During Click. 2023, partners joined Booking.com leaders to share their insights from the past year, as well as their predictions for the year to come.
Taking the stage in Amsterdam and Miami, there were several breakout sessions designed to help hotel partners maximise their performance, with plenty of tips and knowledge shared. Here we unpack some of the highlights.
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1) Empowering you for growth with data insights
As standard, we share demand data, room-nights data and performance data with you, but not all partners are putting this data to use. That means some partners are missing out on revenue, such as by not opening early enough – as seen on the chart below using 2022 data.
On this chart, the blue line represents the number of available stay dates, where the grey bar is the number of searches. As we reach July and August, we can see that there are more searches than there are rooms available – meaning potential bookings are being lost.
It’s clear that the right data, used in the right way, can have a big impact on your business. That’s why we’re also experimenting with incrementality data, to better show you the actual impact of adopting certain solutions, starting with Mobile Rates and our Genius and Preferred programmes.
We are able to estimate the personalised impact by running continuous experimentation and advanced data science to measure the true impact of our products. Thanks to these experiments, we can accurately estimate the additional room nights and revenue certain pricing products generate for partners like you.
These insights could help to improve your set up by highlighting the products that bring you the most additional value. For example, Preferred Programme and Genius partners will be able to see the performance impact that being part of those programmes brings.
2) Making it easier for you to work with us
Most hotel partners are working with 3-5 software systems. Without connectivity between these systems, that can add up to a lot of unnecessarily repetitive admin.
To keep life simple, we’re continuing to modernise our technology and boost the integration with external providers through our multi-provider connection. This will enable you to work with us through any system of your choice – from channel managers to property management systems.
We’re also continuing to expand Payments by Booking.com for similar reasons. In fact, 42% of all gross bookings come through Payments. We’re in the process of integrating 13 more payment methods, allowing you to accept more payment types without friction.
All that is designed to streamline your processes – and free up more of your time.
3) Personalising the partner experience
We’re also continuing to refine our platforms and internal processes to offer a more tailored and seamless experience. We’re currently working on changes including:
- Personalised insights – we’re working to further personalise our platform interfaces, including the extranet, Pulse and connectivity interfaces. For example, we launched a test at the end of last year around better understanding your goals and matching them with advice to provide tailored support.
- Improved service levels – we’re redesigning key partner support journeys from a partner-first perspective, and equipping our customer service teams with more insight into each partner profile so they can provide more effective and personalised support.
4) Tailoring for partner needs beyond discounting
Discounting isn’t the only tool available to partners when it comes to attracting more bookings, and we’re currently working on several non-discount solutions.
One example is sponsored ads, which give you the chance to bid for a premium position in search results in your destination. These ads don’t have to be ‘always on’. Instead, they can be used to target key customer types – such as specific source markets, or demographics that your experience has shown to be most profitable, for instance. They can also be used to find guests for specific dates you currently have vacancy for to help fill any otherwise-empty rooms.
Another example is offering guests ‘bundled rates’. By combining a stay at your property with multiple other services – such as spa services and dining – the guest can get a enhanced experience while you also have the possibility of improving your average daily rate.
- Existing data available to partners can unlock additional growth, and new experiments around incrementality data could boost this even further
- We are making it even easier for you to work with us through expanding our connectivity network and payments platform – reducing admin and streamlining workflows
- We’re also continuing to refine our platforms and internal processes to offer a more tailored and seamless experience, including offering more personalised insights and improving our service level
- There are increasing options to help attract more guests without offering discounts, such as through sponsored ads or bundled rates
