Technology in Hospitality: How Digital helps improve NRevPAR

Hotel companies need to align Marketing and IT Strategies to drive direct bookings (Search/Meta-Search, Social Media & Mobile), vis-a-vis bookings through Online Travel Agency (OTA Commissions) or retail travel agencies (GDSs).

Convergence of social networks, location-based services, and Mobile computing (“SoLoMo” ) provides ability to engage with the consumer in real-time and monetize that traffic. “Consumer journey” and buying behavior has changed massively in recent years.

Google has defined “Micro-Moments” in travel purchase process:

• I want-to-get-away moments

• Time-to-make-a-plan moments

• Let’s-book-it moments

• Can’t-wait-to-explore moments

Increase of direct consumer interaction from brand.com (Ecommerce) directly contributes to improved bottom line. Reducing distribution cost results in increased Net Revenue per Available Room (NRevPAR), a key metric on management dashboard.

A well thought out Digital strategy can help repeated engagement with consumer at low/nil distribution cost. And of course helps with NRevPAR & EBITA.