Articles

In order to have truly integrated online marketing, hotels and resorts must invest in social, mobile and local marketing initiatives.  If your property still isn’t on board with all three channels, now’s the time to make a change.

Social Media Matters

Quite simply, social media matters because it’s a place where millions of travel shoppers converge to discuss, review and shop for lodging.  And if that many travelers are in one channel, hoteliers absolutely need to be there.  Social outlets such as Facebook and Twitter have shifted power to consumers.  Review sites like TripAdvisor—another form of social media—also provide guests a strong voice.

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By Joe Hyman

Historically, the Internet has been widely used by leisure travelers. More recently, however, 76% of business travelers use the Internet to research and book travel, giving properties an opportunity to capture business travelers using targeted information on their website. Are you taking advantage of this trend?

In a crowded online marketing environment, capturing and maintaining interest is difficult. It means using creativity to differentiate your property. Accordingly, embracing ROI centric online marketing strategies is imperative for hoteliers to successfully drive revenue.

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By Joe Hyman

You may recall the recent USA Today article comparing hotel Web site prices with online travel agency (OTA) prices. In two of the five hotels sampled, you could buy rooms cheaper through Expedia, Orbitz or Travelocity than you could directly from the hotel.

Wake up hotels! Pay attention to your online prices. If you’re trying to develop a robust online strategy, you can’t post your highest price on your own Web site in today’s economy. People are cost conscious and spend more time doing research to find the best value. In today’s economic environment, a comprehensive Internet marketing plan is your survival tool,
and pricing is one of the key ingredients to securing bookings.

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By Joe Hyman

Recently, hotel Internet marketing technology, reporting depth and the ability to proactively manage performance have greatly improved. By taking advantage of these developments, you can gain exposure to specific target audiences and make them future guests via your Web site. The key is making it easy to find your site with search marketing and engaging
prospective customers once they visit your site. That combination ensures increased bookings and revenue.

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By Lisa Klueppel

From choosing the right locations, to set up, to daily management, you need a social media plan that fits your property.

Does your hotel have an effective, well-managed social media presence? Do you even need one? Do you feel like you’re making the most of Facebook, but lost on YouTube?

These are questions that hoteliers should have asked themselves, or been asked by their Internet marketing partners, at some point in the last two years. After all, during that time span, the use of social media by both leisure and business travelers has increased at a rate that cannot be ignored. In a recent survey from The Center for Hospitality Research at Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration, roughly 25% of business travelers and over 30% of leisure travelers said they use social media and review sites for hotel information. If that’s not enough, more than 64% of survey respondents in a Sheraton Hotels & Resorts study claim to use social media to help with travel plans.

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By Philip Faircloth

Strong social media plans can help guest communications and influence travel shoppers’ purchase decisions, but plans are not “one size fits all.”

Social media has become a powerful tool for hoteliers to communicate with guests and reach consumers, and it’s only growing. Increases in social media use by both business and leisure travelers over the past two years indicate the importance of this medium. A study in June 2011 by ROI Research and Performics shows that 80% of respondents have an active Facebook account, 57% discuss travel on social networking sites, and 37% learned about a new product or service from a social networking site. With such large numbers of consumers using social media as a tool when deciding on a hotel, there’s no time for a hotelier to lose in developing a strategy.

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As new online marketing channels and trends continue to emerge, hotel websites are still a vital mainstay that both independent and branded hoteliers are focused on entering 2012.  And keeping your website design modern and engaging is imperative to driving revenue.

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Learn how to implement a strategic pay-per-click (PPC) campaign that minimizes costs and maximizes ROI.

There is a plethora of digital channels where travel shoppers can find properties—from social media, to reviews, to OTAs, to natural search. One that should never be overlooked, and one that properties can customize to their needs and budgets, is PPC.  And PPC is offered beyond search engines like Google and Bing.  You’ll find PPC ads on online travel agencies like Expedia and social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn.  In this article though, we’ll focus on the channel with the most traffic – Google.

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Allocating the appropriate amount of your property’s overall marketing budget to online marketing can be more of an art, than science.  Here’s why you need a significant investment in online marketing to increase direct bookings and key areas to focus your efforts on to realize the highest digital ROI.

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With corporate travel gradually recovering, is your property getting its fair share?  Does your website speak to business travelers and provide the resources they need?

According to the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) Foundation, U.S. business travel spending rose 6.3% in the second quarter of 2011 compared to the second quarter of 2010.  Furthermore, GBTA predicts that overall 2011 spending by business travelers will be roughly 7% higher than 2010.

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