GIVE THEM CHOICE AND THEY WILL COME

The Expedia Traveler Preference (ETP) program reports that hotels in Canada using the program have seen an increase in their room only, year-over-year net room night production of 18% on average.
ETP-enabled hotels offer travellers choice on how they would like to pay for their reservation, either at the time of the booking or at the time of stay. More than 30,000 hotels globally are now signed up to the program and more than 350 in Canada are already ETP-enabled.
In its analysis, the Expedia group also found that for standalone room nights where customers were offered a choice of when to pay for their hotel in Canada, the preference was Expedia Collect for 47% of room nights and Hotel Collect for 53%.
When compared to the total production that Expedia provides its hoteliers in Canada, which includes bookings from package, non-refundable and other channels, the percentage of Hotel Collect bookings is roughly 34%.
Jennifer Drew, director of market management, Canada, said: \”Like most things in life, people prefer choices. ETP offers booking guests just that — an opportunity to purchase room nights in a manner that best suits their needs, whether that means paying at the time of booking or the time of stay. The results speak for themselves, and our hotel partners in Canada have enjoyed the increased conversion.\”
Courtney Jancetic, revenue manager of the Hotel Arts in Calgary, said that: \”The Expedia Traveler Preference Program has been a great tool for selling our inventory on Expedia. Not only have we increased our market share, but the program also has provided our consumers with added convenience, thereby resulting in higher satisfaction with the reservation process. This is a great win-win solution for Hotel Arts and Expedia for selling rooms. We are thrilled with the results stemming from this new program.\”
Go to http://www.expedia.com for more.