Driving direct bookings is the holy grail of any Vacation Rental Management company. It not only provides better margins but also allows property managers to own the guests’ data. However, over the years, Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) have been capturing the majority of the online bookings market. The main reason for that: Artificial Intelligence (AI).
When competing against OTAs for vacation rental bookings, staying ahead of the tech curve is essential for VRMs and Property Managers.
According to OliverWyman.com, a recent survey has shown that the OTA booking share for all things travel could get close to 50% in the upcoming years.
Additionally, OTAs know that 87% of guests are more likely to book a property when travel websites offer personalized experiences. The ever-growing demand for personalized and seamless booking experiences means integrating technology like Artificial Intelligence (AI) into direct booking websites has changed from game-changer to a necessity.
In this blog post, we’ll explore the latest tech strategies that VRMs can incorporate to elevate their direct booking strategies and drive increased conversion rates.
Predictive Hospitality as a Direct Booking Growth Strategy
Predictive Hospitality solutions take the guesswork out of understanding your audience and their buying behavior. With AI and Machine Learning at their core, these platforms can process vast amounts of data and glean insights faster than any human team could ever hope to achieve. By analyzing historical data, trends, and guest preferences, Predictive Hospitality can help you anticipate your guests’ needs and preferences, allowing you to tailor your services and marketing efforts accordingly.
One of the most significant advantages of Predictive Hospitality is its ability to maximize property discovery, leading to increased owner satisfaction. This AI-driven system can optimize property listings, making them more visible and appealing to potential guests. This increased visibility can result in higher occupancy rates and revenue, benefiting both property owners and management companies.
Perhaps one of the most exciting aspects of Predictive Hospitality is its capacity to individually match the right content, pricing, reviews, and properties with the right guests on your website and marketing campaigns. By leveraging AI algorithms, the system can analyze user behavior and preferences in real-time, providing personalized recommendations that resonate with your audience. This level of personalization not only enhances the guest experience but also increases the likelihood of direct bookings, reducing reliance on third-party booking platforms.
What sets Predictive Hospitality apart is its continuous improvement. Just like a diligent employee, this AI-driven technology becomes more precise with each passing day. It adapts to changing market conditions, guest preferences, and industry trends, ensuring that your hospitality business remains competitive and relevant.
Let’s dive into how Predictive Hospitality can set you apart in 2024:
As we mentioned before, Imagine having a team of highly smart analysts looking at your existing data and providing you with insights about your customers, their property preferences, spending habits, online behavior, and much more, and recommending actions that will provide immediate results.
Now, with AI and machine learning technologies being broadly available, predictive intelligence allows your team to access those insights and recommendations that are only available to OTAs and large enterprises. The best part? These systems keep learning on autopilot 24/7, delivering even more precise results over time.
Autonomous intelligence agents like Aidaptive can also maximize inventory discovery, personalize guest booking experiences, and optimize website workflows on behalf of your teams.
The first step is to connect your existing data sources and website CMS to a predictive hospitality platform.
Once the data is connected, your business can start capitalizing in many ways:
1. Personalized Property Recommendations
Understanding your customers’ browsing patterns is step one, but how do you use those insights to drive revenue like the OTAs? Incorporating AI-driven recommendations can transform the guest experience on direct booking websites and increase conversions. These tools analyze real-time user behavior, historical data and real-time intent predictions to provide personalized recommendations for properties, amenities, and local attractions. By tailoring suggestions to individual preferences, VRMs can capture the attention of potential guests, increasing the likelihood of direct bookings. Show customers what is relevant to their booking intent more quickly and more efficiently with the same technology OTAs are using.
2. Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Personalized Search
The search bar is often ignored real estate on a direct booking website. Integrating AI will allow you to deliver sorted search results, prioritizing guest intent and maximum monetization. The result is reduced browsing friction, increased click-through rates, and ultimately, increased conversions to drive direct bookings.
3. Dynamic Pricing Powered By Machine learning (ML)
Dynamic Pricing employs supply and demand calculations in various property locations to adjust prices automatically based on market trends and availability. Personalized Pricing takes this a step further by tailoring the booking experience for each potential guest, suggesting properties, prices, and promotions based on individual purchase intent, history, and buyer journey. This innovative approach not only saves time and increases overall returns but also enhances the guest experience by combining property-centric and customer-centric strategies, ultimately boosting conversion rates and profit margins. While Dynamic Pricing streamlines operations, solely focusing on property data overlooks the advantages of personalization. Aidaptive’s industry-leading Personalized Pricing leverages machine learning to analyze all available data sources in vacation rental management, uncovering valuable insights for growth, optimization, and efficiency.
4. Predictive Intelligence for Inventory Discovery, Personalized Customer Relationship Management, and Upselling.
In the same way, you can tailor the browsing journey to every guest’s unique preferences – you can send 1000 emails with content automatically adjusted to the specific interests of 1000 different recipients. Predictive Intelligence can populate customer cohorts for targeted messaging with marketing campaigns. Imagine having a list of customers who are most likely to rent an under-occupied property and sending an email campaign directly to that list. Balance your inventory and reservations, increase repeat bookings and see engagement jump.
AI has become a crucial tool for VRMs and Property Managers looking to compete effectively with OTAs and drive more direct bookings in 2024. By embracing predictive intelligence and personalization, VRMs can offer a seamless and personalized experience to potential guests, increasing conversion rates and ultimately achieving their holy grail of direct bookings.
