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Florida Huddle

Organized at the Daytona Beach from 23 – 25 January, Florida Huddle turned out to be a great event for us.

The event focuses completely on buyer-supplier meetings and is a good platform to meet prospective buyers and close deals. This year’s event saw a turnout of over 350 people which is very good for an event of this size.

The discussions revolved around the hoteliers’ concern over the extremely low ADR in Orlando while Miami and other south coastal areas witness an improvement in performance and rates. More than 200 hoteliers were present and all were eager to find out the best way to take prices up again.

RateTiger’s major advantage this year was our stand’s location in the VIP lounge, receiving a lot of visitor traffic. Jonathan and I managed to meet a lot of attendees to whom we showcased RateTiger and its suite of premium online channel management tools.

From the business perspective, presence at Florida Huddle is always lucrative as it allows decision makers from the buyer and supplier sides to meet directly and cut deals. RateTiger signed many new contracts at the event therefore very successful.

Siobhain McArdle is Sales Manager for south eastern states of USA at eRevMax and is responsible for sales of RateTiger products in the region. She is based out of Florida and can be reached at siobhainm@ratetiger.com
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FITUR 2011

With the recovering markets, we were excited to see how major trade events in Spain would open. The first major event of the year – FITUR 2011 hosted a total of 10,500 exhibitors from 166 countries and regions in January. It showcased a good representation of hospitality companies and technology providers while the increase in visitor turnover reached 200,000.

Her Majesty Queen Sofia inaugurated the 31st edition of FITUR. This official opening by the Royal family once again proves their unconditional support for the tradeshow and, in general, for the Spanish tourism sector.

During the FITURTECH conference, the discussions focused mostly on topics like online sector, web 2.0, innovative technologies, social networking and video marketing among others. Further hoteliers were also keen to discuss about the market conditions as well as means and ways to improve the Average Room Rate.

We represented RateTiger at the event and had various meetings pre-arranged at our stand. We also attracted a lot of general visitors which gave us an opportunity to showcase the main product line RTSuite and at the same time highlight new tools like RTReview and other additional modules.

It was a well-planned event and we look forward to many more editions of this wonderful event.

Catch all the action at RateTiger stand here in these pictures.


Pilar Sanchez Aita and Cristina Hernandez are Sales Managers at eRevMax and are responsible for sale of RateTiger products in Portugal and Spain. Reach them on pilara@ratetiger.com and cristinas@ratetiger.com respectively.
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Hoteliers’ Connect: Bangalore

Earlier this month, I got an opportunity to host leading Bangalore hoteliers at an evening event organized by RateTiger. The idea was to provide a social platform for hoteliers to connect over cocktails while sharing vignettes of their channel management experiences.

With 25 hoteliers present, it was a cozy get-together with every member being very warm and forthcoming with their strategies, suggestions, challenges and queries. Some of our client hoteliers were present too and were happy to share their experience of new channel management modules that they have been using in RateTiger.

As the evening wore on, everyone embarked on a stimulating discussion on revenue strategies. It turned out to be a productive day for them, they also realized that they have not really interacted earlier and many had met their counterparts from other hotels for the first time. They just knew and viewed each other as competitors and not as industry peers. I was so glad to have modified their outlook and they were appreciative of our effort for having hosted such an interesting meet.

Chancery Pavilion was the chosen venue for the evening and being a RateTiger user they were happy to be part of this event. I look forward to doing similar events in other Indian and Asian cities so as to help Revenue Managers meet up outside work and share their valuable experiences with each other. And with our technology, I am sure we can further help revenue managers achieve increased online sales and optimize revenue.

Sudhir Ghildiyal is Sales Manager – Asia Pacific at eRevMax and is responsible for sales of RateTiger products in the region. He is based out of India and can be reached at  sudhirg@erevmax.com

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eRevMax Football Tournament 2010

On 28th August the Kolkata sky was overcast with dark malevolent clouds which burst into heavy showers on and off. The outfield was wet and there were even puddles across the pitch; hardly an ideal situation to play an outdoor game, let alone a Football Tournament. Try as much as they might but the elements of nature never stood a chance when it encountered head-on, the indomitable spirit of Team eRevMax who were out for a spirited game.

With full attendance from all six participating teams, the game started with much cheer and fanfare. The teams led by their captains – Royal Blue (Suvranshu Mohanty), Dark Blue (Pushparghya Mandal), Olive Green (Surajit Kar), Green (Abdul Hasan), Yellow (Kaushik Kapat) and Red (Briti Sundar Biswas), looked every bit international. And why not? Along with the Kolkata members we had Ragnar Strerath, VP Product from our Germany office and Jorge V Rico, Project Manager – RTConnect from Spain who were here on a business visit. We also had our new French MM who joined the Kolkata office just a few weeks back – Frank Tchere who is originally from Ivory Coast, USA. So it was a team comprising members from across continents and what a beautiful game they played!

After a series of games, teams Royal Blue and Yellow emerged as the top contenders in their respective Leagues. The teams in second position were Dark Blue and Green. After a nail-biting match, Team Dark Blue emerged winner for the third position under the able captaincy of Pushparghya Mandal.

The finale was a nerve wrenching game; it went into extra time, at the end of which both the teams had scored 3 goals each. With no definite result, the referee announced penalty shoot-out. Team Yellow played a tactful and patient game emerging as winners for the coveted Trophy.

Except for a toe injury suffered by Surajit Kar, Captain – Team Olive Green, the games went pretty smoothly. After an exciting afternoon, Udai Singh Solanki, MD India presided over the prize distribution ceremony and awarded the Champion’s Trophy to Team Yellow and Jorge Rico presented the Runners-up trophy to Team Royal Blue. The Best Goalkeeper title went to Sumanta Pramanik while the Best Scorer title was picked up by Joydeep Chakraborty; Ragnar Strerath did the honors for these two young men.

At the end, what did we all say? eRevMaxians Rock… Long Live eRevMax 🙂

Kushal Dasgupta is Market Manager – Austria, Czech Rep., UK & Ireland at eRevMax and is responsible for providing product training and handling client queries. Kushal is based out of Kolkata, India and can be reached at  kushald@ratetiger.com
 
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RateTiger – Paradores Training Day

It was a successful day of training with Paradores after a long road of joint collaboration. The training was organized jointly with Juan Manuel Merino and Javier Blanco from Paradores and Nuria Bermejo, Key Account Manager RateTiger with me coordinating the session.

Over 70 people attended the session at Parador de Alcala de Henares on September 13, 2010, eager to learn and start using our tools. Optimism filled the room with full support to incorporate it as they have the certainty that RateTiger provides an opportunity to manage their online sales and obtain privileged information to reinforce the strategy of online growth to Paradores group.

Paradores de Turismo is a publicly funded limited company with eight decades of history and which currently manages more than 90 hotel establishments thanks to the work performed on a daily basis by its thousands of employees. Many Paradores properties are located in nature reserves and in historic buildings, such as castles, palaces, convents and monasteries. 
  
One of the aspects that has endured in time and which characterizes Paradores de Turismo is its mission –
“Paradores is a tourism policy instrument which projects the image of modernity and quality of our tourism abroad and which contributes to the territorial integration, to the recovery and maintenance of Historical and Artistic Heritage and to the conservation and enjoyment of natural areas, all the while functioning as a driving force behind the set of revitalizing actions in areas with reduced tourism or economic activity.”



A corporation with just one shareholder, the Spanish state, Paradores de Turismo is also an instrument of the government’s tourism policy, as well as a leading company in the Spanish tourism sector which obtains important benefits which nourish the public objectives for which this company was created.


Pilar Sanchez Aita is Sales Manager – Spain & Portugal at eRevMax and is responsible for sales of RateTiger products in the region. She is based out of Spain and can be reached at pilara@ratetiger.com

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Tiger’s Supremacy Evokes Fear!

Someone has fallen prey to the Tiger’s stealth, with their recent attempt to rattle the Tiger’s cage falling flat. Our Tiger’s growl is enough to scare them away!

The Tiger is indigenous to the global hospitality jungle and is considered the king by one and all. In a poll conducted by Animal Planet, the largest of the big cats was voted the world’s favorite animal. 

It’s fierce and commanding rate attention ensures weaker predators are kept at bay. Smart hoteliers know that premium products deliver the right results. You cannot be cheap in offering Rate Parity as it is only one of many parameters. 

The Tiger takes a noble and discerning approach to help his streak of hotel cubs maximize revenues in the growing e-marketplace. 

This Tiger is your weapon to guest booking survival.

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NBTA International Convention & Exposition 2010

Earlier this month, I was in Houston to attend the International Convention organized by the National Business Travel Association, the leading Association for the corporate travel community. The event included a full schedule of educational seminars as well as an exhibition floor for travel buyers & sellers to interact.

I was excited to see a gathering of over 6000 attendees from all sectors of the corporate travel vertical including corporate travel executives, airlines, hotel groups, transportation companies, corporate travel management companies, meeting planners and technology companies.

The convention began with the announcement of NBTA’s plan to aggressively pursue a more global approach and its rechristening to Global Business Travel Association (GBTA). This was followed by educational sessions covering various aspects of corporate travel.

Key speakers focused on the recovery of the industry over the past 3 quarters with an expected increase in rates for 2011. One of the main topics of conversation was the increase in unbundled fees in the airline industry and the possible implementation of these in the hotel industry to give hotels the opportunity to increase revenues.

I found NBTA Convention to be the perfect platform to introduce RateTiger’s real-time hotel rate benchmarking tool – RTCorp to the corporate travel managers. The corporate travel industry is at a point where corporates need to be able to benchmark their contracted rates so that they can obtain the best possible rates for their companies.

Traditionally corporate travel managers used to contract their hotels once a year for the year. However with the advent of hotel yield management, hotel rates are changing consistently, sometimes on a daily or even hourly basis. RTCorp gives travel managers the opportunity to evaluate their contracted rates against the OTA lowest published rates and provides them with the reports necessary to approach and re-contract their hotels.

Our presence at NBTA helped educate the travel managers as to the value of benchmarking their contracted rates against the OTA rates. Our direct meetings generated a lot of interest amongst the attendees and we found corporate travel managers understanding the need for a benchmarking tool to help them negotiate with their travel suppliers harder and get a better and open deal.

Overall it was a great experience and kudos to NBTA for putting together a very well organized and meaningful event. I look forward to attending the next convention but with a different name – the GBTA International Convention 2011 😉

Mark Neter is International Sales Manager at eRevMax. He is based out of US and can be reached at markn@ratetiger.com

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BHA Annual Luncheon

The BHA Luncheon event was an extension of our partnership with British Hotel Association. It took place in the Great Room of the Grosvenor House Hotel on 29th June and had a great turnout of over 700. 
We had the pleasure of inviting both clients and partners to intermingle over a great meal; we were joined by Bridgestreet Apartments, English Rose Hotels, Expedia, The Leonard Hotel, Supranational Hotels, and St. Giles Hotel. 
The BHA Luncheon this year was more special because it ended one era and welcomed another as the CEO Bob Cotton stepped down and the current CEO Ufi Ibrahim stood at the helm.

For us, this was another great opportunity to re-establish contacts with many hotel owners and directors and network with industry peers.

Casey Davy is Sales Manager – UK at eRevMax. He is responsible for sales of RateTiger products in the region. Casey is based out of London and can be reached at caseyd@ratetiger.com
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AHP Hotel Distribution Seminario

The last day of June saw the Association of Hotels of Portugal (AHP) organizing a seminar on Hotel Distribution. It brought together a group of experts in the area of hotel distribution to advice hoteliers on best available tools and latest trends in hotel management, online distribution and channel management.

An increasing number of tourists make their hotel reservations via the Internet. Also though the economy is recuperating, it has not held back Portuguese people from traveling. According to “The Travels of the Portuguese in 2010” study conducted in May this year, the Portuguese say they want to travel at least once this year. This has further made hoteliers more optimistic about business and has enhanced the need to distribute online to ensure they get their fair share of bookings from this dynamic medium.
The seminar was therefore a great platform to present directly to owners and hotel managers, marketing managers and marketing directors who are the real decision makers. I conducted a presentation on RateTiger and the concept of our solutions which included the advantages of online distribution; how to distribute more and better without changing its structure; how to boost sales team and how to ensure price parity. 
Other presenters included Zoover (Hotel Review sites and their importance); Viatecla (advantages of integrating review sites and how to monitor them) and Travelport/Galileo Portugal (GDS and Hotels). With over 60 hoteliers present it was just the perfect sized audience for making a strong presence amongst them. 
Overall the seminar was excellent and very productive. I received a lot of questions which showed the interest level of the audience and I was also approached for more information on RateTiger products. I look forward to other sessions by AHP as these are quality events which are purely B2B and helps all involved find what they need.
Pilar Sanchez Aita is Sales Manager – Spain & Portugal at eRevMax and is responsible for sales of RateTiger products in the region. She is based out of Spain and can be reached at pilara@ratetiger.com