Hotel Online
News for the Hospitality Executive

.


Content: The Key to Hotel Bookings - Complimentary Webinar September 10th

Learn about the Five Pillars of Effective Travel eBusiness and
how hotel content plays a significant role in driving bookings.



VFM Leonardo is offering a complimentary webinar featuring Henry H. Harteveldt, Vice President and Principal Analyst with Forrester Research on September 10th 2009, 2:00pm Eastern / 11:00am Pacific. Henry's research helps travel industry eBusiness & Channel Strategy professionals worldwide understand and anticipate how technology will affect the way they market, sell, and distribute their products and services. Henry will unveil interesting and fresh research and insights into the role content plays with travel shoppers and how it impacts the five pillars of successful eBusiness. Register now »
 
What makes online travel shoppers feel comfortable, welcomed and confident in their hotel booking decisions? It could be a number of factors and may vary from consumer to consumer - their friend stayed at that hotel and had a good experience, all of the reviews they read online were positive, the hotel advertised a special package that catered to their interests. But, there's one thing for sure, visual content definitely plays a significant role when travel shoppers are researching hotel options online.
 
Travel shoppers are no longer looking for the lowest-priced option; they're looking for the best-priced option that promises them the best experience. The proliferation of the Internet has opened travelers up to a plethora of hotel options right at their fingertips. It's easier than ever before for shoppers to find and be engaged by visual content, particularly video, and as a result, travel shoppers have become increasingly "content-sensitive."
 
It's not just written content that is important, but rather, a combination of relevant written and visual content. A study conducted by Forrester Research earlier this year found that 37% of US online leisure travelers surveyed avoid staying at hotels because they don't see photos, video or written content that would make them feel comfortable.1
 
Online travel shoppers start their hotel research on any number of sites - search engines, online travel agencies, video sites, review sites, destination sites, social media sites, brand site, etc. and the most failsafe way to engage and convert shoppers to buyers is to ensure that the content for your hotel makes them feel comfortable, welcomed and confident in their booking decision.
 
So yes, when managed effectively online, content is key to hotel bookings and will give you a leg up over your competition online.
 
Who Should Attend this Webinar?
E-marketing Executives, General Managers, Directors of Sales & Marketing of:
  • Hotel Management Companies
  • Individually Branded or Un-aligned Hotels
  • Travel websites or intermediaries
 
Register now »
 
Sources:
1 North American Technographics® Travel Online Survey Q1 2009 (US), Forrester Research, Inc., February 2009

About VFM Leonardo
VFM Leonardo is a technology leader in online visual content management and distribution systems. VFM Leonardo's VScape® and VBrochure™ products leverage the distribution capabilities of the VNetwork™, the most universally accepted and largest online visual content distribution network for the global travel industry including all four global distribution systems (GDSs), Pegasus and travel-related channels including online travel agencies, travel research and supplier web sites, search portals and major travel intermediaries. VFM Leonardo offers the hotel industry the most effective digital asset management and online merchandising systems available today and efficiently delivers over 1,000,000 visual images (photos, virtual tours and videos) to more than 30,000 travel channels and websites in the VNetwork including Amadeus, Galileo, Sabre, Worldspan, Pegasus, Travelocity, Orbitz, Priceline, Tripadvisor, Yahoo! Travel, Kayak, Google and many more for 90,000 hotels worldwide. For more information about VFM Leonardo, visit www.vfmleonardo.com. Follow VFM Leonardo on Twitter at www.twitter.com/VFMLeonardo.

Contact:

Julie Vieth
Communications Specialist
VFM Leonardo Inc.
www.vfmleonardo.com
111 Peter Street, 5th Floor
Toronto, ON, M5V 2H1 Canada
Toll free: 1-877-593-6634
Phone: 416-263-5446
Fax: 416-593-7572
[email protected]


.
Also See: New VTV Episode: VIDEO - Visual Content Decisions - What? How Much? Why? / September 2009

Content: The Key to Hotel Bookings? / John McAuliffe - VFM Leonardo / September 2009

New VTV Episode: How to Know Where the Fish Are / August 2009

Preferred Hotel Group Selects VFM Leonardo as Exclusive Provider of Visual Content Distribution Services; Member properties of Preferred Hotel Group’s brands to use VFM Leonardo’s VScape® and VBrochure™ products exclusively to 30,000+ electronic channels and travel websites in VNetwork™ / August 2009

StarCite Partners With VFM Leonardo to Enhance Online Meetings Marketplace With Rich Hotel Visual Content; VFM Leonardo to be Exclusive Provider of Rich Content Showcasing Hotel Properties to Corporate Buyers Within StarCite’s Online Marketplace / August 2009

VFM Leonardo Chosen as Exclusive Provider of Hotel Visual Content for Concur’s Corporate Travel Booking Solutions; Largest distributor of visual content for hotels worldwide expands relationship with Concur making their photos, virtual tours and video available to thousands of corporate customers / August 2009

New VTV Episode: Online vs. Offline Marketing / August 2009

WORLDHOTELS Selects VFM Leonardo as Exclusive Solution / August 2009

VFM Leonardo to Power Visual Content Management and Distribution for Rosewood Hotels & Resorts; Rosewood Hotels & Resorts adopts VScape® Digital Asset Management System to efficiently manage and deliver hotel visual content to online channels / August 2009

VFM Leonardo Selected to Exclusively Manage and Distribute Visual Content for La Quinta Inns & Suites; VFM Leonardo’s VScape® Digital Asset Management System adopted by limited service hotel chain to manage visual content and seamlessly distribute to electronic distribution channels. / August 2009

This Week on VFM Leonardo's VTV: "The New Luxury - Experience, Not Status" with Bonnie Knutson, Professor at the Michigan State University School of Hospitality Business / August 2009

This Week on VFM Leonardo’s VTV: Experiential Marketing - What It Is and Isn't; Educational video blog featuring weekly interviews with hotel and travel industry experts launches new episode: Experiential Marketing - What It Is and Isn't with Laurence Bernstein of the Bay Charles Consulting Company and host John McAuliffe, VFM Leonardo’s Chief Marketing Officer / August 2009

VFM Leonardo Expands VNetwork™ to Include Travel Deals & Sales Consumer Site Voyij.com; VFM Leonardo enables hoteliers to better merchandise their properties to travel shoppers on Voyij.com (recently launched by the creators of SideStep.com) by providing the site with hotel photos, virtual tours and videos / August 2009

VFM Leonardo Expands VNetwork™ to Include Gekko.com; The largest distributor of visual content for hotels worldwide expands distribution network to enable hotels to display their photos in front of more prospective guests online on unique hotel recommendation website, Gekko.com / August 2009

Pegasus Solutions and VFM Leonardo Form Strategic Partnership; Pegasus Chooses VFM Leonardo's VScape® Digital Asset Management System to Power All Visual Content for ODD and Content Hub / June 2009

Utell® Hotels & Resorts Signs Up Hundreds of New Members in 2009, Around the Globe, 471 Hotels from
65 Countries Have Selected Utell Since the Beginning of the Year / June 2009

Pegasus Solutions Teams with Rubicon to Launch New MarketVision Competitive Intelligence Reporting: Visit HITEC Booth #1054 or twitter.com/pegexec, Hotel Users Switch to MarketVision to Take Advantage of Pre-eminent Market Intelligence / June 2009
...
.
..

.

To search Hotel Online data base of News and Trends Go to Hotel.OnlineSearch
Home | Welcome| Hospitality News | Classifieds| One-on-One |
Viewpoint Forum | Industry Resources | Press Releases
Please contact Hotel.Onlinewith your comments and suggestions.