Advantages of Direct Hotel Booking

Posted by Roseatehouse on March 27th, 2019

For a hassle-free holiday experience, it is important to make advance bookings. And when it comes to booking a hotel room in a city, travellers can either do it through travel websites that act as facilitators or directly from the hotel. Booking a hotel room through travel websites looks easy and convenient because they show multiple options along with the rates and highlights in a single window. However, direct bookings made with a hotel can offer some of the best hotel deals in Delhi in terms of incentives. Hence, tourists must draw a comparison before booking a hotel.

Booking through travel websites
Travel websites act as a third party when it comes to booking a hotel through them. They offer travellers an easy-to-search database of properties, along with the services offered by them. They also provide opportunities to make other travel-related arrangements, like shuttle and city tour bookings. As the majority of travel and hospitality service providers offer their inventory via travel websites (or travel agents), the customer has a one-stop shop for all their needs and demands. According to a KPMG-FICCI report, they are using different models, from reselling inventory they have already purchased, merchant model, or a commission-based model, also called the agency model, to get a better share of the market. Since their introduction in the middle of 1990s, these online travel agents have increasingly captured the market shares.

Direct booking at the hotel
Hotels are now encouraging travellers to book directly via the hotels’ official platforms, including websites and mobile applications, primarily to build a relationship with customers and to avoid commissions charged by intermediaries such as travel agents. Hotels can increase their profits by doing away with 20-30 per cent fee normally charged by the third-party intermediaries. The hotels are now passing this margin to guests. This way, they can also better control the room rates. The hotels are now competing with online travel agents on prices and offering better/complimentary services to customers dealing directly with the hotel. Besides, hotels are aggressively employing SEO-driven content, and re-targeting ads and social media to attract traffic at their own digital platforms. As a result, according to a KPMG-FICCI report, for the large hotel chains in India, the share of direct bookings has increased from 50 per cent to 60-65 per cent over the past couple of years. Undoubtedly, customers should take advantage of this competition.

Benefits for customers
The customer is the king in this competition between hotels and online travel agents. Travellers can reap the benefits by booking a hotel with a proper check.

• Price of the hotel may be the same, but customers will have different incentives, such as freebies at gyms, restaurants, spa, and other facilities if they book directly from hotels.
• Hotels are looking to create loyal customers by providing great experiences. When customers are making direct bookings, they can also strike a bargain.
• Hotels also look to improve customer satisfaction by following up on their online feedbacks and acting upon their suggestions.
• Guests also get a virtual tour of the hotel on the hotel’s website, thereby getting a better idea about the actual property.
• Since the travellers will have a first-hand copy of the booking receipt, there is no possibility of a foul play at the intermediary level.

Hence, the customers have to be judicious to get the best hotel deals in Delhi and other major cities when booking hotel rooms. A proper comparison of rates and incentives will give a better idea of where they have more benefits.