ÖHV-Hotelierkongress 2012

I attended the ÖHV-Hotelierkongress 2012 in Schladming last month and was pleasantly surprised in my first week taking over the region by the warmth and friendliness of Austrians. It turned out to be a well organized event with over 600 attendees comprising hoteliers, representatives from tourism boards, business and economy.

The focus for this year’s congress was to gauge current changes in society resulting from the recession and political shifts and its impact on the hospitality & tourism. The conference covered topics like impact of crisis and austerity on tourism, dealing within a changing world, the role of tourism in integration, the Family Hotel 2020 and the change in e-tourism.

For me, it was a great opportunity to meet with local hoteliers and discuss channel management and the potential it offers. The hospitality scenario in Austria is dominated by family run leisure hotels and small establishments. The awareness about online distribution has started to seep through though it will take some time to gain momentum. The event provided a good networking platform and it was a valuable learning experience for all present.

I look forward to the next edition and other such events in the region.

Cristina Hernandez is Sales Manager for Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Eastern Spain at eRevMax and is responsible for sales of RateTiger products in the region. She can be reached at cristinas@ratetiger.com

Tigers in London for game planning

Tigers from across the world congregated in London, UK for the annual strategy convention. RateTiger representatives from Asia, Europe, South America and USA came to Reigate in Surrey to discuss plans for world domination.

In total there were about 30 of us looking at the new trends in channel management, the challenges hoteliers are facing and the effects that the economic situation could have on hotels. The International Sales Meeting gives us the opportunity to share best practices, identify similarities in market behaviours and plan product development to meet the new demands that hoteliers are facing with pricing, distribution and bookings.

This event is always an eye-opener as we discover there are similarities between Asia and USA while many European countries behave differently to each other. The past year has also seen emerging markets becoming more relevant for our technologies; through a series of regional sales presentations we learned which market wants what product immediately showing the differences in approach by revenue managers.


The three-day conference gave us all the opportunity to meet in person away from our emails and Skype in favour for more real discussion, debate and laughter. Now RateTiger has completed a very successful 10 years in the business, the team are pent up to drive forward for the next decade.

We’re ready for 2012.

Ryan Haynes is VP – Global Marketing at eRevMax and is responsible for driving all PR and Marketing activities of eRevMax and its various product brands globally. Ryan is based out of London and can be reached at ryanh@ratetiger.com