Internet Merchandising Systems

Now Installing IMS Voyager V3.5.0

As of March 1st, 2010, we are now installing our latest V3.5.0.

Too many additional features have been added to mention here, but we stand by our claim that its the most cost effective, feature rich software package for reservation, booking and ticketing in the market today. More features at http://www.imscart.com/website_promotions_marketing.html

IMS Voyager Reservation software is celebrating TEN years of continuous & expansive customer driven development!!

IMS Voyager Reservation software is celebrating TEN years of continuous & expansive customer driven development of our Powerful Online Reservation & Booking Software Solution that will add value to your Tour, Hotel, Rental, Ferry, Bus, Shuttle or Restaurant business.

A truly scalable value added 'Mix & Match' reservation & booking software with NO commissions!

Designed for web sales, call-center, front desk & kiosk sales, the IMS Voyager reservation software system integrates on a modular basis and is highly customizable, which means you only purchase the software modules you need from the tour reservation, hotel reservation, ferry & bus reservation, rental, small airlines, restaurant or the powerful ecommerce module, etc.

This powerful multi-platform online reservation software Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) application, with it's powerful pre-built functionality, delivers features, benefits and price performance, that allow it to outperform any other product of its type in the market place today, for hotels, tour companies, ferry & bus operators, online restaurants, rental agencies and e-distribution websites.

Electronic Marketing - The Great Hotel Equalizer ...And You Can Do It Without Going Broke - By Neil Salerno

For many independent hotels, electronically generated sales are the only viable tools to compete with franchised hotels. Yet, there are still many independent hoteliers who think that volume electronic sales are out of reach, too costly or too complicated to implement.
Perhaps the most frequently asked question I hear is “I know about electronic sales, but where do I start?” Start with a commitment to do more than simply hire someone to design a website. There are several elements involved to create and maintain a successful electronic sales program. The primary three are the Global Distribution System, the Internet, and third-party travel aggregators.

Hotel Website Basics Revisited

In the last few years, hotel web site development has matured tremendously. Gone are the days of web sites designed by the office techie, ad agency, or by some company picked out of the yellow pages. Knowledge of hotel marketing has become a necessary ingredient in the process.

We’ve learned that there are several important factors involved in the design of an effective and productive web site; knowledge of how search engines function; utilization of hotel marketing techniques in the overall design; the great importance of text content; and that flashy design may be attractive, but seldom works well on hotel sites.

In the past few years, we’ve learned that search engine optimization is worthless unless the site’s design has first been optimized. Please do not believe that hiring someone to perform SEO, without first maximizing the functionality of your site, will do anything to help productivity. More people may find your site, but the primary goal is for them to make a reservation; not simply visit. Website content is king.


Advertisement

Website design optimization requires knowledge of how and why people choose hotels on the Internet; how visitors read and evaluate site data; the technical requirements necessary for search engines to find your website; and ways to improve your chances of success against your competition set.

It’s not rocket science, but it does take some technical and marketing knowledge. Many owners and managers still judge their hotel’s web site by its aesthetic values instead of how well it functions. For those who are content with simply having an attractive website, instead of a functional site which produces reservations, sit-back, relax, stop reading, you won’t read anything of interest here.

Online Booking Engines

With the sophistication and affordability of today’s online booking engines, there is absolutely no excuse for not having one on your web site. Simply trying to impose your will on visitors to phone or email their reservation requests will not cause them to do so. The majority of online visitors want the gratification of making an online “real-time” reservation with an instant confirmation to complete the transaction. I’ve heard all the typical excuses such as “we want to give people personalized service by making them call us” is hogwash. People who believe this simply don’t understand the online traveler. Will some visitors see your site and then call to make a reservation, sure, but how about the many visitors who won’t?

Most people today don’t want to deal with busy phone lines, being placed immediately on hold or the dreaded unanswered call and sending an emailed information sheet into never, never net-land has too much uncertainty for most people.

For those of you who are concerned about the expense, booking engines are very affordable. With most, the return-on-investment is only one or two reservations a month. Shop around for the best booking engine for your hotel. Some are better than others in function and use; some are better for International feeder-markets than others.

Simplicity is important. Before you commit to a booking engine, try it out. How many clicks are necessary; evaluate the navigation; can they design it to look like it's a part of your website? Does the booking engine charge a commission or booking fees? The best engines charge a simple flat monthly fee.

Web 2.0 Social Media

By now, just about every hotelier has discovered social media, although most still have no idea how to use it to drive business. It's fun, free, and easy to work with and that partially explains its popularity. With few exceptions, hotels are participating, but even fewer have seen any measurable results.

Social media can benefit hotels in the form of search results and link development. Social media blogs, created and maintained by hotels, can show tremendous search and link results. But, don't kid yourself, maintaining a blog takes skill and a lot of hard work; it's better done by professionals.

Electronic Marketing

Electronic marketing has evolved from a novelty, just a few years ago, into a necessity since the early days of the 90’s; especially for independent hotels. Its affordability and effectiveness, compared to the marketing days of old, make electronic marketing the best value of our time.

Franchised hotels have taken the GDS for granted, ever since most franchises began to deliver GDS production automatically through their reservation systems. Although production from GDS travel agents has been negatively impacted by the Internet, their potential production could help to supplement any hotel’s top-line.

The GDS is available through official GDS providers; one of the best is Genares.com. You can find more on the Internet. Independent hotels need to take advantage of the Global Distribution System also for exposure to third-party travel business. Being online with the GDS automatically gets your hotel listed with third-party giants like Expedia, Travelocity, and Orbitz; powerful room producers.

First, put aside all those horrible stories you may have heard during the franchise-brand/third-party war of a few years ago. Those days are in the past. Third-party travel aggregators can produce valuable room nights and unprecedented world-wide exposure you could never obtain on your own.

Choose a partner among the top third-party aggregators and form a relationship. Some of them have special partner programs designed to pump needed business to your hotel. Through managing rates and inventory, these marketers can provide your hotel with a base of business, which can enable you to leverage sales and increase your revenue-per-available room.

If no one on your staff knows how it works, get them educated by an expert. The return-on-your-investment can be huge. There are many knowledgeable hotel consultants who can coach your team in this invaluable market.

Revenue Management

Hotel Revenue management has many faces. No matter how you apply it to your hotel, revenue management can reap great rewards, if done properly. The basic principle of revenue management is that your occupancy will consist of several layers or types of business. Creating the maximum or optimal mix of business for your hotel is the key to profitability.

We know that each type of business will produce varying levels of rates. Rack rate business, corporate travelers, motor coach business, leisure travelers, and others all have different levels of rate tolerance. Revenue management can maximize occupancy and average rate.

Creating a base of lower-rated business will allow you to appropriately close lower rates as room supply diminishes and allow higher rates to kick-in. Remember, average rate is not what you sell some rooms for; it’s what you sell all your rooms for. The goal is not 100% occupancy; the goal is to sell as many rooms as possible, at the highest rates possible.

The relationship between revenue management and electronic sales is obvious. Utilizing all forms of electronic sales can create that base of business which will allow you to get better rates from call-ins and walk-ins. Reach-out and take advantage of opportunity.

Electronic marketing is here to stay, but it's changing and improving every day. We need to change and improve with it.


Contact:
Neil Salerno, CHME, CHA
Hotel Marketing Coach
www.hotelmarketingcoach.com
NeilS@hotelmarketingcoach.com

Last Minute Pricing Deals

You now have the ability to set up additional costs/discounts depending on the number of hours before trip.

This feature available for tours and transit modules.

This can be used in conjunction with the new Fare Bucket feature.

More - http://www.imscart.com/last_minute_prices.html

Loyalty Reward Points, Loyalty Reward Programs

Increase customer loyalty with IMS Voyagers ‘Loyalty Reward Points’ system

Let customers accrue points with purchases and use accrued points against future orders

The Loyalty Reward Points module allows you to promote customer loyalty and increase sales by rewarding your customers for purchases through your IMS Voyager system.

IMS Voyager allows administrators to implement a marketing program that mimics the airline industry’s popular ‘miles’. Customers earn points while making purchases then redeem points automatically for discounts and other merchandise.

More - http://www.imscart.com/loyalty_rewards_points.html

Ferry, Bus, Shuttle Mail & Package Shipping Module Option

Earn additional revenue by adding the mail and package shipping feature to your tour, shuttle, ferry, bus or airlines service using IMS Voyager software.

http://www.imscart.com/mail_package_shipping.html

Voyager Transit Passenger reservation system

A Serious System for a Serious Business - Passenger Transportation
Our Voyager Transit ferry reservation, bus booking or aircraft booking system helps your reservation departments by providing a high performance, value added, easy to use web based booking system that cost effectively allow online bookings, walk up bookings, on-board bookings and also allows commissionable bookings via travel agents.

IMS Voyager Transit online ferry reservation and bus booking system is the only readily available ferry, bus and small airline reservation system designed around Internet technology allowing global access to your ferry, bus and airline booking and ticketing needs.

http://www.imscart.com/transit_bus_ferry_reservation_software.html

PCI Compliance - is your customer credit CARD & data safe?

In modern times, it seems that most people are concerned about credit card security - an issue that has come to the forefront in today's world of paperless financial transactions. The credit card industry has responded to these concerns by requiring businesses to achieve PCI compliance.

Our IMS Voyager solution supports the set of security standards recently created by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) to assure credit card information is protected.

Our reservation software is in PCI Compliance (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard).

Read more at - http://www.imscart.com/pci_compliance.html

Lodging Interactive Offers Turn-Key Mobile Websites For Hotels

Lodging Interactive, a leading interactive marketing agency servicing the hospitality industry, today announced the roll out of its mobile website design and hosting services for hotels. Lodging Interactive's new mobile services provide turn-key, cost-effective mobile solutions enabling hotels to provide easy acess to their website and to capture bookings from smart phones, iPhones and Blackberry users worldwide.

"According to PhocusWright, 67% of travelers and 77% of frequent business travelers with Web-enabled mobile devices have already used their devices to find local services, (e.g. lodging) and attractions," stated DJ Vallauri, Lodging Interactive's Founder and President. "And with US mobile penetration expected to be 95%, or 219 Million users in 2010, it only makes sense that hotels embrace the emerging mobile technologies to maximize their mobile booking opportunities."

Lodging Interactive creates mobile websites specifically designed for mobile foot prints. Typical mobile websites contain 15-20 pages including animated photo galleries, one click direct dial to the hotel and links to popular social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Additionally, the company utilizes special coding to automatically detect and redirect visitors using Apple iPhones and Blackberry devices. "Our technology can detect which cell phone platform and browser the visitor is using and display the most appropriate website rendering, all seamlessly to the user," added Mr. Vallauri.

As an option, Lodging Interactive offers a customized Mobile Content Management System (M-CMS) enabling hotel clients to easily modify their mobile website in real time.

Mobile Websites For Branded Properties
"Our mobile website services are especially well suited for branded properties who may not have their own marketing websites. The brands are simply not addressing the global mobile opportunities for its individual franchisees," said Mr. Vallauri. "We have been able to create a business model that makes establishing a mobile website and marketing it affordable to any franchisee."

For more information about Lodging Interactive's mobile design and marketing services please contact Mr. Richard Walsh, Vice President of Business Development. Mr. Walsh can reached at 877-291-4411 extension 701 or via email rjwalsh@lodginginteractive.com.

About Lodging Interactive
Lodging Interactive, headquartered in Parsippany, NJ, is a leading provider of Internet Marketing Services to the hospitality, spa and restaurant industries. The company provides a portfolio of effective hotel internet marketing services to hundreds of hotels, resorts, timeshares, spas and restaurants. Clients include branded hotels from nearly every major brand as well as prestigious, landmark independent hotels.


Through its CoMMingle Social Media Marketing Agency operating division, the Company offers hospitality focused and fully managed outsourced hotel social media marketing.
Lodging Interactive is a proud member of the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AH&LA) and a supporter of the Hotel Sales & Marketing Association International (HSMAI). For more information contact Richard Walsh, Vice President of Business Development at sales@lodginginteractive.com or at 877-291-4411. The company's website is located at www.LodgingInteractive.com.

Travel Industry Industry Races to Deliver Mobile Applications and Post-Booking Solutions

Travelers young and old are increasingly using mobile devices for flight notification, check in, and seat selection, and are also willing to accept advertising with free travel applications. These findings and more were revealed in a global mobile survey of travelers, conducted by Sabre Travel Network(R), the world's leading provider of high-performance solutions for the travel industry. The survey of 800 corporate and leisure travelers from Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin America and North America covered topics ranging from preferred features to fees travelers might pay for travel applications.

Mobile Adoption Climbs, Driven by Travelers Young...and Older

The majority of travelers surveyed had a smart phone (69 percent), with North American travelers most likely to own one (78 percent) and APAC travelers least likely (46 percent). Daily usage is highest for email at 63 percent with Internet not far behind at 49 percent. The study also found that nearly half of all travelers (47 percent) are 40 years old or older, demonstrating that the exploding use of mobile services is not strictly the domain of younger travellers.

Today's Features Gain Traction

Corporate and leisure travelers both showed strong adoption for using their mobile phone to gain timely and relevant information, in particular:

'Smart phones are becoming a traveler's preferred tool for managing post-booking activities and getting relevant information,' said Greg Webb, chief marketing officer of Sabre Holdings. 'This trend has seemingly penetrated all ages across all continents, highlighting the tremendous opportunity for travel agencies and suppliers to leverage mobile solutions to demonstrate value to their customers and creatively reach target audiences.'

Europeans Rank Ahead of North Americans in Adopting Newer Features

Survey results revealed high levels of interest in services that Sabre and other travel technology providers are working on today, with Europeans ranking ahead of North Americans and travelers in APAC in potential adoption of select features:

Sixty three percent of all travelers are also open to automating re-accommodation services and checking in and out of hotels via mobile devices, with 61 percent interested in booking flights via their mobile in the future. Travelocity(R), a Sabre Holdings company, has noted a measurable increase in bookings originating from mobile devices in recent months.

Travelers Open to Advertising with Free Travel Applications

All travelers surveyed are willing to accept advertising with free use of travel applications. For example, 28 percent of 'Road Warriors' (very frequent business travelers) said they preferred free applications with advertising, versus eight percent who preferred to pay for the application. Leisure travelers had a similar spread, with 22 percent preferring free with advertising versus five percent preferring to pay. In Europe, 14 percent of respondents preferred free with advertising versus five who prefer to pay.

'There's been a lot of experimentation with pay-for-services in the past. With advertising emerging as a more palatable choice for travelers, application providers and retailers now have a way of monetizing their offering and driving more value out of a potentially lucrative marketing channel,' said Webb. 'For our own part, Sabre remains committed to helping the travel industry advance their mobile strategies, and next year we will increase our mobile investments to continue growing our award-winning portfolio of mobile solutions for both agency and airline customers.'

Sabre's 2009 launch of TripCase(SM), a mobile application available today for both iPhone and Blackberry users, continues to gain momentum with tens of thousands of individual downloads, an 'Innovator of the Year' nomination by PhoCusWright and being named 'Best Travel App' by Business Week. Sabre's Virtually There(R) itinerary service is used by more than 30,000 travel agencies around the world and their customers.

Positioning Your Hotel For The 2010 Marketplace - By Neil Salerno

Marketing Is Not The Primary Thing...It's The Only Thing

We suspect that 2010 will show some signs of recovery mixed with continued hardship for many hotels. We all know what happens when revenue levels are constricted; fewer dollars in, fewer dollars to spend. At this point, careful consideration should be made for every dollar spent to develop business.

For many years, hotel companies have grappled with the decision of how many marketing dollars to commit to build business. At no time in history has this been a bigger challenge for hotels. Many hoteliers have historically considered marketing dollars as redundant if these dollars are needed to cover revenue shortfalls and/or operational over-spending.

This practice of redirecting dollars, which were ear-marked for marketing, to cover revenue shortfalls, could be a critical mistake in 2010. In actuality, it is too easy to cut marketing dollars to temporarily improve a P&L statement. After-all, every dollar spent on marketing comes off the bottom-line. This makes the marketing budget extremely vulnerable.

We must avoid the dreaded downward spiral; reducing rates to temporarily increase occupancy reduces revenue and profit. Using lower rates as a marketing strategy is just plain self-defeating. You may successfully sell a few more rooms, but you will enjoy it less. Don't join the "woe is me" crowd. Create more value, then market that value.

The fact is that hotels which devote the time, money, and human resources to market and promote their hotel in 2010 , will be the ultimate winners when the economy returns to normal. This is an opportunity to harvest increased market share, which will provide a huge payback for hotels aggressive enough to go after it. But, it will take planning and commitment to accomplish this.

When times are tough, operational spending must be carefully reviewed. Service levels and amenities, which were developed during the boom years, must be re-considered. The revenue will not be there until we stop considering sales and marketing funds as discretionary and not essential to building business. It's time to make commitments.

Strategies & Planning

In this writer's opinion, 2010 will not be a time for experimentation and new market development. Creating new business markets is costly and time-consuming. It can sometimes be rewarding, but we have neither the money nor the time to do it properly. It's time to review your historically productive market segments, prioritize them, and create a plan to grow them. Target marketing dollars to historically lucrative markets and always weigh the results.

If marketing funds are limited, prioritize markets in which to concentrate. Hoteliers need to search-out the 20% of markets that produce 80% of the business for your hotel; the old 80/20 rule. At the same time during the prioritization process, hoteliers need to assess the response speed of each market. How long and how many dollars will it take to see positive results; speed is good. Everyone is hurting, so create those travel partnerships, which you never found the time to do before.

Any plan, designed to build business in 2010, must include a comprehensive Internet and electronic marketing presence. There are few market segments, if any at all, which can produce results as quickly or with the zest of business as is possible with the Internet. Nothing you can do to produce business can equal the cost-effectiveness and return-on-investment of a well conceived Internet marketing program.

There are still too many hoteliers who have been unable or unwilling to devote marketing dollars to get their fair share of the increasingly lucrative Internet market. These hoteliers must understand that simply having a website is not nearly enough.

Anyone, who is serious about developing a strong Internet presence, should come to terms about how their website is performing. Performance is measured by the number of visitors your site attracts and, more importantly, the number of reservations it generates; organic search and sales. We still see many hoteliers who have no idea to what extent their website is contributing, if at all.

As we head into 2010, it's time to get a true and honest assessment of your website to determine its soundness and functionality. Unfortunately, there are still too many hotel sites, which were designed by people who know little about search and/or hotel sales. This has resulted in having many hoteliers who have dysfunctional websites and, sadly, don't know it.

The challenge is that they don't know that the basic structure of their site is more than likely the cause for failure. Designing an attractive site is only a small part of a functional site..You simply cannot determine the functionality of a website by the way it looks.

There are many knowledgeable site developers who can provide you with a objective analysis of the search and sales soundness of your site. Often, minor changes can make a huge improvement in its functionality. This is often a small investment to improve Internet sales.

Human Resource Trends

Human resources will still play an essential role in hotel marketing for 2010. I believe that there are marketing people who may be perfectly suited for an abundant economy, but are totally unsuited for a tough one. Tough times call for tough players. Sometimes it's necessary to go to the bullpen to bring in a heavy-weight when increasing market share is the goal.

If this is financially out-of-reach, get some training for your sales and marketing staff. If training is out-of-reach, many hotels have delegated marketing duties among other staff members. During a robust economy, this would not be a wise decision, but it is becoming more common today. The lack of leadership can be solved if the general manager or someone on staff has the marketing experience to implement the program.

Many hotels have solved the marketing leadership problem by outsourcing this role to outside marketing experts to guide their internal process. This is becoming a popular and very cost-effective way to implement a productive marketing plan without adding to permanent payroll cost.

It's time to end the practice of shoot-from-the-hip marketing spending and lack of commitment to building business through marketing. For 2010, marketing will not be the primary thing, it will be the only thing for success.


Contact:
Neil Salerno, CHME, CHA
Hotel Marketing Coach
www.hotelmarketingcoach.com
NeilS@hotelmarketingcoach.com