he hotel industry has an opportunity to transform the direct booking process using website personalization. Doing so can help deliver a more efficient and customized booking experience, resulting in better conversion ratios and the opportunity to further cultivate relationships with guests.
22More
Why Personalization Is the Future of Hotel E-Commerce – Skift - 2 views
-
Back in 2015, American Express Travel reported that 83 percent of millennials would allow brands to track their habits in exchange for a more customized experience
- ...16 more annotations...
-
noted that “–truly knowing your guests –what they have told you, what they request, what you have learned, and what should be implied –should yield larger results.”
-
using new technology-driven tools to help them streamline the booking process and create a more seamless guest experience.
-
When potential guests are shopping on a hotel’s website, there’s a clear opportunity before a booking is made for properties to demonstrate the acute attention they’ve paid to individual guests’ preferences. This is accomplished by using website personalization technology, allowing hotels to automatically and intuitively suggest particular room categories, package types, and even rates tailored to each user’s expectations.
-
he results of these improved personalization efforts are numerous, including higher booking probability, increased user satisfaction, and a greater likelihood of repeat visits to the website, leading to better brand loyalty. Taking these steps can even offer hotels a further tool to take more control of their distribution decisions, rebalancing their e-commerce strategies between direct and non-direct channels.
-
Today’s personalization technology can also help hotels to optimize the conversion rates for direct bookings.
-
If this analysis shows that more users are bouncing from the site instead of booking, it may be time to consider new tools.
-
“When users leave a hotel’s website, they’re likely to have forgotten the details after visiting multiple other hotel-related sites,” he noted. As Upneja believes, personalization tools are one method to prevent this. “Appeal to them on the spot with personalized offerings like the right price, the right room category and the right amenities before they can move on.”
-
Personalization tech is increasingly an essential tool to rethink online bookings. But in order for it to succeed, there needs to be alignment between the personalization of the booking experience and the hotel’s curation of more traditional on-site amenities like service and design.
-
That site is available on both desktop and mobile, and in English and Spanish, the primary languages spoken by the hotel’s two main markets.
-
Using IP addresses also enables the Viceroy Los Cabos to personalize resort packages to users in locales suffering from bad weather.
-
“Ideally we want to sense that behavior and adapt the site for them, showing them customer reviews, social media posts, food and beverage photography – things that we know will be a strong call to action for the customer to continue through to making that reservation.”
-
Today’s hotelier recognizes the value that personalization has on the guest experience. The more guests feel that every aspect of their experience was tailored exactly for them, the greater the likelihood that they will spend more on property and return again and again.But in today’s competitive market, truly savvy hotel executives realize that it is no longer enough to only customize during the guest stay. Personalization needs to extend to the booking process, where the right tools give hotels the means to increase conversions, build better loyalty and customize content in order to deliver more direct bookings.
-
On my previous article about Oraculo, the world's first predictive algorithm for hotels, I described how personalization in hospitality is no longer a trend but an obligation. By posting this new article I wanted to dig a little deeper into tailoring guests needs through e-commerce. In 2015, American Express Travel reported that 83% of millennials would not object to have their habits tracked if they get a more customized experience. This strong message has prompted the hotel industry to develop and implement website personalization technology that suggests, intuitively, specific room categories or packages to online lookers. Since building loyalty is an investment, improving the direct booking ratio is now the main goal of the industry. From experience, when I travel I try to stay at the same hotel and book directly from the hotel website. The most important thing to me when I shop around is furniture and bathroom. Although these are not generally specified in detail in room descriptions, the brand I'm loyal to is usually very consistent with my needs. If new technology would give me a more personalized stay somewhere else I would definitely change my membership. I have friends who don't travel much except for vacation and long weekends. They are lookers who go to online travel agencies (OTA's) and bounce from site to site trying to find the perfect place. The article explains this newer technology will be crucial to prevent lookers from bouncing to other websites, and encourage them to book directly from the hotel and avoid OTA's. The idea is to make it so personalized that it will be appealing on the spot. These new technologies not only can tailor room types and resort packages based on IP addresses, but it can customize your TV programming based on your web history. Personalizing the guest experience during the stay is no longer enough. Data shows that in order to build loyalty and make the customer return, personalization has to begin in the booking pr
-
This article describes how personalization of eCommerce can bring better profits, because it is helping guests personalize how they would like their stay. This is more efficient for the guests because it is ensure they get what they want, like if they want to be around certain theme parks, or if they want their rooms a certain way. They even have options where you can fit guests language barriers, like if they speak only spanish they can change the language so spanish speakers can also ensure they have their preferred stay.
-
This article explains the importance of website personalization. Here, vital information is stored for current and future use of consumers. It is important for industry professionals to have access to this information but protect it from reaching outside entities.
41More
Hospitality Digital Technology: Challenges, Priorities and Buzzwords | - 4 views
-
With the explosion of the “digital way of life”, the customer journey has become increasingly complex, forcing hoteliers overhaul not only their corporate and marketing strategies, but also their technology stack in order to engage, acquire, service and retain these digitally-enabled travel consumers across multiple digital touch points and across all digital channels and devices.
-
Today’s hospitality is being transformed into a 100% digital technology-enabled industry powered by online, mobile, cloud, IoT, AI and blockchain tools and applications.
- ...35 more annotations...
-
Today, the vast majority of hoteliers are primarily focused on and investing in Guest Services Technology, while underinvesting in Guest Engagement, Acquisition and Retention Technology.
-
Today’s hoteliers must create and manage a robust digital presence and engage, acquire, service and retain travel consumers in this increasingly mobile-first world.
-
In other words, hoteliers’ technology focus and investments end where the OTA focus and investment begin.
-
cloud hosting and CDN (Content Delivery Network) provides far better server response times and faster download speeds.
-
Quite often different teams at the property use different sets of data in their day-to-day operations, creating a total “data integrity mess,” which directly affects the property’s guest acquisition and retention efforts.
-
They must understand and invest in digital technology and marketing that enables the best possible user experience, provides the best customer service, increases efficiencies and boosts revenues.
-
From a technology perspective, the challenge to hoteliers is to create a hotel and room environment that at least matches but preferably exceeds their guests’ home environment. In other words, hotel and room technology, amenities, and features should be the same or better than what guests already enjoy at home. These include:
-
The future of this technology is the Smart Guestroom which will be completely personalized to guest preferences and loyalty member profile.
-
Hoteliers are overwhelmed by the amount of technology, data, and digital marketing silos and the need to work with multitude of vendors in their guest acquisition and services efforts.
-
Each team has its own technology tools, databases, and vendors which are not in communication with the other teams.
-
Unlike hoteliers, the OTAs are focused exclusively and investing only in Guest Engagement, Acquisition and Retention Technology since they do not have to worry about on-property technology and guest experiences.
-
These are the major impediments to the industry becoming a digital technology-driven and technology-savvy industry:
-
Recently, an independent hotel introduced room service delivery robots, which would have been great if the rest of the hotel tech stack were in order, and if it weren’t for the 6-year old property website, and absence of any CRM technology.
-
Hotels should first focus on the fundamentals of the technology stack before implementing more advanced things.
-
The U.S. hospitality industry is a $155 billion industry. This provides endless opportunities for smart technology vendors to thrive and service the industry with state-of-the-art solutions.
-
The industry has a “vendor deficit disorder” in the sense of being overwhelmed by the number of tech vendors and solutions out there.
-
Hoteliers need to monitor, proactively inquire about and familiarize themselves with the Next Generation Technologies that are already making their way into hospitality, including Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), Voice Assistants, Chat Bots, Robotics, and Blockchain.
-
Over the next 3-5 years we will witness wider adoption and implementation of the following next gen technologies:
-
Unlike hoteliers, the OTAs are focused exclusively and investing only in Guest Engagement, Acquisition and Retention Technology.
-
Hoteliers must wake up to the fact that by being primarily focused on and investing in Guest Services Technology, while underinvesting in Guest Engagement, Acquisition and Retention Technology, they are allowing the OTAs more visibility to engage, acquire and retain the online travel consumer.
-
Digital technology is making its way into every aspect of the industry: hotel operations, guest services and communications, revenue management, distribution, CRM and marketing.
-
Today’s hotelier must understand, know and use digital tech solutions in their everyday environment, and be able to assess, evaluate, recommend and acquire technology solutions to improve guest satisfaction, operational efficiencies and productivity, customer service and revenue.
-
Website Technology: The property or hotel brand website has become the gravitational center of all hotelier’s efforts to engage, acquire and retain the customer. Any marketing efforts of the hotel today lead the potential customers to the hotel website. Today’s website technology includes cloud-based Content Management System (CMS), comprehensive merchandising suites, reservation abandonment tools, personalization pricing and content, technical SEO, cloud hosting, and robust analytics suite
-
The goal here is very clear: bridge the guest data and technology silos in hospitality and create an end-to-end solution, empowering hotels to acquire new guests, engage current guests, and retain past guests by combining digital marketing, website, and CRM data into one cohesive marketing and personalization platform.
-
The “digital way of life” adopted by today’s tech-savvy travel consumer is forcing the hospitality industry to accelerate the adoption of digital technologies and become a 100% digital technology-enabled industry.
-
The article covers a great deal of the technology products in all of the hotel aspects. it also focuses on the fact that hotels are investing a lot in offering technological tangible services to the clients where must shift its focus a bit and invest more in the guest engagement technology to close the gap between them and OTAs.
-
Hospitality is being transformed into a 100% digital technology-enabled industry; however, it is very challenging to maintain. Employees are overwhelmed by the amount of technology they need to lear to do their job efficiently
-
This article focuses on the fact that technology is now being used in almost every aspect of the hotel industry. This is because hoteliers are beginning to understand that guests are expecting to enjoy the same level of technology used in the comfort of their homes when they are at hotels. Therefore, hotels that are more technologically advanced are more empowered to satisfy guests' technological needs, but the information collected by the hotels' systems also enables the hotels to acquire new guests, engage current guests and retain past guests; as such, there are benefits to both the hotels and guests when the level of technology offered is updated.
10More
Advantage & Disadvantages of E-marketing - Marketing - 0 views
-
Therefore, it is very important that you are aware of the reward and inconveniences of internet marketing before you really strategize to optimize your revenue on the advantages and nullify the disadvantageous effects of virtual e-marketing.
- ...5 more annotations...
-
In e-marketing, the cost of establishing your presence and networking with identical bloggers is nothing compared to offline business.
-
Hardware safety and quality assurance, software that facilitates the unique business requirements, setting up or tagging with online payment channels, online distribution costs, maintenance of site and upgrading are all the requirements for a successful sustaining business on the net.
-
Actually, an offline business could be very resource consuming in terms of cost of advertising and promotion through postal mails and networking similar business partners through tele-calling and organizing physical interactive sessions. In e-marketing, the cost of establishing your presence and networking with identical bloggers is nothing compared to offline business. The E-business through the internet obviously has huge benefit for the business nowadays.
-
Most of the marketing efforts that cater to the organized sector are open 24 hours and 7 days a week. Moreover, the reach is global and customers feel convenient to shop/communicate anytime they want to. The clients are updated immediately about any new modifications and alternations in information through RSS feeds.
1More
Automation to Replace Hotels' Manual Channel Management - 0 views
-
According to the news. One of the major trends for the hotelier in 2012 will be the integration of their online distribution with PMS and Revenue Management Systems. Hotel will benefit from making its online reach faster and automating business processes, thus, generate higher revenues with lower costs of acquisition.
6More
Revenue Management : From the Perspective of the Hotel Industry - 0 views
-
In the hotel and hospitality industry, it is believed that the ideal revenue management is to sell the right room to the right client at the right moment at the right price on the right distribution channel with the best commission efficiency.
-
Today, every bit of data about your room occupancy a couple of years ago can be scrutinized against the specific date and season to determine why you sold your room at that price. And compare it with today's trend and determine the actual cost of the room you should be selling at.
-
Big hotel chains like Marriot were the first ones to understand value and implement the concept of revenue management decades ago. Today, especially in Asia, the developing economies are at a cusp of a technological revolution.
- ...2 more annotations...
-
Where cutting edge tech startups and companies in the hospitality industry have tremendous cloud computing power and have built world beating revenue management systems.These systems don't just crunch numbers and generate reports, but they are built on technologies such as AI and Machine Learning to give you, the hotel owner the best possible set of data analysis, to help you make the right decisions.
-
oday we already have the technology to help hotel owners carefully analyze in-house data such as past occupancy rates, general sales, customer segmentation, market share information, and customer satisfaction to name a few. However, external influences such as past weather conditions, holiday seasons, nearby competitors and their prices to name a few are also being analyzed for better price determination.
-
"The Future of Revenue Management " Hotel revenue management is moving front and centre of the overarching business model for many hotels, and this trend is only set to rise further. Revenue management undergoes constant change, more so than other departments. This is because it is rooted in technological capability. Technology will continue to evolve and more sophisticated methods of guest analysis will come to the fore, as revenue managers keep searching for ways of becoming more competitive. This constant change has contributed in large part to the expanding roles that today's hotel revenue manager is charged with carrying out. After all, it is through inventive marketing strategies that hotels can generate business. Ecommerce, social media, client engagement and relationship management have all become central to the revenue manager's job in order to drive business. The hotel sector is probably more competitive than ever before. Hotels aren't only competing with their cross-town rivals, but inter-city and even international counterparts. Online travel agencies, the rise of hostels, and high guest demands make the industry even more competitive. So, hotels are turning to guest analytics; and new technology is making efficient analysis that produces unique, valuable insights possible.
11More
Applying e-commerce principles to hotel websites | Travel Tripper - 0 views
-
If hotels want to succeed in a digital economy, hotel managers and marketers will need to embrace the key principles of e-commerce and apply them to their hotel websites. These principles include user experience, conversion triggers, and the travelers’ booking journey.
-
One of the first major principles of e-commerce for hotel websites is perfecting the user experience. This isn’t just about having a pretty website—it’s about how the user utilizes and interacts with your website.
-
Mobile bookings have increased tremendously in the last few years, making it crucial to have a mobile-friendly website and booking engine.
- ...6 more annotations...
-
The power of personalization also plays a hugely important role in improving user experience. In a study conducted by Infosys, 86% of consumers stated that personalization impacts the purchases they end up making.
-
One of the biggest things that hotel e-commerce managers can learn from OTAs is their mastery of conversion triggers, which are powerful tools used at pivotal points in the booking process that convince travelers to hit the “Book” button.
-
increasing the desirability of a product and making it appear limited in supply is a powerful conversion tactic that helps drive more bookings.
-
Consumer confidence and behavior is also heavily influenced by social persuasion. According to Econsultancy, 88% of customers look at reviews before they make a purchase.
-
From the homepage through to the booking page, reviews are clearly visible and strategically used to boost conversion rates at every stage.
-
Direct bookings are the most profitable revenue source for hotels, so having a healthy direct distribution channel through your website is an important part of any revenue management strategy.
-
I found this article very useful because it focus on the common complaint of hoteliers when it comes to paying commissions to OTA's. In order for hotels to attain direct bookings, they need to have a deep understanding of ecommerce and digital marketing. While online travel agencies (OTAs) have continued to flourish due to their understanding of conversion optimization and user experience, many hotels still have not adapted to this mindset. Therefore, if hotels want to compete and succeed in the digital economy, it is important to acknowledge key principles of e-commerce and apply them effectively to the websites. First, mastering user experience includes creating simple yet intuitive design including a clear navigation, easy to find information and a strong call to action. Next, constant A/B testing, which is a process that compares different versions of the same page to measure with converts best, helps hotels understand how to maximize the user experience. Personalization is another useful tool to elevate user experience, since 86% of consumers reported that personalization impacts their purchases. OTA's have been efficient in this area as they have been able to amass booking data and convert this to improve the shopping experience thanks to embedded cookies and marketing automation systems. Also, employing conversion triggers are powerful tools used at pivotal points in the booking process. Just as OTA's have been able to master these conversion triggers, hotels should learn from them to increase direct bookings. For example, creating a sense of urgency on the website, such as "only 4 rooms left", will appeal to customers. Social proof, which entails social persuasion, is a decision making tool, where customers can book their stay thanks to quick access to reviews. Best rate guarantees help boost bookings as well, since customers have the peace of mind that they do not have to sure elsewhere. Lastly, understanding the travelers' booking journey, such
-
This article researched the efficient strategies that OTA's use when getting customers to book through their site. The purpose is to give tips for improvement to hotel websites so that they can use their site appropriately to drive more bookings directly. My opinion is that the strategies used by OTA's outlined in this article are a perfect direction for a hotels' website to configure itself in the most efficient manner.
1More
9 things you need to know about GDS - 0 views
-
GDS passes on hotel inventory and rates to travel agents and travel sites that request it and also accepts reservations. Despite the growth direct booking channels and large online travel agencies (OTAs), a GDS remains useful for 'shopping' your hotel to more customers globally by ensuring the entire travel agent network has access to your rates.
33More
5 Best POS Systems for Hotels | Book Guests With Ease - 0 views
-
It works with a variety of amenities such as restaurants, travel desks, spas, minibars and much more. It comes with unlimited built-in POS System terminals.
-
Hotelogix lets you settle payments through different modes. It accepts multiple currencies, processes credit cards or generates bills directly to the company.
-
Allowing management to gain greater control of all departments by merging operations together, like Housekeeping POS, Front Desk POS, etc.
- ...29 more annotations...
-
The main focus is to make lasting connections that enhance guest satisfaction, boast an efficiency of staff and operational workers and grow revenue opportunities with automated engagement.
-
You can easily promote your hotel through various channels with a variety of inclusive packages and rates.
-
It protects the guest’s payment data and reduces the risks, costs, and compliance by tokenizing each transaction with point-to-point encryption (P2PE).
-
The customer service staff is not always able to solve your issue at once, but their team can submit a ticket and get any errors fixed within a reasonable timeframe.
-
Allow customers to pay their entire bill and room costs at checkoutVerify that the billing is accurate by putting all charges on one billCombine bar, restaurant, and room service charges for any roomMatch specific menus to any display device to any area in your hotel
-
Assign special permissions to managers or cashiers, giving them the ability to view sales numbers or simply manage inventory.
-
LS Retail provides a holistic solution to all your worries by giving you a transparent and enhanced view of your hotel’s entire business operations.
-
With LS intelligent analytics tools, businesses can track and study their customer’s past interactions and preferences to make their guest profiles more meaningful.
-
LS Central for hotels gives an option where it can be deployed solely in the cloud, on the hotel premises, or both at the same time – whichever way suits your business profile in the best way.
-
It gives a complete overview of your hotel’s current occupancy, its housekeeping, along with all the extensive analysis required by the management to make necessary decisions.
-
It is a single platform that minimizes costs because it reduces the number of vendors and other systems that are otherwise needed for resolving all hotel-related business issues.
-
There is nothing more important than booking guests. Using a hotel POS system can help this process become quick and easy.
-
The average consumer is more likely to go for a package deal, given that they are getting good value for their money.
-
You can print these reports and give a detailed review such as payment balancing totals, customers served, average customer and much more.
-
Our recommendation is to consider Hotelogix or Agilysys, as they are user-friendly and have effective loyalty and sales tools.
9More
Why E-Business Is Now Everyone's Business - 0 views
-
B2B sales models were complex. They needed to incorporate negotiated contracts, special pricing and distribution or channel partners and typically involved multiple buyers from the same company.
-
B2C companies, on the other hand, were more consumer or end-user focused. They had to offer features such as ratings, reviews, communities of interest and promotions.
-
Influenced by the emergence of Web 2.0, where people collaborate and share information online in ways previously unavailable, B2B buyers increasingly expect B2C-like personalized experiences, creating a whole new challenge for B2B providers.
- ...4 more annotations...
-
B2E initiatives also must integrate with traditional selling processes in order to fully satisfy customers' needs.
-
when a company has multiple products and services, they need a flexible platform that enables them to offer multi-divisional products/solutions.
-
While the merger of B2C and B2B will have a powerful impact on business, it will not erase the differences that exist among different markets.
-
the key is that sameness exists in the need for companies to provide their customers with product and service catalogs and offerings, pricing, promotions, order management, fulfillment and service. A B2E e-Business solution must support all these capabilities.
-
-
The internet has drastically altered consumer relationships. Traditional "brick-and-mortar" enterprises realized that to survive, they too had to satisfy customer expectations to procure goods and services over the Internet. The Internet has raised the bar on customer expectations. Companies who understand this will succeed, and in turn, provide a Web experience that meets the unique preferences of each of their customers.