Flip.to Blog - Stories, ideas and resources for the hotel industry. Updates on building brands, direct bookings, revenue management, social media, hotel advocacy, and more from Flip.to.

A tribute to Debi Moses

Last year looked different for all of us. It’s been an unprecedented time for both our industry, and our lives at home.

It changed even more so when we saw the loss of our colleague & friend, Debi Moses.

Debi was a hell of a woman. Her strength was enduring, and her spirit inventive and funny. Her edgy sense of humor stuck with all of us.

And not just with us—Debi left a lasting impression for many. Over the past few months, we’ve been lucky to share a few of those memories with a handful of Debi’s colleagues in travel.

With her birthday arriving this week, it felt like a good time to share.

One video or blog post couldn’t sum up Debi’s legacy or all of the people she’s inspired along the way. But we’re happy to share this small tribute to celebrate her life.

We miss you, Deb.

Support research for a cure to ovarian cancer, support survivors, and advocate for patients at the Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance.

Wrappy Hour: The Latest Release Notes Wrap-up from 2020

Cheers for stopping in on another wrappy hour! Follow along for some big updates, new features and round it out with a bug smackdown.

Big Ticket Items

Spaces
We’ve streamlined your account with new navigation that makes it easier to flip between the hotels, groups or destinations that you’re helping to reach and inspire travelers. These new spaces also set the stage for some entirely new products.

Audience Onboarding & Invitations
Got an existing audience of past guests? Our new onboarding assistant can help you add them onto the platform with a few clicks. That tees up the next feature.

Your past guests are ready to become storytellers. The storyteller invitations feature helps target this audience, and sets them on personalized storytelling journeys that inspire future travelers, build brand loyalty, and strengthen your relationship with them.

Improved Attribution Tracking
Understanding the traveler journey is as important as ever. We’ve improved (and are on a never-ending quest to improve) the way our platform is helping the industry learn how to best win over audiences, and which paths are the most profitable.

Feature Updates + Light Enhancements

Announcement Feed
You deserve to know the latest and greatest about our products as soon as new features drop. We built an announcement feed into your account, so the news meets you where you are the most.

Sign-in Flow
Your new sign-in experience replaces cumbersome temporary passwords with a reset link, and displays password requirements so you’re logged in and back to work without raising your anxiety.

Account Permissions
We’ve added fine-grained permissions, so you can customize other users’ access to each area of our platform. Some of your team may need review-only status, while others need full access for modifications.

Azure Flattening & Angular Migration
Through a bit of backend string pulling, Azure flattening sets the stage for unaffiliated organizations to share content with each other. That allows DMO’s, brands and management groups to share content with their members more efficiently.

Our ongoing migration to Angular continues, which just means we’re able to build better and faster.

The Great Bug Smackdown 🐛

Story River
Our Story River should float guest stories downstream in every browser, but it didn’t for Internet Explorer. Now IE users can navigate the River as true explorers should.

Dark Mode
The dark side of Dark Mode left important parts of our emails in the shadows. We hacked a fix, and now they look great, even in the dark.

Duplicating Efforts
Duplicate emails are so annoying. Duplicate emails are so annoying. We fixed that.

Guest Certificates
Some logos were broken on guest certificate pages. That’s taken care of, and while we were at it, we made sure a certificate’s expiration date can be edited properly.

Thanks for joining our wrappy hour! If you’d like to know more about any of our new features, or you’d like a sneak peek, we’d be happy to take you for a test drive. Give me a shout at zstovall@flip.to.

How one vacation rental company’s audience helped them reopen with a bigger, warmer audience, ready to travel

Chances are you heard Florida’s beaches have reopened. Despite the initial 24-hour news bloviation, things seem to be normalizing, and the travel industry in the lightly affected panhandle of the state is ready to jump-start.

For Resort Collection, that means 1,000 rooms spread across the coast of Panama City Beach are ready to be enjoyed.

Thanks to a strong audience paired with a platform and strategy, they’ve hit the sand running. Here’s how.

Putting their own audience first

Most travel businesses experienced a “what’s next?” mentality as the pace of cancellations, refunds, staffing and financial decisions peaked. Even in the confusion and shock of the shutdown, Resort Collection had the clarity to realize this would pass.

Without normal channels of marketing, they knew reaching and nurturing their existing audience would be critical in the plan to reopen.

Striking the right tone

Keeping that audience in conversation during one of travel’s most challenging times ever would require empathetic outreach and careful messaging.

The Flip.to platform played a critical role, helping more than two hundred people share their stories with Resort Collection at the center during the pandemic-induced downtime.

It’s those storytellers who are so important to the company’s strategy. These are real people who shared authentic moments, and in doing so, introduced the VR company to a community that trusts them the most: their own friends and family.

The audience responds

The response was phenomenal, and grew the collection’s audience even wider. Beyond scale, these trusted connections were with a new, high-quality audience of like-minded individuals who mirrored the original storytellers—the right-fit audience for Resort Collection.

Now in active conversation, this new audience is primed as Resort Collection excitedly takes its first steps forward in more than a month.

Authenticity and trust make better marketing

Resort Collection immediately noticed the stories generated by using the platform resonated with their audience.

How? For starters, they saw a spike in engagement and conversion, a testament to better conversations that are meaningful, timely and appropriate—all at a moment when people are deciding how and when they will be ready to travel again.

The platform put happy times at the front of mind for Resort Collection’s new and old audience alike.

As they’re phasing back into operation, the platform is now helping the collection immediately start welcoming this warm audience to their newly reopened properties.

And as units book and first guests arrive, they, too, will become storytellers, continuing to grow Resort Collection’s audience, and seeding the funnel in the same way.

Resort Collection recognized the most important lesson in the pandemic: keep your audience at the center. Sparking the right conversations with that audience, and nailing timing and tone are incredibly important.

By prioritizing these efforts, when the time is right for both your properties AND your audience, they’ll be there for you.

How collaboration helps these small Key West hotels see spectacular results that will live beyond the pandemic

Tucked among tropical foliage, and in the company of buzzing scooters and free-range chickens, eight boutique properties scatter the eclectic neighborhoods of Key West. The inns, B&B’s and small hotels are each unique except for a theme of pastel hues and a proximity to Ernest Hemingway’s favorite watering holes.

Yet each was looking for a way to attract more travelers within the country’s southernmost vacation outpost.

At the time, their parent company, Riley Hotel Group, ran all eight as a collection, but marketed the properties individually. And one big opportunity stood out: collaboration.

A platform to work together

When Riley switched on the Flip.to platform, our teams worked closely to not only reach and inspire a bigger audience, but also to build an overall plan to help all eight hotels collaborate.

In those conversations, Flip.to Account Manager, Joseph Meuse, also recognized the need to speak to travelers with a unified voice and to build awareness of the other hotels in the family. That suggestion garnered more fuel to continue evolving The Key West Collection by Riley, a plan that grouped the boutiques together in strategy, marketing and content, and would introduce the sister properties to travelers who previously knew no affiliation.

Riley the Rooster debuted as the hero of the new logo, and excitement built for the official kickoff of the platform.

A launch and a pandemic

Photo submission from April A. showing man holding a rooster and a hen. — Photo submission from April A.

Just when the new brand started to take off, the bottom fell out of the market as the pandemic swept the nation and grounded travel. While excitement deflated quickly, the groundwork from the collaboration proved to be timely.

The eight properties in the Key West Collection are now working together on a single Flip.to platform to inspire an audience of travelers, and rebuild their marketing funnel while the island is shuttered.

Their audiences, once compartmentalized, are learning about the group in a more authentic way. They’re also growing a team of storytellers who are actively introducing their friends and families to the entire collection. That sets up the properties to be in a great position when the time is right.

The impact of collaboration

The introductions are adding up at a brisk pace. That’s no small feat considering the collection only counts a total of 105 rooms.

Their marketing team is adding great value at the moment, which is bringing The Key West Collection by Riley more than 3,600 dreamers that they can speak to until the Hemingway daiquiris are flowing again.

An extension of your marketing team

Flip.to and Joseph proved to be an extension of The Riley Group team, and a partner willing to join in thinking big to overcome its challenges. Neither could have foreseen the biggest challenge to date, but those initial conversations show getting the fundamentals right is the best way to weather any storm.

How 3 properties are adjusting their marketing during the pandemic, and how you can too

“Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less,” stated Nobel prize winning physicist and chemist, Marie Curie.

COVID-19 has thrashed our industry. The challenges are great, but the decisions and adjustments made today will ultimately decide the future as our industry emerges into a changed world.

As Curie suggested, the more information we have, the better positioned we are to do that. (As you’ll read below, wine also helps.)

When traditional marketing isn’t an option

At Flip.to we’re working hard to help our customers understand, strategize and adapt. The goal is to set the stage for the most profitable rebound while resources are limited.

With traditional marketing off the table, it’s critical to maintain a relationship with your audience of travelers, or risk degradation, with your audience ‘going cold’.

As properties continue to grow that audience for the time when travel is back, it’s equally important it’s done in a way that builds relationships and avoids missteps.

How our customers are adapting

Our Account Management team is working with customers on the platform to maintain and grow these audiences during downtime—in the right way.

Take a peek at some of those stories in action, and check back for more in the coming days and weeks.

STONEWALL RESORT

Roanoke, West Virginia

With travelers grounded at home and cabin fever setting in, Stonewall Resort launched a Flip.to campaign called “Travel Buddies,” asking their audience to share stories of adventures past with a favorite companion.

The platform rekindles the feelings surrounding those memories while making authentic connections with the storytellers and audiences they’re reaching.

Beyond maintaining their current audiences, Stonewall Resort aimed to reach a new, wider audience so that they could build a funnel of conversations to tap into when the time is right.

They invited anyone to share a ‘Travel Buddies’ story, even if they hadn’t visited in the past. Growing their team of storytellers exponentially increased the impact they earned.

In fact, the 208-room resort has been introduced to 608,438 friends and family directly by their storytellers in the first 3 weeks starting March 24th—all reached organically.

That adds up to fourteen times more than their already healthy audience of existing followers and fans, and is a great set of travelers to engage more down the line.

THE GUEST HOUSE AT GRACELAND

Memphis, Tennessee

Elvis Presley fans can’t help falling in love with The Guest House at Graceland’s “Taking Care of Business” campaign.

By sharing memories from a past visit to Graceland or The Guest House, past guests can play along with The King. For those feeling lonesome tonight, the Guest House also welcomes stories from anyone sheltering in place, even if they have never visited Memphis.

It’s a playful approach that has a new audience professing their burning love with stories.

Elvis fans are passionate. And since kicking off April 1st, in two weeks The Guest House has been introduced to an audience of nearly 250K by their storytellers.

Beyond that, they’ve earned almost 2,000 warm leads. These are the friends and family of storytellers now in conversation with the 450-room property thanks to the platform—helping to be present and useful to those dreaming about getting back to travel without the pressure to ‘buy now’ weighing on their suspicious minds.

HARVEST INN

St. Helena, Napa Valley, California

If the best memes of the pandemic are any indication, wine has played an important role in the national mood. A hectic reality resulting from school closures and working from home, colloquially referred to as “WFH,” has made the product of the vine an even more popular stress reliever.

In their “An Enchanting Slice of Napa Valley” Flip.to campaign, the Harvest Inn introduced a playful spin on WFH—Wine From Home. The invite calls on wine lovers everywhere to share their best moments of enjoying wine from wherever home may be.

The platform is introducing wine-lovers the world over to both Napa Valley and Harvest Inn. So far, to the tune of 88,933 friends and family, and thousands of new conversations with future travelers.

For a property with only 74 rooms, this is helping grow an audience of dreamers at a time when the power has been effectively cut to the “book now” button.

Until travel is ready, the platform is in conversation with the right content and context, leaving Harvest Inn with an audience primed for planning and booking later on., That audience is a wine-loving demographic, which is a great fit for Harvest, and earned at the lowest cost.

Inspiring your own audiences

When putting together your strategy, remember it’s important to empathize with your audience. Travelers share your concerns (and probably disappointment that their plans are on hold).

Here’s some of our take:

Include what makes your destination unique (wine, beach, Elvis, etc.)
Make sure the call-to-action is broad enough to reach the widest audience
Inject personality and lighten the mood, but take care to be empathetic toward the difficult situation many face
Have someone from your team kick off the campaign with a homemade video

As always, even remote, our AM team is here to help. We all need to be prepared for the moment the economic engine starts to rumble back to speed.

Wrappy Hour: Your Release Wrap-up from 2019

As you’ve probably seen, we may have dropped the ball on our blog. Excuses aside, we have at least one good reason: we spend a lot of time building product that’s damn good. Product that’s helping travel marketers of all sorts win over new audiences, and knock down their goals.

And we’re getting better all the time, too. We haven’t brought to light these updates nearly enough, but hey, much like our blog—new year, new us! 🎉

To kick-off, we’re recapping all the enhancements we made last year. Plus, be on the look out here for more updates to come—it’s one resolution we’re here to keep.

Our ‘Big Rocks’

We’ve broken out the pneumatic equipment to improve our platform—meant to fundamentally change our business—and yours.

We’re counting your dollars—even better
We set up new plumbing to more accurately attribute referral links down to revenue. It sounds like a basic update, but it’s truly game-changing.

We’re migrating to an all new Angular
We’re updating the infrastructure of our account (and eventually to our wider platform) to the newest version of Angular. If you don’t know what that is, you’re not alone. Google’s development framework simplifies our coding process, letting us build infrastructure faster and with fewer obstacles. And it’s kind of a big deal.

Feature updates & light enhancements

We’re also finding ways to make the features you know and use even better. When your life is easier, ours is too.

Even faster onboarding
As a new customer, you can get running at full speed now in a matter of days thanks to some process updates that lessen the workload for our account managers.

Data parse improvements
It’s now easier and more comprehensive to get import data into our platform. Hooray for data parse, as they say.

Better reporting
When you want to dig into the details, reports are the place to go. In this update, they got some much-needed house cleaning. Names, definitions, and data calculations are now more consistent, giving you more precise data.

(Even more!) Better reporting
We restructured our reports to provide a better look at audience segments on our platform. So it’s faster and easier to get to what (and who) you need.

URLs that say what you mean
The ten-character limit for shortened URLs has been increased to fifty. Now we can set up a link like http://go.flip.to/you-can-name-it-this-long-but-use-some-restraint. Go ahead and channel your excitement in URL form.

Put your stories to work, even easier (and see their impact, too)
See every bit of impact from every story, with a new look that’s even more insightful. Put your stories to use in a big way by broadcasting them in a snap.

💡 Recommendations from your neighborhood AM
Be on the lookout for recommendations hand-selected just for you by your friendly, recommendation-wielding account manager.

Stories, queued up
We made it easier to access the queue of stories that need curating. Just click the button called “Start curating” in the Library.

Bugs squashed 🐛

Based in Florida, we’re used to dealing with some pretty horrifying bugs. While we can’t always keep them out, we’re quick to swat them down. Here are a few we put the kibosh on in 2019.

Letting Angular young-and-old play nice
Some <a>s were updated to <button>s so our version of Angular plays nice with others.

Bubbling up your best stories
Sometimes our logic was butting heads, causing story randomization to be not so random. Story River, Explorer, Invitation page, and Confirmation Experience now show a better mix of stories.

Social channels are (constantly) changing—so we are, too
What can we say? Our travelers like sharing to all of their audiences, and we plug into the major platforms to make that possible. As those platforms make structural changes and release updates, it’s easy for bugs to creep in. When they do, we stay on top of it to make sure they don’t hang out for long.

Wrappy hour is officially a wrap! Thanks for stopping by, and be sure to follow our continued updates. Next time you find yourself in Florida we’d love to grab a coffee IRL. Cheers to 2020!

Blog? What Blog?

Hey blog reader! It’s been a while. Too long, perhaps.

It seems there’s always a reason…

“I’m busy building product.”
“I’m busy getting things Geetha-approved.”
“We have a blog?”

I set out to find out exactly why we haven’t updated this space recently, (completely unannounced, perhaps against their wills, and without even the most perfunctory duties of a stylist or paid hair/makeup professional.)

Here’s what they said.

Advocacy at work: storytellers helping condo resorts shine

With OPMA Spring Executive Summit around the corner, we’ve been taking some time to reflect on this amazing partnership, while also looking ahead at 2019 for property managers.

That’s inspired us to also take some time to celebrate some of our fellow OPMA members and property managers who are tapping the advocacy marketing platform to create authentic conversations, nurture lasting relationships, and craft rich experiences with their property at the center.

Take a look at a few of our personal favorite storytellers at work for these properties, each and every day.

Atlantica Resort

Atlantica Resort is at the center of this memory from Morgan and her family. The impact is growing each and every day, with Morgan alone reaching over 1,700 site visitors and 150 warm leads to folks just one degree away—and the perfect fit for this beachside resort.

Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort

With advocacy, Sandestin is winning new audiences who are the perfect match for their resort. Jennifer and Louise joined their fellow travelers who shared their stories worldwide, reaching an audience of nearly a quarter-of-a-million and earning over 2,700 warm leads in only 4 months.

What’s that mean for Sandestin? They’re building new relationships and sparking authentic conversations in the most trusted way possible, at a scale like never before.

Resort Collection

Angela and Matt were fellow guests at Resort Collection. These storytellers joined other travelers who helped earn thousands of warm leads—now in authentic, personal conversations—to nurture for a future visit to this Panhandle property.

Sterling Resorts

With Flip.to, Sterling Resorts is winning over new audiences who are the perfect fit.

In fact, Barbara and Brittany are just two guests who joined fellow storytellers who are helping reach an audience of over 94,000 each and every month.

The Beach Club

By tapping Flip.to, The Beach Club’s guests are sharing the highlights of their stay with friends and family worldwide, driving the warmest traffic with higher conversion for pennies on the dollar.

Turquoise Place

Betty and Stephanie shared their experiences with Turquoise Place at the center to those who matter the most—their family and friends.

This like-minded demographic went on to share these stories, too. Together, they’re helping Turquoise Place reach new audiences of over 85,000 each and every month, helping this family-friendly, beachside property earn hundreds of personal introductions to an audience who are just one degree away.

Vista Cay Resort

Building relationships with travelers has always been a top priority for the team at Vista Cay Resort. Each and every day they craft rich experiences for every traveler’s journey with their brand at the center.

Guests like Gayle and Kara, shared their incredible stories to friends and family—other like-minded travelers—which helped the Vista Cay earn hundreds of warm introductions to future travelers the perfect demographic for their resort.

These are just a few of the storytellers netting new audiences of travelers, each and every day. If you’d like to see what the advocacy marketing platform can do for your property or condo resort, let’s talk!

Storytellers at work: spark relationships with new audiences

Hotels strive to deliver hospitality to create memories their guests will rekindle. And spreading the word about these moments-made-special, or standout service? That’s always going to be most impactful when done by those who experienced it first-hand: your guests.

Letting travelers tell their stories is not only authentic and trusted, but also introduces your property to quality, new audiences at a massive scale.

That’s what Flip.to is all about. We turn travelers into storytellers who help organizations—large and small—drive high-quality, warm traffic with higher conversion than any other marketing channel.

And today, we’re looking at a few of our current favorites.

Lake Arrowhead Resort and Spa

Jeniah and Matthew were just two travelers alongside fellow guests at Lake Arrowhead Resort who’ve helped their property reach over 50,000 like-minded future travelers in just the last 3 months. This has helped earn hundreds of warm leads, each in 1-to-1 personal conversations with this mountainside property.

La Concha Renaissance Resort

Thanks to Yaniara and other traveler-turned-storytellers, a new audience of over 60,000 was reached in only 90 days, earning nearly 1,000 warm leads. The best part? Each one of those future travelers being nurtured down the path to becoming future guests.

Banyan Tree Mayakoba

Kyle and Cory were just two travelers who visited Banyan Tree Mayakoba that shared the highlight of their stay with the property at the center. Together with fellow guests, Banyan Tree reached an audience of 164,568, earning over 4,000 warm leads to the waterside resort in just 4 months.

But what does that really mean? They’re sparking relationships with this new audience in the most authentic way possible, and nurturing personal conversations with each and every one.

Art Ovation Hotel

Robin and Dorene were fellow guests at Art Ovation Hotel. These storytellers joined other travelers who helped earn hundreds of warm leads, now in thoughtful conversations that are leading down the path to a future stay—opening up an entirely new channel, for pennies on the dollar compared to other marketing efforts.

Viceroy Los Cabos

Anayeli—traveler to Viceroy Los Cabos—shared this incredible story with her friends & family—other like-minded travelers the perfect fit for their luxury, beachside property—she helped the resort earn hundreds of personal introductions to an audience who all just one degree away.

Playa Largo Resort & Spa

With the advocacy marketing platform, Playa Largo Resort is winning over new audiences who are the perfect fit, each and every day. Lucas and Marisa joined fellow storytellers who are helping reach an audience of over 60,000 potential guests each and every month. This helped earn over 2,700 leads who are in 1-to-1, personal conversations with Playa Largo.

These are just a few of the many unforgettable experiences being shared to new audiences of travelers each and every day. If you’d like to see more, let’s talk!

Industry take: a look ahead for property managers with Millenium’s Maurice Arbelaez

In May, we’re headed to the 2019 OPMA Executive Summit, our third since becoming members earlier a couple of years back.

And there’s good reason. We have the chance to reconnect with our travel industry friends, while also looking at the leading edge of an industry.

To this end, we caught up with Maurice Arbelaez, Corporate Director of Sales & Marketing for Millenium Management, for his take on what’s in store for property managers nationwide.

Last year, you told us that you felt OPMA was “a key organization in helping the property management industry maintain high standards of service, guest experience and infrastructure.”

The OPMA Executive Summit seems to be a great outlet for doing just that. Going into the summit, what are some of the things you feel the industry will gain? What “big solves” do you feel lodging providers are looking at heading into OPMA?

As a maturing industry, we’re at a tipping point where the need to establish industry standards that ensure the highest level of service is no longer a want, it’s a must. Maintaining this quality helps exceed the expectations of all travelers, ultimately helping condo resorts and property managers compete as a whole with hotels and beyond.

To do so collaboration at all levels is crucial, and that’s exactly where the OPMA organization and this summit come in. Its members bring education and best practices to the forefront in every core part of the business, from marketing to operations, stemming from one big goal: bettering our industry together.

More than ever, it feels like keeping a pulse on the direction of property management and marketing is a must. What are the expectations you see for property managers in 2019?

Building relationships with our travelers is at the core of what we’re all about as hospitality providers. Personal service and attention to detail is how we handle this on property.

For us, the same must be true in our marketing efforts and communication. We’re seeking to have better, more personal conversations with travelers, with the same personal touches they receive when they arrive.

We’re prioritizing marketing partnerships in these key areas to introduce our condo resorts to new audiences, and then keep in touch with them in more authentic ways.

In fact, word of mouth, reviews and social have been the most effective channels to create new business and loyal visitors. These audiences embrace authenticity, and have raised their expectations for us in travel—which is only set to continue in 2019.

As the industry grows and more big players get involved, how should property managers be thinking about their approach?

I see two key opportunities for property managers to take part in driving the industry.

First, define and uphold our standards, commanding recognition of condo resorts as a top player in the market. This will only be achieved by working together to ensure we’re positioned as a relevant player in the marketplace. (Which leads to the second point.)

Establish and develop collaborative partnerships with key players: thought-leaders in the industry, and those who aren’t afraid to challenge today’s standards and ideas to make them better. The OPMA organization and its members seek to do just this.

A common effort to better market our product; to maintain and grow stronger relationships with travelers; and to discuss and share synergies, challenge ideas and encourage growth, will solidify our position and relevance in the wider travel industry.

A heavy weight in the industry, Maurice has years of hospitality experience in everything from operations to marketing. For more thoughts from Maurice and Millenium Management, give him a follow here.

Plus, we’re always looking to spark ideas and conversations in travel. How do you feel about the trajectory of property management? What strategies and tactics will you be employing? Join in and don’t be afraid to let us know here.