Background
A recent, very heated, discussion on LinkedIn about direct online vs OTA distribution prompted this article. Some of the direct distribution “detractors” claimed that the direct channel was, quite often, more expensive than the OTA channel, pointing toward ROIs from metasearch marketing, so why bother? Proponents of direct distribution insisted that the direct channel was more than just ROIs that allowed the property to “own” the customer.
Why are we even talking about the direct online channel? Fish where the fish are! Today, the average travel consumer spends almost 7 hours on digital media a day vs 19 minutes on print media (newspapers and magazines). Overall consumers spend more time with digital media than with TV, radio and print media combined (Hootsuite). So, forget about spending your precious marketing dollars on print brochures and collateral, print ads, direct snail mail, etc.
In my view, the question is not about choosing one vs another channel, in this case direct online vs OTA channel, but how to balance your distribution so that your property is the least susceptible to seasonality, group cancellations and calamities, or over dependence on any single distribution channel.
Who “owns” the customer matters!
Let’s face it: there have always been intermediaries in hotel distribution, the question is: to what extent? Even in the pre-Internet era, back in 1995, 25% of roomnights were generated by intermediaries vs 75% were direct. In other words,...
Read Full Story: https://www.hospitalitynet.org/opinion/4110122.html
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