http://www.hotelmarketingstrategies.com/this-week-in-hotels-july-22/ Internet Marketing Ideas for Your Hotel Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:48:14 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.4 http://www.hotelmarketingstrategies.com/this-week-in-hotels-july-22/comment-page-1/#comment-2296 Ciaran - Meetingsbooker.com Thu, 29 Jul 2010 16:41:21 +0000 http://www.hotelmarketingstrategies.com/?p=4447#comment-2296 All hotels should have good video content on their own websites and in turn should be circulated to the main online video resources e.g. youtube.com etc. Sites like TvTrip.com offer hotels a low costs solution to deliver video for their hotels with the slight drawback of their branding on the video. But I think most hotels can live with that. Otherwise, the cost of doing videos is constantly going down and many production companies are actively seeking business from hotels so they can shop around and get short videos done for very little. The videos need to be short max 3 mins in total. All hotels should have good video content on their own websites and in turn should be circulated to the main online video resources e.g. youtube.com etc. Sites like TvTrip.com offer hotels a low costs solution to deliver video for their hotels with the slight drawback of their branding on the video. But I think most hotels can live with that. Otherwise, the cost of doing videos is constantly going down and many production companies are actively seeking business from hotels so they can shop around and get short videos done for very little. The videos need to be short max 3 mins in total.

]]> http://www.hotelmarketingstrategies.com/this-week-in-hotels-july-22/comment-page-1/#comment-2268 Josiah Mackenzie Mon, 26 Jul 2010 15:04:46 +0000 http://www.hotelmarketingstrategies.com/?p=4447#comment-2268 Good points, Geraldine - thanks for sharing this with us. I appreciate your thoughtful response. Good points, Geraldine – thanks for sharing this with us. I appreciate your thoughtful response.

]]> http://www.hotelmarketingstrategies.com/this-week-in-hotels-july-22/comment-page-1/#comment-2263 Geraldine Daly Mon, 26 Jul 2010 13:58:26 +0000 http://www.hotelmarketingstrategies.com/?p=4447#comment-2263 Hi Josiah, Guillaume You asked the question about Internet increasing ADR, occupancy etc in hotels. I have been researching trends in the hotel industry - like Central Res, Internet, Social Media etc. There is lots of data available but the accuracy of much of this data is questionable. If hotels used the Internet properply it would drive roomnights, ADR, ARR etc. One of the great advantages is 24 hour reservations for example. However, like many "non experts" hoteliers are using the Internet on a half pregnant basis. For many, no proper planning, marketing strategies and analysis is in place. All of the benefits that Guillaume outlined are accurate. I believe that occupancy can be helped hugely by the Internet but again it is dependant on many other criteria being in place, the quality and functionality of the website, inclusion of "what's on" in the area - many hotel stays are now lifestyle driven. For me the most important benefit is to independent hotels - it definitly levels the playing field for them to compete with the chains/brands but these seem to be the ones that are benefitting the least from it. Lots of the data is coming at hoteliers but remember they are specialist in running hotels - that's what they do. With the rate that technology is changing it is very difficult for them to keep up. I believe that it is an area that should be outsourced to a specialist - many marketing/advertising companies claim to be experts, but very often they are not. Many of the independent hoteliers do not know how to plan a short, medium, long term marketing strategy and as a result of this keep doing the same old things, because it is what they know. The other issue is that "experts" disagree with "experts" and representative bodies - like industry associations and tourism bodies also don't know how to best advise their hotels. Hoteliers need to get behind their representative bodies, tourism bodies etc and get them to do what is needed. Hoteliers in turn need to provide an excellent website with fantastic relevant content in whatever format and then concentrate on doing what they do best - running their hotels. We all know, the Internet and Social Media are a well run hotel's best friends but the enemy of any mis-managed hotels, not delivering on their promise. Hi Josiah, Guillaume
You asked the question about Internet increasing ADR, occupancy etc in hotels. I have been researching trends in the hotel industry – like Central Res, Internet, Social Media etc. There is lots of data available but the accuracy of much of this data is questionable. If hotels used the Internet properply it would drive roomnights, ADR, ARR etc. One of the great advantages is 24 hour reservations for example. However, like many “non experts” hoteliers are using the Internet on a half pregnant basis. For many, no proper planning, marketing strategies and analysis is in place. All of the benefits that Guillaume outlined are accurate. I believe that occupancy can be helped hugely by the Internet but again it is dependant on many other criteria being in place, the quality and functionality of the website, inclusion of “what’s on” in the area – many hotel stays are now lifestyle driven. For me the most important benefit is to independent hotels – it definitly levels the playing field for them to compete with the chains/brands but these seem to be the ones that are benefitting the least from it. Lots of the data is coming at hoteliers but remember they are specialist in running hotels – that’s what they do. With the rate that technology is changing it is very difficult for them to keep up. I believe that it is an area that should be outsourced to a specialist – many marketing/advertising companies claim to be experts, but very often they are not. Many of the independent hoteliers do not know how to plan a short, medium, long term marketing strategy and as a result of this keep doing the same old things, because it is what they know. The other issue is that “experts” disagree with “experts” and representative bodies – like industry associations and tourism bodies also don’t know how to best advise their hotels. Hoteliers need to get behind their representative bodies, tourism bodies etc and get them to do what is needed. Hoteliers in turn need to provide an excellent website with fantastic relevant content in whatever format and then concentrate on doing what they do best – running their hotels. We all know, the Internet and Social Media are a well run hotel’s best friends but the enemy of any mis-managed hotels, not delivering on their promise.

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