travel, hotel and booking Information

Interview: Emanuel Schreibmaier, VP Sales & Marketing Sol Meli Hotels & Resorts Americas Division

Hotel Booking This year CHIC will be hosted in one of the most rapidly developing areas in the Caribbean, Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic. The event aims to be a relaxed convention with the primary goal of allowing the media to meet the hoteliers. The event will be hosted at the Bávaro Convention Center which is one of the largest convention centers in the Caribbean and Latin American area. Host hotels include the Paradisus Punta Cana, part of the Sol Melia group. Caribbean-Weekly spoke to Emanuel Schreibmaier, VP Sales & Marketing Sol Meliá Hotels & Resorts Americas Division about his company, the future of the Caribbean and Fishing!

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Travel Agency

8mong many firsts for the group market, the new technology platform enables consumers to do something that other sites haven k allowed to book travel and accommodations for more than five rooms in a single online session. Featuring more than 56, 000 hotels, including 7, time group rates, Groople is primed to become the industry largest automated solution for unmanaged group leisure travel, a market estimated at $18 billion to $24 billion. Under its hosted inventory and commission models, Groople generates group bookings niche by niche for hotels and plans to add air, car, cruise, bus and rail later this year.

Cheap Hotel CW. How long have you been present in the Caribbean? ES. Weve been in that market for 12 years.

star hotels and resorts to boutiques, priced properties. They range in size from 40 to 1, 700 rooms. Quikbook selects hotels that are well located near business, entertainment or transportation centers. Our goal is not to offer every hotel in a market. Instead, chosen selection of premier hotels that offer guests a range of options. The result is a more concise, selected list of hotels that simplify the booking process.

Flight Booking CW. Are you primarily an all-inclusive company? In the UK Sandals have the strong hold on advertising, how do you intend to gain a larger percentage of the UK market? ES. We have a mixed operation: business, leisure hotels and all-inclusive resorts.

Groople (www.groople.com), the leading online group travel booking and planning site, has partnered with Hotel Hotline (www.hotelhotline.com), an online hotel reservation site including the properties HotelHotline.com and HotelsCheap.org. Groople provides Hotel Hotline customers with the ability to search for and book group hotels that are appropriate for their group type. Groople's private label solution offers Hotel Hotline with a customized booking solution that satisfies the needs of their users. "Partnering with Groople gives Hotel Hotline access to dependable group booking technology and professional group travel customer service, " said Mike Stacy, CEO of Groople. "HotelsCheap knows the size and growth of the group market and sees Groople as the best way to tap into that market"

Travel Agent CW. How many properties do you have in the Caribbean, and which is the most successful in terms of booking figures? ES. There are eight in total with The Meli Caribe Tropical, Punta Cana being our strongest.

hotel.de launches its partner program for travel agents. 2003 The results of a Nielsen study show that hotel.de is, for the first time, the German online hotel reservation service with the most page impressions ( 2003). 2004 hotel.de counts 500, 000 booking customers and launches the "Freenights" bonus program. speaking markets, with the domains hotel.ch and hotel.at.

Hotel Chicago CW. For Caribbean-Weeklys readers who are unfamiliar with your company could you please explain a little? ES. Sol Meli Hotels & Resorts is one of the worlds most successful hotel companies with its four brands Meli Hotels, Tryp Hotels, Sol Hotels and Paradisus Resorts, with more than 350 hotels in more than 30 countries worldwide. Sol Meli s 2003/2004 expansion plans include new properties in Brazil, Puerto Rico, Mexico and throughout Asia Pacific and Europe

Online Booking Do you believe that the upsurge in online booking is aiding your companys bookings figures? Are you in favour of further development in this area or do you prefer customers to have the assistance of a travel agent? ES. Yes, we agree. But we continue to fully support travel agents, who represent 70% of all of our bookings.

Travel Health Insurance CW. What booking system does your company utilise? ES. We have our own, SolRes and we are also connected to all 5 GDS.

Hotel Reservation CW. Have you noticed any trend towards last minute booking patterns? ES. Yes, every year the rate has become more intense.

London Hotel Booking How have the recent tourism crisiss (War in Iraq, SARs), affected your companies performance in the Caribbean region? ES. Very little. All of our properties are right on budget.

Discount Travel CW. Sol Meli Sol Melia, in a recent press release, stated that: Sol Meli aims to be a highly responsible company, understanding that the social and economic development of local communities is ultimately beneficial for the business. Community involvement must not be seen as a new obligation, but rather as a medium term investment and opportunity that will, in due course, create greater value for company shareholders. During a recent CMEx conference in Jamaica, (Caribbean Media Exchange), the subject of sustainable tourism was addressed. Do you feel that this company notion will assist with sustaining tourism in the regions where your company is established? ES. Yes, absolutely. We have shown in the past that we are very involved with the local communities and that we protect the environment. Weve received several awards such as The Green Hotel (CHA) in addition to other recognition by several organisations such as the Smithsonian, Audubon Society etc.

Orlando Hotel CW. Do you feel that community involvement is beneficial to both parties, or more so for the company from a marketing perspective? ES. Absolutely. Sol Meli has been one of the founding members of the CHACT.