There’s no doubt that listing properties on multiple channels drives additional revenue for your portfolio. And channel management software, like Beyond’s Relay, makes it easier than ever to automatically post prices everywhere and avoid double bookings.
But when it comes to honing in on an effective distribution strategy, where do you begin?
Leveraging channel markups, which increase the daily price on each channel by a percentage, can help you drive booking volume to your more profitable channels and improve average daily rates (ADRs).
Beyond’s Relay supports two types of channel markups: static channel markups and dynamic channel markups. Let’s take a look at the background on each and see where you might want to start.
How Revenue Managers Think About Channel Markups
Traditionally, property managers have used static channel markups to cover the cost of the OTAs. Accounting for service fees feels great, but there’s more to the story—channels have a few hidden costs, risks, and advantages that static channel markups don’t cover. For example:
- The costs of distribution are evolving with the vacation rental industry. The more tools that vacation rental revenue managers have to combat this type of change, the better.
- The true opportunity cost of a booking on an OTA versus a booking on your direct site goes beyond OTA fees: booking windows, willingness to pay, and demand trends across the OTAs and your direct site are fundamentally different. Because of this, static markups can lead to underpricing high season and overpricing low season on the OTAs.
To help our Relay customers take their distribution strategy to the next level and work with, instead of against, these costs, risks, and advantages of listing on OTAs, our team built Dynamic Channel Markups.
Introducing Relay’s Dynamic Channel Markups!
Relay’s Dynamic Channel Markups automatically set distinct channel markups per day based on market data and trends. Similar to dynamic pricing, we’ll set higher markups during times of high demand, and lower markups during times of low demand.
And if you still want to maintain control over markups sent to channels, you can set minimums and maximums right in your Beyond Dashboard!
What This Means For You
💰 When demand is high, increasing markups on the OTAs can help drive ADRs on channels, but also push more bookings to your lower cost, direct channel.
🛏️ In times of low demand, lower or no markups help drive occupancy from the channels where guests are looking and ready to book -- the top OTAs.
📈 Together, fluctuations in channel markups can help you optimize when and where you’re getting booked. The best part: it’s automatic.
Example Time!
Let’s take a look at an example. For the dates around a popular event in Panama City Beach— New Year’s Eve—Dynamic Channel Markups in Relay are increasing prices on OTA channels by 25% compared to the property manager’s direct booking website.
This type of markup helps educate guests on the benefits of booking direct with a lower rate, and it also helps drive additional revenue for those costlier OTA bookings.
What do dynamic channel markups look like for your market? Jump into your Relay dashboard to explore, or request a demo with our team today.
Getting Started With Channel Markups in Relay
Setting channel markups in Beyond is easy!
- In your Relay dashboard, use the checkboxes on the left hand side to select the listings you’d like to update:
2. Select the type of markup you’d like to use (custom markups or dynamic channel markups). For custom markups, set the percentage markup you’d like to use per channel. For dynamic channel markups, you can enter a minimum and a maximum value per channel (optional).
3. Click Apply! You can view your current markups for each listing on your dashboard:
Similar to the way that dynamic pricing has changed revenue management in the vacation rental industry, an optimized and dynamic channel management strategy is the next step in growing your revenue. For an in-depth look at dynamic channel markups in Relay, request a demo with our team today!
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