Hotel Distribution

Hands On With HotelTonight’s New Concierge Service, Aces

HotelTonight just launched its newest product, Aces, which is an in-app chat feature connecting users with a personal travel concierge. The concierges,..

Source: techcrunch.com

HotelTonight just launched its newest product, Aces, which is an in-app chat feature connecting users with a personal travel concierge. The concierges, collectively referred to as “Aces”, are available 24-7 during your booking to do things like make a restaurant reservation for dinner, or get extra towels sent up to your room.

If a customer has access to Aces (the product is being slowly rolled out to users in DC, Los Angeles, New York, San Diego and San Francisco) the option to chat will show up on the bookings page starting on the morning of your hotel stay.

How Aces Actually Work

For recommendation requests, HotelTonight says that Aces work in tandem with local insiders like food bloggers and tastemakers who have a deep knowledge of their respective cities. This may change as Aces expands to thousands of cities, but for now it seems that the advice is pretty hand-curated. The service also uses online advice websites and other HT employees to supplement these recommendations.

For hotel requests like a wakeup call or room service, the current method is for the Ace to call the hotel you are staying at. HotelTonight hinted in the future that some automation could be taking place, as it seems pretty simple to interpret keywords like “bring me towels” and automatically send a request to the hotel.

The chat function also offers pre-written suggestions like “can I get my room cleaned” or “where is the best place to go out tonight” which could make it even easier to automate in the future.

Hands On With HotelTonight’s New Concierge Service, Aces Read More »

French Hoteliers Regain Their Business Freedom From OTAs With The End of Rate Parity

Le GNI salue l’adoption définitive ce jeudi 9 juillet 2015 par l’Assemblée Nationale de la loi pour la croissance, l’activité et l’égalité des chances économiques, plus connue sous le nom de loi Macron. Il se réjouit plus particulièrement du vote de l’article 33 octies A qui rend aux hôteliers une totale liberté des prix. Les hôteliers pourront, dès sa promulgation par le Président de la République, pratiquer des tarifs inférieurs à ceux qu’ils postent sur les sites des agences de réservations en ligne (les (…)

Source: www.synhorcat.com

Starting from yesterday, thanks to the Article 33g A of the recent “Macron law”, hoteliers “regain” complete freedom of prices. Hoteliers now can charge prices lower than they post on the websites of online booking agencies (OTAs) and look for direct contact with their customers.

This communication comes from the French national union of hoteliers, Synhorcat (and it is written in French).

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Booking.com Promotes More Rivals For Hotels Adding 5,100 Homestay Listings

Booking.com, the OTA giant, has debuted 5,000 homestay listings — separate from its other vacation rental offerings.

Source: www.tnooz.com

If Booking.com is committed to the “homestay” category, it is entering the turf of Airbnb, the current market leader in short-term rental customers.

“Homestays” is now a category that Booking.com users can filter on. It’s distinct from “Apartments,” “Holiday homes,” “Villas,” “Guest houses”, “Bed and breakfasts,” “Hotels (with kitchen),” and “Hostels.”

Significantly, Booking.com is not requiring a credit card in advance to secure a homestay in many of the listings Tnooz saw. That makes it different from many Airbnb listings. 

Booking.com Promotes More Rivals For Hotels Adding 5,100 Homestay Listings Read More »

Is Spending on Google Ads The Key Strategy To Slow Down Booking.com’s Growth?

It will soon be Memorial Day, the unofficial start of the summer travel season, and that means it’s time for AdGooroo’s annual Travel and Paid Search rep

Source: www.adgooroo.com

These are the Top 10 Travel advertisers based on Paid Search impressions generated from January through April this year.

So far, Expedia.com leads all advertisers, taking the top spot from Booking.com, which fell to #3. Notably, Trivago.com has jumped to the #4 position from #9 in 2014 and Kayak.com has broken back into the Top 10 at the #5 position. TripAdvisor.com moved up one position to #2 in the first four months of 2015, while the remaining advertisers all fell in the ranking and Hotels.com fell out of the Top 10 ranking.

Is Spending on Google Ads The Key Strategy To Slow Down Booking.com’s Growth? Read More »

HotelTonight Adds Rate Tracking To Push Users’ Activity

HotelTonight is always looking for the most amazing last-minute deals, and hotels are continually adding new rooms and changing their prices.

Source: tech.co

HotelTonight for iOS was released, and the new update includes hotel rate tracking, a new service intended to push its users’ activity.

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Trivago Doubled Its Revenue In Just 1 Year

Ever wondered why online travel agency giants such as Expedia decided to take metasearch so seriously?

Source: www.tnooz.com

Trivago took $216 million in revenue during 2013, but this figure jumped to $414 million by the end of 2014. This has come at a cost, however, with adjusted EBITDA at Trivago falling from $18 million to $4 million over the same period.

Trivago Doubled Its Revenue In Just 1 Year Read More »

Most Important Factors In Choosing a Hotel Rewards Program

SurveyMonkey 2015 Hospitality Consumer Report reveals lodging and dining habits and preferences, as well as most trusted brands.

Source: www.travelpulse.com

The benefits travelers seek the most from a rewards program are:

  1. discounted rates or pricing (77 percent),
  2. points toward a free product or stay (63 percent)
  3. special perks or amenities like free meals or Wi-Fi (49 percent). 

Those who stay in hotels for business purposes four or more times per year prefer to earn points toward a free product or stay.

Of those surveyed, the reason they choose a particular hotel:

  • No. 1 : 27% said price
  • No. 2: Quality of accommodations (22%)
  • No. 3: Location (21%)

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Study: How Millennials Travel Differently Compared to Generation X and Mature Travelers

In 2014, Hipmunk launched its annual Millennial Travel Habits Study to uncover how millennials travel differently than their generation X and mature traveler counterparts. What we found was enlightening, informative and oftentimes humorous. Did you ever expect a millennial to be willing to stand for the duration of a flight to save a few bucks? Neither did we. Once again,…

Source: blog.hipmunk.com

The main conclusions of the study seem to fall in line with prevailing Millennial traits. Technology and design focused products and services resonate well with the younger generation, provided they’re cost effective and efficient.

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New Evidences Of Travel Brokers’ Use Of Google Limited Offers Ads To Sell Directly Online

While examining Hotel Ads today using our favorite search query we spotted a new format for Limited Offers in Google Hotel Ads which allows the user to book using Google Wallet. This is the first time we’ve seen this combination of technologies used together, and the first time we’ve seen Google Wallet on desktop.

Images and a walkthrough of the entire experience after the hop…

Source: www.koddi.com

Even hotel brokers, that were not supposed to sell directly, can now sell hotel rooms easily through Google’s B2C platform. What hoteliers consider their B2C competitors may change shortly… If you do not know about Google limited offers see more on this good article

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