Hotel Blogs - When Hotel Marketing gets Social

Who has the fastest hotel brand website?

According to a survey conducted by USA Today and Compuware, the American hotel group Marriott is leading the industry when it comes to provides a fast experience on their consumer website marriott.com. The study was measuring the speed, navigation and rooms details of different hotel brand websites.

Marriott website drive about 12M unique visits a month with about 3,600 hotels to offer.

Now if you investigate further on the Gomez website (US chains only) you will see that other hotel brands are leading in their own category where the latest benchmarch study was made between July and August 2011.

HotelBlogs meets Ray Mason from Availpro

Availpro is a hotel technology company based in France (cocorico!) who offers a leading online hotel booking engine that plugs into 3,000 hotels mainly in France and Europe. Availpro booking engine works on a business model where the hotelier pays a small booking fee (€2 - €2.5)  rather than a commission on each transaction taking place on his own website. They also connect hotel availability to a 2 way connectivity with more than 300 OTAs. Recently, Availpro launched their Facebook booking engine which proved to be a good way to convert bookings via the social media platform.

How to get it right in hotel website design

Editor's Note: The following is a guest post by Kate Waite of Dot Tourism, a digital branding and online marketing agency. She explains what are the 5 key fundamental things you should look at in order to make your hotel website relevant and sticky to your guests and your prospects. Feel free to use the comment box to share your opinion and your experience.

For a hotel, the website may be the primary and often only contact with potential guests before they arrive. It acts as an essential sales tool, promoting the property to potential guests, allowing them to book and then providing the information necessary to facilitate a great stay and hopefully leading to repeat custom and a new brand ambassador.

With a vital role to fulfil, there are five key essentials that every hotel website should make sure they get right.

1.     Photos

The old adage that a picture is worth a thousand words is especially true for hotel websites. Most potential guests want to see the room that they are considering booking and the look and style can have a big impact on whether they make a booking. It’s well worth investing in a professional photographer and building up a gallery of the property looking its best. Wide-angle, bright shots can do wonders at converting website visitors into guests.

The Kelebeck Cave Hotel (http://www.kelebekhotel.com/rooms.php) does this very well with images of all their 31 unique rooms.

2.     Easy to use reservation system

An online reservation system that allows visitors to check availability, rates for the period they want to stay and make and confirm their booking is obviously vital for all but the smallest properties. Hotels should make sure it is simple and foolproof, as far too many reservation systems are fiddly and require the guest to jump through several hoops before reaching that all important confirmation screen. The more streamlined the booking process, the more likely it is that guests will see it through to completion.

A whole post could be written just about reservation systems but little things, like having the departure date options only showing dates after the arrival, create less opportunity for error while having unavailable dates blocked off to save users wasted time searching for rooms is another bonus.

Avoid facing the user with an overly long list of room types for the same rooms with options for internet offers, flexible booking rates, non-refundable offer rate etc. It’s just confusing to users!

3.     Contact details
Sometimes you just need to ask a simple question and there is nothing more frustrating than having to hunt down a phone number or email address. Make sure there is a clear way to get in touch with a “real” person to help with quick queries and unusual requests.

4.     Location and directions

It’s vital that your guests can find you so your hotel website should contain a map and clear directions on how to reach you. Directions from main access points to the city / location are a bonus, as is information about parking.

The Hoxten Hotel use a large, clear Google map showing underground stations with useful information and advice for drivers.

5.     What’s included

A list of information about what’s included in the room price and available facilities is essential and should be easily accessible. Things that are important to guests include whether there is WiFi available, in room facilities such as hair dryers, fridge/bar and safe. Travel Lodge show clearly what’s in the room and what is available from reception.

 

While there are many other things that can (and often should) be included on a hotel website, getting these five elements right will be key to how well your website performs.

 

How a genuine promo video should look like - Vocera

Usually I don't really publish press releases as such or information that got pushed to me through my email if it is not relevant to hoteliers.

But this is an exception. Vocera is providing a great wireless communication device that is usually used in hospitals and Vocera thought why not selling this to hotels as well since the staff is all over the place and you need to communicate quickly and efficiently across services.

I really like their promotional video done with a clear and genuine hotel experience, the Talbott Hotel in Chicago. You can feel how the owner Basil Kromelow and his staff seem to really embrace this new technology and talk without a script.

Anyway, I think also the idea is great and that could certainly helps the big size hotels to fix things quickly when problems occur like:

- the TV remote control doesn't work

- a room service tray outside the corridor

- room 101 doesn't have hot shower

- room 403 needs a cot

and so on

How hoteliers & restaurants can start using Foursquare

This year, Social Media is all about localization and relevancy. Believe it or not, people are willing to share their whereabouts and happy to tell their friends and family where they are almost instantly thanks to applications available on smart phones like Android phones (I use a Nexus One myself for 2 weeks now), iPhone, Blackberry and others.

The concept is simple. Your mobile device can tell the world where you are located and you can "check in" in places you are right now. Usually people are willing to share interesting places like restaurants, bars, hotels, attractions but also less interesting places at first like airports or train stations. Eventually you might find that another friend of yours is also at Heathrow Terminal 5 so why not having a cup of coffee rather than being on your own waiting for the boarding gate.

Today, there are 2 clear players in the localization based online services: Gowalla and Foursquare. Both companies almost started around the same time. If you want to have some background about how these two companies were created and how their founders Josh Williams and Dennis Crowley found the idea, I would advise to read the story on the tech magazine Wired in here.

I have been experiencing myself Foursquare for more than 2 weeks since my acquisition of a Nexus One which runs on Android, the mobile phone operating system engineered by Google.

And I have to say I got used to the application very quickly and "checking in" seems natural to me now. But my wife keeps telling that I am a geek so maybe Foursquare is not for everyone for sure.

It doesn't mean that you - hoteliers, restaurant owners, bar owners - shouldn't pay attention to this new social networking site (remember how we didn't pay attention to Twitter before).

The reason: a phenomenal growth in the last 12 months that doesn't seem to slow down (2 million users this month). See stats from Compete.com below.

But also Foursquare (and probably Gowalla) brings greater proximity with your customers and has this megaphone effect which leads for the operator to offer these guys something special if they keep coming back to your property.

Also bear in mind that Foursquare is also a bit of game for users to keep checking in. You can collect badges and become a Mayor of a specific place if you checking in often in those places.

So while studying a bit more what Foursquare could really do to hotels, restaurants, I have discovered that Foursquare allows business owners to register themselves. This is how it works.

#1 Find your property

 

 

#2 Have a look at how many people checked in and what they say about your property (see the little note about blueberry muffin from Dj J.)

#3 Register your property on the right side that says "Do you manage this venue? Claim here"

You would need to register first on Foursquare.

First what are the benefits fort the hotel, restaurant, bar owners?

 

#4 Follow the steps to register your owner property and make sure you use a professional account and not your personal Foursquare account. Otherwise all your colleagues or your customers would know what you do on the weekends and so on.

So in no more than 15 minutes, I would believe you can create your account, register your property and start creating offers and all this for free.

Feel free to share your experience with Foursquare. I am looking forward to hearing your feedback and be patient as this company is still young and the audience is relatively small for now.

If your hotel are in places where Foursquare is used quite extensively like London, New York, San Francisco...give it a try now. Don't wait until your competitor does it.

Disclaimer: I don't work for Foursquare neither have shares in the company even though I am happy to receive some (Dennis, are you listening?)

Interested to improve your RevPar?

According to recent studies conducted at different hotel consultancy companies like TRI or PKF or Ernst & Young, the future is not really bright in terms of occupancy in most European cities and more importantly in RevPar (Revenue Per Available Room). London could even see a drop of a two digits % in the next 12 months according to TRI.

RevParGuru owned and created by Jean Francois Mourier and Bruno Perez is a Sales & Revenue management company that sells optimizing tools for hoteliers to improve their occupancy and RevPar (Revenue per Available Room). Probably not the first (and not the last) Hotelier Revenue Management software available on the planet but maybe worth a check.

The members of the team also embraces social media with their simple blog RevPar blog or more recently on this blog powered by WordPress

How to fail your hotel booking process with your customers

Yesterday, I was looking for a nice hotel to stay in for a weekend in Oxford. I decided to go for the new Malmaison hotel which a converted prison. I needed 1 double room and 1 twin room.

13 little steps that I had to go through to get my hotel reservation. Really tedious job I tell you...

Step 1: I search for "malmaison oxford" on Google

Step 2: Google takes me to the microsite of Malmaison

Step 3: Look for availability and rates for one night

Step 4: The site returns all sorts of room types with published rates (rack rates) and promotional summer rates. I decide to pick the summer rates. Also, there are a lot of room types and I try to find some pictures or videos that can help me in my choice. No luck, I can't find any pictures that distinguish each room type. Even on TripAdvisor, the guests picture don't give me much in terms of what to expect for the price. The twin room available is a superior room priced at £185 and the double room "in a cell" priced at £165. Not sure about this choice but I decide to go ahead. I realise that unfortunately I cannot book 2 rooms at a time. So I decide to book the superior room first. It takes 5 mins to fill my information and payment details. Then I click the proceed button. The website returns me a message "session timed out".

Step 5: I decide to persevere and go back to the site and book straight away the superior room at £185. Most of my personal details are already prefilled and press the "proceed" button. Once again, the site returns me a message "session timed out".

Step 6: I have enough of this website. I decide to call their reservation desk. I call their hotel directly who re-direct me to the reservation desk. I have a waiting music background for 2 minutes and then got disconnected.

Step 7: Call again the hotel then got to the reservation desk. I finally get somebody on the phone. I expain the situation but the person doesn't seem to be surprised by my problem for my attempted booking via their website. Instead, she says that she can book these rooms for me ( I bet she does, I am spending a fortune for these rooms). Clearly, the reservation goes through a script when you make a booking with them. First, she offers me the suite with balcony ...in the end I say that I am interested to book a twin and a double. In 7 minutes, I finally got my rooms booked for the same priced quoted on the site and my reservation confirmation number. I also book the restaurant (because it is very busy on the day). I receive my hotel confirmation by email in minutes.

Step 8: My wife calls me in the middle of the day and advises me that she found a great offer on lastminute.com. The offer is one double room for the Malmaison Oxford at £119. That is much less what I have booked (even though I booked the superior room which is a superior standard room type, apparently this only the shower room in the standard room). I decide to call back the hotel and negotiate.

Step 9: Before I call, I check again the Malmaison website. I ask for availability and rates and get a big surprise. The pricing has changed since the morning. My superior room is now priced at £139 (instead of £185) and the double room is at £109 (instead of £165). My head is fuming at this stage.

Step 10: I call the reservation desk and tell them my findings. They say that they cannot see these rates on their system. Do I believe them or not? I tell the guys to cancel my reservation made in the morning. "No problem Sir". Receive the cancellation confirmation by email within minutes.

Step 11: I go back to the website and find my superior room still priced at £139. Fill my details (again) with my payment. Suprise, surprise...I proceed and the website returns me the "Session has timed out". At this point, I have lost confidence and start growing grey hair again.

Step 12: I call the reservation desk. I manage to get somebody quickly. Ask for superior twin and a double. The person reads again the bloody script with the suite with balcony...I stop her in the middle of her story and ask her for a superior twin and a double. Prices quoted are the same ones quoted on their site. After a while, I recognized the voice and ask "didn't I talked with you this morning?". She says"Yes, I think you did". I explain my situation. In the end, I am the lucky boy because prices have gone down. Got my reservation confirmation number. I ask the reservation desk if there is any chance the prices can go lower during the week. She says with confidence that she thinks not. I guess she doesn't really know. This all depends of the yield manager of the hotel or the Malmaison revenue management department in the end. But the reservation desk is very helpful with my enquiry which is what I am expecting from this hotel brand.

Step 13: Booking is made but I still haven't received my email confirmation. I call back the reservation desk and realised they got my email spelled wrong (always a pleasure to spell french names - the people at the other end of the phone always seem to have it wrong). How can you spell it right the first time and missed it the second time. In the end, I take note of the confirmation number.

This story is unique but I am sure it repeats itself with other customers.

Malmaison, I have been a big fan of your brand since your creation nearly (as many people in this country) and I have stayed in several of your hotels in the past.

But this time, you have really disappointed me - efficient reservation systems should be such a basic thing for an established, recognised hotel company such as yours. Where did it go wrong?

I don't understand how you can fail this...

Pegasus has a new CEO

The leading technology hotel company Pegasus has named Mike Kistner their new CEO. He replaces John Davis who has chosen to pursue other opportunities outside Pegagus. John Davis made a clever move recently by acquiring the switch company WizCom making Pegasus the only Switch company in the hotel industry. More information about this appointment here.

Some features from the hotel room of the future

This video shows some interesting features that could equip of our hotel rooms in the future. This was shown at a Courtyard Hotel in Newark with University of Delaware.

Pegasus starts blogging (but it is just a start unfortunately)

You probably have read it elsewhere already (Travolution for example). The leading hotel IT technology company Pegasus has just launched its blog called "Pegged" in reference to Pegasus or also known as "Pegs" for the IT people.

I have received the PR communication in a Word format from their PR company announcing the "big" news.
According to Chip Rosales - their VP / Corporate Marketing & Communications - the blog has been created
"as an open forum for Pegagus' hospitality and technology experts to share their thoughts about hotel industry topics, events or news". He also wish that readers can comment on the views of the experts' posts. (good luck with that!).

Now. Here's my thought on this new Web 2.0 initiative. Let me ask 3 questions here:

1. Why would you launch a big PR communication about a blog initiative that you've started on the same first day?

2. The blog will be written by in-house experts says the press release...who are they? Why can't you name the persons? What are their position with Pegasus ? Their biography ? Why not sharing who will be addressing these issues?

3. Why don't you do a soft launch of the blog and spread the news slowly with word of mouth / with your own staff to start with / with your clients...  and then after 2 / 3 months, present the blog to the industry (with a PR push for this instance) ?

About the blog itself now...(or should I say the first post written last Thursday).

It is an introduction about what this blog will be about basically. Interesting to see that the blog is referring to other companies outside Pegasus galaxy such as VibeAgent (well done Adam!), SideStep or Kayak. There is also a link which leads to nowhere ie: travelblog.org (first time I come across this site, you?)

Finally, the end of the post finishes with this "...We’re interested in hearing from readers, customers, technology visionaries, fellow members of the blogerati and anyone else about what you think will be the defining technologies and transformations as our industry evolves."
Blogerati: what is this?  The link with the technology visionaries leads to a picture on Flickr with the founders of Google (Sergey Brin & Larry Page). I can't wait to see if Larry or Sergey will contribute...

I am not sure about the frequency of posts on Pegged but since last Thursday, nothing really happens...Oh well...

PS: I wonder if I should also launch a big PR communication about HB as well...after 1 year 1/2...that sounds wise no? Or would it be useless and too corporate ? Any thoughts ?

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