Global Hotel Alliance holds first CEO meeting in India
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Global Hotel Alliance (GHA) held its first CEO meeting in India at the Leela Palace Bangalore in January. The CEOs of its ten member brands gathered for their bi-annual meeting to make plans for what they all expect to be a tough year for the hotel industry.
GHA’s CEO, Chris Hartley, believes that the difficult trading environment is forcing more independent hotel groups to analyse their technology and distribution strategy and costs.
“When times are good, rates are high and customers are queuing at the door, many luxury brands simply don’t bother analysing distribution costs and they’re happy to pay third parties US$50 or US$60 a booking, or 25% commission, without asking any questions”, said Hartley. “When rates are forced lower and margins start getting squeezed, you have to look at ways to reduce these costs, while still keeping all revenue channels open. As a non-profit organisation, working purely for its members benefit, GHA is able to bring distribution costs down to wholesale levels, while sharing the resources of our member brands to drive incremental revenue opportunities. This has to be the perfect business model for smaller brands looking to survive this crisis,” Hartley concluded.
In 2008 GHA claims to have bucked the trend by using customised Micros-Fidelio technology to boost CRS revenues by on average 10% for member brands.
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