Dear Liz,

I have been working with Anna Godefroy, but I have forgotten to post it on my blog. You can see our work and the time of posting on her blog. Nethertheless, I will post it here the copy too.

KUBEHOTEL

avantgardehotels.com

Reach

The site focuses on modern and sophisticated travelers with requirements for a high quality and high-tech facilitiesProposes to download Avantgard toolbar and e-mail newsletters in order to have a constant and real-time interactivity with the end userThe site appears on the 1st page of the Yahoo search at the search terms "design hotel". As to the Google, the Kubehotel is on the first lines itself when the "design hotel" search words are used. So, the Avantgardehotels.com could be good for the Kubehotel as to american and english-speaking audience.We have found no concrete numbers as to the customers’ reach; we suppose that we should ask them to send the presentation.Only Translated into French, Spanish, Italian, and German.

Image

Contemporary trend-setting design concept hotelsPromotes the image of innovative hotels where extra coolness comes as a standard, artistic touchThe site represents a very limited number of properties (80 hotels in 70 destinations), thus very selective siteIn France only 4 hotels presented

Forward distribution

Can also be booked on the Avangard’s toll-free number, by e-mail and travel agencies can book on the GDSNo forward distribution found but the site invites everyone to put Avantgardhotels’ linked logo on their sites

hotelclub.net

Reach

Multi-national site, more than 10 languages availableMore than 4.7 million unique visitors per monthTwo types of bookings: lastminute and planed, thus different customers (business and leisure customers),Price-sensitive customersRSS feature – increases the frequency of browsing

Image

Site represents a wide selection of accommodation, from one to five stars, from motels to luxury and apartments (25000 in 120 countries)general site which stresses the possibility of big discounts, up to 60%

Forward distribution

Developed affiliate program, 50% net commission earned on each booking – possibility to control the commission by the means of the discounted rated provided, 100 days visitors tracking, comprehensive reporting, possibility to chose the product, help in building the brand, lastminute affiliate programTravel agencies programs – Up to 20% disounts from already discounted Hotel Club rates, integration of the booking engine into the agency’s website, etc.

minotel.com

Reach

Target markets are the United States, Canada, Japan, China, Great Britain, Germany and Switzerland. Business customers.Key words in the meta search do not match our concept.

Image

Minotel unites small capacity 3-4 star hotels which are big for their consistency, their quality and their authenticity. Designed for family-owned and -managed hotels at a moderate price. Cozy and friendly atmosphere and personalized service.

Forward distribution

The site has a very diversified and well developed forward distribution system: tour operators, travel agencies, GDS, IDS, electronic distributors, and site partners with commissionable links. No affiliate programs though. The site has its own special attractive voucher program and other special promotions.Our hotel will be presented on our web site Minotel.com on at least three screen pages comprising photos and texts in several languages. Furthermore, our hotel will be featured in more than 20 million brochures and hotel guides which are producted and distributed each year on all five continents by our network of more than 150 tour operators.The hotel will be part of various packages or specially targeted offers aimed at a large individual clientele.Reservation confirmed in writing by one of their reservation offices is guaranteed and reimbursed in case of cancellation. In addition to the promotion made for your hotel through Minotel’s commercial service, the publication in our hotel guides generates a walk-in clientele, contacting you directly and paying for their stay on the spot, at your indicated tariff.

CONCLUSION

We have found out that the sites’ quality is very different: the Minotel is very well developed and the least developed is the Avantgardhotels site. As the amount of information provided on the distributor’s sites is not equivalent, it was impossible to do a fare comparison. That’s why we had to do some assumptions.

Our strategy is to choose an agency in the “Long Tail”. We strongly believe that in our case it is extremely important to promote our image, as our hotel in a conceptual one, and we don’t want it to be associated with non-conceptual hotels. We have really specific customers: modern travelers,

Avantgardhotels.com has little but very specific coverage, just what we are looking for. We assume that the reach – cost ratio is favorable. At the same time, the site promotes only 70 hotels, with only 4 hotels in France. The image corresponds perfectly to our image. Among the three sites this one seems to be the most appropriate, however we need to do further investigation (by phone) to find out more about their coverage (this information is not very clear on the site). We know though that it is translated into 5 languages, which is good for us as they cover more countries than us.

Hotelclub.com rather big coverage, though too general and have all sorts of accommodation in its database. Very expensive, the discounts are too high.

Minotel.com – as to our estimation, it is generally speaking the best of the three reseller sites we have analysed. However, it does not fit our concept and target and consequently will not provide a good stream of customers. This site would fit perfectly to the base2stay hotel.