In this revealing interview with Hotel Equatorial Group EyeforTravel’s Ritesh Gupta discovers that there is far more to making the most of mobile than deals and offers. It also makes him wonder if the mobile web should in fact be the poor, summarised cousin of the main website.

Hotel companies are meticulously approaching mobile-specific distribution offerings. One of their major considerations is how rates are presented and what fences are in place to protect rate integrity. Here Ricky Ang, Vice-President - Sales and Marketing, Hotel Equatorial Group.com warns that being too focused on mobile could backfire.

EFT: A number of players are launching mobile-only deals. What impact does this have on distribution?

RA: It is apparent that mobile capability has and will further increase web usage and provide on-the-minute accessibility to users. For the travel business, this will invariably provide the industry with opportunities to create deals that are particularly time sensitive. In other words time-limited short booking window deals, last-minute deals and so on that would not have otherwise been too practical. 
The impact of this will be an immediate - and very likely, short term - overemphasis on doing deals on mobile only. The realisation will eventually set in that there is no need for mobile only exclusive deals and that there is more to mobile than just offers and deals.

EFT: What factors would you consider while working out a mobile deal?

RA: At this moment it is rather inconceivable that I would create a mobile-only deal. In fact is against my principle to short change our entire consumer audience by running exclusive promotions via mobile only. Not too long ago, some were talking about running offers exclusively on certain social media sites. Same fallacy. Of course, I may create a deal capitalising on mobile usage and accessibility in the practical sense, but the deal should not be exclusively available to mobile sites. My prime consideration must always be to maintain consumer confidence in having consistent offers across all channels and point-of-sale (POS) devices. This will ensure that brand confidence is maintained and the desired call-to-purchase response from consumers will not be hampered by hesitant doubts about whether the deal is the best one available.

EFT: Have you personally tested any mobile deals?

RA: No, I can’t say that I have actually tested any. My concern, as a consumer is simply that I must be assured that I have access to the same best deal regardless of the distribution or point-of-sale I choose. Ditto for the device that I choose to use to access the site. This is why retail sites insist on parity of offers in the first place.

EFT: What do you make of no-bid services that have been heavily discounted especially for mobile?

 
RA: Talking about things such as ‘exclusively’ and ‘openly available’ on mobile, my sentiments are the same then; that such discounts should be available throughout the entire gamut of distribution channels (and devices) and not limited to mobile only.

EFT: Since mobile is being used very much in the last minute what about tonight-only mobile deals?

RA: I think there is a place for every conceivable deal - including tonight-only [mobile] deals, however such deals must seriously not result in making a mockery of purchases made by earlier bookers. The last thing the industry wants to do is to imply to consumers that if they wait till the very last minute, they may get a better deal. If hotels were to practice the principle of fair play, such [last minute] deals should then be applied retroactively to the earlier bookers too.

 
In practical terms then, I would envisage that such deals [tonight-only] should rightfully be more leaning towards value-added services as opposed to price-reduction tactics.

 
In summary, my take is that mobile offers expanded facility for deals that would not be as effective on ‘stationary’ devices but suppliers (particularly hotels) should be wary about falling into the trap of giving a deal for the sake of "giving a deal" [on mobile] just because there is a boom in mobile utilisation.

EFT: Various travel companies including OTAs and mobile specialist agencies are being offered deals via apps. Are you likely to follow in the future?

 RA: Apps, in my book, are a subset of the online universe currently heavily, but not necessary exclusively, employed by mobile devices. Like all subsets of the online universe (main websites, social media platforms, micro blogs, mobile sites and so on) there are opportunities to explore.

 
A straightforward example would be a members-only offer or deal powered through a dedicated App. Obviously on an on-going basis, our organisation do keep a keen eye on possibilities presented by Apps although from a practical perspective, we can be considered as very late adopters. This is simply because, the current ROI for developing deals on the superset of the online universe still out-gallops those on a sub-set like app by a decent gap (for the moment at least!)

EFT: How do you expect mobile deals offerings to shape up going forward?

RA: I actually foresee a rationalisation and a consolidation of deals, made consistent across the channels and devices. Deal fatigue will set in for both consumers and suppliers alike if the industry is not careful
Mobile is a potent and fantastic tool but it is not all about offering deals and promotions. There is a myriad of possibilities for mobile and ironically I foresee mobile sites getting bigger and more informative as opposed to the current trend of it being a summarised cousin of the main site.

It is not all about deals and more deals, though.