RTConnect – Get the Best Hotel Channel Manager Tips from RateTiger

Hotel Beacon NYC recommends RateTiger as the most effective channel manager

admin — Fri, 08 Jun 2018 05:13:00 +0000

Hotel Beacon, a landmark in New York City has highly recommended RateTiger for managing online channel connectivity. The upscale hotel has been using RTConnect for 2-way XML connectivity between its property management system and online sales channels for the last three years to effectively manage all its demand partners seamlessly.

Located in Upper Westside, right next to Beacon Theater, the hotel with 284 rooms, caters to tourists and business travelers. Given the intense dynamic nature of New York’s hotel market, it has become imperative for the hotel to maintain rate parity and online availability across all major sales channels and metasearch sites. The revenue management team is leveraging RTConnect to update rates and inventory in real-time and receive reservations directly into the PMS thereby giving a clear picture of actual availability at all times. They are also using the advanced analytics available on the LiveOS dashboard to fine-tune their pricing strategy, monitor their booking pace and performance in real-time.

“We highly recommend RateTiger by eRevMax to anyone looking for an effective, online channel manager. We are very pleased with the personalized support and excellent response time, due to which they seem like an extension of our own team,” stated Milja Perkovic, Director of Revenue Management, Hotel Beacon NYC.

“As a technology partner, we are committed to empowering our customers for all their connectivity needs. Being trusted by a prestigious property like Hotel Beacon NYC for streamlining their online distribution shows how well we deliver when it comes to best-in-class technology and premium customer service,” said Alex Moura, Regional Sales Director for North America at eRevMax.

The Week, That Was – April 2018 Week 3

admin — Fri, 20 Apr 2018 11:53:00 +0000

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!!

M Hotel Downtown by Millennium Dubai endorses RateTiger for online distribution

M Hotel Downtown by Millenium has improved their online sales through eRevMax’s seamless connectivity with leading OTAs. The 4-star property has been using RTConnect to update rate and inventory across online sales channels and receive reservations into their property management system (PMS).

https://goo.gl/JZxJyh

Top concerns hotels need to know about the GDPR and how to prepare your action plan

The GDPR is a regulation in EU law on data protection and privacy for all individuals within the European Union and regulates how companies manage, use, and share personal data. The GDPR will take effect on May 25, 2018. The GDPR applies to natural persons, whatever their nationality or place of residence, whose personal data is processed and whose behavior is monitored while within the EU. This change in legislation means that nearly every online service is affected, and the regulation has already resulted in significant changes for US users as companies begin to adapt.

https://goo.gl/RenRnv

Booking.com buying tours/attractions tech company

The FareHarbor acquisition will help provide content to expand Booking.com‘s upselling of consumers on tours after the consumers have already bought another product from the online travel giant.

https://goo.gl/o1Y3dB

For hoteliers: 6 steps to success in text messaging and chat from an expert

As text messaging and chat become the communication channels of choice for consumers, more hotels are adapting to the trend by inviting travelers to connect with them by SMS, chat widget, or messaging app. Consumers love messaging because it’s fast, easy, and convenient.

https://goo.gl/B93H5D

Airbnb moves into MICE accommodation space

Airbnb has released its Airbnb for Events tool, offering event organisers and conference planners the ability to create an interactive map of Airbnb listings near their venues.

https://goo.gl/CBm91u

The data says: Global demand growth for Airbnb, TripAdvisor and Agoda

One of the main criteria for mastering global expansion is understanding the market you are about to enter and the elements that set that market apart. But just as important is being keenly aware of what is similar and which elements of an existing strategy can be applied ‘as is.’ Few examples show this process more clearly than Airbnb’s strategy in France where the company is enjoying a 25% traffic share increase among the top 20 sites in the sector.

https://goo.gl/6s33vY

Meet us at
ATM Dubai, from 22 – 25 April 2018 to see how we can assist you – marketing@erevmax.com

Thanks and have a good day!

M Hotel Downtown by Millennium Dubai endorses RateTiger for online distribution

admin — Thu, 19 Apr 2018 11:42:00 +0000

Middle East is the fastest-growing region for travel with UAE being the dominant market. With over 15 million overnight visitors, Dubai has seen double digit growth in mid-market travel segment. The city, being the business and shopping hub in the region with the highest smartphone penetration, has seen major shift in the entire travel value chain due to digitization – from travel research to booking to guest engagement.

Prior to RateTiger, M Hotel tried various channel managers to update rates and allotments on different OTAs but there was still a lot of manual task involved. Being a popular choice of guests, not having the ability to immediately update its rooms and rates was a potential handicap for its revenue stream and constant hindrance on staff. The extreme competition in Dubai hospitality sector fuelled by additional supply of rooms in the city has made managing online sales channels even more complex.

“The biggest challenge that we faced with our earlier distribution solutions was the time delay in sending ARI update to all channels. Proper distribution of rates and availability is very vital in eliminating parity issues which is an ongoing challenge with most of the hotels and one of the top most measurement factor which affects your search ranking in OTAs. RateTiger has really changed that considerably given the amount of data which is pushed to the channel manager,” said Unni Krishnan, Revenue Manager, M Hotel Downtown by Millenium.

RTConnect’s pool inventory model allows Unni and his team to continuously distribute its live rates and inventory to multiple booking channels and deliver updates back into its property management system (PMS) in real-time, without worrying about overbooking. eRevMax’s stable 2-way XML connection with all leading online sales channels have allowed them to easily connect with better performing OTAs.

“RateTiger seems to be following the most important rule of the technology world ‘Keeping it simple but powerful’!” summarized Unni Krishnan.

Team eRevMax, represented by Diako Sali and Ram Mohan Dubey, will be attending ATM Dubai from 22 – 25 April 2018. To set a meeting, contact marketing@erevmax.com

The Week, That Was – March 2018

admin — Fri, 30 Mar 2018 08:22:00 +0000

Google’s New Look for Mobile Hotel Ads

Recently, there is a new mobile experience on Google Hotel Ads. The tested mobile interface on Google had a refreshed hotel listing page, a cleaner call out for pricing, an updated color scheme, and a clear designation when a hotel has a competitive price.

https://www.4hoteliers.com/features/article/11140

Metasearch power plays: What hoteliers need to know about staying competitive

Metasearch sites account for over 45% of global unique visitors in travel, according to PACE Dimensions’ analysis of SimilarWeb data for the top 10,000 travel websites. This is greater than the proportion of unique visitors for OTAs, both globally and in the US.

https://www.tnooz.com/article/metasearch-power-plays-what-hoteliers-need-to-know-about-staying-competitive-in-metasearch

HospitalityUnited.Club highlights key travel trends in Europe

The big four, namely Spain, Italy, France and United Kingdom occupy the largest share of the travel pie in Europe, topping the list with 4 out of 6 travellers visiting Europe. The travel optimism for the region, which has shown a record 29% growth in long-haul trips by EU residents, has led to a good increase in occupancy and revenue per available room (RevPAR) in 2017.

https://goo.gl/SxEChk

Global hotel inventory has grown an impressive 18% in 10 years

According to the data from STR, a global data benchmarking company that maintains the world’s largest global hotel performance sample, the world has 184,299 hotels comprising 16,966,280 rooms.

http://www.traveldailymedia.com/str-global-hotel-inventory/

Expedia Inc. Changes Name to Expedia Group Inc.

Expedia, Inc. is now Expedia Group: The world’s travel platform, bringing the world within reach.

https://www.hotelbusiness.com/expedia-inc-changes-name-to-expedia-group-inc/

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

Thanks and have a good day!

The Week, That Was – March 2018

admin — Thu, 15 Mar 2018 12:46:00 +0000

HospitalityUnited.Club brings together the who’s who of the industry in Berlin

Agoda, Amadeus, Fornova, InnoVel, LiveOS, Newhotel Software, Roiback, RateTiger and Sojern partnered to host a networking session on the sidelines at ITB Berlin

https://goo.gl/k9qCTL

Airbnb Makes Its Battle Against Booking and Expedia Official With New Hotel Campaign

Airbnb has been trying to add more hotels and bed-and-breakfasts onto its platform for some time, but now the company made its entreaties to those hospitality providers all the more public and transparent.

https://skift.com/2018/03/13/airbnb-makes-its-battle-against-booking-and-expedia-official-with-new-hotel-campaign/

Travelers now prefer travel apps to web for search and booking

Up until recently “mobile” really meant either mobile apps, found in places like the App Store, or mobile web, accessible via URLs. What we see now is that travelers are increasingly turning to the app experience, rather than mobile web, to search and book flights and accommodation.

https://www.tnooz.com/article/travel-apps-now-preferred-to-web-for-search-and-booking/

How Google’s dynamic emails could change the way we book travel

Advertising hotels through email have always been a tricky proposition. With Google’s dynamic emails, that limitation could be lifted and may create new marketing channels.

https://goo.gl/QBpHkp

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

Thanks and have a good day!

The Week, That Was – January 2018- Week 3

admin — Fri, 19 Jan 2018 06:20:00 +0000

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 partnerships, perspectives, and some general updates. Read on!!

How the Composition of RevPAR Growth Impacts Changes in Profits

The strong relationship between changes in RevPAR and changes in GOP becomes evident when analyzing data from the 2017 Trends report. From 2015 to 2016, the entire sample of 3,331 operating statements averaged a RevPAR increase of 2.6 percent, while GOP for the sample grew by 3.7 percent. However, when stratifying the sample by the magnitude of RevPAR change, we see a linear relationship between RevPAR change and GOP change.

http://lodgingmagazine.com/how-the-composition-of-revpar-growth-impacts-changes-in-profits/

Expedia looks at US traveler trends across Boomers

Expedia has shared the results of a multi-generational travel study, conducted in partnership with The Center for Generational Kinetics which explores the consumer behavior and travel preferences of American adults from Generation Z (18-22) to Baby Boomers (55-56). Expedia surveyed 1,254 US respondents aged 18-65.

https://www.tnooz.com/article/expedia-us-traveler-trends/

How to leverage user-generated content for metasearch

The world of digital marketing is always evolving as travel brands try to keep up with consumer needs and the growing demand for transparency and authenticity. One strategy that’s growing in popularity amongst suppliers is leveraging user-generated content (UGC), such as photos and tweets that are shared publicly by customers across various social media sites.

https://www.koddi.com/user-generated-content-for-metasearch/

Expedia and TripAdvisor win consumer hearts and minds online and offline
Data and analytics platform Engagement Labs has released its latest TotalSocial rankings of the top-performing online travel agency and travel search brands in the US, showing Expedia and TripAdvisor at the lead. The report evaluates brand reputation for each travel site by measuring social conversations over the past six months, compared to a previous ranking published in June 2017.

https://www.tnooz.com/article/expedia-tripadvisor-ota-social-media/

Data trends in 2017: TripAdvisor pivot, Costco’s rise and what they mean for the travel industry

The digital travel ecosystem is constantly evolving. Key players come and go, and market trends often shift to the unexpected placing of an added emphasis on the need to stay ahead of the curve. 2017 was no different as the year saw the emergence of exciting new players and shifts in the OTA market. There are two specific events had ramifications that are likely to continue to have a considerable impact on the sector in 2018.

https://www.tnooz.com/article/trends-2017-tripadvisor-pivot-costco/

What Investors Want to See From TripAdvisor in 2018

With its library of 500 million reviews and an average of 390 million monthly visitors, TripAdvisor (NASDAQ:TRIP) bills itself as the world’s largest travel community. Over the past few years, however, these prized assets haven’t translated into the kind of growth investors seek. As a result, TripAdvisor’s stock has dramatically underperformed fellow online travel companies Priceline (NASDAQ:PCLN) and Expedia (NASDAQ:EXPE), falling by roughly 53% since the beginning of 2015. Here’s a rundown of what investors will be looking for this year as TripAdvisor attempts to get its groove back.

https://www.fool.com/investing/2018/01/12/what-investors-want-to-see-from-tripadvisor-in-201.aspx

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

Thanks and have a good day!

The Week, That Was – January 2018- Week 2

admin — Fri, 12 Jan 2018 10:05:00 +0000

Beyond Rate Parity – Why Transparency Still Matters?

2017 was a watershed year for rate parity. While several countries in Europe have put restrictions on the Rate Parity clause, the issue has been under the microscope in North America and Asia Pacific.

https://tophotel.news/beyond-rate-parity-transparency-still-matters/

How hotels can regain their pricing power

Hotels continue to experience record occupancy, so why can’t they drive their average daily rate? Duetto’s Marco Benvenuti explains how they could with Open Pricing.

http://duettocloud.com/videogallery/how-hotels-can-regain-their-pricing-power/

Business travel 2018: the state of play

There is going to be more money around this year, so on the face of it business travel should pick up speed. The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) thinks it will, after taking a look at global economic prospects, and is forecasting business travel spending to grow by 6.1% against a likely 5.1% in 2017.

https://www.eyefortravel.com/distribution-strategies/business-travel-2018-state-play

Revenue managers to ‘adapt and adopt’ in 2018

What are some events and trends that you can identify and plan for now? And how can those be revenue managed in 2018

http://www.hotelnewsnow.com/Articles/264980/Revenue-managers-to-adapt-and-adopt-in-2018

Luxury Hoteliers Believe Customization Is Key to Winning Over Millennials

Smart hoteliers know they can’t afford to ignore the next generation of luxury travelers. Why? Because they are an economic force to be reckoned with. Customization, wellness, and technology are must-haves for any luxury hotel brand that wants to remain relevant — regardless of the age of their customers.

https://skift.com/2018/01/09/luxury-hoteliers-believe-customization-is-key-to-winning-over-millennials/

7 Steps to Achieve Hotel Website Accessibility and ADA Compliance

At the minimum, hoteliers must ensure that their websites are accessible to and navigable by customers with disabilities and substantially comply with the WCAG 2.0 AA principles

https://blog.hebsdigital.com/7-steps-to-achieve-ada-compliance/

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

Thanks and have a good day!

In Two Years, 2-Way Connectivity with OTAs Results in 240% Growth in Online Sales for Frogner House

admin — Tue, 05 Sep 2017 11:28:00 +0000

Frogner House is a serviced apartment operator in Oslo offering over 400 apartments in 13 locations across the Norwegian capital. Our portfolio has a range of options from studio to 4-bedroom apartments suitable for both long and short-term stay. All our apartments can be booked online from our website as well as OTAs.

When we started in 2005 by converting the well-known Frogner House Hotel into serviced apartment blocks, the ‘Serviced Apartment’ concept in the Scandinavian market was still at a very nascent stage. Buoyed with our early success, we overhauled our system and concept in 2009, and focussed on expanding our portfolio.

The Nordic hotel market is characterized by regional operators that have a strong position. A major oil business destination, Oslo gets a sizable number of visitors from Europe and USA, and hence it is important for us to be visible in these markets. We have been using Protel as our property management system for some years now, and tried another channel manager to manage OTAs. However, the experience was far from satisfactory due to excessive mapping and manual allotment.

After all, updating rates and availabilities for over 400 apartments in different categories across multiple OTAs is a time-consuming affair, and we were struggling. This being a labour intensive process, there were high chances of human error. A tiny mistake in rate or availability, and we could have lost out long-stay guests causing revenue loss. Being popular choice of guests, not having the ability to immediately update our rooms and rates was a potential handicap for our revenue stream and constant hindrance on our revenue management team.

I came to know about eRevMax at a hospitality trade event in 2013, and immediately liked it because it was easy to use and understand. It also offered seamless connectivity with all leading online travel sites we wanted to connect. That it has already integrated with Protel was a bonus, and, we implemented RTConnect, their enterprise connectivity service automating the distribution process for each property in 2014.

The best thing about the solution was to manage all our properties centrally and enjoy the support of centralized contracts with distribution channel easily. We are always visible online by continuously distributing our live rates and inventory to multiple booking channels, and deliver updates back into our property management system (PMS) in real-time, without worrying about overbooking.

Right away, we experienced positive results. Over the last 2 years from 2014-2016, we have seen our online sales grow 240% with a 305% increase in room nights via online sales. We have experienced an overall growth in business and our occupancies have gone up by 15%. This brings me to mention how reliable RTConnect is as a connectivity solution and the system uptime that eRevMax offers – considered amongst the best in the market.

We are also using RateTiger Shopper, their rate intelligence service to monitor our competitor rate movements and closed-out dates. From the LIVE OS dashboard, we keep an eye on key producing markets, analyse channel performance, demand index and accordingly adjust our rates and availability for maximum yield.

The LIVE OS dashboard is pretty cool – there are in-built tiles that provide quick summary of reservation, budget, booking pace etc including a shopper tile which shows us how we match against competitors. I can easily say that we have not yet been able to utilise the full potential of these tools.

Which brings me to recommend the excellent support that eRevMax offers. Our Service Manager Isabella Angela Grundman has been a great support and also a major reason why it’s been such a pleasure working with eRevMax. She is always ready to guide us in the right direction and gets our queries resolved on priority.

It is important to highlight that RTConnect has made a significant impact on our bottom line:

Our online sales grew by 240% in the last 2 years
Occupancy have gone up by 15%
Amount of time spent on channel management has reduced substantially

By Lene Thorsen, Booking and Revenue Manager, Frogner House Apartments

Beacon Hotel & Corporate Quarters leverages RTConnect for automating revenue management

admin — Thu, 17 Aug 2017 06:41:00 +0000

Beacon Hotel & Corporate Quarters has recommended eRevMax distribution solutions for improving online sales. One of Washington DC’s premier hotel, the property has been using RTConnect for managing rates and inventory on multiple online sales channels directly from its property management system.

Beacon Hotel & Corporate Quarters, an upscale boutique hotel with 199 rooms, caters to business and leisure travellers – both international and domestic. The team is leveraging RTConnect to manage rates and inventories in real-time to ensure availabilities are up to date on all sales channels for maximizing booking opportunities.

RTConnect assists hotels to manage their pricing strategy, monitor booking pace and demand analytics in real-time via the reporting dashboard.

“We have been using eRevMax for a few years now and up to today everything is great. Very reliable and the customer service is always helpful and are committed to resolving any issues in a timely manner. I will definitely recommend eRevMax to all my colleagues and partners in the hospitality industry,” said Edith Mendoza, Reservations Manager – Beacon Hotel & Corporate Quarters.

“As a technology partner, we are committed to empowering our clients with tools that help ease their day to day work. RTConnect provides a key integration between the Beacon Hotel’s property management system and the OTAs, thereby helping them to manage availability and rates centrally from one single interface which helps simplify operations, improve efficiencies and gives the revenue team time to focus on strategy,” said Alex Moura, Regional Sales Director North America, Brazil and Caribbean at eRevMax.

Grupo Real Turismo chooses RTConnect for maximising online revenue for additional properties

admin — Thu, 29 Jun 2017 12:00:00 +0000

Mexican hospitality major Grupo Real Turismo has chosen to expand its partnership with eRevMax to centrally manage online distribution for 9 additional properties taking the total to 38. The group found RTConnect to be the perfect 2-way connectivity solution between its property management system and online sales channels to increase online visibility and revenue.

Headquartered in Mexico City, Grupo Real Turismo has 40 properties across 27 locations in Mexico, totalling over 6,885 rooms. The group, which operates three brands, receive 3 million guests annually. To ensure the group’s visibility is maximised across multiple sales channels, the revenue management team relies heavily upon the strong connectivity and secure updates offered by eRevMax through its ISO and PCI certified solutions.

“Our synergy with eRevMax has been wonderful. RTConnect’s expansive channel network gives us direct access to new, important source markets, and greater visibility in existing ones, to significantly lower our cost of acquiring guests. Our entire distribution process is centralized thus making it easier to monitor how we are performing against targets and manage accordingly. Secure channel connections and immediate updates help us implement strategic decisions instantly thus helping maximise group revenue effectively,”said María Sandoval, Gerente E-commerce, GRUPO REAL TURISMO.

“Being trusted by a prestigious hospitality company like Grupo Real Turismo is a testament to eRevMax’s strong focus on product innovation and seamless distribution connectivity. The significant improvement in their operational efficiency through RTConnect prompted the revenue management team to implement it in 9 additional properties, further centralising their sales and distribution efforts to optimize costs and increase booking revenue through eRevMax,” said Julian Lindt, Regional Sales Director – Mexico, eRevMax.