TODAY: Mobile usage - opportunity & challenge, Rotana turns 25 and more..
Growth in mobile usage for hotel stays presents opportunity, challenge for hoteliers.
The risk for hotels is that greater use of mobile devices for booking means some guests might secure a room with an online travel agency (OTA), which is associated with lower satisfaction.
The industry is currently emphasizing direct booking, pushing for more guests to become rewards members will likely enhance this effort. While OTAs remain popular among many guests, there are some disadvantages to their use, such as the need to deal with a third party if problems arise with a reservation.
Rotana celebrates 25 years of success and growth.
Taking its hotel portfolio from 1 to 100 and counting, Rotana has evolved over the last quarter-century into one of the biggest home-grown success stories in the region.
'Chasing the Chinese Dream'.
Aspirations and dilemmas at the heart of China’s consumer economy.
China’s mass affluent population (individuals with RMB650K to 6 million investment assets) makes up only around 2.5% of the country’s population, yet their personal consumption is expected to experience double digit growth to account for more than 75% of China’s total consumption by 2020.
Long-Haul Travel Barometer.
The latest issue of the Long-Haul Travel Barometer indicates that travel intentions in Europe’s key long-haul source markets - USA, China, Brazil, Japan, and Russian Federation for this peak season (May to August) have slightly weakened compared to a year ago.
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Bing is Bringing Bots to Local Businesses.
Here’s how hoteliers can prepare for this new technology:
Chatbots allow brands to communicate and sell to customers in a way that’s informal, easy-to-use and fun and they’re quickly becoming a key information and shopping channel, with 67% of Millennials say they’re likely to buy products or services via chatbot. Â
4 Things That Will NOT Happen This Year.
A great deal of what we read nowadays is predicting how the travel market will change and how hoteliers need to pre-emptively adapt in order to compete.
For a change of pace, I’ve decided to write about four things that will definitely NOT happen this year, so hoteliers can factor this thinking into their online distribution strategies.
Management Fees â€" A Growing Expense.
An expense that has consistently grown at pace greater than the average of all other costs from 2010 through 2015 has been management fees. When growth of an expense item exceeds the overall average, owners typically become concerned. However, since management fees are designed to reward operators for positive performance, excessive growth in management fees is not necessarily unwelcome.
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