Checking out how advisors book hotels
We surveyed nearly 450 advisors on how they book hotels, resorts and other accommodations for their clients. The results shed light on booking channels, loyalty programs and the utility of fam trips.
Across both the business and leisure segments, nearly every travel occasion calls for a comfortable place to stay, making hotel bookings a cornerstone for most travel advisors.
Indeed, findings from a Travel Weekly poll conducted in mid-May indicate that the vast majority of advisors book hotels, resorts and other accommodations for their clients, with nearly 85% of the survey’s almost 450 respondents reporting that they do so frequently or often.
Only a little over 2% of respondents said they rarely or never book hotels, resorts or other accommodations, with a couple in that camp stating they primarily book cruises.
Ask a travel advisor what channel they use to book accommodations, however, and, as one put it, “It depends.” Travel advisors’ methods are as varied as their clients’ needs, with everything from travel occasion and accommodation type to a client’s brand or loyalty program preferences playing a role in determining which hotel booking channel is most suitable.
Often, at the very top of that decision-making funnel, according to Daniel Olsen, COO of Melbourne Beach, Fla.-based Beyond & Back Travel, is whether a client is traveling for business or for leisure, with corporate business travel accommodations almost always booked via the GDS.
“We service those two customers differently,” Olsen said. “Our workflow for corporate all lives within the GDS, so I would say about 98% of our corporate hotels are booked through the GDS.”
Around 20% of survey respondents most frequently book hotels, resorts and other accommodations through a GDS, while an almost equal number, 19.3%, most frequently book directly through a property’s website, app or call center.
VAX VacationAccess is another popular choice, with 16.5% of advisors favoring that platform. Proprietary websites or booking systems provided by agencies or consortia are most frequently used by roughly 14.3% of respondents, while 12% of respondents said they most frequently book through a consolidator or wholesaler like Expedia TAAP or Classic Vacations.
That said, many respondents said they regularly rely on a mix of platforms.
“I shop for hotel bookings,” said Michael Murphy, owner and manager of Compass Luxury Travel, which is based out of the Atlanta metro area. “I may look at Expedia TAAP, I may look at VAX, I may look direct. Sometimes [some channels] have amenities attached to the booking that aren’t public, or sometimes there’s a major price difference. Sometimes you’ll look in one place and find no availability and then look in another place and they do have that availability.”
Part of that shopping process may involve checking the OTAs as well (although less than 3% of respondents said they end up booking with OTAs).
“When putting together multistop FIT packages for clients, unfortunately, it’s imperative to check OTA hotel pricing, which often creates a package at a substantially lower price than using a wholesaler,” lamented one advisor.
For another respondent, the preferred channel fluctuates, but hotel bookings for VIP clients are always made direct, despite direct bookings often resulting in a lower, or nonexistent, commission payout.
“They pay me a fee, so I don’t have to chase a commission,” that advisor explained.
Several advisors similarly underscored that booking direct with a particular hotel can heighten the risk of having to pursue commissions owed.
“I have spent far too much time chasing commissions from hoteliers since the pandemic,” complained one advisor. “I only book through wholesalers now.”
What drives booking decisions
The factors that the most respondents cited as “critically important” to helping a client choose accommodations were a property’s brand reputation (48%) and price (47%).
“Many times, for travelers in that middle tier, like the everyday corporate traveler, we’re booking them in hotels that we don’t have much experience with, or hotels we just haven’t gotten much feedback on,” Olsen said. “In those cases, we really do rely on the brands with reputations we feel confident in, because we know those brands maintain specific standards.”
Other times, big hotel chains simply offer a client a sense of familiarity.
“I often book Marriott and Hilton using their travel advisor portals, [because] many clients prefer them because they are ‘known,’” said one survey respondent.
And with average hotel rates rising significantly above prepandemic levels, Olsen also said that price is a top factor in determining the best property for a client.
“That has become more important,” he said. “The more detail we get around budget expectations, the better we can do our job. So we’ve put more effort into getting that information out of our clients than we used to.”
Other elements that a sizable share of advisors deemed critically important included feedback from other clients (44.3%), commission/financial incentives (33.5%) and personal experience with a property (30.9%).
“The most important thing to me in booking any property is to get positive feedback from my client when they return,” Murphy said. “That makes it or breaks it.”
The importance of loyalty
Meanwhile, nearly 20% of respondents said a loyalty program and a client’s ability to earn or redeem points was critically important when helping a client choose the right accommodation. And in a follow-up survey question, a majority of advisors, nearly 53%, said loyalty programs were very or moderately impactful to their hotel booking business.
Actually, hotel loyalty programs emerged as a divisive topic. Numerous advisors reported that they have many clients who stick to specific hotel brands in order to earn points or enjoy benefits that come with top-tier status, with one respondent saying hotel loyalty programs are “an important influence on their decision making.”
But as one advisor pointed out, “Some hotels won’t allow clients to earn points unless they are booked direct, [which] can cause my agency to lose volume with a tour operator.”
Another respondent complained that because points can influence a client to book direct, “oftentimes that equates to a 10% or lower commission, when I could be making 14% or sometimes more through wholesale channels.”
Olsen said that while he and his team at Beyond & Back Travel are willing to provide guidance on what hotels might work best for a points redemption, they generally advise that clients book accommodations using points on their own.
“In some instances, for certain clients, we will do a points booking, but that’s not our normal process,” Olsen added. “But we’re an advisor to them to get their trip booked in the most efficient way possible, and we charge a fee for being that advisor. So we keep their best interests in mind, and we don’t view it as losing a booking.”
Plus, Olsen said, “we probably booked all the things that led them to get those points, so how can we blame them for wanting to use them?”
Connecting with advisors
For hotels and resorts looking to strengthen their relationships with the advisor community, having a dedicated advisor program or providing educational tools and training can help move the needle.
Nearly 60% of advisors said they participate in a hotel or resort brand advisor program, with respondents listing Hyatt Prive, Hilton’s Impresario, Accor’s Famous Agents and Marriott’s Preferred Travel Agency program as just a few of the many platforms on which they are active.
According to one respondent, “If a hotel conglomerate offers a travel advisor benefit by booking directly with them, I am enrolled.”
Likewise, close to 66% of advisors said they’ve completed a hotel or resort brand’s certification or specialist training, with many earning status as a Sandals and Beaches Certified Specialist, Atlantis Ambassador, Universal Studios Resort Specialist, World of Hyatt Inclusive Collection Master Agent, Melia Pro, Iberostar Star Agent and more.
As with dedicated advisor programs, many advisors said that the more certifications and trainings one has, the better.
“I have over 60 certifications, probably over 20 hotel [and] resort brands,” said one respondent, adding that if they were to list them all, “I would be here all day.”
Making time for fams
Despite close to 54% of respondents declaring fam trips “extremely” or “very helpful,” advisors report that they don’t participate in hotel or resort-focused fam trips as much as they’d like.
Nearly 42% said they take a hotel- or resort-focused fam trip less than once a year, and approximately 35% said they never take such trips. Those who rarely or never join fams said that a lack of time was often a factor, primarily due to work- and family-related obligations.
“I have a business to run,” said one advisor. “Second, the offers are not as beneficial as they once were.”
Others said they’d rather visit a property independently as an anonymous guest, with one respondent saying, “I prefer to experience the property just like our clients will.”
And for some advisors, the cost of participating in fams can be prohibitive, with attendees generally expected, at minimum, to cover their own airfare.
“Fams are too expensive now for the amount of work and time and energy you put in,” wrote one respondent.
Still, for others, the value of a fam trip — particularly one that includes ultraluxe lodging an advisor may not be able to swing on their own — far exceeds the time or monetary investment.
“There are different types [of fam trips], and it depends on the level of agent and their level of client,” said Robyn Mark, partner at New York-based Mayamaya Travel. “Some might say, ‘Oh, the international air is expensive,’ but all things considered, if I spent $2,000 on air, but the trip was easily five grand a day, then that’s worth it.”
Mark added that getting a chance to attend a fam generally provides invaluable firsthand experience.
“I’ve been doing this since 2008, and I’d say that fam trips have been, by far, the best way to see a destination,” she said. “My enthusiasm and passion for a place comes out when I have a good fam trip. It’s the best sales tool we have.”
That sentiment was echoed by another respondent, who called in-person property visits “the most valuable tool in my toolbox.”
“My clients know they can rely on me to know about the products I am recommending to them, and I know they feel much more comfortable when I can show them personal pictures of my site visits to a property or destination,” they added. “I wish that more suppliers would realize the importance of this and understand that this is the most valuable way they can spend their marketing dollars — by investing in us.”
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