FILTER BY TAGS

Black Friday

Hotelier

Wholesale

Hotelbeds, the world’s leading bedbank, has entered into a strategic partnership with Louvre Hotels Group, a major player in the global hospitality industry.

This agreement will further strengthen Louvre’s distribution reach via Hotelbeds’ network of over 60,000 travel trade buyers in 140 source markets, including airlines, points redemption schemes, retail travel agents and tour operators.

At the same time, Hotelbeds’ customers will gain access to preferential rates and availability from across Louvre Hotels Group’s portfolio of over 1,500 hotels in 54 countries worldwide, representing over 100,000 available rooms.

Hotelbeds’ travel trade buying partners will have access to the complete portfolio of six Louvre brands ranging from one to five stars properties, including: Première Classe, Campanile, Kyriad, Kyriad Direct, Tulip Inn, Golden Tulip and Royal Tulip.

Meanwhile Hotelbeds’ portfolio of 60,000 travel buyers will offer Louvre Hotels Group a wider international reach and incremental bookings from end customers whose average profile means they typically book further in advance, pay more per room, stay for longer, have lower cancellation rates and spend more on property.&nbsp;

As part of this agreement, Louvre Hotels Group will distribute its hotel rooms through Hotelbeds’ two main sales channels: wholesale sales under the 'Hotelbeds' brand, and retail sales via the Bedsonline brand, that caters to retail travel agents.

Mark Redmond, Head of Global Chains at Hotelbeds commented: “We are delighted to sign a preferred partnership with Louvre Hotels Group, a major player in the global hospitality industry with a great portfolio that includes 1,500 hotels in 54 countries – and over 100,000 rooms available. They have a full hotel offering, spanning one to five star properties, with well known brands such as Première Classe, Kyriad, Campanile, Tulip Inn, Golden Tulip, and Royal Tulip. Now, as the current restrictions on travel begin to ease I am certain that our 60,000 travel trade clients will be very excited to gain access to special rates and availability across Louvre’s full portfolio.”

Olivier Daurat, VP Sales and Distribution at Louvre Hotels Group, added: “This alliance is very important for us as thanks to Hotelbeds we can have access to one of the largest travel trade distribution networks available, including both wholesale and retail buyers. We look forward to working with Hotelbeds to grow our overall bookings together and more importantly to generate incremental, high-value reservations once travel demand picks back up again.”

Louvre Hotels Group is owned by Jin Jiang International Holdings Co. Ltd., one of China’s leading travel and tourism conglomerates and the second largest hotel group in the world.

Moreover, since the outbreak of the pandemic, Louvre Hotels Group has launched the “Clean &amp; Safe” reassurance program and implemented preventive measures through its Charter of Commitment for its 1,500 hotels around the world. The group has put in place a specific training program for all staff to ensure full compliance with the recommendations of the World Health Organization, the Government, and Regional Health Agencies. As clients’ well-being and safety are Louvre’s top priorities, the group’s safety procedures are bring overseen by two health and safety protection experts, Mérieux Nutrisciences in France and NSF International worldwide.


louvre_1920x230.jpg

Hotelbeds signs new strategic partnership with Louvre Hotels Group

We are very pleased to confirm that our successful partnership with OYO Rooms has reached the 100,000 room nights booked milestone.

OYO Hotels &amp; Homes is the world’s 6th largest hotel chain and last April we announced a strategic global distribution partnership together. The preferred agreement represented OYO’s first-ever distribution partnership with a bedbank.

We can also now confirm that by the end of this year we´ll have the full OYO Rooms portfolio live in our system and long-term together aim to distribute 500,000 room nights annually.

To find out more about booking OYO´s portfolio speak with your Hotelbeds manager today!&nbsp;


oyo_1920x230.jpg

OYO Rooms passes 100k landmark!

Providing people with assurance about safety whilst travelling is a top priority right now for the whole industry.&nbsp;

Further to our announcement last month, we have now launched our new distribution filter category called Safe2Stay.

The filter provides details about each properties’ prevention measures and official certifications to fight against the spread of COVID-19 – and is available via both Hotelbeds and Bedsonline.&nbsp;

It works by grouping together both hotel chains certifications and the certifications and protocols issued by public authorities, tourism boards or other Institutions. We are also working hard to ensure that measures are being taken with our supplier partners across all product lines, including transfers and activities.

All partners working with Hotelbeds that have created their own COVID-19 health and safety protocols are eligible to include their information in the filter category and hotels partners can do so directly via MaxiRoom, Hotelbeds’ partner extranet. &nbsp;
Global health and safety certifications from hotel chain partners such as Accor, Radisson, Hyatt and RIU Hotels and Resorts, as well as organizations such as the American Hotel &amp; Lodging Association and Turismo de Portugal, will be displayed in the Safe2Stay filter category alongside those of many other companies and institutions.
To find out more information speak with your normal Hotelbeds contact today!&nbsp;


safe2stay_1920x230.jpg

Keeping travellers informed about safety

The current and sudden high level of demand for domestic travel from the world’s biggest source markets is now widely recognized.&nbsp;

But exactly where, when and how will this take place? Harnessing big data analytical capabilities, at Hotelbeds we have been able to closely compare the main corridors, lead time, and length of stay for each source market to more accurately predict the characteristics of the surge in demand for domestic stays.

Armed with this information we are planning to add 10,000 new properties to our global portfolio of hotels by the end of the year.&nbsp;

As a first wave the initiative will be implemented in &nbsp;the USA, Canada, Mexico, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Italy, UK, UAE, Saudi Arabia, China, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand, with more countries to be included in the near future.

&nbsp;

Furthermore, we will build upon this increased demand for domestic travel by implementing several new initiatives, such as:


	Expanding our hotel portfolio in secondary destinations to include new leisure options that meet the needs of domestic travellers.&nbsp;
	Adding more property types to provide variety for these travellers, for example, resorts and rural hotels.&nbsp;
	Kick-starting the sector by helping customers book in confidence through increasing the availability of refundable rates.&nbsp;
	Reducing releases and minimum stay requirements to increase maximum availability for last-minute domestic travellers.&nbsp;
	Launching local marketing campaigns targeted at B2B travel buyers in these source markets to promote and secure availability for this summer season! &nbsp;


&nbsp;

Speaking about the plan, our Global Sales Director, León Herce said: &nbsp;“Following client feedback, and thanks to our own data analytics capabilities, we have detected not only the overall surge in domestic demand, but the requirement for more product in secondary destinations, across all different property types.”&nbsp;


&nbsp;“As you would expect, hoteliers in these destinations – many of them previously dependent on international markets that are unlikely to be travelling anytime soon – are very keen to capture the new domestic demand and we are working hard to sign them up fast.”
&nbsp;


domestic_focus_1920x230.jpg

Responding to domestic demand 

We have signed a preferred partnership deal with Radisson Hotel Group to enable them to distribute their portfolio of 1,100 hotels to our 60,000 B2B travel buyers such as tour operators, travel agents, airlines and points redemption schemes.

This also means that our customers are now able to access preferential rates and availability across Radisson Hotel Group’s portfolio, which includes the Radisson Collection, Radisson Blu, Radisson, Radisson RED, Park Plaza, Park Inn by Radisson and Country Inn &amp; Suites by Radisson brands.

Talking about the deal, our very own Mark Redmond, Head of Global Chains said: “Radisson Hotel Group is one of the world’s largest hotel groups and we are delighted to sign a preferred partnership with them. Once restrictions are removed and travel begins to start again, I am certain that our 60,000 B2B travel buying clients will be very excited about gaining access to special rates and availability for Radisson Hotel Group’s well-known brands such as Radisson Blu, Park Plaza or Park Inn by Radisson.”

Whilst Eric de Neef, EVP &amp; Global Chief Commercial Officer at Radisson Hotel Group, added: “Through the alliance with Hotelbeds we have access to a leading and strategically important B2B distribution network, including both wholesale and retail distribution worldwide through Bedsonline.

"As we start to re-boot, re-shape and re-boost the business after the peak of the crisis, we want to continuously extend our sales reach, and Hotelbeds is the right partner to achieve this. We look forward to working with Hotelbeds and to not only grow overall bookings together, but more importantly to grow incremental, high-value bookings.”
&nbsp;


radisson_1920x230.jpg

Preferred partnership with Radisson Hotel Group


	New redesigned API portal makes APItude even easier to use and more powerful for clients such as tour operators, airlines and points redemption schemes.
	APItude can now handle up to 14 billion searches a day during peak periods.
	New functionalities include a real-time dashboard, automated documentation, and faster integration with the Hotelbeds APIs via a simple four-step onboarding process.
	
	&nbsp;


APItude is Hotelbeds’ API that allows travel trade buyers such as tour operators, airlines and points redemption schemes to directly integrate Hotelbeds’ 180,000 hotel properties and ancillary services into their platform.&nbsp;

The new portal has been through beta testing with selected clients for the last two months and now is ready for launch, featuring a completely renewed design and new functionality.


As a result, APItude is now even easier for clients to use, due to features such as:


	Real-time dashboard: clients will have full control and visibility over their current API status and usage in real time. There is also a new stats dashboard, providing near real-time insights of API usage, powered directly by Hotelbeds’ Business Intelligence data warehouse.
	Automated documentation: &nbsp;Hotelbeds has built modern, automated OpenAPI generated documentation to ensure the documentation always remains updated for our clients.
	Faster integration with the APIs: new integrations will go from testing to production in just a few days, with a simple, new four-step process. This turnaround time to execution makes APItude far more appealing.



The audience for this new API Portal will no longer be just developers, but also members of the sourcing, product and sales management teams of Hotelbeds’ clients that are aiming to boost their commercial performance via APItude. In order to achieve the above, and in &nbsp;addition to today’s launch, by the end of 2020, the API Portal will feature an optimization centre providing tailored hotel recommendations based on current market data, &nbsp;which will enable the Hotelbeds’ clients to receive a competitive edge and to provide better product to the end customers.

León Herce, Global Sales Director at Hotelbeds, said: “With the first signs of recovery in the market beginning to emerge it is even more essential to provide our clients with the best available tools &nbsp;by enhancing the developer experience and making the whole process even faster and more intuitive. We believe that this latest version of APItude does just that and I´d like to thank all the team for their hard work and commitment in delivering this on time to meet the very urgent needs of the market.”

APItude is the fastest and lightest hotel distribution API in the market. It enhances the developer experience by making the integration process easier, faster, and more intuitive – allowing partners to develop their own travel website or mobile app using Hotelbeds’ product portfolio more easily than ever before.

Forming part of Hotelbeds’ commitment to innovation, APItude was launched by Hotelbeds at World Travel Market (WTM) in 2015.

To learn more about the new developer portal please visit https://developer.hotelbeds.com/


apitude_1920x230.jpg

Innovative API portal launch for APItude 


	Free monthly webinar series hosted by Hotelbeds will offer insights into how to respond to the challenges of COVID-19.
	Each Travel Talk webinar will feature a panel of leading travel industry experts.
	First edition on June 18th to explore ‘What does the journey to recovery look like?’.
	&nbsp;


The free monthly webinar series will provide insights into the COVID-19 challenges currently faced by the whole travel industry, as well as recommendations for both identifying and capturing opportunities for recovery.

Each month Travel Talk will be hosted by Hotelbeds and will feature panellist of leading experts from across the industry such as hoteliers and lobby groups, plus travel buyers such as tour operators, airlines and point redemption schemes.

Travel Talk’s first edition will take place on June the 18th at 5pm CET/11am ET and the topic will be ‘What does the journey to recovery look like?‘.

This first panel will address key issues such as how to look out for the signs of recovery, how travel companies should adapt their business for when the recovery begins, and a debate around the biggest challenges the industry faces, both now and in the future.&nbsp;

Paul Anthony, Commercial Excellence and Global Partnerships Sourcing Director at Hotelbeds will moderate the panel and will be accompanied by the following speakers:


	Maribel Rodríguez, Senior Vice President at World Travel &amp; Tourism Council (WTTC)
	Michael Savage, Director at American Airlines Vacations
	Cheryl Williams, Regional Vice President at Alohilani Resort Waikiki Beach and HIGHGATE Hawaii.
	&nbsp;


Gareth Matthews, Director of Marketing &amp; Communications at Hotelbeds commented: “For some time we´ve been working hard behind-the-scenes to help our partners respond to the challenges of COVID-19. But we felt that the combination of our strong industry knowledge and global portfolio of leading industry partners places us in a unique position to produce significant insights and advice for the industry as a whole – and one of the most appropriate ways to present this is via a programme of free webinars that everyone in the industry is welcome to join. We have some impressive guests planned for both this first edition and the future webinars that will form part of the programme. Watch this space.”&nbsp;

The webinar is open to anyone in the industry to attend via the following registration page: https://joinus.hotelbeds.com/traveltalk1-the-journey-to-recovery/


travel_talk_1920x230_v2.jpg

Hotelbeds launches Travel Talk webinar series to help industry recover from the challenges of COVID-19

Safe2Stay is a distribution filter category that consolidates and displays in the booking process the different COVID-19 health and safety protocols and certifications that travel industry companies, tourism boards and lobby groups have recently created.

The Safe2Stay category covers both accommodation and providers of services such as transfers, activities, theme parks and car rental. All products with a listing in the category will feature a Safe2Stay badge in the booking engine along with details of what this means outlined in a glossary compiling all protocols in one reference point.

All partners working with Hotelbeds that have created their own COVID-19 health and safety protocols are eligible to include their information in the filter category and hotels partners can do so directly via MaxiRoom, Hotelbeds’ partner extranet. &nbsp;

Global health and safety certifications from hotel chain partners such as Accor, Radisson, Hyatt and RIU Hotels and Resorts, as well as organizations such as the American Hotel &amp; Lodging Association and Turismo de Portugal, will be displayed in the Safe2Stay filter category alongside those of many other companies and institutions.

This category will be visible as a filter on the Hotelbeds and Bedsonline booking engines and the same information will be made available to all of Hotelbeds’ API clients to configure into their own systems.

Tobias Thibaut, Risk, Compliance, Internal Audit &amp; Sustainability Director at Hotelbeds, said: “Today more than ever, we need to focus on the safety and wellbeing of guests during the COVID-19 pandemic. When it becomes available in a few weeks our ‘Safe2Stay’ filter category will be very valuable for our clients when reserving a hotel for their customers or other ancillary products by giving them greater confidence and thus helping the tourism sector recover more quickly.

“As there are already many different standards and certification processes out there, it is important to bring them together under one category and for the information to be easily displayed in the booking process. We encourage all our supplier partners out there who have introduced their own standards or who are adhering to third party standards to input the details in MaxiRoom right away to gain the Safe2Stay badge”

This news follows the recent announcement that Hotelbeds has backed the World Travel &amp; Tourism Council’s ‘Safe Travels’ initiative and is working towards making this available in Hotelbeds’ distribution process. Safe Travels creates global recovery protocols – including for hotels – for the COVID-19 pandemic, with the help of industry associations, health experts and governments.


Safe2Stay-1920x230.jpg

Hotelbeds to launch ‘Safe2Stay’ to support industry recovery

Hotelbeds has developed an automated WhatsApp and a Facebook Messenger service to enable partners to receive the latest updates on operational issues related to COVID-19.

Examples of information available via the WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger services include:


	Details of the global force majeure that Hotelbeds has put in place for all bookings worldwide (with some exceptions) until April 30.
	Lists of destinations that have been closed by local governments, along with details of how pre-existing bookings for those markets are being proactively cancelled.
	Information on how to cancel and modify bookings via the Hotelbeds website.
	Reference copies of official update emails sent to partners over the last few weeks.
	Plus Q&amp;As to answer the most common questions asked by partners




By subscribing to the services Hotelbeds partners can ask questions via an interactive menu with automated responses, request responses from the operations teams, and subscribe for further updates.

The information available in both the WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger service complements the comprehensive information available from the dedicated COVID-19 operational website created by Hotelbeds in mid-March and updated daily since.


Gareth Matthews, Marketing &amp; Communications Director of Hotelbeds, comments: “Up-to-the-minute operational updates on COVID-19 are essential to both our clients and hotel partners during these challenging times.

“We quickly developed our COVID-19 dedicated website resource for partners but were keen to go further by allowing people to also access information via convenient channels like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger – I´d like to thank the team for developing this in record time.

“To all our clients and hotel partners out there I´d just like to say that we recognise that these are very tough times. But we want you to know that we will be with you all the way, right now and then when you and your customers and guests are ready to go again.

“Over the coming weeks and months we´ll be announcing further actions that we´ll be taking to fulfill this promise.”

Clients looking for the full weblinks to register for the services can find them here.


HB-NewMess_1900x230.jpg

Hotelbeds launches innovative COVID-19 updates via WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger

Bringing guests from abroad can be challenging for every hotel, but these clients are arguably the most profitable ones, and therefore attractive to target. By analyzing data you can have a better understanding of the different source markets and which of them can bring the most valuable guests to your door.

The opportunities and challenges of targeting international guests

As we wrote about in our article about the value of international guests for hotels, there are several good reasons why your hotel should focus on this segment:


	They have a bigger budget and stay longer&nbsp;
	International trips are not as frequent as domestic ones, but as a result an international traveler’s average budget per day is often much higher.
	Longer lead time and lower cancellation rate
	Due to the effort and budget behind an international trip, the guest is less likely to cancel, and more likely to book in further in advance. This gives you the safety of having a good base of occupancy so that you can be creative with your rate strategy for bookings with shorter lead times.
	They are likely to spend more on-site
	Long haul travelers are more likely to want maximum comfort during their stay, which makes them a much better target for upselling and cross-selling strategies.
	A wider audience will give you more opportunities to recover from difficult situations
	In the case of unpredictable situations, being able to reach out to a global and wider audience can be a decisive advantage. Every hotel’s survival chances to navigate through adversities are much higher when their potential customer base is global, and not just local.


However, targeting international audiences does present some challenges:


	Language barrier
	Determining the best language to communicate with your target can be tricky. Even if English can often work as lingua franca, customized ads, marketing materials, and multilingual staff members for target languages can put you on the front foot!
	Communication channels
	The internet has made it much easier to reach out to people on the other side of the globe, but that doesn’t mean everyone is using the same channels to gather information and engage with each other. Take the time to research where travelers from your target markets are hanging out online.
	Different habits
	Another key challenge of welcoming international guests is the diversity of habits and behaviors of each culture. Making sure that you're ready to host and make every guest feel comfortable can be difficult if you have limited information about your audience.




Through Hotelbeds’s network of travel agents, you can widen your global reach, and communicate directly to new potential customers everywhere in the world, with a partner that speaks the local language and knows the market. Check our article about the benefits of selling your rooms via travel agents.

&nbsp;

The importance of geographical segmentation for your hotel

In light of these opportunities, and overcoming the challenges, segmenting your audience and defining your targets, is key to your hotel’s success.

By using data to analyse the best performing markets for your hotel, correct segmentation can have a positive effect on your hotel’s yield.

More effective tailor-made marketing strategies

Knowing where your audience is coming from can be a great advantage! It allows you to know which language they speak, and to create advertising campaigns for specific markets. This allows you to deliver a message that is more engaging and resonates better.

Improves the return on your marketing investments and boosts your revenues

Investing in campaigns and in communication for a tighter audience is cheaper, and if you target the right segment correctly, your investment will have a much higher return.&nbsp;

Data-driven market analysis can provide your hotel with insightful information about what’s the ideal target audience for your hotel.&nbsp;

With more information on your audience, you can improve their experience

Knowing what’s the origin country of your guest can give you valuable information to make their experience comfortable and personalised from the very first moment.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Find out more

To deep dive on how different channel distribution strategies can improve your hotel’s performance, check out the Hotelbeds guide to hotel distribution in 2020.&nbsp;


&nbsp;


1920x230-map-world-shutterstock_1392108851.jpg

Finding international source markets for your hotel

Imagine if you could organize your customers into unique segments, each clearly defined by their specific characteristics and their individual buying behaviors.

What is generation segmentation?

In this article, we’ll show you how to target guests more effectively by splitting them into generational groups, each of whom have different buying habits, unique spending patterns and personal preferences. We’ll also show you how you can identify the most profitable generation for your hotel.&nbsp;

Understanding generation segmentation properly is a great way to help you to identify the most effective triggers to attract profitable customers to your hotel.&nbsp;

What makes each generation different?

There are five main generational segments recognized by marketers. You’ve probably heard of some of them already, but just to make it easy, we’ve summarized their main characteristics below:











Which are the most profitable generation segments for hotels?

Generation X (who often spend more in destination) and millennials (who travel more regularly throughout the year) tend to be the hotel industry’s most profitable generational segments. In fact, according to Boston Consulting Group, millennials will account for almost 50% of travel spend by 2020. Generation X also tends to have strong purchasing power and spend as much as 25% of their total budget on hotels. They are more family-oriented, value work/life balance and generally take around three trips per year, often around the school holidays.

TOP TIP:
Generation X is very brand loyal so consider selling your rooms via loyalty plans or points redemption programs.&nbsp;

Millennials tend to:


	Combine business travel with pleasure travel (the birth of “bleisure”)
	Search for experiences, not just accommodation.
	Be more interested in exploring the local culture than staying by the pool
	Prefer email communication to face-to-face contact
	Love reading good reviews&nbsp;


If you’re looking to cross-sell leisure opportunities, millennials are worth targeting.

Key tips for attracting millennials to your hotel

Now that we know which are the most lucrative guests for the hotel market, let's dive more deeply into some common ways to attract them. Here are a few ideas:

Last-minute offers: 
millennials are a spontaneous bunch. In a recent survey by MMGY, 49% of them reported taking a last-minute vacation in the last 12 months. They also love flash deals, so drive that business with flash sales and watch your profits rise.

Partnering with a B2B distributor: 
millennials are loyal, which is good for business. B2B distributors or Bedbanks, such as Hotelbeds, offer easy access to a plethora of points redemption schemes. These distributors can also negotiate the best deal on your behalf, leaving you free to concentrate on giving your guests the best experience possible.

Limited-frills properties: 
make sure that millennials who want to spend their money on external experiences know that your budget-friendly hotel makes an excellent basecamp for their excursions. Millennials prioritize travel experience and location over luxury.

TOP TIP:
Consider working with a business-to-business distribution partner such as Hotelbeds, who can help you to access the best travel points redemption, loyalty and employee benefits schemes from the thousands that are available across the globe.

Key tips for attracting Generation X to your hotel

Try to differentiate between being a family-friendly hotel and distributing your rooms to tour operators that offer family travel packages.
Some ways of attracting Gen X guests to your hotel could include:


	Appealing to family groups: Generation X loves family travel, so building a proper environment which includes activities for family groups is a great idea.
	Promoting family-friendly amenities and services such as pools, complimentary breakfasts and laundry facilities to make your property more attractive.
	Using activities like “kids clubs” and babysitting facilities to create memorable experiences.&nbsp;
	Offering your rooms on a family travel package: family life tends to shape the way Generation X travels.&nbsp;
	Making sure that your travel distributor is including your rooms on a travel bundle addressed to families.&nbsp;
	Promoting family-friendly packages around school calendars, since that is when many Generation X guests prefer to travel.


TOP TIP
Try working with a B2B distributor such as Hotelbeds who will connect you with an extensive network of tour operators and give you access to all their itineraries and bespoke packages
&nbsp;


	Generation X still values its travel agents: the American Society of Travel Agents says that 22% of travelers have worked with an advisor to book a trip in the past year. As more and more people rediscover their travel agents, that number is expected to grow. They understand how to pull together all the individual pieces of an international trip to make sure it is both convenient and efficient.


TOP TIP
Working with Hotelbeds you will get access to more than 100,000 unique retail travel agents around the world. You’ll never have to close individual deals with travel agencies again.

Find out more

To deep dive on how different channel distribution strategies can improve your hotel’s performance, check out the Hotelbeds guide to hotel distribution in 2020.&nbsp;

&nbsp;


1920x230.png

Generation X and millennials: targeting the most profitable segments for your hotel

Applying sound revenue management practices and having a clear idea of exactly which consumer groups drive the most value is vital to positively impact your bottom line.

But to optimize your hotel marketing effectively, you’ll need to cater for different needs and different budgets, while continually monitoring your efficiency and cost-effectiveness.

Every one of your defined market segments will contain several unique business sources and each of these will carry different costs. However, this article focuses on bedbanks, OTAs and direct channel.

&nbsp;

Weigh up the pros and cons of each channel

Hoteliers should not only know which market segments they should use to target their guests, but they should have a clear understanding of the advantages and shortcomings of each different distribution channel.&nbsp;
And knowing precisely where their guests originate gives them maximum flexibility when it comes to analyzing and managing their business.
For example, what if you could skew your audience so that:


	40% of all your bookings stay for at least six days in leisure destinations
	Your guests spend twice as much money on site
	You get bookings 55 days ahead




This is the typical profile of international bedbank customers sourced through the Hotelbeds network. And this is an audience that you can access more effectively with proper segmentation.
The better defined your market segments are and the clearer your insight into your distribution channels, the easier it will be for you to apply individual pricing per segment for successful revenue management.&nbsp;
So let’s take a look at how this all works.

What is hotel market segmentation and why is it important?

In simple terms, segmentation is the process of defining and subdividing a large homogenous market into clearly identifiable segments with similar needs, wants or demand characteristics.
&nbsp;


&nbsp;

Once done, this process allows you to offer a unique price for each segment to reflect your different customers and their specific needs. It also means you can start to define and bundle specific sales and marketing efforts in a more targeted way according to the insight you get from a thorough analysis of each segment.

Done well, this allows you to create a specific strategy, relevant to the needs of your market, leading to increased bookings, higher revenue and improved guest satisfaction.&nbsp;
Effective hotel market segmentation helps you to:

Understand who is using your property


	Where are the highest number of bookings coming from?
	Why are your guests coming to your area?
	Why are they choosing your property?


Know who your most profitable customers are


	How much does each customer pay per booking?
	How much do they spend while at the hotel?
	How long does the guest stay?


Identify business trends


	Should you focus on rebuilding lost business or refocus on a different kind of customer?
	Which distribution channels usually serve the highest-value guests?&nbsp;
	How has customer behaviour changed over the past months or years?


Target market segments

Identifying the relevant market segments for your hotel gives you a solid base for an effective pricing strategy. Effective segmentation considers different approaches to booking behaviours and how sensitive to price your customers are.&nbsp;
You can segment customers in several ways, including:


	By booking channel (retail travel agency, tour operator, airline etc.)
	By rate type (double bedroom on half-board basis etc.)
	By reason for visit (leisure or business)


Ultimately, this will help you optimize your distribution mix and manage your distribution costs efficiently while enabling you to monitor inter-channel movements from one channel at a much more precise level.

Effective channel segmentation can also help you to reduce acquisition costs through an optimized strategy designed to deliver maximum profit.

Tip
Effective channel segmentation can help you reduce acquisition costs through an optimized strategy designed to deliver maximum profit. When you work with Hotelbeds, you can rely on a dedicated team of experts to help you tailor your offers to the most valuable customers.

Take a good look at these source channels:


	Your website, direct channel
	Online Travel Agents (OTAs)
	Bedbanks


Focus on understanding your acquisition cost per customer, average booking value and ancillary spend.

Track essential metrics:


	What is the lifetime value of customers?
	Are they loyal returning guests?
	How often do they come back to the hotel, if ever?
	What is the booking lead time?
	What is the average cancellation rate?
	What is the geographic location?
	What is the average length of stay?
	Are bookings midweek or weekend?


Segmentation in practice

So what are the real-world benefits of segmentation for you?

For example, if you’d like to access higher spending international travellers, you could start by finding out which channel your preferred source market uses most often.&nbsp;

At Hotelbeds, more than 60% of our bookings originate from non-domestic source markets.

Bedbanks drive incremental high-value bookings from B2B travel trade sources such as tour operators, travel agencies, airlines and point redemption schemes. Bedbanks also offer easy access to hard to reach travel buyers from source markets that would otherwise be difficult or too costly for a hotel to access directly. See how Mandar Vaidya, CEO South East Asia &amp; Middle East from OYO Rooms, explains it.



&nbsp;

Improved understanding of guests is your key asset

If you’re looking for more control over your business, then defining your hotel market segmentation is an essential first move. Try to establish which customers are already staying and what their buying patterns are like. &nbsp;It also pays to understand their maximum budget and how they made their booking.&nbsp;

The more you know about your guests, the easier it will be to decide on the best approach for your specific business mix. It will also help you to take the most appropriate and targeted actions for your particular business mix, leading you to greater efficiency and more profits.&nbsp;

Tip
Bedbanks like Hotelbeds offer more than just a powerful hotel extranet. You get bespoke assistance from a hotel revenue expert who helps you segment and optimise your revenue strategy and maximize your yield.

Finally, if you're interested in getting access to our portfolio with over 71,000 travel distributors, register your property today for free!&nbsp;


1920x230_1141433123_1.jpg

Hotel market segmentation: how to target your most profitable guests

Resource menu page hotelbeds

Resources

Hotelbeds header Main menu (discover hotelbeds)

Main menu Hotelbeds

Access our Hotel Extranet if you are already a hotel partner

Access our B2B booking engine if you are already a client