Hospitality eBusiness Strategies (HeBS) wins three Prestigious HSMAI Golden Click Awards
Two Silver and one Bronze award for Hotel Website entries that measure both metric-based business st
NEW YORK, NY, January 30, 2006. hospitality eBusiness Strategies, (HeBS), NYC, today announced receipt of two Silver and one Bronze Merit Award in the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI) Golden Click and Adrian Web Awards Competition. These 2005 awards recognize the very best of hospitality and travel Web sites for results-driven, customer focused market development and metric-based ROI combined with excellence in web design. The awards are presented at the annual HSMAI Golden Click Web Awards Competition Gala Dinner in New York on January 30, 2006 at the Marriott Marquis Hotel.
Project awards included:
o Silver Award to Red Mountain Spa, St. George, Utah (www.redmountainspa.com)
o Silver Award to Pheasant Run Resort, St. Charles, Illinois (www.pheasantrun.com)
o Bronze Award to Tranquility Bay Beach House Resort, Marathon, Florida (www.tranquilitybay.com)
According to Max Starkov, HeBS president and CEO, "This year 27%-29% of all revenues in hospitality will be generated from the Internet (25% in 2005). Another 1/4 of hotel bookings will be directly influenced by Internet planning, but done offline. Hoteliers appreciate the critical contribution of the hotel website that encompasses both an effective business strategy and design excellence in delivering a real ROI-based direct-to-consumer online distribution strategy that generates results. Direct Online Distribution starts and ends with the hotel website, so the goal is clear: create a fully optimized website that is user-friendly, search engine-friendly and travel booker-friendly. That means a site with customer-driven focus, clear messages, in depth description of facilities and compatibility with the stringent criteria of today's search engines. The result is a market driven website that draws a growing population of online travel bookers to hotel site."
Jason Price, Executive Vice President adds, "HSMAI no longer judges websites just on the artistic and creative execution. They now grade on site performance, revenues, and ROI as required in the contest application. Only websites that generate revenues and produce for the client and are also of artistic and creative beauty are winners."
The Golden Click awards competition is the largest travel-related competition of its kind in the world and drew more than 1,600 entries from 45 countries for the 2004 competition. These awards recognizes the very best of hospitality and travel website design and development and success in meeting stringent marketing and business metrics, where entries are judged on their overall design merit and success in achieving their stated objectives. Judges are comprised of marketing, advertising, public relations and Internet professionals as well as leading members of the travel community. PREVISUAL, LLC, Silver Spring, MD, designed and built out the three winning websites, in close cooperation with HeBS strategic consultants, who created the overall website concept, customer segmentation strategy, navigation map, functionality needs, search optimization, and implemented the Internet marketing strategies for each property Web site.
Said Deborah Evans, general manager of Red Mountain Spa, "We are delighted that our website was awarded the silver award and even more delighted that it has been a very successful business strategy for continuing to build brand and awareness of the Red Mountain experience. It is rewarding to hear over and over that "your website is easy to use, is well organized and I can easily find what I need" from both our guests and media." We continue to evolve our website as we have continued to do with our physical plant and programs and look forward to an even stronger 2006 due to our growing web traffic, higher internet conversions and more brand awareness.
"Our resort caters to both leisure guests and meeting planners so it was important for our website to incorporate elements essential to two diverse audiences," noted Peter Chu, general manager of Pheasant Run Resort. "Optimization, a detailed analysis and the subsequent redevelopment of our site based on HeBS recommendations resulted in an increase in online revenue of more than 100% compared to the same period last year and we expect this trend to continue. Guests and clients have stated our new site is very user friendly and easy to navigate and are impressed with the new design and many of the enhanced features including interactive floor plans and resort maps, virtual tours, online booking capabilities, featured specials and online Request for Proposal (RFP)."
"We are extremely pleased and proud that our Website and strategy has won this award," noted Sam Schorr, Tranquility Bay Beach House Resort general manager. "We welcome our guests through a website that most effectively describes the quality of our property and the best Tranquility Bay Resort offers. This important component of our destination strategy spectacularly enhanced our competitiveness. We dramatically exceeded our occupancy rate goals, sold every unit we wanted to sell and discovered a hot secondary market. Based on actual results, we calculated an ROI of 3000%."
About HeBS
Hospitality eBusiness Strategies, Inc. (HeBS) www.hospitalityebusiness.com, based in New York City, is the leading Internet distribution and marketing strategy consulting firm for the hospitality and travel verticals. HeBS has pioneered many best practices in Internet marketing in hospitality. HeBS specializes in helping hoteliers build their Internet distribution and marketing strategies, increase online sales and customer loyalty, improve ADRs and establish interactive relationships with their customers. A diverse client portfolio of over 250 top tier major hotel brands, multinational hospitality corporations, hotel management and representation companies, franchisees and independent hotels and resorts, has sought and successfully taken advantage of their eBusiness expertise. You can reach our consultants at (212)752-8186 or [email protected].
Editorial Contact:
Max Starkov/Jason Price
Hospitality eBusiness Strategies, Inc.
14 E. 60th Street, Suite 400, New York, NY 10028
Phone 212-752-8186
Email [email protected]
Web: www.hospitalityebusiness.com