Are you using TripAdvisor Fully
Are you using TripAdvisor Fully?
Recent changes to Tripadvisor pricing has seen more hotels sign up for the TripAdvisor Business Listing. However hotels are getting confused with the various products on offer. Let us see if we can help clarify.
1. Tripadvisor Page - 99% of hotels are listed on Tripadvisor. This does not cost anything.
2. Tripadvisor Business listing - With a Business Listing you can display contact details such as E Mail Address, Website Address and Telephone Number. However there are other useful features that we notice hotels are NOT using
A. Special Offer - This is in a prime location at the top of your listing and stands out in yellow. If you have paid for a Business Listing make sure you are using this!!!
B. Announcement - This enables you to post a short article. Most hotels are being beaten up by their Online Marketing people (ie us) to try and post short news items on their Website/FaceBook/Twitter/
A TripAdvisor Business Listing can be paid to TripAdvisor on a monthly basis, but they usually offer good discounts to pay yearly.
It is rare for customers to book a hotel now without first checking them out on TripAdvisor, it makes sense to try and attract the guest to come direct to the hotel when they are checking you out on your Tripadvisor listing.
3. TripConnect - Most hotels will find that OTA's are advertising rates and availability on their business page. But it is possible to have rates from your own Booking Engine also listed. Tripadvisor will charge you for this service based on on a Cost Per click fee (Like Adwords) ie If someone clicks on your booking engine on your TripAdvisor page you are charged a fee ie 0.75c.
AccuBook is a certified Tripconnect partner so you can go ahead and set this up through the Tripadvisor Account without even letting us know.
AccuBook believes that TripConnect is a sound principle, but in trials so far we have not been able to see a Return on Investment even close to Google Adwords. Watch this space.
4. NEW TripAdvisor Instant Booking - With Instant Booking Tripadvisor have effectively become an OTA, rates from your Channel Manager or Booking Engine can be passed in to the Instant Booking system in the same way that rates are passed in to Booking.com or Expedia. If customers make a booking with Instant Booking they believe they are booking with a new OTA called Instant Booking.
The advantage with Instant Booking is that you pay commission only, no set up or 'cost per click' fees, but the commission levels are close to OTA level varying between 12 and 15% we understand.
AccuBook is NOT currently certified as a Instant Booking Partner, we are waiting to see if there is demand from our hotel customers. ie Will hotels find it attractive ot pay the 12-15% commission to TripAdvisor for a booking?.
Summary
If you are paying for a TripAdvisor Business listing, make sure you are using all the features fully ie Offers/Announcements/Photos etc