Are you using Country Rates?
Booking.com‘s Country Rates are special rates offered to travelers in certain countries and regions that can make your property more attractive to them. Making them part of your pricing strategy is an important way of capturing specific travel demand.
Based on global research commissioned by Booking.com, 66% of global travelers state that not being able to travel extensively in 2020 has made them yearn for travel even more in 2021. Despite feeling mostly optimistic, global travelers acknowledge that not being able to travel in 2020 like they used to in previous years has had a significant effect on their well-being. 48% reported a negative impact on their mental health, and 47% felt imprisoned in their own home due to travel restrictions.
To attract these eager travelers, your properties can set compelling promotions designed to secure more bookings. One of the ways properties can do this is by setting Country Rates, which are available via the Promotions API.
Based on reporting insights, properties can unlock more international demand by offering great prices to travelers in the countries they specifically want to target. Properties can boost their bookings by customizing the discounts they offer to specific countries and regions. By utilizing reporting and being aware of upcoming travel restriction changes, Country Rates offer productivity for properties to build their international business.
How do Country Rates work?
Country Rates allow your properties to offer a particular price to guests from specific countries. Activating Country Rates helps partners:
- Remain competitive within their region.
- Attract guests from countries that tend to spend more at the property.
- Attract guests from countries with the highest market growth percentage.
- Remain competitive on meta sites.
- Attract guests from markets with lower cancellation rates.
Country Rates:
- They’re only visible to guests using Booking.com from an IP address matching the country the property is targeting.
- We recommend a minimum discount of 10%, but properties can adjust this based on their preference.
- Country rates apply to all rooms and rate plans. The discount adds on to existing discounts from the Genius programme (if the properties are a Genius partner), as well as any other promotions they’ve set up.
- Country rates do not apply to mobile rates or the Deal of the Day promotion.
(Please note that country rates are not available in certain countries due to legal or commercial restrictions.)
If you’d like to learn more about Country Rates, read this article.
Future Availability = Higher Ranking in Search Results
Vacation rental owners should consider committing to at least a two-year contract which ensures more availability across channels. Plus, their properties will list higher in search results.
Booking.com suggests ensuring your properties continually have loaded availability for upcoming months. This not only increases their visibility, but it helps them avoid missing out on potential bookings as well.