10 Tips for Hotels to Improve Operational Productivity by 60%

Here’s a quick guide for hotel owners looking to improve business ROI. Check out the top 10 tips to see how you can increase your property’s operational efficiency by 60%.

It can be quite an ordeal to run hotels, especially small hotel businesses which have limited staff but various functions to manage. You may be looking to improve the operational productivity to boost your hotel revenue, but don’t know how. Here are 10 tips that can help you boost the productivity of your hotel operations by as much as 60%.

Invest in technology

Adopt useful hotel management software systems, such as PMS (Property Management System), rate shopping and channel management tools, which can help streamline online distribution and reservation management process for you. These can save time by automating various daily operations.

Track your customer service performance

Try to evaluate how fast you can address the issues and requests of your guests. With good customer service, you can resolve issues efficiently and quickly.

Associate the actions of your hotel staff to its overall performance

You must show to your staff that all that they do each day has a big impact on the efficiency, productivity and revenue of the hotel. When the workers feel important, they get motivated to perform even better.

Encourage communication

Establish an email message group, set an open-door policy and hold regular meetings to promote staff-to-staff and staff-to-management communication, for better team cohesion.

Use Accounts Payable (AP) automation

It takes a lot of time to process invoices, and you can save this by automating your AP (accounts payable) processes. It can offer the best ROI for hotels of any size.

Offer incentives

Incentives are natural motivators for employees in any organization, and it inspires them to work hard and earn it.

Move to a cloud-based system

Shift to SaaS based system which allows you to manage your solutions from anywhere, anytime. The increase in mobility will help you manage operations efficiently, serve guests better and boost your overall productivity. Back-office operations can be handled more efficiently.

Go paperless

You can obviously improve productivity by reducing the number of hours you go through your papers. Go paperless, and digitize every document in a computer and storing them on the Cloud.

Reduce the work load

Find out which tasks take the longest to be completed, and outsource the same. If possible, you might even consider eliminating them completely.

Get insightful reports

Create a hierarchical structure, where every team leader report into the General Manager who in turn gets a bird’s eye view into the entire operations and can thus provide insightful inputs for the hotel owner.

Connect with us for your connectivity needs to make the most of online revenue- https://goo.gl/3gKUJZ

12 Tips for Hotel to Improve Operational Productivity by 60%

Here’s a quick guide for the hotel owners looking forward for better ROI to run through this better and get to know the top 12 tips for operational efficiency by 60%.

It can be quite an ordeal to run hotels, especially small hotel businesses which have small number of staffs but many functions to manage. You have to improve the operational productivity of your hotel if you are serious about boosting your revenues. Here are 12 tips that can let you boost the productivity of your hotel operations by as much as 60%.

Improve your technologies

Adopt latest hotel management software systems, such as PMS (Property Management System) and channel manager, which can help streamline the check-out and check-in process for you. These can save time by automating various daily operations.

Track your customer service performance

Try to evaluate how fast you can address the issues and requests of your guests. With a good customer service, you can resolve issues efficiently and quickly.

Associate the actions of your hotel staffs to its overall performance

You have to show to your staffs that all that they do each day has a big impact on the efficiency, productivity and revenues of the hotel. When the workers feel important, they can improve their service.

Encourage communication

Establish an email message group, set an open-door policy and hold regular meetings to promote staff-staff and staff-management communication, and boost communication.

Use AP (Accounts Payable) automation

It takes a lot of time to process invoices, and you can save this by automating your AP (accounts payable) processes. It can offer the best ROI for hotels of any size.

Offer incentives

Incentives can be natural motivators for your hotel staffs, and inspire them to work better and perform every task better.

Move to a cloud-based system

Shift to SaaS based system which allows you to manage your solutions from anytime, anywhere. The increase in mobility will help you manage operations efficiently, serve guests better and boost your overall productivity. Back-office operations can be handled more efficiently.

Go paperless

You can obviously improve productivity by reducing the number of hours you go through your papers. Go paperless, and digitize every document in a computer and storing them on the Cloud.

Reduce the work load

Find out which tasks take the longest to be completed, and outsource the same. If possible, you might even consider eliminating them completely.

Use a Hotel Management System

It can let you enter invoices, track customer data, handle bookings and more with ease.

Get insightful reports

Create a hierarchical structure, where every team leader can report to you.

Automate operations

Whether it comes to managing bookings and housekeeping or handling guest reviews, automation can make things much easier.

Connect with us for your connectivity needs to make the most of online revenue- https://goo.gl/3gKUJZ

Thanks and have a good day!

 

The Week, That Was – February 2019 Week 4

In five minutes or less, keep track of the most important news of the week, curated just for you. We present to you hand – picked news on latest industry perspectives and some general updates. Read on!!

HospitalityUnited.Club announces its signature Cocktails & Conversation event in Berlin

HospitalityUnited.Club, a consortium of travel technology companies, brings back its classic Cocktails & Conversation event to Berlin in March. The Club will be hosting an exclusive evening for hoteliers on 7th March 2019, in partnership with Cendyn, Fornova, Hotelbeds, LiveOS, RateTiger, Roiback and Sojern.

https://bit.ly/2XdYEEG

Expedia announces Certified Technology Partner Program

Expedia Partner Solutions (EPS) has launched its Certified Technology Partner Program, an elite program for EPS’ top technology partners from around the world.

https://bit.ly/2GVY09e

Experimenting with the future of business travel: three hypotheses

There are three clear hypotheses that the business travel industry should be experimenting with to be truly customer-centric in the future.

https://www.egencia.com/public/us/experimenting-with-the-future-of-business-travel-three-hypotheses

Growing travelling population shaping the future of the hospitality world

Demographics and growing economies are changing the shape of future travelers in the world. What factors is the future of hospitality looking to deal with? Within the next decade, the number of households making at least US$ 100,000 annually will increase by 30 million, with one out of three of these households located in emerging markets.

https://www.hotelmarketing.com/articles/growing-travelling-population-shaping-the-future-of-the-hospitality-world

Distributed ledger technology can bring rate parity to hotel distribution

The last few years have seen a steady rise in the impact of rate parity and onward distribution issues on hotelier’s bottom line.

 https://www.phocuswire.com/Distributed-ledgers-rate-parity-hotel-distribution

Connect with us for your connectivity needs to make the most of online revenue- https://goo.gl/3gKUJZ

Thanks and have a good day!

 

eRevMax completes integration with Portugal based Newhotel PMS

Hotel connectivity solution provider eRevMax has completed 2-way integration with Newhotel Software, a global hospitality technology company headquartered in Lisbon, Portugal. Mutual hotel customers can leverage this integration to update rate and availability to third party online booking sites whenever they are updated in the property management system and receive reservations from OTAs.

Newhotel Cloud Suite PMS incorporates a wide range of features for full-service hotels, and chains, independent of its size or operation. Known for its user-friendly interface and advanced features, the solution is a popular choice in Europe, South America and Africa, and currently caters to over 3000 properties in more than 50 countries. eRevMax’s distribution solutions are used by over 9000 hotels globally to manage online distribution.

“We’re proud to have eRevMax – RateTiger as our partner as they have become an inevitable option of integration for our clients worldwide. eRevMax offers some of the most innovative and intuitive hospitality e-distribution products in the industry, and our hotel customers can now take advantage of this integration to improve their online visibility and revenue,” said Pedro Matoso, CEO, Newhotel Software.

“South America and Africa remain our growth zone, and this strategic partnership with Newhotel, one of the fast growing PMSs in the region, strengthen our offering. A greater number of hotels can now leverage the benefits of our Channel Ecosystem while streamlining their distribution efforts,” said Ashis Saha, SVP – Project Management, eRevMax.

eRevMax offers seamless connectivity with around 400 OTAs & technology providers. The company is developing its connectivity solutions to offer sophisticated real-time revenue management functionality to the hospitality industry. This includes solutions for the independent market and scaling up through the Tier One enterprise hotel groups. eRevMax’s Channel Ecosystem facilitates quality certified connectivity and relationship management services to support complex revenue generation strategies.

For more details, please visit http://www.erevmax.com/ or contact us on marketing@erevmax.com

2019: Time to relook at your Hotel Cancellation Policies

With ‘Free Cancellation’ almost becoming a norm with major OTAs, high cancellation rate has become a source of major concern for hotels. Cancellation is not at all welcoming for the host, and sometimes for guests as well.

For a long time, hotel industry has been fairly flexible with the cancellation policies. However, with the popularity of meta-search sites, even after booking, consumers now keep track of room rates. Whenever there is a drop in the room rates of the booked hotel or it’s competing properties, guests often cancel their existing reservations and rebook.

This high cancellation rate especially closer to the arrival has a major impact on the hotel’s revenue management decision where often inflated estimation of potential occupancy level leads to sub-optimal rates and lost revenue.

In the last few years, major hotel chains have been relooking at their cancellation policies and developing a strategy to address the changed consumer behaviour. While some hotels have followed the airline way, and introduced non-refundable early-bird rates, some have extended the cancellation cut-off. Empowered with comprehensive reservation data sources, including cancellation information, and analytics, hotels are now making thorough assessment of cancellation cost to hotel’s revenue and fine-tuning their cancellation policies in a strategic way. If you are planning to re-work your cancellation policy, here are some tips you can consider.

Limiting the Cancellation Period

Free cancellation is a major draw, especially on OTAs, to attract potential guests. However leading hotel groups are now extending the cancelling notice period from existing 24 hours cut off to 72 hours. Guests who cancel after that are charged with a penalty which varies from the cost of one night’s stay to total booking amount.

Variable Policy

Many hotels are now adapting to a dual strategy where there is a non-refundable rate and relaxed cancellation policy for premium rates.

Partial Payment for Guarantee

High-demand hotels often charge one night’s stay immediately after booking and debit the rest of the amount closer to the arrival while enforcing a strict no-show / cancellation penalty. While booking, guests are made aware of these finer points and as a result think twice before going for cancellation.

Vouchers instead of refund

Boutique hotels and resorts are now adjusting their cancellation policy in a way where for a last-minute cancellation, instead of a penalty, or refund, they are offering a voucher which the guests can use for a future booking within a stipulated period of time.  It’s often a win-win situation where the hotel gets the revenue and the guests the option to modify their plans.

Loyalty member specific cancellation policy

Some hotel groups with their own loyalty programmes have designed member-exclusive cancellation policies where loyal guests are given the flexibility to cancel their stay at the last minute even as other guests have shorter window. This benefit additionally gives hotels another opportunity to improve their loyalty programme which eventually results in more direct bookings.

No Cancellation

While some hotels do have this policy, in the age of online booking and price-comparison sites, this policy is tending to lose its acceptance.

The choice of cancellation policy depends on the dynamics of the market, hotel size and categories. For a business hotel, it’s is very difficult to implement a strict cancellation policy, whereas high-demand leisure resorts can afford to do so.

For years the hotel industry has been relying on a cookie-cutter approach when it comes to their cancellation policy. It’s time for change. Monitor your reservation sources and identify channels where the cancellations are coming from. Based on their data, hotels need to create cancellation policy terms for each rate-category, plan and channel. An advanced system like RateTiger, for instance, allows restrictions and cancellation policies to be assigned and updated for different rate plans on OTAs. The reservation delivery options immediately notify hotels whenever there is a cancellation, making it easier for them to allocate inventories accordingly.

Invest in a system which helps you to optimally manage your revenue and distribution efforts and save time to focus more on strategy.

Carton House Resort, Ireland recommends eRevMax for online connectivity

Carton House, a historic luxury hotel in Ireland has recommended eRevMax solutions for online distribution. The property has been using RateTiger Channel Manager to maintain real-time rate and inventory updates across online sales channels including booking engine.

Located at the outskirts of Dublin, Carton House is one of Ireland’s most historic Palladian houses, offering 2 world-class 18-hole championship golf courses and a luxury spa. The company has been leveraging eRevMax’s seamless connection with global and regional OTAs to update rates and availability across sales channels and receive reservations in real-time. RateTiger’s integration with leading internet booking engines and PMS’s has ensured inventory is always in sync with bookings, thereby minimizing chances of overbookings.

 “The Account Management Team has been extremely professional and easy to deal with and always available which has been great. We look forward to continuing our working relationship over the coming years,” said Fiona Mullin, Director of Revenue Management, Carton House.

“As a technology partner, we are committed to empower the hotel with efficient rate distribution across their online distribution channels.  The single sign-on dashboard simplifies the operations, improves efficiencies and gives hoteliers time to focus on strategy,” said Alin Lazar, Director of Sales , EMEA, eRevMax.

eRevMax completes integration with Vietnamese PMS ezCloud

Hotel connectivity expert eRevMax has completed 2-way integration with ezCloud, one of the leading PMS providers in South East Asia. Mutual hotel customers can now get the benefit of automatic distribution of availability and rate to third party online booking sites whenever they are updated in the property management system and receive reservations from OTAs seamlessly.

Ho Chi Minh City based ezCloud PMS is a popular property management system catering to 3000 hotels across Vietnam, Myanmar, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia and recommended by leading hotel chains in the region. eRevMax’s distribution solutions are used by over 9000 hotels to update availabilities and rates across their booking channels and immediately update inventory across those channels when a booking is made.

“Real time OTA channel connection is a key feature of ezCloud PMS. eRevMax Channel Ecosystem offers the largest number of two-way interfaces, and hence will provide our hotel customers the ability to expand their distribution portfolio to reach out to larger audience,” said Nguyen Hoang Duong – CEO, ezCloud Technologies.

“This interface complements our continuous efforts to offer our hotel customers superior connectivity between their technology solutions and OTAs. South East Asia has been one of our growth regions, we are connected with some of the biggest OTAs and PMS providers in the region.  Being a preferred connectivity partner of ezCloud will further improve our portfolio. A greater number of hotels can now leverage the benefits of our Ecosystem while streamlining their distribution efforts,” said Ashis Saha, SVP – Project Management, eRevMax.

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

 

The Week, That Was – September 2018 Week 4

In five minutes or less, keep track of the most important news of the week, curated just for you. We present to you hand – picked news on latest industry perspectives and some general updates. Read on!!

Why hotels need metasearch?
Metasearch helps travelers compare hotel rates from various online travel agencies and other booking sites in one place. In metasearch sites, hotels and online travel channels publish their rates and availabilities.

https://www.erevmax.com/blog/index.php/2018/09/how-meta-search-is-relevant/

Behind TripAdvisor’s renewed push to inspire travelers beyond just making sales
Already 750 content providers have signed up for TripAdvisor’s new feed of personalized recommendations from friends, social media influencers, and publishers, debuted earlier this month.

http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/behind_tripadvisors_renewed_push_to_inspire_travelers_beyond_just_making_sa

Special Report: The online travel sector faces challenges
Benati says: “Europe is a mature market, especially in the UK, in Germany, in Scandinavia. Growth in online travel has plateaued, which calls for more targeting of market share. At 5%-6% a year, online growth is still outpacing growth elsewhere, but it is slowing.

Know more about this article: http://www.travolution.com/articles/108868/special-report-the-online-travel-sector-faces-challenges

Drive direct bookings even when you’re being undercut
Fixing disparities takes time – and while all the details you need to replicate a disparity can be found in the Disparity Dungeon, getting in touch with OTAs and getting them resolved doesn’t always happen instantly. On those occasions when you are not in parity, there are four options you can use to continue to drive direct bookings.

https://www.triptease.com/blog/direct-bookings-when-undercut/

New tools gives hoteliers a chance to quantify impact
The U.S. Travel Association has rolled out an interesting new tool that lets those in the travel industry put a number to their economic impact.

http://www.hotelnewsnow.com/Articles/290518/New-tools-gives-hoteliers-a-chance-to-quantify-impact

New Google travel tool tells you when to book your holiday travel
Slowly but surely, Google is expanding its portfolio of travel offerings that now range from hotel- and flight-booking services to trip planning tools. Today, it’s launching yet another set of new travel features that focus on travel planning and hotel bookings.

https://techcrunch.com/2018/09/27/google-launches-new-travel-planning-tools/

BridgeStreet Adds Hostels and Vacation Rentals to Biz Travel Platform
When extended stay booking provider BridgeStreet Global Hospitality relaunched its digital platform last year, the company became something of an outlier in the corporate travel space: a mini-online travel agency for business travel that also connected directly with travel managers around the world.

https://skift.com/2018/09/12/bridgestreet-adds-hostels-and-vacation-rentals-to-biz-travel-platform/

Connect with us for your connectivity needs to make the most of online revenue. https://goo.gl/3gKUJZ Thanks and have a good day!

How Metasearch is relevant

 

Metasearch helps travelers compare hotel rates from various online travel agencies and other booking sites in one place. In metasearch sites, hotels and online travel channels publish their rates and availabilities.

Travelers today are more information savvy than ever and researches their travel meticulously. Their planning, especially for hotel booking, begins at OTAs and metasearch.  Spending a few minutes updating profile on Meta sites can increase bookings and can generate more revenue for hoteliers.

 Meta Search Allows for Direct Bookings

Two of the largest OTAs, Booking.com and Expedia’s online advertisement spent more than that of all hotel brands combined. While traditionally, hotels spend around 8% of their budget on marketing, for OTAs, it is over 50%. Getting attention of travelers on the complex world of online, where PPC rules, has become increasingly challenging for hoteliers. It is here, metasearch comes into play.

Metasearch sites allow for visitors to book either through OTAs or through the brand website. Working on the CPC model, the rates are displayed with emphasis given to highest bidders. Hotels pay when someone clicks on the link. Metaseach sites like TripAdvisor and Google also, in addition, offer the CPA model where hotels pay the channels a commission whenever a traveler books from their brand website.

Metasearch is still holding strong

In recent time, Booking.Com and Expedia has substantially cut down their metasearch ad spent. While this move led to some debates over the viability of metasearch, in my opinion, this gives hotels a unique advantage to drive more direct bookings. MReports show that meta search statistics are up by 13 percent in recent years and are continuing to grow.

In utilizing meta search channels, hotels can remain modern and relevant, and can widen and diversify their audience.

Comparison Features can be Beneficial

A popular feature of meta search channels is the availability to compare select hotels against each other – something that OTAs typically does not offer.

Believe it or not, comparison isn’t solely based upon price. For example, it has been found that an estimated 71 percent of users look to basic information, while 67 percent of users compare photographs. Comparison may seem daunting, but it’s actually a good chance to show off.

Upgrading to two-way connectivity can help you improve your channel content, by making it quicker and easier to update multiple channels with up-to-date information regarding the establishment.

With meta search considered to be one of the biggest marketing techniques of the year, there has never been a better time to add these channels to your distribution portfolio. Make sure you choose to work with digital marketing specialists with relevant channel connections to get it right the first time.

Connect to metasearch channels like Google, TripAdvisor, Trivago, HotelsCombined, Skyscanner & Escapio. Manage them via RateTiger. Improve your direct hotelrevenue!

Book a demo today – https://goo.gl/3gKUJZ