A quick overview of the Hotel Tonight application

For those who don’t know about Hotel Tonight, the hotel booking application , let me present you this useful smartphone application that can help guests as well as hoteliers in the booking process.

Created on the beginning of 2011, in the United States, Hotel Tonight is the pionneer of hotel bookings on mobile phone.Indeed, the application is used by more than 3.5 million people. With a presence in over 60 cities in the U.S, Hotel Tonight  is continuing his expansion in 10 European cities such as Paris, Nice,Amsterdam and Brussels.

Available on Iphone, Ipad and Android in French, German, Italian  and Spanish.

 The application is free on the Apple Store and Google Play.

 

How does it works ?

 

Hotel Tonight offers a selection of the best hotels; every day, from noon to 2 in the morning, three big deals are proposed to you in order to book a hotel in last minute and this in less than 10 seconds.

The application allows to book hotel room thanks to personalized offers according to the profile of each user: his localization, his preferences and his budget.

You will not have to check on tons of websites for finding information and comments on hotels. Thus, the main objective of this application is to ease the long preparation time of a travel.

At this moment, the application covers more than 70 destinations such as New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, London, Miami, Chicago, San Francisco or Las Vegas to name a few.

 

How an hotelier can use this application ?

 

This application can be used as a complementary distribution channel  which will help hotel managers to acquire new customers and increase revenue. We can notice that there is none inscription fees or obligation of commitment, this is a good point for hoteliers . Hotel Tonight is paid on performance  with a commission on each reservation. The company has 1500 partners worldwide, for instance in  France, several luxury hotels work with Hotel Tonight. Le Burgundy, La Belle Juliette, Le Pavillon de la Reine or Jays in Paris, and in Nice the Hôtel Massena or the Boscolo Exedra.

 

To sum up, we have seen another time that  hotel managers can use mobile applications to promote their products and services in order to develop their sales. This application is very similar to french application that we have presented before, the VeryLastRoom.

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Case study on the Foursquare apps and its brand partnerships

           
                                         

The FOURSQUARE application contains the SoLoMo concept

Here is a short presentation of the Foursquare app  who gathers all the SoLoMo concepts.

Accor bets big on India !

The Accor group has decided to take a new direction in their global strategies betting on the Indian market . Indeed the CEO of the company, Denis Hannequin,  has noticed that the Accor brand has a feeble presence in this specific market. Eventhough a big part of his revenue comes from Europe, the group is willing to extend  its contribution in developping countries such as China and India.

As the european leader in the hospitality industry, Accor holds 4,400 hotels all over the world but only 15 of those are located in India. That is why Denis Hannequin plans to deploy 90 hotels during the years to come, in order to develop the whole brand portfolio in this country making it one of its  key markets.

Because of a fierce competition established by Indian hotel companies  in the luxury segment the company aims to be essentially on the mid-scale, economy and budget segments.

Thus Accor’s  Indian porfolio  will be made of 33 mid-scale hotels, 45 economic hotels and only 13 luxury hotels.

According to  Mister Hannequin, the company has thoroughly studied the indian market, understanding that the needs differ from occidental demand. Thereby Accor has adapted its offer to the local market, which will ensure its future success.

This move  in the accor's strategy show us that to keep a leader position a company has to be in a constant research of new markets and being innovative. And that India offers great opportunities for hotel companies desiring to acquire new market shares.

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The Yelp app will make you cool, sort of ...

Fastbooking

Steps for developing direct bookings for independent hotel

• An interactive Website: well-designed, relevant contents (information, image, video), online booking service, payment security, location tools, facebook/skype/twitter links 

• Create a mobile application with a "book now" option for all devices, describing your assets ( location, services, prices...)

• E-reputation and visibility : social media platforms, trip advisor, ranking (Google)

• Etablish a marketing strategy in focusing the communication through the best channels and right targets ( Newsletter, hot deals, loyalty programs)