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ÖHV-Hotelierkongress 2012

I attended the ÖHV-Hotelierkongress 2012 in Schladming last month and was pleasantly surprised in my first week taking over the region by the warmth and friendliness of Austrians. It turned out to be a well organized event with over 600 attendees comprising hoteliers, representatives from tourism boards, business and economy.

The focus for this year’s congress was to gauge current changes in society resulting from the recession and political shifts and its impact on the hospitality & tourism. The conference covered topics like impact of crisis and austerity on tourism, dealing within a changing world, the role of tourism in integration, the Family Hotel 2020 and the change in e-tourism.

For me, it was a great opportunity to meet with local hoteliers and discuss channel management and the potential it offers. The hospitality scenario in Austria is dominated by family run leisure hotels and small establishments. The awareness about online distribution has started to seep through though it will take some time to gain momentum. The event provided a good networking platform and it was a valuable learning experience for all present.

I look forward to the next edition and other such events in the region.

Cristina Hernandez is Sales Manager for Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Eastern Spain at eRevMax and is responsible for sales of RateTiger products in the region. She can be reached at cristinas@ratetiger.com

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HOSPACE 2011 Conference

HOSPACE is the annual conference and exhibition hosted by HOSPA (formerly BAHA) – the UK’s leading educational organisation for hospitality professionals. The event took place on 24th November 2011 in UK and saw approximately 400 delegates attending it. 

The event opened with an overview of the industry and the upcoming Olympics, post which it moved on to a panel discussion on key issues, trends and developments facing Finance, Revenue Management and IT professionals followed by the Hospitality IT Debate and a Revenue Management Session.

There were some educational workshops lined-up as well. My colleague Casey Davy did a presentation on Online Distribution and Channel Management which was very well attended.


Overall it was a very successful show as the turnout was great. It was a good mix of suppliers including hotel technology and the buyers which comprised of large hotel groups as well as standalone properties which made it more interesting.

Not only did the event receive excellent feedback from all exhibitors, but the delegates too shared positive reviews and found it a worthwhile platform for business.

Sunaina Jagtiani is Sales Manager – UK at eRevMax and is responsible for sales of RateTiger products in the region. She is based out of London, UK and can be reached at sunainaj@ratetiger.com

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Hungary Hotel Association General Assembly


Earlier in November, I was in Budapest to attend the General Assembly of the Hungary Hotel Association. It turned out to be a great event with many hotels attending. The Association President election was also held on this occasion.

Sascha Hausmann, CEO, eRevMax International was present at the event and was invited to do a presentation on the ‘Evolution of Online Channel Management’. The session was very well received and there was a lot of interest among hoteliers to understand new technology trends in online distribution.


Other topics of discussion revolved around issues related to tourism in Hungary, need for better industry statistics and election of the new president. The event provided a good networking opportunity and the Gala Dinner was great.

Overall it was a nice platform to meet up industry partners and hoteliers in a professional setting. I look forward to the next edition.

Lilian Stjepanovic is Sales Manager – Eastern Europe at eRevMax and is responsible for sales of RateTiger products in the region. She can be reached at lilians@ratetiger.com
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WTM 2011: RateTiger Updates

The recently concluded World Travel Market in ExCel London was a well organized show and one of the best in recent times. It provided good opportunities to visitors and exhibitors to do business as well as reach out to new contacts.

RateTiger was present in full force and most of our Sales Managers from across the globe descended upon London to witness this grand show. Below are excerpts from some of their feedback on the event –

Pilar Sanchez Aita, Sales Manager – Spain & Portugal says, “This year’s edition was excellent; it helped me further strengthen customer relations and gain new prospects. The main topics of my discussions revolved around new revenue trends such Flash sales (Groupon), Social Media booking engine, online distribution, the affect of the recession on Southern European markets for domestic travel, etc. RateTiger’s stand location was fantastic, which helped generate a lot of traffic.”

Ryan Haynes, VP – Global Marketing says, “This had to be the best show RateTiger has done in the 5 years of exhibiting at WTM. It was certainly the year for Technology and a year for Channel Management solutions with all global enterprises present and visible at the show. We had a busy four days and a very successful presentation on the second day delivered by Keith Povah.”

“As for the core discussions – Channel management, for the first time, was a key topic of conversation, while social media tried to reign supreme. Again the recent news and discussion surrounding TripAdvisor was not sitting well with hoteliers. Hotels are looking for tangible results from marketing and sales strategies and distribution was answering most of their questions. Many exhibitors were talking about RateTiger – some nice free marketing.”

Lilian Stjepanovic, Sales Manager – Eastern Europe quipped in, “The show was fantastic as I got to meet a lot of hoteliers from my region. Having the same stand location helps in the sense that most people know where to find us. Overall, a great show which makes a lot of business sense.”

Keith Watson, Division President – RTCorp concluded, “This year’s show was very successful. My team took the opportunity to setup many meetings with prospects we have been cultivating over the last 12 months. These went very well. We also met with some new potential customers, who liked what they saw in RTCorp. Our discussions focused around filtering shopped rates as well as better understanding price comparison websites.”

All in all, a grand show, very well organized and an event that will see RateTiger come back every year.

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Tigers in London for game planning

Tigers from across the world congregated in London, UK for the annual strategy convention. RateTiger representatives from Asia, Europe, South America and USA came to Reigate in Surrey to discuss plans for world domination.

In total there were about 30 of us looking at the new trends in channel management, the challenges hoteliers are facing and the effects that the economic situation could have on hotels. The International Sales Meeting gives us the opportunity to share best practices, identify similarities in market behaviours and plan product development to meet the new demands that hoteliers are facing with pricing, distribution and bookings.

This event is always an eye-opener as we discover there are similarities between Asia and USA while many European countries behave differently to each other. The past year has also seen emerging markets becoming more relevant for our technologies; through a series of regional sales presentations we learned which market wants what product immediately showing the differences in approach by revenue managers.


The three-day conference gave us all the opportunity to meet in person away from our emails and Skype in favour for more real discussion, debate and laughter. Now RateTiger has completed a very successful 10 years in the business, the team are pent up to drive forward for the next decade.

We’re ready for 2012.

Ryan Haynes is VP – Global Marketing at eRevMax and is responsible for driving all PR and Marketing activities of eRevMax and its various product brands globally. Ryan is based out of London and can be reached at ryanh@ratetiger.com

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ITB Asia 2011

The fourth edition of ITB Asia gave a record performance and attracted 7511 trade visitors representing 91 countries. Exhibitors from over 70 countries were represented from as far as Botswana, Finland, Croatia and Iraq as well as partner country Japan who reported an increase in business activity at ITB Asia 2011, reiterating the strength of the regional travel industry despite economic uncertainties.

RateTiger was among the exhibiting team and had a great show. I was there as part of the Asian sales team and was very glad to meet old and new clients as most people attending the show are now aware of our presence in this event. We received rave reviews about our product as well as visibility in the region.

Our discussions with hoteliers and travel fraternity revolved around the benefits of integrating with RateTiger as well as the necessity of Channel Management software in today’s time. Keith Povah, Division President – RTSuite gave a presentation on “The evolving world of hotel online distribution” which was very well received by attendees.

We had a pretty successful show and managed to create various new contacts. I look forward to ITB Asia 2012 which is expected to be bigger and better. 

Kenneth Yeo is Sales Manager – APAC at eRevMax and is responsible for sales of RateTiger products in the region. He is based out of Singapore and can be reached at kennethy@ratetiger.com
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RateTiger Shortlisted for Travolution Awards 2011

RateTiger, the premium channel management solution provider, has been nominated as a finalist for the Travolution Awards in the Best Technology Provider category. The nomination has been made based on its channel connection achievements.

The Travolution Awards, considered one of the industry’s highest accolade for online innovation and excellence in the UK, aims at recognising companies, brands and individuals who excel in the fields of online travel distribution, digital marketing and technology.

RateTiger has been recognised for its success in creating the largest online channel network, offering hoteliers’ access to more than 750 OTAs globally. The full service channel manager constantly develops technology to help hotels to take advantage of new opportunities to optimise marketing and sales online including utilising social media platforms like Facebook. It recently became the first channel manager to distribute hotel inventory and rates to eBay, the largest international ecommerce platform representing 14% of global e-commerce.

“We encourage innovation and integration of technologies to support the evolution of online sales and channel management. Hoteliers are fond of our solutions because we provide them meaningful single-point access to all required channels, and continue to add new platforms” said Michael McCartan, COO RateTiger. “GDS, via CRS, booking engines, tour operators, OTAs to social media, online advertising and auctioning platforms has been very successful. Now with this prestigious award nomination, we know we are on right track and will continue to create value for our customers.”

These connections help hoteliers to broaden the reach of newer market segments, further maximises online revenues while minimising the workload involved in researching and managing new media.


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Newshound: Trends and Reports – Hotel Online Distribution

Social Media and Review Analytics Guide for Hotel Marketing
While online reviews understandably receive a lot of attention in the hotel industry from a reputation management perspective, there is another use that is equally important: setting the direction of your marketing and advertising campaigns.
The TripAdvisor effect: Are online reviews making hotel brands irrelevant?
Take a destination based Google search for Super 8 Motels, for example. On the front page, you’ll see ratings that hotel guests have written about particular Super 8s on TripAdvisor, Yahoo Travel and Yelp. Importantly, the reviews vary widely.

The Smart Hotelier’s Guide to 2012 Digital Marketing Budget Planning
2012 is quickly approaching and budget-planning season is upon us. Whether you are just starting to think about where you are going to allocate your dollars, or are moving towards finalizing your budget for next year, this is the perfect time to take a step back, review the state of the industry as well as your property’s successes and failures in 2011, and prepare for a year of driving the most revenue ever through your most cost-efficient channel – the hotel website.
ADR, guest satisfaction: Opportunity and action
This is the first in a series of columns from J.D. Power’s Stuart Greif that analyzes and provides deeper insights into the company’s 2011 J.D. Power and Associates North America Hotel Guest Satisfaction Study.
 
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Newshound: Trends and Reports – Hotel Online Distribution

The 5 Defining Moments of 2011 (So Far)

Tumultuous. This is the word that springs to mind to characterize 2011 for our industry. Whereas last year saw online travel companies at the mercy of economic conditions it seems that 2011 has been more defined by competitive forces and players. Survival of the fittest has evolved into only the savvy prosper.
http://www.eyefortravel.com/news/industry-analysis/5-defining-moments-2011-so-far

Are travel shopping sites killing technical performance?

This is a guest article by Dorian Harris, founder of hotel booking site Skoosh. I stumbled across an amazing piece of software recently called Splunk. It does for server logs what Google does for web-pages, more or less.
http://www.tnooz.com/2011/09/05/news/are-travel-shopping-sites-killing-technical-performance/

Dubai hotels posts biggest jump in occupancy in MENA region | EY Reports

Hotel occupancy in Dubai witnessed a 10.5 percentage points increase in July 2011 year-on-year, the biggest such increase within the region, global consultancy Ernst & Young said in its Middle East Hotel Benchmark Survey.
http://ahla.hsyndicate.com/news/4052831.html

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GBTA Convention 2011

The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) – the voice of the global business travel industry had a record breaking 2011 GBTA Convention in Denver, Colorado last month. Over 6,000 people attended the event, amongst which were 1,200 travel buyers, making this one of the largest GBTA Conventions in its history.

The RateTiger stand at the convention experienced a good show with a large number of pre-confirmed visits gaining a lot of interest among travel buyers. The main topics of discussion revolved around identifying how real-time hotel rate benchmarking can best benefit the corporate travel market and the individual corporate travel manager.

Travel managers mostly use historical rate data for price-comparison; but they know that real-time benchmarking will take the industry to a new level, which led to their added interest in RTCorp. This product fulfills two main areas of demand for the corporate travel managers – (a) To show supervisors how their negotiated hotel rate compares against publicly available rates on the internet to support their negotiations; (b) To provide corporate travel managers with email alerts that identify future instances where the publicly available rates may be cheaper than their negotiated rates and therefore provide them with the opportunity to renegotiate with those hotels in advance of their travelers booking their travel. In addition corporate travel managers are looking for a tool that audits their negotiated rates and availability across their chosen GDS.

Another point of interest for us was RateTiger’s nomination for the GBTA Travel Innovation Award 2011 under the Travel Management category. This was very encouraging for us given that RTCorp was launched to the corporate travel segment only recently. We look forward to coming back to the GBTA convention next year for many more productive discussions and yet another meaningful show.

Mark Neter is the Sales Manager for RTCorp. He is based out of Orlando, Florida and can be reached at markn@ratetiger.com