This is a question that many properties do ask, and I will be taking some time to tell you why it is so important to manage your OTA channels.
So, to answer that bold question – YES, absolutely.
Managing your OTA channels is like making sure your beds are made correctly with the correct bed linen and the room is 100% ready for your guest.
Point of Contact
The OTA channels are one of the very first capture points to get that potential guest interested in your property.
When you think about managing your channels, this does not only mean to have the correct number of images and have your rooms set up. There is a combination of tasks that need to be carried out to ensure the correct management of these channels. The more you can do on the backend of these channels, the more it will benefit your establishment and reap the rewards.
Images
Refreshing images as well as tagging your images correctly will help with ranking on the OTA’s. All OTA giants work with algorithms that pick-up keywords. Using the correct keywords will help with your organic ranking and help with gaining more exposure.
It does not stop there… managing your listings also entails keeping in line with your brand and ensuring that policies and procedures are set up correctly and clearly.
Glitches & Bugs
Being in the online world, anything is possible. At times, these channels have a ‘glitch’ or ‘bug’ in their systems. These “glitches” can mess with your settings/setup. Sometimes even incorrect information can be displayed on the frontend. This can result in bookings coming through incorrectly, incorrect rates being displayed or even incorrect policies.
These things do happen, and they have and will continue to happen. Therefore, it is so important to manage your OTA channels correctly. It is imperative to check both the backend of your OTA’s as well as what is being displayed on the front end.
Rate Parity
Rate parities can be solved should you work on your OTA channels regularly. Working on the OTAs allows you to pick up things much faster. Rate parities can cause a number of issues for your property, which is why it is so important to make sure you manage your rates on all channels.
SEO
Your more popular and well-known OTA sites spend huge amounts of money to be ranked first on Google searches. So should your listing be managed correctly and optimised, you stand a better chance of being ranked first in your town, reaping the benefits from the OTA giants.
Conclusion
As we continually live in a digital world, a correct online presence is vital for any property.
In order to stand out from the crowd, it is imperative to keep your OTA channels managed and maintained.
Always remember, this is not a once-off task – it is ongoing. Check and manage your channels as frequent as you can to keep them optimized.