Fastbooking hopes to offer hoteliers enough data to take back the power for online distribution from the major digital players. But while they fight what is now known, TripAdvisor, Trivago, HotelsCombined and others will push back on Google’s efforts, creating new challenges for hoteliers.
Earlier this month at the Skift Forum Europe, Oliver Heckmann, Vice President Travel and Shopping at Google Inc., announced an experimental product in test in the UK and Germany. The company partnered with Distribute Travel and Peakwork to deliver bundled flight and accommodation packages to searchers in the two countries. Heckmann said that the tool will allow consumers to book flights and hotels separately or together, a “differentiate experience,” albeit not the feature that sets this service apart. Unlike other players that put in front of travelers standard packages as offered by OTAs and wholesalers, Google provides the first metasearch platform with dynamic packages. This represents a step forward in metasearch, and possibly a gain for Google as the only player with such booking opportunities on its platform.
But until the first data comes in to show just how effective dynamic booking packages deliver, hoteliers can still make sense of metasearch with the help of Fastbooking’s recent “2017: The State of Metasearch” report, which is complete with a compelling infographic that reveals the gist of Google metasearch gains. For example, in click volume progress alone Google has now eclipsed even TripAdvisor.
“Since the fourth quarter of 2016, Metasearch has grown to become the most important advertising channel for hotels outpacing even AdWords,” the study shows, which is indicative of why Google is constantly developing its metasearch product.
Fastbooking hopes to offer hoteliers enough data to take back the power for online distribution from the major digital players. But while they fight what is now known, TripAdvisor, Trivago, HotelsCombined and others will push back on Google’s efforts, creating new challenges for hoteliers. In the meanwhile, Fastbooking’s “2017: The State of Metasearch” report is an effective tool. Each section of the report is followed by expert tips and takeaways. For example, for hoteliers using TripAdvisor as an advertising channel, Fastbooking recommends caution in bidding:
“Do not systematically bid for the first position as the cost can rapidly raise and returns will lower. Instead, use TripAdvisor’s reporting to stay within the top 3.”
Likewise, for Google Hotel Ads, the report recommends for budget hotels to switch to the performance model and for Deluxe and luxury hotels with a higher ADR to use the cost per click model. The study continues with concrete examples for Trivago, HotelsCombined, Google AdWords, and Display Advertising.
As clearly shown by Google’s metasearch innovations earlier this month, hotel distribution is not going to get simpler – and this is also the conclusion of the “2017: The State of Metasearch” report, which recommends a constant shift of strategies and adaption for hoteliers, also warning that mobile and new technologies such as chatbots, will continue to transform the digital landscape.
Cick the image below to see the infographic in high resolution.
A former military journalist, Mihaela is the founder and senior partner at Pamil Visions PR. She's also the former founder/editor at Everything PR, Search Engine Journal, and Argo Travel News. Her credentials speak for themselves: she is a cited authority on public relations issues, and her work and expertise are featured on BBC News, Reuters, Yahoo! Small Business Adviser, Al Jazeera, The Epoch Times, SitePoint, Search Engine Journal, and many others.
