The increase in mobile traffic and the importance of meta-searchers are some of the challenges that the hotel industry must face in order to enhance its direct channel and be able to respond to an always connected user.
This has been revealed at an event held at The Pyramid Grand Hotel in Cancun (Mexico) and organized by Roiback, specialist and leader in the management of hotel direct sales, together with Google and industry representatives, such as Atelier de Hoteles, Tafer Hotels & Resorts, Axovia and Odentio.
The event, which has brought together more than 100 attendees from mainly hotels and companies in the tourism sector in Mexico and Latin America, has started with the presentation of Fernando Cotera, Strategic Partner Manager at Google who has done an analysis on how the ecosystem is changing and what the hotel industry needs to know in order to continue responding to the new needs of an always-connected user: “The consumer is curious, demanding and impatient: only 1 in 4 travelers will book with a brand that has a slow website through mobile and 92% of travelers who use mobile will switch to another site or app if it does not meet their needs”. Cotera has added that “every second of delay in the loading time means 7% less in the conversion rate, so we work hand in hand with Roiback to ensure a better mobile channel experience.”
Also, Toni Omañas, Head of Global Sales at Roiback, has emphasized that only through innovation and technology will the sector be able to face the current context, with the OTAs dominating the market and the important weight of the mobile channel and meta-searchers. “You (hoteliers) already have at your disposal the same technology as the OTAs and you have access to the same knowledge with the advantage that you are at the destination and you manage the business that they commercialize,” has explained Omañas, who has introduced some of the products developed by Roiback like Mobilis Pro, one of the industry’s leading solutions and 100% designed for the mobile channel; Metabase Pro, for an efficient management of meta-searchers, and Loyalty Pro, a loyalty solution that makes it easier for hotels to integrate this strategy into their direct channel, in order to strengthen the long-term customer relationship.
Omañas has highlighted a figure that will transform the sector, because “currently 20% of mobile searches come through voice searches and it is expected that by 2020, in the United States, this percentage will reach 50%.
” To demonstrate the possibilities of voice searches, Omañas has shown a real booking prototype developed by Roiback that allows, through Google Home, to make a real reservation by voice within a loyalty program.
Afterwards, the long-awaited Expert Panel has been held with the participation of some of the most important voices from the sector in Mexico such as Oliver Reinhart, CEO Atelier de Hoteles; Carlos Aquino, Co-Founder Axovia; Hannan Zanzuri, Founder & CEO Odentio and Hugo de la Torre, E-Marketing Director, Tafer Hotels & Resorts. During the session, solutions were discussed in a “chaotic” context of online distribution, in a round table moderated by María Baez, Head of Sales LATAM at Roiback. The distribution channels, how to control the sales price of OTAs, the profitability of meta-searchers or transparency in hotel distribution, were some of the topics discussed.
