The New Year has arrived with a bang, and with it pages upon pages of lists and up and coming trends for independent hotels (we’ve even been guilty of this ourselves). We’ve combed through these and selected the best of the best for our list.
Without further ado, here’s the list of our Top 5 Lists for 2016:
In 2016, independent hotels should ditch their reliance on OTAs and focus on making direct bookings the primary booking channel for their hotel. This article recommends using OTAs and Metasearch sites as ‘billboards’ for their hotels, instead of simply using them for the majority of their bookings (74% of online bookings for independent European properties came through OTAs in 2015).
Traditionally, hotels only used their own historic data, static rate shopping comparisons, and on-the-books data for booking trends to provide competitive insights. That began to change in 2015.
Hotels evolved from using only historic data to using the real-time and forward-looking data that’s now available to improve their revenue and marketing practices. This trend will accelerate differently across various segments of the industry in 2016 with larger independent hotels and smaller chains likely leading the way – since they’re smaller, they have the greatest flexibility as well as the greatest need to innovate.
“THIS is the year of mobile payments”….
We’ve been hearing that mantra since 2010. Finally, the wishful thinking and predictions are being realized. Mobile payments will dominate in 2016!
Here are five reasons why.
On paper, 2015 was a great year for the hospitality industry. We saw general increases in all key growth metrics, and we expect continued growth in 2016.
Yet this was also a year of conflicting results. If the industry saw this type of growth, why did hoteliers lose so much market share to the OTAs? How did we let the OTAs dominate hotel bookings in 2015?
Hoteliers have the power to increase their direct online revenues and decrease their customer acquisition costs, and HeBS has made a detailed guide to help you on your way.
Here’s how.
And now for an article from a slightly different perspective: how will your hotel restaurant be evolving in 2016? Restaurants are not immune from technological and trend-based advancements either. Just like other businesses, they have to adapt and grow to continue to bring in new business.
Entrepreneur has highlighted some of the things they expect to see happen in the restaurant business in 2016, and – surprise, surprise – many of them revolve around mobile apps and payment methods.