News for the Hospitality Executive |
Who Book $8 Billion in Hotel Revenue Tools by TravelCLICK and DoubleClick/Google enable dynamic rate update and measure the true reach of online ads targeted to travel agents |
CHICAGO (July 23, 2009) – TravelCLICK, the leading provider of ecommerce solutions for hotels, today announced a new technology to improve the quality of promotional advertising on select Global Distribution Systems (GDS)—coupled with a new methodology for measuring advertising reach to a travel agent audience that yielded over $8 billion in hotel bookings in 2008. While the GDS has long been considered a cost-effective way to deliver targeted messages to travel agents at the point of sale, the tasks of ensuring best available rate (BAR) display in those ads and measuring advertising reach have been a challenge. Now advertisers have a new level of sophisticated functionality and transparency for GDS ad placement that is currently unrivaled elsewhere online. Through a year-long collaboration using DoubleClick/Google ad serving technology, TravelCLICK and DoubleClick/Google have identified and leveraged unique predictive characteristics within both the ad serving and travel agent hotel shopping environments. The result of the research and corresponding development is two significant enhancements for advertising on the GDS. The first enhancement, Dynamic Rate Update, instantaneously inserts a hotel’s BAR—specific to actual check-in date—into the ad copy displayed to the audience. By dynamically updating BAR data, it is much more likely that the advertised rate will be available when the audience responds to the advertisement, increasing the likelihood of a booking. . “Fueled by the influence of increasingly sophisticated online advertising options, the industry is demanding targeted marketing strategies that are more relevant and effective,” said John Hach, Vice President of Media for TravelCLICK. “Our research showed a consistent lack of reliability in advertised rates—primarily due to the dynamic nature of pricing and purchasing within the GDS marketplace. Through our partnership with DoubleClick/Google, hotels can now leverage a new level of technology to improve ad integrity and relevance. This is truly a dynamic solution designed for a dynamic environment.” Second, a next-generation methodology isolates and identifies advertising-enabled travel agencies and measures the hotel booking revenue that they produce in participating GDS. While the actual advertising reach has not changed, this new methodology quantifies the hotel revenue an advertiser can attempt to influence within the channel. For full year 2008, the total hotel booking revenue delivered to the hotel industry by these advertising-enabled travel agencies exceeded $8 billion. “Our mission is to empower customers with advertising solutions that deliver maximum flexibility and a robust feature set,” said Jonathan Bellack, Group Product Manager of Publisher Advertising Platforms at Google. “We are pleased that TravelCLICK was able to use the DoubleClick platform to enhance the relevance, transparency, and measurement of advertising within the GDS.” The American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) has been instrumental in developing TravelCLICK’s Dynamic Rate Update and advertising-enabled hotel booking methodology. In today’s highly competitive marketplace, it is imperative that hoteliers provide best available rates to travel agents for bookings made on the GDS. “TravelCLICK’s development of Dynamic Rate Update demonstrates their commitment to the ongoing important and influential role travel agents provide within the hotel selection process,” said William Maloney, Certified Travel Counselor, and Chief Executive Officer of ASTA. About TravelCLICK, Inc. (www.travelclick.net) TravelCLICK, the leader in hotel ecommerce solutions, provides a continuous flow of high-value online bookings to hotels worldwide. A uniquely comprehensive one-stop solution, TravelCLICK offers market intelligence, distribution, electronic marketing, and media solutions delivered with personal attention and local market expertise. With revenue optimization experts in every global market, we help our clients make better business decisions, generate greater demand from the right mix of channels, convert more shoppers to high-value guests, and increase revenue and profitability. Serving the hospitality industry since 1999, TravelCLICK has more than 14,000 customers in 140 countries with offices in Barcelona, Baltimore, Chicago, Dubai, Houston, Phoenix, Melbourne, Shanghai, and Tokyo. |
Contact: TravelCLICK, Inc +1 410 257 9154 [email protected] http://www.travelclick.net/ |
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