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What’s New in Hotel Online Distribution and Tech Trends? W3, November 2023

Here is your weekly industry news round-up. Check out the short snippets here and follow below for more details.

  • US hotels anticipate a busy holiday season
  • Regis Riyadh: Marriott’s 500th luxury property
  • Truffle week at Atlantis Dubai
  • Hotel industry trends and stats for 2024
  • IHCL now at Mumbai airport

Reach out to us for discussions regarding connectivity, direct booking, rate intelligence, and website design requirements – we are happy to explore new possibilities with you for your property – contact us today.

Enjoy the read!

Newshound-w3-November-2023

US hotels poised for solid holiday season

The business outlook for US hotels remains strong for the remainder of 2023, thanks to an uptick in business travel and a healthy preference among business and leisure travelers to stay in hotels. The survey found that 32% of Americans are likely to travel overnight for Thanksgiving, up from 28% a year earlier, while 34% are likely to travel overnight for Christmas, up from 31% last year.

https://eturbonews.com/us-hotels-poised-for-strong-holiday-season/

The St. Regis Riyadh: Where luxury meets tradition

St. Regis Hotels & Resorts has opened The St. Regis Riyadh. The hotel marks Marriott International’s 500th luxury property globally. It is found at Via Riyadh, home to designer boutiques, restaurants and a luxury cinema. Situated at the entrance of the Diplomatic Quarter, the hotel is close to embassies and the central business district. The area has trails, palm trees, and plants from the surrounding valleys and deserts.

https://shorturl.at/AKNO4

Truffle week at Atlantis Dubai

This one is for the truffle fans… Atlantis Dubai and its esteemed culinary collection, which includes the likes of Hakkasan, Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, The Royal Tearoom, and many more, will be celebrating Truffle Week with a series of exclusive menus from Friday, 10th November until Monday, 20th November. Guests can look forward to embarking on an extraordinary culinary journey as Atlantis Dubai unveils its exclusive truffle-infused signature dishes, available exclusively for 10 days.

https://shorturl.at/mxyIP

Sustainability trends in the hospitality industry

The spotlight shines on the group sales and meetings sector, which is anticipated to accelerate in the coming year. In the world of hospitality, group business isn’t just a segment; it’s a cornerstone of revenue potential for any hotel that effectively harnesses its power. Considering this, we’ve distilled the quintessential hotel group sales trends and statistics for 2024 you’ll want to embed in your strategic playbook.

https://www.hospitalitynet.org/opinion/4119148.html

IHCL is now at Mumbai airport

Indian Hotels Company (IHCL) announced the opening of Ginger Mumbai Airport. The 371 Keys flagship Ginger Hotel, strategically located near the domestic airport, will introduce the brand’s lean luxe design and service philosophy of offering its guests a vibrant, contemporary, and seamless hospitality experience. The 371 keys hotel offers thoughtfully curated rooms designed to prioritize convenience and comfort, catering to the needs of both business and leisure travelers.

https://www.hotelierindia.com/operations/ihcl-now-at-mumbai-airport

That’s all folks!

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Google makes hotel listings free – are you ready to grab the opportunity?

Hotels can now display rate and availability without taking part in Google PPC

For long, Google has remained the Elephant in the Room for the hotel industry. In the last five years, the search -engine giant has consolidated its place as the leader in the meta search, now accounting for over 57% all metasearch bookings.

It is the first place to go for many people when they start their search. Google has now made it free for hotel owners and travel agencies to list their properties on Google Search.

When a potential booker selects a hotel from the search option, in the booking module, the overview section is now showing four paid listings under the Featured options and two organic search results. Clicking on the Prices Tab, the user would be able to see all four paid listings along with all search results.

This section is now showing booking links from unpaid listings as shown in the organic search by hotels and travel companies.

This is a major opportunity for hotels. Hotel booking links have always been offered via Google Hotel Ads, which acts like a metasearch channel displaying real-time pricing and availability for hotels for specific dates of travel. With this new development, this barrier is removed and gives hotels a chance to display their direct rates and booking links without worrying about metasearch budget.

This opportunity is available for all the hotels through their Hotel Center account. Hotels which are already taking part in Google’s Hotel Prices API and Hotel Ads do not need to take any action and will be shown in All Options based on the organic search ranking.

The ranking of the organic search results will be based on an algorithm that looks at non-commercial factors, and pricing accuracy will be ensured through new tools and processes as well as using reliable data sources.

Google has a list of integrated partners including RateTiger through which hotels can feed data sources for booking links. If you are interested in displaying your rates on Google Hotel Ads, contact us today on marketing@erevmax.com

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Make 2021 count with RateTiger

We are living in unprecedented times and Covid-19 has – in more ways than one – altered the way we live, think, work, or even socialize with people around us.  With the Covid-19 vaccine roll-out restoring travelers’ confidence, hospitality business is expected to show signs of recovery. It is a crucial time for hoteliers to remain resilient and be prepared to drive demand. Hence a healthy distribution mix and robust technology set-up is key for your hotel.

RateTiger is happy to present its integrated distribution platform to make revenue management effective and seamless. Contact us  for a free demo to see how we can help you capture demand through tactical planning.

Avail our New Year Offer* – get 2 months free upon signing a 12-month subscription.

CRS / Channel Manager – Centrally manage ARI & bookings – access 450+ channels & diversify your distribution mix through 2-way XML connectivity

Rate Shopper – Analyze competitor rate strategy across channels to stay ahead in the market

Booking Engine – Increase your hotel’s direct sales and maximize booking opportunities

GDS Connectivity – Connect to all major GDS – publish ARI across 600,000 travel agents worldwide

Metasearch Marketing – Manage all metasearch sites including TripAdvisor & Google Hotel Ads directly from RateTiger

Website Development – Customized responsive website design for better engagement to drive conversions

Business Analytics – Get insights on pace, occupancy, channel performance & other metrics for informed decision making

Take benefit of our New Year offer – this could be the vaccine your hotel needs to drive new demand! We look forward to working with you.

Contact us – for a demo today.

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Travel Tech EMEA Day 5 – Tech Trends – How to reinvent the hotel management with small teams?

One major fallout of Covid19’s impact on the hospitality industry is the retrenchment across segments. The pummeling occupancy and revenue have forced hotels to take a hard look and reduce their workforce. According to the American Hotel and Lodging Association, the American hotels has lost over 870,000. Across the world, the number has been several millions.

The disruption is brutal. However, as with life, business must go on. People will eventually travel and stay in hotels. And the industry must adapt to the new way of managing things with smaller resources. As hotels prioritize operational cost control, technology is expected to take the central stage to optimize business efficiency in a reduced workforce and increased workload environment.

According to a Gartner report, 85% of customer interactions is expected to be managed by artificial intelligence by 2020. Automation has become a major player in customer experience, and in the post-Covid world, technology adaption is going to get accelerated to ensure resilience. With hotels have been using technology solutions like PMS, CRS, Channel Manager, IBE, RMS, POS etc, a data driven integrated platform where each solutions talk to each other breaking the silos would go a long way to help hotels identify service and performance gaps and boost operational productivity. Hotels would need to embrace advanced AI technologies designed to improve the overall customer experience by being proactive, anticipating customer needs and engaging on an emotional level.

In the last session of this series Travel Tech EMEA, Co-founder Vinicius Geraldo with Alejandro Gomez and Clarissa Trezzi will discuss the critical issue facing the hotel industry – how to reinvent the hotel management with small teams? Joining him in the panel are Jirka Helmich  of Mews, Alfredo Chiaramonte of CHAPP Solutions, Luís Brites of Clever Hospitality Analytics, Tiago Araújo of HiJiffy and Prithwish Dutta of eRevMax. Join us – register now – https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/6930318956520107533

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Fighting Coronavirus: 5 short-term revenue generation tips for hotels

As the situation surrounding the COVID-19 outbreak continues to evolve, it’s time to join forces and participate in virtual discussions to learn new revenue sources for your hotel business.

5 short-term revenue generation tips –

– Self- isolation packages – Offer rooms for self-isolation stays in well sanitized rooms.

– Quarantine facility – Contact your local government health bodies to offer lodging and fooding to affected people in a 14-day quarantine package rate.

– WorkFromHotel space – Create a weekly package offering stay, all meals and hi-speed internet and promote to professionals who want to stay comfortably without worrying about daily chores.

– Extended Stay – Focus on offering extended stay packages at affordable rates with well sanitized rooms, meals and wi-fi included, to expats that might be staying in costly rented places and looking for alternative stay options.

– Brand visibility – Maintain your presence through social media and have regular contact with loyalty guests – as soon as people are ready to book, they will remember and reach out to you.

We are here for you! Together we are stronger.

Contact us on marketing@erevmax.com to set up a discussion with one of our revenue management and connectivity advisers.

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What are the Best Practices for Creating a Google Hotel Ads Campaign?

Google Hotel Ads has emerged as an important channel for hoteliers to improve online exposure of their properties. In this blog, we list out some of the best practices that are involved with the creation of a Google hotel ads campaign.

What are the Best Practices for Creating a Google Hotel Ads Campaign

About 4.5 billion searches are made on Google every day, making it essential for every business to have presence on the platform. Over the last few years, Google Hotel Ads has emerged as the most popular platform in the metasearch space.  Which for years have been dominated by the OTAs. GHA which aggregates your hotel rates from participating OTAs and brand website and displays your hotel rates and availability on Google, across desktops, tablets, and mobile devices? Find out about some of the best practices for the creation of a Google hotel ads campaign.

Familiarize yourself with the interface

In order to be successful with Google hotel ads, it is essential to be familiar with the interface and know what goes into it. The sign-up process is quite similar to Google PPC campaign. Hotels need to create a Google Hotel Center account to send and manage hotel rates and availability across Google. The interface is user-friendly, effective and efficient. Once you have listed your property, connect your prices and availability to your ads by linking your Hotel Center account to a Google Ads account and start advertising.

Use data to your benefit

Data that is recorded by Google systems lets you pinpoint those things that are/are not working. Reports every week are offered in detail, and how your campaign is proceeding in each device. Make use of opportunity reports every week to detect missed opportunities. Know about the areas that you might have improved on, and prepare better for bid optimization in the following round.

With conversion tracking, you can exactly find out what happens when anyone visits your site. You can get information on cost per acquisition, how long a person stays in the accommodation and whether or not they booked a room. The use of this information and other performance metrics for the adjustment of Google hotel ads booking campaign strategies can help you to derive the best from your experience of Google Hotel Ads.

Group hotels and manage bids better

In case you are operating bids for more than one hotel property, group the properties together. This can let you manage the same in a more efficient way and optimize returns on investment. The principles happen to be the same for each hotel property that is part of the group. When you structure bids, you have to remember that.

Optimize your ads

For optimizing your ad spends, Google recommends hotels to provide entire inventory to Hotel Ads along with room and package Meta data. The details comprise of data about occupancy levels and rooms, and all the updated prices and active bids can ensure accuracy of prices. The ads which notch up the best numbers are generally those that offer the most information. Optimized ad can help hotels to have much better business and increase the bottom line.

Google Hotel Ads campaigns can provide future travelers with the chance to reserve a hotel room at many important hotels all through their research. Wherever a user makes decisions related to travel, hotel ads are surfaced by Google to assist them in the assessment of booking options and pricing available to them.

Find Hotel channel manager and Online Distribution.

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What is a Hotel PMS?

PMS or Property Management System is a software solution which can be installable or cloud-based for managing hotel operations like handling guest profiles, check-in and check-out, occupancy management, checking room availability and bookings.

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Is your hotel using an efficient room rate comparison tool?

Download our complimentary e-book  on how to leverage pricing for profit optimization

Hotel revenue management relies heavily on accurate market intelligence. Being aware of competitor price movements and change in their distribution strategy is important for any hotelier to stay ahead of competition of multiple sales channels.

Given the perishable nature of hotel inventory, it is important to optimize room pricing such that it is in sync with market demand and is attractive enough for potential guests to make a booking. Hotels today offer multiple room rates for different room types – so tracking these different room-rate combinations across your competition manually can be a herculean task and hence arises the need for an efficient and automated rate shopping tool that can fetch you rates in real-time for apple-to-apple comparison.

With the current range of price intelligence solutions available in the market, hoteliers are spoilt for choice. To assist with your decision making easier – we present our complimentary e-book – ‘Shopping Matters – The Power of Real-time Hotel Rate Intelligence’ that will help you to know more about –

  • Importance of real-time rate intelligence
  • Understanding the marketplace to fine-tune your rate strategy
  • Why rate shopping tool is crucial to your profit optimization

Download the ebook today – https://www.erevmax.com/travel-solutions/erevmax-shopper-rateintelligence.html

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7 Ways to Ease the Work of Distribution of Hotels for Better Business Growth

Online Hotel Distribution System

The hotel industry is gaining more popularity and the distribution is becoming easy and technically advanced. The customers who want to book the hotels are also changing and easy distribution becomes a way to gain momentum in the industry.  As the distribution becomes more scientific and smooth, the trends of the hotels and its customers are evolving for building a stronger structure.

  1. Distribution methods and channels are increasing – the multiple online booking methods are becoming the talk of the travellers. They keep using these platforms as and when they find it beneficial. The hotels are also expanding their network and finding channels like the travel agents who work online and the other areas through which they can ensure further bookings of their services. The main thing is to choose the most important channels that will give the hotels maximum benefits in booking.
  2. Metasearch engines and their extensive uses – This is a new way for marketing for the hotels. The sites can provide a lot of information that these search engines use for providing the viewer’s their choice of information. The use of these search engines has helped the travellers and the hotels too. They can compare the rates and accommodation choices and then choose the hotel that is best for them. The hotels are listing themselves in the metasearch so that they get a boost for their business.
  3. Cost reduction also helps – the travel agents are there to take care of their commissions but these online distribution channels often save the commission payments for the hotels. The booking generated through their own website often makes it easier for the travellers. The social media and the metasearch engines are there to drive direct bookings and eliminate the commission based agents who often can charge exorbitant from the travellers.
  4. Varied stay options beyond regular – There are different ways of booking accommodations. The travellers try these ways for staying at different times in the hotels. Vacation rentals are such options that the hotels use to list the properties and the other information regarding the availability and the charges of the rooms. The traveller now has got more choices and easy way to opt for such choices.
  5. Blockchain also helps in eliminating commission payments – This is another technology that the hotels use to build up records for proper room occupancy, inventory and rates of the rooms. The information helps customers and help eliminating OTA and other third-party platforms that survives on commission. As this is a new technology – the hotels have not used its full potential to eliminate extra cost.
  6. Tools and technologies from OTAs – The modern technology has also evolved for the OTAs and they are trying to bring about changes in the way they work. They are taking to advanced technology and preparing tools through which they can offer their service for the hoteliers. This also helps the hotel owners and the travellers at the same time.
  7. Expert channel managers and their efficiency – The channel managers are taking care of the hotel administration and are getting better results for the industry. The hotels are hiring the channel managers who are experienced and have given good results. The expertise and knowledge of these professionals are changing the way the hotels and the travellers are working for each other.

These are some of the new trends and easy ways to bring about work distribution in the hotel industry. These will either improve or they may give in to better and more advanced ways to take care of the services and rates.

To know more about Online Hotel Distribution System, visit https://www.erevmax.com/

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Carton House Resort, Ireland recommends eRevMax for online connectivity

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

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

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

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