Travelers Find It Pays to Wait for Late Deals

By SARAH NASSAUER - íntegra AQUI.

Mark Moses likes to book family trips many months in advance to lock in prices. In November, the 49-year-old finance executive pre-paid $189 per night for a room at the four-star Empire Hotel in New York City on Priceline.com. But over the months leading up to his April trip, he cringed as he watched New York hotel prices steadily plummet, currently hovering around $150 a night for a comparable four-star hotel.

"I was a little annoyed that I was so impatient," says Mr. Moses, of Pleasanton, Calif.

The recession is upending longstanding buying patterns in the travel industry. Instead of booking far in advance for the best deals, travelers can often find cheaper hotel and airline deals if they wait until later, even up to the last minute. Over the past several months, consumers have discovered that if they can be flexible about dates, exact hotel preferences and destinations, they can often take advantage of dramatic price drops across the travel industry.

It's not clear how long the trend will continue. Already, some airline executives are predicting that travel will rebound this summer, driving up airfares and hotel prices. But for now, travelers are finding that procrastination can save money.

Seek Out And Seize

Here's what you hotel owners and general managers must do to endure in the current economy.

Thursday, April 02, 2009 - Mr. Steven Belmonte - Íntegra AQUI.

It’s tough out there nowadays and there’s no denying it. This miserable economic climate that prevails has caused most hoteliers to write off 2009 with only hope that 2010 will be much better. But we can’t afford to keep our heads in the sand for a year and expect to pop it out and have everything will be fine and dandy as though we are waking up from a bad dream. That type of fairy-dust just doesn’t occur in the real world. Hoteliers need to do more than tread water; they need to find tools to build a proverbial raft to stay afloat.

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Here are a few examples hoteliers can employ to maintain a competitive status:

- Stay ahead of the marketing curve by creating a strong presence in social networking sites. If you have a presence in a blog, Twitter, and Facebook sites, it shows the younger consumers that you have your finger on the pulse and are in-the-know of the latest technological and communication tools. Hoteliers should be showing off their properties and taking ownership of their local area as the hotel of their city. When consumers search for a certain city’s name in Facebook, for example, your hotel’s name should show up.

- Research what local competitors are offering and one-up those promotions. Be bold and creative. Caribou Coffee nailed this recently after their competitor, Starbucks, announced they were going to stop brewing decaffeinated coffee in the afternoons. Caribou shot back with a promotion announcing that coffee drinkers deserved better and offered a free decaffeinated coffee on certain days during a limited time window. They took advantage of the market’s affect on a direct competitor to win new consumers. I’m not stating that hoteliers should offer free nights but they should have their eyes open for unique attention-getting opportunities.

- Engage your guests in word-of-mouth grassroots marketing techniques through customer rating sites such as Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity, and Hotels.com. It’s a no- brainer that consumers have turned to the Internet for inside-track information about properties and they are relying on the other guest’s experiences to judge whether to book a stay. Whereas good reviews are worth more than an elaborate ad in a national magazine, bad reviews are a guaranteed business killer.

- Strengthen personalized service. In order to ensure good word-of-mouth recommendations, your property needs to offer top-notch customer service to guests.

The Conversation Era

By Monica Poling - 2/28/2009

The Bureau of Labor Statistics defines a travel agent as someone who helps "travelers sort through vast amounts of information to help them make the best possible travel arrangements." While this definition only scratches the surface, it is true that in the digital era, it is increasingly important for agents to find a way to cut through nearly infinite amounts of content to pinpoint the most relevant details for their clients.

Love it or hate it, the Internet will continue to remain both a competitive threat to agents, as well as a valued source of travel information for them. As consumer sites, online travel agencies, review sites, supplier sites, news sources and even consumer blogs struggle to attract more visitors, they will all continue to post massive amounts of new consumer-direct information.

Íntegra AQUI.

How user-generated content can help your hotel climb higher in search results

If you want your hotel website to rank high for important keywords, you need to invest in continuesly updated content - a time consuming and expensive undertaking. Not so if you use user-generated content on your site.

It is imperative for travel companies to assess how frequently they need to update official web content so that when consumers re-check the suppliers’ sites they get authentic information. This is gaining importance especially when the industry is using social media monitoring solutions to track and analyse all forms of social media, including blog sites, top video-sharing sites and opinion review forums.

February 11, 2009 - Íntegra AQUI.

Trip Adviser says romantic travel is on the rise

TripAdvisor, announced the results of its romantic travel survey of more than 1,800 U.S. respondents. Seventy-seven percent of travelers plan to take a romantic trip with their significant other this year, up from 72 percent, last year. Among travelers who took leisure trips for love last year, 47 percent took one or two such trips and 25 percent took three or more.

06 February, 2009 - Íntegra AQUI.

Formule 1 realiza leilão virtual de hospedagem para fevereiro

A rede Formule 1, em parceria com a Milan Leilões, realiza hoje (6) e nos dias 11 e 18 deste mês, via internet, leilões de hospedagem para as unidades de Tamboré, em Barueri (SP), Jardins e Morumbi, ambas na capital.

6 de fevereiro de 2009 - 12h10 - Íntegra aqui.

Hotelier's 2009 Top Ten Internet Marketing Resolutions

Build market share in a down market with these must-do business building tips.

Tuesday, January 06, 2009 - By Mr. Max Starkov, Mr. Jason Price, Mariana Mechoso

Here at HeBS we firmly believe that a comprehensive ROI-centric Internet marketing strategy is the hotelier’s perfect “survival tool” in the current economic environment. In the difficult year we expect 2009 to be, a well-executed Internet marketing strategy can help smart hoteliers generate incremental revenues, improve marketing ROIs, retain existing and attract more affluent travelers, and outsmart the competition. For the past almost 14 years, our experience shows that Internet-savvy hoteliers with robust Direct Online Channel strategies are the winners in economic downturns like this one.

The Travel Industry Association’s (TIA) latest survey predicts a drop of at least 1.3 percent in overall leisure travel in 2009. Corporate travel is already down as a result of massive layoffs and economic contraction. There are visible signs of decline in the corporate and association meetings and group travel business. Unfortunately, these declines are expected to accelerate in 2009. Yet, even with this expected decline in travel, online travel bookings in 2009 are projected to grow by 10.5 percent and reach $116.1 billion (eMarketer), primarily as a result of the dramatic shift from the offline to online channel.

In 2009 the hotel’s overall competitiveness and even survival will be determined to a great extent by how well it manages its Internet marketing and distribution efforts. In 2009, more than 55 percent of all travel bookings and up to 40 percent of all hotel bookings in North America will be generated from the Internet (eMarketer, HeBS), which represents a double-digit growth over 2008. Another third of hotel bookings will be directly influenced by online research, but booked offline. By 2010 the Internet will contribute over 45 percent of all hotel bookings in North America.

Furthermore, a 2008 McKinsey survey of 340 senior marketing executives worldwide reported that despite the decline in economic activity, 91 percent said they plan to maintain or exceed current levels of online advertising, and 55 percent were cutting traditional media, “precisely in order to increase funding for online efforts.” The survey shines a light on what many marketing professionals already know. The intended and relevant audiences are online, at lower cost, and with measurable results.

What are hoteliers to do in these dire economic times? How can they avoid discounting pressures and further commoditization of the hotel product? What type of marketing initiatives will produce the highest return-on-investment (ROI) in 2009? What are the best approaches to retain customers in this environment? The “2009 Top Ten New Year’s Internet Marketing Strategy Resolutions”, presented by Hospitality eBusiness Strategies (HeBS) for the ninth year in a row, provides some of these answers and action steps.

Whether you are a major hotel brand, hotel management company, independent or franchised hotel or resort, even in this environment you can stay well ahead of your competition and capture new market share with an effective ROI-centric Internet marketing strategy. Smart and proactive hoteliers who utilize best practices in Internet marketing and follow latest trends to their own advantage will define the industry winners and losers in 2009 and in the long term.

Íntegra AQUI.

Top 10 Free Tools for Monitoring Your Brand’s Reputation

Brand monitoring has become an essential task for any individual or corporation. Years ago, when people talked about our brands, it was behind our backs and we almost never found out about it. Today, most of these dialogues are right in front of our own eyes and the number of locations where our brands may be cited is astronomical!

We must remember that conversations are being held on the web with or without our consent. That means we can choose whether to be observers, participants or outcasts. Before you select observer or outcast, remember that these conversations can have a negative impact on your brand. Also, when conversations start on the web, like a forest fire, they travel very fast and wreak havoc along the way; what might start out as a mere tweet, may turn into a blog post and then make national news.

Here’s a basic reputation management system that I’ve been using, as well as a list of the top 10 free tools you can start using today.

December 24, 2008 - by Dan Schawbel - Íntegra AQUI.

MELHORES DE 2008

A seguir alguns dos artigos mais lidos de 2008 da newsletter semanal da Hotel Marketing:

How to manage negative online hotel reviews - April 17, 2008

Revenue management in small and independent hotels - September 16, 2008

Does loyalty exist in the online travel world? - January 22, 2008


Online Travel Booking: What influences Consumers? - 4 October 2008

Search engines corner hotel research - 25 March 2008

Online Travel Query Content is Changing - June 16, 2008

Marketing Independent Hotels - 10 January 2008

Advice for Managing Negative Reviews of Hotels or Small Businesses - Tuesday, April 15th, 2008

Luxury Travel & Lifestyle Trends for 2009

16 December 2008 - By Karen W. Escalera

Poor millionaires. "The era of conspicuous consumption, at least for the foreseeable future, has come to a close," says "Why We Buy" author Paco Underhill. Consumption will still happen. It's just not going to be as public." In one striking example, relayed by Underhill to the New York Times, an Audi S4 buyer, before taking possession of the German luxury car, asked that the nameplate be removed. I predict a growing embrace of unbranded, but premium, products appealing to consumers' pragmatic side. In practical terms, although the affluent may not actually be poor because of the recession, psychologically, they may feel poorer. Suddenly it's chic to mention shopping at consignment stores and sample sales while trolling for low prices on eBay. Recessionistas and frugalistas are taking the place of yesterday's fashionistas. Affluents are feeling compelled to search for value and deals: keywords for today's times.

Anti-trends. Fashion trends imposed from the top down are becoming yesteryear's phenomenon. Even labeling products "trendy" may well be a death knell. By the time the mainstream learns that something is "hot," it will have already been replaced. Armed with unlimited information from the Internet, blogs and other forums, consumers are less likely to follow marketplace dictums and more likely to be inspired by peers from around the world.