- 2 hours ago
Frank And Rod Interview
Category
🏖
TravelTranscript
00:00So, Rod, why don't we spend a couple of minutes, you know, talking publicly about why this coming together of
00:06SHR and Avio makes so much sense?
00:08Absolutely. I think, sure.
00:11I mean, if we think back to when we first met, you know, seven, eight years, maybe 10 years ago,
00:19I forget,
00:21it was already sort of at a very initial level that that idea was there in terms of what a
00:33CRS is doing kind of with distribution holistically.
00:38But the approach that you were taking already, even at that time with Booking Engine and Allora wasn't even in
00:47the picture.
00:48And we already were seeing, hey, I think we can collaborate here and do things, you know, in a much
00:56interesting way.
00:58And I think one of the things that makes so much sense now, even more than then, is the fact
01:08that with Allora where it is,
01:10it allows us to drive towards that vision that we discovered both companies had of creating this unified experience where
01:24you do not see this artificial line
01:30that our industry has created between website and booking engine and really, I'm super excited about seeing that come to
01:41fruition
01:41because of what you guys have done and what we have in terms of the sort of overall revenue generation,
01:53you know, as a platform.
01:55Totally. And I think some of the things that, you know, really struck me and gave me such a strong
02:01first impression visiting the SHR team in Houston
02:04was the synergy and the sense I had that, you know, our people are such disruptive thinkers, you know, creative,
02:15innovative thinkers
02:16that sort of bring that together with real passion for this industry and really driving value for our customers.
02:23And I just had this really strong sense very early on that, wow, these two cultures just come together beautifully.
02:28So I think the combination of what you guys have developed and how you think about distribution, CRM, revenue management,
02:35and, you know, automated process management together with, you know, our niche focus on the direct channel, I think it's
02:42such a powerful combination.
02:44Yeah. And even recently, as our teams are starting to work together at least at a very initial phase and
02:55getting to know each other,
02:57it's really encouraging for me to see the feedback coming back and saying, wow, this is going to be great.
03:05You know, like everybody kind of knew it and everybody understood why this made so much sense.
03:12But then now when different teams are coming together and then coming back and saying, oh, this is this is
03:21really cool.
03:22Right. You know, that's that's very encouraging to me.
03:27That's on all kinds of fronts, not just from the technology side of things, but talking about the support teams
03:35and how you do things
03:38and how similar that is to how we approach helping our clients.
03:42So I just I think that that's one of the most difficult things to accomplish if you set out to
03:52create that.
03:53And then if you think about bringing two cultures together, that's really very difficult.
03:59And so it's now that we're in the process that we've started seeing that beginning to show up and realizing
04:13that, well, that is going to be not an impediment.
04:19It actually is going to be fuel for what we want to do, that our people think so alike. Right.
04:24Yeah. And I think some of the conversations I've had with Avio customers and SHR customers since this sort of
04:31coming together of our two companies,
04:34the strong impression I've had has been the real excitement in the industry now about what we can achieve together
04:39that we perhaps couldn't have as separate entities.
04:42I see that really echoed by a lot of thought leaders and consultants in the market who are very aware
04:47that there are still major gaps in terms of how technology serves or maybe underserves hospitality.
04:53So to be able to really combine the best of both of our brands and our culture, our people, our
04:59innovation, I think is a real one plus one equals three scenario.
05:02Yeah. And again, one of the things that I see as a very clear manifestation of that in terms of
05:13the synergies is when, you know, we see the retention engine that Allura has and how it identifies reservations that
05:25are at risk of cancellation,
05:26which as you've put it, which as you've put it, the reservation canceled eliminates all the efforts that went into
05:35that conversion. Right.
05:36So if somebody doesn't show up is is it doesn't count for anything.
05:42So the retention engine is incredibly viable, valuable for a hotelier, but it's very hard to address each one of
05:54those at risk transactions one by one manually.
05:58And when you think about actioning that information and that data that a Laura can provide most of the time,
06:06you're going to do it through a CRM, whether that's a quick message, whether that's the inclusion of a discount,
06:14whether that's a kind of a drip campaign that that stays with a client that's going to be done through
06:22a CRM.
06:23And yet, even then, although it's closer to making the actioning of that information very fluid and easy to complete,
06:36it even gets better when you say, oh, but I can automate that and I can create rules and triggers
06:44and then actions and let that happen and let technology free our hotel clients up
06:53to do what they do what they do well, which is provide hospitality and delight guests and create memories and
07:00hotels, as you know, are going through a really difficult time in terms of every every one of us as
07:11a guest continues to expect a lot.
07:14Right. And expect excellence. And now when you're doing it with fewer people, that creates a lot of tension.
07:21So if technology can come in and with things like that, that are our two offerings coming together can bring
07:29to the table, then we're really creating value to a hotelier because we're freeing them to do what they do
07:37well.
07:37So that, I mean, that really is very exciting and I know it's very exciting for our teams.
07:45I think so. I think Allura has become very effective, very clever, essentially, at assessing and predicting the risk of
07:54cancellation per booking.
07:55But, of course, what we've always lacked and which SHR have is the ability to turn that sort of early
08:01warning message of which guest booking is more or less likely to cancel.
08:06Now, by coming together, we can finally help hotels more by automating that message and actually really delivering proactive guest
08:14communication and retaining perhaps a very high value piece of business that may have canceled at short notice with very
08:21little opportunity to recover that revenue.
08:22Yeah. Yeah. The other thing that's interesting is that Allura now could have information from multiple channels, right, that including
08:39channels that are usually kind of left out of the real interesting data and data analytics like the GDS.
08:46Yeah, right. So, I don't know, we haven't talked a lot about this, but the idea of having the great
08:58analytics that Allura is bringing to a hotel now apply to a wider range of transactions and then therefore fueling
09:10a wider range of decisions, right?
09:14Whether that has to do with retention or upsell or just information to a guest that's relevant and timely, I
09:25think that, you know, our teams will discover more and more, you know, hidden jewels in that collaboration as we
09:36go after it.
09:37Yeah.
Comments