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The Week, That Was – June 2018 Week 2

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!!

 

Hotel Beacon NYC recommends RateTiger as the most effective Channel Manager
The upscale hotel has been using RTConnect for 2-way XML connectivity between its property management system and online sales channels for the last three years to effectively manage all its demand partners seamlessly.

https://goo.gl/tJt9yX

How TripAdvisor ranks hotels
Online guest reviews have become worth their weight in gold to hotels. Today, a huge 95% of people read a travel review before they book a trip, which means building a strong online reputation plays a fundamental part in attracting guests and driving bookings.

http://www.traveltripper.com/blog/how-does-tripadvisor-rank-hotels/

Securing last-minute bookings during peak season
Peak season in travel presents its own unique challenges. The article explores why deep discounting may not always be the winning recipe to secure late bookings and how thinking outside the box is necessary to maximise revenue. Every hotelier and property has to deal with peaks and troughs in demand, but if rooms need to be filled at the last-minute, being able to think beyond dropping prices and taking a more strategic approach could give you that crucial competitive edge.

https://click.booking.com/features/2018/06/04/securing-last-minute-bookings-peak-season/

Are hoteliers too skeptical of artificial intelligence?
AI disruption has already begun in the business world, and the hospitality industry should pay close attention. Hotel companies must already be strategizing about how they can take advantage of this inevitable new wave of automation and guest-experience evolution.

https://www.phocuswire.com/Hoteliers-skeptical-of-AI

How and why you have to deal with the watershed that is GDPR
The GDPR is a watershed event that will impact every business that collects personal information, wherever located, and no industry will be more impacted that the hospitality industry. Other companies can choose not to do business with EU citizens; some companies have determined that it is impossible to comply and have actually closed. That is not an option for hotels. Hotel companies need to understand the goals and requirements of the GDPR. The nature of hotels and the various data holding sources such as OTA bookings and PMS systems escalate the regulation for travel and hospitality industries.

https://ehotelier.com/global/2018/06/08/deal-watershed-gdpr/

In land of the giants, smaller OTAs find ways to grab customers
According to Phocuswright’s U.S. Online Travel Overview 17th Edition Report published in February, OTAs’ market share rose to 19% in 2017 from 17% in 2015. Booking Holdings brands Priceline and Booking.com accounted for 23% of the U.S. OTA market share last year, while Expedia brands (excluding Egencia and HomeAway) accounted for 69%.

http://www.travelweekly.com/Travel-News/Travel-Technology/Smaller-OTAs-find-ways-to-grab-customers

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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The Week, That Was – May 2018 Week 3

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!!

eRevMax Certified for GDPR Under EU-US Privacy Shield Framework
Hotel distribution connectivity leader eRevMax has announced that it has been certified for GDPR from the U.S. Department of Commerce for the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework program. This certification assures that eRevMax solutions meet European Union’s General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) for the transfer of personal data between the U.S. and EU.

https://goo.gl/xQu8cR

Expedia study reveals key trends in ‘booming’ bleisure travel sector
New research conducted by Expedia Group Media Solutions has found 60% of corporate travellers globally extend their trips to add some leisure activities. The study underlines the so-called ‘bleisure’ phenomenon that is seeing an increasing blending of business and leisure travel.

http://travolution.com/articles/107409/expedia-study-reveals-key-trends-in-booming-bleisure-travel-sector

How to use the Google ecosystem to get your hotel’s digital strategy on point
With over 4 billion searches happening every day, the Google ecosystem continues to be one of the best suites of products available for hotels to drive online users to their website, and then convert those users into guests. Find out how you can leverage Google solutions to optimize your digital strategy for better visibility.

https://www.hebsdigital.com/blog/google-ecosystem-article/

What Hotel Technology Decision Makers Need to Know About Cloud Solutions
For well over a decade, hospitality industry pundits predicted widespread cloud adoption by hotels and resorts. Only in recent years, however, have cloud-based models begun to disrupt the established lay of the land, migrating on a large scale basis from peripheral point solutions to the core property management system.

https://www.hospitalitynet.org/opinion/4088440.html

3 big ideas for 2018: Airbnb unstoppable, battle for TripAdvisor is over and new players start to reshape the industry
In an industry as large and significant as travel, even minor changes to the digital hierarchy can have major ramifications. Yet, far more exciting are the type of major changes that can shake the foundations of the sector. SimilarWeb recently produced the annual analysis of the travel industry – Travel Trends & Insights Report for 2018 – and here are three of the biggest trends it identifies – click the link to read further.

https://www.tnooz.com/article/similarweb-airbnb-tripadvisor-new-players/

Cvent Unveils 2018 Lists of Top Meeting Hotels in the U.S., Europe, Middle East and Africa, and Asia Pacific
Cvent, Inc. a market leader in meetings, events, and hospitality technology, today released its annual lists of Top Meeting Hotels for meetings and events worldwide. Top venues are sorted geographically, and rankings are based on each hotel’s group business performance. The list was compiled by analyzing meeting and event booking activity through the Cvent Supplier Network, which sourced more than $14.7 billion and more than 40 million room nights in 2017, helping to support more than 715,000 events worldwide.

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180515005298/en/Cvent-Unveils-2018-Lists-Top-Meeting-Hotels

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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The Week, That Was – April 2018 Week 3

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!!

M Hotel Downtown by Millennium Dubai endorses RateTiger for online distribution
M Hotel Downtown by Millenium has improved their online sales through eRevMax’s seamless connectivity with leading OTAs. The 4-star property has been using RTConnect to update rate and inventory across online sales channels and receive reservations into their property management system (PMS).
Top concerns hotels need to know about the GDPR and how to prepare your action plan
The GDPR is a regulation in EU law on data protection and privacy for all individuals within the European Union and regulates how companies manage, use, and share personal data. The GDPR will take effect on May 25, 2018. The GDPR applies to natural persons, whatever their nationality or place of residence, whose personal data is processed and whose behavior is monitored while within the EU. This change in legislation means that nearly every online service is affected, and the regulation has already resulted in significant changes for US users as companies begin to adapt.
Booking.com buying tours/attractions tech company
The FareHarbor acquisition will help provide content to expand Booking.com‘s upselling of consumers on tours after the consumers have already bought another product from the online travel giant.
   
For hoteliers: 6 steps to success in text messaging and chat from an expert
As text messaging and chat become the communication channels of choice for consumers, more hotels are adapting to the trend by inviting travelers to connect with them by SMS, chat widget, or messaging app. Consumers love messaging because it’s fast, easy, and convenient.
Airbnb moves into MICE accommodation space
Airbnb has released its Airbnb for Events tool, offering event organisers and conference planners the ability to create an interactive map of Airbnb listings near their venues.
The data says: Global demand growth for Airbnb, TripAdvisor and Agoda
One of the main criteria for mastering global expansion is understanding the market you are about to enter and the elements that set that market apart. But just as important is being keenly aware of what is similar and which elements of an existing strategy can be applied ‘as is.’ Few examples show this process more clearly than Airbnb’s strategy in France where the company is enjoying a 25% traffic share increase among the top 20 sites in the sector.
 

Meet us at
ATM Dubai, from 22 – 25 April 2018 to see how we can assist you – marketing@erevmax.com

Thanks and have a good day!

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Quick guide to avoid receiving negative reviews from your guests

77% of travellers usually or always read reviews before booking a hotel. 80% of travellers read 6-12 reviews before booking the hotel. Those are significant numbers presented by TripAdvisor’sresearch. If you think it over, you will come to one conclusion. As you probably have a lot of competitors, each mistake can cause the loss of potential business. Why? Because your guests care about their experience, not your business. Thus at this moment, negative reviews are your worst enemy.

I think that the well-known rule saying that 9 positive reviews and 1 negative sell more than 10 positive ones doesn’t apply in hospitality anymore. Instead, the single negative review can cause you trouble that will degrade your position not only in booking engines but in mind of your potential guests, too.
Note: Just to remind you, when you receive a negative review on Booking, you need at least 3 positive ones to restore your previous rating. Take 2, 3, 10 negative ones and multiply them by 3. As I said, trouble.
These days, booking engines requests guest to rate the hotel they visited 2 or so days after they check out. Wait a second. Isn’t it little too late? In Hospitality 2.0, guests should be able to affect their stay while they are still accommodated. The feedback should come in real-time. This way, each guest can contribute to quality of her stay. Small problems (missing toilet paper, noisy room, etc.) should be easily taken care of instead of seeing their “passionate” description on review sites later on. Will it affect your rating? It certainly will. 
You will not make it without first class customer service
Before we start, you should keep one thing in mind. You will not be able to please your guests unless you are ready to commit in high level customer service. What am I talking about? Certainly not about amenities you have at your disposal. There are other factors that matter more: willingness, decency, joy, helpfulness and humility. If you can swallow your pride and provide your guests with these, they will enjoy the “soul“ of the hotel instead of equipment only. You cannot be perfect anytime, no one is. However, your attitude to solve the problem in case it arise will definitely make a difference.
Give a chance to complain during the stay

The difference between positive and negative review is not just in a way of handling a complaint. Even more crucial is if you have an opportunity to handle it or not. Many times the guest faces some minor problem in the room (Wi-Fi or TV doesn’t work), she doesn’t want to call the front desk and permanently forget about it when they are around (I think this is the case of more people than solely mine). You might think everything is okay, however, once this guest is back at home, she turns on Booking, TripAdvisor and all other possible media and doesn’t hesitate to write about it. W-R-O-N-G! When something like this happens, you failed in the lesson “Know your guests 101“.
What you should do is to make it easy for your guests to complain during their stay in the way you can identify them. If you know who the guest is, you can get in touch and solve the problem immediately. In other words, you can turn unsatisfied guest to satisfied one until she leaves. The way you will do it (discount, extra free service, apology) is a matter of your policy, and only sky is the limit here. But medium that will allow the guests to let you know is what matters here.
There are several options to find out that there is a problem:
1. Complaint box

Quite old school thing that can work especially well for people who are not that engaged in the technology. Let them share their feelings about your hotel via piece of paper and pencil. Don’t forget to include the space for the room number and also ask for it with call to action on the feedback form.
2. Complaint kiosk

You might saw a huge machine with the keyboard asking yourself “What does this thing do?”. In many cases it can be used to gather information about the hotel and the area, as long as it can allow guests to post some comment in. Put this machine to the frequently visited place in your hotel so it will not be overlooked (front desk, restaurant). It will increase your chances to collect some thoughts and suggestions. However, the price of these machines might not be favorable.
3. Mobile application

Many hotel mobile applications provide the guest with the feedback feature. Moreover, adding maintenance as your live chat option might be a vital step, too. It ensures guest can ask for help anytime something is going wrong. As guests can let you know immediately by picking up their smartphone or tablet, you can solve the problem quickly. As you usually exactly know who complained, you are able to provide nice gesture to say you are sorry. If the price is a matter for you, there are several providers on the market that can make it affordable for you.
Remember that your goal is to listen to your guests, react to their complaints and once they want to tell the world, they will praise you instead of plastering you all over the Internet. 
How would you ensure your guests leave satisfied? Share you thoughts and experience in comments below.
This is a guest post by Lukáš Kakalejčík, Marketing Specialist at RoomAssistant and PhD. candidate at Technical university of Košice, Faculty of Economics. He focuses on digital marketing, analysis and business development.

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eRevMax partners with TripAdvisor to power instant booking for hotel guests

eRevMax has partnered with TripAdvisor to power instant booking for their accommodation clients. Instant booking makes it possible for properties to acquire bookings directly on TripAdvisor.

TripAdvisor’s instant booking functionality allows travelers to make reservations directly with participating accommodation businesses without leaving the TripAdvisor website. The reservations are delivered directly to the hotel or bed & breakfast via eRevMax. This is a powerful channel for independent properties to grow their business by acquiring more direct bookings from the world’s largest travel site, through a simple, commission-based model.
Through this certification, accommodation partners are now eligible to participate in instant booking on TripAdvisor and own the guest relationships from the moment of the reservation. The benefits are numerous – it’s simple to set up, leveraging technology that is already in place, and there are no upfront costs, making it a zero-risk opportunity for eRevMax hotel clients.
To find out more, please visit www.tripadvisor.com/instantbooking and to sign-up for the channel, contact eRevMax at marketing@erevmax.com.
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3 ways to incorporate TripAdvisor Reviews into your Booking Process

We all know TripAdvisor is the Google of Guest Reviews. It’s a dream for every hotelier to have great reviews for their property on TripAdvisor.

But what is the differentiator between highly rated hotels and their poor cousins?  What are the common factors among top performing hotels on TripAdvisor?

Well, research shows that top performing hotels are more engaged with their guests and receive nearly four times more page views on TripAdvisor than hotels that do not participate in the engagement programme. A TripAdvisor study in partnership with Atmosphere Research Group found how engaged hoteliers gain higher market visibility and drive more revenue based on data from 12,000 hotels in top 25 traffic markets on TripAdvisor, including interviews with executives from four global hotel chains.

In a world where everyone is a critic, user generated guest reviews have become commonplace. Today, hotel guests are more likely influenced by online reviews – 81% of travelers find user reviews important and a whopping 49% travellers change their booking decision after reading online reviews! These statistics establish the importance of managing guest feedback effectively to convert lookers into bookers.
TripAdvisor Review
Here are 3 essential tips that you can incorporate to increase your visibility on TripAdvisor and drive more bookings –
More engagement, better performance

As highlighted above, the research study found that highly engaged hotels perform better in terms of page visibility, popularity ranking and driving more business.  Two out of three travellers prefer properties that are termed highly engaged hotels on TripAdvisor.  So what actually does “highly engaged” hotel mean? How can your hotel be labelled as Highly Engaged Hotels on TripAdvisor? As per Atmosphere, if you actively participate on TripAdvisor’s Management Centre page and post at least 10 professional pictures of your property, you qualify to become a level one engaged property. But this is not the end. Your property page on TripAdvisor is your letter-box – you must have hotel contact information listed on your page so guests can contact your property directly. The more your property engages with your guests, the better your Popularity Ranking will be – highly engaged hotels see 30% to 40% more traveller interaction with revenue-driving products like Business Listings.
Don’t forget the “Virtuous Circle” of Guest Engagement

Your guests might be talking about their favourite dish or free Wi-Fi on your TripAdvisor page – do not take these conversations casually. Engage with them on these conversations, identify areas of improvement and leverage the positive comments – though this will need extra care from your guest review management team, but the returns can be pretty high. Once you improve hotel amenities based on your guest reviews, you can increase your property visibility on TripAdvisor. Javier Carazo, Senior Vice President, Operations and Quality, NH Hotel Group interviewed by Atmosphere Research Group pointed out that, “If you focus on getting reviews, you will see the positive results. You need to make it easy for your guests to post reviews.” Take corrective actions based on guest reviews as that would catapult your brand image on these review websites and showcase you care and concern for your guests and their feedback.
Encourage new Guests to write reviews

Getting reviews on TripAdvisor does not follow the “set and forget” rule. You might think that your guest had a fabulous stay at your property and will share his/her experience on TripAdvisor. In reality, this does not happen automatically – hotels should remind their guests to share their experience on TripAdvisor once they leave the hotel. TripAdvisor’s Review Collection Platform (RCP) sends an auto-generated reminder to guests post their stay asking them to write review for the hotel. You can also send an email directly to your guests to add a personal communication touch.
Hotels using TripAdvisor’s RCP system has seen an increase in reviews from 30% to 80% which led to 40% more page views. The challenge for hotels is not only getting multiple reviews but receiving high quality five star reviews. If used properly, TripAdvisor can be a huge channel for direct and assisted booking.
Lastly, most successful hoteliers welcome all guest reviews and use it for their advantage, either to increase their property visibility or improve their service. It is always advisable to ask every guest to write a review, embrace all opinions and your business will benefit at the end.

Image Credit: TripAdvisor
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5 travel sites UK Hotels Can’t Miss

The good time is back for the UK hotel industry. With economy firmly on the track after six years of recovery, travel mood in on the positives. However, the past few years of challenging economic condition has altered the mindset of travel consumers. They are more alert and are watching their pounds as they make arrangements for their travel. According to a Deloitte survey, 59% of holidaymakers today compare prices online, maintaining their recessionary behaviour. Historically high spenders, today’s British travellers are more likely to be influenced by peer recommendations than brand loyalty.

TripAdvisor Screen

The emergence of price comparison and review sites has changed the consumer purchase path from linear to multi-channel and fragmented. The digital revolution has empowered consumers with access to easy information, more product choices and a medium to raise their voices. It’s no wonder; TripAdvisor today is UK’s top travel site with 27.1 million monthly visitors. The evolution of travel from a seller’s market to a buyer’s market is now almost complete especially in matured markets. Hotel needs to get out of the cookie-cutter approach and relook at their distribution strategies.

Here are my picks of five channels in the United Kingdom which have set new rules.

SEE ALSO: 5 Online Travel Agents shaping the travel industry in the Middle East

TripAdvisor.com

92% UK travellers read TripAdvisor review before choosing an accommodation -making the travel giant the most popular travel site in UK. It took them fifteen years to reach where they are today, but TripAdvisor today has become the single biggest travel influencer. Last year the guest review giant launched it’s much talked about Instant Booking feature, which allows users to research, compare, choose and now book hotels, in other words, complete the buying journey while staying within TripAdvisor user shell. Much though it would like to deny acting as an OTA, fact remains that after the launch of instant booking feature, TripAdvisor now has advantage of being a review site, meta-search and booking engine – all within one platform.

LastMinute.Com


50% travellers in UK take short breaks at the last minute. The country where 6 million people use mobile phones to book getaway breaks on the same day it is no wonder that last minute travel will play a major role for generating revenue to the hoteliers. According to a recent report by PhoCusWright, about the 30% bookings that come from Hotel Mobile booking platforms; 70% of them are for same day bookings. This makes LastMinute.Com, which offers hotel rooms at a heavily discounted rate for the last minute travellers, in an advantageous position. Acquired by Travelocity in 2005 the company currently serves 17 million British travellers who rely on the accommodation provider for their last minute booking decisions.

In the later part of the article we’ll discuss about three more top performing online channels in UK which you need to focus on.

Image Credit: TripAdvisor
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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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Is TripAdvisor turning into an OTA with its Instant Booking Model?

TripAdvisor has recently unveiled their direct booking feature, which offers users the option to book hotels within its site. Officially called TripConnect Instant Booking, this function has already created a lot of buzz in the industry.
I attended a session at WTM, where TripAdvsior gave a rough sketch on how the model works.  This will allow users to research, compare, choose and now book hotels, in other words, complete the buying journey while staying within TripAdvisor user experience.
This is a major shift in TripAdvisor’s revenue model, which earlier relied on advertising. Only last year, the travel giant had revealed its meta-search service, where a supplier  uses TripConnect CPC (cost-per-click) to place bids to appear in the price and availability search results. With the new model, TripAdvisor has introduced a commission based ‘bidding model’, where suppliers like OTAs, hotels, GDSs bid on a commission percentage they are willing to pay.
The basic difference between the CPC and Instant Booking model is that for the former, partners bid via cost-per-click for the top positions, and pay when users click on that link, whereas in the new model, they pay TripAdvisor a commission once the user completes their stay.  In the earlier model, suppliers required bid management strategy to be on top position, and directing traffic would not necessarily lead to conversion. The Instant Booking gives them 100% return on investment; in addition they will own the data, can view traveller profile and be the pointof sale collecting the payments.
If it reminds you of the traditional OTA model, you are absolutely right. But does that mean TripAdvisor is aspiring to be an OTA? According to analysts, this is an extremely smart move by TripAdvisor to improve monetization of its mobile channel.  The site gets around 110 million monthly unique visitors, about 40% of its total traffic, but accounts for less than 20% of desktop when it comes to monetization.
With mobile booking rapidly growing in US, Europe and APAC, Instant Booking, which allows users to book a hotel room while staying on the TripAdvisor user-shell will encourage more people to book, and therefore improve conversion rates. To make it more attractive for partners, TripAdvisor is using the Top Position of it search result and extending Premium Certification to enjoy benefits like tradeshow and online promotion to those signing up for this programme.
For independent hotels struggling to improve position in a channel where big OTAs with larger marketing spends typically dominate, this can be a golden opportunity to get direct bookings at a lower cost per acquisition, and to increase distribution on distressed inventory or increase direct bookings in low periods through improved mobile booking experience.
Choice Hotels International, Best Western, GetaRoom.com, Amoma, Tingo and GDS operator Travelport have already signed up for this programme.  In fact for TripAdvisor, Travelport’s listings for 580,000 hotels worldwide, including 480,000 non-branded properties and 150,000 e-commerce enabled listed properties can be the biggest coup for this program.

Presently pilot testing on global Mobile and certain US desktop IP addresses, the program is expected to be globally rolled out early 2015. With Google Hotel Finder also testing Buy Now in the UK market, does this indicate a new trend to look out for in 2015? It certainly looks so!
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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.