By Elliott Mest
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Hotels have been trying to guide guests to Brand.com... and it's working.
They say if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. In 2016, 10 of the hospitality industry’s largest hotel brands began a concentrated effort to win back direct bookings from online travel agencies as part of the “Book Direct” campaign. The effort was designed to educate consumers on the benefits to booking direct, while offering bonuses or reduced rates for loyalty members, but until now no one in the industry was sure if it worked or not.
Over the past 18 months industry experts and analysts have weighed in on the effectiveness of the campaign, but a new report from Kalibri Labs shows consumer behavior has taken a shift to favor Brand.com, meaning the effort is paying off. The report, titled “Book Direct Campaigns: The Cost & Benefits of Loyalty,” was conducted between May and December 2016, and authored by Cindy Estis Green, CEO & co-founder of Kalibri Labs, alongside Mark Mazzocco, VP of revenue strategy at Kalibri Labs. This is the first study of its kind to look at the Book Direct campaign that looked beyond the transactional aspect of bookings, and also included an analysis of the “lifetime value” of incremental loyalty members as they relate to hotels.
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Loyalty contribution is 40-60 percent for most hotel segments, and has risen 7 percent on average the last three years, with a jump in 2016 in growth of 2-4 times prior year’s growth rate.
The full report, "Book Direct Campaigns: The Cost & Benefits of Loyalty," can be viewed here.
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Book Direct Campaigns: The Costs & Benefits of Loyalty
Read the full article on Hotel Management