Trivago is becoming hugely popular as of late, mainly since they're investing a lot of money into marketing campaigns.
But what exactly is Trivago? It's not an OTA (Online Travel Agent). It's basically a meta-searcher. It takes a property and scrapes the internet for the different prices and brings them together. So guess what? If you haven't got a listing on Trivago, your hotel will still appear there. It's better to have a listing so that you can make sure all of your pictures and information are up to date. No matter what you do, people are going to view your property on Trivago, so your listings there may as well be accurate.
Want to know how to hack Trivago to get more bookings?Â
So, what do you need to do?
✅ Get rid of any old pictures
✅ Add new photos and give them all a category
✅ Make sure all the information on Trivago is new information
✅ Make sure the link to your website is correct
✅ Make sure your accommodation is accurately described
After that, it's time to do a little research. Trivago is like most other hospitality websites. The primary listing is free of charge. But if you want to add your own site to the search results, you need to pay. This is where Direct Connect or Pro Package comes in. Unfortunately, there's no guarantee of your results. It's a matter of setting your budget.
Trivago Hotel Manager
This is a feature of the pro package. I've personally heard mixed reviews of this. Some people like it, some don't. But, basically, the benefits you get when you take the pro package are (1) you're able to add your latest news, and (2) you can put your contact details on the website.
In my opinion, it's not worth it. It's a waste of money. Instead, I'd look into the direct connect package.
Direct Connect Package
This is the package which allows you to add your own listing. This would add your price from your website to the list along with all the OTA's costs and then compare them.
Now, you may be wondering why that would be necessary since you have the same price everywhere online. Well, Trivago is brilliant about this. They will add the cheapest option. So that could be the price you set during a special offer, or the price for a single person, or even the price before VAT is added. The result is the same: an inaccurate room rate. That's why it's time for you to claim your listing on Trivago!
My most significant takeaway advice is to never pay for Trivago Pro.
I receive a lot of emails from Hospitality Owners letting me know that they have had pushy sales calls from Trivago to try and persuade them to upgrade. But the stats and results from Trivago Pro have always been disappointing. It's not a good return on investment. Take my advice: don't buy in.
