HOTELS

Scott: Great posting! Yes, we firmly believe that smart hoteliers can make a difference even in this economic environment. In a difficult year like this one, Internet marketing can help smart hoteliers generate incremental revenues, improve marketing ROIs, attract more affluent travelers, and out-smart the competition. For the past 13 years, our experience shows that Internet-savvy hoteliers with robust Direct Online Channel strategies in place are the winners in economic downturns like this one. We believe that a comprehensive, ROI-centric Internet marketing strategy is the perfect “survival tool” in the current economic environment. Fact: 83% of travel planning in the U.S. is done online (TIA). Online travel planning will only intensify this year, fueled by travel consumers searching for the best deals online. The Internet has established itself as the most important distribution and marketing channel in hospitality. In 2008, 37%-38% of all hotel bookings will be generated from the Internet (one-third in 2007, 29% in 2006). At least another third of all hotel bookings will be influenced by the Internet, but done offline (call center, walk-ins, group bookings, etc). All major hotel brands are already generating an excess of 40% of the CRS bookings via their brand websites. By the end of 2010, over 45% of all hotel bookings will be completed online (Merrill Lynch). Here is a simple Step-by-Step Action Plan hoteliers should follow in 2008-2009: Step 1: Audit the 2008-2009 Internet Marketing Budget / Plan • Overhaul the budget to become ROI-centric • Hold off on online advertising that has not proven to bring you ROIs in the past • Customer Segmentation Analysis + Action Plan: o Take a hard look at how your property markets to your key customer segments (e.g. meeting planners, business, leisure) o Re-evaluate the importance of your key customer segments and feeder markets in 2008-2009 (e.g. if fly-in guests’ share is decreasing due to airfare hikes, cuts in corporate travel budgets, or reduced airline capacity, focus more on your drive-in market) Step 2: Become a Smarter eMarketer • Focus on marketing formats that generate above industry-average returns • Implement the latest website analytics+ campaign tracking technology o Track post-impression and post-click activity o Track bookings, roomnights, revenues from every campaign o Adjust marketing spend instantaneously based on ROIs o Don’t fall for “free” analytical tools–they simply do not work Step 3: Back to the Basics: Focus on the Direct Online Channel • Your hotel’s efforts in the direct online channel provides both short-term, immediate as well as long-term, strategic benefits • Your ROI-centric marketing plan should include: o Search engine marketing, including:  Organic search, paid search (PPC), local search, meta search, mobile search, Web 2.0 search o Email marketing to your own list o Online sponsorships o Proven display advertising (banners, etc.) o Strategic linking o Customer segment and feeder market initiatives Step 4: Audit the Hotel Website Asset Hotel Internet marketing starts and ends with the hotel website. The hotel website has become the first, the only and in many cases—the last point of contact with the travel consumer. It is only natural that enhancing and optimizing the hotel website should be the top priority. Our experience shows that any website optimizations, enhancements or re-designs pay for themselves within 3-4 months. Here are some important items to consider: • Maximize the value of the site – it is the hotel’s most important marketing asset today • Make the site reflect 2008-2009 industry’s best practices: user-friendly, search engine-friendly, travel booker-friendly, and Web 2.0 friendly • Optimize, enhance, and re-design if necessary. • If the site is over 12 months old, a website optimization is now due, in order to take full advantage of the much cheaper organic search related visitors to your site. Make sure the hotel website is optimized for:  Travel consumers: the site must describe all aspects of the hotel product and services  Search engines: make sure the site H1 headers, body copy (keyword density), page titles, description tags and meta tags adhere to best practices. • If the site is over 2-3 years old, a website re-design should be considered, or at least budgeted for in early 2009 Step 5: Identify Your Hotel’s Unique Value Proposition: • Identify which aspects of your product resonate best with your customers: why are people staying at your hotel to begin with? Good location, business amenities, free breakfast, etc. • Market your hotel’s unique value proposition to potential customers, for example create unique hotel offers based on your unique hotel product attributes or attributes in the local environment • Value vs. Price Equation: do not compete on price only! Focus on the value side of the Value vs. Price Equation Step 6: Develop Your Hotel’s Differentiation Strategy • Hotel Product Differentiation vs. Third-Party Intermediaries (e.g. stay within rate parity, but provide gas rebates, room/suite upgrades, etc. if people book on your site) • Hotel Product Differentiation vs. Your Hotel’s Comp Set (i.e. offer what your competition does not) • Offer a broader selection of specials and packages than the competition and provide the variety of choices your customers expect:  seasonal specials  suite specials  weekend specials  family specials  romantic getaways • Differentiated approach to the hotel’s different key customer segments (i.e. luxury lifestyle leisure, family travel, business travel, meeting or wedding planners, etc.) Step 7: Establish Several Achievable Objectives for the Year: • Hotel website: o Create a system for fresh website content creation on an ongoing basis • Web 2.0/Social Media: o Develop a Brand Defensive Strategy and at least one Web 2.0 initiative for the hotel website • Make eCRM your top priority o Building interactive relationships; “Owning” the customer o Pre- and post-stay email communications; cross-sells and up-sells, surveys and sweepstakes, and more • Building Loyalty should be a main objective: o Via product differentiation (offering unique value proposition; de-commoditization of the hotel product) o Via customer differentiation (know your customer, personalization, promote existing or create a simple reward program) • Professional development and training

Wow. That last comment was intense. It also strikes me as a cut and paste of something written earlier (the mid-paragraph bullet points are kind of a giveaway). I would think someone with so much to say, or regurgitate, as the case may be would have their own blog. Is there somewhere I can view an archive of this work?