What Ever Happened to Real Hotel Marketing?
Larry Mogelonsky | December 4, 2019
Don’t Skip Out on Skip-Gen Travel
Alan Young | November 14, 2019
Smart Strategies
Maximizing Your Relationship With OTAs
Tim Lee | January 13, 2020
By Tim Lee The relationship between hotels (particularly major international brands) and Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) may sometimes seem an uneasy alliance. Major hotel companies, such as Hilton, Marriott and IHG, are adding policies on price match guarantees to encourage direct bookings and detract from the perceived value of OTAs. Meanwhile, OTAs push even harder for competitive pricing and invest hundreds of millions of dollars in Search Engine Marketing (SEM) to increase their market share. Due to acquisitions and mergers over the last two decades, most OTA brands are a part of, or work with the two largest players in the space: Bo...
Growth or Authenticity? A Difficult Choice for Rural Tourism
PolyU’s School of Hotel and Tourism Management | December 17, 2019
Owners of small business accommodation in rural China face a difficult choice over whether to expand or retain their authenticity, according to the findings of a study by Dr Honggen Xiao of the School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM) at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and his co-researchers. In a recently published study, the researchers aim to settle a long-standing debate over whether business expansion is beneficial or harmful to rural tourism businesses, and conclude that entrepreneurs must make a “trade-off” between “enhancing guest experience and achieving economic goals” because growth brings both advantages and disa...
The Hotel General Manager: Time for a New Job Description?
Demian Hodari | December 16, 2019
The hotel General Manager plays a crucial role in the hotel's performance. However his autonomy may vary depending on his education and the type of hotel he works in. By Demian Hodari The hotel General Manager (GM) is the person ultimately responsible for a hotel’s performance. A GM’s ability to make decisions and take action will thus have an important impact on his or her hotel’s operational and strategic results. GMs, however, may not always have the autonomy to make these critical decisions as the hotel’s owner and/or hotel management company (HMC) may in fact limit this through their own decision-making interventions. Th...
Hospitality Financial Leadership: I Never Worked a Day in My Life
David Lund | December 16, 2019
By David Lund That’s the calling card for a famous quote by Thomas Edison and a popular song by Tony Bennett not to mention a plethora of other pop culture about doing something with your life and choosing work that is not really work. That is what I found on the Internet when I went looking, however, for me it was a bit different. During my life— working in hotels for more than 30 years—I often told myself the same thing. I really felt like I had it all. A great job, a cool place to work, a solid group of people to collaborate with and above all the feeling that I was making a difference. That difference-making is what this piece...
What Existing Hotel Sales & Marketing Materials Are Lacking to Attract Luxury Weddings & Events
Lauren Grech | December 16, 2019
If a hotel wants to be considered a top event space, then at a minimum, they should have five pieces of criteria showcased on their website and within their sales materials. By Lauren Grech I first began writing an article that was supposed to be titled "The Top New U.S. Hotels For Your Destination Wedding." I thought it would be easy to find newly opened United States hotels to recommend for luxury weddings. My plan was to take five key points from the “LLG Standard,” an event evaluation that I developed over the past several years, and have applied to numerous hotels through onsite visits. This Standard resulted in me building and...
Study Reveals 77% of Travelers More Likely to Book When Business Owners Respond to Reviews
TripAdvisor | December 13, 2019
Ipsos MORI Survey Shows 79% travelers said Personalized Responses from Owners Make Reviews More Useful, Highlighting the Importance of Management Responses 89% of Travelers Said a Thoughtful Response to a Negative Review Improved Their Impression of a Business, Showing the Effectiveness of Owners Responding to All Types of Reviews 84% of Travellers Said Polite and Respectful Response from Business Owners is Important to Them When Reading Reviews, and as a Result, They Plan a Better Trip NEEDHAM, Mass., Dec. 13, 2019 -- New research released today from Ipsos MORI in partnership with TripAdvisor has revealed that customers are mo...
Standing Out in This Era of “Silent Selling”: Six Ways Hotel Salespeople Can Use Video Email to Engage Prospects
Doug Kennedy | December 11, 2019
By Doug Kennedy It is eerily silent in most sales offices these days. Whereas in the past the halls echoed with telephone conversations between sales managers and group or function planners, these days the only sounds you’ll hear are the clicking of fingers on a computer keypad. Nowadays, most leads are arriving via various “silent” channels. These include direct website RFP’s, leads forwarded from regional brand offices, app notifications coming in from lead generation platforms such as CVENT, The Knot/Wedding Wire, or digital notifications from the local CVB or DMO. Likewise, most salespeople respond silently by emailing st...
Hospitality Financial Leadership: Chapter Three – The Flags
David Lund | December 11, 2019
By David Lund The crap I must deal with never ceases to amaze me. The Stow sees many groups and we were preparing for an international political gathering and my country’s government was hosting the event. This meant lots of politics, decorum and protocol that all gets sorted out, or so to speak. It was nothing short of a cluster bomb and I had to stick-handle my team and the politicians. Our city and country have a colorful history and it is rich in its traditions and symbols. My phone rang late one afternoon as the summit was less than a week away. My secretary, notice I didn’t call her an assistant, she was a secretary and somewh...
Baby Boomer Travelers: What Marketers Need to Know [Infographic]
Michael Del Gigante | December 10, 2019
By Michael Del Gigante In their rush to court younger consumers, travel marketers sometimes overlook an important demographic: baby boomers. Members of this cohort, defined roughly as those born between 1946 and 1964, are especially valuable because they often have the income and time to take multiple trips each year: 70%: The share of total US disposable income controlled by baby boomers $6,600: How much boomers spend on leisure trips each year, on average 4 to 5: How many leisure trips boomers take each year, on average What are the key motivators and behaviors of this group? To find out, check out MDG Advertising’s ...
Women in C-Suite: Navigating Invisible Obstacles
Juliette Boone | December 5, 2019
By: Juliette Boone, Boulder “Rather than a glass ceiling, many female executives are forced to navigate an invisible obstacle course of workplace and professional barriers to advance in the industry.” In 2013, some colleagues and I published a research study in the Cornell Hospitality Quarterly concerning the lack of advancement of women into the C-Suite in the hospitality industry. Our work was borne out of a curiosity about the reported career obstacles that modern female executives faced. In the present era of “Me Too,” it seems appropriate to revisit that research to shine a light again upon the issues that might hold women ...
Tourism Tidbits: “Tidbits” for December – The Gift of Travel
Dr. Peter Tarlow | December 4, 2019
By Dr. Peter Tarlow December is a month for the giving of gifts. It is also a time to motivate employees during a season not only of joy but also for many a time of great frustrations. For those employed in the tourism industry December often means large crowds and challenging weather situations. It is a time when those who work in the travel industry not only suffer from personal exhaustion but also from a low level of ésprit de corps. December’s difficulties are a perpetual challenge for any tourism administrator. When we add to this situation the fact that the long cold and often dark winter months add to ...
What Ever Happened to Real Hotel Marketing?
Larry Mogelonsky | December 4, 2019
By Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng. (www.hotelmogel.com) Marketing for hotels used to be a far simpler art. Define a budget, review media pricing then assign monthly figures to each chosen publication and design your ads. Nowadays, in the era of revenue managers, the director of marketing position is often not necessarily as important the aforementioned master of yield-managing inventory. Indeed, the executive housekeeper may be considered more important because if the guestrooms aren’t cleaned properly then your all-too-critical TripAdvisor scores may suffer. Nowadays, marketing has been basically limited to: Keeping the website f...
Industry Experts at Preferred Hotels & Resorts Reveal Top Travel Trends and Hot Destinations for 2020
Preferred Hotels & Resorts | December 4, 2019
NEWPORT BEACH, CALIFORNIA – December 4, 2019: Travel and hospitality professionals across the globe are preparing to usher in a new decade of travel, focusing on up-and-coming destinations, increasingly popular lodging trends, and fresh ways to experience travel in a meaningful way that impacts the way people view the world. With more than 50 years of industry experience, the experts at Preferred Hotels & Resorts – the world’s largest independent hotel brand with more than 750 properties in 85 countries – are sharing their insights and tips for the year ahead. · CONSCIOUS TRAVEL – According to the Sustainab...
The Importance of Attracting and Managing Hotel and Hospitality Customer Reviews
Jessica Kaiser | November 21, 2019
By Jessica Kaiser Good, bad, and unusual, managing your online reviews can seem daunting, but with the right knowledge of what customers and critics online respond to, it doesn’t have to be. Getting reviews by encouraging customers to share their experiences has some clear-cut benefits. If someone had a positive experience and shares it online, your brand gets a public-facing declaration of a content customer. There are also some other benefits that may even seem like a negative at first glance, such as your hotel receiving a bad online review (more on this below!). From Facebook to TripAdvisor –anywhere your organization can receive r...
Don’t Skip Out on Skip-Gen Travel
Alan Young | November 14, 2019
By Alan E. Young There’s a popular saying that reads, “Identity influences behavior.” This proves to be an especially important understanding of hospitality. As industry leaders work to identify (and cater to) the entirety of the guest journey, from pre-stay to post-stay, we are constantly faced with the question like: What do guests want most, and why? What is their motivation for traveling? What makes an exceptional trip? Modern guest loyalty, after all, is earned, not given. Across each generational group and travel segment, hoteliers are implored to get closer with each guest to gain a deeper understanding of who they are, what t...
Hotel Branding: How to Take Your Hotel Brand to the Next Level
Jennifer Luo | November 13, 2019
By Jennifer Luo Seldom businesses can thrive nowadays without carefully-planned marketing strategies: not to say in the hospitality industry where there is at least one new property opening somewhere in the world almost every week. Moreover, the ubiquity of technology and the replicability of products means that branding has become one crucial differentiator for hospitality businesses. A hotel may be a superior service provider with its renowned facilities, but the customers need to seek a way to know about the hotel and its service quality out of all its competitors. As the market is saturated with countless hotels, brands and offerings...
Taking a Closer Look at a Panic Button Installation
Larry Mogelonsky | November 13, 2019
By Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng. (www.hotelmogel.com) Behind every new technology are a host of potential setup problems that can take hours or days to solve. For that matter, ESDs (emergency safety devices) are no different, for which I’ve had the pleasure of recently having to oversee a property installation and am now reporting on some of the specifics that you must also consider. As background on how these panic button solutions work, we’ve had RFID (radio frequency identification) for many decades and relatively affordable forms of WiFi or GPS for nearly 20 years, but these technologies could never really give us the response ...
Hyatt Launches Three Global Initiatives to Significantly Reduce Single-Use Plastics
Hyatt Hotels Corporation | November 12, 2019
CHICAGO - November 12, 2019 – Hyatt Hotels Corporation (NYSE: H) is announcing a series of initiatives to reduce waste at Hyatt hotels globally, including introducing large-format bathroom amenities and reducing single-use water bottles by June 2021. The following initiatives will be introduced as soon as possible in properties around the world, and no later than June 2021: Transitioning to large-format bathroom amenities to replace traditional small bottles of shower gel, shampoo, conditioner and lotion. Increasing the number of water stations in key public spaces at hotels for guests who wish to refill reusable water bottles. S...
How to Pull Off a PR Stunt & Create Brand WOW
Melissa DiGianfilippo | November 8, 2019
By Melissa DiGianfilippo Bill Gates once said, "If I was down to my last dollar, I'd spend it on public relations." Smart man. Public relations can be less expensive and far more effective than you might think. Still, the most significant obstacle aside from budget is tickling the fancy of media outlets and your target audience. Without the media, your story is less likely to reach the public. A well-planned and executed PR stunt can generate incredible amounts of interest and elevate your hotel, motel, B&B, or resort to a new level in the minds and hearts of the media, and more importantly, potential guests. First, you might be won...
Hotel Sales RFP’s Circa 2020: How to Be the Best, Not Just the First to Respond
Doug Kennedy | November 8, 2019
By Doug Kennedy When I speak with hotel sales leaders at my training workshops and conference presentations, and when I read interviews with them in hotel trade publications such as this one, it seems that most are buying-in to these three myths about hotel sales in the current era: The most important factor in closing more leads is to be the first to respond. The second key to success is having the coolest PDF or online brochure, with more pictures than everyone else. Planners who send digital inquiries do not want to talk or correspond; they only want to get the proposal they asked for. Let’s tackle these mistaken beliefs...
Fuel White Paper Helps Hoteliers “Beat OTAs at Their Own Game” and Maximize Direct Booking Strategies
Fuel | November 5, 2019
Newly released white paper reveals proven OTA strategies that hoteliers can seize upon to combat growing online competition and improve direct booking results. Myrtle Beach, SC – November 5, 2019 – Fuel, the premier software provider and digital agency for the hotel industry, has announced the release of a new white paper to the hotel industry that is geared toward helping hoteliers gain additional revenue through direct bookings on their own websites. Entitled “How to Beat OTAs at their own game,” the new informational white paper explores key data-driven tactics that the most successful Online Travel Agencies have used to captur...
Hospitality Financial Leadership: A Good Hotel Friend and the Canadian GP
David Lund | November 4, 2019
By David Lund The hotel business is often a grind. I mean it is tough slugging it out each day. The guests never go away or when they do, they are replaced by others. Colleagues need your constant attention or lord knows what they will get up to if left to their own devices. And there is always someone who needs something that just cannot wait. I think you know what I mean. But alas there is the other side of the coin. That is when someone gives you an unexpected gift! Right out of the blue. That has happened to me many times in my 30-plus years. This story is about one of those times. It all started when I was still a cigarette smoker....
Service Excellence: Through the Eyes of a Server
Bryan K. Williams | November 4, 2019
By Dr. Bryan K. Williams Back to my roots. There’s something deeply moving and rejuvenating to go back to where it all started. My professional career began almost 30 years ago in a fine-dining French restaurant called “The Palm Terrace”. I started as a busboy, then worked my way up to various roles. However, the job that transformed me; the one that made me feel like I was flying...the one that fully consumed me, was as a restaurant server. Oh, I loved that job. In fact, I still view myself as a server today! Many of the articles, books, keynotes and workshops that I’ve created were inspired by my time as a server. I studied...
Hoteliers: An API-First PMS Is Integral to Your Property’s Success – Here’s Why
Nicole Dehler, Vice President of Product Management StayNTouch, A Shiji Group Brand | October 31, 2019
By Nicki Dehler, VP of Product Management, StayNTouch, A Shiji Group Brand Choosing the right integrations for your property is not a black-or-white proposition. After all, different hotels have different business goals, markets and guest profiles. But choosing a deeper integration over a shallow one can make the difference between night and day for your property. An open, cloud-based infrastructure is quickly becoming an integral standard for businesses across industries, especially in the case of hospitality. Although hotels may have been historically slow to adopt new technology, forward-thinking brands are leveraging cutting-edge so...
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