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Operators Talk about Online Incentive Strategies,
Team with Revenue Management Professionals to Leverage Corporate Travel
Increases
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June 13, 2004 - Travelers are back on planes and in cars taking vacations
and doing business. But in the past three years both corporate and
leisure travelers have evolved in their booking habits and changed practices
for the hotel industry. This year travelers are placing their confidence
in the Internet and booking a growing number of airline and hotel reservations
online. The accelerating growth of the Internet society makes it
a necessity that hotels develop a multi-channel Internet marketing and
sales strategy to promote themselves, keep third-party booking site inventory
current, and maintain competitive rates across the Web. Unfortunately,
most properties do not have the expertise or staff to create a channel
market plan, let alone monitor their rates and inventory on the array of
channels offering their rooms, and this costs them money.
Operators Use Promotions, Tap Revenue Managers
to Increase Internet Reservations
A growing number of independent and chain properties wanting to increase
their reservation productivity through Internet and other booking sources
are turning to channel sales providers to tame the complex process of promoting
their properties online. Operators are using services ranging from
the latest website booking-engines, to comprehensive Internet marketing
and promotional campaigns to boost productivity. “We know how to
use the Internet,” said Ubaldo Fierros, Corporate Revenue Manager of Brisas
Hotels and Resorts. “But our business property in Mexico City was
having flat reservation growth because of the complicated rate and city
codes required by many travel websites. To correct this we began
working more closely with our Revenue Manager from the channel sales company
we use at all six of our properties, Lexington Services.” Channel
Revenue Managers are experienced online hotel marketing professionals that
specialize in developing sales strategies tailored for individual properties
and chains. The strategies suggested by Lexington’s Revenue Manager for
Brisas included travel agency promotions and new corporate rates for its
city properties that improved revenue and raised occupancies almost at
once. “Lexington loaded updated corporate rates for two of our properties
and negotiated new travel agency commissions that increased Internet and
TA production, and this helped improved our ADR immediately,” said Fierros.
“Reservation productivity from Orbitz, Expedia and other sites is growing
fast thanks to the work of our property teams and our Revenue Manager at
Lexington.”
Converting Headlines to The Bottomline
| The Huntington Country Inn in the
heart of Long Island, New York is a favorite of corporate travelers who
prefer the quiet, well appointed property as home base while in the area
on business. The General Manager, Guy Reed, saw that while industry
publications were full of stories about the growing trend in Internet reservations,
his property was not having the same experience. His response was
to contact his online channel company and ask them for suggestions on how
to change things. “I explained our performance concerns to our Revenue
Manager at Lexington Services,” explained Guy Reed, Huntington |
Huntington Country Inn
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Country Inn’s general manager. “After working with us a few days
and doing research on our channel strategies and rate placements she was
able to spot several ways to improve performance. One of the first
tactics she used was to email special promotional rate offers to all the
travel agents in our database. She checked our inventory at the sites
where our rooms were offered then created an incentive marketing program
on Sabre by offering preferred rates for a limited time to drive occupancy.”
The results: the 62-room independent Huntington Country Inn property has
seen a $4,000 to $6,000 improvement in the past three months. And
now the hotel’s general manager has asked Lexington Services’ Revenue Manager
to train his managers on how to sell more effectively over the Internet
and GDSes. As Reed said, “Her industry experience made a real difference
to our bottom line.”
| Low Season
Tune Up Doubles Reservations
Last year the 208-room La Posada Hotel/Suites in Laredo, Texas, suffered
from the same dilemma as many properties, the low-season blues. Summer
is the low season in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas, and even though
the tough drilling crews and oil and gas executives who frequent the hotel
are used to the heat, business can turn soft in the long summer months.
Heriberto Aguilar, La Posada Hotel/Suites’ reservation manager knew he
could do more to improve occupancy during the summer so he contacted the
property’s Revenue Manager. “I asked for help with our low season
numbers, and put him to work,” |
La Posada Hotel/Suites |
said Aguilar. “Our channel sales partner is Lexington Services, and
the first thing their Revenue Manager assigned to our hotel did was run
a survey of our current availability across all the sites offering our
rooms. He recommended that we discuss creating a summer promotion
for La Posada that offered double commissions to travel agents who sent
business to our property during the summer months.” The results were
impressive. With the summer season in full swing, now half of all
La Posada reservations are being generated by travel agents. “This is saying
plenty,” noted Aguilar. “Receiving five out of every ten reservations
from travel agents is a big change because we also book a large number
of reservations from our website and from call-ins to our reservation agents.
Our Lexington Revenue Manager works hands-on with our staff and this makes
a big difference in our occupancy and reservation production. They
focus on our hotel’s performance and that keeps more guests booking our
rooms.”
About VIP Investment Corp and Lexington Services
 VIP
Investment Corp. acquired Lexington Services in November of 2003 through
a wholly owned subsidiary. Lexington Services (www.lexres.com)
is a channel marketing organization that drives revenue for hoteliers through
a multi-channel reservation sales center, the adoption of leading-edge
technology, and partnerships with clients to provide ongoing education.
VIP Investment Corporation (www.vipintcorp.com),
which also owns VIP International Corporation of Calgary Canada, is the
industry's second largest provider of reservation sales services to hotels,
car rental companies and airlines with more than 5,000 clients worldwide.
The privately held Calgary, Alberta-based firm pursues a mission of being
"The number one producer of bookings and profitability per client."
VIP accomplishes this through mastering the electronic channel marketing
environment, developing and implementing strategies for each client's unique
position, and educating customers about how to optimize participation in
the changing electronic marketplace. The service provides a central
distribution point to every viable Internet Web booking site, and to all
of the major global distribution systems including Sabre, Galileo, Pegasus,
WorldRes, Amadeus, and Worldspan. VIP Investment Corp. is headquartered
in Calgary, Canada with a USA subsidiary headquarters in Dallas, Texas
and significant development office presence in Denver, Colorado, London,
United Kingdom, Hong Kong and other cities located around the world.
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