Why Luxury Hotels Are Less Likely to Appear on Traditional OTAs
When beginning a search for your next hotel stay, it’s only natural to turn towards online travel agencies (OTAs) like Booking.com, Trivago, Expedia, etc. The appeal of an OTA is that it brings together thousands of different hotels on one platform, making it (seemingly) easier for you to find what you’re looking for.
However, this isn’t always the best approach when booking a luxury hotel stay.
While luxury hotels do use and appear on OTAs, many are less likely to do so. You are far more likely to see hundreds of results for “standard” hotels than you would for luxury establishments. Instead, as noted by Gourmet Marketing, luxury hotels are more concerned with turning online visibility into direct bookings.
Why do they prefer this approach over one that should, in theory, generate more inquiries?
It’s all about exclusivity
What’s the main thing that stands out about a luxury hotel experience versus a more traditional one? The whole experience should feel more exclusive and bespoke – and that’s what hotel operators wish to create from a consumer’s first interaction with their brand.
Appearing on standard booking networks can make a luxury hotel feel, well, less luxurious.
It’s easy for this hotel to disappear into a sea of others and be looked at in the same way as other local 3- or 4-star hotels. By contrast, when consumers have to visit the hotel’s website directly to book, it creates this air of exclusivity. They immediately feel like they’re getting a luxury experience by this act alone; it makes it seem as though the hotel is only for certain individuals instead of the general public. When you’re looking to travel in luxury, that’s exactly the type of experience you wish to find.
Tailoring the experience to each guest
A luxury hotel stay should be elevated above what you’d typically expect from all other hotels. Consequently, many of these establishments find that OTAs are unable to give them full control over the guest’s booking experience. If you use a platform like Booking.com, you can find a great hotel, pick a room, and maybe type in a few requests – but that’s as far as it goes.
Luxury hotel operators are confined to the parameters of the booking website, and that may not reflect what the hotel wants to present to guests. As such, direct bookings give the property more control over the booking process, which enables them to tailor each experience to the individual guests.
Controlling the booking directly means the hotel can provide more add-ons or service alterations/requests for each client as they book. It stops the need for follow-up calls or messages after someone has booked because they can tailor things right away. Instead of just booking a room, the guest can choose what type of breakfast they want, select specific pillow types, request daily laundry services, set a custom check-in/out time, and so much more.
Bundling other luxury services together
Another factor to consider with luxury hotels is that they usually offer more services on top of just booking a room. Think about it: when you’re booking a luxury holiday, you want something special that goes above and beyond simply staying in a room for a couple of nights. Yes, luxury meals may form a part of this, but what about other services?
Luxury hotels will almost always have spa facilities or other facilities that amplify your experience and give you something extra to do. Now, while an OTA may let you book a room at a luxury spa hotel that includes use of the spa facilities, it probably won’t allow you to add any specific spa treatments to your booking.
That’s why direct bookings are preferable for a lot of these hotels. They enable guests to book a room and then add spa services and treatments to the booking at the same time. Or, if there are other luxury services on offer throughout the hotel, then they can be booked as well.
Offering more incentives
Again, as convenient as an OTA is – and it can definitely be used by luxury hotels to appeal to a wider, international audience – they come with limits. We’ve already touched upon the inability of luxury hotels to provide some of their additional services through these booking systems, or to allow full room customisation to guests.
Alongside this, OTAs don’t leave much room for hotels to provide unique incentives. For example, a luxury hotel cannot get someone to join their loyalty scheme when booking through an OTA – nor can they provide more personalised incentives for each guest. Direct bookings let them incentivise the booking process for each individual, providing them with special offers, exclusive upgrade choices, and more.
Do luxury hotels never use OTAs?
It would be false to claim that every luxury hotel will never be found on an OTA, as that simply is not true. Many will still use the traditional platforms to reach a wider audience – but the main priority is always on generating direct bookings. In fact, some rely on OTAs to increase visibility, but then want to encourage users to leave the booking site and visit their website directly.
And then you have OTAs that are specifically designed for luxury hotels, which can be a bit more useful than the more traditional options.
That being said, you will most definitely encounter some really high-end hotels that are not on any OTAs because they really want to promote the idea of exclusivity. We’re talking about the type of hotels that are so luxurious they don’t need to be fully booked every week to survive. In fact, you often find that the more luxurious and exclusive hotels are less likely to appear on OTAs in general.
All of this means that it’s probably better to search for luxury hotels and visit their websites directly if you’re looking to book a high-end experience. You’ll get more customisation options during the booking, better incentives, and the ability to add extra experiences or services to your booking in one go. If you’re after the best luxury experience, then going direct works.
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