Hotel Blogs - Let's talk about hotels

Video Interview with Klaus Kohlmayr, Ideas - #itb

ITB is usually the place when you get to see a lot of the technology suppliers that help hoteliers to drive business forward. Ideas - owned by SAS - is very familiar with the revenue optimization for hoteliers and has driven loyalty among revenue managers (also called yield managers) around the world. Revenue management is not necessarily the easiest topic to cover and I thought having a direct open conversation with Ideas and revenue management was probably the ice breaker to have further conversations about the subject.

So enjoy this interview with Klaus Kohlmayr, Senior Director at Ideas based in Singapore.

Video Interview with Jerome Touze, Co-Founder of WAYN.com - #leweb

Last interview from me from Le Web held in Paris last week. I was very excited to catch up with Jerome Touze who is the co-founder of WAYN.com, the travel social networking sites who have more than 15M members. In this interview, you will hear from some new features happening on the site, how the site has evolved in the last 3 years and also the re-opening of a paid subscription model where you can access some sort of a "VIP" club with many advantages like upgrade on car rental, discount in hotels and so on. Enjoy the interview and as always feel free to comment.

Video Interview with Hotelaparis.com & Benoot.com - #leweb

To continue with a serie of interviews I conducted at Le Web 09 in Paris last week, this video conversation takes place outside le 104 with Remy Pastel from hotelaparis.com and Emilie Agniel and Benoit Laurent from Benoot.com. 3 French entrepreneurs talking to a French guy in English. Note the major effort we had to make during this interview!

Video Interview with Yohannes Reck from GetYourGuide.com - #leweb

Whilst I was attending Le Web 09 conference in Paris last week, I have met with Yohannes Reck, Founder & CEO at GetYourGuide.com who recently pitched at the GetFundedShow during World Travel Market.

Video Interview with Ciaran Delaney, Founder & CEO at Meetingsbooker.com

Another entrepreneur who tries to solve a problem: how to search and book a meeting room online. Ciaran Delaney explains to Hotel Blogs what MeetingsBooker.com has to offer and why his proposition is so unique in the meeting space. Much of the meeting space is booked on the phone, not much online. Why? Check out this video interview conducted in Dublin this week. Enjoy.

Interview with Ciaran Delaney, CEO at MeetingsBooker.com

Video Interview with Eleanor Ford, Director and Founder of LikeCube.com

This is new video interview I conducted in London in November during the World Travel Market 2009. It features a one to one conversation with Eleanor Ford and Ismael Juma from LikeCube, a pretty sweet technology which works on predictive results when you are looking for a restaurant or hotel in your next holidays or weekend breakaway. LikeCube is a B2B product that has recently partnered with Qype.

These guys are definitely onto something and I am sure we will have a follow up interview in 2010.

Interview with Eleanor Ford, Founder at LikeCube.com

Video Interview with Marc Ruff, CEO of TvTrip.com - part.2

This is the second part of a new video interview I conducted in Paris in August. It features a one to one conversation with Marc Ruff, CEO of Tvtrip.com which has raised around $14M from venture capitalists in two rounds in 2007 and 2009. Tvtrip.com allows consumers to view videos of hotel rooms, facilities and so on before you book with one of their affiliate partners.

In this interview, you will hear about the business model, how they approach hotels, what TvTrip delivers for hotel chains contracts like Accor and their next steps.

The first part of the interview is available here.

Video Interview with Marc Ruff, CEO of TvTrip.com - part.1

This is new video interview I conducted in Paris in August. It features a one to one conversation with Marc Ruff, CEO of Tvtrip.com which has raised around $14M from venture capitalists in two rounds in 2007 and 2009. Tvtrip.com allows consumers to view videos of hotel rooms, facilities and so on before you book with one of their affiliate partners.

This is the first part of the interview. The second part will be published later this week.

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TVtrip

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Interview with Ashwin Kamlani from AboutAnywhere.com

Did you ever think that one day somebody will be able to list your hotel on their website for free? Well, AboutAnywhere.com can do that and started an alternative model to online distribution in order to drive more traffic to hotel own websites. You can add your hotel by filling the form and it’s your choice to communicate as much info as possible to feature on the site.

So how about making money? They took the Google PPC model and implemented on the site meaning if you are an hotelier and you want a better placement, you can purchase a placement to feature on the top.
Sounds like a good idea but it is achievable long term? The future will tell us.

I can’t wait to see how Ashwin team will deal with hotels when you have for instance 20 placements on Paris and everyone wants the top position? How is it going to work? Bidding model?

Find out more about AboutAnywhere.com with an interview conducted with their CEO Ashwin Kamlani.

Other interviews can be found right here.

Interview with Ben Colclough from Tourdust.com

Every EyeforTravel conference I go to, I always meet new entrepreneurs with this innovation flair about how they could disrupt the online travel industry. Ben Colclough is one of those and was short listed to present
his venture at the GetFunded session.

Tourdust is about aggregating niche tour operators excursions/expeditions that hard to find on the web at least in a comprehensive way. Few players (Isango, 10Best) have already launched websites where you can search & book tours, restaurants, guides but Tourdust wants to be even more niche by only consolidating the exceptional adventure excursions with passionate travelers behind the scene.

Find out more about this exciting venture with an interview with Ben.

Other interviews can be found right here.