Hospitality Marketing Blog

TripAdvisor may be the most controversial service in hospitality marketing today. Some hoteliers love it, while others have issues.

No matter what you think, TripAdvisor is making an offer you can’t refuse. A Business Listing on your TripAdvisor page at half off the regular rate. Sounds like they’re in the hotel business, doesn’t it? In any case, the listing includes 1) a direct link to your site, 2) your 800# and 3) an e-mail link to reservations.

Here’s what we’re advising clients:

1. Get a Business Listing on TripAdvisor and do it today! This is a limited time offer.

Our research shows nearly 100% of guests in small- to mid-size luxury hotels read TripAdvisor reviews before booking. How much is it worth to have your hotel’s direct contact information right in front of travelers when they are seriously shopping and want to book a trip? Priceless!

2. Measure your marketing ROI.

Anyone can track where Web visitors are coming from, but now you can track what marketing is driving phone calls to reservations and impacting your bottom line. And it’s surprisingly affordable.

Track your TripAdvisor listing and measure the effectiveness of all your marketing efforts – PPC, PR, advertising, direct mail, banner ads and e-mail newsletters - with Marketing Tracker. Detailed real-time reporting and call recording help you identify what marketing and sales efforts are working.

If you want to take advantage of this TripAdvisor offer, you better hurry and act now. The offer expires January 31, 2010.

The cost for a TripAdvisor Business Listing varies depending on hotel size. Click here to see your rate and sign up. Have your credit card ready!

And don’t get stuck wondering what you’re getting for your money. Measure your marketing ROI with a program like Marketing Tracker. So when it comes time to allocate marketing funds you will know what works.

Your decision to advertise on TripAdvisor again or anyplace else will then be based on the proven value your hotel receives – not simply the price of the media. It’s a much better way to approach hospitality marketing decision making.

Safe Travels – Madigan Pratt

Tags: hospitality marketing, hospitality roi, hotel marketing, Internet marketing, luxury hotel marketing, marketing small luxury hotels, TripAdvisor, TripAdvisor reviews

Many readers have ask which Hospitality Marketing Blog posts were the most widely read in 2009.  So, by popular request, here is a list of the Magnificent Seven.  Please enjoy the practical advice and marketing insights as you gear up for 2010.

1. Hotel Case Study – Prospering in difficult Times – Good news was hard to come by in hospitality marketing circles in 2009.  Here’s a story about a small luxury hotel on an island difficult to get to that offers inspiration and hope.  Very worthwhile.
2. 85% of Hoteliers Just Don’t Get It – Back in August I reported on a Market Metrics’ Research Report that found only 15% of hotels have policies or guidelines for how to manage user-generated reviews (aka TripAdvisor).  Can you imagine that?
3. The Media Are Killing Us – The most overused hospitality phrase for 2009 may well be (unfortunately) “The AIG Effect.”  One bad move by a major government bailout recipient created a media frenzy followed by a Congressional dog pile that literally destroyed the meetings and conventions business.  Government was trying to create jobs on one hand while simultaneously throwing tens of thousands of loyal hospitality employees out of work.  Go figure!
4. Are All Hoteliers Liars? – I like this one too.  Oyster.com, a new online hotel review site launched in July and called hoteliers and hospitality marketing professionals liars.  It sure created headlines, but couldn’t save a failed business plan.  They ended up letting most of their staff go some six months later – read No Pearl in this Oyster.  Just rewards.
5. Thinking Beyond Hospitality – Many found this story about John Wallis, Head of Marketing and Brand Strategy for Hyatt eye-opening.  His goal – to become a database driven company that’s in the hotel business. Revolutionary in hospitality marketing?  Yes, but it shouldn’t be.
6. Why I Hate TripAdvisor Sometimes – You gotta have fun when you can and it’s not often you have a chance to poke TripAdvisor in the eye.  Here’s what makes me mad about TripAdvisor – sometimes.
7. Marketing To Succeed In Difficult Times – A practical guide of proven strategies that have helped companies survive and even excel in past recessions.  Written back in February, 2009 there is still some good advice to help 2010 planning.

Thank you for reading and commenting on Hospitality Marketing Blog.  It has been a real pleasure for me to publish this blog and I look forward to continuing into 2010 and beyond.

Wishing you a very Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year.

Safe Travels – Madigan Pratt

PS – if you would like to receive a short email whenever a new article is posted simply subscribe on the right.

Tags: AIG effect, database marketing, hospitality marketing, hotel case study, hotel marketing, relationship marketing, TripAdvisor

Last July I posted an article entitled, “Are All Hotel Marketers Liars?”  It talked about the launch of a new and different hotel review site called Oyster.com.

The article outlined numerous reasons why Oyster.com would not “fundamentally change the way people make hotel decisions,” as the site’s founder claimed.  Basically it had a failed business plan.  Imagine hiring 10 “professional” reviewers to travel throughout the country, stay in (and pay for!) each hotel night.

I mean, what were these guys thinking.  It was like a time warp to the Internet Bubble Hay Days when business plans were written on the backs of cocktail napkins and investors threw millions at boy wonders.

How could they possibly afford to pay salary and travel costs for reviews when TripAdvisor gets millions of reviews for free?

Well Oyster.com hasn’t gone out of business…at least not yet.  But Gawker recently reported Oyster is going through a major consolidation and firing  a good portion of its staff.

As a hospitality marketing professional it may be a good time to update your TripAdvisor Strategy.

What do you think the chances are Oyster will be with us in 2010?

Safe Travels – Madigan Pratt

Tags: hospitality marketing, Internet marketing, online hotel reviews, TripAdvisor reviews

As promised – here’s the Nisbet Plantation Case Study that Jamie Holmes and I presented at the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association meeting in St. Thomas last month.

It’s good news that proves you can market your way around a recession.

Here’s what Nisbet Plantation Beach Club, an intimate luxury resort in the Caribbean, did to outperform other hotels in the region. As a result of following best practices and adhering to customer relationship marketing, Nisbet is also well positioned to flourish as the recession subsides.

You can download the complete article here.  Here’s a top-line summary.

• Focus on Marketing Basics – A recession is not the time to experiment – especially if you have a very limited marketing budget. Make sure your 4-P’s of Marketing – Product, Place, Price and Promotion – are performing perfectly. Experiment only if there are any opportunistic funds left in your budget.

• Don’t Deep Discount – Study after study show deep discounting is easily copied, doesn’t stimulate demand and hurts RevPAR over the short term.Long term revenue also suffers. STR estimates it will take between five to ten years for hotels to return to pre-recession pricing once inflation is factored in. Used to cheap rates, the trade and consumers will resist your attempts to raise them.

• Deliver a Great Guest Experience/Provide Value – Hotels need to cut expenses, but caution needs to be taken to cut those that will least impact the overall guest experience.Cutting staff to skeleton crews, draining the pool, closing the spa and shuttering restaurants are not what a guest expects. And most likely their displeasure will be shared with others on TripAdvisor.

• Maintain Marketing Spending – Hospitality marketing budgets are always easy targets for budget reductions in recessionary times. It is the tool that will help convince potential guests that your hotel is better than competition, provides good value and is certainly worth a few more dollars a night than the other hotels that are using Price as their primary marketing tool.McGraw-Hill did a study of companies during the last Great Recession of 1981-82 and found that those who maintained or increased advertising spending outperformed competition during the recession and recovered more quickly than those who cut spending.

Click here for the complete Nisbet Plantation Hotel Case Study.

Safe Travels – Madigan Pratt

Tags: advertising in a recession, hotel case study, luxury hotel marketing, marketing in a recession, marketing lessons, recession survival, small luxury hotels, successful marketing

Speaking before a conference of luxury Italian companies, luxury hotel operator Rocco Forte offered a stunningly concise summary of the toxic hospitality marketing strategies used by far too many hotels in these recessionary times.

“What happens in a hotel cycle [during a recession] is always exactly the same.  Revenue dissipates, occupancies go down, hoteliers then sacrifice rates, discounting to boost occupancy.  As they discount rates, they also decrease services and they cut back on every item of expense.  Rates continue to fall as occupancy rises.” [Bloomberg Report]

Despite research from Cornell University, Smith Travel Research, PKF Consulting and others stressing that this is absolutely the wrong approach, hospitality marketing professionals continue to follow the same tired, brand destroying marketing strategies every time a recession comes along.

While travelers are looking to save money, they still expect a quality experience – especially luxury travelers.  The experience is what most hotels advertised before the recession and what they built their brands upon.  But is it being delivered now?  With fewer staff to take care of their needs, reduced amenities, and more hidden charges, the quality of the experience is waning.  Also waning, no doubt, is guest loyalty.

The Price of a Poor Experience

On the Harvard Business Publishing Blog author Peter Bregman recently wrote a great article entitled, “The Price of a Poor Experience.”  In it Mr. Bregman presents interesting findings from research among hundreds of non-profit organizations and their successes and challenges to retaining members during the current economic downturn.

This is pretty much the same challenge luxury hoteliers face.  They want to retain customers, encourage repeat visits and generate positive word-of-mouth – the most powerful form of advertising.

Here’s what the research showed:

1. There is no correlation between membership and price increases.  In other words, customers didn’t leave simply because an organization raised its prices.
2.  There is a direct correlation between membership and how likely a customer is to recommend the organization to a friend.  This is known as the net promoter score – think of it as your word-of-mouth score.

If customers like an organization’s products or services enough to recommend them to others, then that organization could raise prices, even in a down economy, without losing customers.  But if the organization downgraded the customer experience, then even lower prices would not prevent customers from abandoning it.

One could argue hospitality is drastically different, but human nature is the same across all categories.  In the highly competitive hotel industry, people may be looking to pay less today but still expect to receive good value.  Cutting rates while diminishing the guest experience will decrease a hotel’s “net promoter score” and brand value, which makes it more difficult to recover when the recession subsides.

Following a toxic hospitality marketing strategy can prove fatal.  Cornell University, Smith Travel Research and PKF Consulting have written extensively on the topic recently.

Stay tuned to next post to learn what hospitality marketing strategies are successful in a recession and helped a small luxury hotel prosper in difficult times.

Tags: customer retention, hospitality marketing, hotel marketing, quality hotel experience, recession marketing, small luxury hotel, word of mouth advertising

Last week I was in St. Thomas speaking at the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA) Small Hotels Retreat and have to admit it was one of the best conferences I have attended in quite some time.

Sponsored by HSMAI there were more than 250 attendees including hoteliers, allied members and suppliers.  What impressed me most however, besides the quality of the material presented, was the amount of interaction taking place between all three constituents.   It was obvious everyone was interested in gathering information and putting it to use in an effort to put the past behind and start down the path to recovery.

Lindsay Culbreath, Director of Sales for Smith Travel Research offered insights into the State of the Caribbean Hotel Industry. Although only 20% of Caribbean Hotels are currently reporting their numbers to STR Lindsay showed the impact of the current recession on the Caribbean hotel industry by reporting the following RevPAR figures:

Not the prettiest of pictures.  STR is looking for Caribbean hotels to participate in its confidential industry survey which can only help hotels be more competitive in the future.  Every Caribbean hotel should participate and can by contacting Linsday at 615 824 8664.  For those hotels that do – your first year’s subscription to STR Reports will be free.

John Fareed, who helped organize the conference, spoke about “Winning Social Media Strategies for Small Resorts” and was as entertaining and insightful as always.  Professor Eric Brey from the University of Memphis offered hoteliers a framework from which to assess and and deliver a Memorable Customer Experience.  And today, surviving in the competitive hospitality arena - it is all about delivering and excellent guest experience.

If you would like a copy of Professor Brey’s presentation on  “Driving Revenue – Creating Memorable Guests Experiences” you can contact him at ericbrey@memphis.edu.  Just mention you found out about it in Hospitality Marketing Blog.

There were 12 different round-table presentations held during the two-day conference and every one was very well attended.  Each table was set up for ten people and in most cases seating was two and three rows deep as hoteliers crowded around to hear the latest in marketing and operations.

Jamie Holmes, general manager of Nisbet Plantation and I presented a Case Study on "A Small Luxury Hotel That Prospered in Difficult Times."  We gave two separate presentations and in the end ran out of Case Study reprints.  I am in the process of updating the Study and will summarize it next week on Hospitality Marketing Blog.  You will also be able to download the full Case Study so look for details next week.

Alec Sanguinetti, Director General and CEO of CHTA, announced at the meeting that the Small Hotels Retreat has earned a permanent place on the roster of CHTA events and that plans are already being made for next year's event.  Of course details will follow.  Seriously though, if you represent a small Caribbean hotel or have a product or service that a small hotel could benefit from I would strongly urge you to plan on attending next year's event.

Safe Travels - Madigan Pratt

Tags: hospitality marketing, hotel case study, hotel marketing, hotel marketing in a recession, marketing benefits, marketing lessons, marketing small luxury hotels

Okay, so the research study didn’t actually come out and say it, but anyone reading the recent Market Metrics’ Research on user generated content (aka TripAdvisor) could easily draw that conclusion.  For several years Market Metrics has been tracking the rising popularity of user generated reviews.  Here are a few of the key findings from their most recent study:

• 90% of hotel managers think online reviews are very important
• 81% visit review sites at least weekly (TripAdvisor, Expedia, Hotels.com, etc.) TripAdvisor is believed to have the biggest influence on guests
• 70% of hotel managers are familiar with TripAdvisor’s Popularity Index that ranks hotels by city, and 90% of which believe the index is important and follow it regularly

Now here’s the number that I find astonishing:

• Only 15% of hotels have policies or guidelines for how to manage user-generated reviews.  In other words 85% just don’t “get it!”

How can this be? 90% of hoteliers think online reviews are important yet 85% are doing nothing about it?

Are they allowing their hospitality marketing professionals to spend money on advertising and promotion while doing nothing about TripAdvisor? Think about this – Market Metrics’ research indicates that all the money hotels spend on advertising and promotion is less effective than online reviews.

Need more?  As far back as 2007 (ancient history by Internet standards) Nielsen Internet survey concluded, “Despite the ever expanding array of advertising platforms and sources, consumers around the world place their highest levels of trust in other consumers.”

Now I have seen plenty of articles offering ideas hospitality marketing professionals can use to develop a TripAdvisor strategy.  The majority of the ideas are helpful, but the truth is each hotel needs to tailor their own strategy.  It has to reflect their particular market situation, and match the available manpower and expertise.

What do you think?  Safe travels – Madigan Pratt

Tags: hospitality marketing, hotel research, TripAdvisor strategies, user generated content

When I started www.HospitalityMarketingBlog.com two years ago it was intended to be just that – a blog about hospitality marketing.  While it was never intended to be a political forum, I hope you’ll excuse me this one time.

A couple of weeks ago I posted an article The Media Are Killing Us! talking about how ABC News skewered the Social Security Administration for holding a conference for 700 employees at “a resort” in Phoenix.  Turns our the SSA got a great deal spending only $85 a night at The Arizona Biltmore ($11 below the government daily rate for Phoenix) with a total spend of about $1,000 per person for travel, food and lodging for three days.  But instead of receiving praise for astute meeting planning SSA Comissioner Michael Astrue was ridiculed publicly by the media.

If that weren’t enough, the media hogs in Congress felt compelled to get involved.  According to The Federal Times,

“leading member of two House and Ways Committee panels are accusing the agency leadership of being tone-deaf in holding the retreat at such a posh resort at a time of high unemployment and record government deficits.”

You can’t make this stuff up.  Reps. John Tanner, D-Tenn., Sam Johnson, R-Texas and John Linder, R-Ga. wrote:

“At a time when millions of Americans are out of work and having to do more with less, and when the SSA has received significant new funding to address near record backlogs after longstanding funding requests made before our subcommittees, it is essential that great care be taken to use administrative funding wisely, in a way that brings the most value to the American people SSA serves,”

Now I thought I was done reporting on this and in fact I am.  But here’s my beef.

Last Saturday I picked up the Wall Street Journal to read an article entitled, “Lawmakers’ Global-Warming Trip Hit Tourist Hot Spots“.  It details an 11-day trip taken by 10 Congressmen (and six spouses) to study climate change.  Along the way, they went diving and snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reefs, rode a cable car through the Australian rain forest and visited a penguin rookery and flew to the South Pole!

Based on what the lawmakers reported and the estimated cost for flight time provided by the Air Force, the Wall Street Journal estimates the cost to be in excess of $500,000.  What are they thinking?  Don’t they know that millions of Americans are out of work?

On that same Saturday, in the same paper I read, “Pentagon Takes Aim at Jets for Congressional Travel“.   It seems Congress added over half a BILLION dollars to the Defense Department’s budget to buy eight business-class passenger Gulfstream jets to ferry senior government and military officials around the globe – jets the Defense Department said were unnecessary!   What are they thinking?  Don’t they know that millions of Americans are out of work?

Luckily an article in yesterday’s WSJ reports the Gulfstream jet scandal is over.  The reason – an intense public outcry convinced a spendthrift Congress they don’t need to spend a half billion on new jets.  Looks like they are getting the message – millions of Americans are out of work.  Hopefully it sticks, however I doubt it will.

So, here’s the point.  If you want to make a difference you have to speak up.  If you want to convince the media and Congress that Meetings Mean Business you have to speak up.  If you want the media and Congress to stop demonizing meetings and conventions you have to speak up and tell them to shut up.

If everyone does, the message will get through.  Start today.  “Remember the Gulfstream!”

Thank you for indulging me on this rant.  Next week it’s back to hospitality marketing. I promise.

Safe travels.  Madigan Pratt.

It’s a fact – companies with the most loyal customers (we call them Brand Advocates) are the most profitable by a wide margin.  So the recent research on travel industry loyalty marketing programs conducted by Colloquy research spells bad news for larger hotel brands and good news for smaller luxury properties.

According to Colloquy, travel programs have seen a 31.2% decline in active participation since 2007!  So large hotel companies are scouring data bases in an effort to consolidate best customers and prospects in their programs.

The Small Luxury Hotel Advantage

As the research shows, these “loyalty programs” aren’t loyalty programs at all.  They are points based programs that primarily reward frequent travelers and are better adept at reading behavioral patterns, but not necessarily creating real loyalty.  They focus on transactions while smaller hotels focus on the guest experience.

They are a far cry from the service and attention consumers can receive before, during and after a stay at a small luxury property.  While the hotel manages the actual stay experience it does need a well planned customer relationship management program (CRM) in place to manage the experience before and after the stay.

Instead of expensive points-based programs smaller hotels need to be focusing on surprise & delight – offering a guest an unexpected upgrade, late check out, special amenity on the fifth stay or personal invitation to a repeater’s cocktail party.  A personal thank you letter or call to ensure the guest made it home safely while getting feedback on their stay are the personal touches guests see as genuine.

This genuine and personal touch from the GM and staff allows smaller properties to offer a truly unique personalized experience that builds loyalty.  And the hotel’s CRM program should be designed to efficiently keep the memory of a great vacation alive for years if necessary.  It is the key to long-term profitability through multiple repeat visits and referrals to friends and relatives – a hotel’s most effective marketing tool

The fact that transaction based loyalty programs are waning should be good news for progressive hospitality marketing professionals with a well thought out CRM strategy in place.

What do you think? Safe travels – Madigan Pratt.

For more information on the Colloquy research – click here.

To learn why creating loyal customers is so important – click here.

Tags: affluent travelers, CRM, Customer Relationship Management for hotels, customer relationship marketing, hospitality marketing, hotel customer loyalty

Last week’s post, “The Media Are Killing Us,” talked about how biased and sensationalized news reports on organizations conducting conferences hurts resorts and hotels.  This week I would like to focus on the human suffering it is causing.

Do you think reporters, so eager to create (even fabricate) “news,” ever think about the damage and human suffering their stories cause?  Probably not.

It seems appropriate to focus on it now that The St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort (scene of the infamous AIG Conference) has been turned over to Citigroup and ABC News’ story about the Social Security Administration’s recent Phoenix conference which now has Congress questioning whether it was prudent to hold the conference.

As a result of last week’s post, I received numerous emails from hospitality marketing professionals thanking me for speaking out.  One email stood out from all the rest.

It was from a meeting manager in Phoenix and started out -

“As an Independent On Site Meeting Manager for over 12 years I wanted to say thank you for your comment [on the ABC News story].  I have also been very active in signing petitions, writing Senators and informing others through every means possible.

I am currently in search of a permanent position as I can no longer support myself as a freelancer in this industry.”

Over the course of several email correspondences I learned she was very willing to relocate and in fact, recently had a telephone interview with a company in Charlotte, NC.  She was one of 650 applicants for the position and one of only 16 to be interviewed.  She wrote:

“I was not selected for a face-to-face interview but have been told they will be hiring more people for the position in the beginning of the year and they will consider me then.  I don’t think I can hold out.  Getting a job is like winning the lottery.”

Meetings Mean Business – they are directly responsible for more than 1 million jobs!  They benefit the companies conducting them, the hotels and resorts where they are held, and every individual involved in the planning and execution.  With unemployment expected to rise to over 10% this year, jobs are critically important.  Someone should tell Congress!

So get involved.  Speak out.  Express your outrage at how media is demonizing legitimate business meetings and events, and making it difficult if not impossible to find good paying jobs.

And by the way – if you have a job opening for a senior meeting planner, please send me an email at Madigan@MadiganPratt.com and I will forward it on to a real pro looking to hit the lottery.  Hopefully I can do one more story on this topic – one with a happy ending.

What do you think?  Leave a comment.  Safe travels – Madigan Pratt

Tags: AIG effect, Email Marketing, hospitality jobs, hospitality marketing, hotel marketing, hotle conferences, meetings and events