Contending with today's powerfully evolving mobile landscape, small chains to independent hoteliers are faced with a new challenge of quickly acquiring expertise in a 24/7 marketing environment, created by the rapid evolution of technology and the never-ending opportunities to deliver higher levels of customer-centric initiatives with more efficiently generated revenues. Now with the new year, it is apparent that a paradigm shift is happening in consumer-direct marketing, eCRM and alternative "hand held" distribution channels, due primarily to the immense popularity of smartphones. READ MORE

The key to success is in leveraging mobile technology to create highly targeted and customized messages for 1-on-1 personalized marketing, which the guests truly appreciate and value as thoughtful and meaningful, making their life easier and simpler. Any hotel company that is able to master this would emerge as a sure-shot winner with highly interactive relationships with their customers, resulting in deeper and more profitable engagements. The ringing phone with a telemarketer at the other end is passe. READ MORE

Right now your employees are using social media to share what's happening, what they think, and where they've been. They're engaged for both their personal use, and in some cases for their job. This article looks at ways to chart your hotel's social media governance, shares a database of 163 policies from a leading social media consultant, and checks in with a Director of Digital Marketing from a well-known hotel to find out his thoughts on the matter. One thing is for sure, when it comes to hotel social media policies, one size does not fit all. READ MORE

It's a competitive market online for hotels these days. What can you do to attract online travel shoppers, set your property apart and produce more hotel bookings? The answer, as a growing number of hoteliers have found, is to tell your story in a unique and compelling way -- tell it with video and get that video in front of as many shoppers as possible. Considering that hotel shoppers are clearly demanding video and your competitors are jumping in with both feet, it may be time to begin incorporating video and video syndication into your own marketing and e-business strategies. Such moves can generate impressive returns. READ MORE

If your would-be customer has started her hotel search by typing in a query to Google, Bing, Kayak, or another search engine, you need to make sure that your hotel comes up near the top of the search engine's results page. As you probably can guess, the reason you need to be near the top of the results page is that searchers rarely scroll down the page. In fact, in a study of web searchers' eye movements, a team at Cornell University found that the "hot spot," where users focus most heavily, is an area in the upper left corner of the page-essentially the top two or three of the unpaid, or "organic" hits. READ MORE