Tag: channel manager

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The Week, That Was – July 2019 Week 3

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!!

ARABSOFT completes technical connectivity with eRevMax

eRevMax, the leading travel technology provider, has certified Tunisian PMS developer ARABSOFT after having completed 2-way technical integration. Mutual hotel clients can now leverage the interface to benefit from direct rate and inventory updates to online sales channels and receive reservations seamlessly into their hotel management System, Xlia by ARABSOFT.

https://bit.ly/2M085nW

Deep dive into APAC online travel agencies – Part 2

According to the World Travel and Tourism Council, five of the world’s ten fastest growing tourism cities are in Asia, making it the hot spot for the travel marketers. Propelled by high penetration of mobile, the region has been witnessing double digit growth in online booking, making it a priority region for global OTAs. However, the market is still dominated by local and regional players, even as global OTAs make strategic investments to make inroads.

https://erevmax.com/blog/index.php/2019/07/deep-dive-into-apac-online-travel-agencies-part-2/

Google downplays dominant role in travel

If you run a hotel, airline, or online travel agency, and you thought you needed to buy advertisements in Google search or Google Trips, then guess again — it’s probably not as essential as you have long believed because consumers begin their travel searches with “specialist competitors.”

https://skift.com/2019/07/16/google-to-congress-were-not-a-travel-monopoly/

Travelport optimistic about constructing a customer-centric future

The Internet of Things, mobile, Artificial Intelligence (AI), data analytics and cloud computing are combining, to forge a future that’s more customer-centric than anything that’s gone before.

The next generation of systems are not going to own the system of record, but will own the system of intelligence, using data analytics to intelligently connect supply with demand.

https://www.travolution.com/articles/111958/big-interview-the-travelport-architect-optimistic-about-constructing-a-customer-centric-future

TripAdvisor: How reviews impact bookings

The global study, conducted in partnership with Ipsos MORI, polled over 23,000 TripAdvisor users across 12 markets on the use of online reviews and their role when booking hotels, restaurants and experiences.

https://www.traveldailymedia.com/tripadvisor-how-reviews-impact-bookings/

The basics of keyword research for Search Engine Optimization: a guide for hotels

There are a lot of factors that contribute to SEO success. But in short, search engines make it a priority to provide the best content for users based on a given query. This is often referred to as “intent-based search” and it’s at the heart of Google’s machine learning algorithm.

https://bit.ly/2GkMzqx

Could your hotel’s channel strategy be costing you direct bookings?

Hotels of the past faced serious challenges in driving occupancy, with static and siloed inventories spread across a number of third-party partners. A solution to this was to use wholesalers, whose objective was to give travel agents competitive B2B inventory and provide reach all over the world to facilitate bookings.

https://triptease.com/blog/could-your-hotels-channel-strategy-be-costing-you-direct-bookings/

BCD Travel unveils new version of TripSource app

The app will now include self-service features, pre-trip planning and booking, improved design and navigation and will be made available to all travellers in mid-July 2019 in over 113 countries and in five languages.

https://www.traveldailymedia.com/bcd-travel-unveils-new-version-of-tripsource-app/

How hotels should adapt to Google Travel and intent-based search

Today, if you want your hotel website to move up through the search results, you need to give travelers what they’re really looking for. You need to match their intent. There’s another reason why Google has stopped rewarding keyword-focused content. PPC and display ads convert at a higher rate when they match a person’s intent.

https://www.traveltripper.com/blog/how-hotels-should-adapt-to-google-travel-and-intent-based-search/

Google experiments with hotel room booking module placement

Changes could be coming soon to the layout of Google’s hotel search as the company tests some modification on its room booking module. According to Koddi, if Google pushes this change live to a wider set of traffic and device types, this would allow travelers to see a greater variety of information and options for hotels within the same view.

https://koddi.com/google-experiments-room-booking-module-placement/

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

Thanks and have a good day!

 

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Deep dive into APAC online travel agencies – Part 2

With increasing disposable income and expanding tourism, Asia Pacific has become the fastest-growing regional travel market. According to the World Travel and Tourism Council, five of the world’s ten fastest growing tourism cities are in Asia, making it the hot spot for the travel marketers. Propelled by high penetration of mobile, the region has been witnessing double digit growth in online booking, making it a priority region for global OTAs. However, the market is still dominated by local and regional players, even as global OTAs make strategic investments to make inroads.

In our series on Online Travel Channels in APAC, we have looked into major players shaping the digital travel space. In the first article of the series, we have discussed the giants in the region – Agoda, Ctrip and Make My Trip and their secret sauce to success. In this second part, we will be focussing on local players who are dominating the online travel space in their respective regions.

Fliggy

Fliggy (formerly known as AliTrip) – the travel booking site from Alibaba, is an important player in the China focusing on the upmarket segment – particularly the travel aspiring millennials and international travellers. Of the 10 million daily active users on Fliggy, 80 percent are millennials with college degree living on tier-1 and tier-2 cities – giving the platform a unique exposure and reach. Alibaba has also positioned it as a “premium” travel booking site focusing on outbound travel. The site is designed as youthful, refined, geared toward long-haul, leisure, experiential, as well as luxury trips, rather than the usual to short-term or domestic business travel. From its partnership with Marriot group to getting Booking.com to launch a flagship store on its platform, Fliggy has been making a series of strategic partnerships to create a global brand. Leveraging Alibaba’s ecosystem, which is used by 699 million mobile monthly active users, the platform is positioning itself as a travel marketplace covering the 360 degree of travel to provide consumers with better travel products and service experience. This means a traveller with high purchasing power can plan and book their travel on Fliggy, buy additional items necessary for travel from Alibaba owned e-commerce site Taobao while using Alipay for transactions, ensuring a seamless user experience throughout.

Rakuten Travel

Japan’s online leisure/unmanaged business travel market is the second largest in Asia Pacific region. Founded in 2002, Rakuten Travel is one of Japan’s largest online hotel reservation website with over 3.7 million room nights booked per month. The channel receives 5.34 million unique visitors every month. The firm has access to more than 20,000 domestic and 15,000 international hotels and has a presence in South Korea and China. Rakuten Travel, which is the most popular OTA in Japan, is owned by Rakuten Group, which provides more than 70 e-commerce services beyond travel. The group, often compared with Amazon connects services within its ecosystem enabling users to access all services within the system by using a single login ID, and the same loyalty program for a seamless experience. The company has invested heavily into artificial intelligence and big data for understanding changing consumer behavior and effective personalization.

Traveloka

Traveloka, one of late entrants in the market and founded by three friends in Indonesia, is one of the biggest success stories in the online travel space in South Asia.  The channel which offers flights, hotels, trains, tours & activities, transfers and packages is present in Southeast Asia’s six primary markets — Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam and the Philippines. With the introduction of PayLater, an online credit system without the need for a credit card, Traveloka is poised to make further inroads into the region where relatively low penetration of credit / debit card has remained a hindrance to online payment. The channel is also actively pushing into the lifestyle category and has recently rolled out a discovery platform featuring restaurant and wellness activities. The Traveloka mobile app has been downloaded more than 30 million times, making it the most popular travel booking app in the region. With Expedia’s investment into the channel making it the first billion-dollar start-up in Indonesia, the company has been adding more products and services including bundles to mobile applications to make it a one-stop-shop for customers to book and redeem travel themselves.

As hoteliers, are you ready to tap into the Asia Pacific market? Are you managing these channels well and keeping them automatically updated with rates and availability on a regular basis?

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

 

 

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5 Best Ways to Make Your Hotel Service Sought After through the Search Engines

When a traveller wants to find a hotel, they try online options and take help of the search engines like Google or maybe Bing. These search engines provide reviews, rates of different rooms, location of the hotel and the data on vacant rooms. The hotel business owners would therefore like more visibility for their website and the information regarding the hotels.  The best way is to turn to search engine optimization ways and improve the ranks of the site.

Hotel Service

1) Optimization of the site through search engine

The online business owners work with the strategy of bringing their site to a better ranking position of the search engine. This gets the pages of the website of the hotel more visibility and takes care of the complex algorithms of the search engines. The site of the hotel is optimized when more people land into its pages and gather the information provided in various contents of the pages. They find it fruitful and come back for more and this way increase the ranking.

2) Site must be for the readers and users

When one wants such higher ranking for their websites, they should check on the loading of the pages of the site and its contents.  The site should also be mobile friendly to bring in more users to its pages. You should check the contents of the site from the user’s point of view and make them as user friendly as possible. This will bring more users for the site pages.

3) Make your content more relevant

The website’s content is the main thing on which the users would like to depend. This is the reason why the content should be updated at regular interval and the information, text or images of the web pages must be reliable and effective to the topic that is being discussed. The blog that is regarding your business would bring in more interested people to your site and when you provide high quality content that is helpful or interesting for the reader, they make it a point to visit your site regularly.

4) Connect through local search engines

The site that you develop should be good with the local search engines. This helps the bigger search engines like Google to optimize the sites that are doing well with the local search engines. You can create a page for your business through Google and add the name of your property to the virtual directory. You can add the contacts of your business and also keep those details in your websites too. This will help optimizing your site.

5) Building of links can be helpful for optimizing

The sites can include in its pages both incoming links and links that connects to other pages. The SEO service providers will tell you how these links can improve the footsteps in your site. The links that will bring in viewers from other popular sites of the same genre can be real good for your new site. You will do good to include links into your site content from other sites to make your site a better place for gathering information.

Get more traffic through sharing from social media

The simple step of sharing your pages through the profiles of social media can be real effective way to get direct traffic. This will encourage people who are interested in the topics of your website – to land into your pages. You can also connect the Hotel Directories, Google Places and various other digital platforms so that your website gets more visibility through any of the digital pages. You will find more like minded people pouring into your website to go through the information and content provided.

 Reviews from Google users can improve your ranking

The review from customers has been given more and more important from the search engine Google.  The developers find these reviews bring in more customers and viewers for the website and hence it plays most important role in improving the ranking of a site. Hence the hotels that want a better ranking should encourage their customers to provide positive and truthful reviews.

Get Hotel channel manager software at https://www.erevmax.com/ratetiger/ratetiger.html

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Abasto Hotel experiences 65% revenue growth with RateTiger Channel Manager

Abasto Hotel Buenos Aires,  a  property in Argentinian capital, has improved its online sales by over 80% leveraging eRevMax‘s gold standard of connectivity with leading OTAs. The Buenos Aires based property has been using RateTiger  Channel Manager  for online distribution and managing rates and inventory across its connected OTAs since 2012.

A family-friendly property with 126 rooms, Abasto Hotel is located in the historical district, just steps from Museo de los Ninos and Abasto Shopping Center and caters to upmarket business and leisure travellers. RateTiger’s seamless connectivity with global and regional OTAs as well as metasearch sites allows Abasto Hotel to be visible in all relevant sales channels for maximum exposure.

“In the past 4-5 years, we have seen our online revenue grow 65% with an 80% increase in OTA sales. We have experienced an overall growth in business and our occupancy have gone up despite the macro-economic factors,” said Silvina Donvito, Revenue Manager at Abasto Hotel Buenos Aires.

“RateTiger is more than just a hotel channel manager. It’s a powerful tool that makes connectivity simple and hassle free. The stable and secure connections help in making immediate rate and inventory updates across all channels while also delivering bookings back into the system. Further, the 24×7 support makes it very convenient as we can go to them whenever with the smallest of query and they are always happy to help,” concluded Silvina.

The Argentinian hotel market is characterized by regional operators that have a strong position. With supply of rooms outpacing demand, online channels have emerged as an important revenue source for hoteliers. Abasto Hotel, with 15 OTAs in its distribution mix, has been able to improve its occupancy to 85%, about 20 points more than the industry average in Buenos Aires. This has resulted in an increase in RevPAR and profitability, with the help of RateTiger Channel Manager.

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Hotel GDS Description – how to get it right?

The GDS still is, and will most likely remain, a noteworthy channel for ARI distribution and reservations for hotels. Both recreation and corporate travel operators utilize it to search and book hotels. Numerous OTA sites likewise utilize the GDS for room stock. Hence, it is critical that your hotel is available on GDS.

We have put together a few tips and tricks on how hotels are getting the most out of their GDS channels through descriptive content. The Hotel GDS Description (HOD) goes about as your hotel’s electronic leaflet. It is conceivably your brand brochure for tour operators and travel agents to access and get all the pertinent details with your property description, hotel amenities and data about neighborhood attractions etc. Here are the top GDS HOD Tips:

  1. General hotel description – Try to keep your hotel description very targeted – put the hotel USPs and try to provide key differentiators and why a guest must chose your hotel over competitor’s.
  2. Facilities and Services – List out all your amenities and services – provide restaurant details, timings, cuisine along with details of in-house services like salon, spa, gym, pool etc. Also, drop in a line about safety and security as these tend to be a key concern today.
  3. Area Information: Mention any specific locational advantage you might have. Or else list out the nearby attractions to draw interest. Whether your hotel is downtown or near the airport, remember to put your Geo code for correct location identification.
  4. Property Address – Make sure you put your hotel’s full address and zip code correctly. Sabre uses the official street address to geocode the property. If you don’t have a street number, use 1, to ensure better visibility and bookability.
  5. Driving Directions – Provide details on the easiest way to reach your property, whether it is from the airport, train or bus stations or from downtown. Also, provide a phone number in case a guest is stuck and wants to connect to the hotel.
  6. Room Type Name – GDS’s provide 30 characters to cover this, so be creative. But remember to make sure that it’s easy to understand the room type by the name you provide to it.
  7. Room Type Description – Try to use this section to attract your guests with room details and inclusions like in-room coffee machine, free wi-fi, luxury bathing products, etc. The description should also adhere to the kind of property it is – luxury, corporate, budget etc.
  8. Presentation – It is best to keep the description language crisp and fluid. Travel agents prefer short sentences or bulleted description. It helps to capture relevant points while covering all the necessary information.
  9. Nearby Attractions – Include details about attractions in the area, timings, distance and directions to the place. This makes your hotel more appealing and train your concierge or front office staff to have details about shows /tickets at these attractions.

Keep your Hotel GDS Description up to date. Whenever you introduce a new service or roomtype or if there are new attractions nearby, remember to update your hotel description. Always provide correct information and present in a nice and concise manner. Always keep your USPs on the top to catch the attention of the travel agents.

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The Week, That Was – July 2018 Week 3

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!!

Expedia says packages are better for hotels than room-only

Hotels are achieving higher average daily rates (ADR) from consumers who book packages rather than just rooms, according to data from Expedia Group.

The online travel giant said consumers buying packages paid around 30% more in ADR than those making standalone hotel bookings.

https://www.tnooz.com/article/expedia-says-packages-are-better-for-hotels-than-room-only/

 Indian budget hotel endorses RateTiger Channel Manager for online distribution

Kolkata based IndiSmart Hotel has endorsed RateTiger for simplifying online distribution. The property has been using eRevMax’s cloud-based Channel Manager and Shopper for managing their online sales channels and has improved their business operational efficiency.

https://goo.gl/gyX3Jr

Hotels.com launches hideaway hotels category

Hotels.com has introduced the Hideaway Hotels category in response to a lift in bookings in the last two years, with a 60% spike in guests leaving positive reviews for off-the-grid hotels.

https://goo.gl/N3SCFX

Is hotel luxury dead?

When hotel discount brokers offer “luxury” accommodations at $49 a night, as occurred during the recent Independence Day holiday, does the word “luxury” have any useful meaning?

Read the interesting article: http://exclusive.multibriefs.com/content/is-hotel-luxury-dead/travel-hospitality-event-management#When:13:51:00Z

 How Booking.com is trying to solve travel’s pain points

The CMO of Booking.com explains how the company is trying to ease some of those unhappy surprises. Learn more about it by watching the video.

https://goo.gl/4AoyiF

Google tests location tab for hotel knowledge panels

Google is testing a new location tab and section within the hotel knowledge panels. The location tab contains information that tells you what is around the hotel, including sections such as highlights, top sights and a getting-around section.

https://goo.gl/v4eKcn

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

Thanks and have a good day!

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The Week, That Was – July 2018 Week 2

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!!

eRevMax completes integration with Argentinian Booking Engine

We are glad to introduce our new Argentina based Booking Engine partner –  Div-it. Connect and manage your hotel booking engine via  RateTiger and Connect platforms for seamless channel management.

https://www.erevmax.com/ratetiger-news/ratetiger-news-archive/july2018-erevmax-integration-with-argentinian-booking-engine.html

Google Hotel Ads joins Google Ads

Google Ads has introduced a new campaign type designed to help hotel marketers better manage their advertising. In addition, there will be a new “Hotel Center” in Google Ads to simplify the management of hotel price feeds.

https://www.blog.google/products/ads/hotel-campaigns/

Why Hotels need Channel Manager?

A channel manager helps you to implement yield management techniques effectively i.e. to sell the right room at the right time at the right price on the right channel.

https://erevmax.com/blog/?p=503

 lastminute’s Travel People builds up suite of marketing products

Our partner lastminute.com launched its advertising platform Travel People which allows clients to advertise across lastminute’s five brands, including lastminute.com, Rumbo, bravofly and Volagratis, as well as working with nine external sites run by partners through its Travel Alliance consortium.

Read the interesting story: https://www.tnooz.com/article/lastminutes-travel-people-builds-up-suite-of-marketing-products/

Why hotel brands and franchisers secretly love OTAs

What really matters most to the brands is getting their hotels to produce more revenue. The more revenue the better.. Now OTAs are the ones who are giving immense revenue to hotel industry.

https://insights.ehotelier.com/insights/2018/07/13/why-hotel-brands-and-franchisers-secretly-love-otas/

Day of the independents – why chains are seeing tech-savvy competitors celebrate

As competition among hotels remains heated due to new construction and market saturation, independent hotels continue to thrive and outpace chain hotels.

This is taking place in both growth and their average daily rate (ADR).

https://www.phocuswire.com/Rise-of-independent-hotels

Revenue management adapting to predictive pricing tools

It’s a constant back-and-forth: Hoteliers will always try to get the highest rate possible, and in return, guests will always try to figure out a way to pay the lowest amount possible.

As technology in the travel industry advances, guests are finding an advantage in the evolution of predictive pricing tools, such as those offered by Google Travel or apps like Hopper, which predict future hotel room rates to tell guests whether they should book now or wait until the rate lowers.

http://www.hotelnewsnow.com/Articles/287265/Revenue-management-adapting-to-predictive-pricing-tools

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

Thanks and have a good day!

 

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VHP Announces Connectivity Integration with RateTiger

SUPRANUSA SINDATA, leading provider for hotel management system in Indonesia and eRevMax, a hotel distribution and connectivity expert has announced the integration of VHP – Visual Hotel Program and RateTiger Channel Manager.

RateTiger offers real-time monitoring of room availability, room rates, and restrictions across all connected online travel channels. The system is now connected to VHP PMS which allows hoteliers to quickly and efficiently manage all reservations, eliminating manual data entry.

“This integration with Visual Hotel Program (VHP) by PT. SUPRANUSA SINDATA, one of the leading property management systems in South East Asia, complements our continuous effort to provide hoteliers with technology that makes their business easier to manage and more profitable,” said Ashis Saha, Senior Vice President – Project Management at eRevMax.

“The integration with RateTiger – eRevMax will assist our hotel customers to have a better online reservation experience through vast network of volume-producing and branded online travel agent (OTAs),” commented Dipl.Ing. Christian Yie, Business Development Director of PT. SUPRANUSA SINDATA.

The seamless connectivity between VHP PMS and RateTiger eliminates the need for accommodation providers to maintain online inventory manually across OTAs, metasearch and GDS channels, and manually re-enter online reservations from booking websites into their PMS. This results in immense time saving, reduced overheads and resources, as well as avoiding manual mistakes, giving hotel revenue managers the time to focus on revenue strategy rather than distribution efforts.

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The Week, That Was – June 2018 Week 2

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!!

 

Hotel Beacon NYC recommends RateTiger as the most effective Channel Manager
The upscale hotel has been using RTConnect for 2-way XML connectivity between its property management system and online sales channels for the last three years to effectively manage all its demand partners seamlessly.

https://goo.gl/tJt9yX

How TripAdvisor ranks hotels
Online guest reviews have become worth their weight in gold to hotels. Today, a huge 95% of people read a travel review before they book a trip, which means building a strong online reputation plays a fundamental part in attracting guests and driving bookings.

http://www.traveltripper.com/blog/how-does-tripadvisor-rank-hotels/

Securing last-minute bookings during peak season
Peak season in travel presents its own unique challenges. The article explores why deep discounting may not always be the winning recipe to secure late bookings and how thinking outside the box is necessary to maximise revenue. Every hotelier and property has to deal with peaks and troughs in demand, but if rooms need to be filled at the last-minute, being able to think beyond dropping prices and taking a more strategic approach could give you that crucial competitive edge.

https://click.booking.com/features/2018/06/04/securing-last-minute-bookings-peak-season/

Are hoteliers too skeptical of artificial intelligence?
AI disruption has already begun in the business world, and the hospitality industry should pay close attention. Hotel companies must already be strategizing about how they can take advantage of this inevitable new wave of automation and guest-experience evolution.

https://www.phocuswire.com/Hoteliers-skeptical-of-AI

How and why you have to deal with the watershed that is GDPR
The GDPR is a watershed event that will impact every business that collects personal information, wherever located, and no industry will be more impacted that the hospitality industry. Other companies can choose not to do business with EU citizens; some companies have determined that it is impossible to comply and have actually closed. That is not an option for hotels. Hotel companies need to understand the goals and requirements of the GDPR. The nature of hotels and the various data holding sources such as OTA bookings and PMS systems escalate the regulation for travel and hospitality industries.

https://ehotelier.com/global/2018/06/08/deal-watershed-gdpr/

In land of the giants, smaller OTAs find ways to grab customers
According to Phocuswright’s U.S. Online Travel Overview 17th Edition Report published in February, OTAs’ market share rose to 19% in 2017 from 17% in 2015. Booking Holdings brands Priceline and Booking.com accounted for 23% of the U.S. OTA market share last year, while Expedia brands (excluding Egencia and HomeAway) accounted for 69%.

http://www.travelweekly.com/Travel-News/Travel-Technology/Smaller-OTAs-find-ways-to-grab-customers

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

Thanks and have a good day!

 

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Hotel Beacon NYC recommends RateTiger as the most effective channel manager

 Hotel Beacon, a landmark in New York City has highly recommended RateTiger for managing online channel connectivity. The upscale hotel has been using RTConnect for 2-way XML connectivity between its property management system and online sales channels for the last three years to effectively manage all its demand partners seamlessly.

Located in  Upper Westside, right next to Beacon Theater, the hotel with 284 rooms, caters to tourists and business travelers. Given the intense dynamic nature of New York’s hotel market, it has become imperative for the hotel to maintain rate parity and online availability across all major sales channels and metasearch sites. The revenue management team is leveraging RTConnect to update rates and inventory in real-time and receive reservations directly into the PMS thereby giving a clear picture of actual availability at all times. They are also using the advanced analytics available on the LiveOS dashboard to fine-tune their pricing strategy, monitor their booking pace and performance in real-time.

“We highly recommend RateTiger by eRevMax to anyone looking for an effective, online channel manager. We are very pleased with the personalized support and excellent response time, due to which they seem like an extension of our own team,” stated Milja Perkovic, Director of Revenue Management, Hotel Beacon NYC.

“As a technology partner, we are committed to empowering our customers for all their connectivity needs. Being trusted by a prestigious property like Hotel Beacon NYC for streamlining their online distribution shows how well we deliver when it comes to best-in-class technology and premium customer service,” said Alex Moura, Regional Sales Director for North America at eRevMax.