Summary 3: Hotels need to rethink their OTA strategy

As part of their distribution channel strategy, most hotel brands are using OTAs to sell their inventory. We can’t deny the fact, that having for a hotel chain a partnership with an OTA is an opportunity:  First it is a real competitive advantage to figure on an OTA website and second it increases the web presence of the hotel brand.

However, those partnerships are not as profitable as they seem for hoteliers. Indeed, having its hotel on different OTA websites means having also different rates on one product. Most costumers are now used to book on OTAs' website rather using for example the website of  an hotel brand because they know they are going to find a considerable discount. The end result is that millions of dollars are being funneled away from hotels and are going directly to OTAs.

So we could wonder if having a relationship/partnership for a major hotel brands with Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) is really profitable?

The reality is, costumers have been trained to visit OTAs’ website, getting the best deals, comparing rates…So how can hotel chains can attract customers to their own websites rather than on OTA’s website? It’s up to hoteliers to find ways to capture consumers attention through unique ways. For example, the Marriott group has created in respond to that problem a dynamic, design and interactive new website. The group has also developed on their website packaging offers (including airfare). Those elements are used to pull out customers from OTAs’ website.

In my opinion, I think it is real dilemma for hoteliers to manage their relationship with OTAs: because it is both an advantage and a disadvantage for hotel chains. They need to be visible on OTAs website but at the same time they need to push costumers through their own websites to make profits. To me entertaining and delighting customers thanks to an attractive website is one way to "catch" customers. I think that big hotel chains should also use affiliate programs and social media to attract customers to purchase through their websites and as a result boost more revenue.

Hotel Raphael

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Hotel Rapheal Final

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Text links to the research sites: reverse travel auctions

Webography:
http://www.reverseauctions.com/
http://www.priceline.com/
http://www.reverseauctionsblog.com/
http://www.dublinetwork.com/
http://www.oltiby.com/

Reverse Travel Auctions V3

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Reverse Travel Auctions V3

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Interview with Jay Walker-Priceline on Wednesday, November 17, 1999

Summary 2: Hotel chains try new ways to earn loyalty; December 02, 2009

The article that I have chosen, comes from the New York Time and deals with the new ways for hotel chains to gain customer’s loyalty.

The issue is as follows: hotel chains have been particularly strike by the financial crisis: less booking, lowering rates and brand loyalty decreasing. According to Henry Hartevelds, a travel analyst only 36% of business travels this year replied that they were brand loyal, a decrease of 5% compared to 2 years ago.

So, gaining customer’s loyalty has become a major objective for hoteliers. Hotel chains have come up with the solution to develop special treatment or special attention for their customers to cement their loyalty.

Hotel chains as Hilton or Sheraton have been improving their customer’s loyalty strategy by:

- Offering free nights to their best customers
- Launched a loyalty points tactic
- Free amenities as for example: breakfast, Internet connection, parking, minibar

In one word, hotels chains are offering to their customers more than what they have paid for.

To my point of view, gaining customer’s loyalty has become a major strategy for hotel chains to increase sales growth. For example, business travelers may be an important target for hotel chains in their loyalty strategy. Offering added value rather than lowering rates might be more valuable for business travelers.

More exactly, gaining loyalty point for business travelers can be valuable for them as they can use those points for their personal travel (vacations).

In my opinion, those types of marketing tactics can be very enticing for customers. As for gaining customer’s loyalty, the goals for hotel chains are to keep on the long term its customers and have a good word of mouth. According to certain analysts, a company can increase its profits from 25% to 85% by retaining only 5% of its customers.

SITE COMPARISON

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Opodo OTA : Case study

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Opodo OTA : Case study

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E-commercer exercice OTA

Please find below the link to my homework concerning online travel agencies.

Unfortunately, I didn't succeed in getting the slide share publication on my profile.

I will try, to get some help with the members of my class.

Summary 1: New sheraton.com site makes use of Facebook connect, November 10,2009

Social media has become since the creation of blogs, Facebook (...), an efficient marketing tool for hoteliers.

The hotel chain Sheraton has caught the opportunity of using social media in their communication strategy. The Sheraton chain has launched in 2006, a new website : sheraton.com that now features Facebook connect.

Facebook users are now able to share their information and interact on sharaton.com.

In my opinion, this strategy generates a lot of advantages either for the Sheraton company itself but also for the customers.

First advantage, social media allows both the company and the customers to have a 2 way dialogue. Second advantage, which concerns customers, is that the creation of a community allows more transparency, trust and information. The members of a community can share their stories, their experience, their opinions, as well as their photos and their favorite destinations.
Finally, to my concern, the advantages for a company like Sheraton to use a social media strategy are multiple :

• It is a good way of communication and promotion for the company without making a lot of expenses as other medias require
• It permits to protect the brand image
• It gives feedback on customer's satisfaction
• It is an easier way to gain customer's loyalty
• It increases the linkability and generates traffic
• It increases the number of customers without prospecting them

For all those reasons, I find it interesting to learn more about social media, and make a short analysis of a real case study : sheraton.com.

As a conclusion, I would say that social media is really an efficient marketing tool, that I hope to use may be in my future career.