asia-hotels.com and Catering Times
March 2001
Booking Engines Running on Full Steam
The capabilities of the Internet in the hospitality industry have been there to see for some time, but how are hotels managing to transform clicks into solid room bookings? James Moore unearths some information on a few companies managing to achieve it.
Many different statistics and predictions are currently floating around about quite how much the Internet will affect hotel bookings. Almost all would agree that presently, less than five per cent of all room nights worldwide are booked via the Internet. However, forecasts for the next five years are optimistic but vary dramatically some say it will be 10 per cent, some say 20. One source claims that by 2003 the market for online travel is expected to exceed US$16 billion, up from the US$6.5 billion generated in 1999, with more than 25 per cent of the online travel market coming from online hotel bookings.
What is for certain is that those in the hospitality industry are not passing the opportunity to miss our on an easy buck. If theres even one per cent sales to be had, hotels want it!
Consumer Influences
How easy is it though? Travellers, of course, have a choice about which site they visit. Most do not automatically go straight for the hotels own website for the very straightforward reason that people do not always have a particular hotel in mind when going abroad (there are exceptions of course with the growing popularity of loyalty programmes). Instead, surfers generally opt for a more rounded site with many different alternatives within the one location.
For example, potential travellers to Shanghai might use a search engine and enter something like, Shanghai + China + Hotel. The results will no doubt list many thousands of sites, but near the top of these will either be the websites hosted by hotel representatives or hotel review sites run by independent booking/information services.
And if you are wondering which site the surfers will book through, you must realise guest have become picky. Obviously they want to know simple things such as the hotels facilities, F&B outlets, location and room size, but increasingly they require something more before committing to the submit box.
Review First, Then Book
Asia-hotels.com falls into the review category, being one of the most successful independent sites for surfers looking to book their preferred hotel in Asia. One of the major reasons for its success is the option for surfers to read not only an independent hotel review conducted by the company, but also copious reviews by past guests be they critical or complimentary.
Criteria that feature in the reviews are value for money, cleanliness, facilities and staff attitude. The hotels are also awarded a star rating. In addition, a new review system about to fully implemented within the website is Hotel Watch, which will pick out hotels that consistently perform and rank highly. These establishments will fall into a business category or an unusual hotel section, but will always highlight certain hotels that stand out from the rest. (The first to qualify is Lu Song Yuan Hotel in Beijing).
This of course has some serious implications for the level of service in the featured hotels the asia-hotels.coms review system means that every guest is a potential critic with the ability to share their views on the web and influence future bookings. It really means hotels should be treating guests like gold dust, says Jon Stonham, CEO and co-founder. This review system stands out from the mechanised and sales-orientated systems primarily because the reviews are submitted by real guests and are based on real experiences. Not only do Internet bookers expect efficiency, they really appreciate the human touch and thats where we excel.
Forget The Negative Hype
All-hotels.com is designed for independent travellers looking for an easy-to-use, comprehensive and accessible service regardless of budget or destination. Accommodation is available online at more than 60,000 hotels worldwide, ranging from B&Bs to five-star luxury hotels.
The year has been part of it all is that there is a lot of negative hype about companies operating on the Internet, and we are showing just how it can be done successfully. Our business is sound and our consumers show great loyalty to the service we provide. More than 21 million people bought travel online in 2000 and we will be launching a number of strategic alliances during 2001 to maintain our position in the travel industry, Jane Karwoski, CEO of all-hotels.com says.
Discounted Rates
In answer to the growing demand by online consumers for best pricing, both asia-hotels and all-hotels offer a reduction on hotel room nights. All-hotels has recently added to its discount channel with an extra 650 three- to five-star properties, available to book at up to 60 per cent off in more than 106 cities across Europe. But that is not a common attribute to independent review sites.
A Different Type Of Representation
Pegasus Solutions is perhaps the most widely-known representation service forming an integral part of many hotels sales team. Its most famous brands including Lexington, Summit and Utell.
With more than 6,400 member hotels in 180 countries, Utell claims to be the hotel industrys largest third-party marketing and reservations provider and is now providing online hotel booking capabilities for the websites of 10 of ANA Hotels Internationals properties via NetBooker.
Marketed by Utell as part of its enhanced offering of services to its hotel customers, it provides individual hotel properties and small hotel chains with real-time, online booking capabilities on their own branded websites. The NetBooker Link is generally considered to be suited for those hotels that already have a site, but require online reservation capabilities
A similar service can be given by SRS which provides sales, marketing and reservations solution to independently operated hotels and hotel groups. Through TRUSTRES 3 reservations system, SRS can be booked using the Global Distributions System (GDS). Reservations can also be made through a worldwide network of toll-free lines via the Internet, with instant issuing of booking confirmations.
High Customer Expectations
There are many of these systems for hotels to choose but they have to be user-friendly. The Marriott Royal Garden Riverside Hotel Bangkok has recently upgraded its new reservation system by installing the latest Marsha-Fidelio 2-Way Interface. The interface delivers reservations from the Marsha central reservation system to the Fidelio (Micros Systems) property management system and uploads reservations, availability frequent flyer data, travel agent commission data, guaranteed room statistics and Marriott Rewards data.
In this electronic age, the ability to provide an online booking engine is now a customers expectation. The uniqueness of Utells offering enables our hotels to manage the distribution of inventory through one line of control. Hence we are able to exercise competitive single inventory control and one source of marketing information from the central reservations systems. We intend to equip all the ANA properties represented by Utell with the NetBooker Link booking engine, Toru Ichikawa, senior vice-president ANA Hotels International says.
Another Pegasus brand is Summit Hotels & Resorts which announced a special travel agent offer in January to highlight the addition of the Harbour Plaza Hong Kong to its portfolio of Premier independent hotels.
Already signed up was Hong Kongs Great Eagle Hotel. With this system, the Great Eagle as an independent hotel is now able to operate online just as efficiently and globally as the major international hotel groups. The availability of fast and convenient access to online booking has become a key factor in hotel choice for many travellers and we believe that installing the Pegasus Netbooker system will give us a significant competitive e-advantage, comments general manager Nigel Roberts.
