G-rez, the independently-owned GDS and internet service provider by Great Hotels Organisation has confirmed predictions that the economic downturn will drive an increase of direct to consumer hotel bookings. The trend of direct web bookings for hotels was predicted to increase during the economic crisis as travellers look for better pricing, value-added packages and more detailed descriptions of hotels. To confirm these predictions, G-rez took a sample of 50 hotels using their booking…
G-rez, the independently-owned GDS and internet service provider by Great Hotels Organisation has confirmed predictions that the economic downturn will drive an increase of direct to consumer hotel bookings. The trend of direct web bookings for hotels was predicted to increase during the economic crisis as travellers look for better pricing, value-added packages and more detailed descriptions of hotels.
To confirm these predictions, G-rez took a sample of 50 hotels using their booking engine G-wiz (www.g-rez.com/g-wiz.htm), and compared the first three months of bookings in 2009 to the same period in 2008. On average, the hotels had increased the number of direct to consumer reservations by 19% year on year.
In addition to this, and supporting the prediction that consumers are also looking for value-added offers rather than cheap prices, the bookings of promotional packages for the same sample of hotels in the same period had increased on average by 57% year on year.
Carly Gotz, Director of business development and marketing at GHO comments, “G-wiz was created by our team of software developers to fit seamlessly into a hotels own website. Our research shows that direct consumer bookings are on the increase so hoteliers should ensure their booking engine is up to scratch. Consumers are not necessarily looking for rock-bottom prices but for value-added packages where they can get more for their money. G-wiz allows hoteliers to sell add-ons and extras such as airport transfers and champagne in their room which is exactly what their customers want”.
The ability for hoteliers to sell extras and add-ons through their booking engine has meant that the average booking value for the 50 sampled hotels had gone up on average by 14% in comparison to the same period in 2008.
This data clearly shows a shift in travellers’ preferences to booking directly with a hotel and hoteliers are implementing advanced booking engines such as G-wiz to come up with the solutions to meet this shift in demand.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
