Marketing at a Crossroads
“In 2008, 40% of all leisure and 35% of business travel bookings will be done online. By 2010 over 50% of leisure bookings are expected to be online. The percentage of meeting planners researching and booking online is also growing at a rapid pace. An estimated 89% of planners are researching event locations on the web, and by 2008, 41% of all groups and meetings travel revenues will come from the Internet” Max Starkov & Jason Price, 2008. Internet Marketing.
The Internet is a new kind of marketplace with a new kind of marketing. No longer are the 4 P’s; Place, Price, Promotion and Product the main tenants of marketing. Marketing on the Internet is more about Relationships and Process.
Process is about technology, platform and intelligent, expert systems. Marshall McLuhan said a long time ago that the medium is the message. The Internet is a very sophisticated medium capable of delivering messages target to a single client, tuned to their precise interest at every point of purchase. It is automatic, re-engineering and personalizing the message for multiple users all in the same instance of time.
Your travel product, a travel experience, is as multidimensional as your clients. For example, you may cater to weddings and romance as well as lazy beach living, active holidays, gold vacations and gourmet dining. You can’t say it all at one time to one traveler. Information about your product must be engineered and differentiated; it must be made personal to each traveler.
Information must be malleable, configurable, searchable, accessible and delivered tailored to suite।
For example you may choose to advertise a golf holiday, you deliver content and images that are tailored to what you offer the golfer. You direct golfers to a special page dealing with that experience. You do this on your website, and on every channel you market on. – you cannot organize and deliver it manually. The process and platform configures and deliver the message dynamically. For this your information must be engineered with systems that are very smart, learning what motivates the clients and delivering the experience they are looking for. The difference is that the online message is a "Pull" message prompting an action, offline it is typically a "Push" message to gain awareness. With that the entire focus of marketing has changed. For more on this, see United Airlines Case Study by Double Click.
People are not talking to people at this stage, it’s a process, and the process understands people, gathering and analyzing information about them every step of the way. The smart systems (the Platform) tracks clients interaction, recognizing patterns, responding appropriately, managing and analyzing data in the process of building the digital relationship. See digital-relationships
But Process and Platform are not enough. In a complex integrated world, Partners are essential. Microsoft has said this clearly, telling its Value Added Resellers (VARS) to Partner or die!. Simply put you can do it all yourself, so you must rely on people with skills and passion that complements your own. The mechanics of Internet is very complex, we must cooperate to succeed; outsourcing is essential!
Finally, the Internet is driven by Passion. Thousands of ordinary people, professionals, workers, teachers and student donate time and resources freely, building content, services and applications that they feel passionate about. People are building relationships, offering comments, writing blogs, helping others, for free. This community has spawned the social network, which interacts and influences everything on the Internet.
Jason McNamara, CMO of Atlerian says that the new marketing is driven by passion, we need to be passionate about marketing and today, more that ever before, that means being passionate about understanding and measuring the digital footprint. ”Being able to apply sophisticated marketing analytics to every piece of information you collect about your customers is like bringing the customers themselves in-house to tell you not just what's working and what isn't, but why. You can use this passion to your advantage, helping generate ideas, proving their relevance, and justifying the money you spend” See Jason McNanara’s article on the new 5 P’s of marketing: People, Process, Platform, Passion and Partners (http://www.alterian.com/solutions/marketing.aspx)
Monday, 30 June 2008
Friday, 20 June 2008
TheSupplier
Who is the supplier of travel
It worries me that many of our small hotel customers, do not perceive themselves as suppliers. They often see themselves as a “product” “supplied” to the market by middlemen. Nothing is further from the truth. The hotel owner is the supplier of rooms and of an experience. Together these make up the core product of a holiday. The hotel owner should choose to be inventive and create total packages that fulfill the travelers dream”.
Ultimately travel marketing is about selling a dream, and each hotel is distinct, offering a unique experience. All of the tools the hotel needs to package an experience, even including airfare is available for direct bookings.
Believing that middlemen are suppliers erodes the hotel brand and places market leadership in the wrong hands. When consumers go to online channels to book reservations, they are influenced as much by the channel used to book the reservation as they are to the actual hotel they selected
It is time to take control.
Control of the channel is not about getting more sales out of middlemen – it is about offering a service that competes with middlemen, marketing your own brand and engaging customers directly; getting high margin sales at lowest costs, being in control of your market and your brand.
Max Starkov, Chief eBusiness Strategist, Hospitality eBusiness Strategies writes “The Internet is all about transparency, efficient distribution of information, and inexpensive e-commerce transactions. It is simply the best direct-to-consumer distribution channel ever created and it definitely favors supplier-buyer relationships”.
The trend is clear, the Internet is revolutionizing marketing with more and more travelers choosing to go to the suppliers website and book direct rather than with a middleman. Travelers say they feel they have more control working with the supplier directly, but they expect rates and services to be comparable.
There are now new tools and services for travel suppliers to help them provide the full set of interactive and social networking solutions expected। AXSES has been a pioneer, providing 'supplier centered tools' to manage and distribute travel products. These can be installed directly on the suppliers own website. They include:
All of these may be integrated with:
What the middlemen do well is offer comparison shopping and search capabilities. AXSES bookings and reservation portals like http://bookingsBarbados.com, http://BookingsStlucia.com and http://CaribRes.com provides this also, but with this twist - requests and bookings are made directly with the hotel. (see axses arcRes supplier travel suites).
Unlike middlemen systems the hotel is not hidden and travelers can go direct to the hotel website at any time. There are popups and standard views of the information which travelers like as supplier websites follow no standard and it is confusing to compare several. All information on the direct channel (including websites content, amenities and features) is under the control of the Hotel.
These new tools are different to middlemen solutions for suppliers and destinations। The supplier-centered tools are designed from the ground up for suppliers, ie hotels, apartments, villas, activities and all tourism operators. They are configured to any set of rules and rate options. The tools are a powerful set of integrated suites to help tourism suppliers compete with all middlemen, for more high profit DIRECT business.
But be wary, not all who claim to be direct are!. Some marketers are jumping on the bandwagon, without credentials. A direct channel will not hide your brand, infact direct is about marketing your brand. A direct channel will allow users to go to your website and will not require guest to prepay the booking, deposit it in their bank, and pay you the balance less commissions. A direct channel gives you control on payment options, terms, content, rules, branding, and customers.
In 2008* 60% of online travelers chose to BUY Direct from the supplier, bypassing the middleman. The trend to direct is expected to continue. Merrill lynch forecasts that it will exceed 65% in the next 2 years. Current the large chains receive over 80% of online business direct (see trends).
We need to gear-up now for this market and take control
* Merill Lynch report is dated 20078 the table says 2008 but it probable is 2007. This is to be verified!
It worries me that many of our small hotel customers, do not perceive themselves as suppliers. They often see themselves as a “product” “supplied” to the market by middlemen. Nothing is further from the truth. The hotel owner is the supplier of rooms and of an experience. Together these make up the core product of a holiday. The hotel owner should choose to be inventive and create total packages that fulfill the travelers dream”.
Ultimately travel marketing is about selling a dream, and each hotel is distinct, offering a unique experience. All of the tools the hotel needs to package an experience, even including airfare is available for direct bookings.
Believing that middlemen are suppliers erodes the hotel brand and places market leadership in the wrong hands. When consumers go to online channels to book reservations, they are influenced as much by the channel used to book the reservation as they are to the actual hotel they selected
It is time to take control.
Control of the channel is not about getting more sales out of middlemen – it is about offering a service that competes with middlemen, marketing your own brand and engaging customers directly; getting high margin sales at lowest costs, being in control of your market and your brand.
Max Starkov, Chief eBusiness Strategist, Hospitality eBusiness Strategies writes “The Internet is all about transparency, efficient distribution of information, and inexpensive e-commerce transactions. It is simply the best direct-to-consumer distribution channel ever created and it definitely favors supplier-buyer relationships”.
The trend is clear, the Internet is revolutionizing marketing with more and more travelers choosing to go to the suppliers website and book direct rather than with a middleman. Travelers say they feel they have more control working with the supplier directly, but they expect rates and services to be comparable.
There are now new tools and services for travel suppliers to help them provide the full set of interactive and social networking solutions expected। AXSES has been a pioneer, providing 'supplier centered tools' to manage and distribute travel products. These can be installed directly on the suppliers own website. They include:
- Airfare ‘search and book’ that can be put right on the hotel website
- Dynamic packaging that for hotel suppliers that adds activities that match travelers profiles
- RSS feeds, blogs, travelers’ comments and travelers ratings
- Website booking engine
- Rates management and
- A range of travel components that hotels can put on their sites
All of these may be integrated with:
- Hotel Property Management Systems
- Global Distribution Systems (GDS) and
- The Internet Distribution Companies like Expedia.
What the middlemen do well is offer comparison shopping and search capabilities. AXSES bookings and reservation portals like http://bookingsBarbados.com, http://BookingsStlucia.com and http://CaribRes.com provides this also, but with this twist - requests and bookings are made directly with the hotel. (see axses arcRes supplier travel suites).
Unlike middlemen systems the hotel is not hidden and travelers can go direct to the hotel website at any time. There are popups and standard views of the information which travelers like as supplier websites follow no standard and it is confusing to compare several. All information on the direct channel (including websites content, amenities and features) is under the control of the Hotel.
These new tools are different to middlemen solutions for suppliers and destinations। The supplier-centered tools are designed from the ground up for suppliers, ie hotels, apartments, villas, activities and all tourism operators. They are configured to any set of rules and rate options. The tools are a powerful set of integrated suites to help tourism suppliers compete with all middlemen, for more high profit DIRECT business.
But be wary, not all who claim to be direct are!. Some marketers are jumping on the bandwagon, without credentials. A direct channel will not hide your brand, infact direct is about marketing your brand. A direct channel will allow users to go to your website and will not require guest to prepay the booking, deposit it in their bank, and pay you the balance less commissions. A direct channel gives you control on payment options, terms, content, rules, branding, and customers.
In 2008* 60% of online travelers chose to BUY Direct from the supplier, bypassing the middleman. The trend to direct is expected to continue. Merrill lynch forecasts that it will exceed 65% in the next 2 years. Current the large chains receive over 80% of online business direct (see trends).
We need to gear-up now for this market and take control
* Merill Lynch report is dated 20078 the table says 2008 but it probable is 2007. This is to be verified!
Thursday, 19 June 2008
Advertising
INTERACTIVE ADVERTISEMENTS
At AXSES, we have been musing about the internet advertising business, wonder how it will evolve. With Google loosing ground to other choices, such as social networking, meta search, bookings and interactive services, it will not be long before they morph their business to give travelers what they want. Google decided not go the bookings route, and did not offer to buy Expedia. It has opted to move more into social networking see Google Travel Plans. MSN in contrast is moving to interactive shopping, with its purchase of Farecast.
In our view the days of static ads and list that link to websites are limited. We expect to see this change even on the search engines. Travelers need to be able to compare options and get fully costed holiday at a click.
Hitwise, the Internet statistics company recently noted a significant shift in searchers favouring Branded searches. “I looked at the top 300 search terms sending visits to Travel websites and found that more than three-quarters - 77% - of visits from these queries were from branded search terms such as “Hilton hotels” or “Expedia” in the four weeks ending April 26, 2008”, Heather Hopkins, VP Research, Hitwise UK.
Simple put, the Hitwise findings, mean searchers are now looking more for names they know and not relying as much on generic terms. If the trend continues, it will mean that we can’t rely on the search engines to help people discover our hotels for the first time. We can’t rely on a middleman to market us!. Marketing ourselves is something we can’t avoid.
In light of the trends to buy direct, it is interesting that Expedia is a top of mind search term. Yet Expedia reports, unofficially, that 70% of visitors to the their site use their list to find resort matching a budget, and then go directly to the resort website to make a contact and book. 95% of Expedia visitors do not buy from Expedia. Aware of this trend Expedia introduced a Cost Per Click (CPC) advertising option, similar to Google. Interesting indeed! Has Expedia seen the writing on the wall?. Perhaps they got the idea that they were the new search engine for travel. So now instead of paying 25-30% in commission advertisers are paying 30-40% and don’t have any control on their brand.
The Cost Per Click (CPC), is the cost to deliver a single customer to a website as a result of a paid listing or advertisement on a medium such as Google or Barbados.org.
In a recent study of advertising costs, AXSES revealed that the Cost Per Click on Barbados.org is now less than 1/5 of costs on sites such as Google.
But they are all static ads that link travelers to the advertisers website. In addition we do free listing for every resort in the destination.
All of them, not just advertisers.
Our next release will make these ads interactive and link directly to dynamic quotation, reserve and book options. Of course all direct to the advertisers. What this means is that Barbados.org advertisers will have interactive advertisements that allow travelers to get an immediate quote and to reserve or book a holiday package, including air, online, on almost every advertisement and listing on Barbados.org. Travelers will now be able to click a button on the advertisement itself and make a booking directly with the hotel right there and then,. and this is right across all media, even on Google maps. Pretty powerful when u consider that Barbados.org maps are on the Google website ((http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=http:%2F%2Fwww.barbadosbymap.com%2Fgeorss.php) )as well as on Barbados.org map pages (and http://barbadosbymap.com)
Couple low CPC advertising with bookable ads and the supplier centered technologies now in place with arcres suites, axses travel platform and other supplier solution, and you get a powerful direct marketing solution: Enhancing suppliers brand and delivering commission free business directly to the tourism operator. Giving control back to the supplier.
We look forward to hearing from. Do you agree, do you have a point of view?. Please let us know what you know!
At AXSES, we have been musing about the internet advertising business, wonder how it will evolve. With Google loosing ground to other choices, such as social networking, meta search, bookings and interactive services, it will not be long before they morph their business to give travelers what they want. Google decided not go the bookings route, and did not offer to buy Expedia. It has opted to move more into social networking see Google Travel Plans. MSN in contrast is moving to interactive shopping, with its purchase of Farecast.
In our view the days of static ads and list that link to websites are limited. We expect to see this change even on the search engines. Travelers need to be able to compare options and get fully costed holiday at a click.
Hitwise, the Internet statistics company recently noted a significant shift in searchers favouring Branded searches. “I looked at the top 300 search terms sending visits to Travel websites and found that more than three-quarters - 77% - of visits from these queries were from branded search terms such as “Hilton hotels” or “Expedia” in the four weeks ending April 26, 2008”, Heather Hopkins, VP Research, Hitwise UK.
Simple put, the Hitwise findings, mean searchers are now looking more for names they know and not relying as much on generic terms. If the trend continues, it will mean that we can’t rely on the search engines to help people discover our hotels for the first time. We can’t rely on a middleman to market us!. Marketing ourselves is something we can’t avoid.
In light of the trends to buy direct, it is interesting that Expedia is a top of mind search term. Yet Expedia reports, unofficially, that 70% of visitors to the their site use their list to find resort matching a budget, and then go directly to the resort website to make a contact and book. 95% of Expedia visitors do not buy from Expedia. Aware of this trend Expedia introduced a Cost Per Click (CPC) advertising option, similar to Google. Interesting indeed! Has Expedia seen the writing on the wall?. Perhaps they got the idea that they were the new search engine for travel. So now instead of paying 25-30% in commission advertisers are paying 30-40% and don’t have any control on their brand.
The Cost Per Click (CPC), is the cost to deliver a single customer to a website as a result of a paid listing or advertisement on a medium such as Google or Barbados.org.
In a recent study of advertising costs, AXSES revealed that the Cost Per Click on Barbados.org is now less than 1/5 of costs on sites such as Google.
But they are all static ads that link travelers to the advertisers website. In addition we do free listing for every resort in the destination.
All of them, not just advertisers.
Our next release will make these ads interactive and link directly to dynamic quotation, reserve and book options. Of course all direct to the advertisers. What this means is that Barbados.org advertisers will have interactive advertisements that allow travelers to get an immediate quote and to reserve or book a holiday package, including air, online, on almost every advertisement and listing on Barbados.org. Travelers will now be able to click a button on the advertisement itself and make a booking directly with the hotel right there and then,. and this is right across all media, even on Google maps. Pretty powerful when u consider that Barbados.org maps are on the Google website ((http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=http:%2F%2Fwww.barbadosbymap.com%2Fgeorss.php) )as well as on Barbados.org map pages (and http://barbadosbymap.com)
Couple low CPC advertising with bookable ads and the supplier centered technologies now in place with arcres suites, axses travel platform and other supplier solution, and you get a powerful direct marketing solution: Enhancing suppliers brand and delivering commission free business directly to the tourism operator. Giving control back to the supplier.
We look forward to hearing from. Do you agree, do you have a point of view?. Please let us know what you know!
Sunday, 6 April 2008
TravelSearch-Crossroads
Have search engines lost their opportunity to be a major player in the future of travel. What will happen if Google acquires Expedia. Will Search engines offer bookings!
Its clear that Global Distribution Systems, Social Networking, local knowledge, vertical search are a threat to the traditional search options.
Meta search travel sites like Kayak, offer better search for travel. Social networks and consumer sites like Tripadvisor, are improving the travel experience by offering relevant unbiased advise. Much favored over paid search results.
Social networking sites like TripAdvisor (acquired by Expedia), IgoUGo (acquired by Travelocity) are taking searches away from traditional search engines.
Kayak now receives more than 6 million unique visitors a month. Expedia has caught Googles attention but for now seems not to be a takeover target!. They are moving instead to create more social media and community content. Already, about 50% of travelers use some sort of online social media site to research their plans, says Rob Torres, Google’s managing director for Travel
The erosion of search in favour of these sites is with good reason. The travel technology platform has developed far beyond the capabilities of generic search.
Travelers need to know details on costs and features that are specific to their own unique requirements.
Travel Search engines like Kayak, sidestep (acquired by Kayak) do this. Underlying is a travel platform, including bookings and quotation systems like; http://arcres.com, and integrated solutions like http://BookingsFranchise.com
Traditional search engines, just don’t deliver these precise results. Try looking for a hotel near Bridgetown in Barbados in the price range of $250 to $500. Google will give you a lot of results, mostly links to booking sites. You need to go to a booking or quotation site like http://BookingsBarbados.com for this. Try searching for Barbados 5 star hotels, chances are that Sandy Lane voted one of the Top ten Hotels in the world will not be in the top lists. As the search engines move further down the road to paid clicks, search results become even more eroded, less relevant and still imprecise.
In addition to these trends, their is a growing list of specialty local sites like AXSES' own BookingsStlucia.com, Barbados Bookings and reservations center and Realholidays.com trip planning. These sites put users in contact with Hotels directly. More and more travelers want to contact their host. They feel they have better communications with a hotel as apposed to a meta site dealing with thousands of properties and thousands more travelers. The smaller regional sites also provide better on the location information, giving local knowledge and advise. Sites like http://realholidays.com, help travelers put together their own, made to measure itinerary, with options that may not be found anywhere else. Like star gazing with Leo, bring your own wine, he supplies the telescope and the story of the stars. You will not find that on Expedia or Kayak
"Seeking information and looking for perspective--like-minded experience and judgments--are currently trumping the straightforward hunt for the best price", says Douglas Quinby, senior director of research at PhoCusWright.
What we need is more consolidation throught advanced information engineering. The future web will be about bringing services and technology together in a powerful information delivery system.
MORE ABOUT THE FUTURE OF THE INTERNET NEXT!!!
Links
Connecting You With Your Intimate Bot (semantic web3.0)
The Gap In Google's Defenses (virtical search)
Travel Web Sites Get Personal
Its clear that Global Distribution Systems, Social Networking, local knowledge, vertical search are a threat to the traditional search options.
Meta search travel sites like Kayak, offer better search for travel. Social networks and consumer sites like Tripadvisor, are improving the travel experience by offering relevant unbiased advise. Much favored over paid search results.
Social networking sites like TripAdvisor (acquired by Expedia), IgoUGo (acquired by Travelocity) are taking searches away from traditional search engines.
Kayak now receives more than 6 million unique visitors a month. Expedia has caught Googles attention but for now seems not to be a takeover target!. They are moving instead to create more social media and community content. Already, about 50% of travelers use some sort of online social media site to research their plans, says Rob Torres, Google’s managing director for Travel
The erosion of search in favour of these sites is with good reason. The travel technology platform has developed far beyond the capabilities of generic search.
Travelers need to know details on costs and features that are specific to their own unique requirements.
Travel Search engines like Kayak, sidestep (acquired by Kayak) do this. Underlying is a travel platform, including bookings and quotation systems like; http://arcres.com, and integrated solutions like http://BookingsFranchise.com
Traditional search engines, just don’t deliver these precise results. Try looking for a hotel near Bridgetown in Barbados in the price range of $250 to $500. Google will give you a lot of results, mostly links to booking sites. You need to go to a booking or quotation site like http://BookingsBarbados.com for this. Try searching for Barbados 5 star hotels, chances are that Sandy Lane voted one of the Top ten Hotels in the world will not be in the top lists. As the search engines move further down the road to paid clicks, search results become even more eroded, less relevant and still imprecise.
In addition to these trends, their is a growing list of specialty local sites like AXSES' own BookingsStlucia.com, Barbados Bookings and reservations center and Realholidays.com trip planning. These sites put users in contact with Hotels directly. More and more travelers want to contact their host. They feel they have better communications with a hotel as apposed to a meta site dealing with thousands of properties and thousands more travelers. The smaller regional sites also provide better on the location information, giving local knowledge and advise. Sites like http://realholidays.com, help travelers put together their own, made to measure itinerary, with options that may not be found anywhere else. Like star gazing with Leo, bring your own wine, he supplies the telescope and the story of the stars. You will not find that on Expedia or Kayak
"Seeking information and looking for perspective--like-minded experience and judgments--are currently trumping the straightforward hunt for the best price", says Douglas Quinby, senior director of research at PhoCusWright.
What we need is more consolidation throught advanced information engineering. The future web will be about bringing services and technology together in a powerful information delivery system.
MORE ABOUT THE FUTURE OF THE INTERNET NEXT!!!
Links
Connecting You With Your Intimate Bot (semantic web3.0)
The Gap In Google's Defenses (virtical search)
Travel Web Sites Get Personal
Tuesday, 27 November 2007
Need for Bookings Franchise
I have just returned from World Travel Market, London, 2007, the biggest destination travel show in the world. I spend some time chatting to destination about the Bookings systems they are using. In the Caribbean many are using WWTE a white label product of Expedia. It is not working well.
The problem is that Tour operator (TO) systems just don't work for Destinations. The Destination authority is responsible for marketing its member tourism operators. This means it must use the market channels and not conflict with it. Its prime responsibility is to help its clients get access to markets, be represented in global distribution and to encourage Direct Sales.
The TO booking systems operate on a distribution and Merchant model. They get net rates on hotels, mark them up and resell them, collecting the funds in advance and paying operators. Their systems require clients to abide by their rules and terms including setting aside rooms and units for their exclusive use (allocation). If a small hotel can't do this they often don’t get listed. They don't get listed if they are too small and can’t offer acceptable NET rates. TO systems do not promote direct sales and they don’t build hotel brands. Many are opaque, obscuring the hotel brand in favour of Best Price. The Destination Marketing company has an entirely different objective.
A sensible solution for Destinations is http://BookingsFranchise.com.
PRESS Release:
Powerful New Travel Platform Now Available for Destination Marketers
http://BookingsFranchise.com: Affordable Branded Channels for Direct Marketing. A first of its kind product for tourism destinations and travel portals.
BookingsFranchise.com platform delivers top e-commerce services. It is a powerful full featured solution, integrated with Global Distribution (GDS) and Internet marketing driving Direct Business and Distribution sales. BookingsFranchise is easy for destinations and tourism operators to setup and manage and easy for travelers to use; to get quotes, find, compare and book properties.
It is a proven platform of travel technology, developed and implemented by AXSES for Barbados.org, http://BookingsBarbados.com, http://BookingsStlucia.com and http://IntimateHotelsBarbados.com to name a few.
Ian Clayton CEO of AXSES, says “BookingsFranchise.com lets you do business your way, with your own terms and your rules. Unlike Tour Operator centered system, there are no commissions and no net rates. There is no limit to size of properties and all properties have complete flexibility with terms, inventory models and payment options. Ultimately, it delivers a way to take control of the entire supply chain with supplier centered tools”.
Advance your travel marketing; global exposure, more bookings, more control.
email AXSES BookingsFranchise
For More Information please see http://BookingsFranchise.com
Contact: email AXSES
Ian Clayton, iclayton@axses.com
AXSES
Knowledge engineering
Tel: 246 429 2653
Do Business your way with multiple client terms, rate plans and rules.
Axses Travel Platform
delivers a fully interactive personalised solution
+ leading technology
http://arcRes.com |
http://arcRes-crs.com |
http://arcRes-pms.com |
http://Portal-keeper.com |
http://DestinationSuites.com |
http://TravelAgentsRes.com |
http://RealHolidays.com
AXSES Solutions cover all aspects of Travel Marketing and tourism Management.
The problem is that Tour operator (TO) systems just don't work for Destinations. The Destination authority is responsible for marketing its member tourism operators. This means it must use the market channels and not conflict with it. Its prime responsibility is to help its clients get access to markets, be represented in global distribution and to encourage Direct Sales.
The TO booking systems operate on a distribution and Merchant model. They get net rates on hotels, mark them up and resell them, collecting the funds in advance and paying operators. Their systems require clients to abide by their rules and terms including setting aside rooms and units for their exclusive use (allocation). If a small hotel can't do this they often don’t get listed. They don't get listed if they are too small and can’t offer acceptable NET rates. TO systems do not promote direct sales and they don’t build hotel brands. Many are opaque, obscuring the hotel brand in favour of Best Price. The Destination Marketing company has an entirely different objective.
A sensible solution for Destinations is http://BookingsFranchise.com.
PRESS Release:
Powerful New Travel Platform Now Available for Destination Marketers
http://BookingsFranchise.com: Affordable Branded Channels for Direct Marketing. A first of its kind product for tourism destinations and travel portals.
BookingsFranchise.com platform delivers top e-commerce services. It is a powerful full featured solution, integrated with Global Distribution (GDS) and Internet marketing driving Direct Business and Distribution sales. BookingsFranchise is easy for destinations and tourism operators to setup and manage and easy for travelers to use; to get quotes, find, compare and book properties.
It is a proven platform of travel technology, developed and implemented by AXSES for Barbados.org, http://BookingsBarbados.com, http://BookingsStlucia.com and http://IntimateHotelsBarbados.com to name a few.
Ian Clayton CEO of AXSES, says “BookingsFranchise.com lets you do business your way, with your own terms and your rules. Unlike Tour Operator centered system, there are no commissions and no net rates. There is no limit to size of properties and all properties have complete flexibility with terms, inventory models and payment options. Ultimately, it delivers a way to take control of the entire supply chain with supplier centered tools”.
Advance your travel marketing; global exposure, more bookings, more control.
email AXSES BookingsFranchise
For More Information please see http://BookingsFranchise.com
Contact: email AXSES
Ian Clayton, iclayton@axses.com
AXSES
Knowledge engineering
Tel: 246 429 2653
Do Business your way with multiple client terms, rate plans and rules.
Axses Travel Platform
delivers a fully interactive personalised solution
+ leading technology
http://arcRes.com |
http://arcRes-crs.com |
http://arcRes-pms.com |
http://Portal-keeper.com |
http://DestinationSuites.com |
http://TravelAgentsRes.com |
http://RealHolidays.com
AXSES Solutions cover all aspects of Travel Marketing and tourism Management.
Sunday, 15 July 2007
GDS Chain Codes explained
Private Label Chain Code
A 'chain code' is a two-letter code used by the GDS to identify what chain hotels belong to.
Pegasus has two Chain codes, Utell and Unirez. Utell was the original code, it was used by the large chain hotel which were the first to get connected to the GDS. Utell was heavily promoted to the agents and has good visibility on the network. It uses the netbooker engine and is quiet expensive to set setup and maintain, the costs also cover advertising and promotion associated with Utell. Utell is the world’s largest representation service, representing more than 700,000 rooms worldwide
The Unirez code was purchased by Pegasus in order to offer a simpler lower cost "access only" to GDS. It has become popular with smaller hotel who could not afford the UTELL costs.
Many hotel chains and hotel marketing companies have their own 'private label chain code'. With a private chain code marketers can focus on marketing the unique characteristics of its members’ properties to the GDS and other electronic distribution channels. Agents who know the gds code often look for properties listed with it first. For example, "Special Hotels of the World" advertise and promote the "GW" chain code, a "GW" BRAND. Agents will often look for a brand they know to find hotels that fit that category.
The Unirez brand is considered the small hotels brand, whereas the Utell brand is associated with large chains. If a travel agent was looking for smaller hotels they might try the Unirez code rather than look for ALL brands or Utell.
The GDS chain code is an important sales tool used by hotel marketing programs.
© Ian Clayton, AXSES SCI 2007.
see arcRes solutions for tourism, AXSES web Solution
Wednesday, 4 July 2007
GDS Next Generation
GDS NEXT GENERATION SEAMLESS
The GDS' are the distribution backbone for travel agents, in-house corporate travel departments, and many of the Internet distribution systems like Expedia. They deliver rates and availability information for travel covering air, hotel and car rentals. The information is delivered to the travel agent, so that it appears on their desktop computer using special software to search, display rates and book.
The GDS' Hotel information was originally all input by hand and this is still done manually in many cases. Pegasus employed a house full of workers to do this work, much of this is now out sourced to India. The process is very tedious and time prone to error. Once the information is loaded software system maintain the rate and inventory changes in all GDS. The Pegasus Switch coordinates hotel information bewteen gds sytsems. Data from hotel chains, Internet sites and GDS agents all at some piont use this switch.
To avoid delays and errors hotels and their technology providers opted to integrate the GDS information with their own reservations and property management solutions. This was called seamless integration. 2 way seamless refers to the systems that can manage GDS rates from the hotel CRS or PMS. One way integration simply means the hotel system can view the GDS sales but not manage the data.
Seamless Integration is not the same as NEXT GENERATION.
Next Generation capability was built by the GDS to allow compatible systems to input the data directly into the GDS´s. There are several such sytems in place. (list of services). This means that a hotel might use an online form to input their rates and data and this goes directly into the GDS. It substantially reduces the time to get to market and eliminates some errors when re-keying data. GDS sold this option to vendors who it turn incorporated it into their hotel solutions. Some setup shop as GDS agents to offer this service.
NEXT GENERATION ROBOTICS
The technology to update a mainframe is not trivial. It involves robotics that interface online internet system with GDS mainframe computers. Mainframes are not Internet savvy computers and cannot be accessed directly to change and add data. The data is sent via packets relayed on telecommunications network. The packet relay is interpreted by the Mainframe. As these mainframes are all different systems, protocols and standards were created. Mainframes also have very specific rules on what characters are accepted. Charters and in some cases words act as tigers to set off process in a mainframe, so the information sent to a mainframe must be accurate and comply with their rules. Even years after implementation the GDS-load process was finding errors in data integrity. A simple quotation mark can trigger a failure with disastrous results.
The Pegasus switch (originally called thisco, now called Utraswitch) is not a next generation technology. That is why Pegasus bought a similar system developed by Trust that was. Pegasus plans to upgrade all system by 2008 with conversions starting with hotel factory (their Central reservation system) in November 2007. Pegasus PR
SUMMARY
Next Generation provides GDS users with real-time rates and availability that is 100% identical to the information used by a hotel company's own reservations staff. The information is more quickly available and more accurate resulting in increased confidence and usability by agents. With NEXT generation Seamless, agents are more inclined to sell more using the GDS rather than book via telephone to assure their clients the lowest rates. Galileo Inside Shopper, Worldspan Integrated Hotel Source, Sabre Direct Connect Shop, the respective GDS' Next Generation Seamless products, were implemented by 2004.
© Ian Clayton, AXSES SCI 2007.
see arcRes solutions for tourism, AXSES web Solution
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