Case study published in Hospitality Technology posted on 12/24/2009

By Ann Martin, Patti’s Inn and Suites, Corporate Manager

Many small independent hotels are aware of how important the Internet is as a communication channel. However, possessing a strong online presence requires more than having a website alone. It means having a structured e-commerce strategy behind that website that will unleash its true business power. One of the biggest challenges faced by smaller independent hotels is the ability to find a user-friendly, cost-accessible solution that will provide them with total control of their online services.

Like many independent properties, Patti’s Inn and Suites, a 59-room property located in Grand Rivers, Ky., was unhappy with the lack of business being generated from its website. A few of the website’s problems included:

• A lack of the proper features needed to engage visitors, like online booking;
• The inability to provide analytical data to help management to make educated business decisions;
• The high cost and time required to keep it up-to-date

A complete e-commerce solution

Being able to have a strong online presence was a top priority for Patti’s Inn. After conducting an exhaustive search with different online providers, they found that many of the companies that they looked at offered website design, online booking or customer relationship management. But very few offered a complete e-commerce system that is easy to use. GuestCentric’s integrated platform came out as the clear winner.

Patti’s Inn’s new website transmits security and a more sophisticated look, while providing visitors with relevant information about the property. With the new system, Patti’s Inn finally has control of their website and is able to freely update and edit information whenever is needed, eliminating the association with additional charges and waiting periods.

The hotel’s website offers online reservations through a nice one screen booking engine that provides visitors with an easy shopping experience. With a calendar overview of up to 550 days of real-time room availability and pricing information, visitors are guaranteed to find the best rates available online.

Additionally, the platform is very easy to use; Patti’s Inn’s manager was able to start working alone on the system after participating in a 30 minute training session to understand all of the functionalities.

Optimization of online revenue and visibility

Patti’s Inn didn’t escape from the terrible period faced by the hotel industry earlier this year, but shortly after partnering with GuestCentric it started seeing some positive results. There was an improvement on the hotel’s direct online revenue by 500% and an increase in its website unique visitors of 370%. By providing a simple and faster booking process, the property has reduced the reservation abandon rate, and with the fully-featured reservations platform, has maximized revenue and simplified the management of online and offline reservations.

Patti’s Inn and Suites is also currently discovering new ways to optimize and create brand awareness through social media channels with GuestCentric’s new customer engagement platform.

Go to Hospitality Technology

Article published in Hospitality Technology posted on 12/10/2009

According to recent research published by the Cornell Center for Hospitality Research (http://www.hotelschool.cornell.edu), hotels that are listed on third-party distributors’ websites (online travel agents, or OTAs) can expect to capture reservations in addition to direct sales. The report, The Billboard Effect: Online Travel Agent Impact on Non-OTA Reservation Volume by Chris Anderson, Ph.D., found that when hotels are listed on Expedia, they benefit from an increase in reservations through the hotel’s own distribution channels (including its website), as a result of that hotel being listed on an OTA website.

The benefits associated with these channels are numerous, enabling hotels to extend their reach to a wide community of Internet-savvy travelers, yet it also presents hoteliers with the challenge of effective channel management. To combat this problem, hotels like New York City’s Washington Jefferson hotel (http://www.wjhotel.com) are tapping into channel distribution management technology to update room inventory, create rate parity, and free up man-time.

“The careful management of Internet distribution sites such as Expedia and Hotels.com can help hotels maximize revenue from a point of sale that is yet to be fully explored and understood by the hospitality industry,” wrote Greg Ludwiniak, the Washington Jefferson’s director of sales and marketing in a June 2009 Hospitality Technology article. “While the Internet is becoming the place of choice for consumers to research travel, many hoteliers still struggle to understand these new demands. Manual inventory updates are time-intensive, offer little reward, require employees to spend long days updating multiple channels with the same information, and can be prone to errors if information is updated incorrectly.”

Although the effective management of channel distribution will lead to more online bookings, hoteliers should also never underestimate the power of a sophisticated hotel Website booking engine. The 59-room independent hotel, Patti’s Inn and Suites (http://www.pattisinnandsuites.com), increased its number of direct online bookings by 500 percent following the selection of GuestCentric Systems (http://www.guestcentric.com) to manage its online services.

Like Patti’s Inn and Suites, Warwick International Hotels (http://www.warwickhotels.com) turned to a web booking engine to drive online bookings directly to 27 of the company’s 40 international hotels and resorts. They are using Pegasus Solutions’ (http://www.pegs.com) NetBooker NG Internet booking engine.

“With new functionality flawlessly incorporated into the Warwick web site, NetBooker NG allows us to offer the ultimate reservations experience, with options such as room upgrades and eConcierge services available during booking,” says G. Paul LeBlanc, VP of marketing and sales for Warwick.

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Posted by Dennis Schaal

Solutionz Media, a new venture by travel industry veterans Chicke Fitzgerald and Tiffany Topcik, partnered with GuestCentric Systems to go after business from independent hotels looking to enter into and/or monetize their social media efforts.

Solutionz Media, a unit of the Solutionz Group, will do much of the consulting and strategizing for independent hotels as they implement GuestCentric Systems’ Customer Engagement Platform, which was an entry in PhoCusWright’s recent Travel Innovation Summit in Orlando.

The platform, available in Software as a Service mode for a monthly flat fee, contains marketing and distribution components, including social media monitoring and promotions.

Topcik, managing partner of Solutionz Media and a former HEDNA president, says by using the combined services of GuestCentric Systems and Solutionz Media, which offers a reputation audit, hotels will be able to get their promotions onto Facebook and Twitter and then consumers will be able to click into the booking process.

“And, then that customer can post or tweet about that booking, creating even further awareness of the hotel,” Topcik says. “Until now a hotel could post a link to another booking tool and it was a one-way conversation.”

I think we’ll see many of these types of co-marketing partnerships emerge over the next year. Social-media monitoring and marketing is hot, and tech firms will be looking to expand relationships in verticals like travel as they team with consultants with a track record of industry involvement.

And, hotels will be seeking tech parnters which can prove they can deliver social media acumen and ROI.

There were no launch partners for the Solutionz Media-GuestCentric Alliance, but Topcik says “there are many discussions under way.”

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Author: Linda Fox