A powerful speaking line-up has been announced for No Vacancy — Australia’s leading accommodation industry conference — to be held in Sydney on Mar 19.

No Vacancy features a provocative, relevant program packed with industry leaders, panels, case studies, presentations and debate. The central themes are Inspiration, distribution and innovation.

Panel members Paul Fisher, Bradley Cocks and Jeff
Floyd discuss the star-rating system at No Vacancy 2008

One of the highlights is an interview with Wotif.com CEO, Robbie Cooke, which last financial year sold almost five million room nights and now claims 41 per cent of Australia’s online accommodation market.

There’s a focus on distribution and marketing strategies while the spotlight also is thrown on the budget hotel sector market, new online entrants, pricing and revenue management and the challenges ahead.

No Vacancy also takes a step back from pure profit to hear from Oz Harvest founder, Ronni Kahn, talk about his business — a charity that “rescues” and recycles food that would otherwise be discarded by the accommodation industry.

No Vacancy has established a strong reputation for dynamic programming and great networking, with almost 240 delegates attended the 2008 event. It is produced by Travel Trends, which also owns the TRAVELtech and Search Engine Room conferences.