Sustainability Rankings for Hotels?

How are you saving the earth today?

According to Booking.com’s 2019 Sustainable Travel Report, 70% of global travelers say they would be more likely to book an accommodation knowing it was eco-friendly, whether they were looking for a sustainable stay or not. The up-and-coming younger travellers will change “more likely” to “most definitely” in the coming years, especially as their spending power grows.

It’s time for hotels out front on sustainability to make their case known – and it would be very interesting to start seeing rankings on booking engines that prioritize hotels in a given location on how small their carbon footprint is.

Posted in General | Leave a reply

Can F&B outlets affect the RevPAR?

One of the thorniest dilemmas in hotel operations is whether to have to a restaurant and then how to run and manage it, since Food and beverage could be a boost to one of the thorniest dilemmas in hotel operations ~ whether to have to a restaurant and then how to run and manage it, since Food and beverage could be a boost to a hotel’s credibility or as a potential cash drain.
Restaurants must add to the overall value of the hotel, and thus average daily rate, even if they are not a runaway success as stand-alone offerings. Restaurants are changing their concepts and becoming as popular with locals as they are with guests, and that never used to be the case. The most important focus for hotel F&B is to make any restaurant or bar a destination in its own right and to give employees the level of expertise they need to succeed.
It’s difficult to be specific on what (a restaurant) brings to (revenue per available room), but it is about brand value and allure. On some days, you may only have a few residents eating in the restaurant, but if the restaurant adds to the hotel’s allure and RevPAR, it may yet be worth it. After all, it may be a qualitative process, not a quantitative one. What is critical is to have differentiation, and that does not only mean going upscale. Have experiences to sell. You could put street food into a hotel if it seems right, and even if it does not make profit, it will add to the hotel’s brand value.

Posted in General | Leave a reply

Corporate travel & Sharing economy

As traditional hotel chains continue to reap the profits of unwieldy business travel expenses, a new trend is emerging among many business travellers: participation in the sharing economy.
The sharing economy’s popularity within corporate travel can be attributed to the same factor that has launched its entrenchment in the world as a whole: convenience. Instead of queuing in a long line at the rental car vendor after an even longer flight, business travellers can open their phone and call a car directly to their hotel in minutes via rideshare apps such as Uber or Ola.
Corporate travel policies often limited business travellers to just a few hotel options, and sometimes these options are further away from the places where travellers have their business obligations all in the name of a company partnering with a certain hotel chain. With home-sharing platforms such as Airbnb, business travellers are able to pinpoint the most convenient lodging locations for their business obligations and find a home-sharing option that is free of being tied down by any hotel chain loyalty.

Posted in General | Leave a reply

F&B affects RevPAR?

One of the thorniest dilemmas in hotel operations is how many F&B Outlets are required and then how to run and manage them, since Food and beverage could either be a boost to a hotel’s credibility or a potential cash drain.

Restaurants must add to the overall value of the hotel, and thus average daily rate, even if they are not a runaway success as stand-alone offerings. Today, restaurants are changing their concepts and becoming as popular with locals as they are with guests, and that never used to be the case. The most important focus for hotel F&B is to make any restaurant or bar a destination in its own right and to give employees the level of expertise they need to succeed.

It’s difficult to be specific on what (a restaurant) brings to (revenue per available room), but it is about brand value and allure. On some days, you may only have a few residents eating in the restaurant, but if the restaurant adds to the hotel’s allure and RevPAR, it may yet be worth it. After all, it may be a qualitative process, not a quantitative one. What is critical is to have differentiation, and that does not only mean going upscale. Have experiences to sell. You could put street food into a hotel if it seems right, and even if it does not make profit, it will add to the hotel’s brand value.

Posted in General | Leave a reply

A Dynamic Approach in Travel Marketing

As digital continues to mature, there is a shift occurring among marketers: travel marketing and digital travel distribution strategies are converging, and it’s having a major impact on the industry. To be successful in this era of convergence, travel providers must think more strategically, not just about inventory, but about how they’re selling entire experiences. With convergence, new revenue streams are up for grabs and these extend well beyond the traditional traveling ecosystem.

Blurred lines

Travellers all have needs, but those needs vary dramatically depending on the moment. Travellers are increasingly agnostic about who meets their needs, and that business is there for the taking
One week, a traveller may be flying for business, and the next that very same traveller may be on a summer vacation with family. They’re not one or the other—they’re both, just at different times. As these lines blur, habits are shifting, and travellers are finding unconventional ways to meet their in-the-moment needs.
Unlike in the past when people were using phone calls, travel magazines, and traditional travel agents to research, today’s complicated consumer is bouncing between numerous touch points in a digital ecosystem. They’re sending out travel intent signals and leaving a trail of data behind them. For marketers, this presents a golden opportunity, but only if they take a holistic approach.
It’s no longer about aggregates or averages, every traveller is unique and marketers must be flexible enough to look at each traveller’s ever changing needs and act quickly to meet them.

Smarter, faster, nimbler

If travel brands want to act quickly, they must improve their understanding of what customers want and need at any given moment. And to get there they must be “always on” across every channel. It’s one thing to personalize marketing to a leisure guest by using broad stroke segmentation, but when brands get on a one-to-one level with the individual customer, they can understand their constantly changing needs.
To get there, they must understand each customer on a trip by trip basis—and combine the person with the occasion to serve up relevant offers.
Since modern travellers are always on, brands must be, too, because always on means valuable data.

Paving the path with data

The first step is using data to establish intent. Consumers may be dreaming or researching – or they could buy at any point. By looking at each trip as a mini campaign, marketers can focus on that whole journey and the points along the way, and then engage them in the moment. Once intent is established, marketers must take what they’ve learned about each customer and put the right messages in front of the right people at the right time.
It’s a combination of taking one-to-one marketing, making sure it’s “always on,” then testing, measuring, learning and adjusting.

This dynamic approach is a shift from traditional methods that are often seasonal in nature.

It’s a race to see which travel brands can do it best, and those that do will win the ultimate prize: customer acquisition and loyalty.

Posted in Marketing | Leave a reply