Category: Hotel Channel Management

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Google Hotel Ads – a must have for hotels in 2019

Summary- The blog elucidates as to how marketing done via Google Hotel Ads can help hoteliers to get their marketing game on track and build up business profits in a speedy way.

It’s been a little over eight years since Google entered the hotel space, and in 2019, we can safely declare them to be the undisputed king of hotel metasearch. Since its acquisition of ITA Software in 2010, Google has been making steady inroads into the travel domain.

Google’s ambition is clear. It’s not satisfied being a search engine for hotels and flights but wants not be a part of every point of a consumer’s online travel journey – right from dreaming to planning to booking and then in deciding on the activities during the trip.

Accounting for 77% of the world’s total search traffic, Google is the first touch point in the online purchasing journey for most travelers. According to a recent study by our partner Roiback, Google Hotel Ads (GHA), which publishes hotel prices in real time, now represents 65% of hotel bookings coming from metasearch engines. In the last couple of years, the popularity of the platform has grown exponentially amongst hoteliers even as OTAs dominate traditional metasearch channels.

Last year, Google rolled put a Hotel Center in Google Ads to simplify the hotel price management. The new enhancement allows hotel groups to manage multiple bid campaigns from within Google Ads’ main interface. As metasearch become the forefront of consumer research process, Google Hotel Ads, with improved booking capabilities that includes rice filtering and amenity details with have emerged as a platform hotel can no longer ignore.

The OTAs, with their financial and technical prowess, have been the dominant player in the hotel search results. The Google Hotel Ads is an opportunity for hoteliers to drive direct traffic to their website. By taking part in the campaign, hotels can have their listing shown up similar to paid results whenever potential guests make search for accommodation. The rates are displayed along with OTAs, enabling hoteliers to reach out to future bookers across devices.

As the guest moves from the generic search to specifics like filter, price range, location etc, available hotels are shown in list format alongside a map. Hotels which are part of the campaign and are providing up-to-date information on rate and availability can show their direct link when the user takes an interest.

The Hotel Details Card aggregates and displays available booking options in one place and show the best value to be had across the web. The potential guests can click on their preferred advertiser and will be brought directly through to that website to complete their booking, thereby giving hoteliers an equal opportunity to compete with OTAs.

True, it’s not easy for hoteliers to compete with OTAs, which have digital marketing specialists and high advertising budgets. Hoteliers have a task that goes beyond wooing customers to make bookings, as they also have to focus on many other aspects to offer an unparalleled experience to guests.

Hoteliers who wish to reverse the trend in the online booking market and drive direct bookings can use Google Hotel Ads to benefit from online search traffic and have an edge over OTAs.

Connect to Google Hotel Ads through RateTiger. Leverage the power of metasearch engines to drive direct traffic to your website – https://www.erevmax.com/erevmax/erevmax-google-hotel-ads.html

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eRevMax presents another first at ITB Berlin 2019

Showcasing its new metasearch platform AgentX101 alongside new modules in RateTiger & LiveOS

Leading travel technology solution provider, eRevMax, will showcase its newest offering, AgentX101 – the metasearch platform for travel agents, at ITB Berlin next week. The company will also showcase latest enhancements to its suite of hospitality product brands – RateTiger and LiveOS.

The enhanced product suite includes RateTiger’s award-winning hotel channel management and rate shopping solutions, alongside newly introduced Booking Engine and CRS capabilities, all powered by LiveOS – the #1 Hospitality Operating System in the industry.

Known for robust security and 99.9% system uptime, RateTiger and LiveOS solutions empower over 9000 hotel groups, brands, and independent properties worldwide, to improve business strategy and maximize bottom-line revenue.

The company will be introducing the first of its kind metasearch platform for Travel Agents and Tour Operators – AgentX101. The platform aggregates deals and promotions from multiple wholesalers and GDSs thereby providing 360-degree visibility into production sources and suggests actions and alerts to maximize potential. Already tested by some of the biggest names in the industry, the web-based solution automates daily tasks and improves decision making with real time data.

“ITB Berlin is the perfect platform to exhibit and promote our existing and upcoming portfolio of products to the travel fraternity. It helps us to build new partnerships while strengthening our existing network as we continue to reinforce our capacity to explore and drive growth opportunities,” said Reuel Ghosh, Group CEO, eRevMax.

ITB Berlin is expected to attract over 170,000 visitors including 110,000 trade visitors over the five show days. RateTiger, located in Hall 8.1, Stand 132, will showcase its products to hoteliers through demos and discussions during show hours between March 6-9.

The LiveOS and AgentX101 team will be available in Hall 8.1, Stand 115 to drive discussions with travel agents, tour operators, suppliers and technology partners and form new collaborations.

To arrange an appointment with the team, contact us today on marketing@erevmax.com.

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HospitalityUnited.Club announces its signature Cocktails & Conversation event in Berlin

HospitalityUnited.Club, a consortium of travel technology companies, brings back its classic Cocktails & Conversation event to Berlin in March. The Club will be hosting an exclusive evening for hoteliers on 7th March 2019, in partnership with Cendyn, Fornova, Hotelbeds, LiveOS, RateTiger, Roiback and Sojern.

The high energy networking event will bring together leading hoteliers and tech providers in an informal relaxed setting at Funkturm Restaurant, located 55m above the ground, in the historic Radio Tower in the German capital. The event is aimed at providing a perfect place for industry peers to relax over cocktails while discussing new trends and technology.

“This is the second year we’ve been a part of HospitalityUnited.Club at ITB Berlin. It’s proven a great way to connect with new and existing contacts in a more relaxed environment. I know the Sojern team looks forward to connecting with guests at HUC this year and discussing how to move travelers from dream to destination,” commented Celine Chaussegros, GM EMEA, Sojern.

“Partnering with HospitalityUnited.Club is always a fantastic opportunity for Fornova and we are looking forward to working together at ITB 2019. Bringing together hotels and technology providers is a great opportunity to explore innovative ideas, network and collaborate,” said Dori Stein, CEO, Fornova.

John Seaton, MD, EMEA & APAC at Cendyn commented, “We’re delighted to be partnering with other hospitality leaders for this exciting HospitalityUnited.Club cocktail event on Thursday 7 March. It’s always well-received for leaders to have the opportunity to take a breather from the hectic week at ITB Berlin and spend time catching up with their peers in the industry.”

The HospitalityUnited.Club (HUC) member companies continue to collaborate and host these events around the world as they realize the importance of this platform and how it impacts business.

To join us for the HUC Cocktails & Conversations in Berlin, register today – https://www.hospitalityunited.club/event/berlin/huc_berlin_2019.html

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Chelsea Plaza Hotel uses RateTiger Channel Manager powered by LiveOS to manage online distribution

Chelsea Plaza Hotel, a midscale hotel in the heart of Dubai has recommended eRevMax solutions for managing online distribution. The 3 star property has been using RateTiger Channel Manager to maintain real-time rate and availability on online sales channels and receive reservations.

Located at the prime location of Bur Dubai, Chelsea Plaza Hotel, formerly known as Rydges Plaza Hotel, is a popular choice for mid-range travelers, especially from the Indian subcontinent and South Asia. The hotel is leveraging RateTiger’s seamless connectivity with leading OTAs including the major ones in India.

“The best thing about RateTiger Channel Manager is that it is very easy to use. The data analytics on budget and production on the LiveOS platform provides us a good heads-up.  We look forward to continuing our working relationship over the coming years,” said Siva Prasad, Asst. Front Office Manager, Chelsea Plaza Hotel.

“Given that Chelsea Plaza Hotel primarily caters to international guests, along with midscale domestic travelers, it is important for the hotel to be present in all global online sales channels.  Our channel ecosystem has helped hotels to improve exposure and tap new markets. Backed by real-time data and analytics, hoteliers can respond to market dynamics more efficiently, and optimize online revenue,” said Ram Mohan Dubey, Regional Sales Director, eRevMax.

eRevMax is known for its stable solutions with 99% product uptime. While other companies struggle to offer continuous connectivity, eRevMax has invested in building a robust infrastructure to provide hoteliers with uninterrupted service over the last 18 years. The company offers excellent connectivity with over 400 online channels and provides 24×7 support.

Meet the team at ITB Berlin, Hall 8.1, Stand 132 from 6 – 9 March 2019, to discuss your connectivity needs.

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EREVMAX SIGNS WITH ICE PORTAL TO DISTRIBUTE HOTEL VISUAL CONTENT WORLDWIDE VIA LIVEOS

eRevMax, the leading provider of hotel connectivity and online distribution solutions worldwide, has integrated with ICE Portal to help hoteliers manage, distribute and curate their online visual content for better brand visibility.

Hotels using LiveOS by eRevMax will now be able to integrate their visuals into ICE Portal’s cloud-based content management system (CMS). ICE Portal connects to thousands of leading global distribution channels as well as thousands of affiliated travel sites (including GDSs, OTAs and search sites) in twelve languages.

“We are thrilled to be working with eRevMax providing the technical solutions to manage and deliver visual content for their hotel customers everywhere,” said Henry Woodman, President, ICE Portal.

“We are glad to integrate ICE Portal within the LiveOS platform as it will help our hotel clients to optimize and distribute their property images effectively. Fresh visual content helps drive visibility which in turn will lead to better conversion for our hotel customers,” commented Gerard Carrie, COO, LiveOS.

ICE Portal is closely working with the LiveOS team at eRevMax to help optimize visuals (category, languages, meta-data, geo-codes and mapped IDs) for their supply partners worldwide to increase brand engagement and booking conversions.

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Why Guest Reviews Matter? Even the negative ones

From the very beginning, a hotel’s success has a direct correlation with its reputation. if guide books and peer recommendations were the earlier source of motivation, in the age of digital, the new normal is to surf the web for hotel reputation – which alarmingly can be your biggest asset or liability.

There are several things that contribute to a hotel’s reputation – starting from pre-booking experience to service during stay – guests take note of many small and big details and form an opinion. The rating is just the reflection of the opinion. If your property provides impeccable service, create great experiences, then the positive reviews you have earned will improve your appeal and influence potential guests. The more satisfied guests you have, the more likely they are to return and spend more money, as well as recommend you to others.

According to a study by Deloitte, 59% consumers say that review sites have the most influence on their booking decisions. Another one, conducted by Cornel Hotel School in association with STR and Review Pro suggest that guest satisfaction has a direct impact on the business performances of the hotel. The study, in fact, predict, an increase of 0.89% increase in ADR due to 1 point increase in the hotel’s review score across all online and offline channels.

With Google, OTAs and review sites like TripAdvisor giving more weightage to review score, managing online reputation has become a focal point of hotel operations. With revenue being directly linked with demand, revenue management has now expanded from simple rate management and is now encompassing customer relations and social media into its strategy.

Truth to be told, reputation management is not an easy task, especially when it comes to negative reviews. Guests often over-expect and over-react which get reflected in the reviews. Interestingly, in 2017, the top 4 sites accounting for 74% of review volume are Booking.com, Google, TripAdvisor and Facebook.  Clearly, guests aren’t restricting their opinions to travel sites, but also to search engine and social media. Hotel cannot prevent reviewers from expressing their opinion. However, there is only thing they can surely do – respond, more do for negative reviews.

A recent study by Harvard Business Review suggests, replying to guest reviews results in better ratings. Interestingly, the study, which has studied TripAdvisor ratings over thousands of hotels, have found that there is a sharp drop in the rate of short negative reviews when the management starts responding to negative feedback.

Sure, it is not easy to please every guest. However, your willingness to accept constructive criticism shows your commitment to address the issues raised by the guest, which in turn assures your potential guests. Be polite and courteous, try to understand your guests’ concern and respond in a professional way.

However, guests share feedback on various review, travel and social media sites – which often lay scattered and unstructured. Online reputation management tools consolidate these guest reviews from various review websites including TripAdvisor, Bookign.com, Expedia, Agoda, Qype, Holidaycheck, Yelp, Expedia, Facebook, Twitter etc. and provide them to hotels in structured reports. Data is then compiled together into review reports which include guest details (as it appears on the site) along with their feedback and the rating they provide to the hotel. Most advanced review management sites nowadays use sentiment analysis to understand the guest’s emotion towards various aspects of the property. Keywords relevant to the properties are then identified, and ranked based on their popularity, frequency of mentions, and guests’ sentiments towards that category.

A strong visible position on guest review websites indicate that your Price Quality Index is working well, that will enable you to make the right pricing decisions based on RevPAR performance.  This will allow the hotel to flex their rates based on several pricing strategies depending on booking levels. However, there are no short cuts. It is an evolving process that must start today! As we move towards the age of consumer controlled brand conversations, hotels need to integrate customer feedback into their business approach and strategy planning.

By staying actively engaged with guests, hotels can ensure a more consistent and loyal base. Are you listening?

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eRevMax completes integration with Portugal based Newhotel PMS

Hotel connectivity solution provider eRevMax has completed 2-way integration with Newhotel Software, a global hospitality technology company headquartered in Lisbon, Portugal. Mutual hotel customers can leverage this integration to update rate and availability to third party online booking sites whenever they are updated in the property management system and receive reservations from OTAs.

Newhotel Cloud Suite PMS incorporates a wide range of features for full-service hotels, and chains, independent of its size or operation. Known for its user-friendly interface and advanced features, the solution is a popular choice in Europe, South America and Africa, and currently caters to over 3000 properties in more than 50 countries. eRevMax’s distribution solutions are used by over 9000 hotels globally to manage online distribution.

“We’re proud to have eRevMax – RateTiger as our partner as they have become an inevitable option of integration for our clients worldwide. eRevMax offers some of the most innovative and intuitive hospitality e-distribution products in the industry, and our hotel customers can now take advantage of this integration to improve their online visibility and revenue,” said Pedro Matoso, CEO, Newhotel Software.

“South America and Africa remain our growth zone, and this strategic partnership with Newhotel, one of the fast growing PMSs in the region, strengthen our offering. A greater number of hotels can now leverage the benefits of our Channel Ecosystem while streamlining their distribution efforts,” said Ashis Saha, SVP – Project Management, eRevMax.

eRevMax offers seamless connectivity with around 400 OTAs & 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.

For more details, please visit http://www.erevmax.com/ or contact us on marketing@erevmax.com

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2019: Time to relook at your Hotel Cancellation Policies

With ‘Free Cancellation’ almost becoming a norm with major OTAs, high cancellation rate has become a source of major concern for hotels. Cancellation is not at all welcoming for the host, and sometimes for guests as well.

For a long time, hotel industry has been fairly flexible with the cancellation policies. However, with the popularity of meta-search sites, even after booking, consumers now keep track of room rates. Whenever there is a drop in the room rates of the booked hotel or it’s competing properties, guests often cancel their existing reservations and rebook.

This high cancellation rate especially closer to the arrival has a major impact on the hotel’s revenue management decision where often inflated estimation of potential occupancy level leads to sub-optimal rates and lost revenue.

In the last few years, major hotel chains have been relooking at their cancellation policies and developing a strategy to address the changed consumer behaviour. While some hotels have followed the airline way, and introduced non-refundable early-bird rates, some have extended the cancellation cut-off. Empowered with comprehensive reservation data sources, including cancellation information, and analytics, hotels are now making thorough assessment of cancellation cost to hotel’s revenue and fine-tuning their cancellation policies in a strategic way. If you are planning to re-work your cancellation policy, here are some tips you can consider.

Limiting the Cancellation Period

Free cancellation is a major draw, especially on OTAs, to attract potential guests. However leading hotel groups are now extending the cancelling notice period from existing 24 hours cut off to 72 hours. Guests who cancel after that are charged with a penalty which varies from the cost of one night’s stay to total booking amount.

Variable Policy

Many hotels are now adapting to a dual strategy where there is a non-refundable rate and relaxed cancellation policy for premium rates.

Partial Payment for Guarantee

High-demand hotels often charge one night’s stay immediately after booking and debit the rest of the amount closer to the arrival while enforcing a strict no-show / cancellation penalty. While booking, guests are made aware of these finer points and as a result think twice before going for cancellation.

Vouchers instead of refund

Boutique hotels and resorts are now adjusting their cancellation policy in a way where for a last-minute cancellation, instead of a penalty, or refund, they are offering a voucher which the guests can use for a future booking within a stipulated period of time.  It’s often a win-win situation where the hotel gets the revenue and the guests the option to modify their plans.

Loyalty member specific cancellation policy

Some hotel groups with their own loyalty programmes have designed member-exclusive cancellation policies where loyal guests are given the flexibility to cancel their stay at the last minute even as other guests have shorter window. This benefit additionally gives hotels another opportunity to improve their loyalty programme which eventually results in more direct bookings.

No Cancellation

While some hotels do have this policy, in the age of online booking and price-comparison sites, this policy is tending to lose its acceptance.

The choice of cancellation policy depends on the dynamics of the market, hotel size and categories. For a business hotel, it’s is very difficult to implement a strict cancellation policy, whereas high-demand leisure resorts can afford to do so.

For years the hotel industry has been relying on a cookie-cutter approach when it comes to their cancellation policy. It’s time for change. Monitor your reservation sources and identify channels where the cancellations are coming from. Based on their data, hotels need to create cancellation policy terms for each rate-category, plan and channel. An advanced system like RateTiger, for instance, allows restrictions and cancellation policies to be assigned and updated for different rate plans on OTAs. The reservation delivery options immediately notify hotels whenever there is a cancellation, making it easier for them to allocate inventories accordingly.

Invest in a system which helps you to optimally manage your revenue and distribution efforts and save time to focus more on strategy.

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Top Tips to Improve Your Hotel’s Visibility on OTAs

Assuming that you are already distributing your hotel rates and availability on multiple online travel agents, we will delve straight into some top tips that you can utilize to boost your online visibility and improve booking revenue. The ground rule for working with any distribution/sales channel is to ensure that you keep your hotel listing up-to-date to give a true picture to the guests. That said, here are some simple tips that can further increase your hotel’s presence on these important channels.

hotels OTAs

1.  Regular Update of Content

Reinforcing the ground rule again – it is super important to keep your hotel listing updated and attractive. The language used to define your hotel amenities should be simple and fluid. Ensure that you have posted recent photos of the hotel’s different segments – lobby, façade, rooms, restaurants, banquet, swimming pool, gym etc. As they say, a picture speaks a thousand words – travelers like to know how the place looks before they decide if they wish to stay there. Details of room amenities, location, direction to reach, nearby attractions as well as hotel policies should be accurately displayed in relevant sections of the listing.

This builds customer trust and helps them make informed decisions. Further, it helps bring up your hotel on relevant search results when guests use filters on OTAs. For example, if your hotel is pet friendly, ensure that you mention it in your listing so that travelers who are looking to bring their pet can consider your property amongst others. Further, if any hotel policy changes, it is important to update them on OTAs. For example, if your hotel was a no-smoking property earlier, but if you have recently added smoking rooms, then you need to showcase that on the OTAs, so that people looking for such rooms will keep your hotel in consideration. These updates may seem minor but goes a long way to ensure that your hotel can be found easily depending on the visitor’s search behavior.

Further, to increase visibility in the search results, coordinate with the Market Manager of different OTAs you work with, to add relevant keywords and meta tags to highlight special offers and promotions. Depending on the OTA policy, most of the market managers allow you to submit the tag copy to emphasize your hotel’s new offering, renovation, festive discount etc.

2.  Ensure Rate Parity

The second most important tip is to ensure you keep your rates in parity across different distribution platforms. Travelers like to shop around when looking to book accommodation. When they see different rates for your property on different sites, it somehow impacts their trust factor. Further, OTAs tend to give you better ranking to hotels that have no rate parity issues as it helps maintain rate integrity for their channel as well. Additionally, when your rates are in parity, you can push your presence on meta-search sites to drive more direct bookings.

3. Targeted Advertising

Making updates and tweaks to your hotel listing on OTAs is a crucial part, but to give an additional boost to your property’s visibility, you can invest in targeted ad by bidding for top spots in OTA search results. Most OTAs offer this capability today and this is an easy way to increase exposure in these channels. However, it is best to make it goal oriented – pushing these ads for either specific promotional campaigns or to push visibility in certain markets during off-peak period.

Ads such as Expedia TravelAds or Sponsored Search on Travelocity and Orbitz can be effective if used correctly and it also helps improve the organic search ranking for the hotel on these OTAs.

4. Sell Last Room Availability

One of the core concepts of revenue management focuses around the fact that hotels should spread out their inventory on not rely on just 1 or 2 channels. While, the brand website, consortia and wholesalers are all important sales channels along with OTAs, there are times when you need to look at specialized or niche channels to make sure you sell off distressed inventory, up to the last available room.  Channels like HotelTonight helps hotels sell inventory in a 24-hour window as that is the core concept of the channel. The channels user base are mostly travelers that are looking for last minute deals and hence this can be a good platform to dispose distressed inventory. Further, channels like HotelByDay offer room booking by the number of hours thus raising the revenue potential of fixed inventory. As a hotelier, it is good to know about new distribution options and try them to explore new revenue potential.

5. Rapport building with OTA Market Managers

You can only do what is in your control with regards your OTA listing. However, if you maintain a great rapport with the OTA Market Managers, that can go a long way in helping you maximise your hotel presence. People like to do business with people they like – hence the human element is very critical in most businesses. Being in the good books of the OTA Market Managers, communicating with them regularly, inviting them for your hotel events etc. can help create strategic business relations and have a positive impact for your business. The market managers keep a tab on the pulse of booking patterns and trends and can be very resourceful, it all comes down to your strategy and skills to bring out the results.

It’s time to put these tips and tricks into practice and see how you can leverage them. A good presence across OTAs will have a billboard effect, which not only will improve OTA bookings but will also positively impact direct bookings from your brand website.

If you need help with managing OTAs for your hotel, set up an appointment with one of our Connectivity Advisors today – https://bit.ly/2HiEzJp.

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Spanish upscale hotel endorses RateTiger for distribution connectivity

Hotel Guadalmedina, an upscale hotel in Spain has recommended RateTiger for stable and seamless connectivity with world’s leading OTAs. The hotel, which has been using RateTiger Channel Manager for online distribution, has improved its visibility across OTAs resulting in positive revenue and occupancy growth.

Located in picturesque Malaga, Hotel Guadalmedina is a four- star property largely catering to leisure travelers. A popular choice for international tourists, especially from Western Europe and North America, it’s important for the hotel to maintain visibility across global and regional OTAs and metasearch sites. They have been leveraging RateTiger’s XML interface with leading channels to maintain real-time rate and availability for maximum exposure. RateTiger provides fully integrated, two-way XML connections to over 350 global and regional online booking sites.

“It is a very useful tool for rate and inventory management. RateTiger is fast and accurate, and any change in price and availability is immediately reflected across channels. The quick-close option has made it really easy for us to minimize overbookings,” said Gloria Noblejas, Director, Hotel Guadalmedina.

Prior to using RateTiger, Hotel Guadalmedina was finding it difficult to manage online sales channels. They signed up for RateTiger Channel Manager in 2010 and for the last eight years, they never had to rethink. Since partnering with eRevMax, the property has improved their online exposure considerably by expanding their distribution mix.

“Having tested other solutions available in the market, we can say RateTiger is far ahead of others when it comes to usability and support,” commented Gloria Noblejas, Director, Hotel Guadalmedina.

Meet the connectivity experts from RateTiger at FITUR Stand 10B08 in Madrid from 23 – 27 January 2019 – book a meeting now – https://bit.ly/2F6knJ0