Emilie Vazquez , senior vice president of digital marketing and

product at AccorHotels , says the company has a very involved presence on most metasearch sites , including the three biggest , Google Hotel Ads , TripAdvisor and Trivago .

“ We have a dedicated internal team who is in charge of operating the campaigns in direct contact with the metasearch partners ,” Vazquez says . “ Campaigns are optimized on a daily basis at a very granular level ( hotel by hotel and week by week ),

Emilie Vazquez , SVP of digital marketing and product at AccorHotels

and our strategy is return-on-investment oriented . We also use a third-party bid management tool that enables us to be more efficient in our optimizations .”

All of these efforts , Vazquez says , require a “ close relationship ” with metasearch partners , citing joint business plans , regular reviews and even meetings with engineering teams to “ co-build a win-win strategy .”

One downside , she acknowledges , is increasing competition from other hotel chains and online travel agencies , which negatively affects ROI . Yet with traffic from metasearch sites on the uptick , Vasquez says Accor predicts a “ good future ” for these partners .

DIRECT BOOKINGS For Hilton , whose most recent advertising campaign urged consumers to “ Stop Clicking Around ,” direct bookings and customer service remain priorities , even as the company works through the metasearch space .

“ We want our guests to know that they get the best value with Hilton when they book directly with us , either through our website , app or travel professional partner ,” says

March 2017 hotelsmag . com 53