6 reasons to source your Website and Booking Engine from the same supplier
Short Read
One point of contact if something needs to be done. ie 'Sales lifted for the month of August'.
No integration issues between the website and the booking engine code.
Often combined website and booking engine suppliers work on commission, so there is an 'incentive to perform'!
No 'buck passing' between suppliers when something isnt performing.
Booking Engine features can be displayed on the website ie Reviews/Special Offers/Gift Vouchers etc..
Better tracking and website analytics with one supplier.
Long Read
Although we can supply all four of our products separately (Website, Booking Engine, Channel Manager and Diary), in fact 90% of our customers take all four products combined. You would not walk into a garage and order a Ford Car and the ask Peugeot to put in an engine. Instinctively you know the result: It would be expensive, unreliable, unlikely to work properly....and when it doesnt no one wants to take responsibility.
One point of contact if something needs to be done. ie 'Sales lifted for the month of August'.
Its not unusual for us to get phone call saying something like' i need to do something about my May midweek business..'. Normally a number of actions would be taken;
Create a Special Offer in the Booking Engine
Build a Landing Page for the website with live link to the offer.
Set up a Google Adwords Campaign pointing to that page
Set up a FaceBook Ad pointing to that page.etc,etc
Point is, all those action require control of BOTH the Booking Engine and the Website.
No integration issues between the website and the booking engine code.
Most systems just dont integrate well, so the Date Search (priority number one on a hotel website) from a 3rd party Booking Engine is often lost, sometime even buried 2 pages deep. Then when you do a date search you appear to step off the hotel website and move onto the Booking Engine platform creating a confidence issue for the customer.
Often combined website and booking engine suppliers work on commission, so there is an 'incentive to perform'!
We recently watched one customer move from an integrated solution that was delivering 40,000€ per month direct, and switched to a well known Booking Engine and a 'friend down the road' built a website and bolted in the Booking Engine. Over 2 years the value dropped to 14,000€ Per Month. Interestingly the customer didnt really notice because the 26,000€ was more than replaced by the OTA's..... At a cost of course (Think 15% of 26,000€.......3900€ Per Month)
No 'buck passing' between suppliers when something isnt performing.
So your website isnt delivering bookings?
The website Designer says the Booking Engine isnt designed to work with responsive websites.
Your Booking Engine Supplier says it would work if the Website Supplier had integrated it properly!!
Booking Engine features can be displayed on the website ie Reviews/Special Offers/Gift Vouchers etc.
A Booking Engine does more than process a booking. It captures reviews from your customers that need displaying on your website, and many can even sell Gift Vouchers, (a good source of Christmas income). All of which needs displaying on pages on your website...difficult to do if the 2 products come from different suppliers.
Better tracking and website analytics with one supplier.
You really want to know what your customers are doing on your website! Or maybe you have just spent a fortune advertising a Special offer and want to know if customer are landing on your website and booking that Special Offer. Difficult to track if the products are from 2 different suppliers.
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