Metasearch findings: When deeper discounts don't win the click

How to stay competitive without heavy discounts

In metasearch the common belief is that the lowest price wins. However, recent Triptease data reveals a more complex picture. While having a competitive price is crucial, excessive discounting doesn't always equate to more direct clicks to the booking engine.

Lowering prices can, and does, help hotels beat OTAs. But it’s important to be precise, and strategic, to win direct bookings without sacrificing your margin. Continuous over-discounting is a problem, just like being undercut is, because hotels only need to be slightly cheaper than OTAs to attract the click. A little can go a long way.

The graph above shows that while OTAs appear to need to continually offer greater discounts to entice clicks, hotels can achieve a competitive advantage and maintain a healthy CTR by undercutting OTAs by a marginal percentage. This nuanced understanding of pricing strategies can inform hoteliers when they make decisions about how to position their rates on metasearch engines effectively.