GHOTW Unveils 2019 Success Factors and Confidently Sets Sights on an exciting 2020

November 2019, Great Hotels of the World (GHOTW), the renowned international hospitality brand representing a collection of some 50 mainly independent hotels worldwide, had a remarkable year.

The focus has been on increasing the range of services and value to member hotels but also to buyers from the MICE and corporate market segments. On the hotel supply front, the number of destinations offered to buyers has increased significantly, thus complementing the largely European based hotel members, in Italy, Spain, Ireland and Portugal. 

The company’s ambitious agenda has yielded exciting results throughout 2019, especially the much-enhanced sales and events calendar. GHOTW showcased its growing portfolio at 11 of the foremost international trade shows around the world, including the UK, Germany, USA, France, Spain, Poland and Dubai.  Additionally, GHOTW organized its own sought-after events, providing hoteliers and targeted buyers a chance to meet 1-on-1 to forge direct and lasting relationships, leading to more business for all. Collectively, these events have resulted in a 23% growth to the company’s database of buyers and upwards of 13M€ in group business potential for Member hotels.

Leading the way in identifying hospitality consumer trends, GHOTW’s annual Bleisure Survey impacts GHOTW’s strategy in various ways – today’s business traveller clearly wants hotels that can offer both corporate and leisure facilities, services and destination expertise.

Throughout 2019, Great Hotels of the World has made important headway in two new outbound markets – Germany and the USA. Both are mature and acknowledged challenging markets to penetrate, particularly for independent, unflagged hotels without the resources available to the international hospitality brands.

Partnerships with leading industry services providers have also played an important role in the GHOTW recipe for success. Leveraging its international brand power, the hospitality representation company brings member hotels preferential access to cutting-edge digital marketing partners, such as UpMail and Customer Alliance, that can positively impact hotels at the operational level, ensuring better performance and a faster response to increasingly rapid market demands. On the MICE front, GHOTW ensures that member hotels are correctly positioned on leading online venue finding services, such as CVent, MICEBOOK, Evintra and Edgevenues and optimizes their presence.

As Pedro Colaco, CEO, summarizes, “Great Hotel of the World’s growth-driven strategy has impressed member hotels and has been key in attracting new flagship hotels to our select collection, adding exciting destinations such as Brazil, Morocco and the Philippines. Our buyers also have significant business for destinations in Central Europe and the East Coast of the USA and we have been approached by several hotels from these regions”. 

With its sights firmly set on a bigger, better 2020, Great Hotels of the World has already released its 2020 Sales and Events calendar which includes new events in Switzerland, the Benelux and Italy, to be largely set up by the new regional directors brought on board by GHOTW during the course of 2019. The USA is also a focus in terms of outbound business and will see far more events and initiatives aimed at promoting GHOTW’s member hotels.

For 2020 GHOTW is also launching a new membership module for its portfolio of hotels. A cornerstone of the company’s philosophy is that unique hotels require different types of memberships. In addition to the existing MICE Sales and Corporate & GDS Sales modules that hotel members can opt for, a dedicated Marketing & PR module is now available. It provides much needed exposure to hotels, especially in launches, rebrandings or refurbishments.

Great Hotels of the World thus brings its own expertise to work with member hotel’s marketing teams, optimizing all online and offline channels to reach relevant targeted audiences. 

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