What is Hotel Mapping & Its Role in Booking Accuracy?

Picture this: A traveller booked a hotel in Philadelphia from an online travel agency (OTA) at a discounted deal. Upon reaching the hotel destination, he is informed that the hotel he booked is actually in New Jersey. The traveller then spends hours trying to get his refund for the wrong hotel booking. Imagine the hassle he had to go through due to inaccurate hotel information.

Do you think the traveller would book again from the same OTA?

This isn’t an uncommon story for travel agencies. Along with dissatisfied customers and bad reviews, such scenarios also impact a travel business’s profits. Inaccurate hotel addresses, duplicate hotel listings, and wrong room types are some of the persistent challenges that travel agencies face time and again. 

To help travel agencies avoid these costly challenges, hotel mapping steps in as a crucial solution. But what exactly is hotel mapping, and how does it work? Let’s take a closer look.

What is Hotel Mapping?

Hotel mapping is the process of matching hotel information (like IDs, names, and locations) across multiple booking platforms so that travel agencies, OTAs, and other platforms can display accurate data to travellers. Without hotel mapping, things can get messy—one hotel could be listed under different names or IDs depending on the booking platform which leads to confusion and, more importantly, booking errors.

Why does this happen? Well, different suppliers tend to assign their own unique IDs and naming conventions for the same hotel. For example, let’s say a customer wants to book a hotel in New York. Booking platform A lists it as “The Empire Hotel,” while platform B has it as “Empire Hotel, Central Park.” It’s the same hotel, but different data sources treat it like two separate entities. Hotel mapping ensures the system recognizes them as the same place. 

Plus, allows hotel booking platforms to synchronize and standardize data across multiple suppliers to reduce booking errors and make certain that customers see consistent, accurate information.

The key attributes involved in hotel mapping are here:

• Hotel ID: A unique identifier for the hotel in each supplier’s system.
• Address: The actual location of the hotel, including street, city, and country.
• Location: Geographical coordinates (latitude and longitude), which help pinpoint the exact location.
• Document ID: A reference ID that ties the hotel data to specific documentation in the system.
• Scope: Defines the geographical reach or scope of the hotel data (e.g., global).
• Type: The category of the entity being referenced (e.g., “HOTEL” or “ATTRACTION”)

The Role of Hotel Mapping in Booking Accuracy

Hotel mapping ensures that the same hotel is consistently displayed across different platforms which prevents mismatches and booking errors.

Improved Data Standardization

By standardizing hotel data from multiple sources, hotel mapping ensures that the same property appears correctly across platforms to mitigate confusion and errors in search results. For instance, it prevents discrepancies like one hotel being listed under two different names.

Enhanced Customer Experience

Accurate hotel mapping reduces booking errors by preventing false positives (where different hotels are mistakenly treated as the same) and false negatives (where the same hotel is listed under multiple entries). This consistency in data ensures customers can trust the information they see which leads to a smoother booking process and greater overall satisfaction.

Impact on Revenue

Poor mapping leads to unrealized revenue when listings aren’t properly aligned or to financial losses when mismatches occur. Correct mapping helps avoid these issues to protect both customer trust and the business’s bottom line.

How Makcorps Hotel Mapping API Can Help

Makcorps Hotel Mapping API simplifies the process of aligning hotel data across multiple suppliers that automatically matches hotel IDs to prevent duplicate listings and inconsistent information. This ensures your platform displays accurate, up-to-date hotel data, bringing down booking errors and improving customer trust.

For more details, check out Makcorps Hotel Mapping API Documentation and don’t forget to view the screenshot of the API response to see how it works in action.

Apart from the Mapping API, Makcorps also offers a Hotel Price API that provides real-time pricing from multiple sources that help businesses stay with accurate, up-to-date prices. 

You can even Try Hotel Pricing API for Free. It’s a risk-free way to see how real-time data can enhance your travel platform or business.