Green mango: Cheap hotels can also standardize

"How to standardize a cheap hotel?" billion Bang Power network asked.

Traditional OTA mode after a round of listing after the chase, the pattern of basic delineation. In the new wave of business expansion, the big guys are looking at the Low-cost hotel business.

2010 End, Taobao online Taobao Inn, Ctrip mergers and acquisitions of Chinese guzhen network. In the low price hotel market gradually turn hot market background, low-key operation of more than a year of green Mango Network day.

"China has more than 8,000 star hotels, there are 900,000 small and medium-sized hotel." "Green Mango Net coo Gaogo to billion power network said.

But such a vast market, but is always online travel site big guy dare not easily dabble in the territory, the reason is that Low-cost hotels difficult to standardize.

and solve the problem of standardization, "Low-cost hotel will undoubtedly become the traditional OTA mode of new growth point, the bright future business." "Gaogo said.

Pure Internet Mode

Do you have a hotel reservation site without a call center, only to provide a pure site reservation? Is there a hotel reservation site only offers cheap hotel reservations, do not provide star hotel reservations?

In fact, the Low-cost hotel business has become a new model of tourism e-commerce phase. At the end of 2010, Ctrip and Taobao have cut into the market in different ways. The Mango network of the Hong Kong CTS Group is the first traditional OTA website to explore the Low-priced hotel market.

At the end of 2008, Mango Net acquired easy-break travel network. Easy to break travel network to youth hostels, economy hotels mainly, is the first low-cost hotel online booking business E-commerce vertical platform. The mango net tried to cut into the cheap hotel market through acquisitions.

But soon, in the integration after the acquisition, Mango Nets found its original star hotel in the OTA mode, the core in the construction of hundreds of billions of powerful call center, its operating methods can not be applied to the low-priced hotel market.

The traditional OTA mode uses quota mode, namely the hotel provides a certain number of rooms for the online travel website, the website has the complete independent sale right to the room, does not have to pass the hotel side confirmation. And the Low-cost Hotel scale is small, the availability of few, the change is big, cannot provide the quota for the website at all. At the same time, the traditional ota20%-30% commission is also cheap hotels can not afford.

Second, the traditional OTA model provided by the Star hotel is a standardized product, even in different areas, hotel rooms have a unified standard, only a phone call can be completely done. However, the Low-cost hotel market does not have a unified industry standards, the availability of different areas of the facilities and services are huge differences, simply can not provide users with adequate and accurate information by telephone. On the contrary, through the display of online pictures and detailed text description, you can realize the full display of information and solve the non-standard problems.

At the same time, the traditional OTA mode mainly for business users, users are accustomed to telephone appointment. And through the Low-cost Hotel market consumer research, mango nets found that 1/3 of the users of the students, 1/2 of white-collar workers. For these users, the data show that almost all users are more likely to complete their bookings online.

"The biggest advantage of the traditional OTA model is its call center, the biggest constraint is also the call center, it can not abandon the hundreds of billions of call center exclusive network of predetermined mode." Gaogo told billion power network.

So, in other OTA Big Boss covet low-priced market, suffer not to find the cut-in point, mango nets through research and integration, from the vertical subdivision of the pure online hotel booking field to take the lead in the market.

March 2009, Mango Network launched a franchise in the Low-priced Hotel market, the sub-brand website-Green Mango Network. Green Mango Network for students, white-collar workers, donkey friends, to inns, family hotels, hostels and other low-cost hotels booking for the main, the use of pure Web site booking mode, independent operation.

"Online booking can see the actual availability of photos and information, the real accuracy is much higher than the telephone." Gaogo told billion power network.

How to standardize a cheap hotel

Cheap hotel reservation Business Although in the country has just been concerned, but in foreign countries already have a number of similar operations excellent web sites, including Booking.com and hostelworld.com more prominent.

This kind of website takes the low price as the sharp weapon, fights the market. Hostelworld users can buy low-cost hostels and beds in many countries around the world, and can buy 10-dollar beds a night. But correspondingly, the cheap hotel is often mistaken for "shops". The whole market has no standard, no rules, to achieve online sales and booking will need to take the lead in solving non-standard problems.

"Low-cost Hotel business is the most difficult in product standardization and market cultivation." Gaogo told billion power network. How to provide users with accurate service? How to provide service and management for the hotel?

To this end, green Mango starting from the information display. In addition to the detailed multi-angle picture of the hotel environment, decoration facilities, green Mango will be able to access the Internet, whether there is television, air-conditioning, independent toilet and other details into a relatively standardized description, in addition, on the size of the window, bed size, balcony, ventilation and other information into the room description.

But even so, there are still some problems that Gaogo headaches.

"Some users may even ask if they offer toothpaste or toothbrushes." "These are the details that will not be involved in the usual star hotel booking service and become a problem for the information standardization of the Green Mango Hotel."

At the same time, green Mango requirements Operating hotel must have business qualification certificate, and to join the hotel to be different latitude ratings, according to the priority of the rating rules recommended hotels. But the green Mango is not just review hotel information, they will be the hotel as a customer service.

In fact, because of the small size of cheap hotels, it is difficult to have real-time online customer service and maintenance personnel. Therefore, green Mango not only in information services to help hotel users, but also to provide them with SMS, mail and other services. The Green Mango will notify the hotel in a variety of ways after the user orders online.

"Hotels are actually our customers, we provide services for them, charge a certain percentage of service charge." "Gaogo said.

In the green Mango standard 8,000 hotels, only 4,000 are the cooperative hotel, for green Mango, "to achieve 8,000 hotel cooperation" is now the goal.

As a pure internet form of hotel booking mode, green Mango has been hoping to fully realize the user's "real-time booking", the user in the order, the hotel can promptly reply to the orders details. But in the existing market conditions can not be achieved.

"Cheap hotels do not have fixed customer service, perhaps an order to come, the boss is shopping." ”

In 2010, green Mango launched the "2-hour confirmation order" service. Orders that have not been answered for more than two hours are automatically canceled and other hotels are recommended for users. "Put forward 2 hours of time node, is to gradually cultivate the market," Gaogo told billion Power network.

2011, Green Mango plans to launch a complete PMS hotel signing system, set order processing and similar to Wang Wang online information exchange, while perfecting the hotel system management, membership system, and explore 3G applications, to create real real-time online cheap hotel reservation site.

"Taobao and Ctrip into the Low-cost hotel market, in fact, the whole market is well nurtured." Gaogo told billion power network.

The outlet of traditional OTA

Tourism E-commerce has been developed for more than more than 10 years, derived a variety of forms. In addition to Ctrip, such as the representative of the traditional OTA mode, there are vertical search media properties of "where the Net", and in the market segments, it produced a route for the characteristics of "leisurely tourism network" to hotel reservations mainly "Green mango net."

And for the boss OTA model, the need to develop a new business model.

Ctrip acquisition of Chinese Guzhen Network has not been selected into the way, Taobao Inn using open backstage attracted a large number of low-cost hotels, but the hotel's audit management and service is obviously not enough. Mango Network to choose independent operation, from the vertical subdivision of the field, to provide professional services, in the Low-cost hotel market accounted for the first advantage.

Green Mango is different from the oat mode of online prepaid, the user can choose to pay situable first deposit, to the hotel to pay the remaining part of the room rate, can also be paid in advance. Users can also cancel a reservation one day in advance. The prepaid mode not only ensures the safety and convenience of the user's reservation, but also effectively lowers the no show rate of the hotel.

In the traditional OTA mode, although the business user relative travel fixed, but no show rate is still as high as 35%, while the green Mango site more than six months no show rate of only 1%, far lower than the previous hotel reservation site.

"Advance deposit is not to improve the user selection threshold, the opposite must be charged more to allow users to trust services." "Gaogo that the way to pay a deposit, in order to improve the user's choice of the threshold at the same time to ensure that the orders of 100% authentic validity."

Green mango using pure online mode, its only online customer service is a QQ group. Telephone calls are also limited to outbound business and do not open inbound business. This new light operation model has revolutionized the traditional OTA-heavy offline call center model.

However, in the user evaluation, Gaogo found that the traditional OTA's best praise in 90%, and green Mango's praise can reach 98%. In the user Service, Green Mango panorama of the online graphic display to provide users with true and accurate hotel information, this is the traditional OTA mode telephone communication can not be completed.

"Green Mango's user base is relatively young, they will become business users." Gaogo told billion power network. Green Mango is not only responsible for mango nets to cultivate new users, at the same time, its vertical subdivision in the field of the deep is also a new business growth point of mango network.

"We are not in a hurry to pursue profit, fully independent operation, self-financing." "For mango nets, green mango is a future exploration, a new business area."