Metasearch connections

Nowadays, metasearch is almost impossible to ignore in the travel industry. It is one of the fastest-growing channels for booking hotel rooms worldwide. Why are bookers choosing for metasearch? Because it is the ideal way for many bookers to compare hotel prices. Metasearch is specifically designed to find the best price for hotel stays.

Everything you need to know about Metasearch

Via a metasearch website you can book a hotel room, it doesn’t differ much from a booking site. But unlike a ‘normal’ booking site, you see all available prices of all online booking channels for a hotel. When the booker clicks on the preferred price, he or she will be redirected to the actual booking site where the booking can be completed. Please note that most metasearch websites do not automatically include your website. You can arrange this by contacting the website directly.

Due to the increasing popularity of metasearch, more and more similar websites are being created. However, some sites remain the most popular: Trivago, Kayak, HotelsCombined, Google Hotel Ads en TripAdvisor Instant Booking. Although the basics are the same, the payment model is different for these parties.

At Trivago, Kayak and HotelsCombined the hotelier has to pay per click (Cost Per Click), which means that you pay a (small) amount when a booker clicks on the price that links to your website.

With Google Hotel Ads and TripAdvisor Instant Booking, you pay per confirmed booking (Cost Per Acquisition). A good thing to keep in mind is that when the booker books directly with you, the visitor is not redirected to your hotel website, but the booking is processed in the metasearch platform itself.

Metasearch is quite complex, so it is important to have experience with online advertising. There are specialised parties to whom you can completely outsource metasearch campaigns. Metasearch also requires a strong operational basis: a well running (converting) website with your own booking engine and preferably also a channel manager and PMS. If you don’t have this yet, it might be better not to focus on metasearch.

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It is important to understand that Metasearch is much more of a marketing tool. Proper usage of Metasearch helps to put hotels out there and ensure that consumers are driven to the hotel’s direct booking channel.

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