The Institute’s Annual Lunch Champagne Reception is one of the top networking and social events in UK’s hospitality industry calendar. It attracts an abundance of senior management professionals, offering a fantastic opportunity to share ideas and build new contacts. The luxurious Royal Garden Hotel in Kensington proved to be the perfect venue for the June 8th event.
This was the first luncheon I’ve had a chance to attend, usually the sales team have their mitts all over these events, but fortunately there was a space at our table for 10. An event of this nature gives me the opportunity to find out more about our customers; who they are, how they run their hotel, what their challenges are and what value they find in RateTiger. For a marketer this is all invaluable information that we can use time and time again; anecdotal information that my team can share with journalists and use within our marketing campaigns.
The event itself was jovial with an excellent presentation by Philippe Rossiter FIH, Chief Executive, and a hilarious speech by another speaker. The three-course lunch was well presented and there was a welcoming and friendly atmosphere. It’s exciting to be part of the IoH as it undergoes change to represent a larger sector of the hospitality industry and diversify with more education-led events. I look forward to the opportunities ahead – and another luncheon!
Ryan Haynes is the Marketing Head at eRevMax and is responsible for driving all PR and Marketing activities of RateTiger and eRevMax brands globally. Ryan is based out of London and can be reached at ryanh@ratetiger.com
Revenue Management – A Look At 2010
The North California chapter of HSMAI organized an educational luncheon last month at Hotel Adagio in San Francisco. The team brought together a panel of leaders in Bay Area Revenue Management, all experts in their field.
I managed to be there and was glad about my decision. The topics revolved around new Revenue Management Strategies for 2010 & beyond and long term growth strategies for developing market share. Panelists included Gerald O’Rourke from Hilton, Mandy Kam from San Francisco Downtown Marriott Hotels and Gregory Weiss from Joie de Vivre Hospitality and they shared some really interesting insights.
The event was meant for hoteliers and revenue managers. This helped me develop new contacts locally and further popularize RateTiger. For a local event, it was good and I would like to be around for such events.
Bill Goldsberry is the Director of Int’l Group Sales at eRevMax. He is based out of Florida and can be reached at williamg@ratetiger.com
CEHAT Congress 2010
Recently, I had an opportunity to be at Santiago de Compostela, a World Heritage City, and the capital of Galicia in Spain. I was there to attend the eleventh edition of the CEHAT Congress, the Spanish Hotel Association’s bi-annual conference for the hospitality industry.
Being a significant association, CEHAT gets its share of importance and its events are well attended by members as well as the media. The Congress attracted an attendance of over 350 this year. The opening ceremony was conducted by the Minister for Galician Tourism, Carmen Pardo Lopez; President of CEHAT, Juan Molas, and the President of the Hotel Association of Galicia, Hector Cañete del Campo.
During his speech, Juan Molas laid stress on the importance of public – private collaboration to take the industry forward and to help it emerge from the current economic situation. Some of the topics which garnered a lot of attention were “Is the tourism sector in a recession?” and “Analysis of the current situation and its impact on the hospitality industry”. Given the relevance of the two topics, these turned out to be the crowd pullers.
The first topic – “Is the tourism sector in a recession?” had the President of Hotusa, Amancio López Seijas sharing his comment – ‘the tourism sector has a young and dynamic business network, and is capable of pushing globalization and that is their best hope.’ The other speakers in this session were Marisol Turro, President of Sercotel and Alfonso Castellanos, CEO of Mindproject, while it was moderated by Carlos Diaz, VP of CEHAT. The panel discussed numerous issues, including the fragmentation of the sector and the inevitable process of concentration which is working, training and the need for labor reform, the relationship with distribution channels, the role of government, the risks of competing in prices and the importance of tending to specialization, the oversupply or depletion model of “sun and beach”.
The other important discussion was on ‘Analysis of the current situation and its impact on the hospitality industry’. Here the speakers included former Treasury minister, Carlos Solchaga, and the President of the Council of Chambers, Javier Gómez Navarro. Both agreed that while the number of passengers and occupancy figures this summer will look like the high season of 2009, the room rates will show a different graph as it is expected to continue falling, and therefore comparison of the margins may not be positive.
The CEHAT Congress is a must attend event for RateTiger and I will ensure I am around here in each edition. I had the opportunity to set-up meetings with many Hotel Groups, Associations and Independent Hotels and it provided an unparallel business platform to foster long-term relationships and also strengthen the unique relationship RateTiger has with CEHAT as members.
Pilar Sanchez Aita is Sales Manager – Spain & Portugal at eRevMax and is responsible for sales of RateTiger products in the region. She is based out of Spain and can be reached at pilara@ratetiger.com
Executive Vendor Summit 2010
Our jet setting CEO Sascha Hausmann was in Houston, Texas earlier last month to attend Hospitality Upgrade’s invitation-only Executive Vendor Summit. From what he tells us, it turned out to be a good show and he enjoyed being there those three days.
With lots of executives from across the industry present, the networking session was bound to be productive and meaningful. Even the line up of speakers was impressive and he particularly enjoyed the sessions by Jim Underwood (professor & author) and Colonel Philip A. Bossert, Jr who is Commander, Air Force ROTC Detachment 003, and Professor of Air Force.
Jim’s address focused on how companies can use strategic alignment to overcome adversity. Interestingly he is a leading expert in the field of chaotics and strategy and has authored books like Thriving In E-Chaos which won the International Competia Award 2001, and More Than A Pink Cadillac, a New York Times, Wall Street Journal best-selling book.
Colonel Philip was the dinner speaker and he spoke about leadership and alternative management. With real life examples, he managed to have a captive audience and the attendees were really impressed by his repertoire of case histories.
An event worth attending as the organizers put in lot of effort to get the right speakers, attendees and create the right ambience for a summit of this stature. Congratulations of Hospitality Upgrade for putting up a successful show!
Arabian Travel Market 2010
A couple of weeks back I was in Dubai to attend the Arabian Travel Market with my colleague. It was our first visit to a mid-east event and hence I would like to share a bit of background detail on the event. Organized by Reed Exhibitions, organizers of World Travel Market in London, ATM is the principal travel and tourism exhibition in the Middle East, attracting exhibitors from all over the region as well as from Asia, Europe, South America, etc. This was the 17th edition of ATM and it continues to grow in importance and size.
Many hotel brands exhibited at the event including major international chains like Accor, Starwood, Marriott, IHG, etc. as well as the larger regional players like Rotana, Coral and Ramee. The independent hotels and smaller chains were also present and were operating from booths on destination stands like Dubai and Abu Dhabi. A separate section was dedicated to Travel &Technology companies which had representations from OTAs including HRS, Expedia, etc. and a couple of providers such as Amadeus.
My colleague Sudhir and I concentrated on exhibitors from our respective regions – generally only meeting up in the evenings to discuss the day’s happening and then moving on to sample the extremely varied nightlife Dubai has to offer. We managed quite a few meetings with prospective hoteliers and presented RTSuite solutions to them. Channel management solutions are not widespread in the region and are mostly used by 5 star hotels.
However with the growth of ecommerce and shift in booking patterns from offline to online channels, many hotels, including single star and standalone properties, are now looking to work more actively with online channels. The feedback I received was very encouraging and hoteliers were very receptive to my presentation of RateTiger solutions.
Overall I am very pleased with the interest shown by exhibitors – it seems the timing is right for us to focus on the region, as previously hotels were not selling through enough channels to warrant the investment. ATM was definitely worth a visit and I will surely be back next year.
Giles Gurney is Sales Manager – Europe & Middle East for corporate products at eRevMax and is responsible for sales of RateTiger products in the region. He can be reached at gilesg@ratetiger.com
BITAC Tech & Operations 2010
I was in Fajardo from 2 – 4 May for BITAC Tech & Operations which turned out to be an absolute pleasure to attend. Getting to meet the right people directly (read – decision makers) and then spending time with them in a very relaxed environment, discussing economy in general, sharing ways to improve bookings via technology, doing sales pitch differently is any Sales Manager’s dream.
By now you would know how successful BITAC was for me where I got to meet the executives from Starwood, IHG, Hilton and various hotel management groups. With 200 people around from different hotel chains and companies, BITAC provided an unparalleled business platform to foster long-term relationships.
For those unaware of BITAC’s format, let me tell you that it does not resemble a trade show, conference or summit in any way. It is basically a platform to bring together the top echelon of both purchasing decision makers and suppliers through pre-set appointments which helps maximize everyone’s productivity and overall experience.
BITAC is a must attend event for RateTiger and I will ensure I am around here every year.
Gerard Carrie is Sales Manager – US at eRevMax and is responsible for sales of RateTiger products in the region. He is based out of Orlando and can be reached at gerardc@ratetiger.com
Hotel Website Marketing Conference
The Hotel Website Marketing Conference took place in Amsterdam on March 25th, 2010. The conference was dedicated to providing hotel sales managers with the latest innovations in online marketing.
The main topics included 3rd Party Websites & Distribution Channels, designing and marketing your hotel website, managing your hotel website booking engine and effectively using social media.
I attended the event as a speaker on behalf of RateTiger and spoke on “Making the most of IDS to deliver your revenue management strategy”. The idea was to outline the importance of distributing rates to third party booking websites using Internet Distribution Systems (IDS) while also examining the key tools needed to implement hotel online revenue management strategy.
With around 60 people in attendance including 35 hoteliers, the event concluded with meaningful discussions and networking. Other speakers represented companies like Expedia, Ideas, Meetingsbooker, Hoteliers.com, BeCurious and others.
The platform helped me reinforce RateTiger’s brand name in the market and it was quite clear that RateTiger is perceived as a market leader by many hoteliers.
Casey Davy is Sales Manager – UK at eRevMax and is responsible for sales of RateTiger products in the region. He is based out of London and can be reached at caseyd@ratetiger.com
INTERNORGA 2010
As every year, March is the month during which the international hospitality industry meets in Hamburg for INTERNORGA. Europe’s biggest trade fair of its kind has a remarkable tradition – in 2010 the harbor city in Northern Germany saw its 84th INTERNORGA. Between 12 and 17 March, 1,105 exhibitors from 28 countries presented their products and services to more than 100,000 trade visitors from all over the world.
However, as in past years, RateTiger has not been amongst these exhibitors but focused its sales force on ITB, which took place partly parallel to INTERNORGA. The reason is plain: the trade show has a strong focus on gastronomy rather than hotel technology. Visitors are more likely to be concerned with choosing a new kitchen or some supplier for frozen food than with optimizing their online sales channels.
Yet there have been good reasons for me to spend two days at this vibrant event – the hospitality journalists. The journalists visit INTERNORGA en masse, to find out about new products to write on, catch new advertising clients, or new subscribers for their publications. It’s a great opportunity to have so many press contacts in one place, to update them about the various developments at eRevMax and RateTiger!
Being a Hamburger born, these two days have been a home match for me, and while I believe that INTERNORGA is not likely the best place to meet software buyers, I am convinced that it’s a perfect chance to intensify press relations. Last year we’ve had several articles published after INTERNOGA, particularly our case studies. This year I’ve met with the journalists of six publications plus the editor of an online news portal, and they’re all keen to write on channel management some time this year.
Everyone agreed that it’s necessary to educate hoteliers about the potential as well as the demands of the online market. Multiple channels require constant and strategic updating, which seems frightening and impossible for certain hoteliers, but at the same time the chance exists to increase occupancy and make money.
Like last year, INTERNORGA 2010 has been a success, with us managing to divert editors’ attention to channel management and online distribution. German editors have begun to associate channel management know-how explicitly with RateTiger, proving that eRevMax’s strategy to focus on education and training works out.
Jasmin Keller is the PR Representative – Germany at eRevMax and is responsible for all PR activities of RateTiger in the region. Jasmin is based out of Germany and can be reached at ratetiger@jasminkeller.com.
Pictures from ITB Berlin 2010
ITB Berlin 2010
ITB Berlin 2010 has kicked-off to an excellent start as our CEO completes a contract of partnership with Micros as RateTiger technologies further integrates with Micros Opera suite to provide channel management features. Our sales managers have also been bouncing around the very large exhibition centre meeting with hotels chains and property owners to display the wide-range of services RateTiger provides.
This year we are also providing support to manage Advertising campaigns with our special partner TravelScream; hoteliers seem to be lapping this up while trying to get their head around how we are integrating all their processes into one – their eyes often beam when we say that as they realise how much time they will save.
Our RTSchool is being received with great interest, the Distribution Days in May and June will help hoteliers understand and get a greater grasp of multi-channel sales through a programme exploring channel management in changing markets with Xotels.
This year we have installed a large and impressive touch-screen display on our stand in hall 8.1 which is currently running the RateTiger iPhone application. Those RateTiger team members with an iPhone are proudly and excitedly presenting it to all delegates visiting us.
There is a constant stream of attendees through the Technology Hall all of which are at least pausing by the RateTiger stand in interest. It seems this is the year of channel management – we are all really feeling it, suddenly hoteliers truly understand how these technologies work and the necessity for them.
Ryan Haynes is the Marketing Head at eRevMax and is responsible for driving all PR and Marketing activities of RateTiger and eRevMax brands globally. Ryan is based out of London and can be reached at ryanh@ratetiger.com