TripAdvisor, one of the world’s largest travel websites, have revealed a new online platform designed to enable independent hotels to access services previously only available to major online travel agencies, booking engines and hotel chains.
Scheduled for launch in late 2013, TripAdvisor Connect will give hotel owners and operators the ability to manage their own online promotion with access to simple online tools that help them analyse their advertising results. User reviews of hotels will also be encouraged through automated post-stay review collection emails via an internet booking engine.
TripAdvisor’s vice president of direct connect solutions Jean-Charles Lacoste said: “Major online travel agencies and hotel chains have been able to bid for traffic on TripAdvisor for many years and we have provided channels for review collection. Now, TripAdvisor Connect will provide automated and self-managed versions of these services to hundreds of thousands of independent hotels and B&Bs.”
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To be eligible to participate, hotel owners must be TripAdvisor Business Listing subscribers and must provide TripAdvisor with real-time room availability and the ability to book online via a certified internet booking engine.
Julio Bruno, TripAdvisor’s global vice president of sales and TripAdvisor for business said: “Business Listings subscribers have asked us to provide the same real time pricing and availability check that previously only larger businesses have used. Through TripAdvisor Connect, subscribers will now be able to use the full suite of promotional services and track their advertising spend. This means that the even the smallest guesthouse will have the same visibility as a large hotel chain, and they can manage their promotions themselves from their Management Centre.”
“Hoteliers frequently ask us how they can improve their ranking on TripAdvisor. The answer is simply to remind guests to write a review. Reviews are an essential part of building a great online reputation. With TripAdvisor Connect, we’ve automated the process of sending a reminder to write a review after a guest checks out,” added Bruno.
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