BLYNK

BLYNK

Capabilities :

Blynk is a company that creates dedicated applications for hotels.  Blynk iHotel provides hospitality solutions to improve the guest experience by offering an interactive platform.

Indeed thanks to the application clients can discover the hotel and its services but also interact with the staff. They can for example order room service, be in direct relation with the concierge or address all kind of requests.  In terms of management this tool allows hoteliers to have a better control of the stay experience and to revolutionize and modernize their offer. They adapt  to customers needs and habits in terms of new web navigation and on mobile devices.

For the customers:

·         Hotel services: booking, spa, restaurant, pool..

·         Concierge

·         Shopping

·         Special offers: get information about the discounts of the hotel but also after the stay

·         Notification: about their requests and reservations status…

·         Other features:  weather, laundry, wake up call, express check out

For hotels:

·         Fast and easy set up

·         Live update

·         Customizable design

·         Track guest requests

·         Smart advertising

·         Real time resorts and statistics

·         Increase REVPAR

·         Optimize workforce

·         Improve work organization

Costs :

Blynk provides four different packages at different prices.

 

For each packages, different options are suggested:

- Setup & Usage

- Hotel CMS

- Hotel Marketing

- Guest experience

Different prices are setup according to the hotel inventory.

Example: for a hotel of more than 101 rooms, the package "Pro Unlimited" is requested at $299 per month and includes all the options above.

We can say that the prices are very attractive.

Impact:

Beyond the simple booking engine, the application is a real Customer Relationship Manager. It can durably increase the hotel revenues as clients have a simplest access to services. Blink will also improve employees way of working and thus their productivity and the quality of service.

The application will perfectly fit to hotels that are familiar with new devices and technologies like W hotels or Mama Shelter.

If I were a hotel, I would buy this app :  It increases the revenue and it allows the hoteliers to have a special relationship with the customers. It is like a virtual Guest Relation.  Nowadays people a looking for such applications so I really think hotels should invest in this kind of tools.

Crowdsourcing: Increase Direct Booking ( team work)

Best Ideas to increase direct Booking

Optimize your presence online

-          Well designed and attractive website

-          Good referencing

-          Online community (social media)

-          E-reputation (tripadvisor)

-          Online booking (platform, links..)

-          Get free or charged direct links to your website on bloggers, tourism offices..

Pricing strategy

-          Differentiate from other channels (distribution channels) by including for the same price more services ex : BB , museum, chocolate, transports….

-          Create attractive  and originals packages  adapted to all kind of clientele

-          Promotions

Facilitate booking process

-          Different options for the payment

-          Train the staff to be welcoming and able to inform the guests

-          Be reactive on the phone, per email…

Create a strong relationship with your guests

-          Create loyalty program to encourage direct bookings

-          Organize events and contests to create a first connection with guests or to reinforce the relationship with your customers

-          Satisfaction surveys

Team : Marie Charbonnier, Akram Nehme, Valentine Follin-Arbelet, Jessica Robles

DIGITAL IQ

The Digital IQ can be defined as the relationship the companies have with technology in its communication but also the relationship they have with their customers via the new technologies. Digital IQ is a company's competence and skill to use digital tools, in other words its capacity to be innovative, modern and to offer efficient programs.

Digital IQ is an assessment of how well companies understand the value of technology and weave it into the fabric of their organization. Growing your Digital IQ entails more than merely adopting the latest tools or having a large IT budget—it is about integrating technology into the way a company plans, innovates, measures results, interacts with customers, and ultimately creates value.

The components of Digital IQ are Mobile, Site, Social Media and Digital Marketing.

So companies have to be efficient and present on these four sectors in order to improve their Digital IQ.

·                     The Mobile (it represents only 20% of digital IQ activity)

"Compatibility, optimization, and marketing on smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices"

Some examples of digital activities on mobile:

- Mobile site:  such as the real hotel website, online :Compatibility, Functionality, Transaction

- iOS Applications (iPhone & iPad):
Available all the time, very popular , and good functionality, iPad Differentiation

- Android & Blackberry:
Availability, Popularity, Functionality

-  Mobile Innovation:
SMS, Geo-local, Instagram,
Other Mobile Marketing Innovation

·                     The Website ( 30% of digital IQ activity)  

"Effectiveness of brand site"

- Interactive  (pictures and videos on the website)

- easy to navigate on (You find directly what you need)

Some examples:

Site Technology

- Site Search & Navigation

- Reservations

- Property Pages and Destination Guides

- Customer Service

-Rewards/Loyalty Programs 

-Social Media Integration 

·                      The social Media ( 20% of digital IQ activity)

"Engagement on major social media platforms, on global and select property accounts"

Some examples:
- Facebook:
"Likes", Growth, Post Frequency, Applications, Responsiveness, Content, Interaction Rate,
F-Commerce
- Twitter:
Followers, Growth, Tweet Frequency, Online Voice
- YouTube:
Views: videos on hotels,(determining point for customers to decide where they will go)
Content, Interactivity : Customers can discuss about their experiences

·                     The digital Marketing ( 30% of digital IQ activity)

"Search, display, and email marketing efforts"

- Search:
Traffic, SEM, SEO, Web Authority

- Display Advertising & Innovation:
Access the website through commercial banners & adds positionned on appropriate Platforms: Pinterest, Tumblr, Google+

- Blog & Other User-Generated Content:
Mentions, Sentiment, TripAdvisor Reviews

- Email:
Frequency, Content, Social Media Integration, Mobile Optimization

Article

Women at Accor Generation


 Accor, the European market leader, announced the launch of a new project : Women at Accor Generation (WAAG). The WAAG aims to fight against stereotypes and help achieve gender targets set by the Group. The diffencies between the women and the mens within a company exist and even if a lot of association fight against these differencies, this problem remain being actual. The Group, which is as we said the leader in the European market could have a big impact and I think that this project is a very good idea and very innovative. The group has set a global target of 50% women directors of hotels by 2015. Its action is based mainly on mentoring, sharing of experiences, training, and the creation and networking, to promote access to more women in positions of responsibility. This action is accessible for mens and women according to the idea of equity. We know that mixed teams are more innovative and effective. The purpose of Women at Accor Generation is all about giving women confidence in their potential and encouraging them. I found this article very interesting because this subject of inequality concerns a lot of companies and it is an very actual issue. I am a woen and I don’t want to be disqualified becuse of that. Accor wants to launched a good proect and I hope this will have an impact on the mentalities.

MyBoutiqueHotel.com

Article

Modern slavery in the Palaces This article caught my attention because I had to face this kind of situation. Slavery exists and in all Parisian palaces. The employees are witnesses. Having worked in one of the parisian palaces,in the Housekeeping department.I saw with my own eyes how some clients treated their " domestic ". the housekeeping department is the one that can see this because they go every day in the rooms. I have seen servants sleeping on the floor, they never left the room ... It is always difficult to know what to do. Often it is very important clients and even personens very "important" in their own country. In this article the hotel staff decided to act and released the employee of a family from united arab emirates. Were they right? the person was poorly treated and complained to the hotel staff. Today direction lobbied its employees and punished employees who have done this. I think that this is very unfair and not ethical at all.. The GM said that they have lost revenue because of this story. All interest is financial, the rest does not matter. It is very critical and I find the reaction of the manager very abused. things have to change and people don't have to be scared to denounce such situation. it is not because we have money that we have all rights.

Different Booking Options

What would be the best booking option for independant hotels?

The independent hotels aren't very popular and they can’t benefeciate of brand portals or of brand notoriety etc.. It is important for them to attract new visitors and moreover have more notoriety. It is difficut for the independant hotels to attract visitor on their website or on their facebook page.

I think that to use OTA is the most effective booking option for independent hotels. Thanks to the OTA they will be better referenced and have more visitors on their websites which is an important objective for their notoriety. I think it is really essential for them to begin with the OTAs.

OTA's allow reserachers to find a hotel without knowing in which hote they want to book. When they clik on « research » a lots of hotels will appear and they wil match with their criterias (location,date, services, price). The OTA will also show the avaibility.

The independant hotels will have more notoriety and people will be redirected to the website of the hotel. It is the best way for independant hotels to evoluate and to gain notoriety.