Distribution et Revenue Management

🏢 On February 5, in Bordeaux's City Hall, the Mayor honored 15 ambassadors from the Club des Ambassadeurs de Bordeaux for their role in securing 11 major congresses for the city in 2024, generating an estimated 49,000 congress days and €16 million in economic impact. The ambassadors' efforts have also confirmed 13 congresses up to 2027, amounting to roughly 20,000 congress days and €7 million in economic benefit. The Club, driven by the Bordeaux Convention Bureau, consists of 409 members with 20 more joining, promoting business tourism in Bordeaux.

🏠 Founded in 2020 by brothers Michael and Éric Dayan with real estate expert Jess Levy, Highstay Collection offers luxury "home-like" hotel services. The collection expands with Le Boétie, followed by Le Vintimille and villas in Ibiza. After selling their site ShowroomPrivé.com, the Dayans, with Levy—founder of investment firms Financière JL, RockZEquity, and Parnass Capital—created Highstay Collection. They built a portfolio of around sixty premium properties in Paris's prime districts due to the resilient high-end rental market observed during the health crisis.

🏨 OYO, after acquiring G6 Hospitality in the US, invests €57.5 million in the UK to expand its premium hotel portfolio over three years, aiming to open 40 new high-end hotels, with 18 contracts signed and 22 in development, in key cities including London, Manchester, Birmingham, and others. Utilizing franchises, management contracts, and long-term leases, OYO's parent company Oravel Stays launched its luxury hotel brand "Sunday" in the UK market.

✈ Mize, a fintech startup specializing in data and AI for hotel revenue optimization, acquires RightRez, a pioneer in flight reservation automation, expanding its yield management expertise to the aviation sector. Founded in 2016, Mize now serves over 200 global clients. This move follows a $12 million Series B funding round two years prior. Financial details of the RightRez acquisition were not disclosed. (Photo: Josue Isai Ramos Figueroa)

🏨 D-EDGE launches a One-Stop-Shop digital ecosystem to centralize services and activities, aiming to streamline the booking experience for various users, including vacationers, business travelers, and students, and to enhance operational efficiency for hotel and residential teams.

🏨 HQ Hotels plans to open 50 hotels worldwide by 2031, with 50% in the USA, starting with its brand in 2024. The first South American property, HQ Hotel São Paulo, developed by INC Urban Developers and co-founders Elcio Filho, Philipe Pinheiro, Filipe Lourenço, Gabriella Gama, Franco Frugiuele, and consultant Mariana Heath Imbach, will have 100 rooms, including 40 luxury suites, and is expected to open in 2028.

🏠 Hostal Santa Justa, located in the historical center of Seville, demonstrates a successful blend of tradition and innovation. José Luis and his wife opened the establishment after overcoming initial funding challenges in 1999 and enduring the 2008 property crisis. Fully operational in 2019, it now boasts a strategic location near the AVE station and city attractions. Utilizing WuBook's technology, specifically Zak, they enhanced their online booking process, reduced overbooking, and automated daily operations. Direct bookings increased by 2%, with an additional 10% from Google meta-search. Currently, 25-30% of bookings are direct, a significant rise from the previous 5-8%.

📝 Louis de Vilmorin, former International Director of Guerlain Institutes and Spas, led the opening of around fifteen luxury hotel spas, enhancing Guerlain's wellness sector presence. Post-Guerlain, he co-founded Wellways, a consultancy advising hotels on optimizing guest well-being. He contends not all luxury hotels must offer wellness, noting profitability challenges unless there's high occupancy and strong management, and emphasizes market research to determine if a spa adds value, particularly for resorts.

🔍 Observing and understanding rivals is crucial for market survival and dominance. Competitive intelligence is a strategic tool used for quick response to competitors' threats and to build a unique, sustainable marketing position. It involves identifying competitors, collecting and classifying data, analyzing it, and automating the process. Tools like Guest Suite simplify analytical efforts for businesses, which can devise unique positioning and detect growth opportunities. Competitive intelligence offers insights into market trends, customer expectations, and helps anticipate changes by analyzing competitor data from social media, customer reviews, sector news, and financial records. The process of competitive intelligence includes identifying direct and indirect competitors, defining and collecting relevant data, classifying the information, analyzing it for strategic decision-making, and automating reporting for efficiency and real-time responsiveness. Competitive intelligence helps anticipate strategic moves, identify market best practices, define competitive positioning, and grow market share. Guest Suite offers advanced solutions to support local competitive intelligence.

📖 Mirai, a company offering insights on Google Hotel Ads campaigns, shares key strategies for hoteliers to optimize their presence and performance on Google's platform. Proven techniques include encouraging repeat guests via loyalty programs, targeting similar new profiles with digital marketing campaigns, competing with OTAs using visibility boosters like Expedia Travel Ads, and improving online reputation to increase demand. Strategies for boosting 'Participation Rate' involve offering all room types, avoiding minimum stays, pricing smartly for shorter stays, and keeping rates available up to 330 days in advance. It's crucial to respond to searches for various occupancies, as 30% of queries involve different occupancies than just two people. Showing flexible rates with correct Google filters can improve visibility. Covering all languages and currencies is vital, as neglecting diversity could lead to losing 10-15% of potential demand. Increasing 'Impression Share' involves mastering CPC bidding strategies and budgeting more if campaigns are profitable. Offering competitive pricing can attract more traffic with less investment. Limiting online distribution channels and ensuring 'Price Accuracy' are critical for maintaining a high-quality score and optimizing ads. For improving 'Click-Through Rate' (CTR), hotels should make ads attractive with logos, personalized messages, and relevant metadata. To maximize 'Conversion Rate,' hotels should offer better prices and conditions than OTAs, create targeted campaigns, and utilize bidding automation. A top-notch booking engine that integrates with the website, maintains consistency in data from the