How to Improve Your Hotel’s Booking.com Performance

Start with a listing that matches the hotel

Booking.com is an online travel agency (OTA) that shows your hotel beside others that a guest compares in a few seconds. The listing is the hotel’s shop window there. Its job is to show the hotel as it really is, clearly enough that the right guests book and the wrong ones move on. A listing that promises more than the hotel delivers wins the booking and loses the review.

Review the listing as a guest would, on a phone first, and check:

• Photos: recent, well lit and showing every room type as it is, with the main photo chosen for the guest you want to attract. Replace photos after renovations, and remove any that show rooms or facilities that have changed.
• Room types: each name, size, bed type, view and maximum occupancy must match the real room and the room type in the PMS (property management system) and the channel manager, so the right room is sold and the right room is prepared.
• Descriptions: what makes the hotel different, its location and access, and the practical details guests ask about, written plainly.
• Facilities and services: every amenity marked correctly, including what costs extra. A facility that is listed but not available is an easy way to earn a complaint.
• Policies: check-in and check-out times, cancellation and prepayment, children and extra beds, payment methods, and how taxes and service charges are shown, which must match how the hotel actually charges them.

Rates, availability and restrictions

Guests cannot book what they cannot find. A hotel can lose bookings not because of its price but because rooms are closed, rates are missing on future dates, or restrictions exclude the stay the guest is searching for. Check:

• Availability on future dates: rates and rooms loaded far enough ahead for guests who book early, with no dates closed by mistake.
• One place for changes: if the channel manager sends rates and availability to Booking.com, make changes there, not directly in the extranet, where they may be overwritten or fall out of step with other channels.
• Rate plans: a small, clear set, such as a flexible rate and a non-refundable rate, with or without breakfast. Too many similar plans confuse guests and make control harder.
• Price gaps between room types that a guest can understand at a glance.
• Restrictions such as a minimum length of stay, closed to arrival or a minimum booking window: useful on high-demand dates, harmful when left in place after the demand has gone. A minimum stay on a quiet weekday can keep the hotel out of results for guests searching for one night.
• Consistency with other channels and with the hotel’s contracts, since rate parity terms differ by agreement and by country. How rates themselves should move with demand is covered in our hotel revenue management guide.

Reviews, replies and guest messages

Reviews on Booking.com are linked to stays booked through the platform, and they influence two things: whether a guest chooses the hotel, and, as one of several factors, how prominently the listing is shown. The score is earned in the hotel, not in the extranet: in housekeeping, the condition of the rooms, the welcome at reception and how problems are handled during the stay.

Replies matter too, because future guests read them. A good reply thanks the guest, answers the specific point, says what has been done where something went wrong, and stays calm and professional. Avoid copied replies, arguing with the guest and mentioning personal details. Pass recurring complaints to the department that can fix them; a reply without a fix only postpones the next poor review.

Guest messages are part of the same picture. Questions about transfers, early check-in, parking or special requests deserve a clear answer quickly, ideally within the same working day. A fast, complete answer can secure a booking that is still undecided and prevents surprises at check-in. Answer within the platform, under its rules, and through someone who knows the hotel’s policies.

Use the extranet tools and programs selectively

The Booking.com extranet is the hotel’s control panel for its account. Its menus change over time and can differ between accounts, but it generally gives access to:

• Rates, availability and restrictions for each room type and date.
• Listing content: photos, descriptions, facilities and policies, often with a prompt for missing information.
• Reservations, guest messages, and reviews with the option to reply.
• Performance reports that can show how often the listing appears in search results, how often it is opened, and how many of those views become bookings.
• Promotions, such as early-booking, last-minute or longer-stay discounts, and rates aimed at specific groups of guests, such as people booking on a mobile device or members of the platform’s loyalty program.
• Visibility programs that cost extra commission in exchange for more prominent placement.

Measure results, and keep Booking.com in proportion

Every promotion or program has a cost, either a discount or extra commission. Before joining one, ask three questions. Will it bring guests who would not have booked otherwise, or only discount guests who would have booked anyway? Will it move bookings away from cheaper channels, such as direct? What is left per room after the discount and commission? Try one change at a time, for a defined period, so its effect can be measured.

The number of bookings alone does not show whether the channel is performing. Track each month, against the same period last year:

• Visibility and conversion: search appearances, listing views and the share of views that become bookings, where the reports provide them.
• Room nights, ADR (average daily rate) and net ADR after commission from Booking.com, compared with other channels.
• Cancellations and no-shows from the channel, which can make bookings on hand look stronger than they are.
• The review score, the number of new reviews and the themes that repeat in them.
• Booking.com’s share of the hotel’s total room nights. A platform that brings most of the hotel’s business also sets many of the conditions it works under, so the aim is to make Booking.com work well while building direct, corporate, travel agent and other OTA business beside it. Our article on increasing hotel occupancy covers those other sources, and our article on ADR, occupancy and RevPAR explains net ADR.

Common mistakes

Typical mistakes on Booking.com include:

• Old or flattering photos that do not match the rooms, which win bookings and lose reviews.
• Room types mapped wrongly between the channel manager and Booking.com, so the wrong room is sold or the hotel is overbooked.
• Changing rates or availability directly in the extranet when a channel manager controls them.
• Leaving restrictions or closed dates in place after the reason has passed.
• Joining every discount and visibility program at once, so nobody knows which one works or what it costs.
• Copied or defensive replies to reviews, and complaints answered without fixing the cause.
• Slow answers to guest messages, or answers that contradict the hotel’s policies.
• Judging the channel by the number of bookings instead of the revenue left after commission and cancellations.

How to start

Begin with an audit of the listing. Compare every room type, photo, facility and policy with the real hotel and with the PMS, and correct what differs.

Next, check rates and availability for the coming months, remove restrictions that no longer have a reason, and make sure the channel manager is the single place where changes are made.

Then read the last few months of reviews, list the complaints that repeat, agree who fixes each one, and set a standard for replying to reviews and messages.

Review the programs and promotions the hotel has joined, and keep only those that leave more revenue after their cost.

Finally, set up a monthly report with the measures above, and change one thing at a time so its effect can be seen.

At MMC Hotels, setting up booking platform accounts, room descriptions and photos, hotel policies and the connected systems is part of the Build level, Hotel Brand & Digital Setup. Managing the Booking.com account day to day, including rates and availability, reservations, promotions, guest inquiries, reviews and performance reports, is part of the Grow level, Online Hotel Management, while the owner runs the hotel. Revenue & Distribution Management covers pricing and the channel mix across all platforms.