Hotel Marketing Summit 2015

Live on YouTube

Three of the hotel industry’s most creative marketers

Josiah MACKENZIE

Mariana MECHOSO SAFER

Greg BODENLOS

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Josiah, Mariana and Greg, debated on emergent technologies and practices to predict what’s most likely to influence hotel marketing strategies for the year ahead.

Within this scope the following topics were covered :

The hotel marketing ‘ecosystem’, from guest experience design to multi-platformmarketing and operational feedback analysis.

Personalizing the customer journey, from the inspiration stage to booking and beyond.

How to leverage user-generated content to increase customer engagement.

What you should focus on when analyzing your ‘reputation’ online, and how to use thatdata to improve your business.

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Social Media in the Journey to Online Purchase

Many hoteliers have lost faith in Social Media as it brings very little bookings. However, Social media is part of the inspiration phase of travel and must be used as a customer service tool.

In France, small businesses in the Hobbies & Leisure industry the following marketing channels influence a typical buyer before the sale:

No matter the size, hotels should have professionals answering on social media. For some platforms it is even expected to answer in real time.

According to Josiah Mackenzie (ReviewPro) who got stuck in Chicago and would not get answers to his tweets to hotels; “Not answering on Tweeter can be compared as listing a telephone number and having no one to pick up the phone. If a hotel is going to have a

presence on Tweeter, there must be professionals behind it. ”

Social Media = #1 marketing channel in the purchasing decision

Customer Journey Prior to Booking a Trip

1. Asked friends and looked at their Instagram and Facebook pictures (SMaspect).

2. Googled hotels within a walking distance to Disney. Narrowed down hersearch on specific properties.

3. Checked OTAs to make sure she was getting the best rate.

4. Checked the reviews on Trip Advisor.

5. Did her booking over the phone = direct booking

Decision making process

Purchase

Mariana Mechoso Safer (HeBS digital) shared her experience as a customer. She recentlyplanned a trip to Disney with the entire family. Within her purchasing process, she wentthrough 15 different touch points, pursuing the following customer journey:

According to Josiah Mackenzie (ReviewPro), content is of extreme importance toencourage potential buyers. When going to a foreign location an education on thebackground of the location is important (through the blog, the website, etc.). This can bedone both by the hotel and through user-generated content: connect people and getinformation from past guests; get very happy guests to sell the hotel on your behalf.

Retargeting and personalizing the guest’s journey

Most clients are very happy when being proposed offers that meet their needs (ex: anupgrade) which significantly enhances their stay.

However, it is argued that some other guests are worried and nervous about theinformation the hotel has on them. How to deal with this issue?

According to the speakers Mariana and Josiah:

Very few people are worried about the amount of information the hotel has on them. At the end of the day, people want marketing that speak to them.

The result of a poor targeting and personalized marketing campaign = guestdissatisfaction. Ex: People visiting a place once a year will not appreciate an offer onweekend get away every week.

Managing Online Hotel Reputation

Online reviews Temperature Check

2 LEVELS TO DIGITAL FEEDBACK:

• Individual feedback: 1 to 1 approach to show the hotelier cares and will take careof the guest’s inquiry/feedback, “ We’ll listen to you and we’ll adjust accordingly”

• “Med analysis”: Combining all the feedbacks together, from review sites, callcenter transcript analysis, social media, guests satisfaction surveys, etc. Then it ispossible to make some very statistically significant recommendations anddecisions based on this coal mine of information.

Therefore it is important to maximize guests’ feedback and data collection.

“Knowing that guests may go wherever they want, whenever they want, however theywant, the idea is to avoid forcing them to go through any one channel and give them asmany option as possible and collect as much data as possible.” Josiah Mackenzie

Managing Online Hotel Reputation

Once the marketer has gathered as much information as possible, he/she can make some very statistically significant recommendations and decisions based on this coal mine of information.

The rise of mobile and social technology is the mine of unprecedented source of information enabling us to create tailored marketing and revenue management strategies.

GUEST INTELLIGENCE

How to Leverage User-Generated Content toIncrease Customer Engagement

Focus on contextual information – everything the guest needs when he/she needs it.

To begin with, it is absolutely essential to test the hotel’s presence on the 3 screens.

Engagement yields engagement: commenting people’s photo drives engagement.

Highlight special moments: ex: hot chocolate on a snowy day at the hotel.

Be where it all happens

Instagram: “guests are very engaged on this social platform, they are tagging theirphotos while they are staying at the hotel. Posting a comment to thank the guestand letting them know that you are available significantly drives engagement, whichcan be later be seen on TripAdvisor and other review websites.” Greg Bodenlos

Engaged onPositive Reviews

How to Leverage User-Generated Content toIncrease Customer Engagement

Red Lion Hotels engages with guests with UGC and information generated by the hotel and posted on their blog, website and social media platforms..

Every destination listed inon the website involvesbeautiful picks of thehotel surroundings andinformation on leisureactivities.

BLOG

They recently launched a social campaign called “resolve to explore”, people wereInstagraming the destinations they went to with hash tags and were very engaged.

How to Leverage User-Generated Content toIncrease Customer Engagement

Red Lion Hotels have a very specific product segment and bring in together technologypartners to share information and data.These sorts of practices drive competitive advantage and it helps them with their brands. Ithelps to grow the brand image and the business.

Final Words

Dynamic ContentPersonalization

Interconnection

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfkNpHAekDQ&feature=youtu.be http://vicci.co/guest-intelligence/ https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/tools/customer-journey-to-online-

purchase.html#!/france/hobbies-and-leisure/small/generic-paid-search http://www.4hoteliers.com/itb/newsarticle/412?awsb_c=4hdm&awsb_k=itb http://www.redlion.com/ http://blog.redlion.com/

SOURCES