Category Archives: Hotel

Hotel

How To Get A Candid View Of Your Hotel Room Before Booking It

Undoubtedly, many travelers would benefit if they were able to see real, candid views of their hotels before they actually stayed in them. There is a website that was designed to do just that, TVtrip. This is an independent web site whose sole goal and purpose is to allow visitors the unique opportunity to explore hotels before setting foot in them. How do they plan to achieve this? They send film crews to visit the hotels, and take videos of them. That way, you the traveler can see the area you will be staying in, and the quality of the room before you book. It could make all the difference whether you actually book the hotel or not.

Since all the hotel videos are taken by professionals, they only have a limited number of hotels listed, although the listings do cover most major cities, such as London and Glasgow in the UK, and Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam are included in their European coverage.

The site seems like a great idea. You select where you will be visiting, and they give you a listing of hotels in the area. Choose a hotel that interests you. Next, you get a details page which displays a helpful map of the area, a detailed description of the hotel, a list of amenities available, and a complete video-breakdown of the hotel. The video would include an overview, and a look around the different rooms they have available at the hotel you selected.

The site seems to be housed on a good server, the videos are clear and crisp and buffer very quickly, then stream smoothly without any stuttering or pausing. The videos give you a very good indication of the size and quality of the room, and there is no ‘clever camera work’ done to make the rooms look bigger or nicer than they really are. The good thing is that if the hotel is in a rather run-down looking part of town, that is clear on the overview too. You won’t surprised to see the hotel location once you get there, you will know about it in advance.

Unfortunately, there is a problem worth mentioning here. The main problem lies in the limited hotel coverage of the website. We travel quite regularly, and go to a number of different countries, but the cities that we tend to visit are not included in TVTrip , most likely because they are not common tourist destinations. Only one place we pass through regularly is included, London, and the listings they have are all expensive, high class hotels which are mostly out of my price range.

If you are someone who visits ‘tourist cities’ frequently, and can afford to stay in more expensive hotels, then this web site will save you a lot of disappointment. If you are faced with a choice between an expensive three star hotel, or a cheaper four star one, and the lack of a swimming pool is not important, then TVTrip may help you make an informed choice based upon the size and quality of the room, instead of taking a gamble based on the hotels own photographs, or trying to guess if the ‘user’ reviews on tourist sites are accurate.

It is worth checking TVTrip on the off chance that the hotel you are considering is listed, but until the site expands to cover more hotels we think it is just a nice idea, and a fun tool. Apparently, they plan to allow visitors to share their own videos, and when that happens, we think it will really take off, and that it will be something that every traveler should consult before booking their hotel.

Hotel

Hotels and Demand Management

When it comes to the multitudes of hotels in the hospitality industry, providing excellent service and amazing accommodations is not enough. Among the important keys to success in the hotel business is good demand management. It impacts not only the hotel’s overall vision and operation, but also trickles down to the finer details that go into every room in an establishment.

Demand management takes into account several things. First and foremost among these is the hotel’s target market. That is one of the first things to be determined right from when the hotel is still in the planning stages. Target market means the segment of the market with which the hotel seeks to get the most business. The furnishings in each room most likely reflects the target market-for example, luxurious furniture and grand tapestries for high-end establishments and simpler furnishings and plainer decorations for mass-market properties.

Segmentation is not the only concern in demand management. There is also the matter of tracking which channels clients use in order to obtain the end product-that is, the question of where or to whom the guests go to in order to ultimately book a room. This helps hotels identify effective channels and they can use this to put focus on the more profitable channels, thereby potentially increasing booking rates and profitability. Ultimately, shifting business strategies often hinge on effective demand management.

Managing relationships with previous clientele is also part of demand management. This involves initiating marketing strategies that specifically catering to potential return customers. Another way hotels can benefit from managing relationships with this particular client base is by word of mouth-either by relaying positive experiences to friends and acquaintances or by generating content through individual blogs or user reviews. Some companies employ whole management teams to reach out to previous clients, offering loyal customers the benefit of special promotions and personalized services.

These past few years, the Internet has also started to take on a more prominent role in demand management. The prominence of online travel agents have made the business more accessible for travelers booking via the world wide web. Some experts are seeing the adverse effects of the growing popularity of these booking sites, as they can corner a significant portion of demand away from offline (traditional) travel suppliers. On the other hand, online booking makes demand management easier for many businesses as well by providing instant access to figures and data that may be relevant metrics to identify effective booking channels.

In conclusion, demand management is one of the most important processes for every establishment in the hotel industry. It is a process that starts in planning and continues even when a hotel is already hundreds of years old. The effort exerted in making proper work on demand management can considerably impact whether a property succeeds or fails. This just goes to show travelers that there are a lot of things happening behind the scenes, and demand management is one of the keys to a hotel’s success-even if it is not as visible as the quality of a room’s furnishings or the quality of service of hotel staff.