Articles tagged “hyatt”

Roots run deep between Host Hotels and Marriott, obviously. But the fact that Host also owns properties that fly under Starwood and Marriott's brands, among others, gives its perspectives on ownership and operations some serious weight when talking about the future of the big merger and the direct booking wars.

We'd rather see PricewaterhouseCoopers or another neutral party estimate the revenue impact of hotel chains' direct-marketing campaigns instead of relying on Expedia, which obviously has vested interests. Still, Expedia's chart furthers discussion and the dialogue under way with hotels, and speaks to how seriously Expedia views the threat and the issue.

Hyatt is the latest U.S. hotel company to enter the direct booking wars, hoping to entice more consumers to book direct instead of booking on sites like Expedia and Booking.com.

As anyone in media knows right now, scale is not always the solution and confidence in what you do well is rarely a bad idea. Hyatt's rethink of both loyalty beyond points and branding beyond the nightly stay will help it differentiate its product.

Now that everyone has a soft brand we're looking forward to see what they do with them.

Hyatt, like other travel brands, is going for a radical rethink of how hotels market and distribute their product. We'll watch closely to see how their plans shake out.

Hyatt's new soft brand is being positioned as a luxury experience for the social media-savvy consumer seeking individual character and a realistic price point in their accommodations. It also provides Hyatt the opportunity to move beyond hotel lodging, which poses all kinds of potentially exciting scenarios.

Messaging stands to be a two-way, lasting conversation based on guest data, and we expect more and more outreach opportunities to emerge.

As TripAdvisor Instant Booking kicks into gear it appears as though it is breaking new ground and becoming a hotel-friendly channel -- for chains that sign up, that is. Chains such as Hilton Worldwide and InterContinental Hotels Group, which have not hopped on the bandwagon, can probably afford to sit on the sidelines for awhile to gauge how the whole thing shakes out.

Will 2016 be the year of loyalty poaching? It could make things very interesting.