What’s the Issue?

Google recently rolled out “Search Plus Your World,” a layout that includes social recommendations made by users in your Google+ circles.  When logged into your Google account, not only do you see results with recommendations…:

…if there is enough interest, there is a separate sidebar dedicated to relevant Google+ pages:

You can also toggle between showing and hiding “personal” results in the upper right-hand corner. Showing these results displays relevant articles/posts/shares on friends in your circles:

This hyper-personalized results page lets you see what your friends are saying about a topic. Since users are much more likely to rely on friends’ recommendations, this is a powerful search tool.

The other effect “Google Search Plus Your World” has on search is how you collect data. When logged in, users’ search terms are encrypted, meaning they show up in analytics tools as “unknown.” With more benefits available to logged-in users, the number of encrypted searches is bound to rise.

Ostensibly the goal behind this new offering is to provide users with a more personalized search; however, the social benefits tend to heavily favor Google.

What Does it Mean for Hoteliers?

With such a large market share, Google is somewhat able to dictate what businesses must do to be successful. With a greater emphasis on social relevancy and personalization comes the expectation that businesses will catch up – sooner rather than later.

As Google seems to be favoring its own social networks, it is imperative that hotels develop a Google+ page. While some hotels have already created pages, the adoption rate is not as quick as Facebook and there is still room to be an “early adopter” in this channel. In no uncertain terms, the more you interact with other Google+ users in your circles, the greater the likelihood that your content & activity will show up in personalized search results.

What is the Solution?

First, create a Google+ business page. Add a quality photo and fill out the ‘About’ section to get started. Good examples to follow here are Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, Coca-Cola, Ford Motor Company, and the HeBS Digital client, Sorrel River Ranch (screenshot below). This will make it easier for people to find your page and add it to one of their circles.

Second, maintain your Google+ page. Think of it as an extension of your Facebook page or a blog – it needs to be updated regularly to avoid becoming stale. Nothing is worse than having a social media presence where the last activity was months ago. Share interesting articles, comment on activity within your page, and actively reach out to users you find interesting or engaging. The more circles you are in, the higher your chances of showing up in their personalized results. Posts will show up on a main “feed” where users can interact with your posts: comment, share, or +1.

Once you get in a rhythm of sharing, commenting, and expanding your circles, you will be eligible to show up on the right-hand side of search results. The more quality content you create, the more prominent your Google+ page will become.

What Do the HeBS Digital Marketing Experts Recommend?

At HeBS Digital, we stand behind all of the best practices above; simply, create and maintain a Google+ page! Your digital marketing agency should be able to offer you setup and optimization services, as well as ongoing management.

HeBS Digital offers a Google+ Business Page product that includes page setup with a branded main image, optimized hotel description & tagline, and a verified connection to your hotel website to leverage search benefits and increase traffic to your Google+ page. For more information about setting up your Google+ Business Page with HeBS Digital, view our product description, or contact us at sales@hebsdigital.com.

Sue Wiker is Lead Copywriter, Copywriter & SEO Dept. at HeBS Digital

In the Internet marketing industry, the term “optimization” tends to mean one thing: search engine optimization. While this is a necessary and incredibly important first step to increasing revenues, it is only the first step. SEO efforts need to be supported and enhanced by conversion optimization, also known as “post-click marketing.”

Post-click marketing is how a site engages with visitors between the time they click on your ad or organic listing and the time they convert. Many marketers become so consumed with site traffic that they lose sight of another equally important metric – conversions. Increased traffic is not valuable unless there is a solid conversion rate. Remember, a small bucket is more valuable than a giant sieve.

By focusing on conversion funnels, marketers can direct traffic through a path that has a high conversion rate. There are several ways to identify conversion funnels, including through site metrics, A/B testing, and heat mapping. Most likely your site has some sort of analytics tool installed, which can provide valuable information about bounce rates, time on site, depth of visit, exit points, and much more. Analyze these pages that are part of the conversion funnel: is the call to action too small? Is the relevant information hidden, requiring the user to dig around in the site? Are there too many fields to fill out? Answering these questions can help plug the holes in your site and guide users to conversion.

Another way to enhance conversion funnels is to create them. Let’s imagine you have a paid ad for “Boston event venue.” Is the person who clicks on your ad looking to host a corporate seminar, a wedding reception, or a family reunion? Each of those events requires a different subset of information that may get lost if it’s all combined on one landing page.

To create a conversion funnel for each of those three potential subsets of visitors, develop a landing page with information about all three that encourages readers to “Read more.” This will direct visitors to a second page that includes all the relevant information they need to book, as well as special offers tailored for that specific consumer. What may seem like an additional step is actually an important part of the process: self-selection. By allowing the visitor to choose which subsection they would like to learn more about, you are doing two things. One, you are providing the visitor with the relevant information they need in one convenient place that will encourage them to book. Two, you are alerting them that you are aware that different consumers need different sets of information, and are willing to meet their specific needs. Be sure to use different promotion codes on each different sub-landing page to capture your success and utilize site analytics to better understand traffic patterns on these pages. Remember that much of this will be trial-and-error at first.

Post-click marketing is a simple, cost-effective way to get the most out of your website. By plugging the holes in your site’s traffic patterns and allowing users to self-segment themselves, you can make your website much more efficient. With some practice and careful analysis, conversion optimizations will positively impact your bottom line.

Recently we had a professional chat with Adam Kirby, a regular contributor to HOTELS magazine, about the role Flash Sales Sites should or should not play in hotel distribution. Adam served as associate editor from 2006 to 2010 and now works as a freelance writer out of his home in Oak Park, Illinois, and knows a thing or two about hotel distribution issues. Adam can be reached at askirby81@gmail.com.

AK:

Hospitality eBusiness Strategies (HeBS) recently published an interesting blog article: “Members-Only, Flash Sales and Group Buying Sites – Are These New Retail Concepts a Good Idea for Hotel Distribution?”. In this article, authored by one of your Senior Account Executives, Sara O’Brien, HeBS expressed the view that while these ‘new retail concepts’ may be good for certain product niches like fashion retail and local services such as yoga classes and day spas, they are not good for hotel distribution.

You are on the record as opposing flash sales generally. Are there any scenarios where they might be a net benefit to a hotel?

MS:

The main focus and priority for any hotelier should be to sell as much inventory via the most cost-effective distribution channels that can potentially generate the most bookings while preserving rate parity and price erosion. Hoteliers should realize the existence of “The Law of Unintended Channel Share Loss” which stipulates the following:

Any booking via a more discounted channel (i.e. Flash Sales Sites such as Groupon, LivingSocial.com or SniqueAway.com or an OTA) is one less booking for the same hotel via the hotel website, call center, GDS, or OTA (in that order).

This is why we recommend that hoteliers focus on their direct online channel (the hotel branded website) which is by far the cheapest distribution channel. A booking via Marriott.com costs $2-$3 per booking. A booking via an independent website costs $8.50-$11.50 including all marketing and advertising expenses.

In addition to the Direct Online Channel, based on their concrete occupancy and ADR needs, hoteliers should focus on the following distribution channels, and strictly in the following order:

• Voice Channel
• GDS Travel Agent Channel
• OTAs

In our view Flash Sales and group buying sites should be considered by hoteliers only in dire circumstances and as a last resort and only when the hotelier exhausts all revenue opportunities from all the above channels.

Here is why? The Flash Sales Site “economics” does not work for the hospitality industry. To participate, hotels are required to sell rooms on these sites at more than a 50% discount. A recent Groupon sale for a Hyatt Regency in Chicago offered a discount of 62%!  In addition to the steep discounts from face value i.e., retail rates, these sites charge fees from 25% – 35% from the already discounted rate. For example, if you are a hotel and negotiate a promotion with Groupon at 50% of your best available rate (BAR) of $200, the math works in this fashion:

• Groupon Member Rate 50% off BAR= $100
• Groupon gets 35% = $35
• The hotel receives $65 net i.e. 67.5% discount from BAR.

This can be likened to selling your rate on Expedia at a 67.5% discount! With the economy improving and travel demand rising, these steep discounts simply do not make economic sense.

With travel demand rising, these Flash Sales Sites have started losing their ability to “intrigue” members with steep 50% – 60% discounts off published rate and are rapidly losing membership and importance as a whole. We already see that the quality of service providers using LivingSocial and Groupon today has deteriorated immensely: massage parlors, yoga studios, salsa dance classes, desperate restaurants that Yelp does not even want to talk to, and… a sprinkle of delusional hotels.

AK:

Not all flash sales are equal. Are there certain types of flash sales that are preferable to others? Are flash sales strictly a recession-driven fad, or do you expect them to stay around long-term?

MS:

Flash sale sites are not a “new and revolutionary distribution channel” as they claim to be. Such member-only travel clubs have existed for at least 165 years. Thomas Cook and American Express started back in the 1850s as exactly this type of member-only travel clubs. Diners Club started as a members-only dining club back in the 1950s.

In my view, all Flash Sale sites are a recessionary phenomenon. There is nothing special about the technology these sites use. The only reason they emerged over the past three years is the recession. These are the new TravelZoos. As travel demand increases these Flash Sales Sites will go the way the most popular Dot-Com sites went: (remember trip.com? lastminutetravel.com?

Contrary to popular claims, there is no exclusivity—anybody could become a member of any of these Flash Sales Sites.  There is no loyalty to a specific site. Members of Groupon are often members of Living Social and v.v.  Flash Sales members are only loyal to the 50% – 60% discount off retail rate—whether it would come via Groupon or Living Social or SniqueAway it does not really matter as most of these sites serve the same audience.

Click here to read the entire interview on HOTELSMag.com, and decide for yourself whether Flash Sales Sites make sense as part of your hotel’s distribution strategy.

As we welcome 2011, it is safe to say that a presence on Facebook and Twitter with a well-developed social media strategy in place can no longer be ignored. With the beginning of a new year, it is important to outline metrics and goals for your social media strategy in 2011.  Understanding where your social media strategy has been in 2010 is one of the first steps in determining how your strategy needs to evolve in 2011 to build a stronger connection with fans and followers.

Before developing your strategy for the New Year, reflect on what has been successful and what has failed to make an impact in 2010.  What was your most successful social media campaign and how many fans or followers participated? What is your main demographic of fans and followers and what posts in 2010 engaged them the most? Like any good New Year’s resolution, it is important to understand the current story your social media strategy is telling to properly set goals and metrics of success that will take your social media to the next level in 2011.

Get a head start. HeBS social media specialists Senior Account Executive Margaret Mastrogiacomo and Account Executive Allison Sena have assessed the Facebook and Twitter strategies of HeBS’ client portfolio keeping in mind industry trends and predictions for 2011 to offer key initiatives, recommendations, and creative ideas to help your social media strategy soar.  We’ve even uncovered the top ten social media mistakes in 2010, so you can start fresh in the New Year and put your best foot forward.

What does the path to social media success in 2011 look like? It starts with a social media strategy and action plan.  Outline specific goals and objectives you wish to accomplish through your social media strategy and develop a set timeframe for completion. Prioritize your goals and specify metrics that will be used to measure performance and gauge growth. Analyzing determined metrics of success and benchmarking with competitors will provide insight into performance. Don’t forget to consider industry standards and typical results when deciding on measures for success. Organize your action plan into one central, easy to access checklist with main social media goals to prioritize, assign responsibility, and specify metrics and goals for tracking.

Click here to download our full article with Social Media tips for 2011: HeBS Best Practices – 2011 Social Media Resolutions. Here is a snapshot of what you’ll find in the article:

Resolution #1: Write interesting and engaging content.
There is no better time than 2011 to engage your customer segments and build a customer relationship. There are a million ways to ask a question, so get creative. Make posts interesting and incorporate engaging content to elicit a response and increase interaction. Social media content should not be a one-way source of information. Lead off posts with an open-ended question, utilize creative fill-in-the blank, post relevant trivia, or simply prompt fans and followers to “like” or @reply.  Additionally, including content that speaks to specific customer segments (such as business or leisure) better resonates with your fans and followers to increase engagement. Give your customers a voice and encourage users to interact, post pictures, and provide insight on the features and amenities that they look for in your brand.

Resolution #2: Incorporate unique offers into your social media strategy.
Your social media presence should have a unique value from your website presence. Avoid solely posting packages that are available on your website. Be sure to provide unique offers to fans and followers or create an exclusive deal available to the first ten fans or followers who book. Offering exclusive extras to fans and followers creates a unique value and increases page visits. Considering developing a “mystery special offer” where the promo code can only be found on your Facebook or Twitter, or post “Facebook Friday” or “Twitter Tuesday” deals every week exclusively on your social media presence.

Resolution #3: Give fans and followers a reason to keep coming back for more.
On Facebook, users have the option to keep you in their newsfeed or click “hide”.  Analyze your posts and put yourself in the consumer’s shoes. Do you make interesting and valuable posts? Or is your information boring and non-engaging? Thinking outside of the box will not only avoid the dreaded “hide” button and make your tweets stand out in the stream, but will  encourage more page visits and build brand loyalty. Consider posting printable coupons or provide exclusive deals or hotel packages on a private landing page that only fans or followers can access.

Also consider utilizing your social media presence to further develop your own branding by giving details about a new hotel amenity, dish at your restaurant, or cocktail at your bar and prompt website visitors, fans, and followers to post a suggested name for this new addition to your hotel or brand.

Resolution #4: Regularly post fresh content.
Leave outdated content behind in 2010. According to Best Practices, posts should be made at least three to five times per week. If you are unable to commit to your page, then it is important that you hire an employee or agency that can. According to the Social Media Examiner, there’s a direct correlation between frequency of posts and the number of fans a page acquires.

It is also important to monitor the time of day that fans and followers are most active. This usually occurs between mid-morning and late afternoon. Be sure to post during these times to maximize visibility of your marketing messages. Determine which content your fans and followers value most by monitoring which posts elicit the most engagement. Use this information to effectively reach your customer segments, maximize user engagement, and build a deeper connection. On Facebook, viewing your fan page analytics (particularly page views by date) is a great way to measure the success of your posts and monitor the activity of your page.

Resolution #5: Brand your social media presence.
Has your brand come to life on social media? Branding your social media presence is a vital component in making a stronger impact on fans and followers. On Facebook, you can create a customized tab to showcase your amenities and include rich imagery of your property to highlight your selling points and gain an edge over competitors. Since multi-channel initiatives are vital in any successful online strategy, include a reservation widget, email capture, and mobile capture on the custom tab to build your lists and increase conversions. Your custom Facebook tab can be used to draw attention to special offers, increase awareness of a major upcoming event, or include information about a contest or promotion. You can even consider rewarding fans with a free cocktail at your bar or exclusive promo code to receive a discount off their next stay. Utilize the reveal tab technology, where a certain portion of the tab is only exposed once a user becomes a fan of your page. This elicits interest and grows your fan base.

A customized Twitter background highlighting the most important hotel information is also vital in creating an official, branded presence on social media.

What’s next in 2011?

From measuring social media ROI to integrating mobile into your social media strategy, there’s a lot to conquer in 2011. Explore our social media guide to 2011, and determine which New Year resolutions work best for your social media presence.   We’ve even uncovered the top 10 social media mistakes in 2010 as well as offer case studies and key examples to give your 2011 social media strategy the boost that it needs to make a stronger impact into 2012.

Click here to download our full article with Social Media tips for 2011: HeBS Best Practices – 2011 Social Media Resolutions.

Hoteliers, we are already in that time of year again: marketing budget planning season. In this environment of uncertainty and mixed economic news, many hotel owners and operators are finding themselves in a state of confusion. Should hoteliers be proactive by raising their marketing budgets, or is it safer to be reactive and wait to see what will happen with the economy over the next few months?

For over two solid years, hoteliers found themselves having to accomplish more with less. They faced the end of 2008 and the beginning of 2009 with slashed marketing budgets, staff cuts, and an even more urgent need to show the ROI of every dollar spent. Needless to say, it was a challenging time for many of us in the industry. In 2011, however, it’s time to be more ‘cautiously optimistic.’ It’s time to un-shrink the hotel marketing budget!

2011: The Good News and the Bad News

Let’s start with the good news. All signs are pointing to yes, the hospitality industry is in recovery mode. The industry projects to end 2010 with important increases in two of the three key performance measurements, according to the latest forecast of Smith Travel Research (STR). In 2010 occupancy is expected to increase by 4.4% and RevPAR by 4.3%, while ADR is expected to end the year flat. In 2011 occupancy will grow a further 1.4% while RevPAR will increase by 5.3% and ADR by 3.9%.

So what is the bad news?

The bad news concerns the need for fresh investments in marketing and customer engagement, inventory distribution infrastructure and human capital i.e. the need to increase marketing budgets in 2011.

During the height of the recession (over the past two years), a number of very important developments occurred that profoundly changed hotel marketing, customer engagement and inventory distribution in hospitality:

• The Internet established itself as the main travel planning and booking channel. In the US, 45% of all hotel reservations will be booked online in 2010 – compare this to less than 15% via the GDS! In Q2 2010, Internet bookings for the top 30 hotel brands reached 52.4% while GDS Travel Agent bookings contributed to only 21.8% and voice to 25.7% of total brand CRS bookings (eTRAK).

• The Hyper-Interactive Travel Consumer became your main customer. This new breed of consumer is tweeting, posting, texting, emailing, communicating with friends via Facebook and Twitter, and commenting, often in real-time, on hotel and dining experiences via review sites. Most hotel websites are not equipped to handle the hyper-interactive nature of this consumer and read like a static online brochure.

• Social Media: engaging your customers via social marketing has become not only the norm, but is expected by past, current and future hotel guests.

• Mobile Web: the mobile channel has already become an important travel planning and transaction channel in the U.S. and worldwide. Hotel guests and travel consumers in general are already mobile-ready, and hoteliers and travel suppliers have to respond adequately to this growing demand for mobile travel services.

• Channel Convergence: Today’s hyper-interactive travel consumers are seeing your marketing messages across a variety of different channels. Now more than ever, there is a convergence of new and traditional digital formats, of interactive and offline marketing channels.

• Multichannel Marketing: Some marketing initiatives, if judged on their own merits, generate disappointing ROIs. For example, many hoteliers are struggling to justify returns from social and mobile marketing initiatives which rarely produce significant ROIs as stand-alone marketing formats. But unleashing a promotional campaign simultaneously across all available marketing channels produces a compounded effect and far greater returns than each individual marketing format.

• The Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) gained market and channel share during the recession. In Q2 2010 the OTA share of the CRS bookings for the top 30 hotel brands reached 33%, compared to 25.4% in Q2 of 2008. Revenue leaked from hotels to the OTAs in the form of abnormally high merchant commissions will reach $5.4 billion in 2010 alone. Read more in HeBS’ recent article “Déjà Vu: The Billion Dollar ‘Leakage’ Continues to Drain the Hospitality Industry”.

All of the above developments require new investments in aligning the hotel marketing and distribution efforts with the new hyper-interactive travel consumer, in acquiring new multichannel marketing and technology capabilities, in boosting the direct online channel to overcome OTA dependency and in staff trainings and professional development.

Industry Benchmarks: How Are your Peers Allocating their Budgets?

Every year for the past four years, HeBS has conducted the Benchmark Survey on Hotel Internet Marketing Budget Planning and Best Practices to assess hoteliers’ Internet marketing priorities and strategies for the year ahead.  Regarding 2010 budgets, there were two key findings:

• The economic environment prevailed as a factor when planning budgets. Even so, hoteliers continued to shift budgets from offline to online marketing formats. In last year’s survey, 51.1% of respondents said they were shifting a portion of their budgets to online because they believe Internet marketing produces the best results (55% vs. 10% that think traditional marketing is more effective).

• For the first time, we saw static marketing budgets rather than budget increases. Thirty-nine percent said they were not increasing their overall marketing budgets in 2010, vs. 33% last year.

With lower marketing budgets to work with, where did hoteliers predict they would spend their money this year?

(Source: HeBS’ 4^th annual Benchmark Survey on Hotel Internet Marketing Budget Planning and Best Practices).

Overall, last year, hoteliers shifted their budgets from offline to online and focused most of their budgets on proven, ROI-generating Internet marketing initiatives such as website design, paid search marketing, and SEO.  We also saw room being made in the budget for mobile marketing, Web 2.0 and social media.

In 2011, hoteliers should continue to move funds to the online channel, and carefully employ ROI-centric and customer-engaging initiatives. Additionally, with increased demand next year comes the need for increased marketing budgets.

Structuring Your 2011 Hotel Internet Marketing Budget

With shrinking GDS bookings, declining voice reservations and group market that will be flat at best next year, the online channel is the only growth channel.  HeBS estimates a growth rate of minimum 6%-7%. But hoteliers do not want just any online bookings. The focus of 2011 hotel internet marketing budgets must be on driving bookings through the direct online channel, the hotel website.   The OTA channel not only is not “free,” but also is, on average, 10 times more expensive than the direct online channel.

Curious as to how much money can be saved by focusing on the direct online channel? Click here to try the HeBS Direct Online Channel Calculator.

Hoteliers need a robust direct online channel strategy accompanied by adequate marketing funds to be able to a) take advantage of the steady growth in the Internet channel and b) shift bookings from the indirect (OTA) to direct (hotel website) online channels.

Here are a few guiding principles when reviewing the 2011 hotel Internet marketing budget:

• Review and update the budget to meet growing travel demand and increase market share.

• Include marketing initiatives that align the hotel marketing and distribution efforts with the new hyper-interactive travel consumer.

• Shift funds to advertising formats with proven, direct, serious ROIs (SEO, SEM, email marketing), and initiatives that help the hotel engage customers and produce great indirect ROI, such as social and mobile marketing initiatives.

• Hold off on advertising where you cannot measure results (e.g. print) and ROAS (Return on ad spend), or those that have not resulted in good ROIs in the past.
• Re-evaluate the importance of each key customer segment and feeder market in the marketing mix. For example, if fly-in guests’ share has decreased due to airline capacity cuts and declines in corporate travel, focus on your drive-in feeder market.

What marketing initiatives generate the best returns according to your fellow hoteliers?

In the past few years, website design, website optimization, and search engine optimization were the initiatives which hoteliers said brought the best returns. In 2010, we see that even though social media and mobile marketing only recently made their way into the hotel budget, hoteliers are expecting good results from these new marketing channels:

(Source: HeBS’ 4^th annual Benchmark Survey on Hotel Internet Marketing Budget Planning and Best Practices).

In order to drive more direct online channel revenues, which initiatives should be included in your 2011 Internet marketing budget? Here are recommended marketing initiatives and share of each initiative, based on a hypothetical $100,000 annual budget:

Website Redesign

Over the past two years, many hoteliers who desperately needed website redesigns simply put Band-Aids on their existing sites to save precious budget dollars. In 2011, this approach needs to be rethought. The hotel website is the backbone of your Internet marketing strategy – the most important tool in your arsenal. Your outdated website allows your competitors to steal your market share.

There have been so many changes in the past 24 months that it would be virtually impossible to have kept up with all of them – the emergence of the hyper-interactive traveler, social media, mobile marketing, Web 2.0 functionalities, and more. If your hotel website is over two years old, there can be no excuses…it is time for a redesign.  If your website is over a year old, keep it current with search engine optimization (SEO) strategies, a Web 2.0 optimization (interactive elements on your website) and ensuring you are fully addressing all your customer segments in your copy and navigation.

Make the hotel website redesign reflect 2010-2011 industry’s best practices. A site redesign is a 90-120 day project (start planning now). Our experience shows that any website optimizations, enhancements or site re-designs pay for themselves within 3-4 months.

Share of the 2011 Internet marketing budget:  9%-10%, based on a 24-month amortization of the asset.

Web 2.0 Initiatives

Is your hotel website engaging website visitors? Is it aligned with the new hyper-interactive travel consumers? Or is it boring them to tears with the same stale visual and textual content?

Encourage repeat visits and increased time on the site by including Web 2.0 initiatives in your 2011 budget.  Start with a blog on the hotel website, and then continue with customer feedback forms, photo and experience sharing, interactive sweepstakes, and an interactive calendar of events.  These initiatives are affordable and worth the investment.

Share of the 2011 Internet marketing budget:  5%-6%.

Search Engine Marketing

Between 50-70% of hotel website traffic and revenue is a direct referral from the search engines which makes SEM and SEO especially important (HeBS). Sixty-four percent of leisure travelers and 65% of business travelers begin the travel purchasing process on the search engines (OTX Research).

• Paid Search (SEM): We recommend that in 2011, hoteliers raise their paid search marketing budgets by at least 10%. Google Instant Search, recent changes in Google Places such as sponsored tags, and increased market share on Bing since they took over Yahoo Search have all made paid search marketing even more expensive and competitive.

Paid search marketing is a popular advertising format for hoteliers because it works. If you are following best practices, conducting keyword analyses on a regular basis and consistently optimizing campaigns after measuring results with your analytical tools, then search marketing campaigns will generate significant revenues for your hotel.

Share of the 2011 Internet marketing budget:  35%-40%.

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Organic search engine referrals to the hotel website generate the most cost-effective bookings for any hotelier. Therefore it is paramount to optimize the hotel website, blog, social media profiles, mobile site, etc. to achieve best possible rankings across the search engines. On the hotel website make sure that the keyword density, H1 and H2 headers, page titles and meta data reflect best practices and latest trends.

Share of the 2011 Internet marketing budget:  4%-5%.

Email Marketing

Email marketing is still an essential component of the hotelier’s direct online channel strategy, an easy way to send valuable messages to your key customer segments, and a very affordable line item in the Internet marketing budget.

Case Study:
A hotel in the Florida Keys was experiencing low occupancy in the months of April and May of 2010 and needed a quick way to generate bookings.

The results:

• Sent: 56,567 email addresses
• Opened: 10,743
• Clicks: 4,541
• Click through Rate: 42.26%
• Cost: $700
• Revenue: $8947
• ROI: 1178%

Continue your efforts in increasing your email opt-in list, developing email creative that is eye-catching and consistent with your website design, and stay far away from email rental lists.

Share of the 2011 Internet marketing budget:  7%.

Banner Advertising & Online Sponsorships

These initiatives both offer great ways to reach your customer segments and target markets. Once you’ve budgeted for the essentials – redesigning or optimizing your website, paid search marketing, and email marketing—consider banner advertising and online sponsorships on relevant media.

Now and in 2011, hoteliers have access to tools that can help them make smarter and more ROI-generating decisions. Options now available for retargeting (putting your messages in front of people that have already visited your website) and behavioral targeting (marketing to people based on their web-browsing behavior), should replace previous methods of managing these initiatives.

Share of the 2011 Internet marketing budget:  5%-6%.

Social Marketing

HeBS’ 2010 Benchmark Survey on Hotel Internet Marketing Budget Planning and Best Practices showed that half of hoteliers surveyed (50% exactly) responded that in 2010 they are planning to create profiles for their hotels on the social networks.

As more and more hotels put more effort into social marketing, we are starting to see results that make us pay closer attention. Focus on engagement and not direct bookings, and ROI will be in the form of increased brand loyalty, buzz around your hotel, and then ultimately, incremental revenues. Include money in the budget for custom enhancements on Facebook pages, Twitter profiles, and YouTube channels. As an effective social media marketing strategy involves a significant amount of a time investment and the constant need to keep up with new developments and latest trends, also consider seeking help from an experienced Internet marketing firm to build a strong and cohesive social media strategy.

Share of the 2011 Internet marketing budget:  8%.

Mobile Marketing

Make room in the budget for mobile marketing. HeBS own research and other industry sources show that between 1% – 1.5% of visitors to hotel websites already come from travel consumers accessing the hotel site via mobile devices. Sixty-seven percent of travelers and 77% of frequent business travelers have already used their devices to find local services (e.g. lodging) and attractions (PhoCusWright).

If your hotel does not have a mobile website yet, make this one of the first things you cover in your 2011 budget.  This is not an expensive endeavor – a 10-page mobile website should not cost more than $1500—and this should be followed by a mobile booking engine, Google Mobile Ads leading to the mobile site, mobile contests and quizzes. You should already have started soliciting sign-ups to the mobile opt-in list (m-list) on the website via hotel email marketing campaigns, social media initiatives, interactive sweepstakes and contests.

Share of the 2011 Internet marketing budget:  7%-8%.

Website Operations and Campaign Management Fees

As a rule of thumb your website hosting, maintenance, textual and visual content updates, website analytics and campaign tracking, and phone reservation tracking should not exceed 6%-7% of your total budget. Campaign management and direct online channel consultation fees by your interactive agency of record should not exceed 11%-12% of your overall Internet marketing budget.

Conclusion

Hotel marketing budgets have shrunk considerably over the past two years. During the recession a number of important developments completely changed hotel marketing and customer engagement, including the emergence of the hyper-interactive travel consumer, social marketing, mobile marketing, channel convergence and multichannel marketing. These developments, plus the economy in recovery mode, require fresh investments and increased marketing budgets in 2011.

Continue holding every dollar accountable with analytics, carefully targeting your customer segments, and shifting dollars from advertising formats where you cannot measure results and you will start capitalizing from rising travel demand.  Embrace multichannel marketing, and reap the benefits of far greater returns than each individual marketing format would bring. Most importantly, focus your budget dollars on driving revenue from the direct online channel vs. the indirect online channel and your bottom line will benefit exponentially.

With 45% of all hotel bookings in North America being made online this year, the effectiveness of your hotel website and Internet marketing campaigns in generating bookings will play a big part in determining the overall success of your hotel in 2011. Work with a partner company that understands best practices in hotel website design and Internet marketing, has proven results in the form of prestigious design and Internet marketing awards, and has transformed its clients’ hotel websites into their most cost-efficient revenue generator.

The Vanity Website – the Franchisee’s Only Incremental Revenue Driver

Today’s hotel website has become the main revenue driver that carries the burden and responsibility of generating the bulk of bookings for the property. The property website is the backbone of the hotel multi-channel marketing mix and the main “engagement tool” with today’s hyper-interactive travel consumer.

Even in these unfavorable economic conditions, the online channel has been the only growth channel in hospitality. Outside of the Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) and bookings via the brand.com website, the property vanity website provides the franchisees with the only viable opportunity to generate incremental revenues today.

With the indirect online channel (OTAs) draining the industry by as much as $5.4 billion in the form of abnormally high merchant commissions, the Direct Online Channel (i.e. the property vanity website) is the only growth channel available to any franchisee. A recent analysis by HeBS showed that in average the cost per booking via the OTAs is in average 10 times higher than via the property own vanity website.

This is the reason why many hotel brands allow and even encourage their franchisees to launch property vanity websites.

What are the vanity website’s main objectives?

A vanity website’s main objective is to provide incremental revenues to what the brand.com website can provide. The vanity website does this by:

• Creating deep and relevant content – at least 35-50 pages of fully optimized local content that can successfully compete against the OTAs.
• Focusing on long-tail keyword terms to capture incremental traffic and bookings.
• Focusing on key market segments via deep relevant content and SEO: meeting planners, group planners, SMERF, weddings, social and special events.
• Becoming the “main face” of the property on the Web with the best and most accurate product/services descriptions, visual and rich media content, customer engagement tools via Web 2.0 functionality, and more.

In addition, the vanity website becomes a great professional development and educational tool that teaches sales and marketing staff on the insights of hotel Internet marketing, social media and mobile marketing.

Click here to read the entire blog post on HOTELSMag.com, which includes a case study and recommendations on what franchised hoteliers should keep in mind if they decide to go with a vanity website.

HeBS President and CEO Max Starkov has been invited to lead the “Successful eMarketing” blog on HOTELS magazine’s website. The following is an excerpt from Part 4 of 4 of Starkov’s article: “Hoteliers’ Action Plan to Capitalize on Rising Travel Demand.”

Action Plan: Measure your return on investment (ROI)

Take a hard look at what you are doing: are you taking chances with new and unproven marketing formats? Is your Internet marketing budget ROI-centric? Are you a smart marketer, or are you advertising blindly, distributing limited marketing dollars in unproven or incalculable areas? Are you measuring conversions and ROIs from your marketing campaigns?

• Focus on marketing formats that generate above industry-average returns.
• Implement the latest website analytics+ campaign tracking technology:
  • Track post-impression and post-click activity
  • Track bookings, roomnights, revenues from every campaign
  • Adjust marketing spend instantaneously based on ROIs
  • Don’t fall for “free” analytical tools–they simply do not work

• Remember, no matter which channels you use, make sure you are tracking results and conversions (e.g. Omniture, DART, etc). Phone tracking is now easier than ever (e.g. a unique 1-800 number to be used for calls resulting from your Google AdWords, another from Yahoo, etc.), and even with print you can send people to private landing pages or use promo codes.

Action Plan: Establish achievable objectives for the remainder of the year and 2011

The sky is the limit when hotel internet marketing is concerned. There are so many formats and initiatives, “hot news” and sensational claims that the industry is justifiably confused as to where to start and what the priorities should be.

The litmus test for any marketing initiatives hoteliers do should be a.) revenue generated, and b.) return on investment (ROI). In other words, before budgeting for or embarking on any marketing initiative, hoteliers must answer a simple question: “Which initiative will generate the most revenues and the best ROI?”

Here are a few objectives achievable in the remaining months of 2010 and early 2011 with re-allocation of funds in the existing hotel budgets or included in the 2011 budget:

Website re-design:
Time and again this has proven to be the single most effective initiative to boost hotel bookings and engage your customers via Web 2.0 enhancements on the site. This is a 90-120 day process so you can start it in 2010 and complete it in early 2011.

Direct online channel:
There is no doubt this is the most cost-effective distribution channel. The hotel budget should be especially generous to any direct marketing initiative: from search engine marketing (SEM) to email marketing, strategic linking and online sponsorships, to the new emerging formats like social and mobile marketing.

Social marketing:
Start by enhancing your hotel’s presence on the social networks. Creating or optimizing your hotel’s Facebook fan page and twitter and LinkedIn profiles is a good start. Engaging your customers on the social networks via interactive contests and sweepstakes, cross-promoted via the hotel website, email and SEM campaigns will make your efforts in social media worthwhile.

Mobile marketing:
Launching a 10-20 page mobile site for the hotel should be a top priority in 2010. Even if your booking engine provider does not have a mobile version of the booking engine, your mobile site will generate a lot of telephone leads and bookings. Start building the mobile opt-in list for customer service alerts and SMS text promotions. Experiment with simple mobile contests, quizzes and sweepstakes as part of the hotel’s multi-channel marketing initiatives to gain experience with this new channel.

Website analytics and campaign tracking:
Measure and re-measure conversions and ROI of every marketing initiative. Before you invest in any marketing campaign or website re-design, make sure you will be able to track conversions and ROIs. State-of-the-art technology like Omniture SiteCatalyst (website analytics) or DART (banner campaign tracking) is easily accessible today. This will not only make you a smarter and better marketer, but enable you to justify current marketing spend and defend future budget increases.

Conclusion:
In this uncertain economic environment, focusing on marketing initiatives with proven ROIs is the hotelier’s most prudent marketing strategy. The Internet is by far the largest and most important marketing and distribution channel in hospitality. By using the step-by-step action plan outlined in this article, smart hoteliers can generate incremental revenues, increase market share, and outsmart the competition with a ROI-centric online marketing strategy.

As you re-evaluate your hotel marketing plans for 2010 and plan for 2011, seek advice from an experienced and ROI-centric Internet marketing firm to help you adopt industry’s best practices, implement latest trends, and utilize the Direct Online Channel to its fullest potential.

Read the full article, including case studies on the Hotels Magazine’s “Successful eMarketing” Blog.

HeBS President and CEO Max Starkov has been invited to lead the “Successful eMarketing” blog on HOTELS magazine’s website. The following is an excerpt from Part 3 of 4 of Starkov’s article: “Hoteliers’ Action Plan to Capitalize on Rising Travel Demand.”

Action Plan: Engage your customers with social marketing

Social Media has changed how travel consumers research and plan travel, access travel information, and perceive credibility of information. eMarketer reports that more than 70% of Internet users under age 35 browse social networks. That percentage decreases for older users but is still significant, with 43.1% of those ages 35 to 54 and 18.9% of users ages 55 and older visiting social networks.

There is no doubt that Internet users are increasingly influenced by social media sites and peer reviews. By utilizing a comprehensive social media strategy, hoteliers can create social media “buzz” around the hotel, target receptive audiences, and ultimately stimulate hotel website visits, interactions and bookings.

HeBS’ 2010 Benchmark Survey on Hotel Internet Marketing Budget Planning and Best Practices showed that half of hoteliers surveyed (50% exactly) responded that in 2010 they are planning to create profiles for their hotels on the social networks.

Social marketing should become an important component of any hotel’s marketing mix and part of the comprehensive Direct Online Channel Strategy for any hotel company. Naturally, it is important to use the right ROI metrics to measure the success of social marketing efforts of the hotel.

As discussed above, social media and social marketing initiatives should be reviewed with “sober eyes” and within the context of the impact of the multi-channel marketing strategy of the hotel.

Instead of only focusing on bookings and revenue when measuring results from social media marketing, remember that currently the best uses of social media are:

• Serving as one important component of hotel’s multi-channel marketing
• Buzz-building
• Brand-building
• Interacting with and engaging customers
• Keeping up with the times, making the hotel look current, cool and up-to-date
• Driving engaged and relevant traffic to the property’s own website

What are the initiatives hoteliers can deploy in 2010 and expand in 2011?

• Facebook Fan Page with reservation widget, email capture functionality, custom design tabs, photo albums, hotel blog feeds, etc.
• Twitter Profile with customized look and feel design, contests and sweepstakes, SEO-friendly posts, etc.
• LinkedIn profile to reach out business travelers and meeting planners
• Flickr with photo albums addressing your main business segments
• YouTube hotel profile: virtual tours are out, videos are in. Develop hotel videos presenting hotel services and amenities to your different customer segments and post them on the hotel website and YouTube.

A word of caution: if your hotel cannot allocate bandwidth and resources or cannot afford to hire an external social marketing firm, do not start with social media initiatives such as Facebook Fan page or Twitter profile. The social media battleground is full of “corpses” of abandoned hotel fan pages and profiles that do more harm than good to their owners. Social marketing is a very engaging process that requires skills and consistent engagement with the travel consumer.

Action Plan: Utilize mobile marketing to communicate in real time with your customers

Mobile travel bookings are projected to grow 700% in two short years. U.S. M-Commerce will reach a staggering $1 billion in 2010 (ABI Research). Sixty-seven percent of business travelers already use their mobile devices to view hotel locations via maps (Sabre Travel Network Survey). Mobile marketing must become a vital component of the marketing mix for any hotelier.

HeBS own research and other industry sources show that between 1% – 1.5% of visitors to hotel websites already come from travel consumers accessing the hotel site via mobile devices.

Hotel guests—past, current and potential—are increasingly becoming mobile-ready, and hoteliers have to respond adequately to this growing demand for mobile services. This is the reason why all major hotel brands, travel suppliers and OTAs have mobile Internet initiatives in place, including mobile brand websites and mobile applications including iPhone apps, m-CRM and mobile marketing. In order to meet the enormous growth in consumer demand for mobile services, hoteliers must start with a clear understanding of current best practices in mobile marketing.

As shown by HeBS’ 4th annual Benchmark Survey on Hotel Internet Marketing Budget Planning and Best Practices, while a number of hoteliers surveyed were not yet planning on mobile marketing initiatives for 2010 (32.8%), many are taking some very crucial first steps.

What can hoteliers do in the remaining months of 2010 and 2011? Mobile marketing must become a vital component of the marketing mix for any hotelier.

An excellent first step is to create a mobile site, which by default is the “gravitational” center for all future marketing efforts: from text messaging and Google mobile ads, to mobile sweepstakes and applications. Budget limitations are no longer an excuse for not launching a mobile-ready hotel site.

Imagine the user experience of trying to squeeze your wide-screen hotel website, designed to fit screen resolutions at 1280 x 1024 pixels and above, onto the tiny screen of a mobile device. Our analysis shows that more than 90% of mobile users access the hotel website via mobile devices with screen sizes of 320 x 480 pixels. Accessing a “conventional” website via a mobile device, even the latest iPhone, often results in an undesirable user experience: the inability to find information needed and a predictable outcome of abandoned websites and reservations.

What should hoteliers plan for 2010 and beyond? In addition to a mobile-ready website, launching mobile contests, quizzes and sweepstakes as part of the hotel multi-channel marketing initiatives will allow you to “test the waters” of mobile marketing. Adding  Google Mobile ads as part of a comprehensive search marketing strategy is another natural step. Also, start soliciting sign-ups to the mobile opt-in list (m-list) on the website via hotel email marketing campaigns, social media initiatives, interactive sweepstakes and contests.

Location-based services, m-CRM and mobile apps are initiatives in need of careful planning, sophisticated technology, and a better economic environment. Even so, hoteliers should start thinking about how to incorporate these initiatives in the upcoming years.

Read the full article, including case studies on the Hotels Magazine’s “Successful eMarketing” Blog. I look forward to our continued dialogue. Next week, we’ll conclude our eight-step action plan with metrics and achievable objectives for the rest of 2010 and 2011.

Part 2 of 4 from the Hotels Magazine Blog Article: “Hoteliers’ Action Plan to Capitalize on Rising Travel Demand.”

HeBS President and CEO Max Starkov  has been invited to lead the “Successful eMarketing” blog on HOTELS magazine’s website. The following is an excerpt from Part 2 of 4 of Starkov’s article: “Hoteliers’ Action Plan to Capitalize on Rising Travel Demand.”

As the travel and hospitality industry emerges from its recession-induced coma, hoteliers need to develop an action plan to capitalize on resurgent travel demand. Last week, I discussed the importance of unlocking the marketing budget, but doing so smartly and strategically via direct online marketing. This week, we’ll explore multichannel marketing and the need for most operators to reexamine their own website offerings.

Action Plan: Embrace multichannel marketing—the whole is bigger than the sum of its parts

Today’s hyper-interactive travel consumers are seeing your marketing messages across a variety of different channels. Now more than ever, there is a convergence of new and traditional digital formats, of interactive and offline marketing channels such as social media and print, hotel websites and social media initiatives, mobile and email, etc. Hoteliers need to reach future and current customers at multiple touch-points. For instance, if you launch an email campaign to the hotel’s own opt-in list, combine it with a tweet on Twitter, a posting on Facebook, a promotion on your website (this is a must), and a paid search campaign on Google.

At the same time, some marketing initiatives, if judged on their own merits, generate disappointing ROIs. For example, many hoteliers are struggling to justify returns from social marketing initiatives. The same applies to display advertising and online sponsorships which rarely produce significant ROIs as stand-alone marketing formats. But unleashing a marketing promotional campaign simultaneously across all available marketing channels produces compounded effect and far greater returns than each individual marketing format.

Action Plan: Take a hard look at the hotel website

Due to economic considerations, many hotel websites have been practically abandoned during the past 2 years. Many hotel websites offer old photos and stale content and read more like an online brochure than a vibrant and engaging digital presence of the hotel.  When there is practically no Web 2.0 functionality on the website, there is nothing to stimulate interactivity with the user. This is contrary to the mere nature of today’s hyper-interactive Internet user who is tweeting, texting, emailing, communicating with friends and commenting on hotel and restaurant review sites.

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 re-designing, enhancing and optimizing the hotel website should be the top priority. A website re-design is typically a 90-120 day project. 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 2010-2011 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, Web 2.0 and SEO optimizations are now due in order to take full advantage of the much cheaper organic search related visitors to your site.
• If the site is over two years old, a website re-design is a must and should be considered in Q3 or Q4 of 2010, or at least budgeted for early 2011. Typical ROI (Return on investment) from a website re-design is 10-15 times within the first 12 months of post-launch operations.

Read the full article, including case studies and a website re-design ROI analysis  on the Hotels Magazine’s “Successful eMarketing” Blog. I look forward to our continued dialogue. Next week, we’ll tackle the exponentially growing importance of social and mobile media.

Part 1 of 4 from the Hotels Magazine Blog Article: “Hoteliers’ Action Plan to Capitalize on Rising Travel Demand.”

HeBS President and CEO Max Starkov  has been invited to lead a blog on HOTELS magazine’s website. The following is an excerpt from Part 1 of 4 of Starkov’s article: “Hoteliers’ Action Plan to Capitalize on Rising Travel Demand.”

Things are looking up for the hotel industry and this comes as great news after a long and brutal recession. The industry projects to end 2010 with important increases in two of the three key performance measurements, according to the latest forecast of Smith Travel Research (STR). Occupancy is expected to increase by 3.6% and RevPAR by 3.0%, while ADR is expected to end the year flat. In addition, demand is projected to grow by 5.7%, while supply is expected to increase by only a modest 2.0%.

This is excellent news for the industry as a whole and hoteliers are justifiably enthusiastic after enduring the long and brutal recession.

What does all of the good news mean to hoteliers?

First of all, hoteliers must realize that increased demand does not automatically translate into higher occupancy. Hoteliers must be more proactive and creative than the competition to get a “bigger piece of the pie” i.e. increase market share and benefit more from the growing demand.

Secondly, over the past two years i.e. approximately the duration of the recession, a number of very important developments occurred that profoundly changed inventory distribution and marketing in hospitality:

• Social Media: engaging your customers via social marketing has become not only the norm, but is expected by past, current and future hotel guests.
• Mobile Web: the mobile channel has already become an important travel planning and transaction channel in the U.S. and worldwide. Hotel guests and travel consumers in general are already mobile-ready, and hoteliers and travel suppliers have to respond adequately to this growing demand for mobile travel services.
• The emergence of the Hyper-Interactive Travel Consumer who is tweeting, texting, emailing, communicating with friends via Facebook, and commenting, often in real-time, on restaurants and hotels via review sites like Yelp and TripAdvisor. Most hotel websites are not equipped to handle the hyper-interactive consumer and read like a static online brochure.
• The Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) gained market and channel share during the recession. Example: in 2009 the OTA share of the CRS bookings for the top 30 hotel brands was 29.1% vs. 24.8% in 2008. Direct online channel helps higher ADRs and RevPARs as opposed to OTAs, which drag ADRs down.

What action steps should hoteliers implement to take full advantage of the growing travel demand? Over the next several weeks, we’ll discuss eight action steps that will help hoteliers rethink their online marketing strategies, outsmart the competition and increase online market share and bookings.

Here are the first two action plans:

Action Plan: Time to Un-Shrink the Hotel Marketing Budget!

Hotel marketing budgets have shrunk considerably over the past 18 months. Now is the time to perform a mid-year review of the hotel Internet marketing budget:

• Review and update budget to meet growing travel demand and increase market share.

• Hold off on advertising where you cannot measure results (e.g. print) and ROAS (Return on ad spend) or those that have not resulted in good ROIs in the past.
• Shift funds to advertising formats with proven, direct, serious ROIs, e.g. SEO, SEM, email marketing, and initiatives that help the hotel engage customers and produce great indirect ROI, such as social and mobile marketing initiatives, etc.
• Re-evaluate the importance of each key customer segment and feeder market in the marketing mix. For example, if fly-in guests’ share has decreased due to airline capacity cuts and declines in corporate travel, focus on drive-in feeder markets.

Action Plan: Focus on the Direct Online Channel

The Direct Online Channel must always be at the centerpiece of any hotelier’s Internet marketing and distribution strategy. Travel consumers booking via the hotel website, i.e. direct customers, are more loyal, bring in more revenue and tend to travel more often.

The Direct Online Channel provides hoteliers with immediate results in the current economic environment as well as long-term competitive advantages. What should hoteliers do to improve their direct vs. indirect online channel ratio?

Business Objectives:

• Maintain strict rate parity across all marketing channels and maintain a best rate guarantee.
• Create unique product offerings and provide unique value proposition via the hotel website.
• Engage your customers directly via social media and mobile initiatives, and Web 2.0 features and functionality on the hotel website.

Marketing Objectives:

• Focus on marketing initiatives with proven ROI to increase market share and generate incremental revenue via the hotel website:
  • Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
  • Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
  • Email marketing to the hotel opt-in list
  • Multi-channel marketing initiatives, promotions and contests
  • Social Marketing: hotel fan page and profile on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube
  • Mobile Marketing via mobile website, mobile SEO and mobile search marketing
  • Strategic linking and online sponsorships.
• Launch online marketing initiatives, addressing your top business segments and feeder markets

Consider this case study scenario comparing cost per booking in the Direct vs. Indirect Online Channels:

• Direct Online Channel (Hotel Website): $12.92 per booking(Cost per booking via the hotel’s own website, including website hosting and maintenance fees, marketing spend, campaign management fees, and Omniture analytics. Based on 530,000+ bookings in 2009 via hotel websites from HeBS’ hotel client portfolio)
• Indirect Online Channel (Online Travel Agency-OTA): $107.57 per booking (Based on average 2009 ADR in NYC = $215.14 and 2 night LOS = $430.28 x 25% OTA commission)

The difference between the cost of a Direct Online Channel and Indirect Online Channel booking is 8.3 times!

Read the full article, including case studies and concrete action steps hoteliers should implement to take full advantage of this pivotal moment in the hotel industry in the “Successful eMarketing” blog on Hotels Magazine website.