Are you making the most of your metasearch campaigns? Being connected to the biggest channels does not mean you get it all. At DerbySoft, we provide you with the solution to expand your hotel to the channels that are not getting your attention yet.
When booking a hotel on a metasearch website, the four obvious ones come to mind– Google, TripAdvisor, Trivago and Kayak. These four channels have been in the market for a while and have built recognizable, global brands. Lately, Bing could be included in the lists of major players with its well-known Hotel Ads product, and the sizable audience using the Bing Search Engine in different countries.
The metasearch world does not end with these five websites. According to EyeForTravel, 44% of travelers use metasearch websites every time they are making a booking, and 73% of travelers use these channels on a regular basis.
Metasearch is gaining status as a channel for travelers to book hotels. The perpetual battle hotel brands have for direct bookings is leading to a higher interest in metasearch. There are huge opportunities for many travel websites to implement the price comparison logic and win their piece of the pie.
Looking into where a company should advertise, there are the obvious major players that should be covered due to their high volumes and strong global presence. Our Click platform offers an easy solution to manage them all in one place by applying rich, machine learning algorithms.
The smaller channels are often ignored because they are more regional and not known as well on an international level. Many centralized marketing teams overlook regional channels because of this and do not include them in their marketing strategies. These regional channels have a strong presence due to their geographical roots and should definitely be considered as additional revenue drivers.
HOW TO OVERCOME OBSTACLES
All of these channels can bring additional value for local visibility and can be used as a tool for expanding to new markets and building global demand. With most of these websites, you will see the largest OTAs and wholesalers advertising the hotel rates, monopolizing the metasearch results and moving those bookings away from you.
Nonetheless, these regional channels bring an opportunity for you to shift this portion of OTA bookings to direct bookings at a lower cost. However, there are definite obstacles for one hotel brand trying to connect to all of the regional channels.
Derbysoft understands the obstacles that prevent brands from connecting to all regional channels and has created the DerbySoft Commission Program to address these issues:
– There is a high amount of effort required to connect to each one of the regional channels
– Paying for clicks followed by the increase in ad spend does not guarantee immediate bookings
– The booking volumes can be low for each channel taken individually and not worth the investment
We have solved all these challenges with the DerbySoft Commission Program (DSCP) which is available today. DSCP offers you full coverage on the regional channels, where you can boost your visibility and revenue through DerbySoft’s connections.
The main benefits when connecting to DSCP:
Zero Effort: DerbySoft does all the technical connection and implementation for you.
Full Coverage: DerbySoft connects you to all the channels available at the moment in a single bundle and adds more channels as the DSCP continues to grow.
Risk Free: you don’t have to increase your ad spend to get additional traffic, and you only pay for checked-out bookings with a standardized commission across all the channels.
Get in touch with DerbySoft today to start increasing your direct bookings through the DerbySoft Commission Program.
REGIONAL CHANNELS
Wego
Wego was founded in Singapore and quickly expanded throughout Southeast Asia. Most recently, Wego quickly became a leading travel site in the Middle East. Wego combines flight search with hotels, providing the user with an optimal solution to book a trip. Currently, it accounts for about 4.3 million monthly visits with almost half of them coming from Saudi Arabia (source: Wego.com Analytics – Market Share Stats & Traffic Ranking).
Wego has a very strong mobile presence with 60% of users browsing the website from mobile devices. Roughly 75% of users use the Wego native app, which is one of the Top 5 travel apps in both iTunes and Google Play Store across MENA.
Hotelscan
Founded in 2012, Hotelscan is a metasearch engine for hotels and different types of accommodations. The website is available in 11 languages and is used in Europe boasting over 2 million website visits from EMEA monthly (50% of all website traffic). While France remains top market for Hotelscan, it also quickly expands to Southern America where Brazil and Argentina are the top traffic countries.
Hotelvoy
Hotelvoy is another example of a rapidly growing local European metasearch channel. Founded in 2017 in Portugal, it is nominated as the best creative industry startup in 2019. Hotelvoy counts 500,000 websites visits monthly with the highest number of users coming from Portugal, Spain and Southern America.
StayMogul
StayMogul USA is a customer service driven reservation platform founded in 2020 in Los Angeles. StayMogul enables properties to showcase front-line talent: the “Moguls of Hospitality.” Guests can search properties by service style, share positive 1:1 reviews and nominate Moguls. StayMogul USA is part of a talent marketplace for service leaders that includes recruiting, networking and communities. Later on in 2020, StayMogul is launching their metasearch channel for hotels and resorts, initially focusing on the the Untied States, Canada and Mexico markets.