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Hotel GDS Description – how to get it right?

The GDS still is, and will most likely remain, a noteworthy channel for ARI distribution and reservations for hotels. Both recreation and corporate travel operators utilize it to search and book hotels. Numerous OTA sites likewise utilize the GDS for room stock. Hence, it is critical that your hotel is available on GDS.

We have put together a few tips and tricks on how hotels are getting the most out of their GDS channels through descriptive content. The Hotel GDS Description (HOD) goes about as your hotel’s electronic leaflet. It is conceivably your brand brochure for tour operators and travel agents to access and get all the pertinent details with your property description, hotel amenities and data about neighborhood attractions etc. Here are the top GDS HOD Tips:

  1. General hotel description – Try to keep your hotel description very targeted – put the hotel USPs and try to provide key differentiators and why a guest must chose your hotel over competitor’s.
  2. Facilities and Services – List out all your amenities and services – provide restaurant details, timings, cuisine along with details of in-house services like salon, spa, gym, pool etc. Also, drop in a line about safety and security as these tend to be a key concern today.
  3. Area Information: Mention any specific locational advantage you might have. Or else list out the nearby attractions to draw interest. Whether your hotel is downtown or near the airport, remember to put your Geo code for correct location identification.
  4. Property Address – Make sure you put your hotel’s full address and zip code correctly. Sabre uses the official street address to geocode the property. If you don’t have a street number, use 1, to ensure better visibility and bookability.
  5. Driving Directions – Provide details on the easiest way to reach your property, whether it is from the airport, train or bus stations or from downtown. Also, provide a phone number in case a guest is stuck and wants to connect to the hotel.
  6. Room Type Name – GDS’s provide 30 characters to cover this, so be creative. But remember to make sure that it’s easy to understand the room type by the name you provide to it.
  7. Room Type Description – Try to use this section to attract your guests with room details and inclusions like in-room coffee machine, free wi-fi, luxury bathing products, etc. The description should also adhere to the kind of property it is – luxury, corporate, budget etc.
  8. Presentation – It is best to keep the description language crisp and fluid. Travel agents prefer short sentences or bulleted description. It helps to capture relevant points while covering all the necessary information.
  9. Nearby Attractions – Include details about attractions in the area, timings, distance and directions to the place. This makes your hotel more appealing and train your concierge or front office staff to have details about shows /tickets at these attractions.

Keep your Hotel GDS Description up to date. Whenever you introduce a new service or roomtype or if there are new attractions nearby, remember to update your hotel description. Always provide correct information and present in a nice and concise manner. Always keep your USPs on the top to catch the attention of the travel agents.

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Indian budget hotel endorses RateTiger Channel Manager for online distribution

Kolkata based IndiSmart Hotel has endorsed RateTiger for simplifying online distribution. The property has been using eRevMax’s cloud-based Channel Manager and Shopper for managing their online sales channels and has improved their business operational efficiency.

IndiSmart is a budget hotel with 76 rooms, conveniently located in the IT hub of Kolkata, India. The property caters to business travellers and hence the booking window is lesser than the usual duration with 48-72 hours. Given most bookings are coming from online, it’s important for the hotel to have real-time rate and availability on OTAs.

“We have been able to bring all OTA channels under one window for all possible modifications like rate and inventory. The option of changing rates and inventory at any point of time on a single click has really made online distribution really simple. Rate shopping also helps us to analyse the market condition, to understand our stand and projection,” said Jayanta Bhattacherjee, Front Office Manager, Indismart Hotel.

Prior to RateTiger, the hotel has tried other solutions. However, the result was far from satisfactory.

“The main issue was rate disparity and manifold changes in the extranets manually were really cumbersome. We can handle the OTAs easily and in a better way now with RateTiger. The support team is very good as well,” concluded Mr. Bhattacherjee.

 

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The Week, That Was – July 2018 Week 3

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!!

Expedia says packages are better for hotels than room-only

Hotels are achieving higher average daily rates (ADR) from consumers who book packages rather than just rooms, according to data from Expedia Group.

The online travel giant said consumers buying packages paid around 30% more in ADR than those making standalone hotel bookings.

https://www.tnooz.com/article/expedia-says-packages-are-better-for-hotels-than-room-only/

 Indian budget hotel endorses RateTiger Channel Manager for online distribution

Kolkata based IndiSmart Hotel has endorsed RateTiger for simplifying online distribution. The property has been using eRevMax’s cloud-based Channel Manager and Shopper for managing their online sales channels and has improved their business operational efficiency.

https://goo.gl/gyX3Jr

Hotels.com launches hideaway hotels category

Hotels.com has introduced the Hideaway Hotels category in response to a lift in bookings in the last two years, with a 60% spike in guests leaving positive reviews for off-the-grid hotels.

https://goo.gl/N3SCFX

Is hotel luxury dead?

When hotel discount brokers offer “luxury” accommodations at $49 a night, as occurred during the recent Independence Day holiday, does the word “luxury” have any useful meaning?

Read the interesting article: http://exclusive.multibriefs.com/content/is-hotel-luxury-dead/travel-hospitality-event-management#When:13:51:00Z

 How Booking.com is trying to solve travel’s pain points

The CMO of Booking.com explains how the company is trying to ease some of those unhappy surprises. Learn more about it by watching the video.

https://goo.gl/4AoyiF

Google tests location tab for hotel knowledge panels

Google is testing a new location tab and section within the hotel knowledge panels. The location tab contains information that tells you what is around the hotel, including sections such as highlights, top sights and a getting-around section.

https://goo.gl/v4eKcn

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

Thanks and have a good day!

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Hotel Business Intelligence – The starting point

What is Hotel Business Intelligence (BI)?

Business Intelligence refers to relevant data – past, present and future, from different sources or hotel systems, that helps hotels to analyze and take meaningful business decision.

In todays’ world, business intelligence plays an important role for hoteliers to improve their revenue in a smart way. It helps hoteliers to draw insights and make better decisions. In-depth BI requires proper tools and investment to help drive a hotel’s revenue. BI plays an even bigger role for hotel chains and groups – where the headquarter is managing multiple properties and need to understand occupancy trends, rates and predictions to be able to define forecasts and budgets accordingly. The different system that a hotel uses to draw upon its BI data include –

  • PMS
  • CRS
  • RMS
  • POS
  • Sales and Distribution
  • Market Intelligence
  • Accounting, Budget and Forecasting
  • Market Reports
  • Competitor rate reports
  • Occupancy trends

The main benefits from leveraging business intelligence are:

  • Effective data management and analysis for clarity in decision making
  • Clear directions on daily targets for occupancy and revenue
  • Clarity on guest profile, booking journey, preferences and customer loyalty thereby giving scope to hotels for enhancing guest experience
  • Plan campaigns and promotions for marketing based on guest data
  • BI also helps identify cases of fraud, poor performance in a timely manner
  • Multiple Reports available at the click of a button as required

Advanced BI tools are platform-based giving hotels a consolidated view of their business. It allows for multiple systems to be integrated so that they talk to each other to provide relevant data in various formats for easier consumption.

Invest in a smart BI solution to take your hotel business to the next level. To know more about which solutions to opt for, contact us today on marketing@erevmax.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The Week, That Was – July 2018 Week 2

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!!

eRevMax completes integration with Argentinian Booking Engine

We are glad to introduce our new Argentina based Booking Engine partner –  Div-it. Connect and manage your hotel booking engine via  RateTiger and Connect platforms for seamless channel management.

https://www.erevmax.com/ratetiger-news/ratetiger-news-archive/july2018-erevmax-integration-with-argentinian-booking-engine.html

Google Hotel Ads joins Google Ads

Google Ads has introduced a new campaign type designed to help hotel marketers better manage their advertising. In addition, there will be a new “Hotel Center” in Google Ads to simplify the management of hotel price feeds.

https://www.blog.google/products/ads/hotel-campaigns/

Why Hotels need Channel Manager?

A channel manager helps you to implement yield management techniques effectively i.e. to sell the right room at the right time at the right price on the right channel.

https://www.erevmax.com/blog/?p=503

 lastminute’s Travel People builds up suite of marketing products

Our partner lastminute.com launched its advertising platform Travel People which allows clients to advertise across lastminute’s five brands, including lastminute.com, Rumbo, bravofly and Volagratis, as well as working with nine external sites run by partners through its Travel Alliance consortium.

Read the interesting story: https://www.tnooz.com/article/lastminutes-travel-people-builds-up-suite-of-marketing-products/

Why hotel brands and franchisers secretly love OTAs

What really matters most to the brands is getting their hotels to produce more revenue. The more revenue the better.. Now OTAs are the ones who are giving immense revenue to hotel industry.

https://insights.ehotelier.com/insights/2018/07/13/why-hotel-brands-and-franchisers-secretly-love-otas/

Day of the independents – why chains are seeing tech-savvy competitors celebrate

As competition among hotels remains heated due to new construction and market saturation, independent hotels continue to thrive and outpace chain hotels.

This is taking place in both growth and their average daily rate (ADR).

https://www.phocuswire.com/Rise-of-independent-hotels

Revenue management adapting to predictive pricing tools

It’s a constant back-and-forth: Hoteliers will always try to get the highest rate possible, and in return, guests will always try to figure out a way to pay the lowest amount possible.

As technology in the travel industry advances, guests are finding an advantage in the evolution of predictive pricing tools, such as those offered by Google Travel or apps like Hopper, which predict future hotel room rates to tell guests whether they should book now or wait until the rate lowers.

http://www.hotelnewsnow.com/Articles/287265/Revenue-management-adapting-to-predictive-pricing-tools

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

Thanks and have a good day!

 

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eRevMax completes integration with Argentinian Booking Engine

Interface with Div-it to allow hotels manage their booking engine from RateTiger

eRevMax has completed 2-way integration with Argentina based internet booking engine developer Div-it. Hotels using RateTiger and RTConnect, can leverage this interface to make real-time rate and availability updates and receive bookings generated on their direct channel directly into their property management systems.

Buenos Aires based Div-it is one of the upcoming internet booking engine providers catering to over 200 hotels in Argentina and Uruguay. The Div-it booking engine features rich functionality, content customization with real-time reporting, and is fully manageable from the RateTiger dashboard.

“Our interface with RateTiger will be beneficial for our partner hotels to quickly and efficiently manage room rates, availability and restrictions to their direct channel. In addition, connecting with the eRevMax Hotel Ecosystem will give us the opportunity to explore new supply partners and improve our global inventory supply,” said Nicolás Boccacci, CEO, Div-it.

“Latin America is a growth area for us. We are connected with some of the biggest OTAs and PMS providers in the region.  Being a preferred connectivity partner of Div-it will further improve our portfolio in the region. 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 offers seamless connectivity with over 350 OTAs and 90 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.

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A Tale of Two Technologies

How the Seamless Merger of Hotel Systems Leads to Better Results

The travel and hospitality business might have started small, with people lending a space in exchange for a certain tribute, but it has now reached a point in history when it is completely reliant on technology. Between a multitude of hotel systems and software that have become absolute necessities in the 21st century, many hoteliers might feel somewhat lost or overwhelmed. So many options, so much to do, so little time.

In a time like this, the integration between technologies is not only welcomed by both hoteliers and travelers, but it is also deeply needed by the industry itself. In an effort to save time and increase efficiency, as well as strive for a wider, global exposure, hospitality technology providers are partnering up and creating intelligent connections like never before.

In 2016, eRevMax and TrustYou, two leading companies in the hospitality field, started a collaboration that, to this day, results in benefits not only for them but for a high number of hotels from all over the world. By merging TrustYou’s guest feedback platform with eRevMax’s hospitality operating platform, hotel managers can oversee and manage various hotel operations like revenue management, online distribution, as well as their hotel’s online reputation among various other segments.

eRevMax’s platform, LiveOS, works around the “Profits in Unity” concept, which means that it gathers dozens of technology providers and partners in one place, for easy access and increased efficiency to “Make Life Simple” for Hotels. From PMSs, RMSs, OTAs, to ORMs like the TrustYou platform, LiveOS has currently more than 50 technology partners integrated.

So why is it so important to merge systems and software and how exactly does it pay off? It’s not a secret anymore that we live in a fast-paced world and that modern hoteliers and consumers are in a constant rush. While having so many technologies to rely on, signing into different platforms multiple times a day can be an unnecessary and time-consuming process.

eRevMax’s vision is to enable hoteliers to have access to a more complex and intuitive tool, in order to manage a multitude of hotel operations from a single sign-on platform. Users can select and use their preferred technologies, even ones that are not owned by eRevMax, therefore enjoying a customizable and personalized experience. The platform provides real-time updates and it also flags any arising issues, to bring immediate attention to them.

In the last two years, TrustYou’s guest feedback platform was used by eRevMax customers, through the LiveOS platform. Hoteliers can keep track of their hotel’s overall score and reputation while getting real-time updates about guest reviews. Receiving valuable insights into the guest journey is for many hoteliers the first step towards adjusting future strategies and services, in an effort to exceed expectations and improve the reputation – which, in the long run, leads to more booking and a higher revenue.

LiveOS users have free access to features integrated into the TrustYou feedback platform. Moreover, when accessing the TrustYou data inside LiveOS, users get an overview of their hotel’s overall score, along with the exact number of verified reviews that determined it.

The incoming reviews are displayed in the TrustYou dashboard and highlighted, in order to create a thorough examination of the best services provided and the ones that need improvement. This way, certain features, such as the location, the breakfast, the pool area, get their own score and guest sentiments. The feedback is also structured by language and by traveler type, such as business travelers, families, couples, etc.

Beyond the analytical part of the feedback platform, LiveOS users can also opt to use the TrustYou Stars Lite feature, which enables the use of a customizable guest survey. Hoteliers can encourage guest feedback by asking for reviews and opinions, through a quick and efficient survey – which TrustYou’s latest study revealed to be the best way of getting positive feedback.

Only one year after LiveOS users started to utilize the TrustYou survey tool, the overall number of collected reviews had almost tripled: from 1878 reviews in 2016 to 6990 in 2017. This comes as a confirmation of the necessity and utility of a guest survey, as a tool to get valuable guest feedback.

This seamless integration between two leading hospitality technologies has proven to be most beneficial for both eRevMax and TrustYou, as well as hoteliers from all over the world, who use and rely on LiveOS and the TrustYou feedback platform. eRevMax has enabled a way for users to make the most out of their software and have every single technology necessary available with one sign-in. Their portfolio provides every technology that impacts the guest journey, as TrustYou’s latest eBook described it.

TrustYou’s leading guest feedback solution gets more exposure through LiveOS and reaches a larger number of hoteliers, interested in managing, overseeing and improving their online reputation.

And hoteliers, well, they get best of both the worlds. By being able to make use of multiple must-have hotel technologies in one place, they not only save valuable time, which can be invested in other areas, but they also improve operations, manage and boost the hotel’s reputation and work towards achieving better results, more popularity, bookings, and revenue.

 

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Why Hotels need Channel Manager?

In today’s tourism sector, OTAs are playing a major role and big OTAs like Expedia and Booking.com have dominated the travel market. So, it is a must for hotels to opt for OTA services. Additionally, it is not possible to get enough bookings from one OTA, so now hotels must connect with multiple OTAs which makes it difficult to manage the inventory manually. Hence comes the role of a Channel Manager.

A channel manager helps you to implement yield management techniques effectively i.e. to sell the right room at the right time at the right price on the right channel.

Channel Manager helps to boost occupancy rate. It pushes room inventory and automatically updates all rates in respective OTAs in real- time.  Even a channel manager gives more opportunities to hoteliers to connect with more OTAs to expand visibility and earn more revenue.  Room rates and availability get updated across all platforms in real-time. Along with Channel Manager, a hotel can connect with more systems like PMS, GDS, RMS, CRS, Rate Shopping and Meta Search sites.

Key Benefits of using a Channel Manager –

  • Manage availability and rates for OTAs from one dashboard
  • Efficiently close availability at the click of a button across all channels
  • Expand online visibility by selling on multiple channels
  • Maximize hotel revenue by smart management of rate
  • Increase occupancy level with clever distribution strategies
  • Eliminate overbooking situations by using pooled inventory feature
  • All updates made in real-time without logging into multiple extranets
  • Bookings from channels delivered directly into PMS
  • Inventory status always up to date in the PMS
  • More time to focus on strategies rather than updating channels
  • No risk of human errors when updating rates or inventory on channels

A Channel manager also helps you to connect to channels that bring more business to your country – thereby putting your hotel in front of international travelers. Considered one of the best hotel channel manager in the market, RateTiger is integrated with more than 350 OTAs and working closely with 9000 hotels globally. It is the connectivity partner of choice for large hotel groups, mid-scale chains as well as independent properties in both luxury and budget segment worldwide providing solutions through its core product brands – RateTiger and LiveOS.

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The Week, That Was – July 2018 Week 1

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!!

VHP Announces Connectivity Integration with RateTiger
Manage your online sales channels directly from one of APAC’s largest PMS, via RateTiger HotelChannelManager. Experience 2-way seamless hoteldistributionconnectivity for distributing rates and inventory to channels and getting reservations back into the PMS – all managed from the PMS interface.

https://goo.gl/SXFjEd

China’s travel tech companies make steady progress with AI
Use cases of artificial intelligence are being refined as Chinese technology companies become sophisticated with the handling of massive data volumes, crafting advanced algorithms and embrace improvements in computing power and storage. The application of AI is being used in improving the efficiency of traditional travel agents by working out a customized trip itinerary in a matter of seconds, recommending add-ons based on the traveler’s previous bookings or recent trip planning behaviors and curbing payment-related fraud.

https://www.tnooz.com/article/ai-travel-use-cases-china/

Next generation of travel tech leaders
The current crop of leaders of the industry were brought up on the early days of ecommerce. They created and integrated many of the systems and processes that are second nature today to how the online sector works. The next generation of industry leaders are digital natives, as the phrase goes, potentially giving them a different perspective on it all. Check out this video that discusses current issues and tips from the industry elders.

https://www.phocuswire.com/Video-young-leaders-travel-technology

Who are the biggest innovators in hospitality?
Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne put six innovation scenarios to test and asked hospitality industry executives what scenario(s) were more likely to take place in their organization within the next three to five years. Download the full report to know about the test.

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

Economist: Hoteliers should prepare for a downturn
While the outlook shared by many hoteliers has remained relatively upbeat as the hotel industry has enjoyed a prolonged up-cycle, at least one economist warns that the good times probably won’t last much longer.

http://www.hotelnewsnow.com/Articles/287183/Economist-Hoteliers-should-prepare-for-a-downturn

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

Thanks and have a good day!

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VHP Announces Connectivity Integration with RateTiger

SUPRANUSA SINDATA, leading provider for hotel management system in Indonesia and eRevMax, a hotel distribution and connectivity expert has announced the integration of VHP – Visual Hotel Program and RateTiger Channel Manager.

RateTiger offers real-time monitoring of room availability, room rates, and restrictions across all connected online travel channels. The system is now connected to VHP PMS which allows hoteliers to quickly and efficiently manage all reservations, eliminating manual data entry.

“This integration with Visual Hotel Program (VHP) by PT. SUPRANUSA SINDATA, one of the leading property management systems in South East Asia, complements our continuous effort to provide hoteliers with technology that makes their business easier to manage and more profitable,” said Ashis Saha, Senior Vice President – Project Management at eRevMax.

“The integration with RateTiger – eRevMax will assist our hotel customers to have a better online reservation experience through vast network of volume-producing and branded online travel agent (OTAs),” commented Dipl.Ing. Christian Yie, Business Development Director of PT. SUPRANUSA SINDATA.

The seamless connectivity between VHP PMS and RateTiger eliminates the need for accommodation providers to maintain online inventory manually across OTAs, metasearch and GDS channels, and manually re-enter online reservations from booking websites into their PMS. This results in immense time saving, reduced overheads and resources, as well as avoiding manual mistakes, giving hotel revenue managers the time to focus on revenue strategy rather than distribution efforts.