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Archive Category: Conferences

Speakers sought for the travel Distribution Summit Europe

The world largest gathering of online travel executives is set to place this April 18-19 in the Business Design Centre in London. We are currently looking for speakers.

If you represent a travel Intermediary or travel supplier and are working in one of the following areas and would like to lead the debate please get in touch. Topics for 2012 include:

• Mobile marketing or distribution
• Social media
• Search marketing
• Revenue management
• Payments and fraud
• Group buying
• Channel management
• Ancillary revenue

If you provide a technology or solution to the industry speaking slots are very limited as we want to create a forum of the travel industry. However we do have numerous ways for you to share your expertise.

If this is of interest call Tim Gunstone on +44 (0) 207 3757557

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How big data will change the travel industry

TIBCO Software, a provider of infrastructure software for companies to use on-premise or as part of cloud computing environments, has predicted how the ability to move large amounts of data, and the ability to process data in the cloud, will change the travel game significantly, not just for the consumer, but also in the back office as well.

The list is as follows:

• Metasearch will finally become “real search.”

• Trusted sources will emerge for quality data. The current so-called gatekeepers of data will lose their control of data sources.

• Entrepreneurs will develop new largely cloud-based services that don’t depend on the traditional restrictions.

• Travel will become more implicit and automated for mechanical trip buying (e.g. corporate travel). The user will not have to work so hard.

According to a posting on the company’s TIBCO Spotfire’s Business Intelligence Blog, moving travel apps to the cloud combined with the increased use of apps for the front end to the consumer, will push as never before the current process of concentrated processors of data. The travel companies that will be the most successful will use big data to understand and build trusted and reliable sets of services for the consumer.

Referring to EyeforTravel’s recent interview with Hopper CEO Frederic Lalonde, the company says it seems the travel industry is focusing on making the most of the data available because it is trying to tackle the problem and turn useless information into data that can improve the customer experience, and ergo, boost revenue and profits.

Hopper, a startup founded by a team of former Expedia employees, is developing a website for consumer travel discovery.

Hopper’s travel-oriented search engine allows users to discover destinations and products using only keywords. Hopper is applying cluster computing techniques to build the world’s largest database of travel information. The company is using Machine Learning, NoSQL databases and Big Data processing to transform raw web pages into structured and organised information, enabling a faster, more complete, and more flexible search than traditional travel sites. The folks at Hopper believe that the current technology used by travel companies doesn’t take into consideration the fact that planning and shopping for trips aren’t sequential activities, but rather they’re part of a consumer’s ongoing thought process discovery. Hopper is focusing on using big data to determine the relevant relationships among web content, travel products and everyday life so consumers can search by keywords—any keywords.

Additionally, data delivery via high bandwidth networks will also have a tremendous impact on the travel industry because travel companies require a significant amount of data and processing to deliver products and services. Because travel is so complex it requires a significant amount of horsepower that is better served via central location services or via the cloud, added TIBCO.

 

Product Development Strategies For The Travel Industry Conference   EyeforTravel is scheduled to conduct the first edition of Product Development Strategies For The Travel Industry Conference in London (November 3-4) this year.   For more info, click here   Or   Contact:   Marco Saio Global Events Director +44 (0) 207 375 7219 marco@eyefortravel.com   or   Tim Gunstone Managing Director +44 (0) 207 375 7557 tim@eyefortravel.com

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Giving intermediaries an option to distribute travel products seamlessly through mobile channel

Scale in the world of technology still matters. A small or medium sized hotel might want to think carefully about spending money developing and maintaining multiple versions of its own apps in multiple languages versus simply working with an OTA that has cutting edge technology to book its customers.

By Ritesh Gupta

India’s QuadLabs Technologies, which recently announced the launch of its mobile app, BOOKQ, for travel intermediaries, agrees and says scale does matter for any company out there to market themselves.

“There are different strategies in place for different size of companies in different geographies. A mid-size travel company would think about allocating a limited budget to online marketing and therefore a squeezed budget for mobile and on the other hand a large company would explore more opportunities to engage its users,” said Gaurav Chiripal, CEO, QuadLabs, which is based in Noida, UP (near New Delhi).

Citing an example Chiripal said a small size company would like to explore social media marketing first and looking at the success ratio of converted bookings and then introduce the mobile platform to its users.

“We witness technology playing a major role in contributing towards online sales. With new and innovative ways of implementing technology to scale becomes easy for even a average company ready to market. The marketing effort and the resources required therefore are directly co-related with the marketing budget for this distribution channel. As observed on a global average, the companies are allocating a 40% higher budget towards mobile spending as compared to last year’s budget,” said Chiripal.

“Since smartphones support feature rich content, they are quickly able to make a bond with the user for convenience of use. Apps in multiple languages are a good example of the same and it ensures a loyal base of captive customers. Any company for this reason needs to devise a strategy around acquiring customers according to the segmented population. A technology company proves to be a strong enabler and mobile apps is a more structured form of engaging users for push content. Thus marketing opportunities and captive user base have a larger role to play in understanding the consumer behaviour and evolving to become a more user friendly name,” added Chiripal, who was recently in Mumbai for EyeforTravel’s Travel Distribution Summit India 2011.

QuadLabs’ app is being described as a unified mobile distribution platform to distribute travel products seamlessly through the mobile channel. According to the company, this app is first of its kind in India as it is being offered to travel intermediaries on a commercial paradigm to scale up and extend their present business over the mobile channel. As per the functions of the app, this platform connects to the central booking engine to fetch travel content from third party connectors and passes it on to the mobile interface via encrypted protocols.

The user can search, book and pay for his travel itinerary. The user can view existing flight bookings, view e-tickets and destination information through the platform.

This standard mobile app is available on Android platform and can be downloaded from the company’s corporate website. The other mobile platforms on which the app will be soon available are Blackberry, Apple iOS and Windows Mobile.

Chiripal spoke to EyeforTravel’s Ritesh Gupta about the mobile space in India.

How do you assess the maturity level of mobile marketing and mobile commerce in the travel sector in a market like India?

Telecom has played a major role in being the backbone for wireless data services and we find travel companies now offering products and content to the end traveller while on the go. We see that the use of technology has changed the way m-commerce has evolved. The ease of use has eventually made the customer move from the PC to the smartphone to a larger extent. Out of the Indian mobile population of more than 840 million only 15% is smartphone market and 3G has only penetrated to 1% of the total pie. Therefore we see a bright future for mobile, VAS and technology companies. Although SMS marketing channel has seen saturation, mobile marketing is still in the nascent stages. Reaching out to the user has become easy but more challenging. The effectiveness of this channel is reflected from the level of engagement and the channels a user is subscribed to. The frequency of reconnect and recall reflects the success factor and has given a potential marketing window to marketers worldwide in the form of branded content, mobile ads, sponsored content and more.

In terms of averages, travel sector in Asia Pacific that use mobile as an activated distribution channel witnessed a 30% increase in bookings viz-a-viz the rest of the world at an average of 33% is fast catching up. Also noticeable is the fact that globally out of all mobile bookings 32% are Air bookings & 35% are hotels bookings.

What are the major challenges when it comes to increasing the utility of mobile sites as well as mobile apps in the travel sector. How do you see the whole offering shaping up in the travel market in India?

The first challenge that the user has faced since the beginning is of reliability of content. This challenge is mitigated with the advent of social media in travel space. The sector has been able to connect to the end traveller and the experienced traveller is also able to connect with the community. This has given birth to the user generated content for many businesses to customer websites. The adaptability rate has been positive and the reliability factor has gone up. We also see payment related issues like integrations that are supported by many standardized bodies and associations which certify transactions; the financial risk needs to be covered up. Also the end traveller still is very skeptical about many things like – searching for the best rates, confirming the available options for bookings, assurance of an experience of the trip and therefore looks forward to a good experience in entirety. The mobile apps have been able to provide an error free experience as compared to browser based experience but not completely. They further are able to inbuilt secure layers and ensure fraud free and certified transactions. Another challenge is of allocating the optimal budgets, however the real challenge remains in motivating the user to conduct a transaction once through the mobile interface.

How do you assess efforts related to an approach that integrates rich content, geo-location, social networks and features like Augmented Reality? How do you assess the current efforts to simplify the overall user experience in the overall planning and booking process?

We have seen a couple of revolutionary companies releasing apps for users in the travel world. The real assessment lies in the popularity of the apps introduced in the mobile Diaspora. The rate of adoption has been high however the user engagement is designed to make the user addicted to the content and add the vow factor to the experience. The apps are also able to create a virtual world where a next to live experience is witnessed by the visitor. This experience help the user make a decision about his planning for the visit and the sale for that particular trip is assured. There have been instances where one of the international hotel chains have witnessed as high as 60% mobile bookings for the same day check-ins thus triggering a fact that mobile helps change itineraries and change long taken decisions. Social media helps connect a visitor to the community and the world picks it up as a trend to follow. We therefore see social media sites promoting check-ins and posting reviews on products and services. Positive feedbacks about products, services or visiting experiences at various places help the planning segment take informed decisions.

An expert this year told me: Travel industry, and indeed all others as well, needs to become more “context aware”. How do you assess this viewpoint from the travel industry’s perspective?

It is a prove strategy for a company to reach the Numero Uno position to create a world class user experience and delight the customer by the use of technology.

For this reason one of the world’s largest e-commerce portal uses artificial intelligence for the purpose of learning from the pattern of buying from a set of users. This set of users is divided on one of the following criterion: demographics, psychographics, spending pattern, visit frequency, surfing behavior, profiled behavior and more.

Once this pattern or segment is recognized or learnt the same is applied on live customers visiting the portal and automatic suggestions for further products are offered to them. It was observed that the product shortlisted for suggestion registered higher sales as compared to other products. This kind of collaborative learning even suggested higher probability of sales and the likeability of a sale. With user generated content via social media on mobile, more development is visible in the one - to – one space according to a theory proponed by management guru C.K.Prahalad, where N=1 and the company must interact via the product to one at time customer. As it is rightly said - one size does not fit all. As the user shares information about his tastes or likeability’s or his preferences on his travel, more he exposes himself to the marketer to offer the most suitable product for him thus increasing the stickiness with the brand. The trick is to capitalize of this and offer convenient products.

A recent study indicated that while actual monetisation is taking off slowly, the opportunity exists to deliver tools, content and branding opportunities. How do you expect the mobile strategy to shape up going forward?

The marketing world is constantly innovating ways and means to introduce new channels of catching more eyeballs. The entire exercise is centered to acquire more users or engage repetitive audience at the lowest cost possible with rich user content that drives him back. We understand that mobile has been able to quickly connect with the customer with reliable and instant information. However, the penetration in the mobile space is not very impressive and there is un-gauged potential lying underneath. The fact that smartphone market is growing at 25% quarter-on-quarter basis and with new manufacturers bringing the latest in hardware at much below cost has removed entry barriers for the new customers. This gives a much needed impetus to the travel companies to engage the customer and focus on valuable content clubbed with the best in class user experience and win the game. Mobile also offers a much greater opportunity for marketing a brand however we quite often see the marketers crossing their lines conveying not so relevant information to the end user. Today most companies have realized the importance of mobile space & keep aside more than 25% of their total marketing budget for mobile initiatives. We are yet to see most innovative ways of marketing through the mobile space. In fact there are a handful of brands who have invested in this space but the trend is strong, building up & is positive. As estimated by a resource in travel research, mobile apps downloads will increase by seven folds in the next 5 years and the sales via mobile apps shall cross $35 billion worldwide.

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Web analytics is the most valued information source if you are creating travel products

The data and information the travel industry is using to create new travel products is changing fast. In a recent survey for the Product development in Travel Report it was found that a whole range of new data sources were regarded as far more useful than traditional industry data.

The data and information the travel industry is using to create new travel products is changing fast. In a recent survey for the Product development in Travel Report it was found that a whole range of new data sources were regarded as far more useful than traditional industry data.

Whilst Google analytics led the field as a useful data source 64% of responders also stated social media is a vital source of information during product development. Interestingly the use of the larger social networks such as Facebook and Twitter are rated as poor sources of data and are in fact the lowest ranked of those sources investigated. This suggested niche networks work better. Sources such as WTTC, UNWTO and GDS are the least used sources across the sectors.

One of the most highly rated sources were web analytics, Google, market studies and industry databases. The ability for the analytics tool to allow you to assess the strength of demand for new products in new markets in vital.

However as always its in house data that is the most useful. Location based data has led to some interesting developments. Mobile, location aware hotel booking services recently reported that when bookings were made by customers for the same day the hotels were usually less than 2 miles away from where the customer made his booking. Once you know where someone is and where they are staying you can provide highly targeted offers for nearby restaurants and attractions.

The research is from the report “Product Development in travel.” It will be given to all attendees of the Product Development Strategies for the Travel Industry Conference taking place this November 3-4 in London, the week before WTM.

The event will see product developers, route planers, and commercial directors form the world major airlines hotels and travel intermediaries meet to debate how to use data to create long lived high value travel products. Full agenda is here: http://events.eyefortravel.com/profitable-product-development/index.asp

To find out more about the report go here: http://events.eyefortravel.com/profitable-product-development-report/index.asp

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Travel Industry innovators are focussing on the core travel product

After years of unbundling and dynamic packaging, the latest research now shows the travel industry innovators are again focussing on the expansion of core products as opposed to ancillary products.

In a recent survey of top travel industry product developers, 69% of respondents have expanded the total number of individual products available to their customers. Despite the financial crisis the data suggests that companies are truly diversifying their product offering as well as the range of consumer segments targeted. This is for both core and non--‐core products. Whilst this expansion is impressive the change in behaviour is that developing and scaling of core products as opposed to ancillary products has been the focus.

The report “Product Development in travel” will be given to all attendees of the Product Development Strategies for the Travel Industry Conference taking place this November 3-4 in London. The week before WTM.

The event will see product developers, route planers, and commercial directors form the world major airlines hotels and travel intermediaries meet to debate how to use data to create long lived high value travel products. Full agenda is here: http://events.eyefortravel.com/profitable-product-development/index.asp

To find out more about the report go here: http://events.eyefortravel.com/profitable-product-development-report/ind...

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Improving upon RM professionals’ training curriculum

IN-DEPTH: Organisations must invest in training resources, technological insights etc to provide RM executives with strategic and analytical information, according to Dhiraj Trivedi, Corporate Director of Revenue Management & Electronic Distribution, Royal Orchid Hotels.

By Ritesh Gupta

RM professionals in a market like India believe the biggest challenge that this discipline continues to face is pertaining to the availability of trained human resources. In a market where supply is expected to expand further, this will continue to pose an issue.

EyeforTravel’s Ritesh Gupta recently spoke to Bangalore, India-based Dhiraj Trivedi, Corporate Director of Revenue Management & Electronic Distribution, Royal Orchid Hotels, who was one of the speakers at EyeforTravel’s Travel Distribution Summit India 2011 held in Mumbai last week, about the challenges and the latest trends. Excerpts:

How do you assess the future of RM in this industry?

Dhiraj Trivedi:

The future of RM will be much more strategic in nature and will be driven by technological advancements.

Analytical pricing models and Social Networking along with the upcoming mobile based technology will play an important part in everyday decisions. We will gradually see the world moving from RevPar (revenue per available room) to gross operating profit (GOPPAR). Revenue Managers will be more centralised, and the skill set would involve not only analytical, communication abilities but also a major portion of marketing management which would encompass all revenue streams in the hotel.

Can you elaborate on some of the critical issues which RM has had to face in the recent past and how do you think the industry needs to gear up towards the same?

Dhiraj Trivedi:

In the past, all revenue decisions were based mostly on the demand trend analysis for the previous years and a gut feeling. Due to the evolving dynamic nature of our economy, the focus needed to be shifted to the ever evolving market. No more can any RM rely only on historical information. The lack of economy insight and the understanding of new technological advancements such as distribution channels/ social media platforms were the critical issues faced in the recent past. Training is the key for the future. Organisations must invest in training resources, technological insights etc to provide an RM with strategic and analytical information at the tips of his fingers. They must ensure that the RM’s are aware of the every changing global market and the mannerism in which the economy affects a consumers spending power. E-commerce should also be inculcated as part of their training curriculum.

It is being highlighted that the big innovation that is on the horizon is the capability to quantify price elasticity and use that output to generate optimal prices directly. Bringing publicly available competitor pricing data into the heart of the RM system and forecasting how customers will respond to changes in price—it’s a totally different approach. The most advanced hotels are moving in this direction and airlines are likely to follow suit. What’s your take on the same?

Dhiraj Trivedi:

Competition data has always been utilised by any RM while defining strategies on revenue maximisation. The only concern here was the accuracy of the information at hand. The hospitality industry is growing and information now is widely available. Yes the accountability of the information available is questionable, but there has been a noticeable change in the mindset of hotels. The only way hotels will survive is by supporting each other. In today’s era, consumers are smarter, well connected and are always looking out for “value for money “, a combination of both is definitely the approach for the future.

The modern RM is no longer the record keeper of the past and instead is far more reactive to market conditions, in tune with sales plans and the RM professionals are being described as decisive forward thinkers who are innovative and creative. How do you think this all is reflecting the approach of RM professionals today as far as forecasting is concerned?

Dhiraj Trivedi:

This is actually correct as RM’s approach as far as forecasting is concerned is a combination of historical analysis, his/her client servicing capability, his/her approach to the current market conditions, proactiveness, the ability to judge consumer behavior in an ever changing market and the ability to maximise profitability through effective strategies on all e-commerce channels along with the ability to measure end results.

Whilst RM systems go a long way in identifying opportunities and maximising revenues they are not capable of business forecasting and this still remains an area where Revenue Mangers have to improve. What’s your viewpoint regarding the same?

Dhiraj Trivedi:

There is definitely a large scope of improvement for revenue managers as forecasting is still an area of concern for many organisations. Forecasts are never immaculate even though analytical tools and revenue forecasting systems have been set in place. The reason being is that like any other system, information would need to be provided by the user in order to make it work, in this case, the inputs which are provided for the system to work are provided by the respective RM’s. A notable quote for would be “You can’t expect to meet the challenges of today with yesterdays tools and expect to be in business tomorrow“

Can you provide an insight into initiatives being taken by the industry to maximise profits by accurately forecasting demand by segment, and setting price and availability restrictions to ensure access for the most valuable customers?

Dhiraj Trivedi:

With the current increase in the number of hotels all across the world, there is a larger amount of supply available compared to the demand in the market. Hotels are now focusing very strongly on client retention. Understanding the consumer behavior is the need of the hour. Hotels are paying very close attention to consumer like / dislike personal information and are able to capture and evaluate data at every interaction in order to help create unique experiences which would have the consumer coming back for more. This helps hotels identify their strengths and weaknesses and also tells her/him which consumer market (market segment) has the highest spending power. Therefore the paradigm shift in hotels has been from many to a select few Personalisation has become the building blocks for the future.

It is being pointed out that one as-yet untapped areas is to introduce a notion of value for the underlying hotel product. There is an opportunity to influence that formed opinion by balancing price with product variables in the optimisation algorithms. What’s your opinion about the same?

Dhiraj Trivedi:

Although it would be feasible to introduce a value for a hotel product, the final word is always dependent on the opinion of the consumer. A consumer’s word of mouth is the largest available tool to help promote a product without any cost. Whether we will be able to influence a consumer’s choice by balancing price and product is still questionable but we presume that if we are able to work out a balanced algorithm we may be able to create a slight change in the consumer’s perception. However the impact of the algorithm on a large scale is still doubtful.

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Making sure all segments are optimally priced based on the current demand-supply situation

Hotel operators need to diligently look at their existing pricing and segmentation practices in order to gain optimal results.

By Ritesh Gupta

RM specialists believe that the spread between various segments needs to be reduced. Too often one sees prices for some segments being much lower than other segments. This results in shifting business from one segment to another. Moreover, some segments still benefit from a “fixed” year round price. This is against the basic principle of pricing. Rates need to reflect the current demand-supply relationship. This dynamic changes constantly. Therefore, so should the price.

Assessing the situation, Puneet Mahindroo, Corporate Director of RM & Global Distribution, Taj Hotels & Resorts, says most of the industry looks at segmentation in a classic/traditional manner i.e. Corporate, Leisure, etc. From a Revenue Management perspective this level of granularity is perhaps not enough.

“In a competitive environment as we have today, further dissection is required. For instance, there is virtue and opportunity in understanding the behaviour of Corporate Segment broken down by price point range, kind of product opted, Typical Length of stay, etc. To illustrate - a group/segment of guests traveling for the purpose of conducting business, booking INR 8,000-10,000 price point and booking the base category room for 2 nights with an average-spend of INR 2,500 on ancillary revenue areas could be an example of one such RM Segments,” explained Mahindroo, one of the speakers at EyeforTravel’s Travel Distribution Summit India 2011, being held in Mumbai.

“As for pricing; we have observed in the past and continue to see in the future – “price obscure strategies” will continue to play a pivotal role in the industry,” Mahindroo said.

Mahindroo spoke to EyeforTravel’s Ritesh Gupta about the latest issues and trends. Excerpts:

Can you elaborate on some of the critical issues which RM has had to face in the recent past and how do you think the industry needs to gear up for the same in the time to come?

The biggest challenge that Revenue Management continues to face is availability of trained human resources. Going forward from an India perspective where supply is expected to expand further, this will continue to pose an issue. The industry will need to think of creative ways of ensuring availability of talent which in one way can be achieved by partnering with relevant educational institutions or adoption of technology to minimise human dependency.

The other aspect is forecast accuracy. With growing volatility in demand cycles, we need to refine and review our approach towards forecasting since this forms the crux of Revenue Management. The key to competitive advantage is going to rely as much on our ability to forecast accurately as much on product and service innovations.

What do you think are going to the key issues which RM managers need to focus upon going forward?

It will be a combination but I think driven by a common theme “Competitive Advantage”. Innovation and creativity will determine how best the RMs of the future deal with this. It is always easy to follow the band wagon but we all know that successful organisations either do the same things differently in a smarter manner or just simply do different things. In doing so, the foremost challenge from a RM Stand-point will be in managing an optimal market mix and ability to dynamically manipulate the same to support RevPAR growth strategies.

Across-the-board discounting and deep rate cuts may be appropriate for the very short term, but keeping rates artificially low for a protracted period of time simply robs ADR in the service of occupancy. How should one approach discounting at this juncture?

Be it short or long term – “Across the Board Discounting” is the worst possible strategy to pursue. As mentioned earlier the answer lies in Price Obscure Tactics/ Strategies and Optimal Management of Market Mix. We must not fall into the trap of assuming that all the customers are looking for the cheapest rate; they are not. Several consumer research materials indicate that the customers are looking for the best value and the value perception may vary substantially from one customer group to another i.e. micro market segments.

Experts believe that the way hotel companies dealt with price discounting was evidence of how mature their RM strategies were and probably also a fair indication of whether or not RM was part of their organisational culture. How do you assess the situation from RM perspective today?

I agree. There is no denying; most matured business managers will resist discounting and if they do; they will ensure that there is no long-term damage and that the impact leads to incremental revenue gains. Also one must understand that the demand exists at several price points (Ref: law of demand) – it’s just that it is in varying degrees at different times of the year or demand cycles. Hence, most matured RM practices will not only find ways of attracting lower relevant price points but also ensuring that those capable of paying a higher price point don’t buy down.

It seems there is an appetite from consumers to always lap up special deals, discounts and special offers. But do you think hotels are in danger of falling into a trap of working with everybody and having discounts all over the place? What do you recommend to hotels considering that so many options for flash sale initiatives are now available?

Special Deals, Discounts and Special Offers are often considered smart ways to lure customer interest in this fight for electronic shelf space and mindshare. But the customer today is more aware and conscious of the value they derive. We must be relevant and targeted in our communication – be it via electronic or off-line media/channels. A mass market approach is certainly not that will yield most optimum results and hence, we must be micro segment / multi-channel focused. Hence, choice, timing and selection of the most relevant channel is a key. The measure of result must always be not the total revenue generated but total “Incremental” revenue generated.

It is being highlighted that the big innovation that is on the horizon is the capability to quantify price elasticity and use that output to generate optimal prices directly. Bringing publicly available competitor pricing data into the heart of the RM system and forecasting how customers will respond to changes in price—it’s a totally different approach. What’s your take on the same?

Many of us have been grappling with the concept and the main challenge has been in operationalising this in an easy to “use” and “comprehend” manner. This is a big focus area for us at the moment and I am confident will add a different level of awareness and understanding to pricing tactics and strategies. We are very excited on the prospects of this long standing challenge being overcome in the near future.

An industry professional recently pointed out: Future systems will focus on the question, “At what price will I generate the most revenue or profit?” This approach is attractive because it offers upside even for hotels and flights that are not expected to be full. It also addresses destructive price wars amid increasing price transparency. In some markets it may be deemed unnecessary to match a competitor that is slashing prices, based on estimates of customer price elasticity relative to that competitor. What’s your opinion about future systems?

I think pricing is one dimension to the future of Revenue Management. Firstly, I would hope that Revenue Management innovation drives system development and not the other way out. If that be the case then the big question for me for the future is how can I serve the best customised value proposition to each customer when we serve the interest of a million customers who either stay with us or have the potential to spend in our hotels? Revenue Management must lead to greater convergence in bringing together the objectives of marketing, sales, yield optimisation, CRM and operational excellence; thereby addressing the objectives of all key constituents of the overall Revenue Cycle. The company that gets this alignment right will enjoy a long-term and substantial competitive advantage.

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Setting out RoI objectives for data management as a travel company

IN-DEPTH: The challenge is often that one does not know what the value of MIS or data management is as long as the data has not been mined and surprising insights are generated that can lead to better decisions and increased profitability.

By Ritesh Gupta

Travel suppliers possess a rich amount of data about their customers. Harnessing this data to develop knowledge and insight about a customer’s value and needs means that travel suppliers have a unique opportunity to deliver truly differentiated experiences.

When it comes to setting out RoI objectives for data management, with the whole process encompassing data modeling, warehousing, administration and mining, a section of the industry believes that the challenge is often that one does not know what the value of MIS or data management is as long as the data has not been mined and surprising insights are generated that can lead to better decisions and increased profitability.

Management is often unable to define requirements that really matter, says Hedwig Wassing, CEO, @Leisure/Belvilla.

“The cost of ERP projects can be quite high, so in order to get a “Go” the expected results are presented in way that offset the investments and after implementation the results often prove to be disappointing,” said Wassing, who is scheduled to speak at the forthcoming Product Development Strategies For The Travel Industry Conference in London (November 3-4) this year.

“I suggest to model your requirements in a MS Excel or MS Access environment on a small scale to prove the value of the outcome. These tools are quite powerful nowadays and can simulate most functions of an MIS solution. After making the requirement explicit, using this technique, then decide what solution fits the needs of the full scale operation,” Wassing told EyeforTravel’s Ritesh Gupta in an interview. Excerpts from the conversation:

How do you assess the maturity level of data management in the travel sector?

Very limited as far as I have been able to see. Once a project is completed or still underway, consolidation through acquisition creates new challenges over and over again.

The industry has witnessed the emergence of web-based services that make it easy to acquire, organise, manage, and analyse large volumes of complex, interrelated data. How has this service progressed in the travel sector?

There are some easy to use and very scalable solutions on the market nowadays. These are not specifically designed for the travel sector, but are quite usable.

Can you elaborate on what factors should one take into consideration when it comes to data aggregation and implementation strategy?

First of all you need clear definitions of what the data is you are collecting and which you intend to analyse. What is the definition of market? The home country/city of your guest or the destination they may visit? What is the margin? etc.

Also define the formats of the data, like how to use date and time and geographical regions. When you start aggregating data, you will find that different sources have different definitions and formats. In your import routines you must homogenise these elements to one “standard”. As many insights are time frame related, dates should be “decomposed” into day-type day-date, month and year. Make sure you are able to make Year to Date comparisons, which requires certain extra parameters.

Remember you can only drill down to the lowest lave of data you are storing which may be an individual transaction. At the same time a low level of detail will demand a powerful tool to deliver the required performance and response times.

Which is the best way to go about storing organisation-wide repository of data? How can one make the most of all these initiatives?

Integrate data as it is available. Do not try to get everything standardised from the very source. Many have tried and failed and certainly lost valuable time while spending a lot of money.

Choose a tool that works like “glue ware”. It is able to mash data from different sources and make these accessible and presentable as if they came from one single source. So that is why aligning definitions and transforming formats are essential.

Make sure the tool has powerful graphic presentation capabilities.

Over the years, it has been highlighted that data mining is a risky investment and there is a lot of jargon and statistical analysis associated, and even getting management to approve this concept is also challenging. How do you think scenario has changed over the years and how do you assess the acceptance level?

Management should be directly involved from the beginning in the first place. They are the demanding users of the outcome of the MIS data management.

Only they can specify what they need to make better decisions and policies based on insights derived from data. They need to take time to get into details they hate to go into. If they are not willing to do this, the superficial outcome will probably be: Sexy dashboards with dials and traffic lights are what we need. OK, but what do those tell us? Designing an effective MIS is not easy and nobody wants to lose face here. So modeling with sample data in Excel is the best way to start, in my opinion. How expensive your advisors are, is up to you. When management is shaping the tool and its deliverables, the acceptance is immediate, of course.

Corporations are capitalising on the techniques of business analytics to achieve new breakthroughs in process performance. Which according to have been critical breakthroughs in data mining over the past few months? How do you assess the maturity level of these offerings as of today?

I guess that the social media players and the search engines have achieved considerable breakthroughs, both in handling huge volumes of data as well as in translating it in automated responses or triggers to make the network sticky and growing.

Looking at business analytics, MIS helps management to detect anomalies and the effect of internal or external changes more rapidly, so they can intervene before damage is done or problems are escalating.

There is no end to the evolution in sight. Look back at how revenue management started in airlines and hotels in the 1990’s and how sophisticated they have become in 15 -20 years. Airfares could never have been this low without the optimisation capabilities of such systems.

Data mining helps in identifying richly-defined “micro-segments”. Can you reflect upon segmentation strategy, how did you build up your resources within the organisation and eventually how has it helped your business?

Detecting micro segments is one thing, but serving these micro segments in a cost effective and charming manner is the larger part of the challenge at hand. You cannot predict a potential customer's need in a specific situation, however hard you try. The ultimate solution lies in getting a genuine dialog started where interaction leads to a perfect match of supply and demand.

 

Product Development Strategies For The Travel Industry Conference   EyeforTravel is scheduled to conduct the first edition of Product Development Strategies For The Travel Industry Conference in London (November 3-4) this year.   For more info, click here   Or   Contact: Marco Saio Global Events Director +44 (0) 207 375 7219 marco@eyefortravel.com   or   Tim Gunstone Managing Director +44 (0) 207 375 7557 tim@eyefortravel.com

 

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“A massive amount of useful info for hoteliers is hidden within the review sites”

IN-DEPTH: TrustYou, which recently announced its $5 million Series A round and the acquisition of Dallas-based competitor ReviewAnalyst, says it is on a quest to fill the specific data needs of hoteliers by aggregating and analysing the review content - and its mission is constantly evolving as hoteliers’ desires and consumer behaviour continues to change.

By Ritesh Gupta

Travel is considered to be one of the most mature online sectors and as such the depth of data available in travel is exceptional.

Correlating and organising large volumes of data from different sources, often using different metrics is a challenge, but once compiled, these data sources are hugely powerful. Companies are going to rely on these services more and more, especially when every business leader is being held to account with a demonstrable ROI – using analytics to prove a business case is the way forward.

The industry has witnessed the emergence of web-based services that make it easy to acquire, organise, manage, and analyse large volumes of complex, interrelated data.

“In the travel sector, we’re of the opinion that data-as-a-service is still in its infancy,” says Benjamin Jost, CEO and Co-Founder of TrustYou.

“The original and continuing focus of the travel review sites that we analyse is inherently customer-based, providing data to the end-user in order to improve their experience. But this data about the consumer does not flow nearly as easily back towards the service providers themselves,” said Jost.

“It’s clear that a massive amount of useful information for hoteliers is hidden within the review sites and OTAs, but as of yet there has not been a large effort on their part to make those data available and useful to service providers. As such, we’ve been on a quest to fill the specific data needs of hoteliers by aggregating and analysing the review content - and our mission is constantly evolving as hoteliers’ desires and consumer behaviour continues to change.” As a service provider to the travel industry, TrustYou sees semantic analysis as being the biggest step in providing effective evaluation of its customers’ reputation in the review sector.

Jost spoke to EyeforTravel’s Ritesh Gupta about measuring brand perception, data extraction for business decision making, making the most of sentiment database and other relevant issues. Excerpts:

Consumer interactions are occurring across new web platforms including ones related to social media and also mobile platforms. As both suppliers and intermediaries are vying aggressively for the online customer, can you reflect upon what is being done to monitor and measure brand perception and respond on a real-time basis?

Now more than ever, a brand’s reputation can be destroyed in minutes with the staggering speed of information distribution through newer forms of social media. It’s now not only considered good practice, but considered absolutely necessary for a travel service provider to monitor and engage in a variety of social media channels - such as Twitter and Facebook - to shape and analyse brand perception of their properties and services on a consumer level.

In our own software, we provide a data dashboard about a specific hotel’s brand, displaying Twitter and Facebook activity, as well as specifically highlighting negative feedback with our “negative events ticker”. We want to give negative feedback no time to spread - so we give our clients the ability to do damage control in real time.

Additionally, with our semantic technology, we can offer hoteliers an idea of what parts of their brand are most perceived by consumers. For instance, we can tell them whether their hotel is perceived as “child-friendly” or “old-fashioned” - and we offer a full analysis with positive, neutral and negative aspects as an aggregated result of all reviews. This is of utmost importance for quality management and comparison with competitors.

A company like TrustYou is lending a new dimension when it comes to data extraction for business decision making. But what according to you are the challenges when it comes to being able to use the same data to its fullest and take action on it? How should travel companies gear up for the same?

The biggest challenges at this point are the accuracy of the source data, and the accuracy of the data analysis. No analysis algorithm is perfect - and we are constantly improving it. But no matter how good the analysis is, if the source data is of a low quality, then the output will also be low quality.

Travel companies need to be wary of the traits of fallible data, and also need to continue to concentrate on proven data that comes from more than one source. At TrustYou, we’ve designed technology that inherently resists these largest causes of data inaccuracies and inconsistencies. Our Analytics package is part of a turn-key value chain we call the “Circle of Trust”, where we collect review content from a large variety of diverse sources, analyse this content, and produce useful data. We thus equip hoteliers to engage the consumer to both win business and encourage their customers to share online about their experience. We’ve created this value chain specifically for hoteliers, and travel services providers can of course create their own - but the overall takeaway is that treatment of these new forms of data needs to be consistent and part of a larger, well-thought-out data flow.

How are travel companies currently making the most of sentiment database that is being generated from specialist services such as yours? What do you think are the challenges for this sector to open up?

Travel companies are using sentiment data in their internal decision making, molding their services to a perception of consumer opinion that is more accurate than ever. And interestingly, some of our clients are using the sentiment data we provide on their own customer-facing sites - showing consumers that they are aware of and respond to the opinions of previous customers. Earlier this year, we introduced a feature called “widgets”, where we provide each user of our TrustYou Analytics package with a snippet of HTML to post our “seal of approval” on their own website. With our widget, the hotelier has the option to not only show their numerical Global Review Score® to the consumer, but also the key phrases that our software extracts from review content. Our customers who use these features have had nothing but praise for the sales boost and web traffic increases they’ve seen after implementation.

And again, the main challenges are accuracy of analysis, and dealing with bad source data. But both of these issues are at the top of the sector-wide agenda.

It is being highlighted that bad data can negatively impact efforts pertaining to understanding sentiment analysis. Can you elaborate on what should one be wary of?

With data analysis, one needs to be wary of trusting individual sentiments if they are not confirmed by multiple review sources on multiple review sites. Review data has a substantially lower probability of falsehood if it is culled from and corroborated by more than one source.

For our own technology, we place a higher weight on sentiments that are corroborated by more than one source. And next to each sentiment we produce about a hotel, we also place the number of reviewers that “said” that same thing. The sentiments with the most confirmation are displayed at the top of each sentiment list. That way, our output data is affected very little by fake review content.

What is critical when it comes to aggregating and structuring comments, reviews and opinions emanating from the Internet? Can you elaborate on how one can reap maximum benefits from such efforts?

Since most opinions are in the form of natural-language comments and reviews, it’s critical to be able to handle idiomatic linguistic structures and slang. But if one’s data analysis abilities include a strong focus on decoding the meaning of natural language no matter the tone or formality, then one is able to tap into the opinion of a much larger cross-section of the online community. If one’s software was only able to analyse simple sentiments such as “The hotel was good.”, instead of “The hotel staff left me wanting nothing.”, then think of the important source data that would simply be deemed unusable.

Our sophisticated semantic technology is capable of collecting and analysing reviews in eight major languages (12 by year’s end). Most importantly, our technology is inherently aware of idiomatic and colloquial structures unique to each language we analyse. We’re quite proud of its accuracy.

Because of analysis, our clients know much more about obviously about themselves but also about their direct competitors. The companies that can make sense of this huge amount of data have a clear competitive advantage.

Recently, referring to the semantic web of Web 3.0, you mentioned that the central concept of search - where a user has to actively find information - is going to be replaced by information finding the user, based on their behaviour and who they are. Web 3.0 is all about data and it is said that is going to provide users with a personal web experience. How has technology progressed today to get closer to this?

Currently the easiest way to see this progression is in the way advertising content is served. With newer advertisement targeting methodologies - stemming from the email-reading capabilities pioneered by Gmail seven years ago - ads now target a user based on their behavior. This, of course, is commercially motivated - but the technology will continue to trickle down to other services.

A great example of this technology progression can be seen in online music streaming. Pandora was the first widely-accepted service that played streamed music based on a user’s desired tastes, which then progressed on to sites like last.fm which look at all of a user’s listening behavior on all mediums to make musical suggestions, without the user ever having to articulate their desires by typing them in.

Technologies aimed at providing content that fills a user’s unsaid desires will continue to progress in this manner, as users continue to expect the Internet to make them work less to find the information they desire. At TrustYou we are working hard to be a part of this future. It is our goal to be the semantic technology layer in between the user and the websites and platforms that can understand the user’s sentiment and match this to the most appropriate content.

 

Product Development Strategies For The Travel Industry Conference   EyeforTravel is scheduled to conduct the first edition of Product Development Strategies For The Travel Industry Conference in London (November 3-4) this year.   For more info, click here   Or   Contact: Marco Saio Global Events Director +44 (0) 207 375 7219 marco@eyefortravel.com   or   Tim Gunstone Managing Director +44 (0) 207 375 7557 tim@eyefortravel.com

 

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Using UGC for online retention and increasing interaction with a travel site

IN-DEPTH: User-generated content (UGC) increases through social media campaigns; it’s an effective way to retain and encourage new users, and sustain interaction with a site. UGC on its own does not retain online users but the ability to interact with other users serves the purpose, says Richard Dennys, CMO, Qype.

By Ritesh Gupta

Hotel and holiday review sites have been working on ways to ensure that the quality of content is top notch and have been looking at options to increase transparency to demonstrate even-handed treatment of review content.

The explosion of user-generated content (UGC) has changed expectations around travel planning content and the ability to share travel experiences both during and after a trip.

For their part, consumers look for genuine reviews contributed by real consumers speaking about their first hand experiences.

Assessing the utility of UGC from consumers’ perspective in their travel buying cycle at this juncture, Gilles Granger, Founder & CEO, Vinivi says, “UGC is used at key decision making moments in the buying cycle. If you are looking at destination UGC (inspirational), it will appear in the early stage (where did my friend go to? Where others are advising me to go?). If you are looking at hotels / properties, UGC comes in the decision making, therefore very close to the basket confirmation (Customer question: Is this place really as good as the OTA says it is? Do I know anyone who did go there?).”

“Apparently 90 percent of online consumers trust recommendations from people they know; 70 percent trust people they don’t know and only 14 percent trust advertisers. It’s clear that UGC is fast becoming the number one source of reference material for consumers before booking their holiday. On Qype, we have over 1.9 million reviews on everything from underground bars in Berlin, afternoon tea shops in London to the best budget hotels in Barcelona, and every month 22 million people are using the site and reading other people’s opinions,” Richard Dennys, CMO, Qype told EyeforTravel’s Ritesh Gupta.

Granger and Dennys, who are scheduled to speak at the forthcoming EyeforTravel’s Online Marketing & Social Media Europe 2011, to be held in Amsterdam (October 10-11) this year, spoke in detail about the status of UGC in the travel sector. Excerpts:

What do consumers actually look for in UGC?

Richard Dennys:

Consumers are primarily looking for depth and breadth of objective opinion. Consumers can easily tell if a review or a comment is genuine or not and they understand that not everyone will give a place a 100 percent rating. With this in mind and as concerns grow over fake consumer reviews, Qype has launched a rigorous audit to remove any misleading or inaccurate reviews from the site, which will really help to set us apart from our competitors.

Gilles Granger:

First of all they look at pictures, and then they look at reviews, typically at four elements:

• Volume: Has this property been rated by more than 10 people?

• Freshness: When were the last reviews written?

• Profile: Do the reviewers match my profile (age, type of traveller), or, if reviewers do not match my profile, are they the kind of travellers I wish to see once there?

• Trust: May I trust the reviews I see? Have they been filtered by the OTA or the website? Did the reviewer really stay there?

How is UGC overall affecting the overall travel planning and buying process? To what extent holidaymakers are now booking trips based on online travel reviews rather than glossy publications?

Richard Dennys:

With every hour that passes, UGC becomes more influential in the holiday planning and buying process. More and more consumers are researching and booking their trips online, depending on the suggestion and opinion of others, whether online or offline. UGC is much more likely to affect an individual property booking than a large resort reservation. UGC also significantly affects those booking a holiday to a new destination rather than those returning to the same place.

Gilles Granger:

Before UGC, travellers had the choice of asking their Travel Agent, now, they can ask others. Both the glossy brochure and UGC are part of the buying process. Consumers want re-assurance, that’s what they want: they want to make sure that they are doing the right acquisition. Across industries, earlier you could only trust the salesman, now this trust is fading as consumers trust both the salesman and their peers. Do they trust everything they read online is another question.

It is said that user-generated content works well on the visceral or emotional level. However, it doesn't work so well at the functional level. What do you make of this viewpoint?

Richard Dennys:

I don't agree with this statement at all, unless all the reviews and feedback are negative. As long as the UGC has a balanced outlook, it is up to the individual as to whether they follow through with their holiday booking.

Gilles Granger:

Depends on the reviews. Some reviews are really emotional and so will work well on the emotional level (“the staff is so great”). Others are purely factual (“the hotel is dirty”, means to be mentioned several times by several guests) and will therefore be taken as such (decision: choose another hotel). I have example of emotional reviews which became factual.

Increase in rich media content and the regularity at which information is added to a website has positive effects on the search engine optimisation of the website thus increasing the page ranking of the website in search engines. Do you think this is still one of the major benefits of UGC for travel companies?

Richard Dennys:

No, I think the main reason travel companies are encouraging UGC is to build trust in their brand. However, rich original content will naturally help SEO and never harms a brand’s reputation.

Gilles Granger:

Some travel companies only see UGC through this lens and it’s a big mistake. Clients are enormously interesting and there is far more information in user reviews than in any study. Listening to clients should be those companies main focus. SEO is interesting, let’s face it, but it’s about customers.

How can UGC increase the interactivity of a website? How can UGC increase the online retention of your website visitors?

Richard Dennys:

We’ve looked into our own social media activity and discovered that UGC increases through social media campaigns; it’s an effective way to retain and encourage new users and interaction with the site. User-generated content on its own does not retain online users but the ability to interact with other users on the site will do. Online responses from brand owners also help retain users and drives brand loyalty.

It is highlighted that UGC can provide an excellent avenue for data capture from your online visitors. How is the industry focusing on this?

Richard Dennys:

A lot of the industry is frightened by UGC and in some countries such as Germany and France they are taking to the courts to fight it. But UGC can provide valuable insight and intelligence on users and their attitudes. People are much more likely to post an online review than fill in a customer service card! However it's important to remember that you need a good critical mass of opinions in order to extract the quantitative data that is really useful, so the more reviews, the better!

Our UGC on Qype is not only telling us the type of customers we have, it’s telling us what people like and what they are buying. It’s also telling us where they are as they check-in, review and connect with each other using the Qype mobile app.

Gilles Granger:

The travel industry is, by essence, product driven, not client driven. I have not heard, so far, of companies focusing on data capturing. Some companies even buy reviews from UGC websites. It would be enthusiastic if travel companies start doing so...

 

EyeforTravel’s Online Marketing & Social Media Europe 2011   Richard Dennys  and Gilles Granger are scheduled to speak at the forthcoming EyeforTravel’s Online Marketing & Social Media Europe 2011, to be held in Amsterdam (October 10-11) this year.     For more information, click here   Or   Contact:   Gina Baillie VP, Marketing, EyeforTravel E: gina@eyefortravel.com T: UK +44 (0)207 375 7197

 

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