According to recent Group Travel Research conducted by PhoCusWright, the total groups and meetings market is projected to be $175 billion in gross bookings by 2008, of which hotels can expect $34.3 billion. Among the baby boomer generation, leisure travel alone has increased by 25 percent since 2003, according to a report in USA Today. Generation X, though smaller in numbers, is making up the dollars spent difference by spending more per trip than wealthier baby boomers. In 2004, Xers, the 60 million Americans aged 25-40, spent an estimated $2,140 per capita on travel involving a hotels stay, versus the boomers' $2,016, according to travel research firm D.K. Shifflet & Associates. This generation of savvy, well-funded travelers is also more likely to go online to research and book their group getaways. After all, this is a generation used to booking their individual travel on websites such as Travelocity and Orbitz or hotel and airline websites. It's highly unlikely that those weaned on online travel sites will change gears when it comes to researching and booking their group travel. READ MORE

Don't let the title of this article mislead you - what hoteliers need to do to sell hotel rooms online is no secret. It's all about better merchandising with content that inspires and motivates shoppers to book. More than just rates, inventory and driving traffic to a booking engine, selling hotel rooms online involves making engaging, detailed visual and written content available to travel shoppers on all the digital channels they use throughout the shopping journey. READ MORE

Many independent hotel managers are unhappy with the amount of business generated by their websites. This should come as no surprise as many of these websites have been designed as "online brochures" and lack the features to incent visitors to book. Creating a sales-focused website is not trivial: there are many important details that must be taken into account. Some high-end marketing agencies have focused on delivering custom solutions to four and five-star hotels; smaller, independent hotels have traditionally relied on freelance web designers and developers to keep costs under control. Now, a few vendors provide integrated solutions that enable a high-end web presence that is focused on maximizing the number of online bookings on a small hotel budget. READ MORE

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it!" So my boss in the banking world used to keep telling me. But what if it is broke? Or, even worse, what if you don't know whether or not it is "broke"? Maybe your website is performing well enough now, but some changes could bump your results to stellar? These are the quandaries many hoteliers face when it comes to changing their websites. READ MORE

Online travelers generally abandon Web sites when faced with pricing or technical support issues. In the past, hotels felt they could address these concerns by providing prospective customers with self-service tools, such as an "About Us" page or FAQs. However, due to the complex nature of some transactions, whether making hotel reservations or booking special travel packages, companies are recognizing that they need to be more effective at securing, supporting, and retaining their online customers. Here, I offer five effective methods designed to help hotels increase revenue and secure online transactions, even in these shifting economic times. READ MORE

With tax season behind us and streamlined budgets on the mind, it is time for hoteliers to undergo an audit of their online marketing strategies as well. In this article, I will give readers an inside look at an actual nline strategy audit for a top tier hotelier. We will review their paid earch, SEO and consumer shopping feed strategy as well as determine what was working well for them and where they needed to improve. Learn the secrets of brand versus non-brand search campaigns, landing page optimization and keyword bidding strategies to keep your campaigns lean, mean and profitable. READ MORE

As the current recession impacts the travel industry, it is more vital than ever to focus on gaining incremental customers and retaining your market share. Online campaigns must quickly capture customers' attention and create undeniable incentive to visit your site and transact once they arrive. Read the insights of Blake Suggs and Teri Utley, of Range Online Media, and learn the top 10 tips for optimizing your online campaigns in today's tough economic conditions. From new ways to capitalize on travel's seasonal advantages and highlighting your property's unique features to campaign re-design and geo-targeting, you will learn the secrets of the online trade that will help you succeed. READ MORE

Hotel groups are moving an increased share of their advertising dollars to online venues for a few key reasons: Online advertising is trackable, the message can be changed quickly, and most importantly, it is in a medium where the majority of unmanaged business and leisure travel bookings take place. The biggest benefactors are of course, the large (general) search engines: Google, Yahoo and MSN. Hitwise announced recently that Google accounted for 65.13 percent of all US searches in the four weeks ending May 26, 2007. READ MORE

Today, hoteliers with varying Internet experience may certainly attempt to dabble in SEO (search engine optimization) and SEM (search engine marketing) on their own to increase bookings, but both have costs associated with them. The former does not have a participation cost, but there is still a labor cost associated with the marketing executive hired to manage the program. SEM, on the other hand, can be an expensive and risky venture, and one best managed by an individual well-versed in the metrics and methods. This person should also devote several hours a week - if not daily - on the management of purchasing the keywords from companies such as Yahoo!, MSN, and Google. A positive ROI must be maintained to keep a program like this ongoing. Costs can outweigh benefits if the marketer is not careful. READ MORE

Many independent hoteliers confess they know that doing a better job generating and managing online reservations is the single greatest source of untapped revenue. Yet creating an online site that actually simplifies bookings and transactions seems woefully out of reach for most in-house independent managers who don't have the luxury of an online staff. Here are some key questions to ask when you are sitting down with an online reservation technology vendor who is keen to secure your business, or meeting with your current partner to plan your 2008 online priorities. READ MORE

The paramount importance of the web as a sales channel for hotel brands has been amply proven in recent years. As such, optimizing the online booking process has become the Holy Grail for marketers and the subject of much analysis and punditry. All can agree that the goal is to weed out any potential sources of dissatisfaction and to give the booker a clear, streamlined, and unimpeded path to checkout, armed with all the information he or she needs to feel comfortable and satisfied with his or her decision to reserve online with your brand. READ MORE

So, you're using analytics. But how are you really doing? Have you set your own benchmarks? Are you improving against them? Do you know how you're performing against your industry? Is your "search function" a worthwhile feature on the site? Is your home page take too long to load? Is your reservation process too confusing and time consuming? Obtaining a better understanding of how, when and why your visitors interact with your web site will provide you with a wealth of information to increase revenue, enhance your brand image and increase profitability. READ MORE

When it comes to updating your web site, the first and most obvious question your web team must ask themselves is - "did the site meet, surpass or fall short of the objectives that were set out last year?" In order to answer that question, you must have previously established clear, quantifiable objectives. You would be surprised to learn that there are still quite a few relatively sophisticated site development teams out there that fail to quantify their objectives into terms that can be measured and benchmarked. And as the saying goes, you can't manage what you can't measure and when it comes to the web, it is imperative that you are able to quantify your site's performance against objectives and benchmarks. READ MORE

As an industry that combines hands-on services with bricks and mortar "product," hospitality is generally at the trailing edge of the technology adoption curve. Like many industries, hospitality did not anticipate the rapid emergence of the Internet, which created an opportunity for nimble upstarts such as Expedia, Travelocity and Hotels.com to exploit the growth and consumer interest in on-line travel services. Thanks in large part to first-mover advantage, those intermediaries have not only gained remarkable penetration, but - like many Web players - have changed the operating paradigm by disconnecting the supplier from the customer (disintermediation) and driving down room rates by effectively commoditizing the hotel product. Until now the answer has been to attempt to beat these new-breed competitors at their own game. One example is the popular "best rate guarantee" that has been implemented by virtually all major brands. While the basis is sound - encourage travelers to book via the chain's direct channel to ensure that they will get the best price - in reality, it merely reinforces the focus on price as the sole determining factor and serves to push us further down this slippery slope toward commoditization. READ MORE

After the much ballyhooed success of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) in some of the other areas of the travel supply and value chains - including airlines, casinos and even credit card companies - it's been prophesized that CRM will be the panacea to cure many of the hotel industry's current ailments. And considering that our industry, while traditionally late to the game, does eventually play "follow the leader" on a wide variety of technologies and services, it's not surprising that so many pundits have expected us to jump on the CRM bandwagon. Unfortunately, CRM as it's being described (and in some instances being deployed) appears destined to be just yet another futile treasure hunt - the heir to TQM, ERP, Six Sigma and the rest of yesterday's magic cures. Not to say that CRM offers no value - quite the opposite. The issue, however, is that to be truly valuable to the hospitality industry, CRM needs to be dramatically altered from its traditional view as a transactional technology into a more beneficial operational service that has a meaningful impact not just on the marketing department, but on our guests themselves during their visit. READ MORE