Are hoteliers keeping pace with the changing online booking space?
With a handful of powerful OTAs dominating the market, hoteliers are identifying ways to sidestep the high-commission they command. OTAs can be useful to engage a new guest, but many hoteliers are now aiming to drive repeat bookings to their own direct booking engines.
Ryan Haynes discusses Channel Management and OTAs on Hotel-Industry.co.uk – http://www.hotel-industry.co.uk/2012/12/erevmax-ratetiger-on-channel-management-and-otas/
Selling Rooms
Check out where I am speaking as part of the Northern Ireland Hotel Federation on Wednesday 12th September. Very much looking forward to meeting the hotels in and around Belfast and finding out the challenges they face in their local market.
The travel industry is rather small in Northern Ireland, representing just 4.7% of its workforce and contributing to 2.1% of GDP. The region expects to attract between 1.5 -1.6 million visitors in 2013. For the hotel industry there is a great opportunity to stand out, 30% of all internet searches are related to accommodation for Northern Ireland, so there is room for growth and diversity.
Northern Ireland has fared well so far in 2012 with increases in visitors, holiday-makers and tourism revenue – could this be explained as a result of the Staycation in the UK?
I am interested to learn the scenario for hotels this year, according to the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (DETI) hotel room sales were up 11% in June 2012 compared to June 2011 and occupancy hitting the 78% mark, up from 70%.
It appears from the statistics that 4* – 5* hotels fared well, infact showing some strong occupancy figures. Though potentially the biggest struggle for hotels appears to be ADR, this has fallen by 1.1% in the past year, it seems that occupancy may have to give way to ADR at this point.
The leading OTAs in Northern Ireland:
Ebookers.ie: One of Ireland’s leading online travel providers and offers flights, car hire and over 25,000 hotels worldwide.
HotelClub.ie: Offers over 48,000 hotels Worldwide for bookings up to 365 days in advance.
Laterooms.com: Offers over 500,000 hotel deals throughout the UK and Worldwide. EURO prices available.
Lastminute.ie: Offers a vast range of hotels and discount flights. EURO prices available.
Bookit365.com: Offers you direct access to the Hotels.ie and expedia.com range of hotels.
Ryan C Haynes is VP – Marketing Communications at eRevMax and is responsible for driving all PR and Marketing activities for RateTiger and eRevMax brands globally. Ryan is based out of London and can be reached at ryanh@ratetiger.com
RateTiger Q2 Sales Meet
I attended the recently held RateTiger Sales Meet in Glasgow. This was the first time I attended this event in my new capacity as Sales Manager UK and I found the whole experience to be very rewarding.
The EMEA team gathered in Erskine Bridge Hotel for two days of team building activities, presentations, trainings and a lot of fun. Brainstorming sessions were conducted on current industry trends and detailed analysis of the company’s sales and marketing strategies were shared. We were treated to a professional training session on advanced presentation skills to enhance our expertise.
Our CEO Michael McCartan shared important company and product updates while Keith Watson, Head of Commercial Operations, gave us inputs on new support structure and processes. Casey Davy, VP Sales EMEA, provided the team with useful tips to a more successful sales process, and ran through some administrative aspects of sales, while Ryan Haynes, VP Marketing, shared the upcoming marketing plans and encouraged us to work closely with partners and associations.
I was given the opportunity to present my recently prepared competitor mapping analysis and I received a lot of kudos for it. All the sessions were productive and it was a great opportunity for us to come together and share a sense of camaraderie.
And obviously the after-hours parties were a complete hit. We were delighted when we found that we have been booked for ‘A Journey with Taste’ going back into the history of whiskey tasting, sampling the products from the top distilleries across Scotland. This was followed by a late night at The Corinthian Casino Club downtown in Glasgow – a perfect closure to the two day marathon meetings!
More fun pictures here 😉
Cristina Blaj is Sales Manager – UK at eRevMax and is responsible for sale of RateTiger products in the region. She is based out of London, UK and can be reached at cristinab@ratetiger.com