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How Hotels Can Serve New Age Business Travelers Better?

After the pandemic hit, the blow taken by business travel might slowly get back to pre-pandemic levels but it will never look the same. Businesses are re-evaluating their priorities and thinking differently about corporate travels. Statistics show a drop of 61% in Global Business Travel in 2020 due to the impact of coronavirus. Though the eventual scale and shape of corporate life are returning, it is still slow.

Events, conferences and trade shows, which render the most business trips, were happening virtually, but with competition and growth imperatives, business leaders realize the value of face-to-face interaction. This, in turn, is necessitating the resumption of Business Travel.

Below are a few pointers to consider when trying to attract business travelers of the changing era:

1. Communication is a good start

With prevention of Covid, has come along a lot of restrictions which make simple and straightforward journeys, complicated. With the world shifting to normal, business travelers need to communicate to simplify the complexities of the restrictions.

Communicating and understanding the priorities of business travelers can help hotels serve them better. Communication will help rebuild the brand loyalty of hotels for business travelers which might have been affected due to Covid.

2. Touch-less experience is on the rise

During Covid, a lot of hotels have taken help of technology to spread safety precautions and stay well within restriction limits. Some of which includes online check-in/check-out, online payments, mobile solutions for self-service during stay, digital room keys, etc.

Technology has improved safety and simplified customer experience by convenience and faster processes. Business travellers need a simplified booking process that allows them to choose from more property and rate options and provides better availability. The coming years also pose many possibilities for more advanced technologies like artificial intelligence and virtual reality.

3. Hybrid events are the tomorrow of Business Travel

Hybrid events are events that incorporate both virtual as well as in-person elements. Where 71% indicated that hybrid events were not included in their program, 65% have stated that they are interested in having an increased number of hybrid events post pandemic. It is important to understand that virtual and hybrid events still need a venue.

Hotels for business travelers should ensure that they have the proper infrastructure to support advanced amenities for hybrid events. Updating safety highlights, offering onsite technical support, utilizing virtual tours and offering personalized hybrid events can cover most Business Travelers need for hybrid events.

4. Provisions for “Bleisure” Traveler

Bleisure is a mix of the word business with leisure. Many business travelers tend to extend their stay beyond business, especially when it is in a leisure travel destination or big cities. Crafting different packages for “Bleisure” travelers could help drive demands and generate additional revenue.

92% of organizations suspended business travel during the early months of the pandemic (National Geographic, 2020). With restrictions for Covid being removed, this number is slowly changing. Offering packages and discounts at restaurants and Spa could excite and encourage business travelers to extend their stay for leisure time.

5. Alternative accommodations are in:

Alternative accommodation is another business travel trend introduced by the new age corporate travelers. It includes all those types of accommodations which are available outside the formal accommodation sector. Home-like accommodations and smaller boutique hotels has increased popularity among hotels for business travellers in this new age.

Alternative accommodations allow more business travellers to prioritize comfort and relaxation during work. Non – traditional accommodations provide such amenities for business travellers which give them the opportunity to explore the destination in a new way.

Discovering and shaping what tomorrow holds:

Although China dominates the business travel market, United States outpaces everyone in spending on business travel by a wide margin (WTTC, 2021). Another report suggests Asia has become the world’s largest business travel market (Hospitalitynet, 2019). According to another survey, international business travelers consider travel as valuable to both personal as well as professional growth. As we can see, although business travel had taken a hard blow from the pandemic, times are shifting and corporate travel is rising again without any doubt.

Businesses are re-evaluating their benefits from business travel. Customer loyalty and market share will go to those hotels for business travelers who can stay relevant and responsive to the varying business traveler needs. Health and safety still remaining the priority, business travel market is on the rise, post pandemic and the growth will be more than ever before.

 

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Top 7 Hotel Tech Trends to Watch Out in 2022

Traveler expectations and behaviour keep changing! The hospitality industry for long has always been adapting to changes in the latest technology to be up-to-speed. From the way guests search for a hotel to the booking process, communication, check-in, room service, check-out, after-service; the industry has witnessed tremendous change and upgradation.

To call the last 2 years challenging for the hotel industry would be an understatement.  However the industry has always bounced back and there is a hope that it would emerge even stronger from the present crisis. As we all hope for a successful 2022, RateTiger brings you the latest hotel tech trends to know what is happening in the industry.

Reshape the Hospitality Industry In 2022 with hotel technology.

 1. Unified Solution – Here to Rule

For long data silos has been a cause of concern for hoteliers. Revenue and distribution managers use on average 8-10 tech solutions each having its own reporting system. Making data talk to each other would have made things much simpler. Thanks to today’s unified platform hotels finally can have access to integrated analytics. These types of platforms bring all key solutions in one place thereby connecting and delivering real-time insights from all booking channels.

Hotel Channel Manager is the central platform that unites all the properties under a brand and brings them together along with other functionalities of the hotel: restaurant, spa, gym, sports club, pool, etc.

2. Technology is on Clouds

 The world has moved to cloud-based technology and so are hoteliers. A cloud-based technology not only eases the hotel management process for the hoteliers but also gives them easy access to hotel data from anywhere they want. Advanced solutions that uses AI help the hotel owners predict the upcoming trend and be prepared for it in advance. Integrating AI and ML into hotel operations, helps the hotel operators save on manual costs and invest better on user-friendly, efficient and optimized hotel management software.

3. Invest in Booking Engine to Earn More

Booking Engine is a platform that will increase your ROI by bringing in direct bookings to your hotel. Therefore, it has to be flexible and mobile friendly. It should be simple, well-defined and attractive for the customers to browse through and get them to make a booking without investing much time.

Integrating the Booking Engine with the hotel’s PMS, RMS, Channel Manager and other hotel tech solutions will automate the workflow and sales process. Connecting a booking engine to the sales conversion tool will assist the sales team keep a track on lead generation and conversion.

Coming with a variety of features, Hotel Booking Engine allows you to target corporate bookings by displaying different offers and visuals along with room rates and dates. Grabbing more direct bookings saves on commission cost paid to OTAs and other third-parties like travel agencies.

4. Hotel Digital Marketing to Redefine Brand Value

Internet and social media has become people’s daily partner. They can’t imagine a day without it. In the present world, people look for everything online: whether it is which place to go on a vacation to which hotel to stay to where to eat to what activities to do and so on. What they don’t do or like is being bothered by hotel staff for every small thing.

Integrate social media channels like Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger, Instagram to contact and share details over texts instead of calling. Go digital, integrate social media channels, expand your reach and increase your revenue to not only redefine your brand but provide  people with the service they like.

5. Gain Visibility with Google Hotel Ads

Google Hotel Ads is the largest Metasearch channel  that displays your hotel rates and availability in comparison to other OTAs (Online Travel Agencies) displaying clear and real-time status. Being the largest search engine and the epitome of digital marketing, Google Hotel Ads is the best and safest way to present your hotel to a millions at a go.

In March 2021, Google announced waving off fees for hotel booking links to make the booking process simpler and comprehensive. With this they created an organic list of hotels with their intelligence tool providing free visibility to hotels, OTAs, and other booking sites.

To make the most of this all you need to do is create a business profile on Google, list your property, and sign up for Google Adwords. With nearly 4 billion Google users around the world, it is the best platform to start ads on and achieve the maximum leads. Linking your hotel’s website to the Ads, you also increase the website traffic and brand’s visibility.

6. Go Mobile with Responsive view

Mobile optimization is one of the most important aspects of hotel landscape today. 50% of the traffic on the web comes from mobile devices. This makes it crucial for the hotel website, booking engine, OTA to be mobile-responsive. Nearly 77% of the travelers search for hotels on their mobile phone.

With the drastic rise in mobile bookings, focussing on mobile users’ need and tailoring to their convenience will deliver more bookings and better revenue.

7. Check-in check-out Automation

With pandemic being the new normal, both the hoteliers and guests look for contactless travel and stay. Using the SaaS technology, the hotels owners can create an app for the hotel. This app will not only automate the workflow but initiate automated check-in check-out process.

You can hyperlink the app URL to the website for the guests to download it directly from there. Once downloaded, the guests can update their personal details to begin the check-in process. The data is then sent to the hotel’s software system for them to complete the process from their end. This way, having a mobile app reduces risk for both hoteliers and the guests and streamlines the process in less time.

Get Ready to Welcome Your Guests

 2022 is unpredictable and so is the travel and tourism industry, but going innovative and tech-rich is the only solution to survive. If not today, these hotel tech trends 2022 will definitely bring in more bookings and revenue to your property in the coming days. So, what are you waiting for?

It’s time to reshape your hotel and get back to business with RateTiger!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Enhance Guest Experience in your Hotel

When we are trying to buy a product but get doubts about which brand of the product to buy, the first thing that we do is check reviews. The thing about online is that when it comes to reputation, people can trust strangers as much as friends. One or two bad reviews and it lead us to skip that product. Yes, that’s how dominating the customer review for a product or service is in the market. It is not any different in the hotel industry. With changing times, comes change in preferences and demand of travelers. Online reputation is one of the major factors that help provide constant revenue for a hotel.

Guest Experience - hotels- RateTiger

According to TripAdvisor, even before the pandemic, four out of five people said TripAdvisor makes them feel more confident in their booking decisions. Online reviews are social proof that hotels can not afford to ignore. More so, after a post-pandemic world where safety and protection are paramount to potential guests. How would they know your property would be safe for them? By having a higher star rating over your competitors and offer prompt responses to guest reviews, you can prove travellers your sincerity to provide guests the best possible experience.

Why is positive customer feedback important?

 Positive Review helps in Brand Building

When guest are satisfied with their stay at a place, they give positive reviews which spread through the internet or by word of mouth. Guests trust the experience of guests. According to Expedia, close to 3 out of 4 times, a customer will place guest ratings higher than a hotel. What’s more, they would happily to pay a bit higher for positive guest reviews. Participants in the Expedia study said they’d rather pay 24% more for a hotel that’s rated 3.9 versus 2.4 and 35% more for a hotel with a 4.4 rating than one with a 3.9 rating.

Positive Reviews Communicate Quality

Happy guests are likely to spread their happiness by leaving positive words. These positive testimonials often give a positive impression of quality. Travelers travelling for fun would not compromise on quality and good quality service is something they look for when booking a hotel.

Bad Review make Customers chose Competitors

 One bad review does not mean just loss of reputation but also loss of guests, and in turn, revenue. With a bad review, potential guests trust the hotel less and tend to choose the next best hotel.  Questionable credibility and bad reputation is often hard to fix and rebuild.

Positive Review gives Higher Search Engine Rank

 Positive reviews imply how well a hotel knows their customers and can fulfill their demands. Search Engines always recommends the best for their guests. Having positive reviews will make your hotel rank higher in the search engines. Prioritizing and promoting positive reviews establish customer loyalty and helps increase guest retention.

How to improve guest experience?

 Hotel experience doesn’t exist just during the time they are staying in the hotel but it starts even before guest bookings. They might not be tech-savvy and need help with booking. They might not be aware of extra-charges. They might have special demands like provision for aged guests. There should be deals that excite and interest guests rather than just merely telling them that you offer great deal and services. Being creative and adding value to your property plays vital role in satisfying guests.

1. User- Friendly and Attractive Website

Your hotel’s website is the face of your hotel. Even before guest book a room in it, they visit your website for minute details. Your website must be an example of how it feels to be staying in your hotel. Including high-quality texts and images portraying the best features that make your hotel different from the others could be a good beginning.

The website need not have too many pages, but it important to tell your guests everything about your hotel; the spa that you have, the gym that you have, the massive banquet hall and the special offers for the month that you have. Every minute detail should be on the website. But what if, your guest wants to reserve a table at the fine dining restaurant that you have at the 2nd floor of your hotel? Here, it is very important to provide easy access to reservations be it in the spa, the dining table or most importantly the room. Being user-friendly not only help guests give positive reviews but it leads to direct bookings.

Talking about direct bookings, it is also very important for your website to be linked effectively with a convenient booking engine to help guests make their bookings smoothly. Guests can experience impressionable hospitality, when directly booking through a website which gives more exposure to your hotel.

2. Make Guests Feel Special with Services

Once the guests are done booking from your website, a warm welcome along with a booking confirmation gives them the confidence of good spending. Attaching hotel location on Google map links, highlighting the services and amenities they could avail during their stay in a nicely designed email could do the work effectively. Thanking them for choosing your property, other upsell packages, sending them personalized messages about ongoing deals that they can avail during their stay, and sending them welcoming messages a day before their arrival are other ways to build a relation with the guests.

Say the check-in time is at 12 noon but the guest lands at 8 in the morning and asks for early check-in.  Should you deny? No. This is a great opportunity to show your guests that you care for them. Early check-in can be a great opportunity to create impression with your guests rather just making them wait in the lobby until the check-in time. What if no rooms are available until check-in time? Offer them a relaxing room or lounge, along with a TV, or if possible a good view for them, spends their time. Making your guests comfort your priority will definitely leave an impression.

Simple gestures like greeting them personally on arrival or checking if they are comfortable during their stay go a long way in making your guests feel special.

3. Neat and Clean along with Hygiene

Imagine walking into a hotel you spend your hard earned money on, and finding the paint is falling off the walls, there’s spider web on the ceiling corner and the sofa in the waiting room is coffee stained. Would you continue your stay there, forget about giving a positive review? Guests love to see neat and well-maintained rooms. The most complaints that come to front desk are about cleanliness. Hence, it is very important to focus on cleanliness and maintenance of your property.

Keeping fresh clean linens and towels, discarding stained linens, sweeping and mopping rooms everyday should be the basic maintenance in all hotels. Apart from this, make sure all electronic appliances are working properly and there are no loose wires. The water in the bathroom should be clean and there should be no leakages from any pipes. Provision for both hot as well as cold water should be there in every room. Waste bins should be emptied after every check-out.

Apart from cleanliness, guests are cautious of hygiene. Extra care should be taken on cleaning shared spaces like the gym, swimming pool, restaurants, lounge and bars. High touch areas requires intensified cleaning and especially during the pandemic times. Providing enough sanitization and avoiding over-crowding in shared spaces especially, has become crucial in the recent times. Dishes and spoons, if reusable, should be thoroughly washed for better hygiene.

5. Other Amenities and Services

After a long journey, your guest walks into your hotel and has to wait in queue to check-in.

If you were a guest, would you like it? No. Offering online check-in and check-out not only saves time for your guests but it also makes the process easier for hoteliers. Plus, it offers safety in the age of pandemic. If the guest requires any extra service, he does not have to walk-up to the front desk but instead can do it online from the comfort of his room. By automating communication between guest and front desk, you level-up guest experience and avoid forming queues at the lobby.

Giving proper training to your hotel staff, including greeting guests and addressing guest also accounts in guest experience. Extra effort to provide personalized services pays off in positive guest experience. Training your staff to be attentive and polite in all circumstances can help guests be more open about their demands helping you to serve them better.

Who does not like free stuffs? Offering complimentary drinks and other complimentary services along with the stay package is an easy way to earn those extra positive comments.

Your Hotel is your Guests’ Hotel

 The best thing that can help you know what is going to serve your guests better is by placing yourself in their shoes. If you were a guest, what would you be expecting from a hotel? Asking yourself how would you like to be treated, gives you the best answer as to what you can do better. Just in case, you do not know what more to do to make your customers happy, or you are in doubt as in what more could you do to make your customers happy then refer to their reviews. Reach out to your customers asking them what better you could do and if they like your hotel and services. Remember, while freebies make your guests happy, it’s the service that will stay with you.

Reach out to us for your Hotel Channel Manager, CRS, Rate Shopper, Booking Engine, Website Development or Digital Marketing requirements.

We are happy to have a discussion to see how we can help you achieve your property’s occupancy and revenue goals – Contact Us today

 

 

 

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Metasearch Advertising & Marketing – Key to Increase Hotel’s Visibility

Interest in travelling never diminishes!

It’s true the pandemic has brought a big blow to the travel industry but slowly the industry is coming back to form. 2021 was better than 2020 and so is expected down the line in 2022 and years to come.

But the question is: Are you prepared to tackle the new upcoming rush to your hotel?

The Pandemic Isn’t Permanent

Whether a brand is making profit/loss, the travel industry doesn’t sleep. Your guests might be now sleeping in their homes, but this is the best time for you to anticipate your Plan of Action to lead the market when it opens.

Though the industry was going slow Metasearch advertising started booming with Google’s entry into the Google Hotel Ads. This revamped the marketing structure for hotels and reduced dependency on OTAs. Have you included Metasearch marketing in your advertising plan and budget?

Keep reading to know how to boost your hotel’s outreach and ROI via Metasearch advertising.

What is Metasearch Engine?

Like any search engine, Metasearch Engine is the channel that presents to you results from various websites. A search engine has its own database and sends crawlers over the web the moment a user types anything on the search tab.  Metasearch works similarly but it doesn’t have its own database. Metasearch sends crawlers to different websites and therefore, combines and prepares a list of the related sites from all sources. This was Metasearch vs. search engine.

Next, you need to understand that Metasearch isn’t a booking platform. It is an advertising platform that brings several hotel booking channels together bidding for a room.

In simple terms, Metasearch Engine brings you a list of websites (in this case: hotel sites/ OTAs) for the customer to browse and compare the prices of the same room on different platforms. It is the gateway to bring qualified traffic to your hotel’s website.

Why Do You Need Metasearch for Your Hotel?

With technological advancement, people are also progressing! The Internet has brought everything to their fingertips from travelling plans to hotel bookings to return journeys. So, instead of flipping through multiple OTAs, the customers prefer to have all the room rates and features listed on one platform for better decision making. This makes sites like Trivago, Google Hotel Ads, TripAdvisor so popular and successful in today’s time.

It only increases your visibility to the prospective travellers but only gives you the freedom to own the relationship with the guests.

Working of Metasearch for Hotels:

Witnessing the importance and the rising bookings on Metasearch platforms, Online Travel Agencies have started participating with different Metasearch providers. When a potential customer looks for a hotel on Metasearch, it shows them a list of the hotels in that location and dates with prices on several OTAs and sites at a go.

Finding the best deal, the traveller is free to click on the link they want to book from and make the booking instantly. Unlike an OTA, you cannot book directly from Metasearch and this is how it helps you own the relationship with your customers. In return, the OTA/ hotels pay the Metasearch in CPC or CPA or a referral fee.

Now, when you are up on Metasearch platforms like Trivago, Google Hotel Ads, Kayak, and TripAdvisor, the booking process wouldn’t be simpler for the prospective customers:

  • A traveller searches for a hotel on a Metasearch website.
  • He/ she finds a list of hotels available with real-time rates from different sites/ OTA.
  • RateTiger bids on behalf of you to get your hotel on top of the list and maximum visibility.
  • The traveller clicks on the link and makes a direct booking.
  • Metasearch charges a fee in exchange from the hotel owner or the OTA.

Metasearch Advertising is a win-win for all – Hotel owners/ OTAs/ Metasearch websites.

All you need to do is find the right Metasearch advertising partner to invest your budget at the right place. Keeping your visibility intact, Metasearch marketing is of utmost importance to boost your hotel outreach in the time of Google Hotels Ads.

Key to Success with Metasearch

From individual hotels to big chains to OTAs, Metasearch is the apt platform to boost your reach and bookings. While hotel owners find this advertising method a bit complex, the OTAs are dominating every popular Metasearch website.

Regardless of experienced or a beginner, small or high on budget; all you need to do is strategize your marketing plan to bounce back post-Covid-19.

  • Choose the Right Site

All Metasearch engines aren’t the same. Some provide better results than others. Whereas, some are used more in one location and less in the other. Choose the right platform used by your target customers.

  • Join Hands with Technology

Technology is the backbone of every business. Handling another platform may be daunting for the management team. Sync the Metasearch platform to your hotel channel manager and avail seamless bookings.

  • Bidding Models as per Site Demand

The one-for-all formula doesn’t work here! Read, research, experiment and modify to figure out which bidding strategy works for which website. Do not blindly follow the “Be on the top” principle. At times, targeting the 3rd or 4th position on a platform gives you a better ROI.

  • Maintain Price Parity

Remember the audience is here to book a room. So, make sure to maintain price parity with your competitors to not your prospective customer to them. Again, technology can help you to compare and set the price in line with the competitor’s price.

If you aren’t on Metasearch platforms yet, it’s time to update your hotel marketing plan and includes Metasearch advertising in your POA to boost your reach.

Connect with us for your connectivity needs to make the most of hotel online revenue- https://ratetiger.com/contact/

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RateTiger gets a new Avatar with New Logo and Website

We are excited to launch the new RateTiger logo and website today – giving it a brand new look as well as a new web address – www.ratetiger.com

RateTiger has been a market leader that revolutionized the hospitality ecosystem with its unique capabilities in hotel rate shopping, channel management & beyond for the last 20 years.

It is all set to embark on a new journey, with a new logo and website.

Why the Change?

Because Change Is Inevitable.

We, as an organization, have evolved since our inception. At the heart of this rebrand is our desire to convey who we are.

Our core values – innovation, people commitment and pursuing excellence – have always been the foundation of our success. The primary purpose of the rebrand is to align our visual identity with our core values and principles, in order to accurately reflect who we are as a company.

We have renewed the RateTiger logo and brand attributes, keeping in line with our goal of Distributing Happiness!

 

 

The new logo represents the very idea of RateTiger being the bridge that connects hotels to the online world of infinite possibilities.

Our new logo uses a simple color palette and font to reflect our clear and solid focus on Distribution and Connectivity that RateTiger offers through secure and scalable solutions.

Many of our clients and prospects might not be aware about our evolution as a business – so here below is a sneak peek into the eRevMax journey over the last two decades.

Our Journey

eRevMax was founded in 2001 and we introduced the concept of online rate shopping through our first product RateTiger Shopper in 2002. Driven by the initial success, we went on to launch industry’s first hotel channel management software in 2004 – RateTiger Channel Manager.

The tool was developed based on requirements shared by hoteliers and witnessed a lot of early adopters in the West. Since then, we have developed a multitude of solutions which has helped shape the hospitality online distribution space. Here below is a timeline showing some key milestones in our journey so far.

Our partners are at the core of our connectivity business. We integrate and work closely with over 450 companies including OTAs, GDS, Metasearch channels & Tour operators as well as global and regional PMS, CRS, RMS and Booking Engines.

We strongly value data privacy and security. eRevMax is an ISO 27001:2013 and PCI DSS certified as well as GDPR compliant company. We provide 24/7 multilingual support and work closely with hotels to assist them to maximize their revenue goals.


Way Forward

Witnessing the industry in and out for 20+ years, we continue to develop products and services to fuel your business growth. With the growing demand for our world-class solutions and customer support, we are geared to move ahead in pursuit of excellence, in a more dynamic way.

We distilled the essence of RateTiger into a fresh new look and absolutely love it. We hope you do too.

Visit www.ratetiger.com to know more.

 

 

 

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5 Most Common Hotel Distribution Management Mistakes

5 Most Common Hotel Distribution Management Mistakes

Proper hotel revenue management involves using distribution strategies and sales channels to the maximum potential. To be able to do this, it is important to use technology solutions that are synchronized properly as well as check offerings from competitors and maintain the best possible customer relationship. The sales channels that are being used should be evaluated regularly and pricing strategies should be adjusted to the existing market conditions. If you wish to manage your hotel online distribution and booking process successfully, it is important to avoid these 5 common mistakes:

  1. Mismanagement of group bookings

With group reservations, occupancy rates and profits can be raised quickly. But there can possibly be major losses if there is a late cancellation. Naturally, it is important to have an accurate process in place to handle group reservations, ensure secure payments and negotiate cancellation deadlines.

Due to improper group bookings management, many hotels are failing to use other revenue sources and channels to the maximum potential. These days, software tools can also be used for revenue evaluation from group reservations and assist with the pricing of group bookings.

  1. Opening all booking dates without evaluation of revenue management

Hotel revenue management involves optimization as well as an understanding how the forces of demand and supply work. In this case, a common mistake that hotels make is to open all booking dates without proper analysis of peak / off-peak or festive dates. This mistake might lead to quick selling out of peak dates that are most attractive. Owners might lose the opportunity of optimizing revenues for the most profitable times of the year during peak seasons.

For hotels that mainly earn during peak seasons and experience low room occupancies during the off-seasons, it is important to be especially careful about this aspect.

  1. Lack of structured price list extension approach

A lot of travellers prefer to plan their holidays in advance and make advance bookings for hotels. Naturally, it is important for hotels to put a pricing strategy in place as well as have an organized price list extension approach. If travellers are given an option of booking their hotel rooms only for the following two to three months, the opportunity to earn revenue for future dates can be lost in the process. In every OTA that hotels work with, it is important to have room and rate availability at least for the next 365 days.

  1. Not having effective tech synchronization in place

These days, more than ever before, it is important to have the right kind of software solutions in place. Without the use of an omnichannel distribution strategy and new technologies, it is impossible to maximize your hotel’s revenue potential. All the technology systems that you use in your property needs to be synchronized and connected so that you get integrated data for monitoring and action planning.

  1. Manual data overwriting in OTAs

With a software solution that is synchronized accurately and through making investments in the right technology systems, various reception duties can be automated. It can result in a lot of time and resource-saving for hotels as well as ensure a more efficient hotel reservation management process. Once all the channels have been connected to a hotel channel manager, manually overwriting data in OTAs should be avoided.

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RateTiger expands the eRevMax Partner Ecosystem with Rehlat and Clock PMS

With a multitude of events happening in the middle east, travel continues to boom in the region and hotels need to ensure they have the right channels in their distribution mix. Are you optimizing your hotel’s visibility across multiple touch points? Are you making sure guests can find your hotel when they have the booking intent?

Now is the perfect time to look at your tech stack and distribution strategy, and how you can improve it for this year and next. Leverage our connectivity to expand your visibility in key source markets. RateTiger continues to expand its partner mix and our recent additions include Rehlat and Clock PMS that are featured in this post.

If you are looking to connect to any specific tech partner or a channel, do explore the RateTiger Partner List of 450+ distribution and tech providers.

How Much Google Ads Cost for Hotel Owners

Rehlat

One of the leading travel agencies in Middle East, Rehlat is the newest addition to the eRevMax Channel Ecosystem. Offering seamless travel planning and competitive hotel rates, Rehlat enlists more that 1 million hotels and has been trusted by over 500,000 travellers for bookings. It brings a carefully curated list of destinations for travellers to have a “travelastic” time with a localized payment system, offering the best possible vacation. Enlist with this channel if you are looking to expand in the Middle East market.

Clock PMS

Clock Software offers a complete and integrated suite of cloud-based hotel management software, distribution systems and guest engagement apps, with Clock PMS+ at the forefront. Clock PMS+ is an all-round cloud hotel platform focusing on property management, real-time distribution, and 2-way guest engagement. Fully configurable and PCI compliant, Clock PMS+ supports hotels or groups of any size. If you are looking to change your current PMS, get in touch with us today.

Are you looking to manage any new channel from your RateTiger platform? CONTACT US – https://www.erevmax.com/erevmax-contact.html

 

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Target the fastest-growing segment of bookers with Mobile Rates on Booking.com

As per Booking.com data, 75% of bookings are made on a mobile device. By activating a mobile rate for your property, you can tap into this valuable and expanding traveller segment.

Mobile Rates can also help hotels to target millennials, who make up over 65% of bookings on mobile channels. Mobile is by far the most important channel for bookings, and it’s also associated with important booking behavior.

  • Repeat bookings happen more often on the app
  • First-time bookings happen seven times more often on a mobile browser

The use of mobile in emerging markets has changed how travel is searched and booked and by managing mobile rates, you too can improve reservations coming from mobile bookers.

Did You Know?

  • 80% of travellers use a mobile app when researching a trip*
  • Mobile rates give partners 28% more bookings from mobile traffic*
  • 2-in-3 mobile bookings are made by millennials or younger customers. Everyone might search from mobile but millennials book.

If you’d like to learn more about Mobile Rates on Booking.com, refer to this detailed article.

You can easily set up and manage Mobile Rate for Booking.com via RateTiger.

Subscribe to RateTiger today and start using this feature. Reach out to us for your connectivity needs to make the most of your online revenue- https://www.erevmax.com/erevmax-contact.html

 

 

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Attract more families to your property by setting up Child Rates Policies on Booking.com

Families are a large and lucrative guest segment in hospitality industry. On average, they stay longer and are more likely to book than other segments, such as solo travellers and couples. As hoteliers, you need to cater to the ever-changing guest expectation to drive demand to your property. According to Booking.com data, families stay an average of 28% longer and book at 27% higher rate than couples and solo travellers. When searching for accommodation on Booking.com, travellers prefer to see room details that specify the number and ages of children that can be accommodated.

You can create and manage Child Rates for your property for Booking.com directly from your RateTiger platform. Setting up child rates lets families see all the important details and prices for a particular room or unit on your property page. You can set the maximum number of children and adults that can stay in each room.

Search data on Booking.com also shows that families are returning to travel faster than other traveller segments

  • Increase family bookings by up to 15% – Stand out in search results by creating attractive offers aimed directly at this large group. Setting competitive child rates can lead to an increase in family bookings by up to 15% on average.
  • Flexibility and control over your prices – By creating pricing rules for children based on up to three age ranges, you have complete flexibility to define rates and attract families of all sizes.
  • Greater transparency for your guests – When you set up child rates, the full price for the entire family is clearly displayed throughout the booking process, making it easier for families to choose an accommodation and preventing any unexpected charges at the time of check-in.

 

If you do not already have a Child Rates Policy set up for Booking.com, you can easily create one  – https://partner.booking.com/en-gb/help/policies-payments/policies/how-set-policies-rooms-rates-and-facilities-children

There are a host of additional solutions through which your property can benefit and attract more bookings. You can get more details from the Booking.com Recovery Toolkit.

Subscribe to RateTiger today and start using this feature. Reach out to us for your connectivity needs to make the most of your online revenue- https://www.erevmax.com/erevmax-contact.html

 

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How Much Google Ads Cost for Hotel Owners?

Did you know for every $1 a business spends on Google Ads, they get an $8 profit through Google Search and Ads?

There’s a reason why so many big brands spend millions on Google paid ad campaigns. It is one of the simplest ways to reach out to the right target audience and drive sales.

But “simple” doesn’t exactly mean easy. While Google ads do provide immense opportunities for business owners, especially in the hospitality sector, there’s also a big room to commit mistakes and waste away the ad budget.

There are countless stories of hotel owners using Google ads to attract guests and exponentially scale their business.

If you run a hotel, you can follow suit.

But it’s essential to identify the common pitfalls, have a plan for expected challenges, and have basic knowledge of how to run Google Hotel ads campaigns.

How Much Google Ads Cost for Hotel Owners

Google Hotel Ads Budget Management:

One of the biggest challenges people who run Google ads, without the necessary expertise and experience, face is improper ad budget management. This leads to financial leakages, draining the budget off the account with very little ROI.

Google ads budget management is the principal thing, aside from the how-tos, hotel owners should know before they get to the implementation part. Because, one, it defines their ROI. And second, it affects the cost of the ad.

The Cost of Google Hotel Ads:

There’s no defined number as to how much Google Hotel ads cost. That figure is dynamic, based on several factors, like the type of ads you’re running, the localized competition, the keywords you’re targeting, and more.

Google Hotel Ads showroom availability at your hotel, as well as the rates, on Google Search, Maps, and the Assistant. You pay only when someone selects your room rate. Again, this ad spend depends on where the ad has shown up and other factors.

You can also choose other basic types of Google ads: Search Network campaigns, Display Network campaigns and Video campaigns. (These ads are preferred when you want to drive traffic to your website’s landing page rather than have people engage with your brand on Google and book on an aggregator website.) The cost of these ads for hotel owners is dynamic as well, influenced by numerous factors.

So, addressing the main subject: How much does Google Hotel Ads cost? There’s no definite answer. The pricing is based on simple bidding where you set your preferred commission, ROI or bid.

Keeping Google Hotel Ads Cost Low:

Whatever you’re paying per click, it’s essential to keep an eye on that cost and figure out ways to minimize it. There are several steps involved to optimize your Google ad campaigns and ad spending, all the while improving your conversion and ROI.

  • The first step in Google ads spend management is thoroughly understanding how the pay-per-click model works. Fair knowledge on this will help you learn about the how’s and what’s of bidding.
  • The next step, and possibly the most important one, is to define your budget. Many hotel owners have ambiguous ad spending patterns. So, even when they aren’t driving the required ROI, they continue spending on the ads, hoping for conversion. Setting your budget allows you to track results, find out CPA over a defined period and take definite measures to make improvements.
  • In addition to these two broad steps, some of the other things you can do to effectively manage your Google hotel ads spending is connect Google Ads and Google Analytics, choose the right keywords and target locations, create multiple simultaneous campaigns that employ aggressive A/B testing (recommended for advanced users), and intensively monitor the results.

How to Get Started?

Starting with Google Hotel Ads is simple. Create your Google Hotel Center account, manage your room availability and rates, and set up the feed.

Next, connect your Hotel Center account to a Google Ads account. And then from the ads account, add a budget to your campaign and start serving the ads to your target audience.

But going back to what we mentioned earlier, just because it’s “simple” doesn’t mean it’s easy. Despite all the measures in terms of spend management, you may fall short in making a real difference in your budget due to a lack of expertise.

This is why it’s recommended you get help from experts who specialize in Google Hotel Ads; experts who have helped other hotel owners increase booking and achieve higher scalability.

In the end, running Google Hotel Ads can be a whole different experience. It’s easy to make mistakes and end up draining the budget if you don’t have the expertise. So, you have to be careful and educated throughout.

 

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