Distribución y Revenue Management

🏖️ Virginia Blasco, CEO of Cinco Estrellas Club, reports satisfaction with the brand's recognition two years after implementing a repositioning plan. Easter sales have been strong, nearing record 2023 levels, with successful group bookings to Egypt, Turkey, Oman, and Vietnam. Despite concerns over the U.S. trade war affecting the economy and tourism, the company benefits from the current low dollar. The company has introduced guided tour groups and leverages good weather to boost early sales. Technological upgrades since 2023 include a new back office, website, and dynamic product offerings, with focus on integrating artificial intelligence to optimize customer communication.

🛩 La Comisión Europea ofrece 36.000 billetes de tren gratis a jóvenes de 18 años para viajar 30 días por Europa. Inscripciones abiertas del 2 al 16 de abril de 2025 en el Portal Europeo de la Juventud. Viajes posibles entre 1 julio 2025 y 30 septiembre 2026. Participantes de la UE y estados del programa Erasmus+ elegibles. Beneficios adicionales incluyen descuentos en alojamiento y actividades culturales. DiscoverEU promueve movilidad juvenil e intercambio cultural.

✈ Ryanair and Italian travel agencies, after years of conflict, have reached a satisfying collaboration agreement resulting from nine months of negotiations. Starting July 30, agencies can create a free direct account on Ryanair's website to sell products, excluding promotions. Agencies are committed to transparency, offering rates without commissions, fees, or discounts. Ryanair will handle direct communication for cancellations, offering alternatives or refunds, transferring refunds to agencies within seven days, who then have another week to refund travelers.

🏖 The Imserso social tourism program in Spain introduces a flat rate of €50 for trips for pensioners receiving a monthly pension of €517.90 or less. This initiative allocates 7,447 places for these individuals, allowing access to destinations including the Canary Islands and Balearics without extra cost, even during high season when prices could surge by €100. The upcoming season offers 879,213 spots, around 7,000 fewer than the previous season's 886,269 places.

✈ Volotea's stagnation at Bilbao Airport highlighted with 700,000 seats and nearly 4,000 flights offered in 2025, matching the past two years' figures. A historic jump in 2023 increased their offerings by 41% from 2022 and 147% from pre-Covid 2019. Vueling dominates Bilbao as their second Spanish base and third in Europe, exceeding 3 million passengers. Since 2012, Volotea has transported over 2.8 million passengers from Bilbao, creating more than 90 direct and 500 indirect jobs.

🏖️ Gabriel Escarrer, President of Meliá, warns of potential over-tourism in Mallorca, citing a conservative government's plan to maintain 100,000 tourist homes initially legalized by the left. This move, around 1.5 years after the Partido Popular indicated a tourist excess, is criticized as it lacks concrete measures to actually reduce tourist numbers. The government's contradictory efforts involve expanding the airport while proclaiming a reduction in tourists—considered an impossible feat without impacting the supply of vacation rentals or hotel spaces.

🚫 Óscar Perelli, Executive Vice President of Exceltur, warns of a strategic problem in the tourism sector: labor absenteeism, reaching 30% in Mallorca hotels. The issue, exacerbated post-pandemic, affects service quality and organizational management. Perelli advocates for immediate medical justification for absences, and highlights the sector's employment efforts despite labor shortages, emphasizing the importance of talent competition for the future economic system.

💾 Hotels can boost growth by offering hotel+flight packages, on-site experiences, loyalty programs, and optimizing payment channels and voice services. Francisco Quintero of Landmar Hotels notes 60% of guests not booking directly would if flights were included, potentially increasing direct sales by 15%. Payment gateway optimization is crucial as up to 45% of bookings can be lost at payment, and an enhanced voice channel could account for 25% of direct bookings with specialized call centers and AI integration. Innovation and guest-centric strategies are key to differentiating and improving direct booking shares.

📨 Asksuite launches an integration with Booking.com to centralize chat messages within its Omnichannel platform, alongside other channels like email, Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp via LiveChat 2.0. This integration aims to optimize customer service, improve response times, and reduce cancellations, ultimately enhancing the traveler’s experience. Hotels can now manage all communications in one place, leading to quicker responses, higher review scores, fewer cancellations, and potential for additional sales, while performance is tracked through the SLA Dashboard.

🔲 TTOO (Tour Operadores) and OTAs (Online Travel Agencies) are essential income sources for hotels, offering organized trips and flexible accommodation plans. TTOOs specialize in crafting all-inclusive vacation packages, while OTAs cater to customers seeking personalized travel experiences with a focus on flexibility. Effective management of TTOO and OTA bookings is crucial, with benefits including better inventory control, increased revenue visibility, and data-driven insights. Noray Htl integrates with numerous TTOOs and OTAs, providing real-time booking downloads, modifications, and cancellations, thereby streamlining hotel reservation management and enhancing guest services. Implementing a hotel reservation control tool like Noray Htl is vital for monitoring trends, preventing overbooking, and optimizing service offerings, ultimately leading to increased profitability and guest satisfaction.