The Claridges, New Delhi, witnessed the who’s who of the industry, making the first edition of the Digital Hospitality a tremendous success. Digitalism is fast taking over every level of the hospitality industry and, as I said during the seminar, whatever happens online is a function of what happens offline – with the staff, at the lobby, the reception etc. So, the seminar was not just focused on one area, but highlighted each and every aspect of our existence in this industry.
The aim of starting these seminars was to educate and inform the industry professionals about digitalism – the basics, trends and, most importantly, why you need to go digital. All in a day’s work, we touched base with the important concepts such as social media optimisation, the concept of PPC, domestic & international aspects of e-payments and how they can prove to be a boon for your hotel’s online marketing strategy – Mr. Amit Doshi, Director of Sales, E-Billing Solutions, gave us great insight on e-payments, OTA management and online reputation management
Mr Doshi’s was one of the most interesting sessions for me and was akin to the domestic & international aspects of e-payments. I could see a lot of the attendees sitting up and taking notes. As Mr. Doshi pointed out, e-payments are growing at a rate of 40% year-on-year and since the hospitality industry is undergoing what I call a major shift to digitalism, it only makes sense to enable guests to make e-payments. Why? E-payments are, by far, one of the most seamless, smart and secure modes of online payments with a fraud and risk management solution in place to counter and prevent any attempts at fraudulent payments. It encourages transparency and advanced analysis in all payments made online. Plus, you have an available team of experts for support. You have higher conversion rates and enhanced transactions because your billing is integrated with a payment gateway.
Also, the session conducted on OTAs was extremely enlightening. A presentation put together by Mr. Rahul Nigam, Associate Director, India, Agoda, encouraged a lot of our guests to believe in the power of OTAs. Since the travel purchase window is shrinking, most travelers have or are going mobile at an increasing pace, which means that OTAs have clearly become the preferred shopping sites. “With OTAs, you have the inventory under one roof. For consumers, it means research-based travel, transparency and room for choice, consumer reviews and forums to share the experience,” Mr. Jeff Hoh, Director, Hotels India, Agoda, pointed out. For hoteliers, OTAs help you to reach out to your customers better, driving the occupancy rates.
Did you know that 50% of all bookings happen on a single day in Delhi alone? The OTAs help you fill in the empty rooms which give you this additional revenue. More such eye-opening insights were shared which indeed made our attendees OTA-friendly, and I’m sure they took home a lot of information.
The cherry on the cake was that the professionals who had attended the seminar came with high expectations, all of which were met. All the guests agreed unanimously that the Internet has become a huge driving force in marketing a brand and even though many of our attendees were just taking the initial steps into the field of digitalism or were six months to one year into it, they all seemed pretty enthusiastic to take the reins and carry forward the spirit of digitalism. What I found most welcoming was the readiness with which our Indian industry professionals are set to embrace digitalism. There is an innate eagerness to learn and build a strong network of digital hospitality that filters down to the most basic levels of management and I assure you, that with continued efforts and teamwork, we are set to achieve an excellent digital marketing strategy. Digital hospitality is not rocket science and we helped prove that at our seminar.
For those of you who could not make it to the event, I really do hope you can be present for the next sessions which I will keep you informed about. These seminars are something you don’t want to miss out on, especially if you are a digital hospitality professional. I would also take this opportunity to thank all of our esteemed guests who took time out from their busy schedules to be a part of the first Digital Hospitality seminar. You have contributed largely to the success of this one of a kind event. Your praise and statements of encouragement at the seminar really helped us forge ahead. And with your best wishes and support, we shall be conducting many more such Digital Hospitality seminars which will extensively cover all segments of digitalism.
Thank you for making the DH Training Seminar a huge success and we look forward to having you at all our future sessions!
