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Direct Bookings Benefit Hotels in More Ways

Seven trending hotel news stories that will impact your hotel Revenue Strategy.

1. The Value of Direct Bookings Means More Than Just Numbers

Any report claiming there is “no measurable” benefit to shifting a hotel’s distribution mix away from online travel agencies toward direct bookings should be taken with a grain of salt. But Duetto CEO Patrick Bosworth did more than that, penning this response to a study sponsored by the European Technology and Travel Services Association making such dubious claims, supported by some pretty fuzzy math.

The right channel mix — not just between brand.com and OTAs, but also involving wholesalers, corporate negotiations and other sources — is different for every hotel. But weighting that combination more toward direct bookings can benefit not only profitability, but also hospitality, Bosworth writes.

“The end-to-end guest experience is more hospitable when the hotel secures a reservation itself rather than through a middleman,” he writes. “With direct bookings, the hotel-customer relationship is deeper and begins sooner.”

Full story at Hotel Management.

2. Hotel Executives Optimistic About Group Demand

Leaders of several major hotel brands, including Marriott International and Hyatt Hotels, sounded encouraged about the prospects for improving demand for group business, particularly corporate groups, during their first-quarter earnings calls.

While recovery in group demand and revenue varies market to market, and still lags levels seen before the recession of 2007 and 2008, general trends are positive, executives said.

Full story at Hotel News Now.

3. Hotel Revenue Strategy Secrets Revealed

Duetto Co-Founder and Chief Marketing & Strategy Officer Marco Benvenuti joined the Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast to talk about a wide range of industry topics. The hour-long interview touched on the influence of TripAdvisor, the “premature death” of organic search in hotel distribution, and GDPR.

Mostly, however, Benvenuti sounded the call for a cultural and technological realignment in the hotel industry to move revenue management more toward hotel Revenue Strategy. Aligning the revenue management, marketing and operations departments toward shared goals for revenue and profit produces many strategic benefits, Benvenuti said.

Full story at Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast.

4. Marriott Previews Plans for Home Sharing, All-Inclusive Resorts and More 

Anthony Capuano, global chief development officer for Marriott International, gave a wide-ranging interview to Skift last week that broached hot industry topics like the sharing economy, all-inclusive resorts, and keeping its franchisees and hotel owners happy as Marriott continues to grow under an asset-light model.

“In some ways,” Capuano said, “my job is the easiest job in the company. People say, well what’s your growth strategy? We want to deploy the right brand everywhere our customers want to be.”

Full story at Skift.

5. How Airbnb Grows Its Community of Hosts

Airbnb, the sharing economy’s signature startup, shared its view on the importance of online marketing to grow the ranks of its hosts. To spread its influence beyond major cities like London and Paris, in order to build up tourism in farther-afield destinations like Bolivia or Nepal, Airbnb turns to email marketing, search engine marketing, social media and display advertising.

In this lengthy post from Airbnb’s engineering blog, the home sharing company breaks down how it decides which ads to buy, how much to spend on them, and how to track their effectiveness.

Full story at Phocuswire.

6. Lodging Econometrics: Supply to grow 2.5% in 2018 and 2019

The number of hotels open in the United States is expected grow 2.5% for both this year and next year, according to Lodging Econometrics.

Of this year’s 1,146 properties expected to open — which will add more than 130,000 rooms to existing supply — 511 projects (about 45%) are projected to be in the upper-midscale segment, by far the most popular chain scale for development currently.

Full story at Lodging. 

7. Profitability Accelerated for European Hotels in April

Though profit growth was mediocre in the first quarter for hotels in Europe, it accelerated in April, according to HotStats.

Total RevPAR increased 8.5% for European hotels during the month, comprising a 7.7% rise in room revenue and double-digit gains for food and beverage and conferences and meetings.

Stay up on hotel Revenue Strategy news and discuss industry tech trends in the Hotel Revenue Strategy Leaders Group on LinkedIn.

 

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Duetto Content Team

The Duetto Content Team is made up of some of the brightest minds in the hospitality space. Through a mix of blogs, videos, whitepapers, social media posts, email campaigns and more, we focus on developing brand and product awareness, lead generation, engagement and more.

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