Tag: Inventory

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A Tale of Two Technologies

How the Seamless Merger of Hotel Systems Leads to Better Results

The travel and hospitality business might have started small, with people lending a space in exchange for a certain tribute, but it has now reached a point in history when it is completely reliant on technology. Between a multitude of hotel systems and software that have become absolute necessities in the 21st century, many hoteliers might feel somewhat lost or overwhelmed. So many options, so much to do, so little time.

In a time like this, the integration between technologies is not only welcomed by both hoteliers and travelers, but it is also deeply needed by the industry itself. In an effort to save time and increase efficiency, as well as strive for a wider, global exposure, hospitality technology providers are partnering up and creating intelligent connections like never before.

In 2016, eRevMax and TrustYou, two leading companies in the hospitality field, started a collaboration that, to this day, results in benefits not only for them but for a high number of hotels from all over the world. By merging TrustYou’s guest feedback platform with eRevMax’s hospitality operating platform, hotel managers can oversee and manage various hotel operations like revenue management, online distribution, as well as their hotel’s online reputation among various other segments.

eRevMax’s platform, LiveOS, works around the “Profits in Unity” concept, which means that it gathers dozens of technology providers and partners in one place, for easy access and increased efficiency to “Make Life Simple” for Hotels. From PMSs, RMSs, OTAs, to ORMs like the TrustYou platform, LiveOS has currently more than 50 technology partners integrated.

So why is it so important to merge systems and software and how exactly does it pay off? It’s not a secret anymore that we live in a fast-paced world and that modern hoteliers and consumers are in a constant rush. While having so many technologies to rely on, signing into different platforms multiple times a day can be an unnecessary and time-consuming process.

eRevMax’s vision is to enable hoteliers to have access to a more complex and intuitive tool, in order to manage a multitude of hotel operations from a single sign-on platform. Users can select and use their preferred technologies, even ones that are not owned by eRevMax, therefore enjoying a customizable and personalized experience. The platform provides real-time updates and it also flags any arising issues, to bring immediate attention to them.

In the last two years, TrustYou’s guest feedback platform was used by eRevMax customers, through the LiveOS platform. Hoteliers can keep track of their hotel’s overall score and reputation while getting real-time updates about guest reviews. Receiving valuable insights into the guest journey is for many hoteliers the first step towards adjusting future strategies and services, in an effort to exceed expectations and improve the reputation – which, in the long run, leads to more booking and a higher revenue.

LiveOS users have free access to features integrated into the TrustYou feedback platform. Moreover, when accessing the TrustYou data inside LiveOS, users get an overview of their hotel’s overall score, along with the exact number of verified reviews that determined it.

The incoming reviews are displayed in the TrustYou dashboard and highlighted, in order to create a thorough examination of the best services provided and the ones that need improvement. This way, certain features, such as the location, the breakfast, the pool area, get their own score and guest sentiments. The feedback is also structured by language and by traveler type, such as business travelers, families, couples, etc.

Beyond the analytical part of the feedback platform, LiveOS users can also opt to use the TrustYou Stars Lite feature, which enables the use of a customizable guest survey. Hoteliers can encourage guest feedback by asking for reviews and opinions, through a quick and efficient survey – which TrustYou’s latest study revealed to be the best way of getting positive feedback.

Only one year after LiveOS users started to utilize the TrustYou survey tool, the overall number of collected reviews had almost tripled: from 1878 reviews in 2016 to 6990 in 2017. This comes as a confirmation of the necessity and utility of a guest survey, as a tool to get valuable guest feedback.

This seamless integration between two leading hospitality technologies has proven to be most beneficial for both eRevMax and TrustYou, as well as hoteliers from all over the world, who use and rely on LiveOS and the TrustYou feedback platform. eRevMax has enabled a way for users to make the most out of their software and have every single technology necessary available with one sign-in. Their portfolio provides every technology that impacts the guest journey, as TrustYou’s latest eBook described it.

TrustYou’s leading guest feedback solution gets more exposure through LiveOS and reaches a larger number of hoteliers, interested in managing, overseeing and improving their online reputation.

And hoteliers, well, they get best of both the worlds. By being able to make use of multiple must-have hotel technologies in one place, they not only save valuable time, which can be invested in other areas, but they also improve operations, manage and boost the hotel’s reputation and work towards achieving better results, more popularity, bookings, and revenue.

 

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Why Hotels need Channel Manager?

In today’s tourism sector, OTAs are playing a major role and big OTAs like Expedia and Booking.com have dominated the travel market. So, it is a must for hotels to opt for OTA services. Additionally, it is not possible to get enough bookings from one OTA, so now hotels must connect with multiple OTAs which makes it difficult to manage the inventory manually. Hence comes the role of a Channel Manager.

A channel manager helps you to implement yield management techniques effectively i.e. to sell the right room at the right time at the right price on the right channel.

Channel Manager helps to boost occupancy rate. It pushes room inventory and automatically updates all rates in respective OTAs in real- time.  Even a channel manager gives more opportunities to hoteliers to connect with more OTAs to expand visibility and earn more revenue.  Room rates and availability get updated across all platforms in real-time. Along with Channel Manager, a hotel can connect with more systems like PMS, GDS, RMS, CRS, Rate Shopping and Meta Search sites.

Key Benefits of using a Channel Manager –

  • Manage availability and rates for OTAs from one dashboard
  • Efficiently close availability at the click of a button across all channels
  • Expand online visibility by selling on multiple channels
  • Maximize hotel revenue by smart management of rate
  • Increase occupancy level with clever distribution strategies
  • Eliminate overbooking situations by using pooled inventory feature
  • All updates made in real-time without logging into multiple extranets
  • Bookings from channels delivered directly into PMS
  • Inventory status always up to date in the PMS
  • More time to focus on strategies rather than updating channels
  • No risk of human errors when updating rates or inventory on channels

A Channel manager also helps you to connect to channels that bring more business to your country – thereby putting your hotel in front of international travelers. Considered one of the best hotel channel manager in the market, RateTiger is integrated with more than 350 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 and LiveOS.

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The Week, That Was – July 2018 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!!

VHP Announces Connectivity Integration with RateTiger
Manage your online sales channels directly from one of APAC’s largest PMS, via RateTiger HotelChannelManager. Experience 2-way seamless hoteldistributionconnectivity for distributing rates and inventory to channels and getting reservations back into the PMS – all managed from the PMS interface.

https://goo.gl/SXFjEd

China’s travel tech companies make steady progress with AI
Use cases of artificial intelligence are being refined as Chinese technology companies become sophisticated with the handling of massive data volumes, crafting advanced algorithms and embrace improvements in computing power and storage. The application of AI is being used in improving the efficiency of traditional travel agents by working out a customized trip itinerary in a matter of seconds, recommending add-ons based on the traveler’s previous bookings or recent trip planning behaviors and curbing payment-related fraud.

https://www.tnooz.com/article/ai-travel-use-cases-china/

Next generation of travel tech leaders
The current crop of leaders of the industry were brought up on the early days of ecommerce. They created and integrated many of the systems and processes that are second nature today to how the online sector works. The next generation of industry leaders are digital natives, as the phrase goes, potentially giving them a different perspective on it all. Check out this video that discusses current issues and tips from the industry elders.

https://www.phocuswire.com/Video-young-leaders-travel-technology

Who are the biggest innovators in hospitality?
Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne put six innovation scenarios to test and asked hospitality industry executives what scenario(s) were more likely to take place in their organization within the next three to five years. Download the full report to know about the test.

http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/who_are_the_biggest_innovators_in_hospitality

Economist: Hoteliers should prepare for a downturn
While the outlook shared by many hoteliers has remained relatively upbeat as the hotel industry has enjoyed a prolonged up-cycle, at least one economist warns that the good times probably won’t last much longer.

http://www.hotelnewsnow.com/Articles/287183/Economist-Hoteliers-should-prepare-for-a-downturn

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

Thanks and have a good day!

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VHP Announces Connectivity Integration with RateTiger

SUPRANUSA SINDATA, leading provider for hotel management system in Indonesia and eRevMax, a hotel distribution and connectivity expert has announced the integration of VHP – Visual Hotel Program and RateTiger Channel Manager.

RateTiger offers real-time monitoring of room availability, room rates, and restrictions across all connected online travel channels. The system is now connected to VHP PMS which allows hoteliers to quickly and efficiently manage all reservations, eliminating manual data entry.

“This integration with Visual Hotel Program (VHP) by PT. SUPRANUSA SINDATA, one of the leading property management systems in South East Asia, complements our continuous effort to provide hoteliers with technology that makes their business easier to manage and more profitable,” said Ashis Saha, Senior Vice President – Project Management at eRevMax.

“The integration with RateTiger – eRevMax will assist our hotel customers to have a better online reservation experience through vast network of volume-producing and branded online travel agent (OTAs),” commented Dipl.Ing. Christian Yie, Business Development Director of PT. SUPRANUSA SINDATA.

The seamless connectivity between VHP PMS and RateTiger eliminates the need for accommodation providers to maintain online inventory manually across OTAs, metasearch and GDS channels, and manually re-enter online reservations from booking websites into their PMS. This results in immense time saving, reduced overheads and resources, as well as avoiding manual mistakes, giving hotel revenue managers the time to focus on revenue strategy rather than distribution efforts.

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Hotwire completes two-way XML integration with RateTiger

Hotwire.com, a leading discount travel site, has been incorporated into eRevMax’s Channel Eco-System following certification of a two-way XML interface with RateTiger and eRevMax Connect services for hotels. The XML integration will enhance the communication performance between the channel manager and extranet that will allow hotel users to take greater advantage of selling distressed inventory.
Reservations generated by Hotwire can be delivered through RateTiger and eRevMax Connect into the hotel’s property management system. This will significantly reduce time to update reservation data while ensuring all customer data is entered accurately. Moreover, seamless online booking connectivity will enable hotels to process rate and inventory updates through RateTiger’s XML interface transferring data in real-time, while also receiving reservation data from Hotwire bookings.


For more, click here

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JJW Hotels subscribes to RateTiger channel manager to increase online bookings

JJW hotels has selected RateTiger by eRevMax as the channel manager of choice across 23 of its European hotels.The hotel chain will be able to update rates and inventory at property level through RateTiger’s vast distribution network, whilst simultaneously optimising the performance of available inventory from connected channels.
“We require a reliable solution that will meet our demands for price shopping as well as channel management. Having seen the success RateTiger has brought to other hotels with their streamlined approach to revenue management, we’re sure that our new partnership with them will increase revenue, as well as the customer’s booking experience,” said Guy Marwood Finance Director for JJW Hotels & Resorts.

The hotels will benefit from eRevMax’s recently released RateTiger RTSuite 3.0; this latest version comes complete with a new user interface and integrated channel management functionality, and is designed to maximize usability and effectiveness.

For more, read here.
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Selling hotel rooms – An NIHF event

At last week’s Selling Rooms event with the Northern Ireland Hotel Federation, hotels were very interested in learning how they could control their own inventory. Most of the attendees acknowledged that through OTAs they were losing control over pricing and distribution as they fought to manage the cost of selling through third parties.

While many are trying to sell direct, it beggars the question – how much inventory is allocated to the direct channel and how much to third party, when in fact all channels should have access to the same availability. In many cases there can be as much as 24% profit difference selling direct than across OTAs.

Interestingly, hotels struggled to manage their budgets effectively as some of the revenue management or OTA costs derived from the Marketing budget and others from the Reservations. Why should the direct selling channel come from Marketing, while OTAs are paid by Reservations? Marketing will always achieve a higher profit margin and is therefore unrepresentative of the financials of e-sales.
Many consumers have a hard time booking across hotel websites, unfortunately the journey can be clunky without a clear and easy-to-use booking engines. Hotels need to invest in booking engine applications they can easily install in their website that is similar to the OTAs, this will optimize the booking journey for conversions and mobile bookings.

It was also noted the value of Voice bookings, training the reservations, call center and front of house team to offer packages based on internet rates, and upgrade if necessary to avoid losing the booking to a third party website, which will cost them dearly in commission fees.

Northern Ireland has experienced a very strong year, with most guests being domestic tourism. The national tourism office will be launching a new website at the end of the year that will incorporate direct booking initiatives from the main OTA providers, giving hotels in the region an additional option for exposure and visibility.


Ryan C Haynes is VP – Marketing Communications at eRevMax. He was one of the speakers at the event and shared his insights on how hotels can use technology smartly to distribute rooms online and make the most of direct channels as well. Ryan is based out of London and can be reached at ryanh@ratetiger.com
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Tradewinds Hotels and Resorts diversifies product offering with distribution control

Tradewinds Hotels and Resorts Sdn Bhd has increased online bookings by improving its visibility in new markets while diversifying its product offering. The hotel group installed RateTiger’s channel manager, RTSuite, to manage up to 12 channels across five of its nine properties to gain control over room availability and introduce new packages.
 

Hamidah Ishak, Asset Manager at Tradewinds Corporation said: “We experience excellent occupancy levels during peak season at our Tradewinds Hotels & Resort, but we needed more exposure to ensure consistent sales throughout the year.”

One of the largest hotel owners in Malaysia, the group introduced additional sales channels to expand into China and Taiwan and grab a larger market share. From now the hotel can enjoy greater flexibility in rate management and inventory distribution and thereby introduce three new product types, Advance Purchase, Discounted Rates and Minimum Night Stay, to offer travelers greater choice.
Find out the full story here
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Newshound: Trends and Reports – Hotel Online Distribution

Distribution experts share key to success
For all its complexity, the distribution game comes down to one simple factor: value. If a channel doesn’t offer value, then hoteliers shouldn’t use that channel to yield inventory, concluded a panel comprising a diverse array of representatives in the field.

Making Social Media An Asset To Your Hotel, Part 3: Sales & Marketing
Marketing using social media requires a different discipline and expertise from traditional and online marketing. Just as radio ads don’t translate well to television, branded online ads typically don’t work well in social media. Marketers wanting to utilize social media will need to think differently, and this section explains how.

A New Era for OTAs
Tension between hotels and online travel agencies has been palpable for the past several years, as the Web distribution marketplace has seen heated competition both online, through the battle for booking revenue, and off, through business negotiations and legal disputes. But as economic purse strings have loosened, consumer demand has risen, and hotels themselves have become more savvy in corralling their own direct customers, several of the major online travel brands have changed their game to reflect what they see as the current state of the business.

Online now accounts for more than half of travel sales across Europe
Online bookings accounted for more than half the travel sales across Europe for the first time last year, according to industry analyst IPK International. But agency sales continue to dominate Europe’s biggest travel market: Germany. IPK reported 55% of all travel bookings in Europe were online last year, up 15% on 2010. Attached is the key findings of the report.

Global average room rate rose by 4pc last year: report
A report released by Hotels.com has indicated that the results are showing the green shoots of recovery for many countries with the average price of a hotel across the world rising four percent, placing them on a par with prices from 2005. According to Hotels.com’s Hotel Price Index (HPI), the relative strength of the global hotel sector can be seen as an indicator of a potential turnaround in the economic outlook with the average price of a room around the world rising four percent in 2011.

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RateTiger News

Global Hotel Exchange Utilizes RateTiger Effect

On Tuesday, a new, independent OTA announced a strategical alignment with RateTiger. Global Hotel Exchange, a cost free distrubution channel for hotels to launch in January, will leverage the power of global hospitality technology provider Rate Tager and eRevMax. Set to go live in January of 2012, Global Hotel Exchange (GHX) was founded by Tom Magnuson, CEO of Magnuson Hotels, the largest independent hotel group in the world. As part of the strategic move, GHX gains access to over 20% of the UK hotel market, not including the strength of Magnuson’s other 2,000 hotels in the US and across the UK.
http://www.argophilia.com/news/ratetiger-effect/24140/

WTM: 2011 Money Generation Machine

Travel Daily News reported this morning, the start of this week’s World Travel Market in London, the leading worldwide travel industry event, welcomed some 183 new exhibitors for 2011. From national tourism boards, destination management companies, to technology entities and beyond, ExCeL, London is the place to be November 7 through 10.
http://www.argophilia.com/news/money-generation-machine/24135/

WTM Travel and Online Technology region prepares for more visitors and buyers

World Travel Market, the leading event for the global travel industry, reveals that the number of pre-registered visitors interested in technology and online travel for WTM 2011 is already 13% up on the previous year.With a week to go until the event launches on Monday 7 November, the improvement on last year is likely to increase further.
http://www.incentivetravel.co.uk/shows/4013-wtm-travel-and-online-technology-region-prepares-for-more-visitors-and-buyers

JacTravel embraces hotel channel management

Travel wholesaler JacTravel has launched a new channel management service for its hotel partners to address what it says it has identified as an important growing market. Commercial manager James Blackmore has been appointed to head up the service and partners already signed up include RateTiger, TravelClick, Figaro, and A&O Hotels and Hostels. Channel management has taken off in recent years with some firms reporting double digit growth in sales and triple digit growth in usage, according to JacTravel. Sascha Hausmann,  chief executive of eRevMax, which owns RateTiger, said: “Channel management is becoming an essential technology to more efficiently and accurately manage the multiple sales channel landscape of the internet. Over the past two years we have seen an increase of over 150% of channel updates processed per month.”
http://www.travolution.co.uk/articles/2011/10/14/5103/jactravel-embraces-hotel-channel-management.html