Hotel Direct-Booking Pushes Really Worked and Owners Were Big Winners

Did Hilton succeed in convincing consumers to "Stop Clicking Around?" Did Marriott prove "It pays to book direct"? According to a new report from Kalibri Labs, they and their peers which launched direct- booking campaigns in 2016 certainly did. Compiling data from its database of more than 25,000 hotels in the U.S., including validated costs and daily transactions directly sourced from the hotels' systems, Kalibri Labs found that there was indeed a shift in consumer behavior toward brand.com sites versus online travel agencies such as Booking.com or Expedia. More consumers than ever before chose to book direct versus booking on a third-party site. The Kalibri study looked at data from May to December 2016, when the majority of major U.S. hotel chains mounted direct-booking campaigns, and examined an estimated 52 million transactions from some 12,000 hotels in the upper midscale, upscale, and upper upscale hotel segments. The hotels examined participated in book-direct campaigns. Direct Booking Equated to More Money Not only did the campaigns encourage consumers to book direct, but the study also found that these campaigns were more beneficial for hotel owners than previously assumed. The hotels' direct-booking campaigns — even by offering discounted rates to consumers — were actually generating more revenue for hotel owners than the online travel agencies were. Kalibri Labs found that the net average daily rate of brand.com discounted loyalty rates was higher than the net average daily rate of room rates on the online travel agencies. The median net rev