Latest news with #reservations
Travel Daily News
3 days ago
- Business
- Travel Daily News
SIHOT and Dingus automate tour operator hotel reservations
SIHOT enhances integration with Dingus, enabling real-time tour operator reservations, automated contract management, and improved hotel operational efficiency and compliance. GERMANY – SIHOT, one of the leading hotel management systems, has upgraded its integration with Dingus, Spanish hotel distribution platform, to streamline hotel operations with real-time reservation updates for contracted tour operator agreements within – Property Management System. A popular channel manager solution for holiday resorts in Spain and Caribbean, Dingus supports holiday resorts with room and rate distribution to leading tour operators – generally unavailable on standard channel managers. Through the enhanced interface, availability is now synchronised in real-time between Dingus and SIHOT to ensure availability is accurate. Hotels can download reservation data which will automatically link to preexisting tour operator contracts to manage contracted allotments within the This development provides hotels with greater control over inventory and availability by being able to better manage negotiated contracts and allotment reservations. By synchronising with contracted allowances the PMS automatically determines whether reservations fall into the agreed allotments for a specific agreement and assigned to the specific contract number or if the reservation should be drawn from general availability. In allowing inventory allocation to be updated in real-time, hotels can prevent overbooking and maintain control of availability. Hotels can now also access prepayments and reservation deposits which are processed through the Dingus extranet and recorded on hotels' reservation accounts in the The enhancement also supports Spanish law compliance with automatically generating and issuing customer invoices inclusive of guest I.D documentation, if provided by the external channel. In addition, extra supplements purchased via Dingus distribution channels are downloaded to SIHOT with Non-Refundable rates fully supported between the two systems. Carsten Wernet, Chief Executive of SIHOT said, 'Following high demand from our hotel customers and to meet the increasing challenge of administrating negotiated contracts for tour operator reservations, we have worked closely with Dingus to improve reservation and payment data sharing. As a result, the manual management of tour operator reservations has been automated – saving hotels valuable time, increasing speed of response and improving the quality of data and invoicing processes. ' Milena Galindo, VP Strategy & Partnerships, Dingus, said, 'Hotels are under increasing pressures to reduce their cost of operations, streamline processes and ensure there is a clear record of reservations and payments to meet increasing compliance requirements. Our new integration with SIHOT allows hotels to have complete transparency and control over their distribution strategies with tour operators to maximise commercial opportunities in this sector of the travel industry.'
Washington Post
22-05-2025
- Washington Post
Two popular Maryland parks will require reservations during peak days
Maryland officials are hoping that if a new crowd control plan works, visitors to some of the state's most popular parks will not have to camp out before busy days as early as midnight. Starting Memorial Day weekend, visitors hoping to enter Greenbrier State Park in Western Maryland and Annapolis's Sandy Point State Park, which has a beach looking out toward the Chesapeake Bay, will need to make reservations on weekends and holidays. 'You'd have people lining up for, say, Greenbrier at 4 a.m., 3 a.m. and even midnight in some cases. We'd open up the gates, we'd let a certain amount of people in, then we would have to close the park to new visitors for hours at a time,' said Tim Hamilton, business and marketing manager for the Maryland Park Service. The day-use pass system went live Monday and is aimed at reducing crowds and traffic backups and ensuring spots for visitors. Reservations for these parks will be mandatory during the peak periods of weekends and holidays from May 24 through Labor Day. No same-day access will be allowed during those times. Admission will be $5 per person. At Greenbrier, out-of-state visitors will be charged $7. Visitors can book their spots online up to seven days in advance of a visit. Reservations may be changed or canceled until 8 a.m. the day before the scheduled arrival. Confirmation emails, along with a QR code that is scanned for admission at the park, will be sent to visitors who successfully reserve a spot. Discussions about implementing a reservation system statewide began as early as 2019, Hamilton said. Officials ran a pilot program that year of the reservation system at Rocks State Park, which houses Kilgore Falls, a picturesque 17-foot-high waterfall. Hamilton said it was chosen because it was a popular destination, with a small parking lot that caused backups for locals and pulled park rangers away from essential safety duties. 'We introduced the system kind of quietly,' Hamilton said. 'People were not thrilled with it because this was change, and change is difficult for everybody. 'But after two or three weeks, people started to grumble a little bit less and they found out, 'Oh, now I know whether or not I can get in off the bat. I don't have to go and wait in line only to be told I can't get in and I turn around and I burned half the day.'' The need for reservations became more pressing after a spike of visitors to parks following the start of the coronavirus pandemic, said Gregg Bortz, a spokesman for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, which manages the state's Park Service. Park visitation rates increased from an average of 10.8 million per year from 2010 to 2019 to an average of 18.7 million per year from 2020 through 2024, Bortz said. Bortz and Hamilton pointed to similar, effective reservation systems used by other agencies, including the National Park Service. They did not specify what officials have determined as the capacity limit for these parks but said that the caps can vary based on parking availability, events and other factors. Sandy Point is a popular destination for Maryland residents and out-of-towners who want to set up cookouts and get a look at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge along the roughly one-mile-long stretch of sand. Greenbrier, located in Boonsboro, houses campsites and hiking trails that surround a 42-acre man-made freshwater lake and a white sandy beach. They were chosen as the first to require reservations because they were shut down for capacity reasons fairly frequently, Hamilton said. Traffic at Greenbrier would stretch two to three miles. Traffic jams at Sandy Point, which sits at the foot of the Bay Bridge, would snarl traffic for those looking to cross over to other Maryland and Delaware beaches. 'Wherever you have water in Maryland parks, that's where people want to be,' Hamilton said. The reservation system will be rolled out to three other state parks this summer: Point Lookout, Newtowne Neck and North Point. But officials did not specify a timeline for when changes would take effect at those locations. Bortz said exact dates would be announced in the coming weeks. Hamilton said patience will be key for anyone looking to spend a day by the water at these Maryland state parks. That goes for him and his team, too. 'If there are some bumps along the first couple of weekends, which we expect there to be here and there, we are watching them carefully with the mind that we are going to react to that and make some changes if we have to,' Hamilton said.
Hospitality Net
19-05-2025
- Business
- Hospitality Net
How Nemacolin drove $4.5M in outbound revenue
About Nemacolin Nestled in the scenic Laurel Highlands of southwestern Pennsylvania, Nemacolin is a luxury destination that blends five-star accommodations with world-class experiences. If it looks familiar, it's likely because it was used as the backdrop for Season 25 of The Bachelor. Spanning over 2,200 acres, the resort offers everything from fine dining and spa services to championship golf, adventure activities, and an acclaimed art collection. With a reputation for personalized service and unforgettable stays, Nemacolin caters to guests seeking both relaxation and recreation in a truly one-of-a-kind setting. Nemacolin's challenge For Melanie Lindemulder, Reservations Manager at Nemacolin, there wasn't a major operational crisis or burning need that drove the property to adopt Reservation Sales. Instead, it's been a story of quiet consistency — of leveraging the right tools to elevate performance year after year and unlocking opportunities that might have otherwise gone unnoticed. How Reservation Sales drove $4.5M in outbound revenue Since implementing Reservation Sales and RezForce LUX, the Nemacolin team has evolved into a powerhouse of proactive guest engagement, generating $4.5M in outbound revenue in 2024 alone. Nemacolin's outbound success is anything but accidental. The team has built a repeatable process powered by Reservation Sales and RezForce LUX. Leads that come in through RezForce include detailed notes and property information, which Nemacolin's reservations agents act on immediately — delivering personalized follow-up that converts. Agents are incentivized to follow up on high-value leads, including past guests and those previously turned away due to rate resistance or minimum night stays. And the team doesn't stop at the first 'no' — they continue outreach until a guest confirms or declines. Melanie notes, 'Our team is hungry. They dig into the reports and follow up until they get an answer. They're motivated, consistent, and focused on results.' The Reservation Sales lead form is a key tool in this process. It ensures that no information is lost—even when a lead changes hands. From anniversaries to return visits, every detail is captured and used by both the reservations and experience teams to personalize guest service and drive ancillary revenue. And that kind of performance doesn't go unnoticed — Melanie was named Nemacolin's 'Leader of the Year,' a recognition that speaks volumes about her team's success. How Reservation Sales elevated team performance At Nemacolin, leadership is more than a title — it's a practice. Melanie credits Reservation Sales for providing the detailed visibility and reporting needed to drive team development and elevate performance. From call recordings to real-time reporting, her team uses the platform daily to identify opportunities, coach team members, and refine their strategy. She says, 'With Reservation Sales, we can review every second of the day and capitalize on coaching moments. It gives us the tools to grow our associates and promote from within.' As part of the resort's Accelerated Leadership Development Program, team members from other departments rotate through reservations — and consistently walk away impressed by the structure, transparency, and data-driven decision making powered by Revinate. How Reservation Sales delivers reporting that powers the whole resort Beyond sales, the impact of Reservation Sales reporting extends to departments across the resort. The marketing team leverages custom email templates — approved and tracked — to follow up with unbooked leads. Meanwhile, revenue management taps into Reservation Sales data to identify trends in turnaways, whether due to closed restaurants or age restrictions, and uses that insight to adjust operations and optimize availability. Melanie also tracks productivity and performance metrics closely, using them for annual reviews, coaching, and strategic planning. She says, 'We look at everything — from call wrap-up time to abandonment rates. It's how we make sure we're improving every day.' For Melanie and her team, Reservation Sales isn't just software — it's the engine behind a culture of excellence. It enables coaching, accountability, and proactive guest service, helping Nemacolin not only meet but exceed its revenue goals and guest expectations. She summarizes its impact, saying, 'Reservation Sales helped us become who we are today. It's made a huge difference in our ability to lead, perform, and succeed.' Media Team Media team | Revinate 14156714703 Revinate, Inc. View source
New York Times
14-05-2025
- Business
- New York Times
The Five-Figure Reason Hot Restaurants Are Moving to OpenTable
During one of the busiest times in New Orleans this year — Super Bowl weekend — Lydia Castro realized that a glitch in Resy had made reservations for her Mexican restaurant, Acamaya, appear unavailable to diners. On what should have been a banner night, tables would be empty. As if on cue, an OpenTable employee walked into the restaurant with a cooler filled with Gatorade and candy, and wished her luck for the weekend ahead. Not long after, the company reached out with an offer: Switch to OpenTable and set a few prime-time reservations aside for select Visa customers. In exchange, the restaurant would receive a generous one-time payment. Ms. Castro declined to disclose the amount because she hasn't decided whether or not she is taking the deal, but it was enough for her to seriously consider a change. 'How do they have so much money to give out to people?' she said. The answer: credit card companies. Last year, OpenTable, home to more than 60,000 restaurant clients, signed a partnership with Visa that gives certain cardholders access to coveted reservation slots at popular restaurants. Six years ago, American Express purchased Resy — used by more than 20,000 restaurants — and added Tock to its portfolio last year. Since 2021, American Express has offered premium cardholders access to in-demand reservations on Resy. As a result, some of the country's best-known chefs have been placed squarely in the center of the credit card wars as restaurants become invaluable cultural currency for financial institutions chasing young, wealthy customers. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Hospitality Net
13-05-2025
- Business
- Hospitality Net
Personalized excellence: How Salamander Collection achieved $45M in direct revenue
The brand Founded by entrepreneur Sheila Johnson, Salamander Collection has a luxury portfolio with many awe-inspiring hotels: the Forbes Triple Five-Star Salamander Middleburg, an equestrian-themed property in the Virginia countryside; Salamander Washington DC, an elegant hotel located along the capital's vibrant Southwest waterfront; Half Moon, the storied resort in Montego Bay, Jamaica; Aspen Meadows Resort, with its sweeping 40 beautiful acres in Aspen, CO's west end; Hotel Bennett, a spectacular grand hotel overlooking the city's historic Marion Square in Charleston, South Carolina; and Innisbrook Resort in the St. Petersburg/Clearwater area, which hosts the PGA TOUR's Valspar Championship each year on its famed Copperhead Course. The challenge The Salamander Collection had plenty of guest data — but it was siloed in different software solutions with different functions across their portfolio. Without a centralized guest database and accessible reporting, teams couldn't make use of their data to improve the guest experience, drive revenue, or even analyze the effectiveness of their marketing efforts. They sought a comprehensive solution to streamline operations, drive revenue growth, improve reporting, and elevate guest satisfaction across all touchpoints. In particular, the reservation teams needed a platform to help with agent training, improve productivity, and track success. Alexandra Jonker, Director of Reservations at Salamander Middleburg, explains, 'We needed a solution that would let us record and access calls for training to improve quality and a better way to report revenue generated by the reservations department.' The marketing team also needed a solution for creating personalized email campaigns. Vice President of Marketing, Liz Longo Martin, summarized Salamander Collection's challenge succinctly, saying, 'It felt like you needed a degree from MIT to build a list or an email with our previous email solution. It was old and clunky.' Their former CRM posed a steep learning curve and lacked essential features that were vital for the team's operations, including streamlined parent-child account setup, robust segmentation tools, and precise revenue reporting. The solution Salamander Collection already used Revinate Guest Feedback and were happy with the service, solution, and innovation. They saw that staying with the Revinate brand would have benefits from a usability and data standpoint. They added Reservation Sales and Revinate Marketing to their tech stack, excited by the prospect of having a single view of guest data to use both on the phones and for marketing campaigns. And with the help of RezForce, Salamander Collection took its call center operations to the next level, allowing RezForce agents to manage overflow and after-hour reservations. The reservations team is finding much success with Reservation Sales. Agents are experiencing unprecedented productivity, empowered by features that help them efficiently follow up on abandoned bookings, initiate outbound calls to previous visitors, and more. With the solution, the team can easily access guest profiles when on the phone to personalize their conversations or add notes that will be helpful for other teams when the guest is on property. Lexi Rumley, Reservations Supervisor at Innisbrook Resort and Golf Club, says, 'Reservation Sales allows us to set goals for our agents and easily access reports to track their success. Training can then be tailored based on the results.' Liz explains, 'Having that single guest profile is incredibly powerful. Our Reservations team uses it on their calls to ensure they provide a personalized touch. It fuels all our guest engagement. The fact that all systems talk to each other means our data is always clean, up to date, and actionable.' And this data is powerful for both the Reservations team and Marketing team. When it comes to guest engagement through email marketing, both the corporate office and the individual properties leverage Revinate Marketing. The reservations team uses it to send automated transactional emails, and Corporate Marketing Specialist Annie Heffernan uses the solution for lifecycle campaigns and corporate emails. Thanks to the effortless creation of on-brand templates, every email crafted reflects the distinct personality of each property while resonating with the corporate brand. Revinate Marketing's segmentation capabilities power personalized email campaigns. For example, a Family/Spring Break campaign (featured right) was created exclusively for past guests, and cross-promoted the email had a 39% open rate and drove 969 room nights and $570K in direct room revenue. Automation features in Revinate Marketing allow Salamander Collection to scale its marketing efforts. 'We Miss You' campaigns sent to lapsed guests are effective at getting guests to return. To date, the campaign has driven more than $100K with a 63% open rate and 4% click-through rate. And an automated qualification email for Half Moon Resort's E-club has driven $225K in direct room revenue, with a 75% open rate and 21% click-through rate. 'With Revinate, we finally have a single, full-service, enterprise-class solution that drives real results" - Liz Longo Martin, Vice President of Marketing, Salamander Collection The results With Revinate Marketing, the team finally has the easy-to-use marketing platform they longed for. With real-time reporting that's both easy to access and interpret, Liz ensures email performance reports are shared to drive a continuous improvement and learning culture. And with Reservation Sales, the reservations team has grown revenue month over month. With reporting now easily accessible, there's a friendly competition among the agents to exceed goals. Lexi explains, 'We have a competitive team and love to do monthly competitions to see who can book the most outbound revenue. With Reservation Sales, agents can see how much outbound revenue they have booked and compare and talk with other agents to see what they may be doing differently to improve.' Performance highlights include: Lifetime room revenue: $45M via the email channel Average room revenue: $34K per campaign Outbound revenue growth: 270% improvement from March to April 2024 About Revinate Revinate is a direct booking platform that leads the hospitality industry in driving direct revenue and increased profitability. Our products and our people combine to give hoteliers the superpowers they need to crush their goals. With Revinate, hoteliers shift share away from OTAs and drive tangible results across an individual property or a portfolio. Our industry-leading, AI-powered customer data platform collects, unifies, and synthesizes data to give hoteliers a foundational advantage. Hoteliers gain critical intelligence — guest lifetime spend, stay preferences, ancillary revenue, and more. With Revinate's Rich Guest Profiles™ data, hoteliers don't need to guess who their most profitable guests are or struggle to drive conversions across email, voice, messaging, and digital channels. Revinate's direct booking platform and omnichannel communication technology powers 950+ million Rich Guest Profiles across 12,500+ hotels to drive over $17.2 billion in direct revenue. View source
