Greeting them on this occasion is a pleasure.
From this edition I will be accompanying you as editor of HOTEL MANAGEMENT and at my side will be Vanesa Restrepo, deputy editor of the publication.
2008 and 2009 were two years that worried and put in check both the hotel and travel industries. The financial situation caused more than one company or hotel to decline, even making the decision to close.
Today we can see how the panorama has improved and travelers, corporate and tourist returned. According to the latest report by STR (Smith Travel Research) on hospitality in the U.S. In the U.S. for the first week of March 2011, the three measurements (occupancy, ADR and RevPar) grew during those seven days, a trend that has been going on since the end of 2010, since the report for the Americas last January shows that the highest occupancy occurred in San Francisco, Buenos Aires and Sao Paulo.
We also see a change in the mentality and actions of travelers. Trips planned long in advance are few, now most people search the Internet for the best deals or wait for them to arrive through their mail and then enter to have them.
We have changed (the hotel industry in general). We are more digital; travelers like to enter websites to select hotels and rooms on their own after seeing the images, than to do it by another means without knowing where they will arrive.
It's amazing how online bookings have increased. To give an example, I cite the case of NH Hoteles: in 2010 the hotel chain had a 40% increase in these procedures on the Internet, which is why it will implement a new system to manage this type of services.
Now my question: how much demand are the reservation systems for hotels in Latin America? Do we have digital guests?
I know that many hotels have this system, either on their website, on the website of the chain or group to which it belongs or through distribution channels, but others have not entered this trend and are surely losing a valuable number of new guests.
I would like to know your opinion. I invite you to write to me [email protected]
