Hotel Direct Bookings Remain a Challenge: New Skift Research
Photo Credit: Direct distribution remains the most important battleground in the hotel industry Flickr / John Stavely
Skift Take
Despite years of marketing campaigns to drive direct bookings, our look at hotel distribution shows that little has changed for most hotels and that driving room nights via first-party channels remains a difficult uphill battle.
In our latest report, Skift Research takes a deep dive into hotel distribution channels and the outlook for hoteliers to drive direct bookings in 2021 and beyond.
Built around a proprietary survey of hospitality operators, we are able to get a look into how many bookings each of nine different distribution channels deliver across the industry as well as the cost for each method.
The below excerpt focuses on Skift Research's analysis of how hotel distribution channels had been evolving prior to Covid-19. Get the full report here to stay ahead of this trend.
Direct Booking’s Evolution 2017-2019Prior to Covid, what stood out was the heavy reliance of the hospitality industry on third-party bookings. Despite years of hoteliers pushing direct booking initiatives, more than half of sales still come from indirect channels. In fact, in 2019 the larges
