Tag: online distribution

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5 Online Distribution hacks for hotels to get more business

Many hotels today are not happy with their sales as they are facing a lot of competition and are struggling to manage a variety of online channels and technology solutions. In this article, I will talk about some tips to overcome these inconveniences and increase profits for your property.

The fundamental thing is to connect to the right channels based on the markets that book your hotel, and of course apply revenue management strategies to offer the right prices to the right customer segment.


In a highly fluctuating market, online visibility has become essential, and having a booking engine on the hotel brand website is a key to drive direct business.

This needs to be complemented with a Channel Manager so that you can manage all your connected sales channels easily and efficiently. Further, to know what rates you should charge for different room types for different time periods, you need to know your competitors rates as a benchmark. Hence having a rate shopping tool has become a must to get real-time rate reports.

To ensure you have a clear picture of your availability and occupancy status, it is important to have everything linked to your property management system to make updates and reporting seamless.

Here are some distribution hacks you can implement to get more online bookings –


Tip #1: Research and select some high-performing OTAs and travel sites to promote your property. The commission you pay will be partially offset by additional business on your website. 
Suggestion – Google Local Business: it’s free. Studies have shown that clients look for hotels in different OTAs but also decide to investigate the hotel’s own page. In this case, the booking engine is of fundamental importance. Having a brand website with all the information is key. Fortunately, Google AdWords allows your hotel to be localized with keywords. And do not forget the location and Google maps since the apps on the smartphones are the order of the day. In case you are looking for a booking engine or connecting with Google, let us know and we can help.


Tip #2: Do not forget to watch your competitors. It is important to have a defined set of competitors, not just who you presume is your competitor by star category, but also keep in mind factors like proximity to your location. An interesting strategy is to create a rate equal to or slightly lower than the competitor and another with a slightly higher value – this way you can attract guests looking for economic options while at the same time target the next segment. Get real-time competitor rate reports through RateTiger Shopper.

Tip #3: With online travel booking growing every year, it is important to have correct rates and inventory displayed on the online channels – it can become very difficult to handle if done manually leading to costly mistakes due to errors in rate updates. Hence is it important to have the channel manager to ensure updates are smooth. Further, 2-way connectivity provides reservation delivery flow into the PMS thereby providing correct inventory status at all time. RateTiger channel manager offers the maximum number of channel connections with maximum uptime ensuring all your updates are immediate, thus helping maximize online revenue.

Tip #4: Know and penetrate the market that books your property – find out the key source markets for your city and region. Create special promotions and offers to target these source markets to attract guests to your property. These promotions can be based on different parameters – long stay, lead time, early booking, etc.  In this way, you can apply the correct promotion for each destination. You can leverage Demand Central on LIVE OS to get all this valuable information and create specific campaigns accordingly.


Tip #5: Be visible on TripAdvisor and other travel review sites – encourage your guests to leave comments and reviews to gain more visibility. Sign up for metasearch engines and drive direct traffic to your hotel website. Beyond the searches for room rates, the opinion of guests who have stayed at your hotel hugely influences booking decisions of prospective guests. Track your reviews on multiple sites to know your strengths and also areas for improvement as it presents a unique opportunity to improve and grow. Use platforms like LIVE OSthat aggregate these reviews in a single platform for you to track, monitor and respond to guests.

There is no easy way to success – it is important to understand your guests and their preferences. Being available at relevant touch points will help improve your hotel’s visibility and booking conversion. It is important to encourage change, and seek strategic partners to do so, and remember the right partner will not be a cost center, infact they can be a valuable investment.

Offering a unique product or creating a differentiated service is not impossible, using value additions and experiential marketing techniques to rise above your competition can show improved results.

Julian Lindt is the Connectivity Advisor for LATAM at eRevMax. He can be reached on julianl@erevmax.com for any queries with regards this article.
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Scandinavian hotel group Your Hotels Worldwide endorses eRevMax as the Preferred Channel Manager Partner

Your Hotels™ Worldwide, a leading hotel chain of independently-managed properties in Scandinavia, has strengthened relationship with eRevMax by implementing its 2-way XML connectivity solution for seamless data transfer between its property management system and online sales channels.  All 65 properties under the group are using RateTiger Channel Manager to update rates and availabilities across their distribution mix in real-time. RateTiger is a fully integrated e-distribution platform with 2-way XML channel connectivity, market intelligence and revenue management capabilities.
Your Hotel™ Worldwide is an established hotel chain consisting of around 65 privately owned hotels across Sweden, Norway, UK, Germany and Austria. Head Quartered in Stockholm, the group offers 2500 rooms across the portfolio. All hotels under the group are getting benefits of real-time rates and inventory update and receive reservations directly into their PMSs ensuring online sales optimization and eliminating chance of overbookings.  They can monitor booking trends across all channels on a single reporting dashboard to react instantly with a more effective distribution strategy.


“We have been using RateTiger solutions since 2010, and know from experience that they have a great product portfolio in a stable technology platform. By upgrading to 2-way XML connection, our member hotels would be able to use their PMS to process updates, which will streamline their distribution, save time and improve revenue opportunities. Their transition from a traditional channel manager to web based business intelligence and connectivity solution provider has helped our hotels greatly. For us eRevMax is the ideal technology partner which meets demands of our hotels,” said Percy Henriksson, Managing Director, Your Hotel™ Worldwide.


“Our long-term relation with Your Hotel™ Worldwide reinforces the value eRevMax’s innovative technologies and services bring to the hotel industry to improve distribution processes. eRevMax solutions help the revenue management team of these properties to increase online revenue by ensuring real-time room availability across all distribution points through automatic adjustment from a pooled inventory,” said Cristina Blaj, Sales Director – Europe at eRevMax.

eRevMax’s flexible, multi-platform solution to manage online sales and exposure, has  been used by over 20,000 hotels globally. eRevMax’s Channel Ecosystem (CES) offers two-way XML connections with leading global and regional sales channels for seamless connectivity.
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The Big 5 – a look into top performing channels in the APAC region – Part II

There are total 2.92 billion people in the world having access to internet. Nearly half of them or 1.3 billion are from Asia Pacific. Last year, Asia Pacific became the largest regional ecommerce market and now contributes for more than a third of all business to consumer ecommerce sales in the world. The increase in online penetration has changed the travel behavior which traditionally preferred travel agencies, group bookings and in-person sales. Many are now choosing to travel in smaller groups, or even alone and preferring to self-manage travel by booking online.


PhoCusWright reports that in 2012 APAC region surpassed Europe to become the world’s largest regional travel market with US$326 billion in gross travel bookings. Despite slow economic growth and political turmoil in some countries in the region, an average 8% growth is expected this year taking the online travel market to $126billion, which is pretty mind-blowing. With 46% APAC travelers planning to book online, no wonder global giants like Expedia and Booking.com are eyeing for a share of the pie, where regional OTAs still rule.
Consider this – 69% of Chinese OTA market is controlled by three regional travel agencies Ctrip, eLong & Ly.com. In India MakeMyTrip, Cleartrip and Yatra have 60% of the market share. Japan, one of the largest online markets in the region, is dominated by Rakuten Travel.
In this article I list out five online travel agents who are playing vital role in shaping the online travel industry in Asia Pacific.


Agoda, acquired by Priceline in 2007, is the most popular online travel agency (OTA) in five countries, namely Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Hong Kong and South Korea in South East Asia and the only OTA to hold the top spot in multiple Asia Pacific (APAC) markets as per PhoCusWright.  According to a recent report by Skift, Agoda receives total 30.7 million unique visitors per month of which 14.2% came from Indonesia and 7.8% from India. The channel is gaining preference as a leading site among Asia-Pacific bookers by adding inventory, enhancing mobile functionality and localizing content.
Baidu controlled Qunar.com is the fastest growing online travel agency in China. Qunar, which has its roots in meta-search has been offering bookings on its site. Given most of China’s hundreds of thousands of hotels are independent and previously offline, Qunar is working on a hybrid model – meta-search plus transaction one to bridge the needs between the hotels and the Chinese consumers. The channel now features over 200,000 properties in the domestic market for travel accommodation of which over 140,000 are small independent hotels, B&B and apartment-oriented listings.
Japan’s online leisure/unmanaged business travel market is by far Asia Pacific’s largest. Founded in 2002, Rakuten Travel is one of Japan’s largest online hotel reservation website with over 3.7 million room nights booked per month. The channel, a 100% subsidiary of Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten receives 5.34 million unique visitors every month. The firm has access to more than 20,000 domestic and 15,000 international hotels and has a presence in South Korea and China.
Even though majority of travel booking in Asia still comes from offline, travelers in the region are rapidly moving from offline to mobile and online travel penetration is expected to reach upto 31% by end of this year. PhoCusWright predicts that aggregate mobile travel bookings in China, Japan and India will jump from US$4.6 billion in 2012 to $18.7 billion in 2015. Channels which have been early adapters to mobile travel will be ready for the challenge.
As hoteliers, are you ready to tap into the Asia Pacific market? Are you managing your channels well and keeping them automatically updated with rates and availability on a regular basis? eRevMax is developing 2-way XML connections with all global and regional distribution channels. Contact us today if you want to connect with these channels or want a platform to manage these channels smartly.

Image Courtesy: Hong Kong Street: Frédéric DUPONT – Freepik Images



Christy Toh is Sales Manager at eRevMax based out in Singapore.  She can be reached at christinet@erevmax.com 
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Four Trends to Watch for in 2015

There is no hospitality like understanding. As an hotelier, I can vouch for it. As an hotelier, you need to understand your guest, their buying pattern, seasonal behaviour, market rate fluctuation, global economy and what not. And as if tracking you competitors is not enough, you have to now keep of new players in the distribution arena. Today’s revenue manager’s job is always on a roller coaster.

2014 was the year when meta-search channels further consolidated their position, with TripAdvisor throwing in a surprise in the form of commission based model, and bed banks like AirBnB becoming a really hot topic. The year ended with the curtain-raiser for Amazon’s entry as hotel retailer. If you think 2015 will be any different, you are in for a surprise.
Here are four trends I will be watching for in 2015.
Rise, rise and rise of Big Data

We have been hearing it for the past few years, now. But 2015 is going to be the year when Bid Data is going to take center-stage in marketing and distribution strategies of most hospitality companies. It is the buzz word I hear at every travel industry conference, at every trade show, as if it has the Midas Touch to solve every problem we face today.
And indeed it almost has. Big data by definition usually includes data sets with sizes beyond the ability of commonly used software tools to capture, curate, manage, and process the data within a tolerable elapsed time. As revenue managers, you and I are used to accessing multiple reports from CRM, PMS, CRS, etc. Data overload has been long been a cause of worry for us. What big data does is that it gives us the capability to store data, dissect and dice it, analyze and draw insights from it…and then use those insights to greater understanding of customers and markets which eventually yields innovative products and more valuable customers.

Analytics for positive business outcome

Ok, I admit, Big Data and Analytics are closely related. Analytics is the application of science to Analysis, or as some experts call it, it’s basically data science. We all have data, but it becomes valuable only after you analyze it to derive insights. To give you an example, while benchmarking reports might help you to know your pricing position, it would not be giving you a clear picture on what should be your best position in a channel– which might not be the first or last position, but somewhere in between which gives you the maximum yield. With Analytics, you will be able to identify your best position, which would get you the optimal return.

Hotels for a long time relied on transactional data for customer insights. With the advent of internet, incoming traffic has been important source for customer segmentation.  However, with cross-platform connectivity becoming the new normal, hotels are increasingly finding it difficult to cope up with so many things are happening across so many platforms – how do we stay in sync? Analytics gives them the insights through which travel companies are able to “listen in” on potential consumers’ opinions, needs and desires, and deliver results accordingly.

In next edition I’ll talk about how mobile is outpacing desktop and becoming a hot trend.

By Dhiraj Kumar is Associate Product Owner at eRevMax. He is based out of Kolkata and can be reached at dhirajk@erevmax.com
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LaTour Hotels and Resorts selects RateTiger Channel manager to boost occupancy

One of the leading Hospitality Management and Rental Accommodations Travel Company in US, LaTour Hotels and resorts has selected eRevMax to boost its online bookings and expand online presence. Multiple properties of the California-based group are using RateTiger Channel Manager for managing availability, rates and inventory (ARI) across online sales channels.

Commenting on the partnership Lauren Doran, Director of Sales and Marketing at LaTour Hotels and Resorts said, “We wanted to be more proactive and promote our rates and inventory on various channels to boost occupancy. eRevMax is recognized for its product quality and superior service – the implementation of RateTiger has resulted in faster and extensive rate and inventory management allowing us instant control over our distribution processes and online sales.”
The group has presence over multiple cities of United States, Mexico and Venezuela and delivers highly personalized vacation experiences at four-star golf, ski, urban and oceanfront properties. Properties of the group using RateTiger Channel manager can sell rooms from an allocated pooled inventory across multiple channels automatically.

Read full story here

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eRevMax launches RateTiger & Connect Analytics for hotels

eRevMax, the leading provider of electronic distribution, smart travel channel connectivity, market intelligence and revenue management solutions for the hospitality industry has launched RateTiger & Connect Analytics, a first of its kind of Business Intelligence solution for the hospitality industry. Hoteliers using Analytics will be able to get instant visibility into their business performance at anytime from anywhere.

On the launch of the Analytics Michael McCartan, CEO, eRevMax said “In today’s extremely competitive business environment, it has become critical for our hotel clients to filter data meaningfully to detect problems, identify opportunities, and respond to market dynamics. Our new solution combines eRevMax’s extensive expertise on online distribution, intuitive benchmarking and deep analytical capabilities.” 
Designed in collaboration with revenue managers Analytics, offers benchmarking on important parameters obtain real-time production data, analyse gaps to give hoteliers a clear picture of their business.
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Barteo – 365nights.com completes XML integration with eRevMax

365nights has recently partnered with eRevMax, utilising the RateTigerdistribution system to make real-time ARI (Availability, Rates & Inventory) updates and receive bookings generated on the channel through eRevMax solutions directly into their property management system. The French-based company are confident that the ease of use and immediate results will boost their client portfolio whilst keeping existing users happy. 365nights chose RateTiger as they were looking to focus on “reliable connectivity which will save time and energy”, according to CEO Thomas Hiley and for a system that would simultaneously manage availability, rates, and inventory.

Launched in 2013, the France based price comparison site allows potential guests to negotiate on the price of the room directly with the hotel and in real time, before making an actual booking. Greg Berman, Chief Operations Officer at eRevMax said with this partnership 365nights.com will become certified eRevMax channel ecosystem partner through which both the channel and the hotels will be benefitted.
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HMH Partners with eRevMax to Improve Online Sales for its Hotel Portfolio

Hospitality Management Holdings (HMH), a Dubai-based property management group, has announced that it plans to expand its portfolio with five new hotels opening this year alone, which has meant an urgent need for a rate and inventory management system to ensure all properties, both old and new, are digitally standardised. HMH CEO Laurent A. Voivenel was familiar with RateTiger Suite via word of mouth (WOM) marketing, and has recently completed integration with the software that allows for two-way real time ARI updates for all properties which meets the group’s growing demand for efficient and effective management systems. HMH anticipates that RateTiger Suite will boost revenue whilst being simple to execute.


Read full story here

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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

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TouristOnline integrates with eRevMax for seamless connectivity

TouristOnline, a major online booking provider in Denmark, has recently completed two-way interface integration with eRevMax. The reason for the integration was twofold. Firstly, eRevMax’s leading software has been implemented to assist TouristOnline in expanding their services, not just throughout Denmark and Scandinavia but also across Europe. TouristOnline will also get benefit from eRevMax’s Reservation Delivery service, which facilitates automatic transfer of reservations data booked through their various hotel booking portals like TouristOnline.dk, Hotel.dk, visitdenmark.com directly to the hotel management systems (CRS/PMS). 

Secondly, the software has been introduced as a way of reducing the need for manual update from the user end. Following the 2-way XML interface certification with eRevMax, TouristOnline joins the eRevMax Channel Ecosystem, whereby all hotel booking sites within the group gain access to broader inventory of hotel product, will see improved booking conversion on existing accounts and expects to realize increased revenues as part of its growth plans across Europe.