Event Round-Up

Partnering hospitality

Travelguru recently hosted the first Partner Summit for hoteliers in Mumbai to educate hoteliers about the benefits of online distribution

There can be no doubt that Indians are comfortable booking travel online. Although it is the air ticket booking that see a lot of action, other segments are soon catching up, including the hotels which for long were done through brochures and word of mouth. This has led to the emergence of dedicated hotel booking portals.

The hotel industry has undertaken various initiatives in the past to maximise bookings. Prepaid phone reservations were the first major introduction, which helped hotels generate additional bookings. Then came the toll-free phone service, which further helped in maximising revenues. Marketing also played an integral role by offering more visibility to the properties. The latest is the revolutionary e-commerce endeavour.

Ashwin Damera, founder and CEO, Travelguru, believes that the future of hotel distribution is definitely online but there is still some time to go. Realising the potential of online inventory distribution, Travelguru hosted its first Partner Summit in Mumbai for hoteliers to realise its benefits. "The summit is a small step and there are more steps to be taken to increase distribution online. Hoteliers should consider distributing online, starting with their own website as about 10-12 per cent of distribution for hotels comes through this mode, which is anticipated to grow four times in 12 months," he said. The portal's anticipated Property Management System is slated to launch by September 2009, and will be provided for hotels with 40-50 rooms free of cost.

Even if one were to observe trends, the traditional travel agents are losing business to the online environment as customers prefer being in control of their bookings. According to statistics, in the US 33 per cent book with OTAs, 46 per cent from the suppliers directly (on their website), three per cent from the retail travel agent and 20 per cent do not purchase online. According to Shaun Dubash, assistant VP - business development (hotels), Travelguru, "In India, 10 per cent of the hotel bookings are done online and it has an option to grow to where the US stands currently where bookings through OTAs and suppliers directly are the highest. Through the power of the Web, one can reach cities where setting up sales team is not feasible."

For starters, distributing inventory online is as simple as viewing an e-mail. Hoteliers can either have booking engines on their own websites or connect via extranet with a login address and password. Once logged in, the hoteliers can load the number of rooms up for distribution and adjust rates within minutes thereby assisting them in last minute bookings, increase sales and ARRs with less effort. "A hotelier is always in control of the business they want from the website," said Dubash adding, "but it takes a little effort from their side to make this successful as inventory must be available at all times to offer dynamic rates, inclusions and propositions so that a customer gets the comfort of getting a good deal online."

Pradeep Uniyal, general manager of Fortune Select Exotica, Navi Mumbai, who was present at the summit, says "We opened our property around two months ago and have tied up with Travelguru for our online bookings. We are doing almost 90 per cent occupancy during the weekdays and a fair share of credit for that goes to Travelguru."

Given the above expectations from the industry, Amit Taneja, managing director of Desiya, feels that the online consolidators have simply scratched the surface, "There are still plenty of properties that our teams are visiting in various parts of the country. Imagine getting properties in the North East and booking the same with nothing more than an internet connection. And with more players entering this space, it will only enable everyone to eventually come online and change distribution from a vendor-seller to that of partners. And hopefully one day we hope to have an all-India summit."

With inputs from Chetan Kapoor & Dinkar Farwaha