2011 closes with positive indicators for hotel business throughout the European Union, with an average of 5.5% growth in the RevPAR as a result of increased occupancy combined with growth in average daily rates. Yet, the dynamic that was seen until Spring 2011 slowed in the last quarter, ending with the start of decline last December. Europe is facing the challenge of renewing its hotel supply and of taking back control over distribution by the hotel operators. Europe is facing the challenge of renewing its hotel supply and of taking back control over distribution by the hotel operators.

It is important to observe that for the 27 countries in the European Union, the results of the hotel business for 2011 are positive. No country closed the year with a downturn for its reference indicator (the RevPAR) even if there is a broad range between stabilization in Sweden (+1.8%) and strong improvement in Poland (+9.3%), which occasionally benefited from its presidency of the Union. The European countries with the strongest hotel activity (United Kingdom, France, Germany or the Benelux) are positioned within a tighter range: between 4.5% and 6% growth, which better reflects the state of Europe’s marketplace.

With an average European occupancy rate higher than 66%, hotel occupancy gained two points over 2010, which was already in a strong recovery after the crisis of 2009. The leaders are the international gateways, capitals and business cities: Amsterdam, Berlin, Hamburg, London, Munich or Paris, which flirt with or surpass an OR of 75% across the year. With an OR close to 85% London beats all records, and is close to saturation, stimulating the whole of UK’s performance with 75%. At the bottom of the table is the OR in Italy, Spain and Poland which reflect the difficulties of the national markets. The only two drops in occupancy with respect to 2010 (Sweden and Austria) are less than 1.5 point.

This strong demand justified a significant improvement in the average daily rate (over 2.5% for the whole of Europe), with higher performances, around 6%, in Austria and Portugal. Generally speaking, it is the good results in upscale hotels that have allowed this progression.

Read More at HSMAI

Following a four month investigation, the Advertising Standards Authority found that it was possible for “non-genuine content” to appear on Tripadvisor, which is designed to allow holidaymakers to share tips and opinions on places they have visited.

The advertising watchdog said that because reviews can be posted on the site without any form of verification, Tripadvisor must no longer claim that all of its reviews are honest, or even from real people. In a strongly-worded ruling, the ASA told Tripadvisor “not to claim or imply that all the reviews that appeared on the website were from real travellers, or were honest, real or trusted”.

The ASA’s ruling, which applies only to Tripadvisor’s UK site, follows a complaint last year from two unnamed hoteliers and a website called Kwikchex, which helps companies manage their online reputations.

Read More: Telegraph

TripAdvisor announced the launch of the TripAdvisor Management Dashboard, a new analytics service that summarises a business’s performance on TripAdvisor at a glance. Businesses may use the data and information the dashboard provides to track how they are engaging with customers and guests online, target areas for improvement and make informed, up-to-the-minute decisions.

The new Management Dashboard, which is available for free to all registered business representatives, can be accessed via the TripAdvisor Management Centre. The dashboard provides reporting on everything from a business’s total reviews and current popularity ranking to the business’s most viewed competitors and the countries generating the most traffic to the business’s TripAdvisor page.

A more comprehensive version of the Management Dashboard will also be available in the coming weeks exclusively to all accommodations with Business Listings subscriptions. This version offers additional powerful metrics and information, including graphics depicting a property’s Business Listings performance both over time and relative to their competitors in the same geographical region. They also receive a Special Offers recommendation tool for suggestions on how to use offers to capture travellers’ attention on TripAdvisor.

Read More about the features at HotelMarketing & TripAdvisor

There are travel verticals that will allow users to look for hotels near landmarks or filter by distance from the “city center” (or centroid). And almost all of the popular travel search engines allow you to see the hotel location on a map. Google Maps itself will allow you to find a point or destination and then “search nearby” for hotels.

Yet Google’s “Hotel Finder‘s” new ability to filter hotels by travel time (by transportation method) is unique and quite useful. Although Hotel Finder is generally available for a broad array of destinations, Google says that transit time search “is only available in cities where we have partnered with local transit agencies to integrate their data into Google Maps.”

Here’s a practical use case: if you were coming to an SMX event in New York, for example, and wanted to be within reasonable walking distance from the glorious Jacob Javitz center where the conference is held you could use the tool.

Read More at SearchEngineLand

The site is essentially a metasearch platform for properties, prices and availability across all six companies, including their sub-brands and affiliates.

Users can browse rates across every property, read independent reviews, compare prices and share information around their various social networks.

The site is global and has enlisted ex-Hostess Brands SVP of marketing Stephany Verstraete as its chief marketing officer and J Kurt Zimmer (a former TIAA-CREF and Dupont IT executive) as chief technology officer.

Ahead of the launch, RoomKey bought accommodation site Hotelicopter to run the search technology behind the scenes as well as continue to provide its affiliate platform for destination marketing organisations, under a division known as Room Key Solutions.

The formation of the Room Key venture comes as the hotel sector continues to battle with various issues around distribution and pricing on the web, including the continued roll-out of Google’s Hotel Finder service (which many of the above brands participate in).

Read More at Tnooz

1. Hoteliers will invest in reinvigorating properties to take advantage of the market.

After years of delaying capital expenditures, hotel companies are betting that now is the best opportunity to renovate their properties. In 2012, we’ll see even more hotels renovating lobbies, restaurants, bars and fitness centers, as well as replacing beds, TVs, and more. Hotel sales, an absolute outcome of an improved market, will spur even more renovations since sale contracts always contain a provision requiring the new owner to upgrade the property.

2. There will be little to no new development dollars on the debt or equity Side.

This is good news for most, but bad news for the developers who genuinely have enviable sites in great markets. Despite that, optimism reigns. A great deal can, and will, get done. We’ve seen it. In fact, we’re working on one ourselves.

3. Online booking will continue to (modestly) grow.

The number of U.S. travelers booking and researching online is still growing. More than 114 million people will research travel online this year, while 94 million will actually book reservations. While more than 50 percent of travel bookings are made on the Internet, the online travel market has matured and I expect modest growth and stabilization.

4. There will be more mobile bookings and research.

More and more travelers will be turning to their mobile devices to not only research lodging and travel options, but to book and communicate room preferences directly with the hotel. Mobile channel booking has increased four-fold between 2008 and 2010 according to Forrester Research. Plus, Google is projecting that mobile will overtake PCs as the most common Web-access device by 2013. With travelers adopting smartphones and tablets at such a rapid pace, it’s crucial for hoteliers to optimize their website for mobile usage to capture potential mobile transactions.

Read More at HotelMarketing.com

The survey found that globally, Travel brands are failing to adequately invest in mobile, despite widespread adoption of smartphones and increasing customer search queries via mobile (19.5% of search queries for hotels are made via mobile devices). The survey (released as part of EyeforTravel’s Travel Distribution & Marketing Barometer report October, 2011) highlighted that overall, mobile investment globally for apps and websites had not moved with great pace during 2011 for Travel.

Investment by certain countries however did gain pace. In Europe, Germany is leading the way with 45% of respondents this autumn indicating that they now have a mobile application for their brand – an increase from just 9% back in February 2011.

China saw the biggest increase in investment with 67% of respondents indicating that they have a mobile website for their brand, up from just 30% in February.

The shift towards mobile has been likened to the seismic shift from offline to online that occurred over a decade ago. In a month that saw major travel brands such as Thomas Cook feel the impact of being too complacent about adapting to change, the survey comes as a warning to all travel brands. Those brands who relish and adapt to new consumer facing technology are the ones who will succeed over the coming years.

Read More at eyefortravel

The average adult consumer has spent 4 hours and 34 minutes each day watching TV and video on a traditional television set this year, up 10 minutes from last year, eMarketer estimates. Time spent with the internet and mobile phones was also up—by 7.7% and 30%, respectively—and while adults are spending less time than last year with radio and print publications, the increases to TV and digital also mean an increase in total time spent with media, to 11 hours and 33 minutes.

Mobile’s 30% jump from 2010 helped propel it past the 1-hour-per-day mark, compared to just 44 minutes with print magazines and newspapers combined.

eMarketer forms its estimates of time spent with media based on a meta-analysis of data from dozens of research sources, including survey and study data. TV and video includes any type of video watched on a traditional TV set, while all online video activities are included in the internet category. Time spent with each medium is averaged across the whole US adult population, not just users of the respective medium. Time spent with each medium also includes all time spent with that medium, regardless of multitasking, so an hour of watching TV while simultaneously on the internet is considered an hour of each activity.

Read More at eMarketer

Hoping to draw impulsive buyers addicted to daily coupon alerts, hotels and online travel agencies are introducing a flurry of new specials and features targeting those who book a room locally on the day of the stay. They include couples celebrating anniversaries; long-distance commuters working late; people without electricity; travelers whose flights are canceled; and suburban deal seekers who can’t resist a 30% discount at a fancy downtown hotel. Orbitz, which launched its Orbitz-Hotels app for iPad in the summer, says 65% of its mobile bookings are same-day reservations (vs. 14% on desktop). Orbitz will also launch a redesigned mobile website next week that will include a new tonight-only deals feature.

Hotel Tonight, an app featuring daily deals from hotels cutting prices by at least 20% for the night, is one of the most popular travel apps, with more than 800,000 downloads. Priceline launched its Tonight-Only Deals feature in October, selling discounted deals from hotels that disclose their names. (Priceline’s name-your-price auction doesn’t reveal hotel names.) About 60% of mobile bookings are for the same day, says John Caine, Priceline’s senior vice president of marketing. “There’s a certain portion of travelers who don’t like planning,” he says.

“In Connecticut, more than half the people were without power for days and days” after an October snowstorm, says Priceline CEO Jeff Boyd. “We literally watched the hotel reservations light up on our mobile devices.”

The hotel-tonight trend is part of a broader buy-now shift in the economy enabled by mobile technology. But hotels, especially independent properties, are willing to participate in this new sales channel because about 40% of rooms on average go unsold each night. Hotels also like the feature because they don’t have to commit a minimum number of rooms, says Sam Shank, CEO of Hotel Tonight.

“Technology is making it easier to fulfill the need that’s been out there,” says Andrew Kauffman, vice president of e-marketing at Marriott.

Read More at USA Today

1. Make Twitter your digital concierge

These days, guests are constantly tweeting their thoughts and experiences for the whole world to read. Take advantage of these tweets by taking your actions a step further. Did one of your guests tweet that he isn’t looking forward to waking up before dawn for an early morning meeting? Surprise him with fresh coffee at his door or tweet him directions to the nearest java house! Did someone tweet that his toddler spilled juice in the room? Let him know that new towels are on the way. You can learn a lot about your guests by reviewing their tweets and tailoring your responses specifically to them. You will stand out, be appreciated, and keep your guests more than satisfied.

2. Offer a social media discount

A recent study shows that 48% of brand followers follow brands on Twitter just to get discounts and deals, so give your followers what they want! You can offer a promotion for something as simple as a discount on a spa treatment or even a gift shop item. Only promote the special on Twitter or your other social media channels, so that it is exclusive to your fans and followers! You could also create a special promo code for 10% off a room that you send to people who are actively engaging you on Twitter and tweeting about your hotel. Be more frugal with this one though, as you don’t want floods of people demanding you give them special room rates.

Read More at E-Marketing