5 Tips for Getting More from LinkedIn

December 7th, 2009

A pretty common question these days is “which social network is the best?” – And to that I usually say – “the one that helps you meet your marketing objectives” – and in that regard, many are great, but for different reasons.
LinkedIn
I really like some things about LinkedIn. It has always tended towards the service [...]

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Tags: Hotel Marketing · Internet Marketing · Social Media Marketing for Hotels

Will hoteliers be able to maintain or improve their performance without OTA’s

December 4th, 2009

Major hotel companies have been unable to break the habits of consumers from visiting OTAs in favor of looking and booking at the brand’s proprietary sites.
The end result is millions upon millions of dollars being funneled away from individual hotels and into the pockets of the smarter, faster and better marketed OTAs.
Now that hotel rates [...]

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Tags: Hotel Marketing · Travel Marketing

Anonymous hotel reviews to become obsolete

December 3rd, 2009

User reviews generated anonymously will become obsolete moving forward as consumers seek professional advice backed up by recommendations from friends and family.
Oyster unveiled its service in June and currently provides hotel reviews for major cities in the US as well as Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Hawaii and the Bahamas.
Elie Seidman, co-founder and chief executive of of [...]

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Tags: Hotel Marketing · Internet Marketing · Social Media Marketing for Hotels · Travel Marketing

Successful Ritz-Carlton Business Model: Location, Products and People

November 30th, 2009

Simon Cooper, who has led Ritz-Carlton for the past eight years, talks with Forbes magazine about what makes Ritz-Carlton, well, the Ritz.
Ritz-Carlton has become a leading brand in luxury lodging by rigorously adhering to its own standards. It is the only service company in America that has won the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award twice, [...]

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Tags: Hotel Marketing · Travel Marketing

Customized and Digitized Postcard to Target Travelers

November 26th, 2009

The current economy is a bumpy trail for many travel marketers. But Backroads is finding a clear path thanks to postcard mailings using personal URLs and other digital enhancements.
The high-end adventure travel company — which markets trips typically costing between $2,500 and $4,500 — first tried the tactic last winter with a 30,000-piece campaign that [...]

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Tags: Hotel Marketing · Internet Marketing · Travel Marketing

What makes an excellent Hotel Website?

November 24th, 2009

There are numerous factors that will determine whether a hotel website is great. Such factors like simplicity of navigation, easy understandability of information and powerful functionality could all affect the user experience which in the end will be the deciding report card of the hotel website.
Hotels often take great extend in trying to provide the [...]

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Tags: Hotel Marketing · Social Media Marketing for Hotels · Travel Marketing

The Time is Now for Hotels to Create Social Media Marketing Strategy

November 20th, 2009

A healthy skepticism can be a good thing when it comes to social media, as it is a new idea for most hotels and destinations. But for the general public, your target audience, social media has become a part of everyday Internet life. The benefits of social media are real, abundant and measureable.
The Internet has [...]

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Tags: Hotel Marketing · Internet Marketing · Social Media Marketing for Hotels · Travel Marketing

Leisure Travelers Get Back in Motion

November 17th, 2009

In Ipsos Travel Barometer polling released this month, the number of respondents saying they’ll do more leisure travel in the next 12 months slightly topped the number saying they’ll do less, 19 percent to 15 percent.
In many cases, this isn’t just wishful thinking by consumers who are sick of being stuck at home. “What we [...]

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Tags: Hotel Marketing · Travel Marketing

Two Key Trends for Travel Industry: Travelers Spend less Money and Research Online More

November 11th, 2009

The biggest theme for those trips still on for 2009 was spending less money and researching online more—two factors that are probably connected, since respondents thought Web research was the single best way to save on travel.

Money-saving attitudes, unsurprisingly, have an effect on what kinds of ads are most likely to reach consumers. Asked which [...]

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Tags: Hotel Marketing · Internet Marketing · Social Media Marketing for Hotels · Travel Marketing