TravelMole Interview: Jill Chalmers, All-Hotels.com
The All-Hotels.com managing director tells TravelMole how the website has maintained customers despite offering room rates above the industry average.
“We are finding that our hotel rates are higher than the industry average. We do not always demand from hotels that they must discount their rates to go on the site. Price is still number one but the consumer is generally spending more with us” Ms Chalmers told TravelMole.
According to the the All-Hotels md, the average room rate in London was about £20 higher on the All-Hotels website than the average room rate calculated in a recent KPMG survey of London hotels.
She said: “I think we can charge the higher rate because consumers like the site. It is easy to search and the booking process is simple and quick. This sort of functionality takes the focus away from price.”
Ms Chalmers says All-Hotels sells about 15,000 room nights a month. The customer base is international, although the majority – 60% is from the US and 25% is from Europe.
Ms Chalmers could not give the figure of what percentage of customers come through search engines to All-Hotels.com, only to say it is “a tremendous amount”. She said that the website’s success was also down to the retention of customers. According to Ms Chalmers, “about 18% of customers are repeat visitors, which is very high for a website.”
Hotels post inventory on the website free of charge, and agree to either a merchant model, which means All-Hotels adds a mark-up, or a commission agreement where the hotel hands over an agreed commission to All-Hotels per booking.
The latest agreement signed by All-Hotels is with Orient Express, which sees the addition of 40 hotels around the world. The deal is on a commission basis, and takes All-Hotels inventory of global hotels to over 100,000. “I think this makes us the largest online hotel agent, in terms of volume” said Ms Chalmers.
All-Hotels is owned by OTC, so some of its inventory is also featured on some of the other websites owned and powered by OTC.
“The connection with OTC means we also sell flights, but hotels remains the focus” said Ms Chalmers.
She added that she had high hopes for the online hotel sector over the coming months: “The growth of online business in the hotel segment will see the biggest growth in the next two years. Flights have grown massively but I think that is stabilising.”
Read our previous stories:
25-Nov-2002 Chalmers named as All-Hotels MD
25-Sept-2002 OTC adds 60,000 hotels through acquisition
Vegas’s Billion-Dollar Secrets – What They Don’t Want Tourists to Know
Visit Florida’s New CEO Bryan Griffin Shares His Vision for State Tourism with Graham
Chicago’s Tourism Renaissance: Graham Interviews Kristin Reynolds of Choose Chicago
Graham Talks with Cassandra McCauley of MMGY NextFactor About the Latest Industry Research
Destination International’s Andreas Weissenborn: Research, Advocacy, and Destination Impact
Graham and Don Welsh Discuss the Success of Destinations International’s Annual Conference
Graham and CEO Andre Kiwitz on Ventura Travel’s UK Move and Recruitment for the Role
Brett Laiken and Graham Discuss Florida’s Tourism Momentum and Global Appeal
Graham and Elliot Ferguson on Positioning DC as a Cultural and Inclusive Global Destination
Graham Talks to Fraser Last About His England-to-Ireland Trek for Mental Health Awareness
Kathy Nelson Tells Graham About the Honour of Hosting the World Cup and Kansas City’s Future
Graham McKenzie on Sir Richie Richardson’s Dual Passion for Golf and His Homeland, Antigua
ADS PRO 
TAP Air Portugal to operate 29 flights due to strike on December 11
Qatar Airways offers flexible payment options for European travellers
Airbnb eyes a loyalty program but details remain under wraps
Air Mauritius reduces frequencies to Europe and Asia for the holiday season
Major rail disruptions around and in Berlin until early 2026