France’s end to rate parity

“Great Scott……”, if this is going to be successful in France it will turn the whole OTA vs Direct Booking on its head. Have a look at the article by Tamara Thiessen from HotelNewsNow.com

GLOBAL REPORT—Some have declared it the equivalent of the French Revolution for hoteliers, while others have called it an all-out war. A new law swept in 9 July means French hoteliers can now advertize lower prices for rooms across all distribution channels—including their own websites—than those offered to online travel agencies.

The French National Assembly brought rate parity to a grinding halt by adopting the final vote, which removes the clauses from contracts between hoteliers and OTAs.

The so-called “Macron law”—named after France’s Minister of Economy, Industry and Digital Affairs, Emmanuel Macron—is designed to invigorate the French economy by removing obstacles to growth and competition. The law states that when entering into contracts with OTAs, “the hotelier is free to consent to any customer discounts or tariff advantage of any kind whatsoever.”

The decision caps off a two-year battle led by AccorHotels and hotel employer union UMIH to remove the so-called “pricing parity clause” enforced by France’s three largest OTAs—Booking.com, Expedia and HRS—which forbid hoteliers to offer lower prices to other online booking firms or undercut the rates on their websites.

HOTREC, the European hospitality association, in a news release described the French vote as “another crucial step for hotels in Europe to regain control over their offer.”

Some 70% of hotel bookings in Europe are made through such online booking platforms, according to the French Competition Authority, which engineered much of the change.
The vote builds on the groundwork laid by the authority in recent months, including the April announcement that Booking.com agreed to remove the parity clause from contracts during the next five years. Under that arrangement, hotel price freedom was only partial, particularly for online sales.

The announcement included provisions in Sweden and Italy as well, where anti-competition authorities have made similar moves against Expedia.

“With more than 35% and mounting reservations made online, that was giving the jackpot to Booking.com,” the UMIH said in a June news release.

The new law goes much further to enforce rate parity for all distribution channels.

“It is a real revolution that is underway for the French hotel industry and for our customers,” said Roland Héguy, president of UMIH in a news release. “After the decision of the Competition Authority, this vote will contribute to the establishment of a renovated contractual framework to restore conditions of a commercial relationship based on trust between hotels and booking sites in the interest of consumer.”

Restoring the level playing field
While rate parity was aimed at creating a level playing field, many hoteliers said it gave OTAs the upper hand.

“The hotel no longer had control of its offer and its management,” Héguy said in a news release, accusing Booking.com of anti-competitive conduct that resulted in lower margins for hoteliers. OTAs had gained an unfair advantage, he said, due to a toughening up of contractual clauses “which due to the market structure, hotels are not in a position to refuse.”

As they went into battle head on with the OTAs, Accor chiefs including CEO Sebastien Bazin have also repeatedly criticized Booking.com.

“There will be no auctioneering (of room rates) on the site,” said Deputy CEO Vivek Badrinath at a news conference in June of Accor’s new booking platform for independent hotels. “We have committed ourselves against Booking.com’s abusive practices, so we have to be consistent.”

Those days are over, said Laurent Duc, the UMIH’s hotel branch president and GM of the 3-star Hôtel Ariana near Lyon, France.

“The hotelier has regained total power over the price, and it’s now the hotel which will dictate the terms,” Duc said.

Hoteliers have a lot to learn to benefit from the new rules in which OTAs no longer have a monopoly on best rates, he added. “It’s not the end of the platforms, but OTAs and hotels are finally embarking on a more equal, collaborative relationship.”

“In my opinion, if (Booking.com) says the decision is bad for independent hotels, then the reality is precisely the opposite,” said Jerome Fournel, GM of the 20-room independent Hôtel Le Manoir Saint-Michel in Brittany, France.

Booking.com declined to comment. Expedia could not be reached by press time.

Pascal Droux from the lake chateau hotel Les Tresoms in Annecy, France, is president of FairBooking, set up by hotel owners in 2013 as an alternative to OTAs. He said hoteliers are still unclear on the full implications of the law. But whatever they do, hoteliers must not accept rate parity in contracts or unlimited use of brand names in new contracts with booking firm, he said.

“It’s vital that the negotiations are carried out by an independent union, especially for us independent hotels. That (brandjacking) is still a sticking point; the goal for the OTA has been that customers do not arrive on our hotel website,” Droux said.

A grey area
With Booking.com and Expedia still able to insist in existing contracts that hoteliers do not offer discounted rates on their own websites, things are far from clear.

Lawyer and regulatory affairs specialist Jackie Grech said despite the huge gain for French hotels, the legal issues surrounding it remain “a huge grey area,” particularly as the country’s judicial and legislative branches came to slightly different conclusions.

A judicial ruling in France banned rate parity for small hotels in May. The legislative ruling on 9 July would ban it across all hotels, regardless of size.

“Parity has been declared void in contracts with small hotels—but at the same time Booking.com wants to keep enforcing parity in a limited way, insisting that the hotel offers Booking.com the lowest rate if it’s on the hotel’s website itself, but it doesn’t have to be the lowest rate they offer. For example, (a hotelier) can offer €100 on their website, €100 to Booking.com and €50 on Expedia.”

While hoteliers are triumphing, not so the OTAs, some are predicting a rate war. Grech snubs such warnings.

“Most hotels are going to hesitate to give other OTAs a lower rate than Booking.com because it devalues their own business, so even though the court has made a ruling I don’t think they are going to take immediate advantage of it,” she said.

Grech believes once the summer lull in France is over, however, hoteliers will start to firm up their strategies and roll out new pricing policies.

“I think OTAs will maintain their predominance for some time yet, but at the same time hotels will develop other major alternatives. … Big brands like Accor and (Marriott International) are all trying to find an alternative solution because they can’t sit around and wait five years to see what happens. They will soon be starting to find a solution that works for them, and invest more in the way they get their bookings.”

On the other hand, she said they can’t burn their bridges with OTAs either—at least not for the time being.
Source: Tamara Thiessen from HotelNewsNow.com

Booking.com extends new commitments throughout Europe

As we have been discussing OTA and Booking.com on a number of times in the past the latest release in statement from Booking.com is interesting to say the least.

We felt that this is a very smart move from Booking.com, in which they are playing good cop to both the competition authorities and hoteliers. In summary of the announcement, Booking.com will not issue hoteliers’ with emails and phone calls when you infringe the parity rate code against other OTA but it will still put pressure on you if the pricing on your own website is not on parity with Booking.com.

What does this mean? and how is this going to affect my distribution strategy?

What it means is that Booking.com will still have the best rate available out there in the market. Most hotelier’s objective is to try and push their online business into their own website. Marketers will go as far as offer lower rate to drive this business as the commission level is lower on your own website. The domino effect is that Booking.com will benefit from this as what you do in your own website, will have to apply on Booking.com. You see the clearer picture now, this is the reason why Booking.com does not care about other OTA and focus more on your own website.

However, hoteliers should look at this from another angle. With this news, hoteliers should aim to dilute the business production from Booking.com and spread this across all different platforms. This will take the monopoly of production from Booking.com and hotels should target other lower commission cost OTA.

Have you heard of Tripadvisor’s new Instant Booking? We will have a look at this on our next post and we will explain how this will help in combating Booking.com

Please view below statement from Booking.com

 Dear GlobalPartner,

 We would like to inform you that pursuant to the recent agreement reached between the French, Italian and Swedish National Competition Authorities (“NCAs”) and Booking.com, we have committed ourselves to inform our hotel partners of our commitments (see attached letter). We can also inform you that we have decided to extend the Commitments to accommodations throughout Europe so that all of our accommodation partners in Europe can benefit from these changes. Therefore, the attached letter has been sent to all of our hotel partners (including your hotels) in the European Economic Market (including Switzerland).

 In line with the commitment obligations, all properties within the EU (including your properties) will be informed today using the letter and annex attached. The rest of your contract (including any more favorable provisions to your or your hotels’ advantage) have remained unchanged.

If you have any questions about the commitments or the consequences, please do reach out to your dedicated account manager.

Agreement Annex EEA_EN

MFN ACCOMMODATION PARTNER EMAIL

Source:
Andy Leung

Online Travel Agenies Booking Secrets To Copy To Your Hotel Website

Besides their massive global resources, online travel agencies (OTAs) rely on a potent and lethal asset to rein in millions of bookings each year: A powerhouse of stealth and strategic marketing tactics that push people to whip out their credit cards and book.

We’re all too familiar with the scenario:

A traveler uses an OTA to research hotels. She finds your property and is instantly intrigued. She wants to know more, so she heads to your website and likes what she finds. She plugs in her dates, looks at your rates. She mulls it over, going back and forth between the OTA site and yours. Then, books the room with the OTA.

Besides the obvious price difference, what makes her choose the OTA over you? It’s because OTAs are marketing geniuses, that’s why. They know how to push guests seamlessly through the booking process, giving them more and more reasons to book at every turn.

The surprising part is that most of their marketing ploys are simple and small, but they pack a ton of persuasive power. The good news is their marketing secrets are easy to replicate on your own site.

Here are some of the major takeaways:

1. OTAs Idiot-Proof The Booking Process

Admit it. Most hotel booking engines (yours included) are unsightly. They’re cluttered, confusing, and annoying to navigate through. Instead, OTAs are clued-in to user experience and they know how to make it super-simple and intuitive to make a purchase.

OTA Secret: Once someone selects a hotel on an OTA, some of the onscreen features disappear. This intentional move lessens any buyer distractions and simplifies the process, making it obvious what the next steps are when booking a room.

Lesson: Cut down the booking engine clutter, pronto. Don’t crowd the screen with multiple offers, promo codes, options, etc. Make the process seamless, pretty even. Customize it to retain as much of your branding colors, fonts, etc as possible. Then, have people – not your own staff members — test it out. Booking a room online should be so intuitive that even the most distracted buyer can do it.

2. They Make People Nervous

OTAs know a thing or too about human emotion and how to cleverly use them to drive people to act. They expertly channel people’s FOMO (fear of missing out), which is that same feeling you get when you find out all of your co-workers went to lunch without you. When initiating a hotel search on Expedia, the first message you’ll see reads: “Hurry! Prices and inventory are limited.” Almost immediately, Expedia tells their customers that time is almost up. So, do it. Do it now. Limited amount of time and rooms drive people to purchase sooner than later.

OTA Secret: To tap into FOMO and push customers to book, they spread out messages throughout the site – from the search results to the booking page – that make people worry that unless they book now, they could be missing out on something good. Next to a hotel, they’ll emplace “Two Rooms Left!” This both creates a sense of urgency and validates that others have already chosen to stay at this property, making people even more confident in their decision.

Lesson: Add copy to your hotel website design and booking engine that incites FOMO and stresses immediacy:

• Limited time only
• Exclusive offer, ends soon
• Available to the first 20 guests
• While room availability lasts

Source: Dave Spector from MediaPost.com

Is TripAdvisor’s TripConnect worth the investment for independent hotels?

As the world’s largest travel site, TripAdvisor is the go-to source for people planning their travel arrangements. With this in mind, it is clear that the glorious moment all independent hoteliers have been hoping for is finally here – the ability to bid against OTAs for placement in TripAdvisor hotel price comparison search through the new TripAdvisor Connect A.K.A. “TripConnect”. Previously, this opportunity was only available to OTAs and large hotel brands. So, is TripConnect worth the investment? And with the constraints of a limited budget, is there any way for independent hotels to actually beat out OTAs which typically have much larger budgets to allocate to paid-advertising initiatives like TripConnect? In this article, I will explain the requirements for participating in TripConnect and weigh the pros and cons for independent hoteliers bidding on placement.

I need a TripAdvisor Business Listing to participate in TripConnect – What is this?

As an independent hotelier interested in TripConnect, your first step is to verify that you currently have a TripAdvisor Business Listing, a prerequisite for participation in the TripConnect self-service bidding platform.TripAdvisor Business Listings launched in 2010 and allow businesses to add key property information to standard listings. With a Business Listing, hotels can optimize their property listing with unique special offers and contact information. With such a monumental shift to mobile in recent years, TripAdvisor has also been encouraging hoteliers to opt into “Business Listings + Mobile”, which allows hoteliers to include a mobile-only special offer on their hotel’s listing.

The pros for independent hoteliers 

The features included in Business Listings allow independent properties to standout and compete against branded hotels, most of which have Business Listings. These listings include a link to your hotel website, contact information including phone number, special offers link, a special offers tag, photo slideshow, and an announcement. A link and phone number on your listing may not sound significant, but this is a simple way to drive relevant and interested traffic to your website or reservations center to increase non-commissioned bookings.

The cons for independent hoteliers

Most major hotel brands pay for Business Listings for all of the properties within the brand family as a means to increase traffic and open up new marketing opportunities. (The brands typically return on this investment by charging each hotel a commission for all bookings made on TripAdvisor.) However, TripAdvisor Business Listings can be extremely expensive for independent hotels that are not backed by a brand and are already investing their marketing dollars on other online channels. Pricing is tiered according to the location and number of rooms at the property. I ran a search for similar-sized properties in different markets and received the quotes below.

184 Room Hotel in El Paso, TX Business District	143 Room Hotel in Downtown Chicago Loop

There is a vast difference in cost for a hotel in El Paso, TX and a hotel in downtown Chicago. You can find the price to upgrade your hotel’s profile to a Business Listing online here.

What is TripAdvisor’s Tripconnect?

Still in its initial phases, TripConnect rolled out in October 2013 and allows independent hotels to compete for placement in the TripAdvisor price comparison search. In the past, only OTAs and large hotel brands were able to bid for placement in the pricing search results that appear on individual property listings, city hotel search results, and on the mobile app. Now, independent hotels that use a certified internet booking engine and are paying for a TripAdvisor Business Listing can also participate in this pay-per-click program. This bidding model allows the hotel marketer to control the ad spend. There is no additional commission to TripAdvisor, rather you are paying each time the ad is clicked and the annual fee for the Business Listing. This is important to keep in mind as you compare ROI with other paid-search advertising outlets that are both pay-per-click and commission-based, like Expedia TravelAds.

How does the bidding process work?

As an independent hotelier, you are able to completely control bids and budget on the TripConnect platform, including the ability to adjust bids for mobile and desktop searches. You are also able to view a forecasted number of clicks and click-through rates based on the market, position, and other circumstances. Your branded competitors do not have this control on a hotel-level as brands generally bid on behalf of hotels and charge commission for bookings.

Here’s what the results look like for an independent hotel bidding for desktop and ranking 2nd for designated date in the TripAdvior price comparison search. 

Because TripConnect is still new, it is difficult to gauge the ROI for independent properties and determine how they will be able to compete against OTAs. I ran some test searches on TripAdvisor to see how independent hotels, branded hotels, and OTAs were ranking comparatively in the hotel price comparison results. First, I chose four markets to run my experiment – Boston, San Francisco, Seattle, and New Orleans. Then, for the top ten hotels in each market, I ran a search for the exact same date to determine which independent and branded hotels had Business Listings, which hotels were bidding on those dates, and how the hotel’s ad placement was ranking compared to those of OTAs. My findings were as follows:

Side Note: TripAdvisor’s Jetsetter (members-only private sale site for hotel bookings) also bids on placement within the search results, but I did not notice any preferential treatment.

It will certainly take some time to assess the value of TripConnect for independent hoteliers and their ability to bid against OTAs. From my casual experiment, it appears that at the time being OTAs are still monopolizing the top 3 results on the booking search results page for desktop and mobile, consistently ranking above branded or independent hotels. It also appears that a majority of independent hoteliers have not opted in to TripConnect and if they have, they do not have someone actively managing their bidding strategies as OTAs and brands do. It is also possible that the brands are adjusting their strategy by running select experiments in various markets rather than for all properties, thus not ranking against OTAs for the cities tested above.

Considering investing in a Business Listing and bidding with TripConnect?

Let’s Recap Pros and Cons

Key factors to consider before investing in TripConnect

• Take advantage of the special offer space. If you’re an independent hotelier already investing in a Business Listing, you can highlight your lowest prices, or a “discount at hotel website”, in the Special Offers feature of the listing. By taking this route, your best price is featured at the top of the page, encouraging users to book with you rather than looking down the page at OTA prices. This can also eliminate the need to spend time with the PPC campaign. However, you will need to monitor this pricing to make sure it is actually more appealing than the OTAs which may be difficult if you have a dynamic pricing strategy.

• How are people are using the mobile app? If your location is in the city center, you may not be ranking #1 in TripAdvisor, but your listing could appear prominently based on how people are searching within the app. This can mean that investing in a Business Listing is worthwhile even if only to get your phone number at the tips of a nearby searcher’s fingers.

I’m a TripAdvisor user searching for hotels nearby…

Business Listing provides compelling call-to-actions and contact information.	Regular TripAdvisor listing provides very little information or incentive to book.

• What kind of partner is your booking engine? There are three tiers of TripConnect partnership – Premium, Plus, and Partner. It may not be worth investing in a Business Listing for the purpose of running a TripConnect PPC campaign if you can’t take advantage of the premium features.
  • TripConnect Premium Partners are able to bid for traffic, use automated review collection services, and take advantage of enhanced tracking features. Close to 90% of partners are signed up at the Premium level.
  • TripConnect Plus Partners are able to bid for traffic and take advantage of automated review collection services.
  • TripConnect Partners are only able to bid for search traffic.

See what level of partnership with TripConnect, if any, your reservation system has agreed to here.

Next Steps for Independent Hoteliers 

Now that you are more familiar with TripAdvisor Business Listings and the new TripConnect program available to independent hoteliers, I suggest first assessing your ability to make a monetary investment and time commitment to the program. There unfortunately isn’t enough data yet to determine the ability to surpass OTAs’ price listings, but if you’re able to take risks and try something new in your online marketing strategy, it is an interesting new opportunity for independent hoteliers to explore. If you do not yet have a Business Listing, you will want to consider your hotel’s TripAdvisor ranking, your booking engine’s partnership with TripConnect, and the number of OTAs currently bidding on your property. Find more information, check out the TripAdvisor Business Listing website, or reach out to your hotel’s online marketing expert for their insight on your website traffic trends and booking engine details.

Posted in Blue Magnet Interactive on December 06, 2013 by Brittany Aller

BrandVerity’s Report on Hotel Brands, OTAs and Paid Search

Expedia, Booking.com, Kayak and Hotels.com are prolific spenders on Google AdWords, regularly logging in the top fifty search engine marketers by spending an average of $67,250 per day. And that’s just on Google.

So how does this ad spend play out across all search engines, including Bing and AOL?

The answers come from a OTA/hotels paid search analysis by search advertising monitors Brand Verity, who considered 100,000 search results.

Specifically, the analysis looked at PPC ads that were triggered by hotels’ branded keywords – such as “New York Hyatt.”

The findings show just how much the online travel agencies are outspending hotels, using their breadth of inventory and depth of pockets to deliver more in-bound paid clicks. In short, this study says that OTAs are indeed bidding against hotels in ad auctions – and are paying handsomely to rank concurrently or higher than hotel brands.

A breakdown:

• On Google, each page averaged almost two OTA ads – 1.82 per page.
• On Google, Bing and AOL, OTA ads outnumbered branded hotel ads – but not on Google Mobile. Unlike the widely varying OTA ads per SERP, the brands’ own ads  appeared at a relatively consistent rate across search engines. This figure hovered around 1 brand ad per SERP, with 0.99 on Google, 1.05 on Bing, 1.03 on AOL, and 0.88 on Google Mobile.
• On Bing, 87.5% of OTA ads included the trademarked name of the searched brand.
• On each search engine, OTAs placed first well over 50% of the time that brands did not appear in that #1 position.
• Actual hotel brands did not appear in the #1 ad position 23.6% of the time on Google Mobile, 15.9% of the time on Google, 17.4% of the time on Bing, and 24.9% of the time on AOL.

As far as the number of ads per results page, the difference between each search engine is indicative of differing amounts of ad inventory:

Paid search listings for hotel brands are clearly eclipsed across all search engines – except for on mobile, which reveals a solid lead for hotel brands.

This is likely due to the instant nature of mobile, where users might be seeking to contact a hotel directly rather than wade through an OTA’s more diluted interface. Hotels might also have an opportunity to deliver direct last-minute bookings via paid search on mobile.

The use of trademarks is a contentious issue that shows no sign of abating – OTAs are aggressively bidding against trademarked hotel terms, most especially on Bing.

Of course, this all makes sense as OTAs generally have lower overhead requirements with larger margins than hotels, and therefore can afford to spend more money on the inbound marketing that drives business.

As the report points out, this is simply an important piece of the marketing puzzle that individual hotel brands must both be aware of and act on as needed with their OTAs.

“In certain situations, brand bidding OTAs can be useful to the brand—ensuring that a potential customer doesn’t book with a competitor. In others, it may be harmful—reducing the brand’s traffic and direct bookings. Determining how to properly balance this is beyond the scope of this study; that equation is left to be worked out by hotel brands and their OTAs. However, the data from this study should help inform hotel brands in particular as they adapt their PPC strategies and optimize their relationships with OTAs.”

Full report available here: BrandVerity-Hotel-Study-OTA-bidding-on-key-words

Source: Nick Vivion from tnooz.com & Brandverity.com

Seven Days of Revenue Management Success

Seven Days of Revenue Management Success

Source: HospitalityNet.org – JeanFrancois Mourier

In our office, we like to begin each week as an opportunity for new successes. We forget about the challenges and obstacles we may have experienced the week prior, because every week is a chance to start over. Each week is a chance for our team to strive for excellence, and so far, it’s a philosophy that has served us well.

Today, it is your property’s chance to start over as well. You can revamp your revenue management strategy, simply by following these seven simple steps. Using these tips, you will see drastic increases in your bookings and RevPAR, and ensure that your property has seven days of revenue management success every single week.

Monday: Forget your comp set
For revenue managers, a particular property’s comp set is a very important metric. Revenue managers compare room rates, occupancy, inventory, etc. with the properties in their comp set in order to calculate rates and determine whether their revenue management strategies are a success (or a failure).

Customers don’t.

When they are searching for a hotel room for their upcoming vacation, they look at all of hotels in the destination within their desired price range and star rating ¬ not just the few properties that you have decided are your direct competition. By only basing your pricing on what these few properties charge (instead of considering the prices of all of the hotels in your destination), you are unable to price your rooms at the best available rate, which would help you to secure a higher number of bookings.

Tuesday: Let technology play its role
This doesn’t mean that technology should replace revenue managers. Definitely not! In our view, technology in all industries is there to help us perform our tasks better. Think about how much easier it is to communicate or do research now that we have computers and the Internet. It’s the same with revenue management systems.

Using sophisticated software can help a revenue manager do their job more effectively. A general rule is that 80% of a revenue manager’s time should be spent on tasks that directly generate income, and only 20% should be spent on admin tasks (data analysis, updating rates and inventory, etc.). Unfortunately, the reality of the industry is that most revenue managers are spending at least 50% (or more) of their time on admin work, which means that the property’s finances will suffer. Using a RMS can help revenue managers by taking those tedious tasks off their hands, leaving them free to focus on strategy, interdepartmental planning, etc. – all of the tasks that actually make a property more money in the long run.

Wednesday: Think outside pricing patterns
Many revenue managers use common pricing patterns, like selling a property $199 instead of $200. Yes, consumers do tend to unconsciously prefer the $199 price but trust me when I say that you aren’t the only revenue manager using this strategy. Instead, you should set your property’s room rate a few dollars less (i.e. $196, $197, or $198). There’s nothing that consumers like more than a good deal and even though it’s only a few dollars, it will make a big difference in how many potential guests choose to book with you versus the competition. It also helps you to win the business without losing $10 (as you would if you followed the rule that your rates should always end in 0 or 9 to be more attractive to potential guests).

Thursday: Never offer customers a lower rate through the OTAs

You would be surprised how many hotels offer their customers a lower rate through the OTAs (than through their direct channel). No matter the reason for this common revenue management mistake, it¹s important that revenue managers avoid this practice because it is definitely not helping your revenues. When you are offering a lower rate through an OTA, your customers will always choose to book through the OTA. This is counter intuitive to increasing revenues because, not only are you offering a discounted rate, you are also paying a commission on top of each sale that you make through the OTAs.

Because of rate parity, you won¹t be able to offer a cheaper rate through your own website but revenue managers should always be asking the same room rate through all online channels. As well, revenue managers should be offering value-added offers to incentive a guest to book directly. For example, you could offer a free breakfast, free parking, a complimentary room upgrade, airport transportation, etc. All of these items offer added value for consumers so they will be more likely to book direct in order to obtain these extra perks.

Friday: Use an automated channel manager to update your inventory across all online channels

A common revenue management misstep is to manually update your inventory across the various online channels, thinking that it will be more accurate and prevent overselling. But in fact, manual inventory updating can actually create more costly errors than using an automated channel manager. There is increased risk of revenue loss for two reasons: first, because manual updating allows for human error (i.e. typos); and second, because many revenue managers choose to close off their inventory on a site when it hits a predetermined occupancy rate (for example, a 95% occupancy) to prevent overselling, which causes them to lose out on potential bookings from a highly profitable channel.

Instead, use an automated channel manager that will not put your property at risk of human error, and which will be able to update your inventory quickly and effectively when a given channel reaches 100% occupancy (rather than before). You¹ll be ensuring that your property is able to achieve 100% occupancy and earn additional revenue on the last 5% of rooms sold.

Saturday: Recognize the importance of your TripAdvisor rating

For consumers, booking online requires a great deal of trust. They must trust that the hotel has properly represented itself in their online listing and that what they experience on the trip will be as fabulous as what they have been initially offered. In most cases, this trust is rewarded with a great hotel stay that lives up to the customer¹s pre-booking expectations. However, once in a while there are properties that disappoint customers and TripAdvisor is a quick, easy way for consumers to determine whether a property is worthy of their trust.

As a revenue manager/hotelier, it is very important that you monitor your reviews and ratings on TripAdvisor to ensure that your property looks professional, credible and trustworthy to potential guests. Whenever there is a negative review about your property, we suggest responding to it as soon as possible. Your response should include an apology and a reassurance that you have heard the complaint and will be taking measures to fix the problem going forward. You should never respond to a negative review with anger, frustration or with defensive comments because it will portray your property in an unprofessional, negative way. Remember that your TripAdvisor rating is a customer¹s first impression of your property, so make sure that you are offering the best first impression possible.

Sunday: Embrace the mobile channel

In today¹s hyper-connected world, consumers are experts at multitasking. From researching hotels for their upcoming vacation using their iPad on the subway, to booking a last-minute hotel room from the pavement outside the hotel using their smartphone, mobile is the booking channel of the future. It may (or may not) surprise you that even consumers who are sitting on their own couch at home, often choose to use their smartphone or tablet to book instead of a computer.

If your property is not already offering mobile website and a mobile booking engine, then you are missing out on a highly profitable channel. How profitable? In 2012, the total value of hotel bookings made via Booking.com¹s mobile commerce site and apps surpassed $3 billion², three times the $1 billion earned in 2011. And mobile is a channel that is expected to continue to grow over the coming years. According to Joe Megibow, General Manager of Expedia.com, the site may see U.S. hotel purchases via handheld devices taking up half its total [sales] within two years.

So get your website optimized for viewing on smartphones and tablets and make sure that your booking engine is mobile compatible, so that your customers can access your site (and book!) a stay at your property anytime, from anywhere, on any device.

 

Baidu – the Google of China

Global/international search is growing rapidly in the U.S. And there are a handful of countries that continue to drive this growth trajectory. China, Brazil, and Russia are at the forefront.

China ecommerce is growing at a rapid pace and projected to hit $81 billion in the next 5 years. Understanding this, it’s clear why many U.S. retailers are attempting to expand into China. The top thing to understand about Baidu is that taking a paid, owned, and earned integrated approach is essential to dominating in the engine.

Baidu Quick Stats

• Baidu is the top search engine in China, owning 67 percent market share, much like Google’s U.S. market share dominance.

Source: China Internet Watch, recent update w/ June Chinese Search Engine Market Share by Jennifer Slegg

• Baidu is second to only Google in terms of global search engines.
• China has 513 million web users – the largest online population in the world – along with 164 million online shoppers, states a report by A.T. Kearny.
• China’s online retail markets, at $23 billion, are second in the world behind the U.S.
• Ecommerce in China has increased by a 78 percent compound annual growth rate since 2006.

Tips on Baidu Paid, Owned, Earned Strategy

Baidu displays paid search ads, organic listings, and integrates social very differently. The combination of paid, owned, and earned media is explosive if used correctly.

From a paid search perspective simply remember it’s a must, as paid inclusion spans key points of engagement across the Chinese customer journey and is an influence in organic rankings for Baidu. The true key to opening the Baidu vault: ensuring keywords match in all corresponding channels.

PAID – What You Should Know Before Launch

Paid search is critical to positioning yourself well in Baidu. Here are some key aspects of paid search for Baidu to understand as you build your strategy.

1. Baidu PPC Results Dominate the SERP

Baidu will show far more than three paid listings at the top of the page. A search on Chicago hotels shows seven paid listing ads at the top and six on the right.

2. Baidu has 3 PPC Match Types – Broad, Exact, & Right, Relevance is Critical

Baidu differs from Google, Bing/Yahoo, and other U.S. centric search engines in keyword targeting due to their match types and placement. Baidu uses a relevance engine that will only include ads based on the match criteria set as it relates to your landing page.

Broad match and exact match are similar to other engines. However, “Right Match” is a free for all match that if you want to by-pass relevance for targeting, you can set and pretty much target any phrase to any landing page.

3. Baidu Account Setup Requires a Setup Fee & Proof of Business

A $195 fee and documented evidence of a business entity (certificate, license, etc.) is required to setup a Baidu advertiser account, including a deposit. It’s better to know how to convert Yuan to dollars as well if you plan to manage the account yourself.

Advertisers must display business name as it is reflected in the associated documentation provided on their website. And Tait Lawton, Nanjing Marketing Group, pointed out that Baidu uses resellers to setup your account, so you might want to make sure you find one that’s worked with a U.S. based client.

4. Baidu Doesn’t Play Nice With Foreign Analytics

Be sure you can measure your campaign effectively by going the easy route and using Baidu analytics (Baidu Tongji). It’s full featured and continues to be enhanced. Another route would be to ask your existing platform if they can integrate Baidu analytics so you can bucket and view.

5. Baidu is a Simplified Chinese Search Engine

To increase relevance of your landing page(s) ensure they are written in simplified Chinese and use the keyword phrases specifically as you’ve identified based on your campaign. Remember, relevance equates to your keyword match type case. So if your campaign is exact, use the exact target phrase on the page.

OWNED – What Assets Should You Be Using

You can take advantage of a variety of owned resources that will drive your overall strategy on Baidu. Top assets you should be taking advantage of in order to dominate the SERPs:

• Your Website: In simplified Chinese only.
• Sina Weibo: Set up an account. This is China’s equivalent to Twitter (posts get indexed).
• Baidu Baike Page: Create one; it’s just like Wikipedia. (translated into English to help everyone)

• Baidu Space Page: Baidu likes its own community products, so these show in results constantly over other sources.
• Same Keyword Use: Make sure all of your assets use the same keyword phrase(s) as your paid campaigns. Baidu looks at the assets and language and is very exacting about this.

Here are some great resources on how to optimize your owned assets:

• Baidu SEO: How to rank on China’s largest search engine? – SEOmistry
• Baidu Search Engine Optimisation Guide – Code That

EARNED – Integrating Social & Creating the Right Profiles

Social media plays a part in Baidu, as it integrates some aspects of social media into its SERPs. Sina Weibo posts are the most likely to show, similar to how Google posted tweets in the past.

Here are the sources that most frequently present themselves in Baidu. Keywords are still the key to dominating the search engine results, so make sure you integrate them into your content, titles, meta or any provided components as they relate.

• Sina Weibo: Posts are integrated in Baidu’s results
• RenRen: Pretty much China’s equivalent to Facebook.
• Baidu Space: Baidu’s take on MySpace, but not focused on music.
• Youku.com: For video sharing, China’s equivalent to YouTube (YouTube is blocked in China)
• Baidu Tieba: Baidu (Google) Groups

Conclusion

If you’re considering breaking into the Chinese market and expanding globally online with your business, your strongest point of entry is in paid search. Paid search however, presents the most barriers to entry, outside of language. Setup is long, third-parties will/are involved, and you must provide quite a bit up front.

However, the benefits of taking a paid, owned, earned approach means having up to three primary listings that dominate the results.

Source:  Jori Ford 18th of August 2013 www.searchenginewatch.com

Is The End of OTA Coming Soon?

Dark days for online travel agencies

The days are getting darker for the mass-market online travel agencies (OTAs). The fundamentals of their business are weakening amid intense pressure up and down the value chain, especially in the mature US market.

How many times have people asked you: “Why should I book from Expedia or Orbitz?” In my world, that refrain is growing louder as more people are beginning their travel searches on metasearch engines and I have to admit there’s not much to say in response.

Expedia’s woes

The transcript for Expedia’s most recent quarterly earnings call read like a terminal diagnosis, with its own offspring as poisoner. TripAdvisor, once a loyal subsidiary, was no longer deferentially sending Expedia it’s lion share of traffic. The media giant was commanding the audience and Expedia was not the highest bidder.

The loss of traffic during TripAdvisor’s switch from pop up ads to hotel metasearch caused Expedia’s stock to plummet 27% in one-day; it’s now down about 20% on the year. The company is being attacked on all fronts, with its recently acquired metasearch engine Trivago the lone shining light.

The rise of metasearch

This pressure is not unpredictable. On one side we have the supplier brand.com sites, who have begun an aggressive campaign to build direct relationships with the consumer. The benefits to them are game-changing for both cost and revenue: A cheaper distribution channel and an increased opportunity to merchandise and upsell to consumers.

On top of that, direct relationships allow supplier brands more intimacy and brand engagement with the consumer, a boon to loyalty programs as they invest heavily in loyalty marketing.

Suppliers will try to exploit their stronger bargaining hand to haggle over commissions with OTAs and drive down distribution costs. Supplier consolidation has made air a zero-profit center for OTAs as it is, a trend we’re likely to see extended to hotels and wherever else possible.

On the other side, we have the major metasearch and media channels with Kayak (owned by Priceline) and TripAdvisor being the dominant players. The metasearch message has finally gone mainstream, and everyone from Kayak to Room77 to Trivago are reaping the benefits.

Metasearch offers a better search experience and make it easier to consistently find the lowest prices available online. Many of them now offer equivalently seamless booking for hotels. The line is blurred between metasearch and OTA for many consumers and it’s the OTAs who stand to lose.

Three things OTAS can do to stay relevant

Despite all this, I would argue it’s not the end of OTAs. There is still plenty of room in the market for them, but here’s what they need to do better:

1) Be a platform, not just a brand: Expedia with Expedia Affiliate Network (EAN) is probably the best example of this. Now all of the major OTAs have an affiliate network, which lets them distribute hotels through the major metasearch players as well as any other site that wants to sell travel in a plug-n-play way. It instantly expands their distribution footprint and scale, while forcing them to give up some margin.

Pros: Focuses on fulfillment value-add and scales easily
Cons: More of a commodity service; does little to reinforce a brand.

2) Improve the search experience: OTAs are getting killed by metasearch and media players in part because the search experience is just plain worse. TripAdvisor brings useful reviews to the search experience; Kayak has spent years perfecting its search technology and user interface. Start-ups like Hipmunk have built brands off of user experience and are iterating at a much faster pace.

These rivals offer better research and more consistent lower prices so it’s no wonder you’re better off starting there than going to an OTA directly. But there’s no reason the OTAs can’t compete. They have talent and resources and far more years of search experience.

Pros: Profit from the core, many been doing search for more than a decade.
Cons: Head to head competition with faster, more dynamic companies; UX superiority is unproven as a sustainable positive driver of return on investment (ROI) for the long-term.

3) Add value. Remember when Orbitz marketed its “TLC” service for better disruption support for their customers? Whatever happened to that? Maybe they couldn’t justify the ROI or perhaps they weren’t delivering on it effectively. But the point remains, for an OTA to be relevant they must do something better, faster, or cheaper than a supplier can direct.

Because they’re never going to be cheaper and probably never faster, they must do something better. To stay alive, they must differentiate one way or another and brand is not enough.

Pros: Holy grail of relevance. Cons: Margin pressure makes this challenging; Commodity rewards programs likely aren’t enough.

Channel vision

OTAs as marketing organizations are not sustainable for the long-haul. The brand message falls flat when consumers realize there’s no real advantage to using their products when metasearch offers a superior product and better prices, and transacting through supplier sites is intuitive and seamless.

The current plan of diversification through investment and acquisition up and down the value chain is a good medium-term solution, but for Expedia Inc. to thrive, it should find a path for expedia.com to have long-term relevance. I’m optimistic there’s a path to a durable business model here, but it won’t happen on auto-pilot.

Sources: Evan Konwiser of Tnooz, 13th August 2014

How to claim your Google Hotel Finder

How to claim your Google Hotel Finder page

November 27, 2012 | Hotel Marketing By Markus Busch

Now that Hotel Finder has become an official Google product that is currently getting rolled-out on a global scale, it is important that you spend time with your hotel’s Google Hotel Finder page. Here is how you can take control of your listing.

Google Hotel Finder’s initial feed of hotel data was obtained from many sources such as Google’s own data, OTAs, GDS representation companies, Yelp and many more. As such, the likelihood that your hotel is already listed in Google Hotel Finder is very high.

Getting listed

If your hotel is not listed in Google Hotel Finder, the first thing you should do is get a free Google+ Local page. Google+ Local is a powerful tool for destination based businesses like hotels and restaurants, because it combines customer reviews and local search into one platform. Think of your Google+ Local page as your brand hub within everything Google.

To find the Google+ Local registration page for your country, simply search “Google+ Local” on your local version of Google.

Once you completed the registration process, your Google+ Local page will hold all static information for your hotel, like name, description, images, and the official URL to your website – ready for Google Hotel Finder to retrieve and use for your hotel listing.

The second step is getting your hotel’s dynamic data such as room types, rates, and availability into Google Hotel Finder. Unfortunately, Google is not of any help here, as Google Hotel Finder is turning to its commercial partners – speak advertisers – for that part of its data feed.

You currently have two options to get your dynamic data feed into Google Hotel Finder: Getting your hotel listed with one of the OTAs that advertise with Google, or turning to one of the major GDS service providers, which already update Google Hotel Finder with their hotel feed.

Once you have completed both steps, Google Hotel Finder will find and add your hotel, taking the hotel description from your Google+ Local page, and your rates and availabilities from an OTA or your GDS service provider.

Controlling your listing

Although Google Hotel Finder initially retrieved your hotel data from different sources, one place overrides all your hotel’s static data in Google Hotel Finder, and that is Google+ Local.

Therefore, if you don’t like your hotel images in Google Hotel Finder (originally they have been provided by VFM Leonardo), would like to extend your hotel description, or have to correct your hotel contact details – just login to your Google+ Local page and correct your listing until it features the information you would like to communicate for your property on Google Hotel Finder.

So if Google+ Local is not already a tool in your hotel’s online marketing arsenal, with the offical launch of Google Hotel Finder this is definitely the time now for every hotel marketer to focus on making your Google+ Local page as informative and appealing as possible. This means adding your complete hotel information, including photos, videos, and encouraging reviews from customers, and make your hotel stand out in Google+ Local and Google Hotel Finder from its local competitors.

Googel Hotel Finder guest reviews is a topic we’ll cover in greater detail tomorrow as part of this article series on how to optimize your Google Hotel Finder page.

Google Hotel Finder goes global

Google Hotel Finder goes global, gets integrated into Google SERPs

November 26, 2012 | Hotel Marketing By Markus Busch

Google has finally activated its Hotel Finder product on a global scale, including support for local currencies. In addition, US, UK, India and New Zealand are the first countries that receive full Hotel Finder integration into regular Google search engine result pages – a move many hotel marketers were anxiously waiting for.

The company makes its Google Hotel Finder now available on all global Google domains via the URL ‘/hotels.’ In addition, most local versions (not all yet) show hotel rate information in the local currency.

What’s more, in the US, UK, India, and New Zealand, a Google Hotel Finder search box is now prominently featured on all search engine result pages (SERPs) for destination hotel searches.

The fact, that Google New Zealand already integrates Google Hotel Finder into its SERPs – but Australia not – could be an indication, that Google is rolling out SERP integration to all its local domains as we write this.

A move, every hotel marketer was waiting for, that Google Hotel Finder finds its way into Google’s regular search engine result pages, thereby increasing its user base and potential as hotel booking originator significantly.

Google Hotel Finder also introduced some new features, like a ‘Rooms’ tab, which now provides the consumer with the complete room type information of a hotel including rates (originally, that information was based on the least expensive double room the hotel had available).

As for Google ‘Hotel Price Ads’ and ‘Promoted Hotel Ads,’ nothing seems to have changed since we last reported on the topic (read “More on Google Promoted Hotel Ads”). Google Hotel Finder still shows four Hotel Price Ads per hotel – including one prominently featured as the ‘Promoted Hotel Ad’ – as well as the official link to the hotel website.

However, the extent to how hotels will benefit commercially from Google Hotel Finder is still largely unclear – especially when you find your hotels four Hotel Price Ads occupied by major OTAs, and you know for certain, that your CRS provider feeds Google with Hotel Price Ads directly.

But now that Google Hotel Finder is an official Google product, it will most likely not take long, until we finally receive some official signals from Google like “Google Hotel Price Ads: The official guide for hotel marketers.”

Only then, will we know for certain, if Google Hotel Finder is living up to its heavily hyped and hoped for expectations as a level playing field for independent hotels, hotel chains and hotel aggregators when it comes to where the customer eventually books hotels.

Related Links: Google Hotel Finder, Google SERP for “hotels new york”