New hotel booking site targets travelers with hotel reservation

September 12, 2011 | Hotel Marketing

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Backbid allows hotels to see which travelers are coming to their market, how much they are willing to pay and what their travel preferences are. With this insider knowledge, hotels are able to create personalized offers and deliver them directly to consumers, enticing them to book with their property and abandon their original reservation.

Until now, the online booking channel has relied on a listing model which assumes that travelers book hotel stays based on one factor above all else: price. The distribution side of the hotel industry is expanding exponentially as new channels promising the absolute lowest price on hotels launch daily. As a result, hoteliers have been reduced to offering discount after discount to win business, competing in a never-ending race to the bottom.

While savvy hoteliers work to drive bookings through the lowest-cost channel, rate parity agreements often undermine these efforts. As well, online distributors make it difficult for hotels to increase share by tying page placement to lower net rates or higher commissions.

Until now… BACKBID, a revolutionary hotel booking website which offers hotels a way to earn new online business from confirmed travelers with existing reservations, has just launched in private beta mode. The site allows hotels to see which travelers are coming to their market, how much they are willing to pay and what their travel preferences are because BACKBID travelers already have a hotel reservation, confirming their intention to travel. With this insider knowledge, hotels are able to create personalized offers and deliver them directly to consumers, enticing them to book with their property and abandon their original reservation.

“BACKBID was created to enable hotels to increase their online booking rates, without discounting and without the rate parity, page placement and LRA allotment issues associated with traditional OTA sites”, said Chris Patridge, Chief BACKBID Hotelier at BACKBID. “The site offers a clear benefit for consumers as well. If the traveler isn’t able to find a more suitable hotel package on BACKBID, they can keep their existing reservation with no time or money wasted. It’s a win/win situation for both hotels and travelers.”

BACKBID was developed based on the premise that discounting is not the best way for hoteliers to increase revenues through the online channel. Because many consumers perceive value-adds such as free meals, free parking, room upgrades, etc. as being more valuable than straight discounts, BACKBID’s personalized pricing enables hoteliers to compete for consumer business and increase their RevPAR far more effectively, without undercutting their revenues or brand image.

In short, with BACKBID, the pricing of online inventory becomes a function of the highest rate or offer that will close the sale, not the lowest rate that the hotel can withstand without eroding current bookings. So in today’s crowded hotel marketplace, BACKBID just makes (dollars and) sense.

Related Link: Backbid