Effective Online Rate Merchandising

There are many opinions out there about the most effective way to manage your online rates; however the principles are more or less exactly the same as you would apply to your Revenue and Yield Management Strategy. We won’t go into that in detail in this briefing; rather we will focus on some of the best practice being employed today.

Offer a “Best Rate Guarantee”
This should be the keystone of your Online Rate Strategy, you are essentially letting customers know that the BEST price they will pay, is DIRECT with you on your website. This engenders brand loyalty and protects you from erosion of your revenues via Online Travel Agents (OTA’s) websites, where you will pay a hefty commission but be expected to maintain rate parity.
You also need to make a noise about this guarantee, let existing customers know about it, use it in all your offline marketing to drive traffic to your website, and not an OTA website.

Enable “Rate Shopping” on your Website
You will be aware of the multitude of OTA websites and also Price Comparison sites, where consumers can compare rates from multiple hotels in one place before making a booking. Consumers are now very adept at identifying good value, and you should enable them to do this on your site by offering a selection of different room grades & board options on all room types. (see diagram).





Offer Extras and Packages
Have you ever been tempted at the checkout by the tasty chocolates or special offer, whilst you are waiting to be served? Your Booking Engine should be able to tempt customers in exactly the same way, by offering them some tasty extras to enhance their stay with you. From something as simple as Wine on Arrival, or Single Red Rose, or even a 3 Course Dinner in your Restaurant, this is a great way to maximise your revenue per booking and also make the guest feel special.

Bookassist Booking Engine enables effective Rate Merchandising by,

1. Allowing you to easily create multiple Room Grades, Room Types and Board offers
2. Gives access to our “Linked Pricing” function that allows you to change one rate that then cascades through all linked Room Types, Grades and Board Basis, saving you valuable time.
3. Providing you with a Best Rate Guarantee logo for your website which links straight through to your booking pages.
4. Creating as many “Add On’s” as you want in order to deliver the customer with a tailor made package.
5. Use our “Group Variation” function to group & sort similar Room Grades or Board Basis offers together that make it easier for the consumer to “Rate Shop”.

What to do next
To find out more about how the Bookassist Booking Engine can benefit your business, contact the office on +44(0)1292-521-404 or email Scotland@bookassist.com