Posted on

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

 

 

Posted on

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/

Posted on

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.

Posted on

eRevMax Certified Under EU-US Privacy Shield Framework

Hotel distribution connectivity leader eRevMax has announced that it has been certified from the U.S. Department of Commerce for the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework program. This certification assures that eRevMax solutions meet European Union’s General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) for the transfer of personal data between the U.S. and EU.

 

eRevMax’s solutions, RateTiger and LiveOS are used by over 9000 hotels globally for distribution connectivity. The self-certification validates the company’s already impressive data security initiatives including ISO/IEC 27001:2013 and PCI DSS certifications.

“This certification is a testimony to eRevMax’s commitment in delivering the highest standard for privacy and security to global customers. Our customers are very important to us, so we want to assure them, and their customers, that their personal information is safeguarded and that we have the most updated and appropriate data privacy systems and processes in place,” said Udai Singh Solanki, CTO, eRevMax.

Designed by the U.S. Department of Commerce and European Commission, the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework reflects the new requirements for foreign exchanges of personal data for commercial purposes replacing the previous Safe Harbor framework.  The new arrangement includes stronger data protection obligations for companies receiving personal data from the EU, effective protection and redressal for individuals, and annual joint review to monitor the implementation.

To join the voluntary Privacy Shield Framework, eRevMax self-certified to the U.S. Department of Commerce and publicly committed to comply with the framework’s requirements. The company completed a rigorous process to align numerous privacy policies with the new regulations before receiving its certification.

To read eRevMax’s privacy policy click here . To view Bullhorn’s EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework certification click here . For more information about the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework, visit www.privacyshield.gov.

Posted on

Hotelaria Brasil recommends RateTiger ahead of WTM Latin America 2017

Hotel connectivity expert eRevMax has consistently been recommended by its hotel clients globally. Hotelaria Brasil has been using RateTigersolutions across all its 14 properties for the past few years. The team has immensely benefited in their overall implementation of pricing and revenue strategies. 

Raffaela Gambarini, Revenue Management Coordinator at Hotelaria Brasil said “RateTiger comes to meet our Revenue Management strategy facilitating the daily tasks of a hotel Ecommerce department. We are very satisfied with all the features of RateTiger platform that allow us to save time and increase revenue results.” 
Alex Moura, Regional Sales Director at eRevMax commented, “We believe in long term partnership with our clients and treat them as business advisors. Over time, we have developed various new features within our Shopper and Channel Manager products providing more options and a wider network. We are glad to see how Hotelaria Brasil has leveraged RateTiger in achieving their revenue goals through effective pricing decisions.”
“We are excited to be presenting LIVE OS at WTM Latin America in Sao Paulo next week. LIVE OS is the first hospitality operating system that offers hoteliers with relevant business intelligence components along with access to various service providers from a single sign-on platform. We will be showcasing this fantastic platform to hoteliers and partners during the event,” concluded Alex. 
eRevMax is known for its stable solutions with 99% product uptime. The company has invested in building a robust infrastructure to provide hoteliers with uninterrupted service offering 2-way XML connectivity with over 300 online channels and provides 24×7 customer support. It is the connectivity partner of choice for large hotel groups, mid-scale chains as well as small properties in both luxury and budget segment worldwide. 
Alex Moura and Julian Lindt from eRevMax will be present at WTM Latin America in Sao Paulo from 4 – 6 April 2017. Book a meeting with them today on marketing@erevmax.com
Posted on

Five Things for Hotel Revenue Managers’ Checklist in 2017 – II

In Five Things for Hotel Revenue Managers’ Checklist in 2017 – PartI; we identified what hotels need to capitalize on for stronger performance in the coming months. Here we present to you the second part of this series – read on!
3.       Do invest on seamless booking experience

Online has made people more impatient, more demanding. I posted a query to an Airbnb host, and received a message within an hour. Today’s travellers want quick answers and simple processes – a phenomenon Booking.com calls ‘instant gratification 2.0’. According to an American Express survey, “78% of consumers have bailed on a transaction or not made an intended purchase because of a poor service experience.”Customer friction has a negative impact on the experience, and can lead to an overall negative feeling about the brand. With major OTAs and Airbnb investing hugely on guest experience with personalized trip planning, and easy cancellation features, hotels need to up their game. As booking moves to mobile, hotels can’t afford to not to have a responsive, mobile friendly, content rich and secure website for more conversions.
4.       Do implement revenue intelligence

Hotels have been struggling to handle the huge unstructured customer data they gather from online and offline channels. Advanced revenue and reservation analytics like pace, price-per-conversion or optimal position help hotels to accurately estimate occupancy and optimize ADR, based on season, weather and special dates. Platforms like LIVE OS from eRevMax, provides revenue and reservation insights along with actionable strategic inputs to help hotels implement total revenue management.
5.       Do open up to platform based technology


Looking at travel trends for the last 15 years, I can safely predict one winner –technology. From Expedia to TripAdvisor to Airbnb – every success story in the last one and half decades has technology at its core. There is an observation by TechTarget’s Tom Goodwin making social media rounds which say “The world’s largest taxi firm, Uber, owns no cars. The world’s most popular media company, Facebook, creates no content. The world’s most valuable retailer, Alibaba, carries no stock. And the world’s largest accommodation provider, Airbnb, owns no property. Something big is going on.”

As technology moves towards platform based model, hotel industry needs to look for a platform which can bring all their technology tools in one place. The platform based approach unifies all operation tools like PMS, OTA, Channel Management, Market Intelligence, Review Management etc and allows for the integration of external tools, channels, and vendors – providing an opportunity to leverage technology holistically. Yes, investing in technology comes with a price tag, however that doesn’t mean just not doing anything is an option.
Posted on

Five Things for Hotel Revenue Managers’ Checklist in 2017

2017 is going to be the year when online finally overtakes offline in Europe. We all have been listening to online becoming big, and getting bigger – but the reality was that offline travel bookings continued to get the lion’s share. All that is set for change though, as digital travel penetration in the continent finally crosses the halfway mark to reach close to 52% of all bookings by end of 2017, per PhoCusWright. With North America, also closing in to the tipping point, and Asia Pacific catching up faster than the average with 23% growth in digital sales, it’s time for hotels to take corrective actions.
In this article, we share what we think hotels need to capitalize on for stronger performance in the coming months.
1.       Do warm up to Demand Analytics

Rate intelligence for years have focussed on shopping rates for competitor set selected by the hotel. While monitoring rate of local competitors is vital, focussing on a small subset of the overall market, hotels often overlook the larger picture, missing out the demand data on most productive sources of business in their market. Advanced demand analytics solutions, like Demand Central, helps hotels measure their performance relative to their market performance from vital sources, like channels and regions and suggest situation-specific and channel-specific actions and alerts to increase business.
2.       Do make friends with OTAs
For long, hotels and OTAs have been in a tumultuous frenemy relationship. For hotels, OTAs were a disruption which they had to accept, however reluctantly. With the newest disruption looming over hotel industry in the form of Airbnb, hotels need more than ever to improve their presence in OTAs. With more people preferring experience over everything when it comes to travel, and Airbnb slowly consolidating its presence even on the luxury market, no hotel is in safe zone now. OTAs with their reach and marketing power can help hotels to increase exposure and improve online business.

In 2017, about 52% online hotel bookings in USA and 71%% of all online bookings for independent European hotels will be made on OTAs. Most often they are the first point of call for potential guests. Studies suggest, OTAs spend an average of USD 300 per hotel on promotions and marketing. For hotels to compete with OTAs on their own in digital marketing, the cost can go up to USD 7,000 to USD 10,000.  The trade-off between OTA commissions and direct customer acquisition cost remains a paradox for many hotels. While larger brands with a substantial marketing budget can compete with OTAs on visibility and presence, independent properties have to depend on OTAs for brand awareness, given their budget constraint.

Stay tuned for part two of this series which will be posted in next week.
Posted on

Visit SATTE 2017 to take benefit of attractive RateTiger offers

SATTE, the largest travel trade show in South Asia is going to be held from 15 – 17 February 2017 at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi. The 24th edition of the event is expected to have over 870 exhibitors and participants from over 40 countries. Almost all of Indian State Tourism Boards are expected to be present at the event which provides a perfect platform for the companies to meet industry veterans and hospitality professionals across the world.

Image: SATTE

In last couple of years, the increased use of mobile phones and high internet penetration in India has changed the travel space dramatically. The country is one of the fastest growing travel markets in Asia that attracted 8.89 million international tourists in 2016 – a 10.7% growth compared to last year. Since thousands of hospitality professionals will be visiting SATTE, this will be the perfect platform for us to promote our award-winning RateTiger ChannelManager solutions.

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 15 years. The company offers excellent connectivity with over 300 online channels and provides 24×7 support. Leading hotel groups including Accor, Kempinski, Oberoi Hotels, Dusit Hotels, Carlton Hotel Singapore and Golden Tulip, among others, have been the company’s loyal customers over the years.

To discuss your online distribution requirements, meet me at SATTE – drop me an email rammohand@erevmax.com to book an appointment.
For more details about our products and services, visit our website – www.erevmax.com.

Ram Mohan Dubey is the Regional Sales Manager at eRevMax. He can be reached at rammohand@erevmax.com.

Posted on

Top Spanish travel trends from FITUR 2017

Every year I come across a whole range of publications and various industry pundits who define hot new travel trends that keep trending across social platforms. This has become a kind of New Year ritual. This year I decided to join them and be in the news J


I was at FITUR recently and it gave me the perfect platform to hob-nob with my fraternity members. I noticed that there are certain hot-ticket items that cropped up in most of these discussions. This made it easier for me to put together what I call my list of ‘top Spanish travel trends for 2017’. While I got the topic items from my meetings at FITUR, a lot of research has been put behind digging out relevant statistics to make this an interesting and useful piece. So grab a cup of coffee and enjoy the read.
Personalized Service at every touch point

Spain is the third largest county in the world in terms of international tourist arrivals and second most popular country in Europe after France. In 2015, around 68.2 million international tourists visited the country. Being a Spaniard, I have witnessed how technological shift from the last decade has changed travel planning and guest behaviour. A booking.com survey shows that 44% of travellers expect to be able to plan their holiday in a few simple taps on their smartphone and over half (52%) of respondents expect their use of travel apps to increase in 2017. There is no doubt that a country having 74% internet penetration with young and affluent travellers, Spaniards will expect personalized services at every touch point whether it is travel booking or during the stay.
Automation

How much time do you spend on travel research when planning a holiday? Remember the Google study which stated that a traveller visits around 22 websites before makes a booking! We all know that travel planning and research can get ridiculously time consuming and boring. However if you look at the right places, you can crack a great deal in a matter of minutes. Channels like Kayak which offers price comparison have come in very handy for quick travel decision making.


Most of the providers are now toying with automation and coming up with platforms that will provide travellers with everything they need. They just need to feed in their requirements and platforms like Hipmunk do all the needful. Hipmunk is currently beta-testing what it calls ‘Hello Hipmunk’ – a feature that atomically finds best deals for you and notifies when there is lowest available price. I like the feature and tested it on my Skype which is really cool. Instant messaging platforms like Facebook Messenger and newly launched Google Allo let users get travel related information instantly.
Mobile Travel on the rise

Mobile technology is enmeshed in our daily lives so much so that it affects every decision we take – whether it is booking a movie ticket or the way we travel. Most of our activities and planning today start from the mobile. Starting from looking for a preferred accommodation to booking taxi or sharing travel experience in social media – all are connected to mobile. I was talking to an OTA and we got talking about mobile apps. Today most of the big travel brands have invested in developing their own travel apps to woo travellers and through various ‘in-app offers’ they are trying to convert these travellers into loyal customers.


I realised that hoteliers are not far behind – major hotel chains like Hyatt, Marriott, Starwood and Hilton among others, have their own app where guests can book the hotel directly from their mobile device. With mobile taking centre stage, it is expected that mid-sized and smaller travel brands will soon jump into the fray to offer mobile experiences and offers to their guests.


Ximo Garcia Argent is Sales Manager for Spain and Portugal at eRevMax. He can be reached at ximog@erevmax.com


Posted on

Are you at FITUR 2017? Meet RateTiger at Stand 8D08



The whole Spanish travel industry assembles every January at Feria de Madrid for the international tourism trade fair – FITUR. 

Hotel technology expert eRevMax – the company behind leading channel manager and rate shopping brand RateTiger, is currently there to meet hoteliers and discuss their connectivity needs. If you are at FITUR, drop in to Stand 8D08 for a quick chat.

Company COO Yoram Ben-Zvi who is attending the event says “Spain is one of our biggest markets in Europe. Over the years, we have studied the region closely and observed that the consumer buying journey has evolved like never before. Guests increasingly expect top of the line personalized services from hotels. To help hotels focus on their key task of serving guests, eRevMax continues to develop technology solutions to help automate their back-end distribution and rate shopping requirements.”

Spanish hotel groups including NH Hotels, Vincci and Acta Hotels have been using eRevMax solutions for their distribution and connectivity needs over the years.

While RateTiger channel manager continues to lead the market, eRevMax has now launched LIVE OS, an innovative new platform that brings multiple hotel service providers together so hotels can easily manage them from a single screen. Various international hotels chains have already signed up for LIVE OS and eRevMax is keen to showcase it to Spanish hoteliers who are considered to be early adopters when it comes to new innovative technology solutions.

To book a meeting with us, contact marketing@erevmax.com today.