.

Acting as specialised travel consultants for both business and leisure travellers, retail travel agents attract these customer profiles by offering tailored packages that are difficult to find online. This distribution channel plays an important role when optimising any hotel’s revenue strategy, especially the occupancy rate and RevPAR.

Working with Hotelbeds you will get access to an extensive network of more than 100,000 unique retail travel agents around the world.you’ll never have to close individual deals with travel agencies again.

What is RevPAR?

Revenue Per Available Room is a metric used to measure the business performance of a hotel during a specified period.

While RevPAR doesn’t give you the full picture of a hotel’s financial performance, it helps you evaluate how well the hotel is filling up on chosen dates and how much revenue the average room generates before you deduct costs like staff and services.

How to calculate RevPAR

There are two RevPAR formulas:

1. Hotel Occupancy multiplied by Average Daily Rate


&nbsp;
2. Room Revenue divided by Number of Rooms Available during a specified period

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RevPAR helps you compare month-over-month performance

Use it to look back to see how you did during a specific holiday or to compare one year to the next. But remember, this metric only offers an overview of the number of rooms sold at a hotel in a certain period and the revenue generated from those bookings.

RevPAR doesn’t capture the full picture

While it gives you a useful overview, RevPAR doesn’t factor in additional revenue made on food and drink or extras like spa services and laundry. Nor does it consider cleaning, maintenance or front desk costs to the business. This is important to bear in mind when measuring overall hotel performance.

How retail travel agents help drive positive RevPAR


Local reach

For travellers booking multi-stop tours to new destinations, retail travel agents offer beneficial local knowledge and expertise through their network of trusted partners and native contacts in each destination.

For business travellers booking trips for multiple colleagues or whole company departments, having someone to help organise activities, book meeting room space, and arrange transport saves them time. While intrepid leisure travellers seeking out unique experiences can adjust itineraries to include activities specific to their interests while also booking flights and accommodation through niche travel agents.


Returning customers&nbsp;

The online sector continues to find innovative ways to service customers, but for now, being able to connect with a dedicated agent in-person or on the phone remains a favourable competitive advantage for retail travel agents. This tailored experience is a significant factor in the increased customer's loyalty generated by travel agents.

But it’s not only travel agent customers who benefit from sector-wide efforts to improve loyalty, bedbank partners can also take advantage of attractive incentives too.

Hotelbeds’ sister bedbank, Bedsonline invites retail travel agents to sign-up to its&nbsp;Star Rewards loyalty programme&nbsp;individually and earn points based on the value of their bookings.&nbsp;

Members can redeem points by choosing e-gifts from vendors, including Amazon, Nike, and Apple. By incentivising retail agents, Hotelbeds found those who sign up to the loyalty scheme tend to book more frequently and for higher amounts. These high-value bookings then transfer the benefit to our hotel partners in the form of increased occupancy.&nbsp;

High-value guests

Online travel agents attract high volumes of travellers because they sell rooms at highly discounted prices. While this helps fill your rooms, it can harm your hotel’s revenue. Instead of attracting guests by charging less, retail travel agents can increase the perceived value of your room by pairing it with additional activities or packages.

Customers who book via retail travel agencies, whether for business or leisure, typically display some common characteristics:


	Longer average stays
	Higher spend at destinations
	Lower cancellation rates
	Above-average booking lead times


Increased customer acquisition&nbsp;

As part of its ongoing commitment to offer hoteliers access to high-value guests, Hotelbeds is regularly adding travel agent customers. In doing so, this relieves hoteliers of the time-consuming and costly task of reaching new customers.

Carlos Muñoz, Managing Director Bedbank at Hotelbeds Group, explains:
“It makes strategic and practical sense for us to continue to develop our travel agent proposition under one integrated global platform and brand. The benefits from this move will help all our partners boost revenues and profits through improved functionality and increased opportunities to upsell high-yielding complementary travel services in addition to our accommodation offering.”

With a &nbsp;global network that’s attracted over 60,000 B2B travel buyers including retail travel agents, tour operators, airlines and points redemption schemes, Hotelbeds is constantly adding to its portfolio. And this low-effort, high-reward access to valuable international customers presents a key benefit for hoteliers

There are currently a total of 70,000 unique hotels available on the Hotelbeds system in Europe alone. Globally, there are over 180,000 unique hotels available on the platform.

More robust than other channels during crisis periods

Last but not least, travel advisors can be the most reliable channel to endure crisis situations. In times like these, travellers are searching for flexible and non-binding solutions that OTAs and travel websites are not always able to guarantee. On the other hand, the human value of travel advisors plays a crucial role that will facilitate the recovery from critical situations. It can guarantee a more stable experience to travellers that is calm and measured, &nbsp;and therefore easier guests to your hotel.

Find out more

To deep dive into how different channel distribution strategies can improve your hotel’s performance, check out the Hotelbeds guide to hotel distribution in 2020.&nbsp;

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How travel agents help boost hotel RevPAR

A recent study by D-Edge into European hotel distribution trends found that the average length of stay in hotels fell by 12% between 2014 and 2018.
So how can hotel managers adapt their channel distribution strategies to counter the negative impact on occupancy rate?

One effective tactic is to focus on attracting international clients&nbsp;

On average, non-domestic guests stay for longer, reserve further in advance, cancel less, and spend more in their destination – helping hoteliers increase profitability.

Bedbanks act as wholesalers by offering hotel capacity to tour operators, airlines, travel agencies and other companies looking to provide accommodation to their customers. They can help you sell hard-to-place beds and bring in higher-value customers.

Fortunately for hoteliers, this distribution channel is on the up. According to the same study, bedbanks and wholesalers have grown their volumes by over 100% in the last five years.

1. International guests offer high value

Long-haul guests tend to have bigger budgets than domestic travellers, but the benefits don’t stop there.

As Carlos Muñoz, Hotelbeds Managing Director, points out, “Guests travelling from non-domestic source markets complement the hotel’s current distribution mix with customers whom they aren’t currently able to access easily. What’s more, our channel provides them with guests that typically pay a higher rate, cancel less, stay for longer, spend more at the hotel and come back more often &nbsp;– because bookings from B2B travel intermediaries such as tour operators, retail travel agents, airline websites and loyalty and point redemption partners all provide higher-value reservations.”&nbsp;

Tip
Join trusted global networks that expose your rooms to international clients
Not only is it time-consuming to research new markets, but traversing the cultural nuances in each new locale is complicated. Exploiting existing global platforms and networks reduces this complexity, leaving you more time to focus on customer experience.

Bedbanks like Hotelbeds can connect you to organizations that would be complex or too expensive to reach on your own due to their global reach, better connectivity and simpler processes.



2. Non-domestic guests stay longer and can increase your occupancy rate

Longer stays reduce front desk costs and other operational expenses like laundry, and housekeeping. They also increase the possibility of cross-selling ancillary services like room upgrades and transport. Choosing the channels that typically drive longer stays can help both maximize profit and optimize room allocation.

Hotelbeds was named the channel that provides the longest staying guests at an average of 2.77 nights. Hotelbeds offers hoteliers in Europe the longest average guest stay when compared to any other booking source, including a hotel’s own website.

Tip
Test different length-of-stay (LoS) restrictions for international guests to gauge how customers react to different minimum stay durations.

Consider running these tests in low season to minimize impact in more popular periods.&nbsp;

3. Long-haul clients cancel less

Cancellations, “no shows” and curtailment (when a trip is cut short) have a significant impact on the books. But beyond the financial repercussions, each of these scenarios represents a missed opportunity to leave a positive impression on the customer. Business travellers require comfort and proximity and offer valuable repeat opportunities for hotels situated near global headquarters that provide this.

Tip
Be aware of the cancellation policy expectations in overseas destinations.&nbsp;
Today, many leisure and business travellers have come to expect free cancellations. So, partnering with businesses or intermediaries that link you to clients with low cancellation expectancy is vital to make sure your occupancy rate doesn’t suffer.



4. Longer lead times let you research clients’ needs

Longer lead-times provide hotel owners with many benefits. Beyond the cash-flow advantage or the ability to anticipate staffing schedules more cost-effectively, longer lead times allow you to spend more time understanding the profiles of your customers. This gives you a better opportunity to provide them with a memorable experience upon arrival and foster loyalty in the long term.

Tip
Use longer lead times to better understand the profiles of your customers.
While it’s difficult to predict the needs of guests from diverse cultures, you have more time to survey their travel requirements before their stay. By understanding what each guest needs, the hotel is much more likely to succeed in cross-selling them a service, and by extension, gain their loyalty.

5. Increased stays drive higher spend in destination

Ancillary services are supplemental products or services that a hospitality brand can upsell in addition to its “core” hotel experience.

The longer a guest stays at a hotel, the more likely they are to consider these types of services. Hotels can enrich local experiences for travellers by employing the expertise of assistants offering services like:


	Concierge meet and greet on arrival
	Information on local infrastructure, services and transport
	Interpretation / translation services
	Booking of tours, tickets, attractions, events, transfers and car rentals
	Local guides with insider knowledge of culture, lifestyle, sports and traditions


These advantages can turn out to be critical to help your hotel recover from a critical situation. Unfortunate and unforeseeable circumstances can undermine the stability of every hotel, as the travel industry is often the first to be impacted. As we have learned from every crisis though, downtimes are always followed by an upturn and targeting guests that can offer you a better opportunity to recover faster can be crucial.

Tip
Consider promoting ancillary services through a loyalty programme as one of the options when clients redeem points. The psychological barrier to “cashing in points” is lower than that of &nbsp;“spending my budget”.

Want to learn more about how different channel distribution strategies can improve your hotel’s occupation rate?

Check out the Hotelbeds guide to hotel distribution in 2020 for a comprehensive look at the year ahead.


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5 reasons international guests offer value and boost occupancy rate

In the era of Free-Cancellations, securing bookings with Non-Refundable Rates (NRF) &nbsp;is becoming less and less common. As a result, your revenue team has to do their&nbsp;magic in limiting cancellations and no-show losses. Read on to learn actions you can take to reduce the rate of cancellations further:

Analyze your booking records to identify the causes


	What was your cancellation rate within the same period of last year?&nbsp;
	Which type of guests cancelled more? Where are they coming from? The&nbsp;lead time?
	Which channels are giving you more cancellations?&nbsp;


Action points to prevent cancellations

Attract non-domestic bookings. Travellers coming from abroad typically cancel less, spend more on the destination and stay longer. Start by identifying a source market that would be most interesting for you and go for it. Begin with the basics; translate your hotel info and descriptions to the local language and look for distribution channels that could reach them locally.



Send a reminder email. Keep your guests informed by email about their stay in the days leading up to their arrival, including a clear version of your cancellation policy. If they need to cancel they might advise you immediately and you’ll have the chance to resell the room.

Having a robust two-way connection channel manager, your recently released rooms could be quickly re-distributed via your distribution channels.&nbsp;

Package your offer. Bookings coming from packages have lower cancellation rates as these are packaged together with non-refundable services such as flight tickets and activities. Working with Hotelbeds you will be able to set up package offers with just&nbsp;one-click.

Overbook responsibly. Having an expected number of cancelled reservations some days prior to arrival helps you to consider your options to overbook via Last-Minute bookings. Your overbooking patterns should be closely monitored and ideally updated daily to avoid surprises that could result in an issue that would&nbsp;damage your brand.

Why do OTAs have high-cancellation rates?

Ghost bookings. In order to get a visa to enter a country, travellers may need an in-destination address that’s why some people are making a fake booking that will never be used.



Increased marketing of Free-Cancellation both ways. With the free-cancellation as the main value point, OTA’s creates a feeling of panic in the customer and push him to reserve his room NOW. Alongside this, OTAs offer to the hotel re-selling plans for cancelled bookings rather than helping to reduce cancellations in the first place.&nbsp;

They attract final guests with zero loyalty. The OTA channel usually attracts price-sensitive customers that make the booking decision based on rates. They are unlikely to repeat their booking with you.&nbsp;

Working with Hotelbeds you will get access to an extensive network of more than 100,000 unique retail travel agents around the world.

There is no magic formula for reducing cancellations but using a calculated methodology with trial and testing can help. Applying these tips daily you can - hopefully - gradually reduce the energy you waste rushing around at the last minute trying to fill the gaps left by cancelled bookings.

Find out more

To find out more about how different channel distribution strategies can improve your hotel’s performance, check out the Hotelbeds guide to hotel distribution in 2020.
&nbsp;


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Reducing cancellation rates in your Hotel this 2020

&nbsp;In the fast-paced travel industry, which has undergone unprecendented changes in demand over the last few years, it's important that new and persistent changes to traveller booking behaviours and their impact are kept top of mind. This is especially the case when determining your strategy as a hotel owner to remain visible and competitve.&nbsp;How Traveller Behaviours Are Changing And Their Impact On Hotel OwnersNew Ways To Book Hotels&nbsp;The integration of all-new technology within the hotel industry, and travel industry as a whole, has changed many of the ways that end travellers can find, interact with, and ultimately book hotels. Here are just a few examples of rising technology trends in the hospitality industry which hotel owners should consider accommodating to remain competitive and visible alongside and above your competitors.An increase in voice search and voice control - impacting the visibility of hotels in search engines if they are not 'optimised'Rising reliance on AI tech like chatbots to solve traveller queriesVirtual reality increasingly used as a marketing technique during the booking processNew apps for travel-bank companies like Monkee, flipping the idea of ‘buy now save later’ and instead encouraging customers to purchase from their associated partners and accruing ‘savings’ in a specifically set up bank account for later use.Ensuring that, as a brand, your hotel(s) can accommodate the increasing demand for new ways for travellers to virtually interact and make reservations, is vital to ensure you're maximising your occupancy and attracting the right guests.&nbsp;Shifting Seasonal TrendsToday’s traveller is booking trips during off-peak seasons more than ever, as changing working circumstances and an increase in blended travel alter when and how often individuals, and families, can get away. This includes periods before or after the traditional high seasons, and low-demand midweek days. In fact, a recent Vrbo report in 2022 suggested that across rental platforms, there had been a 33% increase in undated searches - highlighting the increasing flexibility of travellers nowadays.Here, the impact to hotel owners can be significant, because there are more opportunities to increase occupancy during what has been historically considered to be the low season. But it also means that your competitors will be vying for your ideal customers’ attention just as much, which will not only make marketing more expensive due to a more competitive landscape, but means that understanding what is driving your ideal guest to travel, and how your hotel(s) meet these demands, in order to get the attention of your end customer.It’s also more important than ever to ensure you’re managing your visibility across channels and pricing strategy effectively, to gain even more visibility to a more flexible traveller who is ready to book more of the time. Working with a distribution partner like Hotelbeds is the perfect way to increase your visibility to your ideal audience without impacting your direct channel!&nbsp;&nbsp;Remote Working and Extended StaysRelated to the aforementioned shifting 'peak' seasons, is the undeniable trend of remote working and the blending of 'business' and 'leisure' trips seen most notably in the last few years. And with 44% of families suggesting they would work remote in the future - in a recent Vrbo survey - and a significant increase in demand for trips with a 21-30 day travel window, remote working is drastically change the capacity of many travellers’ for extended stays and blending travel. Google&nbsp;also recently suggested however that one of the biggest pain points for end customers is faulty internet, which is a major concern for hoteliers and one that should be analysed in full before you begin to advertise yourselves to this fast-growing audience.The decrease in distinction between ‘business’ and ‘leisure’ trips means that hotels must accommodate an increasingly flexible traveller, with more complex needs as the delineation between historically clear travel motives and availability patterns is becoming smaller. This also means that hotel owners must be able to adjust your pricing and marketing strategies to accommodate a traveller who is ready to book more often.We also discuss in more depth the impact that remote working is having on the hotel industry in particular in our article on some of the best remote working destinations for 2023, and how hotel owners can appeal to this fast-growing audience even if your hotel isn’t based in these in-demand destinations.&nbsp;Shrinking Booking Windows&nbsp;Over the last two years, the lead time for booking trips in many markets has significantly lowered, as many travellers have become hesitant to book far in advance in case their plans are disrupted by travel restrictions or unexpected changes to a country’s status as open to international travellers. This shorter booking window has remained, with bookings dropping off across global markets more than three months from the travel date and an average eight to twelve week booking window remaining prevalent.However, shorter booking windows do not necessarily come with a negative impact. It gives hotels a chance to connect with an astute type of traveller, utilising profiles built up with historical customer loyalty and customer data to provide a personalised experience for guests who are becoming more accustomed to making more direct decisions, based on interactions either with a bespoke booking agent, or the hotel themselves.This means that hotels must adopt a dynamic, adaptable pricing structure in order to maintain revenue streams and attract this flexible traveller - especially those hotels in high-volume city destinations.&nbsp;Catering for variable demand and a traveller who enjoys creating personal connections with their travel provider also means that hotels who partner with a distribution company like Hotelbeds can increase their exposure to final guests through retail agents and providers like wholesalers and tour operators, as well as access a powerful extranet system that allows you to quickly and easily change your hotels’ availability and prices across multiple rate and room types.Register your property today&nbsp;to partner with us and access time-saving solutions to boost your success!Big-Ticket Trips &amp; Micro TravelLong-haul travel opportunities are very much back on the market for travellers, especially in countries like the UK which has seen 80% of respondents to a recent Accor survey suggest their travel budgets are 39% higher than in 2019. While in the USA, around 68% of travellers want to take a ‘major trip’ to European and Asian destinations in the next year.Contrastingly, booking trends over the last two years have also shown a rise in micro travel, or short-distance travel, within a three-to-four hour drive of a travellers’ primary place of residence. One of the more significant rises in popularity has included eco-lodges, boutique properties in rural areas and smaller towns compared to city-based hotels. This feeds into the long-standing booking trend within the past two years where travellers are increasingly seeking to escape crowded areas.&nbsp;&nbsp;Sustainability As A Core Decision MakerTraveller behaviours are changing with regards to the 78% of travellers who will stay in sustainable hotels at least once during 2023, which brings its own list of considerations such as decreased occupancy, lower revenue and decreasing reputation in an increasingly eco-conscious industry.&nbsp;But the necessity of sustainability for hotel owners also means that being able to attract this long-term audience is critical to keeping your revenue stream steady while simultaneously reducing your outgoings as a result of enhanced operations. Rising energy costs are seeing 80% of European hoteliers citing this as a major concern, and 80% of UK hospitality businesses seeing a significant and detrimental impact on their profits as a result. The impact is two-fold on hotels: how much business is brought in from conscious-minded travellers and the profits of hotels as a whole due to increasing costs, so the need for sustainable and technology-driven solutions is more important than ever.We explore the importance of sustainability and more changing travel considerations in our guide to top travel trends for hotel owners.&nbsp;How To Meet These Changing Needs As Hotel OwnersImprove Your Distribution &amp; Leverage DataOne of the best ways of ensuring that your hotel is put into the hands of your ideal guests as much as possible, is by having an effective, optimised distribution strategy. While this is achievable using a dedicated in-house channel manager, much of the time this position can be neglected for the more practical aspects of running a hotel - especially for channel managers who also perform other necessary roles within independent hotels.In this way, working with a dedicated distribution partner like Hotelbeds means your hotel is receiving the expert support and hotel marketing solutions that it deserves. What's more, our clients are given access to an expert account manager, who is responsible for keeping you and your team abreast of the latest industry trends, revenue opportunities tailored to your particular market and ideal guest, as well as identifying areas for improvement within your current rates or availabilities that could boost occupancy. This is all without competing with your direct channel strategy.&nbsp;With access to thousands of global travel distributors including retail travel agents and tour operators in hard-to-reach&nbsp;source markets, and an extensive portfolio of ancillary products such as transfers, experiences and car rentals, Hotelbeds have a far-reaching network which facilitates more connections than ever between hotel owners such as yourselves, travel bookers, distributors and the final traveller.&nbsp;Register your property today to start scaling your success with us.Log into your account to begin monitoring the opportunities we’ve identified for you.&nbsp;&nbsp;Leverage Travel Technology &amp; Business DataConsidering that 2022 and 2023 saw wide-scale labour shortages within the travel and tourism industry, one of the best ways to ensure you’re remaining highly-effective as a hotel while catering to changing traveller booking behaviours, is by providing efficiencies for staff wherever possible.&nbsp;Implementing travel tech could look like working with a distribution partner like Hotelbeds to optimise your channel management, or onboarding a new revenue management system to streamline operations and maximise income. Utilising business data could be connecting the many silos of data that exist in the hospitality industry, rather than just focusing on ‘big data’, to understand what’s driving your travellers, and what will make them come back.The wise hotel brands are beginning to leverage forward-looking data into their strategy, as it’s no longer enough to build a hotel revenue strategy from purely historic data, considering that for the past several years the consumer landscape has been an unprecedented space.Of course, there's no one-size-fits-all solution to changing traveller behaviours but improving your distribution strategy is one of the most effective methods of ensuring that your hotel or hotel chains are seen by in-market travel distributors, and therefore more end travellers!Register your property today to access our global network of travel distributors and boost your occupancy.Log in to your account today and begin taking your success even further.&nbsp;

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