ERevMax, RateTiger, AFAR, Roomarama, OpinionMeter, ATRIO, and HotelPlanner all appear in our roundup of the stories making news and driving opinion on 2 November.
STARTUP NEWS
The publishers of AFAR magazine will host a Travel Tech Meetup at its headquarters in San Francisco on the evening of Thursday, 8 November. Past attendees have included MondoWindow, Room 77, Hotel Tonight, Jetpac, Wcities, Liftopia, Viator, GuestMob, TripIt, EzRez, Atmosphere Research Group, LyonSHARE, Virgin America, and TouristLink.
Expect a Taiwanese boom in Silicon Valley. Until yesterday, Taiwanese had to apply for a visa to visit the US. But visas are no longer necessary now, which is good news for EVA Air and China Airlines and even better news for the start-up community.
Short-stay booking engine Roomorama is has added Bahasa Indonesia as one of the 12 languages that users can select when browsing the website's 60,000 listings.
HOTEL TECH
eRevMax is launching its third full edition of RateTiger RTSuite with a new user interface and automated inventory distribution controls for managing third party channel updates at World Travel Market 2012. The improvements follow an intensive market research programme through The Distribution Challenge 2012 with Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne, and directly engaging its 5000 customers in product and service feedback.
American customer survey company Opinionmeter International has launched a hotel reputation management tool, TouchPoint. Guests can use their smartphones to access hotel guest satisfaction surveys real-time while they are experiencing the service. Says a release:
"If a guest submits an unsatisfied response to a survey question, TouchPoint will send a text message or email alert to the appropriate hotel staff, affording the opportunity to instantly intervene with the unhappy guest and take corrective action while the customer is still on the property."
PAR Springer-Miller Systems, provider of hospitality management systems, as deployed ATRIO Guest Experience Management platform at the landmark Lahaina Inn in Hawaii. It's one of a series of contract coups the company has had this year.
HotelPlanner.com, the leading provider of online services to the global group market, has opened offices in London. According to Experian, the company is the number one group travel site by volume.
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NB: Image of toy tiger courtesy eRevMax.