LanguageTestimonial – case study: Senator Hotels Group of 4:
Best Western Senator, Senator Taksim
Mr Dogan Bozkus
Senator Hotels Group is an expanding shareholder-owned hotel group, with four properties presently on the market and three further projects due for completion in 2017. In the past 12 months the hotel group has tripled the number of room nights while also becoming quicker to react and be more proactive in the market place.
The Revenue Manager of the hotel group wanted to bring more direct guests to increase profitability. Prior to selecting BookLogic, Senator Hotels Group were using tools and services by a number of different suppliers, as well as a self-written software to manage guest satisfaction.
BookLogic was selected as their agency and technology company in 2014 to use the full comprehensive services, technology and consultancy provided for bookings, revenue and marketing management across all online channels. BookLogic implemented BookLogic smart booking engine, across Senator Hotel Groups websites and supported their web marketing efforts by managing the adwords, web campaigns, and marketing banners across all relevant online media. BookLogic Brand Manager, the reputation management software, and the Compare Manager, the rate shopper tool, also has helped them to look at monthly competition reports and ensure they are staying in-line or ahead of their competition.
As well as the reservation engine, BookLogic also includes a channel manager to enable the hotels to quickly change channels at a moments notice. Mr Dogan is in frequent contact with all B2B/B2C channels and regularly renegotiating contracts. “We can change our rates several times a day and BookLogic monitors rate parity and is able to inform us immediately of any discrepancies. This helps solve any rate problems.
As part of the marketing and revenue consultancy delivered by BookLogic, the team meets with Mr Dogan every two weeks to review the reports and records, and implement weekly and monthly web and marketing operations. The market is quickly changing in Turkey as more hoteliers take advantage of online marketing and revenue management tools. “We have to look at new proposals every day and identify which will work really well to build our sales. Every piece of intelligence we have access to gives us the advantages and disadvantages for the channels, so we can trial and test each proposal and product carefully.”
Istanbul is becoming increasingly competitive, as the number of rooms is more than the number of guests for luxury hotels. “We have to focus on securing early bookings and ensure we work to sell earlier for the long term booking window and this means we have to look at guarantee sells rather than flexible bookings. The flexible booking model is severely damaging the market and reducing the stability of occupancy, which is why we need to look at more favourable long term revenue strategies.”
On selecting a company to support the marketing and revenue management strategy within a hotel group, Mr Dogan advises that it’s important to research the local and international market. “It’s important to look at the complete package that is on offer, and speak directly with other customers using these tools and services. We needed a company who understood our goals and could explain to us how they can help us achieve them quickly and seamlessly.”
