Every hotel owner or revenue manager has been there more times than we’d like to admit… it’s Wednesday and your hotel bookings for the upcoming weekend are looking sparse.
The pressure is on to increase occupancy immediately. But what many hoteliers forget is that an increase in occupancy is great, but if an increase in occupancy is paired with a decrease in RevPAR or ADR, then you’re just taking money out of your own pocket.
Even when trying to sell last-minute inventory, it is important to focus on increasing occupancy, while either maintaining or increasing your RevPAR and ADR. Easier said than done, right? We’ve heard it all before: discounting rates doesn’t work. So what can you do?
1. OTAs Gone Mobile
As you probably expected, I am going to recommend that you use the OTAs to sell this last-minute inventory and with good reason. Stats show that the online booking window is diminishing drastically as more consumers book their trips at the last-minute, sometimes even from the sidewalks outside a property. But as well as adding inventory to sites with a presence online, it is important to consider mobile booking channels, such as OTAs with mobile websites or smartphone apps.
Bill Keen, director of product development at International Hotels Group (IHG), said: “Our statistics show that roughly 70 percent of mobile web bookings are same day compared to 11 percent via the web.”
As consumers continue to embrace the smartphone – and it’s built-in GPS, which makes it easy for travelers to find hotels based on proximity, last-minute mobile bookings will only become more commonplace.
Obviously, mobile bookings present a great opportunity to move your last-minute inventory, even on the same day if necessary, because you are giving consumers the ability to book how and when it is convenient for them. And of course, don’t forget to price your rooms competitively to get the best possible results from the mobile channel.
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