All hoteliers, whether yours is a branded property or an independent, these fundamentals should be considered when developing an effective strategy, implementing your plan and carrying out the daily sales activities.
How you invest your Internet marketing dollars and what your sales expectations are should be determined by realistic truths about your property, your brand and your market. A strong marketing program is as important as the quality of your beds, the air in your rooms and the smile at the front desk.
Running a branded hotel has its unique challenges because most hotel brands will tell you that they are all you need to have an effective Internet sales and marketing program. The brand may even tell you that any direct Internet marketing you do is in violation of your franchise agreement. In reality, what the brand is concerned about is protecting their copy rights and image by requiring certain policies and standards. The brand sells franchises and their services, not your rooms. Direct marketing at the property level at a branded hotel can be achieved within all the brand policies and standards that I've ever seen.
Enough about the brand, those of you who run an independent hotel do have a greater challenge simply because you are competing with the perceived value of a branded hotel and you need to create a similar perception and value in your marketing message. For example, the initial decision for a good size independent property may be whether to invest in doing Internet marketing in-house or to outsource. Clearly, both have their risk factors.
For most hotels an in-house solution is clearly more cost prohibitive. Even, if the website creative is outsourced, a skilled full time Internet marketing person demands a salary in the range of $75,000 per year or more. On the other hand, with the right supplier you should have skilled personnel, resources and measurable results. An effective Internet program is, of course, based on the size of your property, ADR, market conditions and other factors, but for an average hotel in a major to mid-size market will incur a minimum Internet marketing cost in the $15,000 to $30,000 range per year, plus occasional website updates and add-ons.
For the hotelier, a truly effective Internet marketing program is all about managing and tracking results to validate your ROI. My recommendation is that you segment how you look at your Internet plan into two elements; one segment is your marketing to attract shoppers and the other is your website. Your website is your point of sale whether it is your proprietary website or your brand pages or a combination of both.
The first element to consider is, of course your website point of sale! The website is what informs and motivates the shopper to choose your hotel? Whether the shopper is converted to a sale depends on the look and feel, information and ease of use within your web pages. For a brand hotel, this is standardized across all hotels on their site. So there is always the question whether the brand site enables enough photos, the right categories to describe your property effectively, clear convenient maps, emphasis on location, proximity to local attractions and other factors that are unique your hotel and market. There is also the need for incoming links from websites that compliment your property. These may be your local attractions, restaurants, newspaper, CVB or a particular wholesaler. Because the brands sell the brand, they have to standardize their website and balance what is good for all of their hotels.
For independent hotels, some hotels get carried away trying to present a dynamic website with too many features such as audio, video clips and flash elements. These features run the risk of inhibiting the search engines and access by some computer security systems. Not to mention, the cost for these added features. Other independent hotels often fail to update the look and feel or even the content on their website.
Finally, there is the booking process. When the shopper is at the Point of Sale, they are either there to check availability and prices or they are ready to book. For larger hotels, this is your last chance to sell an upgrade or added services. For the average hotel this process has to be simple, secure and convenient. Don't delay or inhibit the purchase process with too many links to divert the buyer or flash elements that slowdown or inhibit access to the booking engine.
The second fundamental element is your Internet marketing! What do you do to reach your target guest audience and to test the potential of reaching new market segments. . Actually, the search engines are making this process a little less complicated. There is one or more search engine sessions involved in 85% of all online transactions. The use of search engines to find hotels based on their location, services, proximity to attractions and special needs such as weddings and spa has become a dominate factor in Internet marketing. No effective Internet marketing program can avoid a substantial investment in search engine marketing. If the shopper wants a brand hotel they will generally go to the brand website or simply search on the brand name for the domain. But, the majority of hotel shoppers select their hotel based on location, services and special needs.
For your plan, and your budget, you need to a realistic expectation in attracting prospects and the conversion ratio. So for your marketing you need to consider your location, competition, market segments, proximity to local attractions, on-site services and amenities and average occupancy. For your budgeting, you need to look at your average occupancy, average daily rate, seasonal periods and target markets (transient, leisure, corporate, group, meeting and wholesale allotments.
Clearly, the Internet is your ultimate marketing channel! It has been projected that in 2006 nearly 50% of the average hotel's sales will originate online and a third of the remaining sales are affected by information derived from the Internet. I hope you find the following check list useful when applying these fundamentals to your hotel:
• You need your own direct Internet marketing program, no matter what your brand, hotel size or market. Target Internet shoppers with your own proprietary marketing and website.
• Remember, your website point of sale is useless without an ongoing online search engine optimization program or a paid search program to attract shoppers.
• Keep your GDS information current because the GDS are still a dominate distribution channels the offer exposure on most of the leading 3rd party merchant websites.
• Evaluate whether your market and competition warrant the level of discounted rates required to benefit from the 3rd party websites. Seek 3rd party sites that can drive sales during your slow season and special promotions.
• Do not let your brand mislead you about what you can and cannot do to market your hotel. If you adhere to brand standards and copy rights when marketing a brand property there should be no retaliation by your brand.
• When evaluating the results of your search engine program, demand more than good search rankings on just your brand or name and location city.
• Do not accept a search program that does not provide frequent reports to show your search ranking fluctuation.
• Track search engine traffic through to the booking where possible. Unfortunately, most brands will prohibit this validation.
• Invest wisely, effective search engine optimization is not cheap, but it does produce results. Search engine optimization requires time and expertise.
• Add content and features to your proprietary website that are not available or limited on the brand website.
• Make sure your proprietary website content is in synch with your brand web pages. This will keep the brand happy and eliminate any confusion for the shopper.
• A search pay per click campaign is an excellent solution for short term results.
• Email marketing often gets a bad rap due to the excess of spamming and unwanted emails, but overall, email is more effective than direct mail and it enables better tracking techniques to help improve ongoing targeting and improvements to your special offers.
