Content Distribution

The term “content” is just vague enough to mean everything and anything. The hospitality industry is challenged with increasing consumer and third-party distributor demands for lodging content that fuels the search, shop and book process.

Understanding that lodging content is ever-changing, the Content Distribution Discipline is committed to reviewing, updating and publishing transformative practices, and providing education and direction on content standards, guidelines and best practices. We will lead with impactful new initiatives, such as our Travel Safe Initiative with HTNG and OTA, launched in response to consumer information demands due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This group is passionate about transformative content practices that define compelling information that educates, visually stimulates and engages. In collaboration with the adjacent Connectivity Discipline, we will evolve Attribute-Based Selling, providing holistic guidance to our membership.

Connectivity

Every customer purchasing a lodging accommodation expects the lowest qualified rate and a guaranteed room confirmation.  While simple in theory, the complexity of our industry driven by last room availability, Revenue Management Systems (RMS), third party systems and the many other stresses put on the hotel system, a clear solution is needed.

HEDNA’s Connectivity Discipline will provide direction on the best practices to all involved parties requesting live rates from hotels.  We will define clear guidelines on managing the massive amount of volume, including certifying vendors based on their features and technology.  Education, guidance and consultation are the keys to maximizing connectivity for all parties involved.

Revenue Optimization

The post-COVID marketplace is radically different, with new channels and business models, and existing channels behave very differently than before. The Revenue Optimization Discipline will identify what data attributes must be captured in distribution channels and determine whether the technology platforms – both connectivity and revenue optimization – are robust enough to handle the needs of today’s commercial teams.

We’ll help identify new data elements that impact top of the revenue funnel, including attribute-based selling, which will increase the number of products being sold exponentially. We will also develop recommendations about required connectivity enhancements to handle new data elements and messaging volume, and identify any dependencies related to revenue optimization cycles through automated revenue management platforms.

Payments

If emerging technologies were not enough to make the hospitality industry revisit their payment practices, the year 2020 brought such rapid change of consumer behavior that transitions are now almost inevitable. Do you still carry a wallet when you go out, or just take your phone with you? How do you pay your electricity bill? Is exchanging money still on your to-do list before your next vacation?

The HEDNA Payments Discipline, with global payment experts from our industry and outside, is on a mission to bring payments innovations into the hospitality experience – whether it is about guests, B2B payments or third-party compensations. Through education and best practices, we’re looking for optimal solutions and ROI opportunities to create a collaborative process where payments add value in addition to fulfil their purpose.

Data & Analytics

Analytics is the analysis of data used to discover, interpret, and communicate patterns that will help drive decision making.

Analytics can be found in every system available. A few examples of what are included:

• Traffic on a website, its behavior, conversion rates, bounce rates
• How external tactics impact the website
• How PMS and other systems are used
• Customer lifetime value tracking

Analytics impacts every aspect of a business, from revenue, to marketing, to distribution, and beyond. Because of analytics’ broad impact, the Data Analytics Discipline is equally broad to capture these different perspectives.

The goal of this discipline is to empower hoteliers to collect, store, analyze and use their data to make intelligent decisions about their strategies.