eRevMax Group Acquires SimpleDistribution from Rate Reports
Channel management specialist further expands portfolio to help small hoteliers sell rooms online
-- Today, eRevMax, owner of RateTiger – award-winning hotel internet channel management specialist – announces the acquisition of SimpleDistribution from Egyptian based Rate Reports, an online channel management company.
For the past three years the web-based application has been providing smaller hotels with benchmarking, channel management and booking engine functionalities primarily for the Asian and African markets. eRevMax now plans to expand the reach of the distribution management product - SimpleDistribution – into Europe and America tailored to small, independent hotels with 40 rooms or less starting from €750 per year.
The SimpleDistribution solutions will remain independent and will supplement eRevMax’s current RateTiger product offering. As internet sales of hotel rooms has significantly increased in the last five years, smaller hoteliers will now need to make themselves familiar with the opportunities available online. SimpleDistribution offers such businesses an affordable and easy-to-use solution to manage internet channels efficiently by allowing central management of rates and rooms available online.
“Consumers have embraced the internet to make their travel arrangements online. We are dedicated to ensure that hoteliers globally have access to technology that enables them to save time and enhance sales. With the acquisition of SimpleDistribution we are now in a position to offer our services to a larger customer base in existing and emerging markets,” said Reuel Ghosh, eRevMax Co-Founder and CEO. “We have worked with Rate Reports since 2005 and have seen their continuous commitment to providing leading edge software for smaller hotels. The application has clearly proven to be a beneficial application to smaller accommodation providers.”
“Recently, smaller hotels have seen some of the larger, established hotel brands opening properties in their local areas, which the chains traditionally considered secondary and tertiary locations,” said Sascha Hausmann, COO – RateTiger. “It is therefore important for smaller independent hotels to be aware of the tools available that help them manage their own rates and availability much more efficiently. We will see even more hoteliers becoming proactive with online channel management during 2009 and 2010 and we now provide the necessary tool set for all hotels types to stay ahead of the game.”
Family-owned hotels, local Bed &Breakfast’s [B&B’s] and smaller, unbranded hotels need to ensure that they are able to take advantage of the multitude of online distribution channels available in order to stay competitive.
Booking engine and benchmarking solutions will not be offered in Europe and the US initially but will follow later this year. The deal terms have not been made public.
eRevMax initiates sales operations in Asia Pacific
eRevMax has today announced the commencement of its sales and marketing operations in Asia Pacific. The channel management specialist plans to expand its presence in the region to tap into the growing online hotel market.
With the growing importance of online distribution and channel management for the hospitality industry, hoteliers need solutions that can help provide the maximum possible revenue available. It has become imperative for hotels to manage rates and availability across a greater number of websites to increase bookings.
“We already have a few clients in India and in the last couple of years we have experienced a rise in the number of product enquiries coming in. Thus we decided it was time to open a sales office to cater for the region” says Mr. Reuel Ghosh, Founder & CEO, eRevMax. “Our clients already include Lalit Hotels, Ista Hyderabad and Pride Hotels among other international clients who are benefiting from our benchmarking and inventory allocation product. We are delighted that the market here has started to understand and use these new online channels to generate sales.”
“With consumer buying power increasing on the internet, it has become essential that hotels participate in these third party websites to optimize online bookings and remain competitive. However, manually benchmarking and updating multiple channels becomes time intensive.”
The eRevMax product brands – RateTiger and SimpleDistribution, help hoteliers to understand their market position and formulate an online sales strategy relevant to current market conditions. Channel management tools enable user hotels to consolidate information on competitor rates across multiple distribution channels as well as update their own rates on various sites, centrally, through a single interface.