Chinese Cultural Requirements

Further to our most recent Blogs on Tourism and the China market, Tourism Queensland published statistics and a full story on the rise in numbers from China:

’8 September 2010
China continues to be the shining light for Queensland’s tourism industry and for the first time has overtaken the USA as the state’s fourth-largest international market, Tourism Minister Peter Lawlor said today.’ extract from Tourism Queensland News.

PART A: Chinese Cultural Requirements:

When thinking about encouraging Chinese tourists to your door, you will need to assess any Cultural requirements, to enhance their holiday and encourage return visits. A good start is with ‘Yum Cha’;

Yum Cha, literally “drinking tea”, is an ancient tradition in Guangzhou. The morning tea ranks their first choice and has become one of the important parts of their daily lives.

When they meet in the morning, they usually greet each other with “Have you drunk tea?” The ‘teahouse’ is the most popular place for this practice. Here they drink morning tea, afternoon tea and night tea, and also eat pastries with breakfast, while spreading news, enhancing friendships and talking about business.

“Yum Cha” is a kind of social activity, and a distinct characteristic of Lingnan culture. And nowadays, you could have morning tea not only in teahouse but in restaurant or inside hotel.

Morning Tea is also important; in addition to having tea, they also have all kinds of dishes and dim sum, including shrimp dumplings, rice noodle rolls, lobag gow, maatai gow, phoenix talons, steamed meatballs, spare ribs, lotus leaf rice, congee, chien chang go, char siu sou, taro dumpling, egg tart and so on. Drinking tea is a mode of social exchange, which is an important and key factor for the long history of prosperous teahouses in Guangzhou through the centuries. (Chinese Editor: Xu Xinlei)

Stay tuned for more Cultural Requirements in the coming weeks.

Proudly presented to you by Hirum

The Benefits of Automation! Statistics proves it’s worth.

The Benefits of Automation!

Could your owners use an extra 8%?

Hirum users who have the Hirum booking form on their own web site along with direct integration into Hirum enjoyed almost $1million worth of direct bookings during the month of July.  This in turn resulted in an additional $80,000 increase in revenue for their owners as well as saving the managers a lot of money in both time and workload.

This is a true win win for all parties.

Unfortunately some property managers still believe it is more beneficial to only have an ENQUIRE button on their web site, believing their own skills in up selling to the client who contacts them via email are more beneficial than an automated system.  But is this true? In today’s internet savvy society, most likely not.

Research shows that more than 80% of people looking to book on 3^rd party channels, including the “last minute” sites, will swing over to the properties own website to check the property out further. If they’re happy with what they see and want to book, they are likely to do so there and then rather than returning back to the third party site.

A couple of things must come into play at this point in time to encourage the visitor to book on your site.  The price must be the same as they were able to book on the originating site and the booking form must be simple to use with the booking able to be made there and then.  Hirum ticks all these boxes. Long gone are the days when people would email you to discuss the accommodation first, lack of time simply does not afford for this luxury any longer.

The benefit to the client in booking direct is peace of mind, lower cost as there is no booking fee and time saving in not having to return to the original site.  The benefit to you is twofold.  The first being the dollars you will save in commission that the third party would have charged, the second is the security of knowing that this guest now belongs solely to you.

Many properties underestimate the value in this direct “ownership” of the client.  If the client books via a third party, then you are sharing this person with someone else.  This provider will be marketing to this client continuously, sometimes more than once a day; throwing them any specials they have via email.  They will not only be marketing your property to them, they will send them anything they can to encourage them to book via their site.  After all, it doesn’t make much difference to the provider which property they book at as they earn roughly the same amount wherever the guest stays.

However, if they book direct with you, they are likely to never receive any information from the third party providers as they are not aware of their existence. This provides you with an immense opportunity to retain this client long term, you just need to ensure you keep in constant contact with them after their stay, by emailing them every few weeks with any specials you may have or providing information for upcoming events.

These clients are the Intellectual property of your business and form the basis of your goodwill when the time comes to sell. This opportunity alone is worth much more than the agent commission benefit and should be grabbed where ever possible.

So whilst you may be able to up sell to the 1 in 50 people that do bother to send you an enquiry, the money and intellectual property you are losing to third party agents along the way by not having direct integration for your pricing and inventory far outweighs this.

School holidays are almost upon us again, followed by Schoolies and Christmas, as well as several local events in between.  Whilst you may not want the actual schoolies, you have a prime opportunity to capitalize on being some of the only available apartments on the Gold Coast during this time.  People still travel and business still goes on despite the Schoolies festival, so display your availability at every opportunity. Now is the time to ensure that you have a direct link to your Hirum PMS from your website and give your owners the 8% increase that this simple addition will bring with it.

S JOHNSTON

International Tourism – increasing?

TQ or Tourism Queensland reported this week, ‘International visitor arrivals to Australia increased 3% over the year ended June 2010, with arrivals from Asia continuing to underpin Australia’s growth.

Statistics to June 2010

(download pdf of Statistics)

International Arrivals into Queensland:

The growth in arrivals from China to Queensland remained the highest nationally. China was the fifth largest source market toQueensland over the year. Similar to the nation, Queensland continued to record solid growth from Malaysia, driven by air capacity increases to the Gold Coast.’

Are you seeing this increase in your occupancy?

What do you think of these statistics?

Is your Channel Manager giving you the exposure to this Market?

Have your say and tell me what you think.

Just my thoughts…

H Nicholls

HiRUM

Cultural requirements – Is your Property ready for the Chinese Tourist?

中国游人欢迎了

中國遊人被歡迎

Should this be important to you? Why would you ever consider needing Chinese script?

The China-based HNA Group is to acquire properties in Australia. Adam Tan, HNA Group’s executive chairman said, “We are coming to Australia where we want to lift our presence.” HNA’s core business is its Hainan Airlines, which is seeking landing rights in Sydney and Melbourne. (taken from Accom News this week)

My last blog touched on the subject of the forecast increase in Chinese visitors, but I’m starting to think its going to be huge – are you ready for it?

Should we start looking into offering some translation on our tariff brochures? Would it be worth adding some ‘welcoming’ Chinese characters onto our websites? Should you sign up to the Channels which feed this market into Australia. Hisite can help you with that. Hirum can build you a new website to allow for future requirements of offering certain content to this market.

There is so much we can be doing and preparing now, from taking on some Feng Shui and its most important concept of Bagua, the tool used to evaluate each living or working space and the nine main areas of life; to knowing if Tai Chi 太极拳 is offered in the local park as an early morning class and how much it costs to join in; its worth taking some time now while its quieter, to find out how you can start to build on to the features or services you can offer this market.

Want to add your thoughts? Add you comment now and subscribe to my Blog.

Just my thoughts!

Helen Nicholls

Chinese Tourism – are your ready for it?

I’v noticed an increase of information on radio news stories and Newspaper articles on ‘China’ recently. Tourism, Language, World News etc always attract my attention, so I thought it wise to find out a little more about the Chinese market and how it could affect Australian tourism.

I discovered some great articles which I would like to share with you.

‘China is forecast to become Australia’s largest inbound tourism’…….(courtesy of femail.com.au)

As you will read, this article talks about the forecast rise in tourists to our shores and some interesting statistics from Qantas and alike:

‘General Manager of Qantas Airways in China, Nick McGlynn said the Chinese tourism market is predicted to continue to grow over the next 20 years.

“By 2013 Australia expects to welcome one million Chinese visitors a year, making China the single largest tourism market for Australia,” Mr McGlynn said.’

For all of us calling Australia home, planning our Marketing strategies and ideas, understanding how our business’ can benefit from this information is paramount.  The first thing that comes to my mind is getting exposure. Exposing your property on Channels like:

• Agoda

• Expedia and

• Orbitz

will open your share to this market and give your property visibility to the Asian and worldwide markets. Using your Channel Manager, you can add these Channels at any point and although there is a higher rate of commission paid on these Channels, (forward planning of rates can adjust for this) the fact that you are opening the door to many more visitors to your property details and your own property website, will make this higher commission really worth it. Want more help? Add your comment and I will contact you.

Another point of interest to me was a story on the Chinese learning English. China is introducing English into its curriculum as part of a nation wide campaign. Apparently this is due to become widespread throughout China by 2012 and will be taught within primary schools as a standard part of the curriculum. So the barriers are reducing and the opportuinities are growing for both China and Australia.

‘The economic progress China has made over the past decades makes it possible for us to enter into WTO (the World Trade Organization) and the successful bid for Olympic Games in the year of 2008. English is becoming the most popular foreign language in modern China. It is estimated that the number of people studying English in China is much larger than that of all native speakers around the world. The spring of English has arrived in China.’

Tourism Australia always have great articles about current events. See: ‘Tourism Australia announces partnership with China Southern Airlines’.

To close; Keeping one step ahead of the game is so important for growth and sustainability in this industry and anything you can do to build your online growth is worth considering.

News flash overnight: Facebook is now used by over 500 Million people.

H Nicholls, HiRUM

What’s happening in your Street?

With the influx of visitors to the Gold Coast at a present low, how are you all coping?

I went along to the Jazz festival in Broadbeach some weeks ago and found the whole area abuzz with activity and music. Now Broadbeach is in the middle of its Food and Wine week. http://www.queenslandholidays.com.au/things-to-see-and-do/events/broadbeach-restaurant-week/index.cfm

Their little community is coming up with some great ideas on marketing themselves and the business around them.

Do you have an active community to build business for the local area?

Do you think your local Councils help enough?

What about the Government: Are they helping the Tourism Industry as much as they should?

Tell us your stories and thoughts and maybe even use Broadbeach as a benchmark for a community idea to help you and your local business associates. It’s quiet times that you should be making your competitors your friends.

We’d love to hear your thoughts.

H Nicholls, HiRUM

Social Media – What is it and should you use it?

Wow, its amazing how many websites you now see with Facebook and Twitter icons, everybody wants to join this Social Media frenzy; but, should you?

Social Media is the newest way to communicate your thoughts, ideas, concerns, purchases, plans, or just about anything really.

Although it’s nothing like traditional Marketing ideas I have grown up with, the statistics on usage and growth are amazing:

96% of Generation Y has joined a Social Media network! Such numbers in such a short period of time are incredible when you consider other medians took years!

Radio       38 Years

TV            13 Years

Internet    4 Years

Facebook added 100 Million users in less than 9 months!

There are over 200,000,000 Blogs!

The fact that people can update anywhere and anytime allows instant reviews on any topic you can think of. Its like meeting friends at a dinner party or at the pub and hearing about their latest holiday – would you consider that conversation when booking your next escape?

Word of Mouth recommendations are trusted by 78% of consumers in comparison to 14% trusting traditional Advertising.

By allowing interaction between you and your followers, Social Media opens discussions and allows two way communications, unlike some advice tools of old. Facebook groups, Twitter, Blogs, and the like, give you the opportunity to discuss your products and business in an easy social environment.  Blogs can drive viewers to your website and increase your business flow – purely through word of mouth.

If you haven’t already done your homework, now is the time to start learning how to use these great tools to help your business grow; I know I will be!

*Statistics taken from Gold Coast Social Media.com

Why more people choose Hirum than any other product.

Why do more people choose Hirum than any other product on the market?

It’s simple!

If your business deserves a business solution as opposed to a simple owners accounting solution, then it needs Hirum. However, if your business deserves less than the best or if you’ve invested your life savings in a job, rather than a business, then please disregard this.

Did you know that Hirum is the only PMS that has invested in its own Channel Manager? Why?

At Hirum we believe that your business is your business and no one elses.  The fewer third parties that have access to your business data results in greater protection for your business and a better experience for your customers.  The value of your business lies in your reservations, why would you expose the dollar value, volume and details of your business to anyone other than yourself?

By investing our profits in this solution specifically for you, we provide you with peace of mind in not only the security of your data but also in the cost of these solutions to your business.  As there is no third party involved, we can provide these products to you at one low fixed cost, cheaper than anything else on the market.

3^rd parties have their own business costs and their pricing varies for many reasons. As we own the product, we have control over the pricing, ensuring you are never at the mercy of someone elses pricing structure.  Other Property Management System companies usually get paid a commission for selling a 3^rd party product to you, or they increase the price when they on sell it to you. They would rather make money this way and see the security and reliability of your business as secondary to their own profits.  Whereas at Hirum we put you first by investing in these solutions ourselves, to not only save you money but to ensure your business data is fully protected at all times.

Distribution

At Hirum, we believe in quick, simple, effective communication to the world.  We were the first product in Australia that had real time bookings. Some people base their business value on quantity whereas at Hirum we base it on quality.  It’s not always a case of more is better, it’s about providing the connections that will make a difference to your business and keeping things simple but productive. The Hirum solution ensures you can connect as much or as little stock as you like to all major distribution channels without lifting a finger, it’s all handled from your PMS.  Bookings drop straight into your system with the full guest details, as well as agent details, to ensure those valuable commissions are fully tracked.  This is a wholly Hirum owned and developed solution, once again ensuring your business stays your business.

Even better, the Hirum total solution allows you to increase your owners return by 8%, now wouldn’t that put a smile on their faces!

3^rd Party Connectivity

Hirum has an open connectivity policy and will happily connect any of our solutions to any 3^rd party requested by our clients. We currently connect our Channel Manager to other PMS solutions, as well as our PMS connecting to 3^rd party distribution channels. We naturally have very strict security protocols which I’m sure you will agree are of paramount importance to our clients. After all, if we’re sending your business data to a 3^rd party, we both need to ensure that the data is protected and the product reliable. Unfortunately some third parties choose not to connect with us as they feel by us having our own solutions at better pricing, the market for them is limited and they can’t justify their own development cost. I won’t deny that it’s much easier for us if our clients use our own solutions as we are able to track the sequence of events from A to Z.  If we connect Hirum to a 3^rd party channel manager, we have no control over what happens once the data leaves Hirum.  If they wrongly update the sites or send bookings to Hirum when there is no availability, we have no control over this. By using one provider, the possibility of you becoming caught in the middle is eliminated.  The Hirum/Hisite solution provides this for you and at a lower cost than anything else on the market.

The Product

Our product doesn’t focus on simply paying your owners each month, there’s so much more to your business. Our product focuses on your business and if your business deserves the best, our product is the one you need.  If you don’t look after all areas of your business, you won’t have any income to pay to your owners in any case!  End of month is one small part of your business and it is important not to let this divert your attention from the other important aspects of your business.  Marketing and customer service are paramount to your overall success and Hirum has a complete marketing tool in built to allow you to do your own extensive marketing.  15 minutes a day is all you need to market direct, saving you thousands each year.  Coupled with our ecommerce and distribution solutions, we truly are the complete business package.  We’re not designed for everybody but if you’ve invested in a business that you want to grow to realise capital value in years to come, then Hirum is the product for you.

Service

Our users tell us Hirum service is second to none.  We’re the only company that offers free ongoing group training to our users, free seminars on how to make the best value out of your business, information forums and free ongoing support to those on subscription with us. Not only that, our website has a complete eLearning centre tailored specifically for our users, all provided free of charge to Hirum clients.

Check out our web site, www.hirum.com.au for all the latest information on our solutions to see for yourself why more and more people choose to save money, grow their business and protect their data by switching to Hirum.

Buying Management Rights? What about your Domain Name & Website?

There have been many occasions where the ownership of a domain name has become the target of hostility between companies, third parties, and the hotel that believes it naturally owns it by association.  The most difficult time is when a hotel or resort changes hands but no reference is made in the contract of sale as to the ownership of the Website and the domain name.  The reason behind this is often quite alarming, the sellers simply don’t know and the buyers simply don’t know to ask!

In some instances, web companies have struck deals with hotels to build and maintain the property website.  In return for a fixed fee or percentage of bookings, the company takes care of it all.  Occasionally, the Management Rights buyers just get caught in a web of legal documents, costs and the stress of moving and possibly even ‘life changes’, to think about every little aspect of the sale.

Many buying into Management Rights feel they are buying into a ‘life style’ but the reality is quite different to what they expected (but that’s another story!) and the fine print gets lost along the way.  At the same time, many properties have no idea that they do not own their domain names until they try to move away from the current web company to swap to another or realise that the seller is taking the website with them or literally ‘turning it off’. It’s only then that they find themselves in a difficult position.

Starting from scratch is not always easy either, purchasing a Domain Name, building a Website, costs and time frames make it a stressful and time consuming exercise. The transfer of details of a Domain name to new owners, along with possible ‘down time’ for the property website whilst a new one is built can lead a property owner to look for the easiest and quickest option, which may or may not be the best solution for them.

Taking time to really understand what you are buying into is always good advice, but in this day and age, your Website and domain name are one of the most valuable assets of your business and for internet marketing purposes this value is immeasurable in the traffic it can bring to your property.  With the ever-growing online market, social media and mobile apps making it so much easier for customers to book, pay, discuss etc online, your property Website is quickly becoming prime real estate – you need to understand it and protect it.

When next entering into any web marketing agreements, don’t just rely on the fine print. If you don’t already privately own your domain name, ask the provider to write in the contract specifically that they will not transfer ownership of your domain at any stage.  Have it written and signed by them as a separate clause that you will always retain ownership no matter what. Understand the payment terms for the Website, will you own your site outright? or will you have control over the Customer Management system within it? Will you bear charges for every minor change you wish to make? or can you make those changes yourself? is there Optimisation included in the site? Google Analytics?……….

So many things to consider and so little time! My advice would be to use the knowledge of those already associated with the property. Can the past owners or Manager give you some help? Can the I.T. or software company related to the property for the reservations and management system help you? Sometimes the answer is right under your nose!

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