HOTEL BUSINESS REVIEW November FOCUS: Hotel Sales & Marketing
This is the most exciting era to be working in the hotel sales and marketing department. A few years ago it had become somewhat stale - build a website, connect some links, and watch (and hope) as your customers booked online. These days it has become far more complicated and competitive than that! Advances in technology are reshaping interpersonal communications, as well as how we mass communicate, advertise, organize and strategize in business. A hotel website now needs to be actively managed, marketed and promoted, and the choices for this are becoming more diverse each day. Increasing demands are being placed on hotel sales & marketing teams to have a solid grasp of the full range of internet marketing strategies. In the current competitive hospitality market, one must have a thorough understanding of these strategies in order to be successful. The November Hotel Business Review will present readers with an insight into some of the biggest challenges facing hotel sales & marketing departments today, with sound advice from a line-up of top hotel sales leaders.
This month's feature articles...
Venue sourcing sets the initial blueprint in preparation for a meeting. It is arguably the most important process of meeting planning. From the beginning through its conclusion, it sets the stage for a successful event. However, planners are not only managing the site selection. They also can be managing the marketing, the registration and other logistics surrounding a program. READ MORE
The retail industry long ago figured out how to build a sustainable, year-round customer base and continues to creatively adopt new techniques and technology to build on that base. We in the hotel industry can learn and borrow from their success. READ MORE
In 1991, Meeting Professionals International introduced the concept of Meeting ROI to their membership, with the goal to elevate "meetings as investments", including metrics to define and measure success. Well, here we are 20 plus years later and corporate and association planning teams are just starting to pay attention and take ROI seriously. What took so long, you ask? READ MORE
With so many hotels vying for potential guests' attention, it can be a challenge for your property to stand out in the digital landscape. With technology and consumer behaviour changing at an ever increasing speed, it is easy to lose out to your competitors without the proper resources and knowledge. Digital marketing is becoming increasingly complex, especially for hotels, who now have to think about how to compete for guests in new channels. They also need to be prepared for the emergence of a variety of tablet devices and digital communities that are constantly changing, while managing their core business day-to-day. This article will examine various opportunities for hotels to improve their digital marketing strategy. READ MORE
There's one lesson in hospitality marketing you don't want to learn the hard way. Operating and marketing in the new and social media spheres is absolutely essential in hospitality. It's no longer optional and for this reason alone: There's a good chance your greatest competition has a well-established social media presence and a strategy designed to take away business from you. Whether it's appealing to your customers through social networking or undercutting your prices through online distributors, unless you get in the game and get on board with new media, your marketing strategy will prove unsustainable. READ MORE
One size does not fit all when marketing across multiple generations. Personalization is paramount. For the DOSM marketing the next AAA package, you cannot afford to simply have one advertisement created and distributed to the masses. Rather, you should become familiar with your audience - know their demographics and psychographics - and then consider creating separate messages tailored for each generation you are targeting. READ MORE
Like it or hate it, social media is here to stay and is becoming one of the leading ways for companies to engage customers. You can put your head in the sand and hope that this “social media madness” will go away, but that is not going to happen any time soon. Instead, embrace the genre, find someone who is great at it, and start engaging. Social media is the perfect way to stay in touch with a guest once they have checked out and to motivate and inspire guests to come plan a stay with you in the future. And once you start the conversation, you may be pleasantly surprised at the results. READ MORE
It's the age-old question for a sales person…where do I invest my time to get the biggest return? While the local market sales effort is still high on the list, there are now many online efforts that must be addressed as well. It is imperative that hotels look at all of their online and offline sales and marketing initiatives and prioritize them. Then employ the 80/20 rule. Spend your time on the 20% of the accounts that give you 80% of your business. READ MORE
In general, hotel managers are not comfortable making strategic decisions in times of rapid and uncertain changes. Most decision-makers have some feel about the occurrence of future events that range from a high degree of confidence to a vague and ill-defined level of discomfort. Change can actually be segmented into two components - anticipated and unanticipated. If change consisted only of anticipated components, then there would be little if any risk involved for the hotel. It is the unanticipated component that is the source of risk. Not knowing what the future will hold that strikes fear into managers. The challenge, then, is to make sure that any risk the hotel takes is a calculated risk. While this sounds easier said than done, there are several techniques you can use to minimize risk. In this article, you'll learn the top three. READ MORE
Points based programs will always have a role in a hotel's overall loyalty marketing strategy, but the true value of the programs is in the behavioral rich transactional detail that can give marketers insight into the attitudes, preferences and opinions of their customers. Using this data to create strategic and tactical marketing programs is a must for success and differentiation. READ MORE
In today's fast-paced and technology-loaded business and personal environment we often forget that it is human beings who are experiencing our services. There are so many articles, websites, resources that help companies promote and market their services through technology. We hear all the time - Do you have an app for that? But there's no app to replace customer service in human interaction. As important as it is to be at the cutting-edge with the technology that supports and advances your business, in the end it's the PEOPLE, your customers, and what they experience that matters. Human interaction, feeling good and safe cannot be replaced with any app. READ MORE
Do you feel like the way you're selling lately isn't as effective as, say, two or three years ago? You're not alone. What's going on out there, and what can suppliers do about it? Shawna Suckow, CMP, a 20-year veteran planner and author of Planner Pet Peeves, sheds light on what planners are thinking these days, and why they're cutting themselves off from suppliers who use traditional marketing methods. It's not a numbers game anymore - suppliers have to use the tools that planners clearly respond to, and those tools have changed. READ MORE
Every minute of every day millions of people are online sharing all kinds of information, from family news to opinions on global issues to comments on where they stayed recently. In fact, travelers are talking about your hotel on an onslaught of travel sites such as TripAdvisor, Yelp, Expedia, Priceline and Travelocity and ever-prevalent social media channels like YouTube, Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter. With the growing importance of real time media, it is critical to keep in mind that what you say and what is said about your hotel can impact not just your reputation, but also your bottom line. READ MORE
Pressure to get more done in less time is changing the way we do everything - including how we use media. A recent study shares some changes in consumer behaviors regarding our use of four primary screens - television, PC, smartphone and tablets. The results of this research may impact your digital marketing plans for 2013. Do you need to invest in a separate mobile and tablet site or should they be the same? What do people do differently on a smartphone than they do on a PC and why? We will explore what some of the statistics reveal and how that could impact your allocation of digital resources. READ MORE
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Parlez vous hotel? Sprechen sie hotel? Habla hotel? Do you speak hotel lingo? When you travel to a foreign land it is important to learn a few key phrases in order to make your communication with the natives more pleasant and to break through the barriers created by different cultures and languages. Industries each have their own lingo and key phrases as well. When breaking into an industry, it is important to know the lingo in order to make your communication with the natives more pleasant and to break through the cultural and language barriers. Our article in this week's Hotel Business Review, "Understanding Hotel Lingo - From ADR to Z Hotel" will define a few of the key phrases commonly used in the hospitality industry from ADR to Z Hotel. READ MORE
The evolution from newspapers, brochures, and magazines, to commercial and cable television channels, to PC-based search engines, has shifted consumer reliance to mobile devices. Smartphones, like the iPhone and Android phone, have access to application software capable of altering guest behavior and experiences. Given the explosive evolution of social media channels, mobile services appear to have unparalleled potential for the hospitality industry in that they provide a platform for marketing appropriate goods and services, at a most relevant time. READ MORE
Smart hotel property owners are taking advantage of the growing list of incentives available for energy efficient buildings and upgrades. If you've ever considered installing energy efficiencies, you owe it to yourself to find out what rewards may be available to you through smart tax strategies; local, state and federal incentives and other funding programs such as grant and rebates. Extensive documentation and research from reliable sources is readily available to hotel owners to help ensure that your energy efficient building project has a positive impact on your bottom line along with the environmental impacts. READ MORE
A spa project within a hotel or resort is very different from a standalone day spa. The latter is a much more challenging investment with low margins and profitability. A spa facility within a hotel or resort on the other hand is indeed a good addition to the facilities that the property offers. It can enhance rooms and catering revenues apart from its own operation. However, this will depend upon the quality of the facility itself and how well the spa is positioned in the market it operates in. Repeat clientele is paramount in a spa business and measures to confirm future bookings before the end of the current treatment session will drive incremental revenues and profits. The wellness of the project can be ensured through a well thought out and executed spa project within the hotel or resort which creates synergies with the facilities that the property has to offer. This is the ultimate strategy that will massage spa profits. READ MORE
There is a perception that green hotels are more expensive for hotel guests than conventional hotels, and many survey results say that guests are willing to pay more - up to 10% more - to stay in a green hotel (e.g., LEED certified). As a hotel guest, would you be willing to pay more money per night to stay in a green hotel? As a hotel manager, would you be willing to charge your guests more to stay in your green hotel? Or, perhaps the question is, are hotel managers taking advantage of the opportunity to charge more (since guests are willing to pay more) for their green hotels? Read on to find out… READ MORE
Hoteliers often find it desirable to classify certain workers as independent contractors. Payroll tax benefits, labor cost reduction and business expense management are enticing for many companies to take the risk of classifying an individual as an independent contractor when the independent contractor/employee distinction is blurred. Employers that hire independent contractors must be extra cautious to ensure that these workers are classified correctly, because federal and state governments have signaled their intent to more seriously investigate misclassification issues. Employers that run afoul of the relevant statutes and regulations will face regulatory fines, back tax implications, wage and hour claims, workers' compensation issues and a host of other problems. The following article provides a background on what conditions must be satisfied to properly classify an individual as an independent contractor. READ MORE
In an increasingly competitive global hotel environment, it is more vital than ever that hoteliers understand industry best practice and the latest supporting technologies to drive revenue performance. As such, many are turning to revenue management for accurate and detailed forecasting, so they can make optimal pricing decisions and grow revenue as a result. However, if hoteliers make the most of forecasting data, they can not only increase revenue, but also decrease costs across a hotel's entire operations and, as a result, bolster profitably. Having the ability to account for periods of higher or lower demand enables hoteliers to make better operational and staffing decisions and match their ordering from external suppliers to ensure wastage is minimized. READ MORE
Mobile technology is no longer the future of marketing: it's the present. App platforms are evolving to become more user friendly, there's no longer just one type of mobile website and the idea of mobile advertising is no longer a concept, but a practice. With all of this evolution it can create a constant battle between what your hotel should be doing and what you are actually doing. Depending on what type of property you manage, the type of mobile strategy you should have will vary. Throughout this article we will discuss different types of properties and the strategies that are working well for them. READ MORE
What is the necessary data or benchmarks to use in order to improve or simply gauge the performance of a hotel spa? Firstly, the percentage of in-house clients that use the spa facilities which is the “capture rate”. These percentages vary based on the type of hotel and can be quite different from one another. Understanding that the hotel clients' primary reason(s) to be there does not always include the need for spa treatments; therefore spa services must be attractive enough so that the clientele will want to patronize the spa. The percentage of retail sales compared to treatment sales is also extremely important to identify how well a spa is performing. This article will provide further details about some of the most important benchmarking metrics to use for hotel spa operations. READ MORE
Hotel property ownership and hotel management leadership in china has been a hot topic in the past few years, and there have been many meetings and discussions amongst foreign managers and with local leadership about how to build and operate a hotel or spa business. Most Chinese business owners have no history or knowledge about the hospitality industry and have therefore a lack of interest or understanding of what to do with a hotel. However, due to the increasing demand of quality of products and services across all industries in china this industry will also need to undergo some re-education, change in leadership and adjustments in business regulations, in order to be on par with the international market. READ MORE
International social media. Despite the benefits, it's a field that very few hotel marketers are exploring due to the perceived—and actual—landmines. Interacting with diverse foreign audiences on social networks potentially means world-spanning customer engagement, increased online search rankings and ultimately higher booking revenue. While it entails some unique challenges, taking your social program global is achievable. From preserving your brand's identity across multiple languages and social platforms to interacting with multilingual fans in near-real time, international social media requires careful planning and localization know-how. READ MORE
Did you know that water, wastewater, and storm water fees are increasing faster than any other commodity? These fees used to be included as parts of the tax bill, but, increasingly these fees are being charged as part of your water and/or wastewater charge. The trend in the fee structure is to base the stormwater fee on the amount of impervious area that a facility has. This means that hotels and motels will be subject to significant fees because the roofs of the buildings and the parking lots are all impervious. READ MORE
On October 3, 2011, Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills was the first hotel in the West Coast and the first Four Seasons hotel in the world to launch the innovative ICE (Interactive Customer Experience) technology with iPad2 devices in all 285 guestrooms, front desk, and house cars. With an increasing number of technologically savvy guests who prefer indirect contact with the hotel via mobile devices, our goal through implementing the iPads with ICE technology was to exceed guest expectations by offering exceptional service and unique innovative technology. READ MORE
If you haven't developed an aggressive Public Relations strategy for your properties, you are missing out on one of the most effective ways to reach new guests and build your business. Find out how to leverage the power of PR, using online distribution services and services that will have news sources coming to you for stories, and use your own website to generate buzz for your properties. PR is the most cost-effective way to increase your online presence, boost your credibility as an industry expert, and reach your desired target markets. READ MORE
In truth, human beings tend to commit to only a few endeavors in their lives, so what would make them want to commit themselves and their efforts to the benefit of the hotel they work for? It's a well kept secret that a sense of alignment to an organization invariably leads to engaged and therefore committed employees. What is it about alignment that inspires employees to more deeply connect to the hotel they work for? Industrial psychologists and organization development practitioners have long used a commitment formula to help engage individuals and groups in the company's vision, mission and goals. READ MORE
