There’s no better way for hotels to tell stories than videos, the engagement is high and brand gets a huge upliftment if videos are made in a compelling format.

Featured here is a video done for Radisson Noida, an upscale boutique hotel to promote Ni Hao, an Asian Cuisine restaurant in Noida (India). Are you a boutique hotel? How are you using videos to convey the story of your hotel? We would love to hear your story.

The post How hotels can use video to market themselves on Digital Platforms appeared first on TravHQ.

One organization that has been tirelessly working on bringing together the unorganised and fragmented homestay segment and increasing focus on this space, is Stay On Skill. The company that tries to find a way to let you travel more while minimising the hit on your credit card, is now launching India’s first marketing accelerator that will help homestays skyrocket their customer base, revenue and brand value in an intensive three-month programme.

Each month Stay On Skill will send three selected travel influencers to a homestay, where they will experience the offerings of the property and promote it on their respective social media channels. Additionally, every month there’ll be Masterclasses by experts on different topics to help them grow their business. From customized marketing strategies, to analysis of online presence, Stay on Skill will ensure that by the end of these three months, the properties would have not only increased their reach but also understood the nitty-gritty of marketing themselves better.

TravHQ spoke to Arjun Tuli, founder of Stay On Skill, about the programme and the company’s plans of giving homestays across India a much-needed social boost.

1. What was the trigger behind launching an accelerator programme?

Stay On Skill in the last one year has helped numerous commercial properties in different aspects. Duing all of this one thing that we have realised it – hotels and homestays in India are popping up like wild mushrooms. In the city of Ooty itself there are more than 2000 hotels (and these are just the ones that are listed online). Across India, more than 1,75,000 properties are taking online bookings. Amid all of this, the problem is – how do you make people know that you exist? Listing on platforms like Airbnb or Booking.com doesn’t ensure you visibility or bookings. If your property shows up on the second page of Airbnb, you might as well forget that prospective customers will get to know about you. One good way to stand out from the crowd is to create a brand for yourself digitally – through social media, blogging, and video creation. But unfortunately, most homestays or hotels are not much aware of to how to go about it. Our analysis show that many of them in the past have been cheated by fake bloggers and instagram influencers, who either don’t have authentic following or high traffic.

So, at Stay On Skill, we decided to make these things transparent for properties and provide them some real value. The idea behind the accelerator is to help the deserving properties get the visibility they deserve, and the complete three-month program is designed around that. We won’t only be sending curated travel influencers to their property, but also teaching them how to make more revenue through different digital marketing techniques, and how to perform well on booking portals.

2. What according to you are the benefits of having such accelerator programmes in place in the travel industry?

On a broader scale benefits would include –
1) Properties gain visibility.
2) They get access to star influencers who have the ability to make their property go viral.
3) They get access to Masterclasses on different aspects of Social Media, Digital Marketing, Web Booking, so that after the accelerator they can take forward the learnings and start executing it themselves.
4) Build a brand value – when some good influencers get associated with your property, it creates a great brand value for you. (Unfortunately, most properties don’t know how to capitalise on that)
5) Increased brand value and visibility leading to increase in revenue.

3. What are the long-term gains that you see arising from this programme?

In these three months, Stay On Skill will provide the properties a great exposure in terms of visibility and brand value. Although visibility is short lived, brand value is not. If the properties can cash in on this brand value, it will have a long term effect on the kind of customers they attract.

The properties also gain immense knowledge from the Masterclasses. Each Masterclass is designed to provide specific insights to the property owners, that they can use to enrich the experience of their customers, and thereby increase their revenue. The knowledge from these won’t run out with time. If you execute it, you are bound to gain and add a lasting value to your business.

4. Big brands like Expedia and Marriott have already conducted accelerator programmes for their listed hotels, or improving customer experience. Is yours the first-of-its-kind offering for homestays?

If you go through the accelerator program by Expedia, it was aimed at moving hotels higher up in ranking on their own portal by giving an additional 10% cut in the bookings.
There was no addition to the property in terms of brand value, digital exposure or knowledge.

Stay On Skill accelerator is built around a completely different value addition. We are highly selective in the properties that we chose for the accelerator. We have limited them to just 10. The idea is provide them the maximum benefit through exposure and sharing our learning of this industry.

The Stay On Skill accelerator is not just limited to homestays. It’s open to hotels as well, as long as they fulfill our acceptance criteria – there should be something unique about the property – which we analyse basis the different parameters of stay, lodging, food, culture and experience.

5. How is homestay marketing expanding and evolving, particularly in India?

The homestay market in India is expanding at a faster rate than it ever was, especially in the areas of Himachal, Uttarakhand – where the locals are now realising the potential that tourism holds. For locals, getting into the tourism industry also means that you are not investing your time in doing activities like drugs, and tourism has helped a lot in that perspective – giving employment to many.

6. Isn’t there a fear that if the properties don’t get conversions in terms of revenue, despite the huge reach that you are promising, they may come back to you disappointed?

Not really. What Stay On Skill is really good at is providing the properties with immense visibility at a very low cost of investment. Thereby, helping them build a brand and name for themselves in the industry. Along with this, we equip the properties with knowledge required to convert the leads into customers. But if after this conversion doesn’t happen, then it means there’s some other aspect of the property that is lacking, which we need to identify and help overcome – which we shall do.

And this particular batch of the Stay On Skill accelerator is Not For Profit . All that we’ll be receiving from the properties will go towards payment of the bloggers, influencers, graphic designers and social media experts – we won’t be making a profit of a single penny from it.

7. What are Stay On Skill’s future plans regarding this programme?

We started the Stay On Skill accelerator as medium to share our knowledge and expertise with the properties and help them benefit from it. If we are able to make it happen at a small scale of 10 properties, next time around we’ll try to make an effort to reach a wider audience and help more properties benefit from it.

The application for the first batch closes on August 31. If you are a homestay or a hotel looking to increase your digital presence, apply here – http://stayonskill.com/accelerator.html.

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Amadeus India, a GDS (Global Distribution System) and travel software and technology solutions provider, with more than 50% market share in the country, is working towards improving its business from the hotel segment by providing improvised end-to-end services in terms of hotel bookings and distribution. The company plans to add more products from the aggregators and offer convenient options for bookings on its own platform.

Rakesh Bansal, CEO, Amadeus India, stated in an interview that the company, which earns more than 90% of its business from airline ticket bookings, is now focusing on improving its other business models such as hotel bookings and distribution and has undertaken large investments in ancillary travel services like booking seat, meal and baggage in last two years.

As far as latest initiatives in terms of business expansion go, Bansal said that the company has come up with ACUS (Airport Common Use Service), a solution provider product for airports, and for the same Amadeus is in talks with few airports listed under UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik) scheme. The company also plans to increase the number of airlines onboard Amadeus India platform from 79 to 100 by the year-end.

Throwing light on Amadeus India’s newly launched products in the market, Bansal said that among all the latest products launched in the last two years, Amadeus Auto Ticket has seen a high-adaption rate among partners as it allows automated ticketing for IATA agents, providing them a convenient option to book, cancel and re-book airline tickets with lesser time taken as compared to any other GDS platform. According to him, big players like Thomas Cook, who regularly handle corporate travel bookings, find this tool quite effective.

Another product that is gaining good market share is Amadeus Quality Monitor which favours consumers, allowing them to demand a particular service and forcing the travel counselor to deliver it without altering the quality.

The company has also developed software for front office solution named as Amadeus selling platform connect (SECO) which is a professional booking and fulfillment platform that trains the travel agents with a set of core features which are needed to perform key booking tasks. Bansal said that SECO is tailored to specific needs for air, hotels, cars, insurance and rail and anyone can access the software any time and from any machine with latest internet browsers.

Amadeus India is also looking to tap the LCCs (Low-Cost Carriers) by providing LCC solutions through Navitaire, its recently acquired company which specializes in providing technology and business solutions to low-cost and hybrid carriers.

In terms of marketing and promotions, Bansal said that the company enjoys the network of 10,000 travel agencies and has close relationships with airlines which help in word of mouth publicity. Alongside, in every six months’ Amadeus organizes product roadshows and refresh courses for updating its partners on updates in the features and products. For the second half of 2018, the company has planned a series of roadshows across the country starting from Kolkata in late August, followed by Delhi, Mumbai and Pune in September and October.

The post Amadeus India to groom hotel segment with new tech products appeared first on TravHQ.

Hotels, airlines, cruises and travel sites are under siege from crooks using using fake or stolen account details to try to access accounts. Hackers have been using stolen or leaked account details to attempt to log into accounts, using botnets to deliver attacks at industrial scale, according to a recent research by Akamai.

While the use of bots to abuse stolen credentials continues to be a major risk for Internet-driven businesses across the world, the hospitality industry experiences many more credential abuse attacks than other sectors, according to this report.

Akamai researchers analyzed nearly 112 billion bot requests and 3.9 billion malicious login attempts that targeted sites in this industry including airlines, cruise lines and hotels among others. Nearly 40 percent of the traffic seen across hotel and travel sites is classified as “impersonators of known browsers”, which is a known vector for fraud.

Geographic analysis of attack traffic origination reveals that Russia, China and Indonesia were major sources of credential abuse for the travel industry during the period covered by the report, directing about half of their credential abuse activity at hotels, cruise lines, airlines, and travel sites. Attack traffic origination against the hospitality and travel industry from China and Russia combined was three times the amount of attacks originating in the U.S.

Image source: Tecnoeducacion

“These countries have historically been large centers for cyberattacks, but the attractiveness of the hospitality industry appears to have made it a significant target for hackers to carry out bot-driven fraud,” said Martin McKeay, Senior Security Advocate, Akamai and senior editor of the State of the Internet / Security report.

While researchers can’t be sure why attackers in these regions of the world are so keen on attempting to breach accounts associated with the hospitality sector, but one likely explanation is that hotels and travel sites would be lucrative for organised crime gangs.

Hotels have everything from guest credit card data through to identity documentation that guests might be required under local laws to provide at check in. This is exactly the kind of personal and payment data that would be considered valuable to hackers. Not only are hotel websites full of personal information which can be used to commit fraud or even make purchases, a lot of them also offer users incentives and point-based reward systems which are open to abuse.

Earlier this year, another report by cybersecurity firm Distil Networks highlighted how malicious bots steal data and content and wreak havoc on websites, and airlines have the second-highest proportion of traffic from these bots. For airlines, bad bots accounted for 43.9% of all traffic on their websites in 2017. That puts the airline sector second to only gambling websites, which had 53.9% of their traffic from bots. And it’s more than twice as much as the average across all industries – 21.8% – and used to automate a variety of harmful actions such as web scraping, competitive data mining, personal and financial data harvesting and digital ad fraud.

The post The travel industry is battling a new threat – bot attacks appeared first on TravHQ.

Technology has continuously been transforming the travel industry, but one constant remains – the hotel front desk. Step into any hotel, of any range, and you will end up finding the typical counter with people smiling and greeting you.

There are exceptions to this of course – the hotels who have bid farewell to the faithful infrastructure in exchange for handheld or fixed devices and kiosks. We are in an era where travellers cannot have a seamless experience with the hotel without the aid of technology. With technology evolving and guests gaining access to several social media platforms, it has become imperative for hotels to have a positive online presence, a brand recognition and provide a smooth stay experience. IoT is termed as a defining force in travel and IoT solutions are offering interesting set of possibilities for hotels by offering better data about the guests. From enabling front desk to serve customers quickly to skipping it altogether, the solution allows hoteliers to add the technologies as extensions to their existing app. Many consumers want to interact with hotels flexibly, whether by texting to request an early check-in or by unlocking their guest room with keyless entry powered by a mobile app. Moreover, there is an age-old desire to cut labor costs through automation.

However, at most places, the front desk has defied most of these technological trends and persisted. How did that happen?

There has been a growing skepticism for technology that has many implications for travel. In the past couple of months, social media platforms have been facing intense backlash from consumers, media, and regulators for having abused their trust. By treating a traveller this way – ‘using’ them only for data and attributes – hoteliers stand to face a similar backlash for exploiting customers for the purpose of upselling. The front desk is one place where this can be taken care of.

People don’t want to be treated like gadgets anymore. When travellers show up at a hotel after a long flight, the last thing they would want is to interact with another piece of technology. This goes especially true for business travellers, for whom travel can be a particularly dehumanizing experience. Chances are that the only human interaction they have all day is the front desk colleague who warmly welcomes them. Isn’t that the point of staying at a great hotel – to be taken care of?

A front desk is like the heart of a hotel. The travel industry needs to rethink its pursuit of digital services as only a proxy to human experience, and not simply replace it. A vast majority of today’s travellers still reject fully automated check-in. Case in point, long queues at airport counters. People don’t usually walk up to kiosks unless escorted by a human.

This is not to say that we should not pursue automation and all things digital. Many guests already do prefer it. However, let’s wait for a point at which time more guests will prefer to check-in via mobile than in person, before completely giving up on the front desk. In fact, rather than replacing the front desk completely, it should be re-invented as a tool to build brand image, especially online. When people check out reviews at TripAdvisor, it is easy to see that what people review is service by humans. If hotels completely eliminate the front desk experience, all hotel brands will eventually become a commodity, and then, why would we need a brand at all?

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It is safe to say that the success of a hotel and the technology it employs go hand-in-hand, and hence technology becomes vital to differentiate themselves from competitors and engage with guests. Remaining ahead of the curve not only increases profits, but also drives more exposure, solidifies loyalty and brings in more guests.

According to a Walker study, by the year 2020 customer experience will overtake price and product as the key brand differentiator. Studies validate that dynamic shifts in the hotel industry are taking place in 2018 – with dominance of digital and mobile.

Today, hotels can monitor guests around their properties using installed apps tied to key cards. They can log every guest request through AI-driven concierges, which means the guest doesn’t need to come to the front desk or even call them. Devices using Internet of Things (IoT) can help the hotel know what temperature the guest likes their room to be at, when water bottles need to be replaced, and more. Armed with this information, hotels can then personalise at an individual level for each guest, making recommendations for add-ons, for instance.

Here are the top technologies that any hotel must have in order to determine if they will manage to win the hospitality race this year –

#1. Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality – With analysts predicting that AR and VR will be a $150 billion industry by 2020, it offers enormous benefits for brands savvy enough to seize the opportunity. Hotels who use VR will be able to determine guests’ tastes when they check in, monitor their movements inside the hotel, and even attempt to get them to pay for additional products. The gadgets associated with the technology, such as mounted headsets or connected glasses, are also a key part of the tourist experience, especially for the more tech-savvy, millennial generation of travellers.

For instance, Shangri-La Hotels has a website dedicated to virtual reality wherein people can explore the chain’s hotels and destinations around the world with their immersive 360-degree videos. They can take virtual tours of amazing destinations and iconic hotels – all from the comfort of home.

#2. Self-Service – According to a report by Gartner, by 2020 a customer will manage 85% of the relationship with an enterprise without interacting with a human. So, whether a hotel is a high-end boutique or a budget-friendly one, self-service technology, especially via mobiles, is increasingly impacting the hotel experience, right from check in to check out. If done correctly, the service allows hotels to operate much more efficiently, while maintaining comfort for guests.

Marriott recently rolled out its mobile check-in feature across the Asia Pacific region, that enables members who have downloaded the Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) mobile app to book their stays directly with SPG on its website or in the app.

Image source: Marriott

#3. Paperless transactions – More and more hotels are starting to realize the advantages of paperless transactions, not only for expenses, but also for the environment. From employee management to receipts, surveys, loyalty programs, and managing documents – going digital makes it more efficient for the hotels to run their business. By having a modern Property Management System designed, with additional features such as electronic signature for guests, the entire process becomes more seamless and mobile.

Silverbytes System, a specialist in hotel management software, is already helping hotels go green by enabling them to offer express check-in online or via mobile, and express check-out via iPad and other tablet devices.

#4. Internet of Things – Smart hotels are enabling hoteliers to offer better service and run the facility on their back-end more efficiently, all this thanks to IoT, the global market of which is expected to reach $7.1 trillion in the years to come. The benefits of IoT lies way beyond regular servicing of tech-savvy guests with smart room technologies; it is also helping hotels manage electricity and power consumption by controlling usage of lights, and other systems that automatically switch off when guests leave rooms.

Last year, Hilton unveiled its ‘Connected Room’, a first-of-its-kind, high-tech guest room that enables guests to personalize and control every aspect of their stay from one central point – their mobile device. Guests who stay at Connected Room-enabled properties will be able to use the Hilton Honors app to manage most things they would traditionally do manually in a room, like controlling the temperature or window coverings.

Image source: nyc.epeak.in

#5. Strong cybersecurity – With the rise of IoT, and the increased usage of online tools, cyber-attacks have become more frequent and prevalent. The hotel industry is particularly vulnerable due to the amount of personal data available with them. It will be imperative for hotels to upgrade their data protection processes, or face the risk of significant losses, both in terms of data and revenue. From investing in cybersecurity technology and having a cloud-based PMS to providing the staff with appropriate training programs, hotels will have to up the ante when it comes to protection.

A couple of days back, Rosewood Hotel Group announced an issue affecting certain Rosewood guest reservation information that was maintained on the systems of Sabre Hospitality Solutions, a service provider used by Rosewood and other major hotel brands to process guests’ hotel reservations. This further highlights the need to put the spotlight on cybersecurity.

#6. Frictionless experiences – The key to success for any hotel is removing each and every pain point for a frictionless guest experience. Mobile keyless door is one of those technologies that are already in use and are generating immense positive feedback from guests. The security, convenience, and efficiency it offers helps guests manage their stay on their mobile devices, making it easier for hotels to do away with unreliable, easily-duplicated plastic key cards.

Hilton’s guests in the UK, for instance, are now able to use their phone as a key to enter their rooms, as part of an international roll out of the technology by the hotel. Its competitors such as Marriott, Hyatt and InterContinental Hotels Group are also experimenting with similar systems.

Image source: ExtremeTech

All these technologies combined will help hotels react smarter and faster, fixing an issue before it escalates into a complaint, mastering guest communications and services, and finally, pushing up the all-important review scores. This will give the hotel of the future an edge in customer satisfaction and also drive increased revenues from altogether new streams.

The post Hotel technologies that will transform the guest experience in 2018 appeared first on TravHQ.

Ever since the launch of Snapchat, every social media platform has been scrambling to come up with a similar tool that lets users broadcast their pictures or videos in real time. Of all those attempts, Instagram Stories has probably managed to garner the most attention. The photo-sharing platform has always remained a favourite for F&B brands looking to leverage the tool to market their business.

Why should you use it?

Because it offers an addictive and authentic way for people and brands to share with others. Instagram has an extremely active user-base, reported to be at 250 million daily active users. That gives your brand a much wider audience than any other traditional channel. It is also very easy to create content on Instagram story; nobody has to wrack their brains over a post for an hour. Get the picture right and you are good to go. It also gives a great base to experiment with different ideas. Put up an Instagram story and measure its response. Even if it isn’t good, the story will anyway disappear within 24 hours, giving you a clean slate to start off again. Additionally, much like Snapchat, Instagram also has a great armour of tools and filters to make your stories more engaging, creative and fun.

Here are some of the top ways you can leverage this new-age marketing platform for your hospitality brand –

#1. Use it to unveil new menu items – There’s nothing better than looking at great pictures of delicious food items on Instagram. Take beautiful shots of new menu items, or even the menu itself, and caption them with words from the chef or list down some of the ingredients for the dish. If you create an Instagram Story about your hotel or restaurant, makes sure to add a location sticker. This helps to share your stories to people who don’t follow you yet, as Instagram collates all stories around particular locations to show it to people in areas nearby.

Radisson in Noida has been happily experimenting with the platform for a while now.

Ramendra Pratap Singh, General Manager at Radisson Noida, says, “With the growth of mobile users, we strongly believe that Instagram is a critical guest engagement platform for the hospitality industry as we step into 2018. We have been leveraging Instagram Stories to promote the variety of F&B offerings and experience in various restaurant at Radisson Noida through visuals. This new format helps us staying current in feeds and creates a stronger recall for the brand.”

#2. Let influencers takeover your account for a day – Working with influencers on social media platforms is one of the best ways to connect with the young generation of consumers. Nowadays, a lot of brands let influencers take over their account and post content that speaks to their target audience through cross-promotion techniques. This way, brands can easily double their audience count. Additionally, takeovers are a great way to get in front of a new audience via someone who has already built up a following in that same domain and understands what users are looking for.

#3. Take the audience backstage – Giving your fans a glimpse into what goes on behind-the-scenes at your hotel or restaurant is a great way to make them feel like they’re part of the experience. Your brand could post a great picture on the feed, and then use Instagram story to showcase what went into making that shot perfect. Another great way is to post an Instagram story of the process of cooking a crowd-favourite dish, or even giving them a tour of the entire place. This lends more credibility to your brand as it depicts authenticity, and that is something that people love.

#4. Announce your event, send out its teaser – Is your hotel prepping for a big event? Do you have a band performing live in the evening? Then there is absolutely no better way to let people know about it than Instagram stories. By giving them tiny bits about how you are ramping up for the event, your brand can keep the buzz strong, and make sure more and more people turn up for the actual event later.

#5. Redirect users to longer pieces of content or even to your website – If your brand has an active blog, or if the face of your brand speaks about something relevant to the industry in general, make sure to entice your Instagram followers to check it out. Tell the audience what the content is about, give them a reason to read the entire piece, and then add the call-to-action to invite viewers to ‘click on the link in bio’ or ‘swipe up to read more’. You can also use this feature to display any particular offering or product and then redirect users to that content on your website as well. This not just gives you viewers on this platform, but also increases clicks to your main website.

Want more tips to navigate through Instagram stories? Read this.

The post 5 ways hospitality brands can start using Instagram stories (and why they should) appeared first on TravHQ.

Agoda, one of the world’s fastest-growing online hotel platforms, has unveiled its latest travel planning calendar exclusively aimed at tourists. Over time, it has analyzed hotel prices at 25 of the most popular tourist destinations in the world for assisting travellers obtain affordable accommodations world-wide.

Their statistical analysis revealed that most of the hotels are available at a much cheaper rate in the beginning of the year, especially from January to March. For example, hotels in Amsterdam can provide discounts upto 32%, hotels in Barcelona can cut their prices upto 42% and hotels in Rome can propose 39% discount in this time period. During the first two weeks of January the average room rates are lower than the standard rates in 22 of the 25 markets. Ironically, the demand of hotel rooms is really low in September and October but the hotels are notably costlier in these months. In fact, September and October can turn out to be the most expensive hotel booking months in the year. Why do we say this? Their analytical study brought to light that hotels in Amsterdam can increase their prices upto 52% in these months. Similarly, hotels in Istanbul can have 60% price hike while hotels in Berlin can experience 34% price hike.

If you, as a traveller and believe that hotel rooms will be exponentially expensive in Sydney and New York during peak seasons of travel, you are wrong! In fact, according to Agoda’s report, the prices are really low then. Uncommonly, the hotel rooms of Stockholm are cheaper in the end of the year. If travellers are planning to explore parts of Europe like Amsterdam, Barcelona, Paris, Berlin, Rome and London, mid-March is the perfect time as most of the hotels offer 20% discount for their accommodations.

According to their press release report, John Brown, the CEO of Agoda, stated:

“For many travellers, price is the most important factor in deciding when and where to go. This data can help our customers get the most out of their money.”

Money can be a prime decision making factor for most of the travellers who have a limited budget. Such people will either go to their favourite destinations when the prices are comparatively lower than the standard rates or simply choose another destination which can fall within their budget. Since booking hotel rooms at the right moment is a common concern amongst most of the travellers, Agoda has curated this report.

The below infographic summarises the finding of Agoda’s report:

Photo Credit: Agoda.com

Most hotels of Asiatic destinations have standard price rates all year round with really low discounts. For example, hotels of Hong Kong offer approximately 11% discount during the month of May or June. This is very low compared to American or European markets. In such a scenario, potential customers can’t get any significant discounts throughout the year simply because such offers don’t exist in the Asian market!

To summarise:

• Most of the hotels give maximum discounts in January, February and March
• September and October are the costliest months of the year to book hotels
• Hotels in Asiatic destinations don’t experience significant price fluctuations throughout the year

Agoda, the Singaporean firm owned by Priceline Group, offers accommodation booking services through its website and mobile app. With 2000 employees, it has offices in Tokyo, Sydney, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, London, Jakarta, Budapest and New York. Its award-winning website is fast, user-friendly and lists 750,000 hotels and other accommodation properties at significantly cheap prices.

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