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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.
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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.
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5 travel sites UK Hotels Can’t Miss – Part II

In the first part of article (see here) we mentioned two top performing online travel sites in UK. In this part we’ve discussed three other channels that come in top five lists and shaping the travel industry in UK.

Skyscanner

Primarily a flight comparison site, Skyscanner has forayed into hotel industry recently, but already making significant moves. The site has been one of the top travel search sites in Europe with 35 million unique visitors, and now with separate mobile app for flight, hotel and car hire the travel major is in a unique position offering complete package to potential travellers. According to Deloitte, Skyscanner, the hotel and flight comparison site has grown by over 42% from last year, a transformational phase which saw non-flight booking contributing to 47% of its revenue.

TravelRepublic

TravelRepublic is one of the largest and most well-established online travel agents in Europe, with over 2 million holidaymakers booking annually through their websites in the UK, Ireland, Spain, Italy and Germany. The OTA major has access to approximately 300,000 hotels, apartments and villas and receives over 1,000,000 visitors a week making it one of the most sought after online travel channels in UK.                                                                                                                                      
Start-up Pitch

NuStay

Some of you are already aware about NuStay. It is a travel start-up launched in July 2015 with investors from London, Copenhagen, Oslo and Dubai aimed to provide travelers better booking rates and at the same time offering the hotels a way to submit unique offers to each individual guest, either manually or automatically, at a discounted rate. A PhoCusWright report shows that, 70% travellers prefers their suitable rooms at a discounted price and they wait for the right moment to book that accommodation. Accommodation providers consider luxury travel is their major source of revenue – around 77% accommodation providers sell luxury trips, making luxury travel one of the top revenue generating segment in online travel. This trend is the USP of NuStay- the company provides luxury rooms in budgeted price with its unique algorithm that finds best matched luxury hotels for their consumers. An interesting thing about this company is they negotiate discounted rates for its guests with their hotel partners which no other company has done yet.

NuStay Banner

You might have a team of revenue managers continuously updating your inventory on major online travel channels you are connected to but if you don’t keep an eye on these channels then for sure a large number of your rooms will remain vacant for the day- losing handsome revenue. As a major share of all hotel bookings are shifting from desktop to mobile this new types of channels are becoming a key distribution medium for your hotel distribution. Make sure your revenue managers are taking right decision and promotional tactics which is compatible to fulfil increasing demand of your potential guests.

Image Credit: NuStay
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5 Online Travel Agents shaping the travel industry in the Middle East

Close to 12 million travelers will visit Dubai this year, making it the fifth most popular city in the world for international visit. In spite of the political volatility in the Middle East, the outlook for the hospitality industry in the United Arab Emirates remains strong. The growing importance of Dubai International Airport, which has become the world’s busiest airport in terms of international passenger traffic, has contributed immensely to the growth of the hotel industry in Dubai.



One of the youngest regions of the world with over 50% of the population aged between 18- 34, travel in United Arab Emirates is largely influenced by digital experience. Always connected and eager to research, millennials in the country have become trend setters in the online travel segment. Empowered with easily available information, they are forcing hospitality brands in the region to realign their marketing strategies according to their preferences.


A high spend market, OTA sales in the Middle East have reached USD$3 billion in 2014, representing about 17% of total sales. With 94% of the populating owing a mobile device, there is a clear shift in booking patterns toward mobile and tablet booking devices. Traditionally a last-minute market, the surge of mobile connectivity has also reduced the booking window considerably. Compared to the word average of 23 days, the average hotel reservation lead time for UAE is now a mere 13, one of the lowest. Online travel bookings, which represent 25% of all bookings in the Middle East, are forecast to grow in 2015 and 2016 to reach 36% by the end of 2017 when online revenue is expected to reach $35 billion.
In this article we list out five online travel agents who are playing vital role in shaping the online travel industry in the region.

Booking.com

With over 1000 listed properties, Booking.com is the most popular travel agency in UAE. The Priceline owned OTA major has expanded its listings in the region by about 25 percent over the past year, comprising 200 new properties. Dubai ranks sixth in terms of global inbound travel bookings for Booking.com, and the channel controls over 50% on OTA market in the region. With 166 million unique visitors per month to its website Booking.com still rules the online travel by a large margin over its competitors Expedia and TripAdvisor. The online travel major is not only holds number one position in terms of unique page visits but also in total room nights booking. Every day over 850,000 room nights are reserved onBooking.comthrough its website and mobile apps attracting travelers from both the leisure and business sectors across the globe. Though travelers in this region search their favorite destination, preferred hotel online, but when it comes to bookings, they prefer to traditional travel agents to make a purchase.

Expedia.com

In the last couple of years OTAs in the Middle East has grown rapidly at compound average growth rate of 18% with Expedia.com—the first OTA and one of the key players in the region. In 2012 online travel sales in the Middle East estimated 2.3 billion or 13% of total travel sales. To reach out growing customer base with high disposable income, familiar with advanced technology and excited about living a modern lifestyle online travel agent like Expedia is coming up with new offerings that suit their customer portfolio. With 59.3 Million monthly uniquevisitorsExpedia.com is the third largest online travel agents right behind Booking.com and TripAdvisor. The company has around 800 properties listed in its website and is the second most sought after online travel agents in Middle-East.

In the later part of my article I’ll discuss three more top performing online travel sales channels are shaping the travel industry in the Middle East.

Image Credit: Freepik PublicDomainPictures


Hisham Diab is Sales Manager, MEA/ Africa/ Turkey at eRevMax. He can be reached at hishamd@erevmax.com
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More power to Ctrip as Expedia exits China

With over 1 million transactions everyday makes Ctrip the largest OTA in China and a serious player in the online travel sector.  But with the latest news of Expedia selling its stake in eLong, China’s second largest OTA, shows that even a global giant is no match for the mighty regional online player. 

Last week, Expedia announced that it is selling off its entire stake in Chinese online travel company eLong to rival Ctrip.com International Ltd and other interested parties.  With Expedia’s share in eLong being 64%, this acquisition means Ctrip will have over 37.6% stake in eLong, making it the majority shareholder in the second largest OTA in China after CTrip.



In picture Fan Man (left), Co-founder, Vice Chairman and President of Ctrip; in a discussion with Vincent Lo, Chairman, Shui On Group at Fortune Global Forum 2013
To put things in perspective, Ctrip has a market share more than 6 times the size of eLong. After the acquisition, Ctrip with eLong will control over 60% of the Chinese online travel market, which according to PhoCusWrightestimates is pegged to be over USD 30 billionin 2015 excluding call center bookings. With online travel expected to grow in double digits, and accounting for only a quarter of total travel bookings, the scope of growth, needless to say, is enormous.

With Priceline’s$500m investment into Ctrip, the focus for Ctrip now shifts to newer and fast-growing rivals such as Qunar, Tuniu, and Alitrip, the travel arm of China’s largest e-commerce company Alibaba. Meta-search engines continue to be the greatest lead generator for Chinese OTAs and this causes concern even for Ctrip. Qunar – owned by China’s largest online search engine Baidu Inc – is considered the market leader in meta-search and the fastest growing travel channel and in 2014, Ctrip ended its strategic relationship with Qunar and prompting a price war between them.



For Ctrip, a strategic partnership with both Expedia and Priceline means access to broader inventories, which will help the channel to meet its objective of having wider product coverage. Already Ctrip has seen over 200 million downloads of its mobile application so far. Ctrip’s aim at the broader market has been quite visible for a while now. Earlier this year they entered into an agreement with Amadeus, whereby the GDS will provide content to Ctrip in international markets outside of China. With Chinese outbound travel growing at 20-30% buoyed by an increase in disposable income by the Chinese traveller and more flight routes and hotel inventory in new destinations will all help Ctrip capture the majority of these outbound bookings.

Over 100 million cash rich Chinese travelers are set to travel aboard this year in 2015. As more Chinese travelers travel beyond Asia, with strong branding and being a well-established online and offline channel make Ctrip best poised to benefit from the growing travel demand in China.  For the hotel industry trying to capture a piece this high growth Chinese market makes working with Ctrip a must.

Image Courtesy: FortuneLive Media, Ctrip
John Seaton is VP Sales, EMEA & APAC at eRevMax.  He can be reached at johns@erevmax.com

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Last Minute Booking: How big is it?

The rise and rise of last minute booking has become a double edged sword for revenue managers. On one hand they have opened up an opportunity  to sell otherwise perishable inventories even if at a discounted rate to make some money; on the other hand guest, more smarter than ever with wide range lodging option, is now in charge, and forcing hotels to lower prices.

With increasing ubiquity of mobile devices, there is a certain change in consumer behavior. Guests today are more confident than ever to research and find lodging option at the very last minute. According to a recent study by PhoCusWright, about 30% bookings come from Hotel Mobile booking  platform; 70% of them are from same day bookings.



A look at last minute travel booking

It all started in 2010 with the launch of HotelTonight. Since then there have been multiple entrants and OTA majors like Booking.com, Orbitz, Priceline, HRS and Expedia are making investments in this segment. For example, Expedia has been aggressively building its presence on mobile to meet its customers changing needs and 70% of its travel booking comes from last-minute bookings.
So what really is last minute? In the hospitality industry, bookings windows of up to seven days in advance are known as last-minute booking. Within this there are three categories- seven days or less, three days or less and same-day. Same-day booking are done on the day guests wants to stay. Mobile applications like HotelTonight allow travelers to book a room for the same day.

How big is last minute travel?

While researching on how the growth of last minute booking segment, I has come across some eye-catching stats which I would share with you.  PhoCusWright reports   that overall mobile search and booking volume is growing rapidly with gross travel bookings via mobile (phones and tablets) accounting for 27% in the US, up from just 5% in 2012. In UK, 1 in every 3 Britons book on the same day. The trend is more or less same in Asia Pacific as well, with 70% of mobile booking coming for same day stays.



Don’t ignore last bookers

As a major share of all hotel bookings are shifting from desktop to mobile and it is done at the end moment you can’t deny its importance in your business. Sojern research data shows Tuesday is considered for the most productive day for last minute bookings and Friday for same-day bookings. Last-minute travel accounts for 25% of trips lasting a week or less. When travelers prefer to go for short vacation i.e. for two to three days the likelihood of their last minute booking increase significantly this means if you are not prepared to serve these last-minute travelers then you are losing a large share from your unsold rooms. Keeping in mind everything about last-minute travelers, you should ask yourself a few questions to understand your potential guests and take right strategy to avoid revenue disaster.

1. Ask yourself what does last-minute travel mean for your product or location? Know what are the latest trends in the hospitality industry by analysing big data generated from own PMS such as guest information, length of stay or you may avail it from third party. This will help you acquire key information to understand travel journey of your potential guests and take right action by offering them suitable offers.

2. Are your revenue managers are taking right decision and promotional tactics which is compatible to fulfil increasing demand for last-minute travelers? Review closely your current revenue & marketing strategies and analyse how can you attract and win more last-minute travelers.

3. Make a plan how can you reach to this group of travellers.  To understand you need to analyse your revenue management tactics and find out gaps in occupancy. List your unsold room in last minute booking sites such as HotelTonight, Jettsetter, PriceLine, Travelocity which is more affordable to you.

Image Source: PhoCusWright, HubSpot
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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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Amazon’s entry to online travel – is that disruption?

As if the entries of Google and TripAdvisor were not enough disruption, we now have Amazon which is entering into hotel distribution. So while buying your books and what nots, you can now go and buy a hotel room from the retail GIANT!
Amazon Local currency has already been selling some limited and wholesaler type hotel programs for a while now. But that was more of a distressed sale kind of an approach they were taking. With the new model, Amazon is asking hotels to publish their rates and availability for a longer period. For hotels, this means hotels can push full price inventories in the peak season, and of course offer discounts when they are desperate.
Does that mean Amazon is now seriously entering into travel services a la Google?  Travel analysts apparently think so.  Expedia CEO has already ‘welcomed Amazon into the party’.
Truth is, as Expedia Inc. CEO Dara Khosrowshahi says, travel today is a trillion dollar global industry. And everyone wants to take a share of the pie. That is why we are seeing TripAdvisor making serious entry to commission based model through TripConnect Instant booking. Wait for Google to make the next move.
Are these changes going to make it more complicated for hoteliers? In my opinion, Amazon, with its marketing capabilities, can become a serious alternative for independent and small hotels. What about TripConnect and Google Direct booking, when they are launched globally?

But as always, your success depends on how well you manage your booking channels. 
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Auris Hotels Partners with eRevMax for Superior Distribution and Visibility

Auris Group, a Dubai-based hotel chain with luxurious properties throughout the Middle East, has recently completed a two-way integration with eRevMax that allows them to update rates and rooms inventory automatically through eRevMax’s Connect distribution system. This integration is done at a time when the Auris Group is implementing a high level digital reputation and marketing strategy that will guarantee rate parity on all channels, market parity, digital visibility and availability.


One of the largest groups in the Middle East Auris preeviously had been managing channels and booking processes independently, but with hoteliers across the Middle East collectively encouraging tourism, particularly to areas such as Dubai and Abu Dhabi, this was no longer a suitable option. Auris Managing Director Hatem Gasmi, reports that Connect has made it possible to meet new and improved business objectives that includes increased visibility and marketing for their pipeline projects.
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Puri Bagus Villa Resorts multiplies online sales with eRevMax – RateTiger

Puri Bagus Villa Resorts, one of the major players on the Bali hospitality landscape, has found the perfect distribution technology partner in eRevMax to boost its online bookings and expand its online presence.
    

“RateTiger provides us with all the major channels to efficiently distribute rates and inventory.  We have enjoyed excellent online sales growth over the past several years with RateTiger as our channel manager.” said Terry Higgins, Director, Sales & Marketing, Puri Bagus Villa Resorts. Indonesian markets are seeing a surge, both in foreign visitors and among nationals, making eRevMax perfectly placed to enable hotels to benefit from the trends.

Read the full story here.