What are the hopes of the Macdonald Hotels & Resorts?


By: December 5, 2016


It seems like that UK’s largest independently owned hotel group the Macdonald Hotels & Resorts have not returned home empty-handed from the latest International Golf Travel Market that was held between November 14-17 in Mallorca.

Macdonald Hotels & Resort said that they were able to generate more than £115,000 of new business during the four-day event. The event was also a good opportunity for them to demonstrate their excellence in Scotland with their 7 key golf destinations which includes:

Keith Pickard, Group Director of Golf and Health & Fitness at Macdonald Hotels & Resorts said that “around 80% of the meetings were with emerging markets, such as New Zealand, Malaysia, and Korea, contributing to the considerable amount of new business we generated over the four days.”

It is interesting to see that while Hilton, Marriott, Hyatt, IHG, and Choice have all gone public with strategies to blunt the increasing market share being taken by OTAs, I cannot find any sign at Macdonald Hotels & Resorts that they would follow the example of the previously mentioned hotels. The same amount that they will pay for commissions they could invest in other important areas.

Maybe today it is not 100% clear, but the future is mobile check-ins. Therefore, a direct relationship is required to simplify the process and boost adoption of the service. Are you prepared for this???

Another interesting aspect of this business is who owns the travelers’ data? What happens if a 3rd party company (e.g. Booking.com) stops transferring this precious information??

At the same time, Open Pricing can be an interesting solution to avoid saying no to a customer. It allows hoteliers to price all room types, channels and dates independently of each other 365 days a year. It is also good to flex discounts by segment.

 

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