Booking.com fires away strict rate parity: What it means for hoteliers – Part II

In the first part of my article (see here) I’ve focused on Booking.com’s new rate parity agreement and how hotels now have regained control over their pricing. Here is the next part of the article.

Loosening rate parity with a caveat
The commitment comes with a caveat: the hotels had to maintain same rates and booking conditions on Booking.com as they do through their own direct website. Term this as a narrow ‘Most Favored Nation’ agreement, the OTAs require a minimum allocation, or some availability, from hotels. Predictably, hotels are not happy.


They fear that the big OTAs, with their marketing budget would be able to manipulate the search results, which they claim would continue to affect their business adversely. In a strongly worded statement, the British Bed and Breakfast Association calls Booking.com a “bully” and says, “that this new settlement, thrashed out behind closed doors in Europe, is wrong and anti competitive, and against the interests of consumers.” The powerful British Hospitality Association has shown similar disappointment, and terms the commitment as falling short of progress and not benefit customers or hospitality businesses in a meaningful way.

Paris based Accor, Europe’s biggest hotel chain has taken a cautious approach and expressed satisfaction. However, InterContinental Hotel is not impressed. In a market, where close to 70% reservations come through OTA with Booking.com alone contributing over 43%, no one can afford to kill the goose that lays the golden egg.
For now, they have the option of promoting discounted rates to their closed groups for more direct bookings. But then again, Booking.com with its excellent loyalty program, which accounts for close to 50% of their overall reservation will give then a tough run. In fact, industry watchers believe that the next war will be fought over loyalty programs between the OTAs and major hotel brands. Elimination of rate parity might trigger ‘price cannibalism’ between OTAs and brand sites that could (at least potentially) lead to a worse-case scenario for the industry as a whole.
Make the most of the opportunity
As travellers spend more time on research, hotels need to be present at every touch point to their target audience. This is why, hotels need to evaluate each channels for the opportunities they present, and create tailor-made pricing strategies – all while staying within rate parity constraints – for optimizing rate and revenue.
To start with, hotels need to look at analyzing margins from each channel and allocate rate and inventories with margin as base-line. Select channels that bring key value to their properties – ones that support not just when the circus is in town but on a rainy day. With access to reservation reports to identify the customer demographics, hotel can develop intuitive packages to help customers actually find what they are looking for. The basic of every pricing strategy is to know the value of the product and the elasticity up to which consumers would be ready to pay.


Which leads to the importance of evaluating different distribution platforms. Without a foundation of platform based pricing it will be extremely difficult to manage pricing to the players sitting on the various levels of distribution, such as  traditional OTAs, Same-day booking sites, GDS, Tour Operators, Own Website, social media, mobile applications, fenced groups, loyalty programs, specific credit cards, and so on. By introducing a platform based pricing methodology, hotels can optimize their rate matrix while staying within their contractual obligations.

Mature distribution markets are moving from daily rate changes to real-time changes from a revenue management perspective which has a positive impact on profit optimization.  Remember, price is only one of the four P´s of marketing. Give equal importance to other 3, namely product, place and promotion. Parity is not so evil after all, only misunderstood.



Cristina Blaj is Sales Director at eRevMax.  She can be reached at cristinab@erevmax.com

Hoffmeister Hotel & Spa selects RateTiger for effective rate and inventory distribution

One of the finest luxury boutique hotels in Czech Republic, Hoffmeister Hotel & Spa has partnered with eRevMax to expand business exposure and optimize online revenue. The five-star luxury property has been using RateTiger ChannelManagement Solution for managing availability, rate and inventories (ARI) across their online distribution mix.

RateTiger is a must have hoteliers tool in 21st century allowing you to effectively balance all the material variables in the hoteliers profit/occupancy/rates/distribution costs/channel parity equation,”  said Petr Novotný, Sales Manager, Hotel Hoffmeister & Spa.
Hotel Hoffmeister is built in Mediaeval Roman architectural style of the 15th century, sales 45 spacious apartments across various channels. The hotel offers its guests a worry-free time in a Roman bath style jacuzzi, soothe their body and mind while trying signature massages – relaxing, detoxifying and chocolate one or pamper themselves in a Beauty Parlour.

Read full story here

LaTour Hotels and Resorts selects RateTiger Channel manager to boost occupancy

One of the leading Hospitality Management and Rental Accommodations Travel Company in US, LaTour Hotels and resorts has selected eRevMax to boost its online bookings and expand online presence. Multiple properties of the California-based group are using RateTiger Channel Manager for managing availability, rates and inventory (ARI) across online sales channels.

Commenting on the partnership Lauren Doran, Director of Sales and Marketing at LaTour Hotels and Resorts said, “We wanted to be more proactive and promote our rates and inventory on various channels to boost occupancy. eRevMax is recognized for its product quality and superior service – the implementation of RateTiger has resulted in faster and extensive rate and inventory management allowing us instant control over our distribution processes and online sales.”
The group has presence over multiple cities of United States, Mexico and Venezuela and delivers highly personalized vacation experiences at four-star golf, ski, urban and oceanfront properties. Properties of the group using RateTiger Channel manager can sell rooms from an allocated pooled inventory across multiple channels automatically.

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Oakwood selects RateTiger for channel management and competitor intelligence

Oakwood Hospitality Group, the world-class accommodation provider has selected RateTiger Channel Manager for its twelve properties to manage rates and availability across multiple sales channels from single platform.
We are looking at implementing a channel management system that helps us achieve rate parity efficiently. RateTiger will help us save valuable time and give us a better overview of the market, enabling us to concentrate on the strategic aspects of marketing,” said Tabatha Ramsay, Vice President Sales, Marketing and Revenue.

The group has 28 properties in 15 cities across eight countries and territories, operates under three brand names Oakwood Premier, Oakwood Residence and Oakwood Apartments which offer distinct guest experiences to cater to different lifestyles. Leveraging RateTiger solutions Oakwood Asia can maximize its revenue opportunity and reduce its distribution costs by quickly and efficiently increasing its distribution reach.


GreenPark Hotels & Resorts improves online sales with eRevMax

Leading Indian Hospitality chain GreenPark Hotels and Resorts has selected eRevMax to boost its online bookings and expand online presence. Five properties of the group are using RateTiger Chanel Management Solution to manage their rate and room inventory updates in real-time accurately across all connected sales channels.


“RateTiger provides us with all the major channels to efficiently distribute rates and inventory. We have enjoyed excellent online sales growth over the past several years with RateTiger as our channel manager. Instant updates to all our channels, the ability to modify last minute rates and maintain tighter control of our inventory has contributed to higher occupancy and revenue,” said Antariksh Mathur, Group Revenue Manager, GreenPark Hotels and Resorts.
Recipients of several national and international awards, GreenPark Hotels & Resorts are also using RateTiger Shopper to monitor rate parity across all its channels. Further, to optimize its room rates and improve price forecasting, the team is also tracking competitor rates and sales position through the rate reports and live alerts that Shopper provides.

Kotimaailma Apartments selects eRevMax for online expansion and revenue growth

One of the leading apartment-hotel chains in Finland, Kotimaailma Apartments has selected eRevMax to expand its business exposure and optimize online revenue. All five apartments of the group are using RateTiger Channel Manager for rate and inventory management.

A channel manager program is a “must” in our business nowadays since we are expanding to new cities in Finland and consumers and tourists are a growing part of our business. To have a tool like RateTiger for managing multiple channels is just great. And good support and training from RateTiger is highly appreciated,” said Hans Ekholm, Owner, Kotimaailma Apartments.

One of the finest service apartments in Finland, Kotimaailma can maximize its revenue opportunity and reduce its distribution costs by quickly and efficiently increasing its distribution reach. RateTiger Channel Manager will help Kotimaailma to increase online sales by ensuring real-time room availability across all distribution channels through the automatic adjustment of availability from a pooled inventory.

Sweden Hotel recommends RateTiger solutions for its affiliated hotels

Sweden Hotels, the personal hotel chain of Sweden has endorsed RateTiger as its preferred Channel Manager for all its affiliated properties across the country. Founded in 1977, the group has over 60 properties with three-and four-star hotels spread across Sweden all starred under European Hotel Stars Union.

RateTiger Channel Manager and Rate Shopper products are amongst the best available in the market for hoteliers who want to retain control of their rates and availability being marketed and sold through various booking channels.  The purpose of this strategic partnership is to make it easier for our member hotels to select the most suitable technology solution to find their best match in channel management solutions,” said Eva Palmgren, CEO, Sweden Hotels.

The leader in  online distribution, channel connectivity, market intelligence and revenue management solutions, eRevMax’s flexible, multi-platform solution to manage online sales and exposure, has been used by over 20,000 hotels across the world. This endorsement from Sweden Hotels will allow all member hotels of the chain to streamline their online distribution through rate shopping, channel management, reservation delivery and guest review management and expand their distribution network.

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WTM LATIN AMERICA 2014

The travel industry was at centre stage at WTM Latin Americaheld at São Paulo. With the upcoming FIFA World Cup 2014, the host country – Brazil is all geared up to welcome the world. This event itself attracted a whooping 1000 participant companies from around the world.
Greg Berman, COO, eRevMax and Alex Moura, Sales Manager for Brazil attended the event and met regional industry players. WTM Latin America provided a great platform to network with customers, new hotel prospects as well as discuss distribution opportunities with key LATAM channels.


The event focused on a large diversity of travel related products and services aimed to facilitate meaningful business between buyers and suppliers and to encourage revenue generation. With exhibitors from over 50 countries, this year offered a series of novelties including meetings of public and private institutions and important international agreements.
We intend to attend WTM LATAM in the coming years as we expect online travel to grow at the good pace in the region.
Alex Moura is the Sales Manager for Brazil at eRevMax. He can be reached at alexm@erevmax.com

OTA Consolidation – preparing ourselves for better sales procedures

In recent years there have been big changes within the travel industry, but perhaps none quite so big as the ongoing consolidation of some of the major players in the OTA sector. In the past few years we’ve seen Go Voyages merged into the AXA brand and Amadeus sold Opodo in 500 million Euros. There are remarkably few mid-sized OTAs left, so how is this affecting OTAs, customers, and other divisions of the travel industry? For hotels themselves, the outlook is good. With consolidation helping the OTA market to grow by an estimated 25 percent each year, there are more and more opportunities for increasing visibility.


In the competitive market ‘Big boys’ in the travel space offer consumers a better choice, but the way our industry has developed this fragmentation is causing consumer confusion without necessarily leading to better value. This is the reason hospitality industry moving to the positive direction that will simplify travel purchases through consolidation.

Auris Hotels Partners with eRevMax for Superior Distribution and Visibility

Auris Group, a Dubai-based hotel chain with luxurious properties throughout the Middle East, has recently completed a two-way integration with eRevMax that allows them to update rates and rooms inventory automatically through eRevMax’s Connect distribution system. This integration is done at a time when the Auris Group is implementing a high level digital reputation and marketing strategy that will guarantee rate parity on all channels, market parity, digital visibility and availability.


One of the largest groups in the Middle East Auris preeviously had been managing channels and booking processes independently, but with hoteliers across the Middle East collectively encouraging tourism, particularly to areas such as Dubai and Abu Dhabi, this was no longer a suitable option. Auris Managing Director Hatem Gasmi, reports that Connect has made it possible to meet new and improved business objectives that includes increased visibility and marketing for their pipeline projects.