HeBS has again partnered with New York University’s hospitality school to launch and analyze the results of the survey. The goal of the 2011 Benchmark Survey – held for the fifth year in a row – is to assess hoteliers’ 2011 Internet marketing priorities, provide the industry with insights into evolution of Internet marketing strategies for the hospitality industry, and enable hoteliers to build ROI-centric, cost-effective Internet marketing strategies to accomplish their goals.

Here are some important Industry Insights from the 2010 Benchmark Survey:

• As expected, the economic environment prevailed as a factor when planning budgets. Even so, hoteliers continued to shift budgets from offline to online marketing formats. In the 2010 survey, 51.1% of respondents said they were shifting a portion of their budgets to online because they believe Internet marketing produces the best results (55% vs. 10% that think traditional marketing is more effective).  

• For the first time, we saw static marketing budgets rather than budget increases. Thirty-nine percent said they were not increasing their overall marketing budgets in 2010, vs. 33% last year.

• Year after year, more and more hoteliers are engaging in social media. Over 50% of respondents said they were planning on creating profiles on social networks in 2010, a dramatic increase over 2009 (14%).

• In the 2010 survey, we asked hoteliers which mobile initiatives they were planning for 2010. Over one fourth of respondents (25.9%) are planning a mobile-ready website in 2010.

• Year after year the majority of hoteliers surveyed believe that “the fundamentals” produce the highest ROIs (return-on-investment): website optimizations (70%), website re-design (61.7%), SEO (58.3%), email marketing (48.3%, followed by paid search and banner advertising.   

The survey should only take between 8-10 minutes to fill out and all participants will be sent the full results of the survey.

“Every year, HeBS launches the Benchmark Survey with the goal of providing the industry with important insights into how Internet marketing strategies and budgets are evolving, as well as detecting the latest industry trends and needs. The survey results help hoteliers learn what digital marketing initiatives and budgets are planned by their peers and comp set, as well as which initiatives produce the highest ROIs” said Max Starkov, Chief eBusiness Strategist at HeBS. “Digital marketing and the industry as a whole are so dynamic that every year we need to add new questions to address latest developments, and every year results show us how much pressure there is on hoteliers to stay on top of these developments and retain market share. This year, we are especially excited to be working again with New York University to launch and analyze survey results, and look forward to sharing the results with the industry.”