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Know your Chinese Guests


133 million Chinese travelers took international trips last year – that’s more than the population of Japan – the world’s 10th most populous country. And if we consider the spending of Chinese travellers who spend nearly equivalent to what American, German and British tourists spend, it’s no wonder globally hotels are focussing on China specific marketing campaigns.
Chinese free independent traveller (FIT) has become the talk of every trade event and conference. With affluence and sophistication, more and more travellers are seeking experiences, and shedding tour operators. More than 70 percent of Chinese outbound travelers now plan and travel independently, a huge shift in their travel behaviour. According to a recent report, about 68% Chinese Independent travelers are millennials with high disposable income and education degree. And predictably, they prefer online.
Ctrip rules, and rules big
While traditional tour operators still get the biggest share of the pie, about 20% of all travel bookings are made online. That makes it about 26 million people who usually book online. After Ctrip’s partnership with Qunar, the local OTA giant – Ctrip now controls about 60% of China’s online travel market, well ahead its closest rival Alibaba Travel with 15% market share.
Mobile Booking
Internet in China is led by mobile, with about 731 million  people  using it to go online and that somewhat explains the emergence of mobile as a serious booking channel. According to a survey by 
Travelzoo, over 85% of their Chinese members rely on travel apps for the easiest way to book a holiday, and over 70% plan to book flights, cruises, package holidays and hotels via apps –  a stark contrast from their European counterparts who have shown resistance to adapt to mobile.
The Social Network
Chinese have their own social network, and they are in love with them. Chinese Internet users spend majority of their time on social networks – so if you are not visible in Weibo or Wechat, chances are that you are unlikely to capture their attention.
As China starts expanding its tourism industry, catch them early. The potential is enormous.
To reach out to Chinese Travelers, connect with us. We offer 2-way XML connectivity with all leading Chinese OTA and metasearch sites.
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eRevMax wins the ‘Bosses Cook-off’ at Holiday Inn Kolkata

Holiday Inn Kolkata hosted the first edition of Bosses Cook-off on 28th July 2017 and invited the top bosses of select corporates in the city for a cooking competition along with a team of their employees.
Our CTO, Udai Singh Solanki received the invitation and decided to participate. He chose a team of 4 members – Aditya Mohanty, Isabella Grundmann and myself, Meenakshii Shivnani, with Udai being the team lead. The theme for the evening was ‘Asian’ and we needed to prepare one main dish live at the venue. So, we brainstormed and decided on a Thai dish – Gai Pad Krapow (Thai Chilli Basil Chicken) with a pickled raw papaya and vegetable salad.
When we reached Holiday Inn for the competition on Friday evening, we were in for a surprise. What we saw was like a mini Masterchef type setup – with a cold section containing a variety of meat, fish and seafood, a vegetable mart with the choicest of vegetables, local and exotic, and lastly shelves full of sauces, spices and other dry ingredients. All participants were explained the rules of the competition and the event flow.
And like in true Masterchef style, we were given a surprise task – we had to prepare not one, but two dishes – an appetiser and a main course which must include a protein, starch and vegetable. With only 10 minutes left to start, we had to quickly think of an appetiser to go with our Thai theme. We finally decided on Panko Crumbed Prawns marinated in a Thai red curry paste with a peanut dipping sauce as the appetiser to go with our main chicken dish.
At the start of the clock, there was a hurried frenzy on all the tables.  We started our preps and were surprisingly done within 30 mins, thanks to the amazing coordination we had as a team. It is interesting to note that all 4 of us come from cross-functional departments, however we made a great team for this competition – the binding factor being a strong passion for food! It became like a team bonding activity for us, thanks to Holiday Inn.
While we waited for others to finish, we interacted with the hotel sales team, chefs and the 2 famous food/lifestyle bloggers – Indrajit Lahiri & Poorna Banerjee, called in as the Judges for the evening. What flowed was some good wine and great conversations.
During this time we walked around to check out what our competition was up to and saw most teams cooking up mostly dishes from the Pan-Indian region, from Bengali to Punjabi to Rajasthani. 
However, we believed that our preparation, although quick and simple, was authentic, flavourful and different than what others were doing.
The last 15 minutes went by in a blur, our dishes were ready and plated and our work stations were clean. The scoring was to be done on taste, presentation and cleanliness. The 3 judges – the Executive Chef of Holiday Inn and the 2 food bloggers made their way through each of the 8 teams’ tables.  After the tasting, we were escorted back into the banquet hall for the announcement of the winners.
The first set of awards went for various categories like cleanliness, time management, etc. Finally the actual winners were announced and we were pleasantly surprised to be awarded the 1stprize. Our prize kitty included – a staycation voucher at the hotel, F&B vouchers, chocolates and a “Winners” trophy.
The four of us went in not knowing what to expect. We came back with a fun experience of an evening worth remembering!
A big shout-out to Holiday Inn Kolkata for organizing a refreshing conceptual corporate event, executing it very professionally and giving us a chance to be a part of its success!
Meenakshii Shivnani is Lead Implementation Consultant at eRevMax and is a key part of the Implementation team. She is passionate about food and loves to experiment with different cuisines. She can be reached at meenakshiis@erevmax.com

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InterContinental Istanbul improves efficiency with RateTiger, saves over 1.5 hours daily to focus on strategy.


InterContinental Istanbul, one of the luxurious addresses in the Turkish capital, has endorsed RateTiger for reducing workload and time to manage OTAs. The hotel has been using award winning channel management solution from eRevMax to update rate and allotments across online sales channels since 2014.
The Turkish hospitality industry is characterized by smaller booking window and high volume online bookings. InterContinental Istanbul, a part of InterContinental Hotels & Resorts, is at present, receiving about 65% of their total bookings from online sources. The extreme competition fuelled by additional supply of rooms in the city, safety issues and geopolitical uncertainty has made managing online sales channels even more complex.
“Mostly bookings happen at the very last minute – a lot of bookings come in closer to the stay dates, booking window is getting shorter. This has changed the way we do business. We now update OTAs daily – sometimes multiple times a day,” said Nil Hepiseri, Director of Revenue, InterContinental Istanbul.
InterContinental Istanbul is leveraging RateTiger Channel Manager to update live rates and availability across multiple booking channels directly from their Property Management System (PMS) using the pooled inventory concept. All reservations made on these distribution channels are captured and available inventory automatically redistributed helping the hotels push last-room availability thus ensuring maximum occupancy.
“We are saving over 1.5 hours daily through the automated updates – just one change in the dashboard – and it gets reflected across all connected OTAs. With chances of manual error getting totally eliminated, we can focus on strategy,” commented Nil.
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HotelTonight partners with eRevMax to integrate RateTiger into its platform


HotelTonight, the leading mobile app for last-minute hotel bookings, today announced a new partnership with travel technology leader eRevMax, which assists hotels to maximise online revenue opportunities through real-time distribution, market intelligence and connectivity solutions.
Today’s new partnership gives the 9,000 hotels currently using eRevMax’s industry leading RateTiger channel manager the ability to seamlessly send inventory directly to HotelTonight as a new distribution channel. HotelTonight is focused on selling hotel inventory up until the last minute, generating revenue for hotels from rooms that otherwise might not be sold. For HotelTonight, this partnership gives its customers access to inventory from eRevMax hotel partners globally, including large hotel chains, mid-market segment and boutique hotels.
“We are excited to connect our customers to RateTiger’s outstanding hotels while offering them a powerful new distribution channel — one that has an engaged consumer audience looking for great hotels, right up until the last minute,” said Amir Segall, HotelTonight VP of International. “HotelTonight wants to help all partner hotels reach maximum occupancy on any given night.”
Ashis Saha, SVP, Project Management at eRevMax comments, “We’re thrilled to connect to the industry’s leading last-minute booking app, providing our partner hotels a seamless way to move last-minute inventory. The key to success here is our ability to deliver reservations immediately so the hotel front desk has the booking details ready when the guest checks in, which could be any time
after they book a room via the HotelTonight app.”
As the entire travel space moves increasingly mobile and last minute – more than two-thirds of U.S. domestic hotel bookings and half of E.U. hotel bookings are within one week of arrival.*
HotelTonight has established itself as the leading last-minute booking app. With an average of one-third of hotel rooms unoccupied on any given day, HotelTonight enables its hotel partners to move last minute inventory while bringing incremental revenue and a new audience: 76% of HotelTonight users are first-time customers of the hotel.
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eRevMax integrates with Moroccan PMS Pluri-Hotel


eRevMax has become the first connectivity provider to complete 2-way integration with Moroccan PMS company Pluriel. The strategic partnership between the two leading hospitality software specialists will allow hotels to manage their revenue and online distribution with only one application.

Pluriel is one of the upcoming PMS providers in the Maghreb region currently serving over 150 hotels.  Accommodation providers using the tool can leverage RateTiger and RTConnect to distribute availability and pricing to a variety of third party booking sites and receive reservations directly. 
“Lower tier accommodation providers within developing countries have been facing challenges trying to strive for business in the online world. Through this partnership, we are solving properties and hotel owners’ problems with technology that is simple and easy to operate. eRevMax’s connectivity with 300+ online channels will allow them to expand their online visibility,” said Idriss Rahmani, General Manager, Pluriel.
“Our interface with Pluri-Hotel PMS provides hoteliers an option to manage online channels cost effectively without worrying about maintaining online inventory manually across each booking website. The secure XML connection ensures live rate and inventory updates as well as booking data retrieval, thereby keeping the hotel PMS updated at all times,” said Ashis Saha, SVP – Project Management, eRevMax. 

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Malaysian Arenaa Star Hotel Kuala Lumpur improves online sales through efficient rate distribution


Arenaa Hotel, one of the popular hotels in Kuala Lumpur, has improved its online business with eRevMax solution. The 3-star property has been using RateTiger’s cloud based channel manager to manage their room availabilities and rates across multiple online sales channels and increase revenue.
Located in Kuala Lumpur’s famous China Town, Arenaa Star is a three-star property with around 250 rooms. The property has been leveraging RateTiger’s real-time connectivity with over 300 online sales channels to connect to the better producing OTAs, resulting in an increase in occupancy and profit.
“RateTiger is more than just a channel manager. It’s a powerful tool for the ease of connectivity and making quick updates across all channels. The helpful pace report guides and enables us to plan and meet our monthly sales target. The detailed demand information and scores ensures our selling strategies work more effectively. On top of that, the excellent support from RateTiger team is what makes it the perfect partnership,” said Nicholas Asam, Executive E-Commerce Marketing & Communications, Arenaa Star Hotel.
“At eRevMax, the focus has always been on providing hotel partners stable connection with a bouquet of choices for making the best use of their distribution mix. RateTiger and LIVE OS have been built with a vision to make online sales simpler for hotels, and Arenaa Star’s recommendation is a testimony to that,” said Ram Manohar Dubey, Sales Manager, eRevMax.
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How to Increase Guest Satisfaction with Messaging?

  
Travellers become guests as soon as they click the “book now” button. At this point, travellers open the line of communication between themselves and your hotel. But how do guests want to be communicated with, and what messages do they really want? Recently, we published the findings of a travel industry study, which identified a gap between how customers expect to communicate with hotels, and the experiences that hotels are actually providing. 
 
Clear communication between a hotel and its guests has a major influence on guest satisfaction, which can be measured by the difference between guest expectations and their actual guest experience. In our research, we wanted to identify the guest’s expectations in order to help hotels achieve this reality for their guests.

For the study, we surveyed 920 adults over the age of 18, all of whom travelled and booked an accommodation online within the past 12 months for business, leisure, or both. Here are some of the key findings:

●     The majority (80%) of hotel guests expect that the accommodation provider will initiate communication regarding their booking, and 80% also expect this to be sent via email.

●     73% of guests communicate through online communication channels, combining emails, social media, and text messaging; additionally, two-thirds say they prefer to communicate through written electronic means rather than by phone.

●     Guests who communicate through text messaging services and through social media report statistically significantly higher satisfaction levels over those who do not.

●     A large majority (75%) of guests want to communicate one-to-one with representatives on location and 91% would communicate issues during their on-site experience.

These findings indicate that hotels must begin communicating right at the moment of booking, and keep it up throughout the entire guest journey. By investing in guest messaging solutions, hoteliers can improve the guest experience, leading to higher satisfaction rates, increased guest loyalty, and ultimately, more hotel revenue.

To download the full study or to know how you can improve guest experience, fill up the form below –

This is a guest post by Valerie Castillo, Senior Director of Marketing at TrustYou.
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Grupo Real Turismo chooses RTConnect for maximising online revenue for additional properties


Mexican hospitality major Grupo Real Turismo has chosen to expand its partnership with eRevMax to centrally manage online distribution for 9 additional properties taking the total to 38. The group found RTConnect to be the perfect 2-way connectivity solution between its property management system and online sales channels to increase online visibility and revenue.
Headquartered in Mexico City, Grupo Real Turismo has 40 properties across 27 locations in Mexico, totalling over 6,885 rooms. The group, which operates three brands, receive 3 million guests annually. To ensure the group’s visibility is maximised across multiple sales channels, the revenue management team relies heavily upon the strong connectivity and secure updates offered by eRevMax through its ISO and PCI certified solutions.
“Our synergy with eRevMax has been wonderful. RTConnect’s expansive channel network gives us direct access to new, important source markets, and greater visibility in existing ones, to significantly lower our cost of acquiring guests. Our entire distribution process is centralized thus making it easier to monitor how we are performing against targets and manage accordingly. Secure channel connections and immediate updates help us implement strategic decisions instantly thus helping maximise group revenue effectively,”said María Sandoval, Gerente E-commerce, GRUPO REAL TURISMO. 
“Being trusted by a prestigious hospitality company like Grupo Real Turismo is a testament to eRevMax’s strong focus on product innovation and seamless distribution connectivity. The significant improvement in their operational efficiency through RTConnect prompted the revenue management team to implement it in 9 additional properties, further centralising their sales and distribution efforts to optimize costs and increase booking revenue through eRevMax,” said Julian Lindt, Regional Sales  Director – Mexico, eRevMax.
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DusitPrincess Srinakarin Bangkok Hotel recommends RateTiger for channel management and rate data


DusitPrincess Srinakarin Bangkok Hotel, a part of Thai Hospitality Brand “Dusit International”, has improved its online business leveraging eRevMax solutions. The hotel is using RateTiger Channel Manager to update rates and availability across connected channels and receive reservations. The property is also leveraging RateTiger Shopper to monitor competitor rates across channels.
Located in a prime business district in Bangkok, DusitPrincess Srinakarin Bangkok Hotel caters to business and leisure travellers. RateTiger’s seamless connectivity with all leading OTAs and meta-sites allow them to be visible in all relevant channels for maximum exposure. The in-built booking trends and business analytics data give the hotel key market insights to make informed decision.
“We have been using RateTiger Channel Manager and Shopper for online distribution and rate benchmarking. The products are very simple and easy to use. We can manage all our channels in real-time and ensure we are not losing business to competitors. I can recommend this tool for any hotel that wants to effectively manage online revenue,” said Kanokwan Opassakulchai, Assistant Revenue Manager atDusitPrincess Srinakarin Bangkok Hotel.
“Making online distribution management easy for hoteliers has remained our mission for the last 15 years. We have invested in building stable connectivity with over 350 OTAs and technology providers. Our solutions simplify operations, improve efficiencies and give hoteliers time to focus on strategy,” said Ram Mohan Dubey, Regional Sales Manager at eRevMax.
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Hospitality Technology leaders announce networking event for hoteliers in Toronto


Hospitality connectivity expert, eRevMax has teamed up with industry leaders including Fornova, HRS, Sojern, TrustYou and Vizergy, to host an exclusive gathering for hoteliers on 27th June 2017 in Toronto, Canada. The event, to be held on a yacht at the harbour front, will bring together peers from the hospitality industry to unwind and network over cocktails.
The event is aimed at providing hoteliers and technology providers an interactive platform to exchange ideas and explore collaboration possibilities. The luxurious Miss Toronto, moored at the Toronto harbour front, is just a short walk from the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, providing a perfect venue for an evening of fun. 
There are some cool state-of-the-art hospitality technology products worth thousands up for grabs. Aptly titled ‘An Evening of Fun in Toronto’ – this is an Invitation Only event. For more details about the event, please contact marketing@erevmax.com.