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.
David Bruce, Account Manager and Crystal Ellington, Business Development Representative
At Flip.to, we’re constantly striving to innovate for our hotel partners, aspiring to find new and creative ways to help hotels earn new guests. As we continue to grow, so too does our team. In fact, this constant growth is what helps us serve our hotels even better! That’s why it makes me extremely proud to see two of our members moving up among the Flip.to ranks in the Marketing department.
Thanks to stellar performance and “gong-banging” ability, the one and only David Bruce is being promoted to the Account Management team. Stepping up to fill in for Mr. Bruce is our very own Crystal Ellington, moving from her research role up to the big stage as our new Business Development Representative.
So, what’s all this talk about a gong anyway? Think of it as a badge of honor, a celebration of the little victories along the way, heard loud and clear through the halls of Flip.to. It’s our little reminder of why we’re here—success through collaboration and innovation. As David passes the gong to Crystal for new pastures in the Accounts team, we’re all more inspired and motivated to achieve more. Congratulations to David and Crystal!
(P.S. Flip.to all-stars making moves means that there are more shoes to fill! Check out our openings here.)
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.
The books are closed on Flip.to’s third (and my first!) latest HITEC. No one word could describe the entire experience—exciting, fast-paced, entrepreneurial, innovative, and most of all FUN. The mix of age-old exhibitors and new faces, along with the 6000+ attendees made it the biggest HITEC to date. And yet, it remained personal—the face-to-face interactions allowed for immeasurable connections throughout the industry.
Image courtesy of HITEC.
For Flip.to, it was a special year for our President, Ed St. Onge. A seasoned HITEC and industry pro, he participated on not one, but two panels over the week.
First up was Entrepreneur 20x—HFTP’s collaboration with Capital Factory that gathered innovative start-ups to pitch transformative hospitality tech to an audience of venture capitalists, super angels, serial entrepreneurs and HITEC attendees. Ed sat on the judge’s panel. Being the industry’s startup expert-at-large, it was of course a perfect fit. Whistle—a startup out of Silicon Beach that connects customers and businesses via SMS and mobile messaging—took off with the prize this year.
Next up was HITEC’s Investing in Technology Super Session, moderated by HFTP’s Lyle Worthington. There Ed, along with the panel of angel investors and thought leaders, got to dive deep on the potential risks and rewards of investing in developing tech and innovations.
As for the rest of the show, big data, mobile demand, and engaging millennials were all hot topics. Our focus was of course advocacy—showing how hotels can reach their guests’ enormous networks of friends and family, and cultivate those brand connections to generate revenue. The idea struck a chord with a lot of folks looking to engage their guests further, as booth traffic was steady. (Our comfy couch helped, too.)
As the exhibit halls closed on a great #HITECatx, our team reflected on an amazing week. The gears are already turning for what’s next for Flip.to.
Oh, and of course there was our event we hosted at the Hangar Lounge with our friends Social Tables and Lanyon. But that’s another post…
Flip.to leaders Ed St. Onge and Brian Kent reflect at the closing of HITEC 2015
New partnership with In1 Solutions opens doors for Flip.to in the United Kingdom, Ireland and South Africa
ORLANDO, FL – June 2015 – Flip.to, the brand advocacy platform that helps hotels earn new guests, today announced their strategic partnership with In1 Solutions, a leading provider of hotel booking engines, multi-channel digital marketing, and integrated online distribution services for hotels in the global market.
Executive Studio, The Cleveland Hotel, London
Hoteliers in the United Kingdom, Ireland and South Africa using In1’s comprehensive booking engine in tandem with Flip.to are now able to reach an entirely new channel of guests with advocacy. This integration in combination with In1’s digital marketing expertise has amassed enormous results. By allowing existing guests to share their stay with family and friends, they become a growing extension of the hotel’s marketing force. The hotel’s reach is extended to travelers across the world, building trusted brand connections and moreover, increasing direct bookings.
The integration has been a resounding success, resulting in massive return for shared hotel clients. Barbara Mus, Hotel Manager of The Cleveland Hotel in London commented, “We have been delighted with the return we have achieved to date with the brand advocacy product—over 930%—and are working closely with the team to encourage further engagement.” Over the last quarter alone, the combined efforts of the Flip.to and In1 Solutions platforms have delivered over £6,200 in revenue. Mus added, “It is a great way to increase awareness of the hotel’s brand and generate both increased levels of visitors to the site and to grow direct bookings.”
The Buckatree Hall Hotel, Telford
The Buckatree Hall Hotel in Telford noted similar results. “The brand advocacy campaign over the last few months has managed to reach in excess of 10,700 social connections, growing awareness of our hotel brand across the social media channels and also delivering us growth in website visitors and direct bookings,” said Wayne Jenson, General Manager. “With an ROI of over 370% we would not hesitate to recommend this tool to other properties.”
Richard Dunbar, Director of Partnerships at Flip.to said of the pairing, “Flip.to is thrilled to be partnering with In1 Solutions. Together, we’re able to provide a seamless, integrated platform that has exponential impact for our clients. We’re driving more direct business for hotels worldwide. Plus, In1’s global appeal makes them a natural fit into our partner program as we continue to grow in new markets.”
Richard Toms, Director of Sales and Global Partnerships at In1 Solutions spearheaded the integration with Flip.to. “In1 Solutions’s main focus is delivering more direct bookings to our clients,” Toms said. “This opportunity provides a tremendous return for our hotels, opening up an entirely new stream of revenue—it’s been a critical addition to our world class online booking engine software, and helps our clients maximize their booking potential.”
In1 Solutions provides a suite of integrated solutions for hotels alongside their booking process, with offices in the Ireland, the United Kingdom, Spain, South Africa, Holland and New Zealand. For more information, contact Richard Toms at richard@in1solutions.com, or visit www.in1solutions.com.
To discover more about Flip.to, and how the advocacy platform for hotels helps drive direct bookings and earn more guests, schedule a demo at http://flip.to, or contact Jeff Weibel at jweibel@flip.to.
Flip.to helps hotels engage future travelers with Photo Advocacy
ORLANDO, FL – June 3, 2015 – As Flip.to continues to unveil new layers of the advocacy platform for hotels, its impact is changing the landscape of social for hotels worldwide. As social media matures, challenges in the ability to see measurable results and the limitations implemented by many of the large networks have made it even more difficult for hotels to stay relevant. Flip.to is helping hotels be “social” in a way that’s natural, with significant, measurable ROI.
Guest stories create an unique, authentic experience for hotels
Being “social” revolves around the idea of people sharing personal experiences with friends and family- travel conversations that hotels have long tried to join. “Social media” has seemingly adopted the term “social,” but in fact is neither personal nor between friends, and is quickly starting to resemble another paid advertising channel for hotels. A core concept of Flip.to is that “social media” is a way to reach global audiences and spark conversations about travel between friends. Social media should be a point of distribution for hotels, rather than a destination where staff sink large amounts of time posting streams of uninspired content.
Advocacy gets people talking about your brand. When guests share brand experiences with their friends and colleagues, it is a more trusted and natural engagement than any form of paid marketing. With the launch of their new site, Flip.to unveils how hotels can tap into advocacy and do “social” and “social media” correctly, helping hotels earn direct bookings through their massive, untapped marketing force-their existing guests.
In addition to Pre-stay and Post-stay Advocacy, the new site, http://www.flip.to, debuts Photo Advocacy, which encourages guests to share memorable experiences. Perpetual photo contests provide the hotel with real, sharable content, customer quotes, and valuable insights from guests about their stay. This content is curated in just a few clicks, creating an ongoing stream of marketing material designed specifically for social use.
“Advocacy is completely revolutionizing the way hotels approach social media. Guests are already talking about their travels-Flip.to works with hotels to get their guests talking about where they are staying, too.” said Ed St.Onge, President of Global Sales and Marketing for Flip.to.
“A single guest can reach hundreds. The combined reach of your guests eclipses your existing fan base and their voice is far more authentic. Hotels need to start engaging new audiences in a more natural way, as ever growing social media sites create new hurdles for brands, and organic reach nears zero,” added St.Onge.
Flip.to creates a new channel of revenue by harnessing the excitement of travel, encouraging guests to advocate on the hotel’s behalf. From their new headquarters, Flip.to continues to hone in on their mission to help hotels earn new guests. The team is now also fueled by an amazing new touch screen, bean-to-cup coffee machine “… but are woefully lacking a ping pong table,” noted Jeff Weibel, Chief Marketing Officer.
Flip.to continues to expand the features in the newest Advocates section! This new addition to the account provides insights into your hotel advocates on an individual level.
Filter and sort to easily navigate your hotel advocates: All, advocates with Photos, or advocates with Quotes. A dropdown allows you to sort further by recent activity, top advocates, photos or quotes for curation.
From there, select any card to view details including connections, visitors and sign-ups. A series of stories is chronologically presented about their engagement with your hotel. Pre-stay, Post-Stay, Photo-Contest are all here, as well as other information that may have been captured, like the booking date and stay dates.
Introducing Advocate Search
Looking for someone? Now search for advocates by name, reservation number or email address. Click through result cards to navigate to individual advocate details.
Flip.to partners with the leading booking engine and reputation management provider in France
ORLANDO, FL – April 2015 – Flip.to today announced its strategic partnership with Availpro, the leading booking engine and reputation management provider in France. The partnership was finalized with the successful integration of the Flip.to Advocacy Platform and Availpro’s multifaceted Smart Booking Engine®.
Hotels using using Availpro’s booking engine with Flip.to will now be able to tap into an entirely new channel that is truly social–guests sharing their travels with friends & family. Turning guests into a trusted marketing force with massive reach, paired with a unique personal experience for every social connection, leads to a significant, measurable bottom-line impact. Flip.to helps hotels grow direct bookings, build strong brand connections and vastly increase worldwide reach.
“We’re excited about the partnership with Availpro because it reflects the international appeal of the Flip.to platform and presents an opportunity to drive more direct business for hotels the world over. Availpro fits well with our approach to partner only with companies that we’d be happy to do business with ourselves,” says Richard Dunbar, Director of Business Development at Flip.to.
“When it comes to building brand awareness for hotels, social media is definitely an increasingly important tool to consider. We are thrilled to announce our integration with Flip.to and strongly believe it is a great opportunity for hotels using our Smart Booking Engine® to improve their online presence and convert new potential customers,” added Mathieu Verhaeghe, Partnership Development Manager at Availpro.
To find out more about how Flip.to can help create a significant, measurable impact for your hotel, please get in touch with Debi Moses at dmoses@flip.to or visit www.flip.to.
The Sedona Rouge Hotel has felt a significant impact from turning their guests into a powerful extension of their marketing team
Rooftop view, Sedona Rouge
Orlando – March 18, 2015 – With a world-class spa and red rock views, the Sedona Rouge Hotel in Arizona has felt a significant impact from turning their guests into a powerful extension of their marketing team. Flip.to has turned a full third of Sedona Rouge’s guests into advocates.
In just the first 3 months of switching Flip.to live, the 33% of guests who have spread the word about their upcoming trip have introduced the Sedona Rouge to over 54,000 of their friends, relatives & colleagues, which has led to 84 direct bookings.
“We have always known that our guests love our unique experience, but having guests share that experience with their friends and family at a rate of 33% is what surprised us,” said Ed Conway, GM of the Sedona Rouge Hotel & Spa. “It is such a natural experience for the guest that it is easy to see why we saw immediate results from the Flip.to platform. Working with Flip.to gave us an elegant way to help our guests spread the word at multiple touch points, in the right way, while making it really simple for me and my staff.”
Luxury Spa, Sedona Rouge
The Flip.to advocacy platform encourages guests to share their excitement about their upcoming trip and where they’re staying with their social connections, ” said Raul Vega, Senior Director of Sales at Flip.to. “Flip.to then drives the guests’ friends and family back to the hotel’s website and serves up a unique, trusted experience that is proven to convert friends of guests into new guests. If you can do that while being simple, fun and visually compelling, it leads to huge results for hotels, as it has for Sedona Rouge.
ORLANDO, FL – March 2015 – Flip.to announces the addition of industry veteran, Jeff Weibel as its Chief Marketing Officer. Weibel was one of the original employees at Preview Travel, which was acquired by Travelocity. At Travelocity, Weibel was in charge of building out the merchant hotel and attractions business. He started out as the only Travelocity employee in Orlando and quickly grew his team, with bookings to over $200 million per year.
After 18 years of working in travel, Weibel thought he escaped the industry to manage a Real Estate portfolio but was lured back in by Ed St.Onge. “I was working for myself for the last two years but when I heard about what was happening at Flip.to, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to join the team. It’s a great group and they have a dynamite product for hotels.”
“Adding Jeff to our executive team is a huge win for Flip.to and our customers,” said St.Onge. “Jeff brings massive experience in marketing of hotels and digital media.”
“Flip.to is creating a new distribution channel for hotels. At Travelocity, my job was to sell room nights for an indirect distribution channel. Now, my main goal is to help empower hotels to sell more room nights directly to guests, their friends and their families. The bonus here is that Flip.to is a new channel and we can track all of the additional bookings. ROI is a good thing.”
“I don’t usually drink beer, but when I do, I like to drink it with the Flip.to customers,” says Weibel.
Guest stories pave way for huge marketing reach for The Shores Resort and Spa
ORLANDO, FL – JANUARY 2015 – The Shores Resort and Spa has recently switched on an entirely new marketing channel as guests compete to fill the resort’s amazing library of authentic photos. After The Shores Resort launched Photo Advocacy, guests have shared photos of their favorite vacation moments with hundreds of thousands of friends and family.
The Shores Resort & Spa
Flip.to Photo Advocacy encourages hotel guests to enter into photo contests that The Shores uses to turn memorable moments into amazing brand connections around the world. Guests share their photos of The Shores Resort to their social networks as they compete for votes in the contest. Contestants get competitive as they share to win.
“The reach of Photo Advocacy can be astounding. One entrant was a travel blogger with 428,000 followers who sought out votes through her social media – sending her voters (and potential guests) directly to the hotel’s website,” said Debi Moses, Senior Director of Sales for Flip.to. “No amount of marketing can have the kind of trusted reach that your guests have combined.”
The Flip.to platform makes it easy for The Shores’ marketing team to curate a hotel’s brand story through the creativity and the authentic voice of their guests. Photo Advocacy helps turn social connections into new guests.
Unlike traditional hashtag photo contests, guest photos are chosen and approved by the resort, linked to the brand and carry full copyright permissions. This allows the hotel to repurpose and reuse the photos in all of their social media channels. Photo Advocacy photo contests run perpetually so there is always a stream of new photos to choose from, vote on and share to promote The Shores Resort.
“Flip.to’s first Photo Advocacy contest, ‘The Shores Outdoors,’ allowed our guests to embrace their inner photographer and resulted in sharing amazing scenic shots that I can honestly say would rival a professional. It is no wonder so many went viral!” said David Rijos, General Manager of The Shores Resort & Spa.
The Shores Resort & Spa, Pool
The Shores Resort & Spa is an AAA Four-Diamond luxury beachfront hotel in Daytona Beach, Florida, and one of the first hotels to launch Photo Advocacy. Guests submitted photos that included beautiful sunrises, children playing on the beach, messages in the sand and striking ocean views from hotel balconies.
“Flip.to continues to amaze us with their innovative approach to harnessing the power of our happy hotel guests and turning them into our property’s brand ambassadors. Everything we do with them is a big win-win!” Rijos added.
To find out more about how Flip.to can help you tap into an entirely new marketing channel and earn new guests, please get in touch with Debi Moses at dmoses@flip.to or visit www.flip.to.
