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Newshound: Trends and Reports – Hotel Online Distribution

Travel products dominate savings from daily deal sites, as does Groupon

Interesting data out of UK-based DealZippy after analysing a year’s worth of deals from across a range of industries and platforms, showing how popular the channel remains in travel. Given that the company takes a feed from over 30 UK deal sites, such as Groupon, LivingSocial, Wahanda and Qype, the data is pretty robust and representative of the marketplace. So what did it discover? Over the course of the past 12 months just over 60,000 deals have been published by the sites it covers, featuring some 22,600 individual businesses.
http://www.tnooz.com/2012/09/25/news/travel-products-dominate-savings-from-daily-deal-sites-as-does-groupon/#wqqk1bl1HsggZhAM.99

The implications of last-minute bookings for hotel operators

With shifting consumer expectations due to the proliferation of last-minute booking apps, hotels must consider the implications of offering rooms via the last-minute mobile channel.
The promise of reducing empty rooms via last-minute bookings is nothing new – last minute travel has always been big in Europe, where the close proximity of dozens of relatively inexpensive destinations encouraged many consumers to care less about advance planning in favor of a lower priced getaway.
http://www.tnooz.com/2012/09/20/mobile/the-implications-of-last-minute-bookings-for-hotel-operators/#XWuUA5BcisbrwrZy.99

More hotels posting reviews from their own guests

The online review of the Best Western hotel in Eagle Rock started with a critical headline: “Very poor quality, will never stay here again.” What is surprising is that the review was posted on a link found on the website of that very same hotel. Best Western International, one of the world’s largest hotel chains, recently announced that it had redesigned its website, adding links to reviews submitted by its guests to TripAdvisor.com. The move marks a trend in the hotel industry.
http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-hotel-reviews-20120921,0,7499976.story

Focus on online search vital as channel grows

With nearly 80% of the average consumer’s Web experience beginning with an online search, optimizing online content for search is crucial for hoteliers to compete in the market. “That’s an advantage for us,” said Tran Hang, head of the travel industry at Google, who shared that statistic last week during a session at EyeforTravel’s Travel Distribution Summit North America in Las Vegas. “We’re seeing a big shift from offline working media to online working media,” said Jack Feuer, founder and president at digital consulting firm Digital Marketing Works.
http://www.hotelnewsnow.com/articles.aspx/9002/Focus-on-online-search-vital-as-channel-grows

Travel marketer takeaways, cross-channel optimization and hotel revenue management

This month’s EyeForTravel North American Travel Distribution Summit was chock-full of travel industry thought leaders sharing case studies, best practices and knowledge surrounding the various areas of travel distribution. From keynotes to social media to mobile to revenue management, the conference covered many of the au courant challenges that travel marketers, startups and executives are tackling.
http://www.tnooz.com/2012/09/24/event/eyefortravel-travel-marketer-takeaways-cross-channel-optimization-and-hotel-revenue-management-video/#mALmDqPj4CZzyEK7.99

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RateTiger Shortlisted for Travolution Awards 2011

RateTiger, the premium channel management solution provider, has been nominated as a finalist for the Travolution Awards in the Best Technology Provider category. The nomination has been made based on its channel connection achievements.

The Travolution Awards, considered one of the industry’s highest accolade for online innovation and excellence in the UK, aims at recognising companies, brands and individuals who excel in the fields of online travel distribution, digital marketing and technology.

RateTiger has been recognised for its success in creating the largest online channel network, offering hoteliers’ access to more than 750 OTAs globally. The full service channel manager constantly develops technology to help hotels to take advantage of new opportunities to optimise marketing and sales online including utilising social media platforms like Facebook. It recently became the first channel manager to distribute hotel inventory and rates to eBay, the largest international ecommerce platform representing 14% of global e-commerce.

“We encourage innovation and integration of technologies to support the evolution of online sales and channel management. Hoteliers are fond of our solutions because we provide them meaningful single-point access to all required channels, and continue to add new platforms” said Michael McCartan, COO RateTiger. “GDS, via CRS, booking engines, tour operators, OTAs to social media, online advertising and auctioning platforms has been very successful. Now with this prestigious award nomination, we know we are on right track and will continue to create value for our customers.”

These connections help hoteliers to broaden the reach of newer market segments, further maximises online revenues while minimising the workload involved in researching and managing new media.


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Newshound: Trends and Reports – Hotel Online Distribution

Social Media and Review Analytics Guide for Hotel Marketing
While online reviews understandably receive a lot of attention in the hotel industry from a reputation management perspective, there is another use that is equally important: setting the direction of your marketing and advertising campaigns.
The TripAdvisor effect: Are online reviews making hotel brands irrelevant?
Take a destination based Google search for Super 8 Motels, for example. On the front page, you’ll see ratings that hotel guests have written about particular Super 8s on TripAdvisor, Yahoo Travel and Yelp. Importantly, the reviews vary widely.

The Smart Hotelier’s Guide to 2012 Digital Marketing Budget Planning
2012 is quickly approaching and budget-planning season is upon us. Whether you are just starting to think about where you are going to allocate your dollars, or are moving towards finalizing your budget for next year, this is the perfect time to take a step back, review the state of the industry as well as your property’s successes and failures in 2011, and prepare for a year of driving the most revenue ever through your most cost-efficient channel – the hotel website.
ADR, guest satisfaction: Opportunity and action
This is the first in a series of columns from J.D. Power’s Stuart Greif that analyzes and provides deeper insights into the company’s 2011 J.D. Power and Associates North America Hotel Guest Satisfaction Study.
 
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Newshound: Trends and Reports – Hotel Online Distribution

The 5 Defining Moments of 2011 (So Far)

Tumultuous. This is the word that springs to mind to characterize 2011 for our industry. Whereas last year saw online travel companies at the mercy of economic conditions it seems that 2011 has been more defined by competitive forces and players. Survival of the fittest has evolved into only the savvy prosper.
http://www.eyefortravel.com/news/industry-analysis/5-defining-moments-2011-so-far

Are travel shopping sites killing technical performance?

This is a guest article by Dorian Harris, founder of hotel booking site Skoosh. I stumbled across an amazing piece of software recently called Splunk. It does for server logs what Google does for web-pages, more or less.
http://www.tnooz.com/2011/09/05/news/are-travel-shopping-sites-killing-technical-performance/

Dubai hotels posts biggest jump in occupancy in MENA region | EY Reports

Hotel occupancy in Dubai witnessed a 10.5 percentage points increase in July 2011 year-on-year, the biggest such increase within the region, global consultancy Ernst & Young said in its Middle East Hotel Benchmark Survey.
http://ahla.hsyndicate.com/news/4052831.html

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GBTA Convention 2011

The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) – the voice of the global business travel industry had a record breaking 2011 GBTA Convention in Denver, Colorado last month. Over 6,000 people attended the event, amongst which were 1,200 travel buyers, making this one of the largest GBTA Conventions in its history.

The RateTiger stand at the convention experienced a good show with a large number of pre-confirmed visits gaining a lot of interest among travel buyers. The main topics of discussion revolved around identifying how real-time hotel rate benchmarking can best benefit the corporate travel market and the individual corporate travel manager.

Travel managers mostly use historical rate data for price-comparison; but they know that real-time benchmarking will take the industry to a new level, which led to their added interest in RTCorp. This product fulfills two main areas of demand for the corporate travel managers – (a) To show supervisors how their negotiated hotel rate compares against publicly available rates on the internet to support their negotiations; (b) To provide corporate travel managers with email alerts that identify future instances where the publicly available rates may be cheaper than their negotiated rates and therefore provide them with the opportunity to renegotiate with those hotels in advance of their travelers booking their travel. In addition corporate travel managers are looking for a tool that audits their negotiated rates and availability across their chosen GDS.

Another point of interest for us was RateTiger’s nomination for the GBTA Travel Innovation Award 2011 under the Travel Management category. This was very encouraging for us given that RTCorp was launched to the corporate travel segment only recently. We look forward to coming back to the GBTA convention next year for many more productive discussions and yet another meaningful show.

Mark Neter is the Sales Manager for RTCorp. He is based out of Orlando, Florida and can be reached at markn@ratetiger.com

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Newshound: Trends and Reports – Hotel Online Distribution


How much exactly a hotel should invest in Internet marketing in 2012
Allocating the appropriate amount of your property’s overall marketing budget to online marketing can be more of an art, than science. Here’s why you need a significant investment in online marketing to increase direct bookings and key areas to focus your efforts on to realise the highest digital ROI.                                                                                                
http://www.eyefortravel.com/news/hotels/how-much-exactly-hotel-should-invest-internet-marketing-2012

Google, Facebook and TripAdvisor on what’s next for online travel

 Which emerging trends will fizzle, and which will pop? What is the most significant opportunity (or critical threat) that our industry faces? Which disruptive forces will re-shape the online travel landscape as we know it in the next years?                                                                                                    
http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/google_facebook_and_tripadvisor_on_whats_next_for_online_travel 

How OTA hotel reviews drive bookingsMove over, TripAdvisor. There’s a new leader of hotel reviews in town: online travel agencies. According to a PhoCusWright study of 27,000 U.S. hotels comprising 65 major brands, two out of every three online traveler reviews were posted to an OTA. The remaining third, or 34%, were posted to a travel review site like TripAdvisor.                                                                  
http://www.hotelnewsnow.com/Articles.aspx/6295/How-OTA-hotel-reviews-drive-bookings

Study: Despite Soft Spots, 2011 Global Business Travel Poised To Surpass $1 Trillion Global business travel this year will jump 9.2 percent and surpass $1 trillion, according to a Global Business Travel Association Foundation study. That increase would follow an 8.4 percent bump during 2010, which more than offset a nearly 8 percent decline in 2009.                                                                                                                                                                               
http://www.businesstravelnews.com/Worldwide-Travel/Study–Despite-Soft-Spots,-2011-Global-Business-Travel-Poised-To-Surpass-$1-Trillion/?a=trans 
 

RevPAR Growth Momentum Expected to Yield to New Economic Reality According to PwC US Lodging Industry Forecast
An updated lodging forecast released today by PwC US shows that the lodging recovery is largely intact, yet a resetting of the economic outlook has lowered expectations of revenue per available room (RevPAR) growth for the remainder of the year.                                                                                                                                                                  http://www.hospitalitynet.org/news/154000320/4052784.html 
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eRevMax – RateTiger Marks Its 10th Anniversary

eRevMax International, global software and services provider and owner of RateTiger, SimpleDistribution and Lunar Logic Polska, today celebrates its tenth corporate anniversary.  The company has specialized in revenue and distribution solutions for the hospitality industry for a decade, having launched one of the very first electronic, online and hotel website room rate shopping services in early 2002.

The lead product brand, RateTiger, was one of the first to focus on bookings and revenue from the internet. The channel manager launched within a couple of months of incorporation and was built to specifications requested by hoteliers. RateTiger today is setting a standard in the online revenue maximization market with the largest and most diverse distribution network of over 700 connect channels worldwide.

“Over the last ten years, eRevMax has seen significant growth as the company has strictly adhered to the founders belief in innovative and qualitative solutions,” said Sascha Hausmann, CEO, eRevMax International, “I would attribute this success to our focus on deploying only the best high-quality technology and the dedication we’ve had from our employees over the last 10 years, especially from our founding CTO, Udai Singh Solanki. Reaching this milestone in our company’s history is a true testament to everyone who’s been involved, from the technicians to our customers – who have really helped shape the technology that it is today.”

This year also marks the expansion of eRevMax International to new territories in Australia, New Zealand, China and South Africa. Earlier in the year the company acquired Lunar Logic Polska, a Poland-based web and digital development company to spur channel management, rate shopping and strategy technologies into the next generation. 

http://www.etravelblackboard.com/article/122877/erevmax-8211-ratetiger-marks-its-10th-anniversary

http://www.hospitalitybizindia.com/detailNews.aspx?aid=11641&sid=1

http://zeenews.india.com/biz/businesswire/28090news.html 

http://www.technology4hospitality.com/2011/09/erevmax-%E2%80%93-ratetiger-marks-its-10th-anniversary/

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Newshound: Trends and Reports – Hotel Online Distribution


What’s Around the Corner for Hospitality Distribution & RM?

As the hospitality sector continues to morph and be shaped by forces old and new, I caught up with Mark Molinari, Vice President of Revenue Management & Distribution at the Las Vegas Sands Corporation, to find out what key issues lie ahead for the hospitality and gaming industries. 
http://www.eyefortravel.com/news/europe/what%E2%80%99s-around-corner-hospitality-distribution-rm

Paid search producing positive results for hoteliers

Paid search advertising is becoming more commonplace by hotel marketers as a cost-effective, high-yielding e-marketing tool to help drive consumers to their respective website booking engines.
http://www.hospitalitynet.org/news/154000392/4052649.html

European hotels on recovery track

The European hotel performance picture is a positive one, according to STR Global’s Konstanze Auernheimer. “Hotel performance is doing really well,” said the director of marketing and analysis at STR Global, a sister company to HotelNewsNow.com.
http://www.hotelnewsnow.com/Articles.aspx/6255/European-hotels-on-recovery-track

Demand records are made to be broken

Last summer, in July 2010, you probably heard a lot of hype about the U.S. hotel industry selling the most hotel roomnights ever, breaking records and setting milestones. http://www.hotelnewsnow.com/Blog.aspx/6258/Demand-records-are-made-to-be-broken

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RateTiger launches hotel price transparency tool


Travel technology company RateTiger has launched a new tool that allows hotels to assess its room prices across the trade and retail. The price shopping service, named RTSnapShot, will alert hotels over price discrepancies online through a one-off report service. It is aimed at helping companies better understand rate performance during a specific location or event.

“We’ve been inundated by requests from corporations and travel management companies to tailor our RTCorp service to allow them to get just a snap shot of the hotel marketplace,” said Keith Watson, Division President – RTCorp at RateTiger. “Whilst many of our customers need to receive regular rate data to monitor prices, some in the corporate space need it only monthly or quarterly dependent on events or budget planning. RTSnapShot gives them only the most relevant pricing data without long-term commitment to an ongoing subscription, making better sense for budgets and rate planning.”