News for the Hospitality Executive |
London,
August 10, 2012:
Hotels are putting social media on hold as a marketing and selling
mechanism, while
they focus on driving direct bookings in response to their continuous
struggle for
better margins with the Online Travel Agents (OTAs), says research by
Ecole
hôtelière de Lausanne (Switzerland) and RateTiger.
The six month qualitative study, ‘The Distribution Challenge 2012’, conducted in five countries, found that while social networks including Facebook, Twitter, TripAdvisor and YouTube are recognised as new forms of digital marketing, hotels are still unconvinced about the impact these channels will actually have on bookings and are therefore deterred from implementing strategies in the short term. One in three of the hotels have no social digital media strategy, and only one in eight use any form of social media as a marketing tool. Hotels have instead focussed on the development of offline strategies to build more corporate contracts that deliver more predictable business, and to diversify their online distribution mix to generate additional revenue opportunities. “We’re not at a point where we can track social media. There must be a point of sale for it to really become a valuable resource, but even then we need to master the techniques,” said a Revenue Manager in charge of an 82 room 4-star property in Paris, France. RateTiger CEO, Michael McCartan added, “We’re seeing hotels increase direct booking and create more relevant packages and promotions for their customers by engaging in social media. Hotels need to look at how they can save time through technology and not just see additional tasks as an uphill struggle. It’s time that hotels start to get the balance right and ensure the conversation is flowing between Revenue, Sales and Marketing managers.” According to the research findings, while a few hotels have used travel deal platforms like Travelzoo and perceived it as an opportunity to stimulate demand, more hotels aim at optimising the use of Google (both PPC and Adwords) and SEO. Their goal is to bring more direct bookings and take potential bookings away from high-commission OTAs. Hotels are looking to reduce the cost of distribution by directing bookings to their own website but also by increasing the share of smaller third-party websites within their distribution mix. Methodology: The intention of the review was to collect feedback from 3-star and 4-star hotels evenly distributed in five geographical markets: France, Germany, Spain, UK and the USA. Among the 72 hotels participating in the survey, 65 per cent were chain and 35 per cent individual properties, with capacity spread between 25 and 392 rooms. All the interviewees are in charge of managing pricing and distribution, two thirds being Revenue Managers and the others General Managers or Directors in either sales or reservations. To receive the full Market Research report please contact [email protected] or download from here. About EHL: As the first hotel management school in the world, the Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne (EHL) offers a university level training to students who combine talent and ambition and who wish to have access to high-level careers in the hospitality professions at an international level. Three programmes are available:
About RateTiger: RateTiger is a premium rate shopping and channel management solutions provider, a thought leader in online sales and revenue management. RateTiger’s Product Suite, security certified under ISO 27001:2005, empowers and enables the travel and hospitality industry to compare rates with competitors on a real-time basis and update a wide variety of distribution channels and travel portals easily and efficiently with the largest online channel management network (750+) and XML connections (150+) available. For further details, please visit www.ratetiger.com
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Contact: Ryan Haynes VP - Marketing Tel: +44 (0) 7825 661575 Email: [email protected] |