By Gino Engels, Co-founder and CCO of OTA Insight
There is no doubt that the pandemic has altered the hospitality industry forever. In the past year-and-a-half, hoteliers have faced challenges that they never have before: identifying alternative revenue streams became imperative as travel came to a grinding halt, new health and safety standards were rapidly adopted, and unpredictable changes in travel restrictions and lockdowns around the world made initial recovery efforts difficult to navigate. Now, as the Delta variant sweeps the globe, we will re-enter an unquestionably difficult Fall season.
Despite the many difficulties that the industry has faced, hospitality providers and hoteliers have remained resilient. As the hospitality industry bands together for support, sharing stories on adapting new workstyles and deepening relationships, new technological innovations have pioneered solutions to many of the challenges faced in the pandemic. Despite the unpredictability of our industry’s future, hoteliers enter a new season equipped with the ability to better navigate emerging COVID waves.
At OTA Insight, we’re committed to supporting our clients and partners throughout the industry’s unexpected challenges, and we will continue to develop solutions that aid hoteliers around the world. We were honored to host our digital ReConnect event on July 22nd, which not only allowed us to deepen the conversation on how we can continue to support our industry, but also allowed us to introduce our newest solutions designed to equip hoteliers with a more comprehensive and effective strategy to tackle recovery and beyond.
We recognize that hoteliers have experienced significant losses in revenue, and successfully navigating future recovery efforts may be a make-or-break factor for many. To assist hoteliers in proactively making critical decisions with confidence, we were honored to release Global Market Insight as a free industry tool. An interactive map accessible on the OTA website, Global Market Insight combines recovery trends from the last 6 months and a demand outlook for the next 90 days, granting hoteliers the ability to spot upticks in demands, identify whether they’re converting upper funnel search activity at their properties, and optimize their marketing and rate strategies accordingly.
The best asset in navigating successful recovery is accurate and reliable data. To help operators make more informed, data-driven decisions, we’re excited by the development of Rate Strategy and Market OTB-Forward Looking Benchmark for two of our solutions. A free enhancement to our Rate Insight Enterprise solution, the Rate Strategy features uses aggregated data to reveal patterns in the way hoteliers and their competitors offer discounts for different elements of their strategies, including multi-LOS discounts, mobile app deals, semi-flex policies, geo POS promotions, among more. To further assist hoteliers develop successful recovery strategies, the Market OTB-Forward Looking Benchmark feature measures the effectiveness of a hotelier’s ability to convert demand. A free enhancement available for Rate Insight and Market Insight, the feature compares a property’s on-the-books (OTB) occupancy to a city-level benchmark to ensure that hoteliers have the ability to make precise and informed decisions as demand continues to fluctuate unpredictably. OTB data is updated daily, and is easily accessible in the OTA Insight app and through shopping reports.
There is no playbook for the year ahead. However, utilizing industry-leading data technology tools allows hoteliers to identify emerging opportunities and prepares them to take advantage of demand rebounds. As the COVID-19 environment rapidly changes, we will continue to proactively implement solutions that help hoteliers develop the fundamental strategies needed for a successful industry recovery, throughout the pandemic and beyond.
