Writings on the Business of Hospitality

7 Strategies for Marketing in a Downturn

tgago — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 22:37:51 +0000

In this article Guy Maser offers seven tips for successfully marketing during an economic downturn. Marketers can no longer rely on the same old marketing strategies that have worked for them in past. As Maser says, “Doing the same things in an uncertain economic environment and expecting the same results is, at worst, a definition of marketing insanity. At best it is a flawed strategy.”

See full article at: Link

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7 Tips for Higher Conversion Rates

tgago — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 22:34:11 +0000

In an industry as competitive as the online travel industry it is important to make sure you are doing all you can to maximize the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns. In this article Jack Abbott explores 7 simple tips that can help improve conversion rates for your online marketing.

See full article at: Link

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The Risks and Rewards of Service Innovation

tgago — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 22:29:16 +0000

As the travel industry continues to grow more competitive hoteliers are constantly trying to find ways to separate themselves from their competitors. This roundtable discussion among partners and senior partners of the Center for Hospitality Research offers ideas on service innovation.

“Regardless of how the innovation is implemented, it must be embraced by staff and management, and guests must see the changes as valuable.” When innovations are meant to cut costs, for instance, both employees and guests may need an explanation of the innovation. One example that roundtable participants cited is the addition of self-service kiosks in some hotel lobbies. Employees regarded these with suspicion and guests were slow to adopt kiosks in some cases. Several participants suggested that the moral of that experience (and of other technological innovations) is that technology needs to be balanced with personal service innovations.

See full article at: Link

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Online Ad Budgets: What You Need to Know

tgago — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 16:20:03 +0000

Hospitality eBusiness Strategies has released their second annual Benchmark Survey on Hotel Internet Marketing Budget Planning and Best Practices. This survey details the results from all areas of the hospitality industry including mid-scale and luxury franchised properties, resorts, boutique hotels, upscale hotels, budget, major brands and more. This is an in-depth analysis of the trends in the hospitality industry and where funds will be allocated for 2008.

See full article at: Link

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What Does Travel 2.0 Mean for You?

tgago — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 16:13:08 +0000

Many of our clients have been asking me about current and future trends in the online travel industry. If you have been to any travel or marketing conferences or conventions lately or spent any time online reviewing online hospitality marketing websites, you have probably heard the terms web 2.0 and, more recently, travel 2.0. While these terms are thrown around quite a bit, most of the people I have spoken with don’t have a true understanding of what they mean. So to help clear things up and keep you up to speed, I would like to share an article from Highland Business Research’s blog with you. It explains both of the terms mentioned above and discusses the influence and impact these have on the travel industry.

To read the article click here: Highland Business Research’s Blog

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Search Engines: A Means to an End?

rcbailey — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 03:24:09 +0000

Welcome to the first of many posts where I will share insider information about the resort and lodge market. I will share my expertise on how the latest web trends are changing the face of our industry and what to do about it.

Louise Story from the New York Times wrote an article in late 2007 giving thousands of resort and lodge properties a ray of hope. She offers insights on how and where to establish your marketing dollars online. Her exclusive interview with Brian McAndrews, the new leader in charge of Microsoft’s advertising strategy, confirms a thought I have believed for years. Mr. McAndrews contends:

“Google gets all the credit, and in fact, you might have just gone to Google to type in the U.R.L.”

Mr. McAndrews stresses that it’s important to realize that people often search for companies’ names after seeing their ads somewhere else. These insights, from one of the world’s top three search engine advertising strategists, are noteworthy. Therefore, to achieve effective online advertising results, it’s important to utilize niche portals instead of solely relying on search engine marketing.

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Common Service Mistakes

bvargas — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 03:23:35 +0000

Some service mistakes by front desk staff are universal. Some are unavoidable. Some are amusing, but all can affect guest satisfaction and your AAA or Mobil rating.

The most common and frequent service flaw is the failure to acknowledge a guest waiting in line. A verbal greeting is not necessary, but a simple smile works well to let the waiting guest know he or she is not being ignored.

Another common mistake is the failure to use the guest’s name during check in or check out. In this instance, the guest’s name is readily available via the reservation, a credit card, the registration card, the folio or from pre-arrival messages. Despite all these opportunities, the guest is often checked in and out by an efficient, courteous clerk who did everything perfectly, except use the guest’s name. A small point, perhaps, but one that can significantly help to personalize your guests experience. It is also one of the AAA inspectors’ “hot buttons”.

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Is Anyone Home?

tgago — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 03:23:02 +0000

Part of my job as Manager of Client Services for ResortsandLodges.com is to periodically review phone calls to a client’s property. In reviewing these phone calls, I have found a few simple things that you can do to drastically improve the performance of your property and bring in more reservations.

I was recently listening to several properties’ phone calls out of California and I noticed a consistent issue. In this instance, two properties of similar size, received a similar number of phone calls. One property had over 35% of their phone calls dropped. The other property had only 7% of their calls dropped. When I listened to the calls it was easy to see why. The second property was answering their phone in one or two rings whereas the first property let most of their calls go to voicemail (after six rings).

You definitely don’t want to give a potential client the impression that your staff is too busy to handle their phone call. If the phone rings four or five times, it is likely that the caller will hang up after this time. If the call goes to voicemail, the caller often hangs up without leaving a message. In some cases this can be as many as 40% of the total number of calls. Talk about leaving a lot of revenue on the table!

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