We’ve just released on our website the “US GAP Report”. This study is based on the results from a survey that shows that the online presence gap is widening between smaller, independent hotels and larger hotel chains in the US. The survey was conducted by GuestCentric in February 2008 and 300 hotels located in the US were polled showing dramatic differences in terms of leveraging their online websites to book consumer and business travel online between independent hotels with less than 80 rooms and branded chain hotels.

This gap is revealed in all of the main aspects analyzed in this survey: website and ability to receive online reservations, presence on internet distribution systems and average occupancy rate.

The content of this report was widely publicized due to the nature of the numbers, where for instance, the GAP between independents and chains regarding having a booking engine on their website stands above the 50% mark.

In the next couple of weeks we will release the “Independent Hotels and the Online Channel”, UK and Spain Reports, so stay tuned.

During the course of the last year we executed several surveys of hotel managers in the US, UK and Spain. As part of the feedback that you provided to us it became clear that different hotels are in different stages of adopting online as a marketing and distribution platform:

• You have a website and a booking engine
• You would like to improve your online presence
• You have a website but don’t believe in online booking
• You don’t have a website

Based on this knowledge, we have created a campaign that explains what the GuestCentric platform can do to address your specific concerns. The campaign is available onour page on YouTube or you can watch the videos here. As always, we would like to have your feedback.

I have a website and a booking engine

I would like to improve my online presence

I don’t believe in online booking

I don’t have a website

Thanks to our marketing department we are now on YouTube. We created a page where we will post relevant videos. The first one is the invite to the launch webinar we are doing with Henry Harteveldt, Vice President and Principal Analyst at Forrester Research and according to Travel Weekly magazine one of the 33 most influential people in travel in the World. Take a look at the video:

As President and CEO of GuestCentric I would like to officially welcome you to our new blog. The GuestCentric blog will be the place where you will meet our growing team, hear about what we are up to, get updates on our service available on www.guestcentric.com and discuss industry trends that may or may not impact your business.

If you are one of the twenty-odd independent hotels that have been working with us for the past year and have tested our platform for the past six months, we thank you. Your input has been the single most valuable contribution to the success we have had to date. You have embraced our vision to enable a truly guest-centric (hence, the name…) travel experience and to provide this through an easy-to-use and affordable tool.

Your input has allowed us to created an exciting Software as a Service platform that enables smaller independent properties to compete with larger properties and chains using tactics where size and spending matter less and creativity and innovation matter more. And we believe that by aggregating the buying power of lots of smaller hotels we can create a new level of service to guests.

As our first contribution we have organized a webinar with leading industry experts that dissects the state of the industry today and provides practical recommendations that you can start implementing in your hotel right away. Please register for our newsletter to have access to the webinar video and a library of other best practices that we will be developing over time. And if you want to try our service free for 30 days, don’t hesitate to sign-up.

Again, welcome to this blog and stay tuned for more posts about GuestCentric and the industry. Now the adventure starts!

Pedro