What Your Direct Bookings Can Learn From Streaming Services
Larry and Adam Mogelonsky | March 17, 2021
IDeaS Introduces Optix for G3 RMS, Providing Big-Picture Revenue Intelligence for Hotel Groups
IDeaS | February 24, 2021
Revenue Strategies
Why Now Is the Best Time to Finance
Dr. Donald W. Wise | April 14, 2021
By Dr. Donald W. Wise Winter is officially over, and although the capital markets for hotel and resort refinance, acquisition and new-build construction lending have been frozen, they have been stealthily thawing out since the first of the year. Since the start of the pandemic, short-term bridge and renovation loans for the hospitality sector have been mostly non-existent and full recourse. Hospitality lending pencils are by no means all the way up, but the road to recovery has started with a phrase that has not been heard since before the Great Recession: non-recourse debt. What is Non-Recourse Debt? Non-recourse debt...
Revenue Management for Recovery
Amin Himani | April 7, 2021
By Amin Himani Emerging Trends – What to Expect This year more than ever, recognizing the discipline of Revenue Management in our industry must transcend into Revenue Strategy will be crucial for success. While navigating the unpredictable travel patterns in 2021, consider that the traditional pace, competitive sets, and value-proposition identified historically to be altered and a need to examine the implications of the pandemic on each market segment and its defining attributes is required. What this means is relying on the systems and tools which help analyze patterns and recommend pricing may no longer provide the most optimal rat...
Building Bleisure With Outdoor Office Pods
Larry and Adam Mogelonsky | April 7, 2021
By Larry and Adam Mogelonsky Remote work is here to stay. Even if companies start to require teams to return to a central office following full population vaccination, the benefits of allowing for flexible work conditions are too good to ignore. For the employer it can mean vastly reduced rental costs, while for the employee it means less time spent commuting and the ability to handle life’s other responsibilities more adeptly like young kids. But the drawback is the monotony of working, eating, relaxing and sleeping in the same place. Hotels are here to help the work-from-home (WFH) crowd as our properties can offer an inspirational ...
The Return of Business Travel
Robert Rauch | April 6, 2021
By Bob Rauch When Is business travel really coming back? Many corporate executives had all their meetings online in 2020. In 2021, we believe that will change soon due to the pace of vaccines, decline of COVID-19 cases, and negative impacts of closed economies. Regional sales trips are beginning again and airport executives suggest that business travelers are coming back. But when will this segment really return? Realistically, look at Q4 of 2021. Q2 will see an uptick, Q3 will be all about pent-up leisure demand and Q4 will see a strong return of business travel. Companies have been able to conduct business online with improved onl...
Content Is Critical for the Coming Travel Surge
Larry and Adam Mogelonsky | March 31, 2021
By Larry and Adam Mogelonsky It’s the night before the storm for the start of a solid recovery in hospitality. It will happen first at the domestic level, then internationally. For the latter, all eyes are on IATA to open some bubbles amongst the most vaccinated countries, with our particular interest on an EU-US reopening. But there are some issues associated with this reopening of flight routes in that customers have changed where and how they are booking their hotels since the pandemic started early last year. You have to be ready, and this means ensuring that your content is fully up to date on all the channels where potential gue...
Digital Upselling: Go Where the Margins Are!
ROOMDEX | March 24, 2021
By Jos Schaap - ROOMDEX Due to the ongoing pandemic, hotels have lost several months’ worth of business. The reopening and rebound period are slower than initially expected and occupancy levels will take time to recover to pre-crisis levels. As a consequence, it’s critical to make the most of every booking to maximize average spend and revenue. Digital upselling can be a quick and easy way to both improve your guests’ experience while simultaneously giving your revenue that much needed boost. What to sell? This question may appear to be basic but not every upsell…sells. For many hoteliers, the reality is that typically upsel...
Boutique Italian Hotel Partners With IDeaS to Enhance Profitability and Increase Efficiency
IDeaS | March 24, 2021
Casa Angelina uses downtime to implement automated RMS while relying on IDeaS Advisory Services to ensure sustainable success LONDON — March 24, 2021 — IDeaS, a SAS company, the world’s leading provider of hotel revenue management software and services, announced today that Casa Angelina, a luxury, boutique hotel on the Amalfi Coast, has selected IDeaS G3 Revenue Management System (RMS) and enlisted the IDeaS Advisory Services team. IDeaS will provide strategic support to help Casa Angelina capitalise on a projected short but busy season and position the property for long-term success. Casa Angelina knew it was time to move away fro...
What Your Direct Bookings Can Learn From Streaming Services
Larry and Adam Mogelonsky | March 17, 2021
By Larry and Adam Mogelonsky Streaming services will be a hallmark of modern culture for the next decade. But just as important as the content on platforms like Netflix, Disney+ or Amazon Prime is the user interface through which subscribers access said content. Therein, what we advise is to learn from the best and apply some aspects of what streaming services do great to increase guest engagement on your own booking engine. Some of the elements on these streaming services that are worth investigating to see how they can be applied to your brand.com include but are not limited to: Fast load times Image-first browsing Near end...
Knowland Introduces GroupAdvantage 2021 to Enable and Empower Hotel Sales Teams Into Recovery
Knowland | March 17, 2021
Bringing together actionable meeting intelligence with sales and revenue management expertise to re-engage sales teams ARLINGTON, Va. — March 17, 2021 — Group business continues to be a key driver for profitability in the hospitality industry, especially in this year of unprecedented challenges. To empower hoteliers, Knowland, the leader in AI-powered meetings and events data for hospitality, today announced Knowland GroupAdvantage 2021, a program that brings together the core prospecting and sales training tools needed to help hoteliers win emerging group business. Meeting intelligence, combined with expert sales training and reven...
4 Ways to Use Big Data to Enhance Guest Service and Maximize Hotel Revenue
Manon Campbell | March 15, 2021
By Manon Campbell The world's most valuable resource is no longer oil. It's data. Smartphones and the internet have made data the currency of our times. Nearly every activity, whether it's going for a run or watching TV, creates a digital trace to be tracked and analyzed. Data's influence on the hospitality industry is nothing new. But hoteliers still are grappling with the concept of big data, referring to the large volume of data that inundates businesses on a day-to-day basis. After all, it's not the amount of data that's important; it's what you do with it that matters. Tapping the power of big data can yield significant di...
Stoney Creek Hospitality Partners With IDeaS for Automated Efficiency Across 14-Property Portfolio
IDeaS | March 10, 2021
Midwest-based hotel group prioritizes automated revenue management in its digital transformation, selects IDeaS G3 RMS to increase profitability MINNEAPOLIS—March 10, 2021—IDeaS, a SAS company, the world’s leading provider of hotel revenue management software and services, announced today it will implement IDeaS G3 Revenue Management System (RMS) at Stoney Creek Hospitality’s 14-property portfolio across five Midwestern states. Seeking to overhaul manual operations with advanced automation, Stoney Creek’s leadership team launched a digital transformation initiative in 2020. Placing critical importance on the RMS’s role in th...
PROVision Partners Welcomes Mims Wright as Senior Advisor
PROVision Partners | March 5, 2021
New Smyrna Beach, Florida, March 5, 2020 — PROVision Partners (“PROVision”), a leading global strategic growth, marketing, technology, and commercial services advisory firm to the travel and hospitality industry, announces the appointment of Mims Wright as a Senior Advisor. Mims is Co-Founder & Managing Partner of the travel advisory firm, Black & Wright LLC, specializing in travel industry business, technology and equity. His clients have included leading online travel brands, traditional travel distributors, airlines, hotels, tour operators, publishers, and travel industry start-ups. Wright and Susan Black founded a practic...
Leisure in the Time of Covid
Craig Jacobs | March 5, 2021
By Craig Jacobs Competition for local and regional leisure business among hotels is unusually intense for the painfully obvious reason that COVID has curbed everything else. To generate leisure demand, properties invest in digital marketing including social media, SEO, paid search, and display advertising. They also engage with on-line travel agencies to capture discounted business. While there are reliable key performance indicators to measure results from these marketing tools, creating an acceptable financial return on investment is challenging. Keeping up with the latest trends surrounding marketing technology requires a major commitme...
Maximizing Airport Revenues in the Era of Smart Data Technology and Experience Personalization
Sandy James | February 25, 2021
How existing Wi-Fi services can be integrated into a smart data strategy to provide travelers with enhanced satisfaction while generating much needed income for airport operators. By Sandy James, Director of Business Development – North America at Zoox Smart Data Cancelled flights, record lows for both international and domestic travel, longer wait times due to enhanced cleaning regulations — these are just a few of the hardships shared by airports around the world since the beginning of the global pandemic. Yet, airports must remain open to serve those who still have a necessity or a desire to travel on commercial airlines. This inev...
BirchStreet Systems Relocates Headquarters to Las Vegas
BirchStreet Systems | February 25, 2021
(Las Vegas, NV) BirchStreet Systems announced that it has relocated its world headquarters from Newport Beach CA to Las Vegas NV, as it positions the company for growth and strengthens innovative partnerships with hospitality companies. This milestone is a major move for BirchStreet on its mission to empower organizations to make better, more accurate and confident buying and operating decisions. BirchStreet Systems powers gaming and hospitality enterprises with a comprehensive procure-to-pay business solution. “We believe this move places us in the center of the gaming industry, with close proximity to many of our customers,” says Sus...
IDeaS Introduces Optix for G3 RMS, Providing Big-Picture Revenue Intelligence for Hotel Groups
IDeaS | February 24, 2021
IDeaS Optix delivers high-level understanding and deep analysis into revenue performance across estates, clusters or single properties MINNEAPOLIS—Feb. 24, 2021—IDeaS, a SAS company, the world’s leading provider of revenue management software and services, announced today IDeaS Optix, a cloud-based advanced reporting and analysis module for IDeaS G3 Revenue Management System (RMS). Optix is designed to empower hotel leaders and revenue managers to quickly understand their revenue performance and where they can improve across an entire estate, cluster or within a single property. In today’s dynamic environment it is a daily strug...
How to Upsell 101: Too Much Choice Can Lead to No Choice
ROOMDEX | February 23, 2021
By Jos Schaap Shouldn’t lots of choices be good for customers? If you ask most people whether they like having a choice, the answer will be yes. How can options possibly be a bad thing? Anyone who has worked in hotel marketing has, at one time or another, been asked to fit numerous offers into one email. Pre-arrival emails, in particular, are crammed to the hilt with hotel information and upsell choices. We call it the shotgun approach. Having a lot of choices is great — until it’s not. Many people argue that more choices equal more conversions. Rationally speaking, the more choices you offer your customers, the more sales you ...
Hospitality Technology Hub, a Virtual Forum Powered by IDeaS, Launches to Support Hotel Industry
IDeaS | February 16, 2021
IDeaS’ Hospitality Technology Hub unites top industry tech vendors and advisors to empower hotel leaders’ revenue recovery and commercial growth Tweet this: The Hospitality Technology Hub, a virtual forum powered by @IDeaS_RevOpt, has launched to unite leading hotel tech vendors, advisors and hoteliers to drive revenue recovery and commercial growth. ideas.com/news LONDON—Feb. 16, 2021—IDeaS, a SAS company, the world’s leading provider of hotel revenue management software and services, announced today the launch of its Hospitality Technology Hub (https://go.rev.ideas.com/hospitality-technology-hub) leading up to and during IT...
Smoky Cabins Vacation Rentals Embracing Digital Tipping by youtip
youtip | February 9, 2021
Chicago — February 9, 2021 — Not all lodging operators are feeling the sting of COVID-19; take Smoky Cabins Vacation Rentals for example. Bookings of its 41 luxury cabins has not slowed since the onset of the pandemic. What has stopped, however, is the leaving of cash tips for housekeepers. Smoky Cabins Owner Cathy Moore set out in search for a cashless, contactless, and “appless” digital tipping solution that would solve this growing problem. What she found was an easy-to-implement, no-cost, QR-code-based solution called youtip. “COVID-19 has been good for us,” Moore said. “People are comfortably social distancing at our pr...
How to Get Revenue Management Right for 2021
Ahmed Mahmoud | January 14, 2021
By Ahmed Mahmoud Here we are again with our yearly opinion article about how to get revenue management right for 2021. The last few months with the COVID-19 crisis made a clean sweep of the past decades of hotel revenue strategies. As of today, almost all of the experience acquired during these years has become nothing more than castles in the air. While it can be frustrating to dismiss such hard-earned and valuable insights, it can also be invigorating to start anew. By elaborating the right strategy, you can reopen your hotel on the rock-solid ground and differentiate yourself from the competition. While doing so, it is paramount to stay...
Hospitality Financial Leadership: Chapter 14 – The How To vs. The Want To
David Lund | January 4, 2021
By David Lund The chapter below is an excerpt from my new book. It’s fiction but some of the characters and story lines are based on people I have worked with and events that have taken place in the hotels I have worked in. The book is a fable about a hotel manager who has some very bad habits. He must change in order to survive and the book takes him and you through the lessons needed to be a great hospitality financial leader. I’m writing ahead each month so I’m not sure how the book will end. I hope you enjoy it and if you missed any earlier chapters you can find them on my website blog tab. Mr. D returned the next morning ...
Leisure Revenues in Early 2021 Need a Strong PMS
Larry Mogelonsky | December 16, 2020
By Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng. (www.hotelmogel.com) The first half of 2021 will be tough for hotels. Corporate and group guests are still fearful to return in droves prior to the widespread dissemination of a vaccine, which leaves the transient segment to pick up the slack. You need versatile technologies to analyze where your guests are coming from so that you can find those pockets of leisure revenues and stay afloat until a true occupancy inflection occurs. Despite the widespread uncertainty from the coronavirus, we can still depend on a few trends to guide our approach, specifically those involving the use of technology to create...
Amadeus Renews Long-Standing Relationship With IHG® for Business Intelligence Solutions
Amadeus | December 15, 2020
The continued exclusive endorsement of Amadeus' Demand360®, Agency360®, and RevenueStrategy360TM solutions provide the insight needed to increase booking demand and revenue 2020 has brought unprecedented change to the hospitality industry. Hoteliers face significant challenges in identifying opportunities to drive booking demand and establish the most effective distribution strategies to fill short and longer-term occupancies. The historical data they once relied on to build their revenue strategies no longer aligns with current market trends. Today, it is critical that hoteliers have access to comprehensive, accurate, and timely busines...
Bridging the Disconnect: The Transferability of a Revenue Manager
Sahad Kassam | December 14, 2020
By Sahad Kassam As much as I would like to say that 2020 has been a rollercoaster, I would be remiss to not acknowledge those in the hospitality industry, who have yet to see the upside. In March of 2020, the hotel industry collapsed. Hotels were seeing cancellations come in large waves, and employees were being furloughed by the dozen, flooding the job market in search of a transferable role. As a 2019 Bachelor of Commerce graduate beginning my full-time career with Marriott International's Revenue Strategy Market Team for Downtown Toronto, COVID-19 turned my exciting and limitless career opportunities into a giant question mark. With ...
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