Hoteliers from East European countries exchanged ideas and experiences during the 2nd edition of Hospitality E-Commerce & Revenue Management Conference in Prague last week. Here is a recap of key points covered and progress made toward better hotel marketing understanding.
Organized by Dotcomhotel and held at Kongres U Hajku in Prague, on 30 and 31st of October, this latest hospitality conference addressed such topics as; revenue management, hospitality e-commerce, website design, booking engines, brand reputation marketing, meta search and social media marketing. Dotcomhotel reunited in Prague the top speakers representing the biggest brands in hospitality industry and e-commerce including; Ideas Revenue Optimization, XeniaLab, TrustYou Analytics, Tripadvisor, WIHP and many more.
Over 100 delegates from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and United Kingdom attended the 2nd edition of Hospitality E-Commerce & Revenue Management Conference. Some early testimonials to the event’s success went something like this;
“We wanted to send a big thank you your way for the fantastic event in Prague. I had some excellent conversations with the attendees and the presenters. It was certainly the perfect event for us to see what the Prague and Czech market is like and also take advantage of the excellent exposure for our company!” – Catherine Balcerzak, Head of Sales and Marketing hit-Consult.
TrustYou’s Kris Roemer
Also, during the Hospitality Networking Lounge, 40 delegates, speakers & partners plus 10 additional guests from other hotels, partners who were not attending conference had the opportunity to network, make contacts and discuss key industry´s trending issues, as well as one-to-one networking and socializing. Matthijs Welle from Emblem Hotel Prague, had this to say about the event:
“Really great meeting you this week at the DotCom conference. We (Richard and myself) enjoyed it very much, and it was a great forum to meet our competition and have fruitful discussions on how we can further our partnerships.
Thank you for the great organization. We will definitely participate again next year.”
WIHP’s Martin Soler heads up a Master Class at DotComHotel
Conference Chief Executive Officer Radka Telyckova (at top) added; “Goals in Prague met. We wanted to have the same audience as last year, and we did. So far all the comments have been very positive. Those attending have commented on the great speaker lineup, as well as this year being even better than last year’s event.
Finally, this contingent of the dotcomhotel series saw experts such as World Independent Hotels Promotions’ (WIHP’s) Martin Soler (below) catch up hoteliers attending on the latest trends in hospitality marketing. As the all of the digital space for business is being transformed almost daily, hospitality experts have their hands full keeping abreast of change and strategies. Needless to say, revenue managers and hotel decision makers need to be in the so-called loop in order to be competitive. We spoke with Soler over the phone earlier about his part in the conference. Soler iterated, in part:
“Early on a hotel or chain of hotels could get ahead of the crowd just being good at digital marketing. Then, as the competition entered the space, more pieces of a full scale digital marketing strategy became necessary. Now, amplified by the trend to mobile, and by other necessary elements like social media and PR, hospitality players need a la carte and turnkey solutions for the booking/revenue mix. At WIHP we’re there in understanding and are moving ahead on this.”
WIHP’s Martin Soler discusses direct bookings, social media, and capturing guests at dotcomhotel
The dotcomhotel Hospitality E-Commerce & Revenue Management Conference is organized by Smart H.E.R.O (Hospitality Experts Revenue Optimization), which offers hotel consulting and expert hospitality advisory services in the following core areas: sales & marketing, revenue & channel management and e-commerce.