Tag: RateTiger

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Five Things for Hotel Revenue Managers’ Checklist in 2017

2017 is going to be the year when online finally overtakes offline in Europe. We all have been listening to online becoming big, and getting bigger – but the reality was that offline travel bookings continued to get the lion’s share. All that is set for change though, as digital travel penetration in the continent finally crosses the halfway mark to reach close to 52% of all bookings by end of 2017, per PhoCusWright. With North America, also closing in to the tipping point, and Asia Pacific catching up faster than the average with 23% growth in digital sales, it’s time for hotels to take corrective actions.
In this article, we share what we think hotels need to capitalize on for stronger performance in the coming months.
1.       Do warm up to Demand Analytics

Rate intelligence for years have focussed on shopping rates for competitor set selected by the hotel. While monitoring rate of local competitors is vital, focussing on a small subset of the overall market, hotels often overlook the larger picture, missing out the demand data on most productive sources of business in their market. Advanced demand analytics solutions, like Demand Central, helps hotels measure their performance relative to their market performance from vital sources, like channels and regions and suggest situation-specific and channel-specific actions and alerts to increase business.
2.       Do make friends with OTAs
For long, hotels and OTAs have been in a tumultuous frenemy relationship. For hotels, OTAs were a disruption which they had to accept, however reluctantly. With the newest disruption looming over hotel industry in the form of Airbnb, hotels need more than ever to improve their presence in OTAs. With more people preferring experience over everything when it comes to travel, and Airbnb slowly consolidating its presence even on the luxury market, no hotel is in safe zone now. OTAs with their reach and marketing power can help hotels to increase exposure and improve online business.

In 2017, about 52% online hotel bookings in USA and 71%% of all online bookings for independent European hotels will be made on OTAs. Most often they are the first point of call for potential guests. Studies suggest, OTAs spend an average of USD 300 per hotel on promotions and marketing. For hotels to compete with OTAs on their own in digital marketing, the cost can go up to USD 7,000 to USD 10,000.  The trade-off between OTA commissions and direct customer acquisition cost remains a paradox for many hotels. While larger brands with a substantial marketing budget can compete with OTAs on visibility and presence, independent properties have to depend on OTAs for brand awareness, given their budget constraint.

Stay tuned for part two of this series which will be posted in next week.
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Visit SATTE 2017 to take benefit of attractive RateTiger offers

SATTE, the largest travel trade show in South Asia is going to be held from 15 – 17 February 2017 at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi. The 24th edition of the event is expected to have over 870 exhibitors and participants from over 40 countries. Almost all of Indian State Tourism Boards are expected to be present at the event which provides a perfect platform for the companies to meet industry veterans and hospitality professionals across the world.

Image: SATTE

In last couple of years, the increased use of mobile phones and high internet penetration in India has changed the travel space dramatically. The country is one of the fastest growing travel markets in Asia that attracted 8.89 million international tourists in 2016 – a 10.7% growth compared to last year. Since thousands of hospitality professionals will be visiting SATTE, this will be the perfect platform for us to promote our award-winning RateTiger ChannelManager solutions.

eRevMax is known for its stable solutions with 99% product uptime. While other companies struggle to offer continuous connectivity, eRevMax has invested in building a robust infrastructure to provide hoteliers with uninterrupted service over the last 15 years. The company offers excellent connectivity with over 300 online channels and provides 24×7 support. Leading hotel groups including Accor, Kempinski, Oberoi Hotels, Dusit Hotels, Carlton Hotel Singapore and Golden Tulip, among others, have been the company’s loyal customers over the years.

To discuss your online distribution requirements, meet me at SATTE – drop me an email rammohand@erevmax.com to book an appointment.
For more details about our products and services, visit our website – www.erevmax.com.

Ram Mohan Dubey is the Regional Sales Manager at eRevMax. He can be reached at rammohand@erevmax.com.

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Top Spanish travel trends from FITUR 2017

Every year I come across a whole range of publications and various industry pundits who define hot new travel trends that keep trending across social platforms. This has become a kind of New Year ritual. This year I decided to join them and be in the news J


I was at FITUR recently and it gave me the perfect platform to hob-nob with my fraternity members. I noticed that there are certain hot-ticket items that cropped up in most of these discussions. This made it easier for me to put together what I call my list of ‘top Spanish travel trends for 2017’. While I got the topic items from my meetings at FITUR, a lot of research has been put behind digging out relevant statistics to make this an interesting and useful piece. So grab a cup of coffee and enjoy the read.
Personalized Service at every touch point

Spain is the third largest county in the world in terms of international tourist arrivals and second most popular country in Europe after France. In 2015, around 68.2 million international tourists visited the country. Being a Spaniard, I have witnessed how technological shift from the last decade has changed travel planning and guest behaviour. A booking.com survey shows that 44% of travellers expect to be able to plan their holiday in a few simple taps on their smartphone and over half (52%) of respondents expect their use of travel apps to increase in 2017. There is no doubt that a country having 74% internet penetration with young and affluent travellers, Spaniards will expect personalized services at every touch point whether it is travel booking or during the stay.
Automation

How much time do you spend on travel research when planning a holiday? Remember the Google study which stated that a traveller visits around 22 websites before makes a booking! We all know that travel planning and research can get ridiculously time consuming and boring. However if you look at the right places, you can crack a great deal in a matter of minutes. Channels like Kayak which offers price comparison have come in very handy for quick travel decision making.


Most of the providers are now toying with automation and coming up with platforms that will provide travellers with everything they need. They just need to feed in their requirements and platforms like Hipmunk do all the needful. Hipmunk is currently beta-testing what it calls ‘Hello Hipmunk’ – a feature that atomically finds best deals for you and notifies when there is lowest available price. I like the feature and tested it on my Skype which is really cool. Instant messaging platforms like Facebook Messenger and newly launched Google Allo let users get travel related information instantly.
Mobile Travel on the rise

Mobile technology is enmeshed in our daily lives so much so that it affects every decision we take – whether it is booking a movie ticket or the way we travel. Most of our activities and planning today start from the mobile. Starting from looking for a preferred accommodation to booking taxi or sharing travel experience in social media – all are connected to mobile. I was talking to an OTA and we got talking about mobile apps. Today most of the big travel brands have invested in developing their own travel apps to woo travellers and through various ‘in-app offers’ they are trying to convert these travellers into loyal customers.


I realised that hoteliers are not far behind – major hotel chains like Hyatt, Marriott, Starwood and Hilton among others, have their own app where guests can book the hotel directly from their mobile device. With mobile taking centre stage, it is expected that mid-sized and smaller travel brands will soon jump into the fray to offer mobile experiences and offers to their guests.


Ximo Garcia Argent is Sales Manager for Spain and Portugal at eRevMax. He can be reached at ximog@erevmax.com


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Are you at FITUR 2017? Meet RateTiger at Stand 8D08



The whole Spanish travel industry assembles every January at Feria de Madrid for the international tourism trade fair – FITUR. 

Hotel technology expert eRevMax – the company behind leading channel manager and rate shopping brand RateTiger, is currently there to meet hoteliers and discuss their connectivity needs. If you are at FITUR, drop in to Stand 8D08 for a quick chat.

Company COO Yoram Ben-Zvi who is attending the event says “Spain is one of our biggest markets in Europe. Over the years, we have studied the region closely and observed that the consumer buying journey has evolved like never before. Guests increasingly expect top of the line personalized services from hotels. To help hotels focus on their key task of serving guests, eRevMax continues to develop technology solutions to help automate their back-end distribution and rate shopping requirements.”

Spanish hotel groups including NH Hotels, Vincci and Acta Hotels have been using eRevMax solutions for their distribution and connectivity needs over the years.

While RateTiger channel manager continues to lead the market, eRevMax has now launched LIVE OS, an innovative new platform that brings multiple hotel service providers together so hotels can easily manage them from a single screen. Various international hotels chains have already signed up for LIVE OS and eRevMax is keen to showcase it to Spanish hoteliers who are considered to be early adopters when it comes to new innovative technology solutions.

To book a meeting with us, contact marketing@erevmax.com today.

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We strongly recommend RateTiger – says Prague based luxury hotel

2017 has started well for eRevMax – we have been receiving good comments and recommendation from clients for our top quality products, services and support.

Prague based luxury hotel, The Charles, noticed a marked improvement in its online business due to efficient rate and inventory management. The boutique hotel property states that by leveraging RateTiger Channel Manager they have been able to expand online visibility which translated into increase in online revenue.



Happy Walia, General Manager at The Charles Hotel says, “The extremely competitive nature of the Prague hospitality industry, with constant changes in occupancy and rates, make it really challenging for small hotels like us. Managing OTAs, 24X7 bookings and rate queries was taking a toll and obstructing our focus from the core business of hospitality. RateTiger is great support system for a hotel like The Charles. With its elegant, simple interface and a responsive customer service, now everyday life is on cruise mode for me and my team. I am very happy with the service, support and the analytics of RateTiger. I strongly recommend it.”



Prague is one of the most popular European leisure destinations and receives over 5 million tourists every year. Located in a medieval building, the charming Charles Hotel has been beautifully restored whilst retaining many of its original features from the Renaissance period. The hotel is part of the Czech national heritage and offers 31 luxury rooms via multiple online channels that it effectively manages through RateTiger.

Are you looking to improve online revenue? Do you want to monitor competitor rates on multiple channels? Contact us on marketing@erevmax.com for a quick discussion on how we can assist you on your online journey.

Team eRevMax wishes you a very Happy New Year!


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eRevMax forms an Industry-Academia Partnership with Centro Europeu

Last month I attended the Centro Europeu (The European Center), a premier professional training institute in Brazil to give students hands-on training on multiple hotel technology solutions that has become critical for new professionals. The university has partnered with eRevMax the global leader in hotel connectivity solutions to collaborate on skill development and research.
As the hospitality industry in Brazil shifts towards online and mobile, the demand for skilled individuals who understand how technology can be deployed effectively to achieve productive and inclusive growth will only increase. As part of the partnership, the students of Centro Europeu Hotel Management Program receive training from accredited professionals from eRevMax on revenue management and how to use technology products like RateTiger.
eRevMax is the leader in channel management industry from last 15 years and the company has been transforming the hotel online distribution from its inception. Hospitality industry is one of the booming sectors which still lack skilled professionals and our partnership will connect the dot between technology and skilled workforce.

It was an enormous pleasure to see how the future hospitality professionals are keen to learn how technology is shaping the industry. Luis Fernando Queiroz Maingué – Academic Director, Centro Europeu was very excited about this partnership saying, “The use of the eRevMax software in the Revenue Management discipline of the Hospitality Course is in line with the Centro Europeu teaching proposal, which is to meet the real needs of the market and training of professionals for different areas.” He also added, “We are very grateful to eRevMax, because it is partnerships like these that make the course so popular for over 20 years.”

This partnership will help eRevMax to not only build its functional expertise through research collaboration but also contribute to strengthening the industry readiness of the talent stepping out of campuses through curricula building, live projects and various engagement activities.

Posted by Alex Moura, Regional Sales Director North America, Brazil and Caribbean at eRevMax


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Did you know what trended at WTM 2016?

One of the leading travel trade events, WTM attracts thousands of hospitality and travel trade professionals from across the globe every year. This year was no different with over 51,000 visitors in attendance. The show has grown at an unprecedented rate in recent years making it the event where the industry conducts business.

eRevMax attracted a lot of visitors with its innovative product offering as well as unique stand design hosting a giant tree with colourful beach balls lending vibrancy to the Travel Technology Hall.

The company was there to promote its new hospitality operating system LIVE OS which is a one-of-its-kind platform in the industry today. It received a lot of positive comments with technology veterans using terms like ‘awesome’, ‘revolutionary’ and ‘mind-blowing’ to describe LIVE OS. Hotel clients were happy to talk about their association with the company and how they are benefiting from using eRevMax products on a daily basis. Here is a video of one such happy customer!

Reuel Ghosh, CEO, eRevMax was invited to present a session on Hospitality Operating System at the Travel Tech Theatre on Monday, the day when attendance is by invitation only at the show. The session saw an attendance of over 100 trade visitors, many of whom later visited the eRevMax stand TT550 to find out more about eRevMax offerings. Here is a quick glimpse of the session recording for those who missed it.

 
The event proves to be a perfect platform for hoteliers and travel technology companies from Europe, Middle East and Asia Pacific to explore new technology offerings and partnership opportunities.

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eRevMax joins hand with Hope Kolkata Foundation to celebrate ‘Daan Utsav’

eRevMax, the leading hospitality technology solutions provider, has partnered withKolkata based NGO Hope Kolkata Foundation to extend support to celebrate ‘Daan Utsav’– an initiative that encourages the joy of giving. Employees of eRevMax have enthusiastically volunteered and contributed generously to help the underprivileged children by sponsoring one month’s ration to one of Hope Kolkata Foundation’s protection home.
 
 
By encouraging and enabling employee volunteering, eRevMax brings together people and good causes to create a wave of change. Daan Utsav was celebrated at eRevMax’s Kolkata office from 2nd October to 4th October. Volunteers from various departments took an active interest and donated one month’s dry ration for the noble cause.
 
“Hope Kolkata Foundation is very pleased to be working with eRevMax for the all-round development of street children in Kolkata. eRevMax is one of our new partners who have taken keen interest in working closely with the kids at our protection homes. The team has been conducting various activities and has wholeheartedly supported us through Daan Utsav,” said Geeta Venkadakrishnan, Director, Hope Kolkata Foundation.
 

 

Launched in 2009, Daan Utsav is India’s annual ‘festival of giving’. Celebrated every year, in the week including Gandhi Jayanti (October 2-8), it brings together people across the country to participate in their own ways and give back to the society.
 
Read Full story here.


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Arabian Travel Market 2016 – Top Middle East Travel Trends

This year’s edition of Arabian Travel Market (ATM) was held last month and witnessed a 7% year-on-year increase in visitor numbers with more than 28,000 trade visitors attending the show.


As per a recent report by IPK International, Middle East is the world’s fastest-growing outbound travel market, having witnessed an increase of 9% in outbound trips over the first eight months of 2015. Although Middle East is going through political unrest and economic uncertainty, the region has seen positive growth in the travel sector last year. Close to 12 million travelers visited Dubai in 2015, making it the fifth most popular city in the world for international visits. I have identified some interesting middle-east travel trends- 

High Spending Travellers

Outbound travel from Middle East increases in the summer months to almost 60% to avoid the summer heat, compared to about 40% in the winter season. In 2015, almost 40 million Emiratis crossed the border, and as per research, this number is expected to touch 81 million by 2030. When it comes to travel planning, Middle East travellers prefer long vacations with an average of 14 nights stay. And in terms of spending, travellers from the region are considered high spenders – with the average spending being 200 Euros per person per night.


Rise of “Digital Natives”

One of the youngest regions of the world with over 50% of the population aged between 18- 34, travel in UAE and other Middle East countries are largely influenced by the digital experience. 65% millennials begin their travel planning online while 52% prefer to compare prices in various online platforms before making a decision. High internet penetration and rise of smartphone users have increased online travel sales in the region in last couple of years. As young affluent travellers are migrating to new channels for travel planning, hoteliers too are making an effort to step up their game by being visible on multiple channels including meta-search for improved online bookings.
Personalization

Like every other traveller in the world, Middle East travellers too prefer personalised services and it starts right from the purchase journey. With almost two-third travellers accessing travel related information through their smartphones, it has become imperative for hoteliers to have a mobile optimized website with relevant content. Further with changing customer preferences, hotels need to have a dynamic marketing and pricing strategy to make the most of every available opportunity.

The travel industry in the Middle East region has changed dramatically over the last decade and hoteliers need data-driven analytics to respond more rapidly to changing market conditions, reach out to “new age” travellers and offer personalised products and services.

Ram Mohan Dubey is the Sales Manager MENA at eRevMax. He can be reached at rammohand@erevmax.com.


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Top three travel trends to watch in 2016

With 2016 upon us, let’s take a quick look at the movers and shakers of 2015 – TripAdvisor launched its Instant Booking service, Google announced the Google Hotel Ads Commission Program, Amazon entered the travel space and Marriott acquired Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide! Do these ‘events’ make predicting 2016 trends any easier? We are not sure! However, based on some industry reports and market research studies, here are some trends that we have derived for 2016 –

Less people, more data

Around 40% of the world’s population is online and they are interacting in newer ways. Internet continues to generate massive amounts of information and data. An IBM researchshows that 2.5 exabytes (that’s a whopping 2.5 billion gigabytes (GB)!) of data was generated in 2012 and this figure will get doubled by 2016. This data is a combination of all the activities happening online across platforms – desktop, tablets, laptops, mobile apps etc. A recent TripBarometer study by TripAdvisor shows that around 42% of travellers use smartphones to plan or book their trips. As technology is leading the way in hospitality, hotels need to focus on deciphering the data trends to offer the right products to travelers through the right channel.

eRevMax big data

Consolidation continues

Hospitality professionals would agree that 2015 continued to witness the consolidation trend. Over the last three years, two of the travel majors – Expedia Inc. and Priceline Group have been gobbling up one company after another. Earlier in 2015, Expedia announced to buy Orbitz for about $1.6 billion in cash following its acquisition of Travelocity. In order to gain supremacy over each other, Expedia and Priceline has spent collectively more than $7.6 billion over the last two years in various acquisitions. Regional biggies did not stay behind in the ‘merger & acquisition’ spree – Chinese online travel giant Ctrip acquired 62.4% share in eLong from Expedia. However, Marriott’s acquisition of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide was perhaps the most discussed news piece, making Marriott the largest operating hotel brand worldwide. While it’s difficult to predict who’s next, there definitely will be some more in the offing for 2016.

Guests of the Future

In a world where consumers are using multiple devices and interacting on social media platforms, it has become imperative for hotels to forge relationships with them, particularly in the digital realm. Omnipresent information and instant communication has made competition even fiercer. Hotels those are quick to respond to guests and be visible at every touch point – be it guest review sites or mobile optimized brand website, will surely be preferred over their competitors.

eRevMax Guest Review Management

An eMarketer report shows that in 2013, one in four people was connected through social media – i.e. around 1.73 billion people across the globe. This number is supposed to rise to 2.55 billion by 2017. These users are actively sharing experiences and writing reviews on social sites like Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus. Hotels that are monitoring and responding to these reviews and employ innovative technologies to interact with guests will have an edge over their competitors.

With scientific use of big data and new technologies, hotels can attract modern travellers, manage daily operations effectively and provide best-in-class guest services.