Dynamic Rate Marketing – how does it improve your hotel sales?

As  a customer how many times have you been victim to the terms ‘upto 50% off’ or ‘prices starting from $10’ when only maybe one or two items are 50% off or costs $10? I personally find it quite offensive. Today’s customers are very price savvy and want to get the best deals, and nobody knows this better than hoteliers.

Outdated hotel marketing used to target their customers with campaigns stating ‘rooms beginning from $150 per night’ or ‘ranging from $200-$400 per night’. This just doesn’t work anymore; customers want to know the exact prices for the rooms and hotels that they are interested in. It’s also important to remember that today’s customers are primarily millennials, who do not have the patience to filter through false price baits – they expect convenience. This is where dynamic rate marketing (DRM) comes in.

DRM is the process through which properties can use real time hotel inventory and pricing and have them broadcasted via various marketing campaigns: banner advertising, Metasearch campaigns, direct email promotions and so on. Hotels can use DRM to enhance the recall value for their property with up to date information, which definitely makes an impact during the decision making process. It enables a hotel to be virtually present in numerous platforms with real time information thus channel bookings directly to the hotel’s website rather than the OTA’s. Meta-search marketing is a powerful DRM format that has already proven itself as reliable revenue management initiative.

Another dependable format of DRM is dynamic rate banner advertising – the strategy is known to generate significantly better conversions than conventional banner advertisements without dynamic prices. Besides these formats, properties can implement other strategies which best suit their current operating model such as dynamic rate retargeting, dynamic rate google adwords, dynamic rate email marketing, dynamic rate promos on hotel website and so on.

Price savvy customers want to ensure that:

1. they get a property within their budget
2. they get the best possible deal for that particular hotel.

Metasearch sites provide answers to both the solutions, sites such as TripAdvisor, Kayak.com, WeGo.com enable hotels to post their real time pricing and availability giving customers direct access to make their bookings. Advances in technology have resulted in a spurt in these metasearch travel sites.

This kind of dynamic rate marketing doesn’t just simplify things for the guest, it also helps streamline processes for the property – hotels can now respond immediately to any fluctuations in the market’s conditions or competitor behavior. Since any changes the hotel makes to its rates are instantly reflected in the advertised rates across all advertising campaigns, DRM can dramatically improve the effectiveness of the campaign and improve conversions. Guests are more likely to book when they’re confident that they’re getting a good deal!

Whether it’s a small hotel or a large chain, DRM campaigns can definitely result in a profitable ROI for the hotel. Hotels can use DRM campaigns to their advantage and give travelers a chance to directly book with the hotel thus doing away with the middle man.

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