SALES TIPS FOR HOTELS

1. Pay travel agents regularly - at least every month, or every 2 weeks. Sign up to the Travel Agent Commission Settlement scheme (TACS) to make this process easier

2. Use the Travel Agent Production Report - this can show you how much business each travel agent has given you over a selected period of time. You can also use this as a marketing tool, as the report contains each agent’s mailing address, telephone, fax and sometimes Email address so that you can send any promotions you have to them directly.

3. Look at your Consortia Report - if consortias have booked your hotel it may be worth contacting them directly to arrange a contract with them.

4. Negotiated Rates - are there any companies near your hotel whose clients or employees often need to stay at your hotel? If so it may be worth contacting them directly to set up a rate with them to guarantee monthly business.

5. Use a basic rate structure - Rack, Corporate and Promotional. Always load your best prices, and use: Manage > Availability > Rate Override to edit your rates on an ad hoc basis.

6. If you have lots of rate promotions and packages, use: Setup > Channels > Product Assignment to amend the sell order, so that your most current or cheapest rooms and rates are at the top, so that clients and agents see these first. Rooms and rates do not have to be sold on every channel and you can change the sell order for each channel.

7. Property Information Report - Ensure descriptions, policies and services etc. are up-to-date. Use detailed room & rate descriptions - these should tell agents & clients why your prices are different.

8. You can customise cancel and guarantee policies for each rate. E.g. For setting up advanced booking rates where no cancellations are allowed, and full deposit is taken.

9. Compare your “Competitive Set”. Look at other hotels in your area. What offers do they have? Try to match or be competitive. If you provide us with names of other hotels nearby we can compare their GDS representation with yours.

10. Lots of stay restrictions available for use on rate level as well as room level. E.g. Your promotional rate could be set up with a minimum stay of 3 nights during August for example, to increase revenue during busy months. Or you can close your cheapest rates during trade fairs so that only your highest rates are available.

11. Photographs - hotels with photographs on the GDS appear above those without, so make sure that we have up-to-date images of your property.

12. Ensure that you have rate parity - if you are selling rate cheaper on other websites, you will not receive any reservations through the Navarino GDS/IDS booking system, as clients will go elsewhere for the cheapest rate. Travel Agents have recently begun to search for rate parity, and if your hotel is selling rates cheaper on websites than on the GDS, your hotel can be grey-listed.

13. Use “No Arrival” instead of closing-out. This will prevent guests from arriving on that day, but will allow longer stays that may stay through the day in question. Then the hotel can choose to out-book a client who will not be staying as long / creating as much revenue.

14. Check the Failed Availability Report for reasons why people who have looked at your hotel have not made reservations. (This can be according to availability, minimum stay restrictions or room inventory for example.)

Hotels using the Navarino Booking Engine

1. Dynamic Packaging is a feature which allows you to increase your revenue at point-of-sale. For example, selling Breakfast or dinner, chocolates, wine and flowers on top of your room rate. If you have any questions or would like to have some telephone training on how to add these packages, please feel free to call us.

2. It is also possible to load “confidential” promotional or corporate rates onto your booking engine, allowing only guests with a password to access these special prices. These are good if your hotel partakes in newspaper promotions for example. If you would like instructions on how to load these rates, please feel free to contact us, and we can show you how to set these up.

3. If you do not like the wording on the booking engine, we are able to change most of the text for your specific requirements. Please let us know if you are interested in doing this.

4. The booking engine is available in over 20 different languages. If you wish to add a “Book now” button in French or Greek for example, we can provide you with links for these.

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