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The Art of Hotel Room Pricing: Strategies for Sustainable Profitability 

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RateShopper

Hotel room pricing is one of the most essential but crucial aspects of Hotel Management. It is vital because you need to find the right balance between providing a luxurious experience and keeping your hotel affordable for your guests. In this blog, we will talk about why a hotel room pricing strategy is important, the steps of implementing it, and how it helps increase hotel revenue.  

Importance of Hotel Room Pricing 

Hotel room pricing is essential for hotels as it directly impacts revenue, profitability, and market position. A well-executed pricing strategy allows hotels to maximize its revenue by attracting guests. Additionally, pricing decisions contribute to a hotel’s market positioning, helping to establish its brand perception and differentiate itself from competitors. By leveraging a proper pricing strategy, hotels can achieve sustainable profitability and deliver value to the guests.  

Essential Steps to Implementing Pricing Strategy

Developing an effective pricing strategy is important for hotels to optimize revenue and attract the right target audience. Before setting a hotel’s room price, some points should keep in mind like 

  • Gain a deep understanding of your target audience 
  • Analyze your competitor hotels’ room pricing 
  • Understand your guests’ expectations 

When you know all the answers, it will be easier to set the best room price for your hotel and make maximum revenue from it.  

Pricing Strategies for Hotels to Increase Revenue

Revenue Growth

Competitor Based Pricing:

Looking at your competitors is a reliable way to measure your performance and market trends. By monitoring and analyzing competitors’ pricing strategies, hotels can gain valuable insights into the market and adjust their rates to remain competitive. However, it’s essential to note that competitor-based pricing should not be the sole determining factor. Hotels must consider their own costs, profitability goals, unique selling points, and target audience preferences to balance competitiveness and profitability. 

Occupancy-Based Pricing:   

Occupancy-based pricing is a dynamic pricing strategy where room rates are adjusted based on the occupancy levels of a hotel. This approach allows hotels to optimize revenue by aligning pricing with demand fluctuations. By leveraging the principles of supply and demand, rates can be increased during high occupancy periods to capture guests’ willingness to pay a premium. Conversely, rates can be adjusted during low occupancy periods to attract bookings and maintain occupancy levels. This approach helps hotels optimize revenue, manage inventory effectively, and stay competitive. By closely monitoring occupancy rates and implementing real-time pricing adjustments, hotels can maximize profitability. 

Seasonal Pricing:

This is an important factor to consider for setting the prices of the rooms available during holidays or any popular events time. Hotels can optimize revenue by capitalizing on high-demand periods while remaining competitive during slower seasons.  

Upselling and Cross-Selling:

Implement strategies to upsell and cross-sell room upgrades or additional services to guests. Offer options such as premium room categories, add-on services like airport transfers or dining experiences, and promotions to enhance the guest experience while increasing revenue per guest.

Rate-parity Strategy:

Rate-parity strategy refers to a pricing approach where a hotel maintains consistent room rates across all distribution channels, including its website, online travel agencies (OTAs), and other third-party platforms. Rate parity aims to ensure that the hotel offers the same rates for the same room type and dates, regardless of the booking channel. By implementing rate parity, hotels can maintain transparency, avoid potential conflicts with distribution partners, and provide a consistent pricing experience for guests across all booking channels. 

Effective pricing strategies are essential for hotels to achieve sustainable profitability and maximize revenue. By combining data-driven insights, competitor analysis, rate parity, etc., hotels can optimize revenue, enhance guest satisfaction, and establish a strong market position in the competitive hotel industry. In this scenario, Rate Shopper plays an important role for hotels. It is a powerful product that empowers hotels to stay ahead of the competition by providing valuable insights into market trends and competitor rates. By utilizing this product effectively, many of our customers optimize their pricing strategies, enhance revenue performance, and drive sustainable profitability.  

If you have any further questions or require assistance with pricing strategies for your hotel business, we encourage you to reach out to our sales experts. They are available to provide guidance and support in setting up the optimal pricing structure for your needs. You can leave your inquiries here; our team will happily address them. 

 
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Increasing Direct Bookings with Metasearch – Getting Started with Trivago

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Trivago Blog

Travel planning for most people begin online. With a significant shift in traveller’s behaviour and expectations, hotels can no longer afford to take any risks when it comes to online visibility. With direct booking taking a momentum after the pandemic, metasearch has emerged as an important tool for hotels to attract guests to their website.

Table of Content:

What is Trivago?

With more than 95 million unique monthly visitors and an average of 70% viewability, Trivago is one of the largest metasearch engines for hotels. It processes 4 million search results per day comparing 900000+ hotels information and pricing. An up-to-date profile on Trivago helps with appearance and makes a hotel stand out in its own ways, capturing maximum travellers attention.

It acts as a price aggregator where hotel room prices from various travel sites are shown, when a user searches for accommodation.

trivago-com-Compare-hotel-prices-worldwide - Image 1

Trivago is one of the largest metasearch engine for hotels

Today, in our collaborative endeavor with HotelMinder, we will discuss increasing direct bookings with Trivago. 
 

Why do Hotels Need to be on Trivago?

75% of hoteliers using Trivago have claimed it to be a relevant marketing channel for their hotels.

  • Trivago offers a platform to make an impression to your potential guests and attract them to your brand site for direct booking.
  • You can compete with OTAs by advertising your direct rates and save on booking commissions.
  • A property with a booking engine integrated with Trivago can receive direct bookings on its website while owning guest information.

Register Your Property on Trivago for Free!

  • Get started by creating your profile on Trivago Business Studio.
  • Enter your details like name, contact number, email address to create your profile.
  • Once the profile is ready, enter the name of the property in the search box to claim your listing and you are ready to go!

trivago-Business-Studio 2

It’s very likely your property already has a listing on Trivago

The best part of listing on Trivago is that it follows the same process for registering any property: independent hotels / guest house / B&B / hotel groups or any other kind of accommodation. Plus, you can also claim and manage multiple properties from a single Trivago account.

What is Trivago Business Studio?

Trivago offers a marketing platform for independent hotels called “Business Studio”. It currently operates in 12 languages across 22 local platforms around the world.

This platform provides a number of apps to help manage profile’s content, monitor online marketing performance, track online reputation, analytics and promotions – with no charges or commissions.

The key benefits of using Trivago Business Studio are:

  • Make hotel profile management on Trivago easy and simple.
  • Increase your digital visibility by making Trivago your online marketing channel.
  • Monitor your online reputation by tracking ratings and reviews via “Guest rating app”.

According to Trivago’s research, 75% of registered hoteliers who regularly use Trivago Business Studio find Trivago to be a relevant marketing channel for their property.

How does Trivago work?

In simple terms, Trivago works on an e-commerce business model where the company provides services to the travellers via internet.

Most people picture Trivago as a platform that works with various booking sites including OTAs, hotel websites, along with hotel chains and groups comparing millions of accommodation deals to provide visitors the best match for their needs. But, it is a lot more than this.

This extensive company operates under 3 different business models:

Aggregator Business Model

Trivago works as an aggregator by collecting data of different suppliers including hotels, car rental services, flights, etc. Under this model, Trivago works by processing and fine-tuning the data collected to bring value out of it.

Categorizing the data under location, region, rates, and other criteria – Trivago presents it to the end user to assist them plan their travel.

Trivago image

Trivago recommends users the OTA with the best value

 

Advertiser Business Model

This model is the main source of revenue for Trivago. The company operates on the “Cost per Click” mechanism. Though listing your property on Trivago is 100% free, but simply listing it won’t help you get bookings. To get bookings, your hotel must be ranking on top few positions and this calls for running ads.

Trivago charges the hoteliers every time a user clicks on the advertisement. Displaying the best possible rate, it helps the hotel make its presence on the highest click-through-rate, increases the chance of receiving a booking and brings in revenue to both the hotels and its own channel.

Subscriber Business Model

This model of Trivago is for the Pro business users who agree to pay a subscription fee to avail the advanced features of the Business Studio. The PRO features help the hotels compete better with the likes and rankings of the property on popular Online Travel Agencies like Booking.com, Agoda, MakeMyTrip, etc.

The company claims that the hotels using the PRO package experiences 21% more clicks and 45% increased bookings in comparison to regular users.

Apart from this, Trivago also provides subscribers to showcase their listings through display advertising. The branded messages appear across trivago. Many properties use this feature to increase awareness and highlight special offers.

What is Trivago Rate Connect

With 500,000+ properties listed, Trivago’s business model provides your hotel a competitive edge over competitors with exclusive data, advanced marketing features and Rate Connect.

Trivago developed Rate Connect, an app that enables you to list your website rates directly on Trivago and pull in direct bookings via your hotel’s website.

All your hotel needs to have is a booking engine and a connectivity partner to be eligible to use this perfect blend of direct and indirect booking via Rate Connect.

 
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Tripadvisor for Hotels: How to Make it to a Traveler’s Itinerary

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Tripadvisor is one of the largest online travel portals and online aggregation tool offering hotel reviews, travel advice, reservations and more. For hoteliers, Tripadvisor is a metasearch engine offering powerful marketing possibilities with free and paid listings as well as Cost-Per-Click and Instant Booking functionalities. How to use Tripadvisor to its fullest extend? Let’s dive in!

Table of Content:

“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.” — Warren Buffet

One of the most valuable assets for any business is reputation and for the hotel industry, it’s even more critical.

While the world of travel and tourism is one of the biggest and flourishing sectors, survival in this world isn’t easy. With a new hotel opening up in the vicinity of every 10km or even shorter distance, hotel business demands visibility, exposure, amenities, and quality service.

That’s why Tripadvisor remains a key channel for a hotel. With over 1 billion reviews on its site, Tripadvisor is one of the most trusted travel research platforms for potential guests when they evaluate hotels.

In this blog, we are collaborating with
HotelMinder to unlock the power of Tripadvisor for Hotels.

Getting Started: What is Tripadvisor?

Started as a travel review platform, Tripadvisor is one of the largest online travel portals offering online hotel reservations and bookings for transportation, lodging, travel experiences, and restaurants. With over 463 million people visiting the platform every month to plan their trip and make bookings, it’s often the first place of research for various travelers.

Tripadvisor has been one of the early companies to enter into the Metasearch space with TripConnect. The platform acts as an online aggregation tool where they compile rate and availability of a property from different online sources and present it to the user in a consistent and user-friendly format. The site currently has a listing of over 1.4 million hotels, inns, bed and breakfasts and specialty lodging, as well as 842,000 rental properties.

While online travel agencies often dominate the metasearch advertising space, thanks to their budgetary allocation, it also gives hotels an opportunity to drive travelers to their website through effective campaign.

Tripadvisor for Hotels

Cost-Per-Click

With Tripadvisor’s Cost-Per-Click campaign, hotels can get spotlight on their direct rates and availability — and drive booking-ready travelers straight to their website’s booking page. Independent hotels can also take part in the campaign through Tripadvisor where their rates and availability will be displayed alongside those of Online Travel Agents (OTAs) directly on the property’s Tripadvisor listing in high-profile Price Finder results. Whenever a user clicks on the hotel’s direct listing, it will take them to the hotel’s official website (booking engine). Tripadvisor charges a “cost per click” fee whenever this link is clicked by the customer.

Instant Booking

The Instant Booking feature is only available to users of USA, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, India, Ireland, Malaysia, New Zealand Philippines, Singapore, and South Africa. Travelers in other countries will not see the Instant Booking option. With Instant Booking, potential guests get to see hotel’s live rates and availability on Tripadvisor. Hotels will be able to capture the bookings in real-time through its connectivity partner on a simple pay-for-stays commission basis.

Hotel Instant Booking on Tripadvisor

Benefits of Listing Your Hotel on Tripadvisor

Travelers use Tripadvisor to check the rank of the accommodation, while the accommodation owners list their property here to increase their hotel’s ranking. Let’s see how having a Tripadvisor profile is beneficial for a hotel:

    • It tells the travelers that your hotel exists at so and so location and lists out the amenities you offer.
    • It gives you the freedom to showcase your property the way you want by adding a description, pictures, etc.
    • Multiplying your online reach, it helps you empower your business by attracting more bookings.
    • Availing the advantage of promoting your brand, you can lure guests to visit your brand’s website and make a direct booking.
    • Engage with your customers and make them feel special by immediately replying to their reviews and offering them special offers.

The best of all, a Tripadvisor hotel listing is 100% free; but note that you will be asked to pay for a yearly business subscription for a direct link to your website and other various promotional options.

Steps to Add Your Business on Tripadvisor

Now, when you know the perks of listing your hotel on Tripadvisor, it’s time to check the process of listing:

Step 1. Join Tripadvisor

The first and foremost step is to create your account on Tripadvisor. Simply, click on the “Join” button on the upper right-hand corner and you are ready to go.

Step 2. Search for your hotel on Tripadvisor

The unique part of this platform is that anyone can create a listing on Tripadvisor: both hotel owners and customers.

So, as a business owner your next step is to type the hotel name in the search box to find if your property is already listed or not. If you are lucky enough to find your hotel name in the dropdown menu, then go to step 3 or else skip to step 4.

Step 3. Claim your business

If you find your hotel is already listed by a customer, then it is time to claim your business. Click on the “Claim Your Business” option below the hotel name and get started.

Remember, Tripadvisor allows only 1 listing per property. So, you won’t be able to create a new listing in the same hotel name and you need to claim your property proving you are the owner of it.

Claim your free Tripadvisor listing

Step 4: Request a listing

If you didn’t find your hotel name, then click on the “Request Listing” option below the search box to list your property on Tripadvisor. This will take you to a new page where you will be asked to enter your business information.

Step 5: Enter your information

Enter your business details: Business category, Name, Address, Contact no., when was the hotel started, and other property details. Remember, these details will be visible to every person searching for your hotel on Tripadvisor and will induce their decision to book a room in your hotel or not. Once done, your profile will be created on Tripadvisor.

Once done, you are all set!

Grab Travelers’ Attention with Amazing Photos on Tripadvisor

Graphics appeal to the eye much faster than the mind takes to decode the text! Listings with photos have a competitive advantage over other hotels not showcasing any pictures of their property. Adding high-quality images and videos not only gives the traveler a virtual tour of your accommodation but also increases your ranking on Tripadvisor website.

Research shows that the viewers spend more time scrolling through the profiles of hotels that have 30 or more property images than the hotels with less or no images. Let’s check out the Do’s and Do Not’s of Tripadvisor photography.

Do’s and Don’ts of adding photos to your Tripadvisor listing

    • Do use clear, original, high-quality images.
    • Don’t show your skills in graphic designing.
    • Do mix your pictures of different rooms, lobby, and other areas.
    • Don’t share downloaded pictures from Google.
    • Do upload pictures of different seasons and activities.
    • Don’t share confusing collage images.

How Does Tripadvisor Rank Hotels?

Tripadvisor’s ranking algorithm works on 3 simple elements: quantity, quality, and the recency of the reviews.

    1. How many reviews are there on your profile? What is the average frequency of the reviews?
    2. How relevant are the reviews? Whether guests are talking about the property/ service in the review or not
    3. When was the last review received? Was it before the pandemic?

 

Tripadvisor Popularity Ranking Algorithm

A hotel business with consistently good reviews is considered to be a good property, and ranks higher on Tripadvisor with increased chance of receiving bookings. This is how reviews play a key role in deciding your rank on Tripadvisor.

Manage Reviews on Your Business Profile

Now when you have created your listing, entered business information, uploaded images and you have started receiving bookings also, it’s time to manage your bookings. Remember, reviews play a big role in getting you your next booking plus ranking higher on Tripadvisor. Nearly 72% of customers book their stay based on the reviews. Manage your reviews in 2 simple steps:

Ask for reviews

Start with asking your guests to share their experience of staying at your property. Do not hesitate! Request them to leave their feedback irrespective of whether it is good or bad. You may ask for reviews by word of mouth at the time of check-out and also send a review link via email.

Reply to reviews

Do not let any review go unattended. A thank you message to a good review increases the users trust on you and makes them feel special. Replying to a negative review is more important. Reason being it shows your guests that you value them and their feedback matters to you. This instills a sense of indirect trust and respect among the customer.

Optimize Your Listing on Tripadvisor

Listing your business on Tripadvisor is the first step to let travelers know about the existence of your hotel. But listing isn’t enough! You need to keep updating your details, upload latest images and most important of all keep a track of your reviews and customer feedback. It is a continuous exercise and should be part of your overall hotel marketing and distribution portfolio.

 
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Attract Frequent Travelers with Expedia Group Members Only Promotions with RateTiger

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Expedia Group Member travelers tend to spend more, stay longer, and book more often than non-members. You can target these high-value guests by using Members Only promotions. Members Only promotions offer exclusive deals to over 100 million members across all Expedia Group sites.

Recent Expedia Group research tells us that discounts remain a compelling motivator for travelers looking to book, and they play an important role in fueling the return to travel.

  • 65% of travelers said they use a pricing filter when searching on a travel booking website.
  • A room discount would make 50% of travelers more likely to book an extra night.
  • 30% of travelers considering their first trip after the global pandemic will consider promotions and discounts when choosing their lodging options.

Why Expedia Member Only Deals?

While travelers are searching for discounts, designing a promotional strategy that delivers a strong return on your investment is more important than ever. Using a Member Only promotion is a great strategy to target your promotional offer to the best possible audience and improve your visibility in search.

Target High-Value Guests

Expedia Group members, on average, book twice as many nights and spend twice as much as non-members. They are also more frequent travelers. Over 60% of travelers in Expedia Group loyalty programs stated that they expect to travel several times a year.

Stand Out in Search Results

Each Member Only promotion receives an exclusive badge that helps you stand out in traveler searches. The Members Only badge adds additional visibility to your listing among your competitors in traveler searches.

Ready to Get Started?

Manage your Expedia Group Members Only promotions directly from RateTiger. Simply open the Promotions page and create your Member Only Deal.

For assistance, please contact your account manager at support@erevmax.com.

 
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Unlock Your Hotel’s Potential with Google Hotel Ads: A Step-by-Step Guide

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Google Hotel Ads

Google Hotel Ads is today accounting for almost 60% of all metasearch reservations and is an essential part of any hotel distribution and direct booking strategy. In this article, you are going to learn about how to set up your hotel on Google My Business to take advantage of the free booking links. To find out how to best enhance your hotel business marketing on Google, start here.

Table of Content:

Planning to buy a new gadget? Or looking for a new book recommendation? Or News?

Great! Where do you start? Unsurprisingly it is Google. Right?

Google has become synonymous with search whenever anyone is looking for any product or service, or even knowledge. 9 out of 10 people begin their query on Google. And when it comes to hotels, Google contributes over 50% of direct bookings through organic referrals and paid marketing. If we add this to paid marketing by OTAs which have for years remained among the top spenders on Google and control 75% of the keywords clicks – Google’s dominance in the hotel booking space is clearly something that cannot be ignored. It is one of the simplest and easiest ways to mark your digital presence.

In 2010, Google jumped into the hotel distribution space with “Google Hotel Finder”, which today, as Google Hotel Ads, has become the largest Metasearch channel accounting for 57% of the total hotel bookings via Metasearch. With direct booking gaining momentum after the pandemic, metasearch has emerged as one of the most important channels for revenue managers. Thanks to its continuous feature update like Check-In Date Multiplier, the bid management has also become much more appealing.

A search for hotels on Google

Today, in our joint effort with HotelMinder, we are going to bring you the step-by-step guide to not only list your hotel on Google but also rank on it.

What is Google Business Profile?

Google Business Profile (previously called Google My Busines) is a free business listing tool by Google for companies to list their business on.

It gives the business owners (hoteliers in this case) a platform to create an online profile and present their hotel brand on Google search and on Google Maps, free of cost.

Why do Hotels Need to be on Google?

    • With free booking links, you can appear across Google when users search for hotels.
    • Builds a sense of trust among travellers for the hotel via ratings and reviews.
    • Connect with more travelers and drive direct bookings at a much lesser cost.
    • Share your hotel’s physical address to be visible to local customers.
    • Increase your booking opportunity with a genuine business profile.

List Your Hotel Business on Google in 3 Simple Steps

1. Create Your Google Business Profile to Increase Visibility

Go to https://www.google.com/business/ and sign in with your business (hotel’s) Gmail address. If you don’t have a Gmail id for your business, then create one.

Once done, enter the details of your hotel, like name, address, location, contact number, description, services offered, and so on.

Fill in all the details that are apt for your hotel. In case there is already a business profile of your brand, then it’s time to verify it. Google needs to know if you are the actual owner or manager of the business or not.

Tip: Users trust Google! Win Google’s trust by verifying your hotel and prove its authenticity and legitimacy.

A Google My Business listing means more visibility on Google

2. Share Your Room Rates on Google to Attract Direct Bookings

Now when you have created and updated your business profile, it’s time to share the room rates to drive in direct booking. Once you share the rates with Google, free booking links will automatically show up along with your profile. There are 2-ways to enter prices in your business profile:

    • Your hotel connectivity partner (Channel Manager, Booking Engine, Central Reservation System) that you are using is integrated with Google and automatically shares the prices with Google.
    • You enter the prices manually in your Google My Business Profile and keep updating at regular intervals.

Either way, you choose to share room rates, do ensure that your feed price is updated whenever your room prices change on your website.

3. Start Google Hotel Ads (Optional)

Now, when you have created your business profile on Google and have free booking links generated, how about exploring the largest Metasearch of the hospitality industry – Google Hotel Ads.

Let’s see what Google Hotel Ads is and why it has become an essential tool for hoteliers.

What is Google Hotel Ads?

Launched in 2010, GHA is a hotel Metasearch engine like Trivago or TripAdvisor that acts as an aggregator listing hotel rooms and prices across different platforms. While it is very similar to Google PPC, Google Hotel Ads supports rich media, short descriptions, room rates, availability and direct booking links.

With Google Hotel Ads, guests can book your hotel directly on Google

In short, it is that part of the travel ecosystem that paves a direct way to reach the travellers and help them book their stay without moving to any third-party sites or OTAs. Being the largest Metasearch of 2022, it is no surprise why Google Ads is an essential component of a hotel’s digital marketing strategy.

How does Google Hotel Ads Work?

Just like any regular ad campaigns, you pay Google Hotel Ads to show your hotel to the customers. It is a paid strategy to reach targeted travelers. There are three different pricing models to choose from:

    • PPC (Pay per Conversion): You are charged when a traveller books a stay.
    • PPS (Pay per Stay): You are charged only after a traveller completes the stay. (This is a special model introduced during the time of Covid19)
    • CPC (Cost per Click): You are charged every time a traveller clicks on the ad, irrespective of whether they make a booking or not.

How to Get Started with Google Hotel Ads?

To start an effective ad, a hotelier needs 3 things:

    • A Google My Business account
    • A Google Ads Account
    • A Connectivity Partner

The first 2 accounts are a must to run any Google ad. A connectivity partner is an exception to GHA because it needs a third party for the free flow of ARI information to your ads to show the real-time room rates and availability to the customers.

As mentioned above, the connectivity partner can be your hotel Channel Manager or distribution partner.

Google Hotel Ads visibility on Google Search

If you are an existing Google Hotel Center partner and you’re participating in Hotel Ads, you’re automatically eligible to show free booking links. Any of the pre-existing properties in the hotel campaign or ad feeds are eligible for free booking links without any additional cost.

If you don’t have a Hotel Center account but are willing to start with Google Hotel Ads and free booking links, you got to fill out the interest form.

Explore the Marketing Potential of Google Hotels

Getting started with Google is a win-win deal for both the hoteliers and the travellers. Hoteliers get to build their online presence on Google Search through Google Ads, Google Maps, Google Assistant and more.

Travelers get the ease and comfort of hotel search and bookings directly from Google without hovering through multiple sites in search of the best deal. With the travel industry pacing up to normalcy, it is a must for hotels/motels/lodges and hotel chains to get started with Google to pull in maximum bookings.

 
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RateTiger by eRevMax Shines at ATM Dubai 2023 – A Glimpse 

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ATM Dubai Featured Banner

Arabian Travel Market (ATM) is the leading global event for the Middle East’s inbound and outbound travel industry. Attending the ATM is like discovering a new book every time. This year, RateTiger by eRevMax had the opportunity to exhibit at the 30th edition of ATM Dubai held from 1-4 May at the Dubai World Trade Centre. 

This event gave us the right platform to unveil RateTiger’s latest innovation. We were thrilled to see the excitement and interest among the visitors to know more about this innovation. Nothing could have been better than revealing the introduction of yield pricing in our product at ATM Dubai. The zeal among hoteliers kept our booth busy for all 4 days of the event, giving us the opportunity to connect with industry professionals and build new partnerships. 

The 30th edition of the Arabian Travel Market was a resounding success, setting a new record with more than 40,000 attendees, a 29% increase over the previous edition in 2022. This 4-day event welcomed over 2,000 exhibitors and representatives from over 150 nations. The diverse range of exhibitors and participants participating in the event helped RateTiger set a new record too with the number of business professionals we met. ATM Dubai truly encapsulated the global nature of the travel industry. The energy and vibes of travel professionals coming together were unbeatable, reigniting their passion for business and growth. 

ATM Dubai – ‘Working Towards Net Zero’   

This year’s Arabian Travel Market (ATM) Dubai has adopted the theme ‘Working Towards Net Zero’, reflecting the industry’s commitment to sustainability and environmental responsibility. The Second Deputy Ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Ahmed bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum officially inaugurated Arabian Travel Market 2023. 

Following this slogan, ATM focused on reducing the event’s environmental impact. They had established 3 pillars to help them achieve net zero by 2040. 

  • Educate 
  • Collaborate 
  • Action 

We proudly say that The Middle East is a key growth market for our business. The event gave us valuable insights into the unique challenges and opportunities facing the region’s hospitality industry. 

RateTiger at ATM Dubai 

RateTiger’s presence at the ATM Dubai was truly remarkable. Numerous visitors stopped by our stand, and the RateTiger team enjoyed networking with clients, partners and hotel owners in person. During this 4-day event, we showcased our product to small and big hotel owners, B2Bs, OTAs and destination management companies. We described to them how RateTiger could optimize revenue management, streamline operations, and improve the guest experience. 

We revealed our most awaited announcement – yield pricing – which will strategically impact a hotel business. This incredible feature allows hotel owners to create a customized pricing strategy tailored to their hotel’s occupancy level and ensures they strike the perfect balance between supply and demand. We were thrilled to see how this feature was readily accepted by the hotel chain owners. They shared their thoughts and expectations from this latest innovation. 

It was a pleasure to receive feedback on how our products: RateTiger Channel Manager, Booking Engine, and Rate Shopper, simplified many hotel problems in the Middle East. We received uncountable positive feedback from many clients, partners, and friends worldwide. It gave us more strength that we are on the right track to providing the ultimate solution on the latest trends and developments in the hospitality industry. 

Our presence at ATM Dubai was an engaging, innovative, and informative experience for industry professionals. We are looking forward to participating in more events in the coming days. With a vibrant atmosphere and exciting interactions with partners and clients, ATM Dubai left a lasting impression on us. 

 
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Unveiling RateTiger’s Latest Innovation at ATM: A Conversation with RateTiger’s Product Owner

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Conversation about RateTiger's Latest Innovation
RateTiger by eRevMax – a leading provider of hotel revenue management solutions welcomes you to a recent interview conducted by the marketing team. With ATM – Arabian Travel Market in Dubai just around the corner, we’re excited to speak with Alin Lazar, product owner at RateTiger, about the upcoming innovation that the company will be announcing at the tradeshow. As hoteliers continue to face challenges in the industry, the latest development promises to automate pricing distribution while balancing occupancy and price.
In this interview with the marketing team, we’ll be talking about the benefits of this new innovation, its impact on hotel revenue, and its user-friendliness.
So, let’s dive right into this exciting conversation!

Marketing: As the product owner, you’ve mentioned that a new innovation has been developed, and it’s set to be announced at ATM. Could you give us a sense of what benefits this innovation would bring to our users once it’s revealed at the show?

Alin: Unfortunately, my lips are sealed when it comes to the specific details of our upcoming innovation. But what I can tell you is that we’ve been working on an automation tool that will make hoteliers’ lives a whole lot easier. Think of it as a magical price distribution engine that automates the process, allowing hoteliers to strike the perfect balance between occupancy and price. And the best part? It’ll even get rid of those pesky Excel spreadsheets that are a thorn in everyone’s side.

We’re thrilled to report that our beta testing has been a success. We’ve got some seriously happy hoteliers on our hands. We can’t wait to unveil this innovation to the world at ATM and see the positive impact it’ll have on the industry.

Marketing: It sounds like this innovation has the potential to make a big difference for hoteliers. It’s something that would automate the process and help with price distribution, but what about the impact on revenue? Could you speak to whether this innovation has the potential to positively impact a hotel’s revenue?

Alin:  Definitely! With this innovation, hoteliers will be able to automate the price distribution process and achieve a better balance between occupancy and price. This can lead to increased revenue and profitability for hotels, and for example, what we’ve seen during the beta testing was an average of 4% revenue increase.

In today’s fast-paced industry, time is money, and hoteliers who are able to save time by automating their processes can gain a competitive advantage. By automating the pricing process and eliminating the need for manual monitoring of occupancy, hoteliers can also focus their efforts on other areas that can drive revenue as well, such as guest experience and marketing.

In short, automation and revenue go hand in hand, and this innovation has the potential to help hoteliers achieve their revenue goals while also saving time and resources. We’re excited to see the positive impact it will have on the industry.

Marketing: From what you’ve shared so far, this innovation sounds like it has the potential to make a big impact for hoteliers. But I’m curious about how user-friendly it is. Can you speak to the user experience and whether the tool is intuitive and easy to use?

Alin: Absolutely! Our design team deserves a round of applause for creating a user-friendly and intuitive interface that even a kid could use…

We’ve worked closely with hoteliers to make sure that the tool addresses their pain points and helps them optimize their pricing distribution strategy.

Overall, we’re confident that this innovation will help hoteliers increase revenue while saving time and headaches. And with its user-friendly design, hoteliers can spend less time managing their pricing strategy and more time doing what they do best – creating unforgettable guest experiences.

Marketing: This innovation sounds really exciting! Are there any new features or updates that you have planned for the future to make RateTiger even more useful for hoteliers?

Alin: Sure, our focus is on further automating the pricing and distribution process, increasing visibility, and removing manual processes wherever possible while further expanding our CRS capabilities.

We’re working hard to ensure that hoteliers can connect with new channels seamlessly, making it a simple drag-and-drop process. Our ultimate goal is to eliminate the need for hoteliers to even go to any extranet at all, freeing up more of their time to focus on providing the best possible guest experiences.

So, while I can’t provide any specific details at this time, rest assured that we’re constantly working to improve our innovation and provide the best possible solutions to our customers.

Marketing: RateTiger will have a stand at ATM in Dubai this year. What are your expectations for the show? Also, if you don’t mind me asking, which days are you planning to attend? 

Alin: Well, you know what they say about travel shows – it’s all about the free swag! But in all seriousness, we’re excited to be here and showcase our innovation. As for which days I’ll be here, let’s just say I plan to make the most of the free coffee on the first and second days, but my team will be at the show all four days, and I’m sure they will be happy to meet hoteliers to discuss and understand their technology needs. I’m looking forward to connecting with hoteliers and our colleagues from the industry

Marketing: I wish you a successful time at the show!

Alin: Thanks!

 
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RateTiger by eRevMax in Swing at ITB Berlin 2023 – A Glimpse

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RateTiger at ITB Berlin

ITB Berlin 2023 held from 7 – 9 March has been the talk of the hospitality industry since Day 1. As we conclude the month, still the discussions about ITB Berlin (Internationale Tourismus-Börse Berlin) are in full swing. The visitors/exhibitors are in no mood to give pause to the thrill and excitement of this successful event.

Like every year, RateTiger by eRevMax exhibited at this World’s Leading Travel Trade Show and had a great time. We weren’t sure of what was going to happen as the doors of ITB Berlin had opened after 3 years, but undoubtedly it was a spectacular event bringing a boost to our business – as usual.

After a break of 3 years due to the pandemic the slogan for this year was “Open For Change”. Following its slogan, this was the first time ITB Berlin hosted the event in person after 3 years bringing together people from the hotel and travel tech industry.

Open For Change

After a pause of 3 years due to the pandemic the slogan for this year was “Open for Change”. Resonating its slogan, ITB Berlin hosted the event by bringing people together from the hotel and travel tech ecosystem to drive change within the industry.

This 3-day event welcomed 90,000+ attendees from over 180 countries around the world making it one of the biggest centers of attraction and confirming it as one of the leading platforms. The entire hall was filled with laughter, warmth and excitement representing the value of face-to-face meetings.

With around 5500 exhibitors showcasing their business, performances from different regions, conferences, evening events on the exhibition ground, travel talks all together reflected people’s desire to meet and greet in person.

Welcome to RateTiger’s Booth

Across the engaging sessions, our booth attracted a lot of industry professionals and team RateTiger was pleased to network with customers and partners in person.

itb berlin ratetiger booth 2023

Just like the theme of ITB Berlin, we witnessed that the entire industry is Open to Change hugging the concept of Socially Responsible and Sustainable Tourism. Hotels were keen to not only digitalize the booking process but also have a simplified and efficient online hotel management solution.

Having the opportunity to connect with hotel owners, OTAs and other industry experts, we witnessed how the hospitality industry is continuously accelerating towards innovation. Seeing the zeal among hoteliers to simplify their booking process and eagerness to learn about RateTiger Channel Manager, Rate Shopper and other products, our excitement rose to a new level.

We received overwhelming responses from our various stakeholders be it clients, partners, friends as well as newcomers in the industry. With international participation growing from 50% in 2019 to 70% in 2023, it gave us the opportunity to introduce ourselves and pitch our products in new regions.

Carrying our bags of swotting, success, sales and satisfaction, we are looking forward to optimizing our products and strategies as per the industry trends to keep accelerating our business.

Next Stop

After a successful ITB Berlin 2023, team RateTiger will be glad to see you at the following events:

ITB India: Join us at the ITB India to be held in Mumbai from 26-28 April 2023.

ATM Dubai: Visit our Booth SS1, TT1072 to be held in Dubai from 1-4 May 2023.

See you there!

To know more, connect with us on:

For Sales related queries: sales@erevmax.com

For Marketing related queries: marketing@erevmax.com

 
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Target Guests from Specific Countries with Country Rates by Booking.Com

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Country Rates blog RateTiger

With travelers hitting the road again, it’s time to make your property more attractive for them. How about targeting international travelers this time? More international travelers mean more revenue but how to do this?

The answer is “Country Rates’.

Whether you want to expand your regional diversity, enter a new market, or target guests from a particular country – be it your own or a new one, you can do it all with Country Rate.

What is Country Rate?

Country Rate is a feature used by hotels to set specific room rates for different countries. It is a method to offer special prices or discount rates to guests from your market of choice. Hotels can set different country rates for different people coming from varied countries. Country rates may vary depending on the hotel’s location and the level of demand for rooms at any given time.

The best part is that you can apply country rates to all your hotel room types, room rates and rate plans.

Is Country Rate Applicable Only for International Guests?

No, you are free to set discounted room rates for your local people where your hotel is situated. Hotels use this strategy to boost their presence in their own region and build business relations in the local market by offering a discounted price for corporate bookings.

The peak season varies in different countries. Country rates allow you to attract travellers from different countries during the holiday season/ peak season over there by offering discounts in different markets at different times. This way hotels can achieve 100% occupancy in advance both during high and low periods. Along with it, if you apply the mobile rate feature to your room pricing strategy, you can target travelers from all platforms booking a stay from any device.

Is Country Rate Valid Globally?

Due to legal or commercial restrictions, the country rate is not valid globally and is restricted in some countries. In fact, some hotels in countries where it is valid may ask for residential proof to make sure you are not taking advantage of the discounted price to make the reservation.

Benefits of Adding Country Rates

  • Target international customers from new markets.
  • International customers tend to book early and cancel less.
  • Sell your rooms in advance by offering special prices during the festive season.
  • Appeal to guests traveling from your target regions with a special offer.

Create Country Rates on Booking.com to unlock new demand by offering great prices to travellers from countries you particularly want to target. Adding Country Rates is a proactive step that hotels can take to increase your property’s occupancy as part of their pricing strategy.

Create Country Rates for Booking.com directly from your RateTiger Dashboard through the Promotions tab.

Read here to learn more about country rates and how to apply them to your existing room rate plan.

 
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Everything You Need to Know About Hotel Booking Window

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Booking Window is crucial in anticipating revenue for any hotel or B&B owner. The number of trips a traveler will make and in how advance will they book the room is highly unpredictable. But revenue managers often try to identify a pattern in the booking window and accordingly try to leverage it for profit maximization.

Let’s see how to do this.

What is Booking Window?

Booking window is the time gap between a customer making the booking and his/ her arrival. It is the same as the lead time. Let’s understand this with an example.

John booked a room in “Hotel XYZ, India” on the 15th of October and arrives on the 15th of December. The booking window for this room will be 2 months.

In simple terms, booking window talks about how much in advance a guest makes a reservation.

This window varies according to season, location, travel demands, property types, upcoming events, holidays, and other characteristics and factors. Hotels and B&B owners often rely on the booking window to plan their room rates and allocation based on historical data. For instance, if a hotel is used to receiving 10-15% of their reservations six months before the arrival, the revenue management team might allocate a certain number of rooms in their Early Bird offer and ensure occupancy.

The pandemic disrupted the normal. With restrictions and ever-developing changes, travelers wary with apprehensions look for more flexibility. That means shortened booking window, more flexible cancellation policies and last-minute bookings. For the revenue manager, this change in travel behavior has disrupted their existing framework. Relearning and readjusting to the new normal has become a challenge.

Let’s dive further into the booking window and why it is crucial for hotel owners.

Importance of Booking Window

Knowing in advance when will the maximum number of rooms in your property be sold gives you a clear indication of what should the price of the room be. With the help of rate shopping and booking window, you can set the maximum price for the room during that period. This will help you leverage revenue maximization by setting the highest price during the booking season. But this comes with a catch.

It is only pragmatic not to show all your cards – similarly hotels need to make room availability based on booking window. No revenue managers make all their rooms available for sale at the very beginning of the booking window. The idea is to phase out, monitor the booking pace and keep a few for real-time demand, i.e., last-minute bookings during the season. Different markets have different booking windows and people can act differently during the booking phase and actual arrival.

Let’s take an example.

Suppose for the holiday season in December; most people start making their reservations in September. The end of September is your peak time when demand is at its best to get maximum bookings for December. Knowing this will help you set the highest room rates for December at that time. This will help you secure maximum revenue in advance for the season.

Increasing room prices before September end or after the cooling period in mid-October will help you lose the guest when your competitor hotel has already reduced their prices. This is how knowing guest behavior and booking window helps you leverage maximum revenue.

Factors that Decide the Booking Window

1. What is the best time to visit your city/ town?

The booking window for this time will be high as most guests will book in advance.

2. Is there any upcoming famous event or show in your area/ city?

The booking window will vary from the date tickets are sold to the event date.

3. Does the weather in your area change unexpectedly?

The booking window will be small as people will make last-minute bookings seeing the weather.

4. What is the ADD (Average Distance to Date) of your guests?

The booking window will be minimum as there might be last-night bookings or bookings on arrival.

How do I Calculate My Booking Window?

With most hotel reservation management system maintaining past booking data, identifying booking patterns and windows have become rather easy. One can easily get this information from your hotel channel manager or the OTAs you sell your rooms. However, OTAs can only provide you with the booking history of their channel only, so the safest side is to download the booking history of your property from the channel manager. It will give you the data of the reservations made from any and every platform.

Now that you know the importance of the booking window, it’s time to get the data of your room bookings and set the best room rates for the peak season. You can use your hotel channel manager and rate shopper to pull in maximum revenue.

 
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