<B> Hotels Greet Web Boom</B>
By Maria P. Vallejo
<I>New York</I> - The advent of the Internet is slowly but surely changing the hospitality industry as hotel companies, including Bass and Marriott, industry associations and technology companies prepare to capitalize on the expected trend of online hotel bookings.
By 2000, 15 percent of buyers on the Internet are expected to make hotel reservations, said Eric Christiansen, spokesman for WorldRes Inc., at the International Hotel/Motel show here last week. This year, $500 million worth of hotel bookings were made through 20 major hotel company Websites. Other sites handled about $200 million in online hotel bookings.
Among the hotel companies preparing to embrace this burgeoning field is Bass Hotels & Resorts, parent company of Holiday Hospitality, based in Atlanta. By February, fewer than 10 preferred corporations will be able to book their negotiated rates online either through the Internet or an intranet link, said Janet Poley, Bass director of electronic distribution systems.
Corporate clients will receive corporate identification numbers to access their accounts through the Internet, she added. To alleviate travel managers' reservations about loss of tracking information, Bass will add a page to companyies' intranets to provide travel managers with complete booking information. This will prevent buyers from losing valuable traveler data used for negotiations and commonly provided by travel agencies.
"The real intent was to get to our users directly," Poley said. "We did it to get rid of the intermediary."
The page provides travelers with a tool to make their own reservations. After establishing its first Web page in May 1995, Bass gave travelers the capability to book and cancel reservations online in June 1996. Currently the site only allows rack rate bookings with an average daily rate of about $100 resulting in about $2.5 million in revenue per month, she said. Bass invested about $150,000 to establish the rack rate booking capability and now will invest about $2 million to overhaul the system. That overhaul will include the launch of several new sites on Dec. 21., including corporate brand, specific agency and Priority Club sites. The restructured Web pages will allow travelers to book promotional rates and discounted distressed inventory.
"Bookings on the Internet still are one of the most costly channels that we have, but we continue to invest in it because we think it will pay off later," Poley said. "The Internet will reach its peak at about 2010. It's a long road, but a viable one."
While these changes demonstrate the company's belief in increased online bookings, the current Website generates only one-tenth of a percent of total Bass business, Poley said. Bass expects to increase that to 2 percent by 2000. About 70 percent of the bookings have come from Japan.
Marriott Hotels and Resorts also is continuing to believe in the power of Web bookings. After completing an internal research project last year, the company found that 82 percent of business travelers have a personal computer in their homes and have a higher propensity to book online, said Mike Pusateri, Marriott's vice president of sales and marketing. About 69 percent of Marriott Hotel guests bring a laptop with them during their stays.
Marriott receives about $5 million a month in revenues through its Website. By year-end, the company expects $50 million in revenue from online bookings, he said. The Washington, D.C.-based company already is foreseeing the future of e-commerce in hospitality. Pusateri expects the development of global communities to be the next step in hotel Web pages. Through global communities, travelers could access other travelers who have stayed at particular properties through hotel companies' sites. This interaction could help undecided travelers in choosing property locations using other customers' recommendations.
Even associations are getting into the online hotel booking act. The Ohio Hotel/Motel Association on July 8 launched a booking Website, said Howard Nusbaum, the association's executive vice president. The site carries information on about 70 properties, including full-service and bed and breakfast locations. Unlike Bass and Marriott, the association uses a call center for its reservations.