What’s a metasearch management agency?
Metasearch management agencies today manage how hotels appear on price comparison sites. Price comparison sites have become direct booking channels and a great source of revenue for hoteliers.
What is a metasearch?
A metasearch is a price comparison specifically for hotels. They are a tool for internet users to compare hotel rates from different distributors.
There are a range of different metasearch engines where you can display your official website rate: Google Hotel Ads, Tripadvisor, Trivago, Kayak, Skyscanner, Bing Hotel Ads, Wego are some of the better known ones, but there are many others!
A study even reported that Millennials and Gen Xers mainly use metasearch when planning a trip.
Tripadvisor research demonstrated that 74% of internet users consult a hotel’s Tripadvisor page before booking on the official website.
This is why it is vital to consider this distribution channel as a vector for direct bookings.
What is a metasearch management agency?
Today, there are different players in the hotel sector capable of offering distribution solutions on price comparison sites.
Booking Engines
An essential technical tool for your metasearch distribution campaign, some booking engines also offer a distribution solution on price comparison sites. Most often, these players offer “light” solutions with limited options for campaign management.
Media Agencies
As experts in media, agencies offer to manage your metasearch distribution campaigns for you. They will help you set up the best acquisition strategy on the various channels.
To be able to implement these campaigns, they use third party meta management solutions like Meta I/O at WIHP.
Meta management solutions
There are several types of meta management solutions on the market that allow you to directly manage your distribution campaigns, like a channel manager for OTAs.
On the borderline between marketing and revenue management, these are true distribution tools. These turnkey solutions combine advanced connectivity, campaign management with a high level of granularity (simple or advanced) and billing consolidation.
Why entrust the management of your metasearch to an agency?
Managing your hotel’s distribution strategy on each individual metasearch engine can be complicated. You have to manage each connection between the metasearch engine and your hotel, which are time-consuming tasks.
Working with a metasearch management agency is a solution that allows you to focus on what’s most important, running your business.
What are the prerequisites for using a metasearch management agency?
For a few years now, distribution on metasearch sites has been open to all types of establishments (independent hotels, hotel chains, apart hotels, resorts, hotel residences, campsites – excluding empty spaces).
Everyone is able to offer their rates directly on the main metasearch sites.
When it comes to metasearch, budget is no longer all-important: No matter what your budget, the different bidding systems offered by metasearch mean you can start posting your hotel online.
The only prerequisite is technical. To display your official website rate on price comparison sites, your rate must be bookable online. So you need to have a booking engine to run metasearch campaigns.
What are the advantages of using a metasearch management agency?
Using a metasearch management agency will allow you to connect your booking engine to different metasearches.
Their job is to connect the prices and availability of your hotel with the price comparison sites you want to appear on.
At WIHP, we offer our Meta I/O platform which allows you to manage your hotel’s presence on various metasearch sites.
Want your hotel to appear on metasearch sites? Our team is here to help you.