A key focus for hoteliers around the world in 2012 will be the integration of their online distribution with their Property Management Systems (PMS) and Revenue Management Systems (RMS) to make their online reach faster, simpler and more powerful.
Forecasting trends for the online distribution of hotel rooms in 2012, SiteMinder says many accommodation providers will switch their channel management strategy from the "legacy" manual channel management products of yesterday to technologies capable of providing fully automated, two- way, seamless integration between online booking channels and their PMS, CRS or RMS systems.
This would help hotels gain an upper hand in what has become a complex and "cut throat" marketplace on the net, said David Williams, SiteMinder’s general manager for sales and marketing (pictured above)
"As integrated channel management solutions become mainstream this year, hotels will benefit from broader distribution reach and streamlined automated business processes that, together, result in higher revenues, lower costs of acquisition and a healthier bottom line," he added.
This year will also see an emergence and recognition of new, exciting and easily accessible distribution options such as social media sites, mobile and group buying consumer sites like Groupon to keep them ahead of their competitors.
"2012 is all about accessing new selling opportunities, focussing on effective revenue management strategy and maximising business efficiency through the full automation of the distribution process so staff can focus on adding value to the business rather than on the manual processing of data," said Williams.
Increased competition this year will also lead to more hotels to fully automate their distribution.
Williams revealed that a year ago 15% of SiteMinder’s hotel clients had their channel management systems fully integrated and automated, with the remaining still manually re-keying online booking reservation emails. Today, 35% of its hotels are fully automated. It predicts the rate jumping to 45% as hotels strive to cut costs and streamline their business processes.
