Holiday Inn 2015 Annual Report Download - page 25

Driving direct, high-quality
revenues for our owners
Our global scale and the strength of our
digital capabilities enable us to offer strong
levels of system delivery, with direct and
indirect channels delivering 73 per cent
of total rooms revenue for our hotels in 2015.
We are focused on driving value to our owners
through our low-cost direct channels,
which, in turn, deliver better owner returns.
Enhancements to IHG Rewards Club in 2015
are an important way in which we are driving
more profitable, direct bookings to our hotels.
In close collaboration with our owner
community, we have also introduced a
number of additional initiatives in 2015
(detailed below) which are helping to make
our direct channels the preferred way
for guests to book their stays with us.
Launching innovative campaigns
In 2015, we piloted our ‘Lowest Price
Promise’ campaign for Holiday Inn Express
in the UK and Ireland, where we guarantee
the lowest rates on our brand.com website
for IHG Rewards Club members, providing
a clear incentive for guests to become part
of IHG Rewards Club and book through
IHG’s direct channels. This pilot has driven
a material increase in direct bookings,
driving a 19 per cent shift to our web channel,
and we will be extending this initiative to
other markets in 2016.
Embedding revenue management practices
We have delivered revenue management
training across each of our regions in 2015,
providing hotel staff with insight and
guidance on how to optimise the mix of
bookings from different sales channels,
in order to deliver the most profitable
revenues to hotels. In addition, we continue
to grow usage of our revenue management
service, ‘Revenue Management for Hire’,
which provides hotels with dedicated revenue
management experts, supported by our
proprietary strategic pricing tools, such
as ‘Perform with Price Optimisation’.
Improving digital channels
and driving digital innovation
Our direct digital channels (which include our
brand.com websites and mobile app) deliver
over 20 per cent of our rooms revenue and
have now collectively become IHG’s largest
channel. During the year, we have continued
to invest in developing compelling content
and innovative functionality for these
channels, in order to drive more profitable
direct bookings and to enhance the guest
experience. For example, in 2015 we
launched content-rich websites for five
brands which provide a more engaging
booking experience. We also made multiple
enhancements to our award-winning mobile
app, such as piloting Mobile Folio (allowing
guests to view hotel bills in real time) and
IHG Guest Request (allowing guests to make
in-stay service requests).
Our pilot ‘Lowest Price
Promise’ campaign for
Holiday Inn Express in
the UK means the lowest
rates on our brand.com
website for IHG Rewards
Club members.”
Strategic relationship with Amadeus
In April 2015, we announced the second
phase of our strategic relationship with
Amadeus to develop a next-generation,
cloud-based Guest Reservation System
(GRS) to replace HOLIDEX, IHG’s proprietary
reservation system. The new state-of-the-art
guest reservation solution will be a first for
the hotel industry, and will enable us to
deliver an enhanced and more personalised
guest experience across every stage of the
‘Guest Journey’, along with enriched
commercial outcomes for owners. The
system is currently in development, and
a phased roll-out will start in 2017. It will
provide our hotels with a robust global
platform to manage guest interaction
and the personalisation of their experience,
and will deliver a standardised, scalable
and flexible global technology ecosystem.
A better digital experience
The IHG Translator app, which is now
available on the Apple Watch, provides
travellers with access to real-time
translations across the world.
Users can speak directly into the watch
or select from a range of pre-loaded
phrases to translate from English into
13 different languages instantaneously.
‘Lowest Price Promise’ Our innovative campaign to increase direct bookings.
3. Making our direct channels the preferred way to book
23IHG Annual Report and Form 20-F 2015
STRATEGIC REPORT GOVERNANCE GROUP FINANCIAL STATEMENTS ADDITIONAL INFORMATIONPARENT COMPANY FINANCIAL STATEMENTS