Why Hotel Sales Should Care About Google+ and Search
February 6, 2012 at 11:07 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | 1 CommentTags: hotel revenue management, hotel sales, hotel sales training, social media, social selling
Google has flexed its most formidable muscle, Search, to promote and some would say force hotels to have a Business page on Google+. Those companies and organizations that have a Google+ page will be given first preference in Search results. Not only that, there is a real revenue Issue as follows below.
An active Google+ page will be given preference in appearance on Search. The most popular travel Search is ‘hotels (X)’. If a meeeting or travel planner is trying to get an idea of the hotels in a given market, those htoels with an active presence on Google+ will be gieven first preference in the sort on Search.
In addition, the hotel’s links, web sie and interaction with it’s circle will appear. This is very compelling as it allows instant interaction with the hotel and the hotel’s web site. They will have an opportunity to gather information, and send an instant RFP if there is one on the web site — all of that right there in one location – one platform!
Here’s how it works. Next to each entry on the results section of the Search page, there are two arrows. If you don’t have a Google+ page, when you mouse over the arrow it will show the map and the hotel’s Google Places page. If you do have a Google+ page, the arrows will show the hotel’s web site.
What does this mean? The Google Places page if a customer clicks on it will show a widget that asks for dates and will show rate results in a drop down that will have all of the OTAs listed first with the web site link at the very bottom.
The advantageof the Google+ search showing the web site is that the customer can click on the site, interact with it and make a reservation right there using the hotel’s web site booking engine.
25-35% commission on all reservations made using the OTAs on the Google Places page verus 0% commission using the hote web site booking engine? No brainer!
There is a lot more to this development — keep checking back for the latest on the Google+ issue
5 Simple Hotel Sales Resolutions for 2012
December 19, 2011 at 4:20 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a commentTags: hotel revenue management, hotel sales, hotel sales training, social media, social selling
We all have things we meant to do, wanted to do but didn’t doin 2011. Here are 5 resolutions for 2012 that are easy to keep:
1. Get supremely organized (my personal resolution!)Will this be the year that you (and me) finally do this?
2. Set goals for your activty so you can achieve your revenue goals. I love Google calendar for this as I can color code every type of activity to ensure everything is done!
3. Develop and implement a social media system to ensure that you are maxmizing opportunities. There are a few on the group Linkedin Strategies – my favorite is 7 Steps to Make LinkedIn work.
4. Prospect like crazy! Set a goal to identify X number of new prospects each week and stick with it!
5. Celebrate success – both yours and that of others! Don’t let pride get in the way of asking others how they do things well in areas you want to improve on. Find a mentor!
Let us know through your comments what resolutions you would add.
The Dilemma of Attracting Corporate Transient for Independent and Boutique Hotels
December 1, 2011 at 7:17 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a commentTags: boutique hotels, expedia, hotel revenue management, hotel sales, hotel sales training, independent hotels, social media, social selling
Especially in urban settings, boutique hotels struggle with mid week corporate at this time of year when leisure mid week is non existent.
The large franchises have not only their frequent guest programs but also national accounts that feed many of their hotels at reduced rates. Then there are the large consortia that won’t even issue an RFP to a smaller hotel!
These are usually large companies with a volume of business travel. Faced with trying to steal share from these which entails more effort than the results are worth, what strategies can smaller independent and boutique hotels deploy?
Look at the flip side of the typical source of corporate travel for the franchise hotels.
Unmanaged coporate travel by small and medium sized businesses that book their own travel account for 56% of all corporate travel according to a research study by Forrester and Best Western.
Think about it. These small to meduium sized companies don’t have enough volume to negotiate significant discounts like the big guys. But they like everyone else would like a place where they are appreciated and can get issues addressed.
What about a full court press blitz, eblasts, direct mail, sales calls, reception, for every small to medium sized business in the market. Let them know that ‘their small business is big business to you!’ and you will give them the name and contact info of a live human at the hotel that they can contact if they have an issue!
I worked with a hotel once that had no major demand generators within 3 miles of the hotel — only small to medium sized businesses.
We went afer them. After about six months, we were driving a higher ADR than the comp set, getting roughly the same occupancy levels mid week as the franchises and had a stunning REVPAR!
Also, sign up for Expdia’s VIP program that caters to these unmanagaged business travelers.
(I’ve got to get a grip on the length of my titles!)
The Clients You Want versus The Clients You Get!
May 25, 2011 at 11:43 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | 3 CommentsTags: hotel revenue mangment, hotel sales, hotel sales training, social media, social selling
If you don’t know what the customers you want look like, market segment, demand periods, rate sensitivity, etc. you will have to keep settling for the inquiries that come in over the phone – even if they are ‘shopping’ you and all the other hotels in your market. You know they are shopping so desperation sets in and you go lower and throw in more value adds to get the business. Why? Because you have no other prospects to work because you don’t know where to look for the clients you want!
It has never been easier to prospect than it is today. The power of Search on search engines and social media bring you a universe of prospects. However none of these will help you unless you can sort through the multitude of prospects to locate the ones that are appropriate for your hotel.
Develop a ‘filter’ based on your current ‘good accounts’ — those that you want more of. What is the DNA of your current good accounts by market segment and/or seasonality?
Where does the booking originate geographically? Who are they demographically in terms of verticals or industry, what is the position of the person that books the business and the people that attend the meeting or function? Last of all, fiscally how rate sensitve are they, how do they pay the bill.
Without a filter to sort through the universe of prospects, your prospecting efforts will be like a scatter shot approach hoping a duck flies through versus a shot gun approach that focuses on a specific target.
If you don’t figure this out, you are doomed to wait by the phone for an inquiry, a bureau lead — kind of like waiting for a date to call!
Game Changer — Facebook as a Booking Channel
April 15, 2011 at 10:31 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | 4 CommentsTags: Facebook, hotel sales.hotel revenue management, social media, webinar
Just in case you missed it, your Fans and Friends can now book through an interface to the hotel booking engine through Facebook. Imagine how easy it would be for them to see a promo that has been posted and take the next step without ever leaving Facebook!
This is an amazing opportunity for independents to have a new promotional and booking source. The price is right — after the widget is developed there are no addtional fees!
However, the best widget on the planet won’t work unless you are drving Fans and Friends to the site. Many hotels are running contests on their page to increase traffic, create more Fans and keep them returning. The large Franchise organizations are doing this but it is so easy for any hotel to do it — all it takes is imagination!
Now that Trip Advisor has an interface with Facebook as does Expedia, the battle for share of this summer’s leisure traveler is on! If the price of gas goes over $4 and stays there, many consumers are gong to be looking at ‘staycations’ and deals again this year. Air fare increases are nearly double from last year to many of the most popular destinations.
Use your Facebook page as a marketing tool. Have Fan only offers! Remember, it’s FREE and if one strategy doesn’t work — it’s really cheap to try another one.
Join us on April 20 for a webinar — Summer Promotions – The Impact of Social Media and Google
Click here for more info. http://www.carolverret.net/viral/april11.php
Recession Lessons To Use Going Into the Recovery
December 10, 2010 at 8:37 pm | Posted in Hotel Sales Training Issues, In the News, Information, Social Media | 5 CommentsTags: Google Maps, hotel blog, hotel industry, hotel revenue management, hotel sales, hotel sales issues, hotel sales training, hotel trends, motivation, recovery for hotels, social media
The Recovery is here — so the experts are telling us. This recovery may be felt in some markets more than others. After all the dust has settled from the last brutal 18 months – what lessons can we carry into the recovery.
1. Dropping rate does not create demand. There have been studies on this by people smarter than I am, Cornell University for one, to the effect that those hotel’s that value add and are smarter about discounting generate more revenue than those hotels that jus follow the lowest rated hotel to the bottom.
2. Customers are now trained to expect value. Peter Yesawhich defined value as ‘ something that the customer could not otherwise afford.’ This could be the reason that the luxury segment of the industry is recovering faster than the other segments. See — it’s not just about rate!
3. Meetings are back but we lost 15% during the recession and are expected to only increase in this segment by 8% in 2011. Value add- value add! Be very careful of dropping rates especially on longer lead business.
4. Customers are locating, gathering information and booking hotels on different channels than they were prior to the recession. How well does your hotel web site appear on mobile phones, do you have a mobile app, how well is your property placed on Google maps?
5. It’s time to reward the warriors — those that have come to work every day and fought the frustrating battle of the last 18 months. Say Thank You to everyone that stuck around. While you are at it — pat yourself on the back!
The eBook The Best of Hotel Sales & Revenue Management is here! The past two years have been among the most difficult in the industry’s history. This 55 page book contains lessons we all learned during the recession and those that will launch us into the recovery. Click below for more info.
Social Media as a Sales Tool
November 11, 2010 at 5:20 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a commentTags: hotel revenue management, hotel sales, hotel sales training, social media
Socail media’s benefits extend to using as a sales tool for prospecting, qualifying and engaging potential prospects.
Facebook works as a sales tool with the proper Fan buidling Strategy. A Facebook Fan page without Fans is like a PBJ without the jelly. It’s dry and sticky and not very satisfying! Apart from the insertion of the icon and tag Become a Fan on FaceBook, and invitation through FAceBook to all of your exisitng clients and prospects to become a Fan is an effective way to increase your professional Fan base. Only then does Facebook become an effective tool for engaing with clietns and prpspects.
But remember you have to give your Fans a reason to return to your Fan page. Try a scavenger hunt through your links and pictures with a prize for everyone that gets all the answers. Fun, simple and will ensure that your Fans visit all of your Fan page pages.
Qaulitfy accoutns on LInkedIn throughcompany searches. This willalso list a number of emplyees of the company. Find the right contacts and join the groups that they belong to. Be active on the groups. You can invite people into your network if the two of you belong to the same group. they get to know you and you are at the top of thier minds when they are ready to buy!
Just a few tips — we have more to help you maximize your presence on social networks.
Ask us how at carol@socialmediarevmax.com
Mobile Apps & Google Maps — New RM Channels for 2011
September 15, 2010 at 9:04 pm | Posted in Events, Hotel Sales Training Issues, In the News, Information, Uncategorized, Webcasts | 2 CommentsTags: Google Maps, hotel blog, hotel revenue management, hotel sales, hotel sales issues, hotel trends, recovery for hotels, social media, social networks
RMs have new tools for distribution that weren’t even on the radar prior to the recession and were barely on the radar in 2010. Now these tools are must haves!
As though revenue managers didnt’ have enough channels to manage there are several new ones.
Mobile apps have demonstrated that they have become a valuable new reservation channel and have the potential of generating incremental revenue from in house guests.
However, a few questions to ask your team be fore enabling a mobile app. Is your res engine on the web site up to the task? Is it mobile friendly and how will it appear on a mobile device screen? Are your promotional eblasts mobile ready in terms of short concise offers that users don’t have to scroll down too far to access? Have you linked your Twitter and FaceBook to your mobile offers?
The second thng is Google maps exhibiting hotel rates on destination searches. I am in Des Moines and I needed a hotel room on Friday night at the airport. I searched for ‘airport hotels des moines’. Most popped up with their rates but a few of the franschises weren’t playin’.
The real issue was that in many cases the rates were just wrong! Most consumers will make a selection based on the rate structure on the ‘Google map’. When I went into one hotel’s web site the rate was $10 higher than the one on the map and another was not only ten dollars lower than the rate on the map but also included breakfast and a ‘beverage’ — very welcome on a Friday night!
It is unclear where Google is pulling the rates from but this makes a clear case for rate integrety and parity across all channels. How many people would go back to the map and take the time to click through all of the other hotels whose rates were displayed just in case they could find a better one. Most of them will take the rates at face value.
Google maps is going to be a huge palyer in travel search and will drive business to those htoels that maintain parity and updates on offerings on all channels incuding the mobile app!
Join us on Sepptember 23 for a webinar Habits of Highly Successful Revenue Managers for 2011. These are just a few of the issues we will be discussing. Copy and past or click below for more info.
http://www.carolverret.net/viral/sept1110.php
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Social Media Orphans and Electronic Billboards
August 17, 2010 at 7:40 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a commentTags: hotel blog, hotel industry, hotel revenue management, hotel sales, social media
Social media orphans are orphan pages and profles that were built and never returned to. You a can tell when the last post was eighteen months ago. On LinkedIn it is those profiles with four connections and no picture. There are no apps enabled, no dicussion groups, no posts that the four people in the network would miss!
Social media electronic billboards ae those FaceBook pages that only post promotions like Mother’s Day Brunch — the last post made. There are only four Fans because no one has attempted build a Fan base — so what’s the point?
On LinkedIn there is a page for the business profile but it has not been updated for ages — half of the contacts that are listed moved on a year ago!
All of those companies with orphan sites or electronic billboards and indivduals with orphan pages are going back to management and saying ‘this social media thing isn’t working for us’!
Management is agreeing because they don’t get it either.
One company typical of many indicated that they did not want to develop a social media strategy until ‘they have it figured out’. They can wait as long as they want but thier competition is there NOW!
The people and companies that ‘get it’ are engaing with custoemrs and potential customers, getting new leads and booking buisness from the communites they have built.
Those companies and idividuals that ‘get it’ will rise to the top in revenue generation and customer loyalty — the ones that don’t ‘get it’ will just blame a bad market when they underperform the competition.
There is enough compelling information out there on why engagement in social media is critical to business success and plenty of companies that can get you started and even do the work for you with pages and posts.
Why don’t companies and idivudals use social media — I think it is the ‘fear factor’ of the unknown and not wanting to appear incompetent in an area they understand and know so little about.
A wise business person surrounds themselves with people that are smarter than they are — understanding that no one person or company can be the ‘expert’ in everything.
Go find someone who is smarter than you if the social media ‘thing’ isn’t working for you.
Social Media RevMax can help you get started but is not the only one that can help you. www.socialmediarevmax.com
Disclaimer: it is one of our companies but I did surround myself with people smarter than me!
7 Social Media Mistakes Most Hotels Make
July 7, 2010 at 1:05 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | 4 CommentsTags: hotel blog, hotel industry, hotel revenue management, hotel sales, social media
Okay, your feeling pretty good that you have a FaceBook Fan page and a LinkedIn profile. But neither of them are generating buzz or business — it must be this social media thing isn’t working for you.
If it isn’t working for you, maybe it’s due to 7 common mistakes hotels and other small businesses make. Look below and see if these 7 common mistakes sound familiar:
1. You threw these pages up last year but you haven’t been back since.
2. There is not a complete profile of the property.
3. You have links to the sales team but their pages are Friend pages — have you checked these out? Is this really what you want potiential
customers to see?
4. You hired a social media manager fresh out of school who is great with the mouse but has no clue about industry Best Practices.
5. There is no strategy to build a Fan base or a network.
6. You push out promotions but there is no engagment with visitors to the page (if you have any).
7. The sales team doesn’t’ want to invite clients to be Fans or be in thier network because they are afraid that their competitiors, who were the first people invited, to find out who their clients are. PLEASE!
So you say this social media thing isn’t working for you and you really don’t have time to work on it.
Social media is the great equalizer between the big and the small, the independents and franchises. If you are not playing properly, you are missing a great opportunity.
In repsonse to these issues (and there are many more but this is a blog not a book) that I have encountered with my clients and seminar participants, we developed a very cost effective product to give hotels an effective social media presence in accordance with Best Practices. We will even manage the posts after we assist you in developing a social media strategy so that you have a clear road map of how to make social media work for you. We will work with your social media manager as well. Log onto www.SocialMediaREVMax.com to find out how you can drive revenue through social media.
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Carol Verret
- Revenue Management -- Outsourced or Home Grown? The dilemma for independent and boutique hotels. http://t.co/E9kkTIeR 4 hours ago
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- Shots of Hotel Sales & RM Caffeine http://t.co/bQcJmIaX #vr4smallbiz 1 week ago
- Why Hotel Sales Should Care About Google+ and Search http://t.co/M6lzAUTV 2 weeks ago
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