December 10, 2010 at 8:37 pm | Posted in Hotel Sales Training Issues, In the News, Information, Social Media | 5 Comments
Tags: Google Maps, hotel blog, hotel industry, hotel revenue management, hotel sales, hotel sales issues, hotel sales training, hotel trends, motivation, recovery for hotels, social media
The Recovery is here — so the experts are telling us. This recovery may be felt in some markets more than others. After all the dust has settled from the last brutal 18 months – what lessons can we carry into the recovery.
1. Dropping rate does not create demand. There have been studies on this by people smarter than I am, Cornell University for one, to the effect that those hotel’s that value add and are smarter about discounting generate more revenue than those hotels that jus follow the lowest rated hotel to the bottom.
2. Customers are now trained to expect value. Peter Yesawhich defined value as ‘ something that the customer could not otherwise afford.’ This could be the reason that the luxury segment of the industry is recovering faster than the other segments. See — it’s not just about rate!
3. Meetings are back but we lost 15% during the recession and are expected to only increase in this segment by 8% in 2011. Value add- value add! Be very careful of dropping rates especially on longer lead business.
4. Customers are locating, gathering information and booking hotels on different channels than they were prior to the recession. How well does your hotel web site appear on mobile phones, do you have a mobile app, how well is your property placed on Google maps?
5. It’s time to reward the warriors — those that have come to work every day and fought the frustrating battle of the last 18 months. Say Thank You to everyone that stuck around. While you are at it — pat yourself on the back!
The eBook The Best of Hotel Sales & Revenue Management is here! The past two years have been among the most difficult in the industry’s history. This 55 page book contains lessons we all learned during the recession and those that will launch us into the recovery. Click below for more info.
http://www.carolverret.net/viral/dec10book.php
September 15, 2010 at 9:04 pm | Posted in Events, Hotel Sales Training Issues, In the News, Information, Uncategorized, Webcasts | 2 Comments
Tags: Google Maps, hotel blog, hotel revenue management, hotel sales, hotel sales issues, hotel trends, recovery for hotels, social media, social networks
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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March 24, 2010 at 4:56 pm | Posted in In the News, Information | Leave a comment
Tags: Google Maps
Google announced on Monday that it will feature hotel rates in the ‘balloons’ on Google maps. This is currently in the Beta stage.
Currently, they will seek rate feeds from advertisers and will be flagged as Sponsored Results. They will not pick up rates from the GDS and other distribution channels but rely on feeds from the hotels themselves. Below is an example of how it will look for a Search for hotels in NYC.
Google has stated that it will not change search results. This new feature will not change the way that hotels are ranked in Google Maps, the company says. Google Maps ranks business listings based on their relevance to the search terms entered, along with geographic distance (where indicated) and other factors, regardless of whether there is an associated price. (HotelMarketing.com, 3/24/10)
With this feature, when you search for hotels on Google Maps you’ll be able to enter the dates you plan to stay and see real prices on selected listings. You can click on the price to see a list of advertisers who have provided pricing information for that hotel, indicated by the “Sponsored” text, and click through to reserve a room on the advertiser’s site. (HotelMarketing.com, 3/24/10)
My concern is that this feature will only perpetuate competitive rate cutting and discounting, making the industry more rate driven than before. It may have an impact on rate parity and integrity and also become a threat to the aggregators who may feel they are in bed with the 500 pound gorilla named Google!
Let me know what you think!
