DESTINATION AND TOURISM,INDUSTRY OUTLOOK
Travis | November 25, 2022
Travis, a platform that enables travel influencers to share and earn from the brands they love, announced the launch of its Bookable Links product. The product is now available to a select group of creators — including access to over 10,000 hotels globally with notable brands such as Marriott, Intercontinental and Graduate Hotels — before wide release in 2023. Later global access launch will be available to all social media creators — with no minimum follower requirement or upfront subscription fees.
With Travis Bookable Links, influencers create bookable links of hotels they’ve stayed at, and add it to any of their social media posts or profiles. It gives their followers the option to book hotels right at the point of inspiration. When the booking is completed on Travis, creators earn a cut of the booking value.
“The majority of micro-creators and influencers who have under 100,000 followers create content for free, or depend on one-off brand deals to earn income, With our Bookable Links product, we provide a new path for revenue for these creators, while streamlining the process that aspiring travelers can take to visit their top destinations.”
-Nicole Tj, cofounder of Travis
Creators are changing how consumers discover travel by increasingly influencing vacation preferences and spending decisions. However, the tools and infrastructure that enables them to earn off their influencer efforts is lacking. Travis’ internal research with micro-creators shows that while paid brand deals make up 90% of creator income, only 10% of influencer content is actually paid for. Travis stepped in to empower creators with a way to earn passive, recurring income from the other 90% of their content.
In a world where typical influencers have started losing influence because everyone knows what #ad means, creators have a tricky line to walk between trust and profitability, says TikTok travel influencer Marissa Klurstein. “As a travel creator, it seems about time there's a way to share the places we really love and in return get rewarded for our honesty, experience and good taste.
Co-founders Nicole Tj and Thomas Lo are ex-creators themselves, with experience managing influencer campaigns, and extensive expertise working with tourism and travel organizations over the last 10 years. With their unique insight to the challenges faced by both creators and brands across the travel industry, and avid travelers themselves — they are building Travis with the mission to empower anyone to become a travel creator.
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TRAVEL TECHNOLOGY
HotelPlanner | November 23, 2022
HotelPlanner, a global travel technology platform and hotel booking engine, announced a new service agreement with Roibos, one of the fastest-growing B2B hotel inventory marketplaces globally. HotelPlanner will deploy Roibos distribution channels to expand its hotel room offerings globally while improving real-time inventory efficiency.
“In today’s complex and fragmented hospitality market, we are always looking to improve efficiency and connectivity in the global marketplace of selling hotel room nights, Parnering with Roibos will help us to offer the best inventory at the best rates – at the speed of now. We look forward to expanding this partnership in the coming years.”
-Bas Lemmens, EMEA President, HotelPlanner.
The direct connection between HotelPlanner and Roibos will help Hotelplanner accelerate the go-to-market on direct contracting, as Roibos is the most cost-efficient way to grow direct hotel contracts. says Anna Igual, Chief Distribution Officer, Roibos. “Accompanying HotelPlanner on its worldwide expansion is the perfect way to expand our reach. It’s a win-win! We look forward to being an integral part of their growth strategy moving forward.
About Roibos
Roibos is a B2B hotel distribution marketplace where hoteliers and travel operators can connect directly, without intermediaries. This new generation platform helps to improve sales, margins, and distribution, while removing inefficient contracting and complex integrations that reduce profit margins on both ends. Roibos has developed an exclusive Technology Platform (100% in house development), eliminating many traditional inefficiencies, and focusing on what is important to our clients.
Roibos vision is to become the most relevant global marketplace for hoteliers and travel operators through reinforcing these three pillars: Innovation, Control and Profitability.
About HotelPlanner
HotelPlanner is a leading travel technology company that combines proprietary artificial intelligence and a 24/7 gig economy-based reservations and customer service network, to quickly and seamlessly serve all traveller hotel & accommodation needs from a single platform.
HotelPlanner is one of the world’s top providers of individual, group and corporate travel bookings, specializing in unique “Closed User Group” discount rates. Founded in 2003, HotelPlanner has enduring partnerships with the world’s largest Online Travel Agencies, well-known hotel chains, individual hotels, online wedding providers, ancillary lodging providers, corporations, sports franchises, universities and government agencies.
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DESTINATION AND TOURISM,INDUSTRY OUTLOOK
RedAwning | November 21, 2022
RedAwning, the only complete marketing, distribution, reservations and hospitality platform for property managers in North America, announced the acquisition of the business and client base of Lexicon Travel Technologies, the best performing channel manager in the US.
All of Lexicon’s clients and partners are being offered the opportunity to join RedAwning’s robust and comprehensive platform, expanding their distribution reach and benefiting from additional marketing and management services, while maintaining the foundation of great service that Lexicon has built.
“We are delighted to join forces with the impressive team at Lexicon and expand our platform to hundreds of new clients with thousands of properties,The transitions will be seamless for all of our new clients, as RedAwning already supports all of the same PMS platforms as Lexicon and all of the channels too, as well as many more for Lexicon clients to join.”
-Tim Choate, CEO of RedAwning.com.
After we made the decision to sell our business, we looked for a company that would create true synergies with our existing value proposition, said Joel Inman, CEO and Founder of Lexicon. As I got to know the RedAwning platform, I realized they have already solved many of the technical challenges Lexicon has been facing. RedAwning brings true technology and automation to channel management that delivers value through higher conversion with essentially zero manual work.
RedAwning’s comprehensive platform approach to channels vastly outperforms traditional channel management approaches due to RedAwning’s focus on what happens after connectivity to improve actual performance of property listings in each channel. From copy and policy optimization to revenue management to declined credit card handling and instant automatic publishing on all channels, RedAwning’s platform offers a more powerful and much more efficient model for property managers of all sizes to succeed everywhere guests shop for travel.
One of our exciting discoveries with the team at Lexicon is that RedAwning outperforms the bookings per client across thousands of listings on each channel by an average of 37% as compared to Lexicon’s strong clients doing all of the work themselves. We truly offer much more revenue for much less work, and this data is proof of our impact, said Tim Choate, CEO of RedAwning.com.
Most of Lexicon’s top clients have already agreed to join RedAwning in this transition and the company seeks to offer a seamless transition to more revenue with less work to all of the remaining clients, too.
About RedAwning
RedAwning is the short-term rental industry’s only complete marketing, distribution, reservations, and hospitality platform. RedAwning presents one of the world's largest collections of vacation properties to guests wherever they shop for travel. With over 15,000 properties represented on behalf of thousands of independent and professional hosts, RedAwning covers virtually every leisure destination in North America, and includes a comprehensive layer of exclusive services and support with every stay. RedAwning is one of the largest single U.S. vacation rental suppliers to every major travel website, including Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, Expedia, Homes & Villas by Marriott International, Google Travel, and many more. RedAwning also operates exclusive vacation property booking websites, including RedAwning.com for travelers, and RedAwning TravelPro, which enables 20,000 travel agents to book vacation properties.
RedAwning has been a leading innovator in the vacation rental industry since 2010, with a mission to redefine the customer journey for the benefit of guests, hosts, and property managers alike, and to drive innovative approaches that make the booking and staying experience at short term rental properties more consistent, easier, safer, and better for all.
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