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Archives for November 2009

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IHG invites consumers to follow hotel deals via its Twitter account

InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) will “tweet” nearly one million Priority Club points redeemable for hotel nights, retail gift cards, electronics and more during the hotel group’s December Tweet Away promotion.

This will be done 31 days that lead up to the new year 2010. 

IHG is inviting consumers to follow its hotel deals via its Twitter account at www.twitter.com/ihg_deals for a chance to be among the interactive campaign prize winners, including a seven-night stay at any IHG hotel in the world. 

IHG will tweet from its Twitter account @IHG_Deals at least once a day.

Each tweet will include: a trivia question that asks followers to reply with a correct answer, a re-tweet request or a hotel deal of the day from an InterContinental, Crowne Plaza, Hotel Indigo, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Holiday Inn Club Vacations, Staybridge Suites or Candlewood Suites property.

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Travelodge email urges Premier Inn customers to ask for a refund: report

A battle has broken out between Premier Inn and Travelodge with one reportedly urging customers to sign an online petition demanding a refund from its arch rival.

Travelodge, according to a report filed by The Guardian, has taken to emailing its customers informing them: “Premier Inn has potentially been overcharging thousands of customers trying to book a Premier Offer £29 room since June 2009. Independent price checking revealed that customers had a less then 1% chance of finding a £29 room if they used Quick Book compared with a 24% chance for those clicking on a Premier Offer banner. This means thousands of customers may have been charged as much as double the price they should have paid.”

The email urged Premier Inn customers to visit a recently set-up website and sign an online petition demanding a full refund. Internet records show the site, which hosts a Facebook group and a Twitter page, is registered to Travelodge’s advertising agency, Doner Cardwell Hawkins.

Last week it emerged that Travelodge lodged a complaint with the Advertising Standards Authority over Premier Inn’s £29-a-room Christmas promotion fronted by comedian Lenny Henry.

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Two-year window to launch a new low-cost airline on transatlantic routes: report

The current weak demand for long-haul aircraft offers a “two-year window of opportunity” to set up a Dublin-based low-cost carrier on transatlantic routes.

According to a report filed by irishtimes.com, the Dublin-based Bloxham Stockbrokers has published a report, presenting a thesis for the launch of a low-fares transatlantic service that would undercut fares offered by flag carriers by 30% and take advantage of Ireland’s attractive corporate tax rates. Bloxham aviation analyst Joe Gill estimates that such a service –called AerFair – could be launched with about €300 million in equity and debt backing.

Gill said that a start-up airline servicing the North Atlantic routes could be able to offer some each-way fares between secondary airports in Europe and the US for as little as €50, and that its average fare, based on the model he proposes, would be in the region of €300 each way. However, that average would also incorporate fares in AerFair’s 40-seater premium-class cabin, which would offer lie-flat seating but force passengers to pay for meals, drinks and other ancillaries.

This analysis proposes initially launching four services – Dublin to Boston, Paris Beauvais to Chicago Milwaukee General Mitchell International, London Stansted to San Francisco Oakland, and Frankfurt Hahn to New York Stewart International. Gill said crew costs would be at least 30 percent below what flag carriers currently pay on transatlantic routes. Gill’s business model projects carrying 565,000 passengers in year one, rising to 1.17 million by year five. With a two-class configuration of 400 seats and an 80 percent load factor, that would give an average cost per passenger of €193, including first class. Gill projects revenues of €169.5 million in the first year rising to €362.7 million in the fifth year. The airline would make an after-tax profit of €5.6 million in year one, rising to €21.9 million in year five. These figures are based on the price of oil being $75 a barrel during the five years.

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Helping travellers plan trips using advice from like-minded bloggers

RealTravel.com has chosen Exalead CloudView to deliver a “smart” search- based application designed specifically for the travel industry.

The travel site, which helps travellers plan trips with advice from other travellers provided in both hotel reviews and travel blogs, identified a need for a search solution that could effectively integrate traditional travel data with unstructured web information.

The solution will enable Real Travel users to evaluate their travel options against other peoples’ experiences found on travel blogs. Semantic technology will be used to find travel experience blog posts that are relevant to people planning travel.

“We see an emerging need to match highly customised bundled travel services to users depending on their real time needs thus, improving the value transaction for both the travel customer and supplier,” said Paul Doscher, CEO of Exalead.

Biggest barrier to better social media engagement: lack of resources

Most companies are planning to invest more in social media next year but are struggling to find the time and resources to manage their activity, according to a study conducted in the UK.

Econsultancy’s Social Media and Online PR Report, produced in association with bigmouthmedia, has indicated that 86 percent of companies plan to spend more money on social media in 2010, and a further 13 percent are planning to keep the same level of budget. 54 percent cited their biggest barrier to better social media engagement was a lack of resources, with 90 percent of businesses stating that social media is taking up more time internally than a year ago.

The report is based on a survey of over 1,100 companies and agencies.

Report highlights include:

·          Almost two-­thirds (64 percent)of companies say they have experimented with social media but have not done much.
·          Micro-­blogging (i.e. Twitter) is now the most widely adopted social media tactic, used by 78 percent of company respondents.
·          Just under half of companies (46 percent) are not yet using reputation or buzz monitoring tools to understand what is being said about their brand.
·          Nearly a third of respondents (31 percent) are not spending any of their budget on social media.
·          There is a mixed view of the benefits of Twitter, with almost a third of respondents (31 percent) saying that there are tremendous opportunities available, but exactly half reporting that their companies are open-minded but not fully convinced about the value to the business.
·          The biggest barrier to better social media engagement for companies surveyed is the lack of resources (54 percent).

Social media has evolved from being a rather vague and ambiguous term to becoming the star of online marketing. As the 2009 Social Media and Online PR Report shows, nearly two-thirds of companies believe that it provides tremendous opportunities for their businesses. Perceived benefits of social media engagement include increased customer engagement, better brand reputation and increased communication with key influencers.

Another interesting fact is that most social media tactics – regardless of company and target audience - seem to use the same social media sites, with Twitter and micro-blogging being the top choice for 78 percent of organisations and 74 percent of agencies. The results of such strategies in terms of effectiveness might explain why the survey also points to a significant fall in the number of companies who are “very satisfied” with their agencies, with confidence in agency knowledge dropping from 21 percent to 13 percent in a single year.

EU set to extend holiday travel protection

Travellers who book holiday packages with combinations of flights, hotels, car rentals etc on the Internet or in the high-street look set to receive tougher financial protection if things go wrong, under plans put out for consultation by the European Commission.

The Commission is consulting on extending the basic cover provided by EU’s 1990 Package Travel Directive – on information, liability for sub-standard services and protection for insolvency - to the next generation of ‘dynamic packages’ where consumers make up their own packages, often online, through one website or different partner websites.

The Commission intends to bring forward concrete proposals to review the Package Travel Directive in Autumn 2010. The Commission is also in the process of preparing a review on air passenger rights which will deal with a wide range of consumer issues, including the insolvency of airlines.
 
EU Consumer Commissioner Meglena Kuneva said: “We need tough protection that gives all consumers booking a package holiday the peace of mind they deserve, and we need a level playing field so businesses compete on equal terms.”

She added, “I am particularly concerned about the issue of insolvency. Anyone who saw the TV pictures of thousands of holidaymakers stranded at airports after bankruptcies from Sky Europe to XL, Futura and Zoom, knows that now is the right time to ask tough questions about extending basic insolvency protection to consumers across the board.”

According to the EU, 23% of EU consumers, and over 40% in countries like Ireland, Sweden are now booking dynamic packages, many of which currently fall outside EU protection rules (67% mistakenly think they are protected).

“The worst is over”: easyJet’s Andy Harrison

Low-cost airline easyJet’s chief executive Andy Harrison believes the worst of the recession is over for the airline industry but warned recovery would be slow.
 
“I think the worst is over but I don’t see any improvement either and expect demand to be stable for the next nine months at least,” Harrison told Reuters in an interview. “Winter will be a continuation of what we have seen...we will see continuing weaker consumer demand.”

easyjet recently reported a big fall in full-year profits to the end of September, after the rising price of oil pushed up fuel costs.

Pre-tax profits were £54.7 million , half of the £110.2m the airline made a year earlier.  This came despite a 13 percent rise in sales from £2.36 billion a year ago to £2.67 billion.

Passenger numbers rose by 3.4 percent to 45.2 million.

Harrison had said that the airline had been hit by its fuel hedging policy, in which it buys fuel at prices agreed in advance. Movements in the price of oil meant that the company had lost out in the year to September.  However, he said the airline should benefit to the tune of £100 million in 2010 from its fuel-buying policy.

Dan Lynn to head Expedia Asia Pacific’s operations

Online travel company Expedia has appointed Dan Lynn as its Expedia Asia Pacific’s managing director. Lynn assumes his new role effective immediately.

Lynn will lead the development and operations of the four Expedia-branded sites in the region: Expedia Australia, Expedia India, Expedia Japan and Expedia New Zealand.

Being based in Sydney, he will oversee the Asia Pacific growth strategy for Expedia Worldwide, the Expedia, Inc. business group responsible for all 20 Expedia-branded sites across the globe.

Lynn previously served as vice president of search engine marketing for Expedia and Hotels.com Worldwide. He takes over following the transition of former managing director of Expedia Asia Pacific Arthur Hoffman, who was recently appointed managing director of Italy-based Venere.com, also an Expedia, Inc. company.

Ryanair found to be Britain’s worst “family brand”

Ryanair was termed as Britain’s worst “family brand” in a research carried out by YouGov for advertising agency Isobel.

“Ryanair is the worst family brand we studied,” said Steve Hastings, of ad agency Isobel, which commissioned the FamilyBrands Survey.

“The airline’s mounting ancillary costs and the furore surrounding the proposed “£1 to spend a penny” have done little to endear them to the British public,” said Hastings.

Airlines were the worst performing sector with easyJet, British Midland and its offshoot BMI Baby all near the foot of the table. But Ryanair scored particularly badly, partly because many parents see the company as putting profit before caring or the and its extra hidden costs.

Almost 100 famous firms from Asda to Andrex were ranked by Britons. The 2009 FamilyBrands report identifies brands that are seen to promote and support family values. The study polled more than 1500 UK adults in October, asking them to identify brands they considered to be “socially responsible”, “caring”, or “good listeners”.

Top 10 companies were as follows:

1.     Marks & Spencer
2.     Co-op
3.     Boots
4.     Kellogg’s
5.     Morrisons
6.     Warburtons
7.     Andrex
8.     Waitrose
9.     Cadbury
10.  Sainsbury

The research also revealed that consumers overwhelmingly believe that brands are not responsive to their wishes. Only eight brands polled above ten percent in response to the question “which brands do you consider to be good listeners?”

Customer satisfaction edges up slightly for hotels

Customer satisfaction edged up slightly for hotels (+0.1 to 82.8) and airlines (+0.1 to 75.7) but declined for rental car companies (–0.4 to 79.2) in the third quarter of 2009.

According to Market Metrix third quarter Hospitality Index, travellers feel that they are getting more for their money.

Compared to last year, scores for “Value” changed more than any other measure (+1 to 81.8) across all hotels.

Upscale Casinos (+1.5) and Luxury Hotels (+1.4) showed the biggest gains in customer value while Timeshare Accommodations (–0.3) showed a decline in perceived value among their guests. Among hotel brands, Mandarin Oriental (+10), Pan Pacific Hotels & Resorts (+7), and Kimpton Hotels (+6) have achieved the biggest gains in overall customer value, compared to 2008 results.

Customer satisfaction for hotels was highest for Timeshare Accommodations (87.0) with WorldMark by Wyndham (89.5) earning the top spot for the first time. Economy brands (+0.8 to 78.5) have improved more than any other segment in 2009 with Jameson Inns earning the top score (87.5) and Rodeway showing the biggest gain (+3.7 to 80.1). Compared to 2008, the brands with the biggest improvement include Mandarin Oriental (+3.0 to 93.6), Kimpton Hotels (+2.3 to 92.2) and Stratosphere Casino Hotel & Tower (+2.2 to 80.9). Gaylord Entertainment (–5.7 to 82.8) and Bellagio (–3.9 to 85.5) have posted the biggest declines in 2009.

Airlines

Passenger satisfaction with airlines improved (+0.1 to 75.7) in the third quarter. Airlines remain the lowest scoring industry in the MMHI. Virgin Atlantic (87.1) was the top scoring airline.

Car rental

The car rental industry (–0.1 to 79.6) continues to face a difficult operating environment with fewer people renting cars and rising costs. Reductions in staff and operational cutbacks continue to hamper service and impact customer satisfaction. Alamo (+1.0 to 79.4) showed the biggest improvement in customer satisfaction while National (–0.8 to 79.5) showed the biggest decline. Enterprise continues their industry dominance with overall satisfaction and loyalty scores well above competitors.