Expedia shares were down 5% in after-hours trading Thursday after the online travel agency issued Q4 earnings that beat earnings estimates but missed on sales by more than $25 million.
Bellevue, Wash.-based Expedia said it earned 58 cents a share excluding options expenses, amortization and other items, unchanged from 58 cents in the year-earlier quarter and 5 cents above the 53-cent average estimate of 24 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.
Sales rose 7% to $787.1 million, but analysts were expecting $812.4 million.
Get the full story at Reuters, and Expedia (PDF 532 KB)
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/expedia_reports_lower_quarterly_profit_revenue_outlook_not_promising
These independent owners are taking a wait-and-see approach when it comes to Room Key’s potential influence on independents and hotel search-engine landscape.
That’s not to say Room Key, the joint venture among the industry’s biggest brands including Choice Hotels International; Hilton Worldwide; Hyatt Hotels Corporation; InterContinental Hotels Group; Marriott International; Wyndham Hotel Group; and Best Western International launched in January, isn’t planning on courting independent hotels for its site.
Room Key is talking to representation companies, including Utell Hotels & Resorts, Sabre, Synxis, and Leading Hotels of the World, Room Key’s CEO John Davis said.
“That’s how we’ll get the independents,” he said.
Get the full story at HotelNewsNow.com
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/will_independent_hotels_distribute_through_roomkey.com
A euro collapse would be painful -- but perhaps not for the travel industry and suddenly cash-flush tourists.
As news about Europe's sovereign debt crisis has grown increasingly grim, the euro has fallen from its one-year high of $1.48 last spring to less than $1.30. The uncertainty over the future of the euro has left the European travel picture for this year muddied at best.
Luxury cruise lines, including Oceania, Seabourn, Cunard and Royal Caribbean's Azamara, are trying like mad to get their 2012 cruises filled ahead of a potential crisis, though Carnival Chief Operating Officer Howard Frank admitted in December that his company's Carnival, Princess and Holland America cruise lines were already seeing "less demand" and "softer pricing" for European destinations, primarily because of financial woes there.
The International Air Transport Association, meanwhile, has issued a forecast indicating that industry revenue, already downgraded to $3.5 billion from $4.9 billion, could turn into losses exceeding $8 billion if the eurozone financial situation melts down into a full-blown banking crisis and recession. In a worst-case scenario, European air carriers would lose $4.4 billion, while North American airlines, including American, United, US Airways and Delta, would take a $1.8 billion hit. That's more bad news for an international airline industry that saw its $15.8 billion profits in 2010 slashed to less than $7 billion last year. A eurozone crisis wouldn't do wonders for Europe's hotel industry, either. But one continent's pain could be another's gain.
Get the full story at MSN Money (click on the continued links at the end of the article for the country information)
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/five_countries_to_visit_should_the_euro_fail
Bill-back is convenient for travelers and useful for companies that prefer not to furnish their employees with corporate cards, but it is manually cumbersome for the travel agent.
Travel Group Consulting managing director John Melchior said he is not surprised to see new hotel payment solutions emerging. "Bill-back has a lot to be said for it from the customer point of view, but agents can never make money from it," he said. "It's enormously inefficient for everyone involved, and TMCs have become much more aware of the cost of hotel processing. The essence of these solutions is to take a lot of the administration and credit risk out of the system."
HRG product director of product Brian Merry told BTN that he regards the continuing development of virtual cards as extremely important not only as a bill-back solution, but as a wider payment mechanism for corporate travel. "Virtual cards are an infant solution that are building up and getting better all the time," he said. "There is a challenge to them—to manage a VAT audit trail for the client—and we think that role sits with the TMC. But we believe the virtual card process is the way of the future. It will grow in use with low-cost carriers, and it also lends itself to becoming the lodge card of tomorrow."
Get the full story at Business Travel News
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/new_hotel_payment_solutions_emerging_in_europe
For instance, in 2010, there was a 24% and 19% increase in visitors from Asia and South America, respectively, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. And according to the U.S. Travel Association, the LGBT community accounted for 15.5% of the U.S. population in 2010, but spent a whopping $63 million on domestic travel.
To that end, Marriott has revamped its 2-year-old MarriottGayTravel.com website dedicated to helping the LGBT community plan trips.
"It's a very small group that spends a lot," Apoorva N. Gandhi, vice president of multicultural markets and alliances for Marriott, told Hotel Check-in. "It's important to us with these groups to make them feel welcome."
Get the full story at USA Today
Read also "Reports highlight travel habits of minorities" at Travel Weekly
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/hotels_reach_out_to_niche_markets
Independent hotels are paranoid about visibility. The hospitality industry is extremely competitive: as within any market with oversupply, capturing market share means someone else is losing market share. Hence, most hotel managers spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about ways to make their hotels more visible than their competitors. And increasingly so they are thinking about ways to do it online through digital marketing strategies.
A friend quoted to me that in one of the big OTAs, the #1 spot of the search results gets 36% of the reservations, and results on page one get a whopping 90% of all bookings.
It sounds a bit extreme, but this single fact is the reason why in certain markets, though booking.com’s published commission rate is 15%, hotels are providing commission overrides of close to 30% to be on the first page. Because hotel visibility is key in a crowded market. And driving higher commission is a “simple” solution for many of these hotel managers. But is it the intelligent solution?
“Buying rank” is driving an increasing commission war between hotels that solely benefits the OTAs. Typically hotels only notice this at the end of the month, when they pay tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars to the OTAs. Using that budget for better digital marketing would be an alternative. This is why the big chains have recently launched RoomKey. We are also seeing an increasing number of independent hotels thinking of Online Travel Optimization, not just hotel SEO.
Get the full story at GuestCentric
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/driving_higher_commissions_the_simple_solution_to_online_hotel_marketing
Click-based advertising – Revenues from click-based advertising totaled $99.8 million for the fourth quarter of 2011, an increase of 24% compared to the fourth quarter of 2010. Click-based advertising revenue represented 72% of total revenue in the fourth quarter of 2011, compared to 76% in the fourth quarter of 2010. Revenues from click-based advertising totaled $500.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2011, an increase of 30% compared to the year ended December 31, 2010. Click-based advertising revenue represented 79% of total revenue for the year ended December 31, 2011, compared to 79% of revenue for the year ended December 31, 2010.
Display-based advertising – Revenues from display-based advertising totaled $22.9 million for the fourth quarter of 2011, an increase of 26% compared to the fourth quarter of 2010. Display- based advertising revenue represented 17% of total revenue in the fourth quarter of 2011, compared to 17% in the fourth quarter of 2010. Revenues from display-based advertising totaled $85.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2011, an increase of 19% compared to the year ended December 31, 2010. Display-based advertising revenues represented 13% of total revenue for the year ended December 31, 2011, compared to 15% in the year ended December 31, 2010.
Subscription and other – Revenues from subscription and other totaled $15.1 million for the fourth quarter of 2011, an increase of 101%, compared to the fourth quarter of 2010. Subscription and other revenue represented 11% of total revenue in the fourth quarter of 2011, compared to 7% in the fourth quarter of 2010. Revenues from subscription and other totaled $51.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2011, an increase of 76% compared to the year ended December 31, 2010. Subscription and other revenues represented 8% of total revenue for the year ended December 31, 2011, compared to 6% for the year ended December 31, 2010.
Get the full story at TripAdvisor (PDF 140 KB)
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/tripadvisor_revenue_up_30_in_first_quarter_as_a_public_company
This is an 18 percentage point year-over-year increase from 2011. Of those respondents who planned on increasing their travel this year, about two-thirds plan to increase their travel budget in 2012, while slightly more than one-third will travel more without allocating more dollars to travel, indicating they plan to stretch their dollars further.
“The travel industry should be encouraged by our findings and take this as a vote of confidence,” said Carl Sparks, President and CEO, Travelocity Global. “While increases in spending are being driven by higher prices, travelers are taking more vacations and trips that are longer and farther away this year compared to last.”
How Respondents Plan to Spend and Save in 2012:
In 2012, there is a six percentage point increase in people (compared to last year) who plan to increase their travel budget. Only slightly more than half actually have a predetermined travel budget this year.
In order to save money, nearly 50 percent of respondents will increase their comparison shopping, date flexibility and begin booking further in advance. About 70 percent of respondents intend to book vacation packages (flight + hotel) or book hotels via flash sales, while 40 percent are likely to consider booking an opaque hotel such as Top Secret Hotels.
Hotels:
This year, 76 percent of respondents plan to spend the same or increase their hotel spending to account for hotel rate increases, taking more trips and longer hotel stays. What respondents won’t be spending money on are hotel services or amenities – they are highly unlikely to pay for offerings such as maid service, newspapers or personal check-in.
One hotel trend lives on – the staycation. Similar to last year a little more than one-third of respondents said they were likely to book a hotel near home for a short getaway in the next six months.
Airlines:
A total of 79 percent of respondents anticipate spending the same or more on flights in 2012. Those who plan to increase flight spending from last year (47 percent) will do so to accommodate rising airfare or because they plan on traveling differently such as taking more trips or trips farther away. When it comes to airline ancillary fees, the only service that a significant number of respondents (52 percent) are likely to pay for is one checked bag. Similar to last year’s survey, the overwhelming majority are unlikely to pay for anything else such as advanced seating assignment, extra legroom, a second bag and / or early boarding.
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/in_spite_of_economic_concerns_consumers_plan_to_travel_more_increase_travel
Busy travelers looking for a quick and easy way to search and book any hotel within the extensive Wyndham Hotel Group portfolio can now do so on wyndhamhotelgroup.com, a new website designed to engage consumers with the company’s family of brands while helping to drive incremental bookings for hotel owners.
The website, available today, is part of Wyndham Hotel Group’s Direct Strategy designed to recapture business by driving more bookings through the company’s own channels. The strategy calls for improved brand websites, several of which have already been unveiled, as well as enhanced alternative sell, a distribution model enabling Wyndham Hotel Group brands to be sold on sister websites.
“The launch of wyndhamhotelgroup.com is an important step for us as we work to increase the exposure of our brands and hotels to consumers who may not be fully aware of all the options within the Wyndham Hotel Group family,” said Flo Lugli, executive vice president of marketing for Wyndham Hotel Group. “The site is complementary to our existing websites and is vital to our continued efforts to drive incremental bookings through our own online channels.”
An array of tools and functionality, including the ability to sort results by brand, distance, price and amenities, are available to shoppers at wyndhamhotelgroup.com.
As part of its Direct Strategy, the company is one of the six founders of Room Key, a hotel search engine launched this month. Room Key was developed to provide the simplicity, transparency and breadth of choice consumers have come to expect from a search engine, while delivering the flexibility, accuracy and assurance consumers have long enjoyed from hoteliers. Consumers shopping on Roomkey.com book directly with the chosen hotel brand.
Related Link: Wyndham Hotel Group
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/wyndham_launches_new_site_to_drive_direct_business
Groupon came in for the bashing at a Chartered Institute of Marketing Travel Industry Group (Cimtig) meeting in London this week when senior figures at British Airways and Tui Travel insisted they would never use the site.
BA UK and Ireland head of sales Richard Tams said: “The Groupon model is too much in favour of the voucher distributor. The evidence of repeat purchases through Groupon is appalling.”
Tui Travel specialist and activity sector managing director John Wimbleton agreed saying: “The danger with Groupon is that you allow someone to subsume and ultimately trash your brand.
“Every year there are 1,000 new ways for me to give away holidays. I want to raise my margin and increase my relations with my customers, so I’m just not interested.”
Get the full story at Travolution
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/groupon_will_trash_your_brand_says_ba_and_tui
Matt Gordon can be grouped into the latter class. As the chef and owner of Urban Solace Restaurant in San Diego, he felt that the group-buying deal he offered was not a positive experience for his business and doesn’t plan on signing up for another. "The two things that make them most difficult is that they are time-consuming to track during a busy service, and it seems that patrons generally tip on the discounted amount, not the original amount, which decreases our servers income and makes morale low," Gordon said. His restaurants ran several deals through local magazine and newspaper deal services, offering $40 worth of food for $20.
On the other hand, Java House Café in Middletown, Del., used a Groupon deal to offer a panini sandwich, kettle chips and a specialty drink that increased its new customers by 65 percent. “We were able to extend our reach and brand by being able to tap into audiences that normally would not come across our establishment unless we developed a significant digital signature,” says co-owner Cleo Clark.
Two restaurants. Two very different experiences. So you may be wondering if group-buying deals are right for your business. The answer: It depends. The main difference between restaurants that see positive results and those that don't is carefully structuring a deal that will bring in new, regular customers without overwhelming your restaurant—or your bottom line. Here are three questions to ask before signing up for a group-buying deal.
Get the full story at American Express Open Forum
Read also "Using Groupon for Customer Acquisition" at the American Express Open Forum
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/can_you_bring_in_new_restaurant_customers_with_groupon
For example, Max Starkov, president and CEO at Hospitality eBusiness Strategies, disagrees with one of the main points in the study—that the cost of selling hotel rooms on intermediary channels could double in three to four years. Starkov said share of hotel distribution from the online-travel agencies is “countercyclical and is already declining with rising travel demand.”
Starkov studied the percentage of bookings made via OTAs versus brand.com websites and said, “All hotel companies are invigorated by the 2011 results and the 2012 projections, and we already see the OTAs losing the upper hand.”
He commended the authors on the report but said most of the data was collected in 2009 and 2010 and is already outdated. Regarding the growth of OTA “leakage,” he said many hotel brands are now enforcing internal guidelines directing their franchisees to limit the OTA share of bookings to the 7% to 8% range. Also, brands are aiming to limit the OTA merchant commissions to the 15% to 18% range, he said.
“The OTA commission of 20% to 25% is directly tied to the travel-agency commission of 10%,” Starkov said. “Two to three years from now I don’t believe the major hotel brands will be paying more than 5% travel-agency commission if not abolishing it outright, similar to what the airlines did. This will further erode the OTA commissions to a paltry 10% to 15% tops.”
Get the full story at HotelNewsNow.com
Read also "Comprehensive hotel distribution analysis available for download"
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/distribution_experts_dissect_hotel_channel_analysis_study_findings
As reported in Travel Weekly last week, the online travel agency (OTA) merchant model (in which hoteliers wholesale rooms at low rates to sites like Expedia, Travelocity, Priceline and Orbitz, which then mark them up) resulted in revenues discounted to an amount equal to twice what they pay in commissions on standard agency sales, according to Smith Travel Research and the American Hotel & Lodging Association.
Collectively, discounts by U.S. hotel owners to OTAs amounted to $2.7 billion, more than double what they paid in agent commissions. The study predicts that number could double again over the next few years.
OTAs rightfully point out that the numbers do not take into consideration the contribution their marketing and advertising makes to put heads in beds. That applies to travel agents collectively, as well.
Get the full story at Travel Weekly
Read also "Report says hotels lose out with merchant sales on the Web" at Travel Weekly
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/hotels_recovery_begins_to_lag_behind_that_of_airlines
Online, mobile and brand reputation is increasingly important for UK travellers, according to the latest eCustomerServiceIndex results from eDigitalResearch and IMRG.
- 72% of consumers prefer to research holidays online
- 30% of smartphone owners have used their device to browse for holidays and tickets
- 72% of the 2,000 consumers surveyed said that brand reputation was important to them
- 53% of consumers avoid in-store travel agents altogether during booking process
The research shows that around three quarters of consumers (72%) prefer to research for holidays online, whilst a staggering 53% of consumers said that they avoided in-store travel agents altogether when researching and booking their holidays.
The results also show that brands need to be doing all they can to reassure customers as a number of travel brands have faced high profile industrial action and financial issues in recent years. 72% of the 2,000 surveyed said that brand reputation was either ‘very important’ or ‘quite important’ when considering their next holiday.
Mobiles are also playing a bigger role for holidaymakers. 68% of smartphone owners already use their device when travelling or planning to travel. Almost 1 in 3 (30%) of mobile owners have used their smartphone to browse for holidays or travel tickets, whilst another 11% of smartphone owners have completed a travel purchase from their device.
Derek Eccleston, Head of Research at eDigitalResearch, explains, “The travel industry has faced some turbulent times in recent years. A good multichannel strategy will be key for companies looking to grow in 2012, especially as our survey showed that 34% of consumers will use the internet more when booking and browsing for their next holiday, whilst 10% of mobile users said that they would use their smartphone more to do the same. Our research has consistently shown that consumers expect a seamless experience no matter how they shop and browse, and therefore travel brands need to make sure that they offer the same features and functionality across all their booking channels”.
The survey also found that, when browsing for hotels, travel tickets, or holidays, 70% of smartphone owners prefer to use a mobile optimised site rather than a mobile app. Yet, when searching for information, such as maps, timetables and weather forecasts, 70% prefer to use a mobile app, demonstrating the importance of developing a mobile solution to suit all consumers.
Andrew McClelland, Chief Operations & Policy Officer at IMRG, commented, “Online travel had a tough 2011, recording just 7% growth which is way below the average, but this is likely to be a result of the continuing economic downturn. These figures show that consumers want to use the online resources at their disposal in their own time and on their own terms, with 53% saying that they actually avoid in-store travel agencies altogether. With confidence in researching and purchasing travel through the mobile channel also growing, it seems clear that travel agencies’ physical stores need to look at innovative methods for bringing online technology in-store in order to increase footfall, ensuring that consumers feel they have options available to them and an increased sense of control over the process”.
Survey information: The eCustomerServiceIndex (eCSI) survey of 2,000 consumers was conducted between the 9th and 11th January 2012 using a nationally representative sample from a consumer omnibus.
Related Link: IMRG
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/online_mobile_and_brand_reputation_increasingly_important_for_uk_travele
The newly published Mobile IQ report from the L2 Think Tank offers an interesting insight into the state of mobile maturity across a number of different sectors, and despite the hospitality industry’s overall strong showing (it ranked second, trailing the retail sector), many in the business still have a long way to go if they are truly going capitalize on one of the fastest growing markets of the moment.
What is apparent from the report is that many in the hospitality business are forgetting the basics, resorting to ‘fashionable’ mobile apps, without bothering to develop a proper strategy and optimize their websites for mobile viewing. And while there may be dozens of useful (and not so useful) travel app out there, many of them lack basic features such as the ability to make purchases on a mobile platform.
Considering how much search takes place on mobile browsers, many hospitality companies have clearly missed the boat here.
The report is limited to luxury brands, known as the Prestige 100, yet nevertheless gives a good insight into the overall status and direction of mobile maturity across several industries.
Get the full story at Argophilia
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/the_hospitality_industrys_mobile_web_failure
If you didn't hear about it last year I guarantee the platform Pinterest has cropped up on your radar in these past few weeks of 2012. But does that mean it should feature in your 2012 digital marketing planning?
No.
There’s no denying that Pinterest is fun, looks great, and a lot of people love playing with it. That is also true of kittens but no one’s rushing to include them in their 2012 marketing plans (except for maybe Karl Lagerfeld).
A couple of talking points circulating are getting way out of proportion:
- Rapid growth: The Hitwise figures released before Christmas show undoubted growth as a social network, but it’s nothing compared to the current growth of Google+. Pinterest is also lauded for making a list of Top 10 Social Networks in November which, while impressive for the little upstart, can’t be that meaningful if marketers aren’t deploying tactics for established Top 10ers like Tagged and Yahoo! Answers
- Traffic driving potential: While Pinterest is a growing source of traffic for Etsy and others, the data is yet to be analysed for relevancy to the interactive marketer and certainly doesn’t separate relevancy between general online brands vs. online etailers and news publishers. Shareaholic, also responsible for the dramatic headline ‘Pinterest Drives More Referral Traffic Than Google Plus, YouTube and LinkedIn Combined’, uses data captured from their own plug-in and is not necessarily representative of wider web user behaviour either
At most these early statistics put Pinterest as ‘one to watch’ for 2012 but should be way down the interactive marketers list of trends to consider for 2012 and firmly behind issues of multiscreen marketing, customisation, local-mobile, effective media buying and attribution (the last being where Pinterest will really be weighed and measured).
Get the full story at Forrester
Read also "Pinterest continues to make a splash" at TIG Global
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/pinterest_is_over_hyped
When it comes to Facebook “likes,” social network users are sending brand marketers mixed signals. An eVoc Insights study indicates 59% of Facebook users have “liked” a Facebook brand or company page in the past six months. Although this statistic may seem promising for brands, how “liking” a brand connects with consumer loyalty is still vague.
When surveyed by eVoc, 54% of users who “liked” a brand or company page on Facebook that sells a product or service said they were somewhat or much more likely to purchase from that brand. The study confirms that the most “liked” pages are for food brands, TV shows, music, movies and clothing.
Although the eVoc Insight statistic suggests more than half of consumers are agreeable toward purchasing from the brands on Facebook, consumer behavior suggests otherwise. According to a study from the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, an Australia-based marketing think tank, just 1% of fans of the biggest brands on Facebook engage with the brands on the site. The Ehrenberg-Bass Institute study looked at Facebook metrics for the top 200 brands, and through an examination of activities such as “likes,” comments, posts and shares, the research group found nothing substantial to link a brand’s Facebook presence with loyalty.
Get the full story at eMarketer
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/does_liking_a_brand_drive_user_loyalty
This partnership bridges the gap between rate recommendation tools such as EzRMSTM and key information distribution and implementation tools such as Availpro. With this new connectivity development, hotel owners are able to apply rate recommendations made through EzRMSTM instantly, online, via all distribution channels. Price recommendations made through EzRMSTM are normally monitored and managed by the Revenue Manager or hotel director. He or she is now able to accept and confirm recommendations with a single click, instantly transferring them to their Availpro Smart Channel Manager planning.
Berengere Brohan, Revenue Management Consultant at EasyRMS, explains the results of this initial integration between the two applications: “EzRMSTM has successfully completed testing for the upload interface with Availpro and both systems can now be linked. This interface will allow hotels to work directly from EzRMSTM and have all systems (PMS and Availpro) updated at the same time. This could really save time for users and also assure parity.”
With the combined power of EasyRMS and Availpro's rate recommendation distribution capabilities, this new connectivity is an essential time-saver for all Revenue Managers.
With its RateScreener product, Availpro looked to provide entry-level access to competitive intelligence and rate monitoring to hotel owners who did not already have this type of tool. This new partnership with EasyRMS is designed for hotels that already have a Revenue Management programme and dedicated tools. With this latest strategic move, Availpro is now better able to serve its high-end users who already use professional tools such as EzRMSTM.
Antoine Buhl, Technical Director at Availpro, explains the company's unique approach, which has been its cornerstone since it was founded in 2001: "Availpro is always looking to provide deeper integration between its products and the various third-party applications that its customers use. This is particularly important in the 4 and 5 star sector, where Availpro has seen strong growth in recent years. We are proud of this new integration with EzRMSTM, which is just one example of our strategy." Hotel owners will now be able to save time by connecting to both interfaces at once and using the full range of Availpro's advanced functions, such as automatic rate calculation based on a reference rate.
With this new partnership and integration secured, the developer is looking to boost its business in the 4 and 5 star sector and win new hotel chain customers.
Related Link: AvailPro
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/availpro_and_easyrms_come_together_to_boost_hotel_revenue
With Appnostic’s StoryBoard, hotels can have a Facebook fan page tab that displays various facets of the hotel, from accommodations to maps and dining. The interactive look and feel achieved with StoryBoardTM pages are often more seamless than a traditional website. One StoryBoard page can hold multiple tabs if needed, each tab featuring up to 8 different landing pages.
Hosting 845 million unique monthly users, over 50% of which visit the social network daily, Facebook boasts a diverse and incessantly engaged customer base.
“When you compare Facebook traffic to the average website traffic of any hotel, it’s undeniable that a strong Facebook presence enables hotels to market to a wider audience,” explains Appnostic founder and CEO Brian Dass. “With StoryBoardTM, hotels can now have fan pages that display a unique brand story with a user interface that’s more consistent with the brand image they’ve crafted, versus one imposed by Facebook.”
StoryBoard allows hotels to consolidate and aggregate their multimedia content within a thriving social ecosystem. Active conversations are constantly taking place on Facebook, a social network that nurtures over 100 billion friendships. This is one reason hotels are finding success with Appnostic in building seamless “F-commerce” environments.
“Now, our guests don’t have to leave the conversation or click thru multiple web pages that aren’t a part of their daily social connections in navigating our content,” reports Lisa Gneo, Director of Sales and Marketing for the Z NYC Hotel, an Appnostic client and StoryBoard user. “This simplifies the decision making process, and ultimately makes booking easier on Facebook.”
StoryBoard is the latest addition to Appnostic’s suite of social media marketing strategies for hotels. The company’s SocialBooker is the first hotel social distribution platform optimized for monetizing Facebook’s Social Graph, and delivering improved customer service. TweetAgent serves as Appnostic's content creation team dedicated to managing clients' Twitter and Facebook presence. With StoryBoard, Appnostic further solidifies an umbrella of content management solutions for hotels looking to get the most from Facebook as a sales channel.
Related Link: Appnostic LLC
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/appnostic_brings_hotel_web_content_to_social_media
The social media universe no longer rests solely with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. Today Google+ is quickly becoming an important Internet marketing player. Lodging Interactive, a social media marketing agency exclusively servicing the hospitality industry, and its subsidiary CoMMingle, a social media consultancy, is now offering a turnkey service for creating and professionally managing Google+ Business Pages.
According to Ancestry.com and FamilyLink.com Founder Paul Allen in his Google+ blog, the Google+ network will hit 400 million users by the end of 2012. Facebook currently has more than 800 million users. Google+ is adding 625,000 new users per day or 20 million per month on average.
"Social networking continues to be the least expensive way for hotels to market their brand, engage guests and build loyalty," said D.J. Vallauri, Lodging Interactive and CoMMingle Founder and President. "Taking advantage of all social media channels is critical. Today, only a few hotel companies have expanded their inner circles outside of Facebook to include Google+. Failure to do so can be detrimental in the long term."
Google+ Business Pages are socially enabled and allow members (hotels) to organize people (guests) into social groups referred to as "Circles." Then, hoteliers engage with their own circles of potential guests and build larger circles through social networking and marketing.
"We understand how difficult it can be to keep up with this rapidly accelerating social media scene," Vallauri said. "As such, we are offering to leverage all the opportunities available from Google+ to engage with guests on a hotel's behalf so the likelihood of their content will be picked up on travel related searches."
Vallauri explained that Google considers Google+ 1's ("likes") as social signals within its Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). As the Google+ network continues to grow, the weight applied to +1's will receive more consideration, and the hotels with the most +1's will reinforce their search engine rankings.
Here's how it works:
Lodging Interactive will create a Google+ Business Page on behalf of its customers. Then, CoMMingle takes over. CoMMingle's fully managed social media marketing service ensures that each hotel is properly positioned on Google+ where potential and past guests "commingle" to discuss their destination, including the hotel. As an extension of a hotel's marketing department, CoMMingle takes a pro-active role in managing each hotel's online presence and communications to not only Google+, but to all social media networking communities.
"Lodging Interactive and CoMMingle work side by side to ensure maximum social media exposure for our customers," Vallauri said. "Think of us as a dating service. Lodging Interactive makes each hotel look good and lets travelers know that they are 'available.' Then it's CoMMingle's job to keep the conversation flowing and continually fill the date card. The more content created by Lodging Interactive and CoMMingle, the wider a hotel's social media circles expand. The end result is better exposure on Google and a much stronger overall social media strategy."
Related Link: Lodging Interactive
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/lodging_interactive_adds_google_service_to_enhance_hotels_social_media_stra
From its founding in 2003 with a focus on travel transactions, the company has evolved into a leading provider of software solutions that help companies build their brands and connect with their highest-value customers through a rich online experience. Switchfly works with some of the world’s largest and most respected brands in travel, loyalty and payments, including American Airlines, AirAsia, American Express, Emirates, Intercontinental Hotels & Resorts, JetBlue, Lufthansa, PayPal, Starwood Hotels & Resorts and United Airlines.
The rebrand is a natural progression following the company’s rapid growth and global expansion over the past few years. It also follows the company’s recent acquisition of Topguest, which provided entry into the social media and mobile arenas, and its move into payments with a new digital wallet product that was announced in October 2011 with beta partners PayPal and United MileagePlus. Unmatched in the marketplace, Switchfly delivers a single technology platform that can power multiple products under multiple brands deployed across multiple countries.
“The Switchfly brand embodies the growing range of products and services our company offers across several channels,” said Daniel Farrar, CEO of Switchfly. “Switchfly offers our clients the unique ability to enhance their brand and create loyalty with technology solutions that go beyond customer expectations while at the same time decreasing costs.”
The comprehensive Switchfly product suite includes:
- Travel commerce platforms for airlines, hotels and OTAs
- Loyalty point redemption platforms for travel and financial services loyalty programs
- Payments engine for digital wallets, payment services and loyalty programs
- Social media solutions for travel providers, loyalty programs and merchants
- Mobile platforms to enhance shopping, loyalty redemption and social media experiences
Switchfly, which services clients on six continents, processes more than $750 million in transactions annually and loyalty program members have redeemed more than 100 billion reward points through its platform.
Related Link: Switchfly, Inc.
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/ezrez_software_rebrands_to_switchfly
The program addresses travelers’ growing desire for environmentally responsible accommodations and includes more than 4,700 hotels certified by globally-recognized certification programs.
The Sabre Eco-Certified Hotel Program builds upon Travelocity’s Green Hotel Directory, launched in 2009, and extends the program company-wide to recognize hotels that are certified as sustainable according to the Global Sustainable Tourism Council’s guidelines. Travelocity is still the only major online travel company that helps users find green hotels with an eco-friendly tag.
The 4,700+ hotels participating in the program will be clearly distinguished in Sabre’s Global Distribution System (GDS) and reflected in other Sabre platforms. Specifically:
- In Sabre Red Workspace, the more than 180,000 users can shop and book eco-certified hotels using current amenity search functionality that includes an easy-to-spot icon and a unique amenity code.
- Nearly 2,000 corporate and agency customers are able to specify eco-certified hotels during the RFP process by using Sabre Hotel RFP tool.
- Travelocity Business designates eco-certified hotels to help agents and travelers shop and book participating hotels.
“With leadership comes responsibility,” said Greg Webb, president of Sabre Travel Network. “Sabre is keenly focused on the economic, social and environmental sustainability of the travel industry and we are committed to providing our customers with products and services that help them promote these same long-term values throughout their businesses.”
According to a recent PhoCusWright study, 66 percent of U.S. travelers believe their travel choices can make a difference to the environment, and more than 51 percent of meeting planners will hold meetings only in sustainable venues (GBTA and Imex Global survey 2010). For suppliers, the Sabre Eco-Certified Hotel Program provides hotels a new and innovative way to differentiate themselves, reinforce their brand, and tap into the growing number of travelers and travel planners looking for sustainable hotel options.
Hotel guests list “certification” as the top preference in sustainable offerings, and more than 40 percent of respondents looked for third party certification to verify that a supplier is truly environmentally friendly (Cornell Hospitality Institute Research 2011). The Sabre Eco-Certified Hotel Program will continue to hold the line against “greenwashing” by only accepting hotels that have undergone a third party audit and are certified by a program aligning with criteria set by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council, a global coalition of U.N. bodies, research and academic institutions, social and environmental NGOs, and certification programs.
Sabre is committed to work across the industry to establish and implement environmental standards that will help drive sustainable travel into the mainstream and works diligently with partners and customers to advocate for pan-industry standards. The company’s efforts with the Global Sustainable Tourism Council and their use of the GSTC criteria are a testament to the value of cross-sector and cross-industry collaboration in developing and promoting necessary global frameworks.
In addition, Sabre’s resolve that standards are important for the travel industry directed an industry-leading path for standards with the introduction of carbon calculation and reporting tools for airlines, hotels, and car rental companies. These tools, which are now available in a web service for their customers and partners, were an important step in recognizing the need for a single industry standard for calculating and reporting travel emissions. Sabre is collaborating with partners, associations, and competitors alike to employ a single, globally recognized methodology so that the travel industry’s footprint, whether in business or leisure travel, can be reported on with accuracy and consistency.
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/sabre_launches_industrys_first_eco_certified_hotel_program
The company announced the decision in a statement that explained that things weren’t working out with the troubled smartphone platform:
"RIM was a smartphone pioneer and we thank them for what they’ve done, and wish them renewed success. BlackBerry was (and is) an amazing messaging platform. But it’s not working out to be a great channel for consumer mobile applications, which is what leads us to this sad post."
As well as paying tribute to RIM, the company sketched out a story that is likely familiar to many former corporate BlackBerry users who were once issued with the device:
"When we started KAYAK in 2004, we issued BlackBerries to the entire engineering team so we could communicate instantly 24/7. Today we’ve all switched, and it seems our users are doing the same. Our audience of BlackBerry users has been declining precipitously, and we can’t justify the cost any longer."
Get the full story at The Next Web
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/kayak_drops_blackberry_support_blames_lack_of_users
Perhaps Priceline should reconsider throwing all that dough into Google and do a little more advertising on Expedia sites. (OK, the tongue’s wagging again.)
Mark Mahaney, managing director of Internet research for Citi Investment Research & Analysis, says Expedia’s influential role as a traffic referral source for Priceline “highlights the extent of comparison shopping that occurs in the online travel vertical.”
After Expedia, the leading sources of traffic for Priceline in January 2012 were the Kayak network (12%), Google sites (12%), Microsoft sites (9%) and Yahoo sites (6%), according to the Citi’s Annual ‘Net Influence Report.
Get the full story at Tnooz, and Citi’s Annual ‘Net Influence Report at Citi.com (PDF 245 KB)
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/expedia_largest_traffic_source_for_priceline
The iPhone mobile application introduces on-the-go ease for booking, check-in and flight status. JetBlue continues to expand its digital presence with geo-location and push notifications to help customers stay informed about important real-time travel information.
New extras with the application including virtual postcards whereby customers can share their travel experiences with friends and family or easily post to their favorite social network. The app also includes features for easy sharing of itineraries, and even gives customers access to the airline's in-flight amenities, including snack and beverage offerings, movie previews, and DirecTV schedules for the duration of their flight.
The website and app are the first phase of the airline's goal to “redefine the digital airline space” that deepens the airline's relationship with customers, said Michael Stromer, JetBlue vice president of customer connections. "Every aspect of the JetBlue experience is focused on how to make things easier and more enjoyable for the customer, whether it's booking a ticket online or getting your bags at the end of your journey," he said in a release.
Get the full story at MediaPost
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/jetblue_redesigns_site_launches_iphone_app
According to Zendesk's new infographic, 62% of customers are looking for more support through social media. Compare that to research by MarketTools at the end of 2011 which shows only 23% of US companies provide customer service via Facebook and 12% provide support via Twitter.
This highlights the continued divide between what customers are expecting and companies are giving.
Brand reputation and promotions still tops the list of how brands are using social media. The good news is once companies begin to engage in this arena, the more they find the importance in engaging in social channels.
The stats compiled by Zendesk aren't surprising on their own. It's only when you compare them to what brands are actually doing, there seems to be a discrepancy. If you are working with a brand that just doesn't get it, this infographic may be a key tool to showing what needs to happen to satisfy its customers.
Get the full story at Econsultancy
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/the_future_of_customer_service_and_social_media
AYTM Market Research asked US internet users if they liked the idea of personalized search results. Of respondents, 15.5% said yes, they would like personalized search results, while 39.1% said yes, but that they were also concerned with privacy. Additionally, 45.4% said they would prefer everyone to see the same search results.
RKG, a search marketing company, found in its “Digital Marketing Report Q4 2011” that 83.5% of the organic search traffic of companies worldwide was through Google. While Google is by far the most popular search engine, another concern with Google’s search-and-social plan is that Google+ may not fully represent consumers’ social media lives.
Google faces an uphill battle as it works to connect its social content to search results, including determining how users prefer to connect the two. No matter what happens with Google+, though, marketers must find a balance with search and social media marketing, as the two are becoming more connected every day.
Get the full story at eMarketer
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/consumers_concerned_about_personalized_search_results
With Booking.com on board, Travelport Rooms and More customers now have access to practically all hotels and holiday properties around the world. An additional 115,000 hotels and holiday property offers have been added to the portal, with a further 65,000 to be included later in the year.
Niklas Andreen, GVP Hospitality and Partner Marketing, Travelport, said: “Booking.com is a key player in the European online hotel booking business. We are therefore delighted to be including them in our Travelport Rooms and More™ hotel booking engine.”
Travelport Rooms and More™ is available to all travel agencies in 68 countries, allowing them to book a greater choice of commissionable accommodation and take advantage of the rapidly growing hotel sector. Travelport began a phased rollout of the service in July 2011 and the portal has already undergone significant development and growth and will continue to do so throughout 2012. It is currently available in 6 languages (English, French, German, Italian, Spanish & Polish), with a total of 675,000 accommodation offers.
Dennis van Noord of Booking.com says of the agreement: “We are pleased with our partnership with Rooms and More and being part of their commitment in meeting customers’ needs. With highly competitive hotel rates, a vast choice of properties and the flexibility to make last minute reservations, we believe our partnership will deliver great value.”
Read also"Partnership gives agencies entry to daily deals world" at Travel Market Report, "A closer look at Travelport’s Universal Desktop," and "Amadeus building a “Google Hotel Finder” for travel agents."
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/travelport_agents_get_access_to_booking.com_hotel_inventory
“I think that with the complexity of the distribution network and so many sources of information, agents will be serving an important role,” said Cindy Estis Green, co-author of Distribution Channel Analysis: A Guide for Hotels. The 214-page study involved interviews with 200 industry executives and historical demand data trends from STR, among other sources.
“They may not be able to be involved in all transactions but certainly in the more complex bookings, like family and friends travel. And they will also play an important role on the corporate side.”
“I’m not sure what systems agents will use - GDS or other tools. That part remains unknown. Utilities like Roomkey.com may offer specialized tools that might be suitable for agents. I can see other suppliers creating tools for them.”
Get the full story at Travel Market Report
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/travel_agents_continue_to_play_a_significant_part_in_hotel_distribution
The ASA has taken a highly technical view around some marketing copy that was used in a limited capacity; complaints were upheld on the basis that we could not provide 100 per cent certainty that every single review on the site was written by a real traveller and could be trusted. No system, verified or not, could provide this. It is worth noting that the General Media Panel (an independent group that provides industry expert advice to the ASA) disagreed with the ASA’s view of the claims.
The average traveller reads dozens of reviews before making an informed decision, not just one or two. The ruling has no bearing on our commitment to providing a trusted resource for travellers with valued advice and insights from the TripAdvisor community, based on the wisdom of the crowds. We know that our users approach TripAdvisor with common sense, and make an educated decision based on the opinions of many.
We continue to maintain our industry-leading standards in managing the integrity of our site, because it is fundamental to our success. It’s because of the usefulness that the traveller reviews and opinions on TripAdvisor provide that we enjoy such user loyalty. According to a recent PhoCusWright study commissioned by TripAdvisor*, 98 per cent of respondents have found TripAdvisor hotel reviews to be accurate of the actual experience.
We are the world’s largest travel site and we have confidence that the 50 million users who come to our site every month trust the reviews they read on TripAdvisor, which is why they keep coming back to us in increasingly larger numbers to plan and have the perfect trip.
TripAdvisor was founded on a core set of principles - to give travellers a voice to share their experiences, promote consumer choice and encourage a level playing field for everyone in the industry– all within a free forum for sharing open and honest opinions. This remains our mission.
*According to a July 2011 PhoCusWright survey of 3,641 respondents. Participants for the study were solicited at random through a pop-up invitation link on TripAdvisor.com.
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/tripadvisor_statement_following_uk_advertising_watchdog_complaint
Frits van Paasschen said concerns about the euro zone crisis or slowing growth in China were not holding back business, as American and European companies were still traveling abroad to scout out growth opportunities.
"Even though the headlines continue to be gloomy... the fact of the matter is that the customer base that we continue to address are more optimistic," van Paasschen said in an interview.
A business-led recovery over the past year has helped lift U.S. hotel occupancy rates even as hotel construction remains softer because of financing challenges.
Get the full story at Reuters
Read also "Starwood reports Q4 profit drop on low global revPAR growth" at Bloomberg
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/starwood_business_travel_will_drive_hotels_success
Usability is subjective and different users have different levels of web experience and familiarity. Some people can learn and remember a web interface much easily than others but the fundamental driver of a website is that it as easy to use as possible.
Ease of use can be enhanced by stripping away unnecessary or ornamental elements of page design, but remember when you expose too many of the bare bones of a site its value is no longer recognisable by the majority of web users.
By simply following some simple usability guidelines you will find that you can have a visually interesting yet effective website – a usable website that visitors will want to use.
Get the full story at "The Digital Nomads"
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/usable_sites_vs._sites_people_want_to_use
In 2012, marketing is publishing, so let's learn how to be a great publisher in an industry under constant disruption.
Salar Kamangar, CEO of YouTube, believes that we are in a third wave of media. At an event in California this week Kamangar said, “The first wave was the broadcast networks. The second wave was cable networks. Now, it’s about giving people exactly what they want to watch today.”
The idea of remarkable content isn't anything new. However, content has the potential to become even more remarkable when it is applied to a niche. And that niche factor is the leverage third wave media companies have over the first and second wave media companies.
Get the full story at HubSpot
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/marketing_in_a_transitional_media_world
The U.K. (47%) overtook Scandinavia (46%) in online travel penetration by a small margin in 2010. However, the size of the U.K.'s total travel market makes it by far the largest online market in Europe, comprising 28% of total European online leisure/unmanaged business travel gross bookings in 2010 (see figure). By 2013, its share of Europe's total online travel market will shrink to 26% as smaller markets experience rapid online growth and larger markets mature.
At the other end of the spectrum, Italy and Spain – smaller travel markets with low online travel penetration – will comprise just 5% and 7%, respectively, of European online leisure/unmanaged business bookings by 2013. Growth in these two markets continues to be inhibited by economic uncertainty, lower levels of Internet access, and the presence of dominant offline travel distribution networks.
Get the full story at PhoCusWright
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/u.k._by_far_largest_online_travel_market_in_europe
In contrast, just 14 per cent said they would book over the telephone and only 11 per cent will visit a high street travel agent to book, the research by TravelSupermarket revealed.
When it comes to research, travel agents don't fare much better, with just 12 per cent of people saying they would call in to a shop to pick up brochures and chat about destinations.
By comparison, 52 per cent said they would use internet search engines as their first port of call for holiday research and 40 per cent said they would head to review websites like TripAdvisor.
An overwhelming 96 per cent of Britons say they will make sure they take a holiday this year and the most common length of time spent researching the trip is two to four weeks (29 per cent).
Get the full story at The Daily Mail
Read also "Kuoni reveals its UK Travel Trends Report 2012"
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/uk_only_one_in_ten_book_their_holiday_with_a_travel_agent
The Hotels by Orbitz App for iPhone is available for free from the App Store on iPhone and takes full advantage of iPhone's unique capabilities, providing a streamlined, fast and friendly interface for travelers to find, compare and book hotels.
"Hotels by Orbitz App for iPhone allows customers to book a hotel in just three taps and is a must have app for travelers on the go," said Chris Orton, president of Orbitz.com. "Since we know that 65 percent of hotel reservations made through Orbitz mobile channels are for same-day stays , we designed the app so that when it is launched, it immediately shows available rates for same-day check-in at nearby hotels. As an additional benefit, the Hotels by Orbitz App for iPhone also gives customers access to Orbitz Mobile Steals, which offer exclusive, deeply discounted mobile-only rates offering savings of up to 50% on hotels around the world."
Orbitz Suite of Mobile Products and Services
Orbitz mobile products and services – nominated in three categories in EyeforTravel's Mobile Innovation in Travel Awards – save customers time and money with intuitive search-and-book features and exclusive mobile-only deals. The Hotels by Orbitz App for iPhone is the latest in a set of industry-leading mobile offerings that deliver powerful travel products and tools that customers on-the-go need, when they need it. The Orbitz suite of mobile travel planning services includes:
- Hotels by Orbitz App for iPhone : A hotel-only booking app which incorporates the iPhones locator capabilities and takes the user directly to available hotels for booking in three taps
- Orbitz App for iPhone and Orbitz App for Android : Access your itinerary and search and book flights, hotels and cars in a flash – all from a single app.
- Orbitz Hotels App for iPad : Whether on the couch or on the go, enjoy a quick and easy way to search for and book hotels.
- Orbitz mobile website: The fast and powerful Orbitz mobile website http://m.orbitz.com makes it easy for travelers to search for and book hotel rooms, vacation packages, airline tickets and car rentals – as well as access itineraries – from any web-enabled mobile phone.
- Orbitz Mobile Steals: Exclusive hotel deals of up to 50% off in the world's most popular destinations. Mobile Steals are available across the full suite of Orbitz mobile products.
Orbitz mobile products deliver the same value that customers have come to expect when booking on Orbitz, including:
- Automatic Price Assurance refunds: If another Orbitz customer books the same flight or prepaid hotel room for less, Orbitz will send a check for the difference automatically
- Enhanced Low Price Guarantee: Orbitz customers who find their same prepaid hotel room for a lower price online can receive a refund for the difference and a $50 discount on a future hotel booking
- No Orbitz fees on hotel cancellations or changes
- Orbitz Care Alerts: During travel, keep informed of any flight cancellations, delays, or gate changes via email, text message, or voice alerts sent to your mobile device and, optionally, up to 6 other people of your choice.
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/orbitz_launches_new_hotel_iphone_app
It is important to observe that for the 27 countries in the European Union, the results of the hotel business for 2011 are positive. No country closed the year with a downturn for its reference indicator (the RevPAR) even if there is a broad range between stabilization in Sweden (+1.8%) and strong improvement in Poland (+9.3%), which occasionally benefited from its presidency of the Union. The European countries with the strongest hotel activity (United Kingdom, France, Germany or the Benelux) are positioned within a tighter range: between 4.5% and 6% growth, which better reflects the state of Europe's marketplace.
With an average European occupancy rate higher than 66%, hotel occupancy gained two points over 2010, which was already in a strong recovery after the crisis of 2009. The leaders are the international gateways, capitals and business cities: Amsterdam, Berlin, Hamburg, London, Munich or Paris, which flirt with or surpass an OR of 75% across the year. With an OR close to 85% London beats all records, and is close to saturation, stimulating the whole of UK's performance with 75%. At the bottom of the table is the OR in Italy, Spain and Poland which reflect the difficulties of the national markets. The only two drops in occupancy with respect to 2010 (Sweden and Austria) are less than 1.5 point.
This strong demand justified a significant improvement in the average daily rate (over 2.5% for the whole of Europe), with higher performances, around 6%, in Austria and Portugal. Generally speaking, it is the good results in upscale hotels that have allowed this progression.
The question mark bears on the slump observed in year-end business. The downturn of growth in the RevPAR since autumn 2011 was not brought to a halt by Christmas celebrations and the level of business in December 2011 dropped back below that of December 2010. While marginal, this drop in the RevPAR by 0.9% brings to a close nearly two years of positive change after the severe shakeup in 2009.
Globally in Europe the two business indexes came to a halt in their uptrend and it may be feared that the negative result of December 2011 will continue in the early months of 2012.
Get the full story at HSMAI
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/european_hospitality_results_2011_between_satisfaction_and_a_question_mark
The Four Seasons website looks great, and contains some extensive and very useful content on each hotel, but there are many flaws.
For such a big project, there isn't much evidence of user-centred design here, as there are numerous usability issues which could irritate and deter customers.
These include key elements 'hidden' below the fold, a less than intuitive booking engine, not enough filters to help narrow hotel selection, and a poor mobile site.
Perhaps the worst thing of all is that, as outlined above, the site appears to have been designed without any consideration for accessibility. This is not only bad form, but it's also bad business.
Get the full story at Econsultancy
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/site_review_four_seasons_18m_redesign
Data from Monetate shows that referral traffic from Pinterest to the websites of five specialty apparel retailers jumped 389% from July-December 2011.
Based on this data, it's not surprising that many businesses-focused early adopters have been lifestyle brands like home goods retailer West Elm and Real Simple Magazine. However, tech brands like Mashable and The Next Web, as well as design network Behance have quickly seen the benefits, too. For these brands, Pinterest's knack for allowing an interesting, visual way of categorizing information is likely the draw. So whether your brand is based on fashion or you're just trying to show your followers what your brand is all about, Pinterest offers a great medium connect with your audience. And the brands that have been most successful aren’t just enabling users to “pin” their content; rather, they're getting in on the pinning themselves.
While Pinterest is still very young and its true ROI remains to be seen, here are 7 examples of brands who are already using Pinterest the right way: to engage fans in a meaningful way that gets them to react, share, and even convert.
Get the full story at HubSpot Blog
Read also "Should Marketers be Pinterested?" at MarketingProfs.com, and "Pinterest: Everything You Need To Know" at SocialMouths
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/examples_of_brands_that_pop_on_pinterest
With such a large market share, Google is somewhat able to dictate what businesses must do to be successful. With a greater emphasis on social relevancy and personalization comes the expectation that businesses will catch up – sooner rather than later.
As Google seems to be favoring its own social networks, it is imperative that hotels develop a Google+ page. While some hotels have already created pages, the adoption rate is not as quick as Facebook and there is still room to be an “early adopter” in this channel. In no uncertain terms, the more you interact with other Google+ users in your circles, the greater the likelihood that your content & activity will show up in personalized search results.
Get the full story at HeBS digital
Read also "Why Your Hotel Needs Google Plus" at The Blue Magnet Blog
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/google_impact_on_hotel_seo_strategies
Travelport has unveiled findings from a global airline merchandising survey which shows strong support amongst travel agencies to assist airlines in selling ancillary services through the GDS. The survey also highlights the challenges travel agents face in the selling of these services, amid their own pressures to grow revenues, reduce costs and increase productivity.
The unbundling of fares and services in recent years has seen the growth of ancillary products such as checked baggage, meals, lounge passes and upgrades. Agency respondents were asked to specify how this change has impacted their businesses. Top impacts included confusion around what services were offered by each airline, productivity and the need to offer these services to remain a full-service agency. Only 16 percent of responses saw unbundling as an opportunity to charge or increase fees and 44 percent of respondents said they did not impose additional charges for booking optional services.
Travelport found that agencies would be more interested in selling optional services if the process was more efficient. Survey respondents indicated that booking optional services currently required approximately 29 percent more time. Presently some services are available through the GDS while others are sold via airline websites or by phone. The findings indicated a strong demand for a single aggregated source of information and sales capability and the GDS was listed as the most preferred channel to book and sell optional services by 70 percent of respondents.
Get the full story at ITCM
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/survey_reveals_travel_agency_views_on_selling_of_ancillary_services
The Travel Industry Payments Barometer, by pre-paid payment specialists Ixaris, found a fifth of businesses make more than 50% of their revenue from non-GDS transactions, while three in five receive between 10% and 50% of their revenue from sales outside GDS bookings.
The survey, out today, polled 53 trade representatives, including agents, hoteliers and tour operators and found less than 10% of travel agents and suppliers believe their payment systems are completely adequate, with the biggest bug-bear named as booking fees such as administrative and credit card surcharges.
Chief executive Alex Mifsud said the shrinking share of GDS bookings, as agents put together more dynamic packages, meant payments transacted outside the GDSs were being handled manually or with disparate systems, leaving room for error and unreliable audit trails.
Get the full story at Travolution
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/travel_retailers_at_risk_as_non_gds_business_rises
Bazaarvoice, which offers brands technology to harness customer conversations, and Buddy Media, the Facebook page and campaign management company, have teamed up to create a tool called 'What's Popular Right Now'
The tool inserts customer-generated content gathered from Bazaarvoice into Buddy Media-powered Facebook brand pages and social media campaigns.
Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide is the first brand to use this tool, which powers the Discover section on its Westin Hotels & Resorts Facebook page.
Get the full story at UK's Marketing magazine
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/starwood_hotels_adds_customer_reviews_to_facebook
These days, you would be hard-pressed to find a proactive business that hasn’t implemented some form of social media strategy into their budget and marketing plan. Sure, there is the benefit of looking hip, and keeping your finger on the pulse of what your consumers are saying about your company and your brand, but social plays a much deeper role in terms of SEO. In the past year, the major search engines have begun to look towards social signals to determine a higher level of relevance for searchers, based not only on their search terms, but also by what friends in their various social networks suggest. In other words, the more active a user becomes in the social sphere, the stronger that user’s “social authority” becomes.
The front runner in this category is Facebook, found to be touting a ‘like’ button on nearly every page online. More recently, the addition of the share button and a variety of other bells and whistles, such as group sharing and tagging, have been implemented, upping the game even more. Google recently responded to these developments by rolling out the ‘+1’ button, their answer to the ‘like’ button. Add to that the foray of location-based check-in sites, such as Google Places and Foursquare, and it becomes evident that the engines are getting better at gathering more and more relevant information on consumers habits, likes, dislikes, and more, and then storing and using that data to narrow down results through the consumers very own search patterns.
Get the full story at Visibility magazine
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/how_social_media_changed_seo
Could Pinterest be a legitimate rival to the likes of Facebook and Twitter? Perhaps, but the online pinboard service still has a ways to go.
In January, Pinterest accounted for 3.6 percent of referral traffic – up from 2.5 percent in December and a paltry .17 percent of traffic in July – making Pinterest nearly even with Twitter as a traffic driver, according to Shareaholic. That was more than YouTube (1.05 percent), Reddit (0.83 percent), Google+ (0.22 percent) LinkedIn (0.20 percent), and MySpace (0.01 percent) combined.
Meanwhile, Facebook dominated, accounting for 26.4 percent of referral traffic. Though Google+ referral traffic dropped, Google’s other products, including News, Images, and Gmail, continued to be a top referral source, noted Shareaholic, which aggregates data from more than 200,000 publishers and 260 million unique visitors per month.
Get the full story at Search Engine Watch
Read also "Google Travel, Facebook, Apple and … Pinterest?" at Tnooz
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/pinterest_driving_more_referral_traffic_than_google
Tripadvisor, the travel review website, has been banned from claiming that all of its hotel and restaurant reviews are real.
It follows complaints that some unscrupulous hoteliers have posted fake comments on the site to boost their own business or sabotage others.
Following a four month investigation, the Advertising Standards Authority found that it was possible for “non-genuine content” to appear on Tripadvisor, which is designed to allow holidaymakers to share tips and opinions on places they have visited.
Get the full story at the Telegraph and Tnooz
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/tripadvisor_banned_from_claiming_its_reviews_are_real
It also believes that aspects of the way the service displays results is in breach of US Department of Transport (DOT) consumer protection rules.
Having conducted a “test drive” of Flight Search the report in particular points out how results do not clearly show the carrier operating the flight or baggage charges on the first page.
For a search on a flight from Los Angeles to New York, FairSearch points out that the search results are not sorted by price, claiming more consumers seek the lowest price.
FairSearch points out that lower-priced fares negotiated by OTAs and multi-carrier journeys are excluded from results and many of the advertised fares are unavailable to be booked online.
Get the full story at Travolution, and FairSearch.org (PDF 3.6 MB)
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/fairsearch.org_issues_google_flight_search_report
The more Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) Members stay, the more choices are available and the more personalized the benefits become with standouts like lifetime status, first-of-its-kind 24-hour check-in and a dedicated Starwood ambassador who provides one-on-one service to uniquely tailor the guest experience.
“With globalization trends, there are more mega travelers than ever before going to more places around the world,” said Frits van Paasschen, President and CEO of Starwood. “The opportunity to cultivate what we call ‘loyalty beyond reason’ with the world’s most frequent travelers has never been greater. These are sophisticated consumers who have become jaded by generic points and perks. This is why we’ve invested in distinct new and personal benefits to truly reward those who reward us with a disproportionate amount of their business.”
Three Year Pilot Aimed at Most Profitable Travelers Inspires New Changes
According to van Paasschen, just two percent of travelers drive 30 percent of Starwood’s profits. With that in mind, the company spent the last three years quietly piloting a highly personal one-on-one ambassador service to better understand the needs and desires of these very powerful guests. Across the small, select sample of travelers, Starwood saw a double-digit share shift compared to a control group. Starwood took insights from this pilot to develop new benefits aimed at its elite Members.
“What we heard loud and clear from travelers was that they wanted more choice, more control and more personal service,” said Mark Vondrasek, Senior Vice President, Distribution, Loyalty & Partnership Marketing. “Today, through high touch and high tech, we have a newfound ability to better understand our guests, their preferences and even the nature of each unique trip. By delivering a whole new definition of choice and personal services, we’re moving beyond a purely points arms race to instead build loyalty for life.”
Good-Bye 3 p.m. Check-in – Hello Your24
Turning an ancient hotel convention on its head, Starwood is for the first time ever abolishing the industry’s long-standing 3:00 p.m. check-in time and giving its most frequent travelers control of their own arrival and departure time. Your24 lets Members choose their own 24 hour check-in and checkout time. For example, a guest who checks in at 10 p.m. won’t have to check-out until 10 p.m. on their day of departure. The Your24 program is offered to SPG Members who spend 75+ nights at Starwood hotels annually.
Ultimate in Personal Service for Most Prolific Travelers
Building upon its successful pilot program, Starwood is expanding its innovative one-to-one service which matches its best travelers with personal ambassadors. Now, all Members who stay 100 nights annually are invited to participate in this unique service designed to provide the ultimate in tailored experiences across all 1100+ Starwood hotels. What separates this from a traditional travel concierge program is the unique personal relationship between Member and ambassador. Starwood’s ambassadors work one-on-one with guests to understand their preferences and what matters to them on each trip to deliver a customized experience on property. Ambassadors also provide services beyond the hotel and are even empowered to assist guests when they’re not traveling.
Starwood to Reward Loyalty with Lifetime Status
To show its appreciation for its most loyal and enduring travelers, Starwood Preferred Guest is introducing SPG LifetimeTM status. Now Members who have stayed 250 nights total and maintained elite status for at least five years (consecutive or not) are awarded SPG Lifetime Gold status. Members with 500 total nights and 10 years of Platinum SPG status (consecutive or not) will enjoy their top tier status for life.
The Lowdown on Loyalty: Starwood Enhances Benefits for all Elite Members and the More You Stay, the Richer and More Personal it Gets
“Our goal is to make SPG so rich that it’s impossible for mega travelers not to choose Starwood,” said Vondrasek. “We also want to make the program wildly aspirational for all frequent travelers. And because we know that many of our Members are also Members of other hotel loyalty programs, we believe these upgrades give travelers a compelling reason to consolidate their travel with us. With this in mind, we have enriched all of our elite offerings, ratcheting up the proposition as Members stay more.”
- SPG 100 Nights Benefit: After crossing the 100-night threshold, SPG Members are paired with their personal ambassador.
- SPG 75 Nights Benefit: After spending 75 nights with Starwood, Members earn four Starpoints for every eligible U.S. dollar spent. Members also get access to Your24 to control their check-in and checkout time.
- SPG 50 Nights Benefit: At 50 nights, Members will receive 10 Suite Night Awards ™ to use for room upgrades. Suite Night Awards are confirmable five days prior to arrival.
- Platinum Members (25 Stays or 50 Nights Annually): now have the option of complimentary breakfast as part of their welcome gift at check-in. Platinum Members can also choose from bonus Starpoints or a local gift.
- Gold Members (10 Stays or 25 Nights Annually): now receive a welcome gift at check-in and can choose from bonus Starpoints, complimentary in-room Internet access or a complimentary beverage.
Related Link: Starwood Preferred Guest
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/starwood_setting_out_to_reinvent_hotel_loyalty_programs
Of the travelers surveyed, 54 percent said they have canceled a lodging reservation because they found better amenities at a different property.
- 88% of travelers expect Wi-Fi Internet access to be free of charge in all lodging types
- 41% of travelers have never paid for Wi-Fi Internet access
- 65% said they have used free Wi-Fi Internet in an accommodation’s lobby or common areas to avoid paying for in-room access
According to the survey, 93 percent of accommodations report offering some form of free Wi-Fi Internet access to their guests.
“While accommodations generally appear to be in sync with most traveler amenity preferences, our first-ever 360° survey reveals that there are a number of opportunities for lodging businesses to shift the focus from some services to others to capture travelers’ attention,” said Christine Petersen, president of TripAdvisor for Business. “For example, offering complimentary or discounted tickets, recommendations or even a shuttle service to local attractions or a nearby airport may help tip the balance in a property’s favor, especially when you consider that more than half of travelers say they’ve canceled a reservation because they found better amenities elsewhere.”
Get the full story at Marketwatch
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/tripadvisor_survey_tracks_hotel_amenities_trends
Internal communication seen by The Irish Times indicates that the Carlton Hotel Group encouraged dozens of employees and other nominees to post positive reviews of the chain’s 10 hotels to TripAdvisor.
According to the email, sent to at least 29 employees in the summer of 2010 and copied to the hotel group’s directors, the group wanted “a more pro-active management of the reviews on Trip Advisor” and it said a plan had been agreed which would see managers nominate five people from each hotel to post fake reviews.
The mail, sent by the group’s sales and marketing head Jean O’Connell, said 150 “TripAdvisor Posters” would be contacted by senior hotel staff and told which hotel they were to review and given a timeframe in which to post. “By pooling TA posters it will give better flexibility and IP addresses will be from across the country,” the memo said.
Get the full story at the Irish Times
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/hotel_group_staff_urged_to_write_positive_web_reviews
The press release distribution service sits in an odd place within the world of communications.
For a journalist, wires can highlight stories from abroad, or from niche industries that wouldn’t normally be on your radar but turn out to be interesting. However, getting the balance right is difficult. Signing up to receive email alerts opens the door to a flood of unrelated, badly-pitched releases. It’s a tough call.
For a PR, these wires are a reliable way to send out the releases that might appear dry, but your client insists on putting out - or need to be for financial reasons. You still need to write the story well, and tag properly, but it’s a quick and painless way to get the word out.
However – as Google alerts, social networks and online communities grow in strength and accuracy when sourcing stories and building relationships – what becomes of the wires? Do they become less important? Do they cease to exist?
Econsultancy reached out to several newswires to hear it straight from the horse’s mouth.
Get the full story at Econsultancy
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/the_death_of_press_release_distribution_services
Where holidaymakers want to go is just part of leading tour operator Kuoni's annual Travel Trends Report. The 20-page report also tracks hot travel trends and the top destinations for weddings and honeymoons, for families, for solo travellers, for pampering spa holidays, for the most exciting adventures and authentic experiences as well as the best destinations for those that care about the planet.
The report also highlights changes in holiday behaviour and includes trends in holiday booking behaviour, such as the importance of social media in driving holiday choices.
The top five destinations for 2012 are Maldives holidays, Thailand, Sri Lanka, The United Arab Emirates and the USA, including New York holidays. Kuoni predicts that South Africa will witness huge growth over the next 12 months, helped by the exposure from the football World Cup last year and the weakened currency against sterling. The only mid-haul destination in the 2012 Top Ten selling destinations is the United Arab Emirates, mostly due to the popularity of Dubai holidays.
The Maldives also retained its top slot for honeymoon destinations and topped the wish list for digital natives, better known as Generation X, Y and Z. Sri Lanka holidays retained 'Number one Destination for Weddings', Kuramathi Island Resort in the Maldives kept the top slot for 'Family Destinations', as did Thailand holidays for solo travelling.
The winner of the Top 10 Adventure Holiday is the 11-day tour of culture-rich Sri Lanka on the Ceylon Tour, while those looking for the best 'Planet Friendly Holiday' voted for Governors Main Camp in the wildlife safari heaven of Kenya.
Aside from favourite and new destinations, there are changes in the type of holiday the customer wants. More destination-savvy and discerning holidaymakers are looking for different types of holiday, with four specific trends emerging:
- a thirst for discovery.
- authenticity of experience.
- social responsibility.
- face to face contact with a travel expert when booking.
To meet the needs of a changing holidaymaker, Kuoni launched the Discover brochure for 2012, packed with experiences and tours to help get under the skin of a destination. The company has also launched ananea, a sustainable brand that stands for socially responsible holidays that empower people to protect the natural environment and local population. Kuoni has also strengthened its retail presence across the UK over the last 12 months, with more retail stores for holidaymakers to access all-important first-hand expertise and knowledge.
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/kuoni_reveals_its_uk_travel_trends_report_2012
One of the world’s most popular travel websites has decided mobile is better. Kayak is rolling out an updated design for its eight-year-old site. But it’s not just any old tweak of the look and feel. Kayak is now consciously taking design cues from its recently updated iPad and iPhone apps.
Normally a web-based company that decides to make an app wants to translate the look and feel of its site to that app. But Kayak has been there, done that. And from the design team to the executive team, those within Kayak say it now makes more sense to do the opposite. “I got to the point where I actually liked iPhone app better than our website, I thought it was aesthetically more beautiful,” Kayak co-founder and CTO Paul English told me in an interview last week.
Here’s what the site will look like going forward.
Get the full story at GigaOM
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/kayaks_website_redesign_takes_its_lead_from_mobile
Unlike "opaque" discounting sites such as Priceline and Hotwire, with BackBid you know the identities of the hotels upfront.
BackBid, which operates in 16 U.S. markets, launched in beta in November. Here's how it works: You create a free profile and can include your rewards programs and AAA membership, as well as your preferred amenities, such as valet parking, Wi-Fi and hotel spa.
You then enter information about a hotel reservation you've made elsewhere, including check-in and checkout dates, your confirmation number and where you booked the property. Finally, you e-mail the reservation to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
Get the full story at USA Today
Related Link: BackBid
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/backbid_turns_hotel_shopping_on_its_head
MOGL automatically donates a meal to a person in need each time a MOGL user spends $20 through the app at a partner restaurant. So far, the company says more than 27,000 meals have been donated and more than $350,000 cash-back rewards earned by its users.
The app tracks credit and debit card transactions; users pay any restaurant bill with a MOGL-tracked card; and the rewards (and donations) get tallied. The app can also find nearby participating restaurants. For restaurants that partner with MOGL, the startup also offers data on their customers and ROI.
The San Diego-based company launched in April 2011 and has partnered with nearly 350 SoCal restaurants so far.
Get the full story at VentureBeat
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/restaurant_app_mogl_raises_10m
According to Google, its GA methodology only counts certain types of clicks. If a user has not enabled cookies, flash, images or JavaScript in their browser, it is possible for their clicks to simply be tossed out. If a traveler happened to click your link two times within 30 minutes, it is possible that GA would only show one click instead of two. Since Google is a search engine company first, it also factors out a lot of clicks that it might perceive as coming from robots when, in reality, it is more likely that a human was behind most of those clicks.
Instead of algorithms and filter-based calculations, most other paid click-tracking tools we mentioned above simply tally up the actual number of clicks recorded, which is much more accurate. So, since GA cannot properly record all the clicks to your site, you end up missing a lot of bookings in your GA reports.
And speaking of bookings, it is of course much harder to track a booking than a click. Most paid tracking tools monitor the travelers that click your banner ad, text link or email but then do not book right away. Those travelers might check with their significant other before booking and then bypass your tracking link and book directly on your website days later. But with advanced tracking and reporting you would still be able to properly record all of those bookings and give credit to the websites that referred those folks that booked even 15 days after they clicked your link.
Get the full story at Media Post
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/a_case_for_not_using_google_analytics_to_track_clicks_and_bookings
Whether marketers have reached multichannel nirvana is up for debate, but we’ve no time for that now, we’ve moved on. 2012 is all about convergence.
Consumers are multi-tasking, technology savvy, interactive individuals these days. They don’t differentiate terms such as channels or devices like marketers do, they are just engaging.
I might be chatting to friends online about a wedding invitation I’ve just received via my laptop, receiving a text message on my smartphone all whilst watching TV. Channels are converging due to new technology and a shift in consumer behaviour, and we need to keep up.
The concept of the second screen is an interesting one, and a major contributor to the convergence debate.
Get the full story at Econsultancy
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/tips_for_dealing_with_convergence
During a 30 day period before and after Christmas:
- 38% of cell owners used their phone to call a friend while they were in a store for advice about a purchase they were considering making
- 24% of cell owners used their phone to look up reviews of a product online while they were in a store
- 25% of adult cell owners used their phones to look up the price of a product online while they were in a store, to see if they could get a better price somewhere else
Taken together, just over half (52%) of all adult cell owners used their phone for at least one of these three reasons over the holiday shopping season and one third (33%) used their phone specifically for online information while inside a physical store—either product reviews or pricing information.
Source: Pew Internet
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/the_rise_of_in_store_mobile_commerce
Roomkey.com is a nice site - softer, prettier and simpler than its commercial rivals - but Roomkey.com will have no meaningful impact on the online accommodation market.
The major reason is that hundreds of millions of dollars are required each year to gain the kind of profile and scale a site like this needs to be profitable.
And there is no way the partner companies have that kind of money to invest in a website that is 1) a potential competitor and 2) a non-core business.
Get the full story at Travel Trends
Read also "Roomkey.com - Keys to the Castle for Hoteliers?" at Hudson Crossing Travel Industry Insight, "Room Key: Operators like site, question costs" at HotelNewsNow.com, and
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/roomkey.com_an_expensive_rhetoric
In a demonstration of the Desktop during Travelport’s recent media event in Atlanta, Richard Bryant, senior manager of product development, described it as a CRM-based system that pre-populates much of the customer’s information, such as home airport and passport details, and applies all corporate policy and loyalty program status. Suppliers, for example, can show rates based on the customer’s status.
Among the observers of the demo was Scott Pawley, managing director of U.K.-based Global Travel Management Ltd., which has been using the Universal Desktop for six months.
During that time, the agency has not incurred a single agent debit memo, and he attributes that to the Desktop’s built-in quality control features.
The Desktop will pull content from multiple sources beyond the GDS, he said, including airlines’ own systems, and will display it in an integrated fashion.
Get the full story at Travel Market Report
Read also "Amadeus building a “Google Hotel Finder” for travel agents," and view a video on Travelport's Universal Desktop on Youtube,
Related Link: Travelport Universal Desktop
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/a_closer_look_at_travelports_universal_desktop
Fake reviews are drawing the attention of regulators. They have cracked down on a few firms for deceitful hyping and suspect these are far from isolated instances. “Advertising disguised as editorial is an old problem, but it’s now presenting itself in different ways,” said Mary K. Engle, the Federal Trade Commission’s associate director for advertising practices. “We’re very concerned.”
Researchers like Bing Liu, a computer science professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, are also taking notice, trying to devise mathematical models to systematically unmask the bogus endorsements. “More people are depending on reviews for what to buy and where to go, so the incentives for faking are getting bigger,” said Mr. Liu. “It’s a very cheap way of marketing.”
Under F.T.C. rules, when there is a connection between a merchant and someone promoting its product that affects the endorsement’s credibility, it must be fully disclosed. In one case, Legacy Learning Systems, which sells music instructional tapes, paid $250,000 last March to settle charges that it had hired affiliates to recommend the videos on Web sites.
Get the full story at The New York Times
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/the_incentives_for_faking_online_reviews_are_getting_bigger
"2012 may prove to be challenging for the U.S. hotel industry," said Randy Smith, co-founder and chairman at STR. "There are a number of issues that will confront the industry and overall economy this year. We believe that given how well the hotel industry did during 2011, it will be difficult in 2012 to show significant growth. However, we remain optimistic the industry will continue to report modest increases in 2012."
"The economic environment remains turbulent as we move into 2012," said Adam Sacks, president of Tourism Economics. "While the U.S. economy is showing signs of sustained growth, the recession in Europe and a slowdown in emerging markets will dampen lodging performance. Given the strong room demand experienced in the past two years, we expect modest demand growth of 1.3 percent, while rates continue their long climb back to prior peaks with growth of 3.8 percent."
The forecast for 2013 includes a 4.9-percent growth in RevPAR to US$66.81.
Get the full story at Hospitality.Net
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/us_modest_revpar_increases_expected_in_2012_and_2013
Kayak has attracted more than 10 million downloads of its mobile apps for iPhone/iPad, Android, Blackberry, Nokia, Windows Phone 7 and HP Touchpad, with iPhone and Android notching first and second place, respectively, in terms of apps which have scored the most downloads, says Paul English, co-founder and chief technology officer.
But there is a difference between the commerce proclivities of Kayak’s iPhone and Android users, English says. “People who have iPhones actually buy travel online and people who have Androids don’t really.”
Get the full story at Tnooz
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/iphone_users_buy_travel_online_android_not_so_much
Dan Israel, strategy lead for the mobile practice at Sapient/Nitro, pointed out that most of the mobile traffic is coming through the smartphone, but most purchasing in mobile is done through tablets. “It makes sense. You have a larger canvas for shopping and buying,” he said.
Israel cited Sapient/Nitro research showing that 38% of consumers rated smartphones as useful for shopping compared to 56% for tablets. In a similar vein, Sheila Collins, consumer digital marketing strategist at American Express, pointed to data showing customers tend to spend 20% to 30% more on tablets than other devices.
Anecdotal findings reported in The Wall Street Journal last fall also suggested that tablet users are placing bigger orders -- up to 10% to 20% more -- than average shoppers on PCs or smartphones. Retailers including Macy’s, Gap and Abercrombie and Fitch all attested to seeing higher conversion rates on customers using tablets. A study in December commissioned by marketing technology firm Zmags estimated tablet shoppers would spend $325 on average during the holidays.
Get the full story at MediaPost
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/tablets_dominate_mobile_purchases
The independent study was conducted by Penn Schoen Berland on behalf of Marriott International (NYSE: MAR) and included the views of 1,100 global travelers and opinion leaders from eight countries, including Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Ninety-six percent of respondents, who ranged in age from under 35 to over 50 years old, believed that travel and tourism stimulates the economy, while 77 percent felt that “the more people experience other countries and cultures, the more peace will spread.”
“I believe we are entering a “Golden Age of Travel,” where opportunities to do business and travel abroad are opening up like never before,” said Arne Sorenson, Marriott International’s CEO-elect and current president, pointing to the number of international arrivals, which have doubled in the last 10 years and will reach 1 billion in 2012 (UN World Tourism Organization). “Travel opens up your mind, your heart and your wallet. This survey shows it is also a powerful form of soft diplomacy in the world today.”
"Bringing down barriers to travel creates jobs and prosperity and we applaud President Obama's announcement to reform U.S. visa and entry systems to welcome more international visitors. We look forward to even more progress in the U.S. and around the world to develop multi-national solutions that will grow the travel industry and benefit economies and people worldwide."
According to the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), the industry is predicted to account for an extra 69 million net jobs by 2021, including direct, indirect and induced employ¬ment-- almost 80 percent of which will be in Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa. Put another way, one American job is created for every 35 international visitors to the U.S., according to the U.S. Travel Association. Marriott plans to fill about 60,000 jobs in 2012 alone, with two-thirds of those being in countries outside the U.S., where more than 50 percent of its hotel pipeline resides.
WTTC estimates that total contributions of Travel & Tourism to the global gross domestic product (GDP) are forecast to rise by 4.2 percent annually to US $9.2 trillion by 2021. Visitor exports—or the amount visitors spend in a given foreign country—will increase 6.6 percent annually through 2021, rising to US $1.8 trillion by 2021. As an example, in New York City alone, Brazilians spent a total of $1.63 billion, topping the $1.42 billion spent by travelers from the U.K., the $1.27 billion spent by Canadians and the $1.1 billion spent by Italians, according to NYC & Co., the city’s tourism board.
“We already knew that travel and tourism have a major impact on the economy, but now we also know that it can change people’s views worldwide,” says Mark Penn, CEO of Penn Schoen Berland and CEO of Burson-Marsteller. “International travelers advance people’s understanding of different cultures and reinforce all that we as humans have in common with each other.”
Download the full study at Marriott (PPT 1.4 MB)
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/marriott_calls_for_golden_age_of_travel
Entitled “Good to Know,” the ads seek to expose “truths” about Google and its alleged conflicts of interest.
The ads argue that Google unfairly promotes its own products, delivers search results that aren’t objective or in the best interests of users and doesn’t respect user privacy. The ads assert that they’re telling the public things that “Google doesn’t want you to know.”
The new members of FairSearch.org include the Interactive Travel Services Association (ITSA), Twenga, which just filed an antitrust complaint against Google in Europe and ShopCity.com, a local-community shopping destination.
Get the full story at Search Engine Land
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/fairsearch.org_launches_anti_google_good_to_know_ad_campaign
According to PhoCusWright's Traveler Technology Survey 2011, travelers who are active on online social networks are as likely to "follow" or "like" a company as they are to post general comments or photos on a social network. However, less than three in 10 have "liked" or "followed" a travel company, suggesting that despite their strong branding and often ambitious social media plans, many travel companies have fallen flat with their fans online.
Based on a comprehensive survey of more than 1,900 online travelers in the U.S., PhoCusWright's Traveler Technology Survey 2011 examines the relationship between emerging technologies and leisure travelers, with a focus on social networks, smartphones and other mobile devices. According to the report, it is critical for travel companies to connect and engage with consumers who conduct travel-related activities on social networks, since these travelers not only spend more on travel than others, but also influence their friends' travel choices.
"Our research found that an overwhelming majority of online travelers in the U.S. 'like' or 'follow' companies on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter," says Carroll Rheem, director, research at PhoCusWright. "However, only a fraction of them 'like' travel brands on these networks. It would be one thing if the product was unpleasant or mundane, but vacations are inherently enjoyable and aspirational – travel brands should be aiming higher. Until they are able to stimulate their 'likability,' travel companies are missing out on a valuable opportunity to engage with their audience."
More information on the report at PhoCusWright
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/travel_brands_on_social_networks_whats_not_to_like
Travel managers' top four priorities focus on cost control The top four priorities for travel managers in 2012 concentrate on driving air and ground transport savings, improving travel compliance, optimizing hotel spend and online adoption. In an evolving market, these areas represent opportunities even for the most mature travel programs. To achieve these objectives, travel managers use a wide range of measures, including improving communications on travel policy and compliance (previous CWT research shows that only 50% of travelers are familiar with their company's travel policy), helping employees to better understand online booking processes, and mandating the use of preferred suppliers. Communication on preferred suppliers and booking channels will be particularly important as travelers use mobile applications more and more.
Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT), a global leader specialized in managing business travel and meetings and events, today published its Travel Management Priorities for 2012 report, based on an international survey of 290 travel managers. The report highlights the main changes likely to affect travel programs and looks at global trends and differences between regions.
Travel managers' top four priorities focus on cost control
The top four priorities for travel managers in 2012 concentrate on driving air and ground transport savings, improving travel compliance, optimizing hotel spend and online adoption. In an evolving market, these areas represent opportunities even for the most mature travel programs. To achieve these objectives, travel managers use a wide range of measures, including improving communications on travel policy and compliance (previous CWT research shows that only 50% of travelers are familiar with their company's travel policy), helping employees to better understand online booking processes, and mandating the use of preferred suppliers. Communication on preferred suppliers and booking channels will be particularly important as travelers use mobile applications more and more.
Travel managers' priorities and planned measures vary according to region
CWT research pinpointed some variations in results, depending on the region in which travel managers are based. For example, travel managers in Asia Pacific place a greater focus on optimizing hotel spend compared to other regions, reflecting the challenges they face with particularly high occupancy rates in this market. With the number one priority for Europe, Middle East and Africa being air and ground transport savings, one of the measures travel managers are planning is managing the trade-offs between air and rail as high-speed rail networks expand. Travel managers in Latin America also accord the highest importance to driving air and ground savings. Meanwhile, North American travel managers cite traveler compliance -an ongoing challenge- as the number one priority.
In an uncertain economic environment, travel managers need to monitor changes closely to ensure they are getting the best deals from suppliers and the right performance from their travel program. The CWT report also highlights key market trends affecting travel programs worldwide in the coming year, such as the continued growth in travel spend for Asia Pacific, the increasing use of mobile solutions in business travel and the sharp uptake in a strategic approach to meetings management.
Download the full report at Carlson Wagonlit Travel
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/travel_managers_top_four_priorities_focus_on_cost_control
Another fan buying enterprise, Bird Bird Fans, has recently launched its service of buying high volumes of fans to boost the Facebook pages of small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) new to the market.
According to Mark Macias, Founder & Managing Partner of 3M Media Group, the company behind Big Bird Fans, multinationals spend "$100k a month on social media fan acquisition." He claims Big Bird Fans will bring this technology and acquisition techniques only used by large brands to SMBs.
Macias believes some people just want fans from anywhere and organic fans have too high a cost. For him, targeting is something that large companies are looking to do, not SMBs. "Most companies starting out don't need a customised approach. It's more about the image. Sheer numbers count first."
"We're in the beginning stages of power marketing with Facebook," Macias continues. "Until someone figures it out, and I hope it takes them a decade, [Big Bird Fans] will help separate my PR firm from any other PR firm."
Get the full story at Econsultancy
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/is_buying_facebook_fans_ethical
1. Include Visible Social Media Buttons
This seems like a no-brainer, but double-check. Best practices suggest that social media buttons be displayed on the top, bottom or along the side of your home page. Links or buttons that remain in your navigation as the user moves from page to page are optimal.
To ensure that users don’t exit your web page altogether, you may want to create the buttons or links so that they open your social media pages in new windows.
Also, do not feel obligated to link out to all social media channels you’ve created or dabbled in. If you’re fonder of Twitter and have completely abandoned your Facebook page, there’s no reason to link to any outlet that is not being actively managed. In fact, linking out to inactive channels can ultimately cause more harm than good.
Get the full story at the Social Media Examiner
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/tips_for_integrating_social_media_on_your_website
Hyatt Hotels Corp. president and CEO Mark Hoplamazian said corporate transient demand was strong in 2011 and that "transient dynamics in the U.S. continue to be good." He added that group demand also increased last year but lagged transient demand. Booking windows, Hoplamazian said, "are not getting shorter but not lengthening out, which is my key in keeping tabs of corporate confidence."
According to Carlson president and CEO Hubert Joly, "More companies are planning to increase travel than are planning to cut travel. We have some economic headwinds, so it seems like travel has some legs, here."
Those trends coupled with little hotel development in the United States should translate to strong performance by U.S. hotels during the next four to five years, said Choice Hotels International president and CEO Stephen Joyce. "We're still seeing struggles to get development going, and financing markets won't improve anytime this year, so there will be no real new inventory until 2014 or 2015," he explained. "The supply-demand balance is better than I've seen in 20 years. We'll have a good run, regardless of the economy, and if we get some help from the economy, we'll have a really great run."
Get the full story at Business Travel News
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/hotel_ceos_bullish_on_u.s._corporate_travel_demand
Despite the uncertain global economic environment, hospitality indicators continue to appear positive. "The conventional wisdom suggests that key fundamentals should be on the wane, but that has not happened yet and, due to many factors, we don't believe it will occur in 2012," said Michael Fishbin, Ernst & Young's leader of Global Hospitality Services. Nevertheless, Fishbin suggests hotel operators and investors in the sector need to stay focused and not have a false sense of security by the overall numbers.
"The situation for the hotel industry is markedly different from market to market and global operators need to be on their toes and ready to react to rapidly changing conditions," he added.
Fishbin contrasted hospitality markets in developed economies, such as the US, with some developing economies such as China and Brazil, where construction has been very active. In the US, currently the largest hotel market in the world, the construction of new hotels has historically averaged around two percent per year but in recent years, and for the foreseeable future, is projected to be less than one percent per year. "Even with the uncertain economic outlook, hotel supply is not going to outpace demand any time soon, giving fundamentals such as room rates and overall occupancy a chance to further recover," Fishbin said.
Among emerging economies, Brazil could fare the best over the next decade in part by the impact of two mega events -- the FIFA Soccer World Cup and the Summer Olympics -- scheduled to take place there in 2014 and 2016, respectively. These events will attract millions of travelers to the country and while hotel construction has been increasing in preparation for both events, officials are taking a pragmatic approach in order to avoid overbuilding.
Fishbin concludes that while the bias among hotel companies will be to continue to grow in 2012, that growth should not come without a fair amount of checking back in the rear view mirror. "This isn't a time for hotel operators to abandon the principles that allowed them to navigate through the recent economic downturn," he says. Many companies are still sitting on piles of cash waiting for an opportunity to transact, says Fishbin. "Companies should take advantage of this breathing room to reassess and examine their capital agendas to make sure they are using cash wisely and efficiently as well as preparing for future growth," he says.
Download the full report at Hospitality.net (PDF 1.4 MB)
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/hospitality_indicators_continue_to_appear_positive_says_ernst_young
You have heard all about how important social media is to the travel industry and more specifically the importance of social media for the hospitality industry. You have listened and hopefully you have taken action to introduce your hotel to Facebook, Twitter, Google+, FourSquare, TripAdvisor and other relevant social media sites. But now, you are finding your foray into social media has fallen flat.
Start the year with a focus on spicing up the hotel’s Facebook page to grow fans, increase interactions and ultimately prove a return on investment on your page. Pepper in some of the best hotel apps on the hotel’s Facebook page to attain your social media goals. Adding tabs to your hotel's Facebook page will not only make your page appear more interesting, but will actually give visitors more to do on your page! Applications capture visitors’ attention, draw them in, push them to interact with the page and provide opportunity for fans to take action with the brand.
Get the full story at The Blue Magnet blog
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/apps_to_spice_up_your_hotels_facebook_page
You register a credit card with Plink, and then when you make purchases at Taco Bell, 7-Eleven, Dunkin Donuts, or one of Plink’s other clients you’ll get Facebook Credits automatically deposited into your account. As demand for Facebook Credits to spend on social games and media increases, expect more virtual currency incentive companies like Plink to pop up.
The reason virtual currency microincentives work is because they are so cheap to distribute, and users perceive their value as higher than their cost. Mailing someone a coupon or rebate can cost enough to prohibit small incentives for small actions and purchases. Since it essentially costs nothing to drop Credits into someone’s Facebook account, businesses can cost-effectively reward users with just a few Credits, which typically cost $0.10 each.
Get the full story at TechCrunch
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/plink_pays_you_facebook_creditstto_eat_out
comScore says that the blossoming social curation site has over 4m registered users and is growing rapidly, while Google Ad Planner shows that nearly 1.5m people visit Pinterest every day – spending 14 minutes on the site on average.
But rather than suggest ways for brands to use Pinterest tactically, it’s a far smarter approach to look at the types of people these users are – and whether Pinterest is an appropriate community in which to mingle.
Google Ad planner shows that users are:
- Largely women (a 80% to 20% ratio). So there’s some truth to Matt Buchanan’s post on Gizmodo yesterday that proclaims Pinterest as “a Tumblr for ladies”.
- Aged mainly between 25 and 44 (accounting for 55% of the group, 30% are 25-34, 25% are 35 – 44)
- Just 25% of users have a bachelors degree or higher
- The majority live off a household income of $25-75k
Get the full story at Econsultancy
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/the_demographics_of_pinterests_users
So is Google’s new omnibus policy another sign it has broken its promise and is becoming more evil by the day? Or is the fuss over the new version, which will allow the search giant to share data among its various services, just a tempest in a privacy teapot?
In a blog post on the announcement, Google says the new privacy policy will be rolled out in March (the new version is online already), but the company wanted to give users a heads up well in advance because “this stuff matters” (and probably also because both Google and Facebook have had their hands slapped by the Federal Trade Commission and other authorities over privacy). The company notes it currently has more than 70 different privacy policies that govern its various services, from YouTube to Gmail to Blogger.
This makes it sound as though Google is tidying up a messy room, and the company clearly wants users to see it as a benevolent gesture. That may be how Google sees its personalized search, but others see it as a fundamental breach of Google’s core search mission, since competitors like Twitter and Facebook argue it favors Google’s own social network over others
Get the full story at GigaOM
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/googles_new_privacy_policy_should_you_be_concerned
The report discusses the effects of channel mix on profitability and what the industry can expect in the near term in the distribution landscape. It reviews the size and structure of the hotel industry at a high level, with respect to hotel performance and its use of dis¬tribution channels. It also drills down to issues of distribution costs and benefits, price elasticity, and the evolving roles of marketing, revenue management and distribution strategy in a dynamic and volatile online environment.
“It’s been months in the making and without a doubt one of the most ambitious examinations made to date of the industry’s use of distribution channels,” said AH&LA President / CEO Joe McInerney. “Given the crucial strategic role of distribution, this is a discipline that is fast becoming the centerpiece of many hotels' marketing and revenue management plans, so this report will help hoteliers understand the value of each entity to their business.”
The full report is the most comprehensive analysis made to date of the hotel industry's use of distribution channels in order to develop tools and metrics to assist hotels in determining their optimal channel mix. It is based on interviews with hundreds of industry executives along with data sources including distribution costs, price elasticity analyses, media spending for hotel advertising, consumer clickstream data and channel mix from more than 25,000 hotels and 100 brands representing more than three million hotel rooms.
Executive Summary findings are broken out into categories, including:
- Prices, Price Elasticity and Demand: Finding highlight: In the mature U.S. lodging market, the primary expectation of hotels from their distribution channel partners will be in shifting demand share, rather than generating new incremental demand.
- Individual Channel Profiles: Finding highlight: Brand.com continues to capture a larger share of both the absolute number of rooms booked and the percentage of total rooms booked in year-over-year comparisons representing (in 2010) 16.4 percent of the demand and 18.5 percent of the revenue. OTA share of room night bookings grew substantially in 2010 over 2009, representing almost 11 percent of all room night demand and 7.7 percent of the revenue. GDS share of room nights grew steadily in 2010 capturing 8.3 percent of the room nights and 10.8 percent of the room revenue. The share of the voice channel dropped slightly in 2010 but rose again by June of 2011 to 13.7 percent of room demand and 17.3 percent of room revenue.
- Marketing and Distribution Strategy: Finding highlight: The three greatest emerging forces in online distribution are: search, social media and mobile. These new media are rapidly becoming popular points of entry for travel shoppers.
“We’re pleased to have been part of this groundbreaking study that sets a benchmark for hotel operators in terms of managing their distribution channel platforms,” said Amanda Hite, STR’s president. “This study and future data collection provides key information for hoteliers to move away from the reliance on anecdotal evidence in establishing their channel-management strategies.”
Authors Cindy Estis Green of Kalibri Labs and Mark Lomanno of newBrandAnalytics also focused on the implications of the various finding.
Noting the number of new emerging channels for distribution, the authors suggest, “To compete effectively and retain control of pricing, inventory, and the value proposition of lodging brands, the hospitality industry has to make a substantial commitment to manage a burgeoning array of transactional and marketing channels and harness its customer relationships. Closely managing channel costs and choosing the best mix of channel partners can refine a distribution strategy to deliver optimal results at a brand and hotel level.”
A key driver in the study was helping hotels and hotel companies find their optimal channel mix. To this end, the report comments, “Each hotel has an optimal channel mix. It is affected by supply and demand; the number of rooms booked through the channel, and at what room rate; the strategy of each competitor; and the position of each hotel in its marketplace. Being mindful of the use of discounting to drive demand and the affect it has on overall ADR is at the heart of achieving an optimal channel mix.”
Download the full report at HSMAI
Read also "Authors discuss release of distribution report" at HotelNewsNow.com
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/comprehensive_hotel_distribution_analysis_available_for_download
TripAdvisor announced the launch of the TripAdvisor Management Dashboard, a new analytics service that summarises a business's performance on TripAdvisor at a glance. Businesses may use the data and information the dashboard provides to track how they are engaging with customers and guests online, target areas for improvement and make informed, up-to-the-minute decisions.
The new Management Dashboard, which is available for free to all registered business representatives, can be accessed via the TripAdvisor Management Centre. The dashboard provides reporting on everything from a business's total reviews and current popularity ranking to the business's most viewed competitors and the countries generating the most traffic to the business's TripAdvisor page.
A more comprehensive version of the Management Dashboard will also be available in the coming weeks exclusively to all accommodations with Business Listings subscriptions. This version offers additional powerful metrics and information, including graphics depicting a property's Business Listings performance both over time and relative to their competitors in the same geographical region. They also receive a Special Offers recommendation tool for suggestions on how to use offers to capture travellers' attention on TripAdvisor.
TripAdvisor Business Listings enables individual hotels to increase their property's exposure in front of TripAdvisor's more than 50 million unique monthly visitors* by adding their direct contact information-such as a website link, email address and phone number-to their property pages on the site, and also by adding special offers on high-visibility pages.
Management Dashboard Features
Free features
- Status at a glance: Total reviews, current popularity ranking and TripAdvisor rating
- Reviews and comments summary: Latest review activity and top comments from reviews
- Photos metrics: Total number of traveller and business-submitted photos, photos in the last 30 days and the number of visitors viewing photos
- Most viewed competitors: A list of competitors most viewed by the same people who view the business' page
- Top visitor locations: A breakdown of the countries generating the most number of visitors to the business's page
Features available to Business Listings subscribers
The Business Listings version includes all of the features from the free version, as well as the following exclusive features:
- Trend Graphs: Dynamic graphs showing page-view trends over time
- Performance metrics: Performance of a property's Business Listing relative to other properties
- Top Special Offers by click-through: Special Offer recommendations based on the offers that are receiving the most clicks (this tool is shown when a property is not taking advantage of their Special Offers feature)
"We are pleased to offer our new Management Dashboard to business representatives worldwide to give them the metrics they need to succeed on TripAdvisor," said Christine Petersen, president of TripAdvisor for Business. "This is an easy-to-read report that is designed to help track a business's performance, compare its performance against the competition and make informed decisions about how to engage our large community of travellers."
The free version of the Management Dashboard is available immediately. The Business Listings version of the dashboard will be available in the coming weeks.
For more information about the Management Dashboard or Business Listings, please visit your business's page at http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/owners
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/tripadvisor_launches_new_analytics_service_for_hotels
Demetrius Canton, director of market management for the Expedia partner services group in the Caribbean, told Tribune Business: "Room nights that are on the books for the Bahamas for 2012 are pacing ahead 30 per cent year-over-year. We are experiencing a really solid year for the Bahamas. I believe we might hit the 200,000 room night mark if we maintain this pace."
According to Mr Canton, the Bahamas ranks as the fourth largest destination from a room night and revenue standpoint in the Caribbean, behind the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Jamaica.
"The Bahamas represents about 8 per cent of our overall Caribbean business," he said. "We had a fantastic year in 2010 from a growth standpoint. This past year we did not grow the business in the Bahamas, but we are really on a strong pace this year to rebound.
Get the full story at the Bahamas Tribune
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/expedia_targets_30_bahamas_room_night_rise
The importance of networking has been a central focus of sales training since before the internet existed. However, it is important to encourage your sales people to work smarter rather than longer when networking online. Focusing their online activities on sites with the highest probability of gaining new qualified contacts can prevent them from falling down the social media rabbit hole to the detriment of traditional sales approaches. Here are a couple of great places to have your salespeople spend time online:
Local Tourist Board pages - Landing a big event like a regional conference or trade show often means knowing when a customer is looking for new venues in a specific region. Contacts within local tourist boards can be a great source of this information. Liking or following a tourist board such as Hawaii’s Convention and Visitors Bureau allows a salesperson to engage in a very subtle way with potential customers and the staff at the tourist board. A quick look at their Facebook or Twitter page daily can keep your salespeople informed about upcoming conferences, festivals/concerts, networking events, news stories, and more.
Vendor Pages - Planning events, such as weddings or conferences, often include choosing multiple vendors in addition to the venue. Liking or following top local photographers, event planners, wedding cake companies, florists etc., can lead to great word-of-mouth marketing. Posting sincere comments about a vendor’s work at your hotel or something they posted on their page if you haven’t worked with them before can further cement those relationships. This takes very little time, but can really help get your sales person’s name and your hotel’s name out there. This is especially effective in smaller markets.
Your hotel’s social media pages - Hotel pages that advance social media goals can be a great place to showcase your group sales team. For example, say that a past group customer posted a positive review on a 3rd party travel site, such as TripAdvisor or Yelp, or your Facebook page. Allowing a salesperson who managed that customer relationship to comment back shows continuity of customer care. This can also drive future customers to contact that sales manager because they are visible and approachable. Obviously, this should be used in moderation and your marketing staff may need to oversee the posts to maintain brand compliance, but it can be very effective.
Get the full story at the Revinate blog
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/using_social_media_to_drive_hotel_group_sales
1. Discounting is a behavior: It’s not just a business tactic; it has deep anthropological roots in gift giving, a fundamental practice of social relations. Gift giving has the power to alter psychological relations. For example, if a discount is done to clear merchandise out of a warehouse, customers know that the “original price” was higher – and it could hurt your brand if they perceive your brand as being forced to give, out of weakness.
2. Not just a price reduction: A discount is part of a master strategy that theoretically is organizing everything related to a business. This strategy will determine the form, target, and location of a discount. A discount doesn't emerge from a vacuum; it's an action that is the result of a process.
If you don’t have that process, you are acting arbitrarily. Sure, throwing darts in the general direction of a dartboard sometimes produces a bull’s eye. But, the odds are also good that a bystander will get blinded.
3. A Discount is also a notification: In order for a discount to be successful, people have to be aware that it's happening. If a discount happens in the forest, and no one's there to buy the merchandise, is it really a discount? If your goal is sales, and not metaphysical exploration, the answer is a pretty clear "no."
Get the full story at Econsultancy
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/five_big_ideas_about_discounting
1. Pictures. Pictures, images and photo albums are rather popular with the fans. One of the top five Intel Facebook posts of 2011 wasn’t even technically a post; it was the photo album featuring images of new Intel museum in Santa Clara. The post was liked over 17,000 times and with over 1,000 comments. And it isn’t the only example.
2. Fill in the blank. Let fans share their own perspective with you. Example would be “I love technology because _____” Again, one of our highest performing posts.
3. Questions. Asking fans to share their story or point of view is one of the most effective ways to increase engagement on your page. Though simple, this type of post is often overlooked by community managers. “Real or fake?” “What do you think?” “What is your story?” Or just plain “PC or Tablet?” would do.
Get the full story at the American Express Open Forum
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/twelve_engaging_facebook_post_types_to_consider
Despite a year that was marked by macroeconomic uncertainty, and resulting shaky consumer and business confidence, hotels in the US ended 2011 on a strong note. Lodging performance exceeded expectations in the fourth quarter, in part due to a short-term uptick in economic activity. Hotels across the spectrum of price segments experienced occupancy and average daily rate ("ADR") gains in 2011, reflecting the breadth of the recovery. Overall, hotel occupancy in 2011 recovered to 60.1 percent, slightly ahead of its ten-year average of 60.0 percent. Despite a still-uncertain economic environment, improved occupancy levels and a recovery in travel are expected to give hotels the confidence to increase prices in 2012. PwC's latest lodging industry forecast expects RevPAR growth of 6.5 percent in 2012, heavily driven by ADR increases.
PwC's updated quarterly lodging forecast reflects an updated macroeconomic forecast released earlier this month from Macroeconomic Advisers, LLC, which expects economic growth in the US to continue to be weighed down by spillover effects from the sovereign debt crisis in Europe. Macroeconomic Advisers' outlook expects slow real gross domestic product ("GDP") growth during the first half of 2012, followed by a gradual acceleration in economic activity, reaching an above-trend pace of 2.9 percent annualized growth by the fourth quarter.
In the face of a still-uncertain economic environment, the outlook for improved pricing in the lodging sector reflects the ongoing recovery of business travel, as well as gains in corporate events and other group business. As a result, lodging demand in 2012 is expected to increase 1.8 percent, which combined with restrained supply growth of 0.5 percent, is expected to boost occupancy levels to 60.9 percent, the highest since 2007. Increased confidence from occupancy gains, particularly in the higher-priced segments of the industry, is expected to allow hotels to achieve valuable increases in room rates. As a result, ADR is expected to increase by 5.1 percent in 2012, driving a RevPAR increase of 6.5 percent.
"It will have been a five-year detour, but continued recovery in 2012 is expected to lift industry RevPAR very close to its 2007 peak," said Scott D. Berman, principal and U.S. industry leader, hospitality & leisure, PwC. "The steepest portion of the demand recovery is behind us with operators' focus on room rate becoming increasingly more important."
Get a full copy of PwC's US Lodging Forecast at pwc.com
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/pricing_to_dominate_hotel_revpar_in_2012
The global hotel market enjoyed record increases over 2010 in the average daily rates (ADR) paid by consumers during December 2011, according to Pegasus Solutions. Data released today in The Pegasus View indicates leisure hotel rates grew +8.3, while the corporate market realized more moderate rate gains of +3.2% over 2010.
For North America, leisure rates climbed a near-record +6.3%, second only to June’s +6.5% increase, as markets outside North America returned an impressive +7.5% jump above December 2010. Corporate rates in North America beat the global increase with +5.4%, while the rise outside of North America was +1.7%.
“Global bookings were solid in December, though they actually decreased -4.6% from the exceptional gains seen in December 2010, a month when booking volumes exceeded 2009, 2008, and 2007,” said Mike Kistner, chief executive officer of Pegasus Solutions. “Rates, however, increased at significant levels globally and regionally for both channels.”
North American leisure reservations came within -5.7% of the prior year, which may have been partly due to a general lack of snow and warm temperatures for holiday destination ski resorts. Outside North America, bookings actually rose +3.3%. Global corporate bookings were within -3.4% of 2010, dropping -4.5% in North America, and a slighter -2.7% in other markets combined.
Reservations on the books point to leisure bookings easing in January with rates maintaining, and possible gains for both measures expected over 2011 from February through April. Corporate bookings are also expected to grow during the same period as rates stay ahead of prior year levels from January to the first of second quarter.
Download the full report at Pegasus (PDF 4.7 MB)
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/holiday_hotel_rates_reach_new_heights
Updated: Priceline send us the following information:
"Priceline is not moving away from Name Your Own Price, and will continue to offer this highly popular service. What we're doing in our new ad campaign is calling attention to our published-price hotel service, which has grown to move than 200,000 hotels in over 140 countries."
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James T. Kirk will live forever in the minds of Star Trek fans, but The Negotiator is dead after plunging off a bridge in a bus in the process of saving a family.
In a press release, Priceline.com's CMO Brett Keller explained, "The Priceline Negotiator has become very strongly associated with the priceline.com brand and the concept of negotiating to get a deal on a hotel room. However, priceline.com customers don't have to negotiate themselves to get a deal. Without bidding, they can choose from over 200,000 quality hotels around the world, with thousands of them on sale every day at rates we've negotiated for them."
To drive that point home, Priceline.com created a fiery end to The Negotiator's life. "We know that The Negotiator has a lot of fans, and we hope that everyone understands this was something that just had to be done," Keller added.
Get the full story at Econsultancy
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/rip_the_priceline.com_negotiator
Travelers want helpful information: These days marketing is less about finding customers than being found by customers. The Internet is the new telephone, and travelers are calling with questions about your business and destination. You can let your competitors answer, or you can pick up and provide helpful, relevant information.
Travelers want to compare offerings: Online travel agencies have now surpassed bedbugs as the number one parasitical threat to the travel industry. They did this by engorging themselves on high commissions and spending millions on advertising to convince travelers they offer the best deals. Problem is, they often do. Hotels have been willful hosts, fattening them up with all-you-can eat inventory at juicy low rates.
Travelers want reassurance they’re making the right choices: Memo to marketing: travelers have stopped listening to the fairytales and fantasies on your website and promotional materials. Instead, they’re turning to social networks to consult the people they trust to give them the real story: other travelers.
Travelers want to share experiences: Social networks have performed abysmally as a sales channel, and don’t hold your breath for that rush of Facebook bookings in 2012. People go to Facebook to socialize; they go to TripAdvisor and online travel agencies to shop.
Oh, and they want all this on mobile devices: The use of mobile devices is proliferating at a staggering rate, and travelers are leading the charge. You don’t need an app, you need a mobile compatible site that provides basic content travelers can navigate on a small screen: pricing, descriptions, location info, photos, deals and booking capabilities. And don’t forget a click-to-call option—some people actually use them as telephones too.
Get the full story at Daniel Edward Craig's blog
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/what_do_travelers_want_setting_hotel_marketing_priorities_in_2012
Eric Boggs, CEO of Argyle Social and Jay Baer, CEO of Convince and Convert, recently teamed up for a terrific webinar that addresses these questions as they pertain to Facebook and Twitter. It offers valuable insights for marketers who are trying to fine-tune their social outreach efforts. The webinar covers:
The effects of timing on clicks and interactions
How B2B and B2C timings differ
How time zones alter the equation
Here are the slides and an interesting InfoGraphic.
Get the full story at Pamorama
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/timing_your_social_media_marketing
Digital media and online tools remain a largely untapped resource for companies, according to a recent survey of marketing executives.1 Most respondents agree that their online presence is important and that digital tools provide their companies with a major opportunity, but few are taking the structural steps required to benefit from selling online or engaging consumers through new technologies such as social media. Indeed, most respondents indicate that companies are still trying to figure out how digital media can meaningfully improve their bottom lines. The survey asked marketing executives from around the world about the digital tools and channels their companies use and expect to use, the challenges they face and actions they have taken in response, and the metrics available to assess performance online.
The most pressing competitive challenge marketing executives identify is producing and using customer insights, and respondents hope to use data to drive sales and customer engagement. But they also say their companies often have only basic customer information—despite the tremendous increase in data available to them in recent years—and they report difficulties in measuring the impact of online tools and channels. Respondents also say they lack the internal leadership and resources to develop better analytical capabilities and, as a result, better information and insights about customers.
Get the full story at McKinsey (free registration)
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/what_marketers_say_about_working_online_mckinsey_global_survey_results
Before Google was formally approved to buy travel software company ITA, the company argued that the acquisition would result in “innovation” for travelers and travel search users. Beyond the appearance of flight times/routes in search results we haven’t seen much “innovation” yet. Google’s new “find hotels by travel time” experiment is, however, an example of how Google might deliver new functionality and shake things up in the intensely competitive yet paradoxically complacent travel segment.
There are travel verticals that will allow users to look for hotels near landmarks or filter by distance from the “city center” (or centroid). And almost all of the popular travel search engines allow you to see the hotel location on a map. Google Maps itself will allow you to find a point or destination and then “search nearby” for hotels.
Yet Google’s “Hotel Finder‘s” new ability to filter hotels by travel time (by transportation method) is unique and quite useful. Although Hotel Finder is generally available for a broad array of destinations, Google says that transit time search “is only available in cities where we have partnered with local transit agencies to integrate their data into Google Maps.”
Get the full story at Search Engine Land
Read also "Google’s Hotel Finder now helps you find a room near your favorite landmark" at The Next Web
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/google_hotel_finders_travel_time_filter_innovates_online_hotel_search
Expedia introduced the Last-Minute Deals program, which relies on user-generated deals and user-informed travel trends to lift up and showcase the best near-term travel deals. Several million travelers come to Expedia.com every day to search for travel deals. Last-Minute Deals harnesses their collective effort and shares it with the world.
Unlike other flash sales programs, which are driven by suppliers and based on inventory, Expedia Last-Minute Deals showcase deals found by other customers. The key parameter is point of origin. To access Last-Minute Deals, travelers visit expedia.com/lastminute and either the site will auto-detect the customer's location or people can enter their own home city. Last-Minute Deals then springs into action, surfacing the best deals found by other travelers to different destinations. With a quick click, travelers can make those deals their own.
"In a sense, the millions of people who come to Expedia® are now serving as your own personal travel agent, helping you find the best and most popular deals from your home city," said Joe Megibow, vice president and general manager, Expedia.com. "So many customers travel with Expedia every month that it puts us in a great position to deliver this type of service to our customers. With Last-Minute Deals, you can get the best deals available by letting everyone else do your research for you."
Expedia's Last-Minute Deals program is the latest offering in the company's robust portfolio of ways to find travel value on Expedia.com. In 2011, Expedia launched both the ASAP program – which, as the acronym suggests, delivers trips featuring A Sudden Amazing Price, live and bookable for up to 12 hours – and the hugely successful Groupon Getaways with Expedia partnership, which couples the flash-sales expertise of Groupon with Expedia's unparalleled global network of travel suppliers. Groupon Getaways with Expedia follows Groupon's voucher model, where travelers book a hotel room or package at an exceptional rate, then travel when the time is right. Groupon Getaways with Expedia deals are also transferable, allowing consumers to give the gift of travel to a friend or loved one.
Related Link: Expedia Last-Minute Deals
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/expedia_launches_crowdsourced_deals
The beauty of Pinterest is that it gives marketers a key advantage to consumer insights. How? Use the site as your own personal focus group. By doing so, you are afforded the benefit of learning about the interests and lifestyle of those pinners that follow your brand. This gives you more insight into their choices than the user simple entering “travel” as an interest on Facebook. Using this tool, you stand to gain a huge advantage by leveraging your target customer’s needs, and to better suit your needs as well – everybody wins.
Another smart approach, as is with any good social media strategy, is to find a clever way to involve and feature your guests, customers, and visitors by spotlighting them on your pins. For hotels, think of guests showcasing themselves enjoying your property – think a picture of a guest cannonballing into the pool. For retail, think of a picture of a customer wearing an outfit from your establishment. For a DMO, think of showcasing tourists in front of a landmark. And for a restaurant, think of a picture of a guest ready to dig into an appetizing, signature dish.
In the travel industry, DMOs are going to have the easiest time creating a presence on Pinterest in my view. The point of the site is to drive someone to your tourism destination, which can be done easily through pictures that will tell your story. It will be a bit harder for hotels and restaurants to create a presence without overly self-promoting. It can be done, but will require creativity and patience and a good dose of thinking outside of the box.
Get the full story at TIG Global
Read also *10 tips to get the most out of Pinterest for your business* at The Next Web
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/pinterest_and_the_travel_industry
Imagination is soon becoming a reality, for it is only a matter of time before NFC enters the corridors at establishments and bridges the gap between the physical and digital world at hotels worldwide.
Let’s face it, your mobile phone is generally attached to you at the hip at all times, your keys not so much. From the airport to rental car to the hotel, NFC technology will add ease and convenience into your travel regimen. Whether it be in relation to e-travel documents, accessing a rental car, locating lost baggage, or simply entering a hotel, near field communications entails a secure exchange of data between a traveler’s mobile phone and a reader similar to those offered by Identive.
Most notably, hospitality chains will begin utilizing NFC-enabled mobile devices that embolden their hotel guests to make mobile bookings, check-in, check-out, access their rooms, enjoy amenities, and take part in loyalty programs using a mere smartphone (you can forget your rewards card and number.) By replacing the traditional magnetic stripe key card system, the hotel door locks of tomorrow will enable guests to simply tap their contactless card or smartphone in order to acquire access into their room. For those using their NFC-enabled smartphones, guests will have the ability to check-in remotely and receive an encrypted room key via text message; subsequently, guests can forgo those daunting lobby lines and head right up to their rooms. In the future of hospitality and travel, a smartphone will be the only thing required. Guests will still go about booking their travel and accommodations in typical fashion; however, prior to arrival those staying will receive a welcome message and reminder to check-in via their mobile device. On the day of their stay, their “hotel room key” is sent to their mobile device, thus enabling them to bypass the lobby and access their room.
Get the full story at Identive
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/how_will_nfc_impact_the_hospitality_industry
There are a few reasons why mobile discounting may make the most sense for many businesses:
- Traditionally, the biggest distribution channel for coupons has been print and print inserts. This channel isn't going away, but for obvious reasons, most companies will have to look beyond print if they want to reach the widest number of consumers, and, more importantly, the most desirable consumers. That should benefit the mobile channel as budgets shift.
- The potential to target is much greater. From current location to customer status, businesses no longer have to take a one-size-fits-all approach to discounting. Instead, deals can be targeted on a multidimensional level.
- Mobile is really 'push'. A mobile is the one device you can count on your customer carrying at all times, and it's the perfect device through which discounts can be distributed. For obvious reasons, businesses need to be careful and thoughtful here, but the potential to make an impact is so much greater because the business can push the message as opposed to having to wait for the potential customer to take the initiative.
- Real-time, needs-driven discounting. This is perhaps the most important opportunity mobile discounting offers. Instead of having to offer deals that last day or even weeks or months, mobile can facilitate real-time, needs-driven deals. If a bakery, for instance, has excess perishable inventory, it may need to move fast. In theory, it can via mobile, bringing customers in the door when it needs them most, and not having to always discount when non-discount-driven business is strongest.
Get the full story at Econsultancy
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/is_mobile_the_future_of_discounts
The basics: The fundamental ways to reach your costumer's inboxes are white listing, formatting messages correctly, creating solid subject lines, maintaining lists, and making sure your campaigns are CAN-SPAM compliant.
Delivery rate boosters: Maintaining a good relationship with internet service providers like Yahoo and Gmail helps ensure successful message delivery. In addition, choosing the right email service provider makes a significant difference, as one bad client can impact the deliverability of other clients. Furthermore, creating messages that don't heavily rely on images can help you find the inbox, and obtaining up-to-date data boosts delivery rates as you reach customers with highly relevant information. Additionally, it's important to scrub out un-subscribers and bad email addresses frequently.
Subject lines: Even before your email hits inboxes, subject lines are a make-or-break proposition. If your message is too "spammy," it can be flagged as such. If your message makes the cut but is not compelling, it may be overlooked. Subject lines that clearly communicate the benefit of the email consistently outperform those that lack clarity. Unfortunately, subject line best practices are frequently neglected, seen as something to be taken for granted.
Get the full story at iMedia Connection
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/tips_for_sure_fire_email_deliverability
By Markus Busch, Editor Hotelmarketing.com
According to Hugo Ehrnreich, Head of Hotel Distribution for Amadeus, the company is already negotiating with two to five other OTAs to integrate their hotel content into Amadeus' distribution system.
The new hotel content will be available via both Amadeus e-Travel Management – the online self-booking tool used by 5,200 corporations worldwide – and Amadeus Selling Platform – the point of sale solution used by Amadeus travel agents for traditional servicing.
Both systems feature graphical user interfaces and Amadeus’ newly re-engineered hotel search and reservation system, which similar to Google Hotel Finder allows agents to click on a hotel listing and view its multiple offers from different sources.
Yet, Amadeus confirms that the majority of its users - the ones using the non graphical traditional GDS screens - will have no access to the new hotel offers, and will continue to book hotels on Amadeus' regular legacy hotel content.
However, Ehrnreich notes that the strong trend to self-booking tools in corporations increases demand for the new graphical user interfaces not only from corporations but also their travel agents, who need to have access to the same screens as their customers to effectively service them.
Amadeus is not the only GDS currently enhancing its hotel product with multi-source offerings. Travelport's "Rooms and More" pursues a similar strategy by making hotel content from Expedia, Booking.com and the likes available on its "Universal Desktop" product, a graphical user interface currently used by some 6000+ travel agents.
HRS increases hotel commission to 15%, offers no opt-out option
Just a day after the announcement of its new distribution alliance with Amadeus, HRS send a note to all hotel partners announcing a commission increase from 13% to 15% effective March 1, 2012.
HRS justifies the commission raise with increased costs based on the expansion of its distribution network including the acquisition of Hotel.de, new offices in Moscow and Singapore, and its new partnership with Amadeus.
Not only are hotels left with accepting the commission increase, there is also no option to opt-out of the various onward distribution channels - like Amadeus - that HRS has signed. The company says, a partnership with HRS automatically entitles it to distribute a hotel's content to all its connected channels.
In the case of GDS distribution, this can become an expensive undertaking especially for high-performing GDS hotels and may cannibalize their low transaction based fees which they normally managed to contract with their GDS service providers.
HRS further clarified a quote in the original press release for the Amadeus distribution alliance where it reads "50'000 independent hotel properties which were distributed exclusively through HRS up to now." As expected, these hotels don't distribute exclusively via HRS, they are just currently not distributed in the GDS. In other words, new hotel content for Amadeus. That's why these hotels will also find their way into the hotel database of the legacy system, and will be bookable both via Amadeus' cryptic and graphical user interfaces.
Read also "Amadeus and HRS enter strategic hotel distribution alliance", and "OTAs battle for GDS travel agent visibility."
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/amadeus_building_a_google_hotel_finder_for_travel_agents
The share of U.S. travel booked online (i.e., online leisure/unmanaged business travel as a share of the total market) will increase to 40% by 2013, growing just one percentage point over five years. Yet despite the slowing overall growth trend, online penetration continues to vary significantly by segment.
Only two segments were expected to book half or more of their sales online in 2011: air (50%) and rail (54%). At the other end of the spectrum, online bookings were projected to comprise only 11% of cruise and 5% of traditional vacation packages. Both segments rely heavily on traditional travel agencies for distribution.
With the U.S. online market at a stage of maturity, in the short term, rail and hotel and lodging are the only segments expected to gain significant share in online penetration. By 2013, 56% of Amtrak's tickets will be booked on Amtrak.com, and one-third of hotel and lodging will be booked online, up from 29% in 2009.
Related Link: PhoCusWright's U.S. Online Travel Overview Eleventh Edition
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/u.s._online_travel_growth_to_slow_through_2013
The new Gogobot app lets friends turn to one another for travel advice and share trip plans, photos, recommendations and personal travel guides straight to their Facebook Timeline.
"Our travels serve as bookmarks in our lives that evoke memories and feelings of friends, family and experiences. The places we go and the things we see say a lot about who we are as individuals. By integrating with Facebook's Timeline, Gogobot makes it possible to integrate the stories of your travels into the greater context of your life," said Travis Katz, CEO of Gogobot. "Gogobot is proud to be one of the first travel companies featured in Facebook's launch: this highlights how travel has become a core social behavior and how Gogobot is leading the category."
All the features that people love about Gogobot are now a part of Timeline, making it even easier than ever for Gogobot members to harness the power of the social graph to create extraordinary travel experiences and memories. Starting today, from your Gogobot profile, you can opt-in to add Gogobot to your Timeline on Facebook, allowing you to share and feature all of your travel activity, including:
- An interactive map of all of the places you've visited
- Upcoming trip plans and questions
- Your favorite destinations
- Your Travel Expertise score and badges
- Customized postcards taken with Gogobot's iPhone application
- Links to your Gogobot reviews
- Places you want to visit
TripAdvisor Cities I’ve Visited now on Facebook Timeline
The Cities I’ve Visited app allows you to pin destinations you’ve traveled to on your travel map, and display your map and other travel stats about yourself on your Facebook Timeline. Plus, you’ll not only be able to share past trips, but also be able to get advice on upcoming trips and discover new places to visit from your friends and the 20 million travelers who have pinned more than 1.5 billion cities to their maps.
Get the full story and a screenshot on TripAdvisor
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/travel_apps_making_their_official_debut_on_facebooks_timeline
How to know what you should be doing for your next website, what are the hotel marketing elements that must be taken into account in the design and which ones should be avoided?
The design, architecture and development of a hotel’s website is paramount in it’s success for obvious reasons. Not the least of which is direct revenue. Every hotel knows that their direct revenue is their largest measure of financial health. If they can make the website generate 60% or more of their revenues it means all the difference for the hotel.
Paris-based online hotel marketing company WIHP has compiled a list of the key elements and tools that hotel website designers should be taking into account when re-designing a hotel website.
Get the full story at WIHP
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/does_and_donts_of_hotel_website_redesigns
Employees at those hotels identified the loyalty program members who were checking in that month and researched their profiles on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media websites. They then selected a gift to be presented to each guest by the hotel manager.
"We saw an opportunity to take guest recognition to the next level, to a more powerful level," says Magali Jimenez Bervillé, director of e-commerce North America for Accor.
All of the information the hotel gathers is public information. The company only looks at the public profiles of its Facebook and Twitter followers. And there's no sharing of information with other guests.
Get the full story at USA Today
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/accor_hotels_wants_to_be_your_facebook_friend
The site caters to a female audience (reportedly nearing 70 percent), most of whom are under the age of 45. This much sought after demographic can play a key part in the purchasing decisions of the average American household and your bottom line.
Now you might ask yourself, how on earth can my brand use an image sharing website? When you sell a seemingly uninteresting product or offer a unique service it might be hard to see how you can use a site like this to your advantage. But - with a bit of creativity and research you’re bound to find a way to use the new platform.
Here are seven creative ways some brands can use Pinterest.
Get the full story at Search Engine Watch
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/7_creative_ways_your_brand_can_use_pinterest