Why Hotels Must Rethink Their Black Friday Strategy to Stand Out from OTAs
As Black Friday has evolved from a single-day sales event into an extended period of promotions, hotels face new challenges in distinguishing themselves from the overwhelming presence of Online Travel Agencies (OTAs). Research conducted by three&six into 2023’s Black Friday trends highlights the growing importance for hotels to strategically differentiate their offers from OTAs and leverage their unique strengths. While OTAs will undoubtedly offer substantial discounts, hotels have opportunities that OTAs can’t match, particularly when it comes to appealing directly to their own audience.
The Extended Black Friday: A Longer Battle for Attention
Originally, Black Friday was a one-day sales bonanza, but in recent years it has stretched into a week or more of promotions. OTAs like Booking Holdings and Expedia are already taking advantage of this, with Booking.com reported to start its promotions as early as November 16, running until November 29, likely extending through Cyber Monday with reported 30% discounts. These extended sales windows give OTAs a larger audience reach, but it also creates a challenge for hotels: how do you compete with these massive marketing machines?
The answer lies not in following the OTAs' lead by slashing rates but in carefully curating a strategy that leverages a hotel’s direct connection to its audience. With major sales events like Prime Day reshaping consumer expectations, shoppers now approach Black Friday with heightened expectations, meaning hotels must offer more than just discounted rates. Hotels can create tailored experiences, target loyal guests, and offer value that OTAs cannot replicate. By focusing on their unique strengths, hotels can stand out in a crowded marketplace.
Shaping Your Strategy: Learning from 2023
The numbers tell the story: in 2023, Booking Holdings and Expedia Group spent a staggering $3.2 billion and $2.3 billion, respectively, on Google Ads alone highlighting their financial power. However, while OTAs dominate on the scale, hotels have an advantage when it comes to personalization and connection with their customer base. The key takeaway from Black Friday 2023 was that hotels need to craft offers that appeal to their specific audience, not a mass OTA audience.
In 2023, the hotels that succeeded during Black Friday did not simply compete on price. Instead, they offered perks—such as free room upgrades, exclusive experiences, or flexible booking options—that added value without eroding margins. While the average discount offered by three&six’s clients was 28%, using this in conjunction with these additional perks helped differentiate their offers from OTAs and enhanced the overall value proposition. By building on the insights from last year, hotels in 2024 can look at their own data and guest behavior to design promotions that resonate more deeply with potential customers.
Diversifying Marketing Efforts: A Multi-Channel Approach
Another takeaway from three&six’s 2023 data is that the most successful campaigns were those that employed a diversified marketing strategy. Hotels that combined organic social media engagement with paid social ads, PPC, and display ads saw a significant uptick in bookings. But it goes beyond just running ads—successful hotels used these channels to foster a community, creating anticipation and excitement for their Black Friday offers.
Think about your own online shopping habits: how often do you see a promotion once and immediately buy something? More likely, it’s the teaser emails, the countdown ads, and the drip-feed of messaging that build anticipation. This is why email and social media are essential in your Black Friday strategy. Staggering your messaging and building excitement over time prevents your promotion from getting drowned out in the noise.
Don’t forget about your website either. Often overlooked, your website is a prime opportunity to remind visitors of immediate upcoming deals to keep your offer top of mind for potential guests.
Using 2023’s Metrics as Benchmarks for 2024 Success
To evaluate the success of 2023 Black Friday campaigns, three&six analyzed the performance of their clients' marketing efforts, focusing on the usual key metrics. Their findings showed that the most successful campaigns achieved an all-channel average ROAS of 15.1x, with CTRs reaching up to 35.45%. With Black Friday keywords already trending on Google Trends, 2024 is anticipated to be as strong as last year.
These metrics offer a starting point, but hotels need to benchmark their own historical performance to truly understand what worked in the past. By analyzing their own data, hotels can identify patterns and refine their strategies for 2024, ensuring that their campaigns are more targeted and efficient. However, anticipating an even greater performance in 2024 is not just about repeating last year’s tactics—it’s about learning from those results and applying that knowledge to new challenges and opportunities.
For example, remarketing to guests who showed interest but didn’t book, even through this short window, is a powerful tactic. In 2023, hotels that used remarketing lists saw lower CPCs and captured more impression share, even in a highly competitive market. With OTAs expected to ramp up their ad spend again this year, remarketing will be a crucial tool for hotels to recapture potential guests without significantly increasing their marketing budgets.
Outmaneuvering the OTAs with Smarter Tactics
To stay competitive during Black Friday, hotels must learn from what their customers want and understand how OTAs operate, so they can outmaneuver them with smarter tactics. Instead of trying to beat OTAs at their own game, hotels should focus on personalized promotions and creating experience-based offers that provide unique value to their audience.
three&six’s data from 2023 reveals that the most successful hotel campaigns were those that diversified their marketing efforts. Hotels that combined organic social media engagement with paid social ads, PPC, and display ads saw a significant uptick in bookings. By fostering a community on platforms like Instagram and Facebook, hotels were able to create anticipation for their Black Friday offers, while retargeting ads on Google and Bing re-engaged users who had previously visited their sites.
Email marketing also remains a powerful tool for hotels. Building anticipation through teaser emails, countdowns, and personalized offers ensures that guests are primed to book when the sale goes live. In 2023, campaigns that started earlier in the week—before Black Friday—were able to capture consumers’ attention before the competition heated up. This strategy will be even more important in 2024, as OTAs continue to push their sales earlier and longer.
Looking Ahead: Staying Competitive in 2024
As consumer behavior continues to shift, particularly towards mobile shopping, hotels must adapt their strategies to meet guests where they are. Black Friday is no longer just a day of deals—it’s a critical sales period that can set the tone for the entire holiday season.
By looking at what worked in 2023 and applying those insights to their 2024 campaigns, hotels can craft smarter, more strategic promotions that not only capture bookings during Black Friday but also build long-term guest loyalty.
For more detailed insights and strategies, check out the Ultimate Guide to Mastering Black Friday for Hotels, which breaks down the tactics you need to drive success in this competitive period.
three&six is a full-service digital marketing agency specializing in hospitality. With a focus on innovation, the team delivers cutting-edge solutions that drive client success across all digital channels.
