Last day of the Direct Booking Summit 2018: Book direct and get a Porsche! — Photo by Triptease
Direct Booking Summit

Direct Booking Summit Europe 2018: Day 1

Since the crack of dawn hundreds of hoteliers have been arriving in Amsterdam to join us for one of the biggest hospitality events of this summer - the Direct Booking Summit. Today, the participants were treated to insightful panel discussions and presentations on the hottest topics in the hospitality industry centring on Distribution, Marketing and Technology. The participants were welcomed by Charlie Osmond, Chief Tease of Triptease, who pointed out that personalization is the ultimate trend among hotels today. He asked gathered hoteliers whether they will be proactive or reactive in taking ownership of their own distribution, setting the mood for today's discussions. Later, he came back on the stage to speak about digital hotel experience, emphasising once again to delegates that hoteliers need to be thinking about the guest experience from the very first search all the way through to post-stay.

Distribution

Charlie was followed by Geoff Andrew, CEO at WorldHotels, whose presentation 'Brand of one: How can an independent hotel compete against large chains?' shed light on performance solutions approach (also known as "the principle of starting with WHY"). ""No one wants to have the slogan, 'beautiful but boring,'" Geoff told delegates. "Make the most of your hotel's unique DNA."

Click here for Day 1 Recap

Direct Booking Summit Europe 2018: Day 2

Day one and the grandest party in Direct Booking Summit history are behind us, and we are eager to share the exciting agenda we prepared for the participants on the second day.

Our Clinics didn't provide aspirin (sorry!), but they offered hoteliers the chance to take part in practical workshops to discuss and design solutions to drive direct bookings. Sounds good, doesn't it?

Having the participants' interests in mind, we split the Clinics into various options which the hoteliers could easily mix and match during the second day of the summit.

During the morning, Clinic A, led by Alejandro Gomez Losada, Sr. Vice President of Sales Europe & Latin America in RateGain, was concerned with hotel revenue leakage. Alejandro suggested mastering the customer journey today, starting with considering basic (but frequently overlooked) digital tactics, such as online booking help or urgent messaging options. Afterwards, Danica Davis, Product Specialist at ReviewPro, led another workshop exploring the topic of turning guest insights into operations improving actions. Danica highlighted the importance of guest experience: 85% of traffic revealed that hotel guests choose one hotel over another solely based on the General Manager's response to reviews.

Clinic B, led by Darryl Walker, Head of eCommerce and Distribution in SACO The Serviced Apartment Company, worked out the problem of driving direct booking in destination marketing. It was followed by an insightful workshop on Google Analytics managed by Barbara Pezzi, Freelance Digital Consultant & Former Director Analytics and Search in Fairmont Raffles Hotels International.

Click here for Day 2 Recap

About Triptease

Triptease is a SaaS startup building industry-leading software for the hotel industry. The company was co-founded in 2015 by Charlie Osmond, Alasdair Snow and Alexandra Zubko and has offices in London, New York, Barcelona and Singapore. Triptease's most recent funding was led by British Growth Fund alongside Notion Capital and Episode 1.

The Triptease Platform is built to help hotels take back control of their distribution and increase their direct revenue. The platform identifies a hotel's most valuable guests then works across the entire customer journey - from acquisition to conversion - to make sure they book directly at the hotel.