The Botanique Hotel

Brazil opened on November 1^st 2012 the Botanique Hotel and Spa in the hills of Campos do Jordao. This luxury modern designed hotel that offers only Brazilian services but not any kind of services, reinvented services! For example, instead a cellar with thousands of wines, only Brazilian labels are proposed. There are no front desk, no concierge service, no housekeeping department, your stay will be followed by a ”Curador da Experiencias”, namely an “experiences guardian”, instead of an outsourced horse ride, backride on one the horse of the private stables, you will find Brazilian books in the library, Brazilians stews at the restaurant, Brazilian treatments at the Spa and of course, the design is purely Brazilian too! If you are searching for a relaxing stay surrounded by wild nature, silence and comfort on over 280 hectares, this is your hotel!

It is amazing how Brazilian hotel industry has burst in the past year. Of course the country is preparing itself for the FIFA World Cup of 2014 and The Olympic Games of 2016. At the beginning the trend was too learn the European know-how and the European experience and to make European-style hotels. One could think that it is normal in a globalize world to have a standardized hospitality, like any other product or service, equal or very similar in each country. But now, the Brazilian industry has understood that it can and must create its own hospitality. They have the means and they have the potential and this hotel is the perfect example!

The fact that all services and products are local adds a sustainable aspect to the hotel. Ultimately, it has it all! What comes up in my mind is just: Europe, prepare for high quality standards of Brazilian hospitality!

Study: How Guests Select Hotels Around The World?

Apparently, the first reason why travelers select a hotel is because of its location. Follows the price and past experience.

Other factors are a friend’s recommendation, the brand’s reputation, the role of promotions, the power of loyalty programs and the impact that online reviews have on hotel selection.

The ranking seems to me quite surprising as we can tend to think that with all the digital presence and the SOLOMO development of hotels, the first factor would be the brand’s reputation or other guests’ experiences.

This study could allow hotels to rethink about different ways to appeal to guests but it seems that they have already understood them.

It seems to me that there is a contradiction. Either they haven’t done the survey to the right segment of population, either the answers were incomplete.

However I suppose this can be a lesson to hotels that do not depend on their location but that in order to face their competitors and increase their booking have to promote themselves better and increase their visibility…

To conclude, in my opinion, this study is not a very revailing one. But may be I am wrong and market trends are different.

McDonald's Games Comparison

McDonald's Games Comparison

SoLoMo

SoLoMo from vstephanieb

Presentation by Guillaume CHABRIER, Miguel MEDEIROS and Stephanie VALENZUELA. Case Study: Small Business Saturday

Booking.com: Your Worst Best Friend?

Booking.com now claims to be the number one online hotel reservation service in the World, and its flat commission model has been replaced by one of bidding for position on the first page of a destination, with hotels paying over 20% in commission to be on the first page.

Hotels might be receiving significant revenue from the reservations that are made through the site, but if they depend on Booking.com for their reservations, they have little bargaining power

That’s why hoteliers have with Booking.com a love-hate relationship. They are unpleased by Booking.com’s attitude to be the reservations leader but they can’t do without it as it really sells too much! “Many consumers consider that all hotels are on booking.com, at least all that matter”. The paradox here is that clients adore Booking.com and hoteliers detest it and that is what link Booking.com and hoteliers.

I have worked with Booking.com and it is unbelievable how they can be so persistent on their aims! They never give up! And unfortunately there is nothing you can do to avoid it because you need them. My manager even went to establish a price ridiculously high on the last room available in the hotel so to sell it directly instead of selling it on Booking.com. The relationship becomes really cynic.

But Booking.com’s influence can be balanced by hotel digital marketing. And the most important actions I believe are to have a great looking website as the majority of consumers prefer to book directly with the property (in the hotel I worked, this was the case) and to diversify the channels of reservation choosing the ones most relevant to the hotel’s segment. In this particular hotel there were not really implementing this and as it was an independent boutique hotel, in my opinion it could have been a good idea to get the hotel listed on mrandmrssmith.com for example.

So, to conclude, I would say that Booking.com is an inevitable partner of any kind of hotel (in fact, the hotel cited was one of the first to enter on Booking.com within all the hotels in the region) but, its sales can be abated, replacing them by other booking channels but most importantly, by trying to increase direct bookings.

SoLoMo Case Study: Louis Vuitton and Jeipang

Louis vuitton case study from vstephanieb

Louis Vuitton Brand page on Jiepang Louis Vuitton offers Checkins to fashion lovers in China

Increasing Direct Bookings - Sharing Ideas

Group:
Stéphanie Valenzuela
Benoît Poirier
Alexis Sananikone
Aurore Bruna

Key points:

• Multiple methods of payment when booking on the site
• Offer complimentary incentives/discounts when booking on the site
• Develop the portfolio of languages to make it accessible to a larger number of future guests (especially in order to address emergent markets such as China, Russia, Brasil...)
• Create a mobile site
• Develop a regional platform of booking with other hotels in order to reduce booking costs