How to use QR codes for marketing or as a guest service tool

Xotels – QR codes are taking over by storm. Is it a hype that will disappear, or is it the beginning of a new trend in consumer engagement? How can we use QR codes for marketing?

You might have seen them already, these QR or Quick Response codes. They are used to divert a consumer to an online mobile platform. They scan a 2D barcode with their mobile device and are directly diverted to a qr code landing page. You are able to access all kinds of information, including web addresses, personal or professional contact information, or FaceBook promotion pages. There are plenty of free QR code readers available for download so you should experiment with them.

The key in using QR codes in marketing comes down to added value. We are using QR codes to improve the guest’s service experience. QR codes are used on cards in the rooms, announcements in elevators, at the concierge desk and message boards in the lobby to engage clients with tips on where to dine or what to do during their stay.

Upon scanning the QR code, they will be diverted to the hotel’s blog which contains the latest events, restaurant tips, activity recommendations, favorite shops, etc. From here people can also navigate to your social media pages. This is a simple way to increase the service level in your hotel and at the same time connect to your guests through social media platforms like a blog, FaceBook, Twitter or Google+.

We recommend driving consumers to a specific promotion or landing page, not just your hotel’s website. In the beginning you will need to educate your guests and include a call to action. Tell them to ‘scan this code for our latest restaurant, shopping and tourist tips’. People need to think that they will find some interesting or cool information after scanning the QR code. If you don’t have a blog you can send them to the website or mobile app of your local tourism office.

How to Promote a Hotel

Xotels – How are you supposed to promote a hotel with all these new online developments? Xotels offers hotels a wide range of online marketing solutions to drive direct business through your hotel website and reservations call center. Here is a list with hotel marketing techniques.

Global distribution systems & consortia
According to many people computer reservation systems and global distribution systems are a dying breed. Nonetheless these systems are reinventing themselves and are still an important source of business and leisure travel for many destinations.

OTA
OTA’s are the poster boards of the hotel and travel industry in the online age. They are important distribution channels. Their commissions and models vary so analyze them well to make sure they add value to your overall strategy. Be certain they aren’t just shifting direct business away from your direct sales efforts, but really generate incremental bookings.

DMC
A local DMC works hard to attract groups and events. You should approach some of these companies and work together with them to attract corporate and leisure groups during low and medium demand periods. It will help you to diversify your hotels’ market mix.

Social media & review websites
By now you know that you need to be active on social media. Having an account is not enough though, monitoring your online reputation and being active on social media sites is just as important. It is very important to manage your online reputation. Encourage your guests to leave reviews on Yelp and TripAdvisor. Your profile on review websites needs to be active and dynamic.

Mobile
Finally, hotels are starting to move beyond their own website and into mobile marketing. Start with a basic mobile website which allows you to easily navigate an image gallery of the hotel and has a simple click to call button. From there you can work on integrating your booking engine and develop a more advanced mobile hotel website.

Last but not least, don’t spend too much money on printing brochures etc. We are in the electronic and digital age.

 

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How are you supposed to promote a hotel with all these new online developments? Xotels offers hotels a wide range of online marketing solutions to drive direct business through your hotel website and reservations call center. Here is a list with hotel marketing techniques.

Global distribution systems & consortia

According to many people computer reservation systems and global distribution systems are a dying breed. Nonetheless these systems are reinventing themselves and are still an important source of business and leisure travel for many destinations.

 

OTA

OTA’s are the poster boards of the hotel and travel industry in the online age. They are important distribution channels. Their commissions and models vary so analyze them well to make sure they add value to your overall strategy. Be certain they aren’t just shifting direct business away from your direct sales efforts, but really generate incremental bookings.

DMC

A local DMC works hard to attract groups and events. You should approach some of these companies and work together with them to attract corporate and leisure groups during low and medium demand periods. It will help you to diversify your hotels’ market mix.

 

Social media & review websites

By now you know that you need to be active on social media. Having an account is not enough though, monitoring your online reputation and being active on social media sites is just as important. It is very important to manage your online reputation. Encourage your guests to leave reviews on Yelp and TripAdvisor. Your profile on review websites needs to be active and dynamic.

 

Mobile

Finally, hotels are starting to move beyond their own website and into mobile marketing. Start with a basic mobile website which allows you to easily navigate an image gallery of the hotel and has a simple click to call button. From there you can work on integrating your booking engine and develop a more advanced mobile hotel website.

 

Last but not least, don’t spend too much money on printing brochures etc. We are in the electronic and digital age.

Social media strategy for hotels

Xotels – Do you want to use social media to help market your hotel? We have composed a list with tips for hotel social media marketing. All these tips are based on our own experience with internet marketing for our hotels. These tips are practical, can be implemented immediately and will bring many benefits. Social media marketing should be a complementary piece of the puzzle to an overarching, integrated marketing plan.

•    Start a blog to post information on activities, attractions, dining, shopping and nightlife. This allows you to provide your guests suggestions on what to do. You can also spread the content on social networks like Facebook and Twitter.

•    Build an online reputation. Invite guests to post reviews on TripAdvisor, Yelp and other review websites. Make sure that you respond to all reviews and that you manage your profile on these sites.

•    Link local companies and attractions on your Twitter and Facebook. This will benefit your online interaction and will help your influence grow. We advise you to think like your guests. Get connected to cities, tourist attractions and tourist information centers by liking their page.

•    Prizes are always good. An incentive gets people moving. Give guests a free weekend in return for the best picture of the month.

•    Local check-in sites like FourSquare or Gowalla can help you gain exposure and promote your outlets. Give a welcome cocktail when checking in online if staying at the hotel.

•    Be funny and original. A sense of humor works better then a formal and conventional approach. What is the last thing you really clicked on or read on Facebook? I am sure it was funny or original. That’s the kind of thing that works.

These simple tools for social media marketing will make your fan base grow and create interaction with your guests. It is not easy to engage customers online but these tips should help your hotel’s social media marketing strategy.

The Hotel RevPAR Definition

Depending on the level of demand expected, you would leave money on the table if you weren’t implementing some degree of room revenue management. RevPAR or revenue per available room is applicable to all kind of hotels, as long as every single day a hotel needs to get the most of its fixed capacity.  Top hotel management companies have been applying RevPAR for ages.

In our daily environment we face lots of service companies that are applying their own revenue management. For example a bowling center. As there is more demand on Friday night, Saturday and Sunday we need to put some restrictions on the number of players to increase the turnover. A bowling center has also its low demand period, and the issue is to displace the demand to Monday or Tuesday night with some bowling classes or bowling competitions.

So if other types of service companies can successfully apply a sort of RevPAR, hotels should be able to do the same. First analyze your market and identify what’s going on. Identify for the next twelve months, periods or days with strong and weak demand. As soon as you know what will be the level of demand you can expect, build your rate strategy.

[Revenue Management] will help hotels increase tourism revenue on the long run; it is where the money is. Working twelve months ahead will make you more competitive with regards to your competitors and will get you clients who are booking in advance for your hotel. Hoteliers that still think revenue management can’t be applied to their own business really need to take consideration on how much they can increase their results by.

Would you like to know more about revenue management or hotel management? Visit www.xotels.com for more information.

Hotel marketing concepts

2011 will be the year of flash sales in travel, but not the way you think. Flash sales will take a different route in hotel marketing techniques Besides retail discount shopping websites, new start-ups have been launched for the hotel and travel industry. These websites work with the already popular loyalty programs where membership only acces creates the notion that rates are not published to the greater public.

We dare to differ on that opinion. Once they have created momentum and consumers are catching on, your guests will understand that besides offering €200 on your own websites, they can get better deals by subscribing to these online discount stores. They just have to wait and sit back for an offer to come out. Websites like Groupon and Guestmob are teaming up consumers to drive down prices at hotels by the so called value of volume. These new hospitality marketing concepts are not the case for hotels.

Heavy discounting as experienced with OTA’s over the past years will only lead to the erosion of value perception by the potential client. We will be trading down our own product value once more making it harder to demand and convert the rates we need and should sell our hotels at. Then there are websites which lower your rate through loyalty programs and  rebates. They cut their commission to be more competitive. Hotels have to wage a war on these cash back or rebate systems to stay in control of their rates.

Indeed, 2011 will become a year of rate war. But not so much between hotel competitors, instead we are foreseeing a war between the hotels and their distributors. Hotels will become tougher on OTA to respect rate parity. Most importantly hotels will do so through their own website. Hotels will get more creative and break rate parity where and when needed for their own good. In 2011 Flash Sales will grow initially through the new ecommerce initiatives.

For more information on hotel management and sales or revenue management visit Xotels.com

Hotel sales and marketing strategy

If the OTAs claims to increase hotel RevPAR, then why do they advertise on hotel brand names? Shouldn’t they focus on destination searches instead? A list of intercontinental hotel chains seem to have convinced OTAs to refrain from this practice. However to independent hotels or [hotel management] groups they are not showing much consideration. This SEM hijacking or brand keyword robbery needs to stop.

Consumers search for a hotel name, because of a recommendation from a friend or a review they read online, or even better, because of the offline marketing strategy of a hotel . Through advertising on the hotel’s name in the search engines, the OTAs intend to convert this direct client into their own client for that hotel or worse, re-direct them to another hotel. The OTAs aren’t really paying consideration to their promise to increase tourism revenue when it comes to bookings for  independent hotels. They blatantly advertise on brand keywords on Google, Yahoo and Bing.

As a solution we recommend hotels to include clauses in their contracts with the OTAs to prevent such brand hijacking practices. It is a very important step in controlling your distribution cost and production. Once the OTAs notice that you know what you are talking about as an hotelier, they will shift gears. We informed all our distributors we will only work with partners that respect the brand and trademarks of our hotels. Clauses and addendums were added to the contracts outlining in which we want to work together with the OTA’s and their affiliate websites, creating a win-win situation.

It is time the OTAs accept that hotels have woken up and it is time for change. If they don’t stop this advertising on hotels’ brand names and trademarks, they will stand to lose their product. As the economic outlook improves, hotels will gain the upper hand in this partnership and look for alternatives. Hotels will find out that direct distribution through effective internet marketing is cheaper and new supplier friendly OTAs will arise and challenge the status quo. In the end the hotels have the rooms, which are the real key to this distribution market, and the power of negotiation.

Would you like to know more about hotel management or revenue management? Then visit www.xotels.com for more information

How to handle the Facebook advertising rates

The last few years the marketing hotel industry is rapidly changing. New ways of advertisement through internet is becoming a structural need to stay alive as a hotel. Facebook is becoming one of the top hotel search engines.

While everyone is focusing on the integration of Google maps, Facebook is expanding its space on the internet. Of course Google has an important impact on direct sales for hotels, but to expand your internet marketing Facebook can’t be forgotten.

Facebook is getting a lot of attention in the social media marketing strategies. Hotels have to realize the importance of presence on Facebook with a company page for their revenue management.

For the potential clients to easily find accommodation deals, a good description of your hotel is essential. Your hotel listing needs to contain relevant, useful and recent information for your guests and potential clients. As for Facebook you have to make sure your hotel page comes out on top and offers interesting information for travelers, otherwise they will simply move on, and you will be losing out on some direct business.  Don’t forget that good looking images speak more than a 1000 words.

For more information click here:  Hotel management

Fill out the hotel guest feedback form

There are great differences in the levels with which hotels are looking for feedback from their guests. With the rise of hotel reviews sites the request of filling out a hotel guest comment card diminishes. Although this trend is moving up, there are still hotels who want guest opinions. 

Most of the hotels that provide a guest house feedback form use a review score card. Hotels can easily analyze the outcomes by counting the points. For guests it’s more like a bingo card. They won’t have the feeling that the hotel really care about their opinion.

If hotels want to improve their revenue management, it is not about a number but about the actions they take. They have to focus on real input instead of scores, because suggestions and comments from guests can be very useful. To have a successful review you have to offer hotel guest surveys with open questions. An example of an open question form could be:

-    Your feedback
-    How you evaluate our services?
-    Small details, big differences. Are there any small details that you particularly valued or any new ones that you think we should be looking at?

If you are looking for hotel management then look at the website of Xotels.

Xotels Management Group and La Bergere Group extend cooperation

Recently another hotel has just been added to the Xotels group of independent hotels. The newly opened Townhouse Maastricht Design Hotel in the Netherlands exceeded its budget with 26% in 2010. As a result the la Bergere Group decided to also outsource revenue management and distribution of the St. Martenslane Hip Hotel Maastricht to the Xotels’ Hotel Management Group.

This funky hotel is a great addition to our management portfolio in the Netherlands. It is the second hotel in Maastricht we manage, allowing us to quickly implement necessary local market knowledge. Maastricht as a tourist destination benefits especially from its good location. Within one hour driving distance it can be reached from four different countries.  It is essential to understand such market structures as they affect the booking window.

As the Hip Hotel St Martenslane is also part of the La Bergere Group, it allows us to cross sell and penetrate different levels of market segments. We expect great results for this budget hotel and we are delighted to have taken over its revenue management and distribution.

With our hotel revenue management services we give support to independent hotels in terms of outsourcing or coaching of revenue management as well as online distribution and internet marketing. In 2010 we managed to grow and outperform RevPAR targets for our hotels between 12% – 26%. In this year we started with budding numbers, considering the tremendous year over year growth for January already.

In 2011 we expect to add quite a few more hotels to our portfolio. Currently we are in talks with hotels in Amsterdam, Brussels, Prague and the best destinations in Spain. We would also like to explore opportunities in France, Germany, Italy, UK, Ireland as well as the USA and Asia.

For more information have a look at the hotel marketing webpage of Xotels, the hotel consulting and advertising Company.

An Online Reputation Analytics Tool for Hotels

Reviews have become an important key performance indicator for hotels. More and more consumers write online reviews about their experience and share them on travel agency websites, travel communities and independent review websites. The new social media culture of sharing online requires hoteliers to follow up. In order to manage your hotel’s online reputation, Rate Tiger launched RT Review.

This new Hotel Review Management Tool allows you to monitor your brand’s reputation across various websites. Additionally, you have the possibility to respond directly to these guest reviews via RT Review, making it both a social media monitoring and communication tool.

What does RT Review offer you exactly?
•    Alerts for every new guest review that is published
•    Summary about your review score trend over a period of time (last 7 days, 30 days, 12 months)
•    Comparison of your performance in different review websites
•    Different performance review categories to control your score (F&B, rooms, cleanliness, customer service, etc.)
•    Comparison between your results and competitor hotels
•    Analysis of score result details by website
•    Individual reviews
•    Possibility for a direct response to reviews

As to be expected, Rate Tiger has developed easy dashboards for its new program allowing any hotelier to use RT Review with only a brief online training. The screenshots below will give you an idea of the user interface.

Websites that have been intergrated into RT Review include: booking, boo.com, expedia, fastbooking, globalhotelreview, holidaycheck, holiday-truth, holidays-uncovered.co.uk, holidaywatchdog, hotel.info, hotels.com, igougo, mytravelguide, orbitz, priceline, qype.co.uk, reviewcentre, travelpost, travel.yahoo.com, tripadvisor, trivago, venere, zoover, travelocity.com, reisen.de, etc.

Online social media reviews should be seen as one of the steps in the consumer decision making process, thereby becoming more and more influential for hotel marketing. Hotels can no longer afford not to monitor and respond to them. Ignoring online reviews means ignoring the wishes of your consumers.

RT Review allows you to incorporate feedback of your guests as a pre and post stay marketing tactic. Take a look at the TownHouse Hotel Maastricht on a well-known review website. It is a good example to illustrate the advantages of active review management, being the number 1 hotel in its destination and generating more and more direct sales.

For more information have a look at the hotel marketing webpage of Xotels, the hotel consulting and advertising Company.