As corporations today plan meetings shorter term, hoteliers are finding that booking this business is as much about being first in positioning, brand strength and response - as anything else.

For the Westin Philadelphia, an enhanced marketing program with StarCite, part of the TravelCLICK Group Media Network, is delivering group leads and bookings, according to Mary Fitts, area director of sales and marketing for Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide.

The hotel's enhanced listing gives planners all the information they need - pictures, meeting room capacities and specs, and details on catering and meeting capabilities. Once planners send the leads, they're usually ready to book. Targeted banner ads ensure that the Westin Philadelphia receives prime positioning on hotel searches of the Philadelphia area.

"Leads are very short-term and planners want immediate responses," Fitts said. "That's why I think StarCite is wonderful with the e-mail notification and online response. We're getting five to 10 - sometimes more - leads a week," said Fitts.

Above: StarCite Delivers Results to Westin Philadelphia

Quarterly eMonitor GDS booking results by hospitality market segment showed that the luxury hotel category is leading the industry in recovery, with a 5.3% improvement in room nights compared to a 2.2% decline in room nights for the first quarter. Combined with the second quarter's slight 2.5% loss in luxury ADR, this market segment had a revenue improvement of 3.1% in the second quarter.

The upscale category suffered the greatest drop in ADR with a 7.8% second quarter decline compared to the second quarter of 2001. However, all segments were able to significantly improve on their results from the first quarter of this year, when upscale, mid-scale and economy all suffered 10 to 12.5% declines in room nights.

RateVIEW is the "next-generation" rate and availability tool for accessing and viewing rates from various Internet reservation sites, CRSs and GDSs. The report will highlight and analyze both the property's rates as well as third party rates (e.g., Hotels.com, Expedia).

RateVIEW will also enable hotels to generate close-in rate comparison reports on their competitive set in a wide range of channels on demand. This will be accessible in the future via our new Electronic Marketing Centre for each of our hotel clients.

"TravelCLICK was the first to recognize and then pioneer the creation of actionable market intelligence tools for hotels back in 1995," said Ray Cohen, president and co-CEO of TravelCLICK. "Today, some seven years later, over 5,000 hotels around the world use these tools."

By using RateVIEW as a companion to PHASER, which provides a longer term and more detailed rate review capability, hoteliers will have the most comprehensive and flexible view of hotel rate information available anywhere. The product is scheduled for pre-sale at the end of 2002, and available for use in the first quarter of 2003.

In the future, RateVIEW will be accessible via www.travelclick.net