The Channel Manager is part of a large free aid package for hoteliers to overcome the Corona crisis
Berlin, 28 May 2020. CultSwitch, the service-oriented channel management provider for hotels, is involved in the “Digital Hotel” initiative. The initiative is a cooperation between various hotel technology companies, tourism service providers and associations. The aim is to help hotels take advantage of the opportunities offered by digitalization to better position themselves after the COVID-19 crisis. To this end, the initiative provides hotel operators with digitisation packages worth over EUR 10,000 free of charge for a period of six months.
According to Fairmas – Specialist for management reporting for the hotel industry – 72% of hotels in Germany were closed in April, and sales across Germany were 96% down on the previous year. This makes the hospitality industry one of the sectors most affected by the COVID19 pandemic. And although the first steps have now been taken out of the lockdown, the return to normality will take a long time. The Federal Competence Centre for Tourism does not expect travel and business activities to return to normal until 2023. For most hotel operators, the long-term consequences are not yet foreseeable at all. Maybe the pandemic will have a lasting effect on travel behaviour and the expectations of guests.
“In this situation, digitization and the further automation of central processes offer great opportunities,” explains Dr. Reinhard Vogel, CEO of CultSwitch. “It is already becoming apparent that hotels relying on digitalization before the pandemic are better able to cope with the crisis – partly because they can implement optimizations more easily and recognize revenue potential more quickly.” To make it easier for all hotel operators to take the steps towards digitalization and automation, CultSwitch is participating as a partner in the “Digital Hotel” initiative.
Thanks to the initiative, hotel operators may select all necessary functions from a package of coordinated software products and test them free of charge for at least six months, from PMS, channel management and digital consultancy to competitive analysis and reputation management. CultSwitch is offering the channel manager and the booking mask CultBooking free of charge for six months. Initial setup and individual consulting are also included. This enables hoteliers to optimize their online sales and significantly increase the number of direct bookings via the hotel website.
The CultSwitch offer alone enables hotel operators to save more than 1,000 EUR. The total assistance package of all ten technology providers is worth over 10,000 EUR. In addition to CultSwitch, this includes Apaleo, HQPlus, Customer Alliance, Code2order, Hotelshop.one, DialogShift, Überblick, Seatris.ai and Digital HC. Important: All tools will be implemented in such a way that they interlock seamlessly and thus significantly simplify the processes in the hotels as a whole. The HSMA supports the campaign.
Interested hoteliers can register directly online via the initiative’s website (German).