What’s New in Hotel Online Distribution and Tech Trends? W1, March 2024

Here is your weekly industry news round-up. Check out the short snippets here and follow below for more details. 

  • Oman to kick off ITB Berlin 2024 with a spectacular show 
  • Accor chooses IDeaS for global revenue management 
  • Banyan Tree Dubai’s exclusive Eid staycation offer 
  • Explore Ireland, Scotland & England with CIE Tours 2024 offer 
  • Ascott launches Citadines Arpora Nagoa Goa property 

Reach out to us for discussions regarding connectivity, direct booking, rate intelligence, and website design requirements – we are happy to explore new possibilities with you for your property – contact us today. 

Enjoy the read! 

Newshound W1 March 2024

Oman sets the stage: ITB Berlin 2024 opening extravaganza 

Prominent political and tourism industry figures are to attend the official opening ceremony of the World’s Leading Travel Trade Show on 4 March. A spectacular show programme featuring classical works and folk music by the Official Host Country, Oman, awaits the audience at the opening of ITB Berlin 2024. Don’t miss the chance to meet RateTiger in Berlin from the 5th to the 7th of March in Hall No. 8.1/Stand No. 132. 

https://shorturl.at/vGJL7

Accor partners with IDeaS for global revenue management 

IDeaS and Accor announced that Accor has chosen IDeaS as its global revenue management software (RMS) provider. Partnering on a suite of IDeaS revenue management solutions, Accor continues to update its commercial strategy for hotels, property owners, and managers. Accor has over 5,600 hotels in 110 countries and will leverage IDeaS for its revenue management strategy by using technology to create a competitive advantage and deliver value while considering its global portfolio footprint. 

https://shorturl.at/akOW1

Escape with Banyan Tree Dubai’s Eid staycation offer 

Banyan Tree Dubai, the sanctuary of rejuvenation, is delighted to announce its Eid Staycation offer, inviting UAE and GCC residents to experience a journey of reconnection at this inviting destination. Nestled in the heart of Bluewaters Dubai, overlooking the breathtaking shoreline and boasting many dining and recreational facilities, this oceanside resort is the ultimate escape from the bustling metropolis. With its 500 meters of secluded, private beachfront, Banyan Tree Dubai provides the ideal opportunity to embrace serenity. 

https://shorturl.at/dotwW

Explore Ireland, Scotland & England with CIE Tours 2024 offer 

Experience the allure of Ireland, Scotland, and England with CIE Tours’ exclusive limited-time offer for 2024 explorers. Book any of our 19 select guided tours with airfare and receive 50% off the second airfare for your travel companion. This offer is valid for new bookings between March 1 and March 22, 2024, and travel between May 1 and December 31, 2024. 

https://shorturl.at/chzG2

Ascott launches Citadines Arpora Nagoa Goa property 

CapitaLand Investment Limited’s wholly owned lodging business unit, The Ascott Limited (Ascott), has announced the launch of its new Apart’hotel, Citadines Arpora Nagoa Goa. With a commitment to redefine relaxation and provide an unparalleled experience for guests, Citadines Arpora Nagoa Goa will mark a significant milestone in Ascott’s expansion strategy across newer territories in India. 

https://shorturl.at/lqrSX

That’s all folks!  

What’s New in Hotel Online Distribution and Tech Trends? W2, February 2024

Here is your weekly industry news round-up. Check out the short snippets here and follow below for more details. 

  • 5 hotel physical security tune-ups with key control for 2024 
  • Adıyaman, Turkey’s dual revitalization goal: industry and tourism 
  • Sofitel Dubai The Palm: second edition of Epicure Culinary Month 
  • Geopolitics is the biggest threat to travel & tourism 
  • Reopening of the iconic Waldorf Astoria Ras Al Khaimah 

Reach out to us for discussions regarding connectivity, direct booking, rate intelligence, and website design requirements – we are happy to explore new possibilities with you for your property – contact us today. 

Enjoy the read! 

Newshound w2, February 2024

5 hotel physical security tune-ups with key control for 2024 

The security and safety of all hotel guests, employees, and visitors is a top priority for hotel security teams. Investing in security and safety technology upgrades helps hotels stay compliant, manage assets, and prevent security incidents. One component of security technology that hotels invest in is key control and asset management solutions. 

https://shorturl.at/exHOQ

Adıyaman, Turkey’s revitalization push: industry and tourism 

Adıyaman in Türkiye eyes to revitalize both industry and tourism. The devastating twin earthquakes in early February last year affected not only buildings but also the economy of southern Türkiye. Before the earthquakes, Adıyaman’s economy was based on two main pillars: Agriculture and livestock, and textile factories, which accounted for almost 90 percent of the city’s industry. Food, construction and building materials were also produced.  

https://shorturl.at/gtwx3

Sofitel Dubai The Palm: second edition of Epicure Culinary Month 

Renowned luxury resort Sofitel Dubai The Palm is set to host the second edition of its EPICURE Culinary Month, a gastronomic celebration of culinary excellence, following the great success of the inaugural version in 2023. Starting 1st February 2024, this month-long event will showcase the property’s best-of-the-best culinary talent, inviting food connoisseurs and seasoned gourmands to indulge in a series of exceptional dining experiences, including exclusive four-hand dinners, one-off collaborations, and many more unmissable offers. 

https://shorturl.at/admI1

Geopolitics is the biggest threat to travel & tourism 

Thailand’s foreign policy of maintaining strict neutrality amid superpower bunfights has become the key to its national security and economic survival. Although Travel & Tourism are both major components and beneficiaries of that policy, the prospect of prolonged global geopolitical instability means that the industry is hanging by a thread, over-exposed to external shocks and biding time until the next one. 

https://shorturl.at/vPSZ1

 Grand reopening: Waldorf Astoria Ras Al Khaimah 

 The iconic Waldorf Astoria Ras Al Khaimah in UAE re-opens its doors, revealing a stunning transformation. The newest chapter of the renowned luxury hotel has begun, as the resort­ welcomes guests to live unforgettable once again. After an extensive refurbishment, the resort has unveiled 203 keys in total, including 149 beautifully appointed guest rooms and 54 suites with breathtaking views. 

https://shorturl.at/sGOQ6

That’s all folks!

Airbnb predicts historic travel rebound in 2021

Airbnb, the home-sharing and accommodation rental giant, has predicted an unprecedented travel recovery in the coming months as more countries ease travel restrictions due to vaccine roll-out. The pent-up demand for travel after a year of uncertainties are making people get back out there. This trend is also captured in the eRevMax Hotel Sentiment survey where 2 out of three BnB and Home Rental owners have reported significant increase in bookings and occupancy compared to last year.

Airbnb has recently published its customer survey report which shows a shift toward more meaningful travel. As more people work remotely from home, they want to go out and stay at another place, not necessarily a hotel, for a longer than usual duration.

More than a year of restrictions and lockdown have made people prioritize personal trips over mass tourism. People want to reconnect with family and loved ones and are willing to take trips while keeping the safety and security in check.

Among the key points that surfaced in the Airbnb research:

People miss traveling and plan to travel. More than bars, restaurants, sports, or other live events, people miss traveling. In one survey, 54% of people said they either already booked a trip or expect to travel in 2021.

What this means: There is a significant pent-up demand as people can’t wait to travel again.

People will be flexible on where and when they travel. With remote work and learning here to stay, people will have more flexibility with travel. This will likely impact where, when, and how long people stay—for example, there may be more demand for off-peak days of the week and times of the year. Nearly 25% of those surveyed said they envision longer stays.

What this means: Be ready to adapt to new guest needs, like offering longer stays, upgrading wi-fi, setting up a laptop-friendly workspace, and including amenities suitable for families and people with disabilities.

People will want to travel nearby. In the survey, 56% of people said they prefer a domestic or local destination. Just 21% said they want to travel farther away and internationally.

What this means: Guests will go anywhere—as long as it’s nearby. This means travel will likely disperse to thousands of smaller cities, towns, and rural communities.

People will prioritize affordability. Those surveyed said affordability was the top priority in choosing accommodations for future travel. The pandemic has hit a lot of people financially, but the desire to travel and connect is universal.

What this means: Offering a great value would help accommodation providers to attract family and group of friends traveling together.

People want to travel to connect with family and friends. In the survey, 41% said connecting with family and friends will be “much more important” post-pandemic.

What this means: There is a shift from mass travel to meaningful travel, and bookings from families and groups of friends who want to reconnect.

As people begin to make plans to reconnect with friends and family, Airbnb is launching the Summer of Responsible Travel, an 8-point plan to help hosts, guests and communities they call home stay safer. The Summer of Responsible Travel plan includes new tools to help travelers and hosts stay healthier, systems to crack down on bad behavior and more help for people if some part of their trip doesn’t go as planned.

You can now manage your property on Airbnb via RateTiger/ LiveOS. Contact us today to connect to Airbnb or manage your existing connection via RateTiger –https://goo.gl/3gKUJZ

Fighting Coronavirus: 5 short-term revenue generation tips for hotels

As the situation surrounding the COVID-19 outbreak continues to evolve, it’s time to join forces and participate in virtual discussions to learn new revenue sources for your hotel business.

5 short-term revenue generation tips –

Self- isolation packages – Offer rooms for self-isolation stays in well sanitized rooms.

Quarantine facility – Contact your local government health bodies to offer lodging and fooding to affected people in a 14-day quarantine package rate.

WorkFromHotel space – Create a weekly package offering stay, all meals and hi-speed internet and promote to professionals who want to stay comfortably without worrying about daily chores.

Extended Stay – Focus on offering extended stay packages at affordable rates with well sanitized rooms, meals and wi-fi included, to expats that might be staying in costly rented places and looking for alternative stay options.

Brand visibility – Maintain your presence through social media and have regular contact with loyalty guests – as soon as people are ready to book, they will remember and reach out to you.

We are here for you! Together we are stronger.

Contact us on marketing@erevmax.com to set up a discussion with one of our revenue management and connectivity advisers.

What are the Best Practices for Creating a Google Hotel Ads Campaign?

Google Hotel Ads has emerged as an important channel for hoteliers to improve online exposure of their properties. In this blog, we list out some of the best practices that are involved with the creation of a Google hotel ads campaign.

What are the Best Practices for Creating a Google Hotel Ads Campaign

About 4.5 billion searches are made on Google every day, making it essential for every business to have presence on the platform. Over the last few years, Google Hotel Ads has emerged as the most popular platform in the metasearch space.  Which for years have been dominated by the OTAs. GHA which aggregates your hotel rates from participating OTAs and brand website and displays your hotel rates and availability on Google, across desktops, tablets, and mobile devices? Find out about some of the best practices for the creation of a Google hotel ads campaign.

Familiarize yourself with the interface

In order to be successful with Google hotel ads, it is essential to be familiar with the interface and know what goes into it. The sign-up process is quite similar to Google PPC campaign. Hotels need to create a Google Hotel Center account to send and manage hotel rates and availability across Google. The interface is user-friendly, effective and efficient. Once you have listed your property, connect your prices and availability to your ads by linking your Hotel Center account to a Google Ads account and start advertising.

Use data to your benefit

Data that is recorded by Google systems lets you pinpoint those things that are/are not working. Reports every week are offered in detail, and how your campaign is proceeding in each device. Make use of opportunity reports every week to detect missed opportunities. Know about the areas that you might have improved on, and prepare better for bid optimization in the following round.

With conversion tracking, you can exactly find out what happens when anyone visits your site. You can get information on cost per acquisition, how long a person stays in the accommodation and whether or not they booked a room. The use of this information and other performance metrics for the adjustment of Google hotel ads booking campaign strategies can help you to derive the best from your experience of Google Hotel Ads.

Group hotels and manage bids better

In case you are operating bids for more than one hotel property, group the properties together. This can let you manage the same in a more efficient way and optimize returns on investment. The principles happen to be the same for each hotel property that is part of the group. When you structure bids, you have to remember that.

Optimize your ads

For optimizing your ad spends, Google recommends hotels to provide entire inventory to Hotel Ads along with room and package Meta data. The details comprise of data about occupancy levels and rooms, and all the updated prices and active bids can ensure accuracy of prices. The ads which notch up the best numbers are generally those that offer the most information. Optimized ad can help hotels to have much better business and increase the bottom line.

Google Hotel Ads campaigns can provide future travelers with the chance to reserve a hotel room at many important hotels all through their research. Wherever a user makes decisions related to travel, hotel ads are surfaced by Google to assist them in the assessment of booking options and pricing available to them.

Find Hotel channel manager and Online Distribution.

What is a Hotel PMS?

PMS or Property Management System is a software solution which can be installable or cloud-based for managing hotel operations like handling guest profiles, check-in and check-out, occupancy management, checking room availability and bookings.

Is your hotel using an efficient room rate comparison tool?

Download our complimentary e-book  on how to leverage pricing for profit optimization

Hotel revenue management relies heavily on accurate market intelligence. Being aware of competitor price movements and change in their distribution strategy is important for any hotelier to stay ahead of competition of multiple sales channels.

Given the perishable nature of hotel inventory, it is important to optimize room pricing such that it is in sync with market demand and is attractive enough for potential guests to make a booking. Hotels today offer multiple room rates for different room types – so tracking these different room-rate combinations across your competition manually can be a herculean task and hence arises the need for an efficient and automated rate shopping tool that can fetch you rates in real-time for apple-to-apple comparison.

With the current range of price intelligence solutions available in the market, hoteliers are spoilt for choice. To assist with your decision making easier – we present our complimentary e-book – ‘Shopping Matters – The Power of Real-time Hotel Rate Intelligence’ that will help you to know more about –

  • Importance of real-time rate intelligence
  • Understanding the marketplace to fine-tune your rate strategy
  • Why rate shopping tool is crucial to your profit optimization

Download the ebook today – https://www.erevmax.com/travel-solutions/erevmax-shopper-rateintelligence.html

eRevMax to unveil AgentX101 at WTM London 2018

The ‘first of its kind’ 360-degree management solution for Travel Agents & Tour Operator

eRevMax, the global hospitality technology leader, will unveil its revolutionary new integrated management solution for Travel Agents & Tour Operators – AgentX101 – at WTM London 2018, being held between 5 – 7 November at ExCel Centre.

AgentX101, powered by LiveOS, is the latest addition to eRevMax’s award-winning suite of products for the hospitality industry professionals that are looking to manage their business efficiently and optimize profits.

“We have always endeavored to build innovative technology that is intelligent, easy-to-use and affordable – to help simplify revenue management and connectivity needs of the hospitality industry. With AgentX101, we go one step further in empowering over 600,000 travel agents and tour operators worldwide, to streamline their daily operations and focus on creating, managing and delivering memorable journeys for their clients,” said Reuel Ghosh, CEO, eRevMax.

The first of its kind management platform for Travel Agents and Tour Operators, AgentX101 provides 360-degree visibility into production sources and suggests actions and alerts to maximize potential. Already tested by some of the biggest names in the industry, the web-based solution will help travel agents automate their daily tasks, improve decision making with real time data, and gather all business information in one place.

eRevMax will also be showcasing it’s recently launched Central Reservation System along with new enhancements in RateTiger and LiveOS.

The company is co-hosting the HospitalityUnited.Club Drinks Reception @Stand TT720 on 6 November 2018 at 5pm. To register, contact us on marketing@erevmax.com

 

HospitalityUnited.Club highlights OTA duopoly in American Online Hotel Booking Space

HospitalityUnited.Club, a consortium of travel technology companies, has published an e-book titled ‘USA Travel Trends 2018’ highlighting key travel metrics and indicators in the region, in partnership with HRS Group, LiveOS, RateTiger and Sojern.

The e-book highlights the dominance of Expedia and Booking.com group companies in the USA online hotel booking space, controlling almost 95% of the OTA market.

The e-book shows that while traditional channels like voice, call center and tour operators are still preferred means of hotel reservations, growth of online booking is outpacing them by over 300%. Interestingly, unlike Europe, hotels are getting more online bookings through their brand website, indicating robust digital presence.

While metasearch remains strong as ever, Google has emerged as a serious channel, ranking first, when travellers look for pricing information. The search engine is also sending the most qualified leads to the hotel websites, even though, metasearch channels are dominated by OTAs.

The e-book also highlights that inspite of being one of the most matured online markets, one out of three people still feel uncomfortable booking hotels on mobile. This explains why mobile booking growth is lower in USA when compared to APAC.

To get more interesting insights, download the free infographic here.

HospitalityUnited.Club brings Cocktails & Conversations to Houston

HospitalityUnited.Club, a consortium of travel technology companies, brings its classic Cocktails and Conversations event to Houston in June. The Club will be hosting an exclusive evening for hoteliers on 19 June 2018, with HRS Group, LiveOS, RateTiger and Sojern joining as co-hosts.

The high energy networking event will bring together hotels and tech providers in an informal relaxed setting at The Lake House, in the heart of Houston’s Convention District, to explore innovative technology and new ideas.

“We are proud to collaborate with HospitalityUnited.Club to co-host the networking event in Houston. It gives us an opportunity to meet and greet hoteliers and technology partners and demonstrate our client appreciation. HUC organizes events that are co-located with major tradeshows around the globe, providing partners a perfect backdrop for showcasing new ideas and technology innovation.” Edward Perry, Head of Partnerships, Americas, HRS Group.

The Houston event is the sixth in the series, following successful networking parties in Toronto, Singapore, London, Madrid and Berlin.

To join us for the Cocktails & Conversations in Houston, register today – https://bit.ly/2kT5PAk

About HUC: HospitalityUnited.Club brings together hotels and technology providers to exchange ideas and knowledge in an informal relaxed setting. It is a social platform for like-minded professionals. The HUC events are co-located with major tradeshows around the world including ITB, WTM, HITEC, FITUR etc, where technology partners come together to host networking drinks at exclusive locations for their industry peers. Join HUC to get to know the latest in hospitality innovation. For more details, contact marketing@hospitalityunited.club