Research Results: Industry Leaders Discuss the Future of Hotel Distribution and Online Marketing

Leaders in hotel management have identified five key areas where hotels must make improvements in order to survive in today’s highly competitive online travel marketplace, as outlined in a new whitepaper written by Peter O’Connor Ph.D., Professor of Information Systems at ESSEC Business School. (CLICK HERE to download.)

With the hotel sector in a state of turmoil, how and where hotels sell to the customer is quickly evolving. Competition is increasing from OTAs, sharing economy players like Airbnb, and larger, more marketing-savvy hotel brands. Technology is evolving at blinding speeds and consumer expectations are shifting in new, unforeseen directions.

Such dramatic change makes it challenging to understand what is happening within the hotel distribution and online marketing environment. Many hoteliers are struggling to keep pace, and to assess the implications of the latest developments in distribution, marketing and operations.

As previously announced, Revinate and SiteMinder hosted an executive breakfast in November 2015 to help address this issue, bringing hospitality industry leaders together to discuss the future of hotel distribution and online marketing.

The highly interactive session included peer discussions with representatives from a variety brands like B&B hotels, Apax Hotels, Rixos Hotels and Magnuson Hotels. Peter O’Connor moderated the session. The goals of this session were to assess the current state of hotel distribution and online marketing, forecast future trends, and assess how the sector might develop in the short term.

The results? By tapping into the wisdom of the crowd, researchers were able to identify the key distribution and online marketing challenges faced by hoteliers today. They also established the relative importance of each issue so as to be able to identify which should receive the most urgent attention from the industry as a whole.

CLICK HERE to download the full whitepaper and learn what Peter O’Connor, Revinate, and SiteMinder discovered.