From Confusion to Precision: The Impact of Room Mapping on Hotel Bookings
When you source your accommodation content from multiple suppliers and wholesalers, often on your hotel booking platforms, you will find there are duplicate rooms supplied by your supplier partners. The same room may appear twice, or even three times, or more. It may seem like a different room every time it appears with different images & room details like- bed type, smoking or non-smoking, prices, etc. However, they are the same rooms with different details. Here’s what your customers experience in such a scenario: They reach your booking platform, search online, find a room with stunning ocean views, and make a reservation. But when they arrive, the room looks nothing like the photos, and worse, it’s not even the one they booked. What comes next is an evil review, or maybe an Instagram story or an X thread mentioning how bad (or fraudulent) your hotel booking platform is. You may compensate the customer, upgrade them to the best room, or even refund the full booking amount, but one thing is for sure- they’re never booking with you again and might as well spread the word. Duplicate room listings, mismatched room details, and outdated room descriptions are common pitfalls on hotel booking platforms. But you can easily solve them with a Room Mapping Solution. Let’s learn how.Room Mapping has become a popular solution in the accommodation booking space. Often facilitated by an advanced API, room mapping prevents travelers from encountering duplicate room listings on your booking page, ensuring that bookings are accurate and seamless. Mapping all rooms against all providers is essential to ensure every room on your frontend is unique, it enhances customer satisfaction, mitigates the risk of negative reviews stemming from booking errors, and optimizes your bottom-line by maximizing occupancy rates. Also Read: What is hotel mapping and why it matters for your online travel business Same room, different names. This is basically why you need Room Mapping on your hotel booking platform. But let’s look at the bigger picture here. Let’s go back to what we discussed at the beginning of this blog- In the absence of a Room Mapping API, the same rooms on your hotel booking platform will have different names and descriptions (from different suppliers). The basic elements of a room description are the Room Type, Bed Type, View Type and a long list of possible amenities and services (e.g. accessible, pet-friendly, balcony, mini-bar, etc.) Each accommodation supplier may edit the existing information differently, discarding or adding, creating overlaps, duplications and more. Here’s an example: Supplier A Supplier B Supplier C Supplier D Standard room king with sea view Double standard king, sea view Standard room with sea view kg Double Std Sea king bed – 2 Per In the example above, the same room is described in four different ways by four different suppliers which makes it look like an extensive supply of different rooms within a specific hotel. When in reality, there is a much smaller number of room options at any given hotel. This duplicate and poorly sorted room inventory created by different descriptions can leave your customers feeling confused and may cause them to lose trust in your platform, eventually leaving them with a bad experience. You need Room Mapping to prevent such instances. Room mapping standardizes the peculiar room details like bed size, room views, smoking/non-smoking, board types, etc., and displays competitive prices for the unique rooms available. That said, let’s understand how integrating a Room Mapping API enhances hotel booking experiences. Also Read: Effective strategies for OTAs to optimize conversions Same room, different names. This is basically why you need Room Mapping on your hotel booking platform. But let’s look at the bigger picture here. Let’s go back to what we discussed at the beginning of this blog- In the absence of a Room Mapping API, the same rooms on your hotel booking platform will have different names and descriptions (from different suppliers). The basic elements of a room description are the Room Type, Bed Type, View Type and a long list of possible amenities and services (e.g. accessible, pet-friendly, balcony, mini-bar, etc.) Each accommodation supplier may edit the existing information differently, discarding or adding, creating overlaps, duplications and more. Here’s an example: In the example above, the same room is described in four different ways by four different suppliers which makes it look like an extensive supply of different rooms within a specific hotel. When in reality, there is a much smaller number of room options at any given hotel. This duplicate and poorly sorted room inventory created by different descriptions can leave your customers feeling confused and may cause them to lose trust in your platform, eventually leaving them with a bad experience. You need Room Mapping to prevent such instances. Room mapping standardizes the peculiar room details like bed size, room views, smoking/non-smoking, board types, etc., and displays competitive prices for the unique rooms available. That said, let’s understand how integrating a Room Mapping API enhances hotel booking experiences. Also Read: Effective strategies for OTAs to optimize conversions A Room mapping API, is like a smart tool that helps hotel booking platforms organize and map room details accurately across different systems. Think of it as a translator that ensures every room’s features like bed size, view, or amenities are correctly listed no matter where the data comes from. Let’s understand this with an example of Vervotech’s Room Mapping API that standardizes room data in just four steps: Step 1: Data Collection Enterprise-level web service collect room information. Step 2: Data Standardization Identification & standardization of raw data through Deep Learning algorithms. Step 3: Data Processing Analysis & grouping of similar rooms with identical parameters in one category. Step 4: Outcome Completely mapped rooms with accurate and detailed information. Explore More This way, room mapping API ensures that: No single room is listed twice (no duplicate listings) Room descriptions are accurate (no incorrect details). Room listings are precise (no missing details). For example, instead of seeing
What is Hotel Mapping And Room Mapping? (Explained)
Are your customers getting confused by seeing the same hotel listed multiple times which is indirectly hurting your business? Well, you are not alone. The travel fraternity faces a common problem of inconsistent hotel listings and a lot of hotel providers are trying to manage and resolve it. Since the hotel distribution market is so big and complex, oftentimes, data is not displayed properly on the website. This is where technologies like hotel mapping comes in handy where a hotel mapping tool is used to get the job done.Online Travel Agent source their hotel data from multiple channels like bigger online travel agents, global distribution systems, and bed banks. Often, the data collected is inconsistent with a lot of duplicate hotel listings. This happens because each channel has its set of hotel listings and oftentimes another channel also has a similar set of data with similar listings. When OTAs combine all their data they end up with duplicate content and customers see the same hotels on their website multiple times which leads to confusion. This is where hotel mapping tool plays a huge role. Hotel Mapping is a method of aggregating hotel properties from varied sources in an organised manner to avoid inconsistency and duplication in hotels found on a website. It guides you to take control of the integration process by mapping all your hotels. Hotel Mapping is an excellent solution that adapts to consumer needs. It can be done manually, but that can be extremely time-consuming and complex. Most OTAs opt for automated means where a hotel mapping tool is used to get the job done with ease. This helps travel businesses achieve high customer satisfaction by aiming to prevent end-user from booking the wrong hotel and nullify losses resulting from the same.Read More – What is hotel mapping and why it matters for your online travel businessOnline Travel Agents face the similar issue of duplication when it comes to rooms listed on their website. Every data provider provides each room of a hotel differently but in reality, the same room is listed. Room duplication is a tedious problem since every supplier has different standards when it comes to offering room data. Room Mapping aims to improve the customer experience while finding the right room and optimizes profitability for the business. Room mapping is a process of identifying room level data via multiple parameters, detecting which room listings are the same, and discarding duplicate results. It is carried out to display rooms accurately meanwhile sorting them by various filters according to the user’s preference. It is crucial to uniquely identify categories across multiple providers along with Room type, Description, Room ID, Amenities, Bed type, Policy, and much more for better customer experience.As we mentioned, manually fixing inconsistencies when it comes to Room and Hotel mapping is immensely difficult. Online travel agents end up with tons of duplicate hotels and rooms on their website which indirectly leads to confused customers. The best solution for this issue is integrating a hotel mapping tool or a hotel aggregator API. These tools help to consolidate and attain control over hotel content. Vervotech Mappings offers great Hotel Mapping and Room Mapping software. Its seamless easy-to-use interface and API help users in configuring supplier credentials, uploading content files, pinpointing duplicates, mapping hotel content, and more.Vervotech is a leading Hotel Mapping and Room Mapping API that leverages the power of AI and ML to quickly and accurately identify each property listing through the verification of multiple parameters. With One of the industry’s best coverage of 98% and an accuracy of 99.999%, Vervotech is quickly becoming the mapping software of choice for all leading global companies operating in the travel and hospitality industry. To learn more about Vervotech and the ways it can enhance your business in the long run contact us: sales@vervotech.com
Room Mapping – A Modern Tech
The turn of the millennium brought with it several technologies that completely transformed the global business environment. Technologies such as the internet and social media provided a lot of advantages to many businesses that were aware of the potential of these new media. As a result, the companies that were able to incorporate these newer technologies like Hotel and Room Mapping into their existing mixes enjoyed a certain competitive edge over the companies that relied heavily on traditional technologies. The travel and hospitality sector is no stranger to such changes having constantly transformed itself through the ages depending on the needs and requirements of society. The advent of the internet and social media platforms enabled travel and hospitality providers with a much-needed platform to showcase their listings. The 2000s saw the rise of several online travel agencies that aggressively expanded their markets in new and emerging markets due to the rapid boom of the travel industry. There were several reasons behind the shift in the industry: Shorter travel time between locations Better communication between long distances Easier access to information New and emerging markets in Asia, Latin America and Africa New opportunities through strategic business ventures Rise of the niche industries A shift in the mentality and psyche of people People are much more open towards online booking platforms today when compared to the general population before the internet revolution. This is because the internet provides people with a direct channel to market their products and services thus leading to better relationships between the provider and the consumer. Therefore, niche industries found their footing leading to a lot of more people travelling regularly for their business needs. The hospitality providers needed to understand the shift in the market and orient their ways to better meet the needs and want of their target market. Several technology companies started operations to meet these growing needs of the business when it came to optimizing their business practices. If businesses were to evolve into the digital era, they needed to do away with their archaic technologies and incorporate these newer ones to reach more audiences and provide better services. The shift towards an online business model by travel agencies was a step in the right direction but since the market was new, these companies struggled to find the most optimal ways to sell their products. What is Room Mapping? Room mapping has emerged in the 21st century as one of the leading services in the field that has more or less become a staple over the years. Mapping in the industry ensures accurate and precise data flow between various nodes thus removing duplicate and erroneous listings on any given platform. With modern cloud-based systems being able to handle thousands of transactions simultaneously, the need for proper, updated and unique listings on one’s platform is greater than ever. When a supplier or an OTA works with multiple suppliers or provides data to multiple other sources, mapping that same data and updating it across all channels can become an extremely tedious process. Hotel and room mapping APIs automate the entire process so that inconsistencies within the system can be removed with a simple click. Online Travel Agencies face the issue of duplication when it comes to rooms listed on their website. Every data provider provides each room of a hotel differently but in reality, the same room is listed multiple times with different attributes. Room duplication is a tedious problem since every supplier has different standards when it comes to offering room data. Room Mapping aims to improve the customer experience while finding the right room and optimizes profitability for the business. Room mapping is a process of identifying room level data via multiple parameters, detecting which room listings are the same and discarding duplicate results. It is carried out to display rooms accurately meanwhile sorting them by various filters according to the user’s preference. It is crucial to uniquely identify categories across multiple providers along with Room type, Description, Room ID, Amenities, Bed type, Policy, and much more for a better customer experience. Why Room Mapping? One of the biggest challenges faced by the travel fraternity is the lack of any global standard when it comes to distributing content. Each channel focuses on its own set of rules when distributing content and this makes it extremely hard for suppliers to consolidate the data that is being sent out. It has been established through years of research and simulation that cross table mapping is a multi-step process, i.e., the travel businesses usually send their data to a data management company which then converts that content into their own set of codes which are then represented in a huge XLS table. This process alone, if not automated, can take up to a month depending on the type of data that is being consolidated. This mapped data that is consolidated is then sent to the various travel businesses for sale on their marketplace. As the number of listings and overall conversions on platforms increases, manually mapping and updating this data is next to impossible. An automated AI dependent algorithm that instantly maps the data that is being consolidated across various supplier points will readily fasten up the process of mapping. Therefore, room mapping is quickly turning out to be one of the most essential and critical technologies in the travel industry, the absence of which can vehemently hamper the overall potential of any given business. If you want to read more about the history of room mapping and the attributes that you need to focus on, you can read our blog here that discusses in detail the role of accuracy and coverage in room mapping and the ways it can make or break modern travel businesses. You can also click here to learn more about us at Vervotech and the ways our AI-based room mapping API, Vervotech Mappings, are helping leading travel businesses worldwide consolidate their content.Vervotech Mappings is a leading Hotel Mapping and Room Mapping API that leverages the power of AI and ML to
