Travel Bots Are On the Rise In 2017
The future is here, and, as you might have expected, it’s robots. Travel bots have been in development for some time, and they’re starting to pick up momentum. OTAs and MetaSearch channels like...
View Article[E-BOOK] Digital Trends for the Hotel Industry
We’ve Analyzed 6 Million Hotel Web Sessions. Here’s What We Found. Welcome to the first edition of our digital trends report, designed to be the essential companion for the savvy hotelier. Our...
View ArticleWho’s Travelling? Female Travellers Spend More
In Net Affinity’s Digital Trends for the Hotel Industry, we analyzed the data from nearly 6,000,000 website sessions. We looked at transactions, booking patterns, conversion rates and more in the...
View ArticleBooking.com Fined for Violating Competition Clause
Welcome back to our weekly roundup of the best news, studies and guides of the week. We hope everyone is fully back in the swing of things after the holidays and ready for a great 2017. January is off...
View ArticleThe Future of Hotel Revenue Management
This week, we found a number of remarkable studies and guides to share with you. Firstly, Cornell has released a study on the “future of revenue management”. They surveyed 400 Revenue Managers on where...
View ArticleMobile Search Revenue Grows, Suggesting Higher Rates Ahead
Google has seen very strong profits for their mobile advertising in Q4 2016. While mobile ads are currently much less costly than desktop ads, this maybe set to change. To get the full story, check it...
View ArticleReady? Google’s Extended Text Ads and Mobile Index Rolling Out
On January 31st, this Tuesday, Google will be fully launching their new Extended Text Ads. All new ads will be ETAs, and most ads in older formats will disappear within days. The next major change,...
View ArticleMobile Devices Dominate Hotel Web Traffic
Mobile continues to see dramatic growth and change. We’ve analysed the latest data on which devices are being used, which are growing and which are declining. The verdict? Hotel website visits are now...
View ArticleTravel Ban Dims Expectations for Travel in Coming Months
This week, Donald Trump’s travel ban has caused a bit of a stir in the industry. As the ban is debated in courts, the confusion surrounding it is impacting travel to and from the United States for...
View ArticleProximity Now the Most Important Ranking Factor for Local Searches
Whitespark, a team of SEO experts focused on local search, has noticed something big: proximity to the searcher is now the #1 ranking factor for local search pack results. What defines a local search?...
View ArticleTrump’s New Travel Ban Already Making International Waves in Tourism
President Trump’s travel bans are making waves, both domestically and abroad. The new order imposes a 90-day entry ban to the U.S. for nationals of Sudan, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen. It...
View ArticleFacebook City Guides: The Latest in Distribution?
Facebook’s City Guides has gone live for a select number of users on March 2nd. What does it do, and who does it affect? To start with, it allows some hotels to display a ‘Book Now’ button directly in...
View ArticleLoyalty and Guest Experience in the Digital Age
Loyalty in the digital age: does it exist? That’s been a big question for a number of years now, and several great articles have delved into it this week. Check out hetras’s historical perspective on...
View ArticleEurope: The Future of Travel Technology?
Hotels may soon be seeing more technology startups they can take advantage of to drive more direct business. At the inaugural Skift Forum Europe this week, there was a lot of talk from leading venture...
View ArticleFrom the First Boutique Hotel to Modern Loyalty Programs
This week, we’re contrasting contemporary best practices with a bit of history that tells us how we got here. Skift’s comprehensive oral history of boutique hotels is a deep dive into how the boutique...
View ArticleCross-Device Marketing and Mobile Hospitality: Still a Challenge
Mobile has been a force in hospitality for a decade. Levels of traffic on mobile are rivaling or outstripping desktop for many hotels, and mobile payment options are coming into full force. However,...
View ArticleHow is Brexit Hitting Hotels? An Analysis & Recommendations
On March 29th, British Prime Minister Theresa May triggered Article 50 to start the process for the UK to leave the European Union. Then, less than a month later – April 18th – the PM called for a...
View ArticleHow are Hotels Faring in the Book Direct Wars?
This week provided some great insight into how hotels, as of May 2017, are faring in the context of the “direct booking wars.” From online reviews as the key to stealing business from big chains to...
View ArticleTechnology Focus Needed to Drive Direct Bookings
Hotels need to focus on their technology to drive direct bookings. Siteminder’s Global Hotel Business Index 2017 shows that the highest priority for hotels in 2017 is “increasing volume of direct...
View ArticleThe Upsides for Independent Hotels Today
This week, at a panel during the Independent Lodging Executive Summit, leading management executives sat down to discuss the upsides and downsides of being in the independent hotel business today. They...
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