Anna Trushkina, director, hotels commercial, Wego, spoke to us on the topic of distributing online booking channels.
“It has always been a very important topic for hotels on how they distribute their booking channels and the best way to do it is not only depending on OTA’s but also driving direct bookings. This particular decision has been challenging because unlike OTA’s, whose entire business is online, hoteliers have got properties to run so they focus on more operational tasks,” she said.
“In the start when you think about your distribution strategy, it makes sense to not stick to only one channel. For example, I have seen hoteliers that spend most of their time optimising their presence on booking.com, to update images and hotel descriptions before they actually do it on their own website, which is quite strange, because direct channels and your own website is the most cost-effective way to drive loyal users
“As a hotelier I would recognise my target audience, the brand positioning, and the kind of guest I want to attract and see where those guests are the channels they use. If I recognise my target audience uses a particular channel I would definitely be on that channel to make sure I am not dependant on only one, but multiple channels. Then I can optimise and see which channels work and which ones don’t, only then you will get the perfect equation,” she added.
Speaking on the coming months on Wego’s behalf, the director said: “We are constantly working on improving our service. The biggest effort for us is to ensure that we have all relevant inventory on our website. All possible hotels, accommodations, and Airbnb apartments will be listed, and we always monitor new hotel openings. We have just started injecting more holiday rentals on our platforms.”
