Expedia Recognizes RateGain as an Elite Connectivity Partner for 2023
Dallas, 16th March 2023: RateGain Travel Technologies Limited, a global provider of SaaS solutions for travel and hospitality, today announced its Elite Connectivity Partners status with the Expedia Group.
The Expedia Group recognizes and rewards a select few connectivity partners who achieved excellent results on various performance metrics, such as maintaining high-quality connections and helping lodging partners grow their business on the Expedia Group marketplace. This also means that RateGain will work directly with the Expedia Group to help shape their future products and technology solutions.
Comment on the achievements, Chinmai Sharma, President – Americas at RateGain, said, “Our goal is to provide excellent travel experiences to the guests while maximizing revenue opportunities for our lodging partners. We are delighted to receive the topmost connectivity partner status with Expedia; a recognition that shows our passion and commitment to solving the connectivity challenges for the industry.”
Expedia’s Connectivity Partner Program recognizes and rewards top connectivity providers for maintaining high-quality connections and helping lodging partners grow their business on the Expedia Group marketplace. To be eligible for Elite status, Expedia Group connectivity providers are rated on several technical and business criteria. Rate Gain earned the Elite status for its commitment to:
- Improving traveler experiences on Expedia Group websites
- Enabling a wide range of tools and capabilities integrated with the Expedia Group travel platform
- Providing a quality connection with a reliable user experience
- Ensuring a streamlined onboarding experience and high-quality support for properties
- Empowering business growth for our clients on Expedia Group websites
“RateGain has proven itself a top-class hospitality solution for lodging properties by providing them with the best tools and user experiences,” said Chris Hodges, Senior Director of Expedia Group Lodging Connectivity. “We congratulate them on their Elite status and are excited to continue working closely with them to unlock more capabilities so that our mutual hotel and vacation rental partners can focus on what matters most – delivering outstanding experiences to their guests.”
About Expedia Group
Expedia Group, Inc. companies power travel for everyone, everywhere through our global platform. Driven by the core belief that travel is a force for good, we help people experience the world in new ways and build lasting connections. We provide industry-leading technology solutions to fuel partner growth and success while facilitating memorable experiences for travelers. Our organization is made up of four pillars: Expedia Services, focused on the group’s platform and technical strategy; Expedia Marketplace, centered on product and technology offerings across the organization; Expedia Brands, housing all our consumer brands; and Expedia for Business, consisting of business-to-business solutions and relationships throughout the travel ecosystem. The Expedia Group family of brands includes: Expedia®, Hotels.com®, Expedia® Partner Solutions, Vrbo®, trivago®, Orbitz®, Travelocity®, Hotwire®, Wotif®, ebookers®, CheapTickets®, Expedia Group™ Media Solutions , CarRentals.com™, and Expedia Cruises™.
About RateGain
RateGain Travel Technologies Limited is a global provider of SaaS solutions for travel and hospitality that works with 2800+ customers and 700+ partners in 100+ countries helping them accelerate revenue generation through acquisition, retention, and wallet share expansion.
RateGain today is one of the world’s largest processors of electronic transactions, price points, and travel intent data helping revenue management, distribution and marketing teams across hotels, airlines, meta-search companies, package providers, car rentals, travel management companies, cruises and ferries drive better outcomes for their business. Founded in 2004 and headquartered in India, today RateGain works with Top 23 of 30 Hotel Chains, Top 25 of 30 Online Travel Agents, and all the top car rentals including 8 Global Fortune 500 companies in unlocking new revenue every day. For more information, please visit https://www.rategain.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
Statements in this document relating to future status, events, or circumstances, including but not limited to statements about plans and objectives, the progress and results of research and development, potential project characteristics, project potential, and target dates for project-related issues are forward-looking statements based on estimates and the anticipated effects of future events on current and developing circumstances. Such statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties and are not necessarily predictive of future results. Actual results may differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements. The company assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect actual results, changed assumptions or other factors.
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Three Questions All Hospitality Accountants Should Ask Themselves
Written by: Shane Middleton
“There has to be a better way!” We hear it all the time – even in the accounting department. The truth is that we are always hardwired to want more and better. We are always looking for that miraculous, game-changing “easy button,” not realizing that often we don’t get the most out of what we have right in front of us. Why do we do this? Two truths tend to arise in this scenario. Either we do not like to admit we are doing things wrong, or we realize that we can change, but the work of re-programming and evolving seems too cumbersome. The truth is that until we make the most of what we have, nothing new in the marketplace will give us the results we want. That goes for our teams and our technology. The good news is you were right in the beginning. There is a better way, and it has been here the whole time. So, the real question is: how do we unleash it?
Step 1: Are We Focused?
According to a recent survey, 82 percent of accountants say their job is more demanding than ever, while 87 percent agree that clients expect more flexibility and better service levels from accountants without increasing rates. Accounting is a busy profession and in hospitality, it is easy to feel like we are doing everything for everyone. However, there are a couple of truths that we are all guilty of. We take problems from other departments as our own. Yes, I am talking about all that time spent on accounts receivable reconciliations and chargebacks, among other things. We also create work that does not produce material benefits. We make sure there is a copy of each invoice in the purchasing system, the accounting system and the balance sheet reconciliation workbook. What material benefits are we getting by ensuring the same document is in three separate places?
We need to ensure we are focused on tasks that create value and technology tools that promote practical efficiency to accomplish what matters.
Step 2: Are We Accountable?
Being accountable is more than making sure those month-end reports get out on the right day. Let’s talk more about that truth where we absorb other departments’ problems as our own. Property management must be held accountable for the monetary consequences of hotel operations. Accountants need to be held accountable for the accuracy of the reports that are issued and what those reports tell us about the decisions we need to make. But the bigger problem is not others holding us accountable for things we should not be responsible for. It is us holding ourselves accountable to let others own their respective responsibilities, so we can bring value to the table in accordance with the value proposition that a well-run accounting team affords a company – timely and accurate reporting with an analysis of our financial wins and opportunities. Accountants should be free from entering invoices, tracking down chargebacks and reconciling sales tax. We, as an industry, are diminishing the value that we could get from our accountants by asking them and allowing them to focus on such tasks.
We need to make sure we are accountable to ourselves and the maximum impact we can have in our organizations.
Step 3: Are We Thought-Forward?
We all hate to use this term, but standard operating procedures, or SOPs, are so important. Writing an SOP does more than just set a standard of rules; it forces us to think about why we are doing a task, how a task adds value to our organization today, and how it sets us up for success in the days ahead. Thinking beyond today is so critical. If we only fix today’s problems, we will never stop putting out fires because we are not putting energy towards anticipating the next one. Sometimes a task is just a task, but a task is also often an opportunity to elevate your team members. Your processes are there to grow your team’s skillsets. Likewise, the technology you implement should drive success in your organization in more ways than just making things faster. It should expand the perspective of your team, grow your level of efficiency, and cultivate a space to anticipate future problems that can also add to the ROI of that solution.
We need to be thinking procedurally, culturally and technologically about how the processes we follow, the tone we set, and the tools we use drive us forward effectively and efficiently – not only for today but for the future.
By asking these three questions of ourselves and our teams, we unlock vast potential just waiting to be tapped into. So, you are right; there is a better way!
As the strategic partnership manager at M3, Shane Middleton works closely with internal teams, as well as industry service partners, to develop and maintain the best collaborative relationships serving today’s hoteliers. He also works with M3 product and services teams to add a practical perspective of a hotel operator in the processes and design of service offerings and product features.
CBRE Forecasts Enhanced RevPAR Growth in 2023 Despite Economic Headwinds
Written by: Rachael Rothman and Matt Mowell
Despite projections of persistent inflation and a moderate economic recession, CBRE’s November 2022 Hotel Horizons® forecast calls for a 5.8 percent increase in rooms revenue per available room (RevPAR) in 2023. This is up from CBRE’s previous forecast of a 5.6 percent increase in RevPAR for 2023.
Propelling CBRE’s increased outlook for RevPAR is an expected 4.2 percent rise in average daily rate (ADR), driven in part by the continuation of above long-run average inflation. For 2023, CBRE is forecasting the Consumer Price Index in the US to increase by 3.5 percent YoY. Inflation continues to have a mixed impact on the hotel industry, bolstering top-line growth while pressing margins.
Supply and Demand
Inflation is also impacting development activity. The combination of rising construction material costs, a tight labor market, and high interest rates will serve to keep supply growth over the next five years 40 percent lower than historical trends. Instead of construction, we expect cash flows in the near term to be focused on debt reductions, renovations and renovations given the backlog of Capex that built up during the pandemic.
Given its forecast for a 0.2 percent decline in 2023 gross domestic product (GDP), CBRE lowered its expectations for demand growth from 3.3 percent in their August 2022 forecasts to 2.9 percent in the November update. With the projected supply increase remaining at 1.2 percent for 2023, the net result is a reduction in CBRE’s occupancy growth estimate for the year to 1.6 percent, down from the 2.0 percent increase previously forecast. The lowering of occupancy expectations will somewhat offset the enhanced outlook for ADR growth.
It is worth noting that the 5.8 percent RevPAR growth forecast for 2023 is front-end loaded, particularly in the first quarter of the year given the easy comparisons created by the outbreak of the Omicron variant in early 2022. Our RevPAR forecast for the first quarter of 2023 calls for a 15.6 percent gain, followed by 2-4 percent growth over the balance of the year.
Chain Scales
By the end of 2023, CBRE forecasts all chain scales to have surpassed their respective 2019 RevPAR levels. Economy and midscale hotels recovered to 2019 levels in 2021. Closures, higher rents and displacements from shelters will continue to shift people from homes and apartments to lower-priced hotels offering weekly and monthly rates.
Luxury and upper-upscale properties have lagged in recovery because of their dependence on individual corporate and group demands. Hotels that operate in these segments will not achieve RevPAR recovery until the end of 2023.
Markets
CBRE prepares Hotel Horizons® forecasts for 65 of the largest markets in the US By year-end 2023, 53 of the 65 Horizons® markets are expected to have reached, or surpassed, their 2019 RevPAR levels. That leaves 12 more to recover in 2024 or beyond. The majority of markets lagging in recovery are in northern California, the upper-Midwest, and along the northeast corridor from Washington, DC through New York.
At the other end of the spectrum, the leisure-centric destinations of Savannah, Miami, St. Petersburg and the Coachella Valley in California are forecast to exceed their 2019 RevPAR levels by more than 20 percent in 2023.
The Economy
CBRE’s Hotel Horizons® forecasts are based on economic assumptions prepared by CBRE Econometric Advisors (CBRE EA). As of October 2022, the CBRE EA is expected to be the following for the US economy in 2023.
A Recession
CBRE EA anticipates that a moderate recession will last through the first half of 2023 for the following reasons:
- The key trigger of this downturn is the Fed’s aggressive rate hikes delivering its intended effects.
- Higher household debt costs are weighing on consumption of big-ticket items, such as housing and reportedly autos.
- A strong USD will impede exports.
- Higher corporate cost of capital is forcing firms to shelve expansion plans and layoff announcements are increasing. This will soften the labor market via a falling job opening rate in the near term, and the unemployment rate should increase to 5 percent by 2024.
Inflation
The pace of annual inflation is likely to peak during the summer of 2022. Moving into autumn, easing commodity and consumer goods prices are weighing on CPI. The largest component of CPI—housing—is also peaking. Some monthly data points suggest that both rental and for-sale prices are falling. Nevertheless, the Fed remains vigilant about rising services costs and the prospect of embedded inflation. This should keep the Fed Funds Rate trending upward through mid-2023 and peaking north of 4.5%. Indeed, this outlook is predicated upon decelerating inflation to 3.5 percent by year-end 2023. It is entirely plausible that inflation could remain stubbornly high, which would trigger a stronger response from the Fed and a more painful recession.
It should be noted that the CBRE lodging forecasts presented in this article do not contemplate a global war, a pervasive recession or a more acute COVID variant.
This article was originally published in the January 2023 edition of Lodging and has been shared on HFTP Connect for the benefit of HFTP hotel finance members.
Rachael Rothman is head of CBRE Hotels Research and Data Analytics. Matt Mowell is senior economist at CBRE Econometric Advisors. To obtain CBRE’s Hotel Horizons® forecast reports, please visit pip.cbrehotels.com/hotelhorizons. This article was published in the January 2023 edition of Lodging.