Breaking our distribution silos?

Within the hotel sector the sales and marketing function has undergone drastic changes over the past ten years.  Driven by the explosive growth in online bookings, we have moved away from a situation where much of our business came from a few select travel agent and tour operator partners towards one where hotels need to juggle an ever expanding and increasingly complex portfolio of different online and offline distribution channels.

In the past electronic distribution at the property level was usually managed by the Front Office Manager or perhaps in more enlightened properties, by the Yield Manager.  Today however, with the distribution environment much more complex and convoluted, the skill set needed to manage the distribution function has evolved and a variety of dedicated professionals typically work at both corporate and property level trying to insure that the hotel maximises business, at the optimum price, from each and every possible channel of distribution.

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Google – Friend or Foe?

For anyone trying to establish any sort of presence online, the importance of Google cannot be denied.  Few travelers now plan their trip without consulting the global search giant, so where you are positioned, and how you are represented has become a critical success factors for anyone in the travel sector.  Recent Google initiatives focused on travel mean that the company will become even more important in the future.  Is this good or bad for hotels and other travel suppliers?

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RoomKey.com – a really bad idea?

Writing for Hotel Analyst Distribution & Technology, I recently questioned the decision by five of the world’s smartest hotel companies to invest in developing their own web portal.  The article has received incredible feedback and support from the industry.  You can read it here.

2012 – the year that hotels finally adopt social media?

Hotel Year Book 2012Having hesiated for so long, 2012 will be the year when hotels finally adopt social media as a mainstream customer communications tool.  In this article for the Hotel Yearbook 2012, I discuss how I see the sector evolving.  You can download it here.

(Parts of this article were also syndicated by Hospitality Finance & Technology Professionals on HFTP Connect http://blog.hftp.org/social-media-in-2012-the-dawn-of-a-new-age/)

Who’s afraid of the big bad merchant model?

Who’s afraid of the big bad merchant model?

Since the beginning of online distribution, hoteliers have only begrudgingly accepted the role that OTAs play in delivering business to their properties.  Most of their complaints focus on the use of the so called ‘merchant model’, and typically highlight how its high transaction cost coupled with the hotel’s  loss of control over both rate and availability make it one sided and unfair.

While undoubtedly this was true post 9/11, when certain companies used the merchant model to exploit hotels hurting deeply from the recession.  But, in the rapidly developing online world, things have now changed. Despite this, many hotels remain fundamentally opposed to the merchant model, perhaps without really understanding why, and perhaps without truly understanding what alternatives are out there.

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Critical Content

A recurrent theme through these pages has been the desire of hotels, whether chains and independents, to capture an increased share of the rapidly growing online travel market. Either for strategic or more frequently for distribution cost reasons, most hotels want to drive more bookings through their own direct Brand.com websites.

Unfortunately achieving this is quite difficult. Over the past decade, online travel agencies have continually been more successful than brand website at both capturing and converting the customer, with the end result that most online hotel bookings flow through indirect channels.  In most European countries, indirect bookings currently make up two-third of hotel’s online business, and this proportion is in general growing despite the best efforts of the hotel chains.

What then are hotels doing wrong?  The answer (in most cases) is nothing.  Most have adequate websites, featuring attractive photos and well written copy text, and include appropriate booking facilities to allow customers to complete the transaction if they so wish. The challenge is not that hotels are doing something wrong, just that they are not doing enough.  Adequate is no longer sufficient:  to successfully compete in today’s electronic marketplace, websites have to be better than adequate.

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The role of Social Media in the hospitality sector

In this video excerpt recorded at the IESE Business School Conference on Refining Boundaries in Hospitality, I discuss how hospitality organisations can more effectively use social media to reach out and engage with their customers.  Watch the video here.

 

 

Waking Up to Social Media

Essec, in cooperation with HVS Executive Search, ran a round table on social media in the hotel sector on February 7 at the Hilton Arc de Triomphe Paris.  The panel was moderated by Chris Mumford, Managing Director of HVS Executive Search London, and featured Geoffray Maugin, VP Marketing of Accor’s Luxury Brands, RJ Friedlander, CEO of ReviewPro, Jacques Dubois, COO of Rezidor Hotel Group, Iain Ainsworth, Founder & Managing Director of White Line Hotels as well as myself, Peter O’Connor, Professor at ESSEC Business School Paris.

The panel was professionally recorded and can be seen on YouTube.

Click here to see part one (13 mins) and part two (13 mins).