When you sign up to work in online travel, you know you are never going to have a quiet moment. This is what Mieke de Schepper, who joined Expedia to manage hotel relationships in Asia Pacific from a career in Philips, has discovered.
Mieke de Schepper: “Japan continues to surprise me in overall growth.” (Pictured above, Imperial Palace against the modern skyline of Tokyo.)
“It’s like the game of Whack A Mole we used to play as kids, you get one down, another one comes up. There are so many new things happening, new competition, there’s never a quiet moment. You solve a payment issue in one country, then something else happens,” said the vice president Asia Pacific of Expedia Lodging Partner Services.
Not that she’s complaining. In fact, de Schepper is visibly excited by the developments taking place in accommodation in Asia. “There’s been a lot happening around new regulations around vacation rentals – it’s interesting the different approaches taken by Japan (which legalised it) and Singapore (which banned short-term rentals).
“It’s a big concern for hoteliers but there is clear consumer demand for it. As I see it, it gets people travelling more because there is more availability, it increases the overall market and it’s good for the entire industry.”
The opportunity for hoteliers is to offer what alternative accommodation cannot – 24-hour restaurants, laundry services, gyms, safety. “Understand why people are using alternative accommodation, families who try to book connecting rooms in a hotel – it’s impossible, provide experiences, make it less anonymous. Focus on what you have versus what you don’t have.”
Expedia’s “Go Global” battlecry this year is also good for de Schepper, giving her more resources to invest in offices and talent in the region which is seeing strong growth. “Japan continues to surprise me in overall growth, both inbound and domestic. It’s interesting how the domestic market is evolving – it was heavily locally dominated but it’s starting to change.”
Expedia being named as APAC’s most mobile-friendly website in Asia Pacific, according to research carried out by IPG Mediabrands’ technology arm Ansible, has also given the Asia team a shot-in-the-arm because they know how critical mobile is to winning in Asia. “The market dynamics are changing so fast, meta search is playing a bigger role across the region and of course, mobile – you really need global scale to keep up with the changes.”
And it’s been a good start to the year as Expedia puts more things in place to go faster, she said. “More payment methods for consumers and suppliers, a new Internet banking system in Malaysia and making it possible for hoteliers in China to pay us via Union Pay – small incremental steps that will lead to big gains.”
We were catching up to discuss the WIT Hospitality Think Tank Summary Report which outlined four opportunities for hoteliers to grasp in the changing world of hotel distribution.
- Understanding the complexity of distribution
During the Think Tank, Puneet Mahindroo of Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts urged hoteliers to adopt Net RevPar as the new measure so that they can compare channels on a level playing field. “If you are selling your rooms on a static basis, you have to look at the true cost of that,” said de Schepper. “Static is coming to an end, you have to move toward dynamic pricing. Rates negotiated two years in advance – that’s outdated in a world that’s moving too fast.”
She added, “The notion that OTAs can’t build base business is nonsense. I book my hotel six months in advance, not all bookings are last minute, even on mobile.”
Expedia’s internal data for the last 12 months up to Q1 2017 shows that long booking windows is a trend across all channels.
Its hotel partners across Asia see an average booking window (ABW) of over a month plus.
- ABW inbound Japan approximates 47 days
- Longest BWs came from Malaysia and Thailand (70+ days), Australia (64 days)
- ABW inbound New Zealand averaged 50 days
- Longest BWs coming from UK (70 days), Germany (65 days), Canada (56 days)
- ABW inbound Thailand averaged 40 days
- Longest BWs coming from South Africa (70 days), Brazil and Argentina (60 days)
Mobile, typically considered a last minute channel, has also seen growing booking window, shifting away from same day transactions.
- South Korea destinations has seen mobile demand booked 91+ days in advance grow by nearly 115% YoY
- Similarly, Macau hotels experienced almost 90% YoY increase for mobile demand made 91+ days in advance vs only a 20% increase in last minute mobile demand, resulting in a 5% share decline in short term mobile demand
- Vietnam saw a 90% increase in mobile demand in the 91+ BW, contributing to a 5% share decline in short term mobile demand.
“The reality is, if I want to book a room six months in advance, I get the worst possible deal. No one is managing the rates to give good rates to early bookers. Hoteliers have educated consumers to book late. Airlines got into that trap but low cost airlines have reversed the trend.
“That’s the next change. If you look at different channels and measure true costs, rethink how you classify the channels and what kind of customers they can bring you. More business travellers are also booking online dynamic rates – and in the MICE space as well, we’re seeing more of that business move online.”
Expedia has launched a meetings booking product in Germany and there are plans to bring it to Asia.
- Leveraging the true power of partnerships
Having invested more than $1b in its technology platform, Expedia now offers its tech platform to partners such as Marriott and Red Lion, and is in advanced talks with partners in Asia, specifically regional chains that do not have the global scale.
The intent is to go beyond distribution and have hotels leverage Expedia’s technology and other services to give them scale and help them sell better to consumers they can’t reach themselves.
In fact, the most active market globally using Rev+, a new revenue management tool just launched by Expedia Partner Central, is Hong Kong “and everyone’s trying to figure out why”, laughed de Schepper.
The Top 5 EPC features most commonly used by Expedia’s hotel partners via mobile are:
- Real-time feedback
- Reservations
- Manage Rates & Availability
- EPC Conversations
- Guest Reviews
“We are creating more accessible partner experiences for smaller hotels – they have different needs from the big hotels in Western markets – and improving the UI for them. We have been using the Innovation Lab (opened in Singapore in April) to run tests. In line with the emphasis on Asia, we are expanding our range of independent hotels˘
- Getting owners onboard with the new digital world
To get more owners onboard by raising their awareness and knowledge of distribution, she is setting up a new ownership services group to specifically take on this task. “We are looking to hire people with owner experience.”
“It’s extremely important that owners understand more about distribution. In the past, we were dependent on management chains to educate the owners but it’s important to get direct involvement because they are the ones who make the investment decisions on technology.”
- Preparing talent for the new economy
One key reason for not having a quiet moment as a team leader is the constant hunt for talent and ensuring retention. “Eighty percent of our staff are millennials, born from 1976 onwards. You have to keep them engaged to keep them and they have to feel they are making a difference to the business.”
It has a Global Learning Organisation app where staff can log in to learn about best practices, leadership and technology issues. And staff seem pretty engaged according to login engagement metrics – 182,810 Daily Challenges Completed and 161,007 Total Visits.
Its Recognition and Reward programme recognises individuals who have contributed to thinking differently about the business with the prize the opportunity to travel to another country to learn. In the past, recognition was done by leadership but since two months, it’s switched to peer voting. “People are more motivated by that,” said the Dutch-born executive.
It publishes all roles internally and anyone can apply for any role, it encourages diversity, not just gender and the most successful recruitment channel is “recommend friends and families”.
Said de Schepper, “We work hard and play hard. We are a fast growing team and we have to make sure everyone is super motivated and engaged.”