If you’ve already heard about Ryanair’s new strategy, you will surely be wondering how this will affect the large OTAs, but above all, which implications will have for the hotels themselves.
For those who are not yet aware of the details, the Irish airline has just launched its Travel Credit. It consists of the following:
Each customer who owns an account in MyRyanair and who book their accommodation with Ryanair Rooms, will receive a credit that will correspond to 10% of what they have paid for their reservation. This credit will be used to spend on buying flights on Ryanair.com.
Taking into account the average value of flights with this company, it’s very likely that customers will even book their next flights for free.
It’s an initiative that, for various reasons, may have very important consequences on hotels, travel agencies, OTAs and other intermediaries.
Everything points to the fact that Ryanair’s goal is to become the most important accommodation and flight sales channel. With the latest updates they have made on their website, they may not find it difficult to reach that goal.
Now it has a much simpler and more complete search dynamic, allowing users to choose from more than one million accommodation options worldwide. The booking experience is easy, showing a variety of vacation options at the same time.
Among its latest digital news, Apple Pay has recently been integrated into Ryanair.com, Internet users can browse in Chinese, buy tickets for various events and more.
If to all this we add the Travel Credit of their Always Getting Better program, it becomes a difficult option to offer to users.
At first this could seem like it represents many advantages for some hotels and, perhaps, not so much for mediators. Everything will depend on the strategies of each one and the approach that they give to this situation.
How does this really affect hotels?
It should be borne in mind that Ryanair Rooms would become a very important booking channel and that this would affect the direct sales of the hotels, which would have to refine many of their internal strategies to prevent them from getting out of hand.
Perhaps they could strengthen their loyalty programs, offer better rates or some added value by booking directly with the establishment. Each hotel will have its way of proceeding.
Not so flattering is the picture for OTAs and other intermediaries, since Ryanair would represent a very strong competition in many aspects.
What is not questionable is the benefit of this initiative for the Irish company, which is “always getting better”, but just this time seems to be the peak moment to book with Ryanair, both flights and accommodation.
Customers will have at their disposal the same information as in the most recognized booking websites, with the difference that a percentage would be returned to them to buy flights.
