Online hotel promotion
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The document discusses online promotion strategies for hotels. It outlines the various digital channels people use to search for and book hotels, including search engines, meta search engines, online travel agencies (OTAs), and hotel/brand websites. It then discusses the distribution landscape, noting that distribution channels for hotels are shifting from traditional channels like call centers and travel agencies to online/Internet channels like hotel websites and OTAs. The document provides best practices for hotels' online promotion and website optimization, including search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing, mobile readiness, and monitoring tools.
Online hotel promotion
- 3. Travel planning When people plan traveling/booking a hotel room they go to: •Search Engines: Google, Yahoo, Bing •Meta Search Engines: Kayak, Trivago, Google Hotel Finder, TripAdvisor •OTAs: Expedia, Booking, Hotel.com •Independent/boutique/luxury hotel websites •Major hotel brand websites: Marriott.com, Hilton.com, etc
- 4. The distribution channel landscape 1 Call center or 902/900 number or “voice” 2 GDS (Global distribution System) 3 Hotel’s own website or brand.com 4 Online travel agency (OTA) 5 Property direct/other 6 Offline travel agency ! ! ! DIRECT -Hotel Web Site ! INDIRECT/3RD PARTIES/REFERRALS -OTAs -Search engines -Social Media -GDS A distribution channel must be: cost-‐effective Generate the most bookings Protect rate parity and price integrity Reach the targeted customer segments
- 5. The World out there .... !!
- 6. Internet …
- 7. Current outlook The shift from GDS, call center, and the offline channel to Internet Distribution, which means a shift toward complete price transparency and easy “shopping around” of hotel rates and offerings. Rate Parity across all distribution channels has become the industry norm Best Internet Rate Guarantee Matching the rates of the hotel’s competitors Compete against OTAs webs Metasearch sites are on the up 3 screens (tablet, phone, desktop) SoLoMo ( Social Location and Mobile)
- 8. Online Promotion tools Website (Re) Design and Optimisation Search Engine Management (SEO/SEM) Display advertising (banners, adsense) Website analytics and campaign tracking Social Media (Facebook, YouTube, Twitter) Mobile marketing Strategic Linking Email Marketing (e-mailing) and CRM OTA management Metasearch management (the OTA killers) On-line reputation
- 9. Hotel Web Sites - Types One-Way ! Brochure 24x7 Text & Pictures Contact data Reservations by phone INFORMATION BI-Directional Collaborate ! ! Up-to date info Communications improved Reservations 24x7 Blogs, Podcast Newsletter Geolocation Loyalty schemes Pictures, reviews, comments SEO/Positioning SMM TRANSACTION INTERACTION
- 10. When building and designing a web ... 1. Avoid technical terms when the user interacts or navigates, such as html, flash, optimized for 1024x768"... 2. Present and display the information in the less number of clicks, from la información en el menor número de clics posible: Desde la página principal a "producto", mejor en un sólo clic 3. Avoid pop-ups, confuses the user, furthermore some internet user have block enable option enable in their browsers. 4. Reading the web site must be pleasant and comfortable to the eye. 5.Links identified as such, underlined and with different color. 6. Check that the internal and external links work correctly, check periodically. ! 7. Must be web browser compatible at least with the most used: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Safari, Chrome ! 8. Allow the user to know “where I am” all the time. With a home key clearly exposed to navigation ! 9. Must have a sitemap ! 10.Visible contact details (email, phone, address ...) ! get a good designer and a programmer
- 11. Hotel Web Site The Main Hub for Multi-Channel Customer Engagement
- 12. Web Site -Best Practices-Search engine friendly Content is the key, but the search engines read don´t look at the web pages: Search engines contribute in average over 50% of the hotel website traffic. What humans see... What search engines see...!
- 13. Website-Search engine friendly-SEO What are the Search Engines looking at? (Search Engine Optimization) Here are the most important criteria used by the search engines to rank a hotel website: • The overall search-engine friendliness of the site (e.g. site built entirely in FLASH, site built in frames, Intro/Splash pages with no navigation and copy, lack of site maps, the copy in GIF or JPEG and not in HTML text format, etc) • Rich content on the site • Body copy with high keyword density • Invisible copy (page titles, description tags, Meta tags) • Link Popularity of the site (number of incoming links from highly authoritative websites like hotel directories, portals, etc.) Natural (Organic) Listings! ORGANIC SEARCH
- 14. Website -Search results The Golden Triangle • Drop off begins after the 3rd natural listing • First position in sponsored links drew 28% of visualizations • Beyond the rank of 8 in the natural listings, there was a 50% drop off • People who search below the fold are “more deliberate” seekers (may suggest have something already in mind to find) The highest concentration of visualizations appeared on the top three to four listings in the natural listings and top one to two in the sponsored listings.
- 15. Web Site -Search engine friendly-Web 2.0 friendly • Blog on the hotel website to share the latest news, happenings and photos at the property and the destination, and solicit customer comments and input. ! • Customer reviews on the hotel website to enable hotel guests to leave comments and ratings of your hotel thus providing valuable reviews for their peers right on the hotel website. ! • Interactive Sweepstakes for getting people excited about your hotel and for building buzz, as well as to build your opt-in email and mobile list. ! • Interactive Calendar of Events to keep your website visitors updated on all the latest events happening at and around the hotel, as well as to keep your website content fresh with a constant flow of new information. This will encourage repeat website visits and improve SEO. ! • The hotel’s social media initiatives easily found on the website: from Facebook’s “I Like” button and links to your social media profiles on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
- 16. SEM - Search Engine Marketing PAID SEARCH ! 1.Paid Inclusion marketing 2.Keyword Search Marketing (Pay-perclick Marketing - PPC/CPC) 3.Local Search marketing 4.Vertical Search marketing (booking.com, trivago.com ...) SEM - contributes to 23% of total web site revenues Targeting local keywords in your content, standardizing local listings & directories, and optimizing your link landscape can help boost your site’s performance in the face of the Venice update.
- 17. Web Site -Best Practices-Mobile ready • • Fast download speeds • • • • Efficient and simple navigation • • • • One-click map and directions to the hotel Automatic detection of type of mobile device to serve the appropriate version of the mobile site Short and concise textual content Scaled-down visual content Easy-to-use mobile booking engine with easy access to your user profile, pre populated with your contact information, credit card information and reward program number Toll-free phone for additional information and reservations Mobile website SEO Mobile website analytics
- 18. Monitor Tools
- 19. Social Media Don’t Use Social Media as a Distribution Channel Social media is not a distribution channel, and it was not designed as a sales platform to sell rooms. Use social media instead for customer engagement, customer service, customer relationship management (CRM), branding, awareness, etc. Social media is best managed at the property level and needs to be monitored 24/7/365. Establish onsite champions who will speak with a consistent brand voice, provide exemplary customer service and serve as models of the hotel’s product. Use a full-service digital marketing agency for training, auditing, recommendations and technical design and build-out for custom tabs, backgrounds, widgets, sweepstakes, etc. Post, tweet, respond and repeat! • • • • • • • Buzz-building Brand-building Interacting and engaging with customers Serving as an important component of the hotel’s multichannel marketing strategy Keeping up with the times, making the hotel look current, cool and up-to-date Driving engaged and relevant traffic to the property’s own website More SEO, more ranking
- 20. Social Media - Tools Blog on the hotel website Photo sharing functionality Sweepstakes and contests Facebook,Twitter, Flickr, etc .. profiles Create and post videos in Youtube Participate in blogs … Google + most popular social media marketing sites are Facebook (94%), Twitter (74%), blogs (41%), LinkedIn (32%) and YouTube (30%).
- 21. Facebook In March 2011, Facebook usage (as a percent of total web usage minutes) had increased year over year by almost 70%, while usage of the remainder of the web dropped by 10%. Facebook is more of a brand relationship tool for fostering customer loyalty and building a robust community of fans. Prompting fans to share photos and experiences is key in building a strong brand community and virally promoting the property in the Newsfeed. Consider Facebook as an extension to your property website, a platform which adds an interactive capability to your customer engagement strategy. Unlike the predominantly static hotel website, Facebook allows two-way conversations (marketer-customer and customer-marketer) as well as peer-to-peer engagements. Example, having one or more “brand ambassadors” among your Facebook fans goes a long way in promoting your hotel and engaging the rest of the fans and building brand equity and loyalty.
- 23. Twitter Twitter is an open platform where hoteliers can easily search buzz surrounding their brand and reach out and engage new customers. Twitter is becoming more and more a customer service tool where hoteliers must monitor and handle feedback and requests from guests in real-time. Consider Twitter as an instantaneous communication tool. You can use Twitter in place of a short promotional email. Or in place of an SMS message. At the same time, Twitter is “an early warning system” for service problems at the hotel. Therefore, you need to monitor tweets 24/7.
- 24. Twitter Case Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, Toronto Fairmont focuses on adding value for its Twitter followers through special offers and incentives such as an American Express Partnership that offered a free night for cardholders. Twitter followers that interact with Fairmont occasionally receive gifts and giveaways as a reward for following. Fairmont alerts followers to services and amenities as well.
- 25. Strategic Linking/Directory listing It helps to Local Search Engine Optimization! Google Places Google Maps Local Listing Yahoo Local Listing Windows Live Listing Listing in other popular local search engines Directories listing ( Yellow Pages ...)
- 26. OTA Management Focus on the “big players,” e.g. Expedia, Priceline, Booking.com, Travelocity and Orbitz. Smaller OTAs do not provide additional reach; rather, they require more work. From day one, include in all contracts that neither the OTAs nor their affiliates may bid on branded keywords in SEM campaigns, i.e. the hotel’s official name-related keywords. Use strict rate parity when using OTAs, and monitor their attempts to sell “lower” rates for your property by reducing their commission/markup, or using math gimmicks when calculating the overall taxes and fees. Use OTAs for need periods: weekends, group cancelations, low season, etc., and not as a replacement for or alternative to the direct online channel. Additionally, any sale or promotion via an OTA should be used only as a last resource and should equally be promoted via the hotel website and support marketing (SEM, email, mobile, social). Benchmark your property’s OTA contribution against industry results. And always remember that the more you focus on your hotel’s website, the less you will depend on the 800-pound gorillas. Billboard effect Flash sales Monitor and Track
- 27. Metasearch management (the OTA killers) Google Hotel Finder - Google Places Tripadvisor - Business Listing Trivago Kayak
- 28. Mobile marketing Location-Based Mobile Services (LBS)! Location plus personalized services are not only the essence of the mobile Internet, but the very definition of what travel is all about. Location-based services (LBS) are based on the unique ability of the mobile Internet device to determine its exact location by using GPS, and then to use that knowledge to perform functions, provide information, suggest activities, check out if friends are in the neighborhood, etc. Mobile Hotel Website! Mobile Booking Functionality! Customer service! Mobile Applications ( Lonely planet, booking.com)! Augmented reality ! ! !
- 29. Email Marketing / CRM / SMS Marketing
- 30. Display advertising (Banners) and AdSense Display advertising is graphical advertising on the internet These ads, often referred to as banners, come in standardized ad sizes, and can include text, logos, pictures, or more recently, rich media. ! we can target groups and behaviours we track performance Google AdSense is a program run by Google that allows publishers in the Google Network of content sites to serve automatic text, image, video, or interactive media advertisements that are targeted to site content and audience.
- 31. The on-line package what hotel must have o consider when on-line: ! • own desktop website • a mobile website • tablet website • social media profiles (youtube, facebook, twitter, google +) • high resolution photos to the OTAs and GDSs ! ! We must have an integrated and multichannel marketing campaign ! Get a GMAIL account