RateTiger Academy Distribution Day, Frankfurt & London

After the launch of RateTiger Academy at ITB Berlin, we organized a couple of Distribution Day seminars this month. The first took place on 8th June in Frankfurt, Germany and the second on 15th June in London, UK. 
My colleague Ulf Guldi accompanied our CEO Sascha Hausmann and a couple of Xotels members for the German seminar; while I was at the London session which had our International Sales VP Keith Povah addressing the attendees.
The concept behind RateTiger Academy is to help hoteliers gain better control over travel channels in changing markets including pricing techniques, revenue management, competitor strategies and distribution management.

The Distribution Day was a full day programme focused on helping hoteliers to optimize their online and offline hotel distribution channels. The seminar focused on bringing renewed insight in today’s hotel distribution landscape and provided alternative techniques and ideas that can help to increase and optimize revenues and profits. 
The highlights included importance of online and offline business, marketing power of individual channels, cost of distribution & channel contribution and distribution power / yielding opportunities.
We planned to have a maximum 25 members for each session but the London seminar got a great response and we had 27 attendees. The session was very fruitful for the hoteliers and we received a lot of positive feedback. They were very happy with all the information and knowledge sharing on revenue management and online distribution concepts and available technologies.

The newly opened H10 Hotel in Waterloo, London proved to be the perfect location for the seminar. The Distribution Day turned out to be a very fulfilling experience for the attendees as well as the organizing team from eRevMax and Xotels.

Casey Davy is Sales Manager – UK at eRevMax. He is responsible for sales of RateTiger products in the region. Casey is based out of London and can be reached at caseyd@ratetiger.com

The Hotel Industry Forum 2010

I was in Portugal in the second week of June to attend the Hotel Industry Forum. The 4-day event took place at the beautiful Grande Real Santa Eulália Resort in Albufeira, an exclusive resort hotel with the perfect combination of elegant standards and relaxed atmosphere.

The Hotel Industry Forum is a premier business platform for executives who work within the UK and European hotel and leisure industry. The event covers the full supply chain requirements of hotel and leisure group operators.

This weekend event brought together buyers and suppliers from various facets of the industry and enabled us to create opportunities for new business, enhance relationships with existing clients, and share best practices amongst industry peers. It was the perfect forum to not only do business but also build close rapport with acquaintances in a socially charged environment.

I met over 35 hoteliers who could be perfect users of RateTiger solutions in the long run. I also managed to contract some new clients and potential upgrades. Overall it was a great opportunity for networking and building long-lasting relationships, as well as reinforcing brand awareness.

Casey Davy is Sales Manager – UK at eRevMax. He is responsible for sales of RateTiger products in the region. Casey is based out of London and can be reached at caseyd@ratetiger.com

HSMA Pricing & Distribution Day 2010

Hilton Frankfurt witnessed an interesting event on 14th June when the HSMA Pricing & Distribution Day 2010 took off. The forum aimed to inform members about the latest developments, trends and innovations in hotel pricing and distribution.

I was happy with the structure of this full day event as it allowed members to attend sessions that were relevant for them. The day started off with the welcome address by HSMA Germany chief, which was followed by key note sessions on Market view: Cycles of hotel prices and the impact of the VAT reduction and Hotel vision – future requirements of the hotel industry.

The rest of the event was neatly segregated into three parallel sessions – Pricing, Revenue Management and Distribution. Each session had three topics with expert speakers.

I attended the Distribution forum which started off with CRM Reloaded presented by Anton Hell, CEO hit-CONSULT GmbH. This was followed by a session on Tour operators – Ideas and proposals for pricing contracts with broadcasters, by Peter Neuschel, MD, Agency Neuschel GmbH. The session concluded with a presentation by RateTiger CEO Sascha Hausmann on Channel Management – Yes or no? The session went off really well with many older hoteliers becoming interested in channel management and requesting further details on our solutions.

The day could not have been better with me getting a chance to liaise directly with many hoteliers, revenue managers as well as sales and marketing heads. We received some good reviews about our products and our interactions helped increase the industry’s awareness about the developments and upgradation in RateTiger solutions.

Ulf Guldi is Sales Manager – Germany at eRevMax and is responsible for sales of RateTiger products in the region. He is based out of Cologne and can be reached at ulfg@ratetiger.com

IHA Hotel Congress 2010

The German Hotel Association [Hotelverband Deutschland (IHA)] recently organized its Annual Conference from 9 – 11 June in Adendorf, one of the oldest and most beautiful parts of Germany.

Expert sessions on latest developments in the field of Channel Management, Metasearch and Direct bookings, Web Tourism 3.0, Social Media and Mobile trends had packed audiences. Since channel management was one of the key topics, it gave me an opportunity to present RateTiger as the specialist in the field with solutions ranging from benchmarking, allocation to revenue management. This helped raise the level of awareness about RateTiger among the hoteliers present. Listeners became prospects and prospects converted to customers.

The IHA-Get-Together and the Gala evening were culinary delights which fostered networking in a relaxed atmosphere. I really enjoyed attending this well planned event and with good key note speakers and relevant topics, the value of this event increased manifold. With over 150 hoteliers, it was definitely an event worth attending.

Ulf Guldi is Sales Manager – Germany at eRevMax and is responsible for sales of RateTiger products in the region. He is based out of Cologne and can be reached at ulfg@ratetiger.com

Institute of Hospitality Annual Luncheon 2010

The Institute’s Annual Lunch Champagne Reception is one of the top networking and social events in UK’s hospitality industry calendar. It attracts an abundance of senior management professionals, offering a fantastic opportunity to share ideas and build new contacts. The luxurious Royal Garden Hotel in Kensington proved to be the perfect venue for the June 8th event.

This was the first luncheon I’ve had a chance to attend, usually the sales team have their mitts all over these events, but fortunately there was a space at our table for 10. An event of this nature gives me the opportunity to find out more about our customers; who they are, how they run their hotel, what their challenges are and what value they find in RateTiger. For a marketer this is all invaluable information that we can use time and time again; anecdotal information that my team can share with journalists and use within our marketing campaigns.

The event itself was jovial with an excellent presentation by Philippe Rossiter FIH, Chief Executive, and a hilarious speech by another speaker. The three-course lunch was well presented and there was a welcoming and friendly atmosphere. It’s exciting to be part of the IoH as it undergoes change to represent a larger sector of the hospitality industry and diversify with more education-led events. I look forward to the opportunities ahead – and another luncheon!

Ryan Haynes is the Marketing Head at eRevMax and is responsible for driving all PR and Marketing activities of RateTiger and eRevMax brands globally. Ryan is based out of London and can be reached at
ryanh@ratetiger.com

Revenue Management – A Look At 2010

The North California chapter of HSMAI organized an educational luncheon last month at Hotel Adagio in San Francisco. The team brought together a panel of leaders in Bay Area Revenue Management, all experts in their field.

I managed to be there and was glad about my decision. The topics revolved around new Revenue Management Strategies for 2010 & beyond and long term growth strategies for developing market share. Panelists included Gerald O’Rourke from Hilton, Mandy Kam from San Francisco Downtown Marriott Hotels and Gregory Weiss from Joie de Vivre Hospitality and they shared some really interesting insights.

The event was meant for hoteliers and revenue managers. This helped me develop new contacts locally and further popularize RateTiger. For a local event, it was good and I would like to be around for such events.

Bill Goldsberry is the Director of Int’l Group Sales at eRevMax. He is based out of Florida and can be reached at williamg@ratetiger.com

CEHAT Congress 2010

Recently, I had an opportunity to be at Santiago de Compostela, a World Heritage City, and the capital of Galicia in Spain. I was there to attend the eleventh edition of the CEHAT Congress, the Spanish Hotel Association’s bi-annual conference for the hospitality industry.

Being a significant association, CEHAT gets its share of importance and its events are well attended by members as well as the media. The Congress attracted an attendance of over 350 this year. The opening ceremony was conducted by the Minister for Galician Tourism, Carmen Pardo Lopez; President of CEHAT, Juan Molas, and the President of the Hotel Association of Galicia, Hector Cañete del Campo.

During his speech, Juan Molas laid stress on the importance of public – private collaboration to take the industry forward and to help it emerge from the current economic situation. Some of the topics which garnered a lot of attention were “Is the tourism sector in a recession?” and “Analysis of the current situation and its impact on the hospitality industry”. Given the relevance of the two topics, these turned out to be the crowd pullers.

The first topic – “Is the tourism sector in a recession?” had the President of Hotusa, Amancio López Seijas sharing his comment – ‘the tourism sector has a young and dynamic business network, and is capable of pushing globalization and that is their best hope.’ The other speakers in this session were Marisol Turro, President of Sercotel and Alfonso Castellanos, CEO of Mindproject, while it was moderated by Carlos Diaz, VP of CEHAT. The panel discussed numerous issues, including the fragmentation of the sector and the inevitable process of concentration which is working, training and the need for labor reform, the relationship with distribution channels, the role of government, the risks of competing in prices and the importance of tending to specialization, the oversupply or depletion model of “sun and beach”.

The other important discussion was on ‘Analysis of the current situation and its impact on the hospitality industry’. Here the speakers included former Treasury minister, Carlos Solchaga, and the President of the Council of Chambers, Javier Gómez Navarro. Both agreed that while the number of passengers and occupancy figures this summer will look like the high season of 2009, the room rates will show a different graph as it is expected to continue falling, and therefore comparison of the margins may not be positive.

The CEHAT Congress is a must attend event for RateTiger and I will ensure I am around here in each edition. I had the opportunity to set-up meetings with many Hotel Groups, Associations and Independent Hotels and it provided an unparallel business platform to foster long-term relationships and also strengthen the unique relationship RateTiger has with CEHAT as members.

Pilar Sanchez Aita is Sales Manager – Spain & Portugal at eRevMax and is responsible for sales of RateTiger products in the region. She is based out of Spain and can be reached at pilara@ratetiger.com