In This Issue

• Message from Mai
• Take that Google!
• Positioning Your Hotel for 2011 - Time for a Tune-Up?
• Targeted Selling - Finding the Agents Who Want Your Hotel
• CCRA Is On Your Side

Message from Mai

During the past two weeks, I have had the opportunity to participate in webinars by two of the leading research organizations in our industry, PhocusWright and Travel Click and the outlook for the hospitality industry in 2011 is looking bright. The great news for hotel partners like you is that both companies are predicting significant growth in the GDS/travel agent sector.

Why is this such good news? Travel agent business isn't just about occupancy. Travel agent bookings are higher rated by as much as 40% over bookings made on line. By choosing to participate in the 2011 CCRA Negotiated Hotel Rate Program, you are positioning your hotel to reap the benefits of this resurging market.

We've been busy this year focusing on agency rate code adoption. Not only have we audited close to 30,000 hotels to make sure they are linked and bookable by our travel agencies, but we've also linked hundreds of new agency branches to access the CCRA rate code. Our efforts on adoption will pay off for both our hotel and travel agency partners, and we will continue to focus on this throughout the year.

In this month's issue, our guest columnist, Bill Todd, offers some great insights into new technology you can use to keep yours proposals fresh in your customers' minds – it's easy, it's affordable and it's effective.

We're also anxious to hear your thoughts on the ongoing issues between American Airlines and the OTA's. Take our quick survey and let us know what your think.

Because we at CCRA are your partners, we've added a few highlights from the many industry events we've attended in the last two months.

Finally - with the travel agent market coming on strong, now is the time to perform some annual maintenance and fine tuning on how your hotel is positioned and how your rates are loaded. I urge you to read Positioning "Your Hotel for 2011 - Time for a Tune-Up" and make certain you've optimized your hotel's positioning.

Sincerely,

Mai Meyaart
Vice President and Managing Director

Take that Google!
Written by: Bill Todd

You've just finished a client meeting where you presented three great options for a two day sales conference. Your client promises to get back to you just as soon as they've talked to their boss. During the meeting you clearly laid out the features and benefits of each meeting package. Your client had absolutely no questions when they left or hung up. Yet, a week later, it suddenly dawns upon you that the client has not called to book their sales meeting.

You send a quick email, and find out the client's boss found a rural conference center online and booked the meeting. You do a quick search on the web and discover the conference center's package has nowhere near the value of the three you proposed.

Unfortunately, you may think that you didn't do a good job presenting all the details. Allow me to let you in a little secret, you probably did a great job! The problem was not your presentation but your client's memory.

It is not the client's fault. A Harvard study concluded that the human brain is like a sieve when it comes to remembering information. In fact, within 1 hour of a hearing your options, a prospect will forget 55% of the information presented. Within 8 hours that number will increase to 62%. In short, all the details of your presentation literally began to evaporate the minute the client walked out your door or hung up the phone.

To combat this, I use a hot new technology called "AudioGenerator." It allows me to send unlimited e-mail "audio postcards" to my prospects. This affordable tool empowers me creatively to prompt my customers right from my computer at any time. More importantly, an audio postcard can increases your client's information retention by over 50%.

I employ the same service to create fun birthday cards, anniversary cards and to publicize any local promotions. This service also allows me to effortlessly get audio referrals and recommendations from my satisfied customers.

AudioGenerator will provide you with a free 800 number so that satisfied clients can call in with a testimonial after their event. The 800 number will record their referral, and you can post it on your own website or send it out as an email in just a few moments.

The cost is less than one dollar a day. It was the most beneficial promotional tool for my business in both 2009 and 2010. If you want more information, just click on the link below. You can send yourself a free audio postcard immediately or kick the tires with a free trial.

http://members.audiogenerator.com/specialinfo.asp?x=786599

Bill Todd is one of 2010's most sought after sales motivational speakers and trainers.
He is the co-author with Stephen Covey of Speaking of Success. Todd has served as vice president of sales and industry marketing for Choice Hotels International, and was vice president of sales and marketing for Marriott International's Corporate Lodging Division.
BTodd@BTodd.com | www.BTodd.com | 301.633.5856

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Positioning Your Hotel for 2011 - Time for a Tune-Up?

GDS channel bookings and revenue achieved 2010 growth records of +30.6% and +44.2% over the prior year, respectively. With recovery forging on into the New Year, it is in your competitive best interest to make certain all of customer touch points, and that system data are not simply updated, but also reflect your property in the best possible light.

With 2011 well underway, and those hotels best positioned early in the travel year will be the ones to reap the most rewards.

According to Pegasus Solution's Ges Doran, senior VP of Customer Support and Voice Services, "... make sure to review the content in your CRS. Seamless text and local information are the two areas we receive the most comments from bookers regarding out-dated or inaccurate information. The more current and relevant your content, the better."

The article in the November issue of Pegasus View goes on to say, "First impressions are everything. You are defeating yourself if the images don't reflect recent upgrades and if those images are of poor quality. Equally detrimental is if the descriptions of your facilities, amenities, proximity to attractions or conference centers, etc. are inadequate." (read the whole article)

Now, as hotel demand begins to swell, is the time to do a tune-up of your hotel's positioning on your brand's website and in the GDS. Look at your property information the way a travel agent would, and remember the three rules of successful positioning in the hotel industry: location; location, and ... location. Have you properly and accurately associated your hotel to all the major business and attractions (including all the ones that have just opened); do your driving instructions jibe with the instructions a customer gets from MapQuest and Yahoo or Google Maps; are you listing the amenities that are really important to a business traveler, to a leisure traveler?

Remember, travelers come to your area for many reasons ... picking a hotel is directly related to the reason they are coming in the first place. Are you giving visitors the right information to pick your hotel above you competitions?

Targeted Selling - Finding the Agents Who Want Your Hotel

All leading indicators predict a turnaround for the hospitality industry. Are you ready to claim your share?

Successful salespeople know they will always be more successful by targeting customers who want what they have to sell – than by trying to convince every potential customer that what they are selling is what that customer wants. Another way to put it – fish where the fish are biting!

Finding travel agents who are already coming into your market and staying at hotels like yours has never been easier thanks to the new CCRx Report from CCRA.

CCRx gives each subscribing hotel detailed information on which agencies come to your area, how much they are spending with you and with your designated competitors, and where you can contact these agencies. CCRx even comes with a prescription of recommended strategies for improving your business from this lucrative market and putting more revvv in your RevPAR.

It's not too late to subscribe to CCRx and receive a full year report for 2010 activity.

Learn more about CCRx.

CCRA Is On Your Side

CCRA Hotel Partner Solutions is dedicated to helping hotels like yours reap the rewards from the rebounding travel agency market. Here are some highlights for our activities over the past two months.

CCRA ATTENDS ASTA PREMIUM MEMBER BUSINESS SUMMIT

The American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) is the world's largest association of travel professionals. Members include travel agents and the companies whose products they sell such as tours, cruises, hotels, car rentals, etc. ASTA are the leading advocate for travel agents, the travel industry and the traveling public, and CCRA is a Premium Member of this internationally recognized and respected organization.

This February, CCRA President, Dic Marxen, attended the annual Premium Member Business Summit held at the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Las Vegas. This year's summit, a sold-out event, found leaders from travel's top agencies across all sectors of the market, meeting to exchange best practices and develop strategic solutions for dealing with some of the most critical issues facing them.

Said ASTA CEO Tony Gonchar. "Meetings such as these allow for today's top industry executives to become more than just spectators in the events shaping our industry; they are active participants."

CCRA ATTENDS TRAVEL WEEKLY'S LEISUREWORLD 2011

Both Liz Badras and Bill Lawrence from our CCRA team met with travel agents and travel suppliers at the Leisure World 2011 conference in Las Vegas in mid-February. Many of our CCRA travel agents had the opportunity to visit with us at our exhibit booth, and one very lucky travel agent, Lorraine Steubing from Main Street World Travel, was the winner of our giveaway prize, a new Kindle book reader. It's always a pleasure to meet with our travel agents and to review our new commission opportunities, training seminars and special programs available to all. We'll announce further tradeshows where our team will be available – stay tuned for dates and locations.

CCRA LINKS 267 ADDITIONAL AGENCIES
TO NEGOTIATED RATE PROGRAM

Each year, when CCRA asks hotels to submit negotiated rates for distribution to the travel agent community, we make the commitment to share those rates only with qualified agencies across the country and around the world.

How do agencies qualify for access to your negotiated rates? - by linking to CCRA through their respective GDS. This February CCRA linked 267 new agencies to our negotiated rate code. Each newly linked agency receives a kit welcoming them to the program and reminding them that the hotels who participate with CCRA are hotels who understand and value the travel agent market.

THE SWEET TASTE OF SUCCESS

This month CCRA introduced a new program for keeping our hotel partners in front of the professional travel agent market with CCRA Top Stars. CCRA Top Stars is an ongoing recognition program for the agencies who book both a large number of room nights as well as a large percentage of total room nights using the CCRA negotiated rate code.

Many suppliers recognize their top accounts with plaques or certificates ... but CCRA wants to reinforce our message right down to the agent/decision makers; so we've taken a different approach. Our top producers will be receiving engraved candy dispensers full of personalized M&Ms. Every tasty M&M will remind agents that ccr/ccra is the negotiated rate the offers the sweetest deals in town.