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Hotel Online Reputation Manager by RateGain

Easily Track What Guests Are Saying About Your Hotel & Leverage that Information to Improve Guest Experience.

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Archipelago International Visit to RateGain's India Office

RateGain played a perfect Host to Archipelago Group and Welcomed Tenaiya Brookfield, Group VP-Sales & Marketing, and Chris Legaspi Group Director-Revenue, to its India office.

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RateGain Official Youtube Channel

We at RateGain, take our core values and cultural philosophy very seriously! Here's a look at what is it to be at RateGain!

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Technology has made inroads into the lives of all in an unbelievably magical way, with almost every industry progressing at a rapid pace with its constant deployment. Having already transformed the landscape of the hospitality industry, the rapid use of technology has taken customer experience to the next level, by ensuring that the ever-evolving expectations of the guests are being met. The future looks certainly different and exciting, with more innovations waiting down the road, accommodating the fast paced lifestyles of the masses.

Needless to say, the hotels of today are fairly advanced as compared to the hotels of yesterday. And going forward, with the current widespread technology revolution, the hotels of tomorrow will be unique in their own ways, bringing a whole new breath of fresh air for travelers. The future lies with the technology-equipped hotels, which are going to lead the race, benefiting the industry with increased hotel bookings, increased RevPAR and ADR; thereby generating more revenue for hotels.

In this current age of non-stop innovation and disruption, the needs and demands of the travelers are also evolving, where they look forward to a more personalized experience now, while also demanding relevant and meaningful information, presented to them in the most simplified manner. The increased use of the mobile app, website, and social media in hospitality is already playing a big role in indulging with the guests, aiming to heighten their experiences. It is important for the revenue managers of the hotels to well optimize all the available channels, so that the potential guests are easily able to locate the hotel, without any trouble.

Globally, various countries are technologically superior and are strongly driving growth on the basis of innovation. Hosts of facilities are already being offered by the hoteliers like tech-enabled rooms providing Wi-Fi, independent iPad, etc. The check-in methods have also evolved, with mobile phones typically acting as room keys for the guests, giving them the freedom to choose their rooms and even unlock their doors using their mobile devices. What’s more, they can even review and settle their final bills using their smartphone. All this helps them skip the cumbersome front office interactions, thus saving them a lot of time spent in check-in formalities.

The concierge services in some of the hotels also seem to have taken an online avatar, where a whole range of information like area maps, flight information, entertainment options in the city, etc. is straightaway shared on the guests’ smartphones. Well, everything seems to be at the fingertips of the travelers.

Most of the hotels are also upgrading their direct booking software, as globally, 65.4% of bookings take place through the hotel’s direct website than via OTAs and other third-party channels (Statistic Brain). Bookings through mobile have grown by leaps and bounds, and in overall travel, they have grown by 1700% between 2011 and 2015, moving from 1% to 18% of online revenues (Frederic Gonzalo, 2016). The last-minute booking software is also being made robust since estimates reveal that 65% of the tourists book hotel reservations for the same day on a mobile device.

A huge opportunity to tap, certainly!

Undoubtedly, the digital age hotels are investing hugely in systems and technologies and also generating greater revenues. Morgan Stanley Research estimated that the global hotel industry saw revenues of $570 billion last year. The hotels of today are leaving no stone upturned to stay extra connected with the guest, right from the stage when they start planning their travel till the time they finally bid adieu. For this cause, hotels are opting for seamlessly integrated multiple systems and are working towards providing greater automation and self-service options to the guests, adding choice, convenience and value to their stay. The trend is surely going to stay in the future as well, with forward-thinking hotels already anticipating the next game-changing trends well in advance and preparing for the future accordingly. This approach is important, as any negligent service more often than not, might lead to consumer fatigue and boredom linked to unimaginative or needless choices and will eventually impact hotel’s bottom-line.

Yes, the definition of customer experience in the hospitality industry has changed beyond expectations and imagination. However, it would be bizarre to even think that the role of the human element and personal interactions with the staff is dwindling. In fact, rather than acting as a substitute for customer service, technology actually complements the existing hotel services to deliver a WOW!!! experience to the guests, thus building long-term relations, and in turn increasing hotel sales.

With seeds of change being sown each day, the hotels of today are striving hard to provide utmost comfort and convenience to their guests and become a perfect ‘home away from home’ destination for travelers, by nourishing the sprouts of technology every now and then.

The ultimate aim is to drive value to both, the travelers and to the hotel. Perhaps, it is the beginning of a silent revolution in the hotel industry. Watch this space a few years from now. A few bright stars will come up and would make a mark universally by following the “new way” of doing hospitality business driven solely by guest experience and technology.

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SINGAPORE - Jan. 23, 2018 - PRLog -- Frozen Lime Asia, a pioneering consultant specialising in Revenue Management, Distribution, Sales and Marketing for hospitality and tourism sectors announced its strategic alliance with RateGain, a global leading provider of cloud-based hospitality and travel technology solutions. Sharing this news, Ms Jagdish Sandhu, CEO & Co-founder of Frozen Lime Asia said, "Frozen Lime Asia is pleased to partner with RateGain as they have a suite of solutions which can help us with our Revenue Management services to clients. In this very dynamic environment that hospitality players work in now, with almost everything readily available in the digital space for travellers and hotel guests, Revenue Management specialists need solutions that provide needful data, a robust dashboard, pricing notifications, rate tracking, and more. All these combine to help make sound business decisions on-the-go, to act faster to market forces and stay on top of the game." Commenting on the partnership, Sushmit Mazumdar, Manager – Sales said, "We are very pleased to be associated with Frozen Lime Asia. Our partnership is the right step forward as it will help us extend our advanced data analytics and pricing intelligence technology to a wider network of hoteliers, helping them make informed decisions and attain greater profitability. We also hope to enable hospitality companies to manage all aspects of their revenue management needs seamlessly via an integrated portfolio of solutions. Together we aim to provide more value to our customers and hope the synergies lead to positive results." About Frozen Lime Asia Frozen Lime Asia operates out of Singapore and offers a unique blend of optimisation best practices, sales representation and marketing services to increase our clients' market share. We provide value through shared costs and headcount, objective recommendations, and work on go-to-market strategies that best suit client needs, markets and budgets, all whilst integrating the right ingredients for the best results. We bring resource, expertise and people-talent that span many years and multiple geographies - Asia, Pacific and beyond. With our combined experience in keen analytics, sales and forecast, marketing and communications, we take on a dynamic approach for clients who seek our expertise. For more information, please visit: www.frozenlimeasia.com  or contact aileenethangaveloo@frozenlimeasia.com About RateGain Founded in 2004, RateGain is a leading provider of cloud-based innovative solutions for the Travel and Hospitality industry. RateGain provides the latest technology in the field of Revenue, Reputation and Online distribution. With continued innovation and excellence in customer focus, the company serves over 12,000 clients and numerous industry partners globally. For more information, please visit www.rategain.com

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Distribution Strategy Studio is the first of a series of events organized by RateGain during 2018, exploring news and trends in travel distribution and revenue management. The first leg of this exciting itinerant journey (which will include cities and Countries all over the globe as Dubai, Milan, Colombia, Delhi, Mexico, Berlin and many more), will be in Madrid on the 16th of January, just the day before the opening of FITUR. Latest trends in Online Distribution and Revenue Management will be the event fil-rouge, with panelists from companies like Xotels, HotelsCombined, WanUp, MM-One, Simone Puorto Consulting and (of course) RateGain giving their point of views on what’s hot in the Industry.

Common Revenue Management mistakes to avoid

The event will start at 3:00 p.m., in the suggestive location of the TRYP Madrid Atocha Hotel. After the registration, Alejandro Gómez Losada, Director of Sales at RateGain, will open the day with an intriguing speech titled Common Hotel Revenue leakages and how to tap them. During his presentation, he will explain how the travel marketplace is constantly reshaping itself and will provide precious insights and suggestions on how to increase your property revenue. If you want to find out what is the effect of rate disparity on direct bookings, how to individuate your indirect comp set, how to track and leverage events and holidays in your pricing strategy and learn about the best way to analyze market supply and average rate, then you will definitely enjoy his presentation.

Brand consistency is the new SEO

After Alejandro, it will be my turn to give tips on how to stay competitive in our ever-changing industry. My speech will focus on the importance of brand consistency and will introduce concepts such as vertical search, micro-moments and multiple touchpoints, analyzing how the booking journey has evolved over the years and providing concrete pieces of advice and best practices to hoteliers. Are you tired of OTAs, metasearch engines and video platforms brandjacking you? If the answer is yes, I have some interesting things to tell you.

Rock ‘n’ Roll Robot

“Smart data allows for intelligent decisions and better results” said Yann Fruchart, VP Global Business Development Xotels and it’s one of the best quotes I have ever read about distribution. The scientific approach to revenue management and online distribution is the title of his presentation and he will be discussing the impact of Artificial Intelligence on revenue management, with a revolutionary 4-step system approach (price grid, algorithms, human intervention and machine learning). Yann will guide you through the whole decision process in order to create a successful and consistent rate strategy, analyzing property capacity, demand level and comp set.

This is metasearch’s world

Metasearch traffic has tripled since 2014: excellent acquisitions, IPOs and technological advances ensured metasearch advertising a privileged place in every hotel marketing strategy. But the scenario is changing rapidly and being listed with just rates may not be enough anymore. Irene Herrera, market manager of HotelsCombined.com, will talk about personalization and how the current online customer is getting savvier on metasearch. Either you are already using these platforms to advertise your property or you are considering it, this speech will give you precious insights.

There’s nothing cheap about loyalty

Loyalty programs seem to be a hot topic in 2018. Just last week I wrote an extensive article about how the mattress-run-model is basically dead and loyalty needs to rethink itself. Rosa Montero, CCO at Wanup, will update you on what is new in the loyalty landscape and the importance of having a loyalty strategy for independent hotels as well. Reducing your distribution costs, increase direct bookings and recurring stays are just a few of the pros of having a solid loyalty program. What do frequent travelers want when they stay in a hotel? Why do they select a certain property over another? What makes them stay at the same hotel over and over? If you are curious to find out, do not miss her speech.

Yo, Johnny! I see you in the next life!

MM-One has a surprise for you: to keep the adrenaline high you will not know the name of the speaker until the day he/she delivers the presentation. I had the pleasure to read it in advance and I loved the comparison they make between online travelers and surfers. A few years ago I wrote a short free e-book titled “Point Break”, as an homage to one of my favourite 90’s movies ever and I used the same parallelism, so this struck a personal cord with me. Why “surfers” travel? Do they already know where they want to go or not? Who is the average surfer? How can hotels improve the surf experience for their guests? I am sure you will enjoy this speech as much as I did because, as Bodhi used to say, it’s “100% pure adrenaline!”

So basically you have no excuse: a free event, six cool panelists and (most importantly) free coffee. See you in Madrid! Registrations are open for the event. Click here to register.

Content Source:- https://rategain.com/blog/pure-adrenaline-distribution-strategy-studio/

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Travellers today are tech freaks who know how to utilize technology to make his travel cheaper, convenient and comfortable. Technology enables them to remain on the go without having to worry about itinerary, route and even accommodation. Even while being on the go, they can choose between various hotels to perfectly suit their budget and requirements without compromising on any front. The credit goes to the seamless availability of all Metasearch websites and OTAs on mobile in the form of responsive mobile websites and mobile applications. Hotels too have been proactive to sense the paradigm shift and have moulded their entire strategy to encourage and support mobile bookings. They are now using advanced rate shopping software that can analyze the pricing from entire competition and churn out the best possible rate for every single room in the hotel's inventory. Hospitality industry thrives on the ability to charge the right rate for the right customer at the right time with an aim to drive maximum revenues.

In this age of fierce competition and constantly fluctuating demand, manual tracking of rates from the competition is next to impossible. To add to it the prices for the same hotel room can be different from one OTA to another and even on search location and type of traveller. Differential pricing is the latest trend in Hotel industry and only an advanced Rate Shopping tool is no less than a necessity to stay competitive and profitable in such complex market dynamics.

An efficient Rate Shopping tool is capable to monitor prices of thousands of competitor hotels on hundreds of different channels including OTAs to carry out detailed competitive analysis that helps a hotel in formulating the best pricing strategy among its competitors. However, in current scenario only a basic Rate Shopping tool is not enough to nail the correct pricing strategy. Smart hoteliers are using many tricks to get high bookings and revenue. Some of them being differential pricing, including varying hotel prices by location, i.e. Geolocation based pricing. Device-based pricing that pricing based on the device used to book. These combinations have made the task of competition rate tracking even more daunting for revenue managers. Hence, it is the time that you evaluate your existing Rate Shopping Tool, and see if it is proficient enough of providing you all the competition rate tracking requirements you need. If not, it is time to switch to the one that has all these features.

Here are a few key features of an advanced rate shopping tool that can provide an in-depth analysis of competitors' pricing:

Geo-based pricing: To tap the difference in paying capacity of guests from different countries, hotels have started differential pricing based on the location (geo-based pricing) of the customer booking the hotel. For e.g. a person in Australia and a person in Brazil are willing to book a hotel in Malaysia, then both will get different prices for the same room since they belong to different countries. A smart rate shopping tools provide in-depth analysis into what price the competitor is offering to travellers situated in different countries round the globe. This information is crucial in the sense that a hotel might be selling its inventory for the same price round the globe where the competitor must be winning by offering less prices.

Mobile rates vs Desktop rates: With the advent of Smartphone's, mobile devices have become the most popular device among the masses to browse destinations, hotels and even make bookings. A traveller is always on the go with no fixed itineraries and needs to make bookings several times during his entire trip as he travels from one place to another. Data reveals that around 150 million bookings were done through mobile devices last year and the number is ever increasing. Hotels are also trying to encourage travellers to book through mobile especially through mobile apps where they offer discounted prices as compared to desktop and mobile sites. This type of device specific differential pricing poses even bigger challenge for revenue managers to keep their pricing competitive. An evolved Rate Shopping tool would shower you with intelligence on all such differential pricing patterns existing in the competitive arena by keeping a perfect tap on the competitor mobile app rates. Such insightful information is bound to benefit hoteliers to set the best prices for their inventory to compete with the lowest prices in the market.

Member rates vs non-member rates: A rewarding and profitable loyalty program is at the heart of any good hotel. Hotels treat their loyal customers differently by offering them prices that are not available on any OTA or even hotel's own website. But, a smart rate shopping even penetrates into such loyalty offers and Close User Group (CUG) being offered by competition to their loyal customers giving a holistic picture of competitor's pricing strategy. This crucial information helps a hotel to offer similar rates in one form or the other thus giving the gasping run for their money. Moreover, all the information is presented in a desired statistical and graphical format, which enables quick interpretation so that instant pricing decisions could be taken.

The right pricing strategy can be a crucial differentiator in a hotel's performance, so it is imperative to have fair amount of knowledge of competitor's pricing to come up with a winning price strategy every time. Deploying a smart and insightful Rate 'Shopping tool which tightly integrates with all major OTAs, Meta websites along with hotel's own website is a job half done. This can help any hotel to boost its pricing strategy, foster rate parity and project the hotel as the best rate provider among the competition.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9861997

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It is famous fact that selling to an old customer is far cheaper than getting a new customer. Increasingly hotels have realized this fact and are now focussing more towards increasing customer satisfaction and brand loyalty to retain existing customers. In the world of online reviews, prospective guests can easily evaluate and estimate the quality of services being offered by a particular hotel and hence it is imperative for hotels to perform extraordinarily well at all times. Moreover, give no chance for the guest to be unsatisfied with their stay experience in your hotel. Nice reviews ultimately lead to attracting new customers with the credibility and brand image built in the process.

Do not give wrong expectations - Do not set guest hopes on things you cannot deliver. Like hotels should stop glorifying their budget hotels as luxury hotels. This practice does more damage than profit in the long run. Instead of over glorifying, hotels should excel and advertise what they are capable to deliver. They should delight the customer at every service they provide so that their guests spread positive word of mouth about the hotel on all review websites and remain loyal.

An easy tip can be to remain an underdog and offer services more than you were expected to.

The hotel staff is the heart of any hotel and needs to remain motivated at all times. It's only they who are the touch point to the guests. Therefore, it is necessary that they be trained to handle unpleasant situations at all times even when the customer is angry or makes unnecessary demands. Staff should be well aware about hotel's policies and offering so that they do not have to contact manager for every small guest demand and provide a resolution immediately.

Staff needs to be empathetic and have a problem solving approach for customer grievances.

Hotels should be able to recognize repeat guests and regular visitors and make them feel special during the entire stay. Repeat visits explicitly imply that you are doing something right that these guests appreciate. The hotel should ensure that the service quality graph only goes higher. Repeat guests are like brand ambassadors to your hotel who spread positive word of mouth both offline and online.

A quick tip can be to remember all the loyal guests by their name and if possible, by faces too, and welcome them warm-heartedly every time they pay a visit to your hotel.

Hotels can nail customer satisfaction by continuous learning about guest expectations from their stay experiences. The medium can be as simple as a short feedback form when they check out or a survey over e-mail. From the input, the guests provide, whether they praise or complain about your hotel, the more the hotel gets to learn about their guests' preferences. Hence better is the quality of services they can provide.

That is why guests should be encouraged to post and share reviews, write testimonials, give feedback and suggestions on review websites and even brand website. As this will help hoteliers to meet customer expectations to a greater extent.

Revenue Managers and other hotel staff should also ask their guests to follow the brand on social media so that they can remain updated about the latest offers and discounts.

Once the guests have checked out, hotels should take initiative to remain in touch with their guests, inquiring them about their stay and also ask them what else they will like to add on the existing services of the hotel, etc. Engaging past customers amplifies the chances of them visiting again.

Hotel can stay in touch with past customers through SMS and emails telling them about new facilities, food menu, new festivals and exclusive offers etc. However, that not at all means that they bombard mails every next day that can instead irritate and force them to unsubscribe. Additionally, hoteliers should also ensure that the offers are reasonable and do not have irrelevant terms & conditions and are easy to avail.

Hotel business can be very rewarding and profitable if run with empathy and efforts. Hotels should be easily able to adapt to changing customer's demand and continually improve their services and offerings. Proper staff training can play a key role in ensuring promising guest experience. Incorporating latest tech in hotel industry like revenue management software, Online Reputation Management (ORM) tool coupled with a guest review collection can further help hotels to earn more revenues and maintain scintillating brand image at the same time.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9854272

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As we move towards the end of 2017, hoteliers are geared up for more business, more guests, better services, improved customer experience ultimately leading to more revenues. Just like 2017, mobile devices will continue to play crucial role in keeping the customers engaged although the conversions are still far more on the desktops. People are using mobile devices to research for their ideal hotel, plan itinerary but they ultimately make bookings on desktops. In 2018, the focus or effort of hoteliers and even OTAs will be to increase the conversions on the mobile devices itself by improving user experience through dedicated mobile websites and apps and not just for last minute bookings. It is not only the mobile user experience that needs to be on the agenda, there are many more things on which hoteliers can emphasize to make 2018 the best year ever.

Let us have a look at few of them below-

Experience Marketing

As a hotel, you always sell experience and memories. All the good services including nice food, clean swimming pool, beautiful vistas out of the window, and not to leave out the smiling, helpful staff, all make up for a wonderful experience that the guests carry back with them and share with others. It is about not only the quality services, but also the small details, and preferences of guests you pay attention to that makes all the difference. These things are what will differentiate your hotel from every other hotel those guests have been to and will drive them to visit your property again and again. Satisfied or elated guests are the best brand ambassadors any hotel can have but it is up to the hotel to create one. Hotel staff should be highly empathetic and pro-active to guest's needs and must be able to pre-identify guest needs depending upon the type of guest like business, leisure or honeymoon etc.

Automate your processes

Today's world is hard to imagine without automation. Automation has seeped into every business process, so is hospitality. There are numerous technology tools available to manage various aspects of hospitality business. These tools can automate various critical, tedious processes and assist revenue managers in strategic decision making by providing advanced analytics, forecast and actionable insights.

Hotels and their staff primarily need to focus on their core expertise that is to serve guests better. Therefore, they heavily rely on revenue management solutions for range of requirements like rate shopping, competitor analysis, inventory distribution, forecasting demand, online review & reputation management etc. These hotel revenue management tools and hotel technology solutions empower a hotel to sell their rooms to the right customer, at the right time and at the best possible price.

With online reputation management tools (ORMs), hotels can maintain a stellar reputation by keeping an eye on guest reviews on various review sites at a time and respond in real time. With integrated ORMs, hotels can mail the feedback form to guests anytime during or after their stay. Such tools also offer guests the option to share these reviews directly on Google and other important review websites like TripAdvisor etc. This helps hotels to mobilize their positive reviews to maximum audience, which might later become their guests.

Relook into your OTAs

OTAs are the largest source of online bookings for almost every hotel sparing some big daddies of hotel industry. However, OTA bookings make a huge bite into hotel's revenues, which works as a taste spoiler. Hotels need to optimize their OTA distribution strategy to reduce revenue sharing with the OTAs. Hotels need to continuously evaluate performance of all their OTAs based on critical KPIs like cost per booking or we can say commission per booking, length of stay (LoS), volume of bookings and room types, average revenue earned per booking etc. Average length of stay is very crucial in OTA evaluation since most of the times an OTA might be charging less commissions than the other OTA but the average length of stay is very short which ultimately makes it more expensive than the other one.

Content Marketing

Content has been at the heart of marketing for any industry and it is bound to play crucial role for hoteliers in 2018 as well. The more good content a hotel floats, more eyeballs it gathers. A hotel has so much to share starting with guest experiences, food menu, interiors, furnishings, bar, exotic surroundings, promotions, etc. Hotels need to build consumable content around these and put them on their website and social media to lure customers towards their property. Hotels can even use YouTube to post high quality videos to give guests an idea of the experience they will have at their property. Such content strategy works two folds since it not only makes people aware about the brand, but also links punched with the content divert traffic to the hotel's website which in turn increases chances of direct bookings. Direct bookings are like pure oxygen to hoteliers, which gives full revenue without having to share a single penny with the OTAs.

Web and social media presence

In today's modern age, it can be suicidal to ignore the power and significance of a solid web and social media presence. Surveys have revealed that even if the guests are booking the hotel through OTAs they do check out the hotel's websites and sometimes even social media handles just to reinforce their decision. Therefore, every hotel needs to have a scintillating website along with rich social media handles that regularly engage both previous guests and prospective guests. The website should not mere serve as a digital brochure but rather induce the visitor to make a booking immediately. It should have an immersive experience with high quality pictures of the hotel and vistas along with guest reviews and experiences. On the technical front there should be a clear BOOK NOW button on every page. The booking process should be simple backed by safe payment gateways. In this manner, hotels can save on huge OTA commissions as well as building the brand alongside.

At last, we can conclude that the change of year will bring even more challenges to hoteliers but with equal number of opportunities to scale and magnify their operations. Technology is destined to help them in their endeavours with more promising ways to run their business better.

Content Source:- http://www.sooperarticles.com/business-articles/project-management-articles/tips-promising-2018-hotels-1626346.html

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Though rate parity agreement is to ensure that no distribution channelundercut your channel or brand website, it puts restrictions on hotels and the OTAs to drive in more revenue. However, a deeper look at rate parity agreements will help hoteliers observe more yield-generating opportunities:

Restrict special discounts to select members only: This will ensure you are still committed to your agreement with the OTAs to keep the same prices for the rooms, and you can still cater to a specific group /loyal member with promotional schemes and offers and hence attract increased direct bookings. You can safely run email promotions, offering better rates only for your privileged members. You can also consider offering coupons that you can provide online or via SMS to the selected group. With these tricks, you can still be sure that your online prices remain the same across channels.

Develop long-term customer relationships: It is established fact that it is easier to sell to an existing customer than acquire a new one. Keep in touch with your loyal customers and offer them special deals to build their trust in your property for best rate guarantee and to encourage direct bookings.

Invest in your hotel website: Provide prospect with a similar booking experience as on an OTA /Metasearch site. Most customers prefer OTA website because the hotel brand websites offer a not so convenient booking experience. Invest in your hotel website to offer a robust user experience with an efficient booking engine and you will surely see a boost in your direct booking numbers.

Do not hesitate to ask guest reviews: Encourage your guest to leave an online review for your hotel website. More positive reviews and ratings you have, more you can charge as per a Cornell University study. This will also boost direct bookings and revenue.

Offer discounts on next booking: You can offer a discount on the next booking to customers coming to you through OTAs to encourage them to book directly from your website on their subsequent visits.

No doubt the customer’ role is highly valuable and important here, but the relationship between hotels and the OTAs also needs to be measured and taken a deep look at. After all, for the hotels to stay profitable, they need to have more business, especially direct bookings. However, if the OTA commissions keep mounting, it seems very difficult to achieve this objective. Also with OTAs taking the whole control of metasearch and customers preferring to book more on OTA and Metasearch sites to find the best deal until the last moment, changes to rate parity agreement is required. Rate parity concept needs to evolve towards value differentiation than focusing just on price. Hence, the concept needs to evolve to progress the Best Price Guarantees further to become Best Value Guarantee.

Having said that OTAs are hotels primary business partners as they help them get the majority of bookings. OTA’s role becomes very important for hotels that cannot effort to spend much on marketing and have limited access to prospect travelers from across the globe. OTAs make it much easier for them to reach out to the mast community of travellers online across the world.

The tips shared in this article would be helpful for hotels to get the best out of the rate parity laws. Given the stiff competition in this dynamic industry, disparities and leakages are expected. However, a little effort in controlling the key troublemakers will help you succeed and guarantee that your hotel always stays ahead of the competition.

Originally published at www.sooperarticles.com on December 19, 2017.

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While rate parity ensures that you have complete control of setting the bar for your room rates and ensure equal prices across all distribution channels, but it destroys your chances to compete freely in the market and also makes you lose a voluminous amount of potential revenue as massive commissions to the OTAs.

The hospitality industry has mixed reaction against rate parity with OTAs and Hotels having a different take on it. Countries including the USA, France, Italy, and Germany have already started employing measures to either restrict rate parity to specific scenarios, or completely do away with it.

However, a deeper understanding of these changes will help you figure out how you can stay ahead of your competitors despite the developments that apparently inhibit your property’s potential to profit and grow. Let us delve into some rate parity tips to help you dash over the speed-breakers in your revenue-maximizing journey.

1. Prepare yourself for a world without rate parity In an ideal world, we can expect everyone to be fair and follow rate parity agreements. However, we do not live in such a world and thus the Rate Parity breach and the entire cycle of tracking who cut our rates, etc.

OTAs bring you lots of revenue, but they come with just as many restrictions and rigid, unbending parity rules. A removal of such rules will make your revenue management and maximizing strategy much more flexible and provide you with ample room to experiment. Hence, you will no longer need to monitor what rates your partners and OTAs offer at a given time. You can compete in a market open to rapid price changes that can be dictated by the forces of demand and supply and not some agreements that may not be favourable for all times.

2. Improve your hotel brand website There is a reason why OTAs are so popular, the first choice for booking by travellers and they dominate as a primary source of the vast majority of online bookings. This is because apart from marketing efforts, they have also invested in an appealing user interface to build a brand identity and brand image. They have ensured to provide the customers with an efficient user experience that involves fast web page loading, regular updates, call-to-action buttons that are easy to locate and a robust online booking engine.

If you invest in a website that has all the aforementioned ingredients, you have a recipe for a revenue-maximizing machine and direct bookings. You can then use your website to drive in a stream of regular direct bookings and spent less in the commissions you would otherwise pay out to OTAs, which would go up to as high as 20% or more! Not only do you get more revenue, but you also get the opportunity to familiarize the visitor with your brand and other useful information such as offers, packages and discounts, that they may seek.

3. OTAs are your friends in need Even though OTAs demands for commissions can often be sky high, they are a powerful medium for not just revenue generation, but also brand promotion. You can use the power of ratings and reviews to rank your hotel’s listing higher up in your preferred OTAs database, which will help you drive in traffic and guests, especially, during the off-season. Given the popularity of OTAs, it is unwise to rely solely on direct website bookings to generate revenue, as the likelihood of higher direct bookings during the low season would seem abysmal. OTA listings can still help your hotel shine through in those tough times.

4. Prioritize balance in online distribution We have discussed that hotels cannot do without OTAs. However, a pertinent question you need to answer is — how many of them do you need? Conventional wisdom might make one assume, higher the number of distribution channels, higher will the risk distribution be. However, in the absence of rate parity, managing dramatic price fluctuations will be a needless hassle. Hence, in today’s scenario, it is instructive to focus on only the distribution channels that perform well and give you more profitable bookings. Practice Yield Management, which means that the most cost-effective and revenue-generating channels will make the cut.

5. Go direct with travellers What is the most cost-effective way to obtain a booking? We all know, bookings made directly from your hotel’s website are most profitable, as they are commission free! Encourage your guests to book rooms directly from your own online booking tool. Simple incentives such as free pick and drops, free Wi-Fi, etc. or non-room service bonuses on direct bookings can go a long way in developing a steady stream of direct, commission-free revenue. The best part about it is that you can employ this technique even when your hotel’s OTA listing is what brings the customer to your website. We know that comparing rates across different booking media is common among online guests.

6. Leverage the magic of loyalty programs and close user group memberships A great way to maximize direct bookings and sustain commission free revenue is to build long-term customer relationships. This requires you to identify your frequent visitors and actively engage them in loyalty programs or close user group (CUG) membership schemes. Once they have booked with you directly, ensure to make their stay a memorable one for them to stay loyal to you. Hotels like IHG and Accor hook their prospect guests on Metasearch/OTA sites itself, by offering them to become their privileged members and avail instant discounts on the booking rates.

Gather all details regarding their preferences, as this information will help you to design custom offers for different guest profiles and price them accordingly, thereby nourishing them to the fullest of your potential.

Apart from their booking behaviour, you can also look at their inclinations for non-room services, an area that OTAs have no information or control. Including services such as spa, gym, bars and such like into your guests’ custom plans, based on their liking, not only helps you deliver quality service, but also conveys your genuine care for them.

7. Look out for distribution alternatives Even though OTAs largely dominate the hotel bookings arena, alternatives have started to pop up. For example, Google has now enabled online hotel bookings through its own listings. This may come as a massive respite for those hoteliers who had long been searching for a cost-effective distribution channel than OTAs. Keeping an eye on such trends can be beneficial as now and then, you may come across a channel that meets all your revenue-generation and market-targeting goals.

8. Understand the Rate Parity dynamics globally With the rolling out of announcements such as the Macron law in France, it is likely that rate parity may soon bid Europe goodbye. In addition, countries like the US are also catching up with the trend. This brings both challenges because of a major change in revenue management and rate parity, and an enormous potential for growth. The time now is ripe for hoteliers to ramp up their strategy to drive in as much direct booking traffic, and reverse the approach of excessive dependence on OTAs for reservations.

However, do keep in mind that the absence of rate parity does not translate to an absolute absence of OTAs. They have a mark in the industry, so strong, and play an important role in the whole market dynamics of room distribution and booking. Hence, OTAs, meta-search engines and direct bookings are all different media of distribution that can fruitfully coexist in your hospitality ecosystem, as long as an optimum balance is maintained. To conclude, in the current situation hotels should invest in a progressive Rate Parity solution. An inclusive tool that enables hotels to not only identify the cause of rate parity but also assist them with an end-to-end solution to it. A tool that can provide insights about the overall enterprise level parity, a performance review of all the hotel chains, real-time buzz and a capability to connect with the concerned hotel chain and control the situation with real-time tracking.

Content Source:- https://rategain.com/blog/tips-hotel-manage-rate-parity-issue/

[rategain-blog]

1. Do not underestimate the importance of online reputation management

We all know that modern travellers rely on reviews from other travellers before making any hotel booking. Moreover, as more and more travellers have started trusting online reviews and it has become an important part of travel planning, maintaining, a positive online reputation is critical to the success of hotel business.

2. Develop a customer-obsessed environment in your hotel

The most important aspect of online reputation management takes place at your hotel itself. Hence, you have to confirm that no stone is unturned to ensure that your guests have the best stay experience. This, to some extent will guarantee positive feedback from guests.

Train and empower your staff to exceed guest expectations, handle any bad experiences on the spot and prevent on-property issues from escalating to online complaints. Device a social media policy and guidelines for your hotel staff to ensure that employees know how to conduct themselves with guests both online and in person. Your staff should be well aware of the risks and repercussions of mishandling guests.

3. Establish and share your reputation objectives and strategies clearly with the team

Set an objective of what kind of reputation you want to establish for your property. What is it that you want your hotel to be known for and want is that your guests should say about your hotel after they leave. Plan and work towards achieving that objective. Analyze your hotel's ratings and reviews on key review sites, and identify what are the positive and negative things that your guests write about you and then work from there. Strategize how you will meet your goals.

4. Reputation Management is a team task

Share your reputation related objectives, vision, and strategies with your entire hotel staff, and ensure that your entire team understands their contribution, role & responsibilities in fulfilling these objectives.

5. Optimize and own your online presence

Own your profile online. Claim and update your profiles on key review sites like TripAdvisor, Google Business, Yelp and Online Travel Agencies. Add descriptions, images and contact information, and ensure that the information is correct and up to date.

6. Analyze guest reviews

Closely analyze your guest reviews and look for any specific patterns that need special consideration. Pay attention to identify key differentiation or core strengths that your consumers are talking about and put you a level up from your competitors to influence direct bookings. Further club feedback in guest reviews with the feedback from guest surveys to get a 360-degree view of guest satisfaction score and Net Promoter Score.

7. Take regular meetings with your ground staff and then plan next action

Interact with your customer-facing staff, take their feedback, and use it as a productive learning insight to improve your service. Take the necessary actions to fix problems and prevent recurring complaints. This will help generate a steady stream of positive reviews.

8. Incentivize and reward your Employees

Only making strategies is not enough, you have to also work towards it and provide regular updates on the status of achieving your reputation objectives. Incentivize and reward your hotel staff for achieving the goals defined. There are ORM tools available that help you set and track goals for your team. Recognize their efforts and reward them.

9. Select and prioritize to respond to guest reviews

Responding to guest reviews confirms your interest in what your consumers are saying about you. Moreover, this is an opportunity to show to other prospect guests also that you care about guest feedback. In addition, it gives you a chance to change incorrect perceptions about your hotel and comfort the prospective guests that you are keen on taking measures to ensure no unpleasant experience for your hotel guests.

However, you cannot respond to all the reviews, hence prioritize and select reviews that demand an apology, an explanation or expression of gratitude. However, do ensure to update the concerned guest about any measures you have taken to solve the issue they faced. In addition, in extremely bad situations, offer guests some incentive or discounts on next bookings.

10. Choose the right Online Reputation Management Tools

Social media and online reputation management are real-time. With so much action in digital space, it is practically impossible to keep up with the pace manually. To ensure that you do not miss a thing, use an advanced ORM tool to give you a holistic picture and collection of guest reviews from more than 120 review sites. A modern reputation management tool will help to automate this process and will make responding also a cakewalk.

Incorporate these simple steps into your daily processes and culture of your hotel and you will witness an improvement in the guest satisfaction level and increased direct bookings; guaranteeing a long-term success for your hotel.

Article Source:- http://ezinearticles.com/?Hotels,-Look-Your-Best-Online---Ten-Easy-Tips&id=9843910

[rategain-blog]

(via Your Hotel Reputation Matters to Your Revenue | RateGain)

[rategain-blog]

Earlier in hospitality domain, the pricing structures and decisions were majorly based on factors like supply and demand, local events, corporate/negotiated rates, event/group bookings, majorly because of the absence of hospitality technology tools. With the advent of hotel price intelligence tools, competitor rates became an important factor in pricing. However, in the current scenario, the focus is shifting to guest reviews and ratings. Now, the price that you can charge for your room is directly proportional to your hotel reputation, specifically online reputation.

Reputation Management touches the property as a whole and needs to be the responsibility of every department in the hotel working together. ORM should go hand in hand with Revenue Management. Your hotel reputation should also guide you to use reviews to influence your decision-making process and effect change where required.

Hence, Online Reputation Management is immensely important for hotels and travel companies because customer reviews have a direct correlation with demand and hence pricing, which is the holy grail of revenue management.

Working on your online reputation, reviews and rating includes improving guest satisfaction by enhancing operational effectiveness and efficiency and remembering all this pays off monetarily. As a smart strategy, hotels should make sure that the time and efforts invested in ORM improve their direct bookings, ADR and RevPar. Hence, by improving your hotel reputation and sharing the outcome with all other consumers, both revenue and guest perception improve.

A recent study from the Cornell School of Hotel Administration has also further established this finding, that guest satisfaction has a direct impact on the commercial performance of the hotels.

The study says that an increase of 1 point in the Global Review Index (GRI) leads to an increase of 0.89% in price (ADR), a 0.54 % increase in occupancy, and a 1.42% increase in Revenue per Available Room (RevPAR). The research also verifies that the influence is across all distribution channels, whether online or offline.

Another research by a reputable organization has established that a positive online hotel reputation has the power to demand higher prices on online platforms.

One of our esteemed customers Mr. Vishal Kamat, Director Kamats Group of Hotels and CEO (Fort Jadhavgadh) agrees to this finding that the positive sentiment of online reviews diminishes the impact of price on the consumer purchase decision. This implies that higher number of positive reviews influence a traveller to pay more for your property whereas bad reviews will discourage bookings, even if your property is at discounted rates.

This finding simply suggests that hotels need to focus on guest satisfaction, guest review and ratings as they make pricing decisions for their hotel

Simple and Easy Tips to Manage your Online Hotel Reputation

Be present where your guests are – The hotel GM can get the most valuable feedback by being present in the lobby or the dining room, talking directly to guests. But, there are thousands and even more of them on social media and review sites. Hence, it is beneficial to know the online platforms important to your guests and where the most influential reviews are posted.

Understand which social media platforms are delivering more revenue to your property – Know what booking channels guests are using to book reservations, and make sure your reputation on those channels is good. And focus your energies there.

Be steady and consistent– You may begin slowly but be steady. This means just pay attention to what guests are writing about your hotel and respond when appropriate and required. You do not have to respond to all the reviews.

Always be kind and polite in your language and choice of words while responding to guest reviews. Be professional in your approach and respond to everyone in a respectful manner. Communicate with them as if they’re guests in your lobby.

Remember the nature of social media is such that your response will never go away hence be careful of what you post.

Own and respond to negative comments – Responding to negative reviews shows that you know there are problems that come up and at times things can go wrong. However, you are ready to do your best to fix those problems.

It is perfectly OK to apologize for a bad experience to a guest. Write a response that includes a genuine apology and a commitment to ensure not repeating the sad experience. However, refrain from owning and being apologetic about an untrue review.

Embrace social media and review sites as a learning opportunity. No one likes to receive a negative review, but if you use it constructively to correct an issue, you will have an overall better property and eventually more positive reviews.

A public promise to correct the situation right is completely ok. However, never offer compensation, particularly free rooms, etc.

Connect with the concerned guests personally and promise them that you will make up for their bad experience by offering discounts on next booking. Avoid getting into a back-and-forth with guests online.

Encourage your guests to write reviews—good or bad. You can use either a guest survey tool for this or a simple reminder at checkout. But never offer incentives for writing reviews.

Avoid using pre-defined templates for responding – Appreciate that your guests are taking time to share their experience. Spend time to personalize your responses—especially for those guests who appear to be dissatisfied or highly appreciative, or the guest and travelers who have a lot of influence on that platform.

For more information on how to manage your Online Hotel Reputation, please read our guide – What to look for in a modern Online Reputation Management Tool

It is advisable to have a designated team to handle your online hotel reputation management. However, in the absence of a team, it is okay to have a group of people involved. Nevertheless, always have a leader who can make decisions and set guidelines for managing your reputation.

To conclude do not fixate over return on investment immediately. Online Reputation Management is not always going to be a direct revenue opportunity. Sometimes the payback might come two years down the road when a guest satisfied with your response makes another direct booking at your hotel.

Therefore, hoteliers stay focused on improving your service quality and returns will certainly come.

Content Soruce - https://rategain.com/blog/hotel-reputation-matters-revenue/

[rategain-blog]

Right mix of ADR & Occupancy

What is the number one parameter that comes to your mind while reviewing your hotel’s ideal performance levels? Which is that one index that is so critical to Revenue Management that its progress often makes up for a lack in other important areas? Which is that one element that will instantly enhance your hotel’s goodwill? Obvious as it is to any revenue manager, a healthy occupancy rate always belongs in the resume of a profitable property.

Despite how essential it is to a property’s growth, many hoteliers struggle with occupancy due to some misconceptions. Today, we will debunk them and provide you a new set of rules to follow.

Rule 1 — Occupancy need not be the target for maximization of revenue

Many traditional hoteliers still operate in the older fashion when there was no such thing as dynamic pricing and the competition levels were nowhere close to that of today’s gigantic levels. In earlier times, hoteliers use to believe occupancy to be their sole target and measure of success, while underestimating the importance of profitable bookings. To elaborate, a hotel may have less than 70 % occupancy and still garner more revenue than another hotel, which boasts a whopping 90%!

In fact, a high occupancy rate may result in a decrease in profit when the rates are not optimized to atone for the decrease in ADR owing to higher operating costs that more bookings bring along.

Let us understand this with an example-

Hotel A maintains an average of 85% occupancy rate and charges 20% above the prevailing market rate for a room.

By the same token, hotel B has all of its rooms booked, but in a bid to attract occupancy, sells them at 10% below the average rate.

Can you decipher which hotel made more profit?

Indeed, hotel A played it smart!

Hence the learning is -

Volume should not be the main goal, as a higher ADR often proves more profitable.

However, that does not mean that volume should be ignored. What is point in having too many rooms free; this will only raise your operating expenses.

Interestingly, the hotel industry operates in a market wherein when one index increases another one witnesses a proportionate decrease. Hence, hitting the right balance between booking volume and ADR becomes instructive to achieve the highest profits. And this is what revenue management is all about.

Additionally it must also be noted that the above example fits hotels that rely majorly on room booking revenue for profit. Hotels that have other sources of non-room revenue, including spas, gaming halls and pools will have more revenue to fill up the CPOR (Cost per Occupied Room). Hence, they need to focus on strategies to increase ancillary revenue once the guest is in your hotel.

Rule 2 — Do not make only occupancy the sole index for price changes

To this day, despite employing dynamic pricing, hoteliers base their price changes solely on occupancy, which is not only unnecessary but can also result in losses.

The occupancy rate is an incomplete figure without factoring in other influences, including the remaining number of days before check-in or before a particular event. To understand this, consider a hypothetical situation where you had a 70 % occupancy just a week before today; hence, at that point in time, decreasing the price may seem a good choice to boost occupancy. However, if you have a 70% occupancy a month before from now, you will want to further leverage this high occupancy by increasing your room prices. Hence, time line becomes an important factor in making pricing decisions.

Although any price adjustment starts from analyzing the occupancy rate, the process will be futile without taking into account the time at which the booking takes place.

Then comes another equally crucial element — speed. The rate at which the bookings arrive offers profound insights into the prevailing demand levels.

For example, if over a week’s period, your hotel’s occupancy has risen by 10 %, you will infer a high booking pace and accordingly increase the prices, as the occupancy trend is positive. On the other hand, say, your hotel reached the same occupancy rate, but after a decrease of 10% in the occupancy, owing to factors including reduction in demand and cancellations. In this case, reducing room rates will help regain the momentum.

Hence, a multi-dimensional approach to pricing is paramount for more profit and optimum occupancy.

Although occupancy is an integral part of your hotel’s performance assessment mechanism, its analysis must work in tandem with ADR and RevPAR. Since occupancy shares an inverse relationship with ADR, a balance between the two is crucial. Update your revenue management paraphernalia with these new rules of the industry and reap the benefits of an improved bottom line with an optimal occupancy rate!

In this is the age of price-wars driven by dynamic pricing, necessitating a robust system for demand forecasting. Instead of availability of rooms, now the revenue manager’s strategy drives bookings. This includes integrated channel distribution management and pricing techniques.

In addition, as discussed earlier, occupancy is not the priority for a higher bottom line anymore as other factors such as ADR and RevPAR directly contribute to it.

[rategain-blog]

The degree of rate parity observed for hotels in the USA between brand websites and the OTAs show variation by location in the following report.

RATE PARITY PERFORMANCE REPORT NOVEMBER 2017 — USA

Where does your city stand?

3 — Star Hotels: All 12 cities had less than 10% of hotels in parity out of 12 cities surveyed

4 — Star Hotels: 8 cities had less than 10% of hotels in Parity out of 12 cities surveyed

5 — Star Hotels: 7 cities had less than 10% of hotels in Parity out of a total of 10 cities surveyed

3 Stars — 4 Stars — 5 Stars

Top 3 cities showing maximum instances of hotels in Parity

Toronto — 1.6%

Montreal — 2%

Chicago — 2.4%

Boston — 21 %

Toronto — 16%

Philadelphia — 12%

Houston — 40%

Las Vegas, Seattle — 20%

New York — 8%

Bottom 3 cities showing minimum instances of hotels in Parity

Philadelphia — 9.5%

New York — 8.9%

Las Vegas — 8.3%

Las Vegas — 0%

Miami — 1.5%

Seattle — 3%

Montreal, Vancouver — 0%

Chicago, Los Angeles — 0%

Philadelphia — 0%

Top 3 cities showing instances of cases where prices on Hotel Brand Website was lower vs OTAs

Vancouver — 27.5%

Los Angeles — 24%

Houston — 22%

New York — 30%

Los Angeles — 27%

Montreal — 24%

Vancouver — 100%

Boston — 68%

Montreal — 50%

Bottom 3 cities showing lower instances of cases where prices on Hotel Brand Website was lower vs OTAs

New York — 9.51%

Boston — 12%

Montreal — 14%

Vancouver — 7%

Toronto — 9.6%

Seattle — 10%

Chicago, Houston — 0%

Seattle — 0%

Philadelphia, Las Vegas — 20%

Top 3 cities showing instances of cases where prices on OTAs was lower vs Hotel Brand Website

Montreal — 84%

Toronto — 83%

Boston — 82%

Vancouver — 90%

Seattle — 87%

Houston — 78%

Chicago — 100%

Philadelphia, Seattle — 80%

Los Angeles — 64%

Bottom 3 cities showing lower instances of cases where prices on OTAs was lower vs Hotel Brand Website

Vancouver — 67 %

Los Angeles — 70%

Houston — 71%

Los Angeles — 64%

Boston — 65%

New York — 66%

Vancouver — 0%

Boston — 28%

New York — 45%

Let us take a look at the parity tables (shown below) for 3-star, 4-star and 5-star hotels in USA

Click here to view full image

Click here to view full image

Click here to view full image

Disclaimer: The above data is indicative in nature and RateGain can’t be held liable for its accuracy or usefulness for any purpose.

To find out more about our rate parity solutions, please visit our website.

Originally published at rategain.com on December 4, 2017.

[rategain-blog]

Online Reputation Management (ORM) may sound a trivial or additional activity to the most hotels, but that is where they start to limit their growth prospects especially direct bookings. ORM is as necessary as marketing or I will go to an extent to saying part of marketing in this highly connected jungle of review websites and social media. One negative review and sentiment can turn the direction of winds against your hotel, no matter how good the hotel must have performed until date. That is why it is imperative that hotels have a full control of their online reputation on all possible platforms and maintain healthy relationship with past and prospective customers. Having said this, of course your service remains the primary ingredient for curating a high rating and positive reviews. This is no second thought that stellar reputation over the internet not only helps hotels to retain growth, attract new customers but also charge a premium over their comp-set. This statement is also supported by Cornell University in their research.

Studies have proved that 61% of all hotel guests claimed that they would not book a hotel without checking reviews of the hotel. And 40% of these guests revealed that they checked reviews on more than one website before zeroing in on a hotel. Online reviews are not only a prime indicator of guest satisfaction but also a marketing avenue to drive more customers.

Therefore, it is utmost necessary for hotels to improve and maintain amazing ratings on all major review sites and disseminate their good ratings on as many review platforms so that more and more prospective guests become aware of the credibility and performance of the hotel.

Thankfully, there are online reputation management tools that allow hoteliers to keep full control over their online reputation on myriad of review websites including social media channels. These tools allow hoteliers to find negative comments and sentiments about their hotel over the internet, allowing them to respond instantly and effectively before they propagate to do greater damage.

Hoteliers should ensure that no negative review or comment goes unaddressed and gets resolved in the best capacity of the hotel. Hotels should make up for their fault/mistake by offering discounts and vouchers for customer's next trip. However, owning incorrect reviews and apologising when not at fault is not recommended. You should provide necessary justification for any invalid reviews in a gentle and humble tone.

Modern reputation management tools integrate with Guest Survey Tools that enables hoteliers to send out emails to guests once they have checked out and collect their reviews. This system not only collects reviews but also allows the guest to post these reviews to Google and review sites like TripAdvisor seamlessly. This feature makes sure that more and more reviews go online increasing hotel's reputation thus, driving more demand for direct booking. More the reviews, higher the average rating. Large number of positive reviews can easily absorb few negative ones. But, that does not mean hotels need not address those. Every negative review must be handled and addressed on priority otherwise, it may turn fatal in the times to come. ORM tools help you set goals and track them till end to improve on your weak areas.

It is time that hotels realize that ORM is more than a fire fighting strategy to handle negative sentiments but rather take it as an effective measure to build a name for their brand. Reputation management is a long term strategy that generates long lasting benefits both monetary and psychological. ORM tools have evolved and will continue to evolve to help hotels maintain a stellar reputation over the internet.

Content Source - http://www.sooperarticles.com/business-articles/strategic-management-articles/online-reputation-management-tools-not-option-but-mandate-1619584.html