eRevMax – Page 5 – Get the Best Hotel Channel Manager Tips from RateTiger

August 28, 2019January 28, 2020

The Week, That Was – August 2019 Week 5

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!!

Booking.com and Expedia are growing in very different ways

eRevMax partners Expedia Group and Booking Holdings reported total revenues of $11.2 billion and $14.5 billion in 2018, respectively. Moreover, both the company’s revenues have grown at a similar CAGR of 19% since 2016.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2019/08/26/booking-holdings-and-expedia-are-both-growing-steadily-but-in-very-different-ways/#7515a5d21f04

A blockchain to reconcile hotel commissions

Travelport working with IBM, BCD Travel and three hotel chains—has created a minimum viable product solution that uses blockchain to reconcile the commissions hotels pay travel management companies.

https://www.businesstravelnews.com/Distribution/A-Blockchain-Way-to-Reconcile-Hotel-Commissions

Learning from the past: Cutting rates hurts everyone

An analysis of how quickly hoteliers responded to other hotels dropping rates in their competitive sets during the recession shows no one comes out a winner.

To have a better idea of what a potential downturn could mean for the U.S. hotel industry, it’s worth observing how hoteliers behaved during the last one.

http://hotelnewsnow.com/Articles/297755/Learning-from-the-past-Cutting-rates-hurts-everyone

How Google’s machine learning technology can ace up the travel industry

The technology of machine learning is benefiting almost every industry but the most significant modification can be seen in the travel sector. Interestingly, tech-giant Google is making a major shift into the travel industry while enabling customers to book air tickets, hotels, and packages. It is also aiding customers in accessing stuff which they might have never come across on their own.

https://www.analyticsinsight.net/googles-machine-learning-technology-can-ace-travel-industry/

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August 23, 2019January 28, 2020

The Week, That Was – August 2019 Week 4

eRevMax announces strategic partnership with Indonesian hotel technology provider HUNTECH

Indonesian hotel technology solution provider Huntech has signed a strategic partnership with eRevMax to offer RateTiger as a preferred channel manager to its affiliated properties. The agreement makes Huntech the official provider of RateTiger Suite, the industry’s leading distribution platform with smart channel connectivity, market intelligence and revenue management capabilities.

https://bit.ly/2TXjYgl

Hotel sourcing in 2020: What’s really changing?

Some companies have made headlines recently by declaring traditional sourcing models dead. However, there are still some practices that will remain the same, according to CWT. There are exciting changes coming to the sourcing world in 2020 including new rates worth exploring, tools that will make data collection and analysis easier, and methods that will improve negotiations.

https://news.carlsonwagonlit.com/blog_posts/hotel-sourcing-in-2020-whats-really-changing-85618

18 ways to boost hotel bookings

Net Affinity shares 18 tips together that will help you get more bookings and, in turn, more revenue.

https://blog.netaffinity.com/18-ways-to-boost-hotel-bookings-and-get-more-revenue-2/

Google wants industry-wide standards to balance privacy and ads personalization

Google is seeking to navigate a middle path that balances privacy and user control over data and personalized advertising, which the internet has become increasingly dependent on.

https://marketingland.com/google-wants-new-industrywide-standards-to-balance-privacy-and-ads-personalization-265951

How hoteliers create, monetize the guest experience

The hotel industry is in an era where experience matters most to guests, which is why it’s important for hoteliers to find ways to create great experiences from the travel search phase to hotel arrival while making those efforts profitable.

http://hotelnewsnow.com/Articles/297681/How-hoteliers-create-monetize-the-guest-experience

Social preferences of young business travelers

Hilton Hotels & Resorts released new survey findings uncovering the travel highs and lows for young professionals, ages 23-35, who attend meetings while on the road.

The survey revealed that while young business travelers prefer a buzzing social environment and in-person interactions during regular work hours, they would rather spend their evenings on their own.

https://lodgingmagazine.com/survey-reveals-social-preferences-of-young-business-travelers/

What’s next for Google’s expansion into vacation rentals?

Google is constantly improving its offering, so it wouldn’t be a stretch to imagine that Google could open up the Book on Google addition of Hotel Ads for rentals.

https://www.phocuswire.com/google-vacation-rentals-whats-next

How should my hotel market to “Bleisure” travelers?

Travelers, on average, are adding on 2-3 days of leisure travel on top of a business trip, resulting in more revenue for a hotel and filled inventory on days where occupancy slows down.

https://screenpilot.com/2019/08/bleisure-travel/

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August 16, 2019January 28, 2020

The Week, That Was – August 2019 Week 3

Business Travel in Europe on the rise: Are you ready?

According to American Express Global Business Travel report, the spend on business travel in Europe in 2019 is expected to grow by over 4.3% making it a focus area for hotels. Here are some suggested channels you need to have in your distribution mix for landing more corporate bookings.

Business Travel in Europe on the rise: Are you ready?

Despite Brexit and uncertainty over economy in EU, business travel outlook in Europe remains strong. According to American Express Global Business Travel report, the spend on business travel in Europe in 2019 is expected to grow by over 4.3% making it a focus area for hotels. As with the global trend, business travelers want access to best rates and personalized content in both online and offline channels and along with seamless booking experience.

With smart phone being a necessity for today’s traveler, corporate travel has moved to the online space. More and more business travelers now prefer flexibility to search and book accommodation specific to their personal tastes. Over 60% of business travelers in the UK, France and Germany use a mobile device to shop for or book a flight or accommodation. In this article, we look at channels you need to have in your distribution mix for landing more corporate bookings.

HRS

HRS, Germany’s family run online travel agency focusing primarily on business travel, has been steadily keeping its position as the leading booking portal in the region. HRS Group, which controls Germany’s most popular OTAs – Hotel.de and HRS – the Hotelportal, caters to more than 5 million booking customers – over 70% of which are corporate travelers. HRS’s has exclusive contract with over 350,000 hotels — many of which don’t participate in traditional booking channels — gets negotiated rates and HRS’ exclusive corporate discounted rates give them an edge with business travelers. The company provides services to 400 large corporates and more than 385,000 small and medium enterprises. Hotels registered with HRS or Hotel.de can publish their rates and availability across all group platforms.

RoomIt by CWT

An average of 100,000 hotel rooms are booked on RoomIt each day by business travelers. Originally launched with a focus on small to midsize businesses, Carlson Wagonlit Travel’s hotel distribution division RoomIt now caters to large corporates as well, with nearly 1 million providers, including apartments. The data-driven technology behind RoomIt delivers a one-stop-shop experience with all the rooms, rates, amenities, loyalty bonuses and features necessary to enhance the travel experience. The platform is 100% fenced, and hence corporate clients can access it only through specific login, making it closed for metasearch and public environment.

Egencia

Egencia is the corporate travel solution from the Expedia group. Offering personalized experiences, the channel caters to nearly 2 million business travellers in companies of all sizes. The TMC which initially focused on air travel has been steadily increasing its hotel inventory, which has resulted in a surge in the hotel room-nights booked through the platform. Earlier this year, Egencia rolled out a two-way messaging app through which hotels and travelers can communicate with each other. It is also leveraging Expedia’s relationship with hotels to provide business travelers access to special rates once they’ve booked their flight.

As hoteliers, are you ready to tap into the booming corporate travel market? Are you connected to these channels 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

August 13, 2019January 21, 2020

Is your hotel using an efficient room rate comparison tool?

Download our complimentary e-book on how to leverage pricing for profit optimization

Hotel revenue management relies heavily on accurate market intelligence. Being aware of competitor price movements and change in their distribution strategy is important for any hotelier to stay ahead of competition of multiple sales channels.

Given the perishable nature of hotel inventory, it is important to optimize room pricing such that it is in sync with market demand and is attractive enough for potential guests to make a booking. Hotels today offer multiple room rates for different room types – so tracking these different room-rate combinations across your competition manually can be a herculean task and hence arises the need for an efficient and automated rate shopping tool that can fetch you rates in real-time for apple-to-apple comparison.

With the current range of price intelligence solutions available in the market, hoteliers are spoilt for choice. To assist with your decision making easier – we present our complimentary e-book – ‘Shopping Matters – The Power of Real-time Hotel Rate Intelligence’ that will help you to know more about –

Importance of real-time rate intelligence
Understanding the marketplace to fine-tune your rate strategy
Why rate shopping tool is crucial to your profit optimization

Download the ebook today – https://www.erevmax.com/travel-solutions/erevmax-shopper-rateintelligence.html

August 9, 2019January 28, 2020

The Week, That Was – August 2019 Week 2

Estonia based luxury hotel recommends RateTiger as the best OTA channel manager

The prestigious Villa Ammende in Estonia has recommended RateTiger hotel channel manager by eRevMax for managing its online sales channels effectively. The property has been using RateTiger’s cloud-based channel manager to streamline its online distribution and has seen significant improvement in efficiency resulting in minimizing overbookings and reducing workload.

https://bit.ly/2M6LMhl

Are you ready to lead the hotel pricing game? Download our Rate Shopping ebook today

Our recent discussions with hoteliers and revenue managers revealed their struggle with getting the pricing strategy correct and how constant undercutting by competitors are eating into their profits. We came up with an ebook on why hotel rate shopping and price intelligence is important along with some real-world example of hotels using relevant tools to stay ahead of the competition.

Presenting our ebook – Shopping Matters: The Power of Real-time Hotel Rate Intelligence. Get your free copy today – https://bit.ly/339DJ8I

Google My Business changes hotel categories

Google had been restricting newly verified listings the ability to add old categories for the past month, yesterday they removed them all for currently verified listings.

https://onlineownership.com/changes-to-hotel-categories-in-google-my-business/

Four online travel agency myths to stop believing now

Online travel agencies developed in the early to mid-1990s, gradually becoming one of the first great internet success stories of the tech era. Turns out OTAs are just as powerful for hotels as they are for travelers. But, unfortunately, OTAs suffer from some image problems amongst many hoteliers, often due to misconceptions or misinformation about how they work. Let’s explore four popular myths about OTAs that our industry keeps falling for over and over again

https://www.phocuswire.com/Four-online-travel-agency-myths

Europe: RevPAR jump can’t prevent GOPPAR slip

In a clear example that revenue and profit aren’t always aligned, RevPAR at mainland European hotels attained a high for the year in June, but GOPPAR fell.

https://www.hotstats.com/hotel-industry-trends/revpar-jump-cant-prevent-goppar-slip-across-europe

Ten hacks to instantly maximize your direct booking revenue

Joe Pettigrew, Director of Revenue Maximization at Starwood Capital Group, shares ten helpful hacks that your hotel can apply today to enhance revenue through direct bookings.

https://triptease.com/en/watch-ten-genius-hacks-to-instantly-maximize-your-direct-booking-revenue/

Expedia TravelAds: How power users maximize their results

Expedia’s TravelAds solution is unique in that your ads don’t show unless you have supply for the travel window that the shopper is looking to book. And, if your ads do show but the travel shopper doesn’t click on them, you don’t pay. So, these ads are a low risk way to reach a targeted audience ready to book. Additionally, TravelAds help hotel revenue and marketing managers book rooms without sacrificing their average daily rate (ADR).

https://blog.advertising.expedia.com/travelads-with-expedia-group-always-on

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August 2, 2019January 28, 2020

The Week, That Was – August 2019 Week 1

eRevMax expands in the Middle East through technical partnership with Intimus PMS

Hotel connectivity expert, eRevMax has completed 2-way integration with Intimus PMS while offering hotels a wider selection of technical partners in the region. Hotels using Intimus PMS and RateTiger – LiveOS solutions can now manage their online distribution easily from one place removing all manual efforts.

https://bit.ly/2T0M5e2

The true cost of not protecting customer data in travel

For years now, the hospitality business has shared Big Tech’s addiction to customer data. Rather than sell it to advertisers, however, hotels and airlines traditionally use it to personalize travel experiences. Hotels – in particular luxury hotels – collect customer data to build detailed guest profiles, which can include personal preferences, from room, pillow and favorite cocktails, to potentially more explicit guest information.

https://www.phocuswire.com/GDPR-hotel-customer-data

What every hotelier must know about EU’s payment rules

Just as hoteliers have become used to GDPR, another piece of European Union legislation, the Payment Services Directive regulations, known as PSD2, is set to go into effect.

http://hotelnewsnow.com/Articles/297360/What-every-hotelier-must-know-about-EUs-payment-rules

Rise in Mobile Bookings in Middle East Creates New Online Travel Competition

The Middle East traveler has been going digital across all touchpoints of the travel journey, fueling a surge in the online travel market that is projected to reach $15 billion by 2023 across the region. That will mark an increase of 140 percent from current levels, according to research company Mena Research Partners.

https://skift.com/2019/07/23/rise-in-mobile-bookings-in-middle-east-creates-new-online-travel-competition/

Hotel chains demonstrate common B2B eCommerce website blunders

Hotels can earn customers’ loyalty by providing better personalized recommendations that understand their individual price/value tradeoff.

https://go.forrester.com/blogs/hotel-chains-demonstrate-common-b2b-ecommerce-website-blunders/

Amex GBT forecasts modest hotel rate increases for 2020

The Hotel Monitor 2020, published by American Express Global Business Travel, predicts that hotel prices in most key cities will experience only modest rises in 2020.

https://www.hospitalitynet.org/news/4094362.html

Online presence high priority with independent hotels

Trends in how people, and brands, consume and process information online are driving digital marketing strategies for independent hotels. It’s important not only to have an online presence but also to have the proper digital footprint, sources said.

http://hotelnewsnow.com/Articles/297313/Online-presence-a-high-priority-at-independent-hotels

What you need to know about Google Ads’ “Store / Hotel Visits”

Google came out with another way marketers and hoteliers can measure the performance of campaigns through Store Visits or for hotels, Hotel Visits. Hotel Visits can measure whether or not users actually visited your property. Google uses cell towers, wifi signals and more to tell whether or not you’ve actually visited a property and you aren’t just staying next door or across the street.

https://screenpilot.com/2019/07/what-you-need-to-know-about-google-ads-store-visits/

How San Francisco boosted Chinese bookings by 30 percent

Outbound Chinese visitors represent an increasingly important part of San Francisco’s tourist model, constituting 23 percent of international tourist spending in 2018.

https://jingtravel.com/san-francisco-grew-chinese-bookings-30-percent/

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July 26, 2019January 28, 2020

The Week, That Was – July 2019 Week 4

eRevMax makes inroads in Bahrain with Hani Group

Hani Group, an upscale hotel chain in Bahrain has selected eRevMax to improve online sales with efficient rate and availability management. All three properties of the group are using RateTiger hotel channel manager and price intelligence tool, Shopper, for online connectivity and revenue management.

https://bit.ly/2M3ybXk

Checklist for your next hotel channel manager

A hotel channel manager is a must have for hoteliers today. If you are planning to add or change your existing channel manager, here is a quick checklist of things you need for assessment.

https://www.erevmax.com/blog/index.php/2019/07/checklist-for-your-next-hotel-channel-manager/

TripAdvisor: How reviews impact bookings

TripAdvisor has unveiled the results of new research looking into how significantly reviews influence booking decisions. The study reveals that the wisdom of the crowd remains the reason respondents visit TripAdvisor, with participating users citing the descriptive and helpful reviews (70%), the accuracy of the content (62%) and the broad range of travel content (62%) as their primary reasons for visiting the site.

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

What dynamic pricing leaders can teach the travel industry

Dynamic pricing, the process of using data to more accurately segment consumers and automatically offer them differentiated prices based on various factors, is being deployed from both within and outside the travel industry. Early adopters include many players in the airline industry, Airbnb and Amazon. So, with so many waking up to dynamic pricing, what are some of these early adopters doing and what are the main lessons?

https://www.eyefortravel.com/what-dynamic-pricing-leaders-can-teach-travel-industry

How to drive direct bookings through rooms and special offers copy

Learn how to choose the right words to simplify decision-making, convey the information that your guests really need, and utilize a handful of conversion-focused tactics.

https://bit.ly/2YmNcWt

A modern approach to hotel sales prospecting

Outdated techniques like cold-calling have moved aside to make way for more effective and comprehensive prospecting strategies. When it comes to training hotel sales managers to prospect, many sales leaders are looking backward and not recognizing how to integrate prospecting into the real world of hotel sales in 2020.

http://www.hotelnewsnow.com/Articles/297167/A-holistic-approach-to-hotel-prospecting

Asia’s big four fuel worldwide travel spend

Overnight visitors from mainland China, Republic of Korea, Japan and Taiwan now account for 18.5% of global travel expenditure in the world’s top 200 cities, up from just 11% a decade ago.

https://www.ttrweekly.com/site/2019/07/asias-big-four-fuel-travel-spend/

Airbnb introduces new search tools for business travelers

As more companies turn to Airbnb for Work to arrange work trips, the vacation rentals, homes and experiences business is making things easier for business travelers.

https://techcrunch.com/2019/07/22/airbnb-introduces-new-search-tools-for-business-travelers/

Booking.com relaxes keyword bidding clause with hotels

Booking.com has altered its contract with hotel partners so that owners and chains now have the ability to bid freely on brand terms in Google.

https://www.phocuswire.com/Booking-brand-bidding-rule-change

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

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July 22, 2019

Checklist for your next hotel channel manager

A hotel channel manager is a must have for hoteliers today. If you are planning to add or change your existing channel manager, here is a quick checklist of things you need for assessment.

That the solution has seamless XML connectivity with multiple online channels to publish live rates and inventory and deliver reservations seamlessly back into the PMS.
It has integration with your hotel PMS, RMS, Booking Engine and other technology tools for real-time data transfer between your system and OTAs. If they do not have it, are they flexible enough to develop it for you?
It can sync OTA data with hotel system all the time to minimize overbooking and identify mismatches.
It can update rates and availability of different room categories for future dates as well.
It can automatically inform the user and update the availability to all connected channels for any modification or cancellation happened on any channel.
It can allocate different inventory to different online channels or switch off a channel for a certain period if required.
It allows users to set restrictions like Minimum length of stay (MLOS), Blackout dates, Closed to Arrival (CTA) and Closed to Departure (CTD), among others, to optimize revenue.
It is PCI and GDPR compliant to safeguard digital data of your guests.

Improve your hotel revenue with better room rate and yield management – all from a smart single interface. Take complete control of your revenue and channel management strategy to control distribution costs and drive more direct bookings.

Grow your revenue with the best hotel channel manager!

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

July 19, 2019January 28, 2020

The Week, That Was – July 2019 Week 3

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://www.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!