In an era where hospitality standards define visitor experiences, the importance of ensuring quality standards is paramount. As a result, the free Visitor Ready Digital Accreditation Scheme was born – an essential benchmark for excellence that aims to elevate hospitality standards to new heights.

The scheme empowers UK hospitality businesses to demonstrate their commitment to operating safely within current industry standards and legislation. What’s more, it’s more than just a compliance tool, it equips establishments with the knowledge to meet today’s expectations for safety and cleanliness.

Understanding the Visitor Ready Digital Accreditation Scheme

With consumers becoming more selective over where they choose to visit, demonstrating a commitment to safety, ethical practices, and cleanliness has become essential for businesses in the industry. In response, the Visitor Ready Digital Accreditation Scheme was launched. This initiative, introduced in February 2024, offers hotels, restaurants, tourist attractions, and transportation services a free and pioneering opportunity to elevate the visitor experience within the hospitality sector.

The scheme stems from the modernisation and simplification of quality assessment frameworks previously utilised by the AA and VisitEngland. By making compliance accessible to all businesses in hospitality, it aims to ensure that establishments meet and exceed current industry standards. This strategic initiative not only boosts confidence among visitors but also supports businesses in maintaining high operational standards and fostering trust within their communities.

Purpose of the Scheme

• Safety and compliance. Ensures businesses operate safely within legal and industry standards.
• Visitor Expectations. Helps businesses understand and meet the evolving expectations of today’s selective visitors.
• Ethical Practices: Promotes ethical business practices, enhancing trust and reputation.
• Accessibility: Simplifies the accreditation process, making it accessible to all hospitality businesses.

Implementation and Accessibility

• Scope: The scheme is open to all businesses operating in the hospitality, leisure, and tourism sectors.
• Free Access. It’s a pioneering initiative that is free to participate in, ensuring broad accessibility across the hospitality industry.
• Quality Assurance. AA and VisitEngland’s baseline quality accreditation scheme is free and accessible to all.

Benefits for Hotels

• Enhanced Reputation. Demonstrates a commitment to high standards, boosting trust among guests.
• Operational Guidance. Provides clear guidelines on safety, cleanliness, and service excellence.
• Competitive Edge. Differentiates accredited businesses in a competitive market, attracting fastidious guests.
• Industry Alignment. Aligns with current industry trends and guest preferences, ensuring relevance and appeal.

Benefits for Guests

• Assured Standards: Guests can trust accredited establishments to meet stringent safety and cleanliness criteria.
• Confidence: Provides peace of mind through transparent compliance with industry standards.
• Consistency: Ensures consistent quality across various hotel services, enhancing overall guest satisfaction.

The Visitor Ready Digital Accreditation Scheme marks a significant step forward in ensuring excellence within the UK hospitality sector.

By embracing accreditation, hoteliers not only meet regulatory requirements but also cater to the expectations of today’s informed and more selective guests.

As the scheme continues to evolve and expand, it promises to set a new standard for hospitality excellence, fostering trust, satisfaction, and growth across the industry.

A Monumental Shift for Hoteliers … if they act fast! Booking.com is designated by the European Union as a gatekeeper under the Digital Markets Act.

EU Recognises Booking.com as Gatekeeper

Monday, 13th May marked a significant milestone for the hospitality industry as the European Union designated Booking.com, a prominent Online Travel Agency (OTA), as a gatekeeper under the Digital Markets Act. This highly anticipated decision empowers hotels to take back control over their pricing strategies, placing them firmly in command of their product offerings.

The designation’s noteworthy implication lies in the elimination of rate parity clauses, granting hotels the freedom to introduce promotions and offer lower rates on their own websites in contrast to OTA platforms. This double opportunity now stands as a significant boon for forward-thinking hoteliers, empowering them to fortify their direct online bookings and diminish reliance on OTA channels.

With this newfound autonomy, hotels can optimise their earnings by reducing dependence on OTA commissions and, equally importantly, ensure the delivery of unmatched guest experiences. Moreover, by leveraging direct bookings to their fullest extent, hotels can tap into invaluable data insights. These insights facilitate personalised interactions with guests at every stage, enhancing service quality, and solidifying brand identity throughout the booking process.

Looking ahead, the European Commission will closely monitor adherence with these DMA obligations, with potential fines for non-compliance. Additionally, ongoing discussions with relevant stakeholders aim to ensure further fair and competitive markets in the digital sector.

“The European Commission’s decision ensures greater choice for consumers and opens up new business opportunities for hotels,” stated Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President responsible for competition policy.”

This pivotal decision presents astute hoteliers with a significant opportunity to thrive in the digital landscape. This window of time, more so than ever, underscores the critical importance of investing in your hotel’s technology. It goes beyond merely cutting commissions; it’s about reclaiming ownership of the entire guest experience, from booking to post-stay communication – and revisiting.

But, move with purpose Hoteliers.

Consider the case of France, whose ban on rate parity in 2014 was hailed as a liberation from OTA dominance, the below is from a 2015 article:

“It is a real revolution that is underway for the French hotel industry and for our customers, after the decision of the Competition Authority, this vote will contribute to the establishment of a renovated contractual framework to restore conditions of a commercial relationship based on trust between hotels and booking sites in the interest of the consumer.”

However, almost a decade later, Booking Holdings didn’t just maintain its market share; it quadrupled it.

Why?

France hosts a significant number of independent hotels, particularly in the one to four-star segment, comprising roughly 83% of the country’s hotel landscape. These independent establishments frequently prioritise other operational aspects over investments in technology. Could this continued neglect and insufficient investment in booking technology and digital marketing now be revealing themselves as a costly oversight?

Hoteliers, seize this pivotal moment. Investing in your hotel’s tech stack is even more financially compelling than you realise, and one seamless guest experience … often ensures another.

AKA: Mastering the Art of Booking Aggregators vs Direct Bookings. Despite the popularity of third-party booking sites and online travel agencies (OTAs), there is still an appetite amongst consumers to book directly with the hotel.

Hotel visitors and holidaymakers are more mobile and online savvy today than ever before. Indeed, from our research we know, 37% of people are now using third-party online booking sites to book their accommodation, highlighting the increased demand for this type of booking platform.

However, despite the popularity of third-party booking sites and online travel agencies (OTAs), there is still an appetite amongst consumers to book directly with the hotel. In fact, three in five people who have visited a hotel in the past six months prefer to book via a hotel’s website directly.

This begs the question: how do hoteliers maximise the opportunity presented by both third-party sites and direct online bookings?

Booking aggregators are a ‘must-have’ for hoteliers

As a key part of the marketing mix, OTAs provide an effective way to boost a hotel’s visibility, especially amongst potential first-time guests and during quieter periods. What’s more, we know people seek convenient and efficient experiences when spending time in hospitality, so the same can be expected of hotel booking experiences.

Having every accommodation option available in one place provides potential guests with an easy booking experience, which encourages them to turn looking into booking.

That being said, it doesn’t mean using booking aggregators comes without challenges. Only half (53%) of those who have booked a hotel stay in the past six months say third-party websites are easy to use. What’s more, only 50% realise that by using these sites, the website takes a slice of the booking cost from hoteliers. Once consumers know this, 63% say they are more likely to book directly with a hotel.

The benefits of listing a hotel on booking aggregator sites make doing so essential, especially as competition is fierce and you want to be where your competitors are. So, what does this mean for hoteliers?

How hoteliers can make the booking process as guest-friendly as possible?

Encouraging potential guests to go directly to their website will not only drive bookings but can increase guest spend and revPAR, as well as build loyalty and encourage guests to return. The key to success here is to ensure that owned booking platforms are user-friendly, up-to-date, responsive and secure.

We know that 60% of hotel guests book through the hotel’s website, making it the most popular channel to book through. To make the most of this opportunity, ensuring guests can easily book and update their reservations online is key to providing a great experience. Sending friendly reminders in the run-up to a stay adds a light personal touch to the customer journey that guests will appreciate.

Having a user-friendly booking system can drive revPAR too. With the right booking tools, hotels can offer guests added extras at the time of booking, such as ordering room service on their first night, Champagne to the hotel room or booking a table at the on-site restaurant. Offering guests these options can help drive overall spending at a time when guests are in buying mode.

Once a good online booking system has been established, what happens next? Offering a blanket discount or incentive to re-book may be partially effective in enticing some guests to return and book directly. However, to maximise this opportunity, hoteliers should consider offering guests reasons to return that tap into their individual preferences and needs.

From looking to booking – how to incentivise guests to book direct

We know four in five (83%) of consumers say a discount on a future visit would encourage them to visit a hotel again but to ensure they take that next step and book, hoteliers would benefit from having a customer relationship management strategy in place to utilise all the valuable data they collect on their guests. This will ensure they are providing guests with offers and promotions that are personalised and encourage them to book directly with the hotel next time.

To create these hyper-personalised offers for customers, data is key. All aspects of the hotel’s tech stack should be fully integrated so that data can be stored in one central location, enabling hoteliers to have a 360-degree view of the hotel, including a full breakdown of the most and least successful aspects of the business.

Once a hotelier has a greater understanding of their business, as well as their guests’ needs and preferences, hotels can create a whole host of incentives which lead to bookings, such as generous bounce-back deals or triggered voucher codes, as well as hyper-personalised incentives to guests based on their spending habits during their last stay, encouraging them to return.

How social media can take direct bookings to the next level

Social media platforms are also becoming increasingly important sources of bookings and, while only small numbers have booked a hotel via Facebook (11%), Instagram (11%) and Twitter (9%) so far, many more would be interested in doing so. Including the option to enquire or book via social media is an easy way to drive direct bookings.

Therefore, being present, active and helpful on social media is a great way to engage guests as well as drive loyalty and improve guest sentiment. In addition, something as simple as adding a booking button to social media pages can help generate incremental bookings.

Hoteliers that list their hotels on third-party booking sites and OTAs will not only increase the general visibility of their venues but leveraging both can drive occupancy as well as increase overall profitability. Once the customer is booked in, leveraging technology to provide personal touches and rewards can incentivise future bookings and build customer loyalty.

Hoteliers that do this will ultimately gain an advantage, helping them grow more profitable direct sales, drive more spend per stay, enhance overall brand perception and raise overall traveller satisfaction.