Interview with an OTA expert: Alberto Plasencia-Gonzalez
Which type of clients does your business unit mainly work with and what services do you offer them?
At Tripadvisor I was working with hotel chain clients such as B&B Hotels and Lucien Barriere in France and Ibersol and H10 Hoteles in Spain. My team offered these clients a full B2B marketing and distribution service ranging from grabbing consumers’ attention at the beginning of the purchase funnel via brand advertising, all the way down to the stage where the consumer is ready to book by clicking off the hotel partner’s booking platform. It was consultative selling – lining up our product offerings and business models against the clients needs. Hotels are very cost of sale focussed. Aside from managing their advertising spend, my clients relied on me to help them navigate through the various departments of Tripadvisor – reputation management, legal, finance etc.
Covid-19 must have slowed things down at the beginning of the year, when and where do you see consumer demand coming back to the market?
As our clients began to put their staff into furlough and as for extended payment terms for all outstanding invoices it became very clear that a big down turn was coming our way. We are now going into autumn but Europe seems to be nearing a second bump of Covid-19. Clearly there is a lot of pent up demand for people who want a break from their daily and weekly existences, but the uncertainty of travel corridors remaining open and the fear of having to change plans mid-holiday in order to avoid self-isolation quarantines is preventing many people from transacting.
How can clients promote their Covid-19 policies on your platform?
I am seeing that most OTA platforms are allowing hotels, experiences and even flights to self-manage their Covid-19 policies for publication on the relevant parts of their websites. At Tripadvisor and other platforms with reviews, it is also possible to read feedback from recent visitors who have stayed at the hotel during the pandemic.
What do clients need from sales representative to feel like the partnership is successful?
Apart from a visible return on advertising spend, it’s all about improving the relationship with the client and garnering trust and respect. Granted it is amazing to see an account that started with a $20K annual spend grow to $100K year-over-year but it is equally important that the client is happy with your work, and that they trust you. Transparency and trust are very important in order to have a materially successful partnership.
Do you see clients favouring products with certain business models and why do you think that this is?
In the online space, hotels are very focussed on their cost of sale. Commission based products, and to an extent subscription based products work well. Resort hotels that are competing on brand will also have separate budgets to try to win an audience’s attention. The traditional business model for display advertising is CPM (cost per thousand impressions) but everything is changing so quickly in that space with video and dynamic pricing opening up ‘length of view’ and transactional / conversion business models.
Do you have ideas as to how travellers’ booking habits might change after Covid-19?
It seems very clear to me that last minute holidays will be all the rage, with people keeping a close eye on governmental advice. Travelers will want to have very flexible cancellation policies and maybe only want to pay for products upon completion rather than in advance. I can see an opportunity for ‘escrow account’ middlemen who hold money on the behalf of the hotel, flight and only release it on completion.
How do you think your clients will have to adjust their online marketing strategy to meet these changes?
Hotels need to think of ways to make themselves more appealing to the domestic market, how to react quickly to travel corridors when they open, and to be creative as to ways that they can repurpose some of their facilities and then broadcast that to relevant audiences. As previously mentioned, I think there will have to be a strong focus on marketing safety and well-being with minimal disruption to normal services.
Do you see that travellers are influenced by anything other than the lowest price when they book a hotel?
I think consumers are very price sensitive because meta-search platforms demonstrate to them that the same product can have many different prices, even seemingly on the same date. Compelling imagery, flexible payment plans and cancellation policies all come into the mix, and I guess in the Covid-19 world, guests also want to be convinced that the hotel can keep them safe and healthy whilst still offering enough of a normal service to warrant their visit. It’s not much fun to go to a hotel if the buffet breakfast and the swimming pool aren’t’ available.
Do you think it is important for hotel clients to be able to promote their green credentials online?
It is clear to me that sustainability is becoming a real buzzword for hotels and that they are increasingly keen to promote that they do things like source food from local suppliers for their restaurants, consider the environmental impact of their laundry services, minimising waste where possible, that kind of thing. We only have one planet and hoteliers seem to recognise this as much as any other industry.
What type of personalities and skill sets have successful careers with online travel agencies (OTAs)?
OTAs are often a fusion of employees from a vast range of cultures and languages, so they are noisy and vibrant, and really do have a distinct corporate identity. There are so many different ways to do the same thing. I think that if you take the time to look at the jobs page of a newish tech company you can get a flavour of what younger workers are looking for in the office. Flexibility to work remotely, having a bit more of a blurred line between home and the workplace – for example bringing a pet to work, self-improving and team-bonding activities that don’t centre around alcohol… It’s quite different to how it was when I first started out! So called ‘older’ colleagues might be looking for a setup which has a different kind of flexibility, one that helps them to prioritise and participate in family life without impacting negatively on how they are perceived by their colleagues and managers in their professional capacity. Nobody likes to feel guilty if they have to leave early to collect a child from nursery…
In travel, do you think it is possible to start from the bottom and to work your way to the top?
Most certainly yes – I came to the UK with a level of English that wasn’t going to take me very far professionally. I took a menial job in hospitality to improve my language skills and some year later was managing key accounts for large OTAs. There is definitely forward mobility in travel.
What advice would you give to candidates starting their careers at an OTA?
For me, the main thing in sales roles is trust. I believe that the only way to keep growing your sales over time is to build a relationship with your client. Of course you can make a very quick sale, but in the end, if that’s not what the client needed, you’ll get bad feedback. So, if it’s not the right product for your client, don’t tell them that it is. I believe in a long relationship with my clients, you need to understand what their KPIs are, what is keeping them awake at night, and then tailor your product offering to service their needs. I would say to a candidate at the beginning of their career, take the time to listen to your client’s needs and let the adrenaline or the pressure to close a deal cloud your judgment.
Can you see a time in the near future where the travel, hospitality and leisure industry are on the rise and that travel companies are hiring again?
Covid-19 is a nasty bump on the road but travel and leisure is what people like to do in their downtime, whether locally or abroad. I think that there will be an eventual surge after the inevitable layoffs and closures. I am interested to see what new technology emerges over the next few years and also which mergers and acquisitions take place.
How did you book your last holiday and where did you go?
I feel as though I have cancelled more than I have booked in recent times. The last one was to America, and I found the flights on Skyscanner and didn’t need a hotel – my partner’s mother lives in Florida!
Get to know the OTA expert better: Alberto Plasencia-Gonzalez
I met Alberto when we were both starting off at Tripadvisor. I visited the Oxford office and Alberto was kind enough to show me around, I remember bonding over tennis – I seem to recall a David Ferrer poster on his cubicle. Shortly afterwards Alberto made the move down to London and we enjoyed a few years working together in a hugely successful regional sales team under Doros Theodorou. Many of us look back on this time as our glory days in travel tech. May they come back soon!
Do you cremember your first job in the travel industry?
Not many people know this about me but I started my career in financial sales, back in 2000. I was in charge of about 10 key accounts in one of the biggest banks in Spain. My clients were both B2C and B2B, that was my first experience dealing with medium-sized businesses.
The job eventually took me to Paris where I began to look after private European clients who were moving their savings around various off-shore locations.
After ten years of working in banking, in 2010 I decided to start from scratch in a completely new industry. So I moved to Oxford, UK. My English wasn’t initially up to scratch so I had to work as a kitchen porter to improve my language skills. I guess that was my first job in travel, leisure and hospitality.
In 2011, I successfully applied for a role at Tripadvisor, selling an annual subscription product to Spanish and French hotel chains, the likes of Iberostar and Club Med. I did that job for about another five years. Around 2015, I started selling to enterprise accounts with bigger budgets and more products. My role exclusively client facing, and at one stage involved lots of travel.
Do you collect airpoints or participate in any other travel loyalty programs?
Yes, I collect plenty… Eurostar, Iberia, British Airways, Accor, the list goes on…. I’m based in London but regularly travel back and forth to Spain and France.
Economy or business class?
I try to use the loyalty programs to upgrade my seats when I can. Eurostar has good deals if you book well in advance.
Hotel or self-catering?
Hotel all the way, I do enough self-catering at home!
Package holiday or independent traveller?
Always independent, I have never been on a package holiday.
A memorable meal from your travels?
We were in Singapore last year and I was so impressed by the diversity of the food. I think I’d have to go for a curry at the Tiffin Room at the Raffles Hotel. The restaurant has a turn of the century ambience with refurbished wooden floors (from the early 1900s) and the food is served in tiffin carriers – a type of metal lunch box that I believe were originally used to deliver hot meals to workers.
An experience or attraction that you’d highly recommend?
I think I’d have to go Stateside and recommend the Cape Canaveral Early Space Tour at the Kennedy Space Centre, Florida.
Do you travel more than other members of your family?
Yes, I normally find myself travelling at least once a month so see various family members. I go to them more than they come to me!
Your best recent holiday?
Puff… no recent trips unfortunately outside of the regular visits to Spain and France.
And the worst?
There hasn’t really been a worst trip, I have been very lucky in that respect. I guess a few work trips that haven’t generated the desired outcome have retrospectively felt like a waste of time.
Do you think about your carbon footprint when you are travelling?
No really; is that bad? I make sure I do plenty of recycling to make up for it.
Did you have to cancel any trips this year due to Covid-19?
Yes, we had to cancel a couple including a trip to Florida. It’s hard to feel sorry for ourselves given that everybody is in the same boat, and given the wider disruption that Covid-19 is causing the wider travel industry.
Where can you recommend domestically for those preferring staycations?
I got to know the area in and around Oxford when I lived there for five years. The Oxfordshire Cotswolds are steeped in history, culture and natural beauty and there are so many picture perfect villages to visit – Shilton and Bibury spring to mind and a visit to Blenheim Palace is well worth it.
Have you ever visited anywhere that you think you would be a place to retire to?
Yes, particularly two places; Galacia in Spain and anywhere on the coast in Florida. Maybe an apartment on South Beach, Miami…
Have you ever bumped into anyone famous on holiday?
I only have to look into the mirror to see Javier Bardem 🙂 I couldn’t resist that – so many people say that I have a likeness.
What technical innovation would make travel easier?
Teletransportation would save everyone a lot of time.
When you are about to travel what can you not leave the house without?
Phone and a charger are the first things that go into my rucksack.
What is your guilty travel indulgence?
The hotel breakfast buffet doesn’t stand a chance when I’m in residence, “I try everything “. A memorable feast was at the Shangri-La, Singapore. They had to roll me out in a wheelbarrow.
What is the short and mid-term outlook for the travel industry?
Hmmmm… I hesitate to say that the short term isn’t very good but we will recover for sure, because ultimately people love to travel and to experience new things. I will say by Q2 2021 we will see travel, leisure and hospitality coming back a lot stronger.
Any advice for people just starting out in their professional travel careers?
Please always smile 🙂