Roomkey.com - Keys to the Castle for Hoteliers?

Roomkey.com, a new hotel metasearch site created by six of the largest hotel chains launched this morning.

With industry vet John Davis at the helm and backing from Choice, Hilton, Hyatt, IHG, Marriott and Wyndham, it somewhat resembles the industry's efforts to drive down costs and create consumer choice several years ago when a similar group created Travelweb.com - same CEO, slightly different group of hotel brands (noticeably absent from the group this time around is Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide.) Travelweb was sold to Priceline.com and formed the basis of their non-opaque hotel product in North America.

Different this time around is metasearch. Roomkey is a pure meta play with room results returned in a nice, clean tile format:


Prior to the launch, the group purchased hotelicopter which had built a nice technology platform and user interface (as well as the awesome flying hotel ad that you may remember)

Clearly, and as expected, the call to action is a link to book at the sponsor's branded websites.

Roomkey (thus far) is a tool for comparing prices between hotels, not prices from different channels for the same hotel a la Kayak. Kayak pulls together disparate prices from various sources:


Multi-channel search, which Kayak never really delivered on the air side, is actually quite strong for hotels - and apparently, still an important issue judging from the sample above in which several of the founding members appear to be undercutting their own websites in various channels which Kayak is able to find and display.

Inventory today appears to be limited to the founding chains but we are sure that will grow, at least in critical markets such as New York and Las Vegas.

Hotel descriptive content on the beta site is decent with the usual photos and descriptions, although some brands (who shall remain nameless here) still seem to be returning content in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS. Given it is a beta, there are some photos with slightly strange descriptions: "NYCGH_P015 Exterior" but this will no doubt be cleaned up in due course.

That said, a great feature is the clear link to the hotels' property page where the rich content (and booking opportunity) lives.



Oddly, star ratings are included in the search results but it isn't clear how those stars are determined. In the past, the sometimes seemingly arbitrary OTA star ratings have been a source of frustration for hotels and brands alike. Roomkey promises to add user reviews shortly which should provide another, often more reliable way for guests to gauge hotels.

The hotel chains are not resting on their laurels after their past distribution wars with online travel agents (OTAs) and other distribution channels. Once fully built out with a mobile site, more inventory, reviews, Roomkey could be a potent weapon for consumers who want to be able to compare locations, features, rates across multiple chains and brands. With Google rapidly moving into the travel (and hotel) space and OTAs continuing to gain share, Roomkey will be another arrow in the chain's quivers to drive branded website growth and control distribution.

Internet Access at 4/5 Star Hotels: Getting Closer to Free (Finally)

For a long time, the hospitality industry has managed to convince business travelers that they should pay extra for high speed internet access (or HSIA in industry parlance) in four and five star hotels even though the same companies offer it for free in their lower tier brands.

Four Points, Courtyard, Fairfield, Hyatt Place, Holiday Inn as well as newer brands such as Aloft and Indigo have all offered free HSIA to all guests for some time. However, their higher tier cousins such as Westin, Sheraton, Hyatt, Marriott and Intercontinental have long charged at least $9.95 (per day!) or more for the service.

Why?

Well, because they can. With a majority of their travelers staying on business where someone else is picking up the tab, upper-tier hotels have been able to get away with this. In contrast to the value oriented chains where the target is more leisure and small business clients (who may be paying the fees themselves) the big guys are targeting large corporate and group customers.

But holes are appearing in the "everyone pays for HSIA mantra"

During the peak of the lodging boom 2-3 years ago when hotels commanded pricing power, the upper-tier chains largely refused to negotiate on HSIA access charges for large corporate buyers. It was a sacrosanct rule at many chains to refuse to give it away as part of a negotiation.

Oh how the world has changed. Recent discussions with several of the largest corporate travel buyers have shown that free HSIA is now a very common component of rate negotiations. A quick check of many large corporate rates at several metro 4/5 star hotels yields similar results.

Don't work for a major corporation but have hotel loyalty program status? Free HSIA may be in store for you as well.

Hyatt started the trend last year when they began offering free HSIA to their top-tier (Diamond level) Gold Passport members globally.

Starwood fell into line beginning March 1st for Platinum members, again on a global basis.

And today, Marriott announced a similar program for not just top-tier members, but mid-tier members as well. Marriott, while covering more members, covers significantly fewer hotels however. Marriott's offering does not include hotels outside of the U.S. and Canada or even Marriotts located in Hawaii. (Maybe Marriott is trying to tell us something when we are on vacation?)

So, will HSIA revenues at upper-tier hotels go the way of phone revenues (picked up the phone in your room recently?) Between the growth of wireless cards and relentless competitive pressure, we think this revenue stream is toast. Even when lodging comes back in 2011, we doubt any of the chains will be able to convince customers that they should start paying for HSIA again. And by then, we may not be traveling with laptops anyway.....

Chase Feels the Hyatt Touch: GoldPassport Gets a Co-Branded Credit Card

Hyatt and Chase today announced a new co-branded credit card which will allow members of Hyatt's Gold Passport loyalty program to earn points with every dollar spent. Hyatt has been the key holdout among the large chains in issuing a co-branded credit card - Starwood, Marriott, Hilon and IHG have issued similar cards for many years.

Many feel that Hyatt has held out on this potentially lucrative revenue stream (banks buy the points that they offer consumers based on spend) because of the relatively small size of the Hyatt chain (which limited points burning options) and a desire not to dilute the earnings of members who have earned their points by staying in hotels - Hyatt's main business.

However, with the continued growth of Hyatt into new segments and the recent IPO, that thinking has clearly evolved. Also of note is that the card is a Visa - Hyatt has long partnered with Mastercard on Gold Passport earnings promotions.

United Air Feels the Hyatt Touch: Tom O'Toole Named CMO

United Airlines (UAUA) has named travel industry veteran Tom O'Toole as their new Chief Marketing Officer. Tom was previously CMO and CIO (yes, he actually wore both hats!) for Global Hyatt Corporation(H) until his departure last at the end of 2009.

Tom's appointment marks the first move we can think of from Hyatt to United - most industry talent has flowed the other direction.

Appointing a non-airline (albeit a very well versed) expert to the marketing helm at United may be just what United needs to help drive a new course. The challenge, as always, will be in delivering at the operational level what has been promised - we bet Tom's unique blend of operational and marketing experience will be a great help in making that happen.

And here's hoping that Tom doesn't break any guitars.