Hello, From Mai
It never let’s up - technological innovation, that is. The iPod gives way to the iPhone which may be made obsolete by the iPad and Google is hot on Apple’s tail with the new Google Tablet (not to mention the WePad I just learned about while I was looking up the Google product). What to use? What to buy? How long to wait for something better?
As business people we are being confronted with the same rapid product development and the same investment quandaries. It’s important to remember that technology really is just the vessel that carries our message and our strategy out into the marketplace. No amount of technological wizardry will make up for the wrong strategy.
In this month’s issue of Check-in, we focus both on technology and on developing the right strategies to make technological investment pay off – but these articles are not aimed at the IT department! They’re aimed at the frontline staff who drive the marketing decisions and deliver the services that make a hotel successful.
First up – we feature some excerpts from a fascinating new study done by Amadeus on technology innovation and the recession (hint: it hasn’t slowed the march of progress). Amadeus and its team of expert contributors have identified three major trends in travel that will be affected by technology. You’ll want to know what the future holds for our industry and for your hotel.
Next, guest columnist Bill Todd talks about hiring the right people, because nothing can make up for poor service.
CCRA has been implementing our own innovations in technology. This month CCRA was chosen as the exclusive hotel content provider for Amadeus' Vacation Link - the leisure booking tool used by over 2,200 leisure focused agents across the country. We're proud to have been chosen by a technology leader like Amadeus, and we're delighted that this new partnership pays off for our hotel partners as well. Take a look at what the press has been saying about us - and learn 
what it means for you by reading our Amadeus/CCRA FAQ.
As CCRA continues to offer new programs, we'd like to share with you the positive feedback we're receiving from industry professionals. Click here to see a YouTube video posted by Kate Rice, Executive Editor at Performance Media (Travel Pulse/Agent at Home) on one of our newer programs, Commission/Express.
CCRA is committed to staying on the forefront of innovation, so that we can continue to deliver real value to partners like you.
Sincerely,
Mai Meyaart
Vice President and Managing Director
Amadeus and a Group of Industry Experts Look to the Future of Travel and Technology
Recently Amadeus, the world’s largest global distribution system and a leader in travel industry technology released a new study, The Amateur-Expert Traveler: three important trends in travel which are being accelerated by the recession.
This paper identifies and describes three broad trends influencing the travel industry today – increasingly expert customers, the ever more technological trip experience and the growth of “niche” travel – that Amadeus believes are being accelerated by the current downturn.
To reach these findings, Amadeus interviewed thirty leading executives and thought-leaders in the travel industry and polled 2,719 travel professionals worldwide about a series of key trends in the travel industry. They also conducted extensive desk research to understand how these trends might be affected by the recession.
The amateur-expert traveler: the Internet has put much more information at the fingertips of the average traveler – whether from professionally produced content or user reviews and other social media. With business and personal budgets squeezed, the incentive to put all that knowledge to good use has never been greater.
The responsive journey: technology has improved the booking experience immeasurably but the trip itself remains ripe for technological innovation. Such innovation may be provided by talented executives using the recession as an opportunity for a change in direction.
All niches great and small: travel companies will increasingly look at opportunities in travel niches or selling niche travel services or additional offer opportunities for additional revenue as well as higher margins for in-depth expert advice.
The Amateur-Expert Traveler contains a wealth of information about how technology and the economy will significantly shape both the travel experience and the travel decision.
The conclusions from these industry experts have immediate and far reaching implications both for travel planner like travel agents and tour operators, as well as travel providers like hotels.
Every hotel should take the time to read through the entire Amateur-Expert report (download here) and start developing strategies to meet the challenges and opportunities that advances in technology will bring to our industry.
Graphics used with the kind permission of Amadeus.
Article Source
Developed by Amadeus; Original Publication: www.amadeus.com/amateur-expert
Hire for Attitude First - Because Everyone on the Payroll is in Sales
Written by: Bill Todd
As head of global sales for a global hotel company, I was trying to personally win back an extremely lucrative client that booked over 150 meetings and conferences a year. The senior corporate meeting planner had decided to give us one chance and if we did a great job the result would be millions of dollars in sales for our hotels nationwide. The client insisted on personally inspecting the first hotel before she made a decision that would allow us to host the test meeting. I arrived the day before the inspection and went immediately to see the general manager of the hotel. At the time he was speaking to one of his new housekeepers who had just been hired without any previous hotel cleaning experience. I explained the importance of the client and that she was a reputed fanatic for cleanliness.
I then shared some insight I’d gotten from a competitor. It seems this fastidious client was famous for entering each sleeping room during her inspection and dropping to her knees to look under the beds. If the housekeeping staff had vacuumed under the beds she knew there’d be a predictable commitment to cleanliness throughout the entire hotel.
The next morning the client arrived and true to form walked into the first empty hotel room, dropped to her knees and looked under the bed. She then let out a huge belly laugh. “It seems that our inexperienced housekeeper had been listening to my conversation with the hotel’s general manager the day before.” On her first shift she had stayed late into the night. Before she went home she placed a sign under every single bed that read, “Welcome Mrs. Jones. We do vacuum under all our beds every single day.” That housekeeper had no experience but she had a great attitude. She single-handedly landed the biggest meetings account we closed that year.
About Bill
Bill Todd is one of the travel industry’s most sought-after sales and marketing speakers and coaches. He is the co-author of the book Speaking of Success which also features best-selling authors Stephen R. Covey (Seven Habits of Highly Effective People), Ken Blanchard (One Minute Manager) and Jack Canfield (The Secret and Chicken Soup for the Soul). BTodd@BTodd.com | www.BTodd.com | 301.633.5856
Read All About It! CCRA is in the News
and That's Good News for Our Hotel Partners
As mentioned in our intro, CCRA and Amadeus just signed an exclusive agreement whereby CCRA will supply our extensive hotel content (real time rates and availability at over 160,000 hotels worldwide) to thousands of leisure agents affiliated to Amadeus through Vacation Link. CCRA was chosen because we have the most extensive content in the industry, as well as the streamlined technology to deliver this content directly to Vacation Link using web based services.
We’re working closely with Amadeus to spread the word and drive more agents to this tool. The industry is taking notice as articles like this one in Travel Week indicate.
Read the entire article at Travel Weekly’s website.
Our new relationship has some very positive implications for our hotel partners. Here are the answers to many of the questions you might have:
Frequently Asked Questions about the Amadeus/CCRA Joint Venture:
What is Vacation Link?
Amadeus Vacation Link is a single point-of-sale, agent portal for booking cruises, vacation packages, tours, as well as consolidator airfares, activities and entertainment. Amadeus premiered Vacation Link in April of 2009 and currently has 2,500 agent users. All features of Amadeus Vacation Link are available free to travel professionals in North America regardless of their GDS affiliation.
What are the main benefits to my hotels?
2,500 travel agents specializing in leisure travel will now be able to access your hotel’s rates and inventory through their Vacation Link site.
Can I market/communicate to these specific agents?
Yes, these agents will see the marketing that is placed on CCRAtravel.com.
How are these agencies affiliated - CLIA, TIDS, etc?
ARC and CLIA.
Will they be included in your monthly IATA update?
Yes.
What can I expect in the way of revenue increase?
It’s difficult to predict. The more competitive your GDS and net rates, the more likely you are to see lift from this program - never forget, you are competing with 159,999 other hotels
What do I need to do, if anything?
The rates you’ve submitted to the GDS, negotiated with CCRA, provided to Internet companies and negotiated with wholesalers will all now be available to Vacation Link agencies.
Will these portal transactions be counted toward the Amadeus monthly GDS requirements?
Yes. According to Amadeus these bookings will count towards their monthly minimums but only when the booking is made under the GDS rate categories. The net and internet rates that bypass Amadeus, will not be counted towards their minimums. So, in addition to being a great tool to promote to hotels, this also would assist small private label groups in increasing Amadeus transactions and have it count toward the monthly minimum.
If a hotel or resort currently participates in the Amadeus Instant Preference (GDS preferred positioning product) would it also benefit in preferred positioning in your portal?
No. CCRA maintains control over the display order. We currently offer First Place positioning, which allows a hotel to appear at the top of the search result for a city for a period of one month. It is first come, first served.
Tourism Cares Wants You to Vote for a Site in Need
Tourism Cares, the premier charity in the travel industry dedicated to preserving the travel experience for future generations, announced the opening of the Save Our Sites grantee voting on the Tourism Cares website, www.tourismcares.org. The program, in its second year, invites the travel industry and traveling public to vote for a site in need of care they would like to see supported with grant funding.
The Save Our Sites program gives travellers an opportunity to make donations while on vacation to give back to preserve and enhance natural, historic and cultural sites around the world that are important to save for future generations. Multiple voting rounds will take place in 2010, with the first having a focus on US National Parks.
Read more about the following five organizations eligible for the latest Save Our Sites voting.
To vote for a site in need, visit www.tourismcares.org/save-our-sites. Voting ends May 14, 2010.
About Tourism Cares
Tourism Cares is a 501c(3) non-profit public charity that benefits society by preserving the travel experience for future generations by awarding grants to natural, cultural and historic sites worldwide; by presenting academic and service-learning scholarships to students of hospitality and tourism; and by organizing volunteer efforts to restore tourism-related sites in need of care and rejuvenation. For additional information about Tourism Cares, visit www.tourismcares.org.
