When it comes to choosing solution providers for your hotel, it’s important to understand how they differ from one another. This is particularly the case when deciding between a hotel technology provider, and a hotel representation company. It’s easy to confuse the two – at first glance, they may seem similar. But if you dig a little deeper, you’ll find that the services they offer are very different.
To make life a little easier, we’ve gone ahead and compared the two, listing out the different benefits you can expect to get from each. We hope it will help you determine which solution best fits your needs and is most likely to deliver the benefits you seek.
Hotel Technology Provider
A hotel technology provider gives accommodation providers access to a Central Reservation System, also known as CRS. CRS is software used to maintain hotel information and manage the reservation process. This gives hoteliers access to different booking channels, including the global distribution system (GDS) agency market and DHISCO’s booking websites. A great example of a hotel technology provider is Sabre – their Synxis Central Reservation platform gives you access to the channels you need to optimise your hotel distribution strategy. At HotelREZ, we’re proud to be a global partner of Sabre.
While a hotel technology provider gives you access to the channels you need, it does not provide you with help on how to best use these channels to optimise your distribution strategy. Using booking channels in the correct way to support your individual business needs can be a complex and time-consuming job in itself. This is where a hotel representation company comes in.
Hotel Representation Company
A hotel representation company, such as HotelREZ, provides assistance with your distribution strategy to ensure you receive as many reservations as possible, at a good rate, and at an attractive cost of sale. A hotel representation company can also add real and measurable value to your hotel’s business through different demand generation activities.
To help you understand the different benefits a hotel representation company can offer, we’ve broken down our own representation services at HotelREZ:
Revenue Growth and ROI Improvement:
As a HotelREZ member, you have access to a team of industry specialists and a dedicated revenue manager, tasked with helping you gain more business. This includes giving you access to high-value corporate business through our global preferred partnership programme, as well as aiding you to reach out for business in emerging markets through REZChina. What’s more, you’ll also receive access to our very own HotelREZ database of local corporate agreements, generating hundreds of RFPs every year.
We work hard to improve your current ROI, by making reductions in cost of sale and supporting parallel growth in incremental revenue, ADR and ALOS. For a full breakdown of our sales services, have a look at our entrepreneurial approach to revenue growth and rate strategy.
Access to technology providers
As a global partner of Sabre, the biggest and most advanced hotel technology provider in the market, HotelREZ member hotels get automatic access to their technology (including GDS). Besides exposure to over 500,000 travel agents on the GDS, HotelREZ offers special rate agreements with over 100 worldwide GDS and DHISCO partners. All of our members further get free of charge entry to the World Rainbow Hotels GDS rate programmes. Find out more about our seamless distribution across all channels.
Marketing programmes
We offer niche marketing programmes, supported by proactive social media and e-commerce activities, to increase your hotel’s global brand awareness. This comes with waived entry fees to 15 of the world’s biggest hotel consortias and TCMs, allowing you to save over £9,000 (US$12,500) on yearly participation costs. This is a huge benefit to member hotels with smaller marketing budgets as they receive increased exposure to the corporate market (such as FCM Flight Centres, ABC, WIN Travel Network and ITP to name a few). Have a look at the full range of added-value hotel marketing and consulting services you can choose from.
Account management
Our dedicated team of account manager is happy to assist you along the way. Whether you need help with your connectivity, channel manager, booking engine, website design, competitive set reports or with the travel agency commission processing, HotelREZ provides on-going support and face-to-face meetings. Operating in 11 different countries, we have global contact numbers you can call for support, or a live chat for when you need to speak to someone immediately.
How HotelREZ’s representation services can benefit your hotel
As you can see, the services a hotel technology provider and a hotel representation company offer differ significantly. If you have the time, resources and abilities to navigate your own way through hotel technology systems, then access to a hotel technology provider may be all you need. But for everyone else, we highly recommend making use of the vast benefits a hotel representation company has to offer.
At HotelREZ, we currently provide quality distribution, representation, marketing and consultancy services to more than 1,500 hotels in over 100 countries. If you are a hotelier and are interested in any of our services, get in touch today.
About HotelREZ
HotelREZ Hotels & Resorts was founded in 2004 by Mark Lewis, an experienced hospitality industry professional and entrepreneur. Over the course of over a decade the company has grown to be one of the leading hotel representation companies dedicated to marketing and connecting independent properties with bookers worldwide. HotelREZ now provides distribution, revenue, sales consultancy and marketing services and support to more than 1,500 hotels, apartments and hotel groups in over 100 countries including private label GDS chain code solutions. HotelREZ Hotels & Resorts is a SAAS company. HotelREZ also incorporates the global World Rainbow hotels, the world’s only GDS enabled LGBT global hotel consortia representing some 1200 hotels in 230 destinations across the globe.