DIGITAL MARKETING

TIPS TO DIFFERENTIATE

YOUR HOTEL ONLINE7

2104 IS LOOKING LIKE YET ANOTHER EXCITING YEAR FOR

THE TRAVEL INDUSTRY.

EXPEDIA AND PRICELINE have been pushing to place themselves as

pivotal for all travel-related decisions.

SO, THE QUESTION IS, WHAT CAN HOTELS DO

TO LEVERAGE THIS SHIFTING MARKET?

?

FACTS THAT YOU CAN NOT IGNORE4

1. Some in the industry are sending strong signals of change.

2. A significant number of the top international hotel chains created Roomkey in 2012, a new distribution portal, to compete with the OTAs.

3. Several Scandinavian operators have recently suspended their contracts with Expedia, reacting to issues regarding their ability to offer the best prices themselves.

4. The Air Transport Association announced that they would start offering customizable tickets, but only on their own websites.

All of these moves seem to be a departure from stan-dardized mass-distribution product where price is king, to distribution control and product customization, where value and net margin contribution are the key factors.

PRICE ISKING

VALUE AND NET MARGIN CONTRIBUTION ARE THE KEY FACTORS.

CHANGINGSTRATEGIES

Nordic Choice, Scandic Hotels and Thon Hotels

SUSPENDED THEIR CONTRACTS WITH EXPEDIA in order to be able TO OFFER LOWER-COST PRODUCTS ON THEIR

OWN WEBSITES.

The ATA recently announced that it would be experimenting with customizable tickets and fees, but only for passengers who book di-rectly on the airlines’ websites. The ATA announcement is very interesting as it highlights the im-portance for hotels to differentiate themselves beyond price, and focus on ancillary services.

THE AIR TRANSPORTASSOCIATION IS MAKING STRIDES TOWARDS GREATER DIFFERENTIATION.

By allowing customers to select through the aforementioned cus-tomizations, even if they are not offering the lowest price in the industry, they are differentiating themselves from everyone else in the customer’s eyes.

Roomkey, on the other hand, is the creation of a new distribution push under direct hotel mem-bers’ control.

THE GOAL SEEMS TO BE TO ASSURE A GREATER CONTROL OF THEIR DISTRIBUTION CHANNELS AND ASSOCIATED MARGINS.

WHAT CAN HOTELIERS TAKE AWAY?

7 DIGITAL MARKETING TIPS.

HOTELIERS’ DIGITAL MARKETINGSTRATEGY NEEDS TO INCLUDEDIFFERENTIATION OF THEIR PRODUCT.

INVEST IN SPECIALIZED CHANNELS: 1. Make sure that your hotel is present in the distribution channels most relevant to your market segment. For instance, if you have a boutique hotel, try to get listed on tablethotels.com.

SHOWCASE YOUR HOTEL ONLINE:Make sure you have an up-to-date website that reflects your hotel’s unique features and characteristics, so as to give custom-ers a perception of what your hotel is all about. This is something OTAs won’t be able to do as they are set out for comparison-shopping.

2.

CUSTOMIZETHE EXPERIENCE:Provide additional options for customers booking. Create partnerships with local at-tractions, tours, restaurants,… and offer them as add-ons after the customer has booked with you.

3.

DIFFERENTIATE ONBOOKING PACKAGES:Innovate with room types as product offers. Leverage your own booking engine to offer promotions and special offers that you should not offer on the OTAs (e. g. an iPod room where you have a fully charged iPod with music in the room or a package with a day at a nearby spa).

4.

REWARD LOYALTY: Reward returning guests that book directly through your website. This can be easily achieved by offering e.g. 10% discount code for any returning customer, still much less than the commission you pay to OTAs.

5.

MARKET DIRECTLYTO CUSTOMERS:Gather your guests’ information and ask them to opt-in for promotions and special offers so that you can reach out directly. .

6.

LEVERAGESOCIAL MEDIA:increase your online presence; it is also the addition of new communication channels. With social media you have a platform where you can communicate with customers on a more informal level and take advantage of your small size in order to transmit a friendlier feel to your guests.

7. Have a presence in the most popular social platforms. It isn’t just a way to

COMING NEXT....

DIGITAL MARKETING TRENDS FOR HOTELS IN 2014 -15

14

ABOUT ima-appweb.com

ima appweb is an one stop all solution for your design and development need. we are actively in-volved in ROI for business via digital and inbound marketing.

There is a pain in a market and we have promised ourself that we will solve it.

A Digital marketing agency never speaks about ROI in terms of Room Nights or sales.

WE NOT ONLY INCREASING BRAND AWARENESS , CREATE COMMUNICATION, BUILD SOFTWARE, WEBSITE, BOOKING ENGINE BUT WE CAN ALSO

INCREASE YOUR SALES....

BELEIVE IT OR NOT.a customer surfs atleast 38 websites

before purchasing any thing from online. :)

MAGIC HAPPENSWHEN A BRANDING AGENCYA DIGITAL AGENCY A TECHNICAL AGENCY ANDOFFLINE HOTEL SALES & MARKETING AGENCYJOINS HAND TO SOLVE A SINGLE PROBLEM ..

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