Category: Hotel Online Distribution

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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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5 tips to optimize your hotel’s profile on Booking.com – Part 5

We aim to bring to hotels quick and easy ways to optimize their presence on Booking.com and get more reservations for their property. Through this series, we are highlighting tips that you can leverage through the various promotional options that Booking.com provides.

In the last part of this series, we will talk about the Payment solutions available through Booking.com

Allow Booking.com to take care of online payments

Data breach and payment security have been one of the biggest concerns of the hotel industry. In the last 2 years, many hotel chains have been victims of data compromise. A robust payment solution is a must-have for hotels to avoid security breach and guaranteed pay outs.

Booking.com has recently introduced guest payment options which can help hotels reach more guests, reduce cancellations, and save time on administration related stuff.

Secure, reliable, and easy to manage, the payment module gives hotels a wide range of options including internationally recognized PayPal, Alipay and WeChat Pay.

To know more about this, please check out this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgKfMcRLebY&feature=emb_title&ab_channel=Booking.comPartners

Benefits for Hotels choosing Booking payment solutions –

  • Put an end to chasing down guest payments
  • Eliminate dealings with fraudulent online bookings
  • Avoid guaranteed payouts according to the hotel policy

Benefit for Guests –

  • Choice to select from a wide range of payment options

According to Booking.com data, guests who make online payments are much less likely to cancel or have no-show than those who don’t – ensuring more secure revenue for the hotel.

Booking.com offer properties two payments solutions to choose from:

  1. Guests can only pay online (i.e. Booking.com facilitates all payments),
  2. Guests can either pay online or at the property (i.e. Booking.com only deal with the hotel’s online payments).

To know more about how you can get started, contact us on marketing@erevmax.com

 

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5 tips to optimize your hotel’s profile on Booking.com – Part 4

In this series, we are focusing on easy recommendations that you can leverage for driving more demand to your property through Booking.com.

In the fourth part of this series, we will discuss Non-refundable Rates and how you can benefit from it.

Non-refundable Rate

According to a recent survey done by Booking.com, the two most important considerations for making new bookings are flexible cancellation policies and competitive pricing offers. In the third part of the series, we discussed the benefits of Flexible Rate Plans. However, for 40% of travelers, pricing is a major factor, and this is where non-refundable rate comes into play.

Benefits of Non-refundable Rate

Non-refundable rate typically offers lower rates than fully flexible rates and are quite popular with travelers with fixed plans. Hotels often offer non-refundable rates to secure guaranteed bookings and revenue.

According to Booking.com data, hotels who offer this Rate Plan reduce cancellations by an average of at least 9% and have experienced overall booking boost by up to 5%.

Booking.com recommends participating hotels to combine at least two of three rate plans: Free Cancellation, Non-Refundable and Early Booker. Data shows that hotels who have efficiently used all three have seen a 5% increase in bookings, an 11% increase in visibility and a 9% reduction in cancellations.

Hotels can activate the Non-refundable rate plan from their RateTiger dashboard, by simply selecting the option from the promotion tab. They can also monitor and modify all existing campaigns on Booking.com from the View and Apply Promotion Module on RateTiger.

To know more about it, contact us on marketing@erevmax.com

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5 tips to optimize your hotel’s profile on Booking.com – Part 3

Through this series, we are highlighting some of the deals and promotions that you can leverage to attract more business to your property through Booking.com.

In the third part of this series, let’s look at Flexi Rate and how and when to activate it.

Be more flexible with your rate policy

Thanks to the uncertain times we are living in, traveler behaviour has gone for a radical shift in the past one year. With flights being rebooked and travel plans being bumped, many guests are now wary of sudden change in plans.

According to a survey done in April 2020 by Booking.com, 73% of customers cited free cancellation as their main reason for booking a property. A fully flexible rate plan allows hotels to offer potential bookers more freedom in case their travel plans or general circumstances change.

However, because of its flexible nature, this rate plan is also the most expensive one making it the most profitable for hotels.

Flexible – 1 day policy

Due to the ongoing pandemic, most hotels across the world have taken a flexible approach to their pricing policy. Booking.com has recently created the Flexible – 1 day policy which allows hotels to quickly extend all your free cancellation periods to one day before check-in. This basically means a guest can cancel for free until 24 hours before the check-in. After that point, they will be charged the cost of the first night if they decide to cancel.

Benefits of the Flexible – 1 day policy

  • Drive more bookings by potential guests looking for flexibility.
  • Improve visibility in search ranking.
  • Decide which rates you want to convert to ‘Flexible – 1 Day’ policy and have full control on all rates.

Adding Flexible Rate Plans

Hotels can create and manage the Flexible Rate Plan either from their RateTiger Channel Manager platform or from the Booking.com extranet. For any queries or to see how to set up this Rate, contact us today –marketing@erevmax.com

 

 

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5 tips to optimize your hotel’s profile on Booking.com – Part 2

In this series, we are focusing on easy and highly actionable tips on the best ways to optimize Booking.com channel to get more reservations for your property.

In the second part of this series, we are happy to highlight the Early Booker Rate on Booking.com.

Create special promotion for Early Bookers

Done correctly, promotion can be a great tool to grab attention of the bookers searching for a property.  Hotels can create targeted campaigns through their offers. Booking.com allows Early Booker Rate for hotels to target potential guests who prefer booking far in advance. This way, hotels can secure bookings well before a busier season giving it a chance to start from an advantageous position.

The Early Booker deals are flexible options where hotels can fix their own discounts, duration, time and booking window based on their requirements. They can set them up and run the promotion for multiple days or months when this promotion will be visible to guests.

Want to know where to start?

Booking.com recommends setting the Early Booker Deal promotion up for a minimum of 30 days in advance from check-in. Many hotels create special rates for lead time of 90 days and 180 days in advance as well.

In recent months, Booking.com made significant updates on this promotion. The Early Booker Rate is designed based on the COVID-19 recovery patterns identified in guest demand and can easily be adapted to any hotel’s particular situation and needs.

A point to remember

Hotels can leverage Early Booker Rate to improve occupancy for future dates. However, the hotel revenue management team needs to be extra careful to control this promotion and ensure only eligible guests receive this special rate.

You can now create and manage an Early Booker Rate directly from the Promotions section on your RateTiger dashboard. For any queries or to see how to set up this Rate, contact us today –marketing@erevmax.com

 

 

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5 tips to optimize your hotel’s profile on Booking.com

We are glad to bring you a short series of posts, where we will cover 5 specific tips on how you can optimize your hotel’s profile on Booking.com and attract more reservations.

Through our 5-tips series, we will share 1 recommendation on each post and explain how you can utilize it to your hotel’s advantage. Starting with the first of this series, lets talk about the Genius Program.

Join Booking.com’s Genius Program

Genius is an exclusive loyalty program which brings partner hotels and frequent bookers closer.

According to Booking.com data, on average, hotels taking part in the Genius program have experienced increase in their bookings by 18% and revenue by 17% – even including the cost of discount.

Hotels taking part in the Genius program gets a special Genius tag, ranking boost and better visibility in search results on Booking.com which helps in getting more bookings faster.

The property is displayed to a select group of customers who travel more often, book further in advance, and spend more when booking.

Hotels can always check their eligibility on the booking.com extranet:

https://admin.booking.com/hotel/hoteladmin/extranet_ng/manage/genius.html?lang=en&ref=menu&ses=9a4c805441d3dabfc9d218c48e008cf2&hotel_id=522903.

If the eligibility criteria are met, they can sign up to Genius via the “Opportunities” tab in their Booking.com Extranet.

The participating partners automatically enable the mandatory 10% Genius discount on their least expensive or most popular room and start attracting high-value Genius guests.

To know more about the perks of becoming a Genius Hotel Partner, click here.

If you are looking for assistance with managing your online channels, contact us today.

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The Week, That Was – March 2021 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!!

Travel Tech Announces First 2021 Virtual Conference for USA & Canada, from March 8-12, 2021 

Join us to explore new business frontiers and discover innovative technologies. Hear from experts on how they are adapting to the new normal and generating revenue opportunities for their business. 

The event will provide North American hotels with technology-based educational resources & actionable strategic updates, designed to support their financial recovery. 

Register Now for all five days of the Travel Tech USA & Canada conference - https://event.webinarjam.com/register/1/x463mfm 

 Business travel in the age of Covid-19 

 Business travelers rely more on their corporate travel booking partner to ensure travel accommodations are safe, and making last-minute changes as government policies shift. 

 https://www.travelerstoday.com/articles/49160/20210303/business-travel-in-the-age-of-covid-19.htm 

 Italy has a new way to combat overtourism 

 Before travel opens up again, Florence wants to make sure things will not return to the way they were before. One way to make sure of that? Diverting visitors away from Florence itself. 

 https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/uffizi-diffusi-tuscany-galleries-overtourism/index.html 

 TripAdvisor’s new subscription model wins fans on Wall Street 

 With TripAdvisor Plus, the fees that hotels normally pay the company will instead go to the consumer. 

 https://www.barrons.com/articles/tripadvisor-stock-new-wins-a-fan-on-wall-street-51614709413 

 When can we go on vacation again? This is what experts say 

 While travel experts are optimistic that things will slowly begin to open up again this year, how quickly that happens will depend on where you are, where you want to travel to. 

https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/when-can-we-go-on-vacation-again/index.html 

The changing face of travel payments 

Travel players are putting together preliminary itineraries for consumers looking to book trips but holding off on taking payments. 

https://www.pymnts.com/travel-payments/2021/the-changing-face-of-the-travel-payments-supply-chain/ 

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

Thanks and have a good day!

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Hoteliers to stay cautious as per eRevMax’s Hotel Sentiment Outlook 2021

eRevMax has published an in-depth Hotel Sentiment Outlook for 2021 based on hotel survey conducted in December. The report highlights varying levels of business confidence among hoteliers with Middle East showing strong travel rebound while most Western markets are far from normalcy.

The travel sector is unpredictable and with the spread of the new Covid 19 strain, the situation continues to look grim. The survey shows that hotels are cautious and looking for ways to generate new business.

As far as expectations regarding the time required for the market to recover and reach pre-Covid levels, the industry is largely divided. Around 40% of participating hoteliers felt that the travel industry will take up to 2 to 3 years to reach pre-Covid levels of business. While short term recovery has been witnessed in some regions, by and large, hoteliers feel that recovery will take longer, possibly by 2024. Almost 75% respondents believe that there will be a spike in domestic tourism while all other segments of tourism – MICE, corporate and foreign travel will continue to underperform over the next few months.

The survey findings show that hotels are prioritizing online sales to drive demand with channel management and booking engine solutions, even as there is a definite shift to automated touchless solutions.

To know more such key insights, please download the full report – https://www.erevmax.com/ratetiger-news/ratetiger-news-archive/jan2021-erevmax-hotel-survey-highlights-varying-levels-business-confidence.html

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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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HRS, Winsar Group and Digibreaks join the eRevMax Partner Ecosystem

With new travel regulations being put in place across geographies due to the new Covid-19 strain, the hospitality industry is facing yet another period of uncertainty. As hoteliers, it is important to continue focusing on building a strong network of channel partners to get a share of the trickling demand wherever possible. As a distribution connectivity leader, we continue to promote OTAs and source channels that can bring new reservation for hotels. RateTiger offers a network of over 450 deeply integrated global, regional and local channels. Contact us today to expand your distribution connectivity today.

HRS

Our long-standing partner HRS is a market leader and considered one of the top three hotel portals in Europe. With over 300,000 properties across 190 countries, HRS offers a huge range of hotels worldwide for both leisure and business travellers, allowing guests to book their preferred hotel room and category quickly and easily. Add them to your distribution network to expand your online visibility and market share.

Winsar Group

If you are looking to switch your PMS, Winsar Group can be your next technology partner. It provides on-cloud property management system for hotels and resorts globally with an install base of 1500 hotels across 30 countries. Their main product WINHMS PMS is designed to handle high volumes of transactions with ease. The deep integration with RateTiger allows for seamless ARI and reservation flow, making it a smooth transition for your property. To request a demo, contact us today.

DigiBreaks

With the focus on domestic tourism, it is time for hotels to connect to relevant local and regional that can bring more business. Our Ireland based partner Digibreaks, is the ideal choice if you are looking to promote staycations and weekend packages. With over 1300 properties from Ireland, Sweden and Norway listed, Digibreaks processes around 15000+ bookings every month and delivered over €60m in revenue to partner hotels last year. Connect and manage Digibreaks through RateTiger today.

Are you looking to manage any new tech partner or channel from your RateTiger platform? CONTACT US TODAY – https://www.erevmax.com/erevmax-contact.html