Articles tagged “hotel distribution”

Early data shows that hotels' direct bookings are gaining market share during the pandemic, with both brand.com and phone making ground during this time of lower demand. Is this permanent, and if so, which other channels will lose out?

Getting your hotel tech demands right is never an easy process. Why should tech for hotel distribution be any different? Hoteliers end up working with many vendors to help grasp demand, set rates. and get rooms on the right channels. Here's some clarity to figure out that morass.

The typical Airbnb review talks up a rental's charms while overlooking vital information. The company's stock prospectus similarly skips some key details for understanding its business. But we can still infer a few things about the distribution dynamo.

The hotel distribution landscape is complex, with hotel rooms being sold and promoted in many different channels. Covid-19 has certainly impacted how and where hotel rooms are being distributed, but it is unlikely this disruption will be sustained long-term. That’s not to say that disruption isn’t coming, though.

We like to say there's always a way to create your own white space. HotelRunner is a startup looking at the crowded hospitality sector in fresh ways. Think the budget model of EasyJet or AirAsia, but for a hotel tech stack.

The hotel room bedbank Hotelbeds confirmed on Thursday that it had received a loan of about $435 million (€400 million), boosting its cash cushion. But will cautious travelers be as interested in the company's typically non-refundable rates and otherwise typically restricted offers during months of uncertainty about possible travel restrictions?

Oracle Hospitality's Alex Alt sees two gaps in his company's suite: distribution services and customer relationship management tools. Yet the opportunities with both are dynamic, not static, because of fast shifts in hotel company priorities and traveler behaviors. That will require Alt to be one very adaptable executive.

To call a company the best-capitalized hotel tech startup might seem like pointing out the tallest leprechaun. But while SiteMinder serves only about 36,000 hotels out of a million worldwide, new funding from cash-rich investor BlackRock could fuel the hotel connectivity startup's growth substantially.

IHG represents a broader industry trend in that it's getting tougher with online travel agencies and wholesalers in the West while becoming more experimental with online travel sellers in Asia, where it needs help to grow its sales. Its use of new technologies to try to keep its strategy coordinated and to boost revenue are eye-catching.

The collapse last week of Amoma suggests that an industrywide crackdown on online travel agencies that violate hotel contracts is getting serious. For example, many hoteliers have wanted Hotelbeds to crack down on bad behavior by some agencies. The distributor of wholesale rates has responded by taking action.