The most innovative hoteliers seek to create a brand that can not only endure, but also adapt at the pace of their customers’ changes in preferences and shifts in technology. Creating a sustainable brand that can evolve as the market changes is not easy; although, it is a necessary business strategy for achieving long-term success. By embracing the latest in hospitality technology, hoteliers are better able to articulate their value proposition across important touch points that are the most relevant for today’s guests. Overall, providing a consistent, guest-centric experience enhances guest satisfaction and increases revenue.
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Challenges Facing Salinas Hotéis e Resorts in Latin America
Salinas Hotéis e Resorts recently shifted its distribution strategy to increase online promotions with the intent to boost their direct website sales. However, they lacked the required tools to execute this strategy.
Challenge 1: Outdated Booking Engine
time-consuming booking process + no mobile access = abandoned booking opportunities
This lead to Resorts Salinas’ shoppers ultimately booking through an OTA rather than directly on their website, which resulted in increased costs for that booking in the form of OTA commissions
Challenge 2: Competition
Hotéis e Resorts was worried about losing some shoppers to other nearby, competing properties.
Challenge 3: Distribution
Another problem Salinas Hotéis e Resorts faced: their current distribution system did not have the capability to set availability limits for OTAs. As a result, the resorts could not control their channel mix to drive direct bookings.
Challenge 4: Lead Tracking
Complicating matters worse, the team could not track sales leads from hotel emails, Google AdWords, or Facebook ads. This ambiguity made it challenging to truly understand which marketing tactics were successful, where there were missed business opportunities, or how to optimize their digital advertising to grow revenue in the future.
Providing a More Inviting Guest Experience Online and Cross-Channel
Salinas Hotéis e Resorts looked to Sabre Hospitality Solutions to achieve their distribution strategy. After analyzing their current technology landscape and understanding their strategic objectives, Sabre Hospitality Solutions worked with Salinas Hotéis e Resorts to implement an integrated solution using:
SynXis Booking Engine enabled Salinas Hotéis e Resorts to have a greater focus on retailing and online promotions through a modern, scalable SaaS booking platform.
Implementing SynXis Central Reservations further enabled Salinas Hotéis e Resorts to execute on their rate, inventory and distribution strategies across their indirect (GDS and OTA) channels and direct (call center and website) – leveraging tools to increase ADR and occupancy with real-time rate and inventory information. Working in conjunction with SynXis Central Reservations, Channel Connect provided Salinas Hotéis e Resorts with a simple, efficient way to distribute rates and availability online with OTAs.
Now, they had a single system to effectively manage restrictions. Following the success of these implementations, they looked to Voice Agent to support their call center agents with a complete guest view along with advanced CRM capabilities, including loyalty status, reservation information, and retailing features to help cross-sell and up-sell personalized packages to potential guests.
The End Result
Salinas Hotéis e Resorts experienced increased direct bookings in part to a responsive, streamlined booking tool — complemented by an integrated solution that helped them map their distribution strategy to execution.
By being able to personalize guest offers and manage rates and availability seamlessly across all sales channels, Salinas Hotéis e Resorts achieved a 59% YoY increase in revenues for 2017.
The number of reservations grew 47% that were made directly on their website in 2017 and the share of website sales in room nights grew 22% compared to 2016.