Because new media marketing channels differ so widely, it is nearly impossible to do an apples-to-apples comparison on effectiveness. At best, we create a different set of performance metrics and success measurements for each platform.

That’s fine, but it makes high-level marketing strategy decisions difficult. What services and websites are worth your time?

To assist you with these decisions, evaluate Return On Objectives (ROO) instead of Return on Investment (ROI).

For example: if service is a top strategic focus for you, it is possible to quickly compare the diverse range of social networks – and see which ones are allowing you to serve guests the best.

What social media objectives are you measuring for?

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A list of suggested objectives, and tools to match these objectives to specific platforms, are now available in our Insider’s Circle membership site.

When was the last time you bought food or coffee from a national chain instead of the independent local place you never visited before?

Chances are, you didn’t want to risk something unfamiliar. Going with the chain provided a consistent level of service and product you could expect.

The business did that by building and following systems. Every single time. Around the world. Procedures that specified down to the last detail how your experience was created.

Predictability is crucial for building loyalty. Nothing turns people off faster than experiencing great service the first time, only to be disappointed the second time.

Let me ask you: How do you provide predictable excellence?

(I’m looking to explore this subject a little deeper in the future. Do you know any great hotel operations experts I could talk with?)

Today we’re going to talk with Micheal Rosney, and discover how the Killeen House Hotel consistently receives excellent reviews from their guests online…and how they received the TripAdvisor Travelers’ Choice 2009 award.

Josiah: Tell us a little bit about your hotel.

Michael: The Killeen House is a 23 bedroom Country House style of Hotel, located just outside of the town of Killarney: Ireland’s premier Tourist destination. It has been owned and personally managed by Michael and Geraldine Rosney since 1992. Mainly targeted towards the upper end of the International Leisure Market, it is a uniquely Irish property, with the emphasis firmly placed on good friendship, good food and good water pressure in the showers! As much as 70 percent of all of our business is either direct repeat business or direct referral from past Guests. This is a major plus for us, because it means that our Guests know exactly what we can offer them, and we know exactly what it takes to meet – and hopefully exceed – their vacation expectations.

How have you achieved the success you have on TripAdvisor?

We became hyper conscious – to the extent of being almost paranoid -  of it! When we first became aware of TripAdvisor a couple of years back, we immediately identified it as a tool that had tremendous potential for us to get the message and the ethos of our property out into a Marketplace that we otherwise had no hope of reaching. We made all of the great people working with us aware if it, and explained to them that this was an opportunity that we felt would have very tangible and positive long term benefits for the Killeen House.

We have always operated our business on the basis of treating our Guests firstly as individuals to be welcomed and looked after in a personal and individual way, and secondly as new friends, who we want to show a great time to while they’re visiting with us. And anyone glancing through the reviews we have garnered on TripAdvisor will be clearly struck by the big number of them that specifically mention the PEOPLE rather than the PLACE. Its not within our power to make the bedrooms bigger, or to order up 80 degrees of sunshine, but it is very certainly within our power to ensure that all of our Guests receive a uniquely warm and Irish welcome from all of us here in the Killeen House…..

How are you encouraging guests at your hotel to talk about their stay online – and share their experience with others?

Given that we are a small operation, we have ample opportunity here in the Killeen House to meet most of our guests on a personal level, If we find our for example that they have heard of us via TripAdvisor, than that is a natural opportunity for us to ask them to keep on spreading the word!

Thankfully, we frequently receive notes and e-mails from our Guests after they have departed, telling us how much they have enjoyed their stay with us. Again, a great opportunity to ask them to post a TripAdvior review of their experience. We have found that after the initial first number of reviews, that it almost becomes a self-perpetuating thing

Read more…

Last May, The Langham Hotel in Hong Kong unwittingly created a firestorm of controversy on the internet. A series of three videos were produced to present the hotel as a safe haven for culture-shocked travelers. After the videos were released, they received a lot of negative criticism as “racist” and “offensive.” The videos were pulled from YouTube, and the hotel had to issue a formal apology.  But as this hotel learned the hard way, you can never completely erase negative buzz online.

Of course, the solution isn’t to avoid all forms of online interaction. Social media can serve as a powerful channel for your staff to serve guests.

The Internet marketing managers at the Roger Smith Hotel in New York City have developed a web presence that shows what’s possible when social media is done right. Through a dedicated website, blog, Facebook fan page, YouTube channel, Flickr photo stream, and a Twitter account with over 3,000 followers, the hotel is able to build loyalty and attract attention using social media.

And then there’s the vast majority of hotels that have either a nonexistent or a mediocre social media presence. The problem there is that their social media campaign is so boring it doesn’t attract any attention: negative or positive. They’re simply not on the radar.

This is why a social media policy is so important

A good social media policy serves as a roadmap for encouraging your staff to take part in promoting your hotel online…but also serves as a safeguard against tarnishing your brand’s reputation. It recognizes that social media is by definition a personality-powered platform. It encourages your staff to actively participate in spreading the word about your organization online.

It’s not so much a set of rules as it is a written philosophy to clarify your engagement strategy.

The two parts of a good social media policy

Read more…

A presentation at EyeforTravel by Scott Bacon, Senior Revenue Account Manager, Preferred Hotel Group.

Infrastructure is a challenge for small, independent hotels. To overcome that, build a solid training program. Build a library of information. If you don’t make that investment, you hurt your hotel’s profitability.

Invest in efficiency. If you have to track multiple data dashboards, you waste time.

If you’re small, you can be quick & nimble. Capitalize on that.

The “average-ness” of averages.

Industry research can be construed & misleading. Don’t rely on it completely. Look at data in a way that is meaningful, and use frequency distribution.

How can hotels price competitively to gain exposure while maintaing rate integrity?

Package with value-adds. Stay “under the radar” with private pricing offers (semi-opaque channels).

How can hotels build guest loyalty with a rational pricing strategy?

Build a guest recognition program. Never ask “have you stayed with us before?” – you should know that answer already.

You don’t have to give away upgrades…just recognize your loyal guests.

How do you increase revenues when you’ve got high occupancy rates?

Raising the rates seems obvious, but it could backfire at times.

So, test. Develop interesting tests and play with the market.

How do you raise your appeal to higher-rated segments?

Not a lot of hotels know where their market position is. Define and position yourself.

Ride the coattails of partner brands that have already spent lots of resources establishing themselves.

Many hotels are working on their marketing budgets right now. I have received multiple requests for advice on budgeting this week, and wanted to put together this practical, straightforward guide. We will examine the biggest factors to consider when planning your Internet marketing budget, 11 major categories hotels should budget for, and finally 3 basic hotel budgeting approaches.

This advice comes from my own real-world experience as the marketing manager or consultant for dozens of leading organizations around the world — and also as the owner of three companies. When your own company’s money is on the line, you tend to take a very pragmatic approach to marketing, and that’s what I intend to do in this article.

Factors to consider while planning your hotel marketing budget

Many industry professionals recommend you start with the industry average marketing budget. I disagree. Every business success I’ve been involved with has been contrarian. If you spend your resources like everyone else, you’ll get average results. Breakthrough campaigns often require unusual approaches. You decide what works for you.

Be aware of industry standards, but don’t feel bound by them. It can be helpful to know the average prices hotels are paying for individual marketing tactics — if only for a point of reference.

Start with an internet marketing plan for the year. Sounds simple, but true. If you don’t know how you want to spend your money, calculating the amount will be extremely difficult! Some tactics to include are explained below.

A good budget will take into mind past results your company experienced — but will also realize that things change. What worked five years ago may not work over the next five years.

Remember your primary business objective. Do you want more overall sales, to build your brand, or consolidate your profits? Each requires a different approach, which we’ll cover later.

Know your marketing priorities. Separate the “musts” from the “wants.” So many things can happen along the way that cause you to deviate from a plan made months ago. Having priorities ensures the essential gets done.

Identify which marketing strategies you don’t need to implement. There are a seemingly unlimited number of marketing tactics you could try, so identifying the non-essential helps you focus and cut costs. Every hotel doesn’t need to do every tactic out there.

Be aware of trends, and budget appropriately. Some organizations on annual budget cycles approve money for trends way too late — and missed the boat. Make sure the resources that you’re dedicating to a tactic or strategy will be valid 1, 2, 5 years from now. You don’t want to outdate yourself.

I personally recommend most hotels abandon all traditional marketing and advertising in favor of any Internet focused strategy: 75% of budget for web-based communications, 25% for PR. You can discount this advice as someone who has worked in web marketing his entire career, but the numbers don’t lie. In the campaigns that I’ve been involved in, we have achieved phenomenal return on investment… and received media coverage an organization our size shouldn’t normally be entitled to.

Separate your marketing costs into two categories. Initial development costs include research and strategy development, website design, content creation, marketing systems set up. Ongoing expenses and maintenance include e-mail marketing, pay per click advertising, search visibility improvement, website maintenance and development, consulting fees, and analytics and tracking analysis.

Ensure that you are sufficiently capitalized. Many marketing tactics will take several months to show results, and often the best results are obtained by sticking with your marketing plan month after month — for the next 12 months. You may have to adjust your marketing plan to enable this, but make sure your budget is sufficient to accommodate consistent execution.

Be aware that your most important marketing investments may not even be under the traditional ‘marketing’ budget category. For example, introducing a fabulous collection of guest amenities can cause your guests to promote your hotel for you. At the end of the day, your guest experience is the marketing. Money you spend to create an amazing guest experience at your hotel has some of best ROI.

Finally, think of your marketing program as an investment. If you are promoting properly, every dollar that you spend on marketing will come back to you many times over. Good hotel marketing budgets are never an expense, and it’s important we remember this.

11 most important hotel marketing budget categories

Read more…

Some hotel marketing functions are best kept in-house. For others, it’s more profitable to outsource them to an outside partner. Here are ten of the most profitable hotel internet marketing tasks to outsource and why.

1. Web Design

Why: Designing an effective hotel website requires time to create pages that are attractive, informative and visitor friendly. This requires a knowledge of the hotel industry in addition to technical knowledge and an understanding of usability guidelines.

2. Website Maintenance

Why: Building and managing a website are two different tasks. Website design gets a lot of attention, but upkeep is equally important. It’s important to constantly update your sites with the latest information.  Unless you have the technical expertise and time to do this in-house, it’s common to outsource this function.

3. Pay-Per-Click Advertising

Why: Sure, anyone can throw together a PPC campaign in a few hours, but it requires a lot of research and testing over the long term to do this well. A good agency will take time to understand your business needs, and build a campaign around them.

4. SEO Optimization

Why: Effective SEO can include website re-design, optimization and a strategic linking strategy – so it can be nice to have someone else manage this whole process for you.

5. Content Creation or Copywriting

Why: Many managers understand the benefits of content marketing, but struggle with writing it. Fortunately, there are many talented writers that would be happy do this for you. These people can be hired to help you write articles, website content, blog posts, email newsletters, and more.

6. Twitter

Why: Twitter can take a lot of time to use effectively. Some of my colleagues have achieved excellent results – both in positive buzz and in generating revenue – but they invest a lot of time. If you don’t have the time to participate, you may want to hire someone else to do it for you.

7. Online Reputation Management

Why: Again, this is a task that just takes a lot of time to do thoroughly. Hiring someone to monitor the web and reply as needed can be a worthwhile investment.

8. Video Production

Why: Hiring people with expertise in producing quality videos will help your company gain higher visibility in YouTube, Google Video Search, Blip.tv, and so on. A good video marketing team will understand your branding objectives, and produce video to accomplish them.

9. Mobile Phone Promotions

Why: This is one of the hottest new distribution channels, and hiring specialists in this area can help you gain a first-mover advantage. Hire someone else to begin your mobile promotions strategy, then learn and experiment as you go.

10. Website Optimization

Why: Website optimization is different from search optimization – it’s the process of adjusting your website so operates at peak sales performance. Hiring someone for this can have a big impact on your overall internet marketing success. A good website optimization specialist will have a good understanding of your hotel, how people buy online, and website conversion improvement.

The bottom line? Outsourcing individual components of your internet marketing campaign can reduce the burden of employing staff to perform those tasks in-house.  It can allow you to focus core business activities, spend more time on strategic planning, and less time on implementation.

Is fear holding your hotel back? Are you avoiding action because you’re afraid of failure?

David Meerman Scott recently wrote an excellent post on fear. I also have seen many hotel executives scared of trying new marketing that could benefit their hotel and their guests — simply because there are afraid.

Afraid that they’ve never done this before.

Afraid that it might make them look bad.

Afraid that they cannot track everything.

Progress and innovation are impossible unless we take calculated risks. Educate and prepare yourself, then go out and make things happen.

Stop letting fear prevent you and your organization from achieving success.

What’s holding you back? What are you afraid of?

[Photo credit: flikr]

This post is by guest expert Rajul Chande.

As of July 2009, The Egerton House Hotel is currently the number one guest-rated London hotel on TripAdvisor.  I recently met Jonathan Raggett, CEO of Red Carnation Hotel Collection, to try to understand how it got there.

This group runs a stunning 4 of TripAdvisor’s top 6 London hotels at present, including the Egerton House.  It’s an enviable position to be in.

But the focus here is on the Egerton House: this is after all the current “number 1″  and was also the venue of our meeting.  How did a relatively unsung and small (30 bedrooms) hotel make it to the top of the charts?

Before revealing some answers, let’s peek at a few recent TripAdvisor guest comments which have lifted the Egerton House to top spot:

The above comments clearly highlight that staff at the Egerton House possess bucketloads of character and charisma.

From what Mr Raggett told me this is not accidental.

They consciously recruit “characters” with personality and flair.  So for example you have Antonio at the hotel’s bar who is famous for his martinis.

Head Barman Antonio struts his stuff at the cosy Egerton House bar

Then there is Alex who not only checks you in but may also sing at your table!  There’s also friendly Murat – one of the managers who cheerfully showed me around the hotel.

All the staff I ran into had a calm and relaxed attitude.  This isn’t always the case in luxury hotels which often have an overbearing formality in the air.

The staff here seem to be driven by an expectation of success rather than a fear of failure.  This frees them to be themselves and excel.

I also noticed that the hotel cultivates a distinctly cosy and intimate atmosphere – helped by its small size.

It’s a place that doesn’t stand on ceremony and is rather a hotel where guests can simply chill out, unwind and feel pampered.

Mr Raggett told me that although great effort is made to recruit the “characters” described above, continuous training is equally critical.

There is a focus on “TNTs” (“Tiny Noticeable Touches”).  So for example, guests’ favourite drinks and newspapers are remembered, their favourite music arranged in advance in their rooms and so on.

Training is also tailored to the hotel’s specific needs and driven by continuous “mystery shopping” rather than generic standards.

This – as well as the emphasis on personalisation – echoes the approach taken by Claridge’s.  And to the extent that you can usually stay at the Egerton House for a few quid less than Claridge’s, it offers good value.

Rooms at the Egerton House have a comfy, traditional style

When I walked around to see some rooms, I found them nice but fairly standard fare for a luxury hotel.  They were immaculately presented but I don’t think you’d choose this hotel on the strength of its rooms alone.

For me the hotel’s main asset is the intimacy and warmth conveyed by the surroundings and above all the staff.  It’s a unique establishment run by a talented team with great attention to detail.

With only 30-odd rooms to supervise they know the hotel inside out and obviously feel comfortable and confident within its walls.

The manageable size also makes it easier to deliver unusually consistent performance.  And I think that this consistency and the hotel’s special intimacy are what make it a deserved number 1 on TripAdvisor.

Location-wise, Knightsbridge is one of London’s upscale neighbourhoods and very close to Harrod’s, so it is perfect for shopping trips. You’ll come back to the hotel bar with your pile of shopping bags to be greeted by one of Antonio’s G&Ts or martinis!

Rajul Chande writes about London hotels on his blog, LondonHotelsInsight.com

Josiah’s update 30 July 2009: At the time of the article’s writing, the Egerton House was #1 in London. TripAdvisor rankings change weekly, and the hotel is now at position #3. However, the two hotels that overtook it are sister properties under the same management – which makes this article’s lessons still very important.