The ultimate guide to hotel bidding sites

What are hotel bidding sites?

Hotel bidding sites are a type of metasearch engine. Instead of accepting a fixed price or choosing another property, the guest sets their own price. They essentially "bid" on a room based on what they think it's worth - including factors like room type and amenities - while the hotel decides whether to accept the offer.

Why are hotel bidding sites important?

Bidding platforms offer hotels a way to supplement occupancy during low-demand periods and maximize revenue. They allow you to fill less popular rooms without publicly lowering your standard rates.

They're also an effective way to attract budget-conscious travelers who might not otherwise book, helping you expand your customer base without heavily discounting. Ultimately, bidding sites let hotels balance profitability and occupancy without devaluing their brand.

Benefits of using bidding sites

We've already touched on why hotel bidding sites are valuable. Now, let's explore the key benefits - maintaining brand value, reducing marketing costs, gaining market insights, and optimizing revenue.

Maintain brand value

Discounting can lower the perceived value of your hotel, but bidding sites let you offer lower rates anonymously. Guests feel they're getting great value, while your hotel maintains its reputation.

Reduce marketing costs

Promotions can eat into your marketing budget and reduce profit margins. With bidding sites, you can offer deals without investing in advertising campaigns. While these platforms charge a fee, it's often much lower than the cost of paid campaigns on Google or social media.

Get valuable market insights

Bidding data is a great way to understand pricing trends and measure fluctuations in demand, improving your ability to forecast and set future rate strategies. You can also get an idea of the price point for different market segments that you previously weren't able to reach. This information can be used to impact those segments that prove the most valuable and to keep these customers loyal once you've attracted them.

Even if bidding sites don't represent the most profitable way of selling inventory, they can be used to understand the market so that you can better tailor your campaigns and channels to reach segments that your hotel wants to reach. It's a good way to invest in market data without doing a full-blown market investigation.

Optimize revenue

Empty rooms mean lost revenue. With bidding, hotels can avoid leaving rooms vacant, which helps to recover operational costs, and ensure room inventory doesn't go to waste. Once operational costs are covered, even a slight revenue gain is better than lost revenue.

How hotel bidding sites work

Hotel bidding sites work in the following way:

• List unsold inventory through the bidding platform, setting a minimum price. Availability can be adjusted based on occupancy and demand.
• Offer discounts anonymously - in some cases, guests won't know the hotel's name until after booking.
• Customers bid based on location, star rating, and amenities. Some platforms offer "hidden deals," where users only see the price, not the hotel name.
• Hotels accept or decline bids.
• The booking is confirmed, and the guest receives hotel details.
• Hotels can continue adjusting pricing and availability based on demand, occupancy, and competitors.

The best hotel bidding sites

Some of the best hotel bidding sites have been around for years, offering travelers discounted stays while helping hotels fill rooms. Here are just some of the most notable platforms.

Priceline

Priceline is without a doubt one of the most well-known hotel bidding sites. Users can name their own price based on the location, dates and star rating and hotels can decide whether to accept the offer or not. Travelers see discounted rates for a certain hotel, but the name of the hotel isn't revealed until after the booking is confirmed.

Hotwire

Hotwire users select the neighborhood, star rating and amenities, then bid on the price. Hotels who can match these criteria can accept the offer. Unlike Priceline, users can see the name of the hotel prior to paying.

Agoda

Agoda is not just a hotel bidding site but has a secret deals function where they offer hidden discounts so that travelers can see the price but not the hotel name until they book and confirm.

Comparing hotel bidding sites to traditional booking methods

Hotels shouldn't see bidding sites as a replacement for traditional booking channels but rather as a way to complement them - especially during periods of low demand. These platforms help offload excess inventory while maintaining price integrity.

During high-demand periods, it's more profitable to prioritize direct bookings and traditional booking channels, as this ensures higher margins. But when demand dips, bidding sites can be a useful tool for increasing occupancy, selling at the best possible price, and gaining insights into traveler behavior. When combined with a strong direct booking strategy, they can contribute to a well-rounded revenue optimization approach.

Conclusion

We've explored how hotel bidding sites work, their benefits, and some of the best platforms available. When used strategically, these sites can help hotels capture revenue that might otherwise be lost, attract budget-conscious travelers, and build loyalty with a new customer base.

By leveraging bidding platforms without undercutting prices, hotels can maintain brand reputation while increasing occupancy and generating additional revenue-all without the heavy lifting of traditional marketing campaigns.

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