Guest IntelligenceWhat drives guests to your hotel?

◦ Guest Tracking By Season, Source, Market or Company?

◦ Why/How guests heard about your hotel property? Referral, Advertising, Online

◦ How to find this information (besides asking them directly) Online Market Tools that can help!

◦ Competitive Intelligence How it helps your hotel stay up to date on trends & demand

◦ Understanding ‘Market Drivers’ How people actually decided on your hotel may surprise you.

Guest Intelligence

◦ Guest Tracking: What brought them to your hotel & why?◦ Was it something you did? A special package or event going on in the

area? All Key Factors when you forecast for the future. ◦ For hotel companies, social media has essentially become a

sanctioned form of eavesdropping. “Hotels have trained their staff to be intense listeners and dig up information about their guests. This gives them a whole new realm in which to listen.”  Season: Understanding demand & pricing appropriately is CRUCIAL Source: How was the reservation made? Online, Mobile, Call-in?

Libra On Demand software: Aids in “customer relationship management,” or CRM. “Libra acts as a one-stop shop for searching guests on Google, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and other channels.”

Market: Group, Leisure, Tour, Government, Corporate Very Important that every guest is tracked accordingly to their length of stay,

reason for staying & their rate. Company: If a guest works for a company it’s very important to get

that company information because there’s opportunities for more biz!

Guest Intelligence

◦ Top 3 Keys to Hotel Distribution1. MOBILE: This trend is number one for a reason

Take advantage of this trend with an excellent mobile site designed to get your mobile visitors to the answers they are looking for quickly and efficiently, with the ability to book on every page.

Think of mobile as its own channel so you can offer special rates, promotions, product descriptions as well as tracking specifically for this market.

Correct information on the main booking sites: They all funnel information from each other. Hotels.com, Booking.com, Orbitz, Travelocity, Expedia, Hotwire, Priceline

Work with sites with geo-location services such as Foursquare, Facebook, TripAdvisor, and Yelp to offer promotions.

Participate in the free marketing programs that many of these sites offer, such as adding links to your website and other social media accounts, uploading pictures or offering check-in deals and specials.

Optimize your location for mapping and mobile search. Consider running a mobile targeted AdWords campaign with click to call and tailor your message to mobile users.

Guest Intelligence

◦ Top 3 Keys to Hotel DistributionMOBILE: QR Codes are the newest thing that everyone is using to make life easier

You can create a QR Code for any website you want Just go to http://www.qrstuff.com/ enter the link & it gives you a QR Code Helps ‘funnel’ your guests to the right place & increases their chances of

returning!

Guest Intelligence

◦ Top 3 Keys to Hotel Distribution2. SOCIAL MEDIA: You can create a QR Code for any website you want

By now, hopefully everyone has an active presence on at least Facebook or Twitter, if not other channels.

You use these to engage and retain fans of your brand. The next question is, are you using social media to convert? In the past year, social media channels such as Facebook have created more and

more opportunities for hotel marketers to use social media as an extension of their direct-to-consumer strategy.

Some areas to consider to help your business grow through your social media efforts:

Guest Intelligence

◦ Top 3 Keys to Hotel Distribution3. CHANNEL MANAGEMENT: Even though hotels do not want to be dependent on third parties/OTAs, there

is still a value to these partnerships in the overall marketing and distribution landscape.

The Billboard Effect tells us that 23% more bookings direct to brand websites when associated with OTAs (online travel agents)

The average online travel consumer Spends 10 searching sessions over an average of five weeks before a reservation is

finally made Visiting at least 20 websites in total.

Your strategy:Embrace the research & executeParticipate is as much as possibleRequire Results-Accountability -PerformanceOffer consistent rates across all channels

Guest Intelligence

◦ Why/How guests heard about your hotel property?◦ Tracking: Make sure you’re tracking how a guest stayed with

you if it’s a special you’ve been running. (GC’s-Vouchers) Referrals: Special Notes in reservation, pay close attention

to rate Advertising: Require a ‘code’ to receive special rate (helps

tracking) Online: Specials, Packages or Deals you may be running

Guest Intelligence

◦ Where’s the business coming from?

◦ Hotel Tools at your fingertips: Are you utilizing them 100%?

Guest Intelligence

Examples of what to look for & how to break it down & understand it!

E-Commerce Reports Marketing, Revenue, Performance Reports

Overall CRS (Central Reservation System) MTD/YTD Performance Statistics

E-brochures GDS Travel Agents – Voice Call Centers 3rd Party Referral Websites:

Hotels.com, Expedia, TravelWeb, Travelocity, Orbitz, Booking.com Referring Websites:

Google, Room Key, Bing, Kayak

Guest Intelligence

Central Reservation System (CRS)

Guest Intelligence

Guest Intelligence

Guest Intelligence

Biggest Hotel Concerns from Managers & Owners Not only are we trying to figure out where the business is coming from & why

on a daily basis, but we’re also being challenged to keep up with the new trends so we’re not left behind.

You’re NOT ALONE! Today’s hotel marketing landscape is changing rapidly A recent survey of Sabre Hospitality customers revealed that understanding

new distribution and marketing trends presented one of the top challenges to their business.◦ Other Concerns: Who is responsible for keeping track of all this information? ◦ Is it on file somewhere, is it organized & would your hotel be in trouble if that person

left?

Guest Intelligence

◦ Competitive Intelligence How it helps your hotel stay up to date on trends & demand Shows You How To Differentiate

Through competitive intelligence reporting, you can track and analyze the marketing and communication strategy of your competitors. By staying current with their messaging, press releases, and social strategy, you can capitalize on areas that your competitors are executing poorly, and make your company stand out.

Alerts You To New Trends Your competition can alert you to larger market trends that you may

have missed previously. It can also alert you to lack of demand signaling that it is time to make

changes or stop certain campaigns or specials completely Helps with Timing

If you enter at the right time you can pummel the competition

Guest Intelligence

◦ Understanding ‘Market Drivers’ How people actually decided on your hotel may surprise

you. Could be as simple as a positive (or negative) online review Might come down to how well your FD Attendant ‘sells’ them.

Visual Content Marketing: Some guests prefer ‘pictures’ over material Make your hotel as ‘attractive’ as possible! Run great specials, deals, promotions or ‘fun facts’ to keep interest

high!

Guest Intelligence

STR Reports:◦ Market Forecasting◦ Trend Reports ◦ Pipeline Reports

Guest Intelligence