11.4.2019
Hotel guest acquisition platform SiteMinder today announced the launch of the Hotel App Store. It is the first marketplace that allows hotels of all sizes to easily discover, choose and connect applications to their business systems for greater guest experiences and revenue.
The unveiling of the product at World Travel Market London is a significant step forward for hotels that have been challenged with changing guest behaviour but have lacked access to technology that keeps them ahead of those trends. Until now, marketplaces have been closed environments for hotels, accessible only by using a marketplace provider’s designated property management system (PMS).
SiteMinder’s Hotel App Store has opened up this access to all hotels, by allowing them to connect to more than 100 applications—including revenue management and upselling, guest messaging, guest review management, room controls, airport transfers and keyless entry—through a single interface and from a selection of more than 80 PMSs or SiteMinder’s channel manager.
Among the applications available through the Hotel App Store are Cendyn, TrustYou, OpenKey, Welcome Pickups, and Oaky, as well as UK-headquartered For-Sight and upgrade2. Already, the Oaky app is being used by one of Europe’s leading leisure groups, Muthu Hotels & Resorts, an early adopter of the Hotel App Store. The hotel chain’s e-commerce manager, Nuno Sacramento, has increased both revenue and average daily rates since using Oaky to push out targeted upselling campaigns prior to a guest’s arrival.
“The Hotel App Store is a great opportunity to find ready-made solutions we haven’t thought of or are unable to find. It has become a trusted marketplace for services that, under normal circumstances, would come with the hassle of extra developments and integrations,” says Mr Sacramento.
SiteMinder’s Hotel App Store will feature in-built smart technology that recommends only relevant applications to hotel users, based on their profile and past selections. It is the latest chapter in the evolution of SiteMinder’s platform, which in 2018 generated more than US$28 billion in revenue for 35,000 hotels worldwide. The Hotel App Store also adds to SiteMinder’s partner network of more than 800 hotel booking channel and management system providers, which collectively comprise the largest and most open ecosystem for hotels today.
The Hotel App Store comes 18 months after the launch of SiteMinder Exchange, a connectivity hub that allows hotel data publishers and developers of hotel application software to transfer guest information between their systems. From today, hotels using a data publisher connected to SiteMinder Exchange—which includes property management systems (PMSs) and SiteMinder’s channel manager—can use the Hotel App Store to access applications.
“Our purpose at SiteMinder has always been to liberate hoteliers with technology that makes a world of difference, and the Hotel App Store stands as a true testament to that purpose. Over the years, we have witnessed numerous hotel technologies emerge to better support hoteliers with their day-to-day, yet never before have hoteliers had the opportunity to select freely from those choices, using the system they know and trust. Hoteliers remain anchored down by the challenges of data and accessibility. We solved the data challenge through SiteMinder Exchange and now, with the Hotel App Store, we’re making accessibility another issue of the past,” says Dai Williams, Chief Growth Officer at SiteMinder.
