This serves as a crucial touchpoint for potential guests, influencing their decision to book directly with you rather than through third-party booking channels. In this blog, we will explore the best practices for optimising marketing landing pages that not only attract visitors but also convert them into loyal customers.

Use high quality imagery in the correct sizes

First impressions are everything and the images on your landing page play a major role in shaping visitors’ perceptions of your property. Low-quality or poorly sized images can make your hotel look unprofessional and deter potential guests.

To create an enticing experience, always use high-resolution images that are optimised for the web. Avoid uploading images that are too small, as they may appear pixelated or blurry on larger screens. Instead, resize and compress your images to maintain both visual quality and fast loading times. A good rule of thumb is to balance high resolution with file size to ensure smooth loading on both desktop and mobile devices.

Remember, your hotel’s story is told through the visuals – show off your best features, from luxury rooms and beautiful views to on-site amenities and happy guests enjoying their stay.

Use the same images for advertising across all platforms

Your advertising campaign and landing page should be consistent. This consistency aids the user experience and the message they receive while on their booking journey. For example, if someone sees an ad that convinces them to expect a luxurious spa experience at your hotel, they expect to see a similar message and perhaps even compatible imagery once they land on the landing page.

By bringing together elements for both design and messaging, you create a trust-worthy experience that will help a user get the booking decision they need to make. Make sure the landing page reflects the promise made to the user in the advertisement, whether it is an exclusive offer, discount or special package or bundle.

Compress all images to their smallest sizes for faster load times

Web page load times can make or break a booking. Studies show that a one-second delay in page load time can result in a 7% decrease in conversions. To avoid this, it’s essential to compress images before uploading them to your Content Management System (CMS).

There are various tools available online that can help reduce image file sizes without compromising quality. By keeping image file sizes manageable, you ensure that your landing pages load quickly, improving the user experience and boosting the likelihood of securing a booking.

Maximise the use of landing page components 

Your landing page should not be a static, one-dimensional page; it should leverage all available components to engage users and drive conversions. Make use of every element on the page to showcase your hotel in the best possible light.

Call-to-action buttons (CTA): Encourage visitors to act by placing clear and direct CTA buttons. Use phrases like ‘Book Now’ or ‘Get Offer Now’, which compel users to take immediate action, instead of using “Learn More” and “Visit Site” if your focus is to sell.

Main content carousel: Use this space to highlight the key aspects of your offer, such as pricing, benefits and inclusions. Think of it as your elevator pitch – it should be eye-catching and persuasive.

Three-circle carousel: This is a great way to showcase your hotel’s unique selling points (USPs), such as its central location, award-winning amenities and family-friendly services, and select relevant USPs to align with your offer.

Testimonials: Real-life authentication is a powerful tool in order to build trust with potential guests. Showcase testimonials relevant to the offer you’re promoting – if you’re offering a family deal, then feature reviews from families.

Ensure your content is relevant and avoid repetition

When you are building a landing page, it’s important to have the information coincide with the offer. Make sure that every piece of information you have on the page seeks to fulfill your offer and add value to the offer.

Avoid repeating the same content in different sections of the page. For instance, if you’ve already mentioned the inclusion of a free breakfast in the main content carousel, there’s no need to repeat it in the 2-column carousel or the CTA. This could overwhelm the user, making it harder for them to focus on what truly matters.

Instead, focus on providing new and complementary information in each section. In the 2-column carousel, you could detail terms and conditions or highlight nearby attractions, for instance, while keeping your primary message clear and concise.

Optimise for mobile

Mobile bookings are becoming increasingly popular. The 2024 Hotel Mobile Barometer by Net Affinity has revealed that 65% of hotel bookings in the UK and Ireland are from mobile devices. This is why it is crucial to have a mobile-optimised landing page, so guests have a seamless experience making a booking on a smart phone or tablet.

Mobile optimisation isn’t just about making your page look good on a smaller screen – it’s also about functionality. Make sure CTA buttons are user-friendly and clickable, the page loads quickly, and the booking engine operates well on all mobile device platforms. The easier the booking process is for the user, the better the conversion rate.

Offer clear and transparent pricing

Pricing should never be ambiguous. If you’re offering a deal or discount, make sure the price is prominently displayed in several areas on the landing page, including on the CTA buttons and in the 2-column carousel section. Consumers appreciate transparency and clearly stating the price, along with any value-added perks which can help facilitate the decision-making process.

Leverage upsell and cross-sell options

Landing pages provide a perfect opportunity to upsell additional services, such as spa treatments, dinners or excursions. Highlight these add-ons in a way that makes them feel like a natural extension of the guest’s stay. This can be done effectively in the 3-circle carousel or within the main content area, ensuring that each upsell is relevant to the offer being promoted.

Are you ready to optimise your hotel’s landing pages and boost direct bookings?

In the competitive hospitality landscape, landing pages must be part of a marketing effort to convert prospective guests from website visitors into a direct booking. By using high-resolution photos, consistency between advertisements and landing pages, using image compression for quick-loading images and creating an excellent user experience, you’ll significantly improve chances to convert browsers to guests.

Keep in mind that your landing page is as important as a marketing tool – it’s part of the guest journey.  With good content, design and consistent strategy, you can capture enough revenue from your landing pages as a revenue source, increase direct bookings and reduce reliance on third party booking engines.

To find out how we can support your next campaign, get in touch with our expert team today.

Sharon Cowley, Sales Director at Net Affinity, and Quinten Gazendam, Director of Sales and Marketing at Smarthotel, shared their insights on how this collaboration is benefiting hoteliers and their shared vision for the future.

A partnership built on strengths

Sharon Cowley of Net Affinity reflects on the benefits of working with Smarthotel: “Our collaboration allows us to compete with other providers that offer a broader range of services. With Smarthotel’s flexible infrastructure, we can now build custom connections — particularly valuable for region-specific strategies or even GDS.”

Meanwhile, Quinten Gazendam of Smarthotel emphasised how the companies’ complementary strengths are central to the partnership: “At Smarthotel, we specialise in distribution, PMS connectivity and payments. Net Affinity brings expertise in booking engines and digital marketing. Combining our skills provides a holistic solution for hoteliers that covers both front-end bookings and back-end operations.”

Working together to maximise hotel revenue and guest satisfaction

The main takeaway from their conversation is that while Net Affinity and Smarthotel are separate entities, their collaboration brings new opportunities to streamline hotel operations and revenue management. This partnership offers a seamless integration between booking engines, digital marketing, PMS and payment solutions.

For instance, hoteliers are now benefiting from faster issue resolution. Previously, hotels had to coordinate across multiple vendors when facing rate and package mismatches between websites and OTAs. Now, with the shared support team, issues are resolved quickly, saving time and reducing complexity.

Quinten added: “Previously, dealing with niche OTA connectivity was a dead-end. Now, we can build custom connections for our clients globally. This flexibility ensures we meet the unique needs of every hotelier we work with.”

What this collaboration means for the hotels

Here are a few ways the collaboration is already delivering tangible value:

Quicker resolution times: Clients now deal with one team who understands both sides of the system – cutting delays and increasing satisfaction.

Rate and package mismatches: Resolved faster with integrated support across website and OTA channels. Now, with joined-up support, issues are resolved quickly by one support team together.

Marketing that syncs with live data: Campaigns from Net Affinity are now backed by real-time availability updates, closing the loop between demand and inventory.

Automated payments: Smart Payments suite helps hotels collect OTA payments or send paylinks for group bookings, reducing manual admin and elevating the guest journey.

How hotels are already seeing the benefits 

One standout example of this collaboration is The Hawthorn Hotel, a stunning new property opening in 2026 on Ireland’s West Coast.

From day one, The Hawthorn has partnered with Net Affinity and Smarthotel to create an effortless, guest-centric digital ecosystem — all before their first guest checks in.

The hotel’s tech stack is mobile-first and revenue-driven, combining Net Affinity’s booking engine and marketing tools with Smarthotel’s channel manager and PMS integrations. The hotel is benefiting from a fully connected journey from pre-arrival to post-stay, designed to boost conversion, reduce friction and elevate the guest experience.

Watch the full interview here:

Looking at future prospects

Sharon and Quinten are excited about what lies ahead for the collaboration. Sharon sums it up perfectly: “It’s not just about now, it’s about guaranteeing our presence in the next decade. Our clients want stability and with this partnership, we’re future proofing our services.”

Quinten adds: “We’ve found a groove with Net Affinity. The synergy between our teams is strong and that’s where the real value lies – creating a better, more integrated experience for hoteliers.”

This corporation between Net Affinity and Smarthotel will be the ultimate solution for hoteliers to drive direct bookings, depend less on OTAs and increase their revenue strategies across Europe. 

For hoteliers looking for tailored digital solutions to grow their business, this partnership offers the perfect combination of expertise, innovation and customer-first values.

For more information about the Hotel Tech Group, please visit https://www.hoteltechgroup.com/ and to learn more about Net Affinity’s partner, Smarthotel, visit https://www.smarthotel.nl/.

One standout example is The Hawthorn by Galway Bay, set to open in Spring 2026 as Ireland’s newest five-star luxury hotel. The hotel is partnering with Net Affinity to create a future-proof, guest-first digital ecosystem – ensuring every touchpoint feels effortless and personalised.

This strategy marks a shift in mindset across the sector: technology is no longer an afterthought but a foundational element of modern hotel design and operations.

“We’re not just investing in systems – we’re investing in the future guest experience,” said Aisling Kennedy, Group Marketing Manager at Connacht Hospitality Group.

A tech stack built around tomorrow’s guest

From first interaction to final check-out, The Hawthorn is using technology to anticipate guest needs and enhance both service and efficiency.

At the core is a mobile-first booking engine from Net Affinity – optimised for conversion, personalised journeys and seamless mobile payments. The wider digital ecosystem includes a fully integrated CRM and PMS to automate communications, streamline operations and support meaningful guest relationships at scale.

“Whether it’s contactless check-ins or in-room smart features, our goal is to offer experiences that are intuitive, personal and designed for the modern traveller,” Aisling added.

Seamless integration with Smarthotel for real-time revenue control

To support smarter revenue and distribution strategies, The Hawthorn has also partnered with Smarthotel, whose Channel Manager empowers hotel teams to manage rates, inventory and availability in real time – all from one central platform.

“Hotels today need fast, flexible systems,” said Quinten Gazendam, Chief Growth Officer at Smarthotel. “We’re reducing complexity while helping teams move at speed and scale.”

A model for future-ready hospitality

Commenting on the partnership, Sharon Power Cowley, Sales Director at Net Affinity, said:

“The Hawthorn’s strategy reflects what’s possible when technology is embedded from the outset. With full integration across guest touchpoints, they’re enabling smarter pricing, data-driven personalisation and more agile commercial decisions.”

With a scalable digital infrastructure and AI-ready foundations, The Hawthorn by Galway Bay is building more than a hotel – it’s crafting a guest experience designed for the future.

To learn more about The Hawthorn by Galway Bay, visit https://www.thehawthornhotel.ie/

For more on how Net Affinity supports leading hotels with future-ready tech, contact sales@netaffinity.com

These innovative solutions are created to support the modern needs of hoteliers, addressing the growing complexities around payment processing, channel distribution and real-time availability management. Designed to assist with admin, minimise errors and create more revenue opportunities, they put automation and intelligence at the centre of your operations.

This launch represents a major milestone for both Net Affinity and the hotels it supports. As Net Affinity begins to operate with a stronger, integrated tech stack with wider functionality, the new tools will save hoteliers valuable time, reduce complexity and offer true value from day one.

Effortless hotel payments with Net Affinity’s Smart Payments

Many hotels still manage payments through a patchwork of disconnected systems, which requires teams to manually enter card details, chase payments and reconcile transactions over different platforms.

Instead, Smart Payments transforms this into one streamlined, secure and fully automated process – supporting every stage of the guest journey, no matter what Property Management System (PMS) or booking policies you use.

With features including:

• Payment page: Fully integrated with your booking engine for a seamless guest experience.
• Automatic VCC charges: Eliminate manual intervention and reduce human error.
• Payment links: Send secure links directly to guests, speeding up the payment process and boosting conversion.
• PIN terminals: Fully integrated terminals for on-site payments, linked to your ecommerce system for effortless reconciliation.
• Expert support: Our payment consultants are always on hand to guide your team and ensure best practice.

This future-ready solution streamlines operations, improves cash flow and enhances the guest experience.

Real-time control across every channel with Net Affinity’s Smart Channel Manager

Rate parity, channel restrictions and last-room availability management are just some of the everyday challenges hoteliers face while juggling multiple OTAs, GDS platforms and direct booking tools.

Smart Channel Manager gives you back control – consolidating all your channels into one powerful platform and allowing you to update rates, availability and restrictions in real time.

Benefits include:

• Real-time updates: Maximise every room sale while ensuring your direct channel always takes priority.
• Rule-based pricing: Implement strategies that optimise last-room availability and prevent overbookings.
• Boost visibility: Showcase your property across top-performing global channels to expand reach.
• Reduce manual tasks: Less admin, more time to focus on guest experience.
• Integrated support: Our team works closely with you to craft the right distribution strategy.

We’re delivering a more robust, scalable and connected offering that empowers hotels to move faster, operate smarter and grow with confidence – whether you’re a current client or discovering Net Affinity for the first time.

With our enhanced solutions now available to all clients, we’re not just evolving our tech – we’re expanding our ability to support hoteliers across every aspect of their operation. From cutting admin to maximising reach and unlocking new efficiencies, our mission remains the same, to empower you to do more, with less.

So, if you’re looking to reduce manual tasks, increase automation and future-proof your hotel’s digital infrastructure, these products are built with you in mind.

To learn more about how our technology can support your business in 2025 and beyond, get in touch with our sales team, sales@netaffinity.com  or visit https://www.netaffinity.com/our-solutions/ 

Mobile bookings on the rise

Mobile bookings have surged in the first quarter of 2025, with data showing a 7% increase compared to the same period last year. Hotels in the Republic of Ireland, in particular, have seen impressive growth. In April 2025, 59% of bookings came from smartphones, up from 52% in 2024. This rise in mobile bookings demonstrates how important it is for hotels to ensure their websites and booking systems are fully optimised for mobile devices.

The shift towards last-minute travel

Another significant trend is the rise in last-minute bookings. In April 2025, 27% of bookings were made within seven days of arrival, marking a 4% increase from the previous year. This reflects a growing consumer preference for spontaneous travel and the flexibility to make decisions closer to departure dates. For hoteliers, this means being prepared for quick-turnaround bookings and ensuring their systems can handle fluctuations in demand.

Regional variations: Insights from across the globe

The data also highlights some interesting regional differences. Bookings from the Republic of Ireland saw a slight decline of 2%, while bookings from the UK and Northern Ireland increased by 7%. On the other hand, bookings from the USA saw a marginal decrease of 4%. While US bookings are down in early 2025, Net Affinity expects a recovery later in the year, particularly between July and September, so hotels should be prepared for a potential uptick in international visitors.

How hotels can adapt

As these booking trends continue to evolve, hoteliers must stay agile and ready to adapt to the changing behaviours of their guests. By investing in mobile optimisation, streamlining the booking process and responding to the rise in last-minute bookings, hotels can position themselves for success in 2025 and beyond.

As summed up by our Managing Director William Cotter: “These shifts in booking patterns highlight the need to understand and keep pace with changing consumer behaviour. The rise in mobile bookings and the increase in short-term bookings are trends that will not be easily reversed, and hoteliers need to make sure they are well-equipped to respond.“

If you’re looking for more tips on how to adapt to these trends and maximise your hotel’s direct bookings, get in touch with our expert team at Net Affinity today.

“We’re always exploring new ways in which we can use our tech expertise to support our customers and the wider hospitality marketplace” 

For hotels to operate successfully, it’s all about the revenue. After all, no matter how good your guest experience is or how impressive the décor, revenue is what sustains a hotel. Put simply, without strong revenue streams, the rest will fall apart.

According to recent data released from Guestcentric, ADR for hotels across Europe is currently 13% above 2022 levels (it had reached record levels in 2022). Spain’s tourism minister, Héctor Gómez, has called it “a historic summer for tourism,” with 8.2 million tourists arriving in May alone, while some hotel groups said reservations were slow in the first weeks of summer due to the steep rise in room prices.

Tourists are packing European hotspots, boosted by Americans

It’s never too early to start thinking and planning ahead when it comes to the next season and direct booking opportunity. At this stage, it’s not long before many people start browsing for autumn breaks. Take a look at your booking engine, digital activity, marketing and communications as a whole, in order to give yourself the best chance of attracting bookers and holiday makers. 

Learn more about Net Affinity’s user-friendly hotel booking system

Autumn marketing campaign tips

When you’re plotting out your autumn campaign strategy, make sure you include all the potential online channels your guests could be spending their time on. For content marketing ideas, take a look at this blog. 

Think about two key areas for autumn in relation to the focus of your campaigns – dedicated multi-channel awareness and midterm. 

In previous years, we’ve seen ‘autumn breaks’ searches pick up in the middle of July, ramping up in August and then peaking in September. Although we aren’t seeing much interest for ‘midterm breaks’ yet, this will pick up. Take a look at your website and add a page of content dedicated to midterm breaks/Halloween. This will help to capture organic search demand ahead of your campaign launch.

Use email marketing to your advantage – think about how you can use email to attract previous guests by offering a discount code and notifying them of new and exciting offers coming up.

The importance of post and pre-stay emails

When your campaigns are ready, don’t forget to update the action bar on your website so visitors are drawn to it the second they land on your website.

Autumn booking engine tips

Just because they’re autumn packages, don’t mean they all need to be stamped with the word ‘autumn’ – it’s not just families who will be booking breaks away. Be mindful of all the different guest types who will be travelling – remote workers, couples, groups of friends. Push packages like ‘Stay longer for less’ which will entice and encourage remote workers and younger families to stay with your hotel. 

Attracting the new kind of business traveller

Highlight any and all amenities that will help to reel your guests in. The little things count, and depending on what kind of traveller they are, they will appreciate knowing they have everything they need and more with you, if they choose to press ‘book’. Tailor packages specifically to the guests you’re targeting – so, for remote workers, it’s important to highlight things like free hi-speed wifi, a comfortable and spacious work station, nice walking/running routes nearby, your fitness centre, express facial packages. If you have any feedback from guests who stayed with you during the summer, take this into account. For example – did they enjoy being able to pre-book services, avail of in-room dining, movie streaming/Netflix access, that sort of thing.

Are your rateplans and descriptions clear? Double check, and make sure they only highlight what’s relevant, too – for example, you might not need to include details on complimentary parking, but room size could be more interesting.

Do you have leisure facilities? If so, make details of availability very clear at booking stage.

Your rates and availability for autumn

Always always always make sure you have the best prices on your own website so you’ll increase your direct bookings as much as possible – it’s the name of the game.

When it comes to your book direct messaging, keep it simple. It needs to be as clear and consistent as possible – so make sure it’s on all of your social and ad platforms. Make it pretty, too – the right imagery is so important. Don’t just reuse the same old stock image you’ve recycled a couple of years running – use the best autumnal shots of your property if you have any, or try the likes of Unsplash for a better selection of seasonal photography. 

It’s also a good idea to load your rates for the next 12 months – this is something we always recommend.

If you’re offering prepaid rates, make sure you highlight the ease and flexibility surrounding this – eg, ‘Prepay & Save, cancel up to 72 / 48 hours before arrival for a full refund!’ Your property is seeing payment, and your guest is happy. Win win.

Battling cancellations

Cancellations are unavoidable, but there are ways of managing them and continuing healthy, loyal relationships with guests. Read more about managing cancellations here.

In the article, she discusses a recent trip away, which was soured by the hinderance of technology – technology that did the opposite of what it was supposed to do. Instead of making her experience easier, it left her feeling cold.

“These days, it’s all about making do when I’m greeted by the glut of smart technology in hotel rooms. Voice-activated lights. Chatbot concierges. QR codes on television sets. Mobile browser or app check-ins. Texting the valet for my car. Don’t even get me started with motorized drapes — attempting to view the ocean in Miami was as difficult as tackling Faulkner. It’s all infuriating. And overwhelming.”

She spoke to senior members of the hospitality industry who understandably spoke to her about the positives of adopting smart tech both for hotel staff and guests. 

“Smart hotel rooms are about empowerment,” said Robert Firpo-Cappiello, Hospitality Technology’s editor in chief. “Contactless interactions were a survival pivot for hotels during the pandemic. People are used to them now. There is no going back.”

And interestingly, she noted ‘young’ travellers (under 25) seem to be very much onboard with these developments. 

But she does have a point. For years, the phrase ‘technology fatigue’ has been drifting in and out of our daily vocabulary. With the likes of AI getting so much airtime at the moment, it’s clear how fast technology is advancing and this has an impact on every industry. ChatGPT for example, has been causing some to even fear for their jobs (although this fear may be slightly unwarranted for now).

Richard Carter thinks AI – rather than replacing humans – will boost their productivity. In his own work he says ChatGPT is useful, but he says he is wary of putting too much trust in it, comparing it to a “very knowledgeable and a very excitable, 12-year-old. If you take the human completely out of the loop, how do you manage accountability for some sort of catastrophic event happening?”

The point of all of this is to approach all smart technology wisely. Research and use everything at your disposal – but remember this: all the technology you use should enhance guest experience and make time for your staff to make a guest’s stay even more warm, and even more personable. Don’t remove the human in your hotel’s equation. Smart tech shouldn’t replace staff! 

Always be aware of the balance between the tech you use and face to face service. Be smart about your smart tech. 

What are some current hotel technology trends?

According to Hospitality Technology’s 2023 Lodging Technology Study, the majority of hotels already offer, or are planning to introduce, mobile booking, mobile check-in and mobile room keys (100% of participants), two-way messaging with guests (95%), contactless payments (88%), check-in and check-out kiosks (62%) and voice-controlled devices (54%).

The study also found that the average IT budget of hotels globally rose to more than 4% of total revenue in 2022 from less than 3% in 2021, and 74% of hoteliers are now willing to consider using alternative investment metrics for technology projects.

According to a 2022 study by Oracle and Skift, 73.4% of travelers are interested in hotels using artificial intelligence to analyze their travel data for more targeted and relevant advertisements and offers

Here are some areas of technology you should consider investing in going forward.

Your booking engine

Your booking engine needs to be easy to navigate in a way that will lead users to convert without them needing to put too much thought into the process. It’s important that it integrates well with all of your other systems (like your PMS, RMS and Channel Manager) and it should work well with your workflows and marketing processes.

Hotel technology providers Net Affinity have a new booking engine on the market. Feature-rich, lightning fast and made for mobile, it’s everything your guest needs from their booking experience.

An impressive booking engine has to be flexible. This is because it should adapt easily to the growth or development of your products/services and should always display whatever it is you have to offer. What kind of groups does your hotel provide for? Perhaps you are a hotel venue, perhaps you tend to get a lot of corporate bookings. Your booking engine should have a variety of modules.

And you don’t just want it to display the basics – your rates and dates are the bare minimum of what should be shown off. Your booking engine should allow for lots of visual support to these rates and dates. Visuals are what will help get your room over the line and get it sold to your guest. Make sure your booking engine also gives you the option to integrate sales conversion tools as they will help maximize the number of website visitors turning into buyers.

It also needs to be mobile-optimised. Mobile accounts for approximately half of web traffic worldwide. Its presence in revenue reports is only growing all the time as people get more and more comfortable with browsing and actually buying or booking on mobile. According to our mobile stats from Q1 2023, 77% of our clients’ website visits were via mobile, and 60% of bookings were made via mobile. 

Accompanying systems

Your booking engine might be the heart of your tech stack, but like a human body, you need more than that to properly function. Ideally your booking engine is accompanied by your PMS, RMS and Channel Manager. When you’re going about picking each of these systems, work on the basis of finding the best of each.

A Property Management System is a system that should help you manage multiple aspects of your property. A Channel Manager is a system that sends your property availability to multiple channels, and keeps all the information in clear and correct between channels.

You should be able to sit down with your PMS provider to discuss and agree on rate strategies and business logics before you set up rate plans and connect to your channel manager. Your booking engine should connect directly to your PMS or your channel manager should be flexible enough to easily adjust rate mapping.

Automation and personalisation are words that have been thrown around for a long time now, but they’re key concepts going forward within the hospitality industry. If you can automate as many tasks as possible for your front desk staff, it frees up more room for them to provide a personal and attentive experience with your guests – a win win. Your technology should aid you in this. In relation to personalisation, people appreciate a personal touch. They always have – but now more than ever.

With the right technology in relation to your email marketing efforts for example, you will be able to segment your contacts and nurture relationships in a more personal way, which just gives your guests the impression you’re not only on the ball but you care about their needs too. Email is also a great way to organise your guest data and put it to good use, something that is becoming more difficult since the recent change in relation to cookieless tracking.

Smart technology

What does smart tech mean in practise? It could mean giving guests control over certain things by using their mobiles, like check in/check out, the lighting and temperature in their rooms. As well as saving energy costs, it makes things so much easier for everyone.

Utilising mobile as much as you can is also a smart decision given the huge growth we have seen and will continue to see in mobile.

Just remember our earlier warning – be smart about your smart tech!

Google Hotel Ads

Google Hotel Ads is a meta-search platform which displays your hotel rates in direct comparison to OTAs, enabling you to showcase your hotel on Google across multiple devices.

Using Google Hotel Ads will result in an increase in your direct traffic and revenue. It will also allow you to own your guest data while sustaining a future relationship with guests – like we mentioned earlier, owning guest data is crucial to building loyalty.

Chatbots

Chatbots are great for convenience – for you and also for your guests. They absolutely have a place as part of your communication strategy – when used correctly.

Whether it’s addressing queries immediately from customers in different time zones or answering a regular query you find you receive quite a lot, they can do the groundwork with a customer, but make sure guests are then able to access a staff member at a later stage if necessary, depending on whatever the query was. 

In regards to ChatGPT, its benefits include:

• Idea generation
• Customer service
• Data processing
• Marketing

A new study suggests the popular chatbot ChatGPT can improve the productivity of workers and reduce skill inequalities.

ChatGPT can help to craft blog posts, social media copy, emails, and video scripts. For hotels, you should also consider using AI-generated replies for online reviews if you are struggling to dedicate time to this – it’s so important you respond to all your reviews. 

Read more about ChatGPT and how to use it as a hotelier here.

Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has also announced the launch of Llama 2, in partnership with Microsoft, which is the next generation of its AI large language model and (unlike ChatGPT and Google’s Bard) has been released for free, for research and commercial use.

Sign up to our blog for weekly trends, insights and the latest goings on in the hospitality industry.

Among the most interesting points outlined in the report include:

• 1 in 3 consumers say they’re planning upcoming business travel
• 1 in 2 consumers are likely to travel internationally within the next 12 months or already have a trip booked, compared to only 12% in mid-2020
• 46% of consumers say that travel is more important to them now than it was pre-pandemic
• While industry professionals underestimate price sensitivity among
  consumers, (with only 23% saying that inflation will have a negative impact), one in two consumers (51%) say that inflation will impact their travel plans over the next 12 months
• Consumers’ top priorities in relation to booking travel include their ability to get a full refund, low pricing and flexible cancellation policies

Lots of positive findings paired with some very real insights that can help inform your strategies and create loyal, longer lasting connections with guests if you take them in and use them wisely. 

What else is happening in the tourism and hospitality industries?

Ramp up of events 

Knowland, the world’s leading provider of data-as-a-service insights on meetings and events for hospitality, has recently reported that June meeting and event volume is up 30.3% over June 2022 – music to the ears of anyone in the tourism or hospitality industries. 

The quest for wellness among American tourists 

Allianz Partners’ 15^th Annual Vacation Confidence Index has revealed that around three in 10 Americans will choose to work remotely from a vacation destination in 2023, an intentional move that goes beyond “bleisure” travel that blends working time with vacation – they’re calling it a ‘pay-cation’. 

The survey found that respondents in the 18 to 34-year-old demographic are more likely (42%) to travel to a vacation destination to work remotely, compared to 26% of those ages 35 to 54 years old and 12% who are 55 years and older.

ChatGPT is busy making travel plans

Due to the fact that travellers can access AI tools from a variety of devices at any time and from anywhere with an internet connection, market research company Euromonitor International have predicted the use of AI tools like ChatGPT to plan travel itineraries is about to boom. 

Head of Travel and Tourism Research at Euromonitor International, Caroline Bremner, says: “ChatGPT is taking travel and the world by storm. With travel highly digitalised where 66% of all bookings are conducted online in 2023 and mobile accounts for 35% of all online sales, disruption from generative AI is already rife.” 

Amongst all of these developments, focus on building loyalty – and using email to do so

A key step in creating loyalty is having a decent email strategy, and a very important part of that is your pre (and post)-stay emails. 

Email marketing gives you an opportunity to build a personal relationship with your past guests, present guests and future guests. You can send email database highly targeted and relevant offers that will grab their attention in a way a banner ad often can’t.

Building a relationship

Email marketing gives you the chance to build a relationship with your subscribers before they book a hotel room.

If your subscribers like and trust you, a higher percentage of them will be interested in booking a room at your hotel.

How do you build this relationship?

The content you share should solve the biggest problems your target audience has. Those problems can range from making travelling easier to saving money. These emails can be sent as autoresponders you set up through your email marketing software.

First email

You want to start with an email that introduces yourself and your hotel.

After that, share your best travel tip or a piece of content about a great local attraction. This tip should give value – let them know that it is worth subscribing.

End the email by telling the subscriber on what to expect in the next email, and when they’ll get it. Keep it short and sweet, instead of overwhelming them with twenty of your most recent special offers.

Second, third and fourth email

In emails two, three and four you should share more travel tips and stories about your hotel and surroundings. You can also provide them with special offers you think are relevant to them. This will strengthen your relationship with subscribers. If you receive replies with questions, make sure you respond promptly with ‘welcomes’ and answers.

When they book – your pre-stay email

Once someone actually books a room, use pre-arrival emails to try and build on your revenue. 

Send your confirmation email, and then send one follow-up email around a week and a half after (which may hopefully result in a 42% CTR and a 12% conversion rate). 

Confirmation email

Your confirmation email is a must. It’s the first email your guest should receive once they’ve booked their room, and it confirms their reservation. It doesn’t have to only include the bare bones! Make it colourful and interesting if you can. Tempt them with enticing indulgent imagery of your food, cocktails or spa. Include information on local events, and amenities they can take advantage of like thermal pool and sauna etc. Take the opportunity to ask guests what you can do to make their stay more comfortable. 

What are the components of a great pre-stay email?

Your subject line

This is the first thing your guests will see, and it’s your chance to engage them and get them to actually open the email. How can you make them as ‘clickable’ as possible? Think about personalising it, or perhaps creating a sense of urgency or simply use the opportunity to show off your creativity. Puns or wordplay can be fun, will feel unique, and will give your hotel a personality.

Keep a keen eye on your design

Look, there’s not a huge amount of space here. Think carefully, try different templates and find something that works for you and your branding, but design and the visual element of your pre-stay email is as crucial as any of the copy, maybe even more so. You want it to be easily accessible, easy to read and aesthetically pleasing! 

Remember to compress any images included so there’s no crazy long load time. 

Speaking of your branding…

At any opportunity, promoting your brand is a good thing. Within your email marketing is no different, and these emails are a great way of introducing (or re-introducing) guests to your brand, what it’s about and what it looks like. Make sure you continue keeping all your visuals and messaging consistent across your channels (website and social) so your easily recognisable. Remember how many brands and forms of marketing humans are exposed to everyday! Consistency is what will save you. 

Keep it personal

Personalisation has been, and will be, a buzzword for months and years to come. As technology has become more advanced, people expect things to be personalised, and communication is definitely something that should be, if it can be. Don’t just personalise in the subject line – check your email and see where else you can add your guest’s name so it feels more intimate than the standard brand-consumer interaction. 

Post-stay email

Your post-stay email is very important, too. Follow all of the pre-stay email rules (in relation to design, subject line, branding etc) and remember to begin by saying thank you to your guest for choosing your hotel in the first place. 

Following the thank you message, the most component of a post-stay email is the feedback prompt. Include questions about your guests’ experience, their stay, whether or not they enjoyed their room, and any other additional amenities or services offered by your hotel.

It’s crucial to include ask your guests to leave a review on on the likes of Tripadvisor or your Google Business profile. 

Encourage recipients to book their next stay at your hotel by providing a special offer or discount.

Automation

Use an email marketing solution like Revinate to automate your emails. Automation across your business is designed to aide your staff and give them more time to engage with customers face to face. Use it smartly to make your business more efficient. 

 Learn more about email marketing here. 

Sign up to our blog for weekly trends, insights and the latest goings on in the hospitality industry.

Rate disparity can seriously impact your hotel’s bottom line. Hotels often find themselves with lower rates on OTAs and other third party channels than they do on their own website.

Rate parity, or disparity in the case of the hotel industry, is the difference between prices quoted on a hotel’s branded website versus the prices quoted by an online travel agent such as Booking.com.

Why is maintaining rate parity a big deal? If you leverage third-party channels to sell inventory, then rate parity matters. Online travel agencies like Booking.com ask for rate parity in their contracts. If you work with these major channels, then you’ve signed contracts that state that you will make your lowest rates available to them.

Why does rate disparity actually matter?

In 2021, OTAs accounted for 52% of the hotel online market, but the share is expected to decline to 48% in 2025.

There are two parties rate disparity matter to: you and the customer.

For customers, it can be a matter of trust. If rates on your own “Best Rate Guaranteed” site are more expensive than those on the OTA, you might lose their trust or lead them to believe that an OTA is offering ‘discounted’ prices.

For hotels, when OTAs offer a lower price than your own website, there’s no incentive to book direct – and you’re still paying those OTA commission rates.

Causes of rate disparity

If your hotel frequently experiences rate disparity issues, it’s important to know that it isn’t always deliberate. In fact, it’s probably mostly accidental.

Rate disparity is usually caused by administrative issues.

There are many channels your hotel is probably active on, and third-party channels have been known to change their prices based on factors like price and location, putting tremendous pressure on revenue managers to spend time they don’t have monitoring OTA prices in an attempt to continue matching them.

Here are 10 factors that can lead to cheaper rates on OTA websites:

1. Promotions might have been created directly with an OTA Market Manager or through an OTA extranet, meaning it isn’t available on the hotel website
2. A property has an out-of-date rate code still running on an OTA. Remember to close them!
3. The OTA has failed to change the rate they were given , for technical or other reasons – this may apply across the board or only to certain geographic markets
4. The OTA is using a different currency conversion rate than your hotel
5. The OTA has a base allocation, and you’ve sold out all other rooms of that grade and below
6. Your Channel Manager is tracking inventory from your PMS, and the CRS is suffering latency errors and showing inventory that’s no longer available
7. The revenue manager might have linked the wrong OTA rate from their CRS
8. Your CRS does not support length of stay rates, but they are used on the OTA
9. Wholesale rates have been put on sale by the OTA – they might have sold them to third party sites. Unless your hotel has specifically agreed to the rates being sold, you can insist on the rates being removed
10. The OTA is using their commission to discount the rate or is applying a lesser markup to a net rate – this might happen all the time or only certain times, and may only happen for specific markets

Human error during manual room and rate uploads to OTAs often occur, and it’s common for managers to forget to revise OTA rates during an update, or to accidentally leave old rates on certain sites. A decent channel manager can solve this.

Learn more about Net Affinity’s award-winning booking engine

How can you combat rate disparity?

If you’re advertising a “Best Rate Guarantee” or similar on your own site, which we recommend, it’s vital to follow through on that.

• Make your hotel website’s booking process as easy to complete as possible so you don’t lose anyone along the way. This is also why investing in your hotel tech stack is so important
  
• Leverage metasearch channels like Google Hotel Ads –  if your own site isn’t visible on these highly popular and frequently used platforms, then all your traffic will be given to OTAs
  
• Target all of your various audiences with the right kind of promotions that may attract them via email and/or social media
• Depending on your hotel’s room types, you could choose to sell some room types exclusively on your own website

Invest in the right technology that will monitor and update your rates if OTAs lower or raise them in certain times or locations. To comply with your contracts and avoid legal risks, it’s also important to monitor your own rates.

There are many creative ways to manage your rates, but you should always have one eye out for rate disparities. Correcting rate disparities only costs you time in the short term, and it can save you thousands in revenue.

When you overcome rate disparity issues, you encourage guests to book direct, maintain control over your property and prices, and give yourself the chance to capture more revenue.

Sign up to our blog for weekly trends, insights and the latest goings on in the hospitality industry.