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Travel Tech EMEA Day 4 – Operations – Automation vs Human touch: the impact on operation and customer experience

Hospitality, by definition, is the relation between the guest and the host. Since the very beginning, guest engagement is determined by human interaction. Even with the growing popularity of automation, the key differentiation between a good hotel and a great one has been the human intervention. All that has changed now.

If automation was one of the considerations for hoteliers in the beginning of the year, it has become the top most priority now. Covid-19 has been the biggest disruptor in modern times with guest behaviour and preference gone for a radical shift. Social distancing and minimal contact have become the norm forcing hotels to look beyond human-centric service and embrace automation.

If the smiling front desk and house-keeping staff were a key contributor to guest satisfaction, in the post-Covid world, the expectation is self-check-in and robot cleaning with personalized service in place. As hotels readjust their operations to minimize touch points, striking a balance between automation and human touch has become the biggest challenge now.

In today’s session at Travel Tech EMEA, Vinicius Geraldo of HS LATAM is joined by Neha Ginoria of eRevMax  to discuss with industry experts – Neil James of ReviewPro, Felix Said of myHotel, Erik Tengen of Oaky, Chris Alexadre of GuestRevu, Amit Rahav of HyperGuest regarding Automation and impact on hotel operations and customer experience. Join us – register now – https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/6930318956520107533

 

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Travel Tech EMEA Day 3 – Digital Marketing – New ways and changes on guest booking journey

We all have been hearing about the change in guest behaviour and booking journey. Truth be told, the world has changed. Social distancing has become the norm. Everyone is extra cautious, and it looks like this is the ‘new normal’.

The new buzzword for the hospitality industry is ‘hygiene and sanitization’. ‘Safety’ has become the foremost consideration for travellers and they are ready to pay a price for it. While online still remains the most preferred way of booking, guests are giving far more weightage to remote check-in, digital key and remote services replacing the earlier expected face-to-face interaction.

While breakfast buffet was the earlier norm, no-contact in-room dining is the preference now. Weekend DJ evening is a thing of the past, instead you need to highlight safety measures and seclusion that you offer.

As for booking window, predictable seasonality is over for the time-being. With Europe and USA facing the second wave, there is apprehension and fear which is reflected in the irregular booking behaviour. Sadly this is expected to stay so and hoteliers need to adjust to shorter lead times. Non-refundable early booker rate is a thing of past. Guests now expect extra flexibility and support.

Brands across the globe are now coming to terms with the volatile business environment. What does this mean for hotels and their online digital marketing?

In today’s session at Travel Tech EMEA, Cofounder Vinicius Geraldo joins Alejandro Gomez and Rita Jusztina Varga along with the expert panel of speakers – Rodrigo Teixeira from Asksuite Hotel Chatbot, Nicola Seghi from SimpleBooking, Alberto Recanatesi from Bookassist, Theodoros Katsimpras from Bookonlinenow and Pavlina Zychova from MyStay to discuss Digital Marketing – news ways and changes in the guest booking journey. Register to exchange ideas and insights with the stalwarts – https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/6930318956520107533

 

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Travel Tech EMEA Day 2 – Online Sales and Distribution – Demand generation strategies

For over nine months now, the hotel industry is in a survival mode. The global hospitality industry has been facing its worst crisis, and with Europe again going for stricter restrictions and lockdown, hoteliers are grappling with the distribution challenge. The revenue needed to stay afloat in business is putting pressure on hotels to focus on occupancy. However, the long-term profitability requires a hard look at the distribution approach given the traditional channel-mix has become a thing of past.

As seen in the past crisis of 2008, this is also the time for hoteliers to rely on OTAs for driving demand in the post pandemic world. A smart distribution manager would also ensure there is no brand dilution due to price cutting. With guest behaviour going through a radical shift, hotels need to adapt to changes, and focus on the value addition through transparency, visibility, promotions and personalized communication on key channels while preventing inventory leak.

In today’s TRAVEL TECH EMEA Day 2 session, HS LATAM Founder Vinicius Geraldo joins Lybra- Zucchetti’s Jennifer Nagy and FunnelTV’s  Enzo Aita to discuss Online Sales and Distribution – Demand generation strategies in difficult times, with our panelists – Francine Heywood from OTA Insight, Rudi Azevedo from RM_Academy, James Bishop from SiteMinder and Claudio Limacher from YieldPlanet. Do join the session – https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/6930318956520107533

 

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Travel Tech EMEA Day 1 – The New Normal of Pricing Strategy

With the second phase of lock-down and restrictions in many countries in Europe, the hotel industry is again facing confusion and uncertainty. The pandemic has made the job of the hotel revenue manager even more difficult. With historical demand patterns, key metrics for forecasting becoming obsolete, hotels need to overhaul their traditional revenue management technology.

Historically, every time the industry has hit a crisis, many hoteliers resort to discounting in order to stimulate demand. However, experts warn that price cut is not the solution. Far from the easy way of price war, it is time for the hospitality industry to reset the traditional way of revenue management and rebuild a recession-proof pricing strategy.

In today’s session at the Travel Tech EMEA, founder Vinicius Geraldo will be discussing all this and more with Paula Carreirao. Joining them on the panel is Damiano Zennaro from IDeaS Revenue Solutions, Erik Muñoz from Lybra | Assistant RMS, Fernando J. Cuesta from Amadeus and Philip Niemann from Atomize. Do join the exciting session on Revenue Management: The new normal of pricing strategy. Register now if you haven’t yet – https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/6930318956520107533

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The Week, That Was – September 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!!

Philippine hotel chain solves distribution challenge with RateTiger and LiveOS

Philippine hotel chain the Bellevue Hotels & Resorts has recommended RateTiger for centralizing online distribution. All four properties of the group have begun using RateTiger on LiveOS platform earlier this year and certifies it to be ‘the best friend’ for hotels.

https://bit.ly/2MqPyhi

Key challenges for today’s travel marketers

The marketing magic happens when you can turn a challenge into an opportunity. Stephen Taylor, Sojern’s SVP, shares how travel marketers today can do just that.

https://www.sojern.com/blog/challenges-for-todays-travel-marketers/

The impact of influencer marketing on the booking journey

Up until the digital revolution, traditional marketing and word-of-mouth were the only real ways to grow consumer awareness at a notable scale.

Digital word-of-mouth reaches millions more potential customers around the world more rapidly than ever before. This is where influencer marketing fits in.

https://www.phocuswire.com/influencer-marketing-booking-journey

TripAdvisor heralds landmark moment as fake reviews business is busted

TripAdvisor says that its investigators were tipped off by an Italian hospitality business which had received email promotions from a business called PromoSalento to boost its profile in exchange for a fee. Investigators then identified the people behind the fraudulent review service and confirmed that they had not only advertised fake reviews as a service but also tried to post fake reviews on the TripAdvisor site.

https://www.tnooz.com/article/tripadvisor-fake-reviews-jail/

How hoteliers navigate evolving distribution channels

As hoteliers navigate the different distribution channels available to them, their goal is to guide guests to the one that costs their companies the least.

During the “Distribution: A hotelier’s guide to channel surfing” session at t last month’s Hotel Data Conference, panelists explained their approaches to managing and lowering the cost of customer acquisition.

http://www.hotelnewsnow.com/Articles/290368/How-hoteliers-navigate-evolving-distribution-channels

Generating group business with hotel data is easier than you think

A well-executed group strategy, which answers the question, “What amount of group business, along with all other segments, constitutes the optimal mix for your hotel?” Of all the market segments that make up a hotel mix, group segments form the strongest foundation for most hotels’ pricing strategy.

https://www.traveldailymedia.com/hospitality/generating-group-business-with-hotel-data/

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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The Week, That Was – September 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!!

eRevMax completes integration with IDS Next PMS

Hotel connectivity expert eRevMax has completed integration with leading hospitality technology solution provider IDS Next.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.

http://bit.do/ewp76

How hoteliers are setting their tech budgets for 2019

Hotel companies are preparing their annual budgets for 2019, and technology is an important investment as guests expect more and more out of their stays.

http://bit.do/ewp8h

How travel agents are working differently with technology

In an article on Phocuswire in March 2018, Trisept Solutions’ president and CEO John Ische positions the relationship between agents and technology as the ability to create what he termed “genuine intelligence” about a traveler.

https://www.phocuswire.com/Travel-advisors-technology-changes

Airbnb for Work expands beyond travel

Team-building, relocations and off-site meetings are part of the new strategic direction for Airbnb For Work as it looks to capitalise on its “exponential growth” in providing accommodation to business travellers. A few weeks ago it announced that some 700,000 companies have had employees sign up and book with Airbnb for Work, with more than 275,000 enterprises directly engaged with Airbnb to help manage their travel.

https://www.tnooz.com/article/airbnb-for-work-expands-beyond-travel/

Why Middle East travel deserves a closer look!

Travel spend by travellers from just some of the countries, the six who make up the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) – Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) – is likely, says Statista, to grow from $64 billion three years ago, to $94 billion by 2020. In 2025 the sum could reach $140 billion, it adds. The GCC is assessed by the World Tourism Organisation as accounting for well over 60% of the region’s outbound market.

http://bit.do/ewp8K

China’s Big 5 hotel platforms have 96% of the market

Analysis of China’s online hotel booking market in the second quarter of the year shows that almost the entire market is controlled by five businesses. Trustdata, a mobile internet big data monitoring company in China, found that Ctrip, Meituan, Qunar, Tongcheng-eLong and Fliggy accounted for 96.4% of online hotel bookings in the second quarter. The big five were also the fast-growing platforms for the quarter, suggesting that their dominance is getting stronger.

https://www.tnooz.com/article/chinas-big-5-hotel-platforms-have-96-of-the-market/

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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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!