It’s not the lack of data or tools, it’s the talent lag and mindset that needs changing if Asia’s hotel industry is to embrace the new dawn in hotel distribution, sales and marketing. In this interview, TravelClick’s Maverick Mak talks about their new product, Demand360, and the challenges facing hoteliers in the region.
Given that data is the new gold, TravelClick believes its new product Demand360 will take the Asia hotel market by storm.
Demand360 was developed in the US with founding partners Hilton, Marriott, Intercontinental, Hyatt and Starwood and gives hotels performance insight into future hotel data across channels and across segments 365 days in the horizon. It is touted as the tool that gives hotels 100% data of their competitive set across all major channels such as OTA, Brand.com, GDS, CRS, Direct and across segments such as Negotiated RFP, Discount and Promotion, Wholesale, Group, Retail, Qualified (fences rate/Association).
The challenge with any data play is “what you get out is what you put in” and extracting data from an extremely fragmented hotel environment in Asia – in which the majority of hotels are independent and non-branded – is tedious, if not, frustrating. The other challenge is getting hoteliers to understand it and use it as it’s meant to be used.
Maria Taylor: “It will help us make much better data-based decisions.”
Maria Taylor, regional vice president, sales & distribution, Meritus Hotels & Resorts, is one of those who gets it and calls Demand 360 “a great tool that helps hoteliers to see how the market is performing by segment and by channel. This allows a hotel to know where it is underperforming and to review strategies across that area to improve performance.
“It will help us to make much better data-based decisions instead of relying on what we “think” the competitors are doing and the data is trustworthy as it is automatically extracted from each hotels PMS system, so no manual manipulation of results.
“We are really excited to be using this to help increase our poorer performing channels and segments. The old adage that “you don’t know what you don’t know” has proven true. Now that we “know” what our comp set segmentation is we now know the segments and channels that we need to work on.”
Maverick Mak: The industry is changing at warp speed and operators are lagging behind.
In this interview with WIT, TravelClick’s regional vice president, South-east Asia, Maverick Mak shares the intent behind Demand360, the efforts to expand its relevance in Asia and the challenges surrounding data, distribution and e-commerce in hospitality.
Q: You say Hilton, Marriott, IHG, Hyatt and Starwood are the founding partners of Demand360 – so obviously it’s an American-centric product and the data is skewed towards them. Does this limit its usefulness and application?
Yes and no. Remember, these big brands have huge presence in Asia and their current expansion is very much focused in the region. These bigger players are also the leaders in terms of technology, yielding culture and customer service, hence we would expect more hotels outside the US to see the usefulness of this data.
The more online savvy, data crunching independent hoteliers will definitely want to be part of it as well. In agreeing to offer their data, they will in return get the aggregated view with what is happening with their direct competitors.
Q: Given that up to the majority of hotels in Asia are independent, non-branded, does this again limit Demand360’s usefulness in Asia in particular?
There are some constraints because so far, work has been targeted at global and regional brands. The work to get the data from individual and independent hotels versus regional players, for example, Pan Pacific Hotels Group is the same. Hence we obviously prefer the latter to get as much data into our arsenal to allow subscribers to have a more ‘complete’ set of data.
Having said that, we will continue to work with independent hotels if they are being ‘chosen’ by the brand as part of their competitive set. We have been cherry picking independent hotels.
Q: What’s the take-up of the product worldwide? US vs Asia?
Thus far, it’s 70% from the US and 30% EMEA and APAC. There is a reason. The idea was coined by the Big 5 in US. The US hotel scene is very much ‘flat’ where hotels tend to fly the flag more than Asia hence data is very much ready for hotels to participate. Hotels in Asia sometimes (if not often) do not want to share data either through ignorance (that this is illegal) or data sensitivity (why should I share my data) – not knowing we only pick a few booking parameters to form this aggregated report.
We get Stay Data (in and out date), and with this we have the LOS as well, and we have the Segment (whether this is corporate, or wholesale or group) and Channel (whether this is GDS, CRS, Brand.com, OTA or Direct …). We do not extract sensitive data eg John Smith booked on 01 Feb for Stay Date 15-18 Feb booked via GDS at Corporate Rate.
Q: What’s the biggest value it gives hoteliers? Is it truly a game changer? If so, how?
There is no lack of data for sure. We have information overload. Nonetheless, we have a few issues with all these data.
- Most of the data is past and historical (you can learn from it, understand the trend but due to the ever changing market conditions and buying behaviour, there is high risk associated with making business decisions using historical data).
- Most of the data is ‘Channel Specific’.
- Most of the data provided is not ‘actionable’.
- Some of the data is provided by human beings, hence the accuracy and data integrity may be at stake (eg, how do you report on complimentary rooms? How do you report on Out of Order rooms?)
- Data is very fragmented; instead of giving you a helicopter and accurate view, it paints the wrong picture. The reason is simple, we all know that leisure and corporate travels in different seasons, book via different channels, rate sensitivity and the elasticity is also different. Our report addresses all these nuances at any point in time, hence we are not making ‘assumptions’ and are able to make informed decision when a decision needs to be made.
Q: As you say, there’s a lot of data flying round. Wholesalers like GTA and Hotelbeds also say they have valuable business intelligence for hoteliers. So the problem isn’t the lack of data, right? It’s the lack of know-how in interpreting the data given that hotel sales and marketing professionals are still very much from the old school.
Yes, there’s lots of data flying around and that inevitably ‘confuses’ the hoteliers. Too much choice is not necessarily a good thing. Similar to other industries, perhaps we need more consolidation. It is like trade events and conferences, there are so many, which one should one attend and which is THE one? If only there were more perhaps ‘TripAdvisor’ platforms for hotels, then perhaps the good ones will become better and the mediocre will fade away with time.
Our industry changes at warp speed, but the operators are still lagging behind. The more savvy ones may have the idea and knowledge but funding may be the issue and return on investment is another. Our industry by far is the most ‘yield centric’ from spending perspective – they spend $1 in investment; they want to get back $100 – and this has curbed and hindered many owners and operators to invest in technology.
The lack of know-how is the main concern, also the synergy between departments. Eg, there are numerous occasions when I am at the destination, need a hotel and call the hotel and the rates offered by the Front Desk is 50-100% more than they sell in their brand.com and OTA. What are they doing? Upselling? They have no clue as to how smart their customers have become compared to 10 years ago.
The fault not only lies in Sales and Marketing, it is the whole hotel culture. I think we need to restructure hotel operations, sales and marketing and this needs to be done sooner rather than later.
Q: How can this talent lag be addressed by industry leaders such as yourself?
If Apple or Samsung hired someone from Nokia who did the renowned ‘human curvy’ phone, he/she is not going to do wonders in Apple and Samsung. We need a new breed of hoteliers. We need fresh ideas.
Other than this, recruitment agencies also have a role to play. They need to also consult with the hotels/HR as opposed to be the ‘order taker’.
Q: Given how distribution has changed, and e-commerce is becoming a bigger part of the mix, should hotels be restructuring their sales and marketing structure to have more e-commerce managers rather than sales people sitting in regional/global sales offices serving a shrinking addressable market?
Absolutely and absolutely. There are a few other elements, changing of the channel mix is one thing, also the Corporate/Leisure line has been blurring over the years. In places like Singapore, where it is so difficult to find the right talent, it is more apparent for us to really think how can we use ‘system’, more ‘automation’, how to improve efficiency etc to operate a hotel.
Most of the hotels in US – the electronic channels are most likely in the range of 60-70%, and in Asia, most of the hotels are hovering around 45-50% (35% from OTA, 5% from GDS and 10% from brand website) [Brand hotels may have different ratio normally 15-20% from OTA, 15-20% from GDS and 20% from brand website)].
Having more e-commerce managers is definitely the way to go. But the problem is most of these e-commerce managers are reporting into DOSM (the old school ones who refuse to catch up with time) and this hampers our industry from moving forward.
The ideal structure perhaps is to have more PR, Social, E-Commerce, Sales Manager, Marcom etc all reporting into a Director of Business Strategy, encompassing online and offline, and all channels, looking at potential, longevity and profitability.
