Affinity Groups
You may offer special rates to airline personnel,
travel agents, or companies that you do business
with.
You can also offer special rates to AAA members
and any affinity group that you may have a marketing
initiative with and who can help market yr property
by listing on thr preferred rates accounts.
In arcRes it is easy to set up these rates as
a % off of your normal rate. They are automatically
displayed on the appropriate channels (you set
which channels to exempt. The rates can apply
to all units or you may exempt units.
Best Rate Guarantee
The "Best Rate Guarantee" (BRG) is now used
extensively on chain hotels sites. This does
not mean that the Best Rate is always applied,
all sorts of fine print apply and you have to
read the rules. At the least this means is that
the Best Rate available for that site (website)
will be applied (ie if their is a Website rate
it is applied, if there is a Special that applies
it will be calculated and shown. In Many cases
BRG rules will also say that if the traveler
finds a better rate they will match it. The
fine print is important - exceptions include
opaque rates where in some channels the hotel
name is not noted. Deep discounts offered by
some channels (like Expedia) are also often
not included.
Loyalty Programs
Some of the loyalty programs reward loyalty
by rewarding a visitor who sends new guests
to the hotel. This can be recognized even before
the referer has stayed in the hotel, they are
simple invited to stay and receive a free night
for every guest week they refer. The loyalty
program can be implemented very easily using
an honour system. Simply create the rate plan
and let the guest choose the one that fits.
If they don't qualify they don't get the rate.
If you have a complete database of all arrivals
you can create more complex automated systems
but the honor system works out of the box and
can be applied immediately and with least cost.
Availability Calendar
Travelers don't want to waist time looking at
rates that are not available. Showing and availability
calendar on the rates and bookings page is increasingly
important. The arcRes bookings engine allows
suppliers to offer a request and a block request
system, which means that travelers bookings
are not confirmed. This is easy to operate and
has the advantage of not managing inventory
online. It is however becoming less relevant
as travelers demand to know what is available.
Hotels say they do not want to manage multiple
rates across multiple channels.
