Many hoteliers, especially those new to online marketing, advertise and market blindly but are baffled when very little is achieved. A fatal mistake that many make, is to ignore the competition and consequently focus their attention in the wrong direction. In order to be successful, it is vital to know who your hotel’s competitors are and what it is they do online. By going through this exercise, you ensure that you have a point of comparison and information that can be used to your advantage. Analysing your competition’s website presence and the online marketing tactics they use, enables you to explore your marketing strategy’s effectiveness comparatively and act upon any discoveries which, in turn, will enhance your success.
There are many competitor analysis tools available online, however these can be complex to use. Here are a few simple tips to get you started without investing in technology. A full competitor analysis based on these concepts should always be conducted prior to planning your hotel’s online strategy. This way you can incorporate your findings into your strategy and ultimately plan a much more targeted and successful approach.
1. Identify who your competitors are - Brainstorm your known competitors. If you have been in the hotel any length of time, it is highly likely that the “other” hotels are well-known to you, especially the local ones. Look up their websites and make a note of their web addresses.
2. Create keyword lists - Compile a list of keywords your clientele would use to find a hotel like yours online. Incorporate your geographical location into your list – many travelers will choose destination before hotel.
3. Search online - Using your keywords list, execute some searches on the major search engines - Google, Yahoo and MSN. The results most commonly shown to your target market, will be listed on the first page. Make a note of the web addresses of the top 10 results. Going forward, consider these your top competition, along with the local “colleagues” you already knew about.
4. Analyse offerings - Visit each of these competitors’ websites and analyse their offerings. Ensure you keep notes summarising each of their services, facilities and special offers. Determine the strengths and weaknesses from the perspective of your target market – How do your offerings compare? Are your rates higher or lower than theirs? Why? What makes you unique to them? What makes them unique to you? How can you capitalize on your unique offerings? This analysis will facilitate a clear definition of your competitive advantages.
5. Compare usability & functionality – Are your competitors’ sites easier to navigate compared to yours? Determine how each website differs to yours and assess the strengths and weaknesses of each.
6. Popularity – Determine how your competitors compare to your hotel in terms of popularity. How can you find out? By downloading the Google Tool bar you can establish their Google Page Rank. Page Ranks are rated from 1 to 10 – 10 being the best. Higher Page Ranks indicate higher quality websites receiving a lot of relevant traffic. Appropriate, fresh and keyword-rich content that is updated regularly, is also a positive factor. It adds value to the site for the user.
7. Links – Identifying what websites your competitors are linked to, helps to establish the kind of reach their sites have in the online world. Remember, in terms of SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), relevant and high quality inbound links are weighted heavily in a website’s favour by the search engines. Therefore, if you find a number of great inbound links on a competitor site (and these are also relevant to your site), you should contact the website and ask if they will link to your site too. You will find them highly interested if the link is meaningful. As such, writing a quick press release about your hotel and sending it over, typically results in getting advertising for your property as well as an inbound link to your website. To scope out your competition’s links, you can use www.freewebsubmission.com/linkpopularity.html
8. Keep records – Often, the most helpful way of keeping track of your findings, is by listing them in an electronic spreadsheet. Simply update the spreadsheet each time you gather new information and at the same time you are building a record that you can always refer to.
9. Keep up-to-date – Regularly re-visit your competition’s website to see what’s new and consequently keep important and relevant data in your spreadsheet up-to-date.
During these difficult times, it is vital that hoteliers formulate competitive intelligence, allowing them to stay one step ahead. The cost of acquiring a website visitor is ever-increasing; therefore marketing has to be evaluated from all angles. From the tools and methodology used to attract the website visitor, to the tools used to ensure your site is exactly the place where that visitor converts into a reservation. The internet provides you with a great opportunity for learning about your competition– use it!
About GlobRes
GlobRes provides the Guest Connect web booking engine and hotel Internet marketing services for hotels around the world. Connecting hotels with their guests through increased exposure via all channels including GDS, IDS, Digital Marketing and the hotel’s own website. GlobRes operates a fully serviced support centre, offering assistance to hotels in English, Italian, German, Spanish and French. GlobRes is also offering hotel website design for free when purchased with Guest Connect web booking engine.
Complete our online contact form for more information.
Editors Note: Please direct all press queries to Samantha Hasler. Tel +41 41 500 0111 or email marketing@globres.com www.globres.com
Monday, September 21, 2009
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Hotels cannot afford to lose lucrative bookings due to online booking ignorance
It is astounding that, despite the current climate, hoteliers are still missing fundamental requirements in terms of the usability and functionality of their website and website booking engine. Even more frighteningly, many hoteliers are missing the vital ingredient that promises to increase their reservations – the capacity for instant online sales! The absence of a web booking engine on your website means that visitors experience a pre-historic process which leaves them unengaged, irresolute, on occasion confused and likely to abandon your website! With hoteliers fiercely competing for relevant website visitors and with the cost of acquiring them ever increasing, it is flummoxing that some hoteliers insist on dragging their heels, sticking with a relic booking model that will not convert traffic into the maximum number of bookings.
In a hospitality index report published recently, it was demonstrated that 40% of website visitors did not complete their booking due to navigation problems. Research also shows that the booking process can take up to 12 clicks. This does not bode well with the 21st century traveler – an effective booking process should rely on a few quick and simple steps. It has been established that the more experienced a customer is, the less likely he is to abandon a booking because he is more familiar with online booking processes. However, many of those booking online are first-time customers with no experience. To lose these customers due to a complex and lengthy process, will have a huge impact on conversion rates; therefore this type of shopper must be catered for.
Hotel websites that do have a web booking engine installed, are not exempt from high abandonment rates. I have seen web booking engines stuck behind vaguely entitled menu bars or behind two or three unnecessary pages, making it hard to find. Again, the customer is relied upon to click around the site to find the online reservations system. The web booking engine must be easily accessible. Ensuring there is an obvious link to the web booking engine, which is clearly titled on the home page, will eliminate any confusion. Moreover, having a “quick book box” on the first page will allow any potential guest to quickly and effortlessly check availability for their travel dates.
There is a plethora of web booking engines available on the market, but they are not all equal in their ability to convert “lookers” into “bookers”. The Guest Connect Booking Engine is an example of a web booking engine that has proven to deliver a significantly higher level of reservations. Furthermore, in an independent usability study among consumers Guest Connect received a score of 95 percent, higher than any other similarly tested engines. Extensive market research, hotel customer feedback and technical innovation during the launch period have ensured the Guest Connect web booking engine meets traveler’s usability needs. Key features that add value to the booking process for consumers range from multiple language capability to its consistency with the theme of the website. Installation of such a reputable web booking engine enables hoteliers to track all marketing efforts and gain a clear understanding of return on investment for specific advertising initiatives. These statistics are invaluable and easily acquired from the web booking engine data. With more and more room sales happening online, this type of quantifiable process may eventually replace traditional reservation processes, making it crucial that hoteliers come to grips with it.
Your hotel’s web booking engine plays a pivotal role in converting website traffic into reservations. Therefore, having a relic process that relies on your website visitors chasing you for booking confirmation or counting on them to click around to find your web booking engine, is going to mean you lose out on valuable bookings. Today, travelers are looking for immediate access to information, rates, policies and they want instant electronic confirmation that their booking went through. By ensuring your web booking engine meets these requirements, you are setting the foundations for a good web experience and consequently the start of a good relationship with your future and invaluable guest.
About GlobRes
GlobRes provides the Guest Connect web booking engine and hotel Internet marketing services for hotels around the world. Connecting hotels with their guests through increased exposure via all channels including GDS, IDS, Digital Marketing and the hotel’s own website. GlobRes operates a fully serviced support centre, offering assistance to hotels in English, Italian, German, Spanish and French. GlobRes is also offering hotel website design for free when purchased with Guest Connect web booking engine.
Complete our online contact form for more information.
Editors Note: Please direct all press queries to Samantha Hasler. Tel +41 41 500 0111 or email marketing@globres.com www.globres.com
In a hospitality index report published recently, it was demonstrated that 40% of website visitors did not complete their booking due to navigation problems. Research also shows that the booking process can take up to 12 clicks. This does not bode well with the 21st century traveler – an effective booking process should rely on a few quick and simple steps. It has been established that the more experienced a customer is, the less likely he is to abandon a booking because he is more familiar with online booking processes. However, many of those booking online are first-time customers with no experience. To lose these customers due to a complex and lengthy process, will have a huge impact on conversion rates; therefore this type of shopper must be catered for.
Hotel websites that do have a web booking engine installed, are not exempt from high abandonment rates. I have seen web booking engines stuck behind vaguely entitled menu bars or behind two or three unnecessary pages, making it hard to find. Again, the customer is relied upon to click around the site to find the online reservations system. The web booking engine must be easily accessible. Ensuring there is an obvious link to the web booking engine, which is clearly titled on the home page, will eliminate any confusion. Moreover, having a “quick book box” on the first page will allow any potential guest to quickly and effortlessly check availability for their travel dates.
There is a plethora of web booking engines available on the market, but they are not all equal in their ability to convert “lookers” into “bookers”. The Guest Connect Booking Engine is an example of a web booking engine that has proven to deliver a significantly higher level of reservations. Furthermore, in an independent usability study among consumers Guest Connect received a score of 95 percent, higher than any other similarly tested engines. Extensive market research, hotel customer feedback and technical innovation during the launch period have ensured the Guest Connect web booking engine meets traveler’s usability needs. Key features that add value to the booking process for consumers range from multiple language capability to its consistency with the theme of the website. Installation of such a reputable web booking engine enables hoteliers to track all marketing efforts and gain a clear understanding of return on investment for specific advertising initiatives. These statistics are invaluable and easily acquired from the web booking engine data. With more and more room sales happening online, this type of quantifiable process may eventually replace traditional reservation processes, making it crucial that hoteliers come to grips with it.
Your hotel’s web booking engine plays a pivotal role in converting website traffic into reservations. Therefore, having a relic process that relies on your website visitors chasing you for booking confirmation or counting on them to click around to find your web booking engine, is going to mean you lose out on valuable bookings. Today, travelers are looking for immediate access to information, rates, policies and they want instant electronic confirmation that their booking went through. By ensuring your web booking engine meets these requirements, you are setting the foundations for a good web experience and consequently the start of a good relationship with your future and invaluable guest.
About GlobRes
GlobRes provides the Guest Connect web booking engine and hotel Internet marketing services for hotels around the world. Connecting hotels with their guests through increased exposure via all channels including GDS, IDS, Digital Marketing and the hotel’s own website. GlobRes operates a fully serviced support centre, offering assistance to hotels in English, Italian, German, Spanish and French. GlobRes is also offering hotel website design for free when purchased with Guest Connect web booking engine.
Complete our online contact form for more information.
Editors Note: Please direct all press queries to Samantha Hasler. Tel +41 41 500 0111 or email marketing@globres.com www.globres.com
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Create an online marketing strategy for your hotel to maximize your web exposure
Whilst traditional marketing in the forms of radio, TV, print advertising and public relations can be effective for brand promotion and brand reinforcement, the direct impact on generating hotel bookings is limited and the bookings it does generate cannot be measured accurately. Alternatively, online marketing allows you to target potential guests who are actively looking for hotels like yours. Online marketing encompasses varying activities ensuring you target potential guests based on their needs and requirements matched to your hotel offerings. Instead of casting your net wide you are pin-pointing your audience guaranteeing a return on investment that is better and measurable.
Online marketing includes a range of activities that should be considered for your hotel’s marketing strategy. Every hotel is different and needs to be treated accordingly; therefore a blend of website development, search engine optimisation, social media and pay-per-click advertising should be used where appropriate.
Hotel Website Development:
Your hotel’s website is the digital image of your hotel. With most travelers turning to the internet to find suitable accommodation, your website is the first impression a potential guest will get of your hotel. Therefore its importance to drive online sales must not be underestimated - hoteliers must cast a critical eye over the website, its design & format, content, page titles, and images. From a user-friendly perspective it must be easy to navigate around, from a technical perspective it must be search engine friendly and quick to load. I see hotel websites every day that are completely aesthetically unappealing – ranging from bad colour schemes, invisible page titles, poor quality images to overly flashy with no substance. In this “digital era” this is tantamount to internet suicide. Choose your website developer carefully, hotel websites should be designed by people who understand hotels and have experience working for or with hotels. Website development can vary in cost depending on your agency choice. The return on investment anticipated for a good website redesign means that if it is required, you should invest that money. In a HeBS case study a redesigned hotel website paid for itself within 3 months in online sales.
Search Engine Optimisation:
Having a search engine friendly website is the first step towards search engine visibility. Ensuring you have a search engine friendly website means the search engines are able to index every page. It is the indexing process that determines the sites value and relevance for search terms. Therefore, you must go further than simply making your site index-able. You must proactively encourage the search engines to return to the site by updating your website with fresh and exciting content regularly. You must also create inbound links to your website from other relevant sites – if no other sites are linked to yours the search engines will register that no other sites find your website valuable or important. Distributing PR about your hotel to destination related websites and a selection of social media and travel blogs is a quick, easy and effective way to start. Hotel SEO can be managed and delivered in-house if you have the resources, but for most hoteliers handing over these activities to professionals means time is better spent elsewhere.
Social Media
Online conversations regarding your hotel continually reinforce its online presence to your target audience. Therefore the importance of tactical social media activities cannot be ignored. Hotels are finding out the hard way that conversations about them are happening online and online communities can be breeding grounds for speculation and rumours. Using social media to manage this risk and to deliver positives to counteract any negatives can be more than just effective in terms of negating any bad press, but also to build your positive “brand noise” and create “brand buzz” around your hotel’s website. Social media is personal and it’s interactive. By utilising this 21st century means of reaching a target audience hoteliers can build deeper relationships that last longer and customer loyalty is reinforced rather than a thing of the past. The Layana Resort in Thailand uses a Facebook page to keep its “fans” updated. The page attracts past and potential guests alike and allows them to share experiences and pictures. It is also the perfect arena for the hotel’s manager to advertise special offers and promotions. This online community is growing daily and is the digital alternative to “word of mouth” the power of which is endless.
Pay-Per-Click Advertising:
Developing a paid search campaign gives your hotel an instant presence in the search engine page results. Best of all you can control where your adverts are positioned on the page with your bid price per keyword. Making your adverts attractive and relevant to the search is imperative to attract the visitor. You must also ensure the landing page of the advert is the most relevant page of your website, and if you have adverts in different languages, the landing page should be the webpage in the corresponding language. For hotels with a global client base cultural search behaviours and buying patterns must be incorporated into both your website and marketing strategy. Pay-Per-Click requires budget investment. It is certainly worth establishing how much you need to be spending to get relevant traffic to your website. Google actually provides you with an online estimator where you can choose your keywords and see how much it costs. Using a professional hotel pay per click agency to plan, develop, optimise and manage your campaigns means you can let the professionals do the work and be kept updated with detailed reports and statistics.
About GlobRes
GlobRes provides the best hotel central reservation systems and hotel Internet marketing services for hotels around the world. Connecting hotels with their guests through increased exposure via all channels including GDS, IDS, Digital Marketing and the hotel’s own website. GlobRes operates a fully serviced support centre, offering assistance to hotels in English, Italian, German, Spanish and French. GlobRes is also offering hotel website design for free when purchased with the web booking engine.
Complete our online contact form for more information.
Editors Note: Please direct all press queries to Samantha Hasler. Tel +41 41 500 0111 or email marketing@globres.com www.globres.com
Online marketing includes a range of activities that should be considered for your hotel’s marketing strategy. Every hotel is different and needs to be treated accordingly; therefore a blend of website development, search engine optimisation, social media and pay-per-click advertising should be used where appropriate.
Hotel Website Development:
Your hotel’s website is the digital image of your hotel. With most travelers turning to the internet to find suitable accommodation, your website is the first impression a potential guest will get of your hotel. Therefore its importance to drive online sales must not be underestimated - hoteliers must cast a critical eye over the website, its design & format, content, page titles, and images. From a user-friendly perspective it must be easy to navigate around, from a technical perspective it must be search engine friendly and quick to load. I see hotel websites every day that are completely aesthetically unappealing – ranging from bad colour schemes, invisible page titles, poor quality images to overly flashy with no substance. In this “digital era” this is tantamount to internet suicide. Choose your website developer carefully, hotel websites should be designed by people who understand hotels and have experience working for or with hotels. Website development can vary in cost depending on your agency choice. The return on investment anticipated for a good website redesign means that if it is required, you should invest that money. In a HeBS case study a redesigned hotel website paid for itself within 3 months in online sales.
Search Engine Optimisation:
Having a search engine friendly website is the first step towards search engine visibility. Ensuring you have a search engine friendly website means the search engines are able to index every page. It is the indexing process that determines the sites value and relevance for search terms. Therefore, you must go further than simply making your site index-able. You must proactively encourage the search engines to return to the site by updating your website with fresh and exciting content regularly. You must also create inbound links to your website from other relevant sites – if no other sites are linked to yours the search engines will register that no other sites find your website valuable or important. Distributing PR about your hotel to destination related websites and a selection of social media and travel blogs is a quick, easy and effective way to start. Hotel SEO can be managed and delivered in-house if you have the resources, but for most hoteliers handing over these activities to professionals means time is better spent elsewhere.
Social Media
Online conversations regarding your hotel continually reinforce its online presence to your target audience. Therefore the importance of tactical social media activities cannot be ignored. Hotels are finding out the hard way that conversations about them are happening online and online communities can be breeding grounds for speculation and rumours. Using social media to manage this risk and to deliver positives to counteract any negatives can be more than just effective in terms of negating any bad press, but also to build your positive “brand noise” and create “brand buzz” around your hotel’s website. Social media is personal and it’s interactive. By utilising this 21st century means of reaching a target audience hoteliers can build deeper relationships that last longer and customer loyalty is reinforced rather than a thing of the past. The Layana Resort in Thailand uses a Facebook page to keep its “fans” updated. The page attracts past and potential guests alike and allows them to share experiences and pictures. It is also the perfect arena for the hotel’s manager to advertise special offers and promotions. This online community is growing daily and is the digital alternative to “word of mouth” the power of which is endless.
Pay-Per-Click Advertising:
Developing a paid search campaign gives your hotel an instant presence in the search engine page results. Best of all you can control where your adverts are positioned on the page with your bid price per keyword. Making your adverts attractive and relevant to the search is imperative to attract the visitor. You must also ensure the landing page of the advert is the most relevant page of your website, and if you have adverts in different languages, the landing page should be the webpage in the corresponding language. For hotels with a global client base cultural search behaviours and buying patterns must be incorporated into both your website and marketing strategy. Pay-Per-Click requires budget investment. It is certainly worth establishing how much you need to be spending to get relevant traffic to your website. Google actually provides you with an online estimator where you can choose your keywords and see how much it costs. Using a professional hotel pay per click agency to plan, develop, optimise and manage your campaigns means you can let the professionals do the work and be kept updated with detailed reports and statistics.
About GlobRes
GlobRes provides the best hotel central reservation systems and hotel Internet marketing services for hotels around the world. Connecting hotels with their guests through increased exposure via all channels including GDS, IDS, Digital Marketing and the hotel’s own website. GlobRes operates a fully serviced support centre, offering assistance to hotels in English, Italian, German, Spanish and French. GlobRes is also offering hotel website design for free when purchased with the web booking engine.
Complete our online contact form for more information.
Editors Note: Please direct all press queries to Samantha Hasler. Tel +41 41 500 0111 or email marketing@globres.com www.globres.com
Monday, August 10, 2009
Be creative and maximise your hotel’s revenue, discounting is not the answer!
While hoteliers suffer sleepless nights the debate continues as to whether they should discount prices in light of the economic climate. In reality, it has never been more important to revisit your revenue and pricing strategies. Research shows that discounting prices can have both long and short term negative effects and when one hotel discounts prices, the competition soon follows. This renders the activity purposeless and can potentially damage future profitability. This isn’t to say that Revenue Managers cannot respond to the down-turn appropriately with calculated alternatives that will ensure sustainability during these challenging times. Creative thinking and marketing is certainly key - but where should hoteliers focus their efforts?
Hotels will always approach the concept of “special offers & promotions” differently according to their budget and clientele. A hotel in Melbourne is currently offering the chance to win a SMART car if you choose to host your conference, meeting or exhibition at the hotel. This promotion is used to incentivise potential clients into booking this venue above the competition. Of course, many hotels will not have the budget to offer such a prize but this does not mean the concept wouldn’t work on a smaller scale. A spa resort in Thailand is currently offering a weather guarantee too all guests at the hotel during the rainy season. If there is a full day of rain guests are entitled to gain a full refund in credits for treatments at the hotel’s spa.
Generating ancillary revenue is a further innovative way of optimising your hotel’s profits–maximise revenue from your existing bookings rather than culling your prices in an attempt to gain more reservations. Offering local tours and activities have proven to boost revenue, this also serves to add value to your website in terms of content. Remember, guests generally choose destination before hotel. Therefore adding web page content that relates to the destination (and your relationships with it through tours and activities) will only have a positive influence on a potential guest’s choice. The new pages will also be indexed by the search engines and should enhance your overall online visibility for new search terms.
Using opaque channels is a simple way to get rid of distressed inventory and best of all you can maintain rate integrity. An opaque channel makes parts of the online sales process hidden, for example the hotel name. By using opaque channels you can offer prices that are significantly lower than published rates. Hotels can price discriminate between those customers who are sensitive to service characteristics and those who are not and profit from such discrimination. Taking a look at your customer segments can also be beneficial in establishing how to tackle discounts and special offers. Customers vary in terms of price sensitivity; there are still potential guests who do not expect discounts! Make sure you consider this fragment of potential guests.
Hoteliers must adapt revenue management and pricing strategies to take advantage of new trends in customer behaviour and distribution. For that reason, appropriate representation on GDS channels and IDS channels will increase electronic sales for suitable hotels. The number of reservations being generated through these channels is growing steadily. GDS and IDS account for 60% of online bookings so for suitable hotels, there couldn’t be a better time to invest. Hoteliers must remember the majority of potential guests are not brand loyal nor do they have a fixed booking pattern; they simply book from the hotel offering them the best deal. The unpredictability of such behavior means that hotels must maintain a presence on all possible distribution channels if they want a sizeable share of the online market.
Creative ideas, promotions and marketing are effective alternatives to discounting your prices. Maximising revenue from existing bookings and adding value to your guest’s experiences will ensure more repeat business and optimised profits.
About GlobRes
GlobRes provides the best hotel central reservation systems and hotel Internet marketing services for hotels around the world. Connecting hotels with their guests through increased exposure via all channels including GDS, IDS, Digital Marketing and the hotel’s own website. GlobRes operates a fully serviced support centre, offering assistance to hotels in English, Italian, German, Spanish and French. Complete our online contact form for more information.
Editors Note: Please direct all press queries to Samantha Hasler. Tel +41 41 500 0111 or email marketing@globres.com www.globres.com
Hotels will always approach the concept of “special offers & promotions” differently according to their budget and clientele. A hotel in Melbourne is currently offering the chance to win a SMART car if you choose to host your conference, meeting or exhibition at the hotel. This promotion is used to incentivise potential clients into booking this venue above the competition. Of course, many hotels will not have the budget to offer such a prize but this does not mean the concept wouldn’t work on a smaller scale. A spa resort in Thailand is currently offering a weather guarantee too all guests at the hotel during the rainy season. If there is a full day of rain guests are entitled to gain a full refund in credits for treatments at the hotel’s spa.
Generating ancillary revenue is a further innovative way of optimising your hotel’s profits–maximise revenue from your existing bookings rather than culling your prices in an attempt to gain more reservations. Offering local tours and activities have proven to boost revenue, this also serves to add value to your website in terms of content. Remember, guests generally choose destination before hotel. Therefore adding web page content that relates to the destination (and your relationships with it through tours and activities) will only have a positive influence on a potential guest’s choice. The new pages will also be indexed by the search engines and should enhance your overall online visibility for new search terms.
Using opaque channels is a simple way to get rid of distressed inventory and best of all you can maintain rate integrity. An opaque channel makes parts of the online sales process hidden, for example the hotel name. By using opaque channels you can offer prices that are significantly lower than published rates. Hotels can price discriminate between those customers who are sensitive to service characteristics and those who are not and profit from such discrimination. Taking a look at your customer segments can also be beneficial in establishing how to tackle discounts and special offers. Customers vary in terms of price sensitivity; there are still potential guests who do not expect discounts! Make sure you consider this fragment of potential guests.
Hoteliers must adapt revenue management and pricing strategies to take advantage of new trends in customer behaviour and distribution. For that reason, appropriate representation on GDS channels and IDS channels will increase electronic sales for suitable hotels. The number of reservations being generated through these channels is growing steadily. GDS and IDS account for 60% of online bookings so for suitable hotels, there couldn’t be a better time to invest. Hoteliers must remember the majority of potential guests are not brand loyal nor do they have a fixed booking pattern; they simply book from the hotel offering them the best deal. The unpredictability of such behavior means that hotels must maintain a presence on all possible distribution channels if they want a sizeable share of the online market.
Creative ideas, promotions and marketing are effective alternatives to discounting your prices. Maximising revenue from existing bookings and adding value to your guest’s experiences will ensure more repeat business and optimised profits.
About GlobRes
GlobRes provides the best hotel central reservation systems and hotel Internet marketing services for hotels around the world. Connecting hotels with their guests through increased exposure via all channels including GDS, IDS, Digital Marketing and the hotel’s own website. GlobRes operates a fully serviced support centre, offering assistance to hotels in English, Italian, German, Spanish and French. Complete our online contact form for more information.
Editors Note: Please direct all press queries to Samantha Hasler. Tel +41 41 500 0111 or email marketing@globres.com www.globres.com
Monday, August 3, 2009
GlobRes celebrates the re-launch of new Pay Per Click management service for Hoteliers!
Paid search is the fastest way to increase your hotel’s presence across the search engines, with this in mind GlobRes has developed a suite of Pay Per Click (PPC) packages designed specifically for Hotelier’s looking to increase reservations through new channels. Undoubtedly, Hoteliers that are succeeding in the current climate are undertaking new, innovative digital marketing incentives that ensure a measurable return on investment through their central reservation system. Using these methods hotels can pinpoint where exactly a reservation originated from and strategically place more of their marketing budget there. But who has the time? Hoteliers are busy people - time should be spent with guests not staring at a computer making sense of statistics….leave this to the experts.
GlobRes PPC clients receive account management services that are second to none. Every client receives a dedicated AdWords Qualified Professional who plans, researches and develops campaigns on behalf of the hotel. The service doesn’t stop there, effective paid search marketing requires on-going management - keyword bids must be monitored to maintain positioning, conversion rates and costs must be monitored to ensure the best ROI. Advert text must be creative, targeted and revised regularly to ensure maximum exposure.
Research findings are suggesting time and time again that moving marketing budgets from offline to online advertising is the way forward for Hoteliers. Every day new hotels are embarking on the paid search journey and investing only a small amount of money on just a handful of keywords can produce great results when managed effectively. However Hoteliers must beware of the pitfalls of paid search marketing and remember a job worth doing is only worth doing well. Some of the PPC pitfalls can be costly and often hoteliers attribute a bad experience with PPC to poor account management. In truth, PPC when managed effectively can work for the majority of hotels.
Here are 3 tips for a cost effective campaign:
1. Know your hotel. Your choice of keywords must accurately reflect your hotel , if the keywords are not targeted and relevant you will end up throwing money down the drain on keywords that will never get you that all important reservation.
2. Know your audience. What are your potential customers looking for? Special offers and discounts? Luxury lodgings? Make sure you incorporate choice phrases that reflect what your guests WANT into your advert text.
3. If in doubt consult an expert…
The Digital Marketing Team at GlobRes is on hand to answer any questions you have about Google AdWords and many other search platforms including Yahoo and MSN.
About GlobRes
GlobRes provides complete hotel distribution and hotel Internet marketing services for hotels around the world. Connecting hotels with their guests through increased exposure via all channels including GDS, IDS, Digital Marketing and the hotel’s own website. GlobRes operates a fully serviced support centre, offering assistance to hotels in English, Italian, German, Spanish and French.
Editors Note: Please direct all press queries to Samantha Hasler. Tel +41 41 500 0111 or email marketing@globres.com
GlobRes PPC clients receive account management services that are second to none. Every client receives a dedicated AdWords Qualified Professional who plans, researches and develops campaigns on behalf of the hotel. The service doesn’t stop there, effective paid search marketing requires on-going management - keyword bids must be monitored to maintain positioning, conversion rates and costs must be monitored to ensure the best ROI. Advert text must be creative, targeted and revised regularly to ensure maximum exposure.
Research findings are suggesting time and time again that moving marketing budgets from offline to online advertising is the way forward for Hoteliers. Every day new hotels are embarking on the paid search journey and investing only a small amount of money on just a handful of keywords can produce great results when managed effectively. However Hoteliers must beware of the pitfalls of paid search marketing and remember a job worth doing is only worth doing well. Some of the PPC pitfalls can be costly and often hoteliers attribute a bad experience with PPC to poor account management. In truth, PPC when managed effectively can work for the majority of hotels.
Here are 3 tips for a cost effective campaign:
1. Know your hotel. Your choice of keywords must accurately reflect your hotel , if the keywords are not targeted and relevant you will end up throwing money down the drain on keywords that will never get you that all important reservation.
2. Know your audience. What are your potential customers looking for? Special offers and discounts? Luxury lodgings? Make sure you incorporate choice phrases that reflect what your guests WANT into your advert text.
3. If in doubt consult an expert…
The Digital Marketing Team at GlobRes is on hand to answer any questions you have about Google AdWords and many other search platforms including Yahoo and MSN.
About GlobRes
GlobRes provides complete hotel distribution and hotel Internet marketing services for hotels around the world. Connecting hotels with their guests through increased exposure via all channels including GDS, IDS, Digital Marketing and the hotel’s own website. GlobRes operates a fully serviced support centre, offering assistance to hotels in English, Italian, German, Spanish and French.
Editors Note: Please direct all press queries to Samantha Hasler. Tel +41 41 500 0111 or email marketing@globres.com
Friday, July 24, 2009
SEO: Increasing your hotel’s website position on Google does not have to break the bank
The term “search engine optimisation” often strikes fear into the hearts of hoteliers and can be especially daunting for the independent hotel that has no marketing or PR department to charge these activities with. But SEO doesn’t need to be scary or costly if you break it down into segments and allocate time to each. This article will focus on 3 areas of search engine optimisation; content, link building and social media. Each plays a vital role in increasing your hotel’s website positioning in Google for your chosen keywords.
In order to understand the purpose of these activities, it is first crucial that you understand the fundamental reason the search engines reward websites with higher positions in the way they do. As an avid user of Google, I know I can rely on it. It doesn’t let me down. If I type in a keyword, Google returns relevant results for me. But Google has to do better than that – millions of websites competing for the 'top spots’ are relevant to my search. Google’s reputation as the ‘search engine of choice’ rests firmly in the hands of measuring criteria, otherwise known as “algorithms” and if it fails, the risk is that searchers go to an alternative engine. But, how does Google choose which websites to reward with page 1 search results for a given search term?
Content
You must remember “content is king.” If you do not update your hotel website content regularly, you are not encouraging the search engines to keep returning to re-index your website. New content should be exciting and relevant and can be in the form of articles or press releases. I would recommend creating a page within your site, dedicated to your new content updates. Try to add new content every week. This may seem like a lot, but if time is limited, you can keep the pieces short. It is important that you write over 260 words to ensure the new content is picked up by the search engines.
You should identify the keywords you wish to increase your positions in the search engine page results for, and use these keywords as 'anchor text' pointing the hyperlink back to the relevant page on the website. ‘Anchor text’ is a link label or link title and is the visible, clickable text in a hyperlink. A ‘hyperlink’ is a link from the text document to your website.
If you use Microsoft Word to write your content, simply highlight the key phrase you wish to make into anchor text, right click with your mouse and hit “hyperlink”. You can then add the URL address you wish this keyword to link back to. This is called “deep linking” and ensures that those reading your content can click quickly and easily to the area of your site that interests them.
Link Building
Inbound links are of utmost importance to the search engines. If you have a host of relevant links pointing back to your website, you are demonstrating the importance of your hotel’s site. If you have no inbound links, the search engines will assume your website holds no content of value. Therefore “sourcing quality”, relevant inbound links to your website, can really up the anti when it comes to your SEO campaign. Acquiring inbound links is pretty simple; the key is ensuring they are quality links. Poor quality or irrelevant inbound links can be detrimental to your SEO efforts. Therefore “black hat” SEO (unethical means of acquiring inbound links, link spamming, links farms) must be avoided.
The best way of sourcing quality link-backs is by using your content as a ‘vehicle.’ The all important anchor text within the content will form the links back to your site. So, that’s half the job done. The second half is sourcing websites relevant to your hotel to publish your content. Contact travel websites and blogs that talk about your hotel’s destination. These are ideal websites to publish your content to. By sourcing quality and relevant links, you are not only adding value to your SEO activity, but you are also widening your audience and will ensure traffic is coming to your website from new relevant sources.
Social Media
Social media provides new ways to connect with potential guests who you might not be able to get to otherwise. Moreover, it can spread your brand presence quickly and further than traditional PR methods. Undertaking social media activity is cost effective and enables you to meticulously pick social media sites that match your brand and audience closely. It also provides you with areas to publish your content to your target audience, thus increasing your inbound links to your site. Think of your website as a “city” and inbound links to your website are routes into your city. By creating more links from high quality and high visibility sources, you ensure there are more ways for your potential guests to find you.
Moreover, sites like blogger.com are owned by Google. Because of this, items published on blogger.com may also appear in the search results on Google when a relevant search term is entered. This again serves to increase your hotel’s online visibility, placing your hotel website at the centre of a spider’s web created by you, using only the most relevant outlets.
Making time for these SEO activities will make your hotel’s website more visible. Regularly updated content also serves to keep users returning after their first visit. If a site is never updated, there is no reason to go back and have another look – remember that! Don’t expect page 1 results overnight. With the volume of sites Google indexes for your chosen keywords, it is safe to say they are looking for positive SEO activity performed over a lengthy period of time. For newer sites, you may not see much of a change for 12 months. Remember, the design of your website can inhibit progress, A search engine-friendly and user-friendly site will enable you to increase positions quicker. Using Flash on your website isn’t always SEO suicide, but it can inhibit the search engines’ ability to index your site- if for example your textual content is imbedded in Flash.
About GlobRes
GlobRes offers hotel website design with best practice search engine optimisation incorporated. This ensures your website can be indexed effectively by the search engines. The website is free when taken with the Guest Connect Web Booking Engine.
GlobRes provides the best hotel central reservation systems and hotel Internet marketing services for hotels around the world and operates a fully serviced support centre, offering assistance to hotels in English, Italian, German, Spanish and French.
Editors Note: Please direct all press queries to Samantha Hasler. Tel +41 41 500 0111 or email marketing@globres.com www.globres.com
In order to understand the purpose of these activities, it is first crucial that you understand the fundamental reason the search engines reward websites with higher positions in the way they do. As an avid user of Google, I know I can rely on it. It doesn’t let me down. If I type in a keyword, Google returns relevant results for me. But Google has to do better than that – millions of websites competing for the 'top spots’ are relevant to my search. Google’s reputation as the ‘search engine of choice’ rests firmly in the hands of measuring criteria, otherwise known as “algorithms” and if it fails, the risk is that searchers go to an alternative engine. But, how does Google choose which websites to reward with page 1 search results for a given search term?
Content
You must remember “content is king.” If you do not update your hotel website content regularly, you are not encouraging the search engines to keep returning to re-index your website. New content should be exciting and relevant and can be in the form of articles or press releases. I would recommend creating a page within your site, dedicated to your new content updates. Try to add new content every week. This may seem like a lot, but if time is limited, you can keep the pieces short. It is important that you write over 260 words to ensure the new content is picked up by the search engines.
You should identify the keywords you wish to increase your positions in the search engine page results for, and use these keywords as 'anchor text' pointing the hyperlink back to the relevant page on the website. ‘Anchor text’ is a link label or link title and is the visible, clickable text in a hyperlink. A ‘hyperlink’ is a link from the text document to your website.
If you use Microsoft Word to write your content, simply highlight the key phrase you wish to make into anchor text, right click with your mouse and hit “hyperlink”. You can then add the URL address you wish this keyword to link back to. This is called “deep linking” and ensures that those reading your content can click quickly and easily to the area of your site that interests them.
Link Building
Inbound links are of utmost importance to the search engines. If you have a host of relevant links pointing back to your website, you are demonstrating the importance of your hotel’s site. If you have no inbound links, the search engines will assume your website holds no content of value. Therefore “sourcing quality”, relevant inbound links to your website, can really up the anti when it comes to your SEO campaign. Acquiring inbound links is pretty simple; the key is ensuring they are quality links. Poor quality or irrelevant inbound links can be detrimental to your SEO efforts. Therefore “black hat” SEO (unethical means of acquiring inbound links, link spamming, links farms) must be avoided.
The best way of sourcing quality link-backs is by using your content as a ‘vehicle.’ The all important anchor text within the content will form the links back to your site. So, that’s half the job done. The second half is sourcing websites relevant to your hotel to publish your content. Contact travel websites and blogs that talk about your hotel’s destination. These are ideal websites to publish your content to. By sourcing quality and relevant links, you are not only adding value to your SEO activity, but you are also widening your audience and will ensure traffic is coming to your website from new relevant sources.
Social Media
Social media provides new ways to connect with potential guests who you might not be able to get to otherwise. Moreover, it can spread your brand presence quickly and further than traditional PR methods. Undertaking social media activity is cost effective and enables you to meticulously pick social media sites that match your brand and audience closely. It also provides you with areas to publish your content to your target audience, thus increasing your inbound links to your site. Think of your website as a “city” and inbound links to your website are routes into your city. By creating more links from high quality and high visibility sources, you ensure there are more ways for your potential guests to find you.
Moreover, sites like blogger.com are owned by Google. Because of this, items published on blogger.com may also appear in the search results on Google when a relevant search term is entered. This again serves to increase your hotel’s online visibility, placing your hotel website at the centre of a spider’s web created by you, using only the most relevant outlets.
Making time for these SEO activities will make your hotel’s website more visible. Regularly updated content also serves to keep users returning after their first visit. If a site is never updated, there is no reason to go back and have another look – remember that! Don’t expect page 1 results overnight. With the volume of sites Google indexes for your chosen keywords, it is safe to say they are looking for positive SEO activity performed over a lengthy period of time. For newer sites, you may not see much of a change for 12 months. Remember, the design of your website can inhibit progress, A search engine-friendly and user-friendly site will enable you to increase positions quicker. Using Flash on your website isn’t always SEO suicide, but it can inhibit the search engines’ ability to index your site- if for example your textual content is imbedded in Flash.
About GlobRes
GlobRes offers hotel website design with best practice search engine optimisation incorporated. This ensures your website can be indexed effectively by the search engines. The website is free when taken with the Guest Connect Web Booking Engine.
GlobRes provides the best hotel central reservation systems and hotel Internet marketing services for hotels around the world and operates a fully serviced support centre, offering assistance to hotels in English, Italian, German, Spanish and French.
Editors Note: Please direct all press queries to Samantha Hasler. Tel +41 41 500 0111 or email marketing@globres.com www.globres.com
Friday, July 3, 2009
Your Hotel’s Website is your Ultimate Sales Tool!
Your hotel website is vitally important in acquiring reservations. It is the first and more often the last experience a potential guest may have of your hotel. Hoteliers must therefore cast a critical eye over the website and address the fundamental question: Is your hotel website doing its job properly? To reveal the true performance of your website, you must identify the number of reservations you generate through your website. The easiest way to measure your site’s production is to look at your web booking engine’s analytics. This will tell you in detail how many reservations you have received over a particular time period. I would recommend that you use web analytics for the website as a whole, to identify how many visitors you have received to your site and where they have come from. Most website analytic software will also tell you at the very least how long your visitors remain on the site, the pages looked at the longest; it will even tell you what pages received the highest bounce rate.
You can pay for many web analytics softwares and systems, or you can use Google Analytics for free. For use in its simplest form, Google analytics will allow you to see the total number of visitors to the site and where the visitor came from. When used comparatively against your reservations statistics, these numbers will give you a conversion rate. This rate is vital in determining the performance of your website.
Of course, we must not ignore other factors that can have an impact on reservation rates. Amongst others, room rates, room availability, value and convenience will all play a part. These are also important considerations and must be viewed so when analyzing the data from your analytics.
As a 21st century hotelier weathering the all too apparent recession, you must realize the importance of the internet to sell your hotel rooms. To be unaware of the ratio of visitors to reservations is akin to burying your head in the sand. Your website should be treated as a sales tool and measured as such.
Unfortunately, during the last 10 years there has been a changing fashion in website design. This can arguably be held responsible for the all too “flashy” hotel website that is difficult to navigate, contains little general information about the area and has a distinct lack of presence in the search engines. Hotel websites should be designed by people who understand hotels and have experience working for or with hotels. A hotel website should look great, but to the detriment of its content, usability and search visibility? Certainly not.
Research indicates that travelers choose a destination, attraction or activity first and foremost. Specific hotel choice is a secondary consideration; the chosen hotel will usually fit criteria in line with the destination. Therefore, it is common sense that a hotel website should include information about the destination. Travelers are very much looking for value as well – not just best rates, but value in terms of convenience.
Search visibility is also of the utmost importance for a hotel website. What is the point in having a great website if no one can find it? The importance of visibility on leading search engines should not be underestimated. Best practice Search Engine Optimisation must be incorporated in your website, and that is just to get you started. Remember, updating your content regularly will encourage the search engines to keep coming back and re-indexing your page. Send out press releases and articles about your hotel to other websites to form in-bound links to your site. Remember, relevant links are key. They serve to increase your site’s position over time and they will enable you to receive traffic to your site from new sources as well. Using social media to promote your hotel will equally increase your inbound links and is great for creating communities engaged with your hotel brand.
The clear message to take from this is that your website is your most important sales tool and should be evaluated, amended and re-designed if necessary. Your hotel’s website should be your potential guest’s first of many experiences of your hotel, not the last and the only experience.
About GlobRes
GlobRes provide hotel reservations and marketing solutions for hoteliers globally. GlobRes offer hotel website design for free when purchased with hotel reservation systems. Complete our online contact form for more information.
Editors Note: Samantha Hasler leads the Digital Marketing Team at GlobRes www.globres.com pleased direct all press queries to marketing@globres.com
You can pay for many web analytics softwares and systems, or you can use Google Analytics for free. For use in its simplest form, Google analytics will allow you to see the total number of visitors to the site and where the visitor came from. When used comparatively against your reservations statistics, these numbers will give you a conversion rate. This rate is vital in determining the performance of your website.
Of course, we must not ignore other factors that can have an impact on reservation rates. Amongst others, room rates, room availability, value and convenience will all play a part. These are also important considerations and must be viewed so when analyzing the data from your analytics.
As a 21st century hotelier weathering the all too apparent recession, you must realize the importance of the internet to sell your hotel rooms. To be unaware of the ratio of visitors to reservations is akin to burying your head in the sand. Your website should be treated as a sales tool and measured as such.
Unfortunately, during the last 10 years there has been a changing fashion in website design. This can arguably be held responsible for the all too “flashy” hotel website that is difficult to navigate, contains little general information about the area and has a distinct lack of presence in the search engines. Hotel websites should be designed by people who understand hotels and have experience working for or with hotels. A hotel website should look great, but to the detriment of its content, usability and search visibility? Certainly not.
Research indicates that travelers choose a destination, attraction or activity first and foremost. Specific hotel choice is a secondary consideration; the chosen hotel will usually fit criteria in line with the destination. Therefore, it is common sense that a hotel website should include information about the destination. Travelers are very much looking for value as well – not just best rates, but value in terms of convenience.
Search visibility is also of the utmost importance for a hotel website. What is the point in having a great website if no one can find it? The importance of visibility on leading search engines should not be underestimated. Best practice Search Engine Optimisation must be incorporated in your website, and that is just to get you started. Remember, updating your content regularly will encourage the search engines to keep coming back and re-indexing your page. Send out press releases and articles about your hotel to other websites to form in-bound links to your site. Remember, relevant links are key. They serve to increase your site’s position over time and they will enable you to receive traffic to your site from new sources as well. Using social media to promote your hotel will equally increase your inbound links and is great for creating communities engaged with your hotel brand.
The clear message to take from this is that your website is your most important sales tool and should be evaluated, amended and re-designed if necessary. Your hotel’s website should be your potential guest’s first of many experiences of your hotel, not the last and the only experience.
About GlobRes
GlobRes provide hotel reservations and marketing solutions for hoteliers globally. GlobRes offer hotel website design for free when purchased with hotel reservation systems. Complete our online contact form for more information.
Editors Note: Samantha Hasler leads the Digital Marketing Team at GlobRes www.globres.com pleased direct all press queries to marketing@globres.com
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