Guestcentric to help Algarve hotels double revenue with local office
Reading Time: 3 minutesGuestcentric, a leading provider of Hotel E-Commerce Solutions to maximize direct revenue, is opening a local office in the Algarve, Portugal in May 2021. The aim of this new regional hub will be to support local hotels in recovery from the economic fallout of 2020 and bolster the industry’s economic performance and growth.
According to the Algarve Hotel Association (AHETA), in 2020, the region recorded its worst year of tourism in terms of both occupancy rates and economic and business performance. As a result of decreased demand from international markets, turnover fell by over €800 million in 2020 (over 65%). Despite increased domestic travel demand, Algarve hotels closed 2020 with 1.1 million fewer overnight stays and 335,000 (minus over 21%).
Since the start of the pandemic across Europe in April 2020, Guestcentric has worked tirelessly to support the industry’s resilience on the road to recovery, launching key initiatives to support independent hotels that have been hit hard by the crisis. In Portugal, Guestcentric launched the Small Portuguese Hotels Collection to help independent hotels cater to the rising domestic travel demand and the Hotelier PULSE Report project to share crucial market data and best practices to bolster recovery from the economic downturn.
Bringing a pool of specialized skills and expertise in the Mediterranen region, Guestcentric’s Algarve-based team will work closely with the current portfolio of over 100 hotels across the region to double their revenue.
The initial package to boost revenue includes three critical elements:
- Free listing of all GuestCentric hotels on Google’s recently announced Free Booking Links program, an industry-first.
- GuestCentric’s world-class partnerships with channel manager SiteMinder, rate shopping solution OTA Insight and chatbot Hijiffy, all supporting hotels to reach a healthier distribution between direct and external channels.
- Lastly, for qualifying hotels, Small Portuguese Hotels is looking to expand its collection of independent hotels, enabling them to increase visibility in the domestic market and helping local hoteliers to articulate their brand values and deliver a message that reflects their target audience.
The first steps for the regional office will be to visit local hotels across the region to create solutions that meet individual needs in a heavily leisure- and resort-oriented region.
Joao Silva, Guestcentric’s Regional Director of Sales for Southern Europe, will lead the expansion to the Algarve: “I am delighted to join GuestCentric and bring the knowledge that I acquired in the last three years at Great Hotels of the World to Southern Europe and our Algarve region. We can take the solutions we built for leading resorts like the Atlantis Dubai, the Banyan Tree Phuket or the Zafiro Palace in Mallorca to enable local hotels to speed up their recovery from a very difficult year.”
The regional base will deliver a new offer for the local market, which will include a range of new features, such as fine-grained occupancy-based pricing, and competitive pricing options for seasonal destinations. The long-term goal of this expansion will be to expand Guestcentric’s Algarve portfolio by 200 hotels within two years and grow the local team to support the Southern European region.
As part of the launch, Guestcentric and Great Hotels of the World will host a Local Industry Event on May 26, 2021, ‘The Hotelier PULSE Live – Algarve’. Local Hoteliers will be invited to discuss the challenges and opportunities for Algarve hotels post-Covid, and what hotels can do to capitalize on the upturn when international travel restrictions are lifted.
Hoteliers who would like to attend can register HERE.