Consider the journey a user has to make through your site. The quicker and easier to navigate your site is, the more likely travelers will be to make a booking. While the billboard effect may drive more travelers to book on your site, booking drop-offs are one of the most common problems with direct hotel websites. Read more about the benefits of package bookings, and how they can help you drive revenue.ģ. Research shows that travelers who use package bookings tend to book further in advance, stay longer and spend more on property than the average traveler. Package bookings are bookings that combine accommodation with other travel listings such as flights, car rental or activities. Visit our guide to choosing an OTA to find out what to consider when making your decision. There are a lot of OTAs out there but taking time to choose the right one can give you the best chance of standing out and increasing bookings. No matter what size hotel you may have, you can attract the right travelers, improve your overall bookings and the billboard effect by implementing a few easy tips. How can you make the billboard effect work for your hotel? Of course, an OTA may not be the only way to create awareness for your property, but this research suggests it’s an important channel to consider as part of your distribution strategy.
Will listing on an OTA increase direct bookings on my website?Ĭurrent research shows that 65% of consumers booking directly with the property visited an OTA before booking direct, and about 18% of those consumers even visited an OTA on the day of the booking. While OTAs are getting an increasingly larger share of the bookings, they are now visited by almost two-thirds of all online hotel direct consumers. That’s why it’s important to treat your OTA listings as an extension of your own website, keeping your content and offers consistent. They get frustrated and return to the OTA listing they saw first.
The billboard effect is less effective if travelers do not find the same room types, rates and pictures as they have seen on an OTA. It also found that 65% of consumers who booked directly with a hotel online visited an OTA prior to purchase. The report suggests the influence of the effect has only decreased by around 10% in recent years. This test found that, compared to being hidden, being listed on increased reservations from 9% to 26% (above transactions that occurred at ).Īnother study also found that around 75% of consumers who made a reservation with a major hotel brand had visited an OTA before booking directly with the hotel.Įven in today’s modern marketplace, a more recent report from Cornell Business, The Billboard Effect: Still Alive and Well, shows the billboard effect still very much exists, as many consumers continue to visit other travel sites before booking direct. In a Cornell University experiment, a group of hotels was listed and then removed from in alternate weeks.
So, does the popularity of OTAs for research affect direct bookings through your property’s own site? Research suggests OTA usage can actually encourage bookings through your site. Travelers visit airline sites, hotel sites and online travel agencies (OTAs) while researching trips-but OTAs have the highest engagement, forming over 30% of total site visits. In fact, our research shows that Americans make an average 140 visits to travel sites before making a booking. Travelers today have a lot of choice when it comes to shopping and booking trips.
This is because potential customers first discover the listing on an OTA, and then visit the property’s own website to directly book their trip. The billboard effect is a phenomenon that occurs when hotels see additional direct bookings on their own website after listing on an online travel agency (OTA).
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