A closer look at the Total Online Distribution Channel Strategy. 9/11 created a major shift in how consumers book travel. The crisis created a dramatic drop in demand, which forced travel suppliers to introduce unprecedented discounts. Airlines, hotels and all other travel suppliers struggled to sell seats, rooms, car rentals to a significantly shrunk leisure and business travel market. The Internet allowed for smart and proactive suppliers to connect with their customers, move inventory and stay ahead of the competition. There has never been a better time to embrace the Internet and online distribution in particular. But you have to know that the Web can be either your best ally or your worst enemy. READ MORE

Billions of pages going to trillions. Most of the information available online is replicated again and again, then twisted, corrupted and re-entered. When one search question retrieves one million answers, the system fails -- results have little or no value. Now that the titans of e-commerce have been identified, search engines are leading the way for consumers online. At the same time, serious questions are emerging related to the efficacy of these search engines, among them "When will the search engines collide?" and, "How soon and why could this happen?" If search engines are the principal devices for business access, then today's search results, which often include a great deal of irrelevant information, are a serious problem. Imagine looking at a stock ticker tape, where you get lottery numbers, weather reports, and airline schedules nicely arranged in matching fonts, along with the stock prices. How long would such a product last? Not one second. READ MORE

Consumers are consistently turning to the Internet to book their travel accommodations, so now more than ever it is critical to create a seamless experience for them. Over the years, the Web has grown to be one of the greatest resources for travelers looking to compare options, explore potential destinations and research accommodations. Yet because booking on the Web is so easy and there are so many competitive sites available, hotels and resorts must ensure their Web sites provide customers with a memorable experience not only to gain their business, but also to keep them coming back for more. READ MORE

It's no secret that hotels, like all businesses, are in deep competition as the world economy struggles. Fewer people are taking trips, and those in the travel and leisure industry are forced to compete for declining business. With the Web serving as an extension of the hotel brand, delivering a positive experience online can make the difference between a browser and a booker. How can hotels maximize this opportunity to establish a brand affinity through their Web presence? In this article, I've listed five best tactics for just that. READ MORE

In today's tempestuous economy, with demand and hotel occupancies declining, hoteliers are looking for strategies to drive demand for their hotel. Many use discounting as their sole strategy for maintaining occupancy. What they find, however, is that cutting prices alone does not drive new demand; it only diminishes the return on existing demand. What they should be focused on is capturing more of the demand that is already there-that is, gaining market share from the competition. Price is part, but not all, of a winning strategy. READ MORE

There has been an increasing level of interest over the past several years in virtual tours as a way to generate the interest of prospective hospitality guests. Virtual tours are a specialty type of photography that allows the viewer to experience everything surrounding the camera. Virtual tours provide a great tool for online or offline marketing to prospective private or business hotel guests who want to know exactly what features and amenities are offered at a particular property. While two-dimensional photos can simply highlight areas of your properties online, virtual tours bring your potential guests into the center of a scene where they can interactively scan entire areas within one image. Studies have shown that interactivity on websites increases satisfaction and keeps visitors on your site longer. Virtual tours have proven to facilitate property promotion and reflect a more professional and sophisticated brand. Once created, a virtual tour serves as an evergreen online presentation of the best your facilities have to offer. The atmosphere and style of travel accommodations are a major determining factor, in addition to price, location and availability. Further, a virtual tour can better communicate the value and feel of a property than a written description or a two-dimensional photography. READ MORE

After some consideration, it's now time for you to capture a virtual tour. Perhaps your competitors are marketing their properties using virtual tours, showing off their high-quality accommodations for business and leisure. Or perhaps you have had a professional virtual tour photographer call on you, pointing out the potential return on investment of virtual tour photography on your web site, in-lobby kiosk, or off-line CDROM marketing piece. Or perhaps you want your in-house marketing department to utilize new approaches to creating demand for your companies' hospitality services. No matter what the reason, once you have decided to capture a virtual tour, you will invariably wonder which type of virtual tour photography to use. Like many technical specialties, there are many options and "speeds and feeds" related to panoramic photography. Considerations go beyond the simple quantification of total cost. Yes, at the end of it, cost will be the most tangible consideration. But for approximately the same cost, you will have a wide range of options available. How do you decide which is best for your need? READ MORE

Some companies in the hospitality industry consider a simple online presence to be all they need in order to compete. For these companies, one or two pages with a company logo, a street address, contact information, and a couple of photographs is more than enough to represent the business to those searching online locally. As a requirement for doing business in the Internet age, it is often difficult to quantify the return on investment of this type of basic Web presence. Intuitively, it is easy to see the damage a lack of a simple Internet presence can have on even the smallest bed & breakfast. Conversely, the marginal cost of developing a one or two page website is comparable to a days' utility bill or less. Clearly, the vast majority of the hospitality industry has embraced the power of online content. The question is: have we all harnessed its full revenue-generating potential? READ MORE

Showcasing hotel property through photography is a complicated process in this modern digital age. Today, photography is no longer used simply for print materials such as brochures or other promotional pieces. The contemporary business and leisure traveler often expects to be able to experience a prospective property online. Increasingly, potential visitors also want to visually explore the full range of services offered at a facility including rooms, health club, pool, restaurants, conference rooms and concierge lounge. Virtual tour photography is a natural for this type of presentation. Although the idea of photographing a property or properties might seem like a no-brainer, the actual project from thought to product can be a daunting task. In any type of photography project, there needs to be a strong organizational aspect and numerous decisions should be made in advance to avoid excessive waste of time and money. READ MORE

Companies are getting smarter about Web visitors, and are taking aggressive steps to optimize every visit in order to maximize sales conversion, increase customer loyalty and reduce website abandonment. Click to call provides the ability to track online sessions, detect trends and provide a dynamically placed assist if a prospect has lingered on a single page for a specified amount of time, or exhibited signs of website abandonment. This data garnered from a customer's online browsing can be viewed on its own, or integrated with existing data sources for a complete view of the customer and a seamless, online transaction experience. READ MORE

The challenge put before the hotelier is how to run a profitable and vibrant online channel in a tremendously price-sensitive environment. This article will explore cost sensitivity by various important and high value visitor segments during the first quarter of 2008. I'll be referencing data collected from our Voice of Customer surveys, which currently run on the websites of 29 major hospitality brands. Combined, these studies comprise the voices of over 100,000 actual website visitors. READ MORE

It's a pretty well-known fact that baby boomers currently dominate a huge sector of the consumer market. They have the numbers; they have the influence; they have the money. Born between 1946 and 1964, baby boomers represent more than a quarter of the total population, and they generally appreciate the good things in life. And with more than $2.1 trillion in spending power, they can afford them. Needless to say, baby boomers are vitally important to the travel industry. As such, it's imperative that we note the nuances of this market segment. After all, any category that includes the Clintons, Bush, Madonna, Donald Trump, and John Travolta, among many others, is bound to have its issues. READ MORE

Competing in the hospitality environment has never been more challenging. The number of vendors and products is overwhelming. Competitors are constantly looking for a marketing advantage. And hotels within your competitive set are likely to be utilizing business intelligence more than ever before. In this environment, hotels that succeed must do more than merely 'keep up' with the competition. They must be able to identify guest trends, recognize problem areas and develop strategies that increase profitability. They also must be able to react to market changes quickly and efficiently. Sounds good, but how do you make it happen? With 'data analytics,' which uses guest and operational information to predict future trends and stay a step ahead of the competition. READ MORE

With the Internet now considered a public utility for a large cross-section of the population, customer behavior is changing radically. Whereas in previous years customers were content merely researching products online and making purchases offline because they were too intimidated to share personal and financial information over the Web, consumers now spend more time online searching for the best bargains. However, price alone does not influence many consumers. A recent survey by Nielsen Online found that convenience, not price, has the greatest impact on online purchasing behavior. READ MORE

It is almost impossible to pick up a trade journal or newspaper today and not read something about web site analytics. Google is giving it away free and experts are saying you can't run a web site without it. So what are analytics really all about? Let's begin by first looking at the need for analytics. For a web site to perform well and deliver an acceptable ROI, it has to be perfect or as near to perfect on many levels and in many areas before it can achieve business success. To do this you need to understand how the various components of your site are performing. And to do this you need access to metrics or analytics that will allow you to measure and benchmark your customer's experience and overall satisfaction with your web site. You need to understand what makes your web site visitor tick. READ MORE