Top 5 Trends in Hotel Technology: Infographic
Additionally, 40 percent of travellers travels with three or more electronic devices, so mobile optimised websites are one of the most important factor to the tech-savvy travellers these days. eRevMax suggests hoteliers to provide the service for free to guests who enroll for their select programs, for starters. Such services may be made exclusive for gold and platinum level members or accessible in lobbies of full-service properties.
JJW Hotels subscribes to RateTiger channel manager to increase online bookings
Make the most of Hotel Ancillary Revenue
While revenue management systems are becoming increasingly sophisticated at allowing hotel operators to optimize their pricing strategies on room rates, they are only just beginning to tap the potential of other guest fees.
Read full story on hotelmanagement.net
FITUR 2013
One of the biggest international travel trade fairs, FITUR, took place from January 30 to February 3, 2013 in Madrid. It continues to be a global meeting point for travel professionals and it being the 33rd edition speaks about the popularity of the event.
Team eRevMax was happy to be back at FITUR, as it really is one of the key shows to meet Spanish and international hoteliers. The company’s stand saw RateTiger Spanish clients turning up in droves to speak to the Sales and Account Managers.
“We heard a lot of positive news and some excellent feedback. In addition, we had many new visitors keen to find out about RTSuite 3.0 and how it differentiates in the marketplace; well really quite simply — a) integrated product for both channel management and pricing; b) automated inventory distribution; c) full service account management; d) greater product flexibility,” said Ryan Haynes, VP Marketing.
He further added, “FITUR did have less exhibitors this year and at times there was a lull, there didn’t seem to be much discussion on the state of the Spanish economy, but this is now old news. Instead everyone focused on business. I’d be interested to see what FITUR can do to bring the magic back to the tradeshow.”
Automated distribution and allocation is becoming a hit with hotels – they are open to new product and ideas – hoping to overcome the current crisis. “We witnessed an increase in the enquiries – people were keen to know how it would help them in their distribution. Further I also noticed rising interest among Portuguese hoteliers this year,” says Flavio Bastos Amiel, PR Representative.
Nuria Bermejo, Service Manager thought that there were fewer stands and the attendance was low. “However I was glad to see that a lot of people came to our stand specifically to see us knowing the range RateTiger offers,” quipped Nuria.
From a sales perspective, Cristina Hernandez, Sales Manager for Spain noticed that the event was lacking in delivering for exhibitors – “The number of exhibitors are reducing year on year, however the good part was that hotels were excited to see our offerings. I was amazed to see that many small independent hotels knew exactly what they wanted and were glad to choose us.”
BW Belgium Achieves 5% Revenue Growth in 2012
Channel Management & OTAs
Are hoteliers keeping pace with the changing online booking space?
With a handful of powerful OTAs dominating the market, hoteliers are identifying ways to sidestep the high-commission they command. OTAs can be useful to engage a new guest, but many hoteliers are now aiming to drive repeat bookings to their own direct booking engines.
Ryan Haynes discusses Channel Management and OTAs on Hotel-Industry.co.uk – http://www.hotel-industry.co.uk/2012/12/erevmax-ratetiger-on-channel-management-and-otas/
Real-time technology lets hotels respond faster than ever
Customer Centric Web – Service Doesn’t Start in the Hotel, by Michael McCartan
Customer Centric Web – Service Doesn’t Start in the Hotel, by Michael McCartan
Here’s one of my ghost stories where I tackle how businesses need to address the offline world of working.
Newshound: Trends and Reports – Hotel Online Distribution
Automation is on the up and could hold the key to increasing online sales
In today’s multi-channel environment, hoteliers need to have quick access to hotel-rate data and inventory positions on various sales channels. “Over the last couple of years we have seen an increased focus on integrated applications, allowing hotels to do most of these complex tasks through a single system,” says Michael McCartan, chief executive officer, eRevMax International.
Analyzing the OTAs
Whether you’re in the camp that believes online travel agencies are single-handedly ruining the hotel industry or in the camp that looks to them for a majority of your demand, there’s one thing almost all hoteliers agree on: Third-party room distributors are here to stay. However, while OTAs serve an important role in the industry, it’s no secret their relationship with hoteliers is not perfect, said Brian Mullan, a research analyst with Janney Capital Markets in New York.
The end of the rate-matching machine: ways to count on competitive pricing
Competitive pricing is an element of pricing decisions in any market. How this is done depends on the availability of such data to providers, the visibility and comparability of it to customers and the level of fragmentation in the market. In hospitality and travel, thanks largely to broad Internet distribution, all of these factors make competitive pricing particularly important.
TripAdvisor tests hotel metasearch service – now the fun really begins
User review giant TripAdvisor is finally doing what pretty much everyone involved in the hotel sector expected it to do years ago – consumer metasearch for its vast portfolio of properties.The company confirmed this week that it is currently testing “new search functionality” for hotels, covering both desktop and mobile versions of the service.
The total cost of travel technology [INFOGRAPHIC]
From individuals who have implemented a small system to those coordinating major overhauls of existing platforms in large companies, organising travel technology is not an easy process. It is clearly a combination of establishing the business and technology requirements, alongside budget, expectations, crystal ball-gazing and market analysis.
Report: PwC European Cities Hotel Forecast 2013
Overall, RevPAR growth is expected to slow in 2013, held back by strong economic headwinds across the eurozone. But there will be thrivers; cities expected to show robust RevPAR growth include Paris, St Petersburg and Edinburgh and more modest increases should be seen in Frankfurt, Berlin, Dublin and Moscow.The second edition of PwC’s European cities hotel forecast for 2013 features 19 of Europe’s most important gateway cities.