Understanding your customers, their behavior and how to best serve them has always been at the core of great hotelkeeping. In today’s connected world, understanding how your customers and your potential customers use the Internet is no different—it is a must if you want to attract and retain business and keep your guests engaged with your brand.

Ultimately, those who best serve customers in the second life of the virtual world are most likely to win the chance to serve them in person, on property. And the combination of these service experiences, of course, will determine whether one-time guests become repeat guests.

So where should hoteliers start? Arguably at the places consumers start—search engines, travel Web sites and hotel brand Web sites (“brand” is used here in the broadest sense—representing both big hotel brands and individual hotels representing their own individual brands). A key first step in any hotel e-strategy is ensuring that the brand has a strong online presence optimized for search, along with search marketing and linking strategies to help augment the driving of traffic to brand Web sites.

This is no small effort, of course, so if your brand has no expertise in this area, consider developing some or working with an online marketer to establish these basics.

With the basics out of the way, you can move on to the fun—deciding which online channels and initiatives to spend on. This differs by hotel brand size, segment and needs, of course. The key is to listen to your customers and spend on giving them what they want online.

“We’re trying to keep in mind the [big] picture: What will best achieve our goals and engage the consumer?” says Irene Rigos, senior e-commerce manager, Wyndham Hotel Group, Parsippany, New Jersey. “If that is blogging, great, if not, OK. We’re focused on achieving our desired outcome with whatever tools best lend themselves to the task. We need to be cognizant of what [guests] want, when they want it and where they want to get it.”

Bill Marriott, chairman and CEO of Marriott International, has been blogging for a year and a half. The success of his blog prompted the company to launch another blog authored by corporate executive chef, Brad Nelson.

Miami, Florida-based Desires Hotels offers podcasts with destination information in its property Web sites, such as The San Juan Water & Beach Club site.

“Today the end goal is still to make reservations or RFPs, but to do so, you really need to have conversations with guests and create a site that they are going to research and utilize,” says Jennifer Long, assistant vice president of e-commerce, Destination Hotels & Resorts, Englewood, Colorado.

David Godsman, vice president of marketing and business development for Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, White Plains, New York, agrees. “The Web [offers] an engaging means of meeting guests and providing them with the content they need. And through that conversation the transaction comes—we have seen that work successfully for us.”

For hoteliers not yet focused on Internet marketing involving rich and social media, the only reasonable advice is to do whatever it takes to get here quickly—because if you lag behind for much longer in this area, it is likely you may never catch up, as technologies are ever-evolving. That said, an even better reason to catch up is found in the latest consumer research, which shows that both rich media and social media have most certainly arrived, and that both are going to be important components to the future of hotel Internet marketing.

According to a recent Travel Industry Association/YPartnership TravelHorizons study, two-thirds of online adult leisure travelers in the United States consume online video and audio clips, and four in 10 read blogs, share photos and take virtual tours. One in four also posts responses to blogs and participates in social networks.

Another recent survey by Sherman, Connecticut-based travel research firm PhoCusWright shows that nearly 20% of U.S. travelers visit six or more Web sites while shopping. While some of this may be attributed to price comparison, these travelers also are motivated by a desire to read peer reviews and research destinations, the survey shows. They are familiar with Web 2.0 technologies and are more likely than others to find offerings like podcasts, videos and interactive maps influential in making travel purchasing decisions.

“For travel shoppers, seeing really is believing,” says Cathy Schetzina, director of research at PhoCusWright. “[This] suggests that online rich media will be an increasingly important part of the travel-planning process.”

This is clearly true for Marriott customers, according to George Corbin, vice-president of e-commerce at Marriott International. “Marriott’s customers spend, on average, about 10 minutes on the Web site,” he said in a recent interview with the Singaporean newspaper The Straits Times. “They check driving directions, browse hotel photo tours and redeem loyalty points.”

So what does all of this mean for hoteliers? It means that content is king for today’s consumers, and if they can’t find it on your site, they’ll go elsewhere to find it. So the more destination information, peer traveler perspective and interactive media you can incorporate and offer, the better when it comes to keeping travelers on your site. And because of this endless consumer appetite for information, a site rich in content may actually capture more traffic and in turn more reservations than one offering a bare bones experience and a low-price room. “It’s the evolution from customers seeking to find the lowest price to finding the perfect trip,” says Phillip Wolf, president and CEO of PhoCusWright.

With the knowledge that customer engagement can ultimately drive conversion, what can hoteliers do online to capture and keep the traveler’s attention?

Blogging: Hotel companies like Starwood do it (with thelobby.com), and so do hotel brands, like InterContinental (travel.intercontinental.com). A number of concierges and some general managers do it, and at least one CEO—Bill Marriott—does it (blogs.marriott.com).

So why shouldn’t you or your brand blog? The answer is, you should—unless you don’t have anything to say (still, even then, you can usually find someone else to say it for you, as Phoenix, Arizona-based Best Western International plans to do with its new leisure travel spokeswoman, Gen-X mom Amy Graff, who will blog about destinations, family travel and how to make the most of a vacation). If you can offer travelers any type of interesting content at very little cost, where’s the downside? Even better, solicit guest feedback in the form of comments, so that you learn what type of content they like or do not like.

Podcasting: Miami, Florida-based Desires Hotels has been offering weekly destination information podcasts on many of its property Web sites for a couple of years now. “We wanted to have a way socially to communicate with customers about individual destinations,” says Doug Carillo, senior vice president and partner, Tecton Hospitality (Desires’ parent company). “It has helped increase the number of visitors to our Web sites and helped with our conversions and revenue as well.”

Motel 6’s goin6.com offers travelers information about a series of American road trips highlighting historic or culturally significant destinations, along with rich media like video clips, and the opportunity to post their own notes and videos showcasing their experiences.

Adding Interactive Trip Planning: Trip planning is an ideal focal point for interaction with consumers as more and more people take charge of their own travel plans.

“Travel marketers need to incorporate some trip-planning functionality into their social media toolkits to satisfy customer demand,” writes Cindy Estis Green in “The Travel Marketer’s Guide to Social Media and Social Networks,” a joint effort between the Foundation of the Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International and the Travel Industry Association.

Mid-scale, limited-service and budget hotel brands are doing an especially noteworthy job leveraging this method of connecting with consumers. Some examples include Best Western’s Trip Planner tab, the Hampton Landmarks microsite, Holiday Inn Express’ Smart Show initiative and “webisodes,” and Motel 6’s goin6.com microsite. In addition, many of the other tools mentioned in this article, like blogs, podcasts or videos, are dedicated to destination information or include content designed to assist travelers in planning their trips.

Fun & Games: Earlier this year, Starwood’s Sheraton brand started an online worldwide pillow fight and splash fight with its sheratonplay.com microsite and rich media banner advertising (people perusing the Internet could get involved in the pillow/splash fights through the banners, without leaving the page they were on).

“It’s all about connecting,” explains Jeff Mirman, director of interactive marketing for Sheraton. “Starwood and Sheraton understand how to utilize new technologies to connect with consumers and potential consumers. There’s a lot of noise out there with advertising, and this, since it’s interactive, and not interruptive, plays out nicely. It’s a fun way to get our brand across.”

Mirman notes that while the games were intended as a brand awareness campaign only, the high interaction levels and times likely meant some translation to additional bookings.

Contests Involving Rich Media: Wyndham’s Ramada brand is about to start an online contest for which guests will be encouraged to submit a one-minute video clip of them “doing their thing.” Doing so will make them eligible to win a grand prize of US$10,000. “The contest builds on the brand’s message of 'you do your thing, leave the rest to us’ and [engages] the target audience,” says Wyndham Hotel Group’s Rigos.

Direct comments to: derek.gale@reedbusines.com