As fees from third party booking sites eat into hotel’s profit margins, Trivago industry manager, Raissa Benchoufi, says that keeping an up-to-date website is the best way to get more direct bookings.

“You have the traveler on one end and the hotel on the other; everything in between is the online industry,” Benchoufi said at Berlin’s ITB Convention. “So you need to position your hotel in the market in the right way to make sure the traveler books with your hotel.

According to Benchoufi, one in two travelers use metasearch to find a hotel. While many go to OTAs, some use hotel aggregation sites like Trivago where clients are redirected for the actual booking. Staying informed on the latest technology can help hoteliers decide which updates are necessary.

“Not every product is right for every hotel,” Benchoufi said. “You don’t have to do all the trends. Find the right solution for your hotel, for your individual product in the industry. By 2025 you have to really position yourself online and if not you will lose bookings.”

In order to steal an online customer from a third party booking site, Benchoufi says that your site has to be simple and trustworthy.

“When you have a booking engine on your hotel website it is sometimes not as easy to access for the customer,” Benchoufi said. “If you have a booking agent on the website it could generate the direct bookings, but it needs to be presented really professionally so that people trust your website. Sometimes there is not easy solution, but it is a process that you have to keep up to date.

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