Holiday Inn 2013 Annual Report Download - page 27

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Eective channel management
Our channel management strategy aims to deliver the highest quality
revenues to IHG hotels at the lowest possible cost, recognising that
the guest experience changes along the entirety of their travel
journey. Guests use multiple devices and new technology to
personalise their travel experience – from choosing where they want
to go, to what they want to do and, of course, where they want to stay.
Our focus is therefore to deliver against a guest’s needs across the
entirety of this journey, which we break down into five distinct steps:
Dream, Plan, Book, Travel, and Share.
We use our systems and technology to drive demand for our hotels,
manage revenue per booking and encourage guest loyalty, thereby
delivering the highest quality revenues to IHG hotels at the lowest
possible cost and maximising owner returns. However, we recognise
that guest trends, technology and the competitive environment
are continually evolving. It is therefore important that we keep
abreast of new technologies and systems to keep pace with these
to continue to deliver a consistent, locally relevant and differentiated
guest experience.
In 2013, IHG’s direct and indirect systems and channels delivered
69 per cent of total rooms revenue to our hotels (system
contribution to revenue).
Our booking systems and channels
Our multi-lingual web and mobile sites, call centres and global
sales force allow guests to use the channel most appropriate for
their needs, to plan and book our hotels. We also recognise that
social media has an important role to play as part of the booking
process as a method of advocacy and influence. As a result, we
have changed the way we communicate with our guests, using
social marketing innovations to make connections between hotels
and guests and, through our Guests Rating and Review tool,
providing our guests a forum to share their thoughts.
Web and mobile
Web-based bookings now account for over $3.5 billion of IHG’s
total rooms revenue to our hotels. As hotels and other booking
competitors continue to invest in the online experience, we expect
direct web sales to continue growing at the expense of traditional
reservationservices.
Mobile technology is also a growing booking and guest channel.
We were the first major hotel chain to offer branded mobile apps
across all our brands. Mobile visits accounted for over 30 per cent
of our website visits, while over 50 per cent of our emails are
opened via a mobile device. We continue to innovate in this area
in line with advancing technology.
Reservations centres
We operate 12 central reservations offices globally, with 13
different language capabilities to help potential guests and IHG
Rewards Club members with queries they may have in their travel
planning and to make bookings. In 2013, our global call centres
answered more than 21 million calls, and accounted for almost
$2 billion total rooms revenue to our hotels.
Travel agents
IHG works with a number of third-party distribution partners
to support revenue delivery to our hotels, including online travel
agencies (OTAs). OTAs represent a role within IHG’s distribution
strategy, most specifically around infrequent, comparison-shopping
leisure travellers. Therefore, IHG, on behalf of its owners,
has leveraged its global footprint to secure deals with the lowest
aggregate cost of sale for our owners, increasing their revenue.
Sales force
Our global sales teams are dedicated to securing profitable deals
with corporate clients and travel agents and leveraging our
technology platform to connect hotels to global distributions
systems, in ways that independent hotels and small chains cannot
do cost-effectively. In 2013, they helped our circa 2,130 corporate
accounts understand and plan for their future corporate travel.
Total gross revenue, System contribution to revenue and RevPAR are
KPIs – see pages 38 and 39.
The principal risks associated with Channel management and
technology platforms are set out on page 36.
IHG Rewards Club
We leverage our relaunched loyalty programme,
IHG Rewards Club, (further explained on page 24) with
77.4 million members around the world, to encourage
more direct bookings. In 2013, this delivered around
38.2 per cent of total rooms revenue to our hotels.
Strategic Report 25
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