This is the best team: from Ctrip to Home Inns, Hanting I

Chapter 17
At the beginning of June, "CYTS Online" was opened overnight, and the spokesperson of CYTS Online declared to the outside world that the website will open English, traditional Chinese, Korean, and Japanese versions in the second half of the year, as well as provide services for major customers and B6B.The momentum of CYTS Online is really frightening, and the already highly competitive tourism e-commerce market has become even more smoky.

On August 8, the "Blue Dragonfly Olympic Digital Journey" kicked off in Beijing. This is a large-scale event co-sponsored by the China Internet Competition Organizing Committee and Huaxia Tourism Network Co., Ltd.Zhao Xiaofan, deputy director of the National Information Promotion Office, personally clicked the mouse, which not only opened the prelude to this event, but also revealed the scene of heroes from all walks of life on the travel website fighting each other.

In September, there will be more good shows and exciting performances.

The rising star of the tourism website-Green Channel (www.chinagc.com) has launched the "Eleventh Special Offer Shenzhou Cultural Tour", which includes a four-day double-fly tour of Putuo Mountain, Ningbo, and Fenghua Xikou, the Haitian Buddhist Kingdom, "seeing the scenic spots of the Three Gorges, and visiting Fenghua. The Three Gorges of the Yangtze River, Fengdu Ghost City, and the Little Three Gorges’ five-day solo trip on a luxury three-star cruise ship in the Ghost Town of the Capital, and the five-day solo flight tour of Jiujiang, Xunyang Tower, Lushan Mountain, Shizhong Mountain, Poyang Lake, and Jingdezhen, the capital of porcelain, in the “Traveling the Essence of Jiujiang” tour.

Relying on the advantages of being a portal website, Sohu Travel Channel followed up with the launch of the "Sohu as a Tour Guide, Happy 10-Day Tour" campaign, and announced that more than [-] routes are all golden travel routes at home and abroad, and online reservations can be realized.

Not to be outdone, eLong launched the service promise of "no price increase on the 10000th" during the "10th" period. VIP guests with more than 1 points will also implement the usual service within a week from October 10 to October 7. Membership price plan.

Bye City International Travel Network (www.byecity.com) said that we launched three series of nearly 3 outbound travel itineraries during this holiday, covering the four continents of Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. Say "goodbye" to the city you know.

Xiaoyao.com (www.xoyo.com) tells people traveling on the National Day that their "travel package" has been connected to more than 1000 hotels in hundreds of cities across the country in real time, and the booking process can be completed in half an hour, and The price can even be up to 70% cheaper.

Zhonghuaxingzhi.com (www.sotrip.com) likes to go the wrong way. During the "October" period, it launched Longmen Tour and Hancheng Tour and other tourist hotspots. At the same time, it launched a special topic of ecological and environmental protection tours.

Golden Tourism (www.toursmart.com.cn), which has just been established for two months, may not be well-known enough. They launched an online house grabbing activity to attract travel enthusiasts and netizens and increase the number of daily visits.

Odd!Online travel should be Ctrip's strong point!Why is there no "figure" of Ctrip in so many "big moves"?What happened to Ctrip?What did it do?
please watch the following part!

02 Ctrip specializes in room reservations

While various travel companies are sharpening their heads and trying to sell various travel routes, Ctrip is busy promoting their room reservation business.

Although Ctrip has also successively acquired two room reservation companies, Shangzhixing and Times Express, Times Express can also be regarded as the boss of the room reservation company.However, with the existing performance of these two companies, it is far from enough to support Ctrip, a "whale-level" enterprise.Therefore, for Ctrip, it still needs to use its brains if it wants to make a major breakthrough in the number of room reservations.

The logic of hotel reservations is this: the reservation company must bring a lot of guests to the hotel, and the hotel will give the reservation company a lower discount price; only after the reservation company has a lower discount price can it attract more guests; After getting more guests, the hotel reservation company can get more commission from the hotel.

It took Ctrip three months to sign cooperation agreements with more than 3 hotels after it switched from tourist routes to hotel reservations.However, signing an agreement does not mean that there will be actual business volume. In the past three months, Ctrip's monthly business volume has been less than 1000 room nights. That is to say, Ctrip has not brought a few guests to one of the hotels in one month.Obviously, for the hotel side, Ctrip is of little help to it, and it is impossible for them to give Ctrip a relatively low discounted price.

It should be that there is a problem with the promotion method. Ctrip placed so many advertisements during the money-burning period, which only increased the company's popularity, but did not "fudge" many room booking users to Ctrip. It seems that Ctrip must find another way.

Just when the four founders of Ctrip were thinking hard and couldn't think of any good solution, Wu Hai had a "unique hidden weapon".When Wu Hai joined Ctrip, he once said to Ji Qi: Booking a room is not like this. If you want to make a leap in quantity, you have to change all your practices now.

How did Wu Hai promote his room reservation business?

When he was still on a business trip, Wu Hai had tried various methods in order to open up the hotel reservation market, but the results were not obvious.

Once, at a regular meeting on Monday, an employee told a story about selling toothbrushes: I have a friend who represents an unknown brand of toothbrush.Because the brand is not loud, supermarkets can't enter, and small stores can't sell a few.When he had nowhere to go, he adopted the direct sales model, recruited a large number of direct sales personnel, and went door-to-door to sell.Unexpectedly, this very humble, most primitive, and most clumsy method actually earned more than 3000 million yuan within a year.

When Wu Hai heard it, hmm!Makes sense and is very inspiring.So, he went on to ask: Then how should we sell it?Tell us what you think, okay?

Some employees replied: Hotel rooms are different from toothbrushes, and there may not be any reference for them.

Wu Hai went on to say: Everyone expresses their own personal opinions first, and don't say pessimistic words, and don't deny others.We must give full play to our own ideas and imagine our bright future.

After listening to Wu Hai's encouragement, everyone became interested in it all at once. It's really the Eight Immortals crossing the sea, each showing their magical powers, with weird ideas and all kinds of creativity.

Some employees said: How about we also go to the office building to sell and give away our company's membership card to others for free.Is this method worth a try?
Some employees suggested: set up a table on the street or next to the station platform, and apply for our free membership card for potential customers. This method should be effective.

Some employees suggested: It is better to distribute our membership cards at the airport, because in this way, the target personnel will be more concentrated and the effect should be more significant.Personally, I think it won't be long before our performance is going to be scary.

Another employee said that I think it would be better to sell our membership card together with the hotel's sales staff, because by doing so, the trust of customers will be higher.

? .
03 Ctrip card is a good thing

Going to the door, going to the street or going to the airport to develop members, can these methods work?Wu Hai didn't know what to do, and he wasn't sure whether issuing cards in these places was really effective. He said: "Since everyone has proposed so many good methods, let's see, whoever puts forward the suggestions will implement them, okay? "

As a result, these employees who were willing to accept the challenge began to distribute their hairpins.

Sure enough, if you don't try, you won't know, and you will be shocked if you try.Especially the airport card, the effect is amazing.That employee issued 500 cards in the first month and 3000 cards in the second month.After these cards were sent out, many people who received the cards would call the number on the cards when they needed to book a room.

How many people have called Shangzhixing's reservation hotline?Wu Hai was stunned: It is not surprising how many cards are issued, but the conversion rate is surprising.The conversion rate of the Shangzhixing membership card can reach up to 30%, that is to say, for every 100 airport passengers who receive the card, 30 people will book a room through Shangzhixing.

The card issuance at the airport has verified that the market demand really exists.Therefore, Wu Hai decided to vigorously promote this promotion method, and he asked all card dispatchers to "work" at the airport.As a result, a few months later, the number of bookings for Shangzhixing unreasonably increased.

Afterwards, Wu Hai sighed again and again: The truth is as simple as it is, a sentence of the true scriptures, and thousands of volumes of false books.The simpler the method, the easier it is to use. The promotion is actually not that complicated. Rather than saying that I changed the industry, it is better to say that the idea of ​​that employee helped me change the industry.

After Wu Hai left Shangzhixing, he brought a complete team to Ctrip, and also copied the "unique hidden weapon" of card issuance to Ctrip.Although the conversion rate of card issuance has dropped to an average of about 10% at this time, Wu Hai believes that it has not yet reached its limit.Because before Ctrip, many reservation centers have already carried out marketing promotion through membership cards, but these membership cards are all charged.

Here are two major reservation centers to understand the features of travel cards:
1. LoHoo card (1) can provide the number of hotels: more than 100 hotels in more than [-] cities across the country.

(2) Membership procedures: Fill out the application form online at eLong to get a virtual card number. After reaching 3000 points, you can receive a real LoHoo card. If you buy it directly, you need 300 yuan.

(3) Reservation procedure: if the reservation is made on the same day, if the reserved room is full and the club cannot arrange another hotel of the same level within one hour, the club will get a free hotel for one night.

(4) Modification and reservation: If the club is not notified of the cancellation of the check-in, the points will be deducted. If there is a need to modify, it must also be notified in advance.

(5) Housing prices: 2-7% off hotel prices.

(6) Payment: Some hotels entrust the company to collect the room payment in advance, and others can pay in cash at the front desk.

(7) Advantages and disadvantages: There are often lucky draws to give feedback to consumers, but the cost of purchasing cards is relatively high.

2.金色世纪卡（1）可提供酒店数：全国1000多家酒店，全世界100多个国家和地区700多家酒店。

(2) Membership procedures: Order on the company website. If you have an Agricultural Bank of China Kins Card, you can go to the Agricultural Bank of China business outlets to fill in the application form. The membership card is priced at 398 yuan and is valid for 3 years.

(3) Reservation procedure: Phone reservation one day in advance.

(4) Modification and reservation: notify the company several hours in advance, if there is no check-in for 3 times, the membership will be cancelled, and the membership card will be invalidated.

(5) Housing prices: domestic hotel occupancy prices are 3-7% off the room rates. If the membership price is higher than the retail price or exceeds the range of 7% discount, the company will give double the difference compensation.

(6) Payment: Payment must be made at the front desk of the hotel.

(7) Advantages and disadvantages: When booking a room, the member's mobile phone number or the complete landline number can be used instead of the membership card number.But it is troublesome to purchase a card, and the activation of the card number is slow. (Note: Excerpted from Issue 2001 of "Golden Card Project" in [-]) Not to mention the two hotel reservation centers mentioned above, almost all reservation centers at that time, including Shangzhixing, implemented fee-based membership cards.Because the scale of most reservation centers is not large, the annual turnover is not much.Selling membership cards can not only obtain real income, but also bind users.

However, the paid membership card has a fatal weakness, that is, everyone likes free things, and few people are willing to spend hundreds of dollars to buy a small card.The fee-based membership card allows the reservation center to earn a few small dollars, but it limits the speed and breadth of its promotion.

Therefore, Wu Hai decided to "upgrade" this card distribution method, and he wanted to use this promotion method to the limit.

So how did he do it?

04 Pika people have gone crazy

Wu Hai decided to change the fee-paying membership card to free; to offer high-performance wages to the card issuers. The salary structure is low basic salary + high commission. The specific salary system is as follows:
Basic salary: 800 yuan/month.

Commission: 3% of the consumption amount of customers receiving cards. (Later it was changed to valid within 3 months) Bonus: Every time a valid new customer is caught, a one-time reward of 100 yuan will be given.

Requirements: Go back to the company every month to get a certain number of membership cards (these cards have a specified number segment), and work 7 hours a day.

Then, Wu Hai distributed this salary system to all card sellers at a Ctrip card promotion and mobilization meeting, and announced that the new salary system will be implemented on the same day.

At the beginning, some card issuers new to the company hadn’t tasted the sweetness yet, and they all thought that the effect of card issuance should not be very good, otherwise, how could they give a reward of 100 yuan to a valid new customer.However, some old employees are a little skeptical. If they follow this salary incentive and rely on their own ability, they will definitely get a high salary. In the end, they will get more money than the manager.

Sure enough, after two or three months, these card issuers discovered that they could get three to four thousand yuan a month, and the monthly salary of their outstanding colleagues was as high as tens of thousands of yuan.

After getting a thick stack of RMB, all the doubts of the card issuers disappeared, and they began to work overtime day and night. After work in the office building, they appeared on the streets of Wangfujing, Beijing; Looking for clients on the Bund.Even though they were chased away by security guards in the office building and bombarded by the police at the airport, they did not retreat at all, and rushed forward as always.

People understand the overtime work of card issuers.But for Wu Hai's actions, some people thought he was crazy at the time. Is it necessary to offer such a high salary to a small card issuer?
Wu Hai's reason is this: as an Internet company, with the support of venture capital, Ctrip has the ability to distribute Ctrip cards on a large scale.In this way, it can quickly occupy the market, gather more users, obtain higher booking volume and more commissions.It was like fishing. At that time, the market was full of fish, and they were all in the offshore, and no one was fishing. At this time, we should hurry up and accumulate customers. After the competition became fierce, we had to spend more money to fish in the deep sea.

Is the market really like what Wu Hai said?Soon, as expected, blue cards were delivered to passengers by more than 1000 card issuers of Ctrip at train stations, coach stations, airports, and border crossings in hundreds of cities across the country. Growing at a geometric rate, it took only two or three months for Ctrip to book 2 room nights.By the end of 2001, within 18 months, Ctrip's bookings had grown from a few hundred room nights per month to 10 room nights.

Ctrip card not only brought amazing performance to Ctrip, but also recognized by consumers.At that time, there were some stories about Ctrip cards:
In mid-May 2000, a tour guide in Beijing picked up a group traveling from Guangdong to Beijing.

Not long after getting off the plane, a Maoming radio reporter in the team received a call and wanted to go to Yanji immediately for an interview.The reporter asked the lady tour guide to help him find a travel agency to book a ticket.However, at this time, the travel agency was off work.In desperation, the tour guide dialed the customer service number of Ctrip.com.Unexpectedly, within 5 minutes, I called back to inform that there was the earliest air ticket for the next day. When the tour guide told the customer service staff of Ctrip the phone number and name of the reporter and the hotel where I was going to stay, the customer service staff of Ctrip said that the air ticket would be issued before 7:7 p.m. Send it to the hotel.Sure enough, before [-]:[-] that night, the reporter got the ticket at the hotel.The reporter did not expect the efficiency of the network service to be so high, and he repeatedly thanked the tour guide lady.Later, the tour guide was praised by the leader of the travel agency for this.

Another story happened to Ctrip CEO Liang Jianzhang.Once, the flight at the airport was delayed, Liang Jianzhang took some cards from the sales staff of their company and handed them out, and just sent the cards to a young man who was reading a magazine.The young man took the card and took a look, huh?
Isn't the person on the cover of the magazine the issuer in front of you?After reconfirmation, the young man said to Liang Jianzhang: I admire you very much. I never imagined that I would be so honored today. I met a business leader who gave me a card. I will treasure this card. Definitely your most loyal customer of Ctrip.

05 A miracle happened

Ctrip has created a miracle in the hotel reservation industry. In 2001, the transaction volume of room reservation was 5 million RMB, and in 2002, the transaction volume doubled.Of course, Ctrip has also made a lot of money from this, because the commission rate for hotel bookings is not less than 10%.

The company has grown rapidly, and the atmosphere of their group meetings has become active, and at the group meeting, the four founders of Ctrip were very excited.

Liang Jianzhang said: "Hotel reservation is an industry with no ceiling, and we must dig it out. However, we are already the leader in this industry."

Ji Qi said: "We have indeed dug a rich mine. However, in the long journey of entrepreneurship, we have only arrived in Yan'an, and we will continue to dig another rich mine."

"Yes, in the series of tourism products, we should also make other items as good as hotel reservations." Fan Min continued to make suggestions.

"Then which project should we expand next?" This is Liang Jianzhang's voice.Since the third financing, he and Ji Qi have served as the co-CEO of Ctrip.When making important decisions, he must be indispensable.

"How about air ticket booking? Its profit is not lower than hotel booking." Ji Qi said.

"It's not easy! You need to apply to the Civil Aviation Administration of China for the ticket agency qualification. The procedures are very cumbersome and time-consuming. It may take a year or two to apply." Someone spoke up.

Ji Qi said: "Application? That's definitely not possible! The market won't give us too much time. We'll do the same thing, just like the room reservation market, to acquire ticketing companies that are already operating well." After a pause, Ji Qi continued , "By the way, I have already identified a target to acquire, which is Beijing Coastal Ticketing Company."

"That company is very good. If we can acquire it, it will definitely be even more powerful for our market expansion." The general manager of a certain branch said excitedly.

(End of this chapter)