Qatar and UAE Lead Hotel Direct Bookings in October 2022

The Hotels Network (THN), a full-stack direct growth platform for hotels, recently analyzed the Middle East hotel direct channel scene to identify opportunities and provide tips on how to act on them. The data was extracted from BenchDirect, the first hotel benchmarking tool for direct channel performance, from five countries in the region: United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Oman, Qatar, and Turkey. Extracted over a 30-day period, from September 25 - October 25 2022, the data and findings will give hoteliers the most up-to-date analysis of the market, as well as insights and tips to act on the findings.

First things first, hoteliers must be aware of how many potential guests are initially landing on their website. This will help in understanding how well traffic acquisition efforts are performing, and is the starting point for encouraging these visitors to advance through the booking funnel. In terms of visitors that landed on hotel websites during this 30-day period, UAE was determined to be the most popular amongst the countries analyzed with an average of over 24,000 total users visiting a hotel website detected in October, followed by Turkey with an average of almost 16,000 website visitors.

To understand direct channel performance in any market, a metric that must be monitored is the total conversion rate of hotel websites. It’s a key indicator for tracking the success of converting hotel website visitors into future guests. Although Qatar was detected with the lowest number of website visitors within the time period, they outperformed all other countries analyzed, with a total conversion rate of 2.3%, over double that of the Middle East’s detected second most popular destination, Turkey. UAE hotels also converted higher than many other countries in the region at 2%.

An important area of opportunity hoteliers need to look out for is where their potential guests are searching and booking from. For example, Turkey has the highest percentage of mobile visitors on their website, with over 63% of their initial traffic coming from these devices. However, only 36% of their direct bookings are completed from a mobile device. This presents a major opportunity for Turkish hoteliers to optimize the mobile user experience and convert more of those visiting from their mobile devices into bookers.

Keeping an eye on price disparities is key. Both the frequency and amount at which the disparities occur is important information for hoteliers to ensure they are able to consistently offer their hotel website visitors the best available rate. Oman experienced the highest frequency of OTAs undercutting the hotel’s rate, as well as with the highest amount difference between the OTA offers and the hotels’ direct booking rates. With the lowest OTA frequency still being detected over 15%, the region as a whole is presented with an opportunity to create greater parity between OTAs and their websites to boost direct reservations.

Hotel guests are always going to be in search of the best possible deal for their stay. In addition to offering the best online price, communicating direct booking perks is the perfect way to provide website visitors that extra nudge they need to complete their booking. Including offers exclusive to the hotel website such as early check-in or late checkout, complimentary breakfast, and discounts on food and beverages are simple ways to give guests that much more of a reason to make their reservation on the hotel’s direct channel.

The analysis points to price disparities issues both in frequency and amount throughout the entire Middle East region. As potential bookers become accustomed to the price differences, it’s a logical step for them to conduct their research on different websites before comfortably making a final decision. Utilizing a Price Comparison feature on your hotel’s website that showcases all of the available prices for the same hotel room, in real-time, will help assure the visitor that booking direct is the right choice. The best part? The visitor won’t have to exit the website to go look for this information, making it simple once they decide to make their reservation to continue through the booking funnel. OTAs undercutting your rates? Using a Price Match feature will help your hotel fight disparities in real-time by presenting visitors with an offer to match the price.

In all but one of the countries analyzed, mobile was the dominating device for direct channel visitors, with almost two thirds of Turkish visitors navigating from their handheld devices. The need is clear for more attention on this audience. By ensuring the hotel website is mobile optimized, with messages concise and clear for smaller screens, visitors will be greeted with a more seamless experience allowing them to easily search through all the property has to offer. Building on this idea, crafting a campaign exclusive to mobile visitors will encourage this audience to make their booking in the moment to not let this offer that is seemingly tailored to them go to waste.

It’s that simple: Learn, then act. Hotel direct channel data is crucial for gaining invaluable insights into your market, as we see through this analysis of key metrics from Middle Eastern hotel websites. By hotel benchmarking, creating an informed direct channel strategy and personalizing the website user experience, Middle Eastern hoteliers are setting themselves up for success and an increase of direct bookings during the upcoming season.

About The Hotels Network

The Hotels Network is an inventive technology company working with over 20,000 hotels around the globe. Boasting an international team of specialists with deep expertise in hospitality, product design and consumer marketing, the company offers clients a full-stack growth platform to power their direct channel. By leveraging a series of integrated tools and analytics, hotel brands can attract, engage and convert guests throughout the user journey.

In addition to price comparison, reviews summary, and a suite of personalization options, THN's Direct AI Suite is deeply integrated in their platform, from predictive analytics to generative AI. Predictive Personalization uses machine learning to predict user behavior and automatically tailor messaging and offers for each user. BenchDirect's benchmarking tool provides unmatched competitive data for the direct channel. Recent innovations include KITT, an AI-powered receptionist, and Loyalty Lite, a seamless guest login tool for personalized booking experiences.

THN is proud to have been recognized for the company's product innovations, rapid growth, and unique workplace culture for the second year in a row, most recently named the Best Direct Booking Tool for 2024 in the prestigious HotelTechAwards.

For more information about THN, visit https://thehotelsnetwork.com/en or contact [email protected].