Hotel Blogs by Guillaume Thevenot

When Hotels Chains use Twitter (part 3 and final)

For the study conducted, I selected only 15 hotel brands Twitter users but I could have picked some more. Sorry if I didn't select yours, it wasn't deliberate from me. I will follow up with another analysis about how independent hotels use Twitter. So let's have a look at the last 5 other hotel chains.
Read Part 1 of this study here and Part 2 there.

The UK hotel chain MacDonald is very active on Twitter. They have more updates than followers. Their dedicated page is simple and sticks to their brand upper class audience. They allow their followers to get special promo offers at their hotels. In fact most of their updates is about pushing the sale of their hotels to Twitter audience. To reinforce their value one of their Tweet says "With over 40 luxury hotels to choose from - exclusive spas, Championship golf courses, AA Rosette dining, we will be sure to please all."

Morgans Hotels has a good readership of more than 2,000 followers with only 31 people they follow. They are engaging with their customers by giving some direct messages to Twitter other users. They also send some links about music preview of what you can hear in some of their hotels. Quite a few DJs are performing in the evening like at The Sanderson in London.  Their homepage is quite funky and reflects the brand image of the hotels.

Omni Hotels is only available in the US with 43 luxury hotels. You can notice that they advertise their Twitter dedicated email address on the left side. Again, you can follow their updates and see how they engage well with their audience "@XXX  - Let us know if we can help you further..." proves again that hotels can use Twitter as an extension of their customer service desk. They recently added 4 people pictures as members of their Omni Twitter account team (more personalized that the screen shot above).

By naming their account MilleniumPR, the hotel chain makes it clear. They are here to push PR on Twitter.Nothing wrong with that. They do engage with people talking about their hotels. Not many updates yet, they probably just started to use the tool. On the left side they list their hotels but you can see only American hotels. This account is indeed only to promote hotels in North America. So what about other continents? 

Ritz Carlton, one of the most respected hotel brand in the industry has also taken a name with PR on it. But the account is more personnalized because it is handled by their Senior Corporate Director of Public Relations - Allison Sitch. She even discloses her email address (quite a brave move knowing how many emails she must deals with everyday...). Updates gives their audience links to interesting articles mentionning Ritz Carlon, pictures on Twitpic.

Check out another article by Christine Kirk on Luxury Hotel Brands on Twitter.

When Hotels Chains use Twitter (part 2)

For the study conducted, I selected only 15 hotel brands Twitter users but I could have picked some more. Sorry if I didn't select yours, it wasn't deliberate from me. I will follow up with another analysis about how independent hotels use Twitter. So let's have a look at 5 other hotel chains.
Read Part 1 of this study here.

Choice Hotels is very much focused on brands exposures and you can clearly see this on their Twitter homepage with all logos listed.  Again, this is another example of how one way marketing works (or doesn't work) meaning Choice Hotels use Twitter to only push information online. They don't seem really interested to follow any body (note 0 following on their page). Twitter is used for Direct Marketing. Also you can see they are still in early stage (only 8 updates).

 
Hyatt does things differently. First of all, their Twitter account is HyattConcierge, so this activity has a purpose on its own rather than being the "Corporate" Twitter page. As you scroll down all the activity going on, you notice they do manage very well the direct messages "DM" with their community. All updates are directly targeted at individual Twitter users. It's a shame we can't follow through what's happening after the DM to the customer, but this looks to me very innovative about how you approach customer service before, during and after your stay. In terms of stats, they have more than 2,000 followers and follow about 1,800 users.

Again, another example of great interaction between the hotel chain and the Twitter users crowd. By using TweetDeck (a Twitter 3rd party application), Joie De Vivre manages more effectively what people are saying about their brand or their hotel property. Also they use the tool to promote their offers from different participating hotels like the $84 rate at the Citizen hotel. They have nearly managed to get 2,000 followers and follow even more Twitter accounts.

The representation company Luxe hotels has always been synonym of trendy, modern, design and boutique hotels. Unfortunately, their Twitter page lacks of imagination and doesn't even respond to brand awareness (you can't read properly their brand name on the left side). However, they have some interaction with other Twitter users and also push some interesting facts and promos on their updates. Again another decent figure of 1,368 followers. They also follow more people.

I was looking forward to see how Marriott was approaching Twitter because of the huge success of their blogging activity with On the Move blog by Bill Marriott. Like Starwood did, they have 2 persons John and Blake who manages Twitter and engage with the audience. Impressively, they have over 9,000 followers and follow 7,600 Twitter accounts. They also sent over 1,900 updates (in one week after this screen shot, they passed the 2,000 mark) on their account!!! With the usage of Twitterfeed, Twhirl, TweetDesk, you can see they have "professionals" managing their Twitter account. Also you can see their updates are not all about promos and responding to customers (example:@GeeEmm The top choice for famous person tweeps most wanted to travel with was....Anthony Bourdain. President Obama was near the top too.)

When Hotels Chains use Twitter (part 1)

No. It's not going to be another article about the pros and cons of Twitter and how you should use it (or not) for your own business or your private life.

Instead, I thought I should give you some heads ups about what I have found so far in terms of hotel brands/chains who embrace the Twitter phenomenon and how each of these chains behave differently with their followers. Also what sort of messages "updates" do they write about about. Is there any interactivity between their followers and them.

For the study conducted, I selected only 15 hotel brands Twitter users but I could have picked some more. Sorry if I didn't select yours, it wasn't delibarate from me. I will follow up with another analysis about how independant hotels use Twitter.

The benchmark study was made with International hotel groups:

Starwood Hotels
Four Seasons
Hyatt
Ritz Carlton
Marriott Hotels
Millenium Hotels
Morgans Hotel Group

but also with hotel "representation" companies / franchisors:

Choice Hotels
Best Western
Luxe Worldwide
Design Hotels

and local hotel chains:

Tiara Hotels (Europe)
MacDonalds Hotels (UK)
Omni Hotels (USA)
Joie de Vivre Hotels (USA

First of all, let's look at what all of them do unanimously.

1. They all have customized their Twitter page to their branding image
2. They all have taken a Twitter account name with their brand name. Some of them I am sure I have been thinking hard about that... when they discovered their name was already taken. More and more we hear that domain squatters have also embraced Twitter as well. One advice, please check and register your brand name on Twitter RIGHT NOW before it's too late. It doesn't matter if you don't use Twitter after. At least you have protected your brand.
3. They all have given a go at "Tweets" meaning they have send Updates (some brands register and then only follow Twitter users)
4. They all have "Open" accounts where anyone can follow their Tweets
5. They all have filled details about their company, their location and more importantly their website URL (nothing beats free traffic)

Let's take a look at individual account now.

 
Starwood Hotels is a bit corporate on that one. They haven't got many updates yet but they have more than 2,000 followers and follow also a lot of users (1,664). All their brands logos are represented on their  page and to make sure consumer don't get duped by squatters, their inform on their bio "Official voice of Starwood Hotels". The account is a bit personnal since we know 2 people (Kevin and Ben) are behind the Tweets. Oh did I also mention that their Twitter name is not Starwood or Starwoodhotels? They preferred StarwoodBuzz. A bit more cool no?

Tiara Hotels, a Portuguese hotel group is very active on Twitter with almost 900 updates, more than 1,700 followers and an outstanding 1,515 Twitter accounts they follow. As you an see, the hotel group manages quite well the "RT" gimmich which is to repeat a Tweet (remember it means an update) that they found on another Twitter account. It is to say, I found this useful Tweet, let's share this with my audience in case they don't follow this user. Also you can clearly see that they interact with their audience. They even thank their 1,800 follower. I still don't understand how they can follow so many users though.

Four Seasons with their very simple page has opted for the "push" strategy in regards of using Twitter. What does that mean is that they only interested to push information to their 2,049 followers. Thet are not really interested to follow anybody (apart from the 5 other Four Seasons accounts created for individual hotels). They sent less than 400 updates and don't have a human person we can relate to if you want to respond to their Tweet.

Best Western, the "world's largest hotel chain" says their bio is taking a similar approach where they seem to follow a lot of their individual hotels Twitter accounts. They only have 677 followers with 139 updates. The best of it is their personnalized page. I really like it. You can see they put some good effort into this.

Design Hotels refer a lot on special deep links of their website if they have any special promo. I believe this is a good way to promote your offers instantly. They have 1,388 followers and follow a good number of peope (272 is a reasonable number to follow in my opinion). I just find their page a bit to dark for me to read. But who cares now? I use Seesmic Desktop !

Who needs emails these days?

I know a large number of people are still wondering what Twitter is for and why so much noise is behind it recently. Anyway, I let you judge for yourself whether Twitter is of good use for you.

While I was browsing the Web to find out who is on Twitter, I discovered that the Design Style Online Magazine for Paris hotels Hoosta has aso a Twitter account and so does the hotel chain Tiara Hotels (2 hotels in France and 2 hotels in Portugal). And what do they do on Twitter? Hoosta asks Tiara Hotels if they can provide some pictures of their new hotel opening soon in Cannes.

Could it be that Twitter become more efficient than emails for such a request?

Looks like it since Hoosta published a nice article about the hotel 3 days later (Note also the quality of pictures and how fast they are displayed on the site...)

So getting more and more proficient with Twitter, I have to say I tend to believe we have seen just the beginning of how people coud use efficiently this new social media tool.

Marriott COO gets cautious about the recovery of the economy

It's funny how television in the US like CNBC on this example is full of logos, written headlines all over the screen and also special effects sounds during the interview to get your attention not to mention the "WOW"effect of the journalist Melissa Francis at 1min26 and the "honest" surprised face she's making. Last but not least they title the interview "Marriott checks in", I wonder where I saw a similar title before.

Travelodge strikes back

One week, the leading UK hotel chain Premier Inn tells the world that they deliver a better product than Best Western.

The other week, their direct competitor Travelodge tells the same world that they are definitely cheaper than Premier Inn.

Note that they compare only hotels available in the central location of cities like Manchester or London.

Premier Inn goes head to head with Best Western

The hotel chain Premier Inn (part of the Whitbread group) has recently published a paper advertising where they ask the question about what's "Best" in Best Western. The goal is probably to drive away Best Western customers to try Premier Inn product.

In European advertising, this is very rare that companies criticize other companies publicly. I know it's common case in the US.

So why would Premier Inn do that? Isn't it arrogant or being smart?

Personally, I don't see the product similarity between Best Western and Premier Inn. They are not competing on the same ground. For instance, the brand recognition of Best Western is global, Premier Inn is essentially local in the UK and IE. Also one product is standard in all their hotels for Premier Inn and Best Western works with franchisees meaning all hotels are different (with 3 sub standards).

I know a room is a room is a room. But let's not discuss about the commodity of the hotel industry...

USA Today launched HotelCheck-In

The famous daily American newspaper USA today (2.25M copies on average per day) has launched an online business traveler community around hotels moderated by the journalist Barbara de Lollis who has been writing on business travel for more than seven years (see her impressive biography).

The site/blog is called Hotel Check-In and integrated in the Travel section of the online version of USA Today.

You can see that Barbara already covered the story of the week, eg, Starwood lawsuit against Hilton with ex employees of Starwood involved in the launch of the new brand Denizen by Hilton. USA Today even features a guest post from Starwood CEO Fritz Van Paasschen to respond to his legal action against Hilton.

I think this initiative of inviting senior hospitality executives to blog on your site is an interesting one. And certainly it has paid off for both USA Today and Starwood with the recent news. I wonder how editors welcome other potential authors to join the conversation on Hotel Check-In. Surely, there must be a queue now from other hotel brands who wish to have their say on the blog as well.

Anyway, congratulations to Barbara and her team around this very informative site. You can also follow Barbara on Twitter at twitter.com/barbdelollis. You can also see below that Barbara is reading some good blogs out there :-)

 

Viral Marketing for Fairfield Inn

Nice viral marketing from the (US only) Marriott owned hotel brand Fairfield Inn & Suites with professional players for the DC United soccer (football) team.

The video is part of the new integrated marketing campaign "Staying is Believing" with online banner ads. This campaign focuses on the guest journeys mments at Fairfield Inn - and dramatizes how these moments become "moments of belief" for the guest when they realize that Fairfield Inn provides them with everything they need (free WIFI, free hot breakfast...).

Morgans Hotel Group reveals a new creative website

The luxury design, hip, boutique hotel group Morgans Hotel Group Co listed on the US stock market NASDAQ under MHGC has announced yesterday the launch of a new, fully integrated and optimized website.

The new site offers consumers a more immersive experience, streamlining the booking process through the use of the first full-screen booking calendar and the use of rich lifestyle photography as well as providing a varied dynamic user experience based on browser, device, or user-type. 

Morgans hired Zaaz, Inc., a full service interactive agency, to create a balanced brand and commerce experience that is unparalleled in the industry and to spearhead the technical redesign.  Through the use of video and flash technology, the new hub delivers a seamless interactive experience for 99.0% of browsers. Each page of the interactive site can also be crawled and indexed by search engines, while mobile users also have access to the sites’ content.

Morgans’ new online hub also goes beyond a traditional e-commerce site premiering its new nightlife guide called "The List”, which features the hottest clubs, restaurants, and boutiques in Morgans’ cities. While most hospitality industry website’s booking capabilities are limited to room reservations, “The List” is fully integrated with the booking process, offering guests the unique, cutting-edge experience of viewing content corresponding directly with dates selected on the calendar so they may see what events are occurring in their city of choice during their stay and may even save their profile preferences for future visits.  With content generated by the popular online lifestyle resource UrbanDaddy and Morgans’ roster of in-the-know concierges, “The List” propels Morgans further into the forefront of taste making.