One of the reasons why Triptease Meta is so impactful for hotels is because we're able to use Parity Blackout to remove your hotel from the auction when you're being significantly undercut by major OTAs.
The reason we don't remove a hotel from the auction every single time there is a price undercut is because customer behaviour in metasearch is not so black and white that they simply won't visit your website if you're being undercut. There are two instances where there's still some value in appearing in the auction when you don't have the best rate:
If you're being undercut by small 'random.com' OTAs or wholesalers that customers don't trust or recognize. While major OTAs have invested in building a brand that consumers trust, these smaller operations might feel riskier to book with as customers don't have the same relationship with them.
If you're only being undercut by a small amount. Unless there is clearly a great price on an OTA that they can't miss, it's likely that customers will still click through to your website for research purposes before making their booking with the OTA that has the best price. The period of time when they're on your website offers you a chance to personalize their experience and give them a reason to book direct.
So, Triptease has a solution for both the times when you shouldn't be appearing in metasearch results at all, but also for those times when you should still appear, but your direct site will need to work harder to secure the customer's booking.
Here's how the two features work together:
Your price on metasearch | How Triptease helps you capture the right bookings |
Cheaper direct | Triptease Meta significantly boosts your bid to ensure you win the booking. |
In parity | Triptease boosts your bid a bit to increase your visibility. |
Minor undercuts (<5%)
| Triptease bids down a bit so you don’t overspend on the top spots. Triptease then displays a message with Meta price undercut targeting to the guest if they click through to the direct website. This offers them a pre-set discount code (or any other direct booking benefits you want to provide) as a way to steal back direct bookings from the OTAs. |
Major undercuts (>5%)
| Triptease will blackout your price when significantly undercut by major OTAs to save costs and avoid brand damage for your hotel. |
A message with Meta price undercut targeting can be easily set up in the Triptease Message Manager. Adding discount code functionality to this message means that you can automatically offer a discounted price to customers who have seen a lower price elsewhere in their metasearch results.
Meta price undercut targeting is exclusively available to customers using both Triptease Meta and Targeted Messages. If you're interested in giving it a try, get in touch with the Customer Success team today!