Hoteliers Aggressively Maintain Rate Parity
through Multiple Distribution Channels
.
March 2004

The rise and importance of on line travel.

In today�s internet savvy community, online travel sites are quickly replacing the role of the traditional travel and reservation agents. A trend first realized in North America, it is now spreading rapidly to Europe, South America and other continents around the world. The internet simply affords most consumers a more efficient booking tool for assessing a hotel�s value, hence the recent dramatic shift in the way consumers do business.

If your hotel is in a competitive market, you will need to work on building your internet presence, which includes maximizing the use of online distribution channels. The internet is where the consumer is doing business, so that is where a hotel must be aggressively marketed. It is that simple.

Given the need for hotels to aggressively market themselves on the web, it is not uncommon in a competitive market for a hotel to work with big, medium and small travel websites alike. Such practice is identical to five years ago when hotels would work with big, medium and small travel agencies. If your hotel does not show up on a travel website the consumer can not book it. Thus, for aggressively marketed hotels, it is not uncommon for them to work with 10, 20, 30 or even 50 plus online travel distribution channels. 

Rate Parity:

Rate parity exists when the same rate structure for a hotel exists across all its 
distribution channels. 

Why rate parity is critical:

When a hotel effectively controls rate parity, rate integrity is assured and the 
consumer becomes confident in booking the hotel. Rate parity ensures an even playing field and is critical in protecting a hotel� relationship with all its 
distribution partners, including hotel franchisors, meeting planners, travel agencies and online travel companies alike.

Rate parity was originally introduced by hotel franchisors so the rates on their own websites remained competitive and took on the form of a lowest rate guarantee. 

Most franchisors now enforce their lowest rate guarantees with tough penalties for their hotels found in violation. But as the brand recognition and marketing power of the various online travel websites grow, the third party travel website�s role in a hotel�s business success continues to increase.

However, rate parity is not simply a franchisor issue. It is a critical issue to protect the integrity of any hotel. If a consumer visits a dozen different travel websites and there is a different rate on every site, the hotel�s integrity is put into question by the consumer. When a hotel�s rate integrity is questioned it�s bad for business, for the hotel, the brand, and the website itself.

How Do I attain Rate Parity?

The key issue in rate parity today is ensuring the rules of certain websites markup structures are fully understood and adhered to. If your hotel decides to work with one travel website and expect them to be effective in a competitive market, it makes sense to start working with as many websites as possible to gain maximum exposure. But if the markup rules are slightly different on every website, calculating accurate net rates to stay in rate parity becomes an issue.

Managing accurate and competitive rates is tough enough, but attempt to do so through dozens of different internet channels?  Just imagine: logging into dozens of extranets everyday, each extranet having a different website address and login procedure to remember,  with different markup methods, different ways to access and change rates, different contract terms, different website exceptions and different price rounding methods, the task becomes daunting, if not impossible, for today�s revenue manager.

Amazingly, today hotels can obtain and manage increased internet exposure through hundreds of websites, as well as maintain accurate and competitive Rate Parity through the use of the EZ YIELD.COM channel management system.

EZ YIELD.com� provides the hotel the ability to Simultaneously Update Rates, Allotments and Inventory Restrictions on ALL of their Internet Wholesalers.

IT�S as EASY as 1, 2, 3

  1. Enter Date Range(s) to Update 
  2. Enter GLOBAL Rate, Allotment and Inventory Restrictions 
  3. Press YIELD NOW
In one minute, or the time it took to read this article, you could have YIELDED 5, 10, 20, 30, or more EXTRANETS, on one interface, simultaneously with all net rates and selling rates calculated and sent out for you automatically, thus ensuring rate parity. 
 
LEARN MORE ABOUT EZ YIELD.com�, and see a LIVE DEMONSTRATION at www.ezyield.com.

Henry Danish, CEO and Co-Founder of EZ Yield.com stated that �the internet wholesaler industry, as it relates to hotel revenue management, is in dire need of yielding standardization.� EZ Yield.com has translated this need into a simple to use, yet technologically advanced, web-based application. � 

About EZ Yield.com:  

EZ Yield.com provides Hoteliers a state of the art web-based yield management platform with the power to update Rates, Availability, Allotments, Cut-Off Dates, Blackout Dates, and Minimum Night Stays simultaneously across the �spectrum� of their �contracted� internet wholesalers for ALL their on line travel websites.

 

###

Contact:

EZYield.com 
989 W. Kennedy Blvd. Suite 204
Orlando, FL 32810

Edward St. Onge
President
[email protected]
Tel: (407) 341-5941

Gary Lobo
VP Sales & Marketing
[email protected]
Tel: (407) 716-2541

www.ezyield.com



 
Also See How Can I Efficiently Manage All Those Travel Sites? 5...4...3...2...1...DONE!!! / February 2004
How do I Successfully Manage All These Extranets - Top Hoteliers Find A Way / February 2004
Top Talent Flocks to EZ Yield / December 2003
EZ-YIELD� Signs Mutual Marketing Agreement with First Internet Travel d.b.a. 1800USAHotels.com / October 2003
Interstate Hotels & Resorts Finds the Solution to Managing All Those Extranets / October 2003
How do I Successfully Manage All These Extranets - Top Hoteliers Find A Way / June 2003
EasyRMS Ltd. & EZ Yield.com Form Strategic Alliance and On-line Product Integration / April 2003
New Internet Tool Boosts Online Revenue, Exceeds Hoteliers� Wildest Expectations / Sept 2002


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