There’s a social status for every status

“Social media is just a fad,” raved early critics. Looking back, it’s almost ridiculous to think, as it’s quickly become an indispensable part of a hotel’s digital strategy. In 2015, 65% of all internet-using adults use social media, compared to just 11% in 2006—and that number is still on the rise. Facebook has over 1.55 billion users, and other social networks are growing at an outstanding rate. Simply put, social media doesn’t plan on moving out anytime soon.

Hoteliers can benefit from engaging potential future guests with social media to help foster loyal brand communities, and even reach new audiences. In fact, hotels have some of the most to gain from this channel since users already love to share their travel experiences with friends and family, and their social networks are the vehicle to do so.

Below you’ll find some key elements that will bolster your digital strategy across all of your guests, and why social use is an important channel when it comes to influencing travel decisions early on in the travel planning process, regardless of age or demographic.

Social media–spanning the ages

Social Media Usage, Pew Research Center

In the dawn of modern social media, (circa 2006) users between the ages of 18-29 dominated social media adoption. Even though they still lead the pack, the age gap is quickly closing for other groups. In fact, the largest growth in the past 5 years is a tie between users 30-49 and 65+ years old. Today, 75% of adults between the ages of 30 and 49 use social media sites, and 50% between the ages of 50 and 64.

When it comes to booking travel, 83% of those surveyed in Google’s 2014 Traveler’s Road to Decision cited social networking, video, or photo sites as their top online sources of inspiration. This key indication shows that the research phase is a clear branding opportunity for hotel marketers. Plus, keep in mind that when potential future guests are considering a travel destination, 92% say they trust “earned” media—the recommendations from friends and family—above all other forms of advertising.

This points to social media as a top channel hotels should be using to reach potential guests. A single person is connected to hundreds of friends & family across the world, and one person’s story travels further to that audience than ever before. Use this to your advantage to introduce your hotel to an audience of like-minded travelers who are the perfect guest for your hotel.

Affluent travelers and social media

The best luxury brands tell the best brand stories. They’ve established their guests’ personas—understanding who they are, what they care about, and how to reach them with the right message.

Affluent travelers equally value the internet and word of mouth as the most important sources for inspiring personal travel. With this information, social media is a compelling, targeted and cost effective avenue for brands to tell stories and inspire potential future guests.

Jade Mountain guest photo by @angiesilverspoon

Karolin Troubetzkoy, executive director/owner of The Jade Mountain, a AAA 5-diamond resort featuring expansive, luxurious suites and private infinity pools in St. Lucia with rates starting on average of $1575 per night, said guests take it upon themselves to generate a strong social media experience. As she puts it, “When you have a property that is so photogenic, almost everyone is posting immediately on arrival. As a result, social media is the No. 1 driver of our business.”

Social media is also a key influencer of organic search engine results. Since 59% of those who start their research online state that search engines are their go-to source for travel ideas and information, using quality content on social to help boost these rankings is a given. The people from Moz—an industry-leading tool for measuring, monitoring and evaluating a website’s level of search engine optimization—conducts a Search Engine Rankings Factors survey every two years. In their 2015 survey, social media was the 9th most influential factor on search engine rankings.

Hoteliers cannot ignore social media for any age group or demographic, especially when considering the impact it has on potential future guests’ travel decisions, and the fact that nearly 70% of the population uses social media.

The friends, relatives & colleagues of your guests are the perfect demographic for your hotel to reach. Whether your hotel fits in business, leisure, resort, limited service or luxury, start making trusted introductions to entirely new audiences of future guests. Hotels worldwide use Flip.to to do just that.

If you want to learn more about how advocacy is a game changer for your hotel’s social media strategy, check out the perspective from our president, Edward St. Onge, in Making sense of social for hotel managers and owners.

Advocacy–a game changer for social media

In September, my post Making sense of social media—how to create the conversation about your hotel highlighted my article on Global Hotel Network’s Perspective column. Until now the article was exclusively accessible for GHN members. Today I’m glad to announce the article is available to everyone!

It takes a deep dive into the impact of social and how doing it right can turn into trackable ROI for your hotel. Check out the full article, below:

Create the Conversation About Your Hotel

Making sense of social for hotel managers and owners

Remember those predictions where we’d all be walking around with a computer chip implanted in our arm—our every move being watched? It turns out they were pretty close, except we choose to carry that chip around in our cell phone. That same device lets us communicate with everyone we want at all hours of the day. In turn, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter have become wildly popular and they continue to grab more and more time in our daily lives.

From a marketing perspective, it just makes sense that hoteliers would try to reach potential guests on these sites. At the end of 2014, Facebook had nearly 1.4 Billion users on their network alone. Most hotel marketers did what the social media “experts” recommended and built an audience of “Followers” and “Fans.” And that was a good thing at the time.

But as social media continues to grow, what were once open platforms are now starting to look more like walled gardens. Brands are invited to come into the garden but you must follow their rules, and since they have control, they can change the game at any time they want. Remember that fan base you built on Facebook? Guess what? Now you have to pay to reach out to them—an understandable move as these social sites still need to make money. For hotels, it brings social media closer to other forms of paid advertising than a real conversation with your guests.

This brings up a good question—is “social media” really “social” anymore? What is meant to be a dialog between friends has lost all forms of personality. When I take a look at the majority of how hotels approach social interactions with guests, I see them dumping time (and money) into posting uninspired content. This just adds to the social noise, getting lost in hundreds of other messages competing to gain exposure on your guest’s news feed—more than 1,500 at a time on average, according to Facebook.

Consumer Trust in Online, Social and Mobile Advertising Grows. — Via Nielsen

Fortunately, hotels have the most to gain from the evolution of these social sites because people already love to talk about their travels. Friends also like to hear about these travels, as they imagine themselves visiting new destinations. In fact, recommendations from family and friends is the top influencer when choosing a vacation destination. According to Nielsen, 92% of people say they trust EARNED media (recommendations from friends and family) above ALL other forms of advertising. Our philosophy on social is this—get people talking to other people about your hotel. When that happens, you create advocacy.

A single guest can reach hundreds and sometimes thousands of potential future guests beyond the scope of your current fan base.

Advocacy is a game-changer for how hoteliers use social media. The content is real and shareable—we’re talking about authentic stories of guest experiences, amazing pictures taken at the hotel, and great examples of the hotel’s happy staff. A single guest can reach hundreds and sometimes thousands of potential future guests beyond the scope of your current fan base. How many new guests does your hotel reach every day? If handled correctly, these truly social shares can translate into real, trackable ROI for your hotel.

Guests with particularly large social followings can have a huge impact all by themselves. Hoteliers who want to understand their guests have the ability to identify and engage these social influencers before they even step foot on property. Our hotel partners have been able to interact with celebrity chefs, pro surfers and DJs after they have shared their upcoming trip with their significant number of social followers. A little special treatment made their stay a lot more memorable—and guess what? Memorable service leads to even more advocacy.

Using social to reach new audiences makes a ton of sense. The trick is get people talking to people about your hotel, instead of brands shouting messages over and over to the same audience.

GlobalHotelNetwork.com is a thought leader coalition, providing expert market insights and thought leadership perspectives to C-level executives in the global travel and tourism industry.

Over 100 industry leaders serve on GlobalHotelNetwork.com’s industry committees and Advisory Board.

For more on this leading industry resource, visit their website at GlobalHotelNetwork.com

Flip.to is a member of GlobalHotelNetwork.com and Mr. St.Onge is a member of GHN’s Technology Committee.

Citations:

Citations Manalo, J. (2015, April). Why Being Social on Facebook Isn’t Enough for Travel Brands. Retrieved from http://skift.com/2015/02/03/why-being-social-on-facebook-isnt-enough-for-travel-brands/

Boland, B. (2014, June). Organic Reach on Facebook: Your Questions Answered. Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/business/news/Organic-Reach-on-Facebook

Benecke, R.; Missildine, C.; & Costello, A. (2012) Text100 Digital Index: Travel & Tourism Study. Retrieved from http://static.hosteltur.com/web/uploads/2012/12/ Text100DigitalIndexTravelTourismStud.pdf

Consumer Trust in Online, Social and Mobile Advertising Grows. (2012, April). Retrieved from http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/news/2012/consumer-trust-in-online-social-andmobile-advertisinggrows.html

4 key insights into social advocacy for hotels

There are a ton of social networks out there, each intending to do different things and appeal to different demographics. But as a hotel, which ones should you really care about? The answer to this question depends largely on who you ask. I could lecture about what I think are the best choices but I find it’s a lot more fun (and relevant) to simply look at the data—and we have lots of data.

Flip.to has been the advocacy platform for hotels and theme parks for over five years. In that time we’ve helped our clients connect with their guests in meaningful ways. In doing so, we’ve been able to collect a huge amount of data, and observe how the big three (Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn) social networks, well, work.

Here’s how we define social engagement, plus 4 key takeaways to pull back the shroud, and help guide your hotel’s social engagement efforts with your guests.

Social Engagement

Social Sharing

In Flip.to’s space, a “share” is defined as someone who’s booked a room at your property and then told their friends and family about it using a social network. Sharing is crucial because it represents the “top-of-funnel” when we’re talking about advocacy. These advocates’ voices are powerful, delivering an impactful message that comes from a trusted friend rather than a corporation.
When it comes to sharing, Facebook is the clear winner. This isn’t a big shock because Facebook is arguably, if not absolutely, the most popular social network in most parts of the world today. What’s interesting here is just how popular it is relative to Twitter and LinkedIn. Facebook represents nearly 58% of all sharing through the Flip.to platform. Twitter is a distant second at 27%, and LinkedIn represents the remainder.

Social Connectedness

When we talk about social connectedness, what we’re really saying is “reach.” High sharing volume is great, but paired with massive reach it’s even more powerful.

In the last five years, Flip.to has helped its customers reach over 60 million connections through advocacy.

So how does that break down by network?

Again, Facebook rules the roost. Of those 60 million connections, 69% can be attributed to Facebook. Twitter is an even more distant second with about 25%, and LinkedIn rounds out the balance. It’s important to note that the difference between first and second here is significant. Not only does Facebook represent more social connections, it represents more connections per advocate as well—creating a multiplier effect.

Unique Visitors

Any time an advocate shares an upcoming trip to a social network, there’s an invitation for her connections to visit the property’s website and learn more. Plus there’s an incentive attached to entice that person to book in the future. Driving traffic to the property’s website means there’s an opportunity to win over this prospect and secure a sale down the road, cutting out any intermediaries.

Here’s where our journey gets really interesting. At the time of this analysis, Flip.to had generated over 2 million unique visitors for its customers. Of those 2 million, nearly 60% came from Twitter. Facebook, now the distant second, represented about 34%. Despite creating the majority of advocates and despite those advocates representing greater social reach than all others, Facebook could not deliver the same volume of website traffic that Twitter could.

Potential Future Guests

Once a friend or family member lands on the property’s website, a customized message invites them to sign-up and lock in an incentive for a future stay. Those that sign-up represent a pool of potential future travelers for the property. They’ve been given the best introduction possible—that of a trusted source—and now they have an incentive in-hand to experience the property for themselves. For the hotel, the marketing potential here is huge, so capturing those sign-ups is critical.

Facebook manages to pull ahead again here by a large margin. 62% of all sign-ups originated from a Facebook post. Taking it a bit further, about 12% of all advocacy originating from Facebook will result in a sign-up on the hotel’s website. With Twitter it’s closer to 3% and with LinkedIn it’s nearly spot-on 2%. LinkedIn did manage to close the gap as we moved through the conversion funnel.

Key Insights to Guide Your Hotel’s Social

Know (and be) where your guests are

With the majority of social advocacy taking place on Facebook and Twitter it’s safe to conclude your guests are active on these social networks so you should be too. There’s more to it than just having a presence but that’s a discussion for another time. If you’re looking to invest in one over the other, Facebook is likely your best route but it’s critical you understand your customer demographic before diving in. Don’t assume one is the clear winner every time.

(Relevant) Content is King

People are better connected via Facebook than they are through either Twitter or LinkedIn. Since we know they prefer to share via Facebook, this means that sharing relevant, meaningful content with your audience can be more impactful through this channel. Take advantage of the multiplier I mentioned and ensure that your message is hitting home.

Posts that include photos receive 120% more engagement than the average post.
Via BitRebels

Tailor messages based on the channel and the audience

Twitter is a massive broadcasting tool that makes up for fewer connections, but with a more active audience. We demonstrated that you can effectively drive direct traffic by taking advantage of your guests’ connectedness over Twitter.

While it may not convert at the same level as Facebook, there’s something to be said about volume. Adjusting your messaging on that channel can help to improve conversion and bridge the gap. Additionally, Twitter was designed to be a conversational tool, unlike the other channels. When you’ve been tagged in a tweet that’s an open invitation to engage in a conversation with that person. Each subsequent tweet can reach that same audience time and time again.

Know how to convert social traffic

The Facebook crowd is more likely to convert and sign-up on your website, underscoring the importance of this channel. It may not bring as many people to your site as Twitter does, but those that come are there for a reason.

Understanding where these potential future guests are in the travel booking process is crucial. Be sure to have content on your website that appeals to a socially-minded audience. A sign-up for an offer they can claim on a future trip, for instance, may be more relevant to this viewer. This not only keeps people on your site longer, it improves conversion. Lookers turn into bookers when they see an experience that’s aspirational and attainable. Seeing that experience through the eyes of former guests is as real as it can get without being there yourself. So consider your on-site messaging and what story it’s telling your potential guests.

The biggest lesson from this analysis is that it’s immensely important that hotels understand their guests and that they make some effort to tap into their guests’ social connectedness.

Every guest that walks through a hotel’s door represents an opportunity to create the experience that guest is expecting.

Hotels are great at this. But thinking beyond the on-property experience, every guest represents a social network of their own, like-minded friends and family. Tapping into that network can yield great benefits when done thoughtfully.

Be a part of the future of hotel marketing and revenue management with RevPAR Hacking

Hot off the press from Flip.to and industry leaders, RevPAR Hacking is the ultimate guide to the impact of revenue culture. Not only will readers get insight from leading experts in their field, but they’ll also learn the tips and tools to put them at the forefront of hotel marketing and revenue management.

So what does it mean for a hotel to have a revenue culture?

By aligning collective goals, teams work together as they aspire to generate the most revenue—and the entire organization will reap the rewards. In fact, so will the guests, as there will be more resources available to serve their needs. A revenue culture spans everyone responsible for driving the hotel’s bottom line—marketing, e-commerce, revenue management and sales succeed by sharing revenue considerations at every level of their strategy.

To go further, guest data and revenue data should inform one another at every level. A comprehensive revenue approach to this degree will not only align your teams, it’ll also target the most profitable business for your hotel—the right guest at the right price.

In RevPAR Hacking, industry thought leaders open up on how they’ve created a growth-minded revenue culture that has set up their teams for success. These models shed light on the ‘hows’ and the ‘whys’ of revenue culture, but also why it’s a valuable (and inevitable) shift for hotels who continue to seek growth.

A revenue culture that aligns your hotel’s goals will be a key driver of success—your team, your guests, and your bottom line will all win.

See for yourself how RevPAR Hacking reveals the impact of revenue culture, plus the thoughtful approaches to get you there.

Seeing is believing

Making sense of social media—how to create the conversation about your hotel

Our very own President, Edward St. Onge, was recently featured on Global Hotel Network’s Perspectives column, a site that provides market insights and thought leadership to executives in the global travel and tourism industry. Flip.to is proud to be a member of the online network, and Ed himself sits on the GHN’s Technology Committee.

The column, Create the Conversation About Your Hotel takes a deep dive into the value hotels can see from social media, even as it’s constantly evolving.

Social media was born as a conversation between friends—users sign online to connect with their family and colleagues. It makes sense that hotels want to be a part of the conversation. But it’s important to do so in a way that doesn’t fall by the wayside. As Ed notes in his perspective, hotels often put time and money into posting uninspired content:

“This just adds to the social noise, getting lost in hundreds of other messages competing to gain exposure on your guest’s news feed—more than 1,500 at a time on average, according to Facebook.”

That’s a lot to compete with at any given moment! So how do you cut through the clutter? For hotels, the trick is advocacy. Ed adds:

“Advocacy is a game-changer for how hoteliers use social media. The content is real and shareable—we’re talking about authentic stories of guest experiences, amazing pictures taken at the hotel, and great examples of the hotel’s happy staff. A single guest can reach hundreds and sometimes thousands of potential future guests beyond the scope of your current fan base. How many new guests does your hotel reach every day? If handled correctly, these truly social shares can translate into real, trackable ROI for your hotel.”

With advocacy, hotels can truly tap into the potential that social channels bring to the table. For more, check out Ed’s full perspectives piece featured on GlobalHotelNetwork.com.

How to boost your hotel loyalty program with advocacy

Loyalty programs have become a necessity to compete for the fleeting interest of the frequent traveler. Hotels are increasingly using loyalty to attract the “right” guest, rather than just trying to fill rooms. Advocacy, on the other hand, can be as simple as a word of mouth referral or a powerful testimonial. Like loyalty, it can be used to attract the right customer—only this time, it does so by reaching like-minded customers through their social networks. But, in the end, not all loyal customers are advocates, and not all advocates are loyal customers. So how do loyalty and advocacy work together?

The time-tested approach of creating programs and incentives that reward loyal customers, though struggling, can still be effective. Re-thinking this model to combine advocacy with loyalty creates an environment in which there’s no incentive to book anywhere other than directly.

Flip.to is doing just that. By turning guests into engaged advocates, trusted brand connections are built, and frequent travelers become key promoters for your hotel. Here are some of our key findings to successfully bridge the gap between loyalty and advocacy:

Membership: For loyalty programs to flourish it’s crucial there be network growth over time. Members tend to stay longer, spend more, and return more frequently. Additionally, loyalty programs cost real dollars to implement, and hotels understandably wish to drive enrollments wherever possible. By integrating loyalty into a guest engagement or advocacy strategy, not only will network membership grow, but it will do so in a way that is largely automated and, therefore, far more scalable.
Engagement: Combined, a hotel’s guests have far greater reach than any marketing effort it could ever undertake on its own. Hotels that focus on driving engagement are able to put this massive reach to proper use. By putting loyalty points on the table as the incentive, a hotel can boost or maintain already high engagement while also directly linking loyalty and advocacy in the guest’s mind. It demonstrates that loyalty can be an engaging pathway for turning hotel guests into advocates and reinforces the value of the loyalty program for the guest.
Member Value: Measuring and understanding the value that loyalty program members bring back to the hotel is clearly important, and it can help define which enrollment initiatives should be pursued more aggressively. Guests who enroll in loyalty programs through advocacy initiatives, on average, return equal value to the hotel as those enrolled elsewhere. Considering the ease of implementation and the time-saving automation available through this approach, the integrated method can deliver real value to the hotel’s bottom line.
Automation: Behind the attractive veneer of any loyalty program there are real costs, both in hard dollars and human capital. Besides facilitating scale, automation can reduce these costs and free up the hotel’s associates for valuable guest interaction. An integrated approach to loyalty and advocacy means the member enrolls prior to arriving. The hotel is now capturing meaningful data about the guest before they even arrive, creating opportunities to enhance the guest experience and a compelling path to up-selling.

Both loyalty and advocacy have their place in a hotel’s toolkit. Combined, they represent something greater than the sum of their parts. By implementing a guest advocacy strategy that incorporates loyalty, hotels are able to engage with their guests in a natural and meaningful way that drives results. And the best part is that everyone walks away a winner!

Collaborate with your guests at a higher level

For years hotels have focused on building relationships with their guests. But with top-notch guest service, is there more you could be doing to engage them? And what will the benefit be for your hotel’s bottom line?

The answer to the former is a resounding ‘yes,’ but to understand how to engage better, (and how this drives revenue) you first have to understand your guest better. Harvard Business Review’s recent article “What Apple, Lending Club, and AirBnB Know About Collaborating with Customers” gives insight on how to do it right. Below are some lessons learned that hit home with the Flip.to team:

Identify guest affinity for the best engagement. Transactors, supporters, and promoters may all be purchasers, but the sweet spot lies with co-creators. Co-creators are so engaged with the brand, that by sharing in creation, they receive value in return. They’re excited to share about your brand, advocating to their network on your behalf. In return, you may give them some special treatment to enhance their experience even more, (and even promote a higher level of co-creation.)
Convert guests into passionate brand advocates. When you understand your guests level of affinity, you’ll be able to cultivate these relationships and reach their valuable customer networks. For example, when guests advocate on your behalf, friends and colleagues trust their opinion more than any ad.
Drive results through engagement. According to HBR, “research shows that companies that facilitate a network of co-creators deliver shareholder value two to four times greater than companies that don’t leverage co-creation business models.”
Start at the top. This shift in creating value should be central to the brand. Not only will value increase, but you’ll see more engagement and innovation.

When your guests are creative, thoughtful and really love your brand, collaborate! Co-creation leads to really great things for both company and customer—everybody wins. It’s something we focus on daily in the world of advocacy.

Check out the full Harvard Business Review article here.

An early 2014 hotel marketing compass for the social landscape

The ever-changing social landscape means that sales and marketing efforts need to tweak their focus on a pretty regular basis to stay effective. So where should you focus your time and efforts? The infographic below provides a nice breakdown of the more popular sites and the sweet spot for each.

via Leverage.

Facebook is still leading the pack with 1 billion users. In a relatively young space, they are the granddaddy. What makes their user base interesting is that 50% of their users fall into the 35-64 year age bracket. For most hotels that is their demographic sweet spot.

Twitter has the next highest user base. The average Twitter user has 208 followers. This site has the best gender equality of all of the sites with a roughly 50/50 breakdown of male/female users. However, women tweet more frequently than men.

Google+ is adding a significant number of users on a daily basis. However, the stat that speaks the loudest is how much time their users actually spend on the site. The average G+ user only spends 3 minutes per month on the site. Compare that to the average 405 minutes per month a Facebook user spends and the value of the network is greatly diminished.

LinkedIn is still the largest business networking site out there. What makes their fan base so interesting is that they tend to be early adopters and over 60% of their members have high personal incomes and 79% are 35 or older. Members are represented in 200 different countries with Latin and South American countries realizing the largest growth in recent years. There is even one member who lists their profession as “Martini Whisperer” and no, it’s not me.

Pinterest seems to be catching everyone’s eye these days, or at least female eyes. 68% of their users are female. This site allows people to discover more about their passions and connect with others that share those passions. On the down side, the networks are somewhat skewed. The average user has 229 followers but only follows 20 people.

Instagram has become more and more powerful, especially now with the Facebook checkbook backing it. It is a great way for brands to create an image that connects with its followers where they control the content. It’s a mobile app with a distinct user demographic. Over 90% of its user base falls into the 18-34 category so if that isn’t your target demographic, this site may not be as powerful for you.

What’s the conclusion of all of this? The obvious one is you need to have a social presence. But if you are trying to decide where to allocate limited resources, ask yourself these three questions:

What is my target demographic?
Does the average age of the user in the social network fit my target demographic?
Can I deliver content that is appealing for that channel?

Each of these networks have specific audiences. Making sure that you are active in the ones that best fit your target demographic will provide you with a better presence and long term, a higher ROI on your efforts.

When being contagious is good

In the Flip.to family, we’re readers. So when we came across this particular book, we couldn’t resist—the description for Contagious: Why Things Catch by Jonah Berger happened to match up with a conversation about how ineffective advertising can be, and that consumers usually just listen to their peers. The book discusses why some things go viral regardless of how mundane they might be (blenders eating an iPhone) and other inherently cool things never catch fire. It suggests six basic ingredients for being contagious, whether for messages, products or ideas.

As we read it, we thought about how Flip.to naturally fits into each of these ingredients. We’ll will save you a few bucks and share the principles (with the added bonus of how it fits with Flip.to).

Social Currency – People talk about things to make them look, cool, smart, rich, etc.
Let’s face it, your guests telling their friends they are staying at your hotel makes them look really cool, exceptionally smart and depending on your rate, perhaps even rich.
Triggers – These are the stimuli that make people talk about your product.
Flip.to creates top of mind awareness during your booking process and entices your guests to share into their social networks with a small incentive.
Emotion – People share something when they feel emotion so we have to craft messages that make people feel something.
As part of the Advocate process the hotel creates a branding message for the guest. We can help you kindle a fire that embraces this emotion.
Public – Letting people see when others are using your products.
Every time one of your guests becomes an Advocate, they publicly show their friends they are using your product.
Practical Value – Put simply, people like to help other people.
The Advocate includes an incentive for their family and friends. And, they exclusively get it because they are friends with your guest.
Stories – People like to share their stories. If we can make our products part of those stories, we can be viral.
Our post stay process can help your hotel capture and curate those stories in a way that you can use them to market your hotel.

Clearly, we only covered the highlights. So, you might still need to spend $18.99 (and I highly recommend that you do). However, whether you do or not, Flip.to can definitely help your hotel become a bit more contagious.