BestBookDirect.com, the UK-based travel website dedicated to driving direct bookings for hotels and holiday companies, has announced notable growth in its business during the first half of the year.
Initially launched to promote Premier Inn for Whitbread over 15 years ago, the group has since grown to encompass a diverse range of hotel and holiday partners throughout the UK. The current portfolio includes Warner Hotels, Travelodge, Haven Holiday Parks, Macdonald Hotels, and the Best Western group.
The website was created as an alternative to the major, predominantly American-owned Online Travel Agents (OTAs) like Tripadvisor and Booking.com. These OTAs use extensive marketing budgets to dominate Google search results while demanding substantial commissions on bookings. Hotels and holiday providers not utilising OTAs often find it challenging to achieve consistent top rankings in Google’s organic search results if they rely solely on their own websites, as they lack the financial capacity for substantial search engine optimisation investment.
BestBookDirect.com specialises in achieving first-page organic search results for its partner travel affiliates through a ‘only-pay-on-sales-driven’ business model. This model takes a small fraction, typically less than 5%, of the total booking cost, compared to the average 15-30% commission demanded by OTAs. This strategy consistently delivers increased direct bookings for partner companies, enhancing profitability and their overall financial health.
Chris Cottam, Head of Digital Operations at BestBookDirect.com, remarked, “In our twelfth year, the business has reached a significant milestone in which we have seen an incredible 200% year-on-year growth in our delivery of direct bookings for Warner Hotels alongside an increase in bookings across all 38 Haven Holiday Parks throughout the UK. This has been achieved by a keen focus on promoting late/last-minute deals on unsold rooms, which are a priority for all hospitality operators as they strive for maximum room occupancy levels. With dedicated high-quality web pages featuring both Warner’s last-minute room deals and Haven Holiday Parks, we aim to fill unsold capacity in the most cost-effective manner. We now aim to replicate this success with our other travel and hospitality partners.”
The company is also committed to supporting charities in the UK. BestBookDirect’s parent company, Uedit Limited, has raised over £100,000 to support disadvantaged children in the UK by sharing its technology platform with the school fundraising charity School Angel.
For further details, visit www.bestbookdirect.com
