ONLINE HOTAL MARKETING:

Engineer the Hotel’s Online Presence. Don’t just monitor it – take proactive steps to make it appealing to as many customer types as possible. Change it often and incorporate pictures of people enjoying various amenities of the hotel – this speaks to the ‘experience’. Ask the web master to insert a piece of code on the site so that the hotel can make changes to parts of the web site and not have to wait for them. If there is any part of the hotel that is not worthy to be seen in a picture or video on Trip Advisor .

- Create your own review site and/or blog. Draw the customer to you with a blog about the hotel—not a blatant advertisement or a rant about your dog! Write blog posts that give customers information about events in the area or things going on at the hotel. For example, a client has discovered that fishermen are attracted to the property in the off season. They are fishing for a certain kind of fish, in this case steelheads On the blog, are posts about other fisherman’s success, conditions on the river, etc his is stimulates that market with information that ‘attracts’ them to the hotel. Create a review site where customers can speak directly about their experiences at the property—good, bad or indifferent. Respond to those reviews as you would to those on Trip Advisor.

- Converting Online RFPs into Revenue. This is Web 2.0 in action – exposing the hotel to new customers and markets. Don’t just wait for RFPs to arrive in the Inbox, be present on those platforms that deliver those RFPs. Make sure that the hotel profile is constantly updated and consider ads on the RFP platform’s web site so that you are at the top of a planners mind when they select hotels to include in their RFP requests. Respond within hours – even if you are declining the RFP.

- The ‘shift’ in Social Groups to Online Sourcing. Social groups represent a huge opportunity – and despite the economy, ‘affinity’ groups will still travel although they will become more and more value conscious. Make it easy for them to find and book the hotel – if the franchise doesn’t provide an interface for these groups to locate and book a hotel, provide an easy way for them to locate the hotel and initiate a booking inquiry especially for them on the hotel web site. Provide a community page that the group can use to communicate to other members of the group with a link so that reservations can be made directly with the hotel.

- The Changing Nature of Relationships. Recall the Lending Tree commercial where the customer goes into the bank and the bank manager, obviously glad to see the long term customer, asks if he is there about his mortgage. The customer replies that he is using Lending Tree so that a number of banks can compete for his business. The manager is dismayed and states “… but we have been your bank for years!” The customer responds that this bank is in the running to compete for his business and that he is ‘pulling’ for them. Web 2.0 in action! Do not count on a relationship with a planner to assume that you will get their next meeting – they are under increasing pressure to assure their stakeholders that they have bid the business and are getting the best value. Just think how much money you will save on site inspections and taking them to lunch!