Mr. Kall

Sales & Marketing

Special Offers Deserve a Special Place in Your Marketing Mix

By Rob Kall, President, Bookt LLC

Name a more competitive online arena than Travel. Can you? As an entrepreneur in hospitality marketing and technology – perhaps I am biased. To me, the Travel marketplace is at the top tier of the web’s explosion of channel aggregation, information, and game changing consumer sophistication. To compete and win, today’s hotelier must develop a multi-layered strategy and deploy an array of finely-tuned tactics. And must do so while battling a recovering economy and navigating crowded sea lanes. Bon voyage!

Special times require special measures, with the keyword being “Specials” – a tried and true marketing tactic that can help you beat your competitors, engages consumers, and can be profitable when smartly done and managed. Unless your city is hosting the Super Bowl, every day, forever, specials should have a time and place in your marketing mix.

Priming the Pump

According to their most recent survey on consumer satisfaction with reservations made on seven major independent travel sites, J D. Power and Associates reports – in order of importance – that consumers are looking for “competitiveness of price, ease of booking, usefulness of the information on the website, availability of booking options/travel packages, appearance/design of site, and ease of navigation.” Thus, while price clearly plays a key role in consumer satisfaction, just as clearly – improving your site itself is also critical. This means that savvy hoteliers will continually refine their website. Consumers are seeking comfort and value in your property as well as in their online experience. To prime the pump for effective use of special offers, get your website house in order. This is absolutely Step #1.

Website Content

Okay. Your website functionality and design is new and improved. So it’s time to launch your Valentine’s Weekend Away promotion – right? Not so fast. One other area on your site requires a look before you leap. Content. According to an April 2009 report from the global online travel and tourism site, TravelMole, when booking a holiday online, consumers say the following content are important:

• Pictures of accommodation and facilities: 76%
  
• A written description of the destination: 72%
  
• A destination map: 70%
  
• Destination activities and events: 67%
  
• Weather information: 65%
  
• Travel information such as time zone currency and visa requirements: 60%
  
• Local dining information: 51%
  
• Local sports and leisure information: 33%
  
• A video of accommodation: 30%
  
• Video of the destination: 25%
  
• Details of family and children's activities: 20%

MBO – Marketing By Objectives

Specials can drive revenue through more bookings, longer stays and filling your “Shoulder Season.” Special offers can also generate revenue and demand for your property’s amenities (Spa, Restaurants, Bike Rentals, Tours, Tickets, Excursions, Transportation and other unique services that you offer.)

This is also a good time to make friends and influence other local businesses that may be interested in making or solidifying special offers that can be bundled with yours. Restaurants, Clubs, Shopping venues, Sports, Theme Parks, Museums, Festivals and the like should be on your radar screen. Again, consumers are searching for both comfort and value. Align your objectives with those of your target consumers. Make sure that finding these special offers is easy, especially from your Home Page. Position them “above the fold” and write a blog article every time you launch a new one. Take advantage of seasonal events and holidays. Leverage your property’s best assets and partner when it will deliver an exponential value for your guests.

When not to use Specials? Some might say that specials are not necessary when demand is already high. Savvy hoteliers will still see the value of specials year-round as no one said price needs to be lowered, even during times of plenty. A “Romance Package” with Champagne, French Toast breakfast in bed, and Massage for Two at a premium price is a viable idea at many properties, even when the big convention is in town. Comfort and value. And value does not necessarily mean a bargain. It often relates to advantage and worth.

Making Sure You Have the Tools

While it may be obvious, it is important that your website booking engine can handle specials. Will your site accept and process special offers or do you need to upgrade to make that happen? Also, is your booking engine and reservation system fully integrated with your website? Some hoteliers are still using old school 3rd party pop-ups or framed solutions. In those cases it is hard to make the special offer part of your overall site content. The best place to for an offer is obviously on the home page. To be competitive you need sophisticated booking technology that can accommodate special coupon codes, percentage of rate discounts, fixed discounts, free nights, package prices and more. It is also important that this tool can accommodate blackout date requirements as well as integrate with lead source management for tracking purposes. When you speak with your web team, make sure they understand the flexibility you need to successfully exploit consumer demands for targeted offers and a positive user experience.

Marketing Your Specials

In addition to your own website, Special Offers should appear on your Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and travel communities you are connected to. Ask your web company if they can automate distribution feeds to your pages on these Social Media sites. It is easier than you think to automatically push this type of content once it is added to your own site. (You are exploiting “softer sell” Social Media today – aren’t you?)

Another channel is your own internal past customer list. By now, the savvy hotelier has built an opt-in email list for this express purpose. To alert past guests about specials, news and relevant offers that they may be interested in.

Are you sponsoring keywords on Google or another Search Engine? Targeted offers that sync with target keywords are marketing opportunities can have a measurable return on investment. Keep good records of campaign performance so you’ll know what to do next year if the opportunity repeats.

And, if affordable, place your special offers on local online destination guides. Future guests often start here when scoping out a holiday they are planning. Having a specific offer vs. just a plain vanilla listing will make your property stand out from the crowd. [Speaking of the competition – what Special Offers are they promoting? What can you learn from their ideas and experience?]

Finally, ask for feedback from guests who take you up on your special offers and display these reviews on your website. The Smith Family was delighted with your Kid-Friendly Package, especially the warm chocolate chip cookies before beddy-bye. This information will be meaningful to the Jones Family as they check-out your online offer and may motivate them to check-in.

Different Strategies for Different Channels

Many hoteliers find that they think about pricing options differently depending on whether they are addressing the needs of their own site vs. the aggregated hotel sites. Where is it best to adjust my overall rate and where is it best to utilize a special offer? To maximize revenue “yield”, consider adjusting to “right price” for the portals if conversion rates deliver, and run “specials” on your own website where the conversion improvement from a 10% “web-only” discount, for example, many times well pays for the revenue loss. Hopefully you have sufficient analytical tools to measure performance. I encourage you to try multiple strategies and compare your results; fine-tune going forward.

In Conclusion

Special Offers deserve a special place in your marketing mix. They can be both lower and premium priced. Today’s travel consumer has gazillions of choices so you and your offers must stand out and laser in on the comfort and value that travel shoppers are searching for.

Your website is your primary online storefront and must be easy to navigate and your special offers must be easy to find and book. Tell the world about your offers and smartly use email and Social Media to get the word out, automating where possible.

Finally, you have another great asset at your property that can be another key factor in successful Special Offer results. Of course it’s your people, eEspecially those who answer the phones and Registration. Your entire team needs to be well versed and trained on your specials and sell them, at every opportunity. The folks at Check-Out can also obtain a Guest Review and communicate about upcoming specials, and take a reservation.

Companies like Orbitz, Expedia, Hotels.com and all the rest of the big league players spend millions of dollars a year on research to learn how best to improve the travel shopper’s online experience so they can beat the competition and improve their revenue via site performance. Even if you do not have those resources available, sometimes it is important just to know that this is important, that your prospective guest is looking for a certain online experience. And there is no one better than you to start thinking about how you can get a greater performance out of your website and online marketing tactics. And, don’t hesitate if you need some help – find a company with proven insight and ask them to make you a Special Offer that delivers the comfort and value you deserve.

Rob Kall, President of Bookt LLC, is a 'technopreneur' at heart. Drawing upon his 12+ years of experience in developing and implementing real estate and property websites he founded Bookt in 2007 to fill a void in the global vacation rental industry. Mr. Kall is a master of emerging web technologies, especially as applied to the travel industry, as well as behavioral targeting and engagement, deciphering marketing trends into widgets and applications, and online distribution hubs beyond the GDS. Mr. Kall holds a Bachelors in Computer Science from University of Boras, Sweden. Mr. Kall can be contacted at 800-941-0868 or rob@bookt.com Extended Bio...

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