HeBS, the hospitality industry’s leading full-service Internet marketing and direct online channel strategy firm, today announces its receipt of the Interactive Media Awards’ (IMA) highest honor, the ”Best in Class Award,“ for the Silver Legacy Resort Casino website. Additionally, HeBS was awarded three Outstanding Achievement awards from the prestigious IMAs.

Best in Class Award Winner:

• Silver Legacy Resort Casino – www.silverlegacyreno.com

Outstanding Achievement Awards:

• Original Resorts – www.originalresortsmexico.com
• Portola Hotel & Spa – www.portolahotel.com
• Spring Break in Daytona Beach – www.springbreakindaytonabeach.com

Created by the Interactive Media Council, Inc. (IMC), a nonprofit organization of leading web designers, developers, programmers, advertisers and other web-related professionals, the IMAs recognize the highest standards of excellence in website design and development and honor individuals and organizations for their outstanding achievements.

The Best in Class Award indicates a website has excelled in all areas of judging criteria and has achieved a perfect, or near perfect, overall score. It is the highest honor bestowed by the IMC. Similarly, in order to receive recognition for Outstanding Achievement, a website must excel in Design, Content, Feature Functionality, Usability, Standards Compliance and Cross-Browser Compatibility.

“HeBS has been a great partner for Silver Legacy. Their commitment to brainstorm with us to develop new marketing strategies and their attention to detail during project execution has been a tremendous asset. This award is confirmation of those efforts” said Chad Hallert, Director of E-Commerce & Internet Marketing for Eldorado Hotel Casino and Silver Legacy Resort Casino.

“We are proud to have received four honors on behalf of our clients—including a Best in Class Award—from the renowned Interactive Media Council” said Max Starkov, HeBS’ President & CEO. “This year 45% of all hotel bookings in North America will be online. Today’s hotel website carries the burden and responsibility of generating the bulk of bookings for the property.  At HeBS we are continuously striving to achieve the very best results for our clients by combining award-winning website design with a comprehensive direct online channel strategy that will produce significant revenues and meaningful ROIs. These awards are a testament to this methodology and the successful HeBS/client partnership.”

Hospitality eBusiness Strategies has won many top Interactive Media Awards as well as some of the most prestigious awards in hotel website design and hospitality Internet marketing. An impressive portfolio of clients has already partnered with the industry leader in direct online channel strategy—an agency that produced 2240% ROI for its full-service clients in 2009.

HeBS, the hospitality industry’s leading full-service Internet marketing and direct online channel strategy firm, today announced receipt of two esteemed Internet Advertising Competition (IAC) awards:

1. Outstanding Integrated Ad Campaign for the Indian Wells Scavenger Hunt
2. Best Hotel and Lodging Mobile Application for The Allison Mobile Website

The Internet Advertising Competition (IAC) Awards are presented by the Web Marketing Association to honor excellence in online advertising, to recognize the individuals and organizations responsible, and to showcase award-winning Internet advertising. Entries in the Internet Advertising Competition were judged on six elements: creativity, innovation, impact, design, copywriting and use of the medium.

“These IAC awards are further testament to the fact that today’s hyper-interactive travel consumers are no longer satisfied with hotel websites that offer stale visual and textual content. Interactive Web 2.0 functionalities engage travel consumers; mobile websites provide instant information and transaction capabilities via mobile devices for hyper-connected consumers. And these initiatives should be in every hotelier’s arsenal in 2010,” said Max Starkov, Chief eBusiness Strategist at HeBS.

These IAC winners understand that Web 2.0 and mobile initiatives are an integral part of the comprehensive de-commoditization strategy of the hotel. Travel consumers have no tolerance for dull or static content, and hoteliers must align the interactivity of the hotel website with the hyper-interactive behavior of today’s travel consumers.

Hospitality eBusiness Strategies (HeBS), the industry’s leading full-service Internet marketing services and strategies consulting firm for the hospitality and travel verticals, today announced receipt of three prestigious awards in the design and development of online interactive sweepstakes.

The awards are as follows:

1.) Silver Davey Award for AmericInn Free Room Giveaway Sweepstakes
The Davey is sanctioned and judged by the International Academy of the Visual Arts, consisting of top-tier professionals from a “Who’s Who” of acclaimed media, advertising, and marketing firms. Honoring the creative excellence of agencies and companies worldwide, the 2009 Davey Awards featured an incredible pool of over 4,000 entries. The Silver Davey Award for AmericInn Hotels, a collection of hotels located throughout 22 states, is based on HeBS’ promotional/branding excellence of their “AmericInn Free Room Giveaway Sweepstakes.”

2.) W3 Silver award for the City of Indian Wells Sweepstakes
The International Academy of Visual Arts and the W3 Awards recognizes outstanding web creativity for companies and agencies worldwide. The 2009 W3 Awards received nearly 3,000 entries and HeBS earned recognition for Indian Wells’ 30 Day Free Room Giveaway online campaign.

3.) Gold Magellan Award for the Daytona Hotels Sweepstakes
The Travel Weekly Magellan Awards honors the best in travel and salutes the outstanding travel professionals behind the business. This year, the Magellan Awards received entries from top travel organizations and professionals worldwide. Winning Gold for Daytona Hotels proves the sweepstakes has delivered a product that is efficient on broad spectrums, from creative appeal to functionality.

“Winning these awards for HeBS’ web 2.0 initiatives for its clients proves how integral a robust Web 2.0/Social Media strategy is for the hoteliers’ success,” remarked Max Starkov, Chief eBusiness Strategist at HeBS. “This web 2.0 initiative not only retains website visitors but acts as a unique way to promote the hotel product, generate buzz and most importantly generate incremental ROIs.”

Entering an online sweepstakes is not only an engaging activity for website visitors; it is a unique way for hoteliers to gather information from these potential guests for future marketing and to encourage them to keep returning to the website to enter again and again. Additionally, to add a viral component, the interactive sweepstakes include supplementary contests, such as offering $250 gift cards to the person who forwards the sweepstakes to the most friends.  HeBS’ latest interactive sweepstakes, the BNP Paribas Open 35 Day FREE Ticket Giveaway Sweepstakes, has already generated over 4,500 entries as well as 928 additional forwards to friends in less than a week.

HeBS today announced receipt of three W³ Silver Awards for outstanding achievement in Web 2.0 and website development.  The W³ awards are sanctioned and judged by the International Academy of the Visual Arts, consisting of top-tier professionals from media, advertising and marketing firms.  The 2009 awards were chosen from a pool of 3,000 entries from top companies and agencies worldwide.

W³ Silver Award Winners:

• City of Indian Wells, Online Campaign Category (Interactive Sweepstakes)
• Biltmore Hotel, Hotel & Lodging Category (Website Design)
• The Allison, Hotel & Lodging Category (Website Design)

“These awards show how important an innovative, interactive campaign and a creative website are to a hotel’s marketing and distribution efforts,” said Max Starkov, president and CEO of HeBS. “The award winners, our client hoteliers, understand the competitive advantages of a comprehensive, well executed Direct Online Channel strategy. A powerful web presence enables them to reach out directly to their customers, resulting in increased revenues and above-industry average ROIs.”

The hotel website has become the first point of contact with past, present and future customers. In the case of hotel websites not developed according to industry’s best practices, this is often the last point of contact with the customer. Hotel websites can no longer exist as mere online brochures and transactional mechanisms; they have to be at least as engaging and interactive as social media networks and the blogosphere. Sites must now provide a range of Web 2.0 features and functionalities such as sweepstakes, contests, photo sharing, blogs, quizzes, interactive games and event calendars.  With interactive campaigns, such as Indian Wells’ 30 Day Free Room Giveaway Sweepstakes, hotel websites must intrigue users by allowing them to interact with the destination or brand.

The above W3 Award winners understand it is no longer sufficient to have just any hotel website. Today’s online travel consumers demand that a hotel website have honest and truthful content, rich media, and interactive features and functionalities that guarantee an impeccable user experience every time.

The W³ Awards honor superior creativity on the web and recognize the individuals behind award-winning web sites, web advertising and web marketing programs.  W³ is the first major web competition to be accessible to a wide range of agencies from the major agencies to the smaller firms.

About HeBS
Hospitality eBusiness Strategies (HeBS), the industry’s leading Internet marketing strategy consulting firm for the hospitality verticals, is based in New York City (www.hospitalityebusiness.com). HeBS has pioneered many of the “best practices” in hotel Internet marketing and direct online distribution. The firm specializes in helping hoteliers build their direct Internet marketing and distribution strategies, boost the hotel Internet marketing presence, establish interactive relationships with customers, and significantly increase direct online bookings and ROIs. A diverse client portfolio of over 500 top tier major hotel brands, luxury and boutique hotel companies, hotel management and representation companies, franchisees and independents, resorts and casinos and CVBs has sought and successfully taken advantage of HeBS’ firm hospitality Internet marketing expertise. Contact HeBS consultants at (212) 688-2731 or info@hospitalityebusiness.com.

Hospitality eBusiness Strategies has received two Summit International Awards in the Travel/Tourism
Website category.  Over fifteen years, the Summit Creative Awards has established itself as the premier arbiter of creative excellence
for firms of this size.

HeBS received one Silver and one Bronze 2008 Summit Creative Award for its clients:

• Silver to Hotel Amarano Burbank, the only luxury boutique hotel in Burbank CA
• Bronze to Le Parc Suites, a luxury all-suite hotel in West Hollywood CA

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