Mobile Apps & Google Maps — New RM Channels for 2011

September 15, 2010 at 9:04 pm | Posted in Events, Hotel Sales Training Issues, In the News, Information, Uncategorized, Webcasts | 2 Comments
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RMs have new tools for distribution that weren’t even on the radar prior to the recession and were barely on the radar in 2010. Now these tools are must haves!

As though revenue managers didnt’ have enough channels to manage there are several new ones.

Mobile apps have demonstrated that they have become a valuable new reservation channel and have the potential of generating incremental revenue from in house guests.

 However, a few questions to ask your team be fore enabling a mobile app. Is your res engine on the web site up to the task? Is it mobile friendly and how will it appear on a mobile device screen? Are your promotional eblasts mobile ready in terms of short concise offers that users don’t have to scroll down too far to access? Have you linked your Twitter and FaceBook to your mobile offers?

The second thng is Google maps exhibiting hotel rates on destination searches. I am in Des Moines and I needed a hotel room on Friday night at the airport. I searched for ‘airport hotels des moines’.  Most popped up with their rates but a few of the franschises weren’t playin’.

The real issue was that in many cases the rates were just wrong! Most consumers will make a selection based on the rate structure on the ‘Google map’. When I went into one hotel’s web site the rate was $10 higher than the one on the map and another was not only ten dollars lower than the rate on the map but also included breakfast and a ‘beverage’ — very welcome on a Friday night!

It is unclear where Google is pulling the rates from but this makes a clear case for rate integrety and parity across all channels.  How many people would go back to the map and take the time to click through all of the other hotels whose rates were displayed just in case they could find a better one.  Most of them will take the rates at face value.

Google maps is going to be a huge palyer in travel search and will drive business to those htoels that maintain parity and updates on offerings on all channels incuding the mobile app!

Join us on Sepptember 23 for a webinar Habits of Highly Successful Revenue Managers for 2011.  These are just a few of the issues we will be discussing.  Copy and past or click below for more info.  

http://www.carolverret.net/viral/sept1110.php 

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Unconstrained Demand: Denials, Regrets and Lost Business

April 19, 2010 at 12:13 am | Posted in Hotel Sales Training Issues, Information, Webcasts | Leave a comment

Now that demand is increasing and Revenue Managers are able to begin moving rate, it’s time to revisit the area of what unconstrained demand can tell you — info about who didn’t book may be more useful than info about those that did! 

One of the reasons most sales people and Revenue Mangers don’t check those reports from the PMS is that they are imperfect.  The res team member has to be in the reservation screen an terminate it prior to the completion of the reservation — reservation interuptus! However, training can alleviate some of these by instituting  the low tech system of hash marks under the most common denials and regret category.

You should be regreting some reservations as your rate moves higher. If you have no denials, your rate is too low.  It’s delicate balance that we all have to relearn as demand increases! 

However incomplete are some info is better than none.  For example, how many were rate related, how many were availability related and how many were amenity related — an inability to book the desired room type, having an indoor/outdoor pool, etc.    

The info can assist in rate setting for rooms & packages, training opportunities for offering different room types and asking if the customer has flexible rates, etc.  If you are geting rate denials for a certain arrival/departure pattern and you aren’t filling, should you take a look at limited ‘specials’, reduce the BAR or enable another strategy.    

Sales usually learns more from why they didn’t get the business than why they did.  It can also assist in training.  Ddi the sales person  engage the propsect in conversation about their group or did they just quote a rate and fail to value add to take the conversation to another level? 

You get the drift — how much business did you actually book versus how much business did you deny or lose and why? 

Join us on Thursday for a webinar “Social Media Drives the Meeting
Business” in conjunction with i-Meet.  We are bringing in panelists
– a hotel sales professional, a meeting planner and a
representative from PhocusWright to talk about they successfully use
social networks in their sales processes, venue selection and the
future trends in social networks.
http://cts.vresp.com/c/?CarolVerretConsultin/c40634ba38/TEST/a12cc49a47/t=a&d=927889188

Hotel Sales Blog is Back

November 10, 2009 at 7:08 pm | Posted in Hotel Sales Training Issues, Webcasts | 2 Comments

Finally, I think we have it fixed! Vicious spyders kept taking down the blog! Stay tuned for future posts!

Join us Friday for a web cast you can’t afford to miss. Habits of Higly Successful Hotel Sales People — 5 Habits You Need for 2010. http://www.carolverret.net/viral/oct3009html.html

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