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

Kinnitty Castle, Co.Offaly celebrate their 20^th week at the top of the list, Well done.

Download the list as a PDF here

(List correct as of 9^th January 2012)

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!

Two studies that were done this year aim to answer this question. According to Ogilvy’s recent study “Does investing in social media create business value?” social media indeed has a strong impact on sales as well as brand perception.

It found:

Social media exposure is directly linked with increases in sales.

Integrated social media (social content + one or more channels) exposure is linked with significant increases in spend and consumption. For example, social media + PR exposure was associated with a 17% spend increase compared to the prior time period without these.

*Those exposed to social media + PR increased their spending by 17% over the previous time period.

*Those exposed to social media + TV were twice as likely to buy.

*Those exposed to social media were 7 times more likely to spend more.

*Social media + OOH exposure was linked to 1.5X higher likelihood of increase in spend.

*Exposure to multiple channels was most often associated with sales impact.

*Integration matters. Exposure to social content was most consistently effective when it was combined with exposure to other types of media channels.

Social media is the top driver of impact.

Out of 20 channels analyzed, social media was number 1 or number 2 in magnitude of impact on spend and consumption.

Social media exposure is directly linked with changes in brand perception. Social media by itself is particularly effective and appears to be most effective at rapidly impacting brand perception. As marketers we consistently ask ourselves what value social media brings to us internally. According to eMarketer, a recent study by CMO Council and social CRM firm Lithium aimed to answer those questions.

The study found that in addition to building loyalty among customers, social media outreach has influenced marketing operations. Of those marketers surveyed, 55% said social media improved customer listening, engagement and conversations, and another 55% said it opened new avenues to gather and further market insights. Five percen said it helped lower the cost of customer service.

Read More on MediaPost

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 Distrikt Hotel in New York’s garment district has always been at the forefront of social media. They actively engage with prospects and clients on Facebook, Twitter and now foursquare. Grant Schilling, Sales and Marketing Manager, believes that social media is the best vehicle for providing the little touches that create strong bonds between businesses and customers. He sees foursquare as a great platform to spread the word about the hotel and to drive demand.

The Distrikt Hotel has set up both their hotel and restaurant, Collage Bistro, as “venues” on foursquare. When users check in on foursquare using their smart phones, they have the opportunity to earn 1000 loyalty points at the hotel or receive a free drink (with a minimum spend) at the restaurant.

Even more importantly, whenever guests check in on foursquare, the hotel acknowledges them in a special way. Depending on availability, they will either receive a room upgrade, a special amenity or dessert, or a note thanking them for their loyalty.

Read More at Revinate

“The booking window is changing,” said Dhiren Fonseca, co-president of Expedia’s Partner Services Group. “We’ve seen a 28 percent growth in sameday transactions. This speaks to the growth weve seen in our mobile business; 65 percent of mobile transactions are happening same day and travelers are taking shorter trips. Travel is down three percent in length of stay, and guests are buying down to lower star properties.”

In addition, Expedia’s global presence has given the company an enormous amount of data on the influx of outbound travelers from the Asia-Pacific region and their digital booking habits.

“You are managing your product, trying to get heads in beds… it requires knowledge of how to navigate all these different platforms,” said Gary Fritz, co-president of Expedia’s Partner Services Group. “As mobile device proliferate, we see this is the day-to-day experience people are choosing.”

Fritz cited a 274 percent projected increase in Chinese inbound U.S. travel from 2010 to 2015, coupled with 1 trillion mobile transactions worldwide by 2015, as vital trends for American hoteliers to explore.

“If i was an entry-level revenue manager today, it would be exciting but a lot of the precepts are getting challenged,” said Fritz. “It’s just a reality. You’ve got to think about how to distribute content locally, tailor content for local channels and how to drive brand impressions through all of these channels. This is so much more complicated, but potentially more rewarding.”

Read More at HotelManagement.net