News & Stories
Munich. Online agent Expedia removed all Choice Hotels from its website overnight on October 15. The reason: the negotiations on the new agreements had come to a standstill. In the meantime, however, Choice's CEO Steve Joyce says in plain words: Expedia wants to force the franchise group to allow Expedia unconditioned access to its entire inventory and pricing systems. The story is not causing massive waves in the US alone. Mainly European franchisees of Choice have been affected by this turmoil.
Vienna/Brixen. Andreas Falkensteiner, hotelier from Southern Tyrol, tour operator and brother of the hotelier Erich Falkensteiner, Vienna, has founded a joint venture with TUI Austria for incoming, direct travel distribution and hotel management. New dimensions in tourism are on the rise.
Frankfurt. Worldhotels has a new Managing Director and soon one hotel group fewer. As of immediately, Robert Hornman will assume the post of Board Chairman, replacing Michael Ball. At the same time, it was announced that Lindner Hotels & Resorts will leave Worldhotels on 1 January 2010. Lindner is the biggest hotel chain in the Worldhotels international marketing and reservation association. The move is painful but Rob Hornman, with Worldhotels for one year already, has meanwhile acquired new smaller groups and with them has identified new member hotel needs. In 2010, the former reservation system will be transformed into a comprehensive service platform for private hoteliers.
Munich. swoodoo started off as a flight search engine. Now, the hotel search engine will follow. It compares rates of many well-known providers including HRS, booking.com, hotels.com and Expedia. The aim is to become market leader among meta search engines.
Hamburg. Apparently, the economic crisis affects the travel plans of the German-speaking internet users, too. According to a current online survey, the users are much more restrained with regard to travelling costs compared to the previous year.
Hamburg. Even after many years of online shopping, the fear of Internet users of a major data theft remains the same in Germany. Doubts on data security are still a serious problem for online shopping. Interestingly, this is not only true for Internet newbies, but also and particularly for experienced users.
Langenhagen. The fact that Internet portals hardly put any leisure offers on the market can be attributed to their own restrictions. Should providers be willing to strengthen this particular segment in future, they need to integrate emotional and playful features. As Carolin Brauer, Managing Director of Quality Reservations, describes in the final part of our series on Internet portals today, new standards are meant to achieve this.
Langenhagen. The Internet reservation platforms are scattered almost across the entire world, as part 1 of our series showed last week. But are they a ”holistic” solution in terms of selling complex packages, arrangements and wellness offers? Carolin Brauer, Managing Director of Quality Reservations in Langenhagen near Hanover and author of this three-part series knows: Internet portals obviously find leisure customers too difficult. The online platforms are unable to offer the demands of this special clientele at attractive package rates. This is why they are turning back to business travellers.
Langenhagen. The allegedly dead Global Distribution Systems are still generating good turnover with high average rates for the hotel industry. However, this turnover is limited to the business segment. Leisure time arrangements, packages or dynamic packaging are not available in the GDS system. Those who want to sell products in the leisure segment should choose the internet for doing so. This would be the corresponding solution. However, is the internet really the solution to this problem? Are operators of internet portals able to generate enough turnover by way of the leisure business in order to finance the complex presentation of hotel offers? This is an exciting and important issue for sales. Carolin Brauer, Managing Director of Quality Reservations in Langenhagen, near Hanover, explains this explosive issue in three consecutive parts. Last year, more than 330 hotels and hotel groups organised more than 134,000 bookings via Quality Reservations - by means of all distribution channels. In the first part, Carolin Brauer therefore concentrates on the aspect: many names, only few providers - who are behind the URLs of the internet portals.
Hamburg. The times when customers had travel agencies or congress offices at their destination send them a hotel catalogue to find fitting accommodation beforehand are basically passé. The Internet has transformed the search for a hotel - conference hotels present themselves in the form of printed standard planners at best. Those who do not seek a special hotel - regardless whether business or private travellers - will first look via online search engines. Marketing based on search engines is therefore becoming increasingly important. But how does it work?