Hotels facing Threats from OTA in 2018

Nowadays, booking accommodation is easier through online booking, the platform for online booking can be classified into 2 categories which are "direct booking"  and "OTA booking".
Direct booking happens when the guest books a room directly to the hotel with a platform provided by the hotel. If the guest books a room at the hotel through the third party and using the platform of the third party then it is considered a booking from Online Travel Agent(OTA). The booking process seems similar for travellers but the presence of an agent in process of booking make an impact to the hospitality industries.

How OTA threatening the operations of Hotels.

In the past,  OTA and Hotels are able to maintain a good relationship, hotels give some rooms to OTA since they are unable to sell it while OTA earns from reselling the room at their online platform. Overall hotels able to get extra sales while OTA able to get commissions from Hotels. A win-win situation between hotels and OTA during that time. But as time gone, hotels started to see OTA as a competitor instead of a partner. Here's the Reason why.

1. Commission
Compare to the past, commision charged by OTA had increased, in order to cover for the commision, there are only 2 methods, either the hotel willing to reduce their profit and use it to cover for the commision or else increase their room price so that the profit of a room is enough to cover for the commision but since OTA are protected by the contract, hotels are unable to sell rooms with a higher price at OTA without increasing their direct booking price as well. As a result, higher room price for all the hotel who using OTA. It is possible that OTA commision will increase again if they gain more market share in future.

2. The increase of OTA Market Share 
Almost 50% of the hotels guest are from the generations Y and Z but 52% of them prefer to book through OTA instead of direct booking. With the increased usage of digital media for booking, it is expected for OTA to get a bigger portion of market share since they are able to provide a convenient platform for hotel guest to book room.

3. Branding
As a third party booking platform, OTA does increase the exposure rate of a hotel to the public but the presence of hotel brand is getting lower compared to the OTA. Since OTA promoting their own brand instead of the hotel they are selling, people no longer have loyalty toward the hotel but loyal toward the OTA. You might saw a phenomenal where guest complain to OTA instead of the Hotel when they have a bad experience at the hotel they stayed in. The sign simply shows that your guest trusted the OTA more than your hotel.

Unfortunately, with the dominating of market share, many hotels depend on OTA to bring them sales, hotels no longer able to terminate the relationship with OTA and if hotels do not develop a strategy to gain direct booking soon, most probably they will be forced to accept unequal term from OTA in future.

Visit our FB @Ipaotravel to find out how IPAO Travellers Club can help Malaysia hotel to gain more direct booking.

Mcd:Return of D24 Durian McFlurry

The hot selling D24 Durian Ice cream from last year is coming back.

Last year August, McDonald lunched their D24 Durian Mcflurry at Malaysia, the durian flavour Ice cream receive great support from all the durian lover in Malaysia.Just a week after the item launched, Mcd announce that their Durian Mcflurry had sold out and no longer available.

 Source of Image

Despite there are still many who request for it but Mcd are unable to supply any extra stock for their outlet.However Mcd promise to bring back the hot selling item in 2018.

"The product is made from real D24 Durian Fruits and won't be able to get any extra stocks,we promise to bring it back in 2018" said McDonald 

Now,after months of waiting Mcd had finally announced the return of the Durian Ice cream yesterday at their FB Page,although we are not sure the Ice cream will be back in what form but you can find it out soon,available on 14th June onward,don't miss it this time or else you will have to wait for another year to try it. Do share with me your thought after tasting it.

Beginner Guide for attending Raya Open House

(Image Source:Cahaya Kristal)

Malaysia are blessed with multiracial culture yet we celebrate festival of other races together.

1 more week before HARI RAYA, it is not something rare for our Muslim buddy to invite people from different races and culture to their open house and celebrate together with them.

Basically, being invited to an open house means you come to the location the give, eat the food they prepare and chitchat with them.

For someone who going to Hari Raya open house for the 1st time, here are some tips for you.

1.Dress Code:Decent attire

To attend an Open House, you don't have to wear like going for a presentation with a full formal,casual or semi-formal attire are okay. 

a casual attire like long pants,T-shirt and a sport shoes to visit a friend open house is acceptable, of cause you can always be a bit formal with a collar shirt and slack.  The best choice of Dress Code are definitely their traditional dress,especially if you are not a Malay, wearing Baju Melayu or Baju kurung to their open house will give a very good impression to them. By the way since it is Raya, so try avoiding colour like black and pick colourful and don't wear too provocative.

Image Source:(pinkbubblegumprincess)







2.Packet Raya for Duit Raya (Optional)

Whether you are Muslim or non Muslim,you can give duit raya to the kids.If you feel bad for getting free food, you can actually give duit raya to their kids. Of cuz this is optional, is not compulsory for you to give duit raya, skip this if you are having a tight budget.

3.Gift

Malaysian have a habit to bring gift when visiting other people house. You are not necessary to bring something to the host when attending open house, if you feel bad to come with empty hand, it is a better choice to give duit raya instead. However if you still insist to bring something for the host, here are some of the common item people give.

Raya Cookies, you can get from shopping mall. 

kuih kuih Melayu, not recommended because food already provided and it cant keep long.

Hamper & Fruit(Something expensive and unique can leave an impression to the host)

Just beware not to give anything non halal and haram, you will leave an impression in a bad way.

Listed above are the preparation before you go to open house, next are the things you should aware when you arrive at the open house.

1.Greet the Host.

1st thing to do when you arrive to the destination is to greet the host, it is a manner to greet and inform them that you had arrived.Do rmb to remove your shoes when you going in door. Most of the Malaysian do not enter the house with shoes on.

2.Expect to Eat (a lot)

 Now we proceed to the best part, eat all you can. Normally open house serve food during lunch, some might skip breakfast in order to eat more during lunch but skipping breakfast is not a good idea, so the idea way is to have some light dessert during breakfast and digested before lunch to let you eat with an empty stomach.if you wanna try using bare hand to eat like Muslim, remember to use your right hand instead of left hand to handle food.

3.Socialise with other

Nowadays, the common situation after having a nice lunch are most probably a bunch of people sitting in a group, playing with hand phone and socialise online.Make sure you don't do this during open house, people invited you to eat and at the same time, wanted to have a nice chitchat with you,so just keep your phone nicely for a few hours and socialise face to face with people.

4.Tapao(take away)

If you happen to stay till the last of the event,depend on the host, you might actually encounter situation where the host offer you to take back some food.Don't be shy and don't waste the food, you can Tapao the extra food and your action is helping the host from wasting. You might want to bring your own Tupperware if you expected yourself to stay till the last moment. 

Malaysian,What you should know regarding 0%GST

Did you ever visited Tax Free or Duty Free Shop? If yes, what are the reasons you do so? For me, i went to Duty Free Shop because of one reason:Tax Free.I believe no one enjoy paying tax when there is an opportunity to skip tax in a legal way.

Here's the Good News for Travellers who visiting Malaysia now. Malaysia had abolished GST system since 1st of June while the new tax system SST will only begin at the coming September,therefore most of the products and services in Malaysia currently in a tax free situation for 3 months. The best part is, Government actually preventing all the business who included GST in their products and services price to remain same price even after GST abolished. If you happen to found out some business didn't reduce their price after they stop collecting GST,you can report to the authority, provide something to prove that they didn't reduce their price so authority can take action immediately.

On the left show price drop from our hotel before and after GST removed.

Bear in mind that although in the coming 3 months we have no GST but other tax like tourism tax and heritage tax still applicable,to enjoy the most out of it here are what you can do.

If you are planning to travel around Malaysia after SST launch (probably on 1st of Sept), it will be a good idea to book hotel and pay within this period to enjoy booking rate without GST.

Book our hotel with IPAO to enjoy another 10% of discount beside of the 6% off from GST and if you happen to be booking within our promotion period, you might be able to get a discount up to 50% off.

Place to Visit in Perak:Memory Lane

Memory Lane IPOH (Sunday Market)

  










A free public Museum and place to hunt for retro item.
Memory Lane is a second hand street market located at Ipoh, the street was well known as a place to buy or find some retro item. If you are interest in retro item/antique , this is a good place to get some surprise. It is possible to get some valuable & historical item from the market with a cheap price as souvenir. Meanwhile Memory Lane also attracted large group of people who wanted to buy some usable 2nd item with low cost.

Admission:Sunday only (7am till 3pm)
Location: Alan Horley, Kampung Jawa, 30300 Ipoh, Negeri Perak.

👍Can get 2nd hand usable item with a really cheap price.
👍Different kind of retro item can be found,even antique from 80s
👎Only selling 2nd item
👎Not guarantee usable for item you purchase

Tips: Item sell at here does not have a fix price, you would need to bargain to get a better price.

News on Memory Lane

Place to Visit in Perak:Funtasy House Trick Art

Funtasy House Trick Art













Photo:(FuntasyHouse.com)


An art museum to let you take some unordinary picture, inside the shop there are 3D drawing and decoration, and indicator to direct visitor to take picture with special effect

👍a lot of props and background to let you take photo with optical illusion.
👎only have photoshoot activity.
* Since this outlet is located at concubine lane, travellers might drop by when visiting concubine lane.

Fees:Local RM 15  Foreigner RM19 Students RM10
Admission: Weekdays 9am to 6pm , Weekends 9am to 8pm
Location:16, Jalan Market, 30000 Ipoh, Perak

Travellers in group can contact Funtasyhouse to get group price instead.

Place to visit at Perak:Gua Tempurung

Gua Tempurung

(Visit Perak,KV Media)

Gua Tempurung is a lime stone cave located at Perak, it is the largest/longest lime stone cave located in Peninsular Malaysia. As It is now an attraction at Perak for travellers who prefer a trip to advent and explore the beauty of natural. Part of the cave had lights and walkways constructed to reduce the difficulty for visitor who prefer to explore the cave with an easier method.

👍Adventure Activities/Exploring the beauty of the nature

👍Different level of tour for beginner to expert.

👎Tour in group, might need to join with other people if less than minimum requirement. 

👎Not really a photogenic location.

👎Not much attraction for Travellers who dislike adventure activities

Location: Gua Tempurung, Pusat Pelancongan Gua Tempurung, 31600 Gopeng, Negeri Perak

Fees: Entrance Fees charge base on tour package

4 type of tour available.

Dry Tour (Easy)
Fees: Local RM8   Foreigner RM20
Admission: 9 am to 4 pm
Time Needed: 1 hour
Basically you will enter the caves in a group, individual travellers will have to join other group. You will follow the walkways until a certain area then turn back to return.

Dry Tour (Medium)
Fees: Local RM12  Foreigner RM30
Admission: 9am to 3pm
Time Needed: 2 hours
Same with the other dry tour but you will able to explore deeper/higher into the caves, since distance is longer, might need some stamina for you to climb all the staircase.

Wet Tour(Hard)
Fees:Local RM15   Foreigner RM40
Admission: 9am to 12pm
Time Needed: 3hours+
Minimum participants per trip:8 person
Wet tour travel further into the cave, according to the official site,you need to walk around 12km for the trip and  go through a river during the trip.You will be guided by ranger through out the trip.
Things to prepare:
Touch Light(waterproof,prefer headlight so you can use both hand)
Sport Attire(attire might damage during the trip) &Sport Shoes(prefer waterproof/rubber)
A bottle of water(500ml is enough)
a set of clothes(for you to change after the trip) 

Wet Tour(Insane)
Fees:Local RM30   Foreigner RM50
Admission: 9am to 11am
Time Needed:4 hour+
Minimum participants per trip:8 person
A full trip travel 19km toward the cave which require you to crawl through mud ,water and climb wall.
consume lot of stamina.
Things to prepare:
Compulsory Headlight(you have no extra hand to hold a torchlight)
Disposable sport attire(be prepare that the attire you wearing might get torn)
Avoid bringing non waterproof electronic device(at least put in a waterproof bag or container).
some plaster (useful in many situation)
A set of changing clothes
bottle of water.

You can keep your things at vehicle but if you want a locker, they provide locker service for RM5 (not reusesable)

Place to Visit at Perak: Kellie Castle

1.Kellie Castle
(Nsaadah ,Wikipedia)

Kellie Castle is a castle built by a Scottish rubber plantation owner William Kellie Smith on 1915 to celebrate the birth of his Son.The construction of the castle stopped at 1926 because Kellie Smith passed away due to pneumonia. The building became a tourist attraction due to it historical value.

👍Good place to get some nice picture (Good place for photo shoot)

👍historical architectural

👎Poor facilities &management （surrounding not tidy, washroom not clean)

Rumor: Some said the castle is haunted by one of Kellie Smith daughter.

Location: Kellie's Castle, 31000 Batu Gajah, Perak
Fees: Local adult RM5    Foreigner RM10
Opening: 9am to 5.30pm

Expected time needed: 1 hour

Book Directly to Hotel or OTA?

How do you book your accommodation for your trip?

Nowadays most travellers prefer online booking because of a reason:convenient, you can either go to the hotel website and book directly with hotel or went to some online travel website like Expedia ,Booking.com (we call them OTA:online travel agency).Do you ever wondering which method will let you get the best offer for your trip?

Let us help you to choose the one most suitable for you.

Direct Booking
Booking Directly to Hotel only possible when you already know which hotel you want to stay.
After decided which hotel you want, search for their website or app to make booking.
Many traveller does not notice the advantage of direct booking because most of the benefit require you to be a member of the hotel loyalty program.Do not hesitate to sign up especially if it is free to enjoy the greatest benefit they offer.

1. Existence of Loyalty Program
   To encourage return guest, more and more hotel started membership program.Direct booking means hotel doesn't have to pay commission to OTA. By rewarding their guest using money they saved guest can gain more benefit while hotel loss nothing,a win-win situation. 
2. Special Privilege
   While OTA offer discount and promotion, they cannot offer privilege for their user without the hotel consent since they don't own any of the hotel.Being a member let you enjoy privilege like free upgrade room,free late C/out, free room service, is depend on what the hotel offer for their members.
3. Member Discount & Reward
   Theoretically hotel can offer you a lower price for room since they don't have to pay commission to third party. Especially when you book a large quantity of room,you can actually contact directly to hotel to get a quotation price with more discount.
4.  Know who to findBooking through OTA can be complicated when sudden issue happen,you might wonder who is the right person for you issue,the hotel?or the OTA? It's frustrating especially when it involve both party and both pushing responsibility to other.

Online Travel Agency
They don't really own any hotel,so basically they just help their client(hotel owner) to sell rooms and take part of the payment you made as commission.
Below are some of the advantages of OTA:

1. Variety of ChoiceYou just have to search a location at their website and they will provide a list of hotel for you to choose.
2. Convenient for survey
   Since OTA provide a list of hotel for you to choose, you can compare price and review between a few hotel that suit you.Especially when you didn't travel to that place before and need some information to help you decide your hotel.
3. Offer and Promotion
   OTA something offer some voucher or discount for any booking you make, if you notice only a certain hotel have discount,most probably the discount is offer by hotel to boost sales.
4. Reward
   Most of the OTA in the market right now offer reward for their user.The reward can be come in many form like rebate, points or discount.

Both ways of booking had their own merit and demerit.If you are a going to a new place for the 1st time, it is better to survey through OTA and choose the hotel suitable for you.However if you are a frequent traveller to a certain places, it will be wise to sign up as member for you regular visit hotel, hotel will not mind to be generous in exchange for a regular guest.

What is IPAO Travellers Club

 IPAO Management Sdn Bhd is launching a Loyalty Program known as IPAO Travellers Club for all the hotel we are managing in Malaysia.The hotels participating in this Program included Golden Roof Hotel Ipoh,Sunway,Kangsar,Seri Iskandar,Taiping,SSL Traders Hotel and Leisure Cove Hotel.

Just like other loyalty Program, IPAO Travellers Club reward all our members with exclusive instant discount&promotion, 4% rebate of what you spend,members privilege and other benefits.Besides, we created an app for our members,allowing our members to book room at any one of our hotel through online, you no longer have to carry an extra card every time you travel.All you have to do is just sign up though our IPAO App.Totally Free registration. Why paid more to book with other when you can save more if booking with us.

Currently, there are 7 hotels located around Malaysia which is Kangsar, Seri Iskandar, Sunway Ipoh,Ampang Ipoh, Taiping, Kamunting and Pulau Penang  participating in our program.Being a member of IPAO enable you to enjoy the same benefits when you book at anyone of this hotel.As a new launch Loyalty Program, we are seeking opportunity to expand and provide more variety for our member,hence do not be surprise when you realize there are more and more hotel joining the program.

If you have any inquiry or interested to be part of the program , don't be shy to leave message or contact us :605-311 9363 Email:customerservice@ipao.com.my

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