Hotels view their own websites as equally as effective at driving direct bookings as Google or TripAdvisor, a new report from SiteMinder shows.
According to its Global Hotel Business Index, 57% of respondents believe hotel websites will account for the most direct bookings in 2018, tied with those that think TripAdvisor will bring the highest numbers; Google follows directly behind at 56%.
The bulk of marketing spend to drive direct bookings will go toward online travel agency listings (74%), with search engine marketing (26%), social media marketing and email marketing (22% for both) the next most active channels. Only 11% of hotels will put marketing dollars toward mobile and 7% toward video.
Priorities and challenges
The report also shows that technology factors into both top and bottom budget priorities for hotels for the year, with 61% investing in digital marketing and 56% investing in hotel technology such as channel management.
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Though digital marketing is considered a top priority, only 42% of hotels say they are investing in social media, putting it among their lowest concerns. Customer-facing technology such as keyless entry is viewed as least important, with just 17% allocating budget for upgrades.
The top three challenges hotels expect to face this year include finding new ways to manage revenue and profit (71%), guest satisfaction such as online reviews (68%) and improving channel management and distribution (52%). Knowing what technology to install is viewed as the least challenging, at 30%.
Tech: friend or foe?
Over the past five years, hotels say their perception of technology has changed: 49% say they fully embrace new technology, while 46% say they use technology because they know they have to; 5% say they still consider technology a scary concept.
Of the tech trends for 2018, hotels say their highest focus is on mobile (33%), the Internet of Things (20%) and in-room technology (10%).
Interestingly, few hotels see virtual reality (3%), artificial intelligence (2%) or voice and face recognition (1%) as a focus, and 33% don’t consider any of the tech trends important.
Unsurprisingly, personalization tops the list of what hotels think will bring success in 2018 at 78%, followed by strengthening brand image (67%) and creating revenue management strategies (55%).
Only 32% believe mobile optimization will bring success, and just 26% think new hotel technology is the way toward the future.