TripAdvisor is cracking down on firms who offer to plant phoney reviews for hotels to help them boost their rating on the site. Speaking after the reviews site debuted on the Nasdaq stock exchange on Wednesday, president and chief executive Stephen Kaufer said the company was continually investing in new ways to screen out bogus reviews.

[ Read more → ]

Hotel industry, Take a look at Hotel Finder: Google appears to be running a test that places its own Google Hotel Finder at the top of very competitive, hotel-related queries. The Hotel Finder ad is listed as a “comparison ad” and is separated very slightly from the regular AdWords listings below it.

[ Read more → ]

Smartphones are empowering a segment of hotel customers often overlooked by the industry: last-minute buyers who aren’t traveling.
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.

[ Read more → ]

Even though digital marketing has increased tremendously this year – with some hotels having increased their digital media budgets by more than 500% – it’s time to go harder. Digital marketing in travel holds the key to gaining market share, increasing customer value and increasing incremental revenue.

[ Read more → ]

Sixty-six million Chinese will travel overseas this year, a 15% increase over last year, and 100 million will be global travelers by 2020, according to the United Nations World Tourism Organization. 8 top tips for marketing to affluent Chinese travellers.

[ Read more → ]

Travel bookings are continuing to grow despite the challenging times according to data released today by Pegasus Solutions

[ Read more → ]

Our ‘Top 30 Irish Hotels on Facebook’ list this week has seen 3 hotels move up the table and 0 new entries.

Has your hotel made the list?

[ Read more → ]

Google is taking its Street View feature indoors. The company announced last May it would be taking interior shots of stores, but now it is moving out of its pilot phase with more 360 degree interiors cropping up online.

[ Read more → ]

Google’s experiment with its Hotel Finder tool for US destinations must be paying off as the search giant has quietly opened it up to include European cities.

[ Read more → ]