Over-heard at NoVacancy: tweets and chatter from No Vacancy hospitality conference 18 March 2010

Normally it is the end of the year that signals the conference season with TRAVELtech, WebInTravel and PhoCusWright following each other month by month starting in September (note - TRAVELtech is Aug 31 this year rather than usual Sept). But for the BOOT this year the season has started early with adtech, No Vacancy having just wrapped up and Eyefortravel TDS Asia coming up in Singapore on April 28 and 29.

Last week was my first year at No Vacancy. It is part of the same conference stable as Martin Kelly's SearchEngineRoom and TRAVELtech and is targeted at the hospitality industry - all channels - rather than being a purely online or technology conference. I (and others) tweeted our way through No Vacancy under the hashtag #novacancy. Not all of you are on twitter so here in this post are some of the top tweets and quotes I took away from No Vacancy. Here are the the most interesting tweets:

On the market general (Australian bias)

• 2009 hospitality market in Australia according to Dransfield."held up better than expected" "rates down 3%" "revpar down 8.2%". 2010 "good start, expect rate increases" but " lost 40% of capital globally" "another shock could come" They went on "Credit availability + bank conservatism means still shortage of capital" "has hit valuation "av hotel down 20% value"
• Travelclick" gds htl vol in 2009 46mm trans, to 2003 levels". Wonder how much corp bookg decline, how much OTA neg rate growth?

On Online Agents and Intermediaries

• Robbie Cook (Wotif CEO) said "60% of business is direct to site, then organic search, paid is a single digit % of the business". He went on to say that "Wotif saved $2.2mm in costs post travel.com.au business post acquisition."
• Yury Shar Hotelscombined said that "less than 10% of traffic comes from typing in URL direct" "59% of traffic affiliate. Paid 24%, rest organic search" Sam_Linder added in his tweet "@hotelscombined 2 mil visitors pm to 6 mil in last year. Affiliates is primary channel, 15,000 such as skyscanner in uk"
• Latest stats from stayz.com.au "22,400 properties, 270k newsletter subs, 160k bkings/ 650k nts in 2009 (+ 30%yoy)" also advertising revenue

On Hoteliers

• Starwood AsiaPac "2009 -2% in occupancy, -7% ADR for -9% RevPAR in Pacific" "online only channel to grow- branded faster than OTA"
• Starwood "2-3 years to get back to 2007 rate levels" to which robertkcole said "Sorry, Starwood's dreaming if they think it will only take 2-3 years for rates to return to 2007"
• Accor AsiaPac "Occ finished 2009 at 74%. Good but down from all time high in 2007" "price down 6%" revpar down 9%"
• Accor "Online up from 10% of sales in 2005 to 35% planned for 2010" "65% of online sales will be direct up from 50% in 2005"
• Accor "happy with 65% of online business being direct. Won't artificially cap 3rd party distribution or hold back inventory"

Other accom types

• 25-46% of bookings online at "freespirit" (a holiday park/caravan park company). If true for whole sector then parks online larger percentage than hotels

EveryYou and Customer Reward: When an upgrade is not the right response

My EveryYou concept is about developing specific and targeted recommendations (which can include rewards) of one based on the unique combination of desires, needs and interests of each individual at any moment in time. I had a chance this week to experience an example of the deficiency of customer profiling and standard practice and thus a place where a more individualised (EveryYou) approach would have been much better.

I have just bought a house – should be celebrating. But due to a twist of fate and timing I have to spend the next two months in a serviced apartment before I can move into the new house. It is nothing too dramatic but gave me a chance to sample the serviced apartment market. I won’t mention the provider but they very kindly offered me a complementary upgrade to a bigger apartment with a view. Of course I was pleased to accept. Just prior to check-in we settled all the details of the stay including the deposit payment and my confirmation that I would be brining by wife, seven year old and three year old.

On check-in we discovered that the upgraded apartment was much bigger than expected, had great views over the park and had the bonus of a separate study/office. But we had to move out immediately. As large as the apartment was, it was completely unsuitable for children under 12 let alone 7 and 3. Firstly the bedrooms were on two separate floors. Meaning that my wife and I would have to sleep on a different floor to the children – not acceptable when one of the bedrooms is right next to the front door that cannot be locked. Secondly the study/office (on the second floor) had two windows at child accessible height that could easily be opened and pushed outwards. Easily exposing a young curious mind to a ten floor drop and instant death. Either we put the children in a bedroom next a door where the three year old could leave the apartment without us knowing or in a bedroom near a study with easy access to a deadly drop.

When we spoke with the front desk, they could not understand why we wanted to move (clearly not parents) and especially could not understand that we wanted to turn down the upgrade and take a smaller (but safer) apartment. This exposed two things to me. Firstly how “the upgrade” is one of the few (if not the only) pre-check in reward that a hotel/serviced apartment has set for sharing with consumers. Secondly how in the serviced apartment market the staff are not as well prepared as hotel staff for non-standard request.

Under a generalised profiling system of customer rewards, it is clear that the vast majority of customers would love to receive an upgrade. But trusting generalisations and profiling can lead the hotel/apartment sales rep to use it as a reward when deeper analysis would show that other rewards would better impress and therefore make more loyal a customer. If my wife and I were on our own or with adult travelling companions (ie the "weekend holiday away with friends" version of me) then the upgrade would be perfect. But if the accommodation provider had spent the time analysing and using the data they had on me for this trip (ie the "parent" version of me) then they would have determined that the reward I would have been more interested in would be a twin room as the second bedroom or an apartment closer to the swimming pool or free car parking. On another occasion (ie the "business traveller" version of me) it would be free wifi rather than a bigger apartment that would be the perfect reward. Generalised profiling is no match for taking the time to use data provided by customers and technology available to suppliers to target rewards/recommendations suited to not just the individual but the version of the individual that happens to be travelling at the time (EveryYou). Using these techniques would prove to my landlords for the next two months that a upgrade is not always the reward it should be.

Thoughts?

More Expedia display trials - defaulting to hotel search in Australia

Late last year I shared with you a screenshot showing that Expedia.com.au were trialling a Wotif list like display for hotel results. With the new year I can see that they are trialling a new home page with larger widget and hotels as the default for search. First sale of the year is a 50% off hotels. Is Expedia giving up on Air in Australia? Screenshot below.

Resurrection of ReadyRooms - New life for former Qantas online hotels brand

In July 2004, Qantas proudly announced the launch of ReadyRooms (another announcement story here). An online last minute hotel booking system to take on Wotif, Lastminute.com.au (then owned by travel.com.au now owned by Wotif) and RatestoGo (owned by Orbitz). Then sometime around late 2006 early 2007 the ReadyRooms brand disappeared from Qantas sites. It was replaced with a generic "Qantas Hotels" brand. I noticed the brand confusion in this review post of the Qantas online hotels product.

I have just discovered that the ReadyRooms brand and product is back. I spotted a banner advert for the new site and clicked through. Subsequently I have seen a post over at the Publicis Digital site (an advertising firm) saying that they launched the campaign for the new site on October 21 2009.

This new version of ReadyRooms is not being operated by Qantas. Instead, the brand is part of Jetset Travelworld - Australia's number 3 offline travel company. But this does not mean that Qantas has complete divorced itself from ReadyRooms. In June 2008 Jetset Travelworld bought Qantas Holidays off Qantas in exchange for Qantas taking a 58% stake in Jetset (PDF press release here). The "new" ReadyRooms a look, feel and colouring that is not at all like Qantas so there is a clear desire to establish a new and separate brand. But the search results, pricing and hotels are exactly the same as the Qantas Hotels product. Like the Qantas version Jetset's ReadyRooms charges at $4.95 booking fee (called a credit card fee) [note - no fee charged on debit cards. Just credit cards]. Critically - unlike ReadyRooms, the Qantas version of the product comes with frequent flyer miles. In other words Jetset's ReadyRooms is the same product as the Qantas Hotel's product but with less benefits. Not sure that will work.

Jetset have also launched ReadyFlights to sell air. Clearly Jetset have decided their strategy is to go online with a whole new brand approach to get around frachisee issues.

Webjet to relaunch hotels with a GDS backed retail model. Three reasons why I don' think this is the best plan available

Webjet are having a great time selling domestic air in Australia. As we have discussed before their tech leadership in developing the Travel Services Aggregator back in 2004 enabled them to sell multi-carrier domestic air including low cost carriers before anyone else. Even though other sites now have similar functionality, Webjet continues to enjoy customer loyalty and growth (despite charging dramatically higher fees per booking).

The company has made a number of attempts at diversifying their
revenue with land product. In mid 2003 they launched Bookabed as a standalone hotel brand. In 2006 they revamped the product under the new name Lotsofhotels. Then in June 2008 they announced plans to take Lotsofhotels onto the eBay platform. Unfortunately none of these efforts have developed traction in a very competitive market.

In their recent results they announced the launch of new hotel product called "Stay and Pay" (Travel Weekly story here). This new product moves them away from merchant sales to the retail model (consumer pay at the hotel, Webjet collects commission from hotel). They are launching two twists on the retail models you see from big players like Booking.com and Venere. Firstly there is no negotiated inventory. The inventory is drawn from the publicly available rates distributed through a GDS feed from Travelport. Secondly there is a service fee of $10 per booking charged up front by Webjet.

I like the fact that Webjet are trying hotels again. Fees on air make up 97% of their operating revenue (just down from 98% last year). They need to have other revenue streams to compete with packaging experts Expedia and Zuji (Travelocity) and the Wotif group owned air intermediaries Travel.com.au and Lastminute.com.au (not to forget the Orbitz owned hotel only players HotelClub and RatesToGo) [disclosure]. That said there are three reasons why I don' think this is the best way to go about hotels for Webjet:

1. Webjet will struggle for Rate Parity: The GDS companies (Travelport included) have done an admirable job working with the Chains and some independent properties to secure rate parity through GDS distribution. By that I mean working with hotels to have the rates that are loaded in the GDS be on par with the negotiated rates provided to the OTAs. However the rates in the GDS are never cheaper and by charging a $10 booking fee, Webjet will end up with pricing that is almost always more expensive than any other channel. There will be a convenience factor for consumers but this will be at the margins compared to the consumers who will be turned away by the higher price on Webjet;
   
2. Webjet will not have access to important Inventory Types: Again the GDS companies have worked hard to expand the range of hotels and properties available. However there is still a bias towards chains and a bias towards geographies with a history of GDS distribution. This means Webjet will be missing important independent properties and have less coverage in the Asia Pacific, Latin American and Middle East regions than the negotiated hotel agencies and OTA competitors; and
   
3. Webjet will miss out of the the best Specials and Promos: In this "year of the deal", hoteliers are providing deals and promos the likes of which have not been seen since 9/11. Most of these come with conditions, specifically a range of cancellation options ranging up to non-refundable. The GDS is not able to support this functionality as well as the negotiated inventory providers. Means that many of the great deals (especially last minute ones) will not be in the feed accessed by Webjet.

I can understand why Webjet went down this route. It would be very expensive for them to build a hotel contracting team from scratch. Impossible in fact if they wanted to gain coverage outside of Australia. Therefore they need to work with partners to access inventory. However my recommendation would be to work with an inventory provider with negotiated rates rather than the GDS. [disclosure - I work for a company that provides negotiated hotel rates]. It will provide them with a fix to each of the issues above.

The new Stay and Pay product is due for beta-launch today (18 Aug 2009). Will put in a functionality review post later.

Update - make sure you check out the comments where Richard Noon (Webjet CEO) puts his side of the story

Update 2 - I thought of one more reason why this product won't give consumers as good an experience as a negotiated provider will. The room type description and hotel content on the GDS is not as clear or attractive as those from a negotiated provider. Here is an example of a room type for a Sydney hotel in a GDS " PREMIER ROOM CITY VIEW 1 QUEEN OR 2 SGLSNON SMOKING LCD TV HI SPEED INTERNET FOR A FEE".

PS - last year at TRAVELtech Webjet CEO Richard Noon gave his estimates of the turnover of the various Austrlaia online air intemediaries.

Is Google doing keyword memory and delayed paid search responses (or just broken)? What do Cairo and Machu Picchu have in common?

'I was doing some random keyword searching on Google this afternoon. Looking up a series of destinations with the search lead in of "hotels in". I noticed a pattern emerging that I had not seen before. Sponsored search results for one destination stayed in the search results for a second destination. I will be specific. First I searched"hotels in Dubai, then "hotels in Cairo". Then I searched "hotels in Machu Picchu". Then I searched just "hotels". In the results for Machu Picchu there appeared sponsored links for Cairo and Dubai (see screen shots below). For the supposedly generic results of "hotels" there appeared Sydney results and Cairo results. Sydney results makes sense as that is where I am but Cairo does not.

I am not sure what this means. One possibility is that Google is convinced that I continue to be interested in Cairo despite having entered other search terms. That (through me being logged in) it has run some algorithm on my past searches and Cairo comes up again and again. The other possibility is that the "broad match" bidding advertisers are doing is now getting more and more broad in terms of keyword matching and maybe even session time. Or - Google is busted. If the former options then the matching that Google is doing is not right as I do not have a history of searching for Cairo hotels. But is shows that Google is experimenting with behavioural targeting techniques. If the latter option (Google is busted) then a lot of advertisers are going to be very unhappy about the click costs that result.

Do you know what is going on here?

UPDATE - GOOGLE have confirmed that is part of broad matching.

Here are the screen shots

Results for "Hotels in Cairo". Sponsored results all make sense

"Hotels in Machu Picchu" with Dubai and Cairo results

Results for "Hotels" with Sydney and Cairo results

AsiaRooms moves to commission model at 15% for directly contracted hotels

The TUI owned AsiaRooms started life as a 100% operator shop. Accessing net rates from operators such as GTA and Turismo Asia. Many times they were criticised for pricing policies that angered hoteliers but recent comments from marketing head John Fearon indicated they were looking to move away from that pre-TUI reputation. AsiaRooms is part of TUI's Onlien Destination Services Group.

I have heard today of another step in that move UPDATE (and this has been confirmed by John Fearon). Here is a screen shot from an email sent out to hoteliers today. It shows that AsiaRooms is moving to a commissionable model with directly contracted hotels at 15%.

I am sure this will be a challenging shift. While it may make it easier to contract hotels, setting up an effective accounts receivable department across Asia where none existed previously will be a huge challenge for AsiaRooms. While hotels will be happier with the pricing certainty on AsiaRooms, the commission model shifts the credit card fee and payment transfer cost to the hotel. Here a shot from the email. What do you make of this change?

PS - I am assuming the email is legit. Can't say either way but if you know it to be a fake please let me know.Is confirmed as legit direct from Fearon at AsiaRooms

AirAsia bidding for hotel words in Google - Low Cost Carrier embracing quasi-OTA status

Back in December I re-posted a story from 2007 (and one of my original tips from the t-list posts) that contained my three recommendations for airlines that were winning with supplier direct online on how they can improve their online offering.

One of the recommendations was to " invest in being a true online hotel (land) business". We has seen strides from the low cost carriers in this first (for example Easyjet's seamless packaging integration). Now I have seen another next step from a low cost carrier - reports have come in of KL based AirAsia have been bidding on hotel based keywords on Google. In effect competing head to head with online travel agents, hotel only intermediaries and hotel suppliers on hotel sales rather than waiting for air cross sell to provide ancillary revenue.

This has been hard for me to replicate in a screenshot to show you as it looks like they are currently targeting certain Asian IP addresses (ie customers) and not yet targeting Australia. John Fearon of Asiarooms sent me through this shot from an Alexa search he was doing. You can clearly see AirAsia targeting Bangkok hotels along side Booking.com and others. It is the second time Fearon has spotted AirAisa actively promoting hotels.

I applaud this move by AirAsia. It is consistent with there "we do want we want and love to break the rules" brand message and it embraces my rules for growing airline online share. That said as an online hotel player is gives me the willies. Anyone else seen more examples of AirAsia or other airlines bidding for hotel words to support their ancillary business.?

thanks for the tip John.

Marriott, Hilon and Omni reporting growth in sales via mobile - but I still believe that 2009 is not the year for mobile

Advertising Age's Rita Chang has a story in Advertising Age on increased mobile distribution for hotel chains called "Mobile Hotel Bookings Show ROT in Recession". Highlights from the story are:

• Marriott reporting US$2million in sales via mobile from Aug 2008 to 31 Dec 2008;
• Omni Hotels claiming 85% growth in traffic to the mobile in just six months - with conversion rates of 25% (compares to 3.5%-7% on the web version of their site); and
• Hilton Hotels talking about a 22% "return on investment" (whatever that means) including $1.4 million in bookings "in an average 100-day period" (again not sure what that means)
  

In my predictions post for 2009 I said that 2009 will not be the year for mobile in the travel industry because most distribution players will focus on their core products rather than new distribution ideas. This is not a popular prediction. PhoCuWright (respectfully) don't agree with me both through their Trends for 2009 report where they predict that "Mobile Arrives (finally) - and Gets Contextual" and in Norm Rose's reply to my prediction is here. My former Cendant colleagues at Hudson Crossing also don't agree in their Trends in Travel Investment 2009 report (pdf) where Mike McCormick predicts that Mobile will begin to "emerge, converge and finally arrive in travel". More than half of the commentators in Travolution's Predictions for 2009 also disagree with me.

The beauty of this Advertising Age report is that each of us can use the numbers to support our case. I can say that the results are so small and off such a low base that they show that mobile is still a year or more away from having the impact we have been waiting for since 2000. The pro-mobile camp can use the growth rates, the penetration of smart phones and the return of the last minute model - all before the end of Feb 2009- as proof that mobile is picking up speed and headed for victory in 2009.

So where do you stand? Am I mad to swim upstream against the other commentators on mobile in 2009?

Update - Jakob Neilsen has an interesting post on the usability on Internet via mobile called Mobile Web 2009 = Desktop Web 1998 that (I think) supports my view (found it at Hotelmarketing.com).

Hat tip to nakedbearmedia for sending me the Advertising Age link

thanks to Matthieu :: giik.net/blog over at flickr for the photo

Hilton buys Crown Plaza (according to Google)

Industry friend sent me a great screenshot of a Google search for the term"Crowne Plaza Cambridge". Google mapping or indexing pushed the result to www.hilton.com. Ooops. Unfortunately I can't replicate the result as I am an Australian IP address and my friend was in the UK but here is the screen shot.

Update - Xotels boss Patrick Landam has solved the mystery. The Cowne Plaza Boston/Woburn was rebranded the Hilton Boston/Woburn after a $10mm refurb in 2008. Shame that Patrick's good research killed a great Google conspiracy story and shown me up to be nothting but a haphazard blogger :).

The Renaissance Hollywood Hotel wants more money

I have been at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel this week as part 1,000 people attending the PhoCusWright 2008 Conference at this hotel. I have tried to be a good guest - no unnecessary demands of staff, tipping everyone that looks my way. I asked very nicely to be able to check out at 3pm rather than the 1pm they offered. "I am sorry sir but that will be an extra $25 per hour" was the reply. "But, I have been staying here for six days as part of a very large conference, surely you can be nice to me and extend my check out for no charge" was my polite reply. "Can't help you sir, we have to charge $25 per hour" was the response.

Clearly they do not have to charge me anything. But it is equally clear that they want to charge me more and have no need to reward me for a long stay. I see this an being greedy. The Renaissance Hollywood should give me two hours for nothing after six days of paying. What do you think I am being too demanding?

The BOOT Recommends - The Observatory Hotel Sydney

I have just spent the loveliest of weekends away at the Observatory Hotel in Sydney. Located in Sydney's "historic" Rocks area, this Orient-Express hotel is one of Sydney's finest. [side bar - You have to put the word historic in quotes when describing the Rocks as it is embarrassing to say that for white Australia all you need is a 150 year old building and suddenly it is historic. The current Rocks is little more than a tourist trap shopping area, albeit with fantastic water views.] It is not often that I do reviews on the blog but when I am very impressed with a property I am drawn to write about this (happened earlier this year after I visited Luton Hoo). The Observatory is at the top end of luxury in Sydney without the "international" reputations of say the Harbour Shangri-la, Westin, Sheraton on the Park or Park Hyatt.

First to the decor and feel of the hotel. At the Observatory they have managed to deliver in the fit out and staff an unlikely balance between modern, relaxed and what I can best describe as traditional old Europe. The staff are attentive but not stuffy, the fit out is floral and "country club" in nature yet very modern in facilities and function. Rooms are of a fantastic size and very quiet despite the noisy city and harbour bridge being only metres away.

I liked little touches like a complementary car ride into the city (if needed), that they recorded the reason for my stay (10th anniversary) and congratulated me and the wife on arrival and the supplying hot chocolate and herbal tea options with the turn down service.

Two small areas of criticism. The Pool is a great size and the health club facilities impressive but the area is busy, full of people, noisy and peak times and therefore only relaxing out of hours. The Globe bar area is charming and relaxing, with very attentive staff. However breakfast service was a little tardy. I think more staff are required to make sure customers are not left waiting longer than is reasonable at $40 for the continental breakfast. But these small quibbles are only worthy of publication because of the lengths I had to go to find them. A great stay and now on my list of recommendations for high end leisure and business travel to Sydney.

Disclosure - my stay at the Observatory was on my own dime but I was granted an industry rate and upgrade.

Hotel Sales Report - you can't give them away

Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels has issued a report that in H1 2008 $13.9 billion worth of hotels were bought and sold. That might be a big sounding number but it is down 76% on the same period in 2007. The declines are most pronounced in the Americas - which saw an 81% decline. Ehotelier.com has the whole story and some graphs.

Another interesting stat from the report - 84% of the transactions were for hotels of value less than$100mm and only one at greater than $1billion. It may be that this trend is unrelated to travel market decline and more related to the credit crunch and resulting inability of institutions to raise the debt that is needed to finance large hotel acquisitions. I hope that is the answer and not that this story along with the RevPAR story are indicating that the market is going south.

thanks to the Chris & Sandra Marshall on flickr for the photo

Pegasus has a mission - Michael Kistner is the new CEO and RezView NextGen is the Product

News out today that Pegasus has a new CEO with the promotion of Michael Kistner (previously COO). He takes over from John Davis. The press release links the transition to the launch of the RezView NextGen reservation system. I had a chance to speak to Mike on Feb 18 this year about the impending launch of the Next Gen System.

During the interview he was very passionate about the product. Stressed the time and effort it took to integrate the acquired GuestClick (who provided the basis for the new technology), mapping the new technology to each of the interfaces supported by Pegs to commencing the sale cycle to technology wary and tired hoteliers. I did not get the feeling that he was betting the company on this product but almost.

The piece that all of us are looking forward to the most (Pegasus, hotelier sand distribution companies) is the rate refreshing improvements that will hopefully eliminate the need for a cache or at least dramatically increased accuracy in the cache. Kistner told me that the company is determined through this to protect itself and the reservations systems of the hotels/chains from the dramatically increasing numbers of searches coming out of the meta-search companies. Look to books as high as 500,000 to 1. Staggering numbers.

The part that is the biggest challenge is that Kistner committed in our interview to have RezView NexGen fully rolled out within a year and a half. This means closing down the old product toward the end of the year. Big tech roll out job, big sales job and big expectations from the industry. The Pegasus Board is backing him to do it.

Branding in Hotels - why is a Days Inn in China luxury while in the US it is...well a Days Inn

Hotel franchise networks have been expanding through China and India at frenetic pace. I understand the desire to access markets that include 2 billion plus people and are expanding rapidly. [see a recent post on the Indian market here]. But I am confused by some of the brand choices that chains and franchise groups are making. For example the Wyndham hotels owned Days Inn is a well know old school highway motel. The brand has all you would expect from a solid 2.5-3 star motel. Clean rooms, robotic staff, vending machines, plastic cups in little paper bags. Traditional but thoroughly acceptable motel accommodations. The Days Inn mantra is "Friendly. Courteous service. Clean". Brand message is clear and delivery is consistent across the US.

But Days Inn have been in China for a few years now and have adopted a completely different model.

Here is a photo of a typical US Days Inn from Nowheresville Washington State. Everything about this says motel, and certainly says "Friendly. Courteous service. Clean"


But here is a photo of the Beijing Days Inn (and you can find more here). The first line in the hotel amenities for this property is "5 Star Rating". Here we have a brand synonymous in Hospitality for cheap but reliable and yet the emerging market launch is all about luxury, quality and amenities. I don't understand. Either all things American are viewed as inherently better in China (which I do not thing is true for one minute) or there is a mistaken belief that you can run a global brand with vastly different DNA in two different markets. I just think it is a mistake. Inbound business travellers are not going to look favourably about staying at a Days Inn in China and Chinese travellers to the US are certain to be disappointed and surprised if they are expecting the quality of the Chinese product out of the domestic US properties.

I don't get it. Do you?

Last minute model is on hiatus - but is it dead? Wotif to go 365 days

This logo on the left is a relatively recent version of the Wotif.com logo. Two simple things in the logo - the name and the model. Clear indication of what Wotif is all about - "28 days of great deals". But here is a copy of the new logo that has justed started to appear. Can you spot the difference - and I am not referring to the change in colouring. Rumours have been running around for Australia for weeks now that Wotif is going to be abandoning its last mintue model and moving to have inventory available 365 days per year.
When Wotif first launched it was only 14 days out. Then in 2004 they extended to 28 days. Now a couple of months after entering into the full service business with the acquisition of Travel.com.au, Wotif is on the verge of abandoning a big tenet of its brand - last minute deals?

I have been thinking about this for the last few weeks and wondering if this is an indication of a wider trend that I have been watching. I had been noticing that Lastminute.com's hotel growth was coming from its secret hotels, not last minute purchases. I could not help but read about Booking.com's continued growth in Europe - the sense I get (no data to back it) is that there is nothing particularly last minute about this non-stop growth. Other players have been extending their booking windows also. Finally - despite softening in the US economy and high oil prices it is still boom time for hotels. With occupancy rates so high, hoteliers seem less and less interested in seeking help for last minute distribution. Bring these together and it looks like until we see another change industry dynamics there is at the very least a hiatus in the last minute model. But I am not convinced that the model is dead, another shift in demand (read continuing economic downturns) and hotels will look to last minute again and the distribution houses will be right there to pick it up. Meanwhile - look for the Wotif goes 365 press release very soon.

What do you think? Am I right in sensing a movement away from last minute distribution of hotels? If so do you agree that its just due to the economic environment or there a more fundamental shift here.

UPDATE - thanks to a reader that sent through an ASX filed presentation from Wotif. From 8 May this presentation is an update given to brokers. It includes on slides 9 and 31 commentary that 365 day inventory is "in development" and "coming". Also updates on travel.com.au and AsiaWebDirect. You can find a copy here

BOOT Recommends - stayed at and love the Luton Hoo Hotel Golf & Spa

In the early days of the BOOT I was asked by Guillaume Thevenot at hotel-blogs what the top three hotels were that I had stayed at. It was an easy choice at the time -Palazzo Versace, Gold Coast, Queensland Australia, Banyan Tree, Bangkok, Thailand and Le Meridien Piccadilly, London, England.

But I now have a new clear and unambiguous winner of the BOOT's top choice award. Last month I spent an amazing weekend at The Luton Hoo Hotel Golf & Spa in Bedfordshire England.

The first thing that strikes you about this hotel is the arrival. A long drive up an entranceway lined with green fields, trees and (I'm serious) wandering pheasant. The approach is rounded out by the building itself. A magnificent example of your ideas of a what an English country estate should look like. A beautiful front view on a water feature, side areas with manicured lawns and fountains, an entrance way with high arches, columns and waiting attendants. Beautiful. The hotel conversion has only just be completed so the facilities are all near perfect and new. High ceilings, large rooms, huge bathtubs, period but comfortable furniture...everything you could need to sink into the world of a luxury weekend in the country. Facilities are rounded out with a top class swimming pool, fair sized gym, near perfect croquet lawn (what a view) and a number of bars, high tea lounges and dining areas.

I looked for some areas to imperfection and found only one. The restaurants and food service areas (like the rest of the hotel) are new. As a result they have a few teething problems around getting good out one time (and accurately). This was annoying at meal times but did not detract from an amazing experience and would expect it to improve as the staff get used to the new set up. The prices are not cheap and this one was on my own dime. But it was a fantastic experience and re-defined in my mind the whole concept of spending a weekend in Luton.

I don't agree that BAR is a brand building activity for Chains

I have been keeping a watch on the stories coming out of EyeforTravel Travel Distribution Summit this week. In one story (via eTravel Blackboard) Revenue Bosses from top hotels are talking about the important role that Best Available Rate (BAR) or Best Rate Guarantees (BRG) (why have one acronym when you can have two) have in the building and maintaining of a hotel brand.

Maunik Thacker of the Venetian Macau is quoted outright as saying "Rate parity builds loyalty and trust in the brand".

I don't agree. Building and owning a brand is about so much more than just beating everyone up in the distribution chain to ensure a single price. Have a look at the Interbrand list of top global brand. Almost every single one of them charges different prices to consumers based on the channel. Here are some examples of channel based price differentiation from the top ten list:

• Coca-Cola, the number one brand in the world, charges more for a cold 600ml bottle at my local super market than it does for a warm 2 litre bottle. This is charging more in the same store for less. It does this because it uses a non-price based differentiator (cold versus warm);
• Nokia is the number one consumer electronics magazine. I can buy a top of the range Nokia N95 out of the box with a price range of $512-700. That is a variance of almost 50%. If I sign up for a contract I can get it for a little as US$20 per month (ie around $140 for the handset); and
• Disney, the biggest entertainment brand in the world, let's retailers set the price on almost anything they sell.

The most successful brands on the planet use price discrimination and market segmentation to enhance their brand and the proof is in the brand valuations. Consumers love the Coke brand even though it is five times more expensive to buy it at the movie theatre than the supermarket. Yet in the hotel business the Chains argue the opposite. Maybe there is a reason there are no hotel brands in the global top 100 brands. Instead of beating up over BAR Chains should be using price and product as flexible tool for distribution management - just like the top global brands do.

PS - have look at the bottom of the article where (the now TUI owned) asiarooms is singled out for breaking the rules. This gives the answer to the commenter on an earlier post who asked why I called asiarooms infamous.

Photo ukdenners

501 not out

Time has passed and the posts keep flowing. Time for my "not out series" - a regular summary of the last 100 posts that I first started with 101 not out and continued with 201 , 301
and 401.

Just like the 401 update it has been deals, deals, deals that has dominated the last 100 BOOT rants:

• Wotif evenutally managed to by Travel.com.au/Lastminute.com.au despite a fight from Webjet and a cunning move from AOT. Followed up almost immediately buying Asia Web Direct;
• TripAdvisor launched a new version and continued its targeted site buying spree with HolidayWatchdog;
• TravelCLICK was sold to Genstar and the BOOT called it first;
• The Asian acquisition bonanza continued as Priceline returned to the market though an acquisition of Agoda, ;
• Sidestep disappeared in a flood of newly raised Kayak cash; and
  
• Venere bought Worldby.
  

Cash flowed into online travel:

• Fastbooking took Euro35mm;
  
• Worktopia grabbed $5mm;
  
• Bezurk got "an undisclosed sum" from News;
  

I spent some interesting times on the phone doing start up interviews with:

• Yen Lee of Kango;
  
• Gregg Brockway of TripIt;
  
• Martin Symes of Bezurk; and
• Kellie Pelletier of Kayak.

In the weird world of quirky news:

• bags fell from the sky;
  
• The president of Sri Lanka got bumped and was not happy about it;
  
• Man fired dog and bragged about it; and
  
• nobody, I repeat nobody is doing anything naughty naughty in the new Singapore Airlines double bed suites.

Oh and Qantas turned from being the flying Kangaroo to the thieving Rat.

But I saved my most angriest post for number 400 - the last in this seasons. When the new Australian government said they were doing me a favour by continuing to allow Qantas to over charge me on flights to America.

If you're still reading then I'm still writing.

Not to be outdone by TUI - Thomas Cook drops too much do buy hotels4U

Seemingly in permanent catch up with TUI, Thomas Cook has shouted "look at me, I now get it online" in announcing that it has bought bed bank hotels4u.com for GBP21.8mm (Telegraph story here) - and there are more to come they insist (according to e-tid).

Very limited stats and info behind the deal:

• management to be retained. Haim Perry will stay on as MD (retaining 25% of the company as part of an earn out); and
  
• Hotels4U has 500,000 customers a year and "access to" 30,000 hotels.

Thomas Cook's website was the biggest travel site in the UK (in terms of traffic) from 1998-2002 (or thereabouts). This was despite a dismal site, lack of inventory and a general disregard from the management. At this time, Thomas Cook had the opportunity to look at Amex's missed chance in ruling the US online market and solidify its online lead in the UK. Instead it followed the well trodden offline dinosaurs strategy of being trapped in the headlights of the incoming online meteor shower. Another great BOOT mixed metaphor meaning that Thomas Cook stuffed up at the turn of the century in ignoring all of the advice and opportunity to establish UK online dominance. Now they have to play catch up by overpaying for a small provider.