NZ Herald Article - Tourism drives economy higher

New Zealand's tourism sector is on track to overtake dairy as New Zealand's biggest export earner and the country will soon crack three million visitors a year.

Tourism has recovered from the hit dealt by the global economic crisis and for the past three years has enjoyed strong growth.

Prime Minister John Key, who is also Tourism Minister, expects this summer to be the country's biggest for the visitor industry.

"It's a growth sector and there's a lot more left in the tank," Key said.

Dougall LoveAugust 3, 2015Comment

Direct Bookings - Why and How

This article was written for a double page spread in AMG NZ. Have a read below and check it out in the latest issue of AMG.

Recently I was talking with one of our clients, yes we do that, about bringing guests to their website to book and bringing them back the next time as well. The discussion was around the cost of OTA bookings, but he made a statement that really got my attention.

He said “It’s not so much the cost of the OTA’s as the fact that we don’t hold the Guest relationship, they do.”

Dougall LoveJuly 31, 2015Direct Bookings, Hotel Software, Clarity Hotel Manager, Auto Email ModuleComment

The most amazing hotels in the world

Check out this clip featuring some of the most incredible places to stay on earth.

Dougall LoveJuly 27, 2015Comment

Fool.com Article - How Airbnb Earned Itself a $25 Billion Price Tag

The home-sharing specialist was valued at $25 billion in a recent funding round. Is it really worth that much?

Home-sharing juggernaut Airbnb reached a jaw-dropping valuation of $25 billion in its most recent funding round. That figure left some observers scratching their heads as the company is projected to bring in just $900 million in revenue this year and is still operating at a loss.

Dougall LoveJuly 20, 2015Hospitality NewsComment

The six tribes of travellers who could shape the travel landscape

Here's an interesting question... What if travellers identify themselves less and less in terms of where they were born, and increasingly liken themselves to other groups – or, tribes?

Dougall LoveJuly 17, 2015Comment

What we count, truly counts

We loved this video. Find out their employee turnover dropped to 1/3 of the national average, and their customer loyalty skyrocketed, simply by measuring the intangible by asking the right type of questions.

Dougall LoveJuly 13, 2015Hospitality, Business Growth StrategyComment

NZ Herald Article - NZ guest nights rise at fastest pace in 2 years on boost from domestic, international travellers

New Zealand guest nights rose in May at their fastest pace in two years, fuelled by a rebound in both domestic and international travellers and a lift in South Island and hotel park stays.

Seasonally adjusted guest nights advanced 2.6 per cent in May from April, the fastest pace since May 2013's 8.4 per cent gain and snapping the previous month's 0.6 per cent decline, according to Statistics New Zealand.

Stays in holiday parks jumped 5.2 per cent, while backpacker nights climbed 3.4 per cent, motels advanced 2.2 per cent and hotel stays rose 1.3 per cent.

Dougall LoveJuly 10, 2015Hospitality NewsComment

Making a stay more memorable through branding opportunities

Branding touches in clever places can make a big difference to the overall feeling your guests have when they visit your establishment, and what they remember when they leave.

Dougall LoveJuly 6, 2015Wine Time, BrandingComment

Eight reasons why Hotel and Travel websites lose bookings

Interesting research recently released by Triptease following survey and usability testing with consumers into their browsing behaviour on hotel (and travel) websites. Hotel and travel websites have notoriously low conversion rates, so TripTease’s motivation in part is to find out what can be done to add just a percentage or two to that ratio.

Dougall LoveJuly 6, 2015Online Booking, Hospitality NewsComment

A warm welcome to the Clarity Family, East Pier Hotel

We are delighted to welcome East Pier Hotel in Napier to the Clarity family of users.

In choosing a Property Management System to support their business, they needed a cloud hosted system able to interface to their POS and their OTA provider. Clarity Hotel Manager ticked all the boxes and East Pier went live on our cloud hosted SaaS in April.

Dougall LoveJuly 1, 2015Clarity Hotel Manager, Clarity ClientComment

Hotel Management Article: Strong luxury travel growth across the planet

A total of 172 billion euros was spent on international luxury travel last year. This means that for foreign travel every eighth euro was spent on luxury products. More than 1,000 euros per night was spent by luxury travellers from the United Arab Emirates, India, Kuwait, Brazil, Australia, Canada and China (in descending order). Turnover did not increase due to higher spending per person but rather from a rising number of travellers. Growth drivers were above all new customers in emerging markets, who moved up into the luxury travel segment, or those who returned to the luxury market after the crisis, such as travellers from the USA.

Dougall LoveJune 28, 2015Hospitality NewsComment

Protecting Margins, by Bruce Robinson, CEO Hospitality NZ

This interesting article by Bruce was published in the June 2015 Hospitality magazine and in my opinion deserves repeating.

Bruce writes that the economic outlook is positive and transaction data suggests there is continued growth in spending across accommodation and food and beverage. A period of economic growth is an opportune time to review prices and margins. Over the past few years hospitality operators have been reluctant to increase prices despite facing increased input costs. Costs are still increasing in a number of areas, particularly supplier costs, rates, wage increases and skilled staff shortages.

Dougall LoveJune 19, 2015Hospitality NewsComment