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CASE STUDIES

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Prague hotel uses package promotions to increase occupancy

The hotel was able to attract high-value guests, boost bookings, and grow their revenue by using package promotions.

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increase in raw margin dollars after loading long-term inventory* strategy and our tools in Partner Central  

increase in reservations at the Dolphin resort year-over-year using Partner Central**  

increase in loyalty member vacation package revenue over five months*** using our White Label Template  

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*Expedia Group internal data 2020 **Expedia Group internal data 2021 ***Expedia Group and Hawaiian Airlines data, 2021-2022

Travel Agency Marketing: How Anywhere.com Recovered 56% of Abandoning Visitors

Are visitors to your travel agency marketing website leaving without a trace? Are you struggling to figure out how to turn your visitors into leads? In this case study, we’ll learn how Anywhere® recovered 56% of abandoning visitors to their site using a simple travel agency marketing tool.

Meet Anywhere®

Anywhere® is a modern travel agency merging real traveler insights with the ease of online booking. Their team of experts design authentic, personalized vacations one trip at a time to exciting destinations.

How Anywhere® Uses OptinMonster

Anywhere® currently focuses on seven destinations. Each destination has its own microsite within the website that provides information like maps, lodging, transportation, and more.

The primary call to action at each microsite is to plan a trip using their free Travel Planning Service. It’s a four-step process where readers share preferences about their upcoming travels. Anywhere® then uses those details to provide a sample itinerary.

Sample itineraries are a powerful travel agency marketing tool because they help take the lofty idea of an adventure and turn it into concrete details. Visitors who complete the Travel Plan and receive their itinerary are more likely to eventually book a trip with Anywhere®.

For that reason, Anywhere® decided to use OptinMonster to encourage every visitor to complete the survey.

If a reader attempts to leave a microsite without taking advantage of the travel planning service, a lightbox popup appears:

They are triggered using our patented Exit-Intent® technology. When a visitor motions towards the browser bar (a clear signal they’re about to leave the site), the optin appears.

Each optin also uses our Yes/No feature to redirect the abandoning visitor to the travel planning service. Our Yes/No feature allows you to display one or two buttons instead of a signup form. The buttons can either launch a traditional optin form, redirect the visitor to a new URL, or simply close the optin.

Anywhere® uses the Yes button to direct readers to the travel planning service and the No button to redirect visitors to the homepage.

It’s important to note that their choices assume the visitor wants to stay on the site. Whether the visitor chooses Yes or No, Anywhere® still keeps them from leaving the site altogether.

This important marketing strategy instantly increased the average pages per session .

Once a visitor clicks yes, they are directed to the four-step travel planning service. On step four, they are instructed to provide their email address to receive the completed itinerary. If they attempt to leave without completing the form, another exit-intent popup appears.

These optins convert between 30% and 56.24% of abandoning visitors. They serve to remind visitors of all the work they’ve put in up to this point, and encourages them to finish planning their trip.

Once Anywhere® has the visitor’s email address, they can continue to to market to them with travel industry email marketing campaigns .

Targeting your marketing campaigns to a user’s behaviors is called behavioral automation . When behavioral automation is done on your own website, it’s called onsite behavioral automation, or onsite retargeting . Learn more about  how to use onsite behavioral automation to increase conversions.

Tracking the Results of Travel Agency Marketing Campaigns

Creative travel agency marketing campaigns mean nothing if they don’t produce results. It was important to Anywhere® to be able to measure how well these optins were working.

Specifically, they needed to know:

• How many visitors started to leave the site, but were redirected to the Travel Planning Site from the first campaign?
• Of those redirected visitors, how many started to abandon their travel plan, but were recovered by the second campaign?
• How many visitors who clicked EITHER campaign completed every step and got a sample itinerary?

To do this, they added a little bit of code called UTM parameters to the redirect links used in their OptinMonster campaigns.

UTM parameters , also known as UTM links, are little snippets of text added to the end of your URL to help you better track your marketing campaigns.

For example, the first optin redirects the visitor to the travel planning tool, specific to the country they’re interested in.

Here is what that link looks like:

https://www.anywhere.com/belize/vacations/travel-planning?utm_source=optin&utm_medium=popup&utm_campaign=AAA-exit-redirect&utm_term=GEN_NO&utm_content=belize

The second optin has a unique UTM link, too. The only difference between them is that the utm_campaign references the individual optin, in this case AAA-step5-continue.

https://www.anywhere.com/belize/vacations/travel-planning/4?utm_source=optin&utm_medium=popup&utm_campaign=AAA-step5-continue&utm_term=GEN_NO&utm_content=belize

The NO buttons for each optin have similar UTM links, too.

Each individual piece of this UTM link can be tracked in Google Analytics. Using these links, Anywhere® can see how visitors progressed from one optin to the next, and eventually to the thank you page shown after someone completes the travel plan.

Learn more about using UTM links for marketing campaign tracking in Google Analytics .

April from Anywhere® said,

Once we started using OptinMonster and tracking the referrals to the first step of our Free Travel Planning Service page via pop-up, we found it to be 441% more effective than our overall campaigns’ average conversion rate for that specific goal.

Anywhere® saw their email list grow at a steady 20% growth rate each week (approximately 100 new subscribers a week) using OptinMonster. Travel agency marketing has never been easier using OptinMonster.

Anywhere® used our exit-intent optins to push visitors towards completing a free travel planning survey and saw huge increase in the list as a result.

• Anywhere® grew their email list by 20% .
• Anywhere® recovered 56.24% of abandoning visitors.
• Anywhere®’s OptinMonster campaigns were 441% more effective than similar marketing efforts not using OptinMonster.

Don’t let your potential customers leave without trying to get them to stay. Identify the areas of your funnel where customers are most likely to leave, and target those pages with an exit-intent optin. You worked hard to get them; work equally as hard to keep them.

OptinMonster allows us to capture low hanging fruits from our already strong organic traffic very effectively. The YES/NO form also allows us to direct casual browsers into actionable pages that converts them into sales-qualified leads. Especially with a complex website structure as ours, the pop-ups serve as perfect breadcrumb prompts that leads customers to their next step. Our email list grew at a steady 20% growth rate each week (approximately 100 new subscribers a week) using OptinMonster. April Wu, Anywhere®

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Top Travel Agency Challenges and its Expert Solutions: Case Study

• Written by Varun Bhagat
• Published November 30, 2023

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“Traveling an extra mile for your convenience”

Tourism is emerging as one of the biggest human resource absorbing sectors providing millions of job opportunities, investment opportunities, and business avenues for travel agencies. Acting as an intermediary or even one-stop solution for clients, travel agencies have to cater to a large audience on a daily basis along with humongous data management.

Trade experts predict that the travel industry is expected to reach revenue of $1.7 trillion by the year 2022 . With such a booming sector, the stakes are often quite high! Despite being one of the largest business domains, travel business owners face several issues on a daily basis. One of them is their recurrent billing and serving a huge client base.

Invoicera was made familiar to the existing conundrum of these travel agencies through one of our clients. They came with several invoicing problems along with challenges to manage their staff, vendors, and clients. Every business tries its best to capture maximum market share in order to extend the best in industry services, but such challenges often render them helpless to overpowering issues.

Here are some of the Travel agency challenges which were presented before us.

Challenge 1: Huge Client Base but no effective management tool

Travel agencies enjoy a huge client base and their business operation runs throughout the year across national borders. The request for the services could be either made online, offline or even through mobile apps. They not only have to manage the data but also make their processes faster for enhances efficiency.

Our client came with the issue of data management wherein, he had to send timely invoices to recurrent clients along with tour package details, currency conversion rate, city tax inclusions and much more on a single platform. As discussed above, travel agencies serve to a huge client base and sometimes acts as an intermediary between the vendors and customers. Hence separate dedicated portals are required for efficient management.

Invoicera created an all in one portal for the client which had the following features:

>>> Importable client list into the Invoicera account with relevant details.

>>> Dedicated space for client service for enhanced efficiency.

>>> Issue Purchase Orders which can be converted into Invoices.

>>> The agent can access all the services and bookings done in the past.

>>> Late payment addition, Credit notes were issued if there was an advance payment.

>>> Healthy cash flow through regular payments are done online.

Let us have a Quick View of this Video to know Challenges and its Solution

Challenge 2 – Unable to cater to recurrent accounts

Most of the travelers have become smart nowadays and are now fully aware of their packages. Agencies always try to satisfy the needs of their recurrent clients in order to ensure smoother cashflow and better management of the client’s account. Payment management is yet another issue in such scenarios.

As an all-round travel agency, our client had the motive to serve as many requests as they can. Most of their customers were business firms that had frequent travelers along with tourists bookings. In such a scenario, the customers had to be billed on a regular basis.

This was achieved by setting up an in-house bespoke recurrent billing software which generated invoices on the basis of time conditions. This automated billing software was able to manage the frequency of invoices in order to build a reliable relationship.

The client could also send regular payment reminders and late fees in case of late payments. All the pending, approved and received payments can be tracked through custom reports for better analysis along with acute record-keeping in real-time.

Challenge 3 – Adding their charges and taxes to the invoice

The traditional invoices which are generated are subjected to the legal systems of the native country. In such a case, the uncustomized invoices become a mess as they have to customize as per the laws and regulations of the destination country. The taxes, charges, duties, etc have to be added in the invoice beforehand to avoid any trouble upon reaching.

Often times, travel agencies extend their services as a third party in which they act as a medium between the customer and booking agency. In such scenarios, they often have to add their own service charge to the invoice. For example, an agent booked a package from your firm for one of his clients. Hence while giving out the invoice to your agent, you would add your nominal service charge, profits, and relevant taxes too. This could only be done if the agency has to sole authority to edit their invoices.

  We created a self-serving portal for our client wherein every field of the invoice could be edited as per the norms of the agency. They could customize the details which could be added to the invoice, such as taxes, charges and much more to send invoices at a lightning-fast speed.

Challenge 4 – Currency and Language barrier

The tourism business is one of the largest growing trends catering to huge market share right from leisure tourists to business professionals. Business tourism is not just about global connectivity but is also seen as a viable income option as well.

Since international tourism is on the rise, hence there is an emerging need to customize our invoices as per the language and currency system of the client’s country. An ineffective system would hamper our client’s ability to target the global market and clientele leaving their customers confused in a foreign local.

If the invoice is created in a language and denomination system local to the client, then it becomes difficult for them to adopt the legacy systems of their destination country.

In order to bridge this gap, custom invoicing software was created which allowed them to fix this issue.

In order to facilitate their invoicing, the client could now send invoices in the language which was native to their customers. They could choose from a group of international languages for effective communication. Not only this, but they could send their invoices as per the denomination system of the customer’s country. Invoicera comes with more than 30+ integrated payment gateways, thus receiving or sending money will never be a problem irrespective of their location anywhere in the world. They could even track their payments through filtered tracking and update their invoices in real-time if necessary.

Challenge 5 – Tedious Invoicing Process

As discussed above, the travel agency invoices have to be detailed for effective communication. They have to send recurring bills to their regular clients and also have to do regular follow-ups for payments.

In case of late payment, it could lead to an imbalanced account leading to a cash crunch. Hence they again need an efficient expense management tool that could help them in managing their expense reports, financial forecasting and tailor-made reports for effective analysis.

Since our client had an international user base too, hence it was of grave importance to provide a fruitful solution to their predicaments which could have had an adverse impact on their business. Huge staked were in front of us as the software had to be customized completely as per their needs and integrate it into their existing systems. Along with all the challenges, providing them secure data hosting cloud storage was also important to avoid data theft or leakage.

We created an all in one invoicing software for our client which provided one-stop solutions to them. Invoicera comes with an efficient expense management system that allowed the client to maintain balanced accounts through custom reports. Invoicera also provided 60+ integration into their existing ERP & CRM systems to facilitate smoother workflow

The custom financial reports came in handy for financial forecasting helping them to strategize better for their business. These custom reports could be filtered as per the given attributions, thus simplifying the whole invoicing process and sending lightning-fast invoices in one click.

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Invoicera banks upon its 14+ years of experience in this domain, very well knowing what our client wants. The custom billing software made it possible for them to utilize their resources to the maximum along with enhancing their overall productivity. 

Invoicera takes pride in providing our clients with an expert software solution in a limited time. Through customized software integrated into their existing legacy systems, Invoicera provided them features like custom billing, client management, recurring billing, expense management, multi-language and currency, payment management, customized invoicing along several others feature with one of the most trusted client service satisfaction. 

After some regular follow-ups, the client appreciated our efforts and told us how they have simplified their business process and made it faster almost by 40%. Switch to the best invoicing software appreciated by over 3+ million users worldwide.

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Case Study: Should a Hotelier Invest in a New Kind of Online Travel Agency?

• Chekitan S. Dev
• Peter O’Connor

A major brand considers a different strategy.

Lotta Tindal, the chief marketing officer for the Dutch hospitality group Ervaring Hotels & Resorts, hadn’t wanted to come to the presentation, but Gerard Bakker, Ervaring’s CFO, had twisted her arm.

• CD Chekitan S. Dev is a professor of strategic marketing and brand management in the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University’s SC Johnson College of Business.
• PO Peter O’Connor is a professor of information systems at ESSEC Business School in Paris.

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BOOSTING BOAT AND BERTH BOOKINGS: A TRAVEL MARKETPLACE EFFECTIVE MARKETING CASE STUDY

How Strategic Marketing Initiatives Transformed the Boat and Berth Bookings for a Leading Travel Marketplace

Unlocking Growth: A Travel Marketplace Effective Marketing Case Study for Boosting Boat and Berth Bookings

Discover how our strategic marketing initiatives revolutionized the boat and berth bookings for Marinanow, a prominent travel marketplace. By implementing effective marketing strategies, we propelled their sales and witnessed remarkable growth in online bookings. Dive into this case study to explore the power of targeted campaigns, data-driven analytics, and their positive impact on the brand’s global expansion.

ABOUT THE CLIENT : MARINANOW – REDEFINING BOOKING EXPERIENCES IN THE TRAVEL MARKETPLACE

Marinanow offers users a seamless online platform to book from a vast selection of over 10,000 boats and berths across 1,300 breathtaking destinations in the Mediterranean Sea. Their commitment to providing exceptional booking experiences sets them apart in the travel marketplace industry.

CHALLENGE : Global Sales Expansion and Brand Visibility

Marinanow approached us with a clear objective: to expand their sales globally. They sought our expertise to drive business growth, enhance international brand visibility, and generate more bookings in strategic locations. Our challenge was to deliver effective marketing solutions that would attract a wider audience and increase conversions.

SOLUTION : Strategic Marketing Initiatives for Impressive Outcomes

To meet the challenge head-on, we meticulously devised a hyper-granular set of campaigns tailored to promote each of the 300 destinations worldwide across four languages. Leveraging our expertise, we created optimized targeted ads with over 8,000 keywords. To monitor and analyze performance precisely, we seamlessly integrated a custom Google Analytics tracking solution through Google Tag Manager. Additionally, we developed a customized Google Data Studio performance dashboard for real-time insights.

RESULTS : Remarkable Growth and Increased Bookings

The results surpassed expectations. During the peak season, Marinanow experienced an extraordinary 57% growth in overall US traffic compared to the previous year. This surge in website visitors translated into an impressive 58% increase in online bookings from strategic locations. The success of our strategic marketing initiatives propelled the brand to new heights.

PPC MANAGEMENT : Leveraging the power of Google Ads search, display, and retargeting campaigns to maximize reach and generate targeted traffic. WEB ANALYTICS : Crafting a comprehensive business analytics strategy, implementing a robust measurement plan, optimizing Google Tag Manager (GTM) integration, and creating a custom Google Data Studio dashboard for actionable insights.

We are delighted with the results. Again, this year, Midsummer has been a great help for us. The team supported us in reaching our business goals, going far beyond expectations.

Read the full review on Clutch

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Take a Trip Travel Agents: a Substance Misuse Case Study

A case study which explores the challenges in addressing substance misuse issues.

By the Mind Tools Content Team

The aim of this case study is to raise awareness of the signs, symptoms and potential issues associated with substance misuse.

Substance misuse is one of the most testing issues facing managers today. This case study, set in a travel agency, explores some of the difficulties managers might face when dealing with possible substance misuse. The exercise can be done individually, in pairs or in teams. Allow around one hour for completion.

Learning Objectives

Participants will be able to ...

• identify some of the key signs and symptoms of substance misuse
• highlight the impact that certain situations can have on a team
• discuss the potential consequences of substance misuse in the wokplace
• identify what action could be taken to resolve substance misuse problems in the workplace

Facilitator Guidance

In facilitating this case study, it is important for participants to look below the surface to discover the real reasons for the current problems within the team. It can be used to show how substance misuse can affect relationships within a team and what a manager can do to solve the problems.

Suggested Resources

• copy of task sheet per delegate

What to Do (25 Minutes)

• Introduce the case study and explain the learning objectives.
• Separate the group into small teams or pairs and distribute the task sheets.
• Allow 20 minutes to read the scenario and for participants to note down possible answers to the questions.

Review Activity (20 minutes)

Lead a group discussion on the results of the case study and the role of the department manager in dealing with the individuals concerned.

You may wish to raise the following points to help facilitate the discussion:

• It was clearly not a good idea for Simon to suggest taking people to the pub during working hours – how would you deal with this issue?
• What would you do about Vicky’s situation? Ask the participants if they noticed that she had a positive breath test even though she had only been drinking soft drinks? Does this mean that she had been drinking throughout the morning, or had a lot to drink the night before? How would you get to the bottom of this? Also, what would you do if she was required to drive as part of her job?
• How would you deal with Liza – would you discipline her formally or would you reprimand her for bringing the company into disrepute by behaving in such a manner while in her uniform?
• How would you deal with Cheryl’s problems?
• What do you think Paul and Sonia had been doing? Have you noticed Sonia’s workload increasing? Have you discussed why this is and what you can do to help if she appears to be not coping? Would you give Paul another chance or would you sack him on his return to work?
• Have you considered the fact that Surinder, a Sikh, does not drink alcohol? What are the implications of this? Do you think she could possibly feel excluded or uncomfortable in team bonding sessions that involve alcohol? How would you resolve this issue?
• Aside from visiting the pub, how else could Simon have resolved the tension within the team?

Apply Learning (10 Minutes)

• Note down key advice or good practice ideas on the flipchart and decide how this might be incorporated into organizational policy.

Take a Trip Travel Agents – Task Sheet

Take a Trip Travel is headquartered in a business park on the outskirts of a major city. Although it is a leading travel agency, the impact of the internet, terrorism and a general downturn in the travel industry has meant that the sales department has failed to meet its monthly targets for the past three months. The strain is beginning to take its toll. The situation has affected everyone in the department in a variety of ways and, as a result, working relationships are under a great deal of strain. Each member of the department feels dissatisfied with the others’ performance, and they all blame each other for not meeting the targets.

The team leader, Simon, decides to alleviate the situation by taking the team for lunch, in an attempt to engage them in some team-bonding, so Vicky drives them all to a quiet country pub in the company minibus.

After a couple of drinks, Cheryl publicly accuses Simon of having feelings for Vicky, alleging that this is the reason why Vicky was promoted ahead of her. A stormy argument ensues between Cheryl and Vicky.

While Simon and Surinder try to calm Cheryl and Vicky down, Paul and Sonia disappear for a few minutes. On their return to the table, Paul seems very relaxed, while Sonia appears slightly flustered. Later that afternoon, when she returns to work, she loses one of her most important clients.

In the meantime, Liza, who fancies herself as a karaoke queen, starts up the jukebox. She tries to cheer the team up by singing Gloria Gaynor’s ‘I Will Survive’ at the top of her voice, playing it on a constant loop. This results in complaints from numerous patrons who were in the pub for a quiet lunch and the landlord eventually has no choice but to ask them to leave. Alex subsequently gets a phone call of complaint from one of the patrons, who noticed the Take A Trip logo on Liza’s workshirt.

Paul does not go back to the office with the others. Instead, he just disappears without telling anyone.

As Vicky has only been drinking soft drinks throughout lunch, she drives everyone else back in the company minibus. However, she goes through a red light and, unfortunately for her, is seen by a police officer. He decides to breathalyze her. The result of the test is positive and Vicky is arrested and taken to the local police station.

Alex is the department manager, in charge of telesales and corporate accounts. She progressed through the ranks from a sales assistant post to become the department manager after five years in the department, but this is her first managerial role.

Simon is the sales team leader. He was a team leader in the marketing department of Take a Trip but was transferred across to sales after a few people in his previous team made complaints about him.

Vicky is a senior salesperson. She gets on very well with Simon. She was a sales assistant for a year before being promoted, having reached her targets consistently.

Cheryl is a salesperson. She is 22 years old, married with a young son and has been a sales assistant for two years, but feels she is long overdue for promotion.

Liza is another sales person. She is 19 years old and this is her first full-time job since leaving college. She has been part of the team for just three months.

Surinder is the third salesperson. She is 34 and has been with Take a Trip for four years. She is married with two children and, as a practicing Sikh, does not drink alcohol.

Sonia is the corporate account manager. She comes from a client relations background and has been working for Take a Trip for six years. She has a reputation as being professional and hard-working – sometimes too hard-working, as she often works during evenings and weekends.

Paul is the corporate sales assistant. He has been working for Take a Trip for two years, and is very laid back – so much so that he has been disciplined for consistent lateness. He is on his final warning.

All of the sales team are required to wear the corporate uniform of a blue shirt (with logo) and black skirt or trousers during the working day.

As the department manager, Alex has to deal with the issues arising from this lunchtime event.

• Put the situations/individuals in order of priority, i.e. who or what do you think Alex should deal with first?
• Write down what action you would take with regard to each individual and be prepared to discuss why you would take this approach. Record your answers on a flipchart.

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This is a title, online travel agency stops account takeover and scraping bot attacks.

- Infrastructure Lead

• Accurate bot protection : Bot Defender uses behavioral analysis, machine learning and predictive methods to detect and mitigate scraping and ATO attacks in real time.
• Preserved functionality of good bots:  The leading OTA works with a large number of business partners that use automation, so being able to discover and whitelist the unknown good bot traffic was extremely important for the business.
• Easy integration: Bot Defender’s open architecture allowed it to integrate easily with the OTA’s existing infrastructure. This enabled fast deployment and quick results.
• Low-latency: Bot Defender is designed for low latency, which reduces the load on the OTA’s web infrastructure. This preserved website performance and Google page rankings. 
• Always-available security expertise: HUMAN offers best-in-class service and security analyst insights via Slack, email or phone.

Bot Defender identified that, on average, more than half of the OTA’s traffic came from unwanted bots. That number jumped to 95% of the traffic on login pages. As Bot Defender mitigated the malicious bots, the OTA quickly saw the following results:

• Improved website performance : The low latency architecture and reduction in bot traffic improved response time by up to 200ms — over 50% faster.  In addition, the number of bot-related production outages on the OTA’s website dropped to zero.
• Reduction of business and infrastructure costs : The OTA saved significantly on GDS fees and other third-party costs due to a more than 12% reduction in API calls to these services. The CPU utilization on web servers also dropped by 25%, lowering infrastructure costs. 
• Improved look-to-book ratio : Once Bot Defender cleaned up the OTA’s web data, their look-to-book ratio was no longer skewed low due to scraping bots. The team gained confidence that A/B testing results were accurate, allowing them to make smarter decisions about pricing and promotions.
• Strengthened consumer trust: The efficient blocking of ATO attacks provided a safer user experience and reduced calls to customer service. The improved site performance also made for a more frictionless buyer journey.

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TravelOperations case study

Traveloperations business helps smb travel agencies adapt to post-covid world, looking for a solution for smb customers.

TravelOperations knew that its enterprise-scale solution, TravelOperations Enterprise for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations, simply wasn’t an option for a large segment of their market.

Fixed price offering reduces overhead, decreases risk

The company launched its updated TravelOperations Business travel order management and financial management solution, which was laser-focused on small businesses looking to digitally transform their operations.

Building for the future during COVID-19

With the COVID-19 pandemic ingoing and travel not yet recovered to where it was in 2019, TravelOperations Business sees a strong future for its streamlined offering on Dynamics 365 Business Central.

Business Central provides platform for new SMB solution

TravelOperations, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, started as a traditional CRM and ERP services provider focused on the travel industry, initially building on-premises offerings on Microsoft Dynamics and then transitioning to SaaS solutions built on Dynamics 365. While TravelOperations knew that a large segment of the market was SMB agencies, its enterprise-scale solution, TravelOperations Enterprise for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations, with an average six-to-eight-month implementation window, simply wasn’t an option for smaller businesses who don’t need all the functionality offered but require a standard solution implemented fast and at a fixed price.

To address the SMB market, TravelOperations Business explored Microsoft’s first cloud-based small business accounting solution when it was released in 2017. This initial version didn’t feel like the right fit at the time. But when the next-generation Dynamics 365 Business Central was released just a year later, the team took another look and determined they had found their platform. Dynamics 365 Business Central offered TravelOperations Business a full-service finance solution that is highly scalable, localized, and evergreen with feature updates rolling out every six months. In addition, integration with the Microsoft 365 productivity stack and Power BI provided a way to drive adoption and insights with SMB customers.

“It was clear Microsoft had put a lot of effort and investment into the Dynamics 365 Business Central product. All of a sudden we saw a mature product that had rapidly transformed into the cloud-enabled solution perfect for what our target market needed,” said Peter Holm, General Manager at TravelOperations Business.

After investing about nine months in developing a solution on Dynamics 365 Business Central, the company spun off its SMB unit into its own business to better capitalize on the opportunity. By the beginning of 2020 the new unit was up and running with two customers already deployed, a strong pipeline, and expanded operations in the UK.

Then COVID-19 hit.

“It was clear Microsoft had put a lot of effort and investment into the Dynamics 365 Business Central product. All of a sudden we saw a mature product that had rapidly transformed into the cloud-enabled solution perfect for what our target market needed.”

— peter holm, general manager, traveloperations business.

With COVID-19, the worldwide travel industry ground to a halt. So, Holm tore up his business plan and started from scratch. With travel off the table for implementations and travel agencies having zero cash flow, TravelOperations Business redefined its offering to be fixed price, fixed scope, and deployed 100% remotely. Deployment times were dramatically reduced from 30 days to just 10 days (from initiation to go-live) so companies could get up and running as quickly as possible when countries reopened their airports and borders.

Once the new strategy was in place, it took the company about three months to launch its updated TravelOperations Business travel order management and financial management solution, which was laser focused on small businesses looking to digitally transform their operations. Promoted through LinkedIn campaigns, the solution immediately resonated with SMB agencies even while businesses were still shut down.

“A lot of the agencies we spoke with were very frustrated because they had purchased solutions from other suppliers and couldn’t get out of their agreements even when business was at a stand-still,” said Holm. “When they saw our solution was fixed price, could scale up and down as needed, was always updated with the latest features, had a better look and feel, and was easier to use than their legacy systems, they realized it was clearly a cost-efficient, lower-risk choice to help them weather the turbulent business environment.”

As a result of its new strategy, TravelOperations Business has added 18 net new Microsoft customers in the last 10 months across nine different countries. Part of its success comes from a strong focus on training and support after deployment to ensure customers are successful until they become self-sufficient. “In addition to our hyper-care approach to onboarding, we just released a new product for online training in 50 different languages so we can do an even better job of getting users up to speed,” said Holm.

One of the forward-thinking customers that engaged with TravelOperations Business during the COVID-19 shutdown was DealCaptains, a travel consulting group started by CEO Lisa Simpkins in 2019. With 15 clients going into 2020, Simpkins saw an opening when COVID-19 hit to rethink traditional technology models for her business. “I chose to see it as an opportunity to focus on building a business for the future. It was a crucial moment to concentrate on getting our technology foundation just right, centering our attention 100% on creating the best possible customer experience,” said Simpkins.

With business-to-business travel margins razor thin, a technology-first, cloud-based approach that offers customers omnichannel, hassle-free experiences serves as a real differentiator—especially in a recovery market. “TravelOperations Business delivers all the key components we need ranging from CRM and profile management to end-to-end travel back office and ERP. Having all functions within one ecosystem is amazing —it just works,” said Simpkins.

TravelOperations Business' open-source integrations with telephone systems, booking sources, agnostic GDS/NDC enabled, ARC, and vendor and bank reconciliations also make a world of difference. “By having every vital business function in Microsoft’s ecosystem, we save thousands and thousands of dollars a month. To a small business this is huge,” Simpkins continued.

Microsoft cloud helps drive growth in still volatile market

With COVID-19 still at pandemic levels and travel not yet recovered to where it was in 2019, TravelOperations Business sees a strong future for its streamlined offering on Dynamics 365 Business Central. In particular, as one of the very few Microsoft-based solutions in the travel market, the company believes the complete Microsoft cloud is a big reason for its robust growth trajectory.

“The scalability and interconnectivity of Dynamics 365, Azure, and the rest of the Microsoft productivity stack are real differentiators,” said Holm. “As new capabilities around IoT, automation, and collaborative business processes evolve, we see our Microsoft partnership becoming even more important going forward, helping SMBs innovate and build trust in a challenging market.”

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• Case Study: Should a Hotelier Invest in a New Kind of Online Travel Agency?

Lotta Tindal, the chief marketing officer for the Dutch hospitality group Ervaring Hotels & Resorts, hadn’t wanted to come to the presentation, but Gerard Bakker, Ervaring’s CFO, had twisted her arm.

“These things are nothing more than glorified sales pitches,” she whispered to him.

“Stop acting like a teenager,” he joked. “I’m trying to pay attention.”

Gerard nodded toward the front of the room, where Dan Carlson, the CEO of HotelShield, stood at a podium, PowerPoint clicker at the ready.

“Besides, Curt said we should check it out,” Gerard added.

Ervaring’s CEO, Curt Schmitt, had suggested that they use part of their time at the ITB Berlin Trade Show to learn more about HotelShield, a new venture designed to help hotels increase direct bookings and reduce their dependence on online travel agencies (OTAs) such as Expedia and Priceline, which facilitated a significant number of reservations but took a substantial cut of the revenue they generated. Lotta, who’d joined Ervaring from Marriott two years before, was the first to admit that her new company, with 12 brands operating 5,000 hotels, mainly in Europe, needed help. One fifth of its bookings were currently going through a third-party intermediary, which was turning out to be quite expensive. Although this wasn’t out of the ordinary for European hoteliers, Ervaring needed to reduce its cost per booking to improve its bottom line.

HotelShield wasn’t courting customers at ITB; it was courting investors. The venture had four equity partners — all major U.S. hotel brands — and was looking for more. Signing on would mean taking an 8-million-euro stake. But Lotta wasn’t yet ready to gamble a significant portion of her marketing budget on it.

Onstage, Dan spoke with authority. “On hotel websites, 95% of people abandon their shopping carts,” he said. “We help shield against some of those abandonments.” He demonstrated how HotelShield worked. When a user closed out of a hotel website without booking a room, a HotelShield ad would pop up under the window, offering alternative prices and locations within the same or a partner brand. Clicking on it would send the user to the website of whichever hotel he or she chose or to HotelShield’s website, where the user could find additional options and compare prices. And although HotelShield took a cut of the revenue generated , its fees were substantially lower than what the OTAs charged, because it didn’t have to spend much on marketing, relying instead on the pop-under ads to drive traffic to its own and partners’ websites.

“Our business model puts the power back in your hands: It restores your direct relationship with customers and allows you to market your properties as unique destinations—not commodities—again. OTAs cost this business close to $3 billion each year. They generate even more of your bookings and charge even higher fees here in Europe than they do in the U.S. I want to stop that. And I know you do too. Think of us as a partisan intermediary. We have created a third way between your brand sites and the OTAs.”

When the lights in the room came up, Gerard turned to Lotta. “You know I like anything that will pressure OTAs to lower their fees,” he said.

“But is HotelShield really the answer to all our problems? Are you willing to bet 8 million euros on it?”

“I have Carly running the ROI — both short-term and long-term,” he said, referring to Carly Janssen, his finance director, “but I have to say that I find it intriguing. You know Hilton and Starwood are two of the initial partners.”

“That doesn’t mean we have to follow,” Lotta said. “I’m having flashbacks to RoomLocator.”

At Marriott, Lotta had been part of the team that voted to make an investment in a young start-up with a similar value proposition — to undercut OTAs and help hospitality groups increase direct bookings. But within two years the whole venture had gone south, and Marriott, along with the four other partners, was out a lot of money.

“This seems different. It also has big brands behind it, but the business model makes more sense to me. We’re not losing our customers to a third party. This third party is just helping us move some of the traffic to direct sales.”

Lotta smiled at Gerard. In her short time at Ervaring, she’d come to rely on him for help with investment decisions. He was a no-nonsense numbers guy, not a risk taker. “You really fell for the hype, didn’t you?” she teased.

Still , she thought, maybe HotelShield is worth a second look .

Different From the Last Debacle

Lotta and Gerard walked down the street to a reception at a bar across from the Haus des Rundfunks. HotelShield was sponsoring the event, and Lotta wasn’t one to pass up a free glass of wine. The room was full of other industry executives who’d attended the presentation, and Lotta and Gerard could see Dan making the rounds, shaking hands and handing out cards.

“It seems a lot like an OTA in sheep’s clothing to me,” Lotta told Gerard.

“I don’t know. It doesn’t seem as bad to me. This feels more like an additional distribution channel. I don’t buy Dan’s line that all we have to do is ‘sit back and count the money,’ but this does seem like a friendlier intermediary. Besides, what don’t we like about third-party intermediaries? High fees and disconnection from our customers. You heard what Dan said. HotelShield is charging only 10%. That’s less than half what we pay some OTAs, and we get to keep the relationship with the customer. I wasn’t wowed by the current traffic numbers, but I understand it’s just getting started—”

Appearing behind him, Dan said, “And we haven’t heavily invested in marketing yet, because we’re waiting to secure all our equity partners first.” He grinned and shook hands with both of them. “I was so happy to see that you two made it to the presentation. I’ve exchanged a few e-mails with Curt, and I was sorry he couldn’t make it to Berlin.”

Before they could respond, Dan turned to Lotta. “I know you and everyone else in the U.S. were traumatized by the RoomLocator experience,” he said, “but this is going to be different…”

“It’s like you read her mind,” Gerard said. Lotta was impressed that Dan had done his homework.

Dan continued. “RoomLocator simply couldn’t compete in the 1999 market when investors were dumping silly money into the likes of Travelocity and Expedia. Plus those OTAs were just babies, and we had no idea how real a threat they would become. Fifteen years later we’re on a more level playing field and we have much better analytics on what customers want. Our website is uncluttered and easy to use and represents savings for consumers. Did you see the piece in USA Today ?”

Curt had sent around the article. A reporter had tested HotelShield against OTAs over several weeks and found in every case that he would have saved money by using it. Lotta understood the promise: Customers could get the same rates they would on Priceline or Expedia — or even lower ones — plus all the benefits of direct booking, such as flexible room choices, loyalty program points, the ability to make custom amenity requests, and no cancellation fees.

“A very nice press hit,” Lotta said. “But do you really think you can beat the OTAs at their own game? How long will it take you to get those traffic numbers up?”

“It’s a crowded market, for sure. And it’s getting even more competitive with Expedia buying up Orbitz and Travelocity. But we’ve had great success so far. In the first six months we had 4 million unique visitors, and we’re now reaching 14 million travelers a month. As I said, we haven’t done a ton of marketing because we’re still lining up equity partners. I’ve already told Curt that we’re willing to consider an exclusive deal in Europe. You’d be the first here on the Continent, and you could be the only one. But that offer won’t stand for long. We’ve got interest from Intercontinental and Steigenberger  as well. It would be a shame if you all missed the boat on this.”

“Well, you know we don’t make the final call, so we’ll have to be in touch,” Lotta said, steering Gerard away.

As they exited the bar, Gerard reminded her that Curt had put the ball in her court. He was relying on her to make a suggestion to the board.

“I know,” Lotta said. “I just wanted to get Dan off my back. He was getting on my nerves. Even worse, he was persuading me that this might be a good idea.”

Negative NPV

Later that week, back at Ervaring’s Amsterdam headquarters, Lotta, Gerard, and Carly Janssen were crowded around Carly’s laptop looking at her analysis of a potential HotelShield investment.

“The company has a solid business model, but we’d lose money as a partner,” Carly said. “You can see that if you go three years out, the NPV is still negative on our investment. Even when I do the sensitivity analysis and change the underlying assumptions, there’s really no scenario in which this works for us.”

Lotta’s assistant brought in lunch, and they all paused for a moment to unwrap their sandwiches. Lotta wasn’t surprised by the numbers. The OTAs had a pretty strong grip on consumers, and it seemed unlikely that a company with pop-under ads would suddenly change that.

“So it’s a no,” she said.

“I know this is going to sound strange coming from me,” Gerard said, “but even if the short-term and midterm numbers don’t look good, I’m not sure we should let this opportunity pass us by. We may not see an immediate return, but if HotelShield gets even a piece of the market share over the next few years, the OTAs will have to pay attention. As you know, it’s essentially a two-player OTA market right now, and Expedia and Priceline have more negotiating leverage than they’ve ever had before. Maybe we can’t be completely free of OTAs, but if they lowered their fees by even a few percentage points, it would have a huge impact on our bottom line — perhaps not today, but over the long run.”

Carly was stunned. She looked up midbite. “We’re still talking about a huge loss over the next three years,” she said, pointing to her laptop screen.

“This isn’t about a monetary return, at least not right now,” Gerard insisted. “This is about trying to shake up the industry. Everyone in e-commerce wants a piece of the $1.3 trillion travel industry. With Amazon and Google moving in and threatening to intercept our customers between searching and booking, we’ve got to do something soon if we want to stay in the game. With the likes of Hilton and Starwood becoming partners with HotelShield, we should be taking this very seriously.”

“But maybe that’s the point,” Carly replied. “We’re not a Hilton or a Starwood. So let the U.S. players make this investment and see what happens. We don’t have to take the risk, and we can still enjoy the benefits later — when HotelShield wants us as a customer rather than a partner, or when it forces the OTAs to lower their fees.”

Lotta could see why Carly was Gerard’s right-hand woman. She had a good head on her shoulders. “I like that idea,” she chimed in, fully aware that she was flip-flopping.

“Sitting back and waiting isn’t going to work if we want to see changes in Europe,” Gerard countered. “HotelShield needs a partner here, and we’re the biggest brand. I know you’re gun-shy, Lotta, but you can’t let the RoomLocator experience color everything that comes after. There needs to be pressure from all over.”

Long-Term Return

Lotta had made it through security at Schiphol and was waiting in line to board her flight to London for a day of meetings. She checked her iPhone one last time before getting to her seat and saw an e-mail from Curt that read: “Have you decided on HotelShield?”

She knew he wasn’t expecting an immediate reply, so she decided to think it over during the plane ride and e-mail him from her taxi into London.

Nine thousand meters up, she reminded herself of all the reasons this investment wasn’t worth a significant portion of her budget. HotelShield was unproven in the marketplace. The business model was sound, but would consumers, especially European travelers, take to the pop-under ads? Could the venture convert enough shoppers to make this a viable channel for Ervaring and scare the OTAs into lowering their fees?

At the same time, she heard Gerard’s voice admonishing her for letting the RoomLocator debacle color her judgment. She didn’t want that to prevent Ervaring from shaking up the industry and taking profits back from the OTAs. If it didn’t invest, one of the British or German brands probably would, perhaps as an exclusive partner, and Ervaring might be left in the dust.

She looked out the window and wondered, Is this too big a risk? Or is it an opportunity we can’t pass up?

Chekitan S. Dev ( [email protected] ) is an associate professor of marketing and brand management at Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration in Ithaca, New York.

Peter O’Connor is a professor of information systems at ESSEC Business School in Paris.

Case study was first published in hbr.org

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CASE STUDY on TRAVELOKA

Promoting brand and work culture with functional workplace interiors.

The Design Brief

Traveloka wanted a space that could be constructed in phases with a provision for future team expansion. The Company already had a fixed material palette for consistency across international offices. With this latest location, Traveloka was looking for a contemporary workplace that evoked corporate culture while providing staff sufficient room for social interaction, in addition to a flexible work environment. Traveloka has a flat organizational structure and thus wanted open working spaces. Closed spaces were to be limited only to meeting and conference rooms.

The biggest project challenge for Team Zyeta was to design the space in a way that didn’t appear incomplete while maintaining the peripheries for expansion. Incorporating Traveloka’s globally established material palette and design standards into the new layout was another project requirement.

The Floor Plan and the Interior Layout

Traveloka’s building was fitted with a deck ceiling which became a major design element for the project. To promote the ceiling’s raw look, the entire design was crafted around this focal point.

The Company’s travel agency background was the design inspiration for the project. Hence, the layout is expressed as a map where one is free-flowingly navigated through the assorted office segments. These are well defined, and there is a clear division between primary and secondary corridors. Through the primary corridor, a visitor is freely guided to the common informal spaces like activity areas, cafeteria, and lounges from the reception, without being able to access the workstation area. On the other hand, employees can take the secondary corridor route which leads to the workstation and meeting room area directly.

The overall floorplan consists of a fusion of collaborative spaces, workstations, ABW spaces, and dedicated enclosed meeting rooms with standard screen elements that help separate the different sections from one another. The interior of the office was smartly compartmentalized to include the permanent staff as well as a floating population in order to maintain the co-working nature of the travel industry.

One of the highlights of the project was the use of the Company’s visual brand identity as a major influence on various aspects of the design. From matching brand colors to abstracts, the interior journey of the office space beautifully aligns with the Company’s global brand.

Reception: Traveloka’s reception was intentionally designed to project a glimpse of the company’s work culture. The front view of the reception depicts a warm and homey feeling with a brick cladding background and IPS flooring. The decorative downlight further accentuates the feeling of being welcomed.

Workstation: The workstation area has a breakout with a semi-open meeting place with metal screens right at the center. This space is for internal discussions and short meetings among various teams. There is also a mobile phone pod that functions as a time-out from the common workspace and can be used for private one-on-one discussions or telephonic conversations.

Front View Workstation: A front view of the workstation area reveals the variety in seating patterns. This encourages neighborhood discussions and interactions among different teams and individuals.

In Conclusion

Traveloka’s new Bengaluru office speaks to the highest international standards of new age interior design. The workplace provides cutting-edge space solutions that not only strengthen the office cohesion but also value employee privacy while promoting the Company’s global brand identity.

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New ITU case study maps the Moscow ‘smart city’ journey

Moscow reports experience with Key Performance Indicators for Smart Sustainable Cities

A new ITU case study offers an evaluation of Moscow’s progress in meeting the objectives of its ‘smart city’ strategies and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The case study ,  Implementing ITU-T International Standards to Shape Smart Sustainable Cities: The Case of Moscow , was undertaken using the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for Smart Sustainable Cities developed by the  United for Smart Sustainable Cities (U4SSC) initiativ e .

The ITU case study traces Moscow’s smart city journey from its origins in Moscow’s  Information City  strategy launched in 2011 to its successor the  Smart Moscow 2030  strategy. It highlights the role of Moscow’s Government in coordinating the implementation of a wide array of smart city projects in the city and how these projects have substantially improved the quality of life for city residents. The report assesses Moscow’s smart city performance using U4SSC indicators that measure impact on three dimensions: the economy, environment and society & culture.

Information and communication technology (ICT) is a recognized key contributor to the Moscow economy. Building on its strengths and maintaining ICTs as a strategic lever, Moscow has adopted vibrant policies for ICT development and proliferation. These aspects are clearly reflected in the good performance by Moscow, as presented in the report, within the sub-dimensions of “ICT” and “Productivity”.

The case study also serves as a valuable reference point to other cities in Russia and Commonwealth of Independent State countries – as well as to cities around the world pursuing greater efficiency and sustainability. ITU standardization experts responsible for the refinement of the Key Performance Indicators will also find the case study to be valuable.

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“Home to more than 12 million people, Moscow is the largest urban area on the European continent,” said ITU Secretary-General Houlin Zhao. “Considering the size of Moscow and its population, this case study offers a unique set of lessons learned for other cities around the world developing a ‘smart city’ strategy. I commend Moscow’s leaders for their efforts to share these experiences and this knowledge with the international community, towards creating a ‘smart’ world for everyone, everywhere.”

“Moscow has made a rapid smart city journey from 2011 and we are keen on keeping up with the pace. No matter whether it is Moscow, Singapore or Barcelona – every city has the same task to make their residents’ lives enjoyable, safe and comfortable,” said Strategy and Innovations Advisor to the Chief Information Officer of Moscow, Andrey Belozerov. “We are happy to contribute to this research as it is important to develop universal metrics to access city performances all around the world.”

The findings of the case study will feed into the work of ITU’s Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T)  Study Group 20 , the expert group leading the development of ITU standards for the Internet of Things and smart cities. These standards assist in optimizing the application of ICTs within smart cities, in addition to supporting efficient data processing and management.

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The findings will also be taken up by the U4SSC initiative, which advocates for public policy to ensure that ICTs, and ICT standards in particular, play a definitive role in the transition to Smart Sustainable Cities. U4SSC also promotes the adoption of international standards in reaching the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the reporting of associated experiences.

The Moscow case study follows prior smart city case studies of Dubai and Singapore. These have made valuable smart cities experiences and knowledge available to other cities around the world. This reporting also solicits feedback that helps cities to refine their smart city strategies.

U4SSC has developed a  ‘Collection methodology for the Key Performance Indicators for Smart Sustainable Cities’  to guide cities in their collection of core data and information necessary to assess  their progress in becoming a Smart Sustainable City. It is supported by 16 United Nations bodies, including ITU, and is open to the participation of all stakeholders interested in driving smart city innovation.

The collaboration encouraged by U4SSC has led more than 50 cities to measure their smart city strategies using the U4SSC’s KPIs for Smart Sustainable Cities, which are based on the ITU international standard,  ITU Y.4903/L.1603 “Key Performance Indicators for Smart Sustainable Cities to assess the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals” .

This ITU News story was originally distributed as an ITU press release. For more ITU press releases, see the  ITU Media Centre . 

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