As the distribution landscape continues to evolve and complexities and costs grow, effective distribution and pricing strategies are more important than ever.
A successful distribution strategy must begin with a more acute understanding of customer acquisition costs by channel. From there, hotels must focus on driving and converting more direct bookings and maximizing revenue on every transaction across all channels
In this whitepaper you can learn four strategies to develop a profitable room distribution strategy for your hotel.
Whitepaper - Beginner's Guide to Hotel Revenue ManagementDuetto
Revenue management has become synonymous with managing rates, but it is really much more and the first step to a comprehensive revenue strategy.
If you don’t know who your customers are and when they’re coming, it’s hard to properly manage your property and set rates to maximize profits. By using basic approaches to segment, forecast and price, operators can run their hotels more efficiently and profitably.
In this whitepaper you can read how you can get started with revenue management today by taking a few simple steps.
Online distribution for the hotel industry in Germany, Austria and Switzerland (DACH) is becoming increasingly important. On average, today in the DACH region already 27% of bookings are generated electronically in real-time through online booking agencies (OTA), hotel websites, global reservation systems (GDS), central reservation systems (CRS) of hotel chains and hotel cooperation or social media platforms. This represents an estimated turnover of over 7.5 billion euros. These are some of the results of a joint survey by the German Hotel Association (IHA), the Austrian Hotel Association (ÖHV) and the Swiss Hotel Association (hotelleriesuisse) in collaboration with the Institute for Tourism of the University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland Valais (HES-SO Valais) in Sierre.
The hotel associations of the three countries have measured for several years now in independent surveys market shares and developments in the respective distribution channels. For the first time, a uniform data set has been established with scientific support in Germany, Austria and Switzerland in order to analyze the overall developments in hotel sales in a transnational context.
According to the study which was conducted between December 2011 and January 2012 and based on the responses of 1,400 hotels in Ger-many, Austria and Switzerland, online travel agencies (OTA) have reached a market share of 19% (D-A-CH). OTAs dominate electronic distribution with the proportion in Germany (20%) exceeding those of Switzerland (16%) and Austria (13%). The trend towards online booking channels is unbroken, while both traditional direct sales and sales generated by tourism partners (e.g. travel agencies, tourism organizations) are constantly declining.
Hotel Reservation System (HRS), Hotel.de and Booking.com are the most widely used OTAs in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Booking.com with 43% in Austria and 53% in Switzerland is the dominant platform in these countries.
Hotel Management Course - Revenue management Concepts Manish Gupta
This short course will explain the basic fundamentals of hotel's revenue management. Objectives, process and practices. You can subscribe the course at https://goo.gl/ufSuqN or visit our website www.ehotelmanagementschool.com
Tutorial introduction to revenue management for hotels hospitality seminar w...TOMEU PONS
New version: https://es.slideshare.net/tomeupons/advanced-revenue-management-for-hotels-1-lisbon-2016-english
The main objective of this seminar is to understand the purpose of revenue management in both technological and commercial terms.
With this information, a hotel can evaluate, develop and optimize its pricing strategy with the goal of maximizing profits.
Revenue Management is a method of managing sales of hotel inventory by applying yield management techniques.
Basic elements of Revenue Management used to manage inventory:
Historical data – statistics, demand and trends
Forecasts
Price management tools
Overall strategy
Pricing policies
The main factors in setting prices are:
Production costs
Market
Competition
Demand
Product positioning
tutorial Introduction to Revenue Management for Hotels Hospitality seminar- what is revenue management in hotel industry course
Everything you need to know about Hospitality Revenue Management – and how to select the right solution and/or services for your organization.
Key takeaways from this Guide:
* KEY CONCEPTS
Need-to-know concepts, terminology and emerging trends
* MUST-ASK QUESTIONS
for solution providers and consultants that really matter
* BUYING CONSIDERATIONS & CHECKLISTS
Factors in the purchase decision, plus a framework
for assessing the options
* ROADMAP & RECOMMENDATIONS
Important tips for maximizing the value of your investment
Read the complete guide to know more.
Visit our website: https://rategain.com/
Whitepaper - Beginner's Guide to Hotel Revenue ManagementDuetto
Revenue management has become synonymous with managing rates, but it is really much more and the first step to a comprehensive revenue strategy.
If you don’t know who your customers are and when they’re coming, it’s hard to properly manage your property and set rates to maximize profits. By using basic approaches to segment, forecast and price, operators can run their hotels more efficiently and profitably.
In this whitepaper you can read how you can get started with revenue management today by taking a few simple steps.
Online distribution for the hotel industry in Germany, Austria and Switzerland (DACH) is becoming increasingly important. On average, today in the DACH region already 27% of bookings are generated electronically in real-time through online booking agencies (OTA), hotel websites, global reservation systems (GDS), central reservation systems (CRS) of hotel chains and hotel cooperation or social media platforms. This represents an estimated turnover of over 7.5 billion euros. These are some of the results of a joint survey by the German Hotel Association (IHA), the Austrian Hotel Association (ÖHV) and the Swiss Hotel Association (hotelleriesuisse) in collaboration with the Institute for Tourism of the University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland Valais (HES-SO Valais) in Sierre.
The hotel associations of the three countries have measured for several years now in independent surveys market shares and developments in the respective distribution channels. For the first time, a uniform data set has been established with scientific support in Germany, Austria and Switzerland in order to analyze the overall developments in hotel sales in a transnational context.
According to the study which was conducted between December 2011 and January 2012 and based on the responses of 1,400 hotels in Ger-many, Austria and Switzerland, online travel agencies (OTA) have reached a market share of 19% (D-A-CH). OTAs dominate electronic distribution with the proportion in Germany (20%) exceeding those of Switzerland (16%) and Austria (13%). The trend towards online booking channels is unbroken, while both traditional direct sales and sales generated by tourism partners (e.g. travel agencies, tourism organizations) are constantly declining.
Hotel Reservation System (HRS), Hotel.de and Booking.com are the most widely used OTAs in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Booking.com with 43% in Austria and 53% in Switzerland is the dominant platform in these countries.
Hotel Management Course - Revenue management Concepts Manish Gupta
This short course will explain the basic fundamentals of hotel's revenue management. Objectives, process and practices. You can subscribe the course at https://goo.gl/ufSuqN or visit our website www.ehotelmanagementschool.com
Tutorial introduction to revenue management for hotels hospitality seminar w...TOMEU PONS
New version: https://es.slideshare.net/tomeupons/advanced-revenue-management-for-hotels-1-lisbon-2016-english
The main objective of this seminar is to understand the purpose of revenue management in both technological and commercial terms.
With this information, a hotel can evaluate, develop and optimize its pricing strategy with the goal of maximizing profits.
Revenue Management is a method of managing sales of hotel inventory by applying yield management techniques.
Basic elements of Revenue Management used to manage inventory:
Historical data – statistics, demand and trends
Forecasts
Price management tools
Overall strategy
Pricing policies
The main factors in setting prices are:
Production costs
Market
Competition
Demand
Product positioning
tutorial Introduction to Revenue Management for Hotels Hospitality seminar- what is revenue management in hotel industry course
Everything you need to know about Hospitality Revenue Management – and how to select the right solution and/or services for your organization.
Key takeaways from this Guide:
* KEY CONCEPTS
Need-to-know concepts, terminology and emerging trends
* MUST-ASK QUESTIONS
for solution providers and consultants that really matter
* BUYING CONSIDERATIONS & CHECKLISTS
Factors in the purchase decision, plus a framework
for assessing the options
* ROADMAP & RECOMMENDATIONS
Important tips for maximizing the value of your investment
Read the complete guide to know more.
Visit our website: https://rategain.com/
Examining a business is important to understand the success or failure. Mathematics and Statistics help uncover all types of ratios, proportions, averages, deviations etc. in all walks of human life. Maths is almost infallible. Statistics, a little less so.
Learning to use maths for a hospitality career begins right in the First year, but the Education Planners wait till the end to expose the students to the real villain in the movie. Profits, onward & upward...
This presentation is a complete outline from taking a call to close for hotel reservations training.
Some examples of types of callers to a flow chart of the sales process.
Webinar - The Science Behind Hotel Room PricingDuetto
In today’s challenging distribution environment with rising costs and complexities, there’s little room for error. If you’ve properly segmented your customers and are more accurately forecasting demand, you’re ready to take the next step with more advanced pricing strategies that will boost your bottom line.
This webinar will take you from basic strategies to advanced pricing concepts and arm you with the information you need to begin optimizing your revenue.
A resource for anyone in the hospitality industry looking to further develop their hotel's marketing strategy. This presentation provides access to ideas and articles that will help you increase the number of guests that you attract to your hotel. In this competitive industry, a strong marketing strategy that yields a high return on investment is essential. This information will allow you to better compete with your competitors. Learn what experts believe will enhance your hotel's success.
Whitepaper - 8 Steps to Improve Hotel Demand ForecastingDuetto
The clearer the picture you have of upcoming demand, the better you can prepare accordingly in many phases of operation, from staffing to marketing to pricing. Forecasting is a complex discipline and can be overwhelming at first, but it can be broken down into simple steps.
With the addition of multiple OTAs with various pricing and commission models, as well as a shrinking booking window, having an accurate demand forecast is the first step to better pricing and more profits.
In this whitepaper you can read 8 tips for improving your hotel demand forecasting.
Examining a business is important to understand the success or failure. Mathematics and Statistics help uncover all types of ratios, proportions, averages, deviations etc. in all walks of human life. Maths is almost infallible. Statistics, a little less so.
Learning to use maths for a hospitality career begins right in the First year, but the Education Planners wait till the end to expose the students to the real villain in the movie. Profits, onward & upward...
This presentation is a complete outline from taking a call to close for hotel reservations training.
Some examples of types of callers to a flow chart of the sales process.
Webinar - The Science Behind Hotel Room PricingDuetto
In today’s challenging distribution environment with rising costs and complexities, there’s little room for error. If you’ve properly segmented your customers and are more accurately forecasting demand, you’re ready to take the next step with more advanced pricing strategies that will boost your bottom line.
This webinar will take you from basic strategies to advanced pricing concepts and arm you with the information you need to begin optimizing your revenue.
A resource for anyone in the hospitality industry looking to further develop their hotel's marketing strategy. This presentation provides access to ideas and articles that will help you increase the number of guests that you attract to your hotel. In this competitive industry, a strong marketing strategy that yields a high return on investment is essential. This information will allow you to better compete with your competitors. Learn what experts believe will enhance your hotel's success.
Whitepaper - 8 Steps to Improve Hotel Demand ForecastingDuetto
The clearer the picture you have of upcoming demand, the better you can prepare accordingly in many phases of operation, from staffing to marketing to pricing. Forecasting is a complex discipline and can be overwhelming at first, but it can be broken down into simple steps.
With the addition of multiple OTAs with various pricing and commission models, as well as a shrinking booking window, having an accurate demand forecast is the first step to better pricing and more profits.
In this whitepaper you can read 8 tips for improving your hotel demand forecasting.
Optimizing Distribution Channels for Independent HotelsNancy Huang
Webinar with OTA Insight and Travel Tripper. Video available at https://youtu.be/W7Zv07XO7Ys
----
The increasing complexity of the online distribution landscape and the ever-changing behavior of consumers presents new challenges to hotel revenue managers every year, especially for independent hotels. How do you find the optimal channel mix for your hotel? How can you ensure that you're making the most out of each channel? And what data should be driving your decision making?
In this webinar, experts from Travel Tripper and OTA Insight will do a deep dive into optimizing the independent hotel’s distribution mix, including important strategies for managing OTA, metasearch, and direct booking channels. You’ll learn about:
- Driving bookings more effectively through price monitoring and management
- Using smarter analytics to optimize channel performance across OTAs and metasearch sites
- Optimizing your website to compete effectively for direct bookings
- Developing geographic marketing strategies
- The importance of content parity as well as rate parity
- Being competitive on metasearch and deciding on budgets, channels, and markets for your property
- Developing the right attribution models to measure success
Spot Light on Revenue Management for Small & Independent Hotelsguest13f367
This presentations shares the best practices which yielded results for properties in New York City...
This was presented in a recent Eye For Travel conference.
The right choice of Revenue Management System
How to generate yields and occupancy.
How to manage group displacement in Hotel Bookings
La scelta del software di Revenue Management
Celebrate and Nurture Your Guests: Drive Loyalty Through a Personalized Journ...Nancy Huang
Delighting your guests with a personalized experience is crucial for increasing customer loyalty and revenue. But it’s easier said than done.
Hoteliers have to leap over many hurdles to create holistic customer profiles and implement marketing personalization at scale.
You need strategic partners by your side to make that happen.
In this webinar, experts from leading hospitality and hotel tech companies will share their insights and strategies on how to enhance customer loyalty. Learn more about:
- Why data is the lifeblood that powers personalization
- How to set a strong foundation for CRM & loyalty program integration to scale personalization
- Ways to identify and segment your best guests so you can strategically market to them
- How to actively engage your guests through marketing efforts and increase direct booking contribution
- Strategies for creating a more personalized and seamless booking experience on the hotel website
Interested in learning more? Contact our team for detailed information.
Fresh perspectives on guest loyalty for independent hotelsNancy Huang
Webinar with Stay Wanderful, Revinate, and Travel Tripper. Recording available at https://youtu.be/o4zCQrA9vmU.
-----
In a digital marketplace where guests have millions of accommodation options at their fingertips, the hotel industry has had to rethink the concept of guest loyalty. This is especially true for independent hotels, which don’t have the traditional points-based structure that come with brand affiliation. But even that method is changing, as guests look for more instant gratification and personalization in their travels.
In this webinar, you’ll learn about new ideas and perspectives on guest loyalty, and how it’s evolving to meet the digitally savvy traveler of today. Executives from Stay Wanderful, Revinate, and Travel Tripper will discuss:
The changing face of guest loyalty for hotels
Moving away from points-based loyalty structures to instant rewards
Using guest data to personalize loyalty recognition
The importance of integrating customer loyalty programs into the booking process
How Hotels Benefit from the Revenue Management Concept & CRORevnomixSolutions
Apply CRO in your revenue management concept to increase profits. Contact Revnomix Solutions for the best revenue management services, data analytics & more. Visit https://www.revnomix.com/how-hotels-benefit-from-the-revenue-management-concept-cro/ to know more.
Similar to Whitepaper - Four Keys to a Profitable Hotel Distribution Strategy (20)
WEBINAR - How to Select a Hotel Revenue Management SystemDuetto
Hospitality revenue management has gone from being an evolving practice with uncertain financial upside potential to being a strategic imperative with predictable revenue outcomes. Indeed, when properly executed, it can deliver surprisingly large increases in revenue growth and profitability for practically any hotel property, regardless of size or category. Given all that, it’s no wonder that hotels and resorts across the board are coming to embrace the technology solutions that enable next-generation revenue management with unprecedented zeal. Yet, implementation of the right solution is only half the battle, and getting from here to there can be a daunting task for even the largest, most sophisticated hoteliers.
Webinar - The 7 Layers of Data that Will Improve your PricingDuetto
From historical booking information to newer consumer-centric data sets like web shopping behaviors and guest reviews, this webinar will help you understand future demand more accurately and how different data sets can affect pricing.
In this exclusive presentation for WorldHotels, learn how Duetto’s GameChanger application helps improve operations, accurately forecasts demand and optimizes the price of your hotel rooms. Understand how Open Pricing goes beyond traditional BAR pricing to provide precision pricing control and more profitability. We will take an in-depth look at the booking curve, reports, alerts, room type yielding, pricing rules and more.
In this live demo you'll learn how using Duetto’s GameChanger platform helps improving operations, accurately forecasting demand and optimizing the price of your hotel rooms. We will take a in-depth look at booking curve, reports, alerts, room type yielding, pricing rules and more.
Use Revenue Management to Boost Profit at your Independent HotelDuetto
Revenue management is a critical component to running an efficient and profitable hotel today. It is especially important for independent hotels, who don't benefit from the resources and negotiating power that come with a big brand. This webinar will take you from basic practices to advanced pricing strategies that will allow you to better manage distribution complexity and drive more profitability.
WEBINAR AGENDA:
Learn the basics of revenue management
Understanding customer acquisition costs and the dynamic digital landscape
Common pricing mistakes to avoid
Use Open Pricing to better manage distribution
Automate functions with alerts and price rules
Webinar - Understanding the Basics of Casino Revenue ManagementDuetto
The practice of revenue management is helping casino managers market their casino to the right audience and price their product to boost bottom-line revenue.
In this webinar you will learn the fundamental concepts behind casino revenue management (segmenting, forecasting, pricing etc) and how to get started in a few simple steps.
WEBINAR AGENDA:
- Introduction to casino revenue management
- Getting started with segmentation
- How to accurately forecast upcoming demand
- Reinvestment decisions and revenue management
Webinar - Leverage Integrated Hotel Systems to Boost Revenue Per GuestDuetto
Choosing the right technology can be one of the most difficult decisions for a hotel but also one of the most important. Increased collaboration among system providers is making it possible for hotels to adopt best-in-breed strategies that provide a strong lift to the bottom line. More connected systems can deliver the ability to optimize each booking, reducing both distribution and acquisition costs, and drive more revenue. In addition, as more vendors adopt standard protocols, hotel IT departments have more flexibility, less risk and fewer security gaps.
Transitioning from Excel to a Revenue Management SystemDuetto
Are you relying on spreadsheets to make critical forecasting and pricing decisions? Are you spending hours upon hours each week pulling reports and aggregating data? Technology innovations are paving the way for more educated decisions that will affect both operational efficiency and profitability at your hotel. It may seem daunting, but ditching Excel for a more comprehensive and user-friendly revenue management system will allow you to quickly pull reports and adjust prices on the fly.
Whitepaper - The 7 Most Common Room Pricing MistakesDuetto
The hotel industry is a street corner business and there’s more competition than ever. It’s not just from the hotels next door and on the other side of the road anymore. Now there are online travel agencies like Priceline and Expedia and newer and even mobile booking sites selling rooms on your street corner and at your hotel.
If you’re wondering where your profits have gone, it might be time to explore how you’re pricing your hotel rooms. For example, selling out your hotel sounds like the ultimate goal, but if you do it too early, it can be one of the costliest mistakes you can make.
In this whitepaper you will see the seven most common room pricing mistakes that could cost your hotel big money.
Webinar - Advanced Tips from Revenue Management ProfessonalsDuetto
Revenue strategy experts with decades of experience at some of the biggest hotel brands will share best practices and other revenue management lessons learned from their careers. Find out the one thing they wish they knew when they started out in the field and a few mistakes they could have avoided. In this webinar, you will be able to learn from a panel of pros and take advantage of an extended opportunity to ask questions at the conclusion of the presentations.
Webinar - The Secrets to Hotel Demand ForecastingDuetto
Predicting the future isn’t easy, but it’s the key to effective revenue strategy. The clearer the picture you have of upcoming demand, the better you can prepare in many phases of operation, from staffing to marketing to pricing.
This webinar will provide a tutorial on how to get started with forecasting and move to more advanced topics from there. Understand the difference between constrained demand and unconstrained demand and how using different sources of data can provide more visibility into the future. By breaking down this complex discipline into simple steps, you can become more precise in your forecasts and more profitable with your pricing.
WEBINAR AGENDA:
Why demand forecasting is crucial for hotels
Understanding the basics (constrained demand, unconstrained demand, etc.)
How different data sources can help you in the process
Real life examples of the impact of forecasting on hotel profitability
Segmentation is the critical first step to hotel revenue management. Before you can accurately forecast your business and price your rooms, you have to understand and define the types of customers booking your property. This webinar will provide a tutorial on how to get started with segmentation and then go beyond the basics so you can better forecast demand, price inventory and ultimately increase your revenue per available room.
Techniques to optimize the pagerank algorithm usually fall in two categories. One is to try reducing the work per iteration, and the other is to try reducing the number of iterations. These goals are often at odds with one another. Skipping computation on vertices which have already converged has the potential to save iteration time. Skipping in-identical vertices, with the same in-links, helps reduce duplicate computations and thus could help reduce iteration time. Road networks often have chains which can be short-circuited before pagerank computation to improve performance. Final ranks of chain nodes can be easily calculated. This could reduce both the iteration time, and the number of iterations. If a graph has no dangling nodes, pagerank of each strongly connected component can be computed in topological order. This could help reduce the iteration time, no. of iterations, and also enable multi-iteration concurrency in pagerank computation. The combination of all of the above methods is the STICD algorithm. [sticd] For dynamic graphs, unchanged components whose ranks are unaffected can be skipped altogether.
Adjusting primitives for graph : SHORT REPORT / NOTESSubhajit Sahu
Graph algorithms, like PageRank Compressed Sparse Row (CSR) is an adjacency-list based graph representation that is
Multiply with different modes (map)
1. Performance of sequential execution based vs OpenMP based vector multiply.
2. Comparing various launch configs for CUDA based vector multiply.
Sum with different storage types (reduce)
1. Performance of vector element sum using float vs bfloat16 as the storage type.
Sum with different modes (reduce)
1. Performance of sequential execution based vs OpenMP based vector element sum.
2. Performance of memcpy vs in-place based CUDA based vector element sum.
3. Comparing various launch configs for CUDA based vector element sum (memcpy).
4. Comparing various launch configs for CUDA based vector element sum (in-place).
Sum with in-place strategies of CUDA mode (reduce)
1. Comparing various launch configs for CUDA based vector element sum (in-place).
StarCompliance is a leading firm specializing in the recovery of stolen cryptocurrency. Our comprehensive services are designed to assist individuals and organizations in navigating the complex process of fraud reporting, investigation, and fund recovery. We combine cutting-edge technology with expert legal support to provide a robust solution for victims of crypto theft.
Our Services Include:
Reporting to Tracking Authorities:
We immediately notify all relevant centralized exchanges (CEX), decentralized exchanges (DEX), and wallet providers about the stolen cryptocurrency. This ensures that the stolen assets are flagged as scam transactions, making it impossible for the thief to use them.
Assistance with Filing Police Reports:
We guide you through the process of filing a valid police report. Our support team provides detailed instructions on which police department to contact and helps you complete the necessary paperwork within the critical 72-hour window.
Launching the Refund Process:
Our team of experienced lawyers can initiate lawsuits on your behalf and represent you in various jurisdictions around the world. They work diligently to recover your stolen funds and ensure that justice is served.
At StarCompliance, we understand the urgency and stress involved in dealing with cryptocurrency theft. Our dedicated team works quickly and efficiently to provide you with the support and expertise needed to recover your assets. Trust us to be your partner in navigating the complexities of the crypto world and safeguarding your investments.
As Europe's leading economic powerhouse and the fourth-largest hashtag#economy globally, Germany stands at the forefront of innovation and industrial might. Renowned for its precision engineering and high-tech sectors, Germany's economic structure is heavily supported by a robust service industry, accounting for approximately 68% of its GDP. This economic clout and strategic geopolitical stance position Germany as a focal point in the global cyber threat landscape.
In the face of escalating global tensions, particularly those emanating from geopolitical disputes with nations like hashtag#Russia and hashtag#China, hashtag#Germany has witnessed a significant uptick in targeted cyber operations. Our analysis indicates a marked increase in hashtag#cyberattack sophistication aimed at critical infrastructure and key industrial sectors. These attacks range from ransomware campaigns to hashtag#AdvancedPersistentThreats (hashtag#APTs), threatening national security and business integrity.
🔑 Key findings include:
🔍 Increased frequency and complexity of cyber threats.
🔍 Escalation of state-sponsored and criminally motivated cyber operations.
🔍 Active dark web exchanges of malicious tools and tactics.
Our comprehensive report delves into these challenges, using a blend of open-source and proprietary data collection techniques. By monitoring activity on critical networks and analyzing attack patterns, our team provides a detailed overview of the threats facing German entities.
This report aims to equip stakeholders across public and private sectors with the knowledge to enhance their defensive strategies, reduce exposure to cyber risks, and reinforce Germany's resilience against cyber threats.
2. 2
4 Keys to a Profitable Hotel Distribution Strategy
4 Keys to a Profitable Hotel
Distribution Strategy
Determining what inventory to sell where has
become a critical step in running a profitable hotel
For the longest time, hotel marketing was rather simple: The majority of hotel
bookings came directly from guests either walking through the front door, calling the
hotel or calling the reservation center.
But the technology disruption of the mid 1990s has completely flipped upside-down
the way consumers book hotel rooms. Online travel agencies like Priceline and Expedia
have become one of the primary ways consumers book hotel rooms. In turn, these
distribution companies have grown to the point where their market values are higher
than most hotel brand companies, all while building business selling hotel rooms
without the risk of mortgages, bed bugs or handling a bad guest experience.
Because of this evolution, hotels are spending more than ever to market themselves to
potential guests. A 2014 study revealed that the costs for hotels to acquire a guest is
often rising at more than double the rate of room revenue increases.
Despite the growing costs of marketing hotel rooms online, distribution partners
can’t be considered the enemy. Other industries have faced, and embraced, the
same situations. For example, Apple has their own brick and mortar stores, but many
other retailers sell iPhones. In the past, it didn’t really matter where you bought your
iPhone—it would cost the same and you’d be presented with the same options. Today,
retailers like Best Buy, Target, Verizon and Sprint periodically offer discounts and other
perks, such as trade-in and sign-on bonuses or special gift cards. These channels have
become major drivers of business, and when managed effectively, OTAs can be too.
The bottom line is that OTAs are requiring hoteliers to budget, measure and analyze
their sales and marketing—and overall profitability—differently. As the distribution
landscape continues to evolve and complexities and costs grow, effective distribution
and pricing strategies are more important than ever. To lay the foundation for success,
make sure you are following these four simple steps.
3. 3
4 Keys to a Profitable Hotel Distribution Strategy
1. Understand varying costs of acquisition
Now that OTAs have become a primary way consumers book hotel rooms, those
distribution partners have even more leverage and can charge hefty commissions,
sometimes reaching 25% or even 30%. Refusing to work with them can mean
the difference between profit and loss. And with Expedia and Priceline suddenly
dominating the space, hotels have even less negotiating power when it comes to
signing distribution agreements.
Some have argued that the cost to acquire guests is unsustainable.
“There’s very little direct in the way we knew (hotel bookings) five years ago,”
says Cindy Estis Green, CEO of Kalibri Labs and co-author of Distribution Channel
Analysis: A Guide for Hotels. “The majority of a hotel’s bookings will pass through some
intermediary and incur added cost even if the consumer ends up booking on
brand.com.”
According to a recent study from the Hospitality Asset Managers Association,
between 2009 and 2012, overall customer acquisition costs were nearly on par with
revenue growth and in some cases commissions rose at nearly twice the rate
of revenue.
The study of 104 upper-upscale and luxury managed properties with brand affiliations
in the United States and Canada found room revenue increased by 23%, or 7%
annually. By comparison, overall customer acquisition costs increased just less than
23%. But brand allocations went up 37% and third-party commissions rose 34%.
Therefore, understanding the cost of each of these individual channels is critical
for comparison sake. Keep up-to-date and accurate figures on your commission
structures. Factor in your own property-level sales and marketing costs. Examine what
4. 4
4 Keys to a Profitable Hotel Distribution Strategy
you’re paying your franchisor for sales and marketing, as well as any digital costs, and
evaluate the brand.com channel just as you would a distribution partner.
To help, some forward-thinking hoteliers are now suggesting a new key performance
metric to measure and benchmark hotel operating success: Net revenue per available
room. NetRevPAR is defined as revenue per available room after subtracting the cost
to acquire a guest, which is typically sales and marketing plus distribution costs.
The formula often looks like this: rooms revenue – distribution costs (cost-per-click +
native marketing + third-party commissions) / available rooms
Once you have a good sense of the costs of each channel, as well as common figures
that will let you compare and contrast easily, you can begin making smarter decisions
on where to place and how to yield your inventory. As we’ll explore below, this does not
mean closing one channel and adding inventory to another, but determining what kind
of demand you need on any given day and fluctuating prices and availability within the
spectrum of channels to acquire the right demand at the right price.
2. Drive Bookings Direct
A comprehensive revenue strategy is anchored by driving as much direct business as
possible. To compete with the OTAs, hoteliers must give consumers reasons to book on
their lowest-cost channels.
To avoid the frequent example of a guest finding a lower rate on a partner website,
showing the front desk and asking the hotel to match, ensure your rates and inventory
are updated simultaneously and in real time.
Beyond pricing strategies, the opportunity is there for savvy hoteliers to take the
first step to one-to-one marketing and really begin bridging the gap between revenue
management and marketing. By integrating pricing strategies with loyalty programs,
hotels can regain control of distribution, lower costs and provide a more satisfying
NetRevPAR is defined
as revenue per available
room after subtracting the
cost to acquire a guest.
5. 5
4 Keys to a Profitable Hotel Distribution Strategy
experience to their customers from the point of booking.
Hoteliers have a one-up on OTAs in that they often have much stronger customer
data profiles. Brands can use complex customer relationship management systems to
customize a guest experience, connect with the guest on a much more personal level
and begin segmenting customers by lifetime value.
Focus your online content on other value-added opportunities, such as better
images, reviews and room type options. The rapidly growing mobile channel provides
additional opportunities.
Take a best-rate guarantee one step further by using “fences,” also known as closed
user groups, to segment your customer base and offer promotions to specific groups
of people within that fence. Consider creating a fenced user group by asking travelers
to sign in to your site and then offering those registered a discounted rate, similar to
creating an email promotion to a fenced group. In essence, give your most loyal guests
access to an offer that non-affiliated general consumers wouldn’t receive.
By collecting more data on your guests, you can better customize their offerings.
If done correctly, hotels could consider offering discounted pricing based on the
profitability of guests. In the end, it’s important to provide assurance to the customer
that they will always get the best deal when they come to your site and that their
loyalty is being appreciated and rewarded. Even the appearance that a better price
could be available somewhere else could compromise your entire acquisition strategy.
3. Optimize the booking conversion rate
If the goal is to get the most traffic directly to your website, it’s imperative that you are
able to close the deal there as well. Worse than missing out on direct traffic is driving
people to your website and then offering them a less-than-satisfactory web experience
or offering them the wrong product.
For this reason, you must be clear on your target demographic and position your
web content accordingly. Are you offering a luxury experience to appeal to high-end
guests or are you positioning yourself as a cost-effective alternative for people with
a limited budget? Trying to please every guest across the spectrum could backfire
and impact your conversion rate from web visit to booking. Hotels vary in their value
proposition and you don’t want to attract a meeting planner to your hotel that doesn’t
have meeting space. Clarifying who you’re selling to and positioning offers to the right
customer will help increase bookings.
OTAs have excelled at this practice and hotels can learn from them. Prevent a user
from flipping back and forth between pages to check availability. Keep the shopper
engaged by providing the item description, information, images, price and calls to
By integrating pricing
strategies with loyalty
programs, hotels
can regain control of
distribution.
6. 6
4 Keys to a Profitable Hotel Distribution Strategy
action without ever leaving the page. And, as detailed above, make sure your most
valuable guests are being offered the best prices and don’t given them a reason to shop
around.
4. Keep Channels Open
Most hotels today, even most revenue management systems, rely on a public BAR rate
and move all other discount or promotional rates up and down in lockstep based on
predetermined fixed discounts. For example, an AAA rate is usually 10% less than BAR
and an OTA package rate may be 30% less. When demand is high, hotels close those
channels or add length-of-stay restrictions rather than sell discounted rooms they
know will sell at full BAR.
This fixed-tier strategy centered on BAR or other length-of-stay restrictions is easy
to manage, but severely limiting when it comes to revenue potential. A new approach
called open pricing enables hotels to keep channels open, never closing the door on
a guest who wants to book your hotel. It allows discount channels to be yielded up
rather than shut off. As a result, it empowers hotels to optimize every single booking
and better manage distribution across all channels.
Often, a customer looking to book a four-night stay might be shut out because one or
two of those days are in high demand. But rather than closing the guest out entirely,
open pricing allows hotels to charge a lower rate on the days with more availability and
yield up on the high demand days. For example, a traveler might be offered a room that
costs $200 on Tuesday and Wednesday but $400 on Thursday and Friday.
The same processes should apply when working with distribution partners. Retailers
like Apple understand that some customers will shop for their products at Best Buy.
Clothing companies know consumers will buy their products from brick-and-mortar
Open pricing enables
hotels to keep channels
open, never closing the
door on a guest who
wants to book your hotel.
7. 7
4 Keys to a Profitable Hotel Distribution Strategy
stores, directly online and in stores ranging from Nordstrom to discounters like TJ
Maxx. Likewise, hoteliers know some travelers will go straight to Expedia and other
OTAs.
Hoteliers should embrace these opportunities and make sure they are properly
managing distribution and pricing across all channels. In times of high demand,
distribution channels should be yielded up rather than shut off. During less
compressed times, those discount channels can be a critical vehicle to drive occupancy.
Open pricing allows you to manage inventory with a complex matrix of prices, nearly
an infinite amount of rates always changing by segment, channel and room type. New
technologies are making this advanced approach possible and quite profitable for
many hotels. By having the ability to manage inventory and pricing with real-time
precision across every channel at all times, hotels can ensure their product is stocked
on every possible shelf—and at the right price.
Conclusion
A successful distribution strategy must begin with a more acute understanding of
customer acquisition costs by channel. From there, hotels must focus on driving and
converting more direct bookings and maximizing revenue on every transaction across
all channels. Advanced revenue strategies and new technology are equipping hoteliers
with the tools and tactics they need to level the playing field with OTAs and not only
survive, but thrive in this new digital world.
8. About Duetto
With solutions that address the true challenge of today’s distribution
landscape, Duetto provides unique and powerful revenue strategy tools to
optimize profit and guest loyalty. Duetto delivers powerful insights on pricing
and demand to hotels and casinos through a 100% cloud-based application.
Utilizing new consumer-centric data sets such as web shopping regrets and
denials, social review, air traffic, weather and more, Duetto GameChanger
transforms the way hotels and casinos price and sell rooms by providing better
and more actionable information. Make informed distribution choices and
independently yield all channels, dates and room types with open pricing to
drive healthy revenue and optimize profitability.
Thanks to modern cloud architecture, new features and upgrades are
delivered seamlessly with zero system downtime. This rapid innovation
enables Duetto to provide an industry-leading user interface and experience
that’s continually improving.
Working with and for the hospitality industry,
Duetto is changing the game.