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GBTA Convention 2012 – Preview

Come Monday and one of the biggest Business Travel events will kick off in Boston, Massachusetts. With two former US Presidents featuring as key speakers among the biggies of the travel industry, there is surely some exciting time ahead!

With over 1400 pre-registered buyers, the 2012 GBTA Convention will have the largest buyer attendance in its 44 year history, which speaks volumes about the show. The agenda looks well-defined and with huge cuts on global business travel budgets, we can expect to witness hot discussions and debates on ways to achieve more productivity.

How do we do that? Well with technology moving forward in leaps and bounds, there will be much to catch up on. And of course I will be there at the RateTiger stand 959 speaking to attendees on how they can leverage our tools to achieve ultimate rate transparency. 

A recent PhoCusWright report mentions how quickly corporate travel bookings are moving online, with over 56% of all business travel bookings to be made over the internet by 2013. The technology boom doubled with increase in mobile and tablet usage has converted corporate travelers into corporate tourists. Further with travel managers keeping a close check on online hotel rates, it has become difficult for hotels to disregard their corporate contracts and offer differential pricing.

New technology and software tools are expected to play an important role with TMCs experiencing increased pressure from companies to thoroughly assess and deliver returns from their travel spend. Corporates are defining stricter ROI metrics to ensure they get ‘more from less’ when it comes to their money spent. Therefore buyers need to look at rates carefully and ensure they are getting the best deal – hence the importance of rate shopping tools (aka RTCorp). Our corporate price management tool will give the transparency needed when negotiating RFPs with hotels.

I look forward to all the discussions and networking, as well as checking out what others in the business travel space are doing. Watch this space for updates when I am back from the show.

Jan Murza is Sales Manager – USA at eRevMax and is responsible for sale of RateTiger products in the region. He is based out of Orlando, USA and can be reached at janm@ratetiger.com

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The Paul Hotels Achieves Online Rate Parity

The Paul Resorts & Hotels has further developed its revenue management operations to improve rate parity across multiple online sales bookings channels. The group implemented advanced allocation management capabilities through RateTiger’s Channel Manager to improve its position and rate management with third parties.
The award-winning luxury property in India has been selling across 15 online channels and wanted to ensure the same rates were available to customers across all channels. However, managing so many OTAs manually was becoming a challenge, especially when guests were discovering rate inconsistencies. To main group sales sells across global booking portals as well as regional OTAs with the prospect to add more channels the properties chose RateTiger.

“Given our small inventory and high occupancy rates throughout the year it’s essential we engage in more future planning across our sales channels.” said Shelley Thayil, Director of Revenue Management.


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Newshound: Trends and Reports – Hotel Online Distribution


Looking or booking? Will mobile really drive new revenues?
Last minute bookings are not a new phenomenon. What is new today is that increasing numbers of travelers have the ability to search and make a booking via a mobile device. And they no longer plan the details of their trip in advance. According to recent research by EyeforTravel, LBS expenditure is expected to near $10billion by 2016, while smart phone sales are predicted to reach 982 million units by 2015. What is more, marketers are expecting an ‘onslaught’ of mobile apps and tools within three years.

How to Manage Facebook
Caterer & Housekeeper lists out five key strategies that a hotel must follow for effective marketing through its Facebook page. They are

  • Post eye-catching picture to attract followers
  • Select the  Brand profile picture carefully
  • Customize the app icons
  • Pin Up the important post 
  • Use milestone app for product launch or announcement
Online Travel Shoppers Respond Best to Intuitive Ecommerce Experiences
Like almost all online customers, travellers comparison shop to find the best deals. A Q4 2011 report on worldwide visitors to travel and hospitality websites by web analytics company iPerceptions found that price was the main barrier to shoppers completing online reservations. But after price, functionality and site design were among the biggest stumbling blocks for prospective customers.

Domestic visitors vital to London Olympics
The UK will only welcome an additional 330,000 international visitors as a direct result of hosting the London 2012 Olympics, reveals research at WTM Vision Conference London.  According to Euromonitor International Head of Travel and Tourism Research Caroline Bremner, the UK will welcome 29.4m international visitors this year, a 2% increase on 2011, or 588,000.

Leisure hotel rates set new growth record in March
Average daily rates paid by leisure hotel guests climbed +9.2% in March over 2011, beating the previous record of +8.3% set in December over 2010, according to the latest data from Pegasus Solutions. In North America, hotels benefited from a climb of +8.5% in daily rates for leisure stays, which outperformed the +7.3% record set in February.

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Newshound: Trends and Reports – Hotel Online Distribution

Distribution experts share key to success
For all its complexity, the distribution game comes down to one simple factor: value. If a channel doesn’t offer value, then hoteliers shouldn’t use that channel to yield inventory, concluded a panel comprising a diverse array of representatives in the field.

Making Social Media An Asset To Your Hotel, Part 3: Sales & Marketing
Marketing using social media requires a different discipline and expertise from traditional and online marketing. Just as radio ads don’t translate well to television, branded online ads typically don’t work well in social media. Marketers wanting to utilize social media will need to think differently, and this section explains how.

A New Era for OTAs
Tension between hotels and online travel agencies has been palpable for the past several years, as the Web distribution marketplace has seen heated competition both online, through the battle for booking revenue, and off, through business negotiations and legal disputes. But as economic purse strings have loosened, consumer demand has risen, and hotels themselves have become more savvy in corralling their own direct customers, several of the major online travel brands have changed their game to reflect what they see as the current state of the business.

Online now accounts for more than half of travel sales across Europe
Online bookings accounted for more than half the travel sales across Europe for the first time last year, according to industry analyst IPK International. But agency sales continue to dominate Europe’s biggest travel market: Germany. IPK reported 55% of all travel bookings in Europe were online last year, up 15% on 2010. Attached is the key findings of the report.

Global average room rate rose by 4pc last year: report
A report released by Hotels.com has indicated that the results are showing the green shoots of recovery for many countries with the average price of a hotel across the world rising four percent, placing them on a par with prices from 2005. According to Hotels.com’s Hotel Price Index (HPI), the relative strength of the global hotel sector can be seen as an indicator of a potential turnaround in the economic outlook with the average price of a room around the world rising four percent in 2011.

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LodgeGate implements RateTiger for seamless online booking connectivity


Dutch-based company Hotels Online, provider of LodgeGate Hotel Management System (PMS), has selected RTConnect, the premium XML interface, for electronic rate and inventory distribution as well as reservations delivery.

RateTiger recently completed the 2-way XML connection integration with LodgeGate and its 150+ hoteliers are currently adopting the technology to better manage sales. Over 30 properties will soon be using the enhanced service and benefit from a two-way connection to their electronic distribution network. Customers of the PMS will be able to automatically maximize their online presence while avoiding over-booking through an easy-to-use interface.

LodgeGate’s customers can now easily manage and update multiple sales channels including the Global Distribution Systems (GDS), various Online Travel Agents (OTA), e-commerce and social media. Rate and availability data already present in their PMS can now be shared automatically with RateTiger’s channelmanager. This will save time and provide opportunity to make additional money.

As part of the interface, hotels will also receive booking confirmations directly into their property management system, therefore sparing the effort of manual data entry.


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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