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Roiback’s new booking engine designed with accessibility in mind
Roiback has announced the development of what it believes is the first fully accessible booking engine in Europe. Created in conjunction with Ilunion Technology and Accessibility the system was launched in partnership with Ilunion, but is now also available for other hotels that benefit from Roiback’s booking engine. The engine has been designed to improve the user experience of people with any physical, visual or hearing disability, and incorporates multiple functionalities that allow to increase hotels’ profitability. “Value for society, especially towards people with disabilities” The accessible version of Backhotel 5.0 offers new facilities, including keyboard navigation through all reservation steps. and has been adapted to be compatible with support products for visually impaired people, such as screen readers. Fonts of different sizes, colours and backgrounds have also been added so that anyone with visual impairment can adjust it with zoom tools or high contrasts on Windows to provide a clear and organised data structure and reservation form which helps to follow the process. "At Roiback we understand Corporate Social Responsibility as the aspiration to business excellence, within a framework of inclusive and sustainable development, and aimed at creating value for society, especially towards people with disabilities," explained Rebeca Gonzalez, managing director of Roiback. "We are very proud to have been able to work on this project together with the hotel chain Ilunion, and we are looking forward that our other customers may benefit from the improvements offered by our booking engine." The project was developed to address different types of disabilities such as physical muscular or motor problems; auditory or visual sensory problems, either with visual loss or total blindness, as well as intellectual and cognitive difficulties such as dyslexia, Down syndrome or autism.
Roiback: 50% of mobile searches to come through voice tech by 2020
The increase in mobile traffic and the importance of meta-searchers are some of the challenges that the hotel industry must face in order to enhance its direct channel and be able to respond to an always connected user. This was all revealed at an event held at The Pyramid Grand Hotel in Cancun (Mexico) and organized by Roiback, specialist the management of hotel direct sales, together with Google and industry representatives, such as Atelier de Hoteles, Tafer Hotels & Resorts, Axovia and Odentio. The event, which brought together more than 100 attendees from mainly hotels and companies in the tourism sector in Mexico and Latin America, started with the presentation of Fernando Cotera, strategic partner manager at Google, who carried out analysis on how the ecosystem is changing and the impact on hoteliers said: "The consumer is curious, demanding and impatient: only 1 in 4 travellers will book with a brand that has a slow website through mobile and 92% of travellers who use mobile will switch to another site or app if it does not meet their needs". Cotera went on to add: "Every second of delay in the loading time means 7% less in the conversion rate, so we work hand in hand with Roiback to ensure a better mobile channel experience." "20% of mobile searches come through voice searches" Toni Omañas, head of global sales at Roiback, emphasised that only through innovation and technology will the sector be able to face the current context, with the OTAs dominating the market and the important weight of the mobile channel and meta-searchers. "You (hoteliers) already have at your disposal the same technology as the OTAs and you have access to the same knowledge with the advantage that you are at the destination and you manage the business that they commercialise." Omañas also pointed out: "Currently 20% of mobile searches come through voice searches and it is expected that by 2020, in the United States, this percentage will reach 50%."
Roiback: “A regular and loyal customer is much more profitable”
Loyalty programs have become indispensable for a good direct sales strategy — as confirmed by the latest findings of Roiback, a specialist in direct sales management. According to the Mallorcan tech company, loyal customers spend on average 22.4% more than sporadic customers and have longer stays (almost 30%). Year after year, their spending grows, buying 10 times more during their life cycle than a new customer. Roiback also noted that a repetition rate of 5% can triple the annual growth of a company and raise its profits up to 25% per year. “A regular and loyal customer is much more profitable” “To get a new client is increasingly expensive and, for this reason, a regular and loyal customer is much more profitable. But the client is usually not faithful and there is currently a struggle by the OTAs and the large hotel chains to get to him. “The key issue is to offer direct benefits to loyalty program’s customers that favour direct sales, in comparison with other channels, and then build communication strategies focused on strengthen loyalty and to make the client repeat," commented Rebeca González, managing director of Roiback. What loyalty means According to Roiback, a loyalty program has to be simple, it must add value, satisfy and surprise the consumer and, above all, it has to be personalised for each client. The company saw that very few medium-sized hotel chains are in the market and almost no independent hotels had this type of program. For that reason, it decided to launch Loyalty Pro. "A loyalty program within the direct channel" González explained: “Our main goal with Loyalty Pro is to design a solution that allows to have a loyalty program within the direct channel, offering advantages and benefits to customers. Afterwards, we have incorporated the integration of different CRMs that complement our solution and that allow to continue with the communications and loyalty strategy with the client.” Furthermore, Roiback underlined the potential offered by loyalty programs when making real reservations through voice searches. Currently, 20% of the searches through mobile devices come through voice controls and it is expected that, by 2020, this percentage will reach 50% in the United States.
Roiback and Travel Compositor partner to help hoteliers offer combined packages
Direct sales solutions provider, Roiback, has partnered with the software company, Travel Compositor, to launch a new integration that allows hoteliers to offer combined packages of hotel, flights and trains through their website. Designed to respond to the hotel clients that also need to purchase for the journey – and as an alternative to flight and accommodation packages, the new product is a cross-selling solution that offers other ancillary services such as car rental, excursions, transfers or tickets. The solution bypasses packages that are usually sold by tour operators and has multiple benefits for hoteliers. It allows both independent hotels and hotel chains to increase their income since more potential customers are reached through the direct channel and an additional income is obtained through the selling of ancillary services. Additionally, costs are reduced through the integration of the sale process with the CRS (Central Reservation System) and the optimisation of the resources used by the hotel. "Using the OTAs to offer this solution often requires hotels to sacrifice their income" Leonardo Llorente, product and innovation director at Roiback, said: "Booking a flight and a hotel at the same time through an OTA is already something common in the market. However, using the OTAs to offer this solution often requires hotels to sacrifice their income by offering significant discounts on their standard rates. At the same time, implies an increase in their dependence and the loss of control on their distribution, since the ‘opaque’ rates are often used by OTAs in the sale of Room Only.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdDxYSfzJeQ "The hotelier has full control of the packaged rates" "With this new proposal, Roiback allows offering through the hotel’s direct channel an integrated and competitive web solution for those customers who need to purchase a combined package of accommodation and transport. The hotelier has full control of the packaged rates he wants to sell through his direct channel and also offers an added service to the client, who will not have to go to another website to book the flight,” added Llorente. This new product uses the ‘packetisation’ technology of Travel Compositor, which also includes the multi-destination engine option for medium and large chains. It offers two payment methods for the client: full payment in advance, or a new formula that allows paying an online deposit in advance and the rest upon arrival at the hotel. The Spanish hotelier BCN Urban Hotels has been the first chain to benefit from this new solution that is already available on their website www.bcnurbanhotels.com. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIneOSdjFzo Llorente concluded: “It is important to highlight that this solution is being strengthened since some large hotel chains have begun to offer it directly on their direct channel, which means the final customer is slowly getting used to searching for flight and hotel packages directly on the hotels' websites".
Lopesan Hotel Group and Roiback sign collaboration deal to push direct booking channel
Eduardo Gómez de la Mata, head of e-commerce at Lopesan Hotel Group (leftmost) stands with his team and delegates from Roiback Lopesan and Roiback have signed a collaboration agreement to push hotel sales. By improving its web and distribution solutions in the direct booking channel, the Lopesan Hotel Group has partnered with Roiback, a specialist in managing hotels’ direct sales channels. Eduardo Gómez de la Mata, head of e-commerce at Lopesan Hotel Group, said: "The decision to strengthen our website and our hotel distribution systems has led us to firmly bet on Roiback, as it is a leader in the sector and has shown full involvement and support with the project from day one." Roiback’s booking engine called BackHotel 4.5 is already working on Lopesan’s website and a total of 21 hotels in the Canary Islands, Germany, Austria and the Dominican Republic are already benefiting from this upgrade. Screenshot from https://www.lopesan.com The integration of the booking engine simplifies its use and facilitates the consumer’s decision to purchase. It offers a brief and flexible booking process wherein the page shows the availability per hotel, as well as alternative dates in case the rooms are occupied on the selected days. It also offers options in other hotels of the chain based on the user's previous searches such as the location, star category or services. Aside from the booking search engine, Lopesan Hotel Group has also announced the creation and implementation of a website for the group’s hotel project that’s currently being developed in the tourist area of Playa Bávaro, in the Dominican Republic. Lopesan Costa Bávaro The future five-star Lopesan Costa Bávaro resort will have more than 1,000 rooms and will be the first hotel marketed under the Lopesan brand in the country. Promotions for the hotel will already begin through the website, long before its scheduled opening in the summer of 2019. "We are convinced that the results will be magnificent" Rebeca Gonzalez, managing director at Roiback, has highlighted the importance of the agreement with Lopesan Hotel Group: "It is a real privilege for Roiback to have been chosen as a strategic partner by Lopesan Hotel Group, one of the most important chains in Spain and with a clear international projection. “We are already working together to improve and increase their online business and we are convinced that the results will be magnificent."
BackHotel Lite – Roiback pocket booking engine already present in five countries
BackHotel Lite, the new simplified version of Roiback’s booking engine for small chains and independent hotels, is already being used in five countries worldwide: Spain, Mexico, Indonesia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. Booking engine BackHotel Lite, was born with the objective to offer small chains and independent hotels a simpler and more affordable version of BackHotel, an already successful engine in hotel direct channel booking management. This simplified version has been tailored to suit the needs of these hotels, whilst maintaining the essence and technology of Roiback’s BackHotel engine, renowned for its high conversion rate, an extensive background in the management of large volume bookings and the experience and technology of a leading company in the sector. The pocket edition version of BackHotel stands out for its simplicity, both for bookings (which can be made with only three clicks) and its quick implementation (it can be fully integrated into the hotel's website in only a few days). The booking system configuration (CRS) is intuitive and incorporates a high level of personalization. It has a series of modules or add-ons that enlarge the engine functionalities, that means, they complement and customize it depending on the specific needs of each hotel. Rebeca Gonzalez, managing director of Roiback (above), highlights: “BackHotel Lite was launched to give an answer to a specific market demand and to cover the needs of those small chains and independent hotels whom were seeking for leading-edge solutions with a guarantee of success and adapted to their financial possibilities as well as to its resources and time availability”. She adds: “We believe that in the upcoming months the presence of BackHotel Lite among this kind of properties will not be missed”. The feedback of those hoteliers who are already using BackHotel Lite is very positive. They are already very pleased with the sales results through the direct channel and they also highlight the optimal attention received before, during and after the implementation of the booking engine. María Rodríguez, manager of Aparthotel La Vall Blanca, in Vielha (Lleida, Spain), stated: “Only during the week after the implementation of BackHotel Lite, a significant increase in direct bookings has been generated in our website. The agility, the transparency in the information that our clients receive and the confidence that they are booking at the best price, are just some of the values we are benefiting from, and for this reason, we are very satisfied." Click here for more information.
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