Golden Tulip Hotels adopt a dynamic distribution model with RezNext and drive 34% of online bookings from OTAs

Easy access to customer generated content and travel information on the internet have empowered travellers to take decisions independently. They no longer have to sift through travel brochures or work out the best deal with travel agents before going on a trip. They know exactly what they want and anticipate hotels to match their expectations. This means travellers are on the look-out for customised deals and seek instant gratification.

Recent reports show that the window of advance bookings is constantly reducing with a significant number of reservations coming just a day in advance of the stay. Under such circumstances, hotels need to focus on identifying the pulse of consumer trends and update the right kind of offers to OTA sites for immediate consumption. Dynamic distribution that enables hotels to sell to consumers as individuals rather than take a generic mass selling approach is the need-of-the-hour. Sachin Upadhyay, Corporate Revenue Manager, South Asia, Golden Tulip Hotels, shares how his group has been able to meet customer demands instantly with ReX – the intelligent distribution platform from RezNext.

However, adopting a real-time distribution model across multiple hotels is a challenging task. "Meeting customer demands on-the-go for one property is a tough task. Doing it for 30 properties that have different brand positioning and target audience is even more difficult. We make several updates in a day across inventory, rates, stop sell, open dates, restricted days and more. Managing these updates is a cumbersome task. That's where we see the biggest advantage of ReX - the distribution platform from RezNext. The new release has simplified these updates reducing the time taken, both to make the change and for it to be effective on the OTA sites," said Sachin Upadhyay.

Golden Tulip Hotels is part of the Louvre Hotels Group, the largest hotel company in Europe having 6 brands from luxury, budget to comfort with more than 1100 hotels in 47 countries. In India, the brand is set to have 30 properties across key destinations including Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Goa, Jaipur and Chandigarh by end of 2016. Ranked among the leading properties of the country, each hotel at Golden Tulip exudes a premium look-and-feel with well-crafted interiors and rich furnishing. All hotels boast best-in-class facilities and contemporary amenities along with personalised service, creating a luxurious stay experience for the guests.

ReX - powered by speed - leverages sub-second data architecture to offer the fastest rate and inventory update in the industry. "We adopted the enhanced distribution platform from RezNext to streamline our distribution process. With a single login we can update rates for multiple properties with one click. Some of the rate updates are as fast as milliseconds allowing us to be the first to meet consumer demands real-time," added Sachin.

RezNext's ReX addresses two important pain points in the industry – managing rate parity and stop sell issues. These two scenarios have a huge impact on business. With timely notification on the data transfers and drill functionality, ReX allows hoteliers to be in complete control over their online distribution plans. In case of a failed update, hoteliers can drill-down into the reasons for failure and also maintain user logs for future reference.

"With OTAs contributing a significant volume of bookings, it was important for us to ensure we were leveraging these channels appropriately to improve our booking performance. ReX allows us to maximise our ROI from these channels with a dynamic distribution strategy. We leverage the smart analytics from RezNext to understand the booking pace, rate performance, channel performance and can then quickly take corrective actions to capitalise on the market opportunity. I can see that when I make a quick update to rates based on market conditions, there are more bookings flowing in immediately. Currently, about 34% of our bookings are generated through OTA sites. We anticipate this to grow by at least 10% with the real-time distribution model supported by ReX. We are also very pleased with the excellent support and staff response from RezNext. We see them not as technology vendors but true profit management partners," said Sachin.

The new release of ReX is also backed by advanced booking reports, occupancy trends, revenue patterns, payment modes and arrival and departures notifications. "The RezNext dashboard helps us keep track of our distribution performance. We can monitor our occupancy levels as well as track the performance of distribution channels across rate categories or business segments. We can also view detailed booking reports for any specified period of time helping us analyse our booking patterns across days, weeks or seasons. We are able to view the performance across the group and hence are able to ensure that all our hotel properties have their base room types available for sale always. This intelligence coupled with the simplicity of rate management encourages us to refresh our rates and inventory on distribution channels multiple times a day. This is key to our revenue strategy," added Sachin.

"In this era of connected technologies and dynamic consumer purchasing behaviour, we believe the speed of distribution plan directly impacts your profitability. That is why, we have focussed on bringing to market, industry-first features in our distribution platform that allows hotels to make lightning speed updates on rates and inventory across channels," said Mike Kistner, Chief Executive Officer, RezNext Global Solutions. "I am happy to see the business results that our new release is driving for Golden Tulip Hotels. We will continue to innovate to ensure continuous value for our customers," added Mike.

About RezNext

RezNext is the world's only true real-time enterprise distribution technology company. We empower hotels to adopt a distribution strategy that simplifies the complex global distribution environment and makes it understandable and manageable. Our distribution platform is integrated with revenue management, operating intelligence and powered with reputation management insights. At the core of our distribution offering is the real-time two-way connect between a hotel"s property management solution and thousands of electronic channels, helping hotels improve visibility, distribute effectively 24/7, and most importantly, drive revenues.

For more information please visit: http://www.reznext.com/

For media related enquiries please contact:

Sindhu M
Senior Vice President, Marketing and Communications,
RezNext Global Solutions
+91 9916122260
[email protected]

sutanuka roy
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