Topic Digitalization

News & Stories

Austria without rate parity: OEHV conference revealed (in)dependencies
The online fight goes on
26.1.2017

Bad Ischl/Vienna. At last week's annual congress of Austria's OEHV hotelier association, there was again much ado about online distribution. Since January, Austria's hotels have been permitted to offer their rooms at a lower price than online travel agencies. But the online giants still have the hotels – and particularly the small, private ones – in their clutches. The drop in rate parity is slowly beginning to show first effects. But the fight still has a lot of power: by late 2017, half of all hotel reservations is likely to be carried out online.

Wynn Las Vegas: Echo in all rooms
21.12.2016

Las Vegas. Artificial Intelligence is finding its way into hospitality: The Wynn Las Vegas is installing Amazon Echo in all rooms. In Europe, the first hotel piloting a voice-activated chatbot that services guests in their suites is the Clarion Amaranten in Stockholm.

Franchisees force direct bookings
15.12.2016

Rockville. Franchisees of Choice Hotels expect a good year 2017 and have ambitious refurbishment plans again. As in the year before, they require a strong impulse in sales and marketing.

Booking.com pampers room providers and travel agents
24.11.2016

Amsterdam. Booking.com continues to innovate. A few days ago, the Dutch-based company launched its new Content API for accommodation channel managers, content providers and property management companies. At the same time, it launched Booking.com for Travel Agents.

Launch of Airbnb Trips: Insulting the industry but creating a similar platform
Experiences with a price tag
24.11.2016

San Francisco. With the launch of "Airbnb Trips" at the end of last week, the future doesn't look brighter for hoteliers. With a new app, the rental platform wants "to make travel magical again" allowing people to list "experiences" and to share them with travelers in exchange for money. Through the Travel Package Directive, Brussels made it complicated for hoteliers to sell additional services to their rooms, yet with Trips, Airbnb is doing just that. It will be interesting to see if the platform receives equal treatment or simply plays around legislation again. Meanwhile, a recent Morgan Stanley survey shows that Airbnb could slow down growth in hotel revenue by almost double and hit them harder than OTAs.

Link mania: Shared stupidity doubles popularity
17.11.2016

Augsburg. American researchers exposed Twitter users: They and their followers only read the visible headlines in links and share them immediately. Obviously true to the motto: Shared stupidity doubles popularity.

HRS incorporates new partner
17.11.2016

Cologne. HRS will in future incorporate external partners on to its hotel website – though doesn't say how many there are at present. For its corporate client segment, HRS has developed a new logo.

One year after the Macron law: OTAs still playing tricks
3.11.2016

Paris. It's been a year since France's government killed the OTAs' rate parity by means of the "Macron law". But it seems to be a long way for hoteliers to regain control over distribution. The OTAs are still powerful but unions are making sure they respect the law. One of them managed to unmask few of Booking.com's misleading promises hidden among its "Charter of Good practice".

Book and pay with the HRS app
26.10.2016

Cologne. In selected "HRS Smarthotels", guests can now check in and out via the hotel portal HRS with their smarphone - and also pay for their stay by mobile phone. All possible thanks to Conichi.

Survey among hoteliers: OTAs desired
13.10.2016

Munich. A survey among 459 German hoteliers reveals: They are satisfied with OTAs and are willing to cooperate with them. The result disproves the commonly believed scepticism of hoteliers towards internet travel portals.

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