Tag: eRevMax

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How to Know When Your Hotel Property Management System Needs a Change?

Property Management System (PMS) is important for hotel properties, and here are a few signs to indicate when it needs a change.

With changes in time, the needs of your hotel tend to change and the goals and requirements of your hotel property, staffs and guests change as well. The Property Management System (PMS) of your hotel has a short longevity. Here are a few signs that will indicate when your PMS needs a change.

hospitality property management software

Less control / idea about hotel operations

The main purpose of a Property Management System is to smoothly manage the operations of your hotel. The long-term success of your hotel depends on a PMS that satisfies the reporting requirements of your hotel. In case the existing system makes it impossible or tough for you to generate the numbers required for your business’ growth or evaluation, you should look for a new PMS that makes the job easy. With a good PMS, you can create customized reports and filter, export and sort the data that you need.

Your existing PMS frustrates employees

The actual worth of a PMS is defined basically by those who use it every day. If your staffs complain that the existing system in your organization is buggy, slow and comes with poor support, it is better that you get in touch with a new PMS that is known to offer a better user experience and uptime. A strong Property Management System makes even complicated tasks simpler, and ensures that everything is automated and each process is streamlined.

Your PMS requires 3rd party app integration

With PMS, it is often complained that these do not integrate or important communication tools and features cannot be implemented fully. If the existing PMS in your workplace is showing its age, and seems to be outdated enough as far as features and integration go, it is important to go for a new one. It is important for your PMS to be cloud-based and ensure that its data can be accessed in real-time in all departments.

You are paying higher maintenance and vendor support costs

If the support and service for your PMS is costing you in terms of money and time, and your business productivity has taken a hit as well, you need a change in the system. With on-site systems, continuous upgrades are involved and these can become costly.

Need for better ROI

With a cloud PMS, you can save on the initial expenses involved with costly software and hardware, thus reducing your overall ownership expenses. These are designed to offer more security, reliability, data backups and high performance.

Whether a guest books a room online or with a tour operator, your PMS stays updated through RateTiger. Contact us today – marketing@erevmax.com

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The Week, That Was – August 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!!

Luxury hotel in Ghana recommends RateTiger for online distribution

The Royal Senchi Hotel & Resort, a luxury property in Ghana has recommended RateTiger for streamlining online distribution. The hotel has experienced significant improvement in their operational efficiency leveraging RateTiger’s cloud based channel manager and on-demand shopping tool.

https://goo.gl/m7LUN2 

Google says it’s time for travel marketers to rethink loyalty

Attitudinal loyalty relates to how loyal a traveler feels, and behavioral loyalty refers to how loyal a traveler acts.

https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/consumer-insights/travel-marketing-strategy/

Introducing RateTiger GDS – Your window to 600,000 travel agents worldwide.

Distribute your room and availability across various global distribution systems – Amadeus, Sabre & Travelport (Galileo & Worldspan) from RateTiger platform.

Contact us today- marketing@erevmax.com

 Chinese millennials’ travel expenditure increases by 80% YoY

Hotels.com research has revealed that Chinese millennials (born after 1990) are pushing the boundaries of international travel, increasing their expenditure in the past year by a staggering 80%. This is to fund social media-influenced trips full of edgy experiences, high-tech accommodation, exotic delicacies and taboo ticket-items.

https://www.traveldailymedia.com/chinese-millennials-expenditure-up-80/

 Privacy vs security: first fines reveal shift in data protection landscape

Over two months since ‘GDPR Day’, most organisations are still successfully processing personal data, but travel companies beware. With regulation now enforceable, consumers more empowered and security – a small part of GDPR – becoming an increasing focus, the Information Commissioner’s Office is keen to show it has teeth. Since May, several fines have been levied against companies making everything from annoying sales calls to not being rigorous with privacy and security.

https://goo.gl/FSfkhq 

How TripAdvisor changed travel

TripAdvisor used to promise its users a kind of escape, whether that be simply daydreaming over a vacation or actually booking one. Yet at a moment where such adages now seem horribly outdated, the future of TripAdvisor and similar enterprises seems less certain than it once did.

http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/how_tripadvisor_changed_travel

 Worldwide Distribution Trends for Meta Search Engines report from Fornova highlights direct booking challenges for hotels

Fornova, a leading provider of distribution intelligence and automation solutions to hotels, have released their first Meta Search Engines Distribution Trends report.The report analyses and highlights key challenges hotels face when participating on Meta Search Engines, and how their efforts compare when competing against their partner Online Travel Agents (OTAs) and other resellers online.

http://blog.fornova.com/worldwide-distribution-trends-for-meta-search-engines-report

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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Luxury hotel in Ghana recommends RateTiger for online distribution

The Royal Senchi Hotel & Resort, a luxury property in Ghana has recommended RateTiger for streamlining online distribution. The hotel has experienced significant improvement in their operational efficiency leveraging RateTiger’s cloud based channel manager and on-demand shopping tool.

Located in Akosombo, a resort town near Ghanaian capital Accra, the The Royal Senchi Hotel & Resort, with its 84 rooms, caters to primarily leisure tourists. eRevMax’s XML connectivity with global and regional OTAs, GDSs and Metas have made it possible for the revenue management team to manage their OTAs, GDS and booking engine from LiveOS dashboard.

 “It was easy when we’re handling just the booking engine. The real challenge came when we signed up with several OTAs – updating multiple extranets and consolidating reports from these channels manually was time-taking and taking a toll on our efficiency.  RateTiger by eRevMax has solved it all. With just one entry I can update all OTAs simultaneously from the dashboard. It also gives me the data I want at one go with a simple click,” said Bennett Attakorah, Rooms Division Manager, The Royal Senchi Hotel & Resort.

 “Providing hotels with stable connectivity remained our priority for the last 17 years. RateTiger and LiveOS have been built with a vision to make online sales simpler for hotels, and this recommendation is a testimony to that,” said Ram Mohan Dubey, Regional Sales Director, eRevMax.

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The Week, That Was – August 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!!

Luxury Ukrainian Hotel Leopolis Improves Revenue with RateTiger

Leopolis Hotel, a landmark Ukrainian hotel has successfully optimized online distribution connectivity to improve their hotel occupancy and revenue, by leveraging RateTiger.

https://goo.gl/ES1Cdy

 Trivago makes data on global hotel pricing trends more accessible to hoteliers

Global hotel metasearch trivago records hotel price shifts from over 400 booking sites for over 2 million hotels and alternative accommodations around the world in its Hotel Price Index.

Learn more about Rate Insights- https://businessblog.trivago.com/trivago-hotel-price-index/

 Google Hotel Ads launches Promoted Hotels

Google has launched a pilot test with a reduced number of partners and it will soon be open to more participants. Since it is a new advertising space, despite being in a well-known environment, it generates new demand for the direct channel, competing with other hotels and other sellers

https://goo.gl/RXvfyd

 Top tips to maximise ROI without compromising on the customer experience

Business will always be about the bottom line, but if personalised, functional service that gets the job done according to customer expectations and preferences come first, the rest should ultimately follow.

https://insights.ehotelier.com/insights/2018/08/09/top-tips-to-maximise-roi-without-compromising-on-the-customer-experience/

 Booking Holdings closely monitoring paid channels as it builds direct strategy

Booking Holdings says its continuing on its strategy to increase its direct business as it reported earnings for the second quarter of 2018. Booking Holdings also continues to build its travel offering through the development of its alternative accommodation platform, which now offers about 5.5 million listings of homes, apartments and other units.

https://www.phocuswire.com/Booking-Holdings-Q2-earnings-2018

How online payment trends are impacting the travel industry

The world of online payments is undergoing a rapid transformation. Whereas once customers had scant options – primarily credit cards and bank transfers – to make bookings over the internet, they now have an ever-expanding choice of 21st-century technology, from PayPal to MobilePay.

https://www.phocuswire.com/travel-payments-evolution

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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Luxury Ukrainian Hotel Leopolis Improves Revenue with RateTiger

Leopolis Hotel, a landmark Ukrainian hotel has successfully optimized online distribution connectivity to improve their hotel occupancy and revenue, by leveraging RateTiger. The property, which has been using RTConnect for channel management, ARI updates and Reservation Delivery has seen a substantial improvement in efficiency resulting in minimizing overbookings and reducing workloads.

Leopolis is the only luxury hotel in Lviv located right in the heart of the historical part. Located in the restored building that is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Leopolis is a popular choice for both business and leisure travellers. Given that the hotel attracts guests from across the continent along with domestic travellers, it is important for the hotel to be present in all leading online sales channels and metasearch sites in Europe.

RTConnect, the SaaS based distribution solution providing fully integrated, two-way XML connections to over 350 global and regional online booking sites, is helping the property to establish seamless connectivity between the OTAs and its PMS.

“By using channel manager by RateTiger we are saving a lot of time and get a lot of extra revenue. Everything works very efficiently and during our cooperation we did not have any overbookings at all,” said Ostap Shpachuk, Director of Sales and Marketing, Leopolis Hotel.

“My favourite tool is rate weight, as it allows to manage rates for separate channels, room types and rate plans – we use it a lot indeed. I also like the velocity of the support team,” said Ostap Shpachuk, Director of Sales and Marketing, Leopolis Hotel.

Leopolis has been accessing Reservation Reports, a key module in RateTiger to monitor channel performance and map demographics of their customers. Through the booking analysis, the hotel is identifying the top-performing channels to offer customized packages to their key markets. They are also utilising RateTiger’s on-demand intelligence tool – RateTiger Shopper, to monitor the competitor rate movements and improve pricing decisions for better profits.

 

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The Week, That Was – August 2018 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!!

Online Travel in LATAM

Do you know the most productive online travel channels in LATAM? Improve your online revenue by selling on the right channels with RateTiger.

Read further to know more –  https://erevmax.com/blog/?p=539

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.

Are you looking to expand your hotel channel connectivity?  https://erevmax.com/blog/?p=542

Online accounts for 80% of under-30s travel bookings, OTAs dominate (for now)

The New Horizons IV report found more than 80% of bookings were made online by under-30s in 2017, with an increasing number of bookings being made on mobile devices and through social media channels.

https://www.tnooz.com/article/youth/

What Are Bumper Ads And Why Does Your Hotel Need Them?

Bumper ads are the 6 second video formats that are saving the longest 30 seconds of any consumers time. However, it is not just consumers that should be praising them to the skies. They can provide your hotel with countless benefits, including high impact brand building.

https://blog.netaffinity.com/what-are-bumper-ads-and-why-does-your-hotel-need-them/

What hotels need to know about evolving metasearch distribution trends

Metasearch engines (MSEs) hold the promise of helping hotels increase their share of direct bookings. For any hotel or chain to pursue a direct booking strategy, the MSE channel needs careful planning and consideration.

https://www.phocuswire.com/Fornova-global-metasearch-trends

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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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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Online Travel in LATAM

For all its exotic beaches, historic sites, beautiful landscapes and rich culture, Latin America has always remained a distant fourth when it comes to travel and tourism. However, in the last decade, things have changed considerably fueled by better flight connectivity, macro-economic factors and internet penetration. This has led to a drastic a change in Latin American travel industry outlook. With consumers more informed than ever, travel bookings have shifted online as the buying behavior has changed to customized offerings.

Online travel penetration is growing at an average of 10%, higher than the global average and about 4 times more than the pace of the total market. The growth in online travel is driven by Brazil and Mexico, representing over 70% of Latin American total and online travel markets, followed by Argentina, Chile, Columbia and Peru.

In spite of diverse market character, currencies, languages, economic and political environments, Latin America remains a huge potential for online travel agencies and technology providers. According to reports, the online market is only utilizing 34% of its potential, way lower than North America, Europe or Asia. About 20% of travel is booked online, which experts project will grow close to 40% over next 10 years.  Increasing access to smartphones also drove mobile engagement, with the channel now accounting for 15% of online bookings. Clearly the market is up for grabs, and global and regional players are eying their share of this pie.

In this post, we explore the major players in the online travel space in Latin America.

Despegar / Decolar

Some call it union, some call it leader – Despegar, one of the oldest OTAs in the region holds the numero uno spot. Operating two well-recognized brands, Despegar, its global brand, and Decolar, its Brazilian brand, the company serves in 20 Latin American countries, and provides a broad suite of travel products, to over 17 million customers. Through its exclusive partnership, Despegar uses Expedia’s hotel inventory outside the continent.

Hotel Urbano

Hotel Urbano is the number one online travel agency in Brazil, and one the biggest travel media brand on social media with over 12 million likes. The website has largely been credited for bringing the fragmented Brazil independent hotel industry (85% of the overall market) online. Hotel Urbano has remained the fifth most popular brand in Brazil (behind only Coca Cola, Skol, Brahma and L’Oreal — Skol & Brahma are famous beers) and the biggest online brand. In terms of traffic, it is the biggest website in Latin America, getting over 25 million unique visitors every month. Following its agreement with Priceline Group, the channel exclusively uses Booking.com to source hotels outside of LATAM.

CVC

CVC is the best-known brand in the Brazilian leisure travel industry and one of the most recognized brands in Brazil. Having started as a brick and mortar travel agency, it has for long been the largest tour operator in Latin America in terms of bookings made. The company still has the maximum retail outlets, along with two rapidly growing online distribution platforms – CVC.com.br and submarinoviagens.com.br attracting over 100 million unique monthly visitors.

ViajaNet

Targeted more at budget travelers, Brazil based ViajaNet has grown impressively in the last few years. The site which has over 100,000 hotels listed, attracts over 5 million unique visitors every month.

BestDay

Cancun based BestDay.com is the most popular OTA in Mexico offering 150,000 hotels. It is one of the leading Latin American travel industry companies with a strong focus in business-to-business distribution. The company owns HotelDO, the Latin American (LATAM) regional leader in online and XML distribution for business to business (B2B) channels, supplying travel products for both the wholesale segment and retail segments. The company contracts, maintains and promotes a regional online portfolio of 100,000 hotels across 850 popular destinations in 30 countries.

If you are looking to expand your hotel’s visibility in LATAM, RateTiger can help suggest the right channels for your property. Drive more bookings and increase online sales today. See our connectivity partner list, know more about channel management, online distribution and rate shopping solutions, contact us today on marketing@erevmax.com.

 

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The Week, That Was – July 2018 Week 4

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 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.

https://erevmax.com/blog/?p=531

Expedia: The travel trends of Latin American consumers

Most Latin American travelers are more likely to spend their travel budgets on domestic trips, according to a study from Expedia Group Media Solutions.

More than 50 percent of Latin American travelers use online travel agencies (OTAs) during the trip planning process, ahead of airline, hotel or destination websites. Forty-nine percent of travelers book their trip on an OTA – the strongest conversion from planning to booking among Latin American travelers. More than half use their smartphone when looking for travel inspiration and more than one-third conduct travel research on their mobile device. Unsurprisingly, mobile usage spikes in-trip, when more than 75 percent of Latin American travelers utilize their smartphone.

http://hotelnewsnow.com/Articles/287311/Expedia-The-travel-trends-of-Latin-American-consumers

Open pricing: A new strategy for maximising hotel revenue

Open Pricing is changing the way that hoteliers set hotel room rates. For properties from large to small, it has the potential to increase revenue and forever change hotel revenue management practices. So, how does it work? Is it a good fit for you? If you wanted to try it, where would you start?

Read on to find out more- https://suite.booking.com/blog/hotel-revenue-management-pricing-strategy-basics/

How independent hotels extend peak seasons

Independent hotels around the U.S. are boosting business outside of peak season through special events and promotions. Whether it’s a hotel that’s open year-round or one that’s only open a few months during the year, hoteliers and sales-and-marketing experts at independent hotels have found ways to bring in business beyond their peak season.

http://hotelnewsnow.com/Articles/287492/How-independent-hotels-extend-peak-seasons

What does the future hold for hotel booking websites?

The hospitality industry is regularly changing and hotel booking websites are no exception. Observing the current changes in the OTA market can give us a clue on what will it look like in the future.

https://insights.ehotelier.com/insights/2018/07/27/what-does-the-future-hold-for-hotel-booking-websites/

Google on why consumers like to know more before they travel

Google, which derived the insight by analyzing search trends as well as speaking to consumers, says that building anticipation, boosting confidence around traveling to somewhere new and stretching budgets are the primary drivers for consumers wanting to know more before they go.

https://goo.gl/ukWC8y

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 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.