Delving into the realm of hospitality innovation, we sit down with Marco Baurdoux, CEO of Hotel-Spider. With roots dating back to 2002, Hotel-Spider has been committed to simplifying online distribution for a diverse global clientele. In this conversation, we gain valuable insights into Hotel-Spider's vision, technological progress, and collaborative initiatives that are shaping the hospitality landscape.
Can you provide an overview of Hotel-Spider? What is the company's mission and vision? How do you help hoteliers?
Hotel-Spider founded in 2002. Head office is located in Nyon, Switzerland with other offices in other countries. (Berlin, New Delhi). We have +50 Employees from multiple backgrounds. 1000+ clients rely on us to empower their distribution, +100 PMS connectivity, +120 OTA connectivity connections.
Mission: At Hotel-Spider, we offer hotel-oriented online marketing services, tools and know-how that accommodation providers need to manage, automate and optimize their online distribution. We believe that technology and constantly changing regulations shouldn't cause hoteliers unnecessary headaches. Our dedication to customer success means our clients have more time to focus on what they do best: welcoming, serving and delighting their guests.
Vision: We want to make it easy for every hotel to effectively market and sell their rooms online. To us, this means offering a state-of-the-art hotel distribution platform, innovating continuously, sharing our know-how and regularly updating and expanding the hotel-oriented services we offer. Being fair, transparent and flexible with our partners and clients is a given for us. That’s how we’ve become a trusted partner to hoteliers around the world. And that’s how we plan to keep serving current and future clients.
In a rapidly evolving technological landscape, what sets Hotel-Spider apart from other competitors in the industry? how does Hotel-Spider ensure that its products remain innovative and up-to-date?
Technology does indeed evolve extremely fast. For that reason, we are migrating and adapting our entire platform to a global public cloud provider. It will allow us to focus on our core strengths: providing solutions to the hospitality industry.
As I mentioned just before, we focus on our core strengths which are, on one hand, managing availabilities, booking restrictions or policies as well as price structures, even very complex price structures. On the other hand, we centralize reservations/modifications/cancellations, standardize them so that they can be seamlessly and completely transmitted to the hotel’s PMS. At Hotel-Spider we are always looking for ways to improve our solutions. That’s why we are continuously updating our solutions.
Managing distribution channels and optimizing both online and direct bookings can be challenging for hoteliers.
Could you provide a detailed explanation on how Hotel-Spider's comprehensive solution addresses these challenges and empowers hotels to enhance their direct booking strategies?
Hotel-Spider's solution addresses these challenges through a multi-faceted approach:
Firstly, we provide seamless connectivity to facilitate direct reservations. Our mobile-first web booking engine is a pivotal component of the Hotel-Spider distribution platform.
Secondly, we simplify integration on the hotel's website, streamlining the guest's ability to initiate a reservation.
Thirdly, we enhance the hotel's visibility across multiple Meta search channels, including Google, resulting in a significant boost in direct reservations.
Fourthly, data plays a crucial role. We continually monitor the conversion rate of our booking engine and conduct regular A/B tests to identify innovative ways to enhance its performance.
Lastly, our solution enables hoteliers to effortlessly manage intricate price structures with derivation possibilities. For instance, the base price can be imported from the PMS to Hotel-Spider, which then automatically adds a mark-up for OTA listings.
This comprehensive approach empowers hotels to overcome challenges and strategically enhance their direct booking strategies, driving growth and success in a competitive landscape.
Can you elaborate on how Hotel-Spider's cloud-based online distribution system helps hotels manage their online presence more effectively? What specific features and tools does it offer for online marketing?
Our cloud-based distribution system is designed to streamline online presence management for hotels. We excel in centralizing online distribution channels, consolidating them into a unified platform. This eliminates the need for managing multiple platforms for channel management, booking engines, meta-search partners, and GDS partners.
By distributing across a range of channels, hotels benefit from an increased billboard effect, enhancing their visibility to potential guests.
While our core strength lies in online distribution, we are currently exploring ideas for direct online marketing solutions. While it's premature to provide specific details at this stage, we are committed to evolving our offerings to further support hotels in their online marketing endeavors.
Can you discuss the decision to integrate Hotel-Spider with HyperGuest?
At Hotel-Spider, our quest for new avenues to enhance reservations is ongoing. HyperGuest introduced an innovative approach to streamline room sales, aligning well with our objectives. It was evident that integrating HyperGuest into our channels was a strategic choice, enriching the options we provide to our valued clientele.
