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The Week, That Was – October 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!!

Argentina based Europlaza Hotel & Suites recommends eRevMax for channel connectivity

Europlaza Hotel & Suites, a midscale hotel in the heart of Buenos Aires has recommended eRevMax solutions for managing online distribution. The property has been using RateTiger Channel Manager since 2014 to maintain real-time rate and availability across multiple online sales channels and receive reservations.

https://bit.ly/2BFN2ki

How to Promote Your Hotel to Business Travelers?

Business travelers form one of the major groups of travelers, and this group is increasing with time. Expenses on global business travel are expected to rise by 7% by the year 2020, which means hoteliers have to go that extra mile to attract business travelers to their properties.

https://www.erevmax.com/blog/index.php/2019/10/how-to-promote-your-hotel-to-business-travelers/

TripAdvisor jumps on the hotel direct booking bandwagon

TripAdvisor is introducing a direct-booking feature to its Sponsored Placements product for accommodation providers designed to help them boost revenue. With the new feature, sponsored listings will now include a prominent link directly to a hotel’s website to facilitate a booking. Previously, listings linked through to an OTA.

https://www.phocuswire.com/tripadvisor-sponsored-placements-direct-bookings

Google vacation rentals: Booking Holdings is gone, Airbnb is in

Airbnb listings have begun appearing for the first time in Google’s vacation rentals feature in several European cities, including Paris, Amsterdam, and Madrid. Airbnb’s appearance in Google vacation rentals could be a cameo — a small test to see if participation is worthwhile.

https://skift.com/2019/10/22/airbnb-makes-debut-in-google-vacation-rentals-for-now/

Independent hotels disappearing as chains grow

More independent hotels are either joining the big chains or shutting their doors. One of the biggest reasons independent hotels are disappearing is that they’re getting acquired by the large hotel companies or joining them as affiliates to tap into their marketing power.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/21/business/independent-hotels-airbnb-boutique-chains.html

Phocuswright: Capturing the Chinese travel consumer

1.4 billion people strong, the Chinese make up a large percentage of APAC travelers. Capturing Chinese travelers is like netting a big fish. They travel in throngs and have money to spend. This is proven by the travel bookings from the region amounting to USD 420 billion in 2018 and is expected to increase to USD 480bn in 2020.

https://www.traveldailymedia.com/capturing-the-chinese-consumer/

Agoda on moving beyond accommodation

In the past, Agoda was all about hotels. That has changed. Today the company sells flights, tours as well as alternative accommodation which has become a strong pillar of the business. Thailand-based travel platform Agoda says it is focusing on finding the “best inventory” for its customers, operating with the “best tech” and fending off the intense competition in Asia armed with the “best weapons.”

https://www.phocuswire.com/Agoda-John-Broughton-Brown-interview

Meet Team eRevMax at WTM London, Stand TT211 from 4 – 6 November 2019 – contact marketing@erevmax.com to set up a meeting.

Thanks and have a good day!

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The Week, That Was – October 2019 Week 2

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!!

HospitalityUnited.Club to host Cocktails & Conversations in Singapore

The consortium of travel technology specialists, HospitalityUnited.Club, is ready to host its exclusive ‘Cocktails & Conversations’ evening in Singapore this month, on 16th October 2019. The Club will be hosting the event in partnership with AgentX101, HotelTonight, Ecommpay, LiveOS, RateTiger and WIHP, to present the latest in travel technology.

Register today – https://www.hospitalityunited.club/events-register/singapore-oct19.html

Booking.com’s top travel trends for 2020

The company predicts 2020 will be a year of travel exploration like never before, fueled by technology as well as a growing sense of responsibility and deeper connection with the people and places we visit.

https://travelpredictions2020.com/#5

If you think email is dead, think again

Adobe’s recently released Email Usage Study for 2019 reveals new insights about consumer habits and preferences around receiving marketing emails. The respondents are spending up to five hours a day checking their emails (both work and personal). In fact, they actually feel that the amount of time they are spending is ‘just right.’

https://www.clickz.com/email-usage-study-adobe-2019/255955/

RoomIt by CWT expands channel manager connectivity

RoomIt by CWT the global hotel distribution division of CWT, announces new strategic partnerships with multiple global hotel guest acquisition platforms. The partnerships provide business travelers with more choice and hotels with greater access to customers.

https://news.carlsonwagonlit.com/pressreleases/roomit-by-cwt-expands-hotel-distribution-with-new-strategic-global-partnerships-2924419

Hotels are start, end points of travel experiences

As affluents become more drawn to experiential travel, the role of the hotel has evolved to become more about the destination than simply about hospitality. During a panel at Condé Nast Traveler’s Points of View Summit, industry experts discussed how high-end and boutique hotels are becoming more reflective of their location. Design, sustainability practices and programming are different ways hotels can incorporate local elements.

https://www.luxurydaily.com/hotels-are-start-end-points-of-travel-experiences/

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 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 – July 2019 Week 3

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!!

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!