Hotel Blogs - When Hotel Marketing gets Social

When hotel groups rewrite a story: RoomKey

We started the new year with a lot of news regarding the online travel world. Just by reading Tnooz, I can't keep up with the new stuff coming out of new ventures and also all these changes happening with OTAs.

One of the recent news was the announcement of a new collaborative online distribution channel called RoomKey. This new venture has been launched last week in beta with major hotel groups (Choice Hotels International, Hilton Worlwide, Hyatt, IHG, Wyndham Hotel Group and Marriott).

When I heard the news, I had to pinch myself because this reminded me of 2 past failed projects in the last decade: AndBook in 2000 and TravelWeb (owned by Priceline now) in 2002.

With RoomKey,these hotels groups aim to create a direct distribution channel that competes directly with traditional online travel agents (OTAs) such as Booking.com or Expedia. They are tired of loosing out margin by giving away commission to 3rd party players who spend a lot of money in search engines in order to feature their website higher than hotel chains websites.

By the way did you know that Priceline (including their sister companies Booking.com and Agoda) have spent $700M on online advertising in the first 9 months of 2011. Well, that's exactly where RoomKey might struggle to really compete with established OTAs. I don't believe this conglomerate has this sort of money to buy all the relevant key words in PayPerClick campaigns on Google, Bing and Yahoo.

Now, RoomKey might play the innovation route and think ahead of Google. Hotel Finder, here I come! Afterall, hotel groups have learned a long way since 1998 about what to do online to make their website an increasing profit center. But they also learned a lot about what not to do with OTAs (remember when hotel GMs were dumping rates on hotels.com after September 11).

In their current version, I am afraid I can't really see any major innovation in RoomKey. It is just a meta search engine with mainly American hotel groups providing their best rate availability. Once you pick the hotel you like, you are re-directed to the hotel group website in the right landing page. And that's it folks!

Really? Is that how hoteliers bring innovation online?

And don't even get me started with the introduction on their website.

"Want the real deal on hotel rooms? Well, look no further. Welcome to Room Key, the brainchild of hoteliers on a mission - to make hotel searches simple, fast and fun (not to mention, easy on the eyes). It's a tall order, but we wouldn't do it any other way."

1/ So hotel searches are already simple on major OTAs and hotel group websites. I just don't see how RoomKey makes it more simple.

2/ Fast? Well it took me 15 seconds to get the best rate available in London for 23 hotels whereas Booking.com gives me 1073 hotels availibility and prices in 4 seconds.

3/ Fun? Well there is nothing fun in that search engine, neither are the filters. Clearly the fun element part is clearly missing. Unless it is 2nd degree happiness. In that case, I am not there yet :-)

I am surprised that hotel groups haven't embraced reviews, professional recommendations on this project. This would have been fun!

More to come I am sure. And more to review on these columns for sure.

For now, RoomKey doesnt' quite cut the mustard for me. And you?

Check out Tom Costello excellent blog post about his take on the venture and of course Tnooz article with their 27 comments (and counting).

 

Is AirBnB becoming the new darling of the travel industry?

Less than 3 years ago, a small team of young entrepreneurs founded a disruptive company in the travel industry called AirBnB. Today, this company is really taking everyone by surprise by not only being a cool company in the travel business but also attracting a lot of attention in the press with the recent appointment of TV celebrity Ashton Kutcher on their board of directors.

For those of you who don't know the company yet, AirBnB is an online maket place where you can rent a spare room or your whole house to millions of travellers around the world. Having difficulty to pay the mortgage at the end of the month, you could rent your living room or your second bedroom to adventurous travellers who would rather stay with citizens of the visited city than staying in hotels.

Do you know WelcomeBeyond?

I recently discovered WelcomeBeyond thanks to the new top 50 travel websites recently announced on The Telegraph.

WelcomeBeyond picks accomodations that are truly original all around the world. Only 60 properties have been picked by the founders brothers Oliver & Chris Laugsch.

They have categorized properties in different boxes like Cottage/Cabins, Boutique Hotels, Beach house, Unique property or vacation home.

Design wise, the website is very simple to read and use. Now if you think to book via the website, you will be out of luck as the website is a not for profit organisation with no commission or revenue taken anywhere on the site (at least for now). WelcomeBeyond just puts you in touch with the property owner with a detailed request form.

My favourite property is in Provence, France where an old post office has been converted into a luxurious home for a big family.

Welcome Beyond has a Facebook page with already 519 fans and a Twitter account.

 

Everbread: what we should expect from this company?

It's been a long time that we haven't had any disruptors in the B2B travel sector.

For too long, the travel technology industry has been driven by mainly 4 actors (used to be 5 with Worldspan): Amadeus (Disclaimer: my former employer), Sabre, TravelPort and ITA Software (recently acquired by Google but yet to be completed because of this).

So when I heard that the rock and roll style entrepreneur Morten Lund decided to disrupt the industry and launch Everbread with a suite of solutions, i couldn't resist to have a positive smile on my face and welcome such a brave move.

First of all, the main 3 Global Distribution Systems (GDS) have been around for a while. They were all at some point in their life owned by airlines. They are all now owned by private equity funds (Blackstone for TravelPort, Cinven & BC Partners for Amadeus, TPG & Silver Lake Partners for Sabre).

They are all battling hard to gain market share in all over the world. Some do better than others in certain markets due to a/ their country of origin b/ their level of customer support c/ their loyal customer base

But they are all continuing selling their solutions with the dangerous game of incentives handed out to travel agents.

What does this mean for non GDS agnostics?

Basically if you are a travel agent and you are looking to offer Flights, Hotels, Car, there is a good chance you need to access inventory via the GDS and use their booking platform to make reservations for your customers. All GDS have proprietary front office systems that sit on your computers. Some agents use the graphical interface and others (majority of them) use what we call the "Black Screen" with codes that you learn over a a long intense week of training.

Some agents might decide to swith from one GDS to another besause of different reasons. And when comes the negotation to buy into a new GDS parntnership, the incentive comes largely into play in the decision making factor. It would mean that the GDS will pay the agent an incentive per booking. I know this can sounds weird in the technology sector, but yes GDS pay their customers to use their system. So you might ask how do the GDS make money? From suppliers like Airlines, Hotels, Car rental companies who pay a booking fee and more to be on the GDS. Also let's not forget that all GDS have expended their expertise to provide technology to suppliers as well (another good source of revenue for them).

This battle of who is getting which travel agent / travel management company / tour operator is totally flawed with this incentive model. In the economy crisis we lived not so long ago, some agents weren't interested to invest long term but more how I can make more money with GDS incentives. Such a short strategy in my eyes but hey I am not a travel agent.

Back to Everbread.

As Morten mentions in his video interview with Kevin May from Tnooz during Webintravel in Singapore last week, he thought to join the travel industry because it is the biggest industry in the world and there is a lot of money to make even though it is very competitive. Funny enough we don't know much about their product Haystack yet. No demo has been published online but I am dying to get a demo with their team at some point. Ultimately, Everbread aims to do a better job in travel search. Watch this space. Check out his first appearance at a travel trade industry event last week.

To be continued...

(Filip, I didn't forget your offer ;-)

Coffee with Morten Lund, 'Archangel' investor & CEO, Everbread from WebInTravel on Vimeo.

 

 

 

The ROI on FourSquare offers

You might remember my long detailed post about FourSquare and what they offer for listed businesses.

I have received this email lately:

"Read your blog post (dated 27 July 2010) on using Foursquare in hotels. It was very informative. So, thank you.

However, you’ve made it sound very simple. In reality, wouldn’t implementing Foursquare for a hotel or a hotel chain be more complicated? I mean, it’s not just a question of setting up (registering) the property and using Foursquare. To keep the enthusiasm and energy running through the campaign all year round, wouldn’t the hotel’s General Manager as well as the heads of sales, marketing, F&B, various individual brands for spas, gyms, etc be involved in deciding on the offers to the guests (users) and marketing the campaign?

What about the ROI on and profitability from the campaign? Wouldn’t the entire team be interested in knowing how their offers worked? Whether their efforts paid dividend? Whether the hotel or the hotel chain profited from the campaign? Wouldn’t the campaign need to be integrated with the overall CRM/loyalty practice?

Your answers to these questions will be useful to me as I’m struggling with them at the moment."

Any experience with your hotels and FourSquare that could answer these valid questions?

Have you never forgotten your mobile phone charger whilst travelling?

With geeks like me, packing your bag before travelling - whether on business or leisure - has always been a nightmare. This is because we need to bring all the cables/chargers to power your electronic equipment.

Should I make a list on my last trip to Berlin:
- 1 cable for the MacBook
- 1 cable for the Nokia e71 phone
- 1 cable for my Archos 605WIFI
- 1 cable for my Canon camera
- 1 UK/European plug converter
- 1 European plug for the MacBook

And this is not the worst I have seen. On holidays, I have more than that with all these USB cables if I want to upload pictures from my camera to my Macbook for instance.

This bag of cable got to stop. And it happens before that in the rush of things, I ended up with one cable missing to power let's say my mobile phone.

So here comes this new product I have tried recently called Connectality. This is a simple grid called the "power pad" powered by electricity that connects your phone with a simple device plugged to your phone. You can also get the cover shield called "skin" for blackberry or your iphone and you simply need to "throw" your device on the pad. The phone charges automatically and sticks to the pad.

Imagine you check in at a hotel and you realize whist unpacking in your room you forgot this essential cable to power your phone during your stay. There is little chance that the hotel reception has the right cable for you. They might have a UK/European plug converter but that would be it. What about if they able to offer this device in all the rooms and the only thing you need to do is find the right Powerlink that fits with you phone.

I am not sure how the hotel will offer the service. They would either offer this on business floors or make it available on request to the guest with an extra deposit to tackle thieves.

So hoteliers, what do you think of this as an "extra service" to travellers like me who is fed up to bring all these cables along?

Will keep you posted if I hear any deals going on with the hotel industry. I believe this is a product to watch this year.

The weekly life of a travel startup - Why is it so hard to make great burritos in London?

Every now and then, Itamar, founder of Kukunu gives us an update about the development of his own online travel start up. Enjoy.

I just came back from a fantastic trip to the US with the Seedcamp teams. For a detailed summary of our trip, you can read the great posts from Platogo and Shout’Em.

I came back with one question in mind: Why is it so hard to make great burritos in London?

Indeed, everybody keeps telling me that Burritos are much easier to make in Silicon valley. You can easily find a great recipe, the best ingredients and the right skills; while in London you are likely to struggle finding chipotle chilies or even good corn tortillas. It takes a lot of trial and error with very few tools at your disposal to find that elusive combination of flavors you know is just right.

Come to think of it, burritos are a lot like start-ups.

After spending 2 weeks in New York and the Bay Area, I have to agree that the Silicon Valley seems to be a fantastic place full of opportunities. Everyone knows were to find the best developers and the best technology, everybody knows someone with the right skills or a good idea. They have the infrastructure to create great new start ups, the eco-system is mature.

So are we doomed to eat average Burritos or to stick with jacket potatoes?

I don’t think so. I’ve met a lot of great entrepreneurs in London and some great technologies are being built across Europe. We have here a strong academic and scientific background and the ability to create fantastic IP but we are facing many obstacles when time comes to bring ideas to market. Saul Klein has written a great post on how Seedcamp is creating a distributed network for European start ups; which highlights some key differences between the US and Europe.

But on a day to day basis, I see one simple lesson for those of us in Europe: We will all make much better burritos if we start drinking more coffee.

During these 2 weeks in the US, I  met more people than I  have met in London in a year. Every single person introduced me to other people, some with great travel experience, some with lots of lessons to share from their previous start up and sometimes I’d be the one sharing my thoughts on travel, Amazon.com or online payment.

I know we have European meet ups like OpenCoffee, Minibar, OpenSoho or Mobile Monday. That’s great but not enough, and far from what I witnessed in the US. We have to share lessons learned, now!

We all need to spend more time meeting up around a good coffee, sharing ideas, lessons learned and contacts. That’s one important step towards making London and Europe the best place to build a start up; which is your best chance to succeed with your own business…

So if you want to make great burritos, I know were to find chipotle chilies in London, and I know someone who can find great corn tortillas, I might even introduce you to some great carnitas.

Share your thoughts in a comment or come meet me for coffee: itamar @ kukunu.com

And to Alasdair, Reshma and Saul: Thank you! You did a fantastic job building an extremely rewarding experience both on a professional and personal level.

The weekly life of a travel startup - Goodbye the web, Hello Le Web

This week was a pretty busy week with the 6th iteration of LeWeb in Paris, organised by Geraldine and Loic Lemeur. I arrived in Paris on Sunday and enjoyed the comfort of a lovely Parisian flat and a great office thanks to the fantastic hospitality of Gary (@garycige) from Zilok.

I met several VCs on Monday and Tuesday and quickly discovered that many French investors do get travel and the opportunity for innovation and disruption. Between meetings I could focus on my presentation for LeWeb and enjoy some fantastic food and wine.

The highlights of LeWeb…

* Christopher Sacca (@sacca) on stage (man, you made me want to become a porn-star) check it out here: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/2860866

* Gary Vaynerchuk on stage, just crush it.

* Many other magic presenters and a great winner for the Startup competition: Stribe, with a really cool product.

* And of course a great presentation of Kukunu, see coverage on Techcrunch here: http://eu.techcrunch.com/2009/12/09/leweb-kukunu-wants-to-be-your-travel-agent-online/

I ended the week back in London for a fantastic Seedsummit where, together with the other Seedcamp finalists, I had the opportunity to pitch in front of investors. Being able to discuss Kukunu with people like Brent Hoberman, Martin Varsavsky, Dave McClure and Jeff Clavier was magic.

This is the end of a pretty exciting week, in the meantime Gerald (my co-founder) developed some great new features that we are beta testing right now. Sign up on http://www.kukunu.com to participate in the private beta, we should extend it in the coming weeks.

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.