HotelMarketing Archives - Page 6 of 8

Winning at experiential travel: combining data and storytelling to compel your guests

At Flip.to, we’re constantly working with people in the industry that inspire us. Here’s a special post from our own team, originally featured by our partner and hospitality leader, NAVIS. Looking to collaborate? Get in touch and let’s do something amazing together.

Experiential travel has taken off. Guests are seeking travel that inspires, and are looking to buy into more than just a place to stay. For hotels, this is a good thing. NAVIS among others has shown that as the desire for the “experiential” grows, so grows the perceived economic value, revealing a big opportunity for increased revenue.

So how do hotels tap into this phenomenon? The key is in truly understanding the guest journey. The path to travel starts well before a guest is ready to book, and the inspiration and research phases are primed for influencing travel decisions.

Once you understand these key phases, you can immediately begin executing a more effective marketing strategy for your hotel. Two tools stand out as a powerful means to an end—stories and data.

Why? Numbers and data provide the unbiased and objective view of what’s going on. Stories on the other hand are real, authentic, and anecdotal experiences. As hotel marketers you have the ability to marry these two concepts for your most powerful hotel marketing yet.

The path to travel—inspiration with stories

An experience shared by a friend. An upcoming anniversary. A wow moment. These are the true triggers that spark interest in travel. From there, the search begins.

So how do you capture a potential traveler here? Inspire them from the beginning.

Not only is this possible, but it’s what future travelers expect—and are willing to pay more for. Reaching and inspiring guests at the right time is critical for hotel marketers who continue to want to generate the most revenue.

This holds even more true when you consider that research from Expedia shows users visit 38 sites before making a travel decision over the course of about 45 days before actually booking. In fact, according to Travel Weekly, travelers are spending 25% more time researching and booking hotels than flights.

This drives home the importance of getting in front of your guests in the beginning, and is the reason stories—especially those from your guests—are hugely powerful in inspiring and influencing future stays. They’re authentic and show real emotion. Stories are more compelling than any ad, both to the friends and family of your past guests and curious on-lookers to your site.

Studies have shown that stories are not only more persuasive, they’re also over 20 times more memorable than facts. The emotional component is not only compelling, but it triggers real curiosity, piquing a user’s interest to explore more.

Using data to determine context

The key for us as hotel marketers? Know what story to tell, and when. And here’s where data comes in.

Know each of your guests to personalize service, and send meaningful marketing communications that enhance the relationship over time. By capturing the right attributes and preferences, you’ll be able to deliver the best message. Choose the right channels based on your demographic, and even complement these efforts by tapping into your guests to distribute content and to introduce you to future travelers.

Let’s look at a quick example.

Google’s 2014 Road to the Traveler’s Decision reported that most families planning travel are undetermined when they begin thinking about their trip. In fact, over 50% were considering multiple destinations or were completely undecided.

What’s this mean? For one thing, family trip planners are a big opportunity for your hotel to inspire travel before the search begins. Start by using data to analyze trends in which your past and potential family travelers stay. Know what appeals to this segment for your hotel, learn preferences and behaviors, and lastly identify a group of potential leads.

Data provides context. You can easily identify and know what to share in order to have the best conversation with this demographic. Authentic stories provide the compelling content.

Together, stories and data will not only let you have the best conversation with your guests, they’ll also help you reach and convert travelers who are truly a fit for your hotel. You’ll build better brand affinity for a lifetime of stays, and will truly be connecting with your guests.

Watch now: jumping into video

It’s been 4 months since we released our first video, Introducing: Photo Explorer. We’ve come a long way. We’re continuing to improve our production process, crafting our content and meticulously editing our scripts.

All this incredibly careful planning has led to some really good stuff, and even better bad stuff. So without further ado, let’s start with the bad stuff. (Thanks NAVIS for being such good sports.)

We’ve got a lot planned going forward, including a look at our team and culture, video resources for customers, event recaps, partner spotlights and more. Check back soon for even good-er video.

The hotelier’s essentials for big name competition

Here’s a special guest post from one of the number of incredible innovators, subject matter experts, and just all-around big idea folks that we love hearing from. At Flip.to, we’re constantly looking to collaborate with people in the industry that inspire us. Get in touch and let’s do something amazing together.

Jason Winberg has in-depth know-how and the keen ability to increase hotel room revenues. Today he’s sitting in on the Flip.to blog to share a bit of that knowledge. Check out his take on finding the right tools to let independent hoteliers compete with big brands.

Again and again, studies have highlighted how properly addressing sales and marketing, reputation, social engagement and a sound revenue strategy translates into sales, while ignoring them cuts into the bottom line. Why, then, does the average independent hotel struggle to dedicate enough time, manpower and budget to these tasks?

In my past life, I wore the hat of general manager at a few boutique hotels. What that really meant was that I was the director of sales, revenue manager, front office manager and even the night auditor when called upon. It was fun, and I learned a ton, but it was a constant struggle to keep up. There were so many different things I could be doing but I just didn’t have time for it all.

My experience would have been very different at a brand name hotel. They can afford an army of staff to regularly analyze data, update stay restrictions in seconds and develop award winning sales and marketing programs.

As an independent hotelier, it can be tempting to say “I just can’t compete with the big chains.” But the fact is, they are your competitors, so you need to find ways of addressing these key issues through more limited means.

Thankfully, you don’t have to go at it alone. Every day I receive emails and calls from people with new ways to manage online reviews, analyze revenue and develop web content. The trick is finding the ones that will address your specific goals while minimizing the time needed, and producing the best return on investment.

As an independent hotelier, it can be tempting to say “I just can’t compete with the big chains.” But the fact is, they are your competitors, so you need to find ways of addressing these key issues through more limited means.

Reviews, Reputation and Social Engagement

Think online reviews are an acceptable sacrifice in your quest to optimize your time? 93% of travelers check online reviews before booking a hotel. If they can’t find a current review of your hotel, 53% will simply presume the worst and ignore you entirely.

And if the reviews are bad? 80% of people won’t buy from a hotel with bad reviews. It takes 10-12 positive reviews to offset a negative one, so it’s absolutely in your best interest to know where people are reviewing your hotel and taking positive steps to win back negative reviewers. Even if you don’t erase an unfortunately poor rating, the fact you’re engaged with reviewers wins some people over. Showing you care about your customers’ opinions matters.

Speed is of the essence. Commenting on a three month old review won’t accomplish much. It’s best to address a review within 24 hours, and that is vastly helped by software which summarizes recent reviews across multiple sites. There are several cost effective products on the market, which crawl all of your booking and review sites and let you respond with a simple click.

One more thing—don’t forget to infuse the really great ones onto your site or online experience. Make sure they’re authentic.

93% of travelers check online reviews before booking a hotel. If they can’t find a current review of your hotel, 53% will simply presume the worst and ignore you entirely.

Revenue and Analytics

Hotel pricing can be an incredibly complicated and time consuming task. The popularity of online travel agencies (OTAs) is growing steadily. 76% of travelers prefer to book an independent hotel through an OTA rather than the hotel’s website. And what’s the most common reason for this preference? Price. Your potential customers are going to OTAs, and they are finding very competitive pricing. It’s absolutely imperative you’re listing the very best deals possible.

But don’t undercut yourself! I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen a hotel’s direct website undercut by its OTA listing. You make the most money when you sell directly to the customer, so your prices should encourage them to book directly with you.

Luckily, there are tools to simplify pricing tasks. They interface with your PMS and help you look at your comp set, run pickup reports and even forecast for you. Besides saving you time, they’ll also keep you acting proactively rather than reactively, taking active control of your own pricing. In the end, you’ll see more direct business, and will own the booking and the guest—a powerful opportunity to earn a repeat guest in the future.

76% of travelers prefer to book an independent hotel through an OTA rather than the hotel’s website.

Web Content Generation

While price is important, there are additional reasons why customers shy away from hotel websites, and that includes content. Websites are marketing tools. Their content should convince potential customers that a night in your hotel will be comfortable, relaxing, stress-free and generally enjoyable. Make sure your site is providing useful, inviting information to readers.

One facet changing the face of the industry today is storytelling, and especially stories that come from your guests. Capture and use content that is authentic. It will not only hit on the points listed above, but since it’s coming from a real person it’ll carry more weight than a piece of stock imagery could do for your site.

Brasada_GuestStory — — Danielle J., past guest at Brasada Ranch

There’s also the matter of a lack of functionality. People find them difficult to use. The sites aren’t intuitive or don’t offer the tools of the large OTAs. Don’t sell your hotel short with a skimpy website. Make bookings easy, and make sure the site’s engaging. Yes, development costs money, but so does every purchase made through an OTA.

Some days, it may feel as if you can’t possibly address all of these issues, but there really are a ton of tools and platforms on the market now that can streamline your workflow, automate processes and otherwise assist in running an independent hotel more efficiently.

First, size up what your biggest needs are. What’s the goal you’re trying to achieve? Is it more leads, more direct bookings, better content? Make sure whatever you’re buying fits the circumstances of your businesses.

Second, don’t get blinded by the bells and whistles. Always ask yourself: how does this product address my specific needs It’s always a matter of return on investment. What can save you the most time, make you the most money or best improve upon an underutilized aspect of your business? Always concentrate on what is most needed to optimize your precious time and produce the best results.

Watch now: Introduce your hotel to the people who matter most

Start delivering unique, personal experiences to everyone that visits your site, no matter who they are or where they’re from. You’ll reach a global audience of travelers that are a great fit for your hotel, while converting warm leads into your future guests—each and every day.

Sound interesting? Introduce your hotel to the world with Flip.to. Take a tour, or adventure on to see the power of a story well told below:

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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?

200K and beyond: a huge milestone in record time

nick-hotel-200k-presentation-2 — Nick Hotel team celebrating their milestone

In just 56 days, Nickelodeon Suites Resort reached over 200 thousand friends and relatives through guest stories—that’s over 3,500 warm introductions for their hotel to like-minded future travelers around the world every day.

We’re thrilled to see Nick Hotel succeed in such rapid time. We recently caught up with Deanna Padilla, Marketing Manager at Nick Hotel, who said, “If you are looking to increase your social awareness and reach new audiences while building your relationship with existing fans, then Photo Advocacy is a must for your property.”

The guest stories have poured in. Here are some of the incredible moments Nick Hotel has seen since going live with Photo Explorer.

To see how Nick Hotel and other hotels are capturing their guests incredible travel stories, be sure to check out See it live: how hotels are using Photo Explorer.

Watch now: Inspire a global audience

Something special happens when travelers discover your hotel through real experiences shared by friends & family. Capture these memorable moments and let your guests introduce your hotel to the world. You’ll inspire an entirely new audience of future guests with Flip.to.

Sound interesting? Introduce your hotel to the world with Flip.to. Take a tour, or see how to introduce your hotel to the people who matter most below:

Take a tourorWatch next video

40 percent of guests become ambassadors for San Francisco’s newly minted Hotel Zephyr with Flip.to

Star of the revitalized Fisherman’s Wharf reaches 200,000 future travelers in first 6 months of operation

ORLANDO, FL — February 8, 2016 — Flip.to, the advocacy platform for hotels that captivates and inspires new audiences of travelers, has helped Hotel Zephyr amplify its reach to over 200,000 potential new guests in only six months. Hotel Zephyr is Davidson Hotels & Resorts’ first property within its new lifestyle & luxury collection, Pivot, and one of San Francisco’s newest boutique hotels.

The Yard at Hotel Zephyr

The hotel has seen enormous guest engagement since partnering with Flip.to, which coincided with the hotel’s opening after a multi-million dollar renovation in the summer of 2015. Over 40% of guests have shared their travel experience with their network of family and friends, driving quality traffic back to the property’s website, and introducing Hotel Zephyr’s playful maritime concept to thousands of leads for future travelers.

“When launching a new brand, momentum is critical,” noted Harry Carr, director of Revenue Management for Hotel Zephyr. “Our guests have become ambassadors for our hotel, helping us connect with other travelers seeking Hotel Zephyr’s spirited atmosphere. Flip.to unveiled a completely new channel to identify and reach the right guests for our property. It’s been an outstanding complement to our revenue and marketing efforts.”

The Lobby at Hotel Zephyr

Hotel Zephyr’s transformation, aimed at travelers seeking a fresh, lively and one-of-a-kind San Francisco experience, not only included a complete redesign and renovation of the hotel, but also consisted of a newly launched website and tech-forward approach to the property’s digital presence. Flip.to was a key component of this effort, increasing guest engagement, integrating social mediums and driving loyalty, while also shifting attention away from online travel agencies.

The advocacy platform has attracted thousands of new visitors back to Hotel Zephyr’s website through the warm introductions of their guests. Each guest is greeted by distinct, unique experiences designed to convert, taking these curious onlookers down the path to becoming future loyal guests.

“Thanks to connectivity in the digital world, your guests have more influence than ever before,” said Debi Moses, Senior Director of Sales for Flip.to. “Flip.to gives hotels the ability to tap into that influence by letting them share their travel experience with their personal connections—a like-minded network of travelers who are perfect for your hotel. Their combined reach truly gives you global exposure.”

Guest Quarter at Hotel Zephyr

Hotel Zephyr features 361 stylishly appointed guest quarters and suites. The property’s artistic design brings a new dimension to the upscale vibe that defines San Francisco. The only waterfront hotel in Fisherman’s Wharf, guests enjoy stunning panoramas of the iconic Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, Fisherman’s Wharf, Coit Tower and the Bay Bridge. For reservations, visit www.HotelZephyrSF.com, or contact Reservations at reservations@hotelzephyrsf.com.

How to engage your hotel’s secret sales force

From e-commerce to digital marketing, Tim Peter has been putting the web to work for hospitality for over 20 years. Today he’s sitting in on the Flip.to blog to share a bit of that knowledge. Check out his take on the truly impactful marketing team for your hotel that’s been hiding in plain sight.

I really hate marketing sometimes. I know that’s a weird thing to hear from a guy who does marketing for a living. But the simple reality is that finding and attracting guests isn’t always easy. Far from it. Not only are you constantly competing with companies that possess a seemingly-endless mix of people, data, and budgets to chase down potential guests wherever they may be, but all of you compete with your customers for a tiny sliver of their attention. And that tiny sliver is only getting smaller every year.

Check this out: According to research from Expedia, guests visit 38 sites on average over the course of 45 days before they make a reservation. 38 sites! 45 days! That’s crazy, right? And, remember, that’s not 45 days prior to the stay date; it’s 45 days ahead of the booking date.

Seriously, what’s taking them so long? Why can’t they make up their mind?

Well, for starters, most of them don’t know where they’re going. Google’s Road to Decision study suggests that over half have no particular destination in mind when they get started, while 84% of travelers aren’t sure which brand they’re going to choose once they do.

Want an even crazier—and more troubling—stat? About two-thirds of guests don’t really understand the difference among the brands available to choose from. Sadly, this holds true even among many heavy business travelers. And the flood of information your potential guests face each day usually only adds more confusion, rather than simplifying the solution.

What you and your guests both need is someone who can help ease the guest decision process and cut through the cluttered content landscape, pointing out the benefits your property offers in a timely and efficient manner.

And, yes, that’s what your sales force and marketing team strive to do every day. Most do a pretty good job of it, too. But, let’s be fair. It’s really hard work (see above, for instance). Google’s made it more challenging to rank in search, favoring PPC ads over its traditional organic results. And as Richard Dunbar pointed out here on the blog recently, getting your content in front of guests on sites like Facebook has gotten both more difficult and more expensive due to the social media giant’s algorithm changes over the past couple of years. And even those messages that make it through Facebook’s filters are fighting for your guests’ time, attention, and action.

The simple fact remains that you’re competing against the hundreds or thousands of marketing messages that your guests see every single day. In such an oversaturated media environment, it’s no surprise that even well-trusted brands and long-standing relationships sometimes struggle to make an impression—to say nothing of close the sale.

Bet you’re hating marketing right about now, too.

But here’s the good news. You’ve got a secret sales force at your disposal, one who knows all about the exceptional experience and value your property offers and represents a trusted source of information to the thousands of potential guests you’re looking to reach every year. Even better, you don’t have to cover much overhead to put this secret sales force to work.

So, just who is this secret sales force?

Your current guests, that’s who. According to Nielsen, most people trust the recommendations they receive from their friends and family on social. And on average each of your guests connects with roughly 200 friends and family on Facebook and other social media. Your existing guests offer you a trusted connection with these potential customers.

Just consider the math for a moment. Let’s say you’re responsible for a 100 room hotel, that runs at 60% occupancy and hosts 1.4 guests per room each night. That’s almost 31,000 guests per year that you can put to work telling your brand story. Which, y’know, is a lot of people. And, even using conservative numbers about how many friends each has on social media, those 31,000 guests can reach millions of other potential guests on your behalf (since most of you probably hate math way more than you hate marketing, I’ve tucked that away down at the end of this post, but those numbers are real).

Facebook has made it plain that it plans to show its users more content from close friends and family. Put your guests to work telling your hotel’s story, and the friends and family Facebook favors will be the folks staying in your rooms every night. They’re the ones who can share compelling stories about how much they enjoyed their stay, highlight the outstanding value they received, and sell their connections on why they ought to consider your property too. Their posts on social get in front of their friends and family and provide you a trusted entry into a dialogue with those potential guests. That’s your secret sales force.

And it’s one you can’t afford to waste.

It’s no secret that guests have chosen for years to write reviews on TripAdvisor and booking sites, sharing the details about their stay with folks all over the world. Those reviews often drive valuable business for your brand. But why not put content like that to work for your hotel? How about getting your guests to share on behalf of your property to a targeted audience, instead of just about your property to some random bunch of strangers on the Web? This isn’t just about Flip.to (though, as you might imagine, the company offers a really great way of empowering your guests to tell your hotel’s story). This is a huge opportunity for you to reach new business effectively and efficiently, regardless of how you choose to engage them.

The simple fact remains that your secret sales force offers you a near-perfect opportunity to connect with potential guests. Their messages get seen and are trusted by your target audience. They’re well-informed about your value, and I don’t know about you, but it’s enough to make me fall in love with marketing all over again.

Appendix: The Math Behind the Hidden Sales Force’s Social Connections

According to Pew Research, 39% of “adult Facebook users” have 1-100 friends, 23% have 101-250, 20% have 251-500, and 15% have over 500 friends. So, using the lowest possible number of friends on Facebook per brand:

(39% x 31,000 * 1) + (23% x 31,000 * 101) + (20% * 31,000 * 251) + (15% x 31,000 x 501) = 4,618,070

Which, again, is a lot. What’s even crazier is if you use the higher number in each range:
(39% x 31,000 * 100) + (23% x 31,000 * 250) + (20% * 31,000 * 500) + (15% x 31,000 x 501) = 8,421,150

Note: Since we don’t know the upper bound of friends in Pew’s topmost group, I’m still assuming “only” 501 friends for the most connected cohort on Facebook.

And here’s the thing. Assume for a moment that these numbers are way too high, say maybe twice as high as they should be. Your guests still connect you with 2 to 4 million other people on Facebook alone. Pretty cool, eh?

Flip.to on the road: Worldhotels Annual Conference

I spent the last week in Hamburg with a wonderfully diverse group of hoteliers and industry folks from just about everywhere in the world. From a trendy, forward-thinking boutique in Sweden that will come and read you a bedtime story in Swedish to help you get settled in at night, to a designer, eco-conscious hotel on one of Berlin’s most traveled thoroughfares that prides itself on keeping walls to a minimum, there were definitely some standouts in the crowd.

What they had in common though, was that they all represented something bigger than the sum of their parts, which is exactly what brought them together in Hamburg for the Worldhotels Annual Conference.

Worldhotels Annual Conference wrapped up with an outstanding dinner

This year’s theme was focused on storytelling, and how hotels discover and share their “why” with prospective guests. There couldn’t have been a better group to undertake this exercise given the sheer diversity of the attendees, a credit to Worldhotels for assembling such a collection of properties.

Worldhotels’ CEO, Kris Intress, has done a superb job in making it the focus of the organization to tell the story of its partner hotels in a way that truly engages with their guests on an emotional level. Her opening presentation for the conference made it clear that it’s not just a corporate directive, it’s how she truly feels. With drive like that, it’s hard not to get behind the concept, and that goal was definitely met in Hamburg.

There were two things that I took away from the conference (not including this really cool virtual reality cardboard kit from Diginet Media; seriously it’s awesome).

“If you’re an independent hotel and you’re not playing the game by a different set of rules, you’re going to have a hard time.” – Richard Dunbar

The first is that if you’re an independent hotel and you’re not playing the game by a different set of rules, you’re going to have a hard time. I have a great deal of respect for hotel owners and operators because it’s a fierce space to play in. You have a huge job just in delivering on the experience the guest expects but there are also so many distractions, all vying for your attention.

The hardest part of all of this is that most of those distractions need your attention or they can become tomorrow’s problems. Worldhotels does a great job managing a lot of those distractions for hotels, (disclaimer: hoteliers’ words, not mine) but it’s incumbent upon hotels to have a firm grasp on why they do what they do. It’s one thing to point out what makes you unique, but how did you arrive there? What brought you to where you are today? That’s a much more challenging question to answer and it requires a different perspective to fully understand it.

“Let your guests help you discover your ‘why.'” – Richard Dunbar

The other big takeaway for me is that hotels are hungry for a better way to do social. Now I know, that may sound self-serving, but there were over a hundred hoteliers that attended our sessions on capturing guest stories and infusing those into the hotel’s brand identity. The message was a very simple one: let your guests help you discover your “why.”

We have this amazing vehicle for communication (social media) but it’s become congested with marketing pollution and a lot of noisy nonsense. The truth is that hotel guests have been telling their stories but hotels haven’t been listening. In all fairness, some do listen quite well and they’ve been extraordinarily successful because of it. But there are countless hotel websites out there showcasing empty rooms and public spaces, embracing this notion of the zombie apocalypse our esteemed president raised in his recent “state of the industry” address.

For the longest time social in this industry has been a one-sided conversation. Sure, guests are talking on TripAdvisor but that’s very formulaic and can hardly be considered a conversation. The stories are being told at home, to friends and to family. Those stories that make their way into the online social media space sit on the shelf of our limited attention spans and are soon forgotten. There’s no engagement and there’s no dialogue happening. When meaningful and inspirational adventures are happening everyday in and around hotels those events should be captured and sharing should be encouraged!

Attendees enjoyed an Octoberfest dinner on Friday

In the end, all of the ingredients were there, hotels just needed the recipe. Kris, Geoff, Tom, Alex, and all the others at Worldhotels have worked tirelessly to bring it all together and present it in such a way that hotels are well equipped to start their journey. I was proud to be welcomed into this group and to present our solution to this challenge. Because ultimately it’s about building a long-term, meaningful relationship with the guest. And if there’s one key ingredient to a healthy relationship, it’s listening.