Sabine de Witte and Patrick Mulder are curators of cool. Splitting time between Amsterdam, Barcelona, and other hip cities around the world, they represent the quickly growing number of young, creative “mobile citizens” made famous by citizenM. Although our schedules caused us to miss previously scheduled meetings in Barcelona, Amsterdam, and New York’s JFK airport, the fourth try was a success, and I finally caught up with them at New York’s Ace Hotel to discuss trends in digital content creation and curation.

We began talking about the citizenM digital magazine, one of the projects Sabine is involved in…..

Curating lifestyle content with a digital magazine

“Instead of having a blog, we created a digital magazine to share brand information and curate lifestyle content for everyone,” citizenM’s digital strategist Diego Sartori told me. CitizenMag uses themed issues to connect with the brand’s core audience.

“It had to be something different – something that could be read on your mobile phone while waiting,” Sabine said. In just a few issues, the publication has covered topics such “Beautiful” “Tasty” and “Social”. Content ranges from short-form interviews to video clips, and is very visual.

Engaging top talent

When the magazine first launched, it was easy to gather content from writers and media producers. Everyone wanted to contribute.

But the dynamics of encouraging participation always changes with time: “When it’s not brand new, you need to get creative.” With a rapidly growing subscription base, magazine contributors now receive significant visibility for their businesses and projects.

Once the theme of the issue is established, Sabine approaches writers she feels would be a good fit for the issue. Tapping into her network is important for finding the best talent, and she also encourages citizenM ambassadors to reach out to their own networks to find top talent.

Content that connects

Deep articles that go beyond “where to go, what to buy” seem to resonate best with the readers of CitizenMag. An example was an in-depth interview with the CTO of Amazon, where he shared his experience in developing the internet.

There’s a strong interest in hearing about trends – and the people who are shaping those trends. “Our readers loved our ‘day in the life’ profile story of a very famous 23-year-old fashion blogger in the Netherlands. People want to hear about more than the superficial: they want to know about other people’s lives.”

Detailed articles work well for the magazine, but for other digital publishing projects, spontaneous content seems to work really well. Patrick shot a quick video of the 5th Avenue Apple store re-opening with his iPhone, uploaded it to YouTube – and it’s received over 115,000 views to date via Huffington Post and other sites. “Sometimes something you’ve worked on for weeks will get less attention than a quick photo or video. It seems people often don’t like the over-planned content as much as the spontaneous.”

“You must live the lifestyle”

How do you identify the best topics to work on, pieces of content to use, and people to engage for your publication?

“If you’re living the lifestyle, you’ll know what type of content will connect with your audience, because it connects with you.”

Sabine began working with citizenM because she was “living the lifestyle.” This is critical if you want to create truly amazing and engaging content. Hire people living the lifestyle.

Format preferences are changing

Preferences for content consumption have changed dramatically over the past few years. With multiple screens and an exploding diversity of distribution formats, selecting the right way to display content has become crucial for maximizing the visibility of that content.

“This era of ‘there’s an app for that’ will become history,” said Patrick. “Content inside apps is not searchable and visible elsewhere on the web.” Apple and others are developing one ‘umbrella’ app to include all types of magazines and digital content, instead of every publication having an app on its own.

Zite and Flipboard are other services that provide great user experience. Distribution and coverage here will become increasingly important.

“You must promote your content”

The biggest mistake people make when publishing online? Failing to promote it.

“You can have very good content, but you still need to sell it. You must promote your content to attract readers.”

Thanks, Sabine and Patrick!

As a die-hard music aficionado, wannabe DJ, and devoted fan of chillout music, probably the hardest part opening my hotel will be creating the playlist.

That’s why when I heard about Ambiance Radio – a company co-founded by Bradley Newberger that turns background music into a science – I knew I had to learn more. His claim?

“It doesn’t matter whether you personally like the music or not”

“We’re building a 21-st century solution for background music. The fundamental way the industry thinks about music is wrong – it’s too often based on personal tastes. Personal tastes are so subjective. When you play to what the manager thinks guests should hear, the result is rarely what it could be.”

Bradley’s story begins when he was a senior student at Cornell University, working as a new manager for Taverna Banfi – the restaurant attached to the Statler Hotel (Cornell’s teaching laboratory for the hotel school). A few years ago, they completely renovated the restaurant to feel like a Tuscan-style bistro, and it looked fantastic. But the music was left untouched: a 5-disc CD changer played random tracks from Italian opera CDs. Consistently, the comment cards showed earned lower scores than any other element of the customer experience. So when Bradley became a manager, one of the first tasks was to fix the music.

He looked at the options that were available. Everyone’s first reaction is to program an iPod themselves, but this takes a really long time to do. Plus, it gets repetitive if this list never changes. A few high-end boutique firms specialize in creating playlists that reflect the personality of the hotel, but their approach is still based on personal tastes and preferences. They ask “What do you want the room to sound like or feel like,” and then a DJ will create a playlist based on these preferences.

This started Bradley on a quest to find more a more objective way to program music, which a couple of years later became Ambiance Radio.

Music can achieve business objectives

“In developing our company, we applied the findings of decades of academic and scientific research into how music affects the way people feel and behave.  Time after time, researchers found that music has a profound business effect on the environment. The right music could increase F&B revenues from 5 to 20%, depending on the time of day and music tested. In a lobby, music can make waiting in line feel shorter than it actual is – or reduce the time is seems it takes to retrieve your car at the valet. Music triggers a chemical reaction in the brain that changes perceptions.

Perhaps as importantly, music plays a big role in employee performance. The brain gets most engaged when it hears different types of music back to back. Productivity can be increased with the right mix.

The missing element until now: Technology

Technology is a key part of the Ambiance Radio platform. “We looked at what types of music achieved desired effects in the hospitality environment. We developed an algorithm that factors in who is in the room, what are the psychographics – and what the business objectives are there and created a series of proprietary processes that can deliver the Right Music for each venue, varying it day by day, hour by hour as needed. We capture data for each property in an interview and then the technology take over from there. Our system creates and delivers customized feeds for each site and updates them hourly.”

Surprising opportunity: Limited service hotels

I love talking about experience design and experience marketing on this blog, but sometimes get pushback from the owners of limited service hotels. “We can’t afford to spend money on things like that!” But as I wrote in Why Hotel Design Directly Affects The Prices You Can Charge, design and experience elements are what separates a $49 hotel room from an $800 room. Music is another key element in experience design.What’s interesting is that Bradley has seen a lot of initial traction with limited service hotels already.

“Music is something you can instantly put in and change the feel of the room. People walk in and when you see their expressions, you know they had a different experience.” Many limited service hotels play TVs in the lobby – but TVs are a poor way to introduce your guests to the hotel. “Guests come from all walks of life, and when you think about the political environment of today (for example), so-called centrist news organizations can lean one way or the other, and this can cause people to be emotionally involved. Changing the soundscape to music can affect a profound change on the environment.”

“There’s a profound difference between the music you play in the foreground in your home or office and the music that is best to play in the background of a hotel. In the foreground, you’re thinking about whether you like the song. But for background music, it’s not about what you personally like. It’s about what experience is best for the demographics and business objective you want to achieve in the space.”

“Music is for the guests in the room, and not your personal enjoyment.”

–

Thanks, Bradley! For more information, visit AmbianceRadio.com

This week, Josiah and I discussed the best ways to promote a hotel’s eco-initiatives and exceptional service with Chris Syvertsen, General Manager of Mosaic House – the first hotel in the Czech Republic to use 100% renewable electricity and 100% biogas. Planning an eco-overhaul of your own? Focus on these eight strategies:

1. Skeptics are (rightfully) wary of properties that appear to be “greenwashing.” Stick to specific, meaningful improvements. Guests can tell the difference.

Chris: For Mosaic House, it’s relatively easy to promote our property authentically. The eco-initiatives we have incorporated are industry-leading and complex, making it easy to distinguish our efforts from those who have merely “greenwashed.”

We have a sophisticated water recycling system with heat recuperation, which is only the second of its kind in the world. This system recycles all the waste (or grey) water from showers and sinks using an eco-friendly bacterial filtration process, and then sends the recycled water to all of the toilets in the building.

The water savings is tremendous. The system simultaneously recaptures the heat energy from the warm waste water, and then uses it to pre-warm the fresh water used for showering. The heating of the fresh shower water is also aided by the solar panels on the roof of Mosaic House.

2. Strive to become the best property in your niche.

Chris: We are the only hotel in the Czech Republic to utilize 100% renewable-source
electricity and 100% biogas, making our energy consumption 100% sustainable.

Further, we have a sophisticated climate management system which continuously
monitors and adjusts the temperature in every room, based on numerous variables, in
an effort to minimize energy use.

3. Don’t think you need to be “traditional” to appeal to a wide variety of guests.

Chris: We’ve never been the ‘traditional’ type. Between us, we find it a little boring. Mosaic House was dreamed to be as a unique environment in which all kinds of people from all different places, cultures, and backgrounds (a ‘mosaic’ of guests, if you will) could come together and share their stories and experiences.

Through offering affordable, design-conscious private and shared room accommodation, we’ve learned it is possible to appeal to a wide variety of guests.

It’s important to point out, however, that it’s a challenging concept to make work successfully. We work hard to create an environment which ensures all of our guest’s experiences are completely satisfactory.

4. Improve your online feedback and reputation by exceeding expectations.

Katie: So far, Mosaic House has earned 97% positive TripAdvisor feedback; it looks like you’re changing a lot of online reviewers’ preconceptions about hostels.

Chris: Our goal was to incorporate the positive elements of what defines a ‘traditional hostel’, namely a relaxed, friendly, and fun environment, while striping out the stereotypical
negative elements (i.e. stale design and cornflake breakfasts) and blending with four-star, environmentally-friendly offerings.

Based on guest feedback, so far the concept seems to be working. For example, in one recent TripAdvisor review, a guest mentioned ‘being pleasantly surprised at the quality of the accommodation and at the ambience’. Another guest review describes Mosaic House as having ‘a modern-yet-classic vibe that’s both hip and relaxed’.

In addition to the atmosphere and design, guests also comment positively on our service, international staff, green features, cleanliness, and breadth of offerings (such as the gourmet breakfast, Prague customized maps provided upon check-in, and daily entertainment at our own Belushi’s Bar & Restaurant).

5. Set the stage for storytelling and engage locals with in-house entertainment and social spaces.

Katie: You mentioned that Mosaic House likes to create experiences that inspire guests and staff to spread news and stories; could you share a couple examples of these stories?

Chris: Yes, we like stories… and providing a stage (figuratively and literally) for their creation. Not only was the space – which is 100% smoke-free – designed to bring guests together, but we also pay focus to our in-house entertainment. Karaoke nights, themed parties (such as Australia Day and St Patrick’s Day), as well as live music on our theatre stage and sports on the big screen, are on for guests (as well as Prague locals) almost any night of the week.

6. Tell stories with photos.

Chris: Take a gander at Mosaic House’s Facebook page to catch a ‘storybook’ glimpse of what’s ensued over the past year, including our Green Gala event early last month; we were celebrating the announcement of our newest green announcements: utilizing 100% green electricity, gas, and our new fully electric car.

7. Think long-term. It’ll take years of research and adaptation to fine-tune your ecological efforts.

Katie: Which of Mosaic’s features make the biggest environmental impact? Which do your guests most appreciate?

Chris: We’ve taken a big step, but we’re certainly not experts. While we do have projections as to the benefits, it will take years before we are able to truly realize the impact of our eco-initiatives. We’re reluctant to offer advice at this stage, except to recommend performing as much research and analysis as is feasible.

In general, guests really appreciate the overall initiative. They admire that we’ve taken such bold steps towards sustainability and actively work towards minimizing our impact on the environment.

They also appreciate the tangible concepts. For example, our electric car, which is plugged into the side of Mosaic House. The low-flow raindance showers are beloved, perhaps as they also have a bit of a luxurious feature.

8. Find creative ways to measure guest satisfaction for specific initiatives.

Chris: We’ve actually just begun a program which will help us measure guests’ true
appreciation. Because the additional cost of using 100% green electricity and gas is
fairly significant (roughly an additional 40,000 Euros annually), we are asking guests to
consider donating their 2 Euro key deposit towards helping Mosaic House to continue
to afford green energy.

Through measuring how much guests donate, we will get a more accurate picture of how willing people are to actively participate in our effort to make a difference. You might consider checking back with us in six months to see how well the program has performed.

Thank you Chris, and a special thanks to Mosaic House’ enthusiastic Experience Manager Shannon Maroney for reaching out to us!

A huge thanks to Guido vanden Elshout for this enlightening interview with our publisher, Josiah Mackenzie. I’ve worked closely with Josiah for over a year, and – as our regular readers know – he isn’t one to grandstand, preferring instead to praise and expound on the achievements of others. So, in the rare occasion that someone’s able to coax out his personal stories, goals and favorite destinations, I can’t help but share them with you all… (Forgive me, J!)

1. Who are you?

I’m a bon vivant passionate about travel, tea, writing, running, technology, hospitality, design, stories, startups, my hometown of San Francisco, my current city of Barcelona, and anything related to innovation and making the world a better place.

My background is in technology and software startups, but I’m working towards eventually opening a hospitality company in the near future. Now I’m taking my technology experience and using it to help forward-thinking people in the hospitality industry deliver better service and experiences to their guests. What I have done, am doing, and will do is the only way I know to blend all my interests.

2. What do you like about what you do?

I love talking with people who are on the front lines of innovation, and hearing about the projects they’re working on. For example, I’ve had some good conversations recently with Diego Sartori and Michael Levie of citizenM Hotels – and they just might be creating the coolest hospitality concept in the world right now. Watching them reinvent every component of a traditional hotel is fascinating: from the modular construction to how they publish a digital lifestyle magazine.

I like ideas, but I love action. I’ve been fortunate to work on interesting projects in very creative organizations, allowing me to continuously test theories and see what actually works.

Now I’m spending most of my time working with a very talented, dedicated, driven team at ReviewPro, lead by CEO RJ Friedlander. I’ve always enjoyed watching entrepreneurs in action, and RJ is one of the most dynamic executives I’ve met. I work as an industry analyst with them – watching and reporting on how social technologies are changing the way the travel industry operates. As frequent participant in both the consumer and supplier side of travel, this is an ideal position for me right now.

3. What don’t you like about what you do?

My philosophy is that if you’re doing work you love, you’ll never work a day in your life. That’s definitely true for me. I love what I do, and that makes everything easier.

4. Please tell us all about your blog and your aims with it.

I have a very simple goal: to become the most influential travel technology personality in the world. To this end, I’m focused on writing stories and case studies of technology in action. Whenever possible, I prefer to highlight what’s working – instead of pontificating on theory.

I started Hotel Marketing Strategies in the summer of 2008 as just a way to share insights from the projects I was working on. Now, it’s grown to become the leading hotel marketing blog in the world. My rockstar editor Katie Clapp and I talk with people shaking up the travel industry, and then profile their work in blog posts and articles.

An example of this is my recent conversation with James Kinney, who has found live entertainment events to be the single best way for hotels to generate attention on the social web. If you hang out too long in typical social media marketing sites, you are more likely to see another article on “why you should use Twitter” – instead of a compelling case study that involves Cedric the Entertainer, Manhattan hotels, and 300% growth in social media activity.

5. What are your top three destination experiences?

Berlin – I used to live in Berlin, and it remains one of my favorite cities in Europe, if not the world. There’s an energy there that is hard to find elsewhere. I enjoy shopping and dining in the Prenzlauer Berg and Hackescher Markt areas.

Colonia, Uruguay – This can be done as a day trip from Buenos Aires, but it’s much better to stay overnight. On my first visit here, I rented a bike, got lost, and then found a beautiful, nearly deserted beach that was so unexpected that it felt like paradise. (Getting lost typically leads to the best travel experiences for me.)

Dubai - Some find Dubai to be artificial, but its hard not to be impressed by how audacious the developers are in this city. I find the architecture inspirational.

If I can add a fourth, it would be Paris. I’ve visited a handful of times, and lived here briefly in the past, but frankly wasn’t a big fan. But on a trip back there this Spring, I fell in love with the city for some reason for the first time. Paris is the new Paris.

6. What are your top three favorite accommodations?

Witt Istanbul Suites in Istanbul remains my #1 hotel experience to date: Luxurious, modern, and exotic. Guests enjoy a privileged view over the city from rooms designed by Autoban. Founder and owner Tuncel Toprak is a genius, and doing exactly what I want to be doing very soon.

Tailor Made Hotel in Buenos Aires exudes a low-key vibe in a high-energy city. I enjoyed the minimalist design and very friendly service. Original founder Mariquel Waingarten understood what many modern travelers are looking for, and executed a simple concept very well.

I recently stayed at La Maison Champs Elysees in Paris, and was fascinated to see how the owners partnered with Maison Martin Margelia to re-launch the hotel. High fashion entering the hotel industry is an interesting trend I’m observing right now. Hugues Godard, Martin Soler and their teams are doing a great job with this property.

7. What are your top three most memorable food/wine experiences?

Someone once told me that dining experiences are 50% about the restaurant, and 50% about who you’re dining with. I think that’s true, and fortunately I’m usually blessed with great dining partners. While I’ve had some extraordinary dining experiences around the world, I’m going to highlight some favorites in my hometown of San Francisco. San Franciscans get spoiled with some excellent New American cuisine with very fresh ingredients – places like Radius and Outerlands.

One of my favorite wine spots in San Francisco is Moussy’s – an underground wine bar and tapas place. When I’m in the SoMa district, District is another fun place.

As someone who could eat breakfast food for every meal, I recommend a true American breakfast at Dottie’s True Blue Cafe. Had some very inspiration breakfasts at this San Francisco institution, talking travel innovation with @Michael Hraba, @Lisa Demoney, @Henry Harteveldt and @Jacob Morgan.

And for a solid all-around lunch restaurant that never disappoints, I have to give a shoutout to Samovar Tea Lounge in San Francisco. Owner Jesse Jacobs is one of the restaurateurs I admire most in the industry, running his business in a very socially responsible way. The Yerba Buena gardens location is a hotspot for SF tech entrepreneurs, so when dining here you’ll be surrounded by people building the next Twitter or Facebook.

8. What are your three worst destinations/accommodations/food experiences to date?

I try to forget about those!

Actually, I very rarely have terrible travel experiences. With the right travel research, it’s possible to avoid the worst places. I practice what I preach and use guest and customer reviews – like the ReviewPro City Rankings – extensively when planning travel, and they typically lead me to the best places in a new city. I’ve never had a bad experience staying at a hotel that was rated among the top 10 in a city.

9. Can you offer the readers three destinations/foods/accommodations/things to do for the city you are currently living in?

I’m writing this from Barcelona, and the landmark W Hotel Barcelona is a hub for what’s cool in this city. The rooftop bar is one of my favorite places to bring visitors for a spectacular view over the Mediterranean Sea.

The El Born neighborhood is packed with interesting boutiques, cafes and restaurants. Definitely worth walking around at night or during the weekend.

Finally, I’m a huge fan of simple and stylish modern cafes. Anyone visiting Barcelona should check out Crusto, Cornelia & Co, Habuluc, Federal, Alsur Cafe, La Luna, and Princesa 23.

10. Any questions you’d expected me to ask that you would like to answer?

You covered it all, but I love sharing tools I find helpful. To make this as useful as possible for your readers, here are some iPhone/Blackberry apps and that make my life as a writer and traveler easier, more efficient, or just more fun. (Note: I am not affiliated in any way with these companies)

● Evernote – makes it much easier to organize all the ideas floating through my head
● Instapaper – good for reading articles offline
● Tungle – makes scheduling appointments so much easier
● Instagram – easily share artistic photos
● TripIt – great for organizing your travel
● Path – sharing your life through photos with close friends
● Gowalla – making my phone a passport
● UrbanSpoon – my favorite way to find great restaurants

Finally, I love to meet people, so if anyone reading this wants to connect, you can find me on Twitter professionally @HmarketingHelp or personally @JosiahMackenzie. ¡Buen viaje!

Guido’s Take:

In editing this interview, I once more concluded that I myself didn’t follow you and your blog enough throughout the last two years and can only advise my readers to closely follow you, because you are very generous in sharing your experiences both in hotel marketing and living the good life!

I suggest that you come over and stay at Haagsche Suites once before you truly plunge into your hospitality adventure yourself to discuss those plans while enjoying a good glass of wine:-)

In this interview, James Kinney – founder of James Kinney Live – shares how hotels can improve their content strategy and increase social currency through music and live events.

Josiah: Your marketing materials say you created James Kinney Live to “create intimate experiences that successfully communicate the culture and feel of a particular brand.” What does this mean?

James: What I see from a macro standpoint is that brands – if they have a million dollars to spend on marketing, advertising, external communicates – say, “OK. Let’s throw half of it at Google and half at Facebook, and maybe we’ll spend a little bit on mass media i.e. TV, billboards, radio, etc.” But what I’ve found through my research is that people really don’t want to be spoken to that way. People want to be wooed. People want to be romanced by a brand. When that happens, you turn ordinary people into extraordinary advocates.

You can use a shotgun approach out to a million people, but your ROI or your ROE – return on engagement – may only be one to five percent. However, if you make 50,000 true believers, those 50,000 people tell 50,0000 people, and then you’re in a whole new ball-game.

Josiah: Your tag line is “Increasing social currency through music.” What role does music – especially live music and live music events – play in creating these unique brand experiences?

James: Music, as you know, is one of the most powerful mediums that we have in the world, and live music, specifically; there’s a human interaction that exists within live music that is in no other form.

Since we started the Forty Four Live Music Series for Morgans Hotel Group – literally Josiah, every night – we see brand engagement at its finest. We see everything from small children on vacation with their families to businessmen in their 50s and 60s staying an hour or two extra at the Royalton.

Josiah: Do hotels have a unique opportunity to host live music events?

James: Absolutely. Hospitality companies are in an extraordinary position because real estate is king and most established hotel brands have real estate throughout the world. And when you look at the state of the music industry as a whole, it’s lost about half of its revenue. So a lot of amazing talent is looking for a way to market, generate income and gain new fans.

Hotels have an extraordinary opportunity to become mavens of culture, which increases their brand impressions and their bottom line. In the case of the Forty Four Music Series that we have at the Royalton… we’ve had Grammy Award nominees, Grammy Award winners – literally the best in New York City – play right in the lobby of the Royalton and people absolutely have that WOW factor, like, “Wow, I never expected this to be here.” We’ve seen an increase in sales and in their social media and digital assets as well, because the artists are tweeting about the property.

Josiah: How do you match music genres to hotel brands?

James: My content strategy is to first meet with the Director of food and beverage and the Director of nightlife to get a sense of what they think that their brand is and how they want it to be communicated. Then it goes into everything from the cocktails on the menu to the food that’s served, to the actual ambiance of the room.

For example, I know that in Midtown Manhattan, the demographic is very different than it is at Mondrian Soho or at Hudson. The music I program at Royalton is based on how the room feels to me; for instance, if you’re drinking a sazerac or a scotch, that is much more conducive to a warm jazz or soul sound than rock and roll.

Josiah: I get the impression that this is a very holistic experience that’s more than just a marketing play.

James: Oh, absolutely. It has to be; a lot of marketers don’t give people enough credit these days. We’re constantly bombarded with advertising and marketing and what we specialize in is creating an authentic experience. I put myself in the place of some guy who’s been flying for eight hours, just got off the plane, just walked into the hotel, and perhaps his room is not ready and he has to sit in the lobby. What kind of experience is he having at that point?

We try to appease all five senses when a guest walks in. If you can hit at least three of the five, they’re more apt to tell 10 people – or Yelp – about a positive experience.

Regarding food and beverage, we’re there to increase sales. At the Royalton, David Sewell is the Director of food and beverage; we meet weekly to make sure we’re not only increasing food and beverage, but rev par as well. So it is a holistic experience, yes.

Josiah: What steps do hotels have to think through as they’re working with you to launch a series of events?

James: At the project’s inception, I would meet with the President down to the Director of food and beverage. On the marketing side – the CMO of the company down to the Director of Marketing, as well as the hotel’s operational and engineering people.

I want to know from them, “What’s the problem? What are you trying to accomplish here? Are you just trying to put on word class entertainment that people talk about? Are you trying to sell more margaritas between the hours of 5:00 and 8:00? Are you trying to sell more brunch items on Sunday from 10am to 4pm?” Once I identify the problem and what exactly they need moving forward, I design a program that tackles that, specifically.

Josiah: Give us an example. Could you tell us a little bit more about your work with the Morgans Hotel Group?

James: Since November 16th of last year, we have had Sasha Dobson, who did a South American tour with Nora Jones. We’ve had Cedric the Entertainer – one of the largest comedians in the world. We’ve had K.J. Rose, who was on BET’s Music Matters. We’ve had Raphael Saadiq – a multi Grammy award winner who just played with Mick Jagger at the Grammys. This week, we have Jerome Bell, who’s Top 40 on American Idol this season.

On the nights that we program entertainment, we’ve seen a 14 percent increase in sales. In addition to that, our Twitter numbers for @RoyaltonNYC are up 308 percent since we began.

Josiah: A live event almost seems like optimal environment for some social media activity to take place, right?

James: You are absolutely right. Content is key, and there’s this big thing around social media where people go, “Oh, if I tweet that ‘you get 25 percent off of your next drink,’ then I’m going to have a herd of people coming over to my hotel.” As you and I know, that’s not the case. Whether you’re doing music or a movie screening or live dancers or whatever you’re doing, the content itself is how you communicate the property’s brand.

We have so many artists that are on the verge and that are famous coming to the property; when they’re tweeting and they’re taking pictures — “Oh, we’re at Royalton NYC at Morgan’s Hotel,” we’ve automatically increased their content strategy and their social currency and, specifically, their digital assets; all these things are very real in the digital world that we live in. But saying that you have a special on pancakes just doesn’t work anymore.

Josiah: No, absolutely not. Is there anything else you’d like to discuss?

James: I’ll just say, it’s a very exciting time right now for hospitality brands; there’s this whole celebrity culture. Look at how the chef world has just blown; the hospitality world and hotels are an extension of that. The brands are quasi-celebrities in their own right. It’s not just a place to stay anymore. It’s a place to do a movie premiere from Sharon Stone. It’s a place to do a concert from John Mayer, and it’s a place to launch a new chef menu from Bobby Flay.

If I had anything to say to hotel brands out there it’s, “Take advantage of this exciting opportunity to be the creators of content.”

Josiah: How can our readers contact you?

James: Anyone interested in branding their properties and making more money should give us a call; they can reach my cellphone 24 hours, seven days a week (817-675-3122), or they can email me at James@JamesKinneyLive.com.

Thanks very much, James!

[Click Here to Download the Full Interview PDF]

(And a big thank you to Katie and Alex for turning a Skype conversation into this story!)

Martin Soler and his team at WIHP mastermind some of the most successful hotel openings in Europe, such as Hotel Seven. This weekend, I sat down with him in Paris to discuss digital communications in hospitality. Our conversation covered a broad range of topics that we’ll share with you in the weeks ahead, but the focus of this article will be the marketing approach he uses during the crucial months surrounding a hotel opening.

“Know your purpose”

Clarify what you are trying to achieve with your pre-opening marketing. Defining your brand positioning is critical during the early stages of planning. Your brand positioning will affect the messaging and tactics you use at each step.

“Showcase the designer”

Design plays a huge role for the hotels that Martin typically works with. For many hotels, the link between design and revenue is closer than it may appear- which this is a topic we’ll discuss in a separate article. The reality is that if you have a unique product, the chances of people talking about your brand increase dramatically. Great design always generates more buzz.

Martin believes at least 40% of a hotel’s marketing value comes from its design. Because of this, he asks who the designer will be before taking on any hotel opening project.

The bigger concept here is to showcase the inventors, artists, and builders behind the product. What makes your brand unique? Is it the concept? The way in which it was built? Each of these areas can play a role in differentiating your property, making it stand apart from the competition.

“Start early”

It takes time to build an engaged, authentic online community. In order to have a substantial group of fans and followers by the time you open, starting to build this community early is important.

Martin tries to build online pre-opening buzz at least 6 months before opening. With Hotel Seven, this took the form of using Facebook as an exclusive content distribution channel.  The community building approach you use will go back to the positioning goals for the brand, but getting an early start is beneficial regardless of platform.

“Build a next-generation website”

Just as beginning to build an online community early is important, creating a compelling website as early as possible is important as well. For hotels, the website is their professional presentation, while social media acts as the more informal communication channel. Both channels play important roles that complement one another.

A “next-generation” website is comprised of several key elements. Martin believes in the extensive use of photos and rich visuals. At the same time, the website must be fast and accessible on a wide range of devices. The hotel site needs to be “social” – integrated with as many other relevant external networks as possible. And above all, it must sell.

“Guard first impressions”

While some social media agencies have experimented with showing construction in progress as a way to build pre-opening buzz, Martin typically advises against showing the work in progress. Showing an unfinished product could give your community the wrong first impression.

Instead, the primary objective in the pre-opening phase should be to sell the dream of what the property will look like. This is best done through building a prototype of your design or concept, and then releasing previews of that.

“Use social media to get attention offline”

Hotels that generate a lot of buzz in social media tend to be covered by journalists writing stories for offline publications and traditional media. The media is always looking for stories that will interest their audience. If a blog post is generating hundreds of tweets, for example, that indicates strong story potential. For this reason, Martin sees social media playing a key role in obtaining crucial media coverage during a hotel’s opening period.

“Give away lots of rooms.”

Giving away room nights is a key pre-opening strategy that Martin recommends. Letting journalists and bloggers stay in the rooms of a soon-to-be-opened hotel helps them experience the product, which is crucial for building early online buzz and back links.

This strategy is not limited to journalists. The owner of the Seven Hotel even gave away room nights to staff members and other key people involved in the project. Everyone had to experience what it was like to be a guest at the hotel so they could do a better job of selling it and providing service.

Whether you decide to give away rooms or not, the key lesson here is to involve as many media producers as possible in your project at the beginning. Generating some early buzz is crucial for building awareness and your web presence.

“Setup distribution partnerships”

Instead of viewing distributors as adversaries, Martin recommends setting up as many smart reseller partnerships as you can. But there are two things to keep in mind as you set these deals up:

1)     Make sure you only pay a commission on reservations. Avoid websites that charge a large fee up front to list your hotel, unless you know they have the huge potential they are promising.

2)     Make sure you’re generating enough direct bookings through your website. Making 20% of sales through online travel agencies is healthy, but if 80% of bookings are coming through third parties, that could be a danger sign.

“Measure and track everything”

Martin and the team at WIHP make a point of tracking a wide range of numbers: from the website traffic to social media activity to online reputation. Performance metrics are extremely important to guide the direction you take during the hotel opening process. Don’t be afraid to abandon whole sections of your strategy if you see it isn’t bringing qualified visitors that buy room nights.

As the saying goes: If you can’t measure it, you can’t track it, and if you can’t track it, you can’t manage it.

If you want Martin’s expertise to guide your next hotel project, you should visit his hotel marketing website, and learn more about WIHP.

[All hotel photos from the Seven Hotel Paris]

You’ve undoubtedly seen a lot of buzz around Room 77 recently, but most of it has been consumer focused. To understand what hotels need to know about this startup, I talked with founder Brad Gerstner and general manager Kevin Fliess.

Brad, why did you start Room 77?

It’s simple: we think travelers should have more control and transparency around their hotel rooms – before they arrive. As a traveler, I have been frustrated for years by the fact that room data is not available and so I started keeping a list of my favorite hotel rooms on my Blackberry. After a couple of years, my friends started asking me for “the list” and I realized that there was an opportunity to do this at scale.

It comes down to this: A little information can go a long way to empowering consumers and that’s why we created Room 77. This is the world’s first hotel room database and search engine, and it provides travelers with the information they need to find the best room for them – including details on which rooms to request and the ones to avoid.

Kevin, Room 77 has received a lot of press coverage, but most of the stories were about the benefit to consumers. What do hotel managers need to know about your site?

It’s important to keep in mind that any benefits for hotel guests can quickly translate into benefits for hotels. We’re already working with chains and individual properties around the world to verify their room data. Getting a guest into a desired room can increase satisfaction, loyalty, and potentially revenue. In fact, we’re already in discussions with a number of properties about piloting revenue-generating programs and technology.

To become a “verified hotel” on Room 77, the hotel manager simply needs to review their content to ensure accuracy. Once a hotel is verified, Room 77 will link directly to that property’s booking page. Our partner relations team works with the hotel to complete this process and the whole process usually takes less than an hour.

Hotels have the opportunity to augment their content and we encourage them to do so. As an example, the Grand Hyatt Seattle and the Hyatt at Olive 8 have not only verified their room data, they also had staff take interior photos of every single room. These images are accessible through the Look Inside feature. Look Inside provides a unique opportunity for hotels: it allows properties to highlight distinctive characteristics of each room in every hotel category, which creates an entirely new connection between the guest and property before they ever step foot in the lobby.

By partnering with Room 77 to verify data, hotels can realize more leads directly to their website for direct reservation inquiries. In the months ahead, we’ll be adding more features that will help hotels attract more direct customers and introduce revenue-generating services.

At PhoCusWright@ITB 2011, the question was raised whether Room77 will lead to hotels eventually selling rooms by their individual numbers. Do you think there is a trend in this direction?

There is definitely a lot of interest in innovation within particular hotel chains and we expect to see more development and innovation in the next couple years. The hotel room provides unique ancillary revenue opportunities for hotels. There are ways that hotels can monetize premium rooms and consumer research we’ve commissioned shows a large portion of travelers would be willing to pay a small fee to secure a room of their choice. We are piloting several approaches to guaranteeing specific room numbers for guests. Hotels can provide this service for a fee or as a benefit to members of their loyalty program.

What are your plans for working with hotel chains and individual properties?

We want to work with every chain and property for 3-star and above hotels worldwide. We already have data on more than 460,000 hotel rooms in 18 destinations, and our goal is to expand our database to include 1 million rooms by the end of the year.

We’ve been speaking with major chains and boutique properties around the globe, and, since launching the public beta last month, we’ve been contacted by more than 150 hotel representatives about working more closely with us. We have a lot to offer chains and individual properties, including brand building and increasing loyalty, and we anticipate that our database will continue to grow through these increased partnerships, the efforts of our in-house team and travelers.

How do you plan to evolve Room 77 as a service in the future?

As a startup, we see a number of ways to innovate the hotel room search and selection process. First and foremost, we are working hard on delivering more destinations on every continent. We’re excited that hotels are starting see the benefit and value of working with us to do so. We invite any hotel that wants more information to reach out to us at: hotels@room77.com.

In addition to new features planned for later this year, like destination-based search, we are looking into ways to partner with hotels to guarantee premium room requests, much the same way consumers pay incremental fees for premium airline seats. We anticipate this revenue will be shared with the participating hotel partner.

Thanks very much, Brad and Kevin!

A while back I came across Scott Zimmerman‘s ideas on “Engagement Communications” as a way to WOW customers, and wanted to followup on how this works in the hotel business.

You have defined “Engagement Communications” as the process of using technology to create a personal, human touch. Why is this important, and how does it work?

Engagement Communications is providing the hospitality industry with some effective new ways to foster guest satisfaction and evaluate service efficiency. Through mobile, voice mail, e-mail, SMS text messaging and social media, the industry can create a dialogue with guests that not only makes a connection, but inspires them to take actions that will directly improve their experience while also positively impacting the business’s bottom line.  These ongoing two-way dialogues with guests create a constant feedback loop that gives the industry deeper insights into their guests’ motivations and needs, and offers the opportunity to react in real time.

Cross platform communications seem to be increasingly important. How do you recommend hotels use this?

Today’s hotel market is becoming larger and more competitive. Effective marketing for guest acquisition and retention is crucial for the overall success of hospitality operations. As a result, resorts are integrating their reservation systems with automated customer Engagement Communications to broadcast promotions for a wide range of amenities and campaigns.  By allowing guests when they check in to sign up to receive SMS text, voice or email messages about perks such as happy hour discount notifications, show tickets or restaurant reservations, hotels are able to tailor the information and medium used to engage their guests in the ways they prefer, ultimately driving a better response to the campaign because of the personalized way in which it is received.

What is the end goal of Engagement Communications? Does it tie back to sales?

The end goal of Engagement Communications is to build better customer relationships.  The two­­-way dialogue created by Engagement Communications motivates customers to take actions that will directly improve their experience while also positively impacting the business’s bottom line.    Hotels that utilize Engagement Communications to pay attention to what their guests do, and listen to what they say, can deliver meaningful offers that improve guest satisfaction and create greater loyalty to their brand.   

How could this look within the context of a hotel?  Tell us a story of a hotel that has done this especially well: what was the step-by-step process, and what were the results?

TeleVox recently implemented an Engagement Communications pilot program for a Las Vegas hotel where 5,000 guests were notified via an automated voice mail of a special offer to receive a free room and concert ticket.  Guests could choose to be transferred to a call center to take advantage of the offer.  The calls were significantly cheaper than a direct mail campaign and offered immediate and measurable results – the hotel received eight additional reservations for an ROI of $9,600.

Specifically and continuing this example, the pilot showed that for every $1 the hotel spends on customer engagement technology, they receive a $20 return.  This means a typical month’s worth of calls can engender more than $500,000 in additional revenue to the hotel.

The end result for the guests was a positive purchase experience that leads to greater satisfaction with the hotel brand because the incentives offered were items the guests valued and were easy to redeem.   These components are key to facilitating the transition from “one-time” guests to more profitable patrons who consistently come back to re-engage with the hotel again and again.

Another factor in the success of the campaign is that the messages were delivered in a format the guests preferred – and in some cases even in different languages to meet the diverse needs of the guest populations.

Any more thoughts on this?

With more people than ever relying on mobile phones and digital technology to keep them connected 24/7, those hotels that do not leverage the benefits of technology to communicate with guests will certainly be left behind.

More than 96 percent of American consumers own a mobile phone and almost 50 percent of this population has a smart phone. Mobiles were used by 15 percent of consumers to make a purchase. Almost 25 percent of consumers use their mobiles to compare products and prices. Twenty-five percent of the respondents were interested in the idea of receiving information on specials and promotions on their mobile devices.

Additionally, statistics show that texting is currently the dominant form of mobile interaction.  Text messages can reach your audience virtually anywhere.  eMarketer projects that the growth of the global market for mobile messaging will reach nearly $12 billion in 2011, up from about $1.5 billion in 2006.

These trends present a huge opportunity for the hospitality industry to use communications technology to engage with their guests through all phases of their trip, from selecting a date to checking-in to after the trip in order to collect feedback.  If hotels are fortunate enough to have the permission of their guests to communicate with them via mobile devices while on vacation, they have a powerful resource for engagement and improving the bottom line.

Thanks, Scott!

Learn more about Scott’s work at TeleVox.

Today we have Barbara Pezzi, Director of Analytics at Fairmont Raffles Hotel Group, joining us to explain how she uses analytics for decision making.

What does your day-to-day work involve?

The are three main areas. The first is to provide intelligence for business decisions. The second is the search optimization side of things: to keep abreast of all the latest innovations and developments that search engines are rolling out, and making sure our marketing team is trained and informed about them. The third is to liaise with the tech team on implementing the insights we find as well as any updates to our web analytics setup.

What is the general role analytics need to play in hotel marketing?

Analytics is definitely playing a bigger role now than it has in the past. Analytics was traditionally mainly used after the fact to simply report on outcomes or validate business decisions.

Web analytics should be a starting point for any online marketing decision: used at the beginning to get insight into what actions must be taken.

How do you know what data to collect?

People tend to focus on what’s changed, what’s trending. It’s up to you to keep digging and finding answers. Look for opportunities in specific countries, specific channels: are we missing out on a language or new website as a traffic source? Should we setup a new campaign?

You need to spend time in your analytics tool to gather answers to these questions. It also requires a keen business acumen to make sense of the data.

What key performance indicators (KPIs) are included on your metrics dashboard?

I don’t have a set of standard metrics to use in all situations. I like to personalize them based on unique business needs.

A hotel based in Sydney probably has very different needs than a hotel in Beijing. The Sydney hotel may want to want to attract guests from overseas, and needs information to support that goal. The Beijing hotel may have a lot of luxury rooms and need help selling reservations to the luxury traveler.

A loyalty program director might be wanting to run a special campaign, and needs insight on the best way to do that.

So it really varies from case to case.

What do you see as the limitations of website analytics?

Analytics can tell you what happened, but not why it happened.

If we have a page with a 80% bounce rate, we know 80% don’t like it – but we don’t know why.  To find that you must use business intuition along with testing.

For all our brand sites, we use a voice of the customer tool that syncs with analytics. And that gives us a little better idea of why things happen.

When it comes to social media communications, it’s complicated: how do you assign value to a Facebook Like or a Twitter follower? You can see traffic but you just don’t know what they thought when they read your post and went to your website.

What trends are you seeing in the area of analytics?

Analytics is becoming much more complex. More companies are increasing investment in this area.

There’s lots of integration going on. For example, Omniture has now a full integration with Twitter and Facebook in addition to a number of tools, from bid management to multivariate testing to voice of customer solutions. Google Analytics is integrated with Website Optimizer, Adwords PPC, and Google’s Webmater tools.

I’m seeing a lot of focus on attribution, and a number of tools are coming out with models to track this.

Any comments on the most important analytics you see for social communications?

My presentation at EyeForTravel in San Francisco next week is all about calculating ROI from social media.

My advice is to keep an open mind. But at the end of the day if you’re not blessed with a CEO or MD that’s social media savvy you’ll have to demonstrate ROI. Social media is not free. At some point it’s going to have to be justified.

I suggest all social media practitioners assign business goals to their activity. Whether it’s to generate sales leads, site traffic, or newsletter subscribers, have tracking systems in place to prove value.

Can you give us any examples of how you’ve used analytics at your company?

In our PPC campaigns, we’ve doubled the ROI in a few campaigns by analyzing the data of visitors from various countries, sources, and so on.

Our Director of Public Relations gets data on which social media posts drive the most traffic, engagement and conversion. He uses that information to determine what followers seem to enjoy and engage with – and this helps him make decisions in creating content.

Also, when we launched the new website, our analytics indicated the original layout didn’t resonate with visitors. So we changed it, and things improved.

So improvement with analytics is always iterative process?

That’s right.

Thanks, Barbara!

—

Barbara will be presenting in San Francisco next week at the EyeForTravel Social Media Strategies for Travel 2011 conference.

Karen Escalera – President and Chief Strategist for KWE Partners – shared with us how social media helped a food bloggers camp generate sales, introduce the public to Grand Velas Riviera Maya resort’s exceptional food and beverage offerings and set the resort apart from its competitors.

How did you decide a food blogger’s camp was right for The Grand Velas?

The Grand Velas properties stand out for the exceptional quality of their food and beverage offerings, so we wanted to highlight this competitive advantage. In December, we partnered with the Mexico and Riviera Maya Tourist Boards and spearheaded a lunch with our visiting chefs for top national and New York media, primarily offline. We wanted to build on that momentum and reach out to social media who would also drive the “buzz” for F&B and to further build relationships with these influencers.

What role did you play, and how did you work with Velas Resorts’ ecommerce department?

Team KWE, together with Kate Moeller of Prose & Co who handled the event for the past couple years at other resorts in the Caribbean, brought the concept to the resort, invited the bloggers, developed the agenda, did all the PR, and initiated and handled the post camp contest. Pre-event buzz was built via twitter and press releases to targeted audiences, as well as through blog posts from the seminar leaders to their followers. We led live coverage on Twitter with seminar leaders and shared videos and images during the camp on Facebook and Twitter to keep the buzz going throughout the event week.

The resort’s ecommerce department created a dedicated Food Blog Camp landing page, wrote the pre-event blog posts on the resorts’ destination blogs, coordinated the live streaming of FBC’s events to the online community, interacted with attendees on all social media channels and promoted the event on Velas Resorts’ Facebook and Twitter pages. It was a seamless integration.

Was the camp for promotional purposes only, or were you trying to generate revenue?

A key objective was to have the camp not only pay for itself (since we had to pay airfares for our seminar leaders and since we’re an all inclusive, we had food and beverage costs as well associated with their stay), but also, to make money. And we did. The camp was the second of two social media events we’ve had for Velas Resorts. The first was the first ever remote #TNI (Travelers’ Night In) Tweet Up which we had at the Grand Velas Riviera Nayarit. What we did was offer a girls getaway package that included the Tweet up. We followed that lead with the food bloggers camp.

Instead of just having a food bloggers press trip, we made this into a professional development event to attract other bloggers and aspiring bloggers and foodies. With this educational content and fun events such as cooking demonstrations and wine tastings, we had a compelling package. We sold the package at a slightly reduced rate for other bloggers and media and at the rack rate for all others. We sold close to $60,000 worth of packages for the 5 day/4 night event.

Were there any surprising benefits or setbacks?

The immediate response of participants was fantastic. The second the  camp started, more and more images, blog posts, and tweets were  published. We were able to brainstorm with the seminar leaders on  ideas for food and beverage offerings, events and packages to be  offered at other Velas resorts.  The challenge was in the bloggers’ (non-seminar leaders) booking  arrangement. Bookings go to through sales contract center but they  were not able to evaluate bloggers credentials. So what we had to do  was have the requesting participants send a link to their blog so we  could confirm and send to reservations for booking.

What were the results for The Grand Velas?

This was a success by several standards:

• Sold over 46 packages, generating nearly $60,000 in sales
• Generated more than 25 articles on the Camp to over 2.5 million unique visitors per month
• Event coverage received over 5.1 million impressions on Twitter to over 354,000 unique users
• Event coverage received 3.497 million views on Facebook
• Over 775 user generated photos of the event, resort and its food and beverage offerings were circulated

Exceptional reviews of the resorts restaurants were received from seminar leaders and industry authorities. The success generated new events for other Velas Resorts for the coming year (e.g. family cooking and crafting week, Chocolate Festival, TV appearances, recipe releases, etc.)

What would be your advice for hotels planning something similar?

Providing the opportunity for professional development is a powerful lure and definitely the way to go on events such as these. It’s also critical to get participation from the influencers and opinion makers in the category, and then the rest follows.

Thanks, Karen!

[Photos courtesy of Diana Johnson, publisher of Dianasaur Dishes and Eating Richly.]