The small hotels program allows for flexible allocation of rooms and provides an easy-to-use system, so that small businesses can market themselves to customers in their backyard and the rest of the world.
BELLEVUE, WASHINGTON – Expedia Inc. announced the success of its small hotels program, revealing approximately a 40 percent year over year increase in new North America hotel partnerships with properties comprised of 50 rooms or fewer. Officially launched in North America in 2014, the small hotels program aims to better meet the needs of small properties such as inns, guest houses and B&Bs through tailored, flexible agreements.
The small hotels program was developed when Hari Nair, VP of Expedia’s Market Management for North America, found that out of all the hotels that exist in North America, the largest gap in those that Expedia did not work with were properties that had fewer than 50 rooms. “Being self-reliant by nature, most small properties had previously opted not to partner with OTAs or other demand generators simply because they didn’t want to pay someone else to do a job they felt capable of handling themselves,” explained Nair. “By developing a targeted program for small hotels, we generated more than 5.7 million total room nights for all of our small hotel partners in 2014.”
Anita Henslin, from Pearl of the Sea Luxury Bed & Breakfast in St. Augustine Florida, experienced this success first hand: “Our property is several months ahead of projected bookings largely because of Expedia promotions and we had to hire additional staff to keep up with demand.”
The small hotels program allows for flexible allocation of rooms and provides an easy-to-use system, so that small businesses can market themselves to customers in their backyard and the rest of the world. With it comes training on Expedia’s tools and access to real-time feedback, analysis and adjustments that help you optimize your revenue management strategy to ensure that even small, independently owned enterprises can compete with big business.
Brenda Yablon, owner of the Manor Guest House, a 25-room, three-star inn in Vancouver, noted that “Being with Expedia has vastly surpassed all expectations. We’ve always had a high occupancy rate, but now Expedia accounts for about one third of all our business, which has allowed us to cut back on other advertising.”
“We also have the ability to bring incremental international travelers to these properties that these proprietors wouldn’t be able to reach themselves,” noted Nair. For the international traveler that favors small, independently owned properties, Expedia markets those properties directly to millions of guests around the world through more than 150 booking sites on desktops, tablets and mobile devices, with content translated into more than 38 languages and reservations booked in the guest’s own currency.
“There isn’t a 25-room hotel on the planet that can afford to market in all of the countries that Expedia reaches,” Yablon said.
Vicky is the co-founder of TravelDailyNews Media Network where she is the Editor-in Chief. She is also responsible for the daily operation and the financial policy. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Tourism Business Administration from the Technical University of Athens and a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Wales.
She has many years of both academic and industrial experience within the travel industry. She has written/edited numerous articles in various tourism magazines.
