London – 6 August 2017 –
If you’ve found yourself asking this over the last year or so, you’re not alone. Metasearch sites are growing at a phenomenal rate, with recent research suggesting that they are now the most important advertising channel for hotels – outstripping even Google AdWords when it comes to driving traffic. It’s a compelling offering for hotels seeking to grow their direct channel.
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Though metas have been part of the online travel industry since its inception, their increasing accessibility to smaller hotels, combined with meteoric growth in consumer traffic, has made sure that Kayak, trivago and co are more relevant than ever. But it’s always worth asking whether that perceived relevance is reflected in the behaviour of actual hotels.
Any trend has early adopters. The big groups – and a few savvy independents – have been aware of the importance of meta for some time, and have jumped on board accordingly. A lot of the hoteliers we speak to, though, tend to fall into one big camp – those who say:
“Metasearch is on my radar, but I’m not sure it’s worth my time.”
So why does this matter to me?
The Direct Booking Movement is moving to meta. Metasearch engines are a way to display your rates in direct comparison to OTAs at a price that can work out much cheaper than your OTA commission fees. They’re getting much more popular with consumers – 1 – and it’s easier than ever to list as a hotel. For some of them, you don’t even need to have your own website to list.
The capabilities of search are improving in an exponential curve. We’ve already seen Kayak and Skyscanner integrate themselves with Alexa and Google Home, allowing consumers to book hotel rooms without even touching a computer. The ability to serve a consumer with exactly what they’re looking for is increasingly going to be held in the hands of a select few – and those few are likely to include metas. The hotel industry was hurt badly by the initial advent of online travel: it didn’t adapt quickly enough, and OTAs rushed in to fill the gap. Performing well on metasearch is a way for hotels to reclaim some of that ground, but it requires jumping on the bandwagon sooner rather than later.
I’m sold – tell me how
1Listing on meta isn’t a quick fix. Achieving long term gains means getting the basics right, so we’ve put together a Hotelier’s Guide to Metasearch that tells you all you need to know. Featuring expert input from 1 and 1, the Guide walks you through:
- Why meta matters
- 5 steps to a killer campaign
- Which does what: a buyer’s guide
1. Interested in more Hotelier Guides? Check out June’s 1, or let us know what you’d like to see featured next in the series!
