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WTM London: Launch of eRevMax’s Partner Program

WTM London continues to be a crowd-puller and a great networking platform and this year is no different for us. Over the next four days we’ll be at WTM London, you can witness the launch of our next generation LIVE OS and Partner Program.
Hundreds of hoteliers, travel technology professionals gathered at eRevMax stand TT550 to witness the launch of LIVE OS and eRevMax Partner Program. Here are some glimpses of our stall at WTM on day 1.

The LIVE OS platform makes it easy for hotels to access the providers they work within one solution with single sign on.  The provider retains a stronger relationship with the hotel and gets the opportunity to reach out to thousands of hotels globally through the built in marketplace in LIVE OS.
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Top five trends which will shape US Hospitality industry this year

The first generation travellers who are connected to the world with internet have become the fastest growing customer segment in hospitality industry. Travellers aged between 18 to 34 comprise the largest and most diverse segment of US population. These hyper-connected travellers are communicating with the entire world in a new way with their always connected device- using laptop, tablet or mobile phone.

In the LIVE in New York, an event organized by us to discuss the hotel technology trends, from our partners BookingForce, HRS and roomlia to hoteliers from Hilton, Marriot, Wyndham, Warwick Hotels, Wellington Hotel all talked about the challenges of dealing with the hyper-connected segment. With the advance of technology, the shift towards mobile is dramatic and disruptive. According to a PhoCusWright report around 75% of U.S. travelersown a smartphone and the numbers are continuously increasing with 4 out of 5 mobile travel booking are being made for hotel accommodation. With half the year gone, here are five definite trends that I reckon, are shaping the US hospitality industry this year.

Mobile does not mean last minute

The growing popularity of HotelTonight and BlinkBooking is a testimony to the growth of last minute bookings. PhoCusWright reports that one in four mobile bookings are made at the last minute, where OTAs with stronger presence score high against the brand sites. In fact for every 10 last minute bookings, 7 are being made at the OTA sites. This has prompted major OTAs like Booking.com to invest heavily in this segment. Earlier this year, Booking.com launched Booking Now, a mobile app which lets guests book up to 48 hours in advance.



However, mobile’s influence on traveler goes beyond last minute, and now has impacted all phases of the travel life cycle. Research says, about 37%of US travelers use a mobile device in their trip planning – with a significant majority of them switching between the tablet and smartphone. Interestingly, a significant 27% of the mobile travel audience belongs to the high income category earning over $100,000 per year. Clearly, if you have not yet invested in your mobile channel, it’s high time to do that.

Mobile Wallet: New smart payment option

You might have your hotel in finest location and offer thebest rate on your brand.com site and pride yourself of providing superior facilities to your guest, but have you integrated the mobile wallet?



Today’s modern guests want a hazard free travel experience- expects not to face front desk of the hotel to check-in or pay bills. According to a recent survey by SmartBrief and The Wall Street Journal shows more than 75% US travellers carry a smartphone and 50% travellers carry at least two devices while they are on vacation. This means your guests expect there should be an arrangement so that they can use their technology at your hotel- whether to conduct business, contact the valet, request service from housekeeping or pay from their mobile device. Here comes the mobile payment option which eliminates unnecessary delays. One of the largest hotel groups in the world Marriot Hotels was first to launch mobile check-in and check-out options on its mobile application back in 2013 and now offering its guestsApple Payment option. Another big name in Hotel industry Starwood Hotels is also offering the same service to its guests- now guests have the ability to pay accommodation charges using their mobile wallet, Apple Pay. This means hotel guests will no longer have to carry their credit cards or cash in their wallet. As smartphone going to replace physical wallet more and more hotels in the coming years will implement this medium to enhance their guest experience.

In next part of the article I’ll talk about three more trends which are shaping the US hospitality industry.


Jan Murza is Director of Sales- Americas at eRevMax.  He can be reached at janm@erevmax.com  
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Trust Customer Conference

Being a Trust Partner, we got invited to the Trust Customer Conference in Amsterdam recently. This year’s event theme was “Blossom your distribution”. It was very well organized and provided a great platform to engage with hoteliers and also showcased the upcoming plans that Trust has for its product range.

The forum was designed mainly to exchange ideas and conduct informative, lively and interactive discussions between the Trust team and its business partners. Speakers were invited from leading companies including Google, TripAdvisor, Kayak, ICEPortal, and Essec Business School and shared key insights on industry issues, business opportunities and market trends.


Our COO Greg Berman was invited to present on the upcoming trends and technologies in Channel Management. It was an interactive session where Greg laid stress on eRevMax’s partnership with Trust Voyager and how it simplifies the distribution process to boost the revenue funnels.

Overall the event was a great chance for me to interact directly with multiple hoteliers, revenue managers as well as sales and marketing heads.
Pilar Sanchez Aita is Director Strategic Account Management at eRevMax. She can be reached at pilars@erevmax.com 
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eRevMax Football Tournament 2012


Honestly speaking I am not a sports addict, so definitely not the best person to be writing this post. Infact I have a love for aesthetics and am better off writing or painting! But for a change I was very glad to be a part of the Football tournament this year. You will ask why? Well there was so much excitement around this event – everyone was so charged up and the canteen buzzed with talks of who is in which team etc and I was missing out on all the action, so I enrolled myself to see what the fuss was all about.

And guess what? It paid. Well fortunately for me, I was part of the team which won the runners-up trophy! And I won an individual medal – my first sports win ever!

The match took place in the nearby HIDCO Ground located just behind our Kolkata office complex. There were five teams who participated – Teams A, B, C, D and E. The tournament started with the league matches and after a series of qualifiers, the top two teams went on for the finals. The ultimate face-off was between Team C efficiently captained by Ranjit Shaw and Team D led by Sumanta Sen. Team C emerged as the Winners and Team D (including me) was announced Runners-up.


Given that I played for hardly 5 -6 minutes (given my disposition with sports!) and was mostly in the outfield I managed to get a birds-eye view of all the incidents on-field. Well this happens only if you are one of the lucky few!

So here I am sharing the most memorable and comic moment of the event – in one of the qualifiers, my friend Sourav Das was so excited that he forgot which side he was playing for! His teammate Gopal Das managed a great shot and might have scored a goal if it were not for Sourav who saved it – forgetting that he was not the defender of the opponent team but the striker for his own team!

Further, this event helped me stumble upon other ‘sports gems’ like me who manage to mesmerize the audience with their stunning performance and skills – my friend Sujay Ghosh (who played for 8 minutes then returned injured – he was seen on the ground face-down, before he returned) and another friend Alok (who played for 3 minutes then returned injured). Of course I was leader of the gang as I ended up being the 12th man (who played for 4 minutes and returned – touched the ball just once 😉

What I want to mention is that the idea of these events are not just playing or showing great football skills, instead we were there to have some fun. I am sure everyone enjoyed themselves thoroughly. So – come one come all – play next year and you might get as lucky as me!

Truly a day with a difference!

For photos of the event, click here

Abhisek Gupta is Executive – Human Resource at eRevMax and is responsible for recruitments and HR operations. Abhisek is based out of Kolkata and can be reached at abhisekg@erevmax.com

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Team eRevMax @ Kolkata Cyclothon 2012

Kolkata’s biggest ever cycling event ‘Avon Cycles India Cyclothon‘ took place on 18th March 2012 at Salt Lake Stadium. Cycle enthusiasts from across the city flocked to the stadium on Sunday morning with helmets in place and sporting cool white tees. The participants ranged from age group of 8 to 60 and the event witnessed a turnout of over 3,500.

Team eRevMax was represented by 14 members who rocked the show. The company’s CTO & MD Udai Singh Solanki led the team and his infectious enthusiasm got others interested; Rajib Roy, AVP – Administration took on the task of organizing the company’s representation and soon we saw 14 participants of which one was a visiting member from our sister company Lunar Logic Polska.

 

Krzysztof Knapik has only been on cycle trips with friends along the Baltic seaside in Poland. He says, ‘I had a really good time and I’m happy that I could participate since the event took place while I was in Kolkata. I didn’t expect it would be so much fun. It was amazing to see so many people in one place, driving all possible kinds of bikes who were happy because they were part of this grand event.’

The concept of promoting cycling through such events is popular worldwide but it takes a lot of effort to organize, that too when it gets as big as this one was. The event was absolutely thrilling for me as this was my first ever cycling event. The idea that this was happening in my own city was enough to get me going. To be very honest I was very amazed, I did not expect such huge participation. Every participant present there was eager for the Cyclothon to begin! It was overwhelming. Infact Team eRevMax was so high on spirit and enthusiasm that I would give us a 10 on 10!

Kudos to the organizers and the Bidhannagar Police for having pulled this one off so smoothly!

Pooja Joshi is Market Manager at eRevMax. She is based out of Kolkata and can be reached at poojaj@ratetiger.com

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Christmas @ eRevMax Kolkata

eRevMaxians in the Kolkata office celebrated this winter festival on 23rd December. The technology centre was dressed up with colorful streamers, balloons, ribbons and a huge Christmas tree completed the reception area decoration. Members came in sporting their best dress and showed off their winter buys.


Presents came through Secret Santa which was a big task to organize given the 140 plus headcount. It was good fun nonetheless and very heart warming to see everyone participating and getting lovely gifts.

The event began with a fun quiz and moved on to the ‘Guess your Santa’ activity. After all the gifts were attacked and unwrapped, the gang moved on to the cafeteria for some rich plum cake and snacks. An evening full of fun, laughter and camaraderie with wishes for many more such days!!

 
Similar events and Christmas dinners were organized in our UK and US offices.

After an eventful and remarkable 2011, we at eRevMax look forward to an exciting 2012 and wish one and all a very prosperous and Happy New Year!!

Neha Ginoria is Sr. Executive- Marketing Communications at eRevMax and is responsible for driving the company’s PR and Marketing activities in APAC. Neha is based out of Kolkata, India and can be reached at nehag@erevmax.com