Are TA under pressure?
Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2017 7:02 am
I have published a number of posts previously wondering if we can live without the global listing sites. In particular their "Ryanair" focus on low, low pricing (at the expense of everything else like, err, features, customer care and quality) being a non-sustainable model.
Well after five years trading we dumped HA/OD and ramped up our TA/HL prices for 2017 and have seen one booking through them as a result. But we have had no problem maintaining business through our own site (at the margins we want). The seasonal booking distribution has not changed.
I get the impression that our local competition is similarly not getting the business they once did either through the big boys and are using the booking.com, lastminute and similar players.
This is likely to be our best year yet (letting approx 190 days in rainy Scotland). TA/HL used to provide a quarter of our bookings).
About 20% of our business is repeat now.
BTW we are now "piloting" AirBnB who IMO offer configuration flexibility for owners and a better deal for customers. We have reasonable hopes for the Nov to April season.
Well after five years trading we dumped HA/OD and ramped up our TA/HL prices for 2017 and have seen one booking through them as a result. But we have had no problem maintaining business through our own site (at the margins we want). The seasonal booking distribution has not changed.
I get the impression that our local competition is similarly not getting the business they once did either through the big boys and are using the booking.com, lastminute and similar players.
This is likely to be our best year yet (letting approx 190 days in rainy Scotland). TA/HL used to provide a quarter of our bookings).
About 20% of our business is repeat now.
BTW we are now "piloting" AirBnB who IMO offer configuration flexibility for owners and a better deal for customers. We have reasonable hopes for the Nov to April season.