Become Hopinoer

How to Implement a

Successful

E-Distribution

Strategy at Villa

Marina Lodge ?

Spread the awareness, get together and act for a responsible tourism.

Hopineo for Villa Marina Lodge – November 2014

Become Hopinoer 2

Introduction : Market Segments to

Target

?Market Share

Market Growth

You’re working already well with this high potential segment, continue investing and developing it.

You’re working already well with this low future potential segment, continue working with them but stop investing on it.

There is a great potential, but it needs you to start investing on it, do you want to go for it?

Low potential, forget about it.

DMC for international couples & families

Booking in direct and through OTA

International and National Indiv. interested in :

Fishing

Marine Life

Bird-Watching & Photography

Honeymoon

Surfing (with higher budget)

National from the capital weekends / holidays

Surfers backpackers Groups of national guests (friends)

Walk-in tourists with car rental

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3. Hotel Website& SEO

4. Revenue Management

2.

Positioning

& Guest Experience

1. Clear Understanding of the Market

• Online Distribution (Booking Button & OTAs)

• Dynamic vs Static Pricing

• Cancelation Policy

• Restrictions (MLOS)

• Smart Packages

• Rooms Category and Inventory

• Guests Reviews (TripAdvisor & OTAs)

Introduction : Marketing Action Plan

OK

OK

OK

→ Next Step !

Become Hopinoer 4

How to Implement a Successful

E-Distribution Strategy

at Villa Marina Lodge ?

1. Use a Channel Manager and PMS

2. Start Selling through OTA (Online Travel Agencies)

3. Practice BasicRevenue Management

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PMS =Property

Management System

Rates & AvailabilityReservation Delivery

Hotel own website(thanks to a booking button…)

Wholesalers(Hotel Beds…)

GDS(Amadeus, Sabre…)

Channel Manager

OTA’s = Online Travel Agencies(Booking.com, Expedia…)

1.1 Channel Manager & PMS : What are

these ?

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1.2 Channel Manager & PMS : Which

Benefits ?

• Push up occupancy and rates (Revenue Management) by:

• Playing with rates : adopt a dynamic pricing strategy.

• Playing with length of stay restrictions.

• Sell on more OTA, increasing your online visibility.

• Allowing guests to book directly through the hotel website.

IncreaseRevenue

• Adjust inventories on real time automatically: no over-bookings.

• Avoid human mistakes by automatizing recurring tasks.

• Track your performance, get statistics, adjust your actions.

GainEfficiency

• Centralize and automatize recurring tasks:

• No need to log-in to each extranet one by one.

• Update rates and inventories in one click on all channels.

• No need to copy guests booking info : direct into the PMS.

• Guests can check availability and rates alone: less emails.

SaveTime

$

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There a plenty of different Channel Managers and PMS solutions.

You can ask Ben from Hotelminder, he’s an expert and can help you in making the good choice

and setting up the whole thing : ben@hotelminder.com

1.3 Which ones to choose ?

• Between 80$ and 350$ / month.

• Different pricing models: fix set up cost, monthly fix or % fees ?Price

• Find a channel manager which can be connected to your PMS if you have already one.

Compatibility

• Possibility of connecting all the OTA on which you want to sell ?Channels

• Depending of your property specificities and the level of revenue management you want to practice.

Funcionalities

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1.4 Possible Solutions for Villla Marina

Lodge

PMSChannel

Manager

Estimate

d cost /

month

Comments

1 350$The best of the best

for RM*

2 150$ Ok for basic RM

3 80$No Yielding

(dynamic pricing)

*RM: Revenue Management.

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What are these ?

Websites allowing travelers to compare hotel room rates and book through them in exchange

of a commission paid by the hotel (15-20%).

Why selling through OTA ?

Increase your online presence and visibility for guests making searches on Google.

Get more booking opportunities.

Attract rate sensitive guests adopting a smart dynamic pricing strategy.

Show up in “book a hotel” section of famous travel websites like Lonely Planet or Frommers.

2.1 OTA : Online Travel Agencies

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2.2 OTA Analysis for Playa Venao,

Panama

OTA

#

Hotels Playa

Venao

Playa

Venao

Hotel

Resort

El Sitio

de Playa

Venao

Selina

Beach

Break

Hotel &

Surf

Camp

Villa

Pelicano

(Las

Tablas)

Posada

Los

Destilade

ros

(Pedasi)

1 6n/a

26 r

109$

45 r

96$

30 r

80$

34 r

150$

45 r

120$

14 r

2 3180$

11 r

99$

n/a

12$

new

3 2 140$ 74$

4 2 180$ 90$

5

*Rates for Double Room on Sun. 8th Feb 2015.

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→ Originally based in the Netherlands.

→ Owned and Operated now by Priceline, based in the USA.

→ One unique travel booking site.

→ + 200 countries.

→ #1 Worldwide

Link to list your property : https://join.booking.com

2.3 Main OTA : Booking.com

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→ Headquarter: USA

→ + 150 travel booking sites.

→ + 70 countries.

→ # 2 Worldwide

Link to list your property : https://join.expediapartnercentral.com

2.4 Main OTA : Expedia

Become Hopinoer

→ Headquarter: Netherlands

→ One unique travel booking site.

→ + 120 000 hotels partners

→ In Top 6 Worldwide

Link to list your property : http://hotelpartner.easytobook.com/?amu=280823224

13

2.5 Main OTA : Easy to Book

Become Hopinoer

→ Headquarter: Argentina

→ One unique travel booking site.

→ # 1 in Latin America (21 countries)

Link to list your property : http://comercial.despegar.com/pa/advertisehotel

14

2.6 Main OTA : Despegar

Become Hopinoer

What is that ?

→ Revenue Management is the art of increasing your hotel incomes by pushing up :

Occupancy in low season.

ADR (Average Daily Rate) in high season.

The main KPI (=Key Performance Indicator) to watch out for your hotel is the

RevPar : Room Revenue Per Available Room

15

3.1 Revenue Management : Objective

Occupancy

%

Average Daily Rate

$

RevPar

$

Become Hopinoer

* LOS= Lenght of sStay

16

3.2 Revenue Management : Toolbox

Dynamic

Pricing

Room

Categori

es

LOS*

Restricti

ons

Cancelati

on

Policy

Package

s &

Promotio

ns

UpSales

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3.3 Revenue Management :

Recommendations for Villa Marina

Lodge • Rooms Superior : starting from 95$

• Rooms Deluxe : starting from 130$

Dynamic Pricing &

Categories• Stay 4 nights, get a free sunset meal for two.

• At each new booking received, send an email back with offer for one more night.

Packages &Promotions

• Be very clear about your cancelation and modification policy.

• Make special rates with no-refundable policy at J-30

CancelationPolicy

• Put minimum Length of Stay (LOS) restriction on busy week-ends (2 nights minimum on Saturdays).

LOS Restrictions

• Offer to guests on arrival to get an upgrade for only 20$ more (if avail).

• Offer clearly set of activities and restaurant food & beverage. UpSales

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3.4 Revenue Management: Financial

Projections

# rooms : 9 Occ % ADR $ RevPar $ Monthly

Rev $

Additional

Monthly Rev $

12% 135$ 16$ 4 374$

Optimistic 40% 140$ 56$ 15 120$ 10 746$

Normal 30% 125$ 38$ 10 125$ 5 751$

Pessimistic 20% 115$ 23$ 6 210$ 1 836$

Current Results

Projection

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Billboard Effect

1/3 of the visitors on OTA sites will go check the hotel website either for more information, larger photos or to

compare rates.

1/3 will go and search for the hotel on Social Media sites to find out what others are saying about the hotel, they

will either go back to the OTA or search for your hotel.

1/3 of the guests on your website will go to OTAs to find out if rates or sales conditions are better or if booking

process is easier. Or will go there because they are used to dealing with OTAs

Read these two articles :

http://www.wihphotels.com/publication/hotel-distribution-and-the-billboard-effect/

http://www.xotels.com/en/marketing/case-studies-in-hotel-internet-marketing

To Go Further with your Marketing

Strategy…

Become Hopinoer 20

3. Hotel Website& SEO

4. Revenue Management

2.

Positioning

& Guest Experience

1. Clear Understanding of the Market

To Go Further with your Marketing

Strategy…

OK

OK

OK

→ Next Step !

OK

5. Sales & Communication

• Tour Operators & DMC

• Events Agencies

• Social Media

• Blogs & Magazines

• Travel Forums

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Contact :

Florie Thielin

floriethielin@gmail.com

www.hopineo.org

www.thehospitalitytour.com

www.facebook.com/thehospitalitytour

This document was elaborated for the Villa Marina Lodge, Panama,

in a serie of works and studies allowing tourism professional to make their activity more sustainable.

What is missing? Which improvments could be done?

Please, feel to free to share with us your feedback to continue

building together a better future for Hopineo, its partners, and more globally

for a more responsible tourism.

« The recognition of tourism as an economic powerhouse and contributor to all three pillars of sustainable

development – economic, environmental and social – underlined the enduring relevance of UNWTO’s mission to

promote responsible, sustainable and universally accessible tourism. »

World Tourism Organization, 2013