In the 1990s, the growth of online travel sites changed the playing field forever. Over the past decade, hotel marketers were forced to rely on OTAs (online travel agencies) for the bulk of their online bookings. This proved to be a costly channel offering little control over pricing, positioning, inventory management, and yield management.

While most hotel companies had their own Website by the turn of the century, it was not until 2002 that the majority initiated marketing efforts to drive consumers to their Websites. They used best rate guarantee as a carrot and then started purchasing key words on the search engines to drive additional consumers to their sites.

Today, hoteliers with varying Internet experience may certainly attempt to dabble in SEO (search engine optimization) and SEM (search engine marketing) on their own to increase bookings, but both have costs associated with them. The former does not have a participation cost, but there is still a labor cost associated with the marketing executive hired to manage the program. SEM, on the other hand, can be an expensive and risky venture, and one best managed by an individual well-versed in the metrics and methods. This person should also devote several hours a ...