Ms. Lutz

Social Media & PR

Does Your Hotel Need PR? Know Before You Spend

By Didi Lutz, President, Didi Lutz PR

Since 2004, when I started writing my columns for Hotel Business Review, I have been on a mission to convince hoteliers that while PR should work together with Marketing, it should also stand alone as its own self-functioning department. The reason is simple: your public relations team is the eyes and ears for your hotel, your competitors, your community, and, most importantly, PR monitors the news environment in print and online.

As the information gatekeepers of your property, your PR team is usually the one who issues news releases, and anything that should become public knowledge. Whether it is an agency or an independent professional, or your own in-house department, it is essential that PR should be notified first of any changes within the property; from something as trivial as a special rate gimmick for one day, to something as serious as ownership change. PR can then strategically respond on behalf of the hotel to the media, the community, and even internally to employees.

How do you know if you need PR and why? I hope the arguments here will convince you of this small department’s importance!

First of all, I can’t tell you how many properties are making this mistake: either not having a PR presence at all, trying to substitute it with assistants or interns, or if they do have a PR team place, it isn’t functioning propertly. Why? Because PR is usually not the first department to be informed of most things that happen in a busy hotel – causing a communication breakdown in the department.

For example, say a celebrity checks in unannounced, and the front desk supervisor finishes the process, hands the key over with the standard pleasantries, and then decides to only tell his manager about who the surprise VIP guest is. Five minutes later, the phone rings at PBX from the local society paper asking to speak to the PR department. PR takes the blind call. “So and so is staying with you, do you have a comment about such and such?” says the reporter. The PR person handles the call by not revealing anything, however, s/he doesn’t know who just checked in, has not been notified appropriately, and therefore is not prepared to fully respond.

The point is: the PR person potentially missed a placement opportunity to plug in the hotel strategically, because s/he wasn’t immediately informed.

The fact remains: the story will run anyway, and without comments and proper communication from the hotel to the press. Ooops.

This kind of thing happens all the time. Start looking at communication as a holistic process, not only for the guest who has checked into the hotel, but for those who read about your hotel, and create an opinion about you. PR has influence and power, and is key to the process of maintaining momentum, image, and a sense of community for your property.

Since PR works with revolving deadlines, timeliness and responsiveness are probably the most critical elements PR pros juggle. So, when working in a hotel, where so much happens all at once, it is imperative to keep PR just a radio alert away.

There are probably way too many reasons to list why you should spend for a PR presence, and making it a part of your team. I have decided to outline some here as a reference. Read through them, and if any of these apply to you, you’ll know what that means.

You need PR if:

• Issuing press releases is at the bottom of your list, or it is a task that has been delegated to an intern. Lets face it; even professional writers have a hard time sometimes with crafting messages, imagine if you hand over this important task to someone who is inexperienced?

• Press calls go to a voicemail that is hardly checked. Editors don’t have much time on their hands. They will leave voicemails and expect a call back. If no one calls back before the deadline, editors will not hesitate to write in a story that phone calls were unreturned.

• Press calls are handled by the wrong employees, and often times providing erroneous information. This happens a lot as well. There must be a clear sense of who is answering media questions. Usually, it is the PR person, or the General Manager’s office. Either way, it is important to establish who talks to the press so that information is properly communicated.

• You don’t encourage press stays, therefore miss opportunities to create relationships and get ink. In fact, you can’t remember the last time you had a media review. From past columns we have already established the importance of a FAM stay, and how it should be treated with plenty of follow-up.

• You don’t know what a FAM trip is. This one is self-explanatory.

• You don’t have a Facebook or Twitter account. Though the industry is quickly picking up on social media, it is how you leverage the networks that can help your PR and overall marketing strategy. Taking the time to learn how Facebook and Twitter can help reach your potential audience, can help increase visibility for your hotel while making the process fun and interactive.

• You think blogs are a fad and don’t belong in hospitality. As e-newsletters become passe and fall back into an older era of digital communications, a blog provides more updated information that encourages feedback from your readers (guests, potential guests, community, experts, etc.). It’s important to update your blog at least twice a week, however, to make it effective.

• No one in the travel market or the community knows much about you other than that you are a hotel option in the area. This goes without saying… who wants to be known as “oh, yeah, then there is that other hotel located on XYZ street.”

• You have no time for press tours and press dinners. Carve out the time to personally greet the writers who come in. If you are not the type who likes this type of thing, hire a PR person whose job it is to host press tours.

• You don’t think money spent on PR will provide any ROI in the short or long term, you decide to pour it all into advertising (often times a fatal mistake). I should say that many times hoteliers expect PR to pay off within a month or two. That takes miracles to happen. PR is a long term, revolving communications process that works with marketing initiatives to be successful. If you invest in PR, make a commitment that allows enough time to provide measurable results.

• Your PR plan is created by a Marketing person who doesn’t know what BBC or WSJ stands for. Needless to say, you have to select a professional who understands and knows how to create media lists…

If any of these sound familiar, then your are in desperate need for a PR presence for your property. Stop missing out on public relations opportunities, especially in these times when finding a niche is more important than anything else.

Choose the right people to communicate the right things on your hotel’s behalf. Communicating your niche to the right audience is crucial, and remember that establishing and maintaining media and community relationships will pay dividends down the line.

Didi Lutz is an internationally acclaimed hospitality public relations professional specializing in boutique hotels, luxury travel, destination and tourism communications. Prior to starting her own business in February 2005, Ms. Lutz was the Director of Communications for the Hotel Commonwealth, a 150-room luxury property in Boston. Within the first year of the Hotel Commonwealth's opening, she established the media relationship that led to worldwide recognition for the property as one of Ten Best New Business Hotels by Forbes.com. Ms. Lutz can be contacted at 561-628-7422 or didi.lutz@gmail.com Extended Bio...

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