Hospitality Trends
TEDxEcoleHôtelièreLausanne
March 21, 2012
TED is a nonprofit devoted to «Ideas Worth Spreading». It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader, bringing together the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes or less) to a community curious to engage with ideas and each other. The best talks are then made available on the TED.com web video site for free, subtitled in various languages, and released under a Creative Commons license so they can be freely shared and reposted.
About TEDx
TEDx was created in the spirit of TED’s mission, “ideas worth spreading.” The program is designed to give communities, organizations and individuals the opportunity to stimulate dialogue through TED-like experiences at the local level. TEDx events are fully planned and coordinated independently, on a community-by-community basis, under license from TED.
TEDxEcoleHôtelièreLausanne
The inaugural TEDxEcoleHotelièreLausanne event took place on 16 January 2012 on EHL’s campus, featuring a wide variety of speakers offering much food for thought and many enriching ideas for the hospitality sector.
The successful, independently organized event was attended by Bruno Giussani, European Director of TED, Maeve Ryan (Writer), Mike Hatrick (Innovation Expert), Kynan Eng (Neuroinformatics Researcher at Zurich University), Eva Zabey (Ecosystems Evaluation Expert), Sophie Maxwell (Head of Creative Insight at Pearlfisher), Tom Selwyn (Professor of Anthropology), and Birgit Schleifenbaum (Innovation Expert). The speakers demonstrated their ability to surprise and inspire the audience of around 100 hospitality professionals.
Maeve Ryan explained why successful writers find people extremely fascinating and have a good sense of space, two of the assets required in the creation of new experiences in the hospitality sector.
Kynan Eng talked about experiments on the interaction between space and people, whilst Sophie Maxwell suggested that F&B specialists would find substantial new business development possibilities through the promotion of natural foods that are worlds away from complex artificial packaging.
Sustainable development was also a focus for discussion with Eva Zabey asking the audience to consider the costs of well-being when creating new hospitality concepts. Birgit Schleifenbaum described the way in which sensory science can help to increase the pleasure and energy obtained from food whilst protecting our health and our planet.
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Switchover to Digital TV with over 430 TV Channels and over 200 Radio Channels
March 5, 2012
Television signals can be received via an aerial (terrestrial), satellite, cable or broadband connection. Traditionally hotels have received its signals from transmitters which were only able to transmit an analogue TV signal. Switchover to digital means installing new transmitters and swapping all TV’s with analogue tuners to TV’s with digital tuners.
Our hotel decided to use a mix of aerial and satellite connections to receive digital signals based on QAM/QPSK modulation via fibre optic wiring.
After our switchover last Friday, 2 March 2012, for the first time, all of our transmitters transmitted a digital signal and increased the number of channels available to over 430 from all over the world (and in the future to over 800 channels once traditional coaxial wiring to the rooms is replaced by fibre optic).
We wish our guests a lot of fun watching their favorite channels and hope they will feel at home!
ITB Berlin 7 – 11 March 2012
March 5, 2012
The World’s Leading Travel Trade Show
With more than 170,000 visitors, among these 108,000 trade visitors, and over 10,000 exhibitors from 180 countries ITB Berlin is the leading B2B-Platform of all tourism industry offers. In addition, the world’s largest tourism convention Market Trends & Innovations provides unique opportunities to benefit from the leading think tank of the global tourism industry. All levels of the value added chain are present: Tour operators, booking engines, destinations, airlines, and hotels right through to car rental companies.
Despite its size, ITB Berlin is clearly structured. ITB Berlin enjoys worldwide media recognition and offers comprehensive support for all marketing questions exhibitors might have. Finally, ITB Berlin is organized by an experienced exhibition management company, that successfully faces new aims and objectives again and again – namely the Messe Berlin.
Come and find the Hotel St. Gotthard Basel there at hall 17 (switzerland), booth 101 (Basel)!!!
Free Wi-Fi
January 17, 2012
Free Wi-Fi the make it or break it factor in online hotel booking
January 17, 2012
Article location: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/free_wi_fi_the_make_it_or_break_it_factor_in_online_hotel_booking
Thirty-eight percent of travelers reported that free Wi-Fi played a part in their decision as a “must” to stay at a specific hotel, 35 percent reported it is the simple amenity they want to see more in hotels, with 31 percent wishing it would become a standard in all hotels in 2012.
“Given the explosion of mobile use in the past few years, it is no surprise that travelers are requiring free and fast Wi-Fi,” said Taylor L. Cole, APR, director of public relations and social media for hotels.com. “Many guests never travel without their tablets, smartphones and laptops. It’s as intuitive as packing a toothbrush. Guests use these items in their rooms to plan activities for the next day. We are also seeing an uptick in mobile booking the day of a stay. Guests are creating their trips while on-the-go with Tonight’s Local Deals on our site and the hotels.com mobile apps, which feature exclusive mobile deals – it is only natural that they’d want to stay connected while in their hotel rooms.”
To round out the tech responses, 23 percent of guests stated their favorite modern in-room amenity was the use of iPads for guest services, local information and personal use. This ranked above air purifiers/humidifiers, high-end coffee makers, iPod dock, massage chairs, video game systems, universal remote rooms and workout equipment/DVDs.
Food and Beverage
Second to technology, guests are most pleased when their favorite food and beverages are provided during their hotel stay.
45 percent reported that their favorite new amenities are: happy hours, wine tastings or any other time with free food and drinks31 percent of travelers expressed their wish to see more complimentary bottled water in their hotel rooms (34 percent of female travelers; 24 percent of male travelers.
On Stealing While Traveling…
Despite some guests stealing linens/towels (14 percent) or magazine/books (12 percent) from hotel rooms, over 66 percent of hotel guests have never stolen an item from their hotel room.
Other amenities
Travelers felt like extra luxuries like turndown service and bath menus were “not worth the hype,” according to 44% of female respondents and 30% of male respondents.
The bathroom phone gets no love. It is the least used hotel amenity, with 37 percent of total respondents saying they never touch it.
When asked about amenities at luxury hotels, women prefer designer toiletries (23 percent) and men prefer the fitness center and spa (27 percent.)
When asked if they could stay celebrity-style, the top option for both men (35 percent) and women (38 percent) was to have their kitchen pre-stocked with their favorite food and beverages.
However, a close second was the ability to have a private pool and hot tub in the room (37 percent of women; 34 percent of men.) These options beat out such fun or diva-esque in-room demands like: an arcade, favorite fresh flowers everywhere, private staff or a movie screening room.
Google and Hotel Brands
November 23, 2011
Article posted November 18, 2011on http://www.evisionworldwide.com/learning/google-and-hotel-brands/
Written by Ronnie
SEOBook recently posted the infographic below regarding the current state of SEO and the ways in which Google favors big brands. The content discussed in the infographic does impact your hotel’s search performance; our hotel- and hospitality-focused commentary follows the graphic.
The brands against which your hotel competes for search rankings include:
Online Travel Agency (OTA) Brands:
Expedia
TripAdvisor
HomeAway
Etc.
Hotel Brands:
Marriott
Hilton
Crowne Plaza
Best Western
Holiday Inn
Etc.
What independent hotels need to do to compete against the big travel brands
Continually invest in content:
Content can include video, photo, interactive maps/travel guides, mobile apps and articles/blogs/travel guides – basically, anything that users will find helpful when planning a trip or vacation. Big travel companies are not able to do this, as they are spread too thin with too many properties or too many locations. However, you have the advantage of only having to create content for your local area. Content investment has a huge impact on SEO and social media visibility. This is your biggest advantage against the big brands.
Run Google AdWords:
Make sure your internet marketing provider is utilizing all tools, micro-channels and geo-targeting features that AdWords offers. This includes: ad scheduling/day parting, mobile PPC, Ad Extensions (site links, video, expandable map) and geo-targeting (geo-target specific offers to relevant areas around the world or don’t advertise to areas with low ROI). Additionally, make sure you are #1 for all derivations of your brand name terms. This is very important: it might seem like a no-brainer, but the OTAs will try to bid on your brand name and steal those clicks from your website (for more information, read “Why Hotels Should Bid On Their Brand Name“. These are small details that can make a huge impact to your online visibility and ROI.
Maintain strict control over rates and packages:
This might be the most important barrier to increasing direct bookings: the rates at your property website must be the same or a little lower than the rates found on OTAs and global distribution systems. Additionally, offer a few more unique, seasonally appropriate packages on your property website than on OTAs. We still see plenty of hotels offering better rates through OTA websites than their direct channel. Also, if you have not already, read this article about why customers that booked through OTAs are not really your customers: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/why_ota_customers_are_not_your_customers
What flagged hotels need to do to compete against the corporate brand campaigns. Continually invest in content:
Just as we stated above, rich and plentiful content on your property website that helps users when they’re planning trips is your biggest advantage against corporate brands.
Do whatever it takes to be #1 (both SEO and PPC) for your brand name terms:
This is the most important point: the corporate brands will try to put restrictions on brand name bidding in PPC. Do not allow this to happen and do not allow them to control your online marketing efforts. In order to increase direct bookings through your property website you must be able to bid and rank #1 for your brand name terms (for example: crowne plaza downtown chicago, hilton la jolla, marriott nyc, best western dallas airport, etc.)
Leverage social media & reputation management:
If you’re a brand name property, customers have an image of what they should be getting from you even before they step through your door. Furthermore, corporate spends millions every year building and strengthening their brand image and loyalty programs. It is very important that your online reputation and reviews meet brand standards. Reputation management will help you identify your greatest strengths and weaknesses, allowing you to fix the areas that customers are identifying as being less than standard/stellar. Today (2011 moving into 2012), the average consumer users just over 10 different sources of influence before making a buying decision (in 2010 it was just over 5 sources). Those sources of influence include: word of mouth from friends/family, reading online reviews, researching on search engines and comparison shopping. The point is, there are multiple ways for consumers to research and read reviews (from their peers) before deciding to book at your property, and you need to have a voice in all of them.
Conclusion
The fact that Google favors brands in search results means independent and flagged hotels need to be more proactive about staying on top of their online marketing. Fortunately, the avenues discussed above are excellent ways you can remain competitive online and on Google.