SiteMinder brings trivago and payment processing to its platform

SiteMinder, an open platform for global hotel trade, is developing its metasearch and payment programs to offer hotels more options to manage and protect their revenues in an unpredictable travel market.

SiteMinder ha incorporado a trivago, el mayor comparador de precios de hoteles del mundo, a su sistema de metabúsqueda ‘Demand Plus’. A través de ‘Demand Plus’, los hoteles consiguen que la configuración de su metabúsqueda, la facturación, las ofertas y las campañas sean gestionadas íntegramente por SiteMinder y cobrarán por las estancias completas reservadas directamente a través de su propio sitio web desde Google y, ahora, desde trivago.

Even during the period from October to December 2020, when hotel reservations in Spain fell to 22.2% compared to the levels reached the previous year, according to data from SiteMinder's World Hotel Index, total reservations made through 'Demand Plus' grew. One of the hotels that has benefited from this is the Hotel Mirador Las Grullas in Huesca, which increased its direct bookings by 30% last summer compared to the previous summer period.

In addition to the 'Demand Plus' push, SiteMinder is rolling out the ability for hotels to process guest payments from its platform, as part of the 'SiteMinder Pay' program, which offers integrated payment solutions. Thanks to this new functionality, subscribed hotels can more securely manage payments and refunds for reservations made through OTAs, digitizing the procedure instead of manually processing credit cards.

This feature targets the thousands of hotels that have not yet integrated their reservation technology with their financial management system and therefore record their guests' credit card details in insecure locations, and often even on paper. Studies carried out by SiteMinder show that four out of five of these hotel customers connect to their platform at least once a day to access their guests' credit card data and enter it manually in their management system or in their point of sale terminal. By allowing those hotels to process guest payments within the SiteMinder platform, they can process them at the time of booking or immediately after the initial deposit, thereby reducing credit card fraud, increase the security of payment management and get money to your bank accounts faster. In addition to offering a contactless payment option for guests, hotels can eliminate the risk of credit card declines or no-shows, anticipate when future payments will arrive, and make refunds free of charge or for the establishment or for the guest. The first users of 'SiteMinder Pay' reveal that they save an average of 4.2 minutes of manual management per reservation. anticipate when future payments will arrive and make free reimbursements for either the property or the guest. The first users of 'SiteMinder Pay' reveal that they save an average of 4.2 minutes of manual management per reservation. anticipate when future payments will arrive and make free reimbursements for either the property or the guest. The first users of 'SiteMinder Pay' reveal that they save an average of 4.2 minutes of manual management per reservation.

The growth of SiteMinder's 'Demand Plus' and 'Pay' programs addresses two of the most complex and vital areas of e-commerce for hotels at this critical time: direct bookings through metasearch and payment management. By reducing the complexity of both, SiteMinder offers hotels more options to manage their direct and indirect revenue streams and protect them in today's travel environment and in the future.

"Right now, hoteliers around the world face the double challenge of having fewer travelers and increasing the number of increasingly complex digital marketing options. Most hotels do not have of the budgets and resources needed to take advantage of all the opportunities that exist to become more visible and improve the management of their income, "says Dai Williams, Chief Growth Officer at SiteMinder. "Improving SiteMinder's metasearch and payment programs is part of our commitment to supporting hotels with more options during this difficult time and in the recovery of travel."

Adoption of SiteMinder's transaction-based solutions, including 'Demand Plus' and 'SiteMinder Pay', grew more than 50% in the 12 months to March 2021, reflecting that the more complex needs of hotel customers have been satisfied by SiteMinder's hotel trade platform and its ecosystem of partners during the pandemic.