Author: Esther Grob
© Caroline Minjolle / Zürich Tourismus
In our Western world, we are used to booking our holiday or business trip accommodation online, either directly on the hotel’s homepage or through an online booking platform. But for overseas travellers, especially from the emerging market countries, it is different. Due to strict visa rules and other factors,they book mostly through a travel agency or a tour operator. For that reason it is very important for hotels to be included in the tour operators’ product offer if they are targeting the emerging market traveller. So for them the tour operator is the B2B customer.
To whom do we present our product as hotelier? Who within the organization is involved in the buying process and makes the decision? Let’s analyze the buying center of the tour operator: It might be the CEO, the product manager, the buying agent and sales staff. All of them are in a certain way involved in the process, each in a specific role. The sales staff is the “user” as they recommend and sell the hotel directly to the customer; the buying agent will negotiate the price and allotments, so she/he is the actual “buyer”; the product manager is in the role of the “influencer” as they are responsible for the entire destination product; finally, the CEO as ultimate decision maker will be the “decoder”. If we want to contract our hotel to the tour operator we have to focus on every member of this buying center. We have to define these partners and their roles, then offer customized sales pitches as each party expects from us a different interaction also depending on where they are involved in the buying cycle (Awareness phase – Consideration phase – Decision phase).
Or how do you see this situation for a hotel?