Mr. Boni

Reservations / Online Pricing / Booking Engines

What Hotel Marketers Are Doing to Connect With and Convert Online Travel Shoppers

By Paolo Boni, President & Chief Executive Officer, VFM Leonardo, Inc.

Co-authored by John McAuliffe, Chief Marketing Officer, VFM Leonardo

Today’s travel consumers continue to use the online space to research, shop, buy hotel accommodations as well as share their experiences. But their demands are undeniably and dynamically changing. This leaves many of us wondering what they’re thinking and doing, but most significantly, how to really connect with them and win their business.

Dramatic surges in video viewership and social media usage across the board are testaments to changing consumer demands. These trends present many opportunities for hotel marketers to connect with and convert travel shoppers.

Success involves more than having hotel listings out on the web. It requires hotels to present engaging, informative multimedia content on multiple channels, devices and platforms. Here are some of the things that hotel marketers are doing to connect with and convert online travel shoppers.

Taking on visual merchandising best practices

Visual merchandising practices come from the retail world which has known for eons that product presentation impacts sales. For hotels in the online space, visual merchandising entails presenting the property in its most flattering light in all of the online ‘stores’ that travel consumers enter. What online retailers, and now hotels, are realizing is that visual merchandising in the online space is most effective when video is in play.

Launching video

More people are watching online videos. Approximately 70% of global online consumers watch online videos and in a single month (June, 2010), more than 10 billion videos were streamed in the US alone (Nielson, August 2010).

That explains why today, more and more online retailers are turning to video to educate, delight, entertain – and convert – their shoppers,” (Adobe, “Nine Easy Steps to Online Video Guide”). And it’s working. It increases sales conversions, lowers shopping cart abandonment rates, reduces product returns and increases website stickiness. Hotels that have followed the retail industry’s lead and launched video are seeing similar results – particularly increased booking conversions.

The feedback we receive from our customers validates what every successful online retailer and marketing analyst is saying about video today…it drives conversions.

Like The BROADMOOR Hotel. They have seen a 25% increase of online bookings this summer compared to last summer when they weren’t syndicating video.

The Key West Marriott Beachside Hotel began syndicating video using VBrochure in December 2009 and their bookings on all online channels are up double digits.

The Courtyard Miami Beach Oceanfront has been working with VFM Leonardo for the past three years and they report that video syndication has significantly increased visitors to their website and booking conversion has also increased since.

This tells us that launching video can greatly improve your ability to connect with and convert travel shoppers. If you’re already using video, that’s great. The rest of this article will share some insightful tips on how you can make video even more effective. If you’re not, you’ll learn how to get started.

Starting with a story

Regardless of the location or type of hotel, every hotel has a story that they can tell. With the popularity of online video right now, there’s no better way to tell a story than through video. When we asked hoteliers what their barriers to launching video are, many said that they don’t know where to start. Our advice is simple... Start with a story.

• What brings them to your destination?
• What brings them to your hotel specifically?
• What are they doing while there?
• What are they saying about you online?

“Good storytelling makes people sit up and listen … It is worthy of their attention, worth remembering and retelling,” (iMedia Connection, Corey Torrence). We tell and re-tell stories all the time. We also react to stories. “Travelers are looking for a mix of inspiration about what they might do, along with practical information about climate, customs and more” (Travelport, “The Well Connected Traveller”, 2011). Smart hoteliers capitalize on these facts.

The one great advantage we have in this industry is that at any given time, there are many many different stories to tell. They’re constantly unfolding at your hotel - guests are coming and going, celebrating, reuniting, relaxing, exploring, and so on. Everything from an all-star hockey team returning to the hotel after winning the championship game, to a couple enjoying a romantic dinner celebration of their wedding anniversary, to a family of four heading out for a day of skiing together.

These everyday happenings may seem insignificant and lack detail about the features and amenities you want travel shoppers to know about, but they’re more powerful than that. They are the real-life stories that travel shoppers don’t see when they’re in front of a computer screen. What these stories do is connect with people on a more emotional level.

What you want to do is convey the feeling. Daniel Edward Craig, former hotel general manager turned consultant specializing in social media strategy, storytelling, and online reputation management for hotels, recommends dramatizing your descriptions.

“Lists of features and benefits are helpful but a bit dull; they’re far more compelling when woven into stories. Packages are great for this, as are slice-of-life updates on Facebook and Twitter. Like this Facebook update from Brewster House in Freeport, Maine: “Cute couple got engaged here last night. Now enjoying champagne and blueberry-stuffed French toast.” The subtext? Romance, excitement, and scrumptious breakfast,” (Social media and storytelling for hotels, February 2011).

Listening to guests

Jean Francois Mourier, President and CEO of RevPAR Guru, states that hoteliers should treat guest reviews (negative and positive) as a “gift,” not a critique. He means that you should be thankful that your guests have taken the time to share such valuable information. Use reviews to learn about your guests, their experience at your hotel, what they like and dislike, why they chose your hotel and what they believe differentiates it from others and use it as a basis for your videos.

For example, if many of your guest reviews are raving about your great location close to area attractions, create a video that takes viewers around the hotel and these attractions. InterContinental hotels have a great format that they call “Concierge Videos” in which the hotel’s concierge greets you at the hotel and the takes you around to see the location attractions. Here’s one example for the InterContinental San Juan.

The Best Western Centre-Ville listened to their guests and created two different videos – one that focuses on the experience a busy business traveler has at their hotel and one that focuses on a family at their hotel. See their videos.Connecting with consumers requires consistency. A good suggestion by Milestone Internet Marketing is to come up with one or two short compelling videos every quarter so that you always have new and fresh video content out there. You’ll have quite the library of videos in no time.

Keeping it real

Investing thousands of dollars in producing professional videos isn’t necessary. Video that you create in house or on a limited budget can be just as effective because it’s authentic. Authenticity is something that today’s consumers are definitely concerned with. If they weren’t, sites like TripAdvisor, wouldn’t be as pervasive as they are.

Even the simplest, lowest budget videos are effective if the story they tell is one that resonates with people. The example of the L’Apostrophe Hôtel that Daniel Edward Craig talks about in his blog post “Social media and storytelling for hotels” is great. It’s a simple video without any fancy effects. The camera follows a “jolie femme” around the hotel’s surroundings and compels the viewer to keep watching and see where she will go next. As a next step, the hotel could create another video that follows her through her day in the hotel thereby accentuating more of the features of the hotel. People like telling their stories. People like your hotel staff, local business owners and your very own guests. Don’t hesitate to get real people involved. The Beverley Heritage Hotel uses their staff to show you around the hotel. Watch their video.

What this video shows is that the content of the video is what should be top of mind – making it authentic, relevant and compelling.

There are so many great, yet simple, topics for hoteliers to create videos on that will offer value to travel shoppers like:

• Top things to do in the area
• Local events and festivals
• How to make the chef’s signature dish
• Best practices used at the hotel
• Seasonal activities
• Best dining experiences in the area

Taking a multi-channel approach

Successfully connecting with travel shoppers means you need to be where they are. Ensure that your video reaches and engages with them at every stage of their shopping journey. After all, shopping for travel is about more than just the booking process. It has become very non-linear and spans from days to months, a single site to countless sites, from a smartphone to a laptop. In fact, research by Travelport indicates that 25% of leisure travelers are using more than four websites to plan and book trips and 42% of business travelers are spending valuable time using 3 or more sources.

Today’s hyper-interactive travel consumers go to multiple different sites during the trip planning process (there is plenty of research to support this). They want to shop for hotels on the sites they find useful at the particular stage of their shopping journey… and if that includes the hotel’s site, particularly at the booking stage, that’s great! But, regardless of how great a hotel’s SEO and PPC strategy is, travel shoppers visit other sites and compare one hotel against another.

There are so many ways to use video in the online marketing you’re already doing.

• Adding video to websites and landing pages
• Syndicating video to third-party sites
• Posting video on social media channels
• Linking to video from email campaigns

What is all comes down to is that “2011 is the year of video” (HeBs, 2011). It can’t be ignored or put off any longer. To connect with and convert online travel shoppers, hotel marketers need to get video out there and they need to do it now. Create it, get it out there, and the results will speak for themselves.

This article was co-authored by John McAuliffe, Chief Marketing Officer, of VFM Leonardo. Mr. McAuliffe joined VFM in August 2008 after a successful tenure, as Chief Marketing Officer, of a Silicon Valley technology firm where he implemented a web based demand generation program and helped turn a stagnant company with limited revenues into a sales and marketing innovation company that experienced significant growth and profitability. As a 20+ year marketing veteran Mr. McAuliffe is a professional with hands on experience in leading market-driven strategies for disruptive technologies. Mr. McAuliffe was the President and COO of a mid-size Canadian advertising agency which he transformed from a provider of production and creative services to a professional services firm focused on delivering integrated communications consistent with its clients' brands. He is a graduate of the University of Western Ontario and has taken post graduate studies in Strategic Marketing Management at University of Toronto and Harvard University.

Paolo Boni has lead VFM Leonardo’s vision and strategic direction since 2001. Under his leadership, the company has expanded globally and now has over 80,000 hotels, over 30,000 travel related website partners worldwide and the largest online visual content distribution network for the travel industry. As a recognized travel industry expert, Mr. Boni frequently speaks at major travel conferences on subjects relating to online travel marketing, online hotel merchandising and rich media. He holds an LL.B. from Osgoode Hall Law School and a B.A. Economics from McGill University. Mr. Boni can be contacted at 1-877-593-6634 or press@vfmleonardo.com Extended Bio...

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