Weekly Roundup #11: Travel, Tech and Social Media
Week 11/2017
Hello, everyone and Happy Friday to you all!
Welcome to a new weekly roundup, for a fresh dose of the most recent and important news and stories! The hospitality business is always busy and exciting and this week was no exception. We are happy to announce new partnerships for our company and to deliver other relevant posts that have surfaced in the travel industry.
Take a look at our recap and enjoy! Also, have a great, fun weekend!
Industry News
New partnerships for TrustYou:
This week we stole the spotlight, not only with our 9th anniversary (which we, of course, celebrated), but also with two new partnerships: with feratel and with Pan Pacific Hotels Group. Pan Pacific has officially selected our feedback platform to be the reputation management tool for their two brands, Pan Pacific Hotels and Resorts and PARKROYAL Hotels & Resorts. We could not be more excited about this!
International trade visitor record at ITB Berlin:
Since this year’s ITB recently ended, reports and statistics have surfaced in the last few days. A new record of international trade visitor was reported, with the participation of 28,000 delegates (an increase of 7.7 per cent). It’s safe to say that face-to-face meetings between business partners from around the world have become and will remain important even with the progressing digitalization.
Best Western Targets Quality Growth Across Asia:
It seems that Best Western plans to at least double its Asian inventory in the next few years, with the addition of multiple high-quality hotels. Much of this expansion will be driven by Best Western's newest brand concepts, including Vīb® and GLō℠, which are designed for the new generation of tech-savvy travellers, and BW Premier Collection®, a premium selection of independent upscale hotels. Their most recent brand, SureStay is also expected to rapidly grow in Asia.
TripAdvisor Debuts Facebook Messenger Chatbot for User-Generated Recommendations:
Concepts such as chatbots and artificial intelligence are definitely on the rise in today’s technology driven world. TripAdvisor is therefore diving into these features and decided to go for a Facebook Messenger chatbot, when providing recommendations to travelers. These recommendations will focus on hotels, restaurants, flights and attractions, however, the actual booking part will take place TripAdvisor.com.
Trends and Insights
The ins and outs of where and how people book hotels:
Sabre Hospitality and Phocuswright are releasing a new paper, giving hotels advice on how to position themselves in an increasingly multi-channel distribution landscape. The study is backed by primary research into the booking habits of consumers. One of the findings of the survey is that, in eight major markets, OTAs is the preferred method in every market for the last booking made on a leisure trip.
Digital Trends That Are Transforming the Travel Industry in 2017:
As we previously mentioned, it’s no secret that digital technology is taking over every type of business there is, including hospitality and travel. This article offers a few different ways of getting ahead in a cluttered market, by making the most out of the mobile device’s rising popularity, personalization and context.
TrustYou Clients Voted on Their 3 Favorite New Features of 2016:
2016 was a very busy, yet thrilling year for our company, since we came out with 11 product updates resulting in 40 new features for our feedback management platform. However, work didn’t stop there because we wanted to see how our clients are using these features and which are their favorite ones. Since we are focusing our entire business on customer feedback, it was only natural to review our clients and get their opinion and suggestions, so you can now check the top 3 most popular TrustYou features.
Technology
Google Hotel Finder – 5 Ways to Step-Up Your Listing:
This is our most recent best practice guide, regarding Google’s hotel finder feature. Since a previous white paper revealed that 81% of travelers use Google during the hotel search process, we wanted to go even deeper into this subject. As a result, you can now find 5 ways of enhancing your hotel’s presence on Google and enjoy more visibility.
Hotel technology - the PMS decision-making process:
So many different options are on the market right now, when it comes to property management softwares, that sometimes it might feel easier to just not decide. However, when faced with a decision, it’s better to be fully aware of the best ways of investing in a new PMS for your hotel. You can find in this post some important factors and questions that should influence every decision-making process regarding PMS.
