With the continuous emergence of new technologies and applications such as mobile internet and cloud computing, people's lives are undergoing tremendous changes. Whether for vacation travel or business trips, more and more consumers hope to enjoy personalized high-tech services in hotels. At the end of 2013, the National Tourism Administration issued a notice, making "Beautiful China Journey—2014 Smart Tourism Year" the tourism promotional theme for 2014, aiming to guide the construction of smart tourism cities, scenic spots, and other tourism destinations, and to promote the transformation of the tourism industry into a modern service industry driven by informatization. To this end, the hotel industry urgently needs smart solutions that meet the new demands of the digital age, enhancing their appeal to consumers through innovative management.
As the second-largest hotel group in China and among the top 100 global hotel groups, Kaiyuan Hotel Group has actively explored the application of smart hotel products in recent years, accumulating rich development and operational experience. To date, Kaiyuan Hotel Group has built a four-in-one direct booking network comprising its official website, mobile app, call center, and regional sales, and has developed a WeChat public account service platform to provide customers with comprehensive online booking services. In June 2013, Kaiyuan Hotel Group began fully implementing the "iKaiyuan Love Kaiyuan" WiFi strategy, integrating the membership database to ensure customers always enjoy free, high-quality wireless internet and seamless switching between hotels. Additionally, Kaiyuan Hotel Group has deeply integrated environmentally friendly technologies, such as using paperless electronic signatures at the front desk, electronic fax for customer communications, and electronic duty systems, improving work efficiency, reducing material costs, and greatly enhancing customer confidence.
Recently, all hotels under Kaiyuan Hotel Group have achieved comprehensive system-to-system direct connectivity with Ctrip, China's largest online travel distributor. This technical integration was independently developed by Kaiyuan Hotel Group. It is reported that as early as the end of 2012, Kaiyuan Hotel Group had independently developed and completed system-to-system direct connectivity with eLong. The full direct connection with Ctrip marks the maturity of Kaiyuan Hotel Group's informatization and smart construction.
Fu Quanyong, General Manager of Information Technology at Kaiyuan Hotel Group, stated that achieving technical integration with online travel distributors is a win-win cooperation model. First, online travel distributors present accurate hotel information to customers, truly reflecting real-time room rates and inventory. Second, orders generated by online travel distributors are instantly transmitted to Kaiyuan Hotel Group's central reservation system, enhancing the customer booking experience. Third, this helps increase actual bookings. Finally, the direct connection technology significantly improves operational efficiency for both parties, reduces labor costs, and saves approximately 18,000 working hours annually for Kaiyuan based on the current order volume from Ctrip.
Kaiyuan Hotel Group is the first in China to independently develop and achieve technical direct connectivity with online travel distributors Ctrip and eLong. This direct connection technology is based on commercial cooperation between the two parties and robust system support, serving as an open software interface on the internet that connects hotel management systems and travel distributor reservation systems, enabling data exchange and automating booking distribution for both sides. After the system direct connection, the two parties achieved seamless two-way integration of room rates, inventory, and orders, completely abandoning traditional E-BOOKING, fax, phone, and email-based manual interactions, greatly improving work efficiency.
It is understood that the system direct connection with Ctrip, from commercial negotiations, project initiation, solution design, system development, testing, launch preparation to the final full launch across all hotels, took only two months—an astonishingly high level of efficiency. After the direct connection, hotel revenue managers no longer need to update hotel information daily for each booking channel. Instead, they only need to complete product settings on the hotel's central reservation platform, which can then be dynamically and in real time published to the direct connection channels, significantly reducing manual operations. Through automated processes, data accuracy and consistency are improved, effectively increasing hotel sales opportunities and playing a positive role in unifying Kaiyuan Hotel Group's overall sales strategy. The official also introduced that Kaiyuan Hotel Group's direct connection project with online travel distributors was launched in October 2012. To date, it has achieved technical direct connections with major domestic and international distributors such as eLong, Ctrip, Taobao, Tongcheng, and EXPEDIA, placing it in a leading position in the industry.
Over the next three years, Kaiyuan Hotel Group will continue to leverage information technology to drive business development, create a smart demonstration in the hotel industry, and achieve precise data marketing, intelligent hotel products, and end-to-end hotel services. This will provide a "smart engine" for the development of Kaiyuan Hotel Group and support the construction of smart cities.