The travel standstill has afforded hotels and their partners a chance to revisit distribution and marketing strategies and processes which in better days have mostly operated on a “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” maxim. But hotel conversations today have had to change and now largely revolve around adjusting commercial models and new marketing strategies.
“There is an expectation that the pandemic will drive a change in commercial modelling,” said Frank Trampert, Sabre’s managing director and chief commercial officer, EMEA & APAC, Sabre Hospitality Solutions.
“Several of our clients are taking advantage of the pandemic by revisiting their technology solutions that they have had in place.”
He noted, “The hotel industry had been a laggard in [technology] adoption, and was sort of was limping a little bit behind. We now see much more aggressive strategies around preparing the business for future distribution and future to meet the personalisation expectations of the customers.”
According to Trampert, hotels are starting to investigate the importance of platform plays and that has “commercially changed the tone and nature of the of the negotiations of the deal”.
The perennial debate about transaction fees – will that prevail, will it be a combination of both a flat fee and transaction fee, or do we look at a fee per room – will continue but now, discussions are also around how to compensate for the nuances of fluctuations in the economy, and how risks can be distributed on both the partners and the suppliers end.
Sabre, he said, has been focused on providing flexibility to its customers around commercial modelling so it can meet the hotels’ specific needs and demands and to give hotels a broader distribution capability.
“We are truly innovating in the space – watch it for more to come,” he said.
D-EDGE Hospitality Solutions, whose mission is to “help hoteliers maximise their revenue from marketing and distribution”, said while conversations with hotels are now largely centred on recovering tracking, there is definitely motivation to adopt new marketing and distribution strategies.
Its managing director Asia Pacific, Christine Tan said with consumer shopping habits having changed, possibly for good, as a result of this pandemic, D-EDGE has been coaching hotels to reimagine the customer journey.
“We tell hotels that we’ve got to make it as comfortable as possible for consumers, reduce friction. People are very impatient now – within seconds, if your website hasn’t loaded, they are gone,” warned Tan. “Information has to be fast and relevant.
“We encourage hotels to study closely key behaviours so that they can create campaigns that are more compelling. In the past, we looked more at macro targeting, but now, we are looking at micro targeting. For example, we are now looking more at domestic tourism and travellers and that calls for micro targeting – looking at consumer behaviours and making sure we are presenting the right things at the right time, and at the right price as well,” said Tan.
Tan said the marketing tools can be the same ones used before but how and when we use them during the consumer journey may change. For example, while metasearch was working well during the search and compare phase of the consumer journey pre-Covid, budget constraints now may not allow for the same level of expenditure on metasearch engines. “We have to be cleverer about how we spend,” she advised.
“We have also learnt that although Google charges for ads, there are also a host of free tools on Google that people never really looked at before. We are now using both and teaching hotels to do the same. For example, Google My Business set of tools is free. Google Maps is another that is huge and effective for tapping on nearby businesses, and free to use,” said Tan.
These tools have been around and aren’t new, but Tan feels hoteliers are now using them more effectively now than before Covid hit.
While Tan stressed the importance of working with partners, she says now is the time for hotels to drive their direct business and to build their relationships with customers. Speaking especially about hotels who have been “over-reliant on OTAs to fill their hotel rooms”, Tan says the conversations are changing and hotels are starting to understand the value of having the direct relationship with their customers.
“Our website development business is doing better now compared to last year and it is also because hotels now have the time to say we need to do something about this. This is very encouraging,” she said.
“You can’t afford to disappear at this time. You have to be visible and continue to use all your digital channels including emails and social media to engage with your customers,” said Tan.
Featured image credit: Getty Images
