Earlier this summer, trivago announced a new way for independent hotels to drive bookings through a free booking link. This link appears on the hotel profile when doing a search on the website. With trivago receiving 60 million visits per month, allowing hotels to redirect to their own websites from the site is incredibly important in capturing the guest.

We believe metasearch is well positioned in this environment, and we’ll focus on making it even easier for travellers to find great deals on our platform.

Matthias Tillman, CFO Trivago

The metasearch companies, like trivago, that compile the the various room rates across other booking sites are becoming a more important step in the booking process for the traveller. Before this year, those searches redirected the traveller to Booking.com, Expedia, and other booking sites. The hotels pay higher commissions for those reservations, but the guest also pays in the form of a worse booking experience.

With the free booking link, similar to the links that can be created on Google Business and Apple Business Connect, hotels will be able to give those guests the best booking experience from the start. It will allow guests to see all the available room types, add on dinner reservations, or explore the other options available at the property that generate more revenue for the hotel.

The completed bookings will be charged a commission depending on the partner and the campaign you choose. It is going to be a lower commission than Booking.com and Expedia, and the guest information will be yours to use with future offerings. Continue reading for more details about this.

trivago Business Studio

The starting point for the free booking link is trivago Business Studio. The Business Studio is laid out in a very clean and organized way, with only a few areas to look at.

The main page is a dashboard giving you valuable insights into how the hotel is performing through TripAdvisor.

The top of the dashboard is the conversion funnel, showing you the number of searches for hotels in your location, impressions on the property, and then the number of clicks on the property deals. That report gives you the total number, and breaks it down into the different distribution channels. With this example, you can see the SKKY Hotel, is experiencing 70% click-thru to the website for reservations.

If you use a channel manager that partners with trivago, like SiteMinder, you will be able to determine how well those reservations are converting. On SiteMinder, trivago is part of the Demand Plus area, which pushes the up to date rates out to trivago to display. On their Insights tab, it tells me that the reservations are converting around 20%, which is the same as Booking.com reservations.

The other tab on trivago Business Studio allows hotels to update all their information about the property. Unlike Booking.com that goes through an approval process for changes, trivago updates the listing instantly. There isn’t as much control over how images are displayed (i.e. changing the order or adding captions), but uploading the pictures was quick and easy. The other information that is available to change is the description for the hotel, and all the amenities at the property using checkboxes. The amenity list is not quite as extensive as Booking.com’s list.

TripAdvisor Rate Connect

The Rate Connect tab is where the hotelier will be able to determine what commission structure they would like. With SiteMinder, the structure is a pay per stay for completed reservations. In order to get access to the other options, you will have to be working with one of trivago’s connectivity providers.

Pay-per-Click: This campaign allows you to set a monthly budget and get charged when a potential guest clicks through to your website. The hotel will be charged regardless of whether the guest books or not.

Pay-Per-Booking: With this campaign, the hotelier chooses their commission structure (12%, 15%, 18%, or 25%) and allows trivago to place their property appropriately within the search results.

Pay-Per-Stay: Similar to the pay-per-booking option, without the higher commission tier. The commissions available are 10%, 15%, or 18%.

The main difference is the commission for pay-per-stay is on completed stays, while the pay-per-booking is charged regardless (i.e. the hotel is using a non-refundable rate). The other difference between them is they all use trivago’s Automated Market Selection, but the Pay-Per-Click has the option to choose any market they would like. That may be a good option for people with a higher end property wanting to show up in listings in a nearby city or wanting to offer a more convenient location for people wanting to get to the airport in a major city.

Taking control of your property on trivago Business Studio is free and necessary for the hotelier to ensure the information is updated regularly. Adding on the booking link will require a little more work, but is valuable for the longterm. Being able to send offers to the guests that have stayed at the property will generate repeat guests and longterm growth.

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Trivago announced today their list of the top hotels in Canada. This list of hotels is divided up by regions (British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, etc.) and is based upon the cumulative reviews from sites like TripAdvisor, Expedia, and Booking.com. The list contains a lot of recognizable names for hotels in Canada (for good reason) but also contains one of the hotels I am associated with.

The SKKY Hotel in Whitehorse, Yukon was named as the top hotel in Northern Canada. That is no minor achievement given how competitive the hotels in Whitehorse are (every 3 star hotel has undergone major renovations in the past three years), but also how competitive the hotels in Yellowknife and other areas of the north are. Being located close to the mineral deposits, oil fields, and significant tourist destinations, most of the hotels have major money behind them to help with renovations and marketing.

As I detailed in my case study about the hotel, the SKKY Hotel is a small boutique hotel, backed by a small partnership. The amount of money spent on marketing and new development for the hotel is relatively minor compared to the main competition in the city, and most likely Yellowknife. 

The team I have been leading the past five years are all quite proud of this accomplishment and look forward to building upon the great success they have already achieved. 

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