See our LIVE Twitter Feed of the Christchurch quake updates HERE
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Wotif.com Turns-on Television
We are aware that Online Travel Agents (OTAs) receive a lot of flack from accommodation operators.
We do not agree with a lot of the negative sentiments from some our more vocal accommodation industry colleagues. We appreciate that OTAs do a lot of leg work, they advertise and expose room inventory to a bulk market that individual operators are unable to reach. OTAs generate positive publicity by promoting the desirability of travel and are operating in a space where potential guests like to contemplate and research travel - including the MSM.
We also like the unintended commission-free bonus of "The Billboard Effect".
If accommodation operators work in partnership with OTAs by using dynamic tariff, they are able to gain additional business and grow average tariff. While we do not entertain wowsers in the accommodation industry that whinge about paying a 10% commission for services received, we do have some sympathy for those that claim that OTAs focus too much on tariff based promotions.
Wotif.com's sub $99 and 50 percent off promotions that were supported by Tourism New Zealand caused rumblings from accommodation operators that accused Wotif of normalising guest expectations of deep discounting.
We suggested in this blog that operators should be considering quality and adding value before sending tariff through the floor.
...so what about OTAs promoting 70 percent discounts?
One practice that is been used by OTAs that we do not approve of is "bait advertising" by promising savings on accommodation of up to 70 percent (and higher) by using Google Adwords campaigns. There is also the practice of OTAs developing landing pages that appear in the main body of search results that also promise massive savings: (See our post HERE).
So what's the problem?
The problem we have is that we challenge anyone to easily find genuine savings on accommodation of up to 70 percent.
We believe that OTAs over promising unrealistic savings are doing a disservice to potential guests, themselves and the accommodation industry.
Which brings us to wotif.com's launch of their new major TV campaign that encourages "consumers to spend less on their hotel room and more on their holiday!"
We do not agree with a lot of the negative sentiments from some our more vocal accommodation industry colleagues. We appreciate that OTAs do a lot of leg work, they advertise and expose room inventory to a bulk market that individual operators are unable to reach. OTAs generate positive publicity by promoting the desirability of travel and are operating in a space where potential guests like to contemplate and research travel - including the MSM.
We also like the unintended commission-free bonus of "The Billboard Effect".
If accommodation operators work in partnership with OTAs by using dynamic tariff, they are able to gain additional business and grow average tariff. While we do not entertain wowsers in the accommodation industry that whinge about paying a 10% commission for services received, we do have some sympathy for those that claim that OTAs focus too much on tariff based promotions.
Wotif.com's sub $99 and 50 percent off promotions that were supported by Tourism New Zealand caused rumblings from accommodation operators that accused Wotif of normalising guest expectations of deep discounting.
We suggested in this blog that operators should be considering quality and adding value before sending tariff through the floor.
...so what about OTAs promoting 70 percent discounts?
One practice that is been used by OTAs that we do not approve of is "bait advertising" by promising savings on accommodation of up to 70 percent (and higher) by using Google Adwords campaigns. There is also the practice of OTAs developing landing pages that appear in the main body of search results that also promise massive savings: (See our post HERE).
So what's the problem?
The problem we have is that we challenge anyone to easily find genuine savings on accommodation of up to 70 percent.
We believe that OTAs over promising unrealistic savings are doing a disservice to potential guests, themselves and the accommodation industry.
Which brings us to wotif.com's launch of their new major TV campaign that encourages "consumers to spend less on their hotel room and more on their holiday!"
Saturday, September 4, 2010
LIVE Twitter Feed of Christchurch Quake
At Motella, we are thinking of the folk in Christchurch that were shaken-up early this morning with a 7.1 quake.
We hear that in spite of infrastructure badly affected, accommodation providers are continuing to provide hospitality and comfort to guests. Our thoughts are with you.
Social media is made for catching up on LIVE news as it happens and we have made the following widget that is broadcasting news from all of the popular Twitter hashtags:
We hear that in spite of infrastructure badly affected, accommodation providers are continuing to provide hospitality and comfort to guests. Our thoughts are with you.
Social media is made for catching up on LIVE news as it happens and we have made the following widget that is broadcasting news from all of the popular Twitter hashtags:
Friday, September 3, 2010
What Happened To Tourism Exchange New Zealand?
The acquisition was part of the airline’s strategy to complement its core business by clipping the ticket in other tourism sectors.
Tourism Exchange New Zealand was formed as a joint venture between Air New Zealand and V3 that was enthusiastically promoted as a "neutral business to business market place for tourism suppliers and distributors. Through the Tourism Exchange, participants can contract and transact New Zealand tourism product with live availability and dynamic pricing.”
Many found the Tourism Exchange offer confusing and we wondered how many tourism operators experienced success using the platform? We suspect that returns were not as high as were predicted and we felt that there was a disconnect between Tourism Exchange personnel and Kiwi tourism operators.
In our post HERE back in December 2008, we asked the question:
"Has this venture got wings, or will it get lost in the scrum of existing providers?"We note with interest that Tourism Exchange abruptly pulled out of a recent tourism conference necessitating the organizers to find last minute presenters and there are also rumors doing the rounds that their offices are about to be closed down in New Zealand.
Has Tourism Exchange become another casualty that naively assumed success by partnering with a well known tourism brand and underestimated the complexities of New Zealand's tourism market?
We would be interested if any of our dear readers can inform us further....
Aussie Pensioners Claim Accommodation Rip-off
This is another chapter in the continuation of the "Sky-high Cup hotel prices" story that looks to continue for some time with the sensationalist revelation that tariff in New Zealand commercial accommodation will rise during the Rugby World Cup - No kidding!
What amuses us is there is a consensus in the MSM that accommodation providers are the devil's spawn and are desecrating NZ's socialist fair-play image by taking advantage of hapless rugby fans with dynamic pricing.
So should accommodation providers ramp-up tariff during expected high demand? - well of course! We maintain that the market should be left to determine tariff, however in this latest story we have some sympathy for the hapless Aussie pensioners.
In this story, a couple of Aussie pensioners made an accommodation reservation for 3-nights in September 2011, 18-months prior at the Auckland North Shore Motels and Holiday Park. The accommodation provider claimed that it was verbally explained at the time that their tariff had not yet been set for the RWC period and would be subject to change. A written confirmation was sent that covered details of the reservation that included the motel's current tariff of $100 per night along with a clause that stated: "Management has the right to alter tariff without notice."
We accept that the accommodation provider offered accommodation on the basis that they had yet to set tariff and attempted to cover this with an out clause. We suspect that our Aussie pensioners were grateful of securing accommodation and were probably happy to accept those terms at the time.
It is obvious to us that accommodation providers making vague accommodation arrangements with the public is unwise. Why the accommodation provider was unable to think on their feet and either decline the reservation or pluck a suitable tariff out of the air in order to make a clear and transparent arrangement is beyond us.
So after several months the inevitable occurred. The Auckland North Shore Motels and Holiday Park finally set tariff at $175.00 per night and our Aussie pensioners flinched, claiming that Kiwi accommodation providers were ripping them off and were price gouging.
Ironically, a mid range fully self-contained and serviced motel unit with a super-king sized bed over next year's RWC period for $175.00 per night is EXCEPTIONAL. Not surprisingly, this was not pointed out out during the story.
The trouble is that the motel had offered an agreement that was beyond the comprehension of the average Aussie RSL dwelling punter and they have paid a high price of negative publicity.
To be fair on the motel, we believe that they had the best intentions and snuffed out bad publicity by "doing the right thing" and held tariff for our Aussie pensioners at $100.00 per night. The motel will be providing at least a couple of folk with some cheap digs over the RWC and have provided fellow accommodation providers with a valuable lesson on how not to take a reservation.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Motel Wishlist
...After feeling somewhat inferior at the eTourism Conference by not consistently fondling a shiny black and chrome object of desire, I have finally succumbed to the Apple cult and are .... considering buying an iPhone. Up until now I am not sure how I've managed to run a motel without one...
21 Awesome Office Cube Pranks
As moteliers that work for ourselves, we often wonder what it would be like to return to the rigors of an office environment.
Working from home has its advantages - there is no sitting in traffic and we avoid a lot of the unproductive communal office routines and banter.
What we miss is the inevitable office humour that is necessary to make sitting in a cubical working for the man somewhat bearable.
We found some good examples of office workers that obviously have too much time on their hands that added some decoration to fellow workmate's working environments.
This would make you think twice about taking leave:
Source: Click HERE
Working from home has its advantages - there is no sitting in traffic and we avoid a lot of the unproductive communal office routines and banter.
What we miss is the inevitable office humour that is necessary to make sitting in a cubical working for the man somewhat bearable.
We found some good examples of office workers that obviously have too much time on their hands that added some decoration to fellow workmate's working environments.
This would make you think twice about taking leave:
Source: Click HERE
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Tripadvisor.com's Jim Brody
The eTourism Conference this year was another successful event with some great motivating speakers that were respected experts in their field.
It's great comming away from a conference feeling motivated with some new ideas to inject into your business.
One of the highlights was to meet and hear presentations from Jim Brody, head of the destination and marketing outreach efforts of Tripadvisor.com.
Tripadvisor has rapidly grown into the world's biggest travel site. In July 2010 over 35 million users visited Tripadvisor and over 1.4 million users visited pages with New Zealand content.
One of the latest innovations for Tripadvisor was their recent partnership with Facebook that allows over 50 million Facebook users to share trip information with their friends with an application they have called Trip Friends.
Along with the surge in popularity of location based social media that includes Foursquare and the potential of Facesbook's recently released Facebook Places, accommodation providers have a challenge and an opportunity to take part in the conversations that online communities are having about their travel experiences.
Although one of the exciting dynamics of the internet is that the future is almost impossible to predict, Tripadvisor.com is unlikely to lose dominance anytime soon. In fact, the smart money would be on Tripadvisor increasing their influence on how the traveling public choose accommodation in the foreseeable future.
This may require some accommodation providers to adopt a radical attitude change;-)
A version of Jim Brody's powerpoint presentation on "Maintaining your reprutation online" follows:
Maintaining Your Reputation Online - Jim Brody from Tripadvisor.com
It's great comming away from a conference feeling motivated with some new ideas to inject into your business.
One of the highlights was to meet and hear presentations from Jim Brody, head of the destination and marketing outreach efforts of Tripadvisor.com.
Tripadvisor has rapidly grown into the world's biggest travel site. In July 2010 over 35 million users visited Tripadvisor and over 1.4 million users visited pages with New Zealand content.
One of the latest innovations for Tripadvisor was their recent partnership with Facebook that allows over 50 million Facebook users to share trip information with their friends with an application they have called Trip Friends.
Along with the surge in popularity of location based social media that includes Foursquare and the potential of Facesbook's recently released Facebook Places, accommodation providers have a challenge and an opportunity to take part in the conversations that online communities are having about their travel experiences.
Although one of the exciting dynamics of the internet is that the future is almost impossible to predict, Tripadvisor.com is unlikely to lose dominance anytime soon. In fact, the smart money would be on Tripadvisor increasing their influence on how the traveling public choose accommodation in the foreseeable future.
This may require some accommodation providers to adopt a radical attitude change;-)
Maintaining Your Reputation Online - Jim Brody from Tripadvisor.com
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Off to eTourism
Taking a flight to Auckland early Monday morning and may check in from time to time:
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