At RateTiger, we see ourselves not only as technology providers. Besides offering state-of-the-art software solutions, our aim is to educate the hotel industry comprehensively about online distribution and marketing, pricing strategies and revenue management. We are hotelier’s consultants rather than a mere software supplier. Hence, we have been offering intensive training, seminars and workshops to hotel practitioners from the start. Moreover, considering today’s students are tomorrow’s hotel managers, we believe it is key to educate the future generation as early as possible, that is, while they’re still at hotel school or university. However, whilst many teachers are open for new developments and keen to offer their students first-hand-insights into digital trends, others aren’t willing to change a long-taught curriculum, which would force them to learn something new themselves. Hamburg’s ‘Hotelfachschule’, in Germany’s north, is happy to have a teacher of the former category.
This teacher, Ansgar Jahns, believes in a practical approach to hotel studies. In his course, students learn about sales and revenue strategies, while concurrently using their new knowledge to analyse two renowned hotels that participate in this project. He has also invited RateTiger to give an overview about the online hotel market and its risks and chances; to inform about the necessities in channel management and benchmarking; and to present our products. Following this invitation, Ulf G. Guldi, RateTiger’s Sales Manager for Germany, Austria and Switzerland, took the trip to Hamburg.
On 20 October, 11 students in their 20s and early 30s, all of which have finished an apprenticeship in a hotel earlier and are now studying for two years to finish a BA in Hotel Business, proved as keen listeners and willing to discuss figures, tricks and trends. Even the school’s director did us the honour and not only welcomed us at the door, but also attended the first half of the session, eager to learn himself. Ulf’s overall overview about the development of online bookings and OTAs was followed by an expert introduction to channel management and its techniques. A lively discussion followed, during which many students compared Ulf’s information to the experiences gained at different hotels. A former hotel pro himself, Ulf had a lot of tales and anecdotes to tell, from his times as Sales Director for various renowned hotel brands. After a necessary break, the students got introduced to RateTiger’s software solution RTSuite. By means of a product demonstration, Ulf presented the features of RateTiger’s benchmarking tool Shopper and the channel management system Allocator. Once more, many questions followed and lead to a productive discussion. Ulf’s resumes: “It’s been great to see the interest of the new generation! They have a strong desire to learn about the online market and supportive technology. It’s a wonderful opportunity to share our knowledge and learn about their needs at the same time. We’ll certainly continue our aims to educate besides selling.”
Scheduled for 2, the session lasted 4,5 hours. All students stayed until the end despite their timetables and postponed work commitments where necessary.