Don't let the title of this article mislead you - what hoteliers need to do to sell hotel rooms online is no secret. It's all about better merchandising with content that inspires and motivates shoppers to book. More than just rates, inventory and driving traffic to a booking engine, selling hotel rooms online involves making engaging, detailed visual and written content available to travel shoppers on all the digital channels they use throughout the shopping journey.

Still in its infancy, social influence marketing is growing up quickly and at Trump Hotel Collection, we jumped in with both feet, adding social networks to the arsenal of marketing tools we employ for our hotels. Within the past year, we have established Twitter and Facebook accounts for Trump Hotel Collection and several of our individual properties highlighting our hotels, restaurants and spas. Strategically, this makes sense, and this article addresses the reasons why we do it. It also provides a case study of Ivanka Trump's very successful Twitter account which, at this writing, is edging toward one million followers.

The overriding goal is a satisfying user experience. However, any hotel or hotel chain must first ensure that the booking engine not only reflects the proper image of the property but allows the property to manage their revenue management strategy as well. Then of course there is the issue of usability. If the engine is too confusing or dysfunctional no amount of wonderful images or descriptive text will help...

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, are currently the top social networks used for businesses. At this point, these three online communities are more than a trendy buzzword tossed around at parties, they are household names and part of our everyday lives. Hotels, and the hospitality industry in general, were fairly late in catching this new wave of communication, primarily because they didn't understand how to use the networks properly. They are monsters that constantly need to be fed with new information. They are also not going anywhere. Social media are not a fad, they are here to stay, and it is important to learn the tools to use them well. Read this article on how to cultivate this trend for your property.

Today's quickly-changing marketing environment turns traditional approaches on their ear, with guests calling the shots, dictating the timing and preferences for communications and engagement. For marketers, this customer-driven, fast-paced environment mandates a new approach to optimize engagement - the points of contact with the brand - and maximize the guest's lifetime value. But most traditional database-driven marketing solutions fall far short of these goals. That's why savvy marketers are turning to sophisticated relationship marketing.but no relationship marketing strategy will work without the right digital marketing system.

In the sixth century BC, Greek philosopher Heraclitus observed "Everything changes but change itself." Twenty-six centuries later, it's still just as true. It certainly applies to today's hotel customers. Travelers, whether business road warriors or families on vacation, are more selective, value conscious and well-informed than ever before. They also have a whole new set of expectations. Hotels have a unique opportunity now to embrace and benefit from this new customer reality. Read this article to learn how you can capitalize on it in ways that will differentiate your property's brand, rise above the competition and increase customer loyalty.

One thing that the brands, chains. representation companies and third-party sites do very well is ensure that your property information, rates, availability and photos are available online - an integral part of ensuring that your hotel can be found and booked online on a functional level. Guests ensure that there are plenty of written reviews of your hotel and user-generated photos and videos of their experiences available to their peers. But there's a missing piece to the puzzle. Hoteliers typically have the best knowledge of what makes their hotel unique. This is why hoteliers have such an opportunity when it comes to marketing and merchandising online.

In today’s market, hoteliers are more concerned about their marketing programs drawing in new guests than about developing a brand or laying the groundwork for a successful 2013.  Fortunately, positioning your hotel for future success and accomplishing your short-term marketing goals are not mutually exclusive concepts.  There are several ways to market your hotel for future success without compromising the pressing needs of today.  In this article, I will examine these tactics so that you can get started sowing the seeds for your property’s future success.

The electronic age has arrived. For some hotels, the Internet has represented just another place to market. They've created a website, added a booking engine, and maybe done some rudimentary marketing. Yet for others, it's a renaissance of opportunity-with a new generation of hotel professionals finding endless ways to capitalize and gain market share. Where does your hotel fit on the spectrum? Are you in the game with a ho-hum website? Or have you put on your boardies, grabbed your board, and popped up to ride the next wave?

Social media gives travelers a voice — a loud, almost immediate, and unfiltered voice. Whether you’re out there or not, your guests are — sharing their preferences, talking about their experiences with your hotel, your staff, even Tweeting about the chocolate and turn down service they did (or did not) receive. As a hotel leader, if you’re not participating in social media, you’re missing out on an opportunity to connect with highly engaged travelers and you can guarantee your competitors will jump at the chance to disrupt the conversation. There are so many opportunities to connect with current and prospective guests through social media. Let's take a look...

Many independent hotel managers are unhappy with the small amount of business generated by their websites. This should come as no surprise as these websites have poor visibility, and often less than 20 visitors a day. Simple techniques like being present in a few online channels and registering for Google Local Business can dramatically increase the level of visibility of an independent hotel's website. This article suggests 5 simple and 5 advanced tips to dramatically boost the visibility of an independent hotel's website as a first step to create a structured online strategy to ensure e-commerce success.

In a Forrester Research report at the start of this year, Henry Harteveldt, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research, said he expects travel spending to rebound starting in 2010 and continue in an upward trend through 2013. Travel companies with an online presence have an even brighter outlook. Harteveldt predicted that online leisure, unmanaged business, and managed business travel spending will reach $158 billion by 2013. So, how can you be sure your hotel rides this wave of growth in the coming year?

Over the course of the past few years, I have been approached by hotels that want to attract more international traffic to their websites. They were looking for the easiest way to optimize their sites for each country. Some may think it is simply a matter of translating the site and traffic will come. International SEO is not that easy. Here are a few challenges that companies with an international Web presence face, and some tips for creating an optimal Web presence that can perform well in international search engines.

Your distribution strategy needs to be understood by who will be selling it, available on the designated distribution channels, easily understandable by the purchaser and not a teaser that is too difficult to really buy. Plus protect your brand with that strategy. Do not degrade your brand or try to sell into a market you do not service well.

In a tough economic time, it is of vital importance to discuss methods that will not only help you avoid slumping sales, but also to help you grow your business. There are six specific tactics I discuss in this article, from details on how to utilize natural and local search offerings to the importance of building the top of your funnel for your long-term growth. This list is by no means meant to be a comprehensive guide to running a recession-proof online program. However, these are the first steps you can take to ensure the health of your business, now and to come.