...including why they suck, and why the industry can (and should) do better in order to stay competitive and sustainable, especially in an economic downturn!

There are few hoteliers that aren’t familiar with booking.com and its many subsidiaries. In the world of hospitality there are 2 dominant players in the online hotel booking game; Booking Holdings (BKNG) and Expedia Group (EXPE). These 2 behemoths have spent the last couple of decades buying up competitors and consolidating their positions as the pre-eminent distribution solutions for hotels online.

63% of all travel bookings are made online and every hotelier knows that a majority of that is happening on platforms owned by these 2 corporations. Ironically,, most guests don’t know that when they book using Agoda, Kayak, Getaroom, Priceline, HotelsCombined, Hotels.com, Orbitz, Travelocity, Trivago, or Wotif (among others) they are in fact just booking with with Booking Holdings or Expedia group.

Old news right, so why is this important? Well, it demonstrates how broken this model has become. A market that creates the false impression of choice is no market at all - the competitive dynamics that drive innovation and value simply don’t exist.

All this results in a raw deal for hotels (not to mention guests) that has seen costs of sale increase, control of pricing and booking conditions becoming harder to manage, and a dizzying number of ‘competing’ schemes thrust upon hoteliers in a unilateral fashion to maximise revenue for these intermediaries. What does this all mean? Well, commission, lots of it, and charged in even more complicated ways to obscure the real cost and to increase dependency on these platforms.

This should be simple to understand, yet it is anything but. The scale and complexity of how booking.com’s various commission structures work is labyrinthine.

Let’s start with the basics. As a hotel you’re going to pay a fixed commission of anywhere between 15-25% of the gross booking value, including VAT (except in territories where that is specifically excluded). This doesn’t provide any preferential placement in a guests search results or any added value to the hotel, it’s just to be listed.

If the hotel wants to be more visible to booking.com’s audience they could be paying a lot more. The Visibility Booster in the hotel’s extranet panel provides a wealth of options for how to get more eyeballs from booking’s huge user base, whether it’s based on itinerary, geography, length of stay etc. The trade being even higher commissions which can be north of 40% of the gross booking value. It’s a model that’s familiar to digital marketers as that’s pretty much how any auction-based ad platform works - want more, pay more.

So, whilst the costs are high, they’re simple and clear right? Wrong.

Where things start to get interesting (and that means more complex!) are when it comes to the “Programmes”. Let’s take a look at 3 of those most commonly suggested; Genius, Smart Flex Reservations, and Preferred Plus.

Probably the most common programme. Booking.com applies a discount to the list price of 10% and the hotel get’s increased visibility in search. This discounted price is exclusive for signed-in users of booking.com. However it is also the rate that often seems to appear as a promo rate on the booking.com-owned platform, Agoda, and other affiliates (although it’s worth noting that booking.com states this isn’t the case).

The claim here is that a hotel can pump their booking numbers through lows however the discount the user receives is simply added onto the hotel’s commission. So if a hotel is already paying 18%, add on the genius discount for a Level 1 guest, and suddenly the hotel is paying 28% commission for that booking. While this may be good for the guest, it certainly isn’t for the hotel who is effectively subsidising the cost of acquiring Genius members for booking.com whilst cannibalising their own direct sales. Remember - these users are being incentivised to be loyal to booking.com, even if they stay at your hotel, the likelihood is, if they return, they’ll do it via booking.com. Oh, and they also distribute Genius rates through their business channels so if a hotel has existing corporate rates negotiated they may find that booking.com is able to undercut them there too.

Bottom line, enabling Genius might pump bookings from booking.com and its sub-brands and affiliates but it’ll cost the hotel significantly and in many cases cannibalise a good percentage of direct bookings and repeat business.

Here’s a clever one. Booking.com claims that using Smart Flex Reservations helps hotels “generate bookings that you might not get otherwise”. Super! Well, it’s not quite that simple. 

Many hotels will sell a non-cancellable room cheaper than one that has a flexible cancellation policy for pretty obvious reasons - it’s guaranteed revenue versus slightly more that may or may not materialise. Smart Flex helps hotels sell more rooms by applying a flexible cancellation policy across all rates and then promises to fill those rooms if they are subsequently cancelled or reimburse the hotel the difference. It sounds great but look a little deeper and again it becomes problematic.

Let's work with an example: A hotel sells a standard double room at £120 per night with a flexible cancellation policy whilst offering the same room with a non-cancelable rate at £100. Makes sense. However with Smart Flex the £100 room is now flexible, meaning your £120 per night rate effectively ceases to exist. The hotel will still list it on their own site as £120 flexible rate but will be undercut again by the booking.com website. So, the hotel loses over 16% on the list price which when added together with the underlying 18% commission means the hotel is effectively paying 34% commission on the booking.

Again the winners here are booking.com because they get a rate that can’t be beaten by the hotel (or other OTAs) and the guest because they’ve paid the non-cancellable rate for full flexibility to cancel. Whilst booking promises to resell the room if cancelled they don’t guarantee that it won’t be subject to additional Genius discounts so a hotel could very quickly end up charged 43% of the original gross booking value. Ouch.

Here’s the final one we’re going to take a look at. So booking.com promises hotels a 60% boost in visibility and a 30% boost in bookings if they join Preferred Plus. Love it. How much?

Well, as always this is a little opaque but from the hotels I know who have looked at it in their extranet it appears to be between 3% and 5% additional per booking on top of their existing commission rate. Well, for a 30% uplift in bookings that might seem attractive but let's break it down a bit and try and understand how it can deliver on this.

So the guest incentive here is they get Travel Credits on their next booking at booking.com if they book with a Preferred Plus hotel. So the hotel is paying higher commission for increased visibility and bookings by paying to incentivise users to book again with booking.com. Again, it looks like hotels are footing the bill of booking.com’s loyalty programmes. According to this deepdive in PhocusWire, booking.com won’t provide any breakdown of how this increased visibility delivers in terms of bookings and simply means the hotel will be paying increased commission across all bookings without the hotel being able to measure its impact.

It’s pretty self-explanatory why this is less than ideal for hoteliers who are already at the sharp end of soaring energy prices and a staffing crisis. At a time when the macroeconomic climate means that consumers have less to spend on discretionary purchases it’s important that all service providers, including hotels, look for ways to improve value for their guests. At the same time, if too much value is stripped out of the sector then this essential and huge part of the global economy becomes unsustainable. 

The hospitality industry employs 1 in 10 people in the UK and this ratio is bigger in many other territories. Those people are an essential part of our economy and are also consumers themselves. Hotels need to sustain appropriate staffing levels, and pay sufficient salaries to ensure hospitality professionals can live good quality lives, contribute in  tax, and continue to run the businesses that are the lifeblood of many communities.

The truth is that the current hotel distribution model has a shelf-life, and I believe we’ve come to the point where it has expired. The reality is that Booking Holdings has built a business that is entirely dependent on scale with 34% of their revenue being spent on marketing, and a huge amount of that going directly to Google through its advertising platforms. As a result Booking Holding’s own margin per sale is pretty low andto make the huge profits they do requires them to process as many hotel bookings globally as possible. As a publicly traded company the scope to fundamentally shift its revenue model away from increasing commission is limited as ultimately the first responsibility is to deliver a dividend to shareholders. The problem is that beyond their unrivalled brand recognition, what they sell is effectively the same whether you buy it from them, the hotel directly, or one of their competitors. The vast majority of the tens of millions of bookings they process a week start with a high-cost digital ad. 

What’s left is a whole range of programmes that are narrowly focussed on building loyalty to booking.com into a guest’s purchase journey, and passing the cost of this on to hotels, which ultimately drives up prices for the consumer. If they were to achieve this loyalty and then provide more equitable fee structures to hotels then maybe it would be a good thing. The problem is commissions. Since the creation of distribution platforms like booking.com, commission rates have only ever gone in one direction - up. That means less revenue to hotels and higher costs to the consumers.

Doing things fundamentally differently. The current status quo locks hotels and distributors in a vicious cycle of a price war, where hotels have to try and police the distribution of their own inventory against their supposed partners. Hotels should live and die based on the quality of their offering, not on the amount of commission they’re willing to pay per booking.

With justhooit.com we’re pioneering a reinvention of hotel distribution from the ground up by offering a platform that IS fundamentally different for both hotels and guests. We offer guests something they can’t get anywhere else so they come back to us, and we charge hotels a fair commission of 5% to process the booking.

Our unique “Make an Offer” functionality means that hotels can now negotiate directly with prospective guests and agree a price that works for both parties, based on the specifics of the need. It’s effectively like having a dedicated reservations team empowered to make decisions that work for a hotels’ own revenue strategies but without any of the overheads, because this is all delivered automatically by our proprietary negotiation engine.

We do this by building relationships with each of the hotels on our platform. They understand that by having ultimate control of the price a booking transacts for they can flex when it suits them. It actually increases their revenue at the same time as offering their guest better value than they’ll ever get elsewhere. 

We do this transparently, not building in loads of opaque layers of distribution that means hotels don’t even know who sold their rooms or for what cost. We’re putting the ‘market’ back into the marketplace and making it fairer for everyone.

A Hotel Owner's Guide To Booking.com's Fees

With much-needed business beginning to return to the hotel sector, it is becoming clear that rural businesses have benefited most from the Covid-era staycation boom. But after almost three years of avoiding crowds, customers are gradually returning to big cities, and city hotels are working hard to show them what they’ve missed. We all know how to accentuate the positive in our marketing - the vibrancy of city life, the multitude of things to see and do - but it’s also important to smooth away any doubts that people may have after so long away. And that’s where public transport comes in.

No one enjoys driving in a big city. The roads are busy, unfamiliar and often congested, while parking spaces are notoriously difficult to find. With this in mind, many travellers prefer to leave their cars at home and travel by train. Similarly, international guests may wish to avoid hiring a car unless strictly necessary. This means relying on the public transport network to get around, which, if you’re new in town, can seem more daunting or inconvenient than it really is.

Most cities have excellent public transport, and if your city is one of them, it’s important to let potential customers know all about it - how fast it is, how frequent, and how to use it. If there’s a regular shuttle bus to a popular landmark that stops outside your hotel, or if the convention centre is just three stops down on the tram, those are great selling points. If you’re easily accessible from the railway station or the airport, let your customers know.

But even if you’re not ideally located, general knowledge about the transport system is always welcome. Potential guests will have many questions about how to get around, and the answers are not always readily available without a fair bit of online research. If you can provide the relevant information in your marketing, you’re not only saving people time, you’re also making a good impression while you’re doing it. A 2019 YouGov poll showed that 81% of consumers are looking for ‘local experience’ when choosing a hotel, so showing your knowledge of local transport is doubly beneficial: it helps convince potential guests to visit your city, while also showing that your hotel is the best choice to make their visit a success.

There are several ways to include local transport knowledge in your hotel marketing. You can publish transport guides on your social media, from how-to instructions for beginners to fun, did-you-know type general interest pieces. Include local tips like shortcuts or quieter times for those who want to avoid the crowds. If your city has an iconic mode of transport, like the London Underground or the Blackpool Trams, or an exciting new way to get around, like a Segway tour, a few posts on these will also be useful from an SEO point of view.

As always, your marketing should be tailored to fit the needs of your customer base. Customers travelling to budget hotels or hostels will want to travel quickly and cheaply, so bus routes and saver tickets are key information. The ‘on a shoestring’ type article is always popular, and here you can include the cheapest ways to get to your city’s top destinations, as well as any combo tickets offering travel with discounted or free entry to local attractions.

Customers who are paying more for their holiday are likely to privilege convenience and comfort over price. Business travellers, too, are less concerned with cost, generally preferring the fastest, simplest way of getting from a to b. These preferences should be reflected in your advertising materials. Let people know how to get where they want to go and how long they can expect it to take. If your hotel offers a shuttle from the station or the airport, or staff who can call you a cab, this can also prove persuasive.

Every good hotelier knows that a marketing campaign doesn’t stop once you have secured a booking. A good experience increases the likelihood of repeat visits and recommendations, so make sure you’re on hand with useful travel tips during and in the run up to the stay. When confirming the booking, let guests know you’re available to answer any questions they have about their stay or the area, and be ready with good advice for all their travel queries. Leave a local guide in your guest rooms, with a section on how to get around, including route maps, up to date timetables, and QR codes linking to their online equivalents. You should also make sure that reception staff have a passing knowledge of local transport so they can help with any queries.

Selling your city is a key part of any city hotel’s brand identity, and this should include practicalities like getting around, as well as promoting the area’s top attractions. Almost every activity will involve travel to some degree, and reassuring potential guests that this will be simple, efficient and inexpensive increases the likelihood of securing a booking.

Boost your hotel marketing further by learning about the big sustainability drive in hospitality, and don’t forget to find out how to list your hotel on hoo to engage with your visitors in a whole new way thanks to our unique Make An Offer ability.

How City Hotels Can Leverage Public Transport Options To Boost Bookings

Can you use Bluetooth headphones, tablets, keyboards and other devices on planes? Is it safe to use Bluetooth while you’re on a plane?

In short: yes. You can use Bluetooth devices while on a plane, although you’ll probably be subjected to some restrictions, depending on the airline and the destination of your flight. Generally you’ll need to keep your devices in Airplane or Flight mode (there’s a reason they call it that!) and probably won’t be able to use them during take-off and landing. The rules can also change depending on where you are flying to and from, especially for domestic vs international flights, so it’s a good idea to check with your flight provider if you want to be super-sure, or ask an attendant on the flight what is and isn’t allowed.

A lot of airlines won’t allow you to use Bluetooth devices - or any other electronics for that matter, sometimes including mobile phones - until the plane has reached a certain height, usually the “cruising altitude” of around 10,000 feet. This is because of safety concerns around ground network interference. In short, the airline doesn’t want your Bluetooth devices interfering with the communications or signalling equipment used by the plane or airport and causing a potential hazard as a result.

Generally Bluetooth headphones or airpods are fine to use on planes, however note that some airlines will not permit you to use noise-cancelling headphones at all, even if they’re fully wired. This is for the simple reason that you might not hear safety announcements properly (or at all) with them in, which is of course a pretty major safety concern.

Try to avoid having any kind of headphones in at all during taxiing (when the plane is moving about on the ground) as well as take-off and landing, just to be safe. If in doubt, ask a flight attendant what they recommend.

Mobile phones and laptops or tablets are generally safe to use on planes. Make sure they are kept in Flight or Airplane mode, and note this often turns off Bluetooth so if you want to use associated devices like headphones or keyboards you’ll need to keep Flight mode on while manually turning on Bluetooth on your phone or laptop.

Some airlines require you to switch off phones and laptops at all times when the plane is not at cruising altitude, and most will want you to turn them off for taxi, take-off and landing.

Other peripherals like keyboards or computer mice are, like headphones, considered to be short range Bluetooth devices so are generally safe to use on planes. Of course if you’re required to turn off your phone or laptop you might as well also turn off your Bluetooth peripherals and save some battery life!

Most airlines won’t have a problem with you trying your Bluetooth headphones or airpods for in-flight entertainment, but the majority of planes do not have systems compatible with Bluetooth devices just yet. Bluetooth support is becoming more widespread on commercial airlines but it isn’t everywhere, so you might want to bring a simple set of wired headphones as backup if you don’t want to be stuck with the often inferior devices that are provided for you by the airline itself.

An increasing number of planes offer USB charging ports for flight passengers so if you have the right cables to hand this is more and more likely to be an option. It isn’t guaranteed though, so again check with your airline before you fly to be sure, and remember there are often notoriously few places to charge your devices at the airport so you’ll want to make sure your batteries are topped up thoroughly before you set off!

Some airlines have specific rules about the use of electronic and Bluetooth devices on flights. British Airways, for example, specifies that electronic devices must have Flight mode enabled and does not permit Bluetooth use during taxi, take-off and landing. Delta Airlines, meanwhile, allows Bluetooth except during landings and take-offs. Qatar Airways has similar rules but has also started allowing passengers to connect to in-flight entertainment on some of its planes by using their own Bluetooth devices.

If in doubt, contact your airline before you travel or ask a flight attendant to confirm what can and can’t be used (and when) each time you fly; the exact wording of the rules can vary for all sorts of reasons but generally because of safety concerns, so it’s worth being sure before you plug in!

Check out our guide to the latest travel advice for Europe and North America, and don’t forget to check out how to make an offer on a hotel room with hoo for a bargain on your next stay, wherever it is and however you plan to get there.

Can You Use Bluetooth On A Plane?

Due to the recent pandemic, there has been a major halt in all travel, whether leisure or work related. Covid19 over the last couple of years has restricted movement between different people's homes, never mind travelling overseas. It's well documented that British people visit Scotland and Wales, due to its convenience, but is this the same for the North of Ireland? 

Northern Ireland's thriving tourism sector was struck hard by the pandemic and has had a negative effect on the majority of businesses. 36% of all businesses that were deemed non-essential during the lockdown were forced to shut due to lack of inflow of revenue. To retain the momentum gained previous to the crisis, a considerable promotional effort was and will need to be continued by the NI tourism sectors and relevant companies. Initiatives must be taken to regain the number of tourists that were incoming to NI. Gordon Lyons, Northern Ireland's economy minister, has said that previous to the pandemic tourism in the capital drove over 2.2 million visitors in 2019, in which 1.5 million of them were from Britain. A campaign that was launched in September 2021 by Tourism Ireland, is being aimed at British holidaymakers trying to entice them to travel to the North of Ireland. Five million pounds is being invested into the campaign to ensure its success and to ensure it reaches its targets of 80% of British residents. Named ‘Northern Ireland - Embraces a Giant Spirit’ it looks to drive up bookings and overnight stays. 

Northern Ireland receives a huge amount of one to two-day business trips each year due to the many numbers of international companies having their base or headquarters in NI and having staff and ties with mainland Britain. During the pandemic the entire work environment was forced to shut and life was put on pause for a long period of time. Companies and people were forced to adapt to a new remote working climate, with little face to face interaction. Zoom and Skype meetings were the new norm and the whole working environment changed completely. But finally, over the last few months life has resumed and businesses are conducting in a normal manner. Companies are open again and people are travelling for work now more than ever. Large multinational companies such as ALMAC, Aer Lingus and Moy Park all have headquarters based in the North of Ireland, which draw large inflows of workers from around the world. Although, due to people now being able to work remotely, it is said travel to do with business will not rebound as quickly as travel for leisure. Businesses can save financially by holding meetings via Zoom and Skype.  

The annual publication of tourist statistics published in 2020 for 2019 shows the average number of overnight stays in Northern Ireland was an estimated 5.3 million. Since 2019 figures have plummeted due to the strict lockdowns that were endured all over the UK and Europe. Usual yearly surveys conducted by analysts were brought to a stop in the middle March 2020, making it difficult to require accurate figures and details to be published. In a study published by CAIN figures from the late 90’s and early 2000’s shows that on average 57% of NI’s tourists were from England, Scotland or Wales and the majority were over visiting relatives in the north. This however has changed in more recent years. The primal location for English holiday goers is now Spain, France, the Canary Islands or the US. The most popular holiday months being the months of July and august due to school children being on their summer vacation. Sunny destinations like the ones above, are seen as popular to the Brits due to their warm weather, abundance of beaches and all-inclusive holidays such as mobile home parks which are ideal for young kids and families.  

In details published by Tourism360 from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) it has said the three main inflows of people coming to NI are coming in via the main three airports: George Best Belfast City Airport, Belfast International Airport and the City of Derry Airport. Access to Northern Ireland airports is available through all major airports in Britain including all of London's airports, Manchester, and Birmingham. Despite the current situation of increasingly rising fuel prices for flights, in an article written by Market Watch, it is said that even with a minimum of 10.7% rise in flight costs, the demand for travel is higher than ever with people trying to make up for lost time. Due to Covid19, not all flight routes and seats have made a return, meaning even higher prices and less availability, although these odds don’t seem to be scaring people off. In other means of travel, there was an increase by 15.2% in car traffic on ferries to Northern Ireland from Great Britain, January to October 2021 compared to the same period in 2019. 

There is a huge prospect and opportunity for the NI government and tourism boards to increase tourism in the north due to the Corona Virus. In surveys carried out by Scholfield's Insurance, it said that 51% of British people lost faith in the travel companies they would have booked with for sunny destination holidays, in fear of them going bust. 35% of the population surveyed now have a fear or worry of travelling abroad due to health risks related to the virus, by visiting overcrowded tourist havens. Staycations dramatically rose in popularity during and after Covid, with Brits finding them an overall more convenient and just as enjoyable holiday. With the right marketing and promotional campaigning, Northern Ireland can be made an extremely desirable holiday destination for England residents, even though it is across the water.

Get a taste of NI with our pick of beautiful Belfast city centre hotels, and don’t forget to find out how to list your hotel on hoo to engage with your visitors in a whole new way thanks to our unique Make An Offer ability.

NI Tourism Prospects: Do Mainland Brits Visit Northern Ireland?

If you haven’t done it yet, go on YouTube and watch Elon Musk’s company, SpaceX, land multiple rockets back on their feet after a quick trip into the atmosphere. It’s a mesmerising technical feat that looks almost balletic, but the aim is to ultimately put human beings on Mars in our lifetime.

It sounds big. It is big. But what has it got to do with booking hotel rooms? Well, it sounds like a stretch, but it’s not.

It’s about taking lots of variables (call it data) and making something very practical happen. It's Maths.

It's relevant because hotel pricing is wrong. Not just because of the extortionate commissions charged by OTAs in general, but because hotels have had to rely on historic data (occupancy % & price) and their own ‘rule of thumb’.

Now imagine a world with real demand-led pricing intelligence, which can help the hotel in its negotiation

The price isn't £100 - it's actually £87.56, we know because that's the average price request of people looking for a similar hotel in your area, right now. Throw in a free breakfast and you could win that customer.

With our data pipelines we could identify potentially high value customers – those who  never cancel, who regularly travel, who spend in the restaurant - and help guide the hotel in their negotiation using algorithmic automated negotiations to maximise hotel revenue from that booking.

Empty rooms are even in the best of times a missed opportunity for hotels, but currently they are an even bigger challenge. Hotels Because 30-40% of the total revenue made on a hotel room is through additional sales once you’re staying, such as food & drink, and parking.

With real visibility that will allow the hotel to go the extra mile for a guest, there’s no reason why ‘exceptional value’ offers shouldn’t be accepted by hotels, a month before the check-in date, not just at short notice.

To make this work, what you need are super-smart advisers. Some mathematicians that are used to dealing with big data, that have maybe helped in this ongoing quest to send a human beings to Mars.

So we are really pleased to welcome Dr Anthony Rose as a board advisor to hoo

Anthony was responsible for a large team that developed software for both SpaceX and Starlink. Before that, he also had senior roles at Uber and Expedia as well as working on the Atlas Project at CERN. He’s now Head of Engineering at Matter Labs, the global leader in bringing blockchain technologies to the mass market.

At hoo, we are not interested in just being a novel take on a large customer segment in the travel sector. We are here to change the way it’s done – for good and for the better.

But first things first - go find your hotel, make them an offer and enjoy your stay.

Former SpaceX Lead of Software Engineering joins hoo

Article reposted with permission from STAAH announcing a partnership with hoo:

hoo has joined the STAAH family of 250+ integrated channels giving Hotel providers access to truly dynamic pricing and world-beating commission rates. 

STAAH has partnered with hoo – an innovative new dot-com that is putting hotels first. hoo are disrupting the online booking market with a proposition that delivers better rates for guests, whilst increasing profit and occupancy for hotels. This unique win-win proposition is made possible through their automated negotiation system that allows hotels to implement dynamic pricing and unique booking incentives without breaching rate parity agreements. Importantly, hoo only charge a flat commission on bookings of 5% to ensure hotel operators have the opportunity to provide compelling rates and experiences whilst still receiving more revenue per booking compared to a traditional OTA.

With a mission to “change the way Hotels are booked online for the better”, hoo is focused on creating an experience, rather than a transaction led platform that puts the guest and hotels back in control with its fair and fun approach, that bakes in loyalty from the first booking.

Although a new player in the market, hoo has already secured an integrated connected partnership with Google Hotels and is currently building out global inventory. Their ambitious team has raised significant investment to power their growth and they are here to disrupt the online booking sector for the better.

With consumers wanting variety, hoo believe a fairer platform needs to exist to enable the two parties to come together in order to broker this experience. With world-leading technology and dynamic pricing technology, hoo have built a platform that looks to positively disrupt the OTA space and be a friendly face to accommodation suppliers around the world.

Through this integration, hotels can distribute their real-time rates and availability to the justhooit.com platform via the STAAH channel manager, and enjoy all the benefits hoo has to offer. The platform is a powerful and equitable alternative for hotels to sell their rooms in the manner they want to, without the overheads usually associated with online booking platforms.

Commenting on the partnership, Mr Adrian Murdock, co-founder of hoo said,

“We are delighted to have STAAH connected as a channel partner. We welcome their Hotels from across the world to join us on our mission to change booking hotels online for the better. We built this platform with the aim of making online bookings fair and equitable. We want to bring our toolset to more and more hotel operators, and integrating with STAAH is an important step in expanding our reach further.”

The integration is valid globally and properties of all sizes from around the world can make use of the platform completely free of charge – there are no listing fees or contracts. The only cost to the property is a small 5% commission fee which is paid on each booking enabling fair rates and hotels the ability to flex room prices whilst increasing profit.

“We are glad to partner with hoo, providing our partner properties a new channel with innovative features to market their rates & availability and maximising their profits. hoo’s automated negotiation system and STAAH’s distribution technology is going to help accommodation providers drive more bookings and increase revenue,” says Tarun Joukani, Commercial Director – STAAH. “

Alternatively check out this video – How hoo works for hotels

STAAH Ltd. is a New Zealand-based technology company that specialises in innovative cloud-based solutions that simplify hospitality operations and open a world of online commerce for accommodation providers of all types. Founded by Gavin Jeddo in 2008, an industry pioneer, STAAH’s technology suite comprises channel management, direct bookings, online reviews management and gift voucher management system.

Our passionate and diverse team is based across New Zealand, Australia, India, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, and UK providing support and service to our network of more than 10,000 accommodation partners in more than 90 countries worldwide.

STAAH is a New Zealand FernMark Licensee. Our quest for delivering high-quality solutions that deliver results is recognised by our industry partners such as Airbnb, Booking.com, Expedia & Agoda.

hoo Completes Partnership with STAAH

A battle has been raging between boutique and chain hotels since the beginning of time. While chain hotels are able to offer lower prices and solid consistency  due to a corporately scaled model, boutique hotels are able to adapt faster to the challenges of an ever changing  market. So, who is better equipped to deal with the rapid evolution of the hospitality industry? Let’s find out!.

One of the main challenges that hotels face is the changing demands and expectations of guests. Technology has made us all  impatient. We want things done quickly, and if your system is less than perfect then this can easily work against you. Changing regulations, including credit card fraud, compliance, protection laws and more make it very difficult for chain hotels to adjust the way that they work fast enough to provide the clean, seamless and efficient experience guests expect in all their purchases. We’ve all had the deflating experience of ending a journey at the check in desk of wonderful hotel with 

The hotel industry has enjoyed a strong few years in terms of growth and occupancy , but the pandemic brought that to a swiftt. Even as we emerge from the ravages of covid and growth is predicted to be strong the sector still faces serious challenges. One of the most significant has been eating away at hotel revenue since 2008, when AirBNB launched. Now worth over $110 billion, the holiday rental service now enjoys a market cap more than double that of Marriot, the world’s largest hotel group.

The hotel industry is definitely going through a period of rapid transformation as technological solutions are increasingly being deployed across the sector, but there remains significant hesitancy in the adoption of these solutions. This is understandable as there are so many solution providers and the costs of implementation are significant and that’s without considering how migration can be handled between legacy and new systems. As a result many hotels still rely on these legacy systems from an operational perspective, and, more pressingly, the marketing practices they’re relying on to drive occupancy are out of step with the way in which consumers expect to be reached by brands.

Why are the big hotel chains starting to fall behind?

These challenges are tricky for any hotel operator to address but they are a magnitude more difficult for the big hotel chains. Whereas smaller boutique hotels can react in an agile manner to this changing landscape, the huge brands  are not able to pivot as quickly due to the huge scale of their operations.

A primary reason for why  hotel chains are facing such a challenge right now comes down to inertia. Processes take a long time to implement, and they also take a long time to adopt properly. Let’s take a simple example. Touchscreen displays have been in supermarkets powering self-serve checkouts for years now, but only some big hotel chains have adopted them to ease the check-in process for customers. Even the hotels that have adopted them are simply not adopting them across the board, meaning that innovation tends to remain contained into a minority of flagship or test properties. 

The sheer scale of large hotel groups is often what underpins these problems combined with the labyrinthine nature of hotel brand franchising and ownership. Using the example of touch screens, it is simply too difficult to adopt widespread change. If a hotel brand were to implement touch screen check-in systems across the board, it would require every directly owned and franchised property under the property to take delivery and installation of the units, link it with their own PMS and reservation systems, then ensure there was technical support to address the inevitable failures that arise, all whilst relying on this writing back to centralized booking management and inventory platforms used by the wider group. Bear in mind too that for most large hotel brands this would be a hugely international exercise as they have properties all over the world!

This only scratches the surface of the challenges and doesn’t even account for the fact this would need to happen during active operation as guests check-in and out during the migration period. As a result such changes can  take years, to do it consistently, by which point the technology may well have been superseded by some better solution. 

The pandemic has put a real emphasis on staffing. Due to isolation rules, staff often have to leave work at a moment’s notice. This builds on the two points listed above. Hotels are not adapting fast enough, they find it hard to adapt even if they wanted to during their size, and the sheer cost of adapting quickly is sometimes too great to justify the reward. Chain hotels have more staff at any given moment, meaning that they are more reliant on individual roles. This puts them in a place of jeopardy when staff numbers are low.

Are boutique hotels better-equipped to handle this?

Boutique hotels are arguably better at handling the above challenges when compared to chain hotels, due to a number of factors in their favour.

One way that boutique hotels are able to speed ahead in the evolutionary chain is because they are able to adopt technology faster. With most boutique hotels having less than 100 rooms, they are not as reliant on technology to provide a fast and easy service. They are not dealing with hundreds of rooms and thousands of guests every day. If technology was adopted to ensure a smoother process, not only would this be easier to implement, it would also be cheaper. The speed of implementation would also be much faster, due to the hotel not being part of a bigger chain.

Boutique hotels are more agile, meaning that the decisions are usually managed on-site by a very small group of people. These people have a great deal of insight into the workings of the hotel and how things are going. They are able to make quick yet strategic decisions that can be followed up with progress reports. This gives them a huge advantage when compared to franchise-owned hotels or chain hotels, where simple changes need to undergo a rigorous approval process, sometimes by people who are not in the same country.

Those who work in boutique hotels often handle many different roles to ensure a smooth hotel operation. The person who takes care of the laundry may also handle some housekeeping duties, and the person who works in the kitchens as an assistant chef may also work on the bar. In a corporate chain hotel, the roles are often clear-cut with very little room for adaptability. When staff are off work, it is difficult to fulfil each person’s role without compromising service. Boutique hotels have the advantage here, with team roles being easier to adjust on the fly.

What could big chain hotels learn from boutique providers?

Big hotels might not be able to adapt to change very quickly. They may not be able to offer a personalised experience as much as a boutique hotel and customer service may be more generic as opposed to being bespoke, but that doesn’t mean that they are not able to change at all. Big hotels need to instead adopt more passive ways of keeping up.

This could include adopting individuality across different hotels in the chain. Having certain menus available at different times of the year, updating their branding and providing facilities that boutique hotels cannot, would be a fantastic start. People crave familiarity and comfort, and big chain hotels can capitalise on this, by expanding certain facilities or offerings and by adopting a minimalist approach to décor. This will allow for a fast repivot or change when required, without the need to make full, expensive shifts across an entire portfolio, which allows more flexibility to bend and sway as market forces change.

Boutique vs Chain Hotels: Who Is Better Equipped For The Industry's Evolution?

All businesses around the world today have a responsibility to be more sustainable. Hotels are no exception! You can’t simply stick a few recycling bins in your car park and deem yourself eco-friendly. You need to take a proactive approach to ensure that your hotel is not responsible for a high level of carbon emissions. With that being said, let’s take a look at everything you need to know about sustainability in hospitality. 

There is only one place to begin, and this is by keeping hotel utilities green. Investing in green infrastructure can help you to achieve long-term sustainability and a great return on your investment. There are plenty of different options in this regard, including water recovery and recycling systems, geothermal cooling towers, energy star-rated heating and cooling systems, and solar panel installations. 

You should not only concern yourself with everything that is going on inside your hotel but the outside of it as well. There are a number of different things you can do to create a garden area that is eco-friendly. Firstly, watering the outdoor area wisely is important. There are some great smart irrigation systems on the market today that can help you to cut down on unnecessary water used with timed water. You can also lower your overall water requirements by planting native plants that are drought-resistant. This will also lower your need for fertilisers and pesticides. 

Installing a worm composting bin is another good suggestion. There are countless benefits of breaking down organic material into nutrient-rich fertiliser and soil. You will be able to speed up the composting process, reduce plant diseases, promote healthy organic growth in the operations in your hotel kitchen, and you will keep pests away from rubbish too! 

Finally, we would recommend that you cut down on runoff. The excess water that comes from snow, irrigation, and storms is a silent assassin in terms of the environment. A lot of people do not realise this but it is especially tricky on hotel grounds that have concrete outdoor patios and asphalt parking. If you use water detention ponds and plant rain gardens you can combat this by collecting drainage. 

In addition to the tips that we have mentioned so far, we also recommend that you look for ways to make food services more eco-friendly. Shopping local is a good place today. Source from nearby food providers and growers. It is an excellent way to support farmers while also lowering your carbon emissions caused when you get food delivered from far away. You should also look to include sustainable offerings as well, including vegan and vegetarian options that take fewer resources to produce the meat. 

Next, you should incorporate reusable mugs, glasses, silverware, and dishes. It also makes sense to look for different ways to lower waste during events. Make sure that you have recyclable containers available so that guests can easily see where they should dispose of their plastic bottles, aluminium cans, and paper. 

Finally, one thing that we have noticed a lot of hotels do is compost their waste, as well as donating any leftover or unused food to national and local programmes and food banks. This is a great way to help others while reducing the waste you are responsible for. 

Opt for non-toxic, biodegradable products in sustainable packaging whenever possible. A sustainable purchasing policy is pretty easy to establish, and it should cover everything from paper products and light bulbs to cleaning supplies, sanitisers, adhesives, office supplies, pens, writing pads, and paint. 

You should also make sure that your hotels’ appliances are as energy-efficient as possible. From your ice machines to your commercial fryers, whenever the time comes to replace one of your appliances, it makes sense to look for a green, eco-friendly replacement so that you can lower your environmental impact and reduce your energy bills at the same time. 

Use automation to make guest rooms more green

You should also consider how you can make guest rooms more sustainable. Sustainability efforts here may have started with cards reminding your guests to turn off the AC or to reuse their towels. However, we’ve gone way past those days! Now, we can use technology in the form of automation to make guest rooms more energy-efficient. 

One of the ways that you can do this is by installing thermostats that have occupancy sensors, which will adjust AC and heating temperatures. Using IoT technology, you can connect these amenities to apps so that guests can amend their settings remotely. 

Aside from this, there are room sensors that will detect light levels automatically, reducing or increasing the brightness of the bulbs. There are also smart showers, which will limit shower length to a pre-set time, alerting the user when the time is almost over. 

Last but not least, while all of the suggestions that we have mentioned above are important, you will want to make sure you have a dedicated team who can enforce the different rules that you put in place regarding the environment. A “green team” can monitor all of your activities, and they will be able to make suggestions regarding some of the different things that you can do to operate more eco-friendly. 

It's time to embrace sustainability in the hospitality sector

As you can see, there are a number of different steps you can take to make sure that your hotel is as sustainable as possible. This is something that all hotels need to make a dedicated effort to achieve. Plus, there are a lot of different eco-friendly steps you can take that are not going to drain your resources as well, so there is really no excuse, is there? 

Sustainability In Hospitality: What Hotels Need To Know

Twixmas travel has risen in popularity over the last few years; let’s explore what it is, why it matters to hotel owners, and how to approach this rise in demand to benefit your hotel. 

What Is Twixmas? Twixmas is the period when people are stuffed full with Christmas dinner, the kids are slowly but surely getting bored of the presents Santa brought, and parents are tidying up empty boxes. Extended families that came to stay are on the roading fighting through traffic to get home and everyone is experiencing the lull that exists between Christmas Day and New Year. 

The word itself originates from betwixt which means between so it fits quite nicely with this idea. How popular is Twixmas? Well, a quick look at the Google trends will show that searches for this keyphrase tend to balloon around November. This means that before people even manage to get through the festive season of celebrations they are thinking about how to spend their time after the presents have been opened. 

How Can You Encourage Christmas Travel As A Hotel Owner? 

Marketing is always going to be key when encouraging travellers to commit to the idea of ‘Twixmas.’ Sure, the idea of having a lovely rest before New Year sounds great, but what about enjoying that break in a luxury hotel? Instead of heading back to work, why not head away for a week and start again after New Year? These are the ideas that hotels and travel companies should be pushing if they want customers to embrace this period. 

Marketing needs to be more creative than the typical campaign. In 2018, 250,000 households on the mainland received postcards encouraging them to visit the Isle of Wight during the twixmas break. Crucially, these postcards were sent out on Boxing Day 2017, bringing a whole new meaning to ‘early Christmas advertising.’ Another 250,000 emails were sent out as well encouraging families to come enjoy some late festive celebrations on the island. The cards and emails specifically mentioned the exciting possibilities that families would be able to explore and the potential options that were available for hotel stays. 

This campaign was a success because it tackled the lull that customers were likely feeling while also giving them some unique ideas on how they could spend their ‘twixmas’ break. 

You might think that a good discount will lure customers into the comfort of a hotel in the gap between Christmas and New Year. However, don’t be so sure because polls suggest that customers want a little more than a great price these days. 
Furthermore, competing with price could cause you to lose your unique value proposition. If you drop your prices, then you’ll be basing the new price on what competitors are charging for their own twixmas deals. The problem is that they may not be offering the same value of service. As such, you could end up undercharging customers and lose out on revenue. You could also become engaged in a dreaded price war where there are never any real winners. 

Changing the price will also mean that you attract low-price guests. This isn’t an issue in the short term but in the long term it will mean you’ll never gain their loyalty. They will always be loyal to the company that can offer the lowest price. 

Instead of relying on discounts and offers to keep occupancy high around this time, you should consider opting for a more personalised approach. This could be based on highlighting the USP of your hotel so that guests understand why they should stay there during the ‘twixmas’ break. 

Ideally, you need to make sure that you are treating your customers as individuals rather than lumping them all into one group looking to save as many pennies as possible. The best kept secret of customers is that they’ll always be willing to pay a little more if a company is delivering the right value. 

There are lots of different ways that you can customise the options that you bring to the table for your customers. You need to find the model that works for your business. 

As you can see, “Twixmas” presents a great opportunity for hotel owners who are interested in bringing bored and drained customers out of their homes after festive celebrations are over. This doesn’t have to be a slow or quiet period for your business. You just need to understand what customers are looking for when they book a trip like this and hopefully understand there’s a little more to it than just a low price. 

The Rise of Twixmas Travel

Black Friday is fast approaching, meaning everyone is looking for the biggest and best deals around. It's a period where prices are slashed across every single industry, and many businesses report impressive sales figures. To give some context as to how important Black Friday is for certain industries, 30% of all retail sales occur between it and Christmas day. 

There are definitely some industries that benefit from it, but there are others that don't. Specifically, we're looking at the travel sector and hotel businesses. Hotel owners are expected to offer discounted rates on rooms to attract lots of customers. Indeed, some holiday-goers wait until Black Friday to book hotels, specifically to save money. In theory, you'd think this is a great thing as it can increase sales and boost your occupancy rates. 

Eating into gross operating profit (GOP) margins

Primarily, the issue is that Black Friday sales can often eat into hotel profit margins. You discount your rooms so heavily to compete with everyone else that you might end up losing money. To make matters worse, the GOP in the hotel sector is on the decline. It was a mere 18.2% in 2020, with occupancy levels of 36.6%. Neither of these figures is great, yet it is believed that profit margins are going to get narrower and narrower. 

The simple fact is that it's becoming more and more expensive to operate a hotel. Therefore, hotel owners want to do everything they can to keep their profit margins as wide as possible. Seemingly being 'forced' to participate in Black Friday is hurting them, meaning lots of rooms are being sold - yes - but at vastly discounted rates. Whose to say those rooms wouldn't have sold at closer to their normal rates later in the year anyway?

Following on from the above, we have to recognize that there are almost two types of hotels people can choose to book. On one hand, you have smaller hotels from independent owners. Many of you reading this will fall into this category. On the other hand, you have massive chains that are backed by billionaire owners. They possess more money and firepower than smaller hotels, meaning they can afford to enter the Black Friday sales and slash their prices. 

You can already see how harmful this can be to smaller hotels on the market. If the big chains are discounting, you almost feel compelled to do the same - or miss out on sales. Thus, we end up with the problem discussed above; smaller profit margins, meaning you make less money. 

Black Friday travel discounts can be detrimental to hotels, so what is the solution? Many of you reading this will look at it and feel as though you have no choice. It's either a) you offer mass discounts and secure occupants, but at a lower rate so you make less money. Or b) you don't discount your rates and everyone books into your rival hotels, leaving you with lots of unoccupied rooms and reducing your profit margins even more. 

However, what if the solution doesn't lie in mass discounts, but in providing a personalised approach to hotel rates. This is an approach that's gaining popularity in the sector, and it revolves around providing you and your guests with more control. 

Well, it can work in a couple of ways, one of which is a simple off-site booking system. You can keep listing your hotels on sites like Booking.com or wherever, as well as providing rates on your actual website. However, you can also join sites like hoo, which let you list your hotel for consumers to find. Sounds like every other hotel listing site, right? Well, the catch is that guests will submit offers for your hotel rooms, rather than paying the full price. 

Let's say you have a room that's advertised for £90 per night. A consumer can find your room on one of these websites, contacting you with an offer for, say, £70 a night. You're then able to accept or counter their offer until you reach an agreement. It could mean you sell the room for £80 a night, instead of £90. The reason this is effective is that you can fill up unoccupied rooms without visibly discounting them. It lets you accept a bit less for a room - making the customer feel like they're getting a bargain - without needing to slash the price as dramatically as you would on Black Friday. 

Another idea is to use loyalty discounts for recurring customers. When people book rooms with you consistently, they can unlock perks that mean they get slightly discounted prices. Again, it means that you can still sell some rooms for their full price, but a select few can unlock secret discounts. This also encourages more people to stay with you regularly, so they can get better room rates. 

In both examples, you're avoiding a mass discount across your hotel. This can help you keep your profit margins as wide as can be, while also encouraging more people to book rooms in your hotel. 

Overall, Black Friday can be harmful to a lot of hotels, particularly smaller and more independent ones. Bigger chains rarely see any damage because they can afford to set discounted rates across the board. While Black Friday and Cyber Monday can help you see an increase in bookings, you have to measure up the costs. Are you going to lose money or decrease your profit margins by giving into Black Friday? If the answer is yes, it's maybe time to skip this tradition this year. 

Instead, hotels should focus on a more personalised approach for customers. Look at discounts on a customer by customer basis, rather than giving them to everyone. You'll find that this can actually improve your profits, boost occupancy rates and inspire loyalty. As the travel sector continues to heal following the last two years, you need to do everything you can to prevent your business from further decreasing its profit margins. 

Is Black Friday Harmful To Hotels?

Halloween is a popular holiday in a number of places around the world. The US might come to mind when thinking about enthusiasm for Halloween, which is celebrated on October 31st every year. But the day is celebrated in different ways in other countries too, including Mexico's Día de los Muertos or Day of the Dead, which is used to remember lost loved ones. However, although Halloween has long been celebrated in many places, it's not seen as such a significant holiday in the UK. Halloween is celebrated, but not to the same extent it is elsewhere.

So why is this, and could there be more that the local travel sector can do to cash in on Halloween in the UK?

It may seem a little strange that Halloween isn't such a big deal in the UK, considering its Celtic roots. Before Halloween, there was Samhain (pronounced sah-win or sow-in), a Pagan celebration marking the end of the harvest season and the nights getting longer. When Christianity arrived in the UK, the night of Samhain became All-Hallows-Eve, and eventually Halloween. Many people in the UK, particularly in Scotland, still celebrate the festival through traditional methods.

While many see trick-or-treating as a modern phenomenon imported from the United States, children in Scotland have engaged in the tradition of guising for a long time. Guising involves children going door to door in disguise and receiving a small gift. Other traditions in the UK involve bobbing for apples and other games and carving faces into turnips and swedes - although this has more recently become pumpkins, which is an import from the US.

One of the reasons Halloween isn't as widely celebrated throughout the UK with the enthusiasm of other countries is that there is another celebration that takes place close to the date. On November 5th, Guy Fawkes Night or Bonfire Night is celebrated in the United Kingdom. The event celebrates the foiling of the Gunpowder Plot in 1605, which involved explosives placed below the House of Lords, which would have killed King James I. Guy Fawkes, a member of the plot, was arrested on November 5th and the plot was prevented from going ahead. Fawkes and his accomplices were later hung, drawn, and quartered.

Bonfire Night takes place just a few days after Halloween, which might partly explain why Halloween isn't such a big deal. It is celebrated with fireworks, bonfires, creating effigies of Guy Fawkes or more contemporary figures to burn on the bonfire, traditional confectionery such as toffee apples, and some of the same games that might be played at a Halloween or Samhain event. It has also been marked in some way since the failure of the Gunpowder Plot in the early 17th century, so it's a well-established holiday. Many Brits may simply feel as if there is no point in having two celebrations so close together.

Although Halloween as it is celebrated in countries such as the US hasn't really been the traditional way to mark the event in the UK, things are changing. The more commercialised version of Halloween, as it's observed in the US, is starting to gain traction in the UK. Many people do engage in activities such as taking the kids trick-or-treating or attending Halloween parties. However, for many, Halloween may be seen as more of a children's event. Some adults may attend Halloween events, but others will stick to entertaining their children, buying sweets to hand out to trick-or-treaters, or perhaps just sitting at home with the lights off if they don't feel like joining in. Many people feel as if the event is overcommercialized and an American import, and would rather have nothing to do with it.

In the UK, Halloween is still largely seen as a spooky event. People in the UK are more likely to wear scary costumes like traditional ghosts and witches. However, in the US, a Halloween costume isn't necessarily frightening. Halloween decorations are usually not as big either, although you can certainly pick them up in the shops if you want to. Nevertheless, the UK spent £419 million on Halloween products in 2018.

How the UK Travel Sector Can Capitalise on Halloween

If Halloween isn't a big deal in the UK compared to the US and elsewhere, what can travel companies in the UK do to make more of the holiday?

Interest in Halloween as a holiday is growing, and there are travel and hospitality firms that already capitalise on it. Many locations are perfect for spooky events, from castles and manor estates to cobbled streets. Activities and events tailored to people who like things a little spooky can include ghost tours, exploring dark caves, and visiting locations that are rich with history. In fact, the UK's history means that it's the perfect place to celebrate Halloween, with a ghost story for practically every building older than a century.

Halloween can be used as a way to encourage Brits to have a spooky staycation, but could also tempt people to visit from abroad. It's not necessarily unique Halloween traditions that could draw people in, but the country's history that can be appealing. Plenty of businesses and organisations across the UK already celebrate Halloween in some way or host Halloween events. These events, as well as existing activities and locations which can easily be linked to Halloween, can show that Halloween in the UK can be an exciting experience. Hotels, restaurants, or other businesses in the hospitality and travel sector can offer Halloween-themed events, activities, packages, and products.

Halloween could also be combined with Bonfire Night to extend celebrations across several days. Both events help to mark the days getting colder and the nights getting darker.

Halloween might not have reached the same levels as the US in terms of celebrations in the UK, but it's still observed by plenty of people. People are willing to spend money on it and explore related experiences, so there’s no harm in diving into seasonal marketing activities to help push bookings. Avoid the really scary part of OTA percentages and fees by getting your property onto tomorrow’s booking platform: join up with hoo here.

Why Isn't Halloween Such a Big Deal as a Holiday in the UK?

With travel restrictions in place and the pandemic still dominating the headlines, 2021 has undoubtedly been the year of the staycation. While Brits hoping to enjoy a well-earned break have descended on the South West of England and Wales, there has been a noticeable decline in visitor numbers in London. In this guide, we’ll explore the reasons why Brits don’t holiday in London and provide suggestions that could help London-based businesses and hospitality venues attract more UK-based tourists. 

Research conducted by Sykes Holiday Cottages suggested that over 60% of residents were planning to spend their summer holiday in the UK in 2021. The most popular regions for summer staycations include North Wales, Cumbria, Cornwall and Devon. The fastest-growing regions in 2021 are the Peak District, Somerset, East Anglia and the Yorkshire Dales. According to figures from Statista, just 8% of Brits were planning to take holidays in London. 

The latest research indicates a shift in attitudes in the last year. While London performed well in the list of UK bucket list destinations in 2020, it didn’t appear in the same list in 2021. A survey conducted by holidaycottages.co.uk revealed that London topped the UK’s staycation bucket list in 2020 but failed to make the top 10 in 2021. Cornwall, the Scottish Highlands, Devon and the Lake District were the most popular choices. 

What do British people think about London? 

The pandemic has inspired Brits to discover more rural and coastal areas, with many people swapping exotic beach breaks and resort holidays for camping, renting beach houses and booking hotels in national parks and seaside towns. Although lockdowns and travel restrictions will have influenced trends, there were significant barriers to travelling to and holidaying in London before the pandemic. 

Studies suggest that Brits view London as ‘expensive, chaotic, busy and crowded.’ Research conducted by Leonardo Hotels in 2019 also found that 6% of adults had never visited London, with 50% of those who didn’t envisage making a trip to the capital suggesting that prices were far too high in the city. Over 30% said that it was too busy and crowded and 28% said that it was too far and they didn’t want to make the journey. Over 20% said that the thought of going to London stressed them out. 

Why is the capital not a staycation hot spot?

YouGov polls suggest that Brits see London as a business epicentre rather than a holiday hot spot. More than 75% of adults surveyed agreed that London made a valuable contribution to the UK economy, but only 16% felt that it impacted their local economy. The most popular words used to describe Londoners were ‘diverse, arrogant and insular.’ 

What can London’s hotel sector do to attract more UK visitors?

London has not enjoyed the staycation boom that is clearly visible across swathes of the UK. Many people have booked destinations that offer rural escapes and opportunities to discover national parks, areas of outstanding natural beauty and coastal resorts but there is a chance that London’s hotel sector has missed a trick in failing to lure in staycationers. London is an incredibly popular destination for foreign visitors but with restrictions still in place, this summer could have been an opportunity to reach out to different markets and boost UK visitor numbers. To attract more UK tourists, hotels could:

Focus on new target customers and diversify marketing strategies: the focus has shifted from overseas tourists to UK visitors and this requires a change of tack in terms of marketing and sales. Redefining the ideal customer and finding ways to reach out and connect and engage with them will help brands and businesses to identify new clients and boost bookings. 

Extend the season: UK visitors who have saved money by holidaying at home or cancelling trips abroad may be looking to treat themselves after the peak season comes to an end. Travelling to London is also easier and quicker than planning a trip abroad for a weekend away or a half-term break. Extending the season and up-selling breaks and offers in the low season could have a positive impact on reservations.

Offers and promotions: promotions attract interest and turn heads. By offering deals, hotels can make trips to London more accessible and affordable for families, solo travellers, large groups and couples.

Stay and play ideas: customers today are looking for more than a hotel room to bed down for the night. They want to enjoy an experience. Stay and play offers are a great way to enhance value for consumers. Hotels can put together packages for attractions or promote bundles or experiences, such as spa breaks, theatre and sports events, theme parks and stay and dine deals. 

Contact previous customers: networking and building contact lists are beneficial during times when empty rooms are commonplace. Why not get in touch with customers who have stayed with you previously or make the most of company email lists if the hotel is part of a chain? Personalised email offers, exclusive deals and one-off savings may persuade clients to want to visit again or pass the information on to friends and family members looking to plan a break. 

Up-sell the location: London is one of the most exciting, energetic and enigmatic cities in the world but studies show that many Brits have a perception of the city that doesn’t align with the traits they look for in a holiday destination. Use marketing and communications to up-sell the city, promote experiences and show prospective customers what they can see, do and enjoy if they choose to visit London for a holiday. 

Staycations have boomed across the UK in 2021 but London has struggled to attract Brits. Studies show that rural and coastal areas have become increasingly popular during the pandemic but it is possible that the hotel sector could do more to tempt UK-based tourists to the capital. London is seen as crowded, inaccessible and expensive but it is possible to change opinions and there is still time to market the city as an attractive holiday destination and boost bookings in the months ahead. Start by getting your resort hotel onto tomorrow's booking offer platform and give those margin-thieving conventional OTAs a kick: join up with hoo here.

Why Don't Brits Holiday in London?

The world is slowly opening up, but there are restrictions in place, which may limit the choice of countries you can visit and affect your travel preparations. If you are hoping to book a holiday, it’s essential to be aware of the latest COVID travel guidelines. 

If you plan to travel abroad, you’ll need to familiarise yourself with the red, amber and green lists. The travel traffic light system is reviewed regularly, usually every 3 weeks. The status of the destination dictates what you have to do to visit the country and return to the UK. It is worth noting that there may be differences between travel to and from England and other parts of the UK. 

For tourists travelling from England to an overseas destination, it’s wise to take the following steps:

Check the traffic light system to see which countries are on the green, amber and red lists

Check the entry requirements in the country of your choice: in many cases, for example, New Zealand, UK travellers are not permitted to enter even though the destination is on England’s green list. 

Make sure you understand the testing and quarantine requirements before confirming your booking. It is also advisable to read the terms and conditions. Some tour operators and travel agencies are offering free changes or refunds if the destination turns from amber to red, for example. 

Download and fill in any forms that are required to enter your destination (details for each country are available on the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office website)