In the current context of Booking.com-Expedia duopoly in online travel, Amazon and Alibaba looking to step into it, Google starting to sell rooms and the metasearch sites increasing their market share, hotels are getting more and more interested into increasing the profits generated by direct distribution channel.

Direct booking remains the most desired conversion channel for hotels: it maximizes revenue per room sold. But direct booking is not only about selling the rooms, it is about selling ancillary services, too. 

From one hotel to another, ancillary products are playing a big role in adding extra revenue and increasing the profit, beating the competition or at least keep pace.

Ancillary revenue is good, but ancillary services bring to the business much more than money: it is about gathering valuable data of travelers’ preferences and offering personalized experiences instead of simple accommodation. 

It can make the difference from a 1-night occupancy to a life-time valuable clien From including ancillary services on the room selection step, to moving them to a distinct step or even outside the booking process, all are valid scenarios for selling ancillary products via direct booking. 

Do we consider a valid scenario the possibility that the reservation of an ancillary product to lead to room booking too? 

Keynote Speaker
Ecaterina Paun – Head of User Experience for protel hotelsoftware