Hoteliers need to establish "Hotelier's Day"

on Linkedin 30 Sept.2015 ---- I have been thinking if it is fine to share to the world about jobs that we have in the hotel. We work quite longer hours on regular basis. One thing that worries us a lot is " Customer Complaint" and then we will do everything to make sure that we can handle it and solve the issue to reach customer satisfaction. For further reference, I would like to give more info on what some of us doing in a hotel on this link : http://www.hoteliermaldives.com/stories/a-day-in-the-life-of-abdulla-sajan-housekeeping-supervisor-at-herathera-island-resort/ or have a look at this link : https://hotelierako.wordpress.com/2013/08/25/a-day-in-a-life-of-an-assistant-restaurant-manager/ Therefore, I would like to approach everyone that we need to establish a " HOTELIER'S DAY" as a recognition and an appreciation to hotelier on their hard work and dedication to their jobs to ensure all client having great experience for staying in a hotel. There many others reasons which you as hotelier can mention to the world that ' HOTELIER'S DAY" should be established .

This idea has been communicated to all my connection on Linkedin and has been posted on all group discussion that I joined. More information will be shared on this specific event to everyone. For further information, please send your email to : askar.dgkamis@gmail.com Thanks for all the support and to share this idea. Best personal regards to everyone who work in a hotel and to all your beloved family members.

Hotel Website as Main Distribution Channel

On Linkedin 14 January 2015 ----- It has been quite long time after my last article on Linkedin and now I would like to share my vision to all my hospitality industry friend Yesterday, one of our friend Mr. Kevin Tatem from Siteminder has shared below article http://www.traveldailymedia.com/216810/half-of-online-travel-searches-end-at-price-screen/ And I have commented the article as follows : 1. Hotel should have proper pricing strategies, why should hotel website rate compete its own price on third party website ( this is Insane, we should make sure hotel website has to be the best rate in all distribution channel. 2. Make sure your booking engine has simple step for a booking and user friendly 3. How your price is displayed on hotel website ( is it complicated and look like stock market exchange) .. your price is crucial so display them in a proper way. 4. How to use our Booking engine for other market segment . ( most of the hotel only focus using it only for single market segment). I can go on an on but have to stop As a professional who is concerned on hotel distribution strategies, I always want to study hotel website and study the booking engine that the hotel use and if I know the person who own the website, I send them my insight on how they need to manage their own distribution channel by suggesting them to choose a proper booking engine which has simple on booking steps and simple on the look as well as user friendly. I would like to share some ideas on Hotel Distribution Strategic for all hotel which will be benefits their business by having technology which has to be integrated to hotel website. 2 ( two simple ) strategies could be said as below : 1. To ensure and encourage all hotel professional to manage their website as a main distribution channel for client from all market segment to get the best rate whether it is on a B2C platform or on B2B platform. ( selling the right price to the right customer with an effective and efficient way of communication). 2. If we all believe direct booking to hotel is the best way to get best result and I would like to tell you that direct selling to all our business partner will be also have the same impact. Notes : And make all effort to drive your own business instead of your third party partners. Don't easily get intimidated with all big brand in the market, these big OTAs has the power to do so as hotels have given them the power which in turn make the hotel weak and the hotel has allowed this third party business partner controlling their inventory or even their rate and OTA has the power to set their own commission which is now is very big. Imagine all hotels in the world has no inventory given to OTA only for 1 day, I can assure you that all booking will be done thru hotel website This is your initial steps on how to make your website as your main Distribution Channel : Set up a booking engine on your website. Set proper rate planning, and strategy, inventory and communicate to the market by any mean of communication ( Social media, email, advertisement, etc) Having a booking engines then you will be able to set the distribution activities for your hotel. Set up all your rate from BAR ( Best Available Rate), special offers, packages, as well as travel agencies negotiated contracted rate, corporate rate, Loyalty member rate , etc. All the rate has to be loaded into your system and distribute the rate to all your market segments. Having this strategy, hotel website will be functioned as a B2C website for all our direct client as well as a B2B website for all your contracted business partner such as travel agent/corporate/ and other organisation. Make sure your booking engine is connected to major Channel Manager system to ensure others distribution channel is also managed effectively and efficiently Last but not least , get your property connected to GDS ( Global Distribution System ; Amadeus, Sabre, Worldspan, Galileo) as this will ensure your hotel connected to more than 500,000 travel agent worldwide. However, to be connected with GDS you have to ensure that you have Travel Agent commission settlement system ( such as Tacsnet, WPS, etc) . This system will ensure all travel agent that are connected to GDS will get their commission on time. There are few fee components for GDS connection for every room night booked. We all are aware there are only few hotel know how to maximize their booking engine to be used for broader strategic of distribution activities. Core tactics to maximize your website as your main distribution channel by ensuring proper Pricing Strategy for each market segment which related to customer need and requirements, your BAR as your dynamic rate should be define as your " Ruling Rate" so every special offers could be defined based on some percentage / amount ( mark down) from BAR. Special Offers can be also defined for Travel Agent / corporate which will be based on their existing negotiated contracted rate. Having all your rate define based on proper pricing strategy, will ensure you can keep your rate integrity as well as rate parity to all your distribution channel to gain more trust from the market. I am sure, others have other strategies that can be shared to all our friend in the hospitality industry. Looking forward to hear from you and if you want to get connected with me , please to share my mobile / WA number : +62 818 0361 4636 and email : askar.dgkamis@gmail.com ENJOY YOUR DAY

What Hospitality & Travel Industry has to do with their inventory distribution

Linkedin, 28 March 2014 ---- The hospitality and travel Industry is very interesting as well as challenging; its growth, trend, demand, supply, they all different from one destination to the others. And industry professional is keep trying to find a better way to distribute their products; accommodation / room, sightseeing / excursion and packages in real time to all the potential buyers. For hotel, it is easier now to manage their distribution channel with some channel manager systems which are available on the market. However, these existing channel manager systems mainly can manage accommodation supply to Online Travel Agent ( OTA ) whether it is a B2B ( Business To Business) or a B2C ( Business To Client) platform. However, we still have a huge business opportunity out there from some suppliers and potential buyers who has no access to the distribution and its technologies so they can't maximize the potential business they have to become a real business for everyone. Some accommodation suppliers ( B2B or B2C) only can connect with a channel manager system once they have shared the API code and on the other hand the channel manager system will have their own consideration if they want to connect with those suppliers ( the consideration might be on the web traffic and number of hotel as well as room inventory, etc) Therefore, for new / small accommodation supplier it will be quite challenge to be able to connect with a channel manager system and then, if a supplier has not connected with a channel manager it will be very hard for them to improve their number of room inventory into their system as hotel will has their objection to managed separately those specific supplier which are not connecting with the channel manager. Connected to a channel manager for a room supplier will become a crucial issue as hotel will most probably want to work with suppliers who has connected with a channel manager system as the hotel staff will be able to managed their inventories and prices only in one door. Therefore the XML or / and API connection with the big suppliers will be the only choice for a new supplier to grow their room inventory into their system, but then it will make their selling price to the end user relatively higher on the competition compare to the one who has a direct contract with the hotels. Therefore, I am looking at a place where everyone involving in hospitality and travel industry; travel agent / tour operator/ retail/ destination management company, online travel agent ( B2B and B2C), and corporate can be together in a business platform where they can connect to each other, share their details including product inventories and prices, doing selling and buying process in a real time. It will be very effective and efficient for everyone to manage their business. Having this system will make everything possible and will create more business opportunity for everyone in the industry as it will allow even small travel agent or small lodge in beautiful Tanjung Bira Beach can be exposed on the marketplace by connecting with every players on the industry from all over the world. This idea simply can be implemented having a simple system based on the above mentioned business logic and it will only need internet connection.

Hotel Revenue Management Vs Distribution Channel

On 21 March 2014, I was very exciting and nervous as I got email invitation from Linkedin that I can publish my writing and I really want to share things more with others

On this post, I would like to share a subject which I has brought to a group discussion on Linkedin, it is about Revenue Management Vs Distribution Channels.

I have been involving with hotel data collection since I was a reservation supervisor in a hotel and based on that background, I am really concern on how we should analyze our business from any data that we can collect from our PMS ( Property Management System).

Actually, it is very interesting playing with figure that we have rather then reading the figure during a revenue meeting that we produce from the PMS ( Property Management System). Try to combine simple component in a simple excel sheet such as Market segments and its distribution channels and put altogether the cost of each channel such as agent's/OTA's commission, tax, service charge and credit card fee in order to get real figure of the revenue.

Then put the inventory scenario for each channel as well as rates to be implemented. Pay attention on dynamic, static and semi dynamic rates. Then we will found out which channel we would like to drive further. the previous figure and the trend has to be analyzed, then we can give a recommendation to all team concerned on what we believe and discuss also on how each channel should be driven . Ask each team about their planning on their section / department and study if the plans could be implemented and work then change them accordingly if needed.

It is important that person in charge for revenue management in a hotel should be able to describe his/her point of view and giving recommendation to all team in the revenue meeting and all team concerned have to really work out the plan which has been agreed on and monitoring the result for further references.

The main goal of this practice is improving our communication on how to improve our Regular Revenue Meeting which is mostly reading the figures so it might be a a good start for Total Revenue Management ( a cross the department in a hotel).

Having the above mentioned table ( the excel sheet), we want to present the real figure which will counting as net revenue ( after all distribution cost ) and which channel should have our attention and how we are going to do it. Let’s defined one of the channel as Travel Agent ( or Destination Management Company), this channel is mainly the job of our sales team and they need to present their plan which agent for which market for what price and for which periods and for how many rooms ( inventory). It is the same with other distribution channel, we got to have a person / department in charge for each channel. This table / template could be used also to record our previous figure,present as well as future trend for our forecasting system or the combination of them.

I realize that the hotel who has advanced system for their revenue management can get even much better template produced from the software but most of the hotel didn't have a proper Revenue management system especially in hotel in Asia.

Again, I would like to hear some feedback from more people on how they do their Revenue Meeting.