TECHNOLOGY : WORKING WITH OTAS
AGODA TRAVELOCITY EXPEDIA ACCOR
can lose ground to the OTAs . Experts believe hoteliers need to overcome their concerns and start offering qualified reviews now , as a bare minimum .
“ Some chains are starting to incorporate user reviews , and I think that ’ s a fantastic step ,” says Carol Rheem , director of research for PhoCusWright .
In some cases , partnering with a content aggregator like TripAdvisor may be a better alternative than developing a reviews platform from scratch . “ We introduced with great success TripAdvisor ratings on accorhotels . com ,” Chrétien says . “ This gave us a better ranking on search engines and strong positive recognition from web users .”
Other observers are eyeing digital giants like Google and Facebook , wondering when these well-capitalized click machines will get into the fray . For now , it ’ s mostly just speculation . Sources question whether Google will ever desire to move beyond search referrals , or in the case of Facebook , offering simple word of mouth . Other rising entities like Groupon have emerged to sell travel , but are only doing so in a distinct , specific manner .
“ There are lots of channels for consumers looking for everyday hotel availability — we ’ re not looking to be one of
those channels ,” says Simon Goodall , VP / GM of travel for Groupon . “ We ’ re looking to take customers who weren ’ t in the market for a specific destination or property , and inspire them to be an incremental customer for a select number of properties . These customers build direct relationships with the properties .”
Mobile marketing Perhaps the only way to truly compete with OTAs is to better harness emerging opportunities as they arise . All signs point to greater dominance of mobile technology as the future of transient bookings .
“ That ’ s a huge area for e-commerce from the mobile platform , potentially ,” Rheem says . “ Room service , spa treatment , golf tee times , whatever it may be … there ’ s a whole world of transactions that have traditionally remained offline .”
As the technology evolves , some hotel insiders are adopting a “ wait-and-see ” mentality about forthcoming mobile players , while others — including Accor — are already building their own applications .
“ I don ’ t know exactly what ’ s going to shake out with mobile . There may be somebody who does mobile exceedingly well and becomes a big , big player ,” says
Andrew Rubinacci , vice president , distribution & intermediary sales , at IHG . “ It might be a disruptive technology where a new player can come in .”
Expedia is one of the OTAs embracing mobile , and stresses its efforts in that space as crucial to ongoing growth . “ We ’ re making sure all of our sites have a mobile application , and we ’ re spending a lot of our horsepower in technology and mobile ,” says Melissa Maher , global vice president for Expedia . “ Look at our hotels . com brand : About 10 % of overall business is coming from mobile . That is a lot of same-day business — about 70 %.”
Global perspectives Future demand from overseas markets — particularly China , India and Brazil — represent the largest untapped base for bookings growth , but the global online playing field is even more complicated , especially in China , where information access is strictly controlled . Hotel companies must develop their own web presence in multiple countries — including foreign-language content — as well as building relationships with players outside of big-name OTAs .
“ We have agreements with regional players like Wotif in the Pacific , C Trip in China , HIS and Rakkuten in Japan , and
58 HOTELS April 2012 www . hotelsmag . com