Read time 3 minThe travel and hotel industries are considered the most competitive market, and pricing plays a crucial role here. When booking a hotel room, any guest would wish to book on a site that offers rooms at the lowest price. But how do they get to know this? The answer is simple! They compare the prices of the same hotel room on various other sites and finally make a booking on the site which offers rooms at the lowest rate. There are multiple price comparison tools that compare room rates on various websites. Hotel websites and OTAs (Online Travel Agencies) like Booking.com, Agoda, and Expedia are well-known online channels.
Hotel price comparison operates in two different formats. The first format is known as aggregators or metasearch. Google Hotel, Tripadvisor, and Kayak come under the aggregator format, whereas the hotel price comparison widget comes under the second format, which can usually be seen directly on a hotel’s website.
Benefits of price comparison
Price comparison offers several benefits. Let us discuss them now. Hotel price comparison gives more information about the hotel and price to the guest in a shorter time. It also saves a lot of time as the guests need not check other OTAs to get the best deal. The prices are all displayed at one single location, and you can choose the one that best fits your budget. Hotel widgets and metasearch sites enable guests to book faster as they show the rates in an easy-to-compare format. In addition to this, they display the price clearly without any ambiguity, letting them book not just faster but at the best price too.
Technology behind price comparison
Tools, software, and technology make everything look simple. Price comparison also incorporates the latest technology to throw consumers the best results. Thinking of how technology works here to simplify the task? Here is the answer. First, when a guest visits the hotel website to check the availability and price, the price comparison tool collects critical data such as dates, number of guests, and room type and sends it to OTAs. It receives the price details from the OTAs and displays them on the screen in front of the consumer. A price comparison widget appears on the screen, which lets them select the room with the lowest price quickly.
You might now think that the price can be erroneous. Not at all. The process is free of errors, and the price doesn’t vary since there is no manual labor involved in this. The process is completely automatized, and the widget shows the same price as that of OTA, with no hidden charges.
Advantages of price comparison widget
The first and foremost advantage the price comparison widget offers is that guests need not perform a special search on the web. The hotel website itself shows the prices in the form of a widget. This approach is undoubtedly the best as it displays the actual price with accuracy, and guests need not keep switching tabs between different websites.
Hotels prefer a price comparison widget because it cuts down the cost paid to OTAs in the name of the commission. Yes, hotels have to pay a certain percentage of the amount to OTAs if the booking is made through them. OTAs, on the other hand, grabbed consumers’ attention by giving them offers and deals. Hotels found this to lower their profit and wanted to find an alternative to save costs and also attract guests. This is when the price comparison widget found prominence and popularity among hotel owners.
Hotels got hold of the strategy used by OTAs and are now taking steps to make sure that they satisfy their guests in the best possible way. The first step towards achieving customer satisfaction is to offer the best deal to guests who book directly on the hotel website. They also get other perks like free late check-out, a better cancellation policy, etc.
Conclusion
The price comparison widget acts as a bridge between the hotels and guests. It scales the profit for hotels and helps bring more guests to their website. Guests can benefit from the deals hotels offer and save time and money by directly booking rooms on the hotel website. There are many agencies that specialize in the hotel price comparison. Springbord is one of the leading consultants who can help drive more traffic to your website and see your profit grow several fold.
