Disrupting Distribution in Hospitality

Marco Rosso, Regional Director (Spain) at SiteMinder, sat down with the Young Hoteliers Summit in an interview to discuss the changing distribution landscape and how to best leverage the different channels to optimize visibility and revenue. As Rosso says,

"Be present everywhere, leverage all channels, leverage all situations, but focus on what you do."

Rosso, who believes that OTAs are friends not foes, emphasizes that hotels should work with a variety of metasearch sites and be present on as many OTAs as possible to generate traffic and bring business to the hotel. Then, the key lies in being able to convert those clients into your direct customers, thus increasing direct bookings in the long run.

Furthermore, many travelers begin their search on OTAs, and then look for the direct websites of the hotels they are interested in. Rosso thus highlights how important it is for hotels to ensure that their direct website is discoverable, optimized, and secure. As rate parity becomes a thing of the past, he also touches on how hotels need to be bolder and use this to their advantage to compete against the big OTA players.

Ultimately, OTAs can be a useful tool for driving direct bookings. Hotels should perhaps focus on properly leveraging these channels, rather than constantly trying to outcompete them. This way, hotels and OTAs could create a bigger pie instead of simply fighting for a bigger slice.

Revenue Management Online Travel Agencies (OTA)