By: Robyn Adamson, Hotel Distribution Strategy Expert
I recently purchased a shiny new Ab Swing Pro, promising to change my body, and give me the abs of my dreams! Three months out from purchase and my abs are still not the stuff dreams are made of! One night I mentioned this to my husband and in a moment of brief wisdom he pointed out to me that perhaps the problem was not with my fabulous Ab Swing Pro but rather the fact that in the last three months I had only used the machine a handful of times.
Distribution Systems are similar to my Ab Swing Pro, they promise to connect your hotel to thousands of third party websites and GDS systems across the globe and sell your rooms to guests a million miles away with very little effort at all; Right? Wrong!
There is a lot of effort involved. Like my Ab Swing Pro the key to success on GDS/ADS platforms is maintenance. Yes that’s right, I admit my husband may have been onto something in his observation.
Observation and maintenance are the keys to being successful in this competitive online environment. There are millions of hotels now using these tools and you as a hotelier need to be proactive:
- What are your competitors doing?
- Have you got a Best Available rate?
- Is your Best Available rate comparative to what is happening in your market place?
- Are you following up on repeated cancelled bookings?
- Are you targeting travel agents who book your hotel with contracted rates to lure them into booking your hotel first time, every time?
I have started using my Ab Swing Pro daily (ok, ok I have two kids so daily might be a stretch of my imagination but at least 4 times a week) and guess what, I am starting to see the benefits. What could you achieve by maintaining your distribution systems?
Find out more about what MICROS can do for you! For more information contact us at info@micros.com Phone: 866.287.4736 (US and Canada)
