Triptease hails short-term gains from new Price Check widget

Triptease hails short-term gains from new Price Check widget

Triptease is claiming an average 35% increase in conversions for hotels using its new Price Check tool on their sites.

Triptease is claiming an average 35% increase in conversions for hotels using its new Price Check tool on their sites.

The firm launched the new widget six weeks ago, displaying a live comparison of prices from major OTAs, with 300 properties expected to be using the tool by the end of this week.

The immediate impact on conversion and customer acquisition costs has ensured Price Check has seen good uptake from hotels, said Triptease co-founder and chief executive Charlie Osmond.

He said in A-B testing, one hotel group tripled its direct web bookings while revenues from websites were up by as much as a half.

“Our starting point for Triptease was personal frustration and that pain of always thinking there is something better out there.

“We were reinventing travel reviews and how we have evolved that was to work with hotels and try to fix that problem by better connecting hotels and guests to drive direct bookings.

“We realised that the single biggest reason why people leave a hotel website is because they believe that the price is probably cheaper elsewhere.

“The impact of Price Check has been so clear and it’s such a simple concept that hotels have quickly latched on to it.”

Osmond said increasing price parity means that there is unlikely to be huge differentials in pricing and yet 68% of people who book on OTAs have previously visited the hotel’s own website.

He said while there will always be a role for OTAs, hotels are frustrated that they spend millions building brands only to find distribution partners “squatting” on them, on search engines like Google.

Osmond believes although hoteliers are now ready to compete for direct business using tools like Price Check, they do not necessarily have the in-house resources to do it.

“It’s hard for hotels to make digital investments for the very long term. If there are short-term opportunities for hotels to improve their bottom line they will always take them.

“We are firm believers in improving the power and quality of hotels’ content, however, in 2015 this is not high up on any hotel’s agenda.”

Osmond said content marketing remained a long-term play for Triptease while it continues to establish itself as a Service as a Software technology provider for the hotel industry.

He said Price Check’s success will open up other opportunities with hotel partners as Triptease starts to learn more about how consumers behave.

But for the time being there are plenty of hotels to sell the idea of Price Check to.

“We have a long way to go.” said Osmond.

Triptease founded in 2013, concluded a $2 million seed investment round in February with venture capitalist partners Episode 1 Ventures and Notion Capital.

This week it has moved out of the basement in Osmond’s London home and its 10 London staff are now based in new offices in Holborn, where headcount is expected to double by the end this year.