COMMERCIAL TRAVEL,HOSPITALITY TRENDS
ROOMDEX | September 20, 2022
ROOMDEX, a pioneer in automated hotel upselling solutions, announces that Pandox, a leading hotel company that has ownership in 156 hotels across the globe, activated ROOMDEX’s Upgrade Optimizer software in two hotels, including:“We've always worked with a tool for upselling, but they all required some amount of human labor. So, we were looking for something else, something that was better,” said Jens Egemalm, Distribution Director for Pandox Operations Hotel, “One of my colleagues at the revenue center was doing research on upsell tools in the MEWS marketplace and found ROOMDEX. It was one of the few that was a fully automated system. We liked the simplicity of it, and that led to the first call.”
ROOMDEX Upsell Automation is a set-it-and-forget-it solution that delivers the lowest cost revenue a hotel can generate. ROOMDEX’s Upgrade Optimize combines 2-way integration with a proprietary algorithm to generate True Availability, forecasting inventory usage so there are no operational conflicts. With ROOMDEX, hotel can effortlessly sell and guarantee pre-arrival offers for Room Upgrades, Early Check-in, Late Departure and Guest Services (Breakfast, Parking, etc.).
“In terms of performance, we had high expectations because it was sold to us that it would perform well. And it did. We didn't have to wait one or two weeks before it started performing – it started performing directly. Within just a few days of one of the properties going live, we had more than €5000 worth of upsells. And it’s been consistent – we haven't gone any day without any upsells. Plus, our ROI is higher than what was promised or expected. We are very happy with that.”
ROOMDEX pilot hotels have reported an average of $75 of additional room product up-sell revenue per up-sold stay since using the hotel upsell tool. Upgrade OptimizerTM room revenue is improving RevPar and boosting ADR when hotels need it most.
“We have been very happy with our partnership with MEWS and their app marketplace,Hotel groups like Pandox, who are very experienced in both cloud technology and the upselling space, have found it very easy to run a free trial of ROOMDEX through MEWS. ”
-Jos Schaap, CEO and Co-Founder of ROOMDEX,
About ROOMDEX
ROOMDEX’s hotel upsell software, “Upgrade Optimizer,” automates, monetizes and ultimately simplifies the hotel room upgrade process by putting the power of choice in the hotel guest’s hands. Automation is the cornerstone of our pioneering hotel optimization platform. ROOMDEX uses hotel reservation, guest data and its proprietary persona and price algorithms to deliver personalized digital offers, greatly enhancing the guest experience. The hotel upsell tool relieves hoteliers of the labor time required by other upselling solutions while delivering high margin revenue and a substantial ROI. The company was founded by Jos Schaap, Pierre Boettner and Denis Bajet, three industry veterans (Ex. MICROS-OPERA (now Oracle Hospitality), StayNTouch, Shiji and Nor1). ROOMDEX leverages that 90 years of hotel software innovation experience in PMS, integrations, revenue management, BI, mobile, self-service and upgrade optimization software. Since founding in spring of 2020, ROOMDEX has signed on more than 100 hotels with 9,000 rooms across the U.S., U.K. and Europe.
About Pandox
Pandox is a leading owner of hotel properties in Northern Europe with a focus on sizeable hotels in key leisure and corporate destinations. Pandox’s hotel property portfolio currently comprises 156 hotels with approximately 35,500 hotel rooms in 15 countries. Pandox’s business is organised into Property management, which comprises hotel properties leased on a long-term basis to market leading regional hotel operators and leading international hotel operators, and Operator activities, which comprises hotel operations executed by Pandox in its owner-occupied hotel properties. Pandox was founded in 1995 and the company’s B shares are listed on Nasdaq Stockholm. http://www.pandox.se
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DESTINATION AND TOURISM,HOSPITALITY TRENDS
Guesty | September 15, 2022
Guesty, the leading property management platform for the short-term rental and hospitality industry, announced the acquisition of hotel-focused revenue and distribution platform, YieldPlanet. The acquisition expands Guesty's offerings and capabilities for traditional hotels, with YieldPlanet's technology integrated within the Guesty platform. Unveiling a new Guesty Distribution Hub, the platform will add direct OTA connections with Hopper, Trip.com, Marriott Homes & Villas and Google's Hotel & Vacation Rental Search Products, and will allow hospitality operators to manage a classic hotel repertoire, revenue and vacation rental offerings from one dashboard.
The YieldPlanet acquisition and launch of Guesty Distribution Hub comes upon the heels of Guesty's recent $170 million funding round, from top-tier investors Apax Digital Funds, MSD Partners and Sixth Street Growth, with existing investors Viola Growth and Flashpoint also participating. The capital signals investor confidence in the continued growth of the travel and alternative accommodation industry, and is an endorsement of Guesty's pioneering technology, long-term strategy and position as market leader in the hospitality and property management software sector.
With PMCs competing for diverse consumers and travel personas seeking every accommodation under the sun, we are thrilled to offer additional distribution for our Guesty users through direct integration of YieldPlanet and the formation of the Guesty Distribution Hub," says Yair Holtzer, VP of Strategy at Guesty. "Guesty will offer direct integration with Hopper, Trip.com, Marriott Homes & Villas and Google's suite of Travel Search products, joining our already impressive OTA integration with Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo, Expedia, Tripadvisor, Agoda, and misterb&b. We will also maintain additional integrations through our valued partnerships. The product enhancements solidify Guesty's status as the leading flexible Property Management Platform.
Guesty Distribution Hub is the first ever fully holistic hospitality distribution solution. Guesty customers will now access hundreds of hotel and short-term rental distribution channels (Booking Engine, Metasearch, OTA, and GDS), along with integrated financial tools from one dashboard.
"Joining forces with Guesty marks an exciting new chapter for YieldPlanet, allowing us to strengthen and scale our revenue and channel management solutions, We will continue to grow YieldPlanet and will now offer direct distribution from within Guesty's platform, offering their clients exciting new opportunities to grow and expand their businesses."
-Claudio Limacher, CEO of YieldPlanet.
YieldPlanet's technology, expertise, R&D team, and hotel-focus were a natural fit to join the Guesty family and continue our long-term goal to become the one-stop shop for the hospitality and short-term rental ecosystem," says Amiad Soto, CEO & Co-Founder of Guesty. "YieldPlanet's technology within the Guesty platform, offers best-in-class revenue management, along with its price optimizer product for hotels. Our customers now have access to the widest distribution options on the market from one single dashboard.
About Guesty:
Guesty is the world's leading property management platform for the short-term, vacation rental and hospitality industry. Serving everyone from hosts to hotel brands, customers utilize Guesty's platform and solutions to centralize their reservations, guest communication, operational tasks, cleaning management and more across all the major booking OTA channels, including Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, Tripadvisor, Expedia, Agoda, direct booking websites and more. With 14 offices serving customers worldwide, Guesty empowers hospitality operators to save time and resources so that they can focus on maximizing occupancy, ensuring a great guest experience, and growing their business.
About YieldPlanet:
YieldPlanet is a SaaS provider delivering travel technology solutions for revenue and distribution management. The company's easy-to-use solutions synchronize with property management software to provide a single point of control for channels, reducing labor time, administrative cost and increasing distribution. The company services more than 4,000 clients in over 85 countries around the world, with offices in Spain, Switzerland and Poland.
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INDUSTRY OUTLOOK
Trip.com | August 19, 2022
Trip.com Group, a leading online travel service provider, held its annual Traveler's Forum (TF) in Changsha, the capital of Hunan province in central China, on August 18, 2022, focusing on travel content marketing innovation and destination development.
The Traveler's Forum consists of three parts: International Travelers' Content Creator Forum, Travelers' Night, and a Music Festival & Lifestyle Fair. The forum offered cross-border communication opportunities to the tourism industry, experts, academics, and travel content creators.As a rapid-growing travel destination, Changsha is popular among influencers and KOLs, attracting millions of travelers from home and abroad. Jointly hosted by Changsha Municipal People's Government, the forum shared Changsha's development roadmap of building a vibrant travel destination through travel content marketing, technology, and integration of resources.
"Changsha has become a stylish tourism destination, not only because of its fascinating history and culture but because the city is actively embracing innovation and building Internet-famous products. Changsha's inclusiveness and diversity will attract widespread attention and become a trendsetter."
-Jane Sun, CEO of Trip.com Group
Rungang Zhang, Deputy Chairman and Secretary General of the Chinese Tourism Association shared, "In recent years, with high internet attention, Changsha has rapidly grown into an internet-famous tourism destination. From Changsha's experience, I believe that travel content incubation and upgrade will be an essential pivot of the future destination development."
Yong Tan, Deputy Secretary of the CPC Changsha Municipal Committee, said, With Trip.com Group's strong resource integration capabilities, Changsha is confident it can facilitate tourism transformation further and, in time, build a robust international tourism destination.
Trip.com Group has been an essential strategic partner in Changsha's fast-growing tourism development. Leveraging Trip.com Group's strong resource integration capabilities and content marketing strategy, the city has rolled out various travel campaigns and products on Trip.com Group's platforms. For instance, Changsha Municipal Bureau of Culture, Tourism, Radio and Television, together with Trip.com Group, have launched consumption vouchers this year, accelerating travel recovery in the city. As part of the Group's Rural Revitalization Plan, Trip.com Group built a country retreat in the suburb of Changsha in 2021. Only a week after the retreat was built, the number of bookings surpassed the same period last year.
Trip.com Group's Traveler's Forum has been held in various cities across China, including Lijiang, Chengdu, Shanghai, Xi'an, Chongqing, Guiyang, Anyang, and Sanya. Over 100,000 travelers have actively participated in the annual event, which has generated billions of online exposures.
With the recovery of tourism following the pandemic, the forum showcased Trip.com Group's content marketing strategy. Through gathering high-quality content creators, holding special activities, and facilitating the interaction of experienced travelers, Trip.com Group aims to revitalize the tourism economy and reconnect with keen travelers in post-pandemic times and beyond.
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