Hotel Blogs - When Hotel Marketing gets Social

When hotel groups rewrite a story: RoomKey

We started the new year with a lot of news regarding the online travel world. Just by reading Tnooz, I can't keep up with the new stuff coming out of new ventures and also all these changes happening with OTAs.

One of the recent news was the announcement of a new collaborative online distribution channel called RoomKey. This new venture has been launched last week in beta with major hotel groups (Choice Hotels International, Hilton Worlwide, Hyatt, IHG, Wyndham Hotel Group and Marriott).

When I heard the news, I had to pinch myself because this reminded me of 2 past failed projects in the last decade: AndBook in 2000 and TravelWeb (owned by Priceline now) in 2002.

With RoomKey,these hotels groups aim to create a direct distribution channel that competes directly with traditional online travel agents (OTAs) such as Booking.com or Expedia. They are tired of loosing out margin by giving away commission to 3rd party players who spend a lot of money in search engines in order to feature their website higher than hotel chains websites.

By the way did you know that Priceline (including their sister companies Booking.com and Agoda) have spent $700M on online advertising in the first 9 months of 2011. Well, that's exactly where RoomKey might struggle to really compete with established OTAs. I don't believe this conglomerate has this sort of money to buy all the relevant key words in PayPerClick campaigns on Google, Bing and Yahoo.

Now, RoomKey might play the innovation route and think ahead of Google. Hotel Finder, here I come! Afterall, hotel groups have learned a long way since 1998 about what to do online to make their website an increasing profit center. But they also learned a lot about what not to do with OTAs (remember when hotel GMs were dumping rates on hotels.com after September 11).

In their current version, I am afraid I can't really see any major innovation in RoomKey. It is just a meta search engine with mainly American hotel groups providing their best rate availability. Once you pick the hotel you like, you are re-directed to the hotel group website in the right landing page. And that's it folks!

Really? Is that how hoteliers bring innovation online?

And don't even get me started with the introduction on their website.

"Want the real deal on hotel rooms? Well, look no further. Welcome to Room Key, the brainchild of hoteliers on a mission - to make hotel searches simple, fast and fun (not to mention, easy on the eyes). It's a tall order, but we wouldn't do it any other way."

1/ So hotel searches are already simple on major OTAs and hotel group websites. I just don't see how RoomKey makes it more simple.

2/ Fast? Well it took me 15 seconds to get the best rate available in London for 23 hotels whereas Booking.com gives me 1073 hotels availibility and prices in 4 seconds.

3/ Fun? Well there is nothing fun in that search engine, neither are the filters. Clearly the fun element part is clearly missing. Unless it is 2nd degree happiness. In that case, I am not there yet :-)

I am surprised that hotel groups haven't embraced reviews, professional recommendations on this project. This would have been fun!

More to come I am sure. And more to review on these columns for sure.

For now, RoomKey doesnt' quite cut the mustard for me. And you?

Check out Tom Costello excellent blog post about his take on the venture and of course Tnooz article with their 27 comments (and counting).

 

The 7 Fatal Mistakes Hoteliers Make In Getting More Business

Are you letting new business opportunities slip through your fingers?

Do you struggle to bring in business at certain times of the year?

Are you unsure what marketing you should be doing and want to know how to make your marketing budget go further?

Do your guests seem to have a good time, but you still don’t get much repeat business?

Are you fed up with other hotels under cutting you and forcing you to reduce your rates?

Reward your best guests with Facebook Credits

A lot of people are still wondering how Facebook makes any money apart for the advertising bit. Facebook Credits is a new revenue stream that was officially launched earlier this year for people who want to purchase stuff on the social networking site like a truck on the game Farmville. Facebook Credits are part of what we call virtual currency in the same way we had Linden dollars in Second Life.

You would need to buy Facebook Credits with real money via PayPal or credit card. For instance you could buy 50 Facebook Credits for $5.  With this money, you could vote for your favourite candidate on the X Factor, or watch movie on PayPerView.

How to fail to deliver a great hotel e-newsletter

From time to time, I receive hotels newsletters in my email inbox that give me some updates about their brand, their hotels development or simply their latest offers.

The newsletter is usually something that us consumers choose to receive because we are keen to be informed about different topics.

Adele Gutman wins 2011 Hotel Sales & Marketing Executive of the Year

The HSMAI New York chapter held its 8th Annual Frank W. Berkman Tourism Achievement Award Gala Dinner last week and awarded the hotelier Adele Gutman 'Hotel Sales & Marketing Executive of the Year'.

Adele Gutman is Vice President of Sales & Marketing for the New York hotel group HKHotels. The hotel group has 4 hotels ranking at the highest positions on TripAdvisor review hotel website. Adele has been convinced by the power of customer reviews and social media a long time ago and her work teamed up with the entire staff at the 4 properties has paid off for the group. 

This is what she says:

HotelBlogs meets Fiona Robson from Rocketseed

Rocketseed, a 5 years old company based in London is specialized in email marketing. They work with the hospitality industry to increase opportunities to drive your messages across enewsletter, email communication and more.

Are hotels waking up to Social Media? (video)

HVS Executive Search and ESSEC Business School conducted a roundtable in Paris in February inviting hotels to discuss how the industry is embracing Social Media.

The table was moderated by both Professor Peter O'Connor and HVS Executive Search director Chris Mumford.

Sofitel, Rezidor, White Line Hotels and the hotel online reputation tool ReviewPro were discussing:

"How are we doing on Social Media today?".

Don't steal my hotel brand online!

While politics discuss the possibility of regulating the Internet (check out the e-g8 summit videos), we in the hospitality industry has a huge dilemma to solve on the Internet.

We have to debate openly with all distribution players about brand protection online.

Recently a study conducted by MarkMonitor (brilliant press release by the way) reveals that the hotel industry is loosing more than $2.2B annually because of brand hijacking, spammers and fraudulent activities on search engines.

Concorde Hotels rethinks their Social Media strategy

The luxury hotel group Concorde Hotels & Resorts (part of Starwood Capital and once again separated from Louvre Hotels) has reviewed their strategy regarding their new Facebook page rolled out to 13 of their 27 properties.The head office wants to make sure they control the brand identify of Concorde in all Social Media tools.

Their corporate brand official Facebook page has already driven more than 4,000 "Like". The group marketing department has shared about 60 photos, 5 videos including this promotional ad and updates the wall frequently. They even respond to a customer who asks a question regarding a property who doesn't belong to the group anymore.

Differentiation and customization: a winning formula for hoteliers?

I remember back at university (IMHI that is between 1998 and 2000) that we would read business cases telling us a lot about how the future of the hotel industry will be about serving guests with their preferences.

I am afraid that in 2011, we are still very far from getting customization of hotel rooms/ hotel services for guests.

The only  time I was offered a proper customized room was at one of the crazy properties developed by Philippe Vaurs in Paris called One by the Five. I got asked a week before my stay which music I wanted to have on the iPod on my arrival. Also they got me to choose a fragrance in the room. But this is just the beginning of personalization.