Hotel Website Design and Usability: Top 10 Mistakes

Hotel website design, like any kind of design, is subjective. Nothing is more painful than a website design “discussion” where stakeholders talk for hours about colors, content and photos. For every extra person added to these meetings, more useless things get added and useful things get taken out. By the end of it, you have a website that is not usable for potential guests, which hurts your conversion rate and, more important, your revenue.

So in this post, let’s worry less about design and more about usability. To that end, here is a list of mistakes that can hurt your hotel website revenue, no matter how much you love your design.

1. Missing Address & Phone Number

You need to give website visitors your address and phone number right at the top of your home page. This is more important than your homepage slider, and even that oh so trendy moving video on loop that you recently added. Assuming that your phone number and location only matter on mobile is flawed thinking.

Sometimes people want to call you. When they are calling you, there’s a good chance they’re going to book with you. Before they book, they are very likely to search for information about your location. Travel research is still happening on larger screens. You have to make it easy for them to discover your exact location, and even easier to contact you.

Don’t bury this information in your footer. Would you wear your name tag on your shoe? Mike drop. Next.

2. Fluffy Homepage Taglines

Hotel websites are notorious for fluffy descriptive taglines. I am not sure where this trend started, but it really has to stop. Home page is prime real estate for you to talk about who you are, what you do, and where are you located. Marketing is not stuffing adjectives like “Extraordinaire, Award Winning, Blissful Abode, etc.” on your home page. Providing the right information up front will lead your visitors deeper into your website for discovery, and not on an expedition to try to find simple answers about who you are, where you are, and what you offer. You have a few seconds to keep a new visitor on your website. Let’s not use that time to bombard them with fluff.

3. Music (Can you not?)

This is a public service announcement: Please don’t put music on your website.

Anything (music, videos) that autoplays on a website is a conversion death trap. The majority of bookings happen Monday through Friday, 9am-5pm. People are at work…and nothing is more disastrous than suddenly having your office laptop broadcast the sounds of singing whales, crashing waves, or romantic piano music while you are trying to book your vacation. Especially while your boss is waiting on that TPS report.

4. Cannibalizing Your Own Traffic

I have written a massive article on this topic that you can read here. Obviously, not enough people have read it. Social media traffic is useful only when it’s pointing people inwards, into your website! I am always surprised to see social media exit signs all over hotel websites. Do you think anyone leaving your website to go to YouTube is ever coming back? I refer to it as the black hole of the Internet universe. All that effort you spent to get people to come to your website is wasted when you then lead them right out.

5. Poorly Embedded Videos

Videos can do wonders for your website engagement. I am always thrilled when a hotel website utilizes videos. YouTube is a great place to host videos that you can embed into your website. But beware one small setting that can wreak havoc: Suggested Videos. This totally defeats the purpose of having video embedded on your website, as people are now getting sucked directly from your site back into the Internet black hole of cat videos! What’s even worse than that? When your competitors’ hotel videos start showing up! Now that is really embarrassing.

So, when you are embedding YouTube videos on your website, make sure you follow these easy steps:

  1. Copy your video embed code.
  2. Select the “show more” option.
  3. Uncheck the “show suggested videos when the video finishes” box.
  4. Copy and paste the new code into your website.

6. Bad Photography

Photos make or break a hotel website. Still, a lot of hotels do not invest in photography at the level they should. I have seen some amazing website design themes ruined by bad photos. The importance of unique, high-quality photos is not limited to your website. They need to be used on every OTA that you work with. Instead of getting photos updated once in 5 or 10 years, organize a seasonal photo shoot to cover the full spectrum of your location and seasonality.

Sadly, there are countless hotel websites where I can instantly make out who made it thanks to the ubiquitousness of the marketing agency’s stock photos. From San Francisco to San Antonio, the same couple is having a great romantic dinner, day after day, year after year. Another couple is enjoying the generic beach in San Diego, and Miami, and South Carolina. You get the drift.

7. Press Releases

Some find it hard to believe, and even find this notion offensive, but I’ll say it anyway: a press release is not real content. Let me elaborate. A press release does not fall into any real content category people are using these days. Current news can be found on Twitter or an actual news website. Topical discussions and viewpoints are offered in blogs and podcasts. Having a press release page on your website does not help educate your audience. You need to convert that information into useful content potential visitors can use. A beautiful press kit available for download will run circles around any effort and money spent on press releases. News about renovations, re-branding, new food and beverage outlets, etc., needs to be broadcast live on your hotel blog.

8. The Dreaded Restaurant & Spa Menu PDF

Larger resort websites are top offenders when it comes to this. PDFs are awful when it comes to usability. First there is the download time and resolution issues that occur on mobile devices, combined with the need to “select” the right app to open them. PDFs are just a bad idea. I just want to see if I can get a salad! It shouldn’t require so much effort, and then become a permanent file on my phone.

HTML it instead! Let people view information without fixed borders. They are great for printing, but who is even printing anything these days? You can always offer a “printable” option for laptop users, but it cannot and should not be the only way to access information on your website.

9. One Call to Action

With the heavy emphasis on booking direct, it seems like every website has become a big “BOOK NOW AND SAVE” destination. You website needs to be a part of the larger travel booking conversation. If the only thing you are yelling is “BOOK NOW!” you are not distinguishing yourself from the hundreds of other websites that are doing the exact same thing. You have to do better.

Diversify your calls to action. Ask visitors to interact with you in other ways. Maybe your guest is still researching their options, trying to understand your location and value proposition. Make it easy for them to contact you by requiring very limited information in your contact form. “Give us your name and email, and we’ll get right back to you.” Help with the journey first, and the odds of them booking with you go up tremendously.

Pro Tip: The number of questions asked in a contact form is inversely proportional to the number of people who will fill out that form and convert.

10. Bad Booking Engines

Booking engines deserve their own very special usability article, which I will get to in the near future. For now, know this: For your guest, the booking engine is a part of your website. They do not know or care that you are renting this cart from a provider that has been making booking engines since 1989, or from a guy in his garage in Seattle. When you confuse your visitors with a bad booking experience, you are doing two things:

  1. Tanking all the marketing budget you spent to drive this person to your website
  2. Training them not to waste time with you, and instead use an Online Travel Agent that lets them book a room more efficiently

Your website is your storefront. There is NO point to having all the great photography, content, ambience, and offerings…and then a broken cash register at the end of the experience.

Conclusion

Yes, make a beautiful website! It should be modern, aesthetically pleasing, inviting, and show off your property. But also remember to avoid the pitfalls I have highlighted above. Start making your website perform better. It’s hard to remember that these small things can matter more than the expensive design things, but do not give in to marketing peer pressure. Usability beats trends. Make sure your most profitable revenue channel is more than just a pretty face. Stay Woke.

Super Metrics for Hotel Marketing & Online Revenue Optimization

Analytics metrics have evolved over the past few years. In my last article, I discussed the dinosaur metrics that have fallen in value since the last mass extinction event. Since online marketing and digital advertising are rapidly changing, looking at outdated metrics can allow you to be completely blindsided in regards to your online revenue and profitability.

In this article, I cover the five super metrics that now dominate the analytics and marketing world. These metrics have been around forever but are more relevant today than ever. These metrics have always been are near and dear to my heart – this is not just an infatuation. They have helped me evaluate and transform hotel assets worth over $1B. So grab your cape. Let’s dive into the future.

#1: Bounce Rate

Bounce rate has been one of my personal favorites since 1999. This metric will tell you explicitly whether your design, content, navigation and marketing are working for you. It’s my ultimate reality check metric.

According to Wikipedia, bounce rate “represents the percentage of visitors who enter the site and then leave (“bounce”) rather than continuing on to view other pages within the same site.”

My personal definition for bounce rate is the failure to get your website visitor to perform any action on your website. In the case of hotel/travel websites, that action is not necessarily limited to booking. You can expect a visitor to do a number of things, including: sign up for your newsletter, check dates and rates, read blog posts, browse your photo gallery, watch a video tour, etc.

As with all super metrics, you must segment and dig deeper to get the best outcome and insights. You can segment your bounce rate by Source, such as:

  • Google AdWords
  • Google Display
  • Facebook
  • Direct Traffic

“Bulk data generates reports. Segmentation generates insights.”

– Vikram Singh

What’s a good bounce rate? Great question. For hotel and travel websites, anything over 40% deserves scrutiny. One exception is a blog, where most people will read your landing page and be done. But, dig deeper. How many of the bounced visitors are already subscribed to your list? Did you have a call to action on your blog post? Context is king, y’all.

Here are some of the key culprits behind a high bounce rate:

  • Bad website/landing page design. High bounce should help you look beyond the high fives your team gave each other when your new website launched. Design conversation needs to move beyond colors, rainbows and unicorns on your home page. Your content and layout need to lead visitors to take action.
  • Bad navigation. Bad navigation is one of the leading causes of visitor confusion. Somewhere along the way we had an unfortunate invasion by the hamburger button. Today, many hotel websites are using it for vanity; it looks cute and doesn’t interfere with their mood-setting photography. However, if visitors cannot navigate to the content they are looking for, they will be bouncing off your cute website. You know the thing about making your website visitors feel stupid… they start to feel the same way about you.
  • Slow load times. Not since Tom Cruise mentioned it in Top Gun have your website visitors have had such a strong need… a need for speed! Load time for your website cannot be over four seconds on the very high end of the spectrum. Slow load time is one of the top reasons for high bounce rates. There is a whole section in Google Analytics where you can monitor this and stay on top. Log in and start exploring.

*Pro tip: Don’t test load times from the work laptop, desktop, or mobile device where you regularly view your website. Test from a random device to avoid the cookie monster.

#2: Average Order Value/Lifetime Value

This is a critical super metric that gives you good insight into how much your website is producing for you per visitor.

Average Order Value = Total Revenue / Number of Reservations

This metric is extremely helpful when you are trying to figure out ways to reduce visitor churn. It also helps you identify and reach out to better-performing segments with your inbound marketing efforts. Even better, you can start to figure out the average lifetime value of your guests, who may book with you several times over the course of a year.

Running specials in your low demand period? Adding a new restaurant? Renovations? Service upgrades? Knowing the average order value and average lifetime value of your guests will help you reach out to your most valuable guest segments first. TripAdvisor cannot be the only source for news and information about your hotel. Identify your most loyal guests and talk to them regularly.

#3: Custom Goals

Nothing is more painful for an analytics fan like me than hearing people say that the only website metric they care about is tracked ROI. Nothing else matters. (You know, the Gordon Gekko types.)

In fact, tracked revenue is a small part of what you need to be looking at when deciding on your marketing budgets. Last click attribution models will show quick gains, but won’t account for changes in the market (sometimes big ones). Examples include a new hotel opening, airline pattern changes, a drop in your user review score, etc.

The smartest people in marketing and analytics are looking at the bigger picture. Instead of staring hard at the bottom of the funnel, pay attention to the other actions visitors take on your website, such as:

  • Contact form submissions. What were the top questions visitors asked about the hotel? Were they interested in weddings? Food & Beverage? Meetings?
  • Video watching. What videos were played on the website, and at what point were they paused/abandoned? (Yes, Google Analytics tracks videos /events.)
  • Newsletter/blog/email signups. These are the guys who are interested, and likely to do business with you more than once in their lifetime.

Set custom goals for each micro action you want your visitors to take, and watch what happens. You’ll quickly find out what’s working, what’s not, and which visitors are the ones you want to attract and keep.

#4: Website Conversion Rate

This is a powerful metric that tells you what percentage of your website visitors actually put money in your pocket. Simple, right? No. Because most marketing managers quote their booking engine conversion rate as their website conversion rate, and that is a problem.

Important: In order to get this metric right, your booking engine must be connected to your website analytics software. No connection = No conversion data.

True story:
Once during a pitch meeting with a hotel group in Santa Barbara, my partner (who is a marketing Jedi) asked the hotel’s ecommerce manager their website conversion rate. He did not know what that meant. Let’s just say we did not win that contract. Or as kids these days say…Awkward!

Not knowing the conversion rate is one thing. Telling people that your website is converting at 14% is much more dangerous. When I hear super high numbers like that, I know that someone is quoting:

a) Booking engine conversion rate = how many visitors got into the booking engine versus how many checked out

And not the …

b) Website conversion rate = how many people visited your website and then clicked into the booking engine and then checked out

Quoting someone a 14% overall conversion rate means you are breaking all the rules of Internet Physics! High fives may occur… but do not expect a call from MIT or CalTech.

Conversion rate is a Boss Metric. Basically, if you can move this number up by a few percentage points, you’ll see a massive change in your overall revenue. By converting more of your total visitors on the website, you are  multiplying all of your marketing and advertising investments!

#5: Booking Engine & Website Abandonment

We have just covered some rock star metrics. …but booking engine/website abandonment is like a shot of adrenalin administered straight to your bank account. All you Pulp Fiction fans know what I am talking about. That scene with John Travolta and Uma Thurman flashes in front of my eyes every time I think of the power of Abandonment Rate. Let me elaborate, starting with the definition.

Abandonment Rate = Abandoned Bookings* / Total Bookings Initiated

(*Abandoned Bookings = Bookings Initiated − Bookings Completed)

So, why is this such a powerful metric? There are two specific reasons:

  1. No other metric can have a faster and more positive direct impact on your revenue.
  2. It involves fixing just a few steps in your final checkout process. It does not require an elaborate audit and a corporate committee to figure out what to do.

Now there is a scary reason why this is not talked about more in the hospitality business: the majority of hotels are running one of many conversion-poor booking engines. To make matters worse, these engines are deployed across thousands of hotels. Any customization to help you reduce your abandonment rate is going to be deeply frowned upon.

You can always take your abandonment rate optimization game to a new level. Here are some ideas on segmenting your abandonment rate. Try segmenting by source:

  • AdWords
  • Google Display
  • Facebook Ads
  • Direct Traffic

And by product:

  • Room Type
  • Package Type
  • Rate Type

This segmentation will help you get insights into which visitors (from what sources) abandon the booking process. This allows you to check any messaging and rate issues that are causing them to leave. As you analyze, please know that there are always rate shoppers hitting your website to find the best rate, and they might leave the booking engine to just to confirm elsewhere out of habit. You are looking for the details, not bulk numbers.

The solution is not to sign up for a software to send automatic emails to people who left the booking engine after leaving their contact info. Maybe their boss walked in asking about the missing cover sheet on the TPS report. The real reason for doing this analysis is to find out where the revenue bleed exists.

Conclusion

Analytics is rapidly evolving; the metrics that mattered just a few years ago are obsolete. Google and Facebook are brawling for online marketing dollars, and those are things you cannot control. What you can do is reject the ridiculous post mortem style monthly report that is filled with data but no insights. Instead, start getting your hands dirty by digging into your own open source website and analytics program. Embrace Google Analytics and start looking for information and insights that will bring you more revenue. Armed with these powerful Super Metrics, you can become a hero by increasing your hotel’s profitability and revenue.

Dinosaur Metrics Are Taking a Bite Out of Your Hotel Marketing Performance

Marketing is evolving as I am typing this sentence. I’m here to make sure you are not wasting your time, energy and marketing budgets by focusing on outdated metrics. Many of the metrics you’re using have become irrelevant because of the seismic change in how people are researching and booking travel today. If you are still measuring what does not matter, you will end up getting blindsided. Don’t let a false sense of security, or an unwillingness to change, cost you market share and revenue.

Outdated Online Marketing Metrics

Traffic

Measuring straight up year-over-year traffic is a quick way to lead yourself into the land of confusion. Because of the way Google has personalized the heck out of their search engine, those massive droves of online visitors that used to reach your website are now:

  1. Finding the information they need in the Google universe (Google Hotel Finder, Google Flights, etc)
  2. Seeing their own version of Google based on their browsing history, their click-thru history, and the retargeting associated with their Gmail accounts. Basically, they are not seeing universal results, which used to result in massive traffic numbers.

Over the past several years, I have seen a decline in website traffic across the board in hotels and travel. The way people are moving across devices throughout the day, coupled with their growing concerns about privacy, means it’s getting harder to track them. Don’t worry: those wanting to sell you ads are working hard on a solution. But conversion and engagement metrics, not traffic, need to be center stage.

Childish Gambino sums it up: “Yeah, you got some silverware, but really are you eating though?”

Keyword Ranking

The personalization of search engines that I highlighted above directly affects another popular favorite from the days of old timey marketing: the beloved Keyword Ranking report. Back in the day, you know pre-2005, you could really hang your hat on this one. Rankings meant traffic, and traffic converted. Ah, the good old days! Today you are paying someone to dominate a list of keywords as part of SEO. You might as well burn cash to stay warm. Read these articles instead to learn how SEO has evolved, and why ‘pay to play’ is the new (old) king.

Meaningful content and website expansion have replaced keyword rankings. Looking at the Top 10 Keywords report in 2016 is like looking at a newspaper from 2005 to predict the weather today.

Email Open Rate

Bragging about the size of your email database is so last decade. The more relevant question is: how many segments or groups do you have within your database? Male vs. Female? USA vs. International? City vs. State? Sending massive email blasts without any segmentation is a sure shot way to get ignored/unsubscribed. Your content is key and needs to be segmented to succeed. Here’s an example of an email campaign that is WAY too broad, and therefore destined to fail.

137_Travel_Deals
You can beat your competition by embracing the power of segmentation. Like search engines, email systems also are not doing what they used to do back in the day: the good ol’ pixel-based tracking. One of the biggest email clients (Gmail) does not open image emails by default, which singlehandedly derails the “opened” metric. Anyway, sending emails like the one above does not help, even if they register as opened. I may have opened the email, but I will not sift through 100+ deals to find what I need, thanks. I have Google/Expedia for that!

Social Likes, Shares, Followers

Still counting Likes? Followers? Well, you can stop doing that. Neither of these things is anything more than a suggestion that someone might pay attention to you. For hotels and travel, this is where discussion is a better KPI (Key Performance Indicator) than the number of likes, retweets, and shares. A discussion can be an online interaction on social media, a phone call, or an email exchange. These interactions can take place during the trip planning phase, at the property during the stay/event, or post stay. All of those activities mean more than clicking on a Like button.

Social media is not the place to be broadcasting a message and expecting to get revenue. I fondly remember the days when agencies could make money by adding a “BOOK NOW” link on Facebook! But that didn’t last long. Today you need to look at the level of discussion you are having online. So, have you engaged your customers? What content have you produced that they should care about? These are the real questions to ask.

Pro Tip: Look at Insights section of your Facebook page. Go here to see your Twitter situation: http://analytics.twitter.com.

Conclusion

Travel is one of the most competitive segments online. You have to up your analytics game if you want to stay relevant. Pats on the back and high fives for outdated metrics are bad for your profitability (and your street cred). It’s always a great time to update your online marketing metrics to stay competitive. In my next post, I will cover the exciting metrics that actually drive your profitability. Stay tuned, stay woke!

Do You Really Need a Separate Brand for Millennials?

Almost every other week, there is an article about how hotels are trying to “embrace” the Millennial traveler. Basically, anyone born from the 1980s to the early 2000s is in this group. It’s everyone’s new favorite generation to talk about in the hospitality and travel marketing realm. But are they really that different from the rest of us? Do they “Tru-ly” need their own brands?

The Brand Approach

All the big brands seem to be in a rush to get the Millennials’ dollars and build loyalty with them. Their solution so far has been large-scale branding. For a large hotel company, the biggest reason to launch a new brand is to create a new concept for more investors and owners to invest in. That is the prime objective. Besides, you know that there are only so many similar Hilton/Wyndham/Marriott-owned brands that can exist in the same city. A new brand is so much easier to sell to owners and investors because you will be the ‘first’. But is this really the best approach from a marketing standpoint?

Smaller independent hoteliers are having much better luck with Millennials. Why is this happening? Well, where do I start… Oh yes, let’s start with the concept of having a Hotel Brand. In the old Mad Men days of building a brand, there were concepts, meetings, Scotch, and then after-work drinks. Et voila! A brand was born, and everyone involved made a lot of money. Ah, the days before social media and alcohol-free workplaces. Constant connectivity, sharing, and reviews now let the customers (old and new) decide what you are, instead of relying the drawing board you made up in a Madison Avenue office.

Creating a large brand is not the best way to get attention from people who cherish small-scale uniqueness and value over gimmicks. Let’s see how this plays out in Hilton’s latest branding effort.

Tru Video Breakdown

Hilton recently overcame superstition and launched its 13th brand, called Tru. I see what they did there…took out the E in True. #innovation

Here’s what I learned from their marketing materials. Apparently, the new travelers like to work on a laptop in their tuxedo jackets and boxer shorts:

tru by hilton

 

Now I present to you… the brand essence video.

 

In case you don’t have the time or patience to watch the whole video, here’s a quick recap:

Bam Bam Bam, Wow Wow Wow. Fun Fab Fit. Now Now Now Now, Yum, Mmm.

OMG. Is all I could come up with when I was done watching it. You can decide for yourself.

This new brand is targeting those with a “Millennial mindset” who want (and I quote): “a brand that is simplified, spirited and grounded in value, filling a massive void in the midscale category in the U.S. and Canada. Built from a belief that being cost-conscious and having a great stay don’t have to be mutually exclusive, Tru by Hilton offers an experience unlike anything in its space, consistently delivered in a surprisingly affordable way.”

According to Hilton, no brand is meeting the Millennial’s needs at the midscale price point. Which is really odd, because there are so many midscale independents out there providing a very good price/location/service value.

Just looking at their top three big chain competitors, here are several examples of Millennial-themed midscale hotels:

  1. Hyatt: Hyatt Place
  2. Starwood: Element and Aloft
  3. Marriott: Moxy, Courtyard Residence (And, by the way, have you seen how much fun people staying @ Marriott Residence are having according to this TV spot: Take Over the Town at Residence Inn?)

Tru Features Breakdown

These are the “innovative features” Tru by Hilton offers the traveling Millennial (in their own words):

  1. No Desk in the Room
  2. The Hive – A first floor experience that’s more than a lobby – 2,770 square feet of open space with unique ways for guests to engage with others or spend time alone, in one of four distinct zones for lounging, working, eating or playing. (Obviously, nobody on the marketing team saw the Resident Evil movie or played the video game before selecting this name.)
  3. The Play Zone – Filled with table games, a large-screen TV (featuring DIRECTV), and tiered, stadium-inspired seating.
  4. Command Center – A re-envisioned front desk – featuring a social media wall with real-time content to foster engagement among guests, and a 24/7 market offering fun snacks and refreshments, single-serve wine and beer, healthy light meal options, and sundries for purchase.
  5. Complimentary Breakfast – “Build Your Own” breakfast consisting of a toppings bar with 30 sweet and savory items allowing guests to customize bagels, donuts, Greek yogurt, and oatmeal to satisfy their taste buds and cravings.
  6. Rooms – Smart and efficiently designed guest rooms full of the things that matter most – all-white comfortable platform beds, 55″ TVs, eight-foot wide windows, access to power everywhere, and surprisingly spacious bathrooms.
  7. Fitness Center – Defines wellness trends, rather than follows them, with a concept focused on cardio, strength and flexibility. (Say what?)
  8. Free WiFi & Mobile Key – (good)
  9. Free DIRECTV – (good)
  10. Cleaning – Rooms and linens cleaned with P&G Professional™ products (NYSE: PG), including Tide® Professional™, Swiffer® Professional™ and Febreze® Professional™ to help enhance the guest experience and drive operational efficiencies. (Hmmmm, ok?)

True Features Breakdown

1. No Desk ≠ Automatically Millennial Cool. Somewhere it got established that not having a desk makes a hotel room Millennial-friendly. But people have been using desks for activities other than just working for quite some time now and that is not going to change. Also, the Tru infographic clearly has the tuxedo guy working on his laptop; so is he working in his boxer shorts somewhere outside the room?

2. There is such a thing as a Free Breakfast. Their direct competitors like Aloft, Hyatt Place, etc, offer this already. Unless there is a regional/local twist, it really does not help you stand out.

3. No More Three-Letter Words. Bam. Fun. Fab. Fit. Now Now Yum. Littered all over the hotel lobby carpet. How about NOT. Educated Millennials have a decent vocabulary. Just because they use bae, woke and lit does not mean they are going to be impressed with your three-letter words. This may have worked in focus groups on which hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent. But to me it feels a little over the top.

Conclusion

It was time for Hilton to come with something to put up against the other brands in the midscale category. However, their hyper-Millennial(ized) marketing is more than a little phony; it will not resonate with a generation seeking uniqueness and local experiences. The essence video is a bit embarrassing for me to watch, and I’m sure I’m not alone. Millennials don’t want to feel like they’re a cheesy subset of society. They chase value as much as any other demographic would. Tru(e) dat. (Thud. Drop mike.)

My Top 6 Articles of 2015

2015 was a phenomenal year for my site. I would like to thank all of my subscribers for participating, sharing, and spreading the “Words.” I love writing for you guys!

This year my articles were read by visitors from 158 countries! I was excited to see Cuba on the list, as they are poised to see some amazing growth in travel and tourism.

It was a great year for me professionally as well. Amazing projects all over the world, from London to Oman to Hong Kong, helped me maintain a global perspective on travel. One of the high points was giving the keynote address at the Airbnb Open conference to over 4000 attendees from 110 countries!

What really made my day was meeting subscribers and readers like you at events far away from home. When I started writing in 2013, I never thought I would be having fans in Pago Pago, Miami, and Cape Town.

In 2016, I plan to continue offering content that you can use to grow professionally without getting bored to death. I’m still rooting for you to make more revenue and more profits.

As for 2015, the tribe has spoken. Here are my top posts based on traffic, engagement and social sharing:

  1. Expedia Acquisitions Signal Tougher Times Ahead for Hotels 
  2. The Free Website Trap: Lessons From Priceline’s Rebranding of Buuteeq 
  3. The End of Hotel Rate Parity: Much Ado About Nothing
  4. How Airbnb Is Crushing Traditional Hotel Brands
  5. Let’s Keep It Real: The Truth About Hotel Meta Search
  6. Your Marketing Focus Must Shift To Hotel Value Over Price

Share, subscribe, prosper.

Marriott’s Acquisition of Starwood: Winners and Losers

Marriott’s acquisition of Starwood is great news for investors, but unfortunately not for Starwood hotel guests and employees. The quote that sums up the reasoning behind this deal came from Starwood Chairman Bruce Duncan.

“We are committed to what is best for shareholders.”

Notice that employees and guests are not mentioned. This is because they are not the focus of the consolidation. Industry consolidation is aimed at increasing investors’ profits or killing a competitor in the industry. With this deal, Marriott is hitting both those key points. When a deal like this is made, the numbers have been run and re-run hundreds of times. Everything must look good on paper, first and foremost. Banks and investors are going to be the clear winners in this deal.

However, I’d like to talk about the important players in this deal that are not likely to fare too well: the guests and the employees.

Guests (The Case of the Diminishing Rewards)

The massive march toward total devaluation of loyalty points continues onward. Every major hotel chain has devalued its rewards program in the past five years. Hilton, Marriott, Starwood and Carlson issued major devaluations in their loyalty points in 2013 and again in 2015. Historically, mergers have almost always resulted in devaluation of loyalty programs and inferior service. Anyone who thinks bigger is better when it comes to personal attention has obviously never called his cable company.

In 2013, Marriott created a new (read higher) category of hotels: the super “category 9” hotels, where it takes 45,000 points to stay for one night! They also raised the points requirement per night on 40% of their portfolio, which in their case was an increase of around 5000+ points to book a room. In March 2015, Marriott moved approximately 25% of their hotels into a higher bracket; that means you now need more points per night to get a room in the same hotel.

Starwood has been known to have the best elite program in the game. Even so, earlier this year 20% of their hotels did the category shuffle. The difference is that, in their case, half of the hotels in this 20% segment moved up a category and the other half moved down. Much less drastic than Marriott.

With Marriott taking over and a loyalty program merger inevitable in the near future, the overall value proposition is going to go down. It might be good for low- to mid-level SPG status holders, but the super elites will take a hit. Even the credit card offers from Starwood have always been out of Marriott’s league. There is no other way this is going to play out: the existing Starwood elite SPG program will take a hit.

I was disturbed by the whiny and entitled responses to the merger by the “elites” in this NY Times article. But the fact is thing are going to get worse for them and they know it.

Employees

History and common sense both tell us that consolidation is hardly ever good news for employees. This merger is no different than most in that respect.

Starwood made some mistakes over the years by spreading itself too thin specially that their gable in Asia, Europe and the Middle East didn’t really pan out. If you remember, they took a lot of pride in “moving” their corporate offices to international hubs for 30 days (China, Dubai and India for 30 days). Because, what motivates a team more than jet lag…right? This was nothing more than a gimmick, like that time in 2006 when Starwood Hotels opened in Second Life, which was supposed to be the next big thing. You really cannot be going international when all your core marketing and strategy is centralized in Stamford, Connecticut. 

Anyway, with this expansion came international teams. So guess what is going to happen in Singapore and Hong Kong and New Delhi, where both hotel chains have regional presence? Will they need two Sales Directors, Revenue Managers, or Operations Directors sitting in two offices in the same city? What about in the US where Marriott already has a massive corporate team? Short answer: No.

Marriott has made a name for itself with its efficiency. Kudos for that. But this also means that they are not going to be supporting multiple teams of people to do the same job. This is particularly relevant to employees in senior and cluster management and operations positions.

The market right now is flooded with Starwood resumes. This is especially true in international markets. Since I am very fortunate to have friends working globally for large hotel chains, I know for a fact that there is some panic in the job market.

Most guests will be fine and will deal with the changes in the loyalty program and dwindling levels of personal service over time. But the human cost in terms of disrupted careers and lost opportunities is harder to absorb.

Conclusion

It’s not all doom and gloom. This merger presents a huge opportunity for independent and ultra-luxury hotels. It’s the perfect time to outshine the rapidly diminishing hotel loyalty programs that the behemoth hotel brands are trimming and slashing, by offering a unique experience that includes highly personalized service. Another group that should be celebrating this consolidation, aside from the bankers, is Airbnb and the other apartment/home rental players. This is just what they wanted for Christmas, even if they didn’t know it. More business travelers will be looking to go rogue when faced with diminishing loyalty points, and therefore diminishing loyalty.

Hotel Brands’ Struggle to Understand Airbnb: The IHG Edition

When I’m on Twitter, I’m usually catching up on some of my favorite comedians (mostly comediennes) and posting my own material. But every now and then, some non-comedic items capture my attention. This live tweet caught my eye on September 30.

Sean McCracken* with Hotel News Now posted this update from IHG’s annual conference.

*(Let’s get our “release the kraken” jokes out of the way. I bet he hears them a lot.)

IHG CEO QUOTE

Wow. The “Solomons” referred to in the above tweet is not some mid-level manager at IHG trying to shake up the crowds. He is the Big Kahuna/CEO of Intercontinental Hotels Group! At first I could not believe that the CEO of one of the biggest hotel brands in the world would go on stage at their annual conference and say something this ridiculous and detached from reality. Then I realized that he was engaging in the long-standing tradition of hotel brands building up a boogeyman to rally against. I will elaborate on this later.

Solomons’ comment also sums up the very reason why hotel brands today are struggling with the reality of the rapidly changing travel landscape. If this is the belief held by those on top, there is very little hope that the brands will manage to stay relevant in the near future.

The Struggle Is Real

IHG CEO QuoteInterestingly, IHG is one of the brands I often refer to when speaking about Airbnb and its impact on travel. The ex-CMO of IHG shocked me at a conference three years ago when he did not know what Airbnb was. They now have a new team in place, but the struggle continues.

The fact that the CEO of a company listed on the New York Stock Exchange (aka, Wall Street; aka, the folks who brought us “Greed is Good” is calling Airbnb (unlisted) the product of “Silicon valley greed” is painfully ironic.

The real kicker here is that Richard Solomons’ bio comes straight out of the world of investment banking. To quote his Wikipedia page:

“Solomons worked in investment banking with Hill Samuel Bank for seven years, including two years in New York. He worked for seven years in investment banking, based in London and New York. Solomons qualified as a chartered accountant with KPMG in 1985.”

Meanwhile, according to Wikipedia, the CEO of Airbnb, Brian Chesky, has a BFA in industrial design from the Rhode Island School of Design. And he was broke when he started Airbnb to make ends meet.

This is usually my “drop the mike and walk away” moment. But since this is not a stage, I will keep writing.

Hey Guys… How’s Kimpton Doing?

Brands have been notorious for creating a boogeyman when facing change. The past few years have been all about Online Travel Agents stealing their share. Now they have a new entity to blame for their issues: Airbnb.

IHG’s recent acquisition of Kimpton, which I wrote about here, is playing very much in line with my prediction. The brand that took years to build is succumbing to the giant shadow its new owner is casting. Case in point, the loss of key landmark Kimpton assets in San Francisco:

[table id=6 /]

Kimpton’s single largest market was San Francisco, and they have now lost more than 75% of their presence. This is a much bigger threat to Kimpton than Airbnb and OTA’s put together.

So many of these iconic assets are getting renamed, losing the brand recognition that Kimpton employees built over so many years. I really hope Keane played “How to Save a Life Brand” at the IHG show.

Conclusion

Hotel brand annual shows are squarely focused on hyping the brand, and that is understandable. What is not acceptable is to misinform your franchisees and owners about where the business of hospitality is heading. They are hungry for education and knowledge, not just their Pancake Selfies at the “Stack Station.” Google it.

The End of Hotel Rate Parity: Much Ado About Nothing

Over the past few months, there has been a lot of talk about the imminent “end of hotel rate parity” and what it means for the hotel industry. Rulings in favor of ending rate parity clauses have been handed down by regulatory bodies in France, UK, Sweden and Italy. (Rate parity is the practice of maintaining consistent rates for the same product in all online distribution channels—Expedia, Priceline, etc.—regardless of what commission the OTA makes.)

The reactions to a scenario in which rate parity will not be required or enforced have ranged from “OMG! This is the greatest thing ever!” to “This will destroy the OTA’s!” to the proverbial “Meh.” Some industry veterans have declared it to be a “revolution” or – even worse – have employed one of my least favorite phrases in the English language – “game changer.”

I recommend putting jubilation on hold if you’re anticipating the quick death of OTA’s and the beginning of a new era of tremendous profitability for hotels. Some may believe that that the duopoly of Expedia Inc. and Priceline Inc. were built on the simple and magical hotel rate parity clause, and that they will perish without it. In response, I’d like to offer a gentle reminder:

The market cap of these companies as I wrote this article today:

  • Expedia Inc. – $15.87 billion
  • Priceline Inc. – $66.49 billion

(Source: Yahoo Finance)

The Myth of Hotel Rate Parity as an Obstacle to Profitability

Rate parity agreements put in place by OTA’s were never fully implemented by independent hotels. The complex distribution structure of an independent hotel operating in the real world made it impossible. Brand hotels have probably done a better job at implementing rate parity across their thousands of hotels. Even then, rate parity is just not that easy to implement and control.

Smart asset owners and managers devoted very little time to this clause in their OTA contract. Instead they focused on getting the most out of the OTA’s and building their direct revenue. On the opposite end of the spectrum were people who ran around in circles worrying about maintaining parity like it was life and death. Just recently I had to console a very concerned Director of Sales who would freak out every time he looked at the rate plan, yelling “What about rate parity?”

Rate parity is, and never will be, a “gun to the head” for hotel revenue managers or owners. Rate parity has not prevented independent assets from building direct revenue, nor does its demise automatically supercharge their revenue. I’ve worked on asset turnarounds totaling over $1.5 billion over the last decade; rate parity has never once been a factor that kept us from reaching our revenue goal.

It’s actually pretty simple. Hotel and lodging business managers who have not 100% outsourced their reading, learning and critical thinking are profitable today, and will stay profitable when the rate parity clauses go away. Rate parity, whether it’s in place or not, doesn’t override the many other important decisions that drive profit.

This Changes Everything… Not.

Some people are so excited about this development, they tout it like it’s the beginning of a phenomenal new age in travel and distribution. This is not the launch of the iPod, iPhone or i iPad, and we are not at the Apple developer conference.

Rate parity was not holding you back from taking control of your distribution and profitability. A new channel manager software is born every week. You always had the power to set your distribution priorities, and you will still have that power in the future.

The fact remains that if you still have not convinced your guests that your own website is the best place to book, it’s a failure of your online marketing and distribution strategy. Giving so much power to an OTA, and a clause in their contracts, is the very reason a lot of hotels are struggling today to build direct revenue. That, and the fact that their marketing department does not really do any work but totally excels at “vendor management.”

Controlling and Contributing to the Travel Cycle

The OTA duopoly of Expedia and Priceline has been actively focusing on owning the travel cycle. From planting an idea (inception), to research (content), rate search (metasearch), transportation, things to do, and loyalty points and rewards.

To think of rate parity as the pillar on which the OTA’s have built their revenue and profitability is flawed. The key to their success is their unflagging commitment to investing online, which is where people are researching, dreaming and shopping travel. In complete contrast, a Hotel Brand’s # 1 prime objective is to build the “brand” to collect brand licensing fees. That’s the revenue that impacts their share price.

Controlling and contributing to the travel cycle has never been part of the brand hotel’s master plan. Hiring expensive ad agencies to stay current with the latest marketing fad seems to be the modus operandi for most of them. You see, perception rules everything around them. It’s never online revenue or their guests’ ever-expanding needs, you know, like fast and free WiFi.

Smart hospitality asset owners recognize that their guests’ needs are basic and evolving at the same time. They are creating their own brand loyalty by doing more for their guests and ensuring repeat business via engagement.

Looking Beyond Hotel Rate Parity Games

Instead of worrying about parity, extreme channel management tools, and data overload, how about you shift focus to the guest and their travel cycle? Just like the OTA’s. Here are some things that should be happening in your hospitality business right now:

Diversification

The guest and their travel cycle needs to be your focus. Diversify your efforts and instead of just thinking of them when they are ready to book a room, think of them in different stages of their travel from their home to your hotel. As the asset owner/manager even with all the online tools available to them – You can still can solve a lot of issues for your guests and build a relationship with them beyond “Book Now” button. This relationship ensures that they take your word for the Best Rate Guarantee and book direct with you irrespective of where they are researching airfare, activities and transportation.

Using a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) Tool

Every hotel today has some sort of a CRM system, but very few actually use it. Nameless, faceless throwing of room keys at your guests at the front desk has to stop. Reaching out to your guests (establishing a relationship) and then staying in touch (relationship management) has to start.

Robots will not build relationships (unless you are watching Terminator 2: Judgment Day). Not staying in touch and not keeping track of your guests drives them to channels that offer a better travel experience and better support. Hotels that truly connect with their guests, and provide what their guests crave (information, support, service, appreciation) are the ones who will continue to build profitability.

Conclusion

Hotel parity is another red herring preventing you from truly building your hotel’s long-term profitability. Even if hotel rate parity were to disappear overnight, thousands of hotel CRM tools would still be collecting dust. Sales Directors would still be outsourcing strategy and marketing to agencies who service hundreds of clients, including their own competitors. Hotel websites would still lack fresh content, and offer guests a substandard booking experience. Your front desk staff would still not recognize loyal guests, and would still fail to encourage them to spend more at your hotel via special dining or activity promotions. Need I go on?

If you are obsessed with rate, you are bound to neglect a lot of important work that needs to be done. You can quote me when I say, “ If you live by the rate, you die by the rate.”

Your Marketing Focus Must Shift To Hotel Value Over Price

It’s amazing how much time and energy gets poured into deciding the price of a hotel room. There are STR reports, RMS Reports, and booking engine reports to go along with the hundreds of tools that are solely focused on how much you are charging for your room. There are stacks of reports on top of other reports all showing pricing data – past, present and future. You want to know anything to do with pricing? There’s a report for that.

Now, where is the value report? You see, selecting your competition based on the size of your bed and the bathroom sink is an idea that has passed it’s prime.

Boutique hotels (a term that needs to be retired) took a lot of time defining their hotels and restaurants as being truly different and holding certain value that a braded cookie cutter hotel is never going to match up to.

Taking the time to educate your guests can make all the difference in value perception. Better perception = Better Price = Better Profits.

A lot of the traditional boutique hotels under pressure from stakeholders over the years have descended on the price level competition. When your biggest USP is your price, then it’s all that you will be judged on. A room rate becomes your only significant value.

Pricing is an extremely shortsighted play. Anyone looking for long term profitability needs to look at the value that they are providing to their guests.

Here is how you can start to turn your team’s focus on highlighting your value versus going into price wars that hurt long-term profitability:

Don’t Make Up Value- Be Who You Are

Just last week I saw an email from the “corporate” director of sales for a small no name hotel asset in the middle of nowhere wanting his website look like the Four Seasons and Jumeriah Hotels- both super high end luxury products. This happens often when clueless marketing “directors” start to consider the website as an extension of their ego’s. ( Note: It’s a guarantee that  their egos are much larger than their value as employees).  The value of your hotel is not a fantasy that you would like it to be. It’s who you really are. There are independent hotels and there are cookie cutter brand hotels. Every time each one tries to be something it’s not- It always ends badly. Lying about value is actually worse than not showing any value so please keep the marketing types and their ego’s in check. This is a clear reason why you should not call a Holiday Inn Express a “boutique hotel”. Hotel brands are already exhausting every day guests with mundane name/ brand variations of the same product.  Step up and embrace who you are. Value will be best competition differentiator you have that cannot be easily replicated.

Better Value Segmentation

Segment of go home. The key is in understanding that your hotel/lodging product is likely not a good fit for everyone and that’s OK. Before embarking on expensive capital expenditure or shelling marketing dollars on a “branding” agency as yourself if you clearly know who your target audience is?

I am not just talking about who is checking into your hotel today. What about guests checking into your hotel in the next 10-15 years? Who are you targeting? You can never relate to someone unless you narrow down your focus. Pretending to be all things to all the people is where things gets complicated and you start to use price as a flotation device.

Leverage Your Location & Story

Simple test. Get your friends to walk up to your hotel front desk and ask “ Why should I be staying at this hotel” . What you hear back might surprise you. Many times what you hear has never been mentioned on the website or on your value pitch.
What’s you frequency Kenneth? Do you have a story to tell? Does your hotel location ( city, area etc.) has a story? This is what you should be telling your guests online and in person.

What your guests tell Tripadvisor when they check out is a whole another story but in 90% of the cases a good story helps with value perception and reflects in your online reviews. Start training your guests to leave the reviews that you what them to. Do not wait after the fact; you have a first mover advantage that you need to hit. Own and leverage your location. Be the expert the your unfamiliar needs. I know everyone has a smartphone but most humans are still looking for a human touch, cue in Bruce Springsteen.You should also be telling your guests about the history of the company that helps build some confidence in your lodging product.  Why are you in the hospitality business is a good starting point.

Have Confidence In Your Product & Rate

If the only way you can highlight the value of your product is through wavering on price, then you will always be struggling to compete. Anytime a hotel resorts to selling rooms to someone that will advertise them for $7, the value lost is irreplaceable.

When you get your guests to the booking stage and are about to get money in your account, do it with conviction. Matching your price to value is a cycle that needs to start at every page of your website and lead all the way into the booking engine.

Highlighting your property’s features and what you bring to the table. One golden rule here is not speak poorly about the competition. The minute you give any time discussing the competition, you have already lost the sale.

Emphasize Your Human Touch

When talking about the hotel assets it’s possible to show your product to be superior product by mentioning the high thread count sheets, fancy toiletries, fast WiFi and other bells and whistles.

Your competition is always providing some level of a basic product which might be a few levels above and below you. This is hard for your guests to understand and truly differentiate. The example I like to give is of two Starbucks on the opposite end of the street. Everyone has a favorite location and even though the product is same, it’s always the people that make the difference.

People will do business with someone who cares about them. This is where your human workforce comes into play. It’s your greatest differentiating factor and you should use it at every given opportunity.

Conclusion

Running any form of a lodging operation means that you are a) competing globally with people who can outspend and out market you. B ) you business is going to be seasonal. Your guests are willing to pay more for a product if they think it gives them a truly special or significant value—and if you present it to them in just the right way, the revenue if yours to take. Pricing is the short term and will let you win a few battles every now and then. Value on the other hand is always going to be the deciding factor in winning the war.

The Free Website Trap: Lessons From Priceline’s Rebranding of Buuteeq

The Free Website Trap: Lessons From Priceline’s Rebranding of Buuteeq

Last year, Priceline.com made a splash when it acquired Buuteeq, a digital marketing and website “cloud-based system” for independent hotels, for what looks like $98 million.

My detailed analysis of that purchase made a lot of headlines, and also missed a lot of headlines when some of the top hotel news websites did not carry my article. (Buuteeq was a big advertiser for them.)

Last week, Priceline announced that it would no longer let Buuteeq operate as an independent brand, and that they now offer free websites in exchange for a 10% commission on every dollar generated on those sites. Here is my analysis of what this means for the lodging industry.

Goodbye, Buuteeq.

The first thing I observed is how quickly Priceline moved away from letting Buuteeq “continue to operate as an independent business within The Priceline Group.” I was highly skeptical about them being allowed to operate independently when I first wrote about the acquisition in August 2014 (read my conclusion section here). Thousands of independent hotels and B&Bs using the Buuteeq platform were given a “nothing is going to change” story by the founders.

Here is an excerpt from an email that one of the founders of Buuteeq (Brian Saab) sent to a bed and breakfast client:

“We remain an independent brand (one of the prime reasons we considered the merger with Priceline Group) and we continue to run business as usual. That said, I am thrilled to be able to rub shoulders with other brands in the group; we’re already getting great advice on how to improve conversion for hoteliers (who wouldn’t want to get best practices from the likes of Priceline, Kayak, and Booking)!”

How cute! But we all know by now that nobody acquires a small company to make things better for their existing clients. They buy assets to benefit the larger group, which in this case is Priceline Inc. The interests of thousands of small and independent hotels is not the primary objective of Priceline. Their own revenue is their prime objective (as you should expect). Have you seen their amazing stock price lately? And yes, I still use Yahoo Finance.

The hotels who built their entire online presence on the Buuteeq platform – instead of owning their own digital assets – now have even less control over what happens to their own website and marketing. Priceline Inc. will tweak, update and change the new entity as they deem fit.

You must keep in mind that Buuteeq was acquired because it was working. It was built by smart people: former Microsoft executives Forest Key, Adam Brownstein and Brian Saab. They raised the capital, built the platform, and implemented aggresive sales teams that closed thousands of hotels and inns. They even convinced established hotel brands like Choice Hotels to join them. They flourished by playing on one of the lodging industry’s major deficiencies: the fact that people in hospitality do not want to spend time or money on direct marketing/ building a website/ getting a decent shopping cart.

This hands-off, price-shopping hotel culture was the key to their success, even when it’s common knowledge among lodging operators that their website is their single most profitable channel. The same key will unlock BookingSuite’s success. They’re just taking it to the next level. What can I say? It’s as surreal as a Salvador Dali painting.

Hello, BookingSuite.

For quite some time now, I have been seeing the BookingSuite link taking the place of “Hotel Marketing by Buuteeq” on independent websites. How did I know that the Buuteeq brand would be “sunsetted” by Priceline? Because there is so much more money to be made by taking a % of bookings versus peddling “digital marketing platforms” for a flat monthly fee. Where is the fun revenue in that?

You see, if a hotel on the Buuteeq platform decided to spend money directly on Google via PPC (which is their greatest marketing tool!), the hotel itself would profit from PPC success. This of course, is not what Buuteeq/Booking Suite would like to see. They would prefer to cash in on any marketing success you experience.

So, back in August 2014, less than 24 hours after the Priceline takeover, the old Buuteeq pricing chart disappeared. Since nothing can be truly deleted from the internet, here is a retro screenshot showing what Buuteeq was charging:

buuteeq pricing

 

Now let’s estimate what Priceline will make by charging 10% commission on every room booked on your BookingSuite–powered free website:

[table id=5 /]

The chart above clearly shows that even a small inn booking $10,000 in revenue is worth more than the flat-fee “Ultra” client, which only made them $1000 in monthly revenue, and out of which payroll, project management, etc. had to be paid. With the new pricing model, even a hotel booking as little as $5000/month is probably more profitable than offering monthly plans and pricing tiers. Remember, Priceline is not about giving choices to hotels and lodging providers. It’s about giving choices to your guests, and making a ton of cash doing it.

On the other hand, you could make yourself a comparable website that you own for around $1000, or one month’s commission. Even if you splurge on a custom site for 5-10K, you’ll be coming out ahead way before the year is up.

Now with BookingSuite, Priceline is going to do something they are exceptionally good at: make more money for themselves from selling your hotel/inn/bed and breakfast. Not only do they want to make money by selling your rooms on their Booking.com and partner websites for a 20% commission; they also want to make 10% on every room you sell from your own website. Cool trick, eh? They are about to make it rain revenue.

Free Websites? It’s a Trap!

Who can forget that moment in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi when Admiral Gial Ackbar realized what was going on.

“It’s a trap.”

Yes, free websites are a trap indeed. The old adage “there is no such thing as a free lunch” needs to be revisited by anyone in the hospitality business who is considering getting a “free” website. Yes, BookingSuite is a “free” website, but it comes with a very big price. The price is 10% of every single dollar you book on that website.

I am not against paying an OTA (Online Travel Agent) a commission for revenue they deliver to my hotel, when they incurred the marketing cost of bringing that guest to me. I don’t even mind them converting a guest who is hooked on their brand. The thing to consider here is that, when using BookingSuite, you are going to share 10% of every dollar booked on the website, even the revenue that you made because of your own:

  • direct marketing
  • reputation & press
  • referrals
  • word of mouth

Here is a wonderful thought. Instead of paying a flat 10% commission to BookingSuite, spend it here instead:

  1. Spend directly with Google. Buy something as simple and effective as your brand name keyword searches.
  2. Pay a photographer. Photos make or break a website. Better photos = better revenue (update them on all your channels!).
  3. Put more/better content on your website. Convert visitors on your website by giving them better information about your location/destination.
  4. Do some testing. Try out social and meta advertising platforms with minimum budgets and see what works best for you.
  5. Get a print ad. LOL, j/k. Print is dead. Just added this here to make sure you are still reading.

The “We Do Not Have Website & Marketing Budget” Myth

Ok, this one is one of the most irrational arguments against building your own website and brand presence. Even in their Wall Street Journal announcement, Priceline highlighted that:

“BookingSuite is aimed at independent and boutique hotels without the deep pockets.”

This has to stop. Buying a website and investing in direct marketing is not like buying diamonds or an island or a luxury yacht. Not only are websites inexpensive, but as a lodging operator you simply cannot decide to skip direct marketing. As for booking engines, there has never been more choice than today. I think a new booking engine might even get launched by the time you finish reading this article.

Here is what a hotel website will cost you if you would like to get one today:

  1. Download WordPress: $0. Download is free, but you have to know a little tech. Don’t worry, you can do it with a very small amount of online research. (See…no free lunch!)
  2. Get hosting: $10–$15/month. Try: Bluehost, Host Gator.
  3. Pick a design theme: $0–$80. There are many pre-designed templates to choose from if you’re on a budget. Look at Elegant Themes, WooThemes.
  4. Stitch the site together: $600. Add logo, content, photos, etc. You’d be surprised at how much you can do yourself. But if you’d rather not, developers are available for $20–$60/hour. They can make your site in 8-10 hours, at a cost of approx $600.
  5. Start running ads on Google: $500/month. Open a Google Adwords account ($0). Get support to write an ad for your brand name searches, and set a budget that is right for your market ($200–$800/month).

So the question you have to ask yourself is: who is this hotel with deep pockets? In the age of WordPress, can you really not afford your own website? Can’t afford and being lazy are not the same thing.

The article in Wall Street Journal also mentioned that BookingSuite already has 2,800 lodging partners signed up and another 3,600 joining soon. Amazing, to read that so many people are willing to share revenue for the lifetime of their website rather than make a direct investment of their own time and a little bit of money.

Lodging operators who have no money to get a website should probably look for a new line of business. Only, no business today can really survive without the web. And no business can survive without direct revenue and innovation. Just ask music industry executives, or Blackberry (RIP).

Conclusion

Is there hope for hospitality? Yes! Actually it’s a simple 2-step program:

  1. Always own your digital assets.
  2. Be wary of free lunches. There is no free lunch in this life. You will pay for it one way or another.

If you’re ready to take the brave leap into being responsible for your own website and marketing, I’m right here for you. Email me. I’m always ready to talk with you or help you with a project. You just need to take the first step.