CCRA Continues To Work For You
Happy Summer, and welcome to the June issue of the CCRA Newsletter! Over the past few months we’ve been working on bringing you more booking opportunities through CCRAtravel.com. Now you can book travel insurance, helicopter rides, rail, and more! If you haven’t already done so, visit our affiliate page on CCRAtravel.com to book your clients some extra fun or special savings on their next vacation. Keep an eye out for our travel partners image, as seen directly below. No matter where you are, clicking on it will take you to our affiliate page.
This month is a big month for CCRA, we’ve traveled to Canada for the Cruise3sixty show, and at the end of this month we’re headed back to Orlando for the 12th annual Vacation.com International Trade Show & Conference. We love traveling to these shows (and others) every year because it gives us a chance to reconnect with so many loyal travel agents. We enjoy hearing what you have to say, and introducing new supplier partners and features. If you’re attending the Vacation.com show, please make sure to stop by the CCRA Pavilion. We’re giving away amazing prizes, and will have live entertainment. We look forward to meeting you!
Travel agents shows are just one aspect of our tradeshow marketing. CCRA also attends hotel and supplier shows promoting the importance of the travel agent market. We’ve just returned from the Choice Hotel’s 57th Annual Conference and Tradeshow. We take our role as an advocate for the professional travel planner seriously, read more below about it in, CCRA, The Travel Agent's Advocate.
In this issue you can check out why CCRA rates are better than BAR at thousands of hotels around the world. That’s right! Through our great partnerships with some of the biggest hotel chains, we offer specially negotiated rates just for you and your clients. When booking in the GDS make sure you book the CCR or CCRA rate codes to get the better rate. Scroll down to see what we’re talking about.
Also in this issue, read over our featured destinations. These hotels are spotlighted to update you on their latest happenings. This month we’re proud to featured Australia, India, and Las Vegas!
Guest columnist Bill Todd offers some excellent insights into how to develop those all-important, new customers. You can also listen to his podcast on prospecting.
As always we welcome any and all feedback you have. Please feel free to email us at marketing@ccra.com with comments.
CCRA, The Travel Agent's Advocate
According to the Travel Industry Dictionary (www.travel-industry-dictionary.com), a travel agency consortium is “a voluntary association to share resources in order to gain a market advantage. In travel, usually used to refer to groups of suppliers that offer higher commissions and other incentives to travel agencies that enter into ‘preferred supplier’ relationships with them.”
By that definition, CCRA is a travel consortium – but in many, important ways we are so much more.
CCRA Is …
We are a distribution channel for hotels and other suppliers that allows these companies to reach an audience of professional travel planners with special rates and promotions. Over 22,000 hotels have chosen to participate in our negotiated rate program.
Additionally, we manage our own proprietary hotel booking engine. In fact, our rate distribution network is so successful that when Amadeus looked for a partner to provide hotel content and booking capabilities for its Vacation Link agents, Amadeus chose CCRA.
We are also a travel agency. As “CCRA Travel Solutions 24/7 Services – powered by TFI”, we operate the oldest, and one of the nation’s largest, after-hours call centers. We employ 75 highly skilled travel agents. We understand your business – it’s our business too.
Perhaps most importantly, at CCRA we are an advocate for the professional travel agent. Our team of national account directors works tirelessly with hotel chains, large and small, promoting the value of professional travel agent. In this age of internet discounting, hotels have realized that giving away rooms to the lowest bidder is a short road to financial ruin. CCRA takes every opportunity to spread the word, “travel agent business is good business; travel agent business is repeat business; travel agent business represent high ADR!”
Earlier this month, CCRA attended Choice Hotel’s 57th Annual Convention and Tradeshow along with Choice hoteliers from around the world. During the two day tradeshow, CCRA met with hundreds of Choice hotel owners and operators to discuss the value of travel agent business. The Choice conference is just one of dozens of industry events we participate in each year.
Through “Check-in” our bi-monthly newsletter targeted to decision makers at over 30,000 individual hotels, we regularly extol the advantages of working with travel agents.
Finally, as mentioned above, CCRA deploys a team of travel industry professionals who work not only with hotels and hotel chains, but with a variety of travel industry suppliers to bring you, our agent partners, the best deals and the best services available.
At CCRA we are proud to be part of the professional travel community. Our mission is, and will continue to be, to advocate on behalf of travel planning professionals to suppliers across the country and around the globe.
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CCRA Global Account Team meeting with hotel owners and operators at Choice Hotels 57th Annual Convention and Tradeshow.
Successful Prospecting is Imperative to Continued Growth
Written by: Bill Todd
Do you know what the single largest sales and marketing investment for North American travel businesses will be in 2010? I’ll give you a hint: it will be the same thing this year as it has been for the last twenty.
When you add up all the money budgeted for sales and marketing, the single largest investment is always earmarked for attracting first time customers.
This single business objective is forecasted to account for over 65% of all marketing dollars invested in 2010. Amazingly this remarkable statistic holds true for Fortune 500 companies, mid-sized business and sole proprietorships alike.
Ironically no marketing activity is deemed as important by management, and yet so enthusiastically avoided, by front line sales professionals as pursuing new customers.
Successful prospecting is imperative to the continued growth and survival of your company.
Sergio Zyman, former Chief Marketing officer for Coca-Cola, says we complicate our jobs far too often. To be consistently successful you have to sell more stuff, to more people, often for more money. You can’t accomplish this simple business objective until you become comfortable with prospecting.
The very first thing I learned about top sales people in writing my book, Speaking of Success, is that today's most successful salespeople set realistic prospecting goals for each day, week and month. Such goals include a written target for the number of calls, follow-up communications and appointments required.
According to Brian Tracy, author of The 100 Absolutely Unbreakable Laws of Business Success, "The ability to set goals and make plans for their accomplishments is the “master skill” of success. It is the single most important skill that you can learn and perfect." According to Tracy’s newest research, less than 3% of travel professionals have written goals, and less than 1/3 of those people review and rewrite their goals each month.
Top producers frequently schedule prospecting for first thing in the morning when both they and their client are fresh. As author Barry Farmer says I don’t know too many people who originally liked prospecting, but there is an easy way to get comfortable quickly. That is by doing it every day even when you don’t want to. Prospecting success comes from not giving up, and generates the energy, excitement and confidence to keep you going.”
In the final analysis, it’s simply a question of statistics. If you prospect twice as many people, you will sell twice as much product - even if you do nothing else differently!
You can immediately start producing new sales at an amazingly high level because prospecting is common sense, wrapped in enthusiasm and powered by attitude.
Learn more about prospecting skills from a master. Listen to Bill Todd’s podcast.
Bill Todd
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 new 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). Todd has served as vice president of sales and industry marketing for the 5000+ franchises and seven global brands of 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
Why Are CCRA Rates So Great? Take a Look.
Here's a list of world class hotels in the world’s best cities with unbeatable CCRA rates.
CCRA Percentage Off BAR |
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SG |
Shangri-La Hotel, Vancouver, Canada | 25% |
IW |
Hotel Ampere, Paris, France | 15% |
|
DS |
Hotel Straf, Milan, Italy | 23% |
JV |
Pacific Edge, Laguna Beach, CA | 15% |
|
FA |
Fairmont Monte Carlo, Monaco | 20% |
JV |
Shorebreak Hotel, Huntington Beach, CA | 15% |
|
YX |
The Belamar Hotel, Manhattan Beach, CA | 20% |
JV |
Hotel Kabuki, San Francisco, CA | 15% |
|
MU |
Copthorne Tara Hotel London | 20% |
YX |
MCM Elegante Hotel & Suites, Dallas, TX | 15% |
|
YX |
The Athenaeum, London | 20% |
UI |
Savoy Hotel, Rome, Italy | 15% |
|
DN |
The Inverness Hotel & Conf., Denver, CO | 20% |
UI |
New York Helmsley, New York City | 15% |
|
YX |
Kokopelli Suites, Sedona, AZ | 20% |
JD |
The Kensington Hotel, London | 15% |
|
YX |
Bishops Lodge Ranch Resort, Santa Fe, NM | 20% |
JD |
The Normandy Hotel, Washington, DC | 15% |
|
PH |
La Valencia Hotel, La Jolla, CA | 20% |
EW |
Regency Lodge, Omaha, NE | 15% |
|
XL |
The Meritage Resort and Spa, Napa, CA | 20% |
PV |
Lenox Hotel, Boston, MA | 15% |
|
XL |
The Legacy Hotel & Mtg. Ctr, Rockville, MD | 20% |
PH |
Les Suites Orient, Bund Shanghai, China | 15% |
|
IP |
Sixth Avenue Inn, Seattle, WA | 20% |
PH |
The Carlton Hotel on Madison Ave., NYC | 15% |
|
KH |
International House, New Orleans, LA | 20% |
BK |
The Copley Square Hotel, Boston, MA | 15% |
|
BV |
Americas Best Value Inn Norfolk, VA | 20% |
LE |
The Bristol Hotel, San Diego, CA | 15% |
|
YX |
Claremont Hotel Club & Spa, Berkeley, CA | 20% |
KH |
Hotel Metropolis, San Francisco, CA 15% | 15% |
|
LX |
Brooks Hotel, Dublin, Ireland | 20% |
YX |
Lenfant Plaza DC, Washington DC | 15% |
|
IQ |
The Yas Hotel, Abu Dhabi, UAE | 15% |
JD |
The Dupont, Washington, DC | 15% |
|
DS |
Unique, Sao Paulo, Brazil | 15% |
XL |
Il Lugano Suite Hotel, Ft. Lauderdale, FL | 15% |
|
FA |
Fairmont Empress, Victoria, Canada | 15% |
PF |
Pan Pacific Vancouver, Canada 15% | 15% |
|
FA |
Fairmont Royal York, Toronto, Canada | 15% |
CK |
The Capitol Hotel, Bangalore, India | 15% |
|
YX |
Hotel Abri, San Francisco, CA | 15% |
YX |
Nylo Providence Warwick, RI | 15% |
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Check out more at CCRAtravel.com.
Craving a bite to eat? Then grab a table at Mad Onion. This pleasing restaurant delivers 24 hour dining in a casual atmosphere, marrying delicious dishes with incredibly value driven pricing. It is home to two great breakfast specials each only $2.99! This is Hooters after all, so we are home to the World’s Largest Hooters Restaurant.
We have something special just for the ladies. Men of X will arouse the ladies with their hard bodies performing heart-stopping choreography that is sure to tease and please. Men of X is now inside Dixie's Dam Bar! If you have ever wondered what goes on backstage at a comedy show, then you won't want to miss The Dirty Joke Show! You will laugh until it hurts!
Situated at the famous Finger Wharf in Sydney, BLUE Sydney A Taj Hotel is a boutique hotel in the heart of Sydney’s most famous and luxurious marina, restaurant and apartment complex. Its location is unbeatable, a contemporary urban renewal of an historic wharf structure, within walking distance of the Central Business and Shopping Districts, the Sydney Opera House and adjacent to the Royal Botanical Gardens. It has a well-established reputation of blending the intimacy of a boutique hotel with the facilities and reliability of a top-end business establishment. Providing an upscale experience, the hotel offers 100 guest rooms with stylish interiors, popular restaurants, state-of-the-art fitness facilities and spa services.
Each of BLUE’s 100 Guest Rooms, including 36 stunning Loft Rooms, retain the authenticity and charm of the historic wharf building while providing the latest in modern luxury and accommodations. Each room features unique characteristics of the original heritage-listed wharf, modern décor and a view of either the eclectic Woolloomooloo Bay Village or the sensational Sydney Harbour foreshores. Styles of accommodation range from contemporary accommodation rooms with views to the Sydney city skyline to split level Loft Suites with bedroom and bathroom upstairs and living space and powder room downstairs.
A hotel of ultimate luxury, the Jumeirah Carlton Tower is located in fashionable Knightsbridge on Sloane Street. It features 220 luxurious rooms and suites, a glamorous Champagne Lounge, award winning restaurant – The Rib Room and one of London’s premier health clubs – The Peak Health Club & Spa. Leisure facilities include a golf simulator, 20 metre indoor swimming pool, sauna and steam rooms and an award winning Spa. The hotel also offers 9 meeting rooms designed to accommodate a wide range of functions, from cocktail receptions to dinners, themed events, wedding receptions and marriage ceremonies.
