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Knowing your hotel channel manager in the post COVID world

Covid19 has changed the travel industry. With travel going south, hotel industry is being forced to make adjustments in the wake of plummeting occupancy. Facing an unprecedented crisis, hotels of all sizes across the world are desperately rethinking strategies as they plan to recover and rebuild.

Even as cost cutting becomes norm and investment on technology infrastructure is being scrutinized, technology is going to emerge as a hotelier’s trusted best friend when it comes to optimizing operational efficiency.

As travel slowly opens, the initial demand build-up is expected to come from local and domestic travel. This trend is being witnessed in markets like China where hotel occupancy is driven by staycation, drive-in and local travelers. Markets which have been dependent on international travelers are expected to take longer to recover than one with stronger domestic base.

This is the time for hoteliers to evaluate their online distribution mix. According to a recent report by Sojern, hotel bookings to Abu Dhabi within a 48km radius accounted for 77 percent of all bookings in April and domestic travel from Dubai accounted for 91 percent of searches and bookings within the same radius.

It is important to capitalize on the local channels. Hotels need to monitor their production data and upcoming booking trends to identify the more profitable channels. Effective channel management can assist hoteliers with both issues – by increasing visibility and allowing for variable rate changes between seasons.

The challenge for many hoteliers in managing these channels is to ensure accurate rates and inventory allocation to optimize each channel to increase sales and maximize revenue. It is necessary to have an effective hotel channel manager for every property. Proper channel management also needs a pooled inventory model. Pooled inventory makes sure that hotel rooms are simultaneously promoted across every channel with no concern of overbooking. It is now time to focus on strategies rather than updating channels. Along with finding out the right vendor for your distribution management, always check whether the provider is PCI and GDPR compliant.

Take complete control of your revenue and channel management strategy to control distribution costs and drive more direct bookings. Considered one of the best hotel channel manager in the market, RateTiger is integrated with more than 400 OTAs and working closely with 9000 hotels globally. It is the connectivity partner of choice for large hotel groups, mid-scale chains as well as independent properties in both luxury and budget segment worldwide providing solutions through its core product brands – RateTiger , LiveOS and AgentX101.

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

 

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The Week, That Was – January 2020 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!!

Peruvian luxury hotel chain improves online sales with RateTiger

Peruvian luxury hospitality chain Inkaterra Hotels has recommended RateTiger for stable and seamless connectivity with world’s leading online sales channels. Some properties of the group have been using RateTiger Channel Manager for online distribution and have experienced improved occupancy and revenue.

https://bit.ly/2tifxUE

Booking.com’s 2020 Booking Booster program focuses on sustainable accommodation

The 2020 Booking Booster will bring startups, social enterprises, non-profit organizations and accommodations of all kinds together directly to explore solutions to become more sustainable.

https://news.booking.com/bookingcom-announces-34-million-in-grants-to-support-sustainable-accommodation-in-2020/

How Can Hotel Guest Reviews Boost Sales?

Are you leveraging hotel guest feedback for generating new business? In the era of user generated content, it is important for hoteliers to proactively garner positive guest reviews across different customer touch points. Here is a short self-help guide on how you can generate more reviews for creating a strong word-of-mouth network for your hotel –

https://lnkd.in/f6fHFYh

CWT Simplifies its EMEA Operations to Accelerate its Customer Service proposition

CWT, the B2B4E travel management platform is to move its Greece, Morocco, Eastern Europe & Baltic local market management this month into cross-functional Market Management Teams.

https://www.hospitalitynet.org/news/4096610.html

Does Google’s “Zero Click Search” Mark the End of Hotel Paid Search Marketing?

With less than 5% of searches on Google resulting in clicks on paid search listings (Google Ads), does this mean the end of hotel paid search marketing?

https://www.hospitalitynet.org/panel/125000038.html

Hotel apps enter a new decade

Apps have become the go-to for managing our lives, yet most hotel apps still seem stuck in the dark age of the branded hotel app, according to Apaleo. The point is that it’s time to explode the old notion of the app as we move into 2020 and look at the breadth of possibilities that a hotel app store offers. Here are a few that have gotten my attention as of late.

https://blog.apaleo.com/hotels/hotel-apps-enter-a-new-decade

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

Thanks and have a good day!

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5 Questions to Ask About Channel Management for Hotels

A Hotel Channel Management Software can be assistive for you, whether you are in search of revenue management or hotel distribution. The primary functionality of this type of application is to make sure that every hotel sales channel keeps abreast of restrictions, rate modifications and any changes that take effect. These types of systems make sure that OTAs can remain in touch with a hotel. Thus, only actual information about hotels is passed on to possible guests. There are many types of hotel channel managers, and all of them are quite useful to use. Here are 5 questions that you have to ask about channel management software systems for hotels.

5 Questions to Ask About Channel Management for Hotels

What kind of support will it come with?

When there is a breakdown, powerful distribution systems have fast support infrastructure and related troubleshooting protocols. This type of support that is offered tends to differ across systems. Although some of these come with an automated backup that can ensure booting as soon as there is a failure of the main system, others come with customer care centers that operate 24X7.

What are the access rights?

Better access rights for this type of software is the tool for proper marketing of products. At times, sound strategies for revenue management are able to protect as well as get data together. These can pave the way for different access rights across various kinds of user levels. Typically, multi-level access rights are offered through 4 main roles:

  • Front Desk
  • Reservations Manager
  • Property Owner
  • System Admin

Every one of these has rights and limitations of its own.

Is it easy to use?

You have to ensure that the system is easy to use. A few channel management systems are also available with a full user acceptance test, which is followed by strict testing for the team of the hotel. This makes sure that the product can be used smoothly. It is important that you consider that the tool can be implemented and adopted with ease.

Can automatically sync inventories?

You have to check whether your chosen channel management software automatically inform the user and update the availability to all connected channels for any modification or cancellation happened on any channel. Lots of software programs can manage more than one channel, although that does not mean that they can sync inventories based on reservation modification, which is possible only when the channel manager has 2-way XML connectivity with channels for seamless data transfer. Thus, it is important that you check this thing beforehand. It is also essential that you check whether the channel manager is available connectivity with the right PMS and Channels.

Does it ensure data security?

Finally, you should also choose a hotel channel manager that gives you data security. Data security has become the biggest challenge for the hospitality industry. For hotels, protecting guest data like address and credit card details has become crucial in post-GDPR age. While finding out the right vendor for your distribution management, do check whether the provider is PCI and GDPR compliant.

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The Week, That Was – November 2019 Week 2

Russian upscale hotel recommends RateTiger for optimizing online revenue

Russian upscale property Petro Palace Hotel has recommended RateTiger, powered by LiveOS, for stable connectivity with online sales channels and competitor rate intelligence. The hotel has been a long-standing customer of RateTiger, using Channel Manager and Shopper for its online distribution.

https://bit.ly/2XkNf6A

Wholesalers impact on corporate hotel bookings

A study from American Express Global Business Travel and GfK finds that as many as 40% of US business travelers book outside of policy. This is not good news for hotels that still agree to static net rates, because as wholesale rates start to appear on the CBTs, these hotels will find their negotiated direct corporate rates undercut yet again.

http://www.eyefortravel.com/distribution-strategies/hospitality-staying-open-race-bottom

TripAdvisor: Trip.com deal ‘exciting opportunity’ in China

The strategic partnership between Trip.com Group, the company formerly known as Ctrip.com International, and TripAdvisor includes content agreements, a joint venture and a seat on TripAdvisor’s board for Trip.com Group.

https://www.travelweekly.com/Travel-News/Travel-Technology/TripAdvisor-Kaufer-Trip-dot-com-deal-exciting-opportunity-in-China

Google pushes travel websites down in free search results

Google dominates the online search market, with at least three quarters of the market. People use the search engine to research trips, so for at least a decade online travel agents have refined their websites with trustworthy content and easy booking tools to show up high in Google results.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-11-08/google-s-search-ad-embrace-crushes-online-travel-agents

Booking Holdings sees brand collaborations as key to restoring growth on steroids

Are online travel agencies’ glory days, when revenue was growing 25 or 30 percent and room nights booked were jumping at similar clips, long-gone history? Is today’s competition in online travel, with Airbnb breaking through and Google asserting itself ever-more intensely, too rigorous to replicate the robust growth of a few years ago?

https://skift.com/2019/11/07/booking-holdings-sees-brand-collaborations-as-key-to-restoring-growth-on-steroids/

Business Travelers Sentiment Remains Strong With Most Frequent Travelers Wanting Even More Travel

Business travelers remain optimistic and sentiment remains strong despite economic headwinds in some parts of the world. Senior-level business travelers including senior/executive management (74 percent) and directors (77 percent) agree the health of the economy is excellent, according to the second wave of research out today from the GBTA Business Traveler Sentiment Index™ in partnership with RoomIt by CWT™, the hotel distribution division of CWT.

https://www.hospitalitynet.org/news/4095846.html

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

Thanks and have a good day!

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The Week, That Was – November 2019 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!!

eRevMax upgrades its integration with Miki Travel

Hotels using RateTiger Channel Manager and RTConnect for online distribution and connectivity now can use the seamless interface to publish their contracted rate and availabilities to travel agents affiliated with the wholesaler and receive reservations generated in the channel in real-time.

https://www.erevmax.com/ratetiger-news/ratetiger-news-archive/nov2019-erevmax-completes-2-way-integration-with-miki-travel.html

6 Great Types of Content for Hotel Website for Increase in Bookings

A good hotel website that is rich in content can help you to attract potential customers and influence them enough to book a room in your hotel. Good content can also improve your hotel website’s search engine ranking. Here are 6 types of great content for your hotel website that can increase bookings.

https://www.erevmax.com/blog/index.php/2019/11/6-great-types-of-content-for-hotel-website-for-increase-in-bookings/

Brands see ROI in direct bookings, member discounts

A slowing growth environment in the hotel industry prompts hotel companies to assess the strength and success of their efforts to grow loyalty for their brands. The world’s largest hotel companies are pushing hard for more loyalty members to book directly with them to ensure they get a bigger piece of the pie before the pie starts to shrink.

http://hotelnewsnow.com/Articles/298891/Brands-see-ROI-in-direct-bookings-member-discounts

Japan: Rakuten eliminates all parity requirements

Japan’s largest domestic online travel platform has officially committed to remove all rate and availability parity obligations in its contracts with the nearly 33,000 hotels listed on its site.

https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=2abc6aab-b710-41c2-af7a-be0285ea3ba1

Airbnb to verify all of its listings

Airbnb properties will soon be verified for accuracy of photos, addresses, listing details, cleanliness, safety and basic home amenities. All rentals that meet the company’s new standards will be “clearly labeled” by December 15, 2020.

https://techcrunch.com/2019/11/06/airbnb-to-verify-all-of-its-listings/

 Kayak launches Kayak Guides

The new feature allows users to create and share personalized travel itineraries with friends, family and fellow travelers. In the near future, travelers will be able to search within Guides for specific locations, themes and more.

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-kayak-guides-help-you-find-your-one-in-a-billion-trip-300952032.html

 Booking.com launches third Booking Heroes competition

The competition invites Booking.com customers to tell the world their story of an accommodation provider that made their trip unforgettable. The Booking Heroes competition champions the outstanding hospitality of accommodation providers that offer their guests far more than a place to rest their head. By sharing their stories, customers can earn a chance to win €25,000 of Booking.com travel credit – both for them, and their Booking Hero.

https://globalnews.booking.com/bookingcom-highlights-hospitality-heroism-and-outstanding-travel-experiences-with-its-third-booking-heroes-competition/

Google Promoted Hotels available on mobile

Promoted Hotels placements have been introduced to mobile, expanding their presence on Google Hotel Search. As is the case in desktop search, Promoted Hotels will appear in one to two placements on the first page of the search query and will update based on the filters provided.

https://koddi.com/google-promoted-hotels-available-on-mobile/

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

Thanks and have a good day!

 

 

 

 

 

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Things to Consider Before Choosing a Hotel Channel Manager in 2019

It is necessary to have a wonderful hotel channel manager in the hotel industry. It will let you sell rooms efficiently, reduce the number of unsatisfied guests and minimize your monetary losses as well as reduce the amount of time that you waste on double bookings, under bookings and overbookings. In the absence of a channel manager, hotels need to manually update availability and inventory on every channel. Before picking a hotel channel manager in 2019, here are a few things that you need to consider.

Things to Consider Before Choosing a Hotel Channel Manager in 2019

Real-time updates

Real-time rate and availability updates are important features of any capable hotel channel manager. The channel manager of your choice must let you adjust hotel rates and room availability with convenience. It should be connectible to many booking sites. Thus, when there is booking of a room, the availability should automatically change across every distribution channel.

Channel performance report

A proper channel manager needs to offer you detailed reports on every channel. It will allow you to view how every channel is performing, what has to be fixed, the amount of money that you are making and more. You should get higher visibility on your channel distribution network, which can boost your performance, and reduce your expenses. The channel managers that are best-in-class heavily invest in cutting edge analytics and reports that are easily understandable and show revenues, reservations and occupancy for a particular time period.

Connectivity to many markets and OTAs

You should also check the way your channel manager forms connections to all your preferred markets and various OTAs. The connection established to many OTAs around the globe will let you enter your chosen markets that you supposed to be out of your reach. The process needs to be fast and easy, similar to ending a connection with an Online Travel Agency that you do not regard as important for your business. The best kind of channel managers let you use your most productive channels to advantage, and also experiment with channels that are less apparent and might help you gain access to markets that are tough to reach otherwise.

Support and training

A hotel channel manager of your choice needs to include support as well as training. In case it does not, you will be at risk of losing money and time. Without any training, you will not be able to get familiarity with a new hotel channel manager. It should help you to grasp all the particular features. The support needs to be great as well. Like any other software program, it can come with quite a few problems. When help is required, you need to be assured that it will be available right on time.

Pooled inventory

Proper channel management also needs a pooled inventory model. Make sure that there is sharing of your room inventory across every channel, instead of being manually allocated channel-by-channel. Pooled inventory makes sure that there is proper availability of rooms, so that the hotel rooms may be simultaneously promoted across every channel with no concern of overbooking.

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Daan Utsav: eRevMax celebrates the Invaluable Joy of Giving

Daan Utsav, also known as the ‘Joy of Giving’ festival is celebrated every year from 2 – 8 October in India. It brings together people across the country to participate in their own ways and give back to the society.

eRevMax, the leading hospitality technology solutions provider, has been celebrating the ‘Joy of Giving’ festival over the last few years. The company organizes internal collection drives to raise funds or gifts as per the wish list of the children it works with under its CSR initiatives. This year’s event was aimed at providing school bags for all the children of two primary schools in Kolkata.

By encouraging and enabling employee volunteering, eRevMax brings together people and good causes to create a wave of change. Volunteers from across different eRevMax offices took an active interest in this noble cause. It is moments like these when we choose to be warm, generous and kind that marks the quality of our lives and makes a difference to the world around us.

We aim to spread this movement by encouraging one and all to come forward and spread kindness and be generous. Here are some glimpses from eRevMax Daan Utsav 2019 celebrations –

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The Week, That Was – September 2019 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!!

Saudi based SAS Hotel recommends eRevMax for its Mobile Channel Manager

SAS Hotel, an upscale 4-star property in Saudi Arabia, has strongly recommended RateTiger and its Mobile App for hoteliers to effectively manage their online business. The property has been using RateTiger’s web-based channel management solution from eRevMax and has been a prolific user of the RateTiger-LiveOS mobile app.

https://bit.ly/2nqPtDu

What blockchain in corporate travel could mean for GDSs, TMCs

Technology companies, from startups with hardly any funding to the likes of IBM, are exploring how blockchain can be used in travel, including in the corporate space. One such company is Blockskye, which is using the technology to solve issues around distribution.

https://www.phocuswire.com/the-beat-live-blockchain-corporate-travel

50 years of the hotel PMS (and why it matters)

The hotel PMS has been around for about 50 years. Despite the technological progress made during all of those years, for most of that time hotels have relied on legacy systems with relatively basic functionalities and mainframes that kept everyone glued to a desk. Then in 2010, the cloud-based system came along, which changed so much more about the PMS than most hotels realize. And now, we’ve come even further to the API-first era.

https://www.hotelmarketing.com/articles/50-years-of-the-hotel-pms-and-why-it-matters

Hotels are gaining brand power

The demise of Thomas Cook is a testament to the profound changes faced by the tourism industry. It also contains clues as to its future direction of travel. However, something fundamental did change: brand power. Before the rise of online booking – let alone when Thomas Cook was born in 1841 – travelers relied on the tour operator brand not just for simplicity and peace of mind, but also to ensure a certain level of quality when staying in unknown countries.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/what-thomas-cooks-collapse-says-about-modern-tourism-11569248853

 Behind Airbnb’s purchase of HotelTonight and push into hotels

Sam Shank, co-founder of HotelTonight, now heads up Airbnb’s hotel division and spoke about the push last week at the Skift conference in NY. Shank noted that his team is building out the hotel category on Airbnb for the San Francisco-based company, which purchased HotelTonight, an app that popularized the last-minute booking trend, in March.

https://adage.com/article/cmo-strategy/behind-airbnbs-purchase-hoteltonight-and-push-hotels/2198561

The cause and effect of slowing business travel

With geopolitical and macroeconomic issues causing some concern for large businesses, hotel executives speaking during second-quarter earnings calls noted a drop-off in business transient. Global geopolitical issues apparently had businesses feeling anxious in the first half of 2019, and that impacted how much they were willing to spend on employee travel.

http://hotelnewsnow.com/Articles/297668/The-cause-and-effect-of-slowing-business-travel

Managing RevPAR for profits

To assist revenue managers, CBRE Hotels Research analyzed the impact of the components of RevPAR (occupancy and ADR) on changes in profits. Per the name, the historical role of revenue managers has been to maximize revenue – specifically rooms revenue or revenue per available room. RevPAR growth is achieved by increasing occupancy and/or average daily rates.

http://hotelnewsnow.com/Articles/298239/Managing-RevPAR-for-profits

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

Thanks and have a good day!

 

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The Week, That Was – September 2019 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!!

Hoteliers take a harder look at how they set room rates

Amateurs cut rates to fill hotel rooms. Pros take more sophisticated approaches, such as coordinating to stimulate demand from the most profitable customers. Revenue managers tend to focus on price-setting. Sales and marketing teams typically look at stimulating demand, such as by running email marketing campaigns or advertising on search engines like Google.

https://skift.com/2019/09/03/mgm-resorts-bet-on-rate-setting-tech-catches-notice-of-rivals/

Metasearch: What hotels get wrong

Metasearch is the industry’s fastest-growing distribution channel, yet many hoteliers still struggle to match the success of OTAs on the platform. So what are hotels doing wrong?  In this latest webinar, Dr Jan Sammeck, Director of eCommerce at Deutsche Hospitality, discusses the twelve biggest mistakes hotels are making in their meta strategy.

Listen the recording – http://email.triptease.com/yoLV8mES0O03DJf05D00020

Hotels embrace role as curators of niche products

One of the most interesting opportunities for hospitality brands is to be a new and intimate discovery channel for consumers. This idea is nothing new, of course. Brands have been placing themselves in hotel rooms for ages: Aesop likely owes some of its initial rise to being placed in the rooms at Park Hyatt Tokyo before anyone knew the brand. The taste-making audience who stays there helped with global pollination at an early stage. It was old-school seeding. Right people, right context, new-feeling product. Magic can happen from that.

https://skift.com/2019/09/03/hotels-embrace-role-as-curators-of-niche-products/

Booking.com, Skyscanner, Ctrip and TripAdvisor join travel sustainability pact

Booking.com, Skyscanner, Ctrip, and TripAdvisor, alongside payment giant Visa, have come together to form Travalyst in an effort to “mobilize the travel industry as a catalyst for good, aiming to transform the future of travel for everyone.”

https://www.phocuswire.com/Sustainable-tourism-online-travel-launch-Travalyst

2020 Budget season tips: Mapping your hotel’s digital marketing budget

Should we invest in search marketing, display advertising, and/or metasearch advertising? In truth, there isn’t one standard way to divide your marketing budget up – it really varies from property to property. However, adopting a multi-channel approach is best to expand your reach and target different customers throughout their travel journey.

https://bit.ly/2lzohRY

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

Thanks and have a good day!

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Bahrain – Middle East’s new hotspot

For a country of 1.4 million people, Bahrain,the small island nation in the Persian Gulf, receives about 16 million visitors every year. Driven largely by business travel, Bahrain has recently witnessed a surge in leisure travelers which together is expected to place the country’s tourism industry on track to reach its $1 billion 2020 target. The tourism sector is one of the key investment sectors and contributes 6.3% to the country’s GDP, and is set to grow significantly, as the number of visitors and leisure activities increase.

A popular destination for neighbouring countries, Bahrain has aggressively promoting tourism in the Indian luxury segment and has also emerged as a prime wedding destination. the occupancy of Bahrain’s five-star hotels stood at 53 percent during the quarter, compared to 50 percent in 2018. In the first quarter of 2019 the total number of nights by tourists reached 4.1 million nights, an average of 3.3 nights per tourist.

Online travel is growing significantly in the GCC driven by high penetration for smartphones and adoption of e-commerce. Online travel bookings represent approximately 32% of the overall bookings which is projected to reach 40% by 2021. Bahrain, which has almost 100% internet penetration, makes it an attractive option for hotels to sell more on online.

Hotels are increasingly adopting to the technology. According to a recent study by eRevMax, hotels in the region now use at least three travel technology applications. In lieu with the growth in online bookings, Channel Manager or OTA connectivity solution has become a must have to manage online sales channels.

As the online travel market becomes the key component of tourism ecosystem in the GCC, it has open up new digital opportunities for hotels to engage with their consumers and the rapidly growing young segment of the GCC population.

Bahrain is now a perfect hot spot for every nationality Americans, Europeans, and Middle Eastern travelling in the region. As a travel destination, Bahrain is perfect for all; from families with children to even solo women travellers.

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

           

 

Source – *voyagersworld, travelwirenews, arabianbusiness,zawya, economictimes