Distribution et Revenue Management

💾 Google Hotel Ads will discontinue its Pay Per Stay (PPS) auction model starting October 31, 2024. Cendyn is set to take over with its own PPS model, offering hotels a secure and automated bidding strategy. This transition aims to ensure continuity in campaign strategies and optimize distribution costs.

💸 Revenue Management (RM) relies on three pillars: Property Management System (PMS), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and Revenue Management System (RMS), with sales as the roof. Each pillar is essential for client management, accounting, and pricing strategies. RM tools are collaborative and human-driven. Effective RM involves understanding the hotel's unique selling proposition (USP), analyzing performance data, and constantly evolving strategy. RM aims to sell the right room to the right customer, at the right price, time, and through the right sales channel, ultimately achieving the best net rate. HotelPartner claims a secret strategy for optimizing net rates. Marjolaine from HotelPartner calls for recognizing the indispensability of RM.

📱 The CRM of a hotel is not just central to customer engagement but also vital for energizing digital marketing strategies by leveraging real-time customer data. Hotels must utilize CRM data to enhance and personalize their digital marketing campaigns. By integrating CRM as the single source of truth into digital marketing platforms, guesswork is eliminated, and spending across all channels is optimized. Download the guide to increase direct bookings, visibility on meta-search, paid searches, and Google surfaces, and use competitive pricing.

💳 Adyen's 2024 Retail Report finds 59% of consumers value a smooth experience from booking to check-out when choosing a hotel. One in three French (32%) have abandoned a hotel reservation due to the unavailability of their preferred payment method, with 63% of 18-24 year-olds having done so. Despite this, 19.6% of French consumers have no preferred payment method. Credit card is the most favored, followed by direct app payments (19%), digital wallets (11%), and Pay by bank (9%).

📣 In 2024, effective marketing strategies are essential for business sustainability, including both traditional and online methods. Traditional marketing leverages flyers, kakemonos, catalogs, business cards, and branded goods, while online marketing focuses on websites, blogs, social media presence, email marketing, and managing client reviews. Notably, 81% of companies that bankrupted in 2013 lacked a website. In 2018, 44% of French people used social media, and 90% of consumers read reviews before purchasing. Guest Suite offers a comprehensive review management tool, helping 3,000 client businesses generate 20 times more reviews.

🏥 Princess Hotels & Resorts, targeting luxury accommodation seekers in the Dominican Republic and Mexico, leveraged Google's AI-based Demand Gen campaigns in partnership with Mirai to increase qualified leads and bookings. During Q2 (April-June), they saw a 165% rise in qualified prospects (CTR) and a 102% boost in ROAS. Notably, campaigns contributed to a 19.1 conversion assistance ratio. Revenue grew by 18%, and bookings by 14%, demonstrating the campaign's success in driving traffic, ROAS, and revenue.

💻 Guesty, a vacation rental and hotel PMS provider, has launched two AI-powered tools: an AI assistant for website creation and ReviewSmart AI for analyzing guest reviews. The AI assistant aids property and hotel managers in automating website creation without technical skills. ReviewSmart AI automatically identifies negative guest reviews, categorizes them, and converts them into performance indicators to enhance guest experience. Following a $130 million Series F funding in April, Guesty states 25% of users have adopted the website creation tool.

💰 Flexliving, amid a tough economic start with a 49% decrease in funding in 2023, offers a key solution for companies seeking cost optimization while facilitating employee transitions. Their subscription-based system enables 20% to 50% savings compared to traditional hotel accommodations, offering businesses a clear, long-term view of lodging costs and total budget control.

💸 Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) are revolutionizing e-commerce, with the global market reaching $5.1 billion in 2023 and projected to grow at a 39.9% CAGR to $28.2 billion by 2028. In the U.S., hotel chains are beginning to adopt CDPs for enhancing guest experiences and optimizing marketing strategies. The technology is expected to transform the French hotel industry within five years, with adoption likely to start with large chains and trickle down to independent hotels, leading to personalized experiences, targeted marketing, and improved revenue management. Challenges include GDPR compliance, staff training, and integration with existing systems.