Gain OTA and Third Party Business at Your Hotel

Title: Third Party Market Managers

Objective: Better placement on third party sites due to relationship with Market Managers

Dates: Ongoing

Target: Third Party Market Managers for:

· Expedia/Hotels.com

· Travelocity

· Orbitz

Strategy: Develop a relationship with the third party market managers in order to achieve better

placement on websites.

Elements:

· Maintain rate parity on all third party sites

· Establish depths of discount that will generate best possible placement on the sites; work

with the market manager to ensure that incremental discounting results in better placement

· Review your placement/position on each site weekly

· Ask your market manager for each site to send your month or bi-weekly production report

for booking patterns

· Check room types being offered on each site compared to competitive hotels to ensure you

are offering the best available rate

· Update content/marketing text and room descriptions every six months

· Ask your market manager to add value add tags

· Read your reviews and respond to them in a timely and professional manner

· Be sure to contact your market manager on a regular basis and build that relationship

· Send your market managers gifts and thank you notes just like you would a potential client

Cost: None

Evaluation: Monitor ecommerce dashboard reports for increase in third party room nights

Notes: Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz are the main websites, but keep in mind there are many more and Hospitality Helpers has an extensive list that they can manage and work for you.

Google Adwords Codes - $100 for $25

Get your brand new Google Online Advertising campaigns up and running.  Here are some codes for you to try out Google Adwords (sorry, this is for new accounts only):

Code	Value	Spend required	Date received	Expiration Date
ALPHM-F94NF-W4D7	100 USD	25 USD	2012-Oct-04	2013-Jan-31
9E33J-L4VNN-XNNX	100 USD	25 USD	2012-Oct-04	2013-Jan-31
9VQQX-RM7C7-YV3P	100 USD	25 USD	2012-Oct-04	2013-Jan-31
7CRVM-4YJLJ-D4U9	100 USD	25 USD	2012-Oct-04	2013-Jan-31
AHTYK-VWCTH-RC7H	100 USD	25 USD	2012-Oct-04	2013-Jan-31
3TRU3-3RR9F-MYDW	100 USD	25 USD	2012-Oct-04	2013-Jan-31
DECHY-KEAQ9-4LKR	100 USD	25 USD	2012-Oct-04	2013-Jan-31
9UG7R-L7WGT-YXLD	100 USD	25 USD	2012-Oct-04	2013-Jan-31
CMGRX-XCAW9-6U34	100 USD	25 USD	2012-Oct-04	2013-Jan-31
DCNVN-9EKNQ-JQ6A	100 USD	25 USD	2012-Oct-04	2013-Jan-31

Gain More Travel Agent Business

Title: Travel Agent Incentive Program

Objective: To increase Travel Agent generated revenue

Dates: During low demand seasons

Target: Travel agents

Strategy: Develop a list of targeted Travel Agents by using available revenue reports and organize site

visits, direct mail and or email campaign to increase room nights booked by Travel Agents.

Elements: · Identify slow, low demand periods of the year to conduct the different campaigns

· Generate the quarterly and annual Top 50 Travel Agent report

· Generate the Travel Agent address report by states that you want, considering your feeder

cities

· Create a flyer or some collateral specifically marketing to Travel Agents

· Flyer might highlight Points program, offer bonus voucher points, increased

commission for certain bookings during a certain time frame

· Invite agents to hotel for site visits the may include free nights, giveaways and or

refreshments

Cost: · Cost of new brochures or other collateral, if needed

· Cost of promotional giveaways

· Increased commission cost

· Point vouchers if used

· Refreshments on site if needed

Evaluation: Compare Travel Agent reports year over year to evaluate results

Is your hotel in need of Sales & Marketing during these economic times?

Where is some great information from one of our hotel's Choice Brand Performace Consultants:

"When we find ourselves in hard economic times, many hotels go into panic mode, which often exacerbates the problem. To be successful in today's economy, true winners focus on the basics. They understand who their ideal guest is and then focus their selling efforts like a laser beam on that market. Rather than scrambling for anything that looks like a room night, they stay calm and collected and work steadily to serve their "sweet spot" market better than anyone else.

Success often comes from being a contrarian. While most of your competition is hunkering down to weather the storm, this is the time to charge forward; gaining new customers and increasing market share. You will also be poised to capitalize on your efforts when the economy turns around (and it WILL turn around).

Here are Five Strategies of F.O.C.U.S. that I guarantee will maximize your property's potential, even in hard economic times.


Focus on your Best Customers - Pareto Principle

Know the demographics of your best customers and market with a laser sharp focus to others who look just like them. We all have customers who just seem to fit. They are usually the most profitable and least problematic. These are the people we want to focus on with our increased marketing effort. This is not to say we won't take others who come our way, but simply that our marketing effort and dollars go to attract these "sweet spot" customers.

Opportunity shows up in unlikely places in tough times

Many industries, such as health care, are very resistant to recession. Identify the businesses in your market that are still prospering and launch a consistent, methodical marketing campaign to gain their business. (Many of these businesses have been taken for granted by current providers and this is a great opportunity to show them you care).

Concentrate your efforts

Streamline your sales and marketing process (work smarter - not harder). Get out of commitments and associations that are not providing you a quantifiable ROI and pick one or two networking opportunities that are full of prospects. For example, rather than being on the membership committee of a local chamber of commerce, your time might be better used by actively participating in a local health care association that is the gathering spot for decision-makers in the industry. Maximizing your presence on the Internet is also a must.

Understand the Rules of the Gatekeeper

Understand that the game has changed and that many decision makers have become gate-keepers. People that were once empowered to make buying decisions have had to relinquish that responsibility to the boss. We will discuss ways to keep your foot in the door with the new decision maker.

Success breeds Success - ask for referrals from every single sale

Ask for referrals every month and develop an external networking list for every one of your customers. This list is an effective tool to move throughout other departments in the organization as well as to other business relationships. You not only want to saturate ABC Corporation, but you want to reach their subsidiaries, clients, vendors, trade associations, etc. All too often we focus just on the customer in front of us without realizing that they are all connected to other possible customers as well.


Don't blame the economy for your lack of success. Learn how to effectively put these principles to work for you today and begin seeing results immediately. There are always winners and losers, and all an economic recession does is magnify the differences. You can choose to come through this economy stronger and more successful or you can come out of it battered and bruised. The choice is yours."

Last but not least, when you don't have time to do sales yourself, hire a reputable Sales Company like Hospitality Helpers to do the job for you at a fraction of the cost of a salaried sales person.

Gaining Wedding Business

Want to gain some wedding business at your hotel or facility?  Considering attending a bridal show as a vendor?  Here are four helpful tips to review before you begin your journey.  And remember, don't even look at this, if you are not going to follow up after the show.

1. Consider your objectives. For example, focus on regional shows if one of your goals is to expand in a specific geographical area.
2. Get closest to your niche. For example, high-end vendors may look for bridal shows that cater to the luxury bridal segment.
3. Get the numbers. Inquire about the audience size and demographics of previous bridal shows. Ask how this upcoming show will be advertised. Try to get a sense of how many people will be likely to show up.
4. Know where the “in” crowd goes. Inc. magazine reminds us that shows often go “in” and “out” of favor. Check in with past attendees to gauge whether a past show was helpful for their business.

Gaining Hotel's Incremental Business

Category: Rooms – Corporate

Title: Local Congratulations

Objective: Offer local congratulations to gain new contacts and increase room nights

Target: Local businesses and organizations in your community

Strategy: Create and maintain good public relations and top of mind awareness to increase room nights.

Elements:

· Join the Chamber of Commerce to have access and know local area businesses

· Scan newspapers daily for notices of promotions, openings, new executives or other

noteworthy news items from the local area

· Clip the articles out

· Send a letter of “congratulations” or “welcome to the area” to the individual or company

noted in the paper, along with a soft sell promotion, flyer, or brochure of your hotel

· One successful method is to mount the newspaper article on cardstock with “(Your Hotel Name)

Salutes You”, laminate it, and send it to the subject

· Monitor the internet, searching local news channel sites and newspaper sites for the same

kind of promotions, awards, openings, and expansions of local people and businesses

· Use the Chamber of Commerce list to obtain an email address or visit the actual company’s

website for an email address

· Send an email, containing graphics and logo of your hotel offering congratulations and make

sure you personalize it

· Join local service organizations like Kiwanis or Rotary and be active. Many local business

leaders will be found and lots of congratulatory opportunities will abound.

· Follow-up on all letters sent out with a sales call to ask for the business!

Cost:

· Salary of person responsible for internet research and newspaper perusing or Hiring Hospitality Helpers at a fraction of the price of a Sales Person and get an entire sales team working for you.

· Postage costs and stationery for snail mail

· Chamber of Commerce membership

How to use negative reviews to effect positive change in your hotel

With the increasing popularity of user-generated reviews, hoteliers may lament the loss of control over what is being said about us online, but we’re still in full control of how we react. As a follow-up to my last article, A Positive Spin on Negative Reviews, here are some suggestions for using negative reviews to effect positive change in your hotel.
1. Speak up. We would never ignore a guest ranting in our lobby, so why do so few negative reviews receive a response? (7%, according to TripAdvisor). It’s our chance to show the world we care, to thank the guest for feedback, to apologize and explain, and to clear up any misconceptions. On TripAdvisor reviewers can’t reply to hotel responses, so effectively we get the last word. Use it.
2. Engage. Hotels used to hire mystery shoppers to tell us what we were doing wrong; now our guests do it and pay us for the privilege. User reviews keep us in touch with guests and allow us to reach a mass market we could never hope to reach through our own marketing efforts. Be grateful. Wherever possible, engage writers of negative reviews and try to make amends. With expert handling, our harshest critics can become our most powerful advocates.
3. Show leadership. Yes, you work hard, you’re passionate, and you’re probably a very nice person, but that doesn’t mean everyone will appreciate your efforts. Accept that sometimes you’ll be the victim of unfair criticism, and other times you’ll simply screw up. Don’t let it kill your spirit. Treat every review as a learning experience. Discuss with staff how you could have prevented the situation, support the team, and move on. It’s when travelers stop talking about your hotel that you should really worry.
4. Take the high road. If the review is petty or vindictive, there’s no need to stoop to that level; travelers are smart enough to read between the lines. If allegations are false and defamatory, dispute the review with the host site, post a diplomatic response to set the record straight, and let it go. If your property’s reputation is so fragile that one or two bad reviews will devastate your business, you’ve got more issues than bad reviews. Read on.
5. Make reputation management a priority. Whether your property is a five-star resort or a one-star motel, your guests are evaluating you on how well you communicate and deliver on your brand promise. Subscribe to a social media monitoring tool and start tracking your Market Share of Guest Satisfaction; in the age of social networking, it’s as important as your revPAR index. Formulate a strategy for optimizing your online reputation, set goals, and meet regularly with your social media team to review progress.
6. Create a cycle of positivity. Use guest feedback to justify investments in training, labor, capital upgrades and communications. Improvements will generate positive reviews, which will attract more travelers and in turn will generate incremental revenue, thereby funding more improvements, and so on. The alternative? Ignore feedback and create a cycle of negativity, with the opposite results.
7. Prevent escalation. If you listen closely, bad reviews are often less about the issue itself than how staff responded when it was brought to their attention. Train employees to prevent on-property issues from escalating to online complaints by listening, empathizing, offering solutions and following up to ensure guests are satisfied. Some issues take time and money to fix; in the meantime, ensure staff are minimizing fallout by expertly managing complaints.
8. Take the good with the bad. In addition to occasional false and malicious reviews, we also receive reviews that overstate our virtues. Exaggerated praise can be just as damaging, setting expectations we can’t meet. And yet nobody is threatening to sue these reviewers. In the end it all balances out, and the wisdom of the crowds prevails over the folly of the few.
Daniel Edward Craig is a former general manager turned hotel consultant and the author of the Murder at the Universe. His articles and blog about issues in the hotel industry are considered essential reading for hoteliers, travelers and students alike. Visit www.danieledwardcraig.com or email dec@danieledwardcraig.com .

Article location: http://www.hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/how_to_use_negative_reviews_to_effect_positive_change_in_your_hotel

2013 Pool/Spa Lift Accessibility Requirements

The following is from the American Hotel & Lodging Association:

 

The January 31, 2013, deadline for pool and spa accessibility under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is approaching and AH&LA is urging members to review their compliance needs.

AH&LA has worked exhaustively to secure a one year extension and clarification of the January 31, 2012, Department of Justice (DOJ) Guidance. In May 2012, DOJ granted a one year extension to January 31, 2013, and issued two guidance documents related to its interpretation of the requirements for pool and spa accessibility in the 2010 Standards for Accessible Design.

According to the current DOJ guidance, by January 31, 2013, all existing pools and spas at lodging facilities must do the following if it is “readily achievable”:

• Provide at least one means of entry (pool lift or slopped entry) as long it is readily achievable. Pools with 300 linear feet of wall or more must have a pool lift or entry, and one additional means of entry which can be one of the following: (1) pool lift; (2) sloped entry; (3) transfer system; (4) transfer wall; or (5) pool stairs.
• Have the pool lift out in position and ready for use all hours the pool is open.
• Each body of water (e.g., pools, spas) must have a separate means of entry (there are special rules for clusters of spas).
• Pool lifts must be attached to the pool deck or apron in some manner unless it is not readily achievable to affix them.

For detailed explanation of the “Questions and Answers: Accessibility Requirements for Existing Swimming Pools at Hotels and Other Public Accommodations” visit AH&LA’s Website.

AH&LA has raised significant concerns with the current guidance and will continue to work for resolutions of these issues. We will continue to keep you apprised of developments.