Posted on

Is your PMS enough for distribution?

Channel Managers and Hotel Property Management Systems have been around for quite a few years now. Whether you are a real estate agency, a hotel, a B&B manager or the owner of some family properties, there are chances that you are looking for the type of software that can help you out the best. Here are some differences between Channel Management systems and Property Management Systems, which can let you understand such platforms better and take an informed decision.

Is your PMS enough for distribution

Purpose

Property Management Systems are a type of software system that is created to make daily operations management easier for real estate companies, hotels or rental agencies. The aim is to assign, schedule and organize tasks and these are especially helpful for reporting, accounting and staff management. Channel Managers, on the other hand, specialize in distributing short-term rentals to listing websites, whether it comes to wholesalers, GDS, Metasearch, Vacation Rental sites or OTAs.

Capability

PMS systems are created originally in the form of front desk hotel software, and are made to follow trends in the market and can redirect them to vacation rentals or some other expanding sector. With the use of this type of system, you can spend less time in dealing with business and get more time to concentrate on guest experience and guests.

A PMS channel manager can let you deal with time-consuming operations of managing a vacation rental business. A PMS channel manager updates information automatically across every booking channel and can automate payments and online reservations. Dedicated channel managers, however, are online distribution specialists and can frequently offer much more connections across many channels.

Sophistication

When you choose a property management system integrated with a channel manager, it can help you in online property management and can ensure listing distribution for you across many websites. A PMS or company has several advantages. Property management systems offer automated guest communication services, business performance analytics, in-built accounting services and many more.

PMS coming with an in-built channel manager can be very useful for your own business. A dedicated channel manager is useful in all those cases where there is a drop in the functionality of a property management system. There are more sophisticated capabilities of dedicated channel managers, which can let you create a very complex type of pricing model as per your wish. While PMSes and channel managers tend to vary in nature, the former lacks the sophisticated features that are part of dedicated channel managers – such as pushing right property specs and dealing with a complicated pricing model.

Support

A few property management firms have a team comprising of local employees that care for on-site upkeep and maintenance. But you can expect a built-in expert team with dedicated channel managers, which come with the support of a team comprising of expert distribution professionals. The team of experts of the developer company has a direct communication line with booking websites as well as other channels, due to the fact that a high volume of properties is offered by dedicated channel managers to listing websites.

 

Posted on

eRevMax completes connectivity integration with VeryChic


eRevMax, the leading hotel channel manager & connectivity solution provider, has completed integration with VeryChic, a digital platform for the private sale of luxury hotel rooms and apartments, cruises, breaks and packages. The 2-way XML interface allows mutual customer hotels to update rate and availability on the online booking channel and receive reservations in their PMS in real-time.
VeryChic is the latest addition to the eRevMax Channel Ecosystem that connects hotels to over 350 online distribution channels. Recently acquired by Accor Hotels, VeryChic enables more than 4,500 luxury and upscale hotel partners to optimize distribution and provides them access to new guests via its private sales. Selling inventories of over thesecarefully selected luxury and upscale hotels across 80 countries, VeryChic has a loyal base of over 7 million members in the French market.
“Our mission is to provide hoteliers with a solution that will help them manage channels effectively while saving time and money. This integration is a continuation of our effort to offer quality connections to diverse range of distribution options through the eRevMax Channel Ecosystem,” said Ashis Saha, SVP – Project Management, eRevMax.
“As a leader in Private Sales distribution, VeryChic tends to develop connectivity to update in real-timeprices and stocks of our 200 daily hotels flash sales.  eRevMax, one of the leaders in the channel management space, is the perfect partner to provide us with the opportunity to expand our reach and enable hotels and chains that complement our ethos to easily connect with VeryChic. This is also beneficial to our hotel suppliers to further reduce their time to update rates and availabilities while automating reservation delivery,” said Guillaume Dubost, Head of Business Development, VeryChic.
Posted on

Malaysian Arenaa Star Hotel Kuala Lumpur improves online sales through efficient rate distribution


Arenaa Hotel, one of the popular hotels in Kuala Lumpur, has improved its online business with eRevMax solution. The 3-star property has been using RateTiger’s cloud based channel manager to manage their room availabilities and rates across multiple online sales channels and increase revenue.
Located in Kuala Lumpur’s famous China Town, Arenaa Star is a three-star property with around 250 rooms. The property has been leveraging RateTiger’s real-time connectivity with over 300 online sales channels to connect to the better producing OTAs, resulting in an increase in occupancy and profit.
“RateTiger is more than just a channel manager. It’s a powerful tool for the ease of connectivity and making quick updates across all channels. The helpful pace report guides and enables us to plan and meet our monthly sales target. The detailed demand information and scores ensures our selling strategies work more effectively. On top of that, the excellent support from RateTiger team is what makes it the perfect partnership,” said Nicholas Asam, Executive E-Commerce Marketing & Communications, Arenaa Star Hotel.
“At eRevMax, the focus has always been on providing hotel partners stable connection with a bouquet of choices for making the best use of their distribution mix. RateTiger and LIVE OS have been built with a vision to make online sales simpler for hotels, and Arenaa Star’s recommendation is a testimony to that,” said Ram Manohar Dubey, Sales Manager, eRevMax.
Posted on

Host Hotel Systems integrates with eRevMax for seamless online booking connectivity

Host Hotel Systems have recently completed a two-way interface between HostPMS and eRevMax, allowing HostPMS users to fully utilise the advantages of both systems at once. Through this interface the accommodation providers will be able to manage automated online inventory updates, and standardised rate changes across the multiple channels.
Marketing Manager Joao Rodrigues of Host Hotel Systems anticipates that this integration will improve overall customer satisfaction and will give them the ability to expand their distribution portfolio to reach out to vast audience. He also thanks to eRevMax for this integration which removes the need for manual input.
Commenting on the integration Chief Operating Officer of eRevMax, Greg Berman said this integration will help Host customers to get automatic updates in real time across all connected channels.

Using Connect, a SaaS based enterprise connectivity solution from eRevMax; HostPMS users will be able to increase their web presence through greater access to marketing channels.

Posted on

Infographic: eRevMax predicts 2014 to be the year of Meta-search

Previously, hoteliers have primarily focused upon direct marketing and OTAs, but there’s a new player in terms of hotel channel distribution and it looks like it’s here to stay. Meta search is proving hugely popular with the younger generation who, with perhaps tighter budgets than their older counterparts, are more cost conscious when it comes to travel. There has been a 13 percent increase in meta search traffic in the past year alone, with meta search websites such as Kayak processing almost 1600 million queries annually. It is widely suggested that hoteliers begin to amend their marketing strategies to include meta search in a more prominent role.


To access the full infographic, click Meta-search 2014 – It’s here to stay

Posted on

Improve direct booking through incentives

Mega online travel agencies are costly distribution channels for hoteliers. Hoteliers suffer from huge amount of revenue loss due to the high commissions charged by the Online Travel Agencies i.e. from 10-25 percent. So how can hotels bring customers to their own website for direct bookings instead of visiting an OTA?  A recent survey conducted among 2500 customers by Software Advice finds the answer:-
If a hotel wants to implement your suggestions on offering a free room upgrade or any other perk, how and when should they do this?
Our survey showed that consumers don’t agree on what free room upgrade they prefer, so it’s best for hotels to have a variety of room types available. This upgrade should be promoted to travelers at every possible chance: social media channels, the hotel’s booking page, within hotel marketing emails and other materials.
Is it really cost effective to offer a traveler a free room upgrade just to get them to book direct, saving the hotel the 10-20% OTA fee?
An upgrade to a room with a better view shouldn’t cost the hotel much, but the cost effectiveness of offering a room with a kitchenette, balcony or living room will depend on the particular hotel’s availability, rates and season. Even if the incentive costs as much as the OTA commission, the hotel has an opportunity to delight the guest and drive brand loyalty.
Even though a perk like free room service wasn’t the most popular incentive, do you feel it could still convince travelers to book direct?
I think free room service is a strong incentive for consumers to book directly, as the results showed that travelers are highly motivated by offers of food and drinks. Food is also a relatively low-cost offer for hotels.
Should hotels take the traveler’s age into consideration before offering perks like these, or even certain kinds of perks for certain age ranges?
In general, perks for free food and drinks should be effective for all ages, but different types of gift cards can be more effective for different ages. For example, our survey shows an older couple might respond better to a gift card for a local restaurant, while younger travelers could be more convinced by a gift card for a local theme park.
Were you surprised by any of the survey results?
I think it’s reasonable to expect people to be motivated by food and drinks since dining is such an important and often expensive aspect of traveling. However, I was surprised that the results for the most convincing room upgrade were split so evenly.
Posted on

Newshound: Trends and Reports – Hotel Online Distribution


5 key trends in hotel distribution

The rapidly evolving distribution landscape emerged as a focal point during a panel at September’s Annual Conference for the International Society of Hospitality Consultants. During the conference, John Burns of Hospitality Technology Consulting shared five key trends every hotelier should keep an eye on.
http://hotelnewsnow.com/Articles.aspx/9283/5-key-trends-in-hotel-distribution

Semantic search will be standard across online travel by 2020

Technology continues to push the travel, tourism and hospitality industry forward and make it more dynamic than ever before. But the next phase is where it gets REALLY exciting. For background, this week I took part in a panel discussion at World Travel Market in London alongside Nate Bucholz, industry head for travel at Google, and Andrew Jones, head of search account management at Bing.
http://www.tnooz.com/2012/11/08/news/semantic-search-will-be-standard-across-online-travel-by-2020/

Priceline-Kayak deal: Marketing expertise & global footprint at heart of $1.8 billion takeover

Priceline is acquiring Kayak for $1.8 billion in cash and stock. Yes, read it again. While unexpected, interestingly the news does not fundamentally tell us anything about the industry. Unless, that is, aside from Priceline’s willingness to use its strong stock performance to continue its aggressive growth.
http://www.tnooz.com/2012/11/08/news/priceline-kayak-deal-marketing-expertise-and-global-footprint-at-heart-of-1-8-billion-takeover/#mcFwBaR3aTDH0kmE.99

Exploring TripAdvisor as a demand generator

Market Metrix indicated that in 2010 user reviews became the biggest determining factor in why guests chose a specific hotel. Using online consumer panel data from comScore, we illustrate the upstream impact of TripAdvisor on online hotel reservations; specifically we show that the fraction of consumers consulting reviews at TripAdvisor before booking a hotel room has steadily increased from 2008 through 2010. Not only has the fraction of consumers visiting TripAdvisor increased, but also so has the number of reviews they are reading before making their hotel choice.
http://hotelnewsnow.com/Articles.aspx/9281/Exploring-TripAdvisor-as-a-demand-generator

Social Travel Infographic

Social Travel becomes a travel-planning trend. With so much information available online, it’s almost impossible to using any kind of social media. Reviews, Facebook, Twitter and blogs are all amazingly helpful in planning travel of any kind. Obviously, you are already doing at least some social travel, since you read this blog.
http://beforeitsnews.com/travel/2012/10/social-travel-infographic-10-26-12-2447076.html