Avvio Driving Direct Business

Driving Direct Business to your Hotel Website Hotel Website Marketing Conference Dublin, 17 February 2009 Presented by David Collins Commercial Director, Avvio

1.0 Avvio: Summary Introduction

2.0 Typical Barriers to Direct Business

3.0 How to drive Direct Business through your website

4.0 Nett Benefits to Expect

5.0 Summary Tips

Avvio is a leading international web-focused business development partner for

hotels.

We specialise:

in dynamic, intuitive booking engine software for hotel websites;

on-line marketing consultancy and management such as SEO, PPC, CRO and affiliate distribution;

customer relationship management; and,

award-winning website design.

Avvio enables our clients to more effectively compete via the web, driving our

clients’ direct business volumes and reducing our clients’ distribution costs.

Staff of 40 across R&D, software development, design, online marketing and

account management

Sales network in Ireland, the UK, Italy, Germany, and the Asia Pacific Region

Enterprise Ireland-backed

225,000+ transactions annually, worth €60m+

700+ clients, comprising groups and independents, from 3* city

centre hotels to 5* destination resorts:

Client depth, hotel specialists

End-to-End proven solutions

Superior conversion rates

Analytics set providing 360 o KPI visibility

PCI compliant

OTA compliant with shared APIs with 3 rd party interface partners (vertical and horizontal)

Proactive account management, hotel industry experts

Dynamic R&D, leading edge online marketing, best of class design solutions, all in-house

Client-enabled certainty, visibility and control

Direct distribution-focused

Distribution Channels: Cost Comparisons (Source: HSMAI, 2008)

Hotel Rate Channel Nett Cost of Sale

$100 CRS Voice (Utell) $75 $25

$100 OTA via GDS (Travelocity) $75 £25

$100 OTA Direct (Expedia) $78 $22

$100 TA via GDS (Pegasus) $81 $19

$100 Call to Hotel $88 $12

$100 Direct $92 $8

Now, more than ever, with the internet firmly embedded in the customer buying psyche, the tools are there to enable direct distribution with such effectiveness, trace-ability, visibility, cost accountability, never before imagined.

* In 2006/07, European on-line travel sales increased by 25% from €40bn to €50bn,

a further increase of 16% is expected in 2008 taking the industry to €58bn and

€ 67bn by end-2009.

Plus, opportunities for on-line direct distribution are proving far more scale-able than traditional off-line channels which is in turn leading more progressive hotel operators to increasingly base spends not on budgets but on cost per acquisition or CPA for short.

In our experience, in order to compete in an increasingly competitive, increasingly marginal market, the most cost effective route to market for hotels – and the one with most potential – is the direct route, not just in terms of inventory distribution but also importantly in terms of brand delivery.

Poor visibility

Poor link popularity

Poor website design

No Quick-Book

Regressive booking engine functionality eg., requirement to register to book

No cross-selling between properties, dates, room types, etc.

Lack of visibility over user behaviour and turn-away business

Sub-optimal revenue streams e.g., no gift certificates, no reservations up-selling

No corporate, frequent stayer or travel agent loyalty functionality

Visibility: “.. how visible or easily found your site is based on your

chosen title tags, key words and content.”

Link popularity: “ the total number of links or ‘votes’ that a search engine has found for your website.”

The Booking Experience

Additional Challenges:

Pressure on ARRs and ABVs

Rate parity across 3 rd party channels and ensuring best rate guarantee off your own site

Managing client touch-points and data

Proactively farming repeat and recommend business potentials

Driving group brand positioning and brand equity

Managing CPA and balancing same with proactive revenue management

Increased Customer Loyalty, Increased Brand Control, Increased Conversion Rates, Increased Search Engine Optimisation, Increased Online Revenue Improved Conversion Rate, Increased Average Room Rate, Increased incremental spend, Increased secondary spend Increased Traffic, Decreased Cost of Sale, Low Cost Brand Optimisation, Less Reliance on Third Party websites, Reduced inventory management Results you can expect Tracking, Analytics, CRM, Pro-Active Account Management, Quarterly Customer Reviews (QCRs) Daily Revenue Reports, Captured Opportunities & Denials, Rate Sensitivity, Pro-active Account Management, Decision Support Solutions, including Benchmark Reports and Rate Shopping Tools, Yield Management, Channel Management Research, Planning, Evaluation, Pro-active Account Management Managing and measuring what we do Brand Karma, Online Surveys, Special Offers, Email Marketing, Loyalty Programmes Design, Quick Book, Dynamic Booking Engine, Real-Time Availability, Yield Management, Revenue Management, Special Offers, Packages, Vouchers, Dynamic Packaging, Pre- and Post- Stay Emails Design, SEO, PPC, Affiliate Marketing, Email Marketing, RSS, XML, Blogs, Social Media, CMS What we do How do we manage this customer relationship going forward? How do we optimise your website Conversion Rate and increase my average booking value and incremental spend?? How do we get the right traffic to your website? Your Challenges CRM CONVERT CONNECT Your Hotel

‘ Advertising’ your site

Having a good site is one thing, getting

traffic to it is another; traffic is one thing,

relevant traffic is another

Examples:

* Use dynamic content eg., RSS feeds,

latest news or blogs, etc.

* Submit your site to complementary

directories, exchange reciprocal links

* Fix broken links, check grammar and

correct misspelling

(* Pay per click)

* Ensure you’ve description and key

word meta-tags in place, constantly review,

make sure tags are relevant to your site,

check out your competition ….

Affiliate Marketing

‘ No foal/no fee’ commission-driven distribution comprising 3 rd par websites (aka affiliates) which generate traffic, enquiries and bookings for hotels (aka merchants).

Avvio’s own affiliate marketing network of over 40 x affiliate websites – including www.DublinsBestHotels.com , www.DealsOfTheWeek.ie , www.HotelReviewsIreland.com and www.StayIreland.ie - and serving over 100 Avvio hotel clients, is currently growing at a rate of 40% month on month with Avvio’s top clients are now achieving 10% - 15% of on-line business through Avvio’s network of affiliates.

Affiliate Marketing

- fully integrated with the Avvio booking

engine, enabling hotel packages to be

turned into live ads easily and simply;

- ads can be manually and/or automatically

loaded and can include graphics and/or

text in over 15 branded sizes;

- customers are fully tracked from initial

click-through to any conversion that is

made, whether that’s a booking, wedding

enquiry, brochure request, etc.;

- affiliates are credited for each conversion

and paid automatically ‘handsfree’;

- while extensive reporting is also provided

to both parties including real-time reporting of

account balances, top merchants, top adverts

and industry benchmarks.

Web Design

Web Design

Web Design

Web Design

Photography

Photography

Booking Engine Functionality

Booking Engine Functionality

Booking Engine/PMS Integration

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Acquiring a new customer can cost you up to 7 times more than retaining an

existing customer. Source: Reichheld & Schefter, Harvard Business Review, 2000

A 5% increase in your retention rates can increase profits anywhere from 5%

to 95%. Source: Reichheld & Schefter, Harvard Business Review, 2000

40% of users found that a positive hotel review on-line swayed them to

book that hotel. Source: comScore, 2007

82% of online shoppers check on-line reviews, blogs and other online

customer feedback before making a travel-related purchase. Source: Opinion Research Corp., 2008

CRM

Analytics

Improved, consistent visibility and rankings lift

Relevant, high net worth traffic with reduced reliance on 3 rd party sites and PPC

Optimised site conversion and web penetration

Greater transparency on traffic delivery and conversions of organically driven traffic

Revenue lift and supplementary revenue streams

Improved user experience

Enhanced average booking values

Reduced cost per acquisition

Enhanced brand equity, positioning and cross-hotel promotion

Heightened customer loyalty and return ratios

Increased traction vis-à-vis existing and potential management contracts and principals

Adopting an end-to-end direct distribution strategy will have the nett effect of

increasing your booking volumes whilst significantly your reducing cost of sale.

5.0 Summary Tips

Connect

- everything you do to connect your hotel to your markets

Convert

everything you do to convert your visitors to lookers to

bookers

CRM

everything you do to retain your hard won clients and

encourage WoM

5.0 Summary Tips

Ongoing search engine optimisation (vs. PPC)

Affiliate marketing

Engaging website design

Dynamic site content

Proactive yield management

Up to date availability

Real-time book-ability

Ease of booking

On-site merchandising and up-selling

Security of payment and protection of customer data

Pro-active CRM

Analytics

Progressive direct distribution e-partner

……

5.0 Summary Tips

Final tip?

Call Avvio on 1890 302 000!

Thank you.

Driving Direct Business to your Hotel Website Hotel Website Marketing Conference Dublin, 17 February 2009 Presented by David Collins Commercial Director, Avvio