8 Predictions: New technologies and innovation trends in 2016

BookLogic CEO acknowledges the changes in the industry last year and what the impact will be for hotels in 2016.
16 February, 2016: The industry is consolidating as multi-product businesses incorporate and acquire single-solution based companies; hotel chains continue to merge to grab a wider share of the market, while hoteliers focus on building marketing strategies for customer acquisition and direct bookings.
Oral Yigitkus, CEO BookLogic, makes predictions for the year ahead and analyses the market challenges ahead; “Hotels will begin to see channels mature and the market consolidate. Hoteliers will need to look at their technology and services to improve performance and reduce operation time to be more agile in the market in order to increase bookings and revenue.”
For BookLogic, a hotel technology and marketing services company delivering bookings and revenue management support, it’s more than just technology and digital marketing developments that is causing hotels to look at their strategies and approach the markets differently. Social-political events around the world are forcing hotels to develop plans to manage loss of markets and sudden drop in demand.
“Hotels need to further prepare for the inevitable and ensure rates for the long-view and short-view support the overall operation of the hotel, while also ensuring to support its guests and customers,” writes Yigitkus. He also looks at the changes and challenges for OTAs, and what hotels should expect.
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8 Predictions: New technologies and innovation in 2016
1. Market will be more consolidated and monopolized. There will be more acquisitions and mergers in 2016 and 2017, especially within the mid-market
2. Channel management companies will begin to struggle during 2016. Central Reservation Systems (CRS) will consolidate the market and begin to focus on CRS offering to stay alive. Channel manager business will be more self-service; hotels will do more of their own mappings to have more control, especially with changes to rate parity
3. Companies selling “whole package” technology and services will be better off; those who offer stand-alone products will begin to diminish.
Other than these, BookLogic also provides services of Web Development, Mobile App Development, Search Engine Optimization, and Pay Per Click (PPC).
4. GDS-only companies will continue to struggle financially, and will likely go bankrupt. Hoteliers need to seeks services that integrate GDS as part of an offering.
5. Booking engines will need channel managers incorporated in their system and company, without which the market potentially is significantly reduced.
6. Property Management Systems (PMS) will begin losing touch with the market, especially online booking engine and channel management business, because the first requires online sales expertise and the latter requires a lot of support.
7. Google is expected to launch a new product, which will rock the market. A likely move from CPC to CPA, like TripAdvisor moved from tripconnect (CPC) to instant booking (CPA). This is going to filter throughout the market.
8. What is the future of MetaSearch Engines as business significantly grows and diversifies? We are likely to see a watering down of big international chains so heavily influencing the results.
About BookLogic:
BookLogic is an award-winning customizable software solutions and marketing services provider for hotels and online reservation systems for the travel industry. Independently owned, the company was established in 2004, launching full operations in 2009, with headquarters in Germany, and offices in Turkey and Dubai. In 2015 BookLogic was awarded World Travel Award for World’s Leading Travel Technology Innovation and nominated for Europe’s & World’s Leading Hotel Booking Solutions Provider. BookLogic currently services over 1,500 hotel properties supported by over 30 staff members.