Some very interesting statistics were provided by Hitwise and Expedia. Hitwise provided figures showing that approximately 70% of all accommodation bookings are made via an aggregator or sales channel, and 30% are made directly with the operator. This ratio is expected to reduce to 60:40 by 2010. Further, of those clients who book directly with a property, 75% found the property as a result of a search of sales channels. Expedia stated that for every booking they provide a property, on average a further 1.8 bookings will be made direct with the property after having been found by the client at Expedia.
These figures highlight 3 important facts:
- Sales channels play a huge part in helping your customers find you. They act as a search engine, however have a major advantage over Google in that they provide the customer an indication of availability.
- Bookings will not be made on your website if you cannot provide your customer with the same deal they found at the sales channel and provide them with instant confirmation. Failure to provide this will cause the customer to return to the website of the sales channel where they may, or may not, still elect to book your property.
- The more bookings you receive through your website as the result of having been found initially on the website of a sales channel effectively means you are paying your sales channels a lower commission rate than you may have realised.
This is something we know from the Rainbow Tourism business - we work on a higher ratio than 1.8 bookings for every booking from us. We know from our experience that if you are listed on the Rainbow Tourism website - which focuses on gay and lesbian travel you will receive at least 5 bookings for every booking we send you. This ratio is even higher if you have a direct link form our website - which we now have a special US$100 offer .
So if you contact us to help you build your sales channels simply and easily.
