Hotel Marketing

Hands On With HotelTonight’s New Concierge Service, Aces

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HotelTonight just launched its newest product, Aces, which is an in-app chat feature connecting users with a personal travel concierge. The concierges,..

Source: techcrunch.com

HotelTonight just launched its newest product, Aces, which is an in-app chat feature connecting users with a personal travel concierge. The concierges, collectively referred to as “Aces”, are available 24-7 during your booking to do things like make a restaurant reservation for dinner, or get extra towels sent up to your room.

If a customer has access to Aces (the product is being slowly rolled out to users in DC, Los Angeles, New York, San Diego and San Francisco) the option to chat will show up on the bookings page starting on the morning of your hotel stay.

How Aces Actually Work

For recommendation requests, HotelTonight says that Aces work in tandem with local insiders like food bloggers and tastemakers who have a deep knowledge of their respective cities. This may change as Aces expands to thousands of cities, but for now it seems that the advice is pretty hand-curated. The service also uses online advice websites and other HT employees to supplement these recommendations.

For hotel requests like a wakeup call or room service, the current method is for the Ace to call the hotel you are staying at. HotelTonight hinted in the future that some automation could be taking place, as it seems pretty simple to interpret keywords like “bring me towels” and automatically send a request to the hotel.

The chat function also offers pre-written suggestions like “can I get my room cleaned” or “where is the best place to go out tonight” which could make it even easier to automate in the future.

French Hoteliers Regain Their Business Freedom From OTAs With The End of Rate Parity

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Le GNI salue l’adoption définitive ce jeudi 9 juillet 2015 par l’Assemblée Nationale de la loi pour la croissance, l’activité et l’égalité des chances économiques, plus connue sous le nom de loi Macron. Il se réjouit plus particulièrement du vote de l’article 33 octies A qui rend aux hôteliers une totale liberté des prix. Les hôteliers pourront, dès sa promulgation par le Président de la République, pratiquer des tarifs inférieurs à ceux qu’ils postent sur les sites des agences de réservations en ligne (les (…)

Source: www.synhorcat.com

Starting from yesterday, thanks to the Article 33g A of the recent “Macron law”, hoteliers “regain” complete freedom of prices. Hoteliers now can charge prices lower than they post on the websites of online booking agencies (OTAs) and look for direct contact with their customers.

This communication comes from the French national union of hoteliers, Synhorcat (and it is written in French).

Booking.com Promotes More Rivals For Hotels Adding 5,100 Homestay Listings

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Booking.com, the OTA giant, has debuted 5,000 homestay listings — separate from its other vacation rental offerings.

Source: www.tnooz.com

If Booking.com is committed to the “homestay” category, it is entering the turf of Airbnb, the current market leader in short-term rental customers.

“Homestays” is now a category that Booking.com users can filter on. It’s distinct from “Apartments,” “Holiday homes,” “Villas,” “Guest houses”, “Bed and breakfasts,” “Hotels (with kitchen),” and “Hostels.”

Significantly, Booking.com is not requiring a credit card in advance to secure a homestay in many of the listings Tnooz saw. That makes it different from many Airbnb listings. 

Is Spending on Google Ads The Key Strategy To Slow Down Booking.com’s Growth?

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It will soon be Memorial Day, the unofficial start of the summer travel season, and that means it’s time for AdGooroo’s annual Travel and Paid Search rep

Source: www.adgooroo.com

These are the Top 10 Travel advertisers based on Paid Search impressions generated from January through April this year.

So far, Expedia.com leads all advertisers, taking the top spot from Booking.com, which fell to #3. Notably, Trivago.com has jumped to the #4 position from #9 in 2014 and Kayak.com has broken back into the Top 10 at the #5 position. TripAdvisor.com moved up one position to #2 in the first four months of 2015, while the remaining advertisers all fell in the ranking and Hotels.com fell out of the Top 10 ranking.

Best Practices For Ranking Well In Google Local Searches

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Columnist Marcus Miller presents his comprehensive guide for ranking well in local search when you are managing multiple business locations.

Source: searchengineland.com

A comprehensive guide for ranking well in local search when you are managing multiple business locations. Most of these best practices are both good for single and multi-location businesses.

Trivago Doubled Its Revenue In Just 1 Year

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Ever wondered why online travel agency giants such as Expedia decided to take metasearch so seriously?

Source: www.tnooz.com

Trivago took $216 million in revenue during 2013, but this figure jumped to $414 million by the end of 2014. This has come at a cost, however, with adjusted EBITDA at Trivago falling from $18 million to $4 million over the same period.

Most Important Factors In Choosing a Hotel Rewards Program

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SurveyMonkey 2015 Hospitality Consumer Report reveals lodging and dining habits and preferences, as well as most trusted brands.

Source: www.travelpulse.com

The benefits travelers seek the most from a rewards program are:

  1. discounted rates or pricing (77 percent),
  2. points toward a free product or stay (63 percent)
  3. special perks or amenities like free meals or Wi-Fi (49 percent). 

Those who stay in hotels for business purposes four or more times per year prefer to earn points toward a free product or stay.

Of those surveyed, the reason they choose a particular hotel:

  • No. 1 : 27% said price
  • No. 2: Quality of accommodations (22%)
  • No. 3: Location (21%)

When Do You Need a Long-Form Sales Page?

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You want to include *just enough* information on your landing page to close the sale. So how do you know when you need a long-form sales page?

Source: unbounce.com

Take a look at your sales page and take some time to:

  1. Determine if going long-form is the right call. Depending on the particulars of your offer and how aware your prospects are of their problem and the solution, keeping it concise may be exactly what the doctor ordered.
  2. See if your page is suffering from any of the common mistakes cited above. If it is, take the time to rework your design or copy.
  3. A/B test a longer version against a shorter version. No matter how much we’d all love for there to be tried and true best practices, there simply aren’t any. You’ve got to test for yourself.
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