Experts respond and arrive at a consensus: hotel distribution will not change significantly over the next year.
During the week of FITUR, high-level representatives of the sector speak with Juanda Núñez, editor and founder of Smart Travel News: Pablo Delgado, Managing Director and CEO AME at Mirai; Patricia Rosselló, Founder and CEO at Roibos; Martín Aleixandre, CCO at Fuerte Group; Mariona Bragulat, Sales Senior Director for Spain and Portugal at AMADEUS; and Miguel Trías, Senior Industry Manager for Travel at Google.
Pablo Delgado, from Mirai began the discussion by asserting that he does not expect the distribution paradigm to change significantly by 2023. However, he strongly affirms that hotels have a great deal of work to do, particularly in terms of loyalty and distribution costs, as they will skyrocket and hoteliers are not fully aware of this.
The CCO of Fuerte Group, Martin Aleixandre, stated: “We see a recovery in the direct sales caused by the pandemic.” Contrary to Pablo, Martín Aleixandre perceives from his position at Fuerte Group that distribution costs have decreased compared to 2019, “now we may be better trained, and we have more and better technology that makes our jobs easier”. Regarding customer loyalty, Pablo stated, “if I don’t have a contactable lead, it’s useless”. But talking about the future of distribution and 2023, however “I do not anticipate any major changes or big revolutions in the near future“.
Differentiating on distribution, Patricia Rosselló, Founder and CEO of Roibos, commented: “There is B2B and there is B2C. In the B2B distribution channels. I observe a significant shift in the B2B approach. In the B2B world, where traditionally there have been many intermediaries and everything has been ambiguous, many platforms, distribution marketplaces that offer transparency, are emerging. These new marketplaces are democratic and transparent; you can choose the rules of the game and you know with whom you are working. I propose revolutionising the costs of B2B for more cost-effective distribution“.
Meanwhile Mariona Bragulat, Sales Senior Director for Spain and Portugal at AMADEUS,discussed the technology used by hotels: “I would like to move away from the term costs and instead discuss investment: investment in data and cutting-edge technology, understanding the customer journey. There are many players and a lot of technology, it is important that hoteliers (from large chains to holiday apartments) know what platforms there are”.
Miquel Trías, Senior Industry Manager for Travel at Google, talked about the most widespread metasearch engine in the West: “Our metasearch engine has grown a lot. During the pandemic, we were able to adapt to demand by lowering entry barriers, so that any hotel could be integrated into our metasearch engine and so that the user would have the entire offer available there”.
Miquel explained how they work with hoteliers: “In the pandemic years, when hotels were looking for more bookings and more through their direct channel, hoteliers wanted the same rules of the game as other distribution channels. For the small chains, they could start to afford the investment in automation and machine learning, narrowing the gap with the big chains. At that point, we can start to talk about the democratisation of distribution, in which case technology partners are key.”
Speaking of the impact Google has had on the sector, Pablo Delgado of Mirai added: “It has 84% of the share of the entire metasearch. You have to be there no matter what, as it is the leader in the Western world (Europe and the US), even if there are others like Tripadvisor.”
On the subject of distribution, Pablo commented: “I am not in favour of open distribution, but limited. It is only convenient to open if it offers incrementality or is at a lower cost. If it is a channel that gives you opacity, I would reject it. Rather than thinking about channels, I would recommend thinking about the audience I want to reach, and goals are a great source of direct traffic. Eighty percent of the channels that hotels have can be closed, and it would not affect them at all”.
In response to Pablo Delgado’s statement about open distribution, Martín Aleixandre of Fuerte Group adds “the more partners you have, the more difficult it is to control, but the risk of not having it can be worse”. Patricia Rosselló of Roibos also differs on the issue: “you have to have a plan B if a company like Booking raises my price from 15% to 20%, I advocate diversification and distribution”.
Miquel from Google concluded the session talking about how Artificial Intelligence helps the client focus on profitability and return, and not on keywords and campaigns. “With predictive models, we can predict the cancellation rate. Today, hotels can be more profitable and capture more sales”.
