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Market Manager Today? |
Introduction
With the advent of online travel, many hoteliers have become complacent with how they manage their relationship with online travel websites. The most common misconception is that once you are �live� with a site, you do not have to worry about HOW to drive in business from that site. Nothing could be further from the truth. Contracting with a website is just the first step in generating business. One of the most important parts of this process is achieving a key placement position on the site. Why is key placement highly desirable? Look at a travel website like the doors to your hotel. If the main entrance to your hotel is hard to find, no one will enter. If the entrance is clear and well lit with a lot of passing traffic, people will flow into the property. The same is true with website placement. If your hotel is hard to find on a travel website, (how often have YOU searched passed page two to find a hotel room?) you will get few bookings as compared to if you stand out on page one on the search results of your city. The first page, top slot on a travel website is often the most productive position where a hotel can be placed. The hotel consumer pays particular attention to the first six slots on the first page and the first two slots on the second page. If your hotel is featured in either of these highly sought-after positions, significant exposure is assured and you will receive excessive market penetration from that market from that website. What�s the difference in business, based on my hotel�s placement on a website? Because many travel website�s brands are so powerful, the difference between being on page one in the top slot and page five could literally make or break a hotel. Placement has a most powerful impact in a competitive destination market such as Las Vegas, New York, Miami, Orlando, San Francisco, etc. Page one and position one on some websites could generate enough business to literally fill a hotel for weeks on end, while being on page five on the same website would generate relatively little business. The Travel Website Market Manager Relationship � The Key to Your Hotel Success The key question for the hotel then becomes �How do I get better placement?� The answer is just as simple - ask your market manager. Once you open the dialogue with the market manager at each website, the relationship process begins. Get to know each of your market managers by taking them out to lunch, calling them regularly, and learning what they need from you as well as how your hotel can help fill their needs. Market managers are like anybody else --- they do business with those people they like most, and those hotels that are most easy for them to work with as well as help them make a healthy profit. Making the Time for a Relationship with the Market Manager � 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... DONE!!! Many hoteliers complain when dealing with 5, 10, 20 or more travel websites that they are so engrossed in trying update rates and inventory, they do not have time to work on the relationship part of the business. Managing the extranet side of the process can now be fully automated, allowing you to focus most of your time and effort to building the market manager relationship, and driving more revenue to your hotel. In less than the time it typically takes to update rates and inventory on one travel website, �EZ Yield� can do 10, 20, 50 or more site updates with just the click of a button. With this tool (www.ezyield.com) hoteliers can update Rate, Availability, Inventory, Cutoff Dates, Stop Sell/Closeout, Minimum Night Stay and Closed to Arrival restrictions for �contracted� wholesaler websites. EZ Yield gets hoteliers out of the Manual Data Entry business and into the Revenue Strategy and Management business, dramatically impacting internet ADR and occupancy. EZ Yield Benefits:
EZ Yield Features:
For more information or an online demonstration contact:
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EZYield.com
Gary Lobo
Edward St. Onge
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