The Week, That Was – September 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!! Luxury serviced apartment in Manila recommends RateTiger for streamlining online distribution Upscale serviced apartments in the Philippines, Makati Diamond Residences, has improved online sales with efficient rate and availability distribution through RateTiger. The property offering 410 apartments has been using RateTiger Channel Manager and Shopper to manage online sales channels in real-time. https://www.erevmax.com/ratetiger-news/ratetiger-news-archive/sep2018-erevmax-luxury-serviced-apartment-manila-ratetiger-onlinedistribution.html Hoteliers see independents as ‘long-standing’ trend Despite major brands adapting and adopting what independent hotels are doing, investors are still looking for true unique and independent properties in the short and long term. http://www.hotelnewsnow.com/Articles/290479/Hoteliers-see-independents-as-long-standing-trend TripAdvisor plots social network, goes all-in on personalization At a press event in New York yesterday, TripAdvisor co-founder and CEO Steve Kaufer unveiled “the new TripAdvisor” – a revamp of the platform that allows users to connect with fellow travelers as well as brands, publishers and influencers to share content and receive personalized recommendations. https://www.phocuswire.com/TripAdvisor-plots-social-network Expedia data shows hotel preferences of Chinese travelers Chinese travelers are broadening their accommodation choices, with an impressive 55 percent staying at independent hotels with local flavor, versus 49 percent at international chains. Download the full report: http://www.citmhotels.com/index.html TripAdvisor evolution could benefit travel agents The reviews giant, which has 456 million global users, this week revealed details of the next evolution of its website, which will allow users to follow travel brands and influencers they trust. It will fully launch later this year. The new site is being tested with 500 travel ‘partners’, who will be able to add their expertise to the 661 million traveller reviews. http://www.travelweekly.co.uk/articles/311959/tripadvisor-evolution-could-benefit-agent-experts Why suppliers need distribution mapping Information is the key to success, and in B2B, it can be difficult for suppliers to access the information they need to control and improve inventory sales. With distribution mapping, you can see whether or not your inventory is mapped and made available to the customer by the distributor. If you’re a hotel supplier, your revenue is dependent on your distributors’ sales. If they don’t sell your inventory, you don’t make money. https://medium.com/gimmonix-blog/why-suppliers-need-distribution-mapping-919e222a1707

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

5 things to look for when you select your PMS

 

Technology is always evolving. The times of spreadsheet and manual data entry has long been replaced with automated hotel management systems. With the emergence of cloud platform, big data, mobile and virtual payment – technology has become vital to hotel’s daily operations.

A property management system, commonly known as PMS, has been developed to streamline the front office and daily operations like invoicing, room inventories, housekeeping, check-ins, check-outs, etc. Advanced PMS often goes beyond the basics, and offers features and capabilities that become centerpiece of the hotel’s business. Here’re five essentials you need to check when you next select for PMS.

Integration with Channel Manager

Online booking has become the biggest source of revenue for the hotel industry. While direct booking is the most profitable demand source for a property, online sales channels and meta-sites have become critical to every hotel’s distribution mix. A hotel PMS which is integrated with your channel manager and booking engine, will enable the reservation synchronization completely automated. Whenever a guest books your room online, the reservation will be immediately delivered and updated in your hotel system, thereby minimizing the chances of overbooking.

Cloud Technology

Cloud technology, which essentially means web-based tools and applications, as opposed to a an installable one, eliminates dependency on in-premise hardware, and allows the user to manage the solution by login in from different computers or connected devices. The cloud-based PMS are usually more stable with data security, backups and real-time updates. The web-based UI are intuitive and reduces time and cost for training. Advanced cloud-based PMSs have API capabilities, making integration with other hotel technology applications easier.

POS Outlets

Most hotels have multiple on property point-of-sale outlets like gift shop, restaurant, bar, spa etc. Maintaining manual entry can not only be complex, there would always be a chance of overlooking a transaction. A PMS with integrated point-of-sales automate the entire process by keeping track of every transaction and smooth check-out experience of the guest.

Real-time Business Analytics

Hotels today use about 10-12 technology solutions for their daily operations which often work in silos. Your PMS should have the capability to bring all your data pertaining on to a single dashboard so that anyone with access to the platform can sue and make informed decision. An integrated hotel management platform which unifies all operation tools like PMS, OTA, Channel Management, Market Intelligence, Review Management etc and allow for the integration of external tools, channels, and vendors – provides hotels an opportunity to leverage technology holistically.

Ease of Use

Technology, even the high-tech ones, can be user friendly. An intuitive solution is the one which is simple and easy to use and based on things that people already understood. The hotel PMS should be management software should be simple and can be managed without extensive training.

Whether a guest books a room online or with a tour operator, your PMS stays updated through RateTiger. Contact us today – marketing@erevmax.com

 

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/

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Bellevue Hotels & Resorts using RateTiger Web on LiveOS to manage online sales for 4 properties

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.

The Bellevue Hotels and Resorts manages luxury and midscale hotels across Philippines. The revenue management team is managing premiere properties such as the Bellevue Manila and the Bellevue Resort Bohol along with midscale properties in Alabang and Quezon City with its B Hotels. With its diverse guest profile which include luxury, midscale, leisure and business travellers, the team was grappling with the online distribution.

They turned to RateTiger Channel Manager and On Demand Shopping available on LiveOS, the hospitality operating platform by eRevMax. RateTiger’s XML connectivity with over 350 online sales channels including OTA, GDS, metasearch and wholesalers gives the hotel group the opportunity to boost reservations and revenue and attract larger segments of both the corporate and leisure markets it caters for.

“The most important feature for me is RateTiger Channel Manager. Being able to view all 4 properties at one time on LiveOS has a great impact for me in terms of time and efficiency. The “smart fill” feature works like magic! I just use this field, and in 2 steps, all my different room categories would be live and bookable!” said Annie Bisuna, Revenue Director, The Bellevue Hotels and Resorts.

They are also extensively using On-Demand-Shopping tool to generate a real-time rate shopping report as-and-when they require to keep up with the fast pace business movement. RateTiger Shopper captures all its competitors’ rate data across hundreds of websites instantly and delivers granular analysis to monitor market dynamics on time.

“Rate Tiger is my new best friend. We hang out most of the time – that is during duty hours, share secrets by showing rates of our competitors through their Shopping on Demand tool and gives advise on how to position our properties in terms of pricing with the objective of maximizing revenue. I am truly satisfied having the chance to do partnership with Rate Tiger and would highly recommend to other hotels,” said Annie Bisuna, Revenue Director, The Bellevue Hotels and Resorts.

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!

The Week, That Was – August 2018 Week 5

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!!

Luxury boutique hotel in Philippines has experienced 5% growth in just 3 months with RateTiger.

Bayleaf Intramuros, an upmarket boutique hotel in Philippines has improved in online sales with efficient rate and availability distribution through RateTiger.

https://www.erevmax.com/blog/index.php/2018/08/luxury-boutique-hotel-in-philippines-improves-online-sales-with-ratetiger/

Miki Travel invests in online booking systems for groups

Miki Travel recently invested in two online booking systems to facilitate ease of doing business and enhance confirmation speed.

http://www.ttgasia.com/2018/08/30/miki-travel-invests-in-online-booking-systems-for-groups/

Why Channel management is fundamental to hoteliers?

Today consumers are influencing room rates more than anytime in history. The internet – with multiple price comparison websites and booking channels – provides a choice. The more savvy consumers get, the more likely rates will continue to fall. However if hoteliers take control of their presence and rates online, revenue managers can make more accurate forecasts to identify occupancy and rate levels to ensure sales are on target.

https://www.erevmax.com/blog/index.php/2018/08/channel-management-is-fundamental-to-hoteliers-2/

Distribution dilemmas, beastly rate parity and Google ‘the travel company

“Google is very much a travel company. They have a platform that provides access to prices, products and reputation related information for travel components, creating immense value for the traveller. At the same time, their search engine and metasearch platforms are an integral and unavoidable part of the traveller’s booking journey from the dreaming to the booking phase. And they are able to capture the subsequent value from these customer phases.”

https://www.eyefortravel.com/distribution-strategies/distribution-dilemmas-beastly-rate-parity-and-google-travel-company

 What hoteliers should know about guest acquisition!

How people travel has as much to do with who they are as where they are going, Lorraine Sileo, SVP of research and business operations at Phocuswright, said during a session at the recent Hotel Data Conference.

Research shows one of the biggest differentiators in how people choose where they research their travel products is age, she said during her presentation, “Hotel path to purchase: The complexity behind consumer choice.”

http://www.hotelnewsnow.com/Articles/289088/What-hoteliers-should-know-about-guest-acquisition

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

Thanks and have a good day!

Luxury boutique hotel in Philippines improves online sales with RateTiger

Superior connectivity with OTAs results in 5% revenue growth in 3 months for Bayleaf Intramuros

Bayleaf Intramuros, an upmarket boutique hotel in Philippines has improved in online sales with efficient rate and availability distribution through RateTiger. The property offering 57 rooms in Manila, has started using RateTiger Channel Manager in June this year and experienced immediate result.

Located within the walls of the oldest district and historic core of Manila, Bayleaf Intramuros is an iconic landmark popular with luxury leisure travellers. The property has been leveraging eRevMax’s seamless connection with global and regional OTAs to update rates and availability across channels like Booking.com and Expedia and receive reservations in real-time. RateTiger’s interface with leading technology providers like DirectWithHotels has allowed Bayleaf to manage their online booking engine through the interface. This has resulted in 5% growth in revenue in just three months.

“We work with a number of online demand partners like Booking.com, Expedia, TripAdvisor- just to name a few. RateTiger has 2-way integration with all these travel sites plus a wide range of metasearch, wholesalers and niche channels to choose from. The best part is I can monitor performance, targets and reservations, always updated, on the LiveOS platform, to make informed decision. We are now able to yield better than before,” said Benjie V. Martinez, Area Director of Sales and Marketing, The Bayleaf Hotels.

Philippines is one of the world’s fastest-growing online travel markets – and much of the region’s online opportunity is yet to be tapped. With close to 46% bookings coming from online, it’s important for the property to maintain presence, maintain exposure in OTAs. The revenue management team of the Bayleaf Hotels is also using RateTiger’s benchmarking report to monitor competitor’s rate movement and maintain rate parity across online sales channels.

“I personally monitor the rates daily and update our prices according to the market demand. The competitor rate shopping tool on LiveOS has really made my daily operations smooth. I am now very hands on with revenue management, more than ever before, thanks to RateTiger”, said Benjie V. Martinez, Area Director of Sales and Marketing, The Bayleaf Hotels.

eRevMax offers seamless connectivity with over 350 distribution partners including OTAs, Metasearch channels, GDS, Wholesalers and offline tour operators among others. The company continues to expand its partner base through new integrations to offer hoteliers integrated and seamless connections across different systems. eRevMax offers rate shopping, channel management and connectivity solutions to hotels worldwide to support complex revenue generation strategies.

 

Channel management is fundamental to hoteliers

Hoteliers, now more than ever, need to concentrate on revenue and distribution management. The industry not only faces corporate budget tightening, but flight costs have increased and the decreasing value of world currencies plus job uncertainty has affected holidaymakers’ spending budgets.

Many travellers continued to book their travel using web booking engines. The success of Online Travel Agents (OTA) and the expansion of the online/offline press referring people to internet led technologies have enticed consumers to the cyber travel market.

Hence, it is the priority of any hotelier during this time to ensure yields and occupancy remain high, making the most of the sales channels available to maximise revenue over the coming years. With reports that RevPAR is dropping, hotels need to think intelligently and maximise on the tools they have to ensure business remains strong.

Today consumers are influencing room rates more than anytime in history. The internet – with multiple price comparison websites and booking channels – provides a choice. The more savvy consumers get, the more likely rates will continue to fall. However if hoteliers take control of their presence and rates online, revenue managers can make more accurate forecasts to identify occupancy and rate levels to ensure sales are on target.

The challenge for many hoteliers in managing these channels is to ensure accurate rates and inventory allocation to optimise each channel to increase sales and maximise revenue. There is no point selling across the internet for the sake of being online; it must be approached intelligently to avoid the mismanagement of rates. To make the most of the internet and online distribution channels revenue managers should look at technology to save time and make money.

By utilising tools to manage the distribution of rates online, revenue managers can ensure rates are accurate across all third-party websites, allocate rooms to the channels providing either a greater return or greatest number of bookings, and forecast future rates and occupancy levels. Technology has been developed to ensure time spent managing online rates is reduced to improve productivity and reduce human error. Channel management products can give you a snapshot of all online sales activity in a single screen; you can benchmark competitor rates, manage rates and rooms on third-party websites then make all the relevant changes you need to increase yields.

At this time hoteliers need to turn to technology to help them through this down-turn to remain competitive. Solutions and systems to support the revenue manager are constantly being developed that will reduce time spent distributing rooms so more time can be allocated to managing the hotel. We are currently looking at a product which is an amalgamation of revenue management solutions (RMS) and internet benchmarking and distribution systems (IDS). Hoteliers should be able to assess market competition, propose rates and allow automatic updates of distribution channels using definable strategies this will truly automate revenue and distribution management.

Without a doubt the travel industry will pick-up much quicker than it has in the past, with the rise of Eastern economies and larger worldwide travel markets, knowledge of price and availability will be fundamental to hoteliers. Further with the internet becoming a leading factor in booking travel, it is essential that it is the key platform to sell rooms. However at the same time, the internet is a world of its own which is broken into its own segments and markets so it is essential hoteliers know who its customers are and how to reach them – being on any third-party website isn’t going to provide the expected return.

As we have seen throughout the media and even in our own industry – belts have tightened and the economy is not as strong as it was – but we know that we have recovered before and should prepare for when it does. In the meantime it is essential to focus on making the most of what you have by optimising sales by using the internet to benchmark and allocate rooms efficiently to achieve greater occupancy and therefore increased yields.

 

 

The Week, That Was – August 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!!

Luxury hotel in Ghana recommends RateTiger for online distribution

The Royal Senchi Hotel & Resort, a luxury property in Ghana has recommended RateTiger for streamlining online distribution. The hotel has experienced significant improvement in their operational efficiency leveraging RateTiger’s cloud based channel manager and on-demand shopping tool.

https://goo.gl/m7LUN2 

Google says it’s time for travel marketers to rethink loyalty

Attitudinal loyalty relates to how loyal a traveler feels, and behavioral loyalty refers to how loyal a traveler acts.

https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/consumer-insights/travel-marketing-strategy/

Introducing RateTiger GDS – Your window to 600,000 travel agents worldwide.

Distribute your room and availability across various global distribution systems – Amadeus, Sabre & Travelport (Galileo & Worldspan) from RateTiger platform.

Contact us today- marketing@erevmax.com

 Chinese millennials’ travel expenditure increases by 80% YoY

Hotels.com research has revealed that Chinese millennials (born after 1990) are pushing the boundaries of international travel, increasing their expenditure in the past year by a staggering 80%. This is to fund social media-influenced trips full of edgy experiences, high-tech accommodation, exotic delicacies and taboo ticket-items.

https://www.traveldailymedia.com/chinese-millennials-expenditure-up-80/

 Privacy vs security: first fines reveal shift in data protection landscape

Over two months since ‘GDPR Day’, most organisations are still successfully processing personal data, but travel companies beware. With regulation now enforceable, consumers more empowered and security – a small part of GDPR – becoming an increasing focus, the Information Commissioner’s Office is keen to show it has teeth. Since May, several fines have been levied against companies making everything from annoying sales calls to not being rigorous with privacy and security.

https://goo.gl/FSfkhq 

How TripAdvisor changed travel

TripAdvisor used to promise its users a kind of escape, whether that be simply daydreaming over a vacation or actually booking one. Yet at a moment where such adages now seem horribly outdated, the future of TripAdvisor and similar enterprises seems less certain than it once did.

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

 Worldwide Distribution Trends for Meta Search Engines report from Fornova highlights direct booking challenges for hotels

Fornova, a leading provider of distribution intelligence and automation solutions to hotels, have released their first Meta Search Engines Distribution Trends report.The report analyses and highlights key challenges hotels face when participating on Meta Search Engines, and how their efforts compare when competing against their partner Online Travel Agents (OTAs) and other resellers online.

http://blog.fornova.com/worldwide-distribution-trends-for-meta-search-engines-report

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

Thanks and have a good day!

 

Luxury hotel in Ghana recommends RateTiger for online distribution

The Royal Senchi Hotel & Resort, a luxury property in Ghana has recommended RateTiger for streamlining online distribution. The hotel has experienced significant improvement in their operational efficiency leveraging RateTiger’s cloud based channel manager and on-demand shopping tool.

Located in Akosombo, a resort town near Ghanaian capital Accra, the The Royal Senchi Hotel & Resort, with its 84 rooms, caters to primarily leisure tourists. eRevMax’s XML connectivity with global and regional OTAs, GDSs and Metas have made it possible for the revenue management team to manage their OTAs, GDS and booking engine from LiveOS dashboard.

 “It was easy when we’re handling just the booking engine. The real challenge came when we signed up with several OTAs – updating multiple extranets and consolidating reports from these channels manually was time-taking and taking a toll on our efficiency.  RateTiger by eRevMax has solved it all. With just one entry I can update all OTAs simultaneously from the dashboard. It also gives me the data I want at one go with a simple click,” said Bennett Attakorah, Rooms Division Manager, The Royal Senchi Hotel & Resort.

 “Providing hotels with stable connectivity remained our priority for the last 17 years. RateTiger and LiveOS have been built with a vision to make online sales simpler for hotels, and this recommendation is a testimony to that,” said Ram Mohan Dubey, Regional Sales Director, eRevMax.