Hotel video content has been around a few years in an attempt to sate the seemingly ceaseless craving for information by online shoppers before booking a hotel room.
As a medium it arguably offers considerably more than static web pages and even virtual tours by providing a truly authentic peek into a hotel's facilities with a nice scale of depth unmatched by photos or most virtual tours and is best integrated into the homepage of a hospitality facility.
However, the number of hotel websites incorporating video remain relatively small and hoteliers would do well to take note of a recent survey by emarketer which found that by 2014 "77% of US Internet users will be watching online video content at least monthly".
And demographics show that it is Gen Y, a key market for hotels beginning in the near term, that is a big follower of online video viewing, most of whom have gone beyond snack-size clips to adopt full-length TV and movie viewing on the Web.
Marketers in other industries such as retail are taking note. In the recently concluded Internet Retailer 2010 Conference and Exhibition in Chicago noted that retailers have begun adding "videos to their sites" and they have found "that videos boost sales conversion rates and reduce abandoned shopping cart and product return rates."
Small hotels and hotel companies daunted by the cost of producing high quality video content can take heart from an interesting case study highlighted at the Internet Retailer conference where an industry minnow, BeautyChoice found that "there were people on YouTube doing makeup videos that already had large followings. The company chose to use those clips and and formed relationships with those YouTube "celebrities".
Of the top 50 retailers in the US who are offering some form of video on their websites skyrocketed the ratio moved up from 18% in 2008 to 68% in 2009 according to a Forrester Research study, “Online Retailers’ Adoption of Online Video Content Is Ahead of Consumers’ Preferences.”
Video SEO is also on the rise and ranking techniques include the incorporation of a "video site map" which enables Google to grab descriptive information of a video such as title and duration, Along those lines a company called Truveo has launched a video search app on Facebook that will allow users to browse the company's database of more than 500 million videos and share clips with friends.
A search of "New York Hotels" for example reveals an interesting list of hotels but few, if any, are actively marketing their hotels. The industry would do well to ramp up the pace of video content to keep up with consumer demand for that medium.
Τρίτη 20 Ιουλίου 2010
Τετάρτη 14 Ιουλίου 2010
Online Κρατήσεις Ξενοδοχείων με το Booking-World.com
Κάτι καινούργιο συμβαίνει στο χώρο των online ξενοδοχειακών κρατήσεων αυτές τις ημέρες! Σε περιόδους κρίσης είναι που εφαρμόζονται οι πρακτικές και καινοτόμες επιχειρηματικές ιδέες σε ένα χώρο, μάλιστα, με ιδιαίτερο ανταγωνισμό. To Booking-World.com σύστημα online κρατήσεων για ξενοδοχεία, δεν είναι ακόμη ένα site για εύρεση ξενοδοχείων αλλά ένα σύστημα διαχείρισης διαθεσιμοτήτων με απ' ευθείας πώληση των δωματίων από τα ξενοδοχεία και πληρωμή απ' ευθείας στο ξενοδοχείο χωρίς επιβαρύνσεις.
Στο σύστημα αυτό, το ξενοδοχείο δημοσιεύει τις διαθεσιμότητες (δωμάτια) όπως επίσης και τις τιμές για κάθε ένα από αυτά. Λόγω του ότι δεν υπάρχει παρέμβαση ή προμήθεια στις τιμές και στις διαθεσιμότητες από το σύστημα, δεν γίνεται επιβάρυνση με extra κόστος για τον τελικό πελάτη. Επίσης τα ξενοδοχεία μπορούν να μειώνουν τις τιμές των δωματίων σε νεκρές περιόδους ή χαμηλής ζήτησης, προσελκύοντας με αυτό τον τρόπο περισσότερους πελάτες. Ο πελάτης πληρώνοντας απ' ευθείας στο ξενοδοχείο δεν έχε επιπλέον επιβαρύνσεις στις τιμές που πληρώνει με αποτέλεσμα επιπλέον κέρδος.
Ο ρόλος του συστήματος είναι να προωθεί τις διαθεσιμότητες των ξενοδοχείων και να διαφημίζει την ύπαρξή του σε διάφορα μέσα (online και offline) και να εμφανίζει τα δωμάτια των ξενοδοχείων στο μεγαλύτερο δυνατό αριθμό οθονών ταξιδιωτών. Αυτός είναι και ο λόγος της χρέωσης κατά την εγγραφή ενός ελάχιστου αντιτίμου - ετήσιας συνδρομής - των 50€.
Με την μικρή αυτή επένδυση, ένα ξενοδοχείο μπορεί να έχει πολλαπλά οφέλη.
Δευτέρα 12 Ιουλίου 2010
Invest in the Direct Online Channel.
Hoteliers need a robust Direct Online Channel Strategy, accompanied by adequate marketing funds, to be able to take advantage of the steady growth in the Internet channel and the shift from offline to online bookings in hospitality (due to declining GDS and voice channels). Hoteliers must carefully employ ROI-centric initiatives including website redesign, website optimization and SEO, paid search, email marketing, online display advertising and sponsorships, mobile marketing and proven social media initiatives.
Even in this economy, you should not decrease or eliminate your hotel Internet marketing budget. The Internet, and especially the direct online channel, is the only growth channel for hoteliers and the only “light at the end of the tunnel” in this environment. As indicated above, even in these difficult times we see significant ROAS and ROIs from the Internet marketing campaigns we run for our clients.
Market researchers envision growth rates in online travel as high as 11% in 2010 as projected by eMarketer. The online channel, and especially the direct online channel, provides hoteliers with the only viable option for any growth during these trying economic times.
Even in this economy, you should not decrease or eliminate your hotel Internet marketing budget. The Internet, and especially the direct online channel, is the only growth channel for hoteliers and the only “light at the end of the tunnel” in this environment. As indicated above, even in these difficult times we see significant ROAS and ROIs from the Internet marketing campaigns we run for our clients.
Market researchers envision growth rates in online travel as high as 11% in 2010 as projected by eMarketer. The online channel, and especially the direct online channel, provides hoteliers with the only viable option for any growth during these trying economic times.
Πέμπτη 8 Ιουλίου 2010
The Importance of OTAs
I recently conducted a revenue management workshop for front office and reservations teams, and as always found it an enjoyable and enlightening experience. There’s that moment when light bulbs begin appearing all over the room and the energy level rises as everyone becomes engaged in the discussion. On this occasion, the topic that excited the masses was, of all things, distribution channels.
The exercise was a simple one. I listed each distribution channel and the costs associated with a reservation through that channel. Then we applied the same reservation to each channel and as a group calculated the net profit received by the hotel. The lesson? Reservations that look the same are definitely not created equal.
By prioritizing the hotel’s preference for reservation booking channels, from on site reservation calls to branded website and on down through the GDS and their associated fees to the OTAs and their commissions of anywhere from 17% – 30%, we gave the front lines the knowledge they needed to guide customers to the property’s preferred channels.
After that epiphany, the focus quickly turned to the OTAs (or IMMs, or TPIs, or whatever they’re being called this week.) Unlike many hoteliers, I have no issue with OTAs. They have a role to play in many markets. When I hear complaints from hotels about OTAs and drill down on the issue, more often than not the problem lies with the hotel’s handling of the OTAs, not the channels themselves.
I recommend a simple exercise to resolve OTA angst.
Consider both current and future market conditions, and identify the OTAs’ importance to the overall success of your property. As they are usually one of the lowest profit channels, they should be pretty low on your totem pole, accepted only after the room night needs of your more profitable segments have been addressed. Calculate how much demand you anticipate from your more valuable (less expensive) channels, then any remaining rooms can be allocated toward OTAs. Does that allocation end up at less than 20% of hotel room revenues? Less than 10%? In markets running extremely low occupancy, they may represent 50% or more of your revenue opportunity, but most urban markets have a base of corporate and group travel, and perhaps still some loyal leisure, that make the OTAs a lower priority.
Now we come to the part where many hotels make their mistake. Effort versus impact. If the OTAs ideally provide only 10% of your room revenues, they should be receiving no more than 10% of your revenue management efforts. Do not allocate your attention to OTAs based on how much attention they demand, because this channel has market managers dedicated to being “in your face” 365 days a year. They barrage you with emails about parity issues or lack of inventory. They have hundreds of special “sale opportunities” for you to participate in if you respond immediately. They will demand all of the time your revenue team has, and it is the hotel’s responsibility to ensure they don’t receive it.
This week I received an email from an OTA market manager requesting a call with me. I knew what she was calling about and responded by email with a short story on her concern. I completed the email with a polite decline of the call, explaining that I adhere to a strict 80/20 rule and her business falls into the latter category. I can generate far more revenue focusing on my volume corporate and group business, even though they don’t harass me on a daily basis, than I can attain responding to every request for attention from an OTA.
She was good enough to admit she agreed with me and there will be no phone call.
So far this year I’ve pulled properties out of four OTAs that sent threatening notes if we didn’t pay more attention to them. The revenue we’ll receive from adding focus to our most valuable channels will more than offset any losses from pulling out of those low-producing, high maintenance OTAs. But I’ve also increased focus on specific OTAs in specific markets with great success. Your market managers are there when you need them. It’s your job to remember when you don’t.
If your hotel team spends any time complaining about OTAs, it is likely doing something wrong. If the complaint is about the high commission of OTAs, they aren’t being managed to provide incremental revenue rather than deliver existing business to you at a high cost. If the complaint is about how much time they require, stop giving it to them.
The exercise was a simple one. I listed each distribution channel and the costs associated with a reservation through that channel. Then we applied the same reservation to each channel and as a group calculated the net profit received by the hotel. The lesson? Reservations that look the same are definitely not created equal.
By prioritizing the hotel’s preference for reservation booking channels, from on site reservation calls to branded website and on down through the GDS and their associated fees to the OTAs and their commissions of anywhere from 17% – 30%, we gave the front lines the knowledge they needed to guide customers to the property’s preferred channels.
After that epiphany, the focus quickly turned to the OTAs (or IMMs, or TPIs, or whatever they’re being called this week.) Unlike many hoteliers, I have no issue with OTAs. They have a role to play in many markets. When I hear complaints from hotels about OTAs and drill down on the issue, more often than not the problem lies with the hotel’s handling of the OTAs, not the channels themselves.
I recommend a simple exercise to resolve OTA angst.
Consider both current and future market conditions, and identify the OTAs’ importance to the overall success of your property. As they are usually one of the lowest profit channels, they should be pretty low on your totem pole, accepted only after the room night needs of your more profitable segments have been addressed. Calculate how much demand you anticipate from your more valuable (less expensive) channels, then any remaining rooms can be allocated toward OTAs. Does that allocation end up at less than 20% of hotel room revenues? Less than 10%? In markets running extremely low occupancy, they may represent 50% or more of your revenue opportunity, but most urban markets have a base of corporate and group travel, and perhaps still some loyal leisure, that make the OTAs a lower priority.
Now we come to the part where many hotels make their mistake. Effort versus impact. If the OTAs ideally provide only 10% of your room revenues, they should be receiving no more than 10% of your revenue management efforts. Do not allocate your attention to OTAs based on how much attention they demand, because this channel has market managers dedicated to being “in your face” 365 days a year. They barrage you with emails about parity issues or lack of inventory. They have hundreds of special “sale opportunities” for you to participate in if you respond immediately. They will demand all of the time your revenue team has, and it is the hotel’s responsibility to ensure they don’t receive it.
This week I received an email from an OTA market manager requesting a call with me. I knew what she was calling about and responded by email with a short story on her concern. I completed the email with a polite decline of the call, explaining that I adhere to a strict 80/20 rule and her business falls into the latter category. I can generate far more revenue focusing on my volume corporate and group business, even though they don’t harass me on a daily basis, than I can attain responding to every request for attention from an OTA.
She was good enough to admit she agreed with me and there will be no phone call.
So far this year I’ve pulled properties out of four OTAs that sent threatening notes if we didn’t pay more attention to them. The revenue we’ll receive from adding focus to our most valuable channels will more than offset any losses from pulling out of those low-producing, high maintenance OTAs. But I’ve also increased focus on specific OTAs in specific markets with great success. Your market managers are there when you need them. It’s your job to remember when you don’t.
If your hotel team spends any time complaining about OTAs, it is likely doing something wrong. If the complaint is about the high commission of OTAs, they aren’t being managed to provide incremental revenue rather than deliver existing business to you at a high cost. If the complaint is about how much time they require, stop giving it to them.
The Reality of Today’s Hotel Management
In my travels over the past decade I have heard one universal message from hotel General Managers. With all the reporting requirements mandated by owners and corporate management, there is no longer time to interact with front line associates, let alone clients. Somehow delivery of the guest experience has been put on the back burner as a hotel management priority.
Back in the old days, a hotel leadership team was just that. Members could name every associate in the Housekeeping department, knew every special event taking place on property in the next seven days, and literally established the personality of the hotel. You could always find a member of the management team in the lobby, shaking hands and kissing babies in a Clintonesque display of goodwill. It was a comforting reminder to guests that everything was under control.
Today, with stakeholder demands consuming a greater share of time and energy, there are members on hotel leadership teams that wouldn’t know where to find the Housekeeping department, let alone name someone in it. Increased pressure to improve share increased reporting requirements, which decreased opportunities to play “lobby lizard.” Every email demanding an explanation of the most recent forecast increases time spent justifying results and decreases time spent achieving them.
I say it’s time to get honest with ourselves and restructure the hotel management team to accurately describe the positions today.
Effective immediately, I propose the General Manager be re-titled as Senior Director of Stakeholder Appeasement. The Director of Operations is now the Director of Guest Appeasement. All other Director titles have evolved as well. Human Resources is now Legal Mitigation, Sales & Marketing is now Third Party Internet Management, Revenue Management is now Report Generation, and Finance is Financial Systems Maintenance. The Directors of Rooms and Food & Beverage get to keep their existing titles with the words “Cost Control” added to the end.
Now there’s a wake up call. Everyone with new titles that reflect their current job responsibilities, but don’t necessarily match their talents. But all hope is not lost.
I can’t imagine sustaining this trend; the quality of the guest experience can’t continue to lose out as other demands dominate the hotel leadership’s time. Nor is it likely that reporting requirements and emphasis on EBITDA is going to ebb into a supporting role. The solution moving to the forefront appears to be outsourcing non-operational functions.
The Human Resources function has been outsourced by hotel companies for years. Many independent properties have gone the route of outsourcing the marketing function, and now revenue management is getting into the act. Not only can it be more economical to retain Marketing and Revenue Management from a third party supplier, but doing so relieves the property of a time-consuming administrative burden. It seems feasible Finance may not be far behind. Is it really necessary for each property to have Finance onsite? With larger hotel companies moving even their sales teams to off-site clusters, it’s possible hotels will gradually evolve to have only the operations team onsite. This would ensure the hotel focus stays where it belongs.
Service delivery.
There’s a future we can all look forward to.
Back in the old days, a hotel leadership team was just that. Members could name every associate in the Housekeeping department, knew every special event taking place on property in the next seven days, and literally established the personality of the hotel. You could always find a member of the management team in the lobby, shaking hands and kissing babies in a Clintonesque display of goodwill. It was a comforting reminder to guests that everything was under control.
Today, with stakeholder demands consuming a greater share of time and energy, there are members on hotel leadership teams that wouldn’t know where to find the Housekeeping department, let alone name someone in it. Increased pressure to improve share increased reporting requirements, which decreased opportunities to play “lobby lizard.” Every email demanding an explanation of the most recent forecast increases time spent justifying results and decreases time spent achieving them.
I say it’s time to get honest with ourselves and restructure the hotel management team to accurately describe the positions today.
Effective immediately, I propose the General Manager be re-titled as Senior Director of Stakeholder Appeasement. The Director of Operations is now the Director of Guest Appeasement. All other Director titles have evolved as well. Human Resources is now Legal Mitigation, Sales & Marketing is now Third Party Internet Management, Revenue Management is now Report Generation, and Finance is Financial Systems Maintenance. The Directors of Rooms and Food & Beverage get to keep their existing titles with the words “Cost Control” added to the end.
Now there’s a wake up call. Everyone with new titles that reflect their current job responsibilities, but don’t necessarily match their talents. But all hope is not lost.
I can’t imagine sustaining this trend; the quality of the guest experience can’t continue to lose out as other demands dominate the hotel leadership’s time. Nor is it likely that reporting requirements and emphasis on EBITDA is going to ebb into a supporting role. The solution moving to the forefront appears to be outsourcing non-operational functions.
The Human Resources function has been outsourced by hotel companies for years. Many independent properties have gone the route of outsourcing the marketing function, and now revenue management is getting into the act. Not only can it be more economical to retain Marketing and Revenue Management from a third party supplier, but doing so relieves the property of a time-consuming administrative burden. It seems feasible Finance may not be far behind. Is it really necessary for each property to have Finance onsite? With larger hotel companies moving even their sales teams to off-site clusters, it’s possible hotels will gradually evolve to have only the operations team onsite. This would ensure the hotel focus stays where it belongs.
Service delivery.
There’s a future we can all look forward to.
Δευτέρα 5 Ιουλίου 2010
Οι καλύτερες προσφορές Διαμονής σε όλο τον κόσμο στο www.Stay-Offers.com. Μείνετε και Κερδίστε!
Το Stay-Offers.com δημιουργήθηκε με σκοπό την αξιοποίηση και μόνο των ειδικών προσφορών , προσφορών της τελευταίας στιγμής, προσφορές προκρατήσεων, σε ένα αποκλειστικό ιστοχώρο Προβολής-Διαφήμισης με άμεσο στόχο μας την κάλυψη της πληρότητας, των Επιχειρήσεων Διαμονής όλων των μορφών, όλων των κατηγοριών, και όλων των μορφών τουρισμού, με πολύ μικρό κόστος σε όλο τον κόσμο.
Έτσι δίνεται η δυνατότητα στον επισκέπτη να βρει την ειδική προσφορά που τον ενδιαφέρει, να επικοινωνήσει άμεσα με τον υπεύθυνο του καταλύματος-επιχείρηση, να διευκρινίσει οτιδήποτε αφορά την προσφορά και γενικότερα το κατάλυμα-επιχείρηση, και να προχωρήσει στην πραγματοποίηση της κράτησης σε άμεση προσωπική επικοινωνία με την επιχείρηση, και έτσι τελικά να εξοικονομήσει ένα σημαντικό ποσό χρημάτων για τις διακοπές του ανά τον κόσμο.
Βρείτε λοιπόν στο Stay-Offers.com, επικοινωνήστε προσωπικά και εξοικονομήστε από τις μοναδικές και αποκλειστικές προσφορές Διαμονής σε όλο τον κόσμο.
Έτσι δίνεται η δυνατότητα στον επισκέπτη να βρει την ειδική προσφορά που τον ενδιαφέρει, να επικοινωνήσει άμεσα με τον υπεύθυνο του καταλύματος-επιχείρηση, να διευκρινίσει οτιδήποτε αφορά την προσφορά και γενικότερα το κατάλυμα-επιχείρηση, και να προχωρήσει στην πραγματοποίηση της κράτησης σε άμεση προσωπική επικοινωνία με την επιχείρηση, και έτσι τελικά να εξοικονομήσει ένα σημαντικό ποσό χρημάτων για τις διακοπές του ανά τον κόσμο.
Βρείτε λοιπόν στο Stay-Offers.com, επικοινωνήστε προσωπικά και εξοικονομήστε από τις μοναδικές και αποκλειστικές προσφορές Διαμονής σε όλο τον κόσμο.
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