egypt and itb berlin

Technology to increase guest experience and bookings Kim van den Wijngaard, CEO and Co-Founder of Olery, a reputation managment agency presented hotels at ITB Berlin with the latest technologies and other tools as an opportunity to building better relationships with their guests. Van den Wijngaard believes that travellers generally prefer OTAs because the information there is often easier to find and include added information which often goes missing from hotel websites. Many hotels have failed to find ways at presenting themselves online to their potential customers. In order to rectify this, Van den Wijngaard suggests three equally important steps which hotels should take in enhancing future customers' overall booking experiences– the pre-visit, during visit and post visit phases. Kim Van den Wijngaard (Olery Management Agency)

- The pre-visit phase is important because it is imperative to make sure that potential customers find hotels they might stay at. Van den Wijngaard suggests that hotels find ways to optimize their web presence through effective Ad Word finders. Currently, when typing in a hotel name, usually OTAs or review sites come up first, such as Trip Adivsor. "Understanding the power of search engines is essential", Van den Wijngaard said. She continued by recommending that hotels go even further ensuring that they provide complete information about themselves as possible – with as much detail that OTAs and review sites use. She said that "hotels should not shy away from posting guest reviews as well, as this is essentially what a lot of new customers are interested in." Reviews on a hotel site should mirror those on review sites, such as Trip Advisor. The review postings, however, need to be as credible as possible when posted on a hotel’s web presentation. The presentation should also include up-to-date images and complete, descriptive information. Furthermore, it is important the internet presence also be compatible to all mobile phone devices. So posting feedback is one important aspect for the customer decision making process. Hotels need to consider this aspect particularly during the During Visit phase of a guest. Ideally, a guest should be sought after for their feedback at every step of their hotel stay. Only through feedback can problems be fixed or apologies given before a customer ends up writing negative reviews on external websites. So hotels should be consistent in providing each and every guest with the service their customers expect. Many hotels use automated systems to help their guests along – such as the 24 hour online concierge service. This kind of service is only good, if the online offering is utterly user-friendly – thus easy to understand and to navigate. Customers seek ease in their hotel stay. One way to observe customer feedback is by trying to tap into a customer's internet presence – such as their Facebook, Twitter or Foursquare profiles. Seeing what a customer might be posting can often help a hotel better understand whether or not they have been on-track with that customer‘s expectations. Often customers are already posting their comments online while on the trip. Thus, a hotel even has a chance to correct service deficiencies or show appreciation for compliments before that customer’s check-out. Van den Wijngaard used the KLM "Surprise" tactic as an ideal way for hotels to react to customer loyalty. "Of course this kind of customer service is not possible on a full-scale basis, but the idea is clear," van den Wijngaard said. In brief, customers are tracked from the time they booked their flights to the time they board. Following their customers' online postings helped KLM’s marketing department find ways to thanking them for their positive comments – in unexpected ways: see video at her agency's website surprise.klm.com. Post Visit are a fundamental way for hotels to understand a customer's overall experience. Hotels should track their customers even after they have checked out – particularly if the customer's feedback was not gotten during his or her stay. With 120 large review sites world-wide it is important to understand clients and adjust service to meet their demand and expectations. Bookings today are driven via OTAs and review sites. "Bottom line," according to Van den Wijngaard: "concentrating on the total overall guest journey, not just single parts, is enormously important - as it gives the hotel a chance to make improvements as the guest experience moves." Kim van den Wijngaard's company focuses on the hospitality industry and is specialized in collecting customer feedback and helping the hospitality industry capitalize on the collected information. ITB 2012: Gains & losses through mobile travelling. Through mobile devices tourism is changing its shape; mobile bookings increase annually, and travel apps spawn like weeds. There have been a billion smart phone apps downloaded in 2011. Although it is hard to keep overview, this at least gives an impression how easy tourism could run tomorrow: Fly to Paris, take a relaxed café au lait at Champs Elysée and then book a hotel room via your smart phone. And that is just one feature mobile devices do: They can reserve you a ticket, a seat, a car, take you by the hand as your personal tour guide, interpretor and gourmet guide. But does travelling itself change its character? "We are just at the beginning of the trip," an official of "Research Group for Vacation and Travelling" (FUR) said at ITB Berlin 2012. The scientists presented a survey about Central Europeans' common usage of smartphones and tablets for travelling. At the start of 2012 almost one quarter of German population (24 per cent) dispose of mobile internet access including laptops. 14 per cent already have their smartphones or tablets. Among the who had been travelling within the recent twelve months, almost 50 per cent said they had used their devices en route to check their emails. Another encouraging 24 per cent stated they would search for special offers about their destinations. General information about the location was interesting for 23 per cent among the surveyed, and another 23 per cent used apps for navigation and orientation. "Apps optimize travelling, but do not revolutionize," Professor Ulrich Reinhardt from German "Trust for future issues", specialised on tourism research said after the presentation. He limited apps gain's merely to safe time. Which indeed is a big thing, for travel duration will go on shortening. But on the other hand optimization makes life and particularly travelling dull. "Spontaneity is lost," Reinhardt pretended. "Remember how is used to be: Strolling through a tourist town you were feeling hunger, get lost in a dark alley and finally found this inconsiderable but authentic restaurant", the scientist described. Nowadays with a smartphone you will do research even before you have arrived and always have a look on the ratings. "Let us be honest: May a hotel have 120 recommendations and only 10 bad reviews, but you although do not go there because you remain sceptical about it." The thesis: An individual is somehow forced to follow do's and dont's from its community, there is a kind of peer pressure. Besides mobile armed travellers learn to be afraid they might miss the better alternative. However there are location based services that lower the risk to misstep. But always keeping an eye on your smart phone especially during a trip will definitely reduce the chance of cultural interchanges with locals or other travellers. In the consequence mobile travelling is against the philosophy of travelling, Ulrich Reinhardt complained: "Being on vacation is something about trial and error, about exploring, as the winged word about the 'trip into the unknown' suggests." Finally, why should we travel anymore, if there is nothing left to explore?

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