Posted
28/06/2015
This weeks Friday 5 looks at the Topics of Booking.com & the amendment of their rate parity agreements, Managing Guest Conflict, How Jargon in content can kill Conversion, Using Paid Search for Branding and we look at Google's Knowledge Graph and its recently added hotel amenities.
1. Booking.com amends rate parity agreements across Europe
In line with the rate parity commitments made earlier this year to accommodation providers in France, Italy and Sweden, Booking.com has confirmed this week that it will be rolling out similar commitments to hotel partners in Europe in order to establish a Europe-wide standard and expects that these changes will set the tone for an industry wide solution. The new agreements will roll out on July 1. It will be interesting to see how the other OTAs will react to this move; watch this space!
2. Guidelines for Managing Guest Conflict and Preventing Bad Online Reviews
Hoteliers are familiar with the feeling of dread when receiving negative online reviews. ReviewPro’s CEO offers some great tips and guidelines on how to deal with conflicts on property to prevent negative online reviews which could potentially damage the reputation of the hotel.
3. How Jargon Kills Conversions
We have all seen websites filled with jargons and hotels are a prime example for packing their sales copy with it. Consider how familiar your customers may be with terms like “2BB1D”. By using a shorthand for what could easily be described, you could be turning off potential guests. An excellent read from Crazy Egg on why you should avoid jargon on your website.
4. Paid Search: Direct Response or Branding Tool?
Hotels tend to use paid search predominantly as a direct response tool with branded campaigns to combat the dominance of OTAs. John Cosley makes an excellent case for branching out and also using paid search for branding.
5. Hotel Amenities Now On Google's Knowledge Graph
Google has added hotel amenities to the knowledge graph. Amenities will show on the Google+ listings and are not directly editable but pulled from various sources. This would be a good time to review your profiles on OTAs and other platform to ensure accurate information is displaying for your property.
