News & Stories
Vienna. It was just ten years ago that Austria's regions held a leading position in e-tourism. But as they were not able to translate this into commercial success, today's hotel industry is moaning about its dependence on external portals. Austria's 4 and 5-star hotels alone paid about 46 million Euro commission to various reservation platforms in 2010. 37 million Euro of this went abroad – the majority to booking.com. However, Austria's tourism experts had been on the right path, but the German HRS online travel agent thought more strategically and bought Tiscover. And HRS sticks to "best rates" in Austria today too.
Munich. Google and Facebook are lining up "to digitize" mankind. Search engines and Social Media are developing new business models from the internet euphoria and increasing mobility. The traveller is becoming a transparent commodity that will be paid for by the click in the future. What the four talks at the "eMarketing Day" by the Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association and the Instituts Tourismuszukunft praised on Monday in Munich as a nearby, digital future sounds quite creepy. In contrast, the renewed discussion over the commission rise and the altered terms and conditions by the online mediator, HRS, looked like a medieval knight's tournament. Nevertheless, the latter was under heavier discussion. This subject gained a new dimension with the warning by the German Federal Anti-trust Commission toward HRS on last Friday. On Monday, Managing Directors, Tobias Ragge and Michael Simon, positioned themselves for the questions by HSMA members - and afterwards, took an opposing stand with hospitalityInside.com once again on the points that the hoteliers as well as the German Federal Anti-trust Commission hold as critical. After the interview with HRS, hospitalityInside.com asked the former Marriott distribution specialist and currently independent consultant, Bruno Wolf, from Frankfurt to comment on the answers by HRS.
Augsburg. HRS's decision to raise commissions across the board last week to a standard rate of 15 percent for all distribution channels and subsidiaries caused ructions within the German hotel industry. Whilst some demanded an "HRS free week", others were more sanguine and began to analyse the change.
Augsburg. The media group, RTL, has just bought a voucher portal, but in the hotel industry, HolidayCheck quietly and secretly withdrew from the business of "Deals" by the end of the year. On the other side, HRS is satisfied with the resonance on their "Deals".
Madrid. A new global study outlines how transformative technologies and evolving social values and trends will combine to establish a new era of collaborative travel over the next decade and beyond. Technology should takes the stress out of travel.
Augsburg. For a week, it is presumably not only European hoteliers who are once again thinking about new forces in hotel distribution. But, the news of the foundation of the online hotel portal, Room Key, in the USA only briefly provided for an optimistic "wow". After one week, European hoteliers are viewing the company considerably more soberly. Then feelings ran high, particularly in the German market, when the online travel agent from Cologne, HRS, flexed their muscles: They tossed other distributors out of the running through their alliance with Amadeus while at the same time, confronted their current 250,000 hotel partners with an additional two percent commission. HRS has flexed their muscles - and the brand-new market player, justbook, that since Monday, also markets hotel offers via Apps was also permitted to feel this promptly. Reactions from the hotel industry on the latest events in distribution.
Madrid/Cologne. The dam is bursting in hotel distribution: For the first time in history, a global distribution system has formed a direct alliance with an online travel agent. Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon in Frankfurt, Amadeus and HRS announced a strategic alliance. The move will involve HRS linking the 250,000 hotel in its database with Amadeus; 50,000 of these are individual hotels which have up to now only been bookable through HRS. Now, the hotels will also be open for booking by Amadeus travel agents and corporate clients. At first glance, GDS seems to benefit more than HRS, as up to now Amadeus has counted only 110,000 hotels in its reservation system. Yet both sides are extremely satisfied with the deal. The new additional distribution channel requires no extra commission from HRS-affiliated hoteliers. Yet on Tuesday evening, in a separate release, HRS announced that commissions will rise effective from March 1, 2012 - also for hotel.de and tiscover.
Dallas. Some media are already giving the new Room Key reservation platform dramatic significance to a certain degree. They are stylizing the new reservation portal announced by six major US chains one week ago to be a market and power factor, while it is not even running properly. In an interview with hospitalityInside.com last Monday, Stephany Verstraete, Chief Marketing Officer Room Key, talked about extremely high interest other hotel groups were showing – particularly from the US and Western Europe. hospitalityInside's survey among nameable chains and distribution experts across the industry, however, barely gives reason for enthusiasm. When it comes to giving decisive information, Room Key proves to be very reserved.
Dallas. Six of the world’s leading hotel companies - Choice, Hilton, Hyatt, InterContinental, Marriott, and Wyndham - announced on Wednesday the launch of Room Key, an innovative new online hotel search engine. Yesterday, the first external partner signed the contract: Best Western Hotels adds another 4,000 hotels to the pool. Until the middle of 2012, the site is expected to list 80,000 hotels. Is this the answer to Google?
Villach/Vienna. 77% of guests use online media if they place a holiday inquiry and 76% book through online media. This has proved by a survey of more than 350 resorts in Austria, South Germany and South Tirol. Along with this, the method of the reservations is particularly interesting.