To regain control of your pricing strategy, you must first understand how your property is performing in terms of disparities. With BenchDirect, you can easily benchmark against the market and your competitors.

Check where your hotel is underperforming and identify areas for improvement by comparing your performance in terms of frequency and amount of disparities with multiple comparison sets. It is always worthwhile to dig deeper into the analysis, for example, by researching certain markets or taking a closer look at the types of bookings and what that means in terms of disparities for your hotel. These competitive insights will help you understand patterns and give you a clear plan of action on where to focus your efforts.

If you discover that an OTA is offering lower rates than yours, contact them and find out if they are in breach of the parity clause. Using a tool that automatically provides you with a screenshot of the disparity can be particularly useful when negotiating with third parties.

In the meantime, when experiencing a disparity, offer prospective guests a price match offer to prevent them from booking a cheaper rate elsewhere. With our Price Matching feature, this can be done in real time to effectively combat any third-party rates that tempt users to leave your website. When a user search generates a lower rate, the feature automatically shows them an offer to match it, and with a single click, the discount is applied within the booking engine. Simple!

If you discover that OTAs are not actually offering lower rates than yours, then it's a matter of letting your website visitors know. Use our Price Comparison feature to reassure users that they are being offered the best available rate, so they don't go elsewhere to compare prices. Including direct booking benefits also gives them that extra reason to book directly with you. The key here is to highlight your unique selling points and demonstrate to your visitors that booking on the hotel website is the best option.

When it comes to driving direct bookings, you need to know who your website visitors are and offer them something that appeals to them. This is where personalization features come into play.

Let's see it in action! There's a visitor browsing your booking engine, exploring potential dates for their stay, and they decide to leave the website. With Exits, you can detect when this is about to happen and send the right message to grab their attention and prevent them from leaving. Remind them of the exclusive benefits available when they book directly, such as free breakfast or a welcome gift, or offer them a personalized discount for their booking. This type of messaging is an effective and engaging way to personalize the user's online experience that not only entices them to stay on your website and complete their booking, but is also a fantastic way to make your communication feel more personal.

There you have it, four of the most effective ways to combat price disparities on your hotel website. Price disparities are inevitable, but with these practical tips at your disposal, you can combat them on your hotel website. Check out our guide on How to Combat Price Gaps on Your Hotel Website for a detailed analysis of effective strategies to retain visitors and increase your direct bookings.