About Demand Plus
What is Demand Plus?
Demand Plus is an add-on feature of the Little Hotelier Booking Engine that helps drive bookings to your property by making it visible on the high-performing travel sites, Google Hotel Ads, Trivago, and TripAdvisor.
Demand Plus is an easy and risk-free tool to help increase visibility and occupancy rates without needing to develop and deploy your own digital marketing strategies.
What are the benefits of Demand Plus?
Easy sign-up process: simply activate Demand Plus from your booking engine.
Bookings are made directly on your booking engine, so you keep ownership of all booking information — and can therefore use it for promos and upselling.
Little Hotelier manages the complexities of distribution, listings, and billing.
A simple, risk-free commission structure; only pay for completed stays (excluding applicable taxes and fees).
⚠️ Cost-per-acquisition (CPA) is the only solution available; cost-per-click (CPC) is not available through Little Hotelier at this time.
Watch the video below to learn more.
Which high-performance sites are part of Demand Plus?
Demand Plus currently includes three global metasearch engines:
Google Hotel Ads
Trivago
TripAdvisor
Once you sign up — which you only need to do once — we will list your hotel on these three top metasearch sites.
How much does Demand Plus cost?
No setup or monthly fees.
Pause or cancel at any time.
Only pay a small commission fee on completed stays (on the Net reservation value of each completed stay, which excludes credit card fees, taxes, and service charges).
Demand Plus’ commission varies per region.
Before activating Demand Plus, follow these steps to view your Demand Plus commission rates:
Open your Booking Engine.
Click on Setup.
Click on Integrations. This will open the Demand Plus tab.
The percentage price is indicated in the bottom half of this page. It is indicated as "Only Pay x%".
After seeing this price you can click on "Get Started!" if you want to activate Demand Plus.
⚠️ The commission cost will be visible before activating Demand Plus for the first time. It will not be visible during reactivation if you have previously suspended or paused it.
If Demand Plus is active, your commission rate will display on your Demand Plus page.
How do I activate Demand Plus?
Activating Demand Plus is simple — just follow a few steps in your booking engine.
Go to Direct Booking > Setup > Integrations > Demand Plus.
Optimising Demand Plus
How can I use Demand Plus to optimise my direct booking engine’s performance?
Demand Plus can help improve your booking engine's performance by increasing its online visibility, and in the process, help you compete with online travel agencies (OTAs).
In general, properties that already have a healthy number of bookings from their booking engine see the greatest uplift from Demand Plus.
However, we know that a number of factors impact the overall performance of a booking engine.
How does ranking work on metasearch sites via Demand Plus?
Your ranking on metasearch sites via Demand Plus depends on:
How well your property matches the search.
How many other properties you're competing with.
Where your property is located.
Current market demand.
For example: a search for "hotel in London" will compete with many properties. But a search for "family hotel with pool in London" will have fewer competitors because it's more specific.
I have Demand Plus but my property is not displayed on Tripadvisor, Trivago, or Google Hotel Ads — why?
First, make sure Demand Plus is active by going to Direct Booking > Setup > Integrations > Demand Plus.
If Demand Plus is not active — follow the instructions to activate Demand Plus.
If Demand Plus is active — your property’s ad should feature a link to your Booking Engine on Tripadvisor, Trivago, and Google Hotel Ads.
Then, make sure you have set up your metasearch profiles — this is required before your property will appear on each metasearch site.
Your property details must match exactly across Little Hotelier and all metasearch profiles (i.e. property name, address, etc.). To update your property details, go to Property settings > Property details.
The correct category must be selected on your metasearch profile:
Google Hotel Ads: Hotel property category
Trivago: Accommodation category
Tripadvisor: Hotels category
If your property details don’t match, you’ll see a notification on your Demand Plus page. Note: It can take up to 7 days for your property to appear after updating your details.
Where does Demand Plus derive its data from?
Demand Plus takes data such as inventory info and property details from your Booking Engine directly, then sends it to the metasearch engines mentioned above.
How can I tell if a reservation has come through Demand Plus?
The reservation e-mail will state if a booking was made through Demand Plus.Your Demand Plus reservations will appear under the Reservations tab, alongside your other channel reservations — click a reservation to open its details page, and under the Channel / Source column you will see DemandPlus - metasearch engine name.
You can also review your Demand Plus reservations in your Little Hotelier booking engine. Simply click on the Setup tab in the booking engine, select the Integrations tile, and click on the highlighted text Review and reconcile your Demand Plus reservations.
Will Demand Plus impact the SEO for my property website?
No — Demand Plus listings link to your SiteMinder booking engine, not your website, so your website's SEO won't be affected.
What's the difference between connecting to Tripadvisor directly versus through Demand Plus?
When guests visit your Tripadvisor page, they'll see different booking options:
Through Demand Plus:
Your direct booking option appears as "Official hotel site".
Clicking "View deal" takes guests to your SiteMinder booking engine.
You pay the Demand Plus commission rate for completed stays.
Through a direct connection with Tripadvisor Plus/Instant Booking:
Your booking option shows with a Tripadvisor label.
Clicking "View deal" opens Tripadvisor's checkout window.
You pay Tripadvisor's commission rate.
Invoicing and payments for Demand Plus
When will I receive my Demand Plus commission invoice?
Your Demand Plus invoice, which is separate from your regular subscription invoice, will be issued on the 20th of each month.This commission invoice will cover the previous month's reservations according to check-out dates. For example, if a reservation was made in January and the check-out day was in August, you will be invoiced on 20 September.
You will not receive an invoice for months with no completed Demand Plus reservations.
Are there setup fees, monthly fees, or hidden fees for Demand Plus?
No, you are only charged commission on completed stays; there are no additional fees.
Why did I get a separate bill for Demand Plus?
As Demand Plus charges no monthly fees, it is billed separately from your product subscriptions.
This separate bill will cover your Demand Plus commission fees and any transactions managed by Little Hotelier.
Can I register for Automatic payments and direct debit?
Yes, you can register for Automatic payments by clicking the relevant link in your invoice. However, because Demand Plus is billed separately from your other accounts, you will need to register for Automatic payments again for your Demand Plus account.Direct debit is also available to customers in Australia and New Zealand.
How do I avoid being charged for modified reservations, no-shows, and cancellations?
You should only be charged a commission on completed stays for reservations made through Demand Plus — see below for more info.
No-show or cancellation — no commission is charged.
Modification — the commission is updated to match the new reservation value.
No-shows and cancellations will show up in your Demand Plus Reconciliation Report. To review them, go to Booking Engine > Setup > Integrations > Demand Plus > review and reconcile your Demand Plus reservations — and remember to perform a reconciliation before the 7th of each month.
⚠️ Note:
Reservations for guest stays during the previous month will fall in your next invoice period, which starts on the 20th of the month.
You must run the reconciliation report for the previous month’s reservations before the 7th of each month; after then, no changes to the previous month’s reservations will be possible.
If you believe you have been invoiced incorrectly, please contact our support team.
Why does a direct booking show a commission fee?
If you have Demand Plus, direct bookings that came from Demand Plus metasearch advertising (Google Hotel ads) will have the Demand Plus commission apply.
When this happens:
The guest found your property on Google Hotel ads through Demand Plus advertising
They clicked through to your booking engine and completed the reservation
The reservation appears as a direct booking, however the Demand Plus commission applies because the booking originated from Demand Plus
What happens to Demand Plus if I cancel my Booking Engine subscription?
Cancelling your Booking Engine subscription will also end your Demand Plus subscription, and your rates will no longer be listed on Google Hotel Ads, Trivago, and TripAdvisor. If you are using the Channel Manager, however, you can choose to keep your Demand Plus subscription active, provided you contact the Demand Plus Support Team.
When Demand Plus is cancelled, you will receive a final invoice containing any outstanding reservations.