Stories that inspire: our favorite guest moments from March

Every guest story is an opportunity for a hotel to unveil something new. Stories reach & inspire—they’re truly memorable, sometimes magical, and a lot of times, a bit of fun.

In a way, we’ve fallen in love with guest stories, and every day see firsthand the impact they’re making for hotels. That’s why we’re sharing them with you! Check out a handful of our recent favorites below:

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Barefoot Cay Resort — Roatan, Bay Islands, Honduras

“Top notch accommodations in a perfect location with incredibly knowledgeable, caring, attentive and professional dive staff.” — Sherry W.

Dive in
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Adrift Hotel & Spa — Long Beach, Washington

“Our dog is a rescue from Iran and had never seen the ocean before. It was a hoot to let her run off-leash on the beach for the first time; to be completely honest, we weren’t sure she would ever come back! Adrift is a haven for dog lovers and a beautiful destination year-round. We loved visiting in early March, there were times when we had the whole beach to ourselves and the stormy ocean was indescribably beautiful.” — Danielle J.

Take a stroll
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The Stanley Hotel — Estes Park, Colorado

“The hotel and the area are beautiful. Our room was regal!” — Barbi B.

(And our very first drone photo!)

Take flight
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SeaVenture Beach Hotel — Pismo Beach, California

“Room was small but cozy and clean, breakfast was great, hot tub on balcony was very relaxing!” — Dan H.

Grab the wheel
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Hotel El Ganzo — Los Cabos, Baja California Sur, Mexico

“The food, service, and ambiance on the rooftop bar were superb. I’m dreaming of that ceviche!” — Connor S.

Catch some rays
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The Lodge at Woodloch — The Poconos, Hawley, Pennsylvania

“The opportunity to really relax and feel totally pampered. At 8 months pregnant, this was the perfect weekend escape!” — Kate F.

Let’s relax
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Crystal Lodge — Whistler, British Columbia, Canada

“The staff was really helpful when I was booking my room.”
— Delan W.

Hit the slopes
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Turtle Bay Resort — Oahu’s North Shore, Kahuku, Hawaii

The photo says it all. No quote needed—am I right?

Hear the waves
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Pacific Terrace Hotel — San Diego, California

“Hotel is in a perfect location. Easy walk to the beach and many restaurants, shops, etc. Staff is super friendly and helpful. 2nd time there and will be going back” — Brooke M.

Enjoy the sunset
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Avanti Resort — Orlando, Florida

“Avanti Resort have great staff, brilliant location, lovely spacious rooms and really good swimming pool hours to unwind in after a tough day out in the parks.” — Adam M.

Experience the magic
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The Platinum Hotel — Las Vegas, Nevada

“We loved being so close to the strip at a smoke-free facility. The staff was so friendly and our view was amazing!” — Kristin N.

See the view
Check back next month for even more. See any stories that stand out? Let us know!

Quantity, meet quality—what happens when reach and trust combine for your hotel

When you use the term “reach” in social marketing, you’re probably referring to level of social connection measured in followers—for example, your hotel’s network of fans. Other times, it may also mean the number of users touched by a paid campaign, from social ads to remarketing and the like.

And these aren’t bad things—your hotel’s social channels are just another way for guests to subscribe to your content and for you to promote your hotel. Nurture this audience by providing relevant and timely content to keep them coming back. (Read more on why great content is a really good thing.)

However, there are some obvious shortcomings to social if the above describes your hotel’s only approach. Here are two:

  1. You’re limiting your opportunity to reach a new audience by solely communicating with your existing followers.
  2. Your content is de-prioritized so only a fraction of your existing audience will see it and have the opportunity to engage.

So even if you’ve built a great base, growing and reaching new followers is a challenge. Facebook has dramatically limited organic reach, and as mentioned above, marketers must resort to paid to get exposure to their own fans, as well as have the opportunity to reach new ones.

Or do they? It’s time to rethink reach.

The new opportunity to grow.

The key is to rethink your approach to social. Rather than a house for your content to live, think of your social channels as a distribution vehicle instead—and your guests are in the driver’s seat.

The landscape of social for hotels is constantly changing. There are challenges in the ability to see measurable results and the limitations introduced by many of the large social networks have made it even more difficult for hotels to stay relevant. So where can you get real value? The key is to rethink your approach to social. Rather than a house for your content to live, think of your social channels as a distribution vehicle instead—and your guests are in the driver’s seat.

On average, travelers have about 225 friends and colleagues in their social networks. While that may initially seem small, consider the number of guests that visit your hotel. Multiply that by 225, and it’s not hard to see the enormous, untapped opportunity to grow your reach, every single day.

This potential can even exceed that of your existing marketing efforts—with one key difference. This reach leads to new introductions to your hotel coming from a familiar face of someone they know, making the interaction more engaging and far more trustworthy than paid ads. (More on that below.)

Here’s a real world example.

Since joining Facebook in 2009, Caribe Royale Hotel & Convention Center, an all-suite property in the heart of Orlando, has built a following of well over 10,000 fans. This is an outstanding audience who are opted-in, and Caribe Royale do a great job of providing engaging content like real guest stories and candid experiences of their hotel.

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On average, a single advocate reached 285 contacts, introducing Caribe Royale to an incredibly receptive audience. See the full story here.

But what happened when the hotel started asking its guests to be the promoters? In the last 3 years with advocacy, they’ve reached a potential audience of over 1.6 million people. That’s a new audience 160x larger than their existing fanbase on Facebook!

Since each guest is sharing to their own network, the hotel is not only reaching a new audience of future travelers with every advocate, but the content also has a higher priority.

Quantity, meet quality—when reach and trust combine.

What’s even better than multiplying your reach by a hundredfold? Every person in that new audience learned about the hotel through an authentic story from a friend or colleague—someone they know and trust.

In fact, a recent study found that 63% of travelers worldwide rate friends and family recommendations as a top influence when selecting a vacation destination. The case is even more compelling when you consider that 92% of travelers worldwide say they trust earned media above all other forms of advertising.

Did I also mention that these networks tend to be full of like-minded individuals with similar travel and purchasing habits as your hotel’s advocate?

With advocacy, your hotel’s reach is not only at a massive scale, but the quality of these 1-to-1 brand introductions can’t be achieved any other way.

Interested in learning about how you can go global? Give one of our certified advocologists a shout.

Flip.to on the road: NAVIS Leaders Conference

This year’s NAVIS Leaders Conference (NLC) recently wrapped up and we are honored to have been invited to participate. There were about 80 different companies represented, ranging from vacation rentals to large resorts and historic properties all over North America. Also represented were many industry leading companies like GCommerce, HeBS Digital, and Miles Partnership.

What I found particularly interesting were the keynote presentations where Peter Yesawich and Larry Mogelonsky dove into the experiential economy and how hotels can and must adapt their strategies (online and offline) to remain competitive.

And the Navis partner hotels couldn’t be in better hands to deliver on those challenges. It was evident that Navis took great care to focus more on the “why it should be done this way” and less on the “how-to” aspects of their services. This is precisely what an attendee is looking for both in a partner and in how they put their travel budget to work.

Here’s a short video recapping the 3-day event from our perspective. I was only left with one question: where’s NLC 2017 going to be?

 

Unlock our new e-course: Reignite your loyal base

Together, loyalty and advocacy spark huge return for repeat business. Enroll in our e-course to learn how to harness recognition and extend personal interactions with your guests.

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Turn loyal followers from simply point-redeemers into a marketing powerhouse.






With a new lesson sent to your inbox each week for 5 weeks, we’ll cover the industry shift towards aspirational marketing and what it means for hoteliers, plus how to attract, inspire and keep loyal guests.

As you’ll soon see, loyalty done right fosters advocacy, and the two are a more powerful than the sum of their parts. Each read takes only 5–8 minutes, so, you’ll be able to apply these lessons and lift your loyalty program to new heights in no time.

Join us as we explore more in-depth lessons with every installment.

Get enrolled


Meet the instructor

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Richard Dunbar

Director of Partnerships

Hi there—Richard here at Flip.to. I’ve been in the hospitality space for over 15 years, including several at one of the largest providers of independent loyalty reward programs worldwide. After picking up my fair share on loyalty, I’ve been able to put it all together with revenue management, e-commerce, and now advocacy. I’m happy to share what I’ve learned with you as you come aboard.

Advocacy is knocking: 50 booking partners open new doors

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Reaching 50 booking engine partners is a huge milestone for our team, but an even bigger deal for hotels.

Why’s it such a big deal? It’s because we’ve built deep relationships with our partners so we can ensure quick and simple onboarding for our customers.

Getting started with Flip.to is as easy as a copy and paste into your booking engine and website–similar to how you’d set up a Google Analytics tracking code. That’s it. Once you’re set up, the whole platform is out-of-the-box and ready for your hotel to start letting your guests introduce your hotel to their friends and family across the globe.

Check out the full-list on our Partners page. If you don’t see your provider, just let us know! Thanks to our strong industry relationships, there’s a good chance we know your provider, and can get you up and running in no time.