The Chesterfield Hotel in Mayfair, London is at the top of the table for the17th week running now.

Download this list as a PDF here

(List is correct as of 27^th July 2010)

The data in this list differs slightly to that of our Facebook list and is ranked according to the hotel’s influence on the twitter verse.

We’ve used twitter.grader.com to rank each hotel on twitter. This clever little app considers many different factors including number of followers, number of followings and number of posts (among many others). This creates a score, enabling each twitter account to be ranked out of all the accounts that have been graded in the twitter network.

It basically gives you an idea of the impact each tweet has.

The grade is out of 100 and represents the percentage of accounts that have less of an impact than yours. For example, a TwitterGrade of 95 means tweets from your account have more of an impact than tweets from 95% of all other graded accounts on twitter. Pretty impressive hey?!

As with all our lists, we’ve done our best to recognise every contender for the list but a few are bound to have slipped through the net. If you think your hotel should be included on the list, please let us know by commenting below, remembering to include your “@” twitter account name.

The list is open to all hotels in the UK.

The Travelodge Ireland in Nationwide is at the top of the table for the third week in a row- Well done!

Download the list as a PDF here

(List is correct as of 30th July 2010)

The data in this list differs slightly to that of our Facebook list and is ranked according to the hotel’s influence on the twitter verse.

We’ve used twitter.grader.com to rank each hotel on twitter. This clever little app considers many different factors including number of followers, number of followings and number of posts (among many others). This creates a score, enabling each twitter account to be ranked out of all the accounts that have been graded in the twitter network.

It basically gives you an idea of the impact each tweet has.

The grade is out of 100 and represents the percentage of accounts that have less of an impact than yours. For example, a Twitter Grade of 95 means tweets from your account has more of an impact than tweets from 95% of all other graded accounts on twitter. Pretty impressive hey?!

As with our Facebook list, we’ve done our best to recognise every contender for the list but a few are bound to have slipped through the net. If you think your hotel should be included on the list, please let us know by commenting below, remembering to include your “@” twitter account name.

The list is open to all hotels in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Be sure to check back each week to see if your hotel has made the list.

“Family travel” is defined as any form of leisure travel that includes children. Fully 44 percent of all leisure travelers took at least one “family vacation” last year, and it’s interesting to note that the incidence of family travel is significantly higher than the incidence of households with children (roughly one-third). This difference may be attributed to the growth in multi-generational travel as a result of the aging population.
Following is a snapshot of today’s family travelers:

- They are equally likely to take both weekend trips (73%) of four nights or less including a Saturday, and extended trips (71%) of five consecutive nights or more;

- Beach/lake destinations rule, selected by fully one-third (33%) of all family travelers last year; fully one out of four (26%) took a theme park vacation, and one out of ten (9%) visited an all-inclusive resort;

- Seven out of ten (69%) took a vacation to celebrate a life event last year (a “Celebration Vacation”), with milestone birthdays and anniversaries topping the list;

- One out of five (20%) is a grandparent, and two-thirds (67%) of those who have reached this life stage took at least one vacation with their grandchildren last year;

- Family travelers are more likely to have taken a vacation in their local area (less than 50 miles from home) as an alternative to vacationing in a destination that would have required traveling a greater distance (aka a “Staycation”);

- Three out of ten (31%) took a “last minute” trip last year, departing an average of just six days after deciding to take the trip;

- All (99%) have access to the Internet at home, and practically all have gone online to get information about travel suppliers (89%) and make reservations (87%);

- Fully nine out of ten (90%) have a page posted on Facebook, and one out of four (23%) has visited a blog to seek or preview information about a vacation destination or travel service supplier;

- One third (32%) are interested in taking a cruise vacation during the next two years;

- Children play an active role in planning vacations in half (48%) of all family travel households;

- The destinations they are most interested in visiting on vacation include the Neighbor Islands of Hawaii (73%), the national parks (71%), Honolulu (69%) and Orlando (59%);

- One out of seven (14%) is interested in purchasing a vacation home, with one out of ten (7%) interested in purchasing a timeshare;

- Fully one out of four (24%) has stayed in a vacation home or condominium rental as an alternative to conventional hotel/resort lodging on a vacation last year.

Read More at HotelMareting.Com

Marketers know they can reach the vast majority of these women online, and according to ad server Unicast, their top priority on the internet this summer will be connecting with family and friends (76%). About two-thirds of women also planned to keep up with the news and shop for sales. To that end, the sites they are most likely to visit include search engines (75%), shopping sites and social networks (both 60%).

Asked what kinds of ads would get through to them while conducting these activities, the top choice was online advertisements with money-saving offers. Women also appreciated advertising with an interactive component, like a chance to submit a prize entry or fill out a quiz, as well as local targeting.

Social ads were less enticing, with only 12% of women surveyed saying they were more likely to notice ads that asked them to share opinions and 7% interested in a Twitter feed within an advertisement.

Research from BabyCenter is another reminder that “social” is not a simple answer to reaching women online. The online moms surveyed in March 2010 indicated they had different uses for different types of social media. Facebook was seen as primarily for socializing, while mothers turned to mommy bloggers and niche social sites like BabyCenter itself when they were looking for useful info or product recommendations.

Get the rest of the story from EMarketer

The Chesterfield Hotel in Mayfair, London is at the top of the table for the16th week running now, well done!

KWest Hotel & Spa are new to the list this week, well done, Keep up the good work!

Dowload This List As PDF Here

(List is correct as of 20^th July 2010)

The data in this list differs slightly to that of our Facebook list and is ranked according to the hotel’s influence on the twitter verse.

We’ve used twitter.grader.com to rank each hotel on twitter. This clever little app considers many different factors including number of followers, number of followings and number of posts (among many others). This creates a score, enabling each twitter account to be ranked out of all the accounts that have been graded in the twitter network.

It basically gives you an idea of the impact each tweet has.

The grade is out of 100 and represents the percentage of accounts that have less of an impact than yours. For example, a TwitterGrade of 95 means tweets from your account have more of an impact than tweets from 95% of all other graded accounts on twitter. Pretty impressive hey?!

As with all our lists, we’ve done our best to recognise every contender for the list but a few are bound to have slipped through the net. If you think your hotel should be included on the list, please let us know by commenting below, remembering to include your “@” twitter account name.

The list is open to all hotels in the UK.

Be sure to check back each week to see if your hotel has made the list.

For the 20^th week in a row the Fitzwilton Hotel, Waterford remains unbeaten at number 1 on the list.

Download the list as a PDF here

(List correct as of 19^th July 2010)

The list is by no means final so if you feel we’ve missed you out, please let us know by commenting below and your hotel/group could appear on next weeks list.

The list is based on the number of fans the Facebook page has and is open to all hotels in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

This list only considers Facebook Pages as opposed to groups and personal profiles.

A Page or a Group, which is better? Well the answer to that depends on you and what works for your business.

Facebook Groups:

1. Set up for more personal interaction, they are highly active and require constant engagement.
2. Connected to the profile of the people who administer them.
3. When you post something as a group administrator, it appears to be coming from you and is attached to your personal profile.
4. Groups are great for organizing on a personal level and for smaller scale interaction around a cause.
5. If the group is under 5,000 members, group admins can send messages to the group members that will appear in their inboxes.
6. Permissions settings make it possible for group admins to restrict access to a group, so that new members have to be approved.
7. Groups can’t host applications.
8. You can advertise your group.

Facebook Pages:

1. Access to a Page, however, can only be restricted by certain ages and locations.
2. Page admins can send updates to fans through the Page, and these updates will appear in the “Updates” section of fans’ inboxes.
3. There is no limit on how many fans you may send an update to, or how many total fans a Page can have.
4. Pages can host applications, so a Page can essentially be more personalized and show more content.
5. Pages can benefit from social ads that publicize the fan connection between a Page and a specific user.
6. Pages are better for brands, businesses, bands, movies, or celebrities who want to interact with their fans or customers without having them connected to a personal account, and have a need to exceed Facebook’s 5,000 friend cap.

Neither Groups nor Pages have great moderation features. If someone posts spam on your Group or your Page, you have to remove it manually, and you can also remove specific members.

So it’s up to you who best suits your business right now and going forward.

Be sure to check back every Monday to see if your hotel has made the list!

“With corporate travel managers focused on getting more out of their travel budgets, companies continue to turn to the Internet for choice, cost savings and a great user experience,” said Frank Petito, president, Orbitz for Business. “Of course, we believe that Orbitz for Business is uniquely positioned to deliver those benefits to our customers, online and off.”

Cost Cutting Continues Amidst Cautious Optimism

After a decline in corporate travel the last two years, the trend report highlights an ongoing commitment by companies and individual employees to reduce travel costs, even as they fly more:

- A Personal Commitment: 70 percent of travelers felt personally obligated to save their company money when they travel.

- Fly Economy Class: 38 percent of respondents stated they have flown economy class on domestic flights to cut travel costs.

- Booking Ahead: To help avoid higher fares associated with last-minute bookings, only 6 percent of business travelers said they book their flights less than a week in advance. Thirty percent of respondents said they book at least eight days in advance, with the remaining 64 percent booking at least two weeks before a trip.

- On the Bright Side: Nearly 20 percent of business travelers said no cost cuts have been made so far in 2010, and the majority of respondents (54 percent) said they were planning to have the same number of business trips in the next three months as they had in the first quarter.

Compliance and Online Adoption

With corporate travel managers setting their sights on compliance as a pathway to cost reduction and adoption, more attention is being given to converting out of policy travelers. According to the trend report, reigning in these ‘rogue travelers’ will depend on how a company adopts self-service and online booking tools as part of their managed travel solution:

- Self-Service: 91 percent of business travelers surveyed book their own travel. And 73 percent of respondents cited convenience and self-service as the primary reasons they chose a specific airline carrier.

Read more at Hotel Marketing.Com

The Travelodge Ireland are back at the top of the table once again. Well done guys!

Download the list as a PDF here

(List is correct as of 16th July 2010)

The data in this list differs slightly to that of our Facebook list and is ranked according to the hotel’s influence on the twitter verse.

We’ve used twitter.grader.com to rank each hotel on twitter. This clever little app considers many different factors including number of followers, number of followings and number of posts (among many others). This creates a score, enabling each twitter account to be ranked out of all the accounts that have been graded in the twitter network.

It basically gives you an idea of the impact each tweet has.

The grade is out of 100 and represents the percentage of accounts that have less of an impact than yours. For example, a Twitter Grade of 95 means tweets from your account has more of an impact than tweets from 95% of all other graded accounts on twitter. Pretty impressive hey?!

As with our Facebook list, we’ve done our best to recognise every contender for the list but a few are bound to have slipped through the net. If you think your hotel should be included on the list, please let us know by commenting below, remembering to include your “@” twitter account name.

The list is open to all hotels in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Be sure to check back each week to see if your hotel has made the list.

What started as a way to literally see and be seen, has now transformed into a universe where physical and online activity merge to improve experiences and relationships between people and also between people and businesses, services, and locales. We were lured into “checking in” through gaming and game theory. We earn points and badges for adding locations, checking into them, and also adding tips for other related activities worth consideration. But since then, the resulting culture and behavior emerging within these networks have rapidly matured into a microcosm powered by the 4C’s of commerce, connections, community, and content.

In a recent post by Marshall Kirkpatrick for ReadWriteWeb, he reviewed the top reasons why people check in to location networks. To summarize:

- Finding people
- Chance meetups
- Badges/Points/Gifts
- Special offers and coupons
- Local tips/discovery
- People tracking
- Personal history/Diary

I would add one more. Whether it’s said or simply a subconscious act, it is the essence of social networking universally. People check in as a form of social currency and the resulting capital and the value we place on it is different network by network. As such, it governs how we interact with objects and one another and also defines our net worth based on how we earn, spend, lose, and build capital.

As in Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and blogs, individuals are earning prominence through the tireless acts of earning visibility and community through interaction, content creation, and the establishment of goodwill by investing in the experiences of others.

The State of Local Social Networking

Facebook touts registered user numbers in the neighborhood of 500 million and Twitter claims over 100 million. However, with the amount of media attention given to Foursquare especially, one might expect a higher network of users, especially when local service providers are concerned. As of today, Foursquare boasts roughly 2 million users and Gowalla checks-in with somewhere around 350,000.

If you want to get an idea about the future of technology and society, pay attention to the left side of the adoption bell curve. It’s less about how many people are networking via LBS today and more about what it means for people and businesses at the local level and how the 4C’s become the hub for bridging digital and offline social economics.

Read more at Brian Solis

Many hoteliers believe they do not have the resources to dedicate to Web 2.0 and Social Media, or in other words, they are unable to meet the needs of today’s hyper-interactive traveler . With more than 400 million users on Facebook, an average of 50 million tweets sent a day, and consumers expecting interactive and engaging hotel websites, the bottom line is that your hotel cannot afford to ignore Web 2.0, Social Media, or the hyper-interactive traveler.

Why a Sound Web 2.0 & Social Media Strategy Is Critical to Your Hotel Business

Numerous articles have been published that discuss the magnitude of participation on social media channels. Nothing exemplifies this more than the fact that recently, Facebook traffic surpassed that of Google’s .

By encouraging interaction on your hotel website and on social media channels, joining in on the conversation, and making changes to your business based on feedback, you are showing your current and potential guests that you are listening to them. This is invaluable for building brand loyalty and encouraging positive reviews.

As stated in the Social Media Revolution video on YouTube, “We don’t have a choice on whether we do social media; the question is how well we do it.” If you are not interacting with your guests via your hotel website and on the social media channels, your competitors surely are (more than 700,000 local businesses have active pages on Facebook).

Connecting with your Website Visitors Using Web 2.0 & Social Media Strategies

An integral part of the de-commoditization strategy, there are multiple cost-efficient ways to connect with current and future guests via Web 2.0 initiatives and Social Media. You may even find that in addition to further connecting with your key customer segments by utilizing the initiatives below, you are able to engage additional market segments, thereby increasing your market share. All of these initiatives to be discussed also serve to provide visibility and increase your web presence: essential for SEO.

Hoteliers must align the interactivity of the hotel website with the hyper-interactive behavior of today’s travel consumer both on the hotel website and on the social web. Create multiple opportunities for your website visitors to communicate with your hotel. If you do decide to engage your hotel website visitors with any of the Web 2.0 tactics described below, make sure to allow those participants to share their experience via all their social networks (i.e. if a website visitor enters a sweepstakes, make it easy for them to share that they entered with their friends on Facebook and to tweet the contest).

Before you launch your own strategy, start by assessing what your competition is doing. How many of your competitors have a Facebook page, a Twitter account, a YouTube channel, a Flickr account? How many of them have Web 2.0 functionality on their websites? Do their websites accommodate and encourage feedback? Many hotels do not have a solid, unified strategy, allowing your hotel to stand out and capture an audience that your competition is leaving in the dark.

When it’s time to work on your own strategy, it is important to remember that it’s not just about having a Web 2.0 and Social Media presence. It’s how you execute that strategy that determines your success.

Using Web.20 Initiatives to Engage your Website Visitors

Most websites are not equipped to handle the hyper-interactive travel consumer of today and offer dead, stale visual and textual content. There is minimal interaction with the user; all he/she can do is sit back and read what is on the website, as if reading a novel in a library. Many hotel websites offer dead, stale textual and visual content. There are no interactive Web-2.0 features engaging the travel consumer and soliciting his/her participation and input.

This is contrary to the mere nature of today’s hyper-interactive Internet user, who is tweeting, texting, emailing, communicating with friends via Facebook, and commenting, often in real-time, on restaurants and hotels via review sites like Yelp and TripAdvisor.

How can you add engaging content to your website that will solicit the participation of your website visitors?

1.) Initiative: Blog on the Hotel Website

42% of consumers accessed travel information on a blog, and 40% of consumers actually posted a review themselves (PhoCusWright 2009). Update your blog at least twice a week, and sprinkle keywords in your posts. Blogs are extremely SEO-friendly and the search engines index blogs almost immediately after a post is made. A well-developed hotel blog strategy could provide visibility to unique aspects of your hotel product and destination, and a differentiated approach to reach key customer segments.

2.) Initiative: Customer Feedback on the Site

By offering a comprehensive customer feedback form where customers can leave comments and complaints, you are communicating to your guests that their feedback is valuable to you. Make sure to include questions about the usability of your website. If possible, offer an incentive for people to fill out your feedback form, such as a free amenity or upgrade during their next stay, to encourage participation.

In addition to the positive SEO benefits (many customer reviews include keywords i.e. “We were looking for a Boston hotel that fit our budget and found the perfect fit!”), testimonials accompanied by photos if possible, make your hotel come to life for your website visitors. Also make sure that you are monitoring and responding to customer reviews on the major review websites.

3) Initiative: Interactive Sweepstakes

Contests and promotions are great for getting people excited about your brand and for building buzz. Additionally, contests offer a way to build your opt-in email and mobile list. An interactive sweepstakes on the hotel website will encourage daily visits to your website and significantly grow your opt-in email list. By offering an incentive for people to enter on a daily basis, people will become more familiar with your hotel and website.

Case Study: CVB in Southern California

A CVB client wanted to increase their social media following as well as launch a campaign on their website that would generate buzz for the destination. HeBS recommended an interactive sweepstakes that would reach consumers at every online touch point, a way to connect with consumers via mobile, email, and social media.

HeBS built an interactive sweepstakes on the website and participants were entered in a drawing to win a $1,000 free vacation. A second, third, fourth, and fifth place prize of a free hotel room was also rewarded. Lastly, an additional prize of a $250 Gift Card was awarded to the person who referred the contest to the most friends to promote viral marketing.

Results:

- 1,200 Unique Registrants

- + 300 Facebook fans in 5 days

- + 250 Twitter Followers in 5 days

- Over 800 mobile numbers added to mobile marketing list

- Over 500 new emails added to the email opt-in list

- Over 30 comments on the Facebook fan page regarding the contest

- Winner of a Major Award for Outstanding Integrated Campaign

4) Initiative: Interactive Calendar of Events

An interactive calendar of events is a great way to keep your website visitors updated on all the latest events happening at and around the hotel. It’s also a recommended way to keep your website content fresh, with a constant flow of new information to encourage repeat website visits. If your hotel has a) popular events such as dining events, tastings, leisure activities, etc. at the property, and b) events close or near the property, such as museum exhibitions, theater performances, sporting events, concerts, and more, a calendar of events is a must. The goal is that it become the go-to for website visitors that want to be kept in the loop of all happenings at your hotel.

Web 2.0 functionalities on the website have multiple benefits in addition to engaging your customer segments. They help overshadow any negative presence in organic search, build a stronger brand relationship, and they bring your brand to life for members and customer segments tying these initiatives into your social media presence.

Using Social Media Initiatives to Build Loyalty and Increase Traffic to Your Website

Four in five travelers read reviews on social media and 95% of those indicated such reviews were influential on the decision making process. (PhoCusWright 2009). There is no doubt that Internet users are increasingly influenced by social media sites and peer reviews. By utilizing a comprehensive social media strategy, hoteliers can create social media “buzz” around the hotel, target receptive audiences, and ultimately stimulate hotel website visits, interactions and bookings.

HeBS’ 2010 Benchmark Survey on Hotel Internet Marketing Budget Planning and Best Practices showed that half of hoteliers surveyed (50% exactly) responded that in 2010 they are planning to create profiles for their hotels on the social networks.

Social marketing should become an important component of any hotel’s marketing mix and part of the comprehensive Direct Online Channel Strategy for any hotel company. Naturally, it is important to use the right ROI metrics to measure the success of social marketing efforts of the hotel.

Get the full article from HotelMarketing.com