Summary and Thoughts of the Product Panel

Emilie Couton from Accor started with a presentation based on Accor’s research into the way people travel, and the highlight was that Asian travelers place three times more trust in non-branded sources when researching where to stay (40% for review sites or OTAs vs.13% on hotel’s own website).

In terms of sharing, travellers from emerging markets like China, Indonesia and Philippines were more likely to write reviews than travelers from developed markets like Hong Kong, New Zealand, and Australia. And of those surveyed, a whopping 65% of APAC travellers provided feedback on their last trip. (See full findings here)

How are brands dealing with it?  Benjamin Jost from TrustYou (extreme left on panel below) and RJ Friedlander from ReviewPro (second from left) both agreed that in this age – traveller reviews provide the context for prospects doing travel research, and that it’s important for brands to respond and have a voice. 

However, given the number of reviews, Emilie gave a goal of 30% response rate for Accor hotels, whereas Kittisak Pattamasaevi from Trisara (of Montara Hospitality) thought the framework that would work for independent hoteliers was to focus responding to the negative reviews and the positive ones that accrued to the core brand value.

Both Emilie and Kittisak represented the supplier side, and felt that reviews gave travelers a credible view of what to expect, and that the operational team had a responsibility to either fulfill that promise or to improve if the outcome of the review didn’t match the brand value.

My personal thoughts after having moderated the panel is that review management is now a standard hygiene factor in brand management. Brands receive feedback from three primary sources: social media, guest satisfaction surveys, and directly (either via email or in person) and they will need to stay on top of all feedback.

To not do so is to operate with one eye closed.  Secondly, there are other interesting applications of the review data in the form of social search and revenue optimization that could help with suppliers’ business – but as with all things, the devil is in the details.

But perhaps the biggest conclusion is this: after introducing social media to the travel industry four WITs ago (in 2009), and debating an ad agency then on how everyday people will be the ones to reshape brand communications and set traveller expectations, it has happened. The People have spoken and their content now set the benchmark of the Product experience, if not in reality, then in expectation.

Summary and Thoughts on the Pricing Panel

Grahame Tate from IDeaS, Jeannette Ho (pictured below right) from Fairmont/Raffles, Stefan Wolf from Onyx (pictured left), and Traci Mercer from Expedia are among some of the smartest people I have met in the travel industry.

It’s too bad that the litigations going on in other parts of the world prevented us from digging into the elephant in the room (price parity); in a way, it didn’t matter though, because the panel widely agreed that ‘there are ways around’ parity restrictions and resourceful revenue managers already knew how to do that.

Creativity and Pricing may seem like an odd couple, but with the ability now to micro-target (and re-target), fencing and packages is about to undergo a renaissance with the tracking technologies and analytics now available.

Jeanette offered some interesting examples of ‘priming’ (see this Wiki entry about it) to improve yield optimisation just in the way offers were presented, and everyone had interesting thoughts on the phenomenon of last-minute booking that all were seeing regionally and from inbound travelers into Asia, driven in part by the millennials.

For me, the most interesting answer came from Grahame (pictured below left), when I asked him if he could reset the rules governing rate parity, how would he do it.  He said he ‘wouldn’t change a thing.’

Liking Grahame’s answer means that as a supplier, you take yourself out of a ‘victim’ role. Instead of letting the rules set by the OTAs eat into your profit margin, you take an active stand and make the rules work for you to build your business. There are plenty of ways to ensure a balanced channel mix to improve yield.

And if their terms and conditions are over-the-top, then get out!  Grahame brought up a subtle but empowering reminder that you can only be in control when you focus on what you do, as opposed to how much you don’t like what others do.

Finally, with explosive growth fuelled by the ever increasing number of travellers from Asia Pacific, Pricing is now as much an exercise about your position vis a vis your competitors as it is about your ability to find the right People who will be happy to pay the rate you set.  Capitalism is here to stay and may the best player win.

Part II of this series will focus on the Summary and Thoughts of the Placement and Promotion Panels at the 2013 Web In Travel Conference, as well as final insights on how People are changing the rules of marketing.