Your distribution strategy needs to be understood by who will be selling it, available on the designated distribution channels, easily understandable by the purchaser and not a teaser that is too difficult to really buy. Plus protect your brand with that strategy. Do not degrade your brand or try to sell into a market you do not service well. READ MORE

We're used to thinking of web design as a subjective matter. I like this, he likes that, etc., and of course, to a certain degree it is. But more than that, design does have a clear effect on people's behavior online. No one takes the science of measuring this more seriously than Google, a company that meticulously performs A/B testing on all new design ideas to measure which alternative yields the highest desired outcome. You can do the same and this article outlines some important metrics that tell the truth of your current and next website design. READ MORE

Hoteliers that want to prosper in today's economic environment are increasingly turning to business intelligence applications that enable them to assess risks and make more informed decisions. Business intelligence solutions help you to gather, analyze and leverage a wide variety of data in order to gain a competitive edge and increase your visibility in a crowded market. In my article, I outline the top 10 benefits of incorporating a business intelligence solution into your daily operations. READ MORE

The lodging industry is always evolving and many new concepts have emerged to meet new market demands. In the last ten years the model of the Condo Hotel has gained worldwide popularity, especially during the last real estate boom. Condo hotels are typically categorized as a property where condo ownership and traditional hotel amenities are combined. There is also the older, more traditional condo rental community, where an onsite or offsite rental company manages a large number of units and rents them for their owners. This article tries to pin point some of the challenges and the best practices related to the booking of rental units owned by a 3rd party online. READ MORE

Many independent hotel managers are unhappy with the amount of business generated by their websites. This should come as no surprise, as increasingly sophisticated consumers are looking for easy ways to decide and book, but many times official websites have confusing displays and lack competitive pricing and special offers. The last article of the series on how to pursue a structured online strategy lists six simple tips to ensure best success for offers on your website. These tips coupled with creativity and discipline to manage rate parity will allow you to create an offer strategy that ensures e-commerce success for your official website. READ MORE

Since using video to market hotels online is a concept that the industry as a whole has been slow to adopt, hotel marketers are demanding guidance on how to get the most value from their investment in online video. They buy into the value, but don't know where to start when adding video to their eBusiness strategies. There are no hard and fast rules for hotel video that guarantees the greatest conversions because there are a number of factors that come into play - hotel location, type, seasonality, just to name a few. There are, however, steps any hotel can take to get started with video. READ MORE

Occupancies have stabilized and are recovering around the world. It's time for ADRs to make the same recovery. No more hibernating with the bears. For those regions still in hibernation, the time to act is now. At best, consumers will accept a 5% increase in rate annually. While that might not seem much, it's better than a 5% move in the opposite direction. For hoteliers, every day in the foreseeable future should be a run with the bulls—with the same sense of urgency and confidence. Viva San Fermin! READ MORE

Over the course of the past few years, I have been approached by hotels that want to attract more international traffic to their websites. They were looking for the easiest way to optimize their sites for each country. Some may think it is simply a matter of translating the site and traffic will come. International SEO is not that easy. Here are a few challenges that companies with an international Web presence face, and some tips for creating an optimal Web presence that can perform well in international search engines. READ MORE

Smart hoteliers go above and beyond what's required to provide their guests with an exceptional, personalized experience that leaves travelers feeling welcome and important. Yet, hotel executives often miss the mark by not extending this best-in-class experience throughout all of their communications channels, including the booking process. By providing a cohesive, easy and pleasant encounter from start to finish, you can arm your guests with unforgettable memories that will build customer loyalty and word-of-mouth exposure that likely cannot be replicated by a marketing campaign. READ MORE

It's no secret that today's consumers are more demanding and selective than ever. Not only does yesterday's approach of one-off direct mail pieces and random emails no longer work, it can be enough to turn off your customer or prospect for good. With today's economic climate showing limited signs of improvement, it is critical that travel organizations and destinations leverage "intelligent," triggered communications approaches. So how do you utilize choreography to break through that clutter? Marketers are turning to four key elements that enable them to deliver automated, highly-customized marketing campaigns that respond to customers in a way that increases the bottom line. READ MORE

How much does it cost you to take a reservation by phone? How does that compare to the costs if your guest does the booking entirely online? If you consider the staff time involved in the first case, I'll bet that you save a lot of money by having your guests book themselves completely online. So it is in your interest to make that process as easy as possible. Next question: How many people visit your site, explore it a bit, but don't end up booking a stay with you? Any idea why they don't? Obviously some of them will conclude that your hotel isn't right for them. But there's a good chance that a significant number of them are giving up because they found the process of booking online frustrating. Often those frustrations don't hit until they are in the middle of filling out the needed forms to book their stay. What sorts of things upset them, and how can you prevent those irritants? READ MORE

What is trust? According to Dictionary.com it is "reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, surety, etc., of a person or thing; confidence". For me, it was always about the three R's of modern day; respect, relevance and reward. So what does this tell us when we attempt to tackle the subject of building customer relationships through trust? Quite simply, that the definition of trust is dependent upon one's frame of reference and personal needs at the time that 'trust' is required. If only it was that simple; new technology has dramatically complicated the equation. READ MORE

In the old days of the Internet (10 years ago), the first generation of hotel Web sites were a passive medium for presenting a colorful hotel brochure, hence were dubbed brochureware. Those Web sites were one-dimensional and provided your brand a destination on the World Wide Web. The second generation of hotel Web sites, now commonplace on the Web, was all about being able to conduct commerce online: searching a directory of hotels and making reservations, as well as extending, canceling and confirming reservations. Now arrives the newest generation of hotel Web sites: interactive spaces that stand to replace paid advertising and public relations as the strongest means for hotels to drive brand loyalty and competitive differentiation. READ MORE

Twenty years after hanging out our shingle, my partner and I have built a business that has grown from its roots providing quality assurance audit programs to the hotel industry, to a consultancy supporting a variety of industries in a niche that we have helped define - Customer Experience Management, or CEM. One of the foremost elements of our point of view on the customer experience is that in any organization, people, process and technology must be aligned around a shared vision and delivery of the optimal customer experience. With this message as a linchpin, we've secured clients in financial services, healthcare, manufacturing and a number of other different industries where the proper way of making the "Heavenly Bed" is hardly relevant. READ MORE

The year is 2020; driven by technology undreamed of today, the world of hotel marketing is unlike anything we can imagine. As marketers what will our role be? Will we have any role at all? If the changes in the last five years are any indication, these are wonderful questions to ponder. Here in the present, we can safely say online marketing has come of age; if it was cutting edge yesterday, it's the norm today. But, what about the future? What can we expect, what do we have to do to be relevant to the consumers of today and tomorrow? Perhaps the only thing we can say for certain is that as long as technology continues to change at blinding speed, our biggest challenge will be just to keep up. READ MORE