Google’s Mobile Update: Keep Calm and Get With the Program

google mobile update for hotels

Every time Google issues an update, hotel marketing agencies have a field day writing articles and trying to give you a reason to panic about your online presence. To provide you with a respite from the hyperbole, I would like to assure you that:

  1. Everything is going to be okay.
  2. This update is actually a great opportunity for you to take your online presence to the next level.

Here are my answers to some of your burning questions about the Google Mobile Update of 2015.

Why is Google doing this update?

Good question. The simple answer is: Google wants to make more money. (Just for reference, this is always the reason Google does anything.)

Google is at the forefront of mobile web. They have seen mobile search surge past desktop usage over the past several years. Their significant investment and success with the Android ecosystem further cements the fact that Google plays to win. In its continued dominance of global search traffic, Google has a clear agenda: to provide its users with the best possible search experience so that they stay loyal to Google. More Google searches means more chances for users to click on Google Ads, which means more AdWords revenue for Google.

With the majority of web traffic shifting to mobile over the past decade, Google needs to ensure that the websites providing the best mobile experience get top placement in their mobile searches. Think of it as Google’s Spring Cleaning for Mobile Search, where they want to “incentivize” you to have a better mobile presence. Instead of wringing your hands, consider that Google is doing you a favor by reminding you to bring your mobile presence up to par. Complying with Google’s guidelines is a win-win; it’s not only good for your business, but also great for their business. Google will not be relinquishing their mobile search dominance anytime soon, so…yes, it’s time to get with the program if you haven’t already.

What will happen during this update?

First things first. This is not an “apocalypse” or an “Armageddon” event, as many hotel and web marketing agencies might have you thinking. By using the word “significant” in their announcement of this update, Google made Christmas come early for hotel marketing agencies and their press release machines. But you don’t need to purchase any special marketing services to comply.

Here is what is happening:

On April 21, Google will be rolling out an update to its algorithm in which mobile-friendly websites will be given preference in rankings. This update is just a reflection of the fact that mobile web is a way of life for humans worldwide, and Google wants to show those humans better search results and more ads.

Likewise, if you have a website, and you want people to find it and use it, you should be providing them with a good mobile experience. Being mobile-friendly is a good common sense practice, like eating more vegetables. (Google is just like your mom, who still reminds you to do it every once in a while, for your own good.) Or, think of those ‘no shirt, no shoes, no service’ signs outside some beach restaurants. This update is Google’s indication that they have standards too, you know, just in case you have been living under a rock for the past decade.

Unlike previous updates that looked at your website/domain as a whole, the Google Mobile Update will look at your website on a page by page basis. A few pages that are not mobile-optimized will not “blacklist” your entire website. Of course, the pages that are mobile-optimized on your website will get preference in rankings.

Is your website mobile-friendly?

The good news is that you do not need a fortune teller, a “site audit,” any sort of advanced digital screening, nor any DNA splicing.

Just test your website here: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/ 

Think of this as Google’s very own Hogwarts style mobile-Sorting Hat. You will know where you stand in a few seconds. You’re welcome!

Disclaimer: Please know that this test is not perfect. There is no substitute for human testing, and I don’t mean your agency account manager. I mean you need to do it yourself. As I recommend in all my speaking gigs: go to a mobile phone store, and start pulling up your site on different phones and tablets. You might need some device-specific help from a developer for minor issues, but you’ll know if your site works on mobile or not. End disclaimer.

What’s the worst case scenario?

With every Google update, nobody but Google engineers knows exactly what is going to happen. But what’s the worst-case scenario if your website is not mobile-optimized? Google might remove the non-mobile-optimized pages from their mobile search results, or at least push them down a few notches.

If this happens, you will notice a change in your organic traffic. Then you’ll know that it’s time to update your mobile experience. Do that, resubmit it to Google Webmaster Tools, and you will be back in the index next time Google robots crawl your website. Easy like Sunday mornings.

A lot of you have read and reviewed and commented on my article on the SEO Bubble, and how it has already burst. I recommend re-reading that article and focusing on the big picture that lies ahead.

Nobody will be annihilated or lose any limbs/appendages because of a Google algorithmic update. And while you are reading this guess what will happen to your pay per click ads? Nothing! You see, when you pay Google, they are your best friend. Like I ahve said before- Pay Per Click is still a hotels best marketing tool. 

How do you become mobile-compliant?

  1. Do not panic.
  2. Get off your marketing agency’s proprietary CMS system and move your website to WordPress ASAP. (Need more information on that? Read this and this. If you ever needed an incentive to properly own your digital assets, this is it.
  3. Once you get yourself onto a nice responsive WordPress theme, go into Google Webmaster Tools, resubmit your website, and check for any other errors.
  4. Check your analytics data after resubmission observe your website performance changes. The web is always evolving: test, observe, repeat.

Conclusion

I feel really old when I think of the “Mobile Web Marketing” speeches I used to give circa 2006 at hotel marketing events all over the world. All web is mobile web today. Google is just trying to make some stubborn folks join 2015. For those folks, it’s a perfect time to catch up on some long-needed updates. For the rest of us, it’s business as usual.

Keep calm and stay mobile.

 

Let’s Keep It Real: The Truth About Hotel Meta Search

Hotel marketing types love trends. Every day there is the same old story about a new thing that changes everything. It’s always a thing that, if the hotels would only start doing it, or hire an agency to do it, or subscribe to a tool that would do it… the heavens would open and it would rain revenue.

I’m sure everyone remembers (if they are not still living in) the Social Media Monetization Era. Now, the new craze is Hotel Meta Search. Unfortunately, over the past few years, its virtues have been overstated, to say the least. Yes, it’s a channel worth trying. But no, it’s not a magical weapon that will transform your online revenue and put the OTAs out of business. (Magical weapons do exist, but only in online role pay games or Peter Jackson trilogies.)

If you want to get in on hotel meta search, first you need to understand it. Don’t get your information from the vendor who’s trying to sell it to you. Here’s the truth about hotel meta search, and how you should use it. I’ll start by debunking some sales-fueled propaganda.

It’s Not Ground-Breaking Hotel Technology

Connecting your booking engine to Google Hotel Finder or TripAdvisor is not, in any way, shape or form, “ground-breaking technology.” OTAs have been doing this for years, and making plenty of money. The new development is this: Some hotel marketing agencies have developed an interface between advertising platforms (Google Hotel Finder, TripAdvisor, etc.) and a hotel’s IBE/CRS (Internet Booking Engine/Central Reservation System); and now they want a nice return on their investment. By making meta search sound like an interstellar technological breakthrough, they hope to get hotels to sign up en masse and pay them a monthly fee.

Remember, Google’s cost per click (CPC) based advertising − AdWords − has been around since the year 2000! Hotel meta search is just another way for providers to collect advertising revenue. Simple.

It Will Not Destroy Online Travel Agents (OTAs)

The agencies who are trying to sell you on hotel meta search generally focus on one of these three themes, each of which is backed by lengthy articles:

  1. Meta search is “shifting share from OTAs.”
  2. Meta search is “leveling the playing field for hotels.”
  3. Meta search is “going to destroy OTAs.”

Reality Check: My long-time friend, partner, and online travel marketing superstar said it best:

“The only thing that will ever destroy an OTA is another OTA.” − Ronnie Soud

Take a minute and let it set in. There you go…easy now. Let’s move on to some facts about hotel meta search and OTAs:

  1. Some of the biggest hotel meta search engines are currently or previously owned by an OTA. TripAdvisor used to be owned by Expedia; Trivago is now owned by Expedia; Kayak is now owned by Priceline. The CPC or CPA revenue odds are ever in their favor.
  2. Hotel meta search is targeting a specific stage of the travel funnel; it does not control the entire travel purchase cycle. OTAs are doing much more than meta search. They are doing a brilliant job of targeting every phase of the cycle. From destination research to final purchase, they cover all the bases.
  3. At the end of the day, it’s still battle of the clicks. When you are running a Google Hotel Price Ad, so are the OTAs. And as always, they are packing some serious firepower (ie, money). Hotel search engine marketing history (circa 2000-2010) clearly shows us how well OTAs can work those click-based advertising platforms.

I’m not saying that hotels have no chance, and should just give up. It’s ok to get in the game. This is a new channel in which to buy advertising, and you should try it. But keep it real: No hotel marketing agency is going to be “defeating” the OTA’s with their magical MetaSearch Gateway… ever.

It’s Not a Return-on-Investment Slot Machine

I have previously written about the disasters of ROI-based marketing. Hotel meta search marks the return of hyper-inflated (and to a real marketing professional, sickening) 800% to 2,500% ROI promises. All you have to do is get a monthly “middleware” connection, allocate a small budget, and then revenue will be pouring in. Yes, hotels marketing agencies are now marketing meta search the same way they did search engine marketing. This kind of hype gives rise to things like the Hotel SEO Bubble.

It’s really dangerous to fall for dazzlingly high ROI gimmicks. Meta search is not a loose slot machine. Exaggerated ROI numbers should always be a red flag and not an enticement. In fact, for every new marketing buzz, I have four words: law of diminishing returns.

As for the Encyclopedia Britannica link above, yes I am that old.

It Should Be Part of Your Bigger Revenue Picture

Make it a point to advertise directly with the hotel meta search engines whenever possible. Avoid retainer-style agency services. And, as a general principle, avoid automated bid management software, just as smart advertisers do with good old search engine marketing.

You need to focus on the bigger revenue picture and make sure your hotel meta search investment is supported by the following essential activities:

  1. Create Content: Update and experiment with your website and booking engine content.
  2. Take New Photos: When was the last time you did a property photo shoot?
  3. Revisit Pay Per Click: Tighten up your pay per click strategy. Are you optimized/spending enough?
  4. Do a Bubble Check: Check to ensure that you are not caught up in the frenzy. Assess how meta search is performing, and put your money where it really matters.
  5. Fix Your Booking Engine: Focus on sharpening your booking engine conversions. All your hotel meta click traffic will go there to convert. If visitors cannot book a room efficiently, at the right rate, then what is the point of all this?

Conclusion

The hotel meta search engines are doing what they do best: helping guests with price shopping and selling click-based ads. They will not make the full value proposition to your guests. You have do that for yourself . So, what are you doing to provide real value to the travel shopper, and ultimately to your guest?

Hotel marketing tools are useful, but they are never going to replace innovation at your hotel. The creation of value should rule everything you do − not only in your marketing efforts, but in your hiring decisions, pricing strategies, front desk policies, etc, etc. Embrace hotel meta search as one more tool you can use to reach potential guests. But then, make sure you are giving them something truly valuable: not just a good price, but the best experience they can get for that price.

 

Expedia Acquisitions Signal Tougher Times Ahead for Hotels

Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz walk into a bar. 

“We do not serve second and third rate Online Travel Agents here,” says the bartender.

“Well, they are now with me,” answers Expedia, “and the drinks are on me!”

The room erupts with joy. Drinks are flowing.

When Expedia bought out Orbitz within a few weeks of gobbling up Travelocity, it was great news for a lot of stakeholders. But it’s probably not so great for the hotel industry, which relies heavily on online travel agents (OTA’s) for their revenue and profits. Read on before you raise your glass.

First, A Trip Down Memory Lane

One of Expedia’s greatest assets was its first batch of market managers and directors. While Travelocity, Priceline (before booking.com) and Orbitz fumbled, Expedia built strong relationships with hotels and hotel personnel. Aggressive but likable market managers went out in person and made one exclusive deal at a time, pushing its competitors onto the sidelines.

Fast forward to 2015: Expedia acquires the remaining (and still flailing) OTA’s. Meanwhile, Priceline acquires Booking.com, a miracle move that puts Priceline in its own league of awesomeness. It’s shaping up to be a showdown of epic proportions.

Why This Is Bad News for Hotels and Travelers

Travelers, hotel brands and hotel operators all have good reason to fear this sort of consolidation in the OTA market. Let me explain why.

Higher Costs for Hotels

Orbitz and Travelocity lost out to leaders Expedia and Priceline a while back. Still, they had their market share and their contracts in place with hotel suppliers. With this latest consolidation, the option of selling your rooms on a different channel is gone. Your new “Expe-Orbit-Ocity” contract now will contain much higher margins for hotels because there’s nowhere else for hotels to go.

Now, why do hotel brands and operators need Expedia? I’ll say it one more time. Because they do not dominate the search engines, nor do they have a particularly good grasp on their own marketing, direct revenue and ecommerce. Just remember… if you don’t like Expedia, now you can also forget about Travelocity, Orbitz, Wotif and Trivago (all now owned by Expedia).

Airlines, on the other hand, do not have much to fear; they just walk out on the OTA’s like clockwork every year and then get back on board when the margins are corrected.

Industrial Style Customer Service

Supersizing things is generally not a healthy choice. This is especially true when it comes to larger enterprises and customer support. Try calling the ultra-consolidated United Airlines, American Airlines, Comcast, Vonage, UPS, or Network Solutions when you need assistance (as I’m sure you all have). All of these companies have grown through acquisitions, and every step has been a nightmare for their customers. This is yet another reason why Expedia’s shopping spree does not translate into anything good for the hotels that will now have to deal with a behemoth team.

Higher Prices for Travelers

Let’s not forget about the travelers. We all learned in Econ 101 that less competition breeds higher prices. Anyone checking the airfares since the Continental-United and American–US Airways mergers knows what I am talking about.

So what happens the next time you need a hotel room? Sure, go to Booking.com ( rooms only) or Priceline ( Room + Air) and check the rates or  go to Expe-Orbit-Ocity that’s the choice. Even with the astronomical growth of Airbnb, you still might require an airplane to get to your destination. You see? Owning the travel cycle is the name of the game.

Of course, several industry experts are not convinced about price increases for the end customer because travel is such a big market. It may take a longer time for these acquisitions to impact hotels than airlines, but the rise is coming.

“Coke vs Pepsi” for the Hotel Industry

First things first: Priceline’s acquisition of Booking.com under the leadership of Jeffrey Boyd still stands as the greatest acquisition of all time. It should be required reading for all business and hotel schools worldwide. Taking Priceline from a loss of $19 million in 2002 to a profit of $1.1 billion in 2011 is legendary.

Expedia’s acquisition strategy clearly reflects its need to stake out a strong market position in relation to a formidable adversary that started in Europe and is now giving them a run for their money in the US and Asia. It’s disappointing to see Expedia mismanaging its Air Asia partnership in the Asia Pacific market. Having people in the US and Europe manage Asia Pacific is a pitfall that a lot of US-based companies fall into. (APac expansion by a non-Asian company or hotel group is something that deserves its own article.)

A common theme for the two remaining OTA’s is their astronomical spending on online marketing. All this while, hotels (independent and brands) continue to bring a knife to an thermonuclear war. Even if you don’t want to admit it, you know that signing up for a $99- $599/month agency solution is not going to help you reach your full online revenue potential. Neither is hiring an agency with hundreds or thousands of clients.

According to CNBC, Expedia’s marketing costs (direct selling, Google Adwords, display, etc)  jumped 32% in 2014 to $2.26 billion. Priceline hasn’t filed its 2014 annual report yet, but in 2013 the company spent $1.8 billion on Internet marketing. This was a 41% increase from the prior year! Mark Mahaney, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, estimates 90% of that went to Google. (To put that in perspective, I have worked with major hotel portfolios who balk at a yearly increase of $250/month in AdWords budget.)

For now, Expedia is like the Pepsi to Priceline’s Coke. It’s putting all its US-based failed adversaries out of their misery and playing desperate catch-up to mighty Priceline. As these giants fight it out, brand and independent hotels are just waiting to see what happens. They never took charge of building their own direct revenue and distribution, so they are at the mercy of whoever wins. Their marketing departments have fiddled with buzzwords like “millennial traveler,” shared “social media success” articles circulated by the hotel news media, and cycled through one internet agency after another in a race to pay less and less. As those activities have not done much to build their market share or revenue, hotels now have very limited choices.

So, would you like Coke or Pepsi to be your distributor? And, as in restaurants across the US, the answer is going to be “NO, we don’t serve both.”

Conclusion

In December of 2003, I visited the Dallas HQ of Hotels.com. The market management team had a funny cartoon pinned on their desks of a menacing looking Hotels.com valet using the Expedia.com suitcase to whack the Travelocity Gnome (which was lying sideways on the floor). I look back and realize I was getting a glimpse into the future.

I’ve been saying this for a while, but here I go one more time. It’s going to keep getting harder for hotels to make a profit unless they take control of their online distribution and dive into some real innovation. Instead of trend spotting, agency hiring and firing, and other hi-jinx the focus needs to be on owning and building your own digital assets and direct revenue.

 

 

Marriott’s War on Wi-Fi: Hotels Need to Stop Fighting the Future

Marriott's War on Wi-Fi

Big hotel brands have seen unprecedented growth over the past decade. Even when the global financial engines slowed down, they grew exponentially in global markets (ie, Asia, Middle East, Latin America). But unfortunately, they have forgotten what every Stan Lee fan already knows: with great power comes great responsibility. One of the leaders of the pack – Marriott – has decided to appropriate one of the most important aspects of modern human existence: Wi-Fi.

Let’s start with why Wi-Fi is such an integral part of guest experience in a hotel.

Now, here are your Captain Obvious facts for the day:

  1. Wi-Fi’s impact on hotel bookings: 73% (Yes, it’s beating your location.)
  2. Guests will not come back if they’ve have a bad Wi-Fi experience.
  3. Guests don’t only want Wi-Fi, but they also want it fast. Yes, they, like Tom Cruise in Top Gun, have a need for speed.
  4. Your positive reviews, which have a massive impact on your direct revenue, are directly proportional to the speed of your hotel’s Wi-Fi network.

So that’s why you have to make sure your Wi-Fi is up to your guests’ standards. But what if it’s not, or they just want to use their own? Well, Marriott has a big problem with that.

What Marriott Did

Marriott wants its conference guests to use only their proprietary Wi-Fi network when they are on property. Sounds pretty ridiculous, right? It gets better. At the end of 2014, Marriott Hotels was fined $600,000 dollars by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for blocking Wi-Fi signals at one of its hotels. Basically they were preventing guests from using their own Wi-Fi enabled devices, instead forcing them to use the expensive and unreliable “official” Wi-Fi network installed at their convention center.

Anyone who has ever attended a conference knows how annoying and unreliable open hotel convention center Wi-Fi networks are. That’s why anyone in the Internet trade (myself included) carries a broadband Wi-Fi device for two very specific reasons:

  1. Speed and reliability
  2. Security

Can you imagine giving a product demo or presentation on a hotel’s network? *Shudder* So, how much negative press did this get them? Plenty! The story was covered by the Economist. And CNN. Even Huffington Post took time off from covering celebrity wardrobe malfunctions to write about it. Here is the FCC’s official take on the investigation.

How They Did It

One word: jammers. Not to be confused with the little known band from Sioux City, “The Jammers.” Wi-Fi jammers are illegal devices that can be bought cheaply online and then used to block Wi-Fi signal. Here is the full definition of what the FCC considers a jammer. And here’s a quote from FCC’s head of enforcement, Travis LeBlanc: “It is unacceptable for any hotel to intentionally disable personal hotspots while also charging customers and small businesses high fees to use the hotel’s own Wi-Fi network. This practice puts customers in the untenable position of either paying twice for the same service or forgoing Internet access altogether.”

Sore Loser?

So, you’d think Marriott would take this as a (big, flashing) sign of the times; maybe they could work on improving their Wi-Fi policies, and maybe their Wi-Fi service too? No, that would be too easy, and also the right thing to do (two things which rarely go hand in hand). Instead they recruited the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AH&LA) and have petitioned the FCC asking for a declaratory ruling making Wi-Fi jamming legal. Is this real? Yes! You better believe it. Actually, don’t take my word for it…you can just read the official FCC filing.

Their official reason for doing this is even more ridiculous. Marriott argues that its hotels should be able to block guest Wi-Fi devices in the meeting spaces because their network provides:

  1. Increased reliability (LOL*)
  2. Better “cybersecurity” (LOL x2**)

*Personal Mi-Fi device can kick any convention center Wi-Fi’s behind.

**Cybersecuity is an illusion. If someone really wants something you have stored online, they can get to it no matter how hard you try to prevent it. The world is full of teenagers who hack the Department of Defense because they are bored.

Here is a quote from Marriott: “The question at hand is what measures a network operator can take to detect and contain rogue and imposter Wi-Fi hotspots used in our meeting and conference spaces that pose a security threat.” They are basically planning to use “legalized jammers” only in their meeting spaces…but for our own protection, of course. How thoughtful.

Conclusion

There is no way this is going to end well for Marriott, or any other big hotel brands that want to jump on the “security and reliability” bandwagon. Marriott, here’s the way out:

Step 1. Drop it like it’s hot.
Withdraw your FCC filing, issue a simple apology, and then issue guidelines on securing Wi-Fi connections in your meeting spaces.

Step 2. Give your guests free Wi-Fi.
Think bigger than “ancillary revenue.” Offer free and fast Wi-Fi to everyone, and win hearts and minds.

It’s possible that Marriott will ignore my advice and continue on their current path. But this time they are not going up against small individual owners or investment funds they can crush with their legal teams. This time they’re battling Google and Microsoft, who have deeper pockets, more lawyers, and stronger lobbyists than Marriott.

What other massive obstacle are they up against? Sheer public will. You can quote me here: “Charging for Wi-Fi in any form will soon lead to the quick and decisive decline of any hotel in the court of public opinion.” Think of it like indoor plumbing…hotels need to roll it into the cost of the room. Nobody is going to pay extra for “security and reliability” while using your toilet inside the room they paid for; what makes you think they’ll want pay extra for W-Fi inside the meeting space they paid for?

Marriott: Please get real. Wake up and smell your bulk-purchased, medium-quality coffee. Spending money to petition the US government to change its laws in order to make a few extra nickels is wasteful. Why don’t you spend your money on a worthy cause instead, like marriage equality, medical research, or world hunger? Even if you miraculously win the legal battle against FCC +Google + Microsoft, you have already lost in the court of public opinion. It’s a #FAIL no matter how you look at it.

If you’re a hospitality business who’s still charging for Wi-Fi:  Stop fighting the future. Internet is almost as essential as plumbing to today’s guest. Don’t hold them hostage and expect them to like you, or to ever return. Be gracious. Meet the future with a smile and some good, blazing fast, free Wi-Fi. It will do wonders for your revenue in the long term.

 

My Top 6 Articles of 2014

It’s time to say goodbye to 2014. It was an epic year for me, and I especially loved sharing my thoughts about the industry with a wonderful group of loyal readers.

This year my articles were read by visitors from 126 countries! I was most excited to see Bhutan on the list, also known as the happiest country in the world; they actually measure happiness and not GDP as their metric for being a successful country. Let’s try and get some inspiration from Bhutan and do things that make us happy. Producing meaningful content, and having you enjoy and share it, has been a great source of happiness for me.

As always, I had a very international year:

  • I famously said this year at a family party: “I’d rather fly than drive.” I completed 1 million miles in the air with American Airlines in 2014! Nine million more and, according to Clooney’s movie, they will have to name a plane after me.
  • I spent the summer working in Singapore, adding some heavy hitters to our revenue management and asset takeover team. These guys are not only the smartest, but some of the nicest guys in the industry. Also, I love Singapore!
  • I got to work in the Middle East on an amazing project, developing tourism potential for the hotel brand and the country. It’s very exciting, and a wonderful place to work.

In 2015, I plan to continue offering content that you can use to grow professionally without getting bored to death.

As for 2014, the tribe as spoken. Here are the top posts based on traffic, engagement and social sharing:

  1. Priceline’s Acquisition of Buuteeq: Why Hotels Must Own Their Digital Assets  
  2. How Airbnb Is Crushing Traditional Hotel Brands
  3. Reality Check: 7 Questions for Your Hotel Marketing Agency 
  4. It’s Time to Burst the Hotel SEO Bubble: What Hotels Really Need to Know
  5. Hotel Pay Per Click: Your Single Most Powerful Marketing Tool 
  6.  Why You Shouldn’t Sell Rooms for $7 on Hotel Tonight 

Happy New Year, everyone!

 

The End of an Era: IHG Acquires Kimpton

How much is that boutique hotel in the window? Well, it’s around $430 million.

Yes, that’s the price InterContinental Hotels Group (one of the biggest hotel companies in the world) paid to acquire Kimpton Hotels, the original boutique hotel group, which includes 62 hotels and 71 hotel-based restaurants and bars. The number might sound big, but in reality it’s a drop in the IHG ocean of hotel brands and assets.

Having lived in San Francisco, I saw the best and most vibrant years for the local Kimpton hotels. Now it’s come to this: the latest and, I think, fatal blow to Kimpton as a boutique brand, and the Boutique Era itself.

Kimpton, Schrager and Conley walk into the hotel business.

The 80’s were a wild time. It was also the time when the concept of a “boutique hotel” was born. The three people who took this movement mainstream (in chronological order) were:

1. Bill Kimpton, 1981 – Clarion Bedford Hotel, San Francisco
2. Ian Schrager, 1984 – Morgans Hotel, Madison Ave NYC
3. Chip Conley, 1987 – Phoenix Hotel, San Francisco

These three men had one thing in common: they wanted to do something different than what the established brands were doing. Free thinking is something that does not fit the traditional style of a hotel brand (not in the 80’s, and not today). These guys transformed one boring hotel/building at a time into a hotel that had a soul and something unique about it.

Where are they now?

1. Kimpton just sold to IHG (a brand that owns Holiday Inn Express).
2. Ian Schrager is now designing hotels for Marriott.
3. Chip Conley has quit hotels and is now working with the fastest growing lodging distribution company, Airbnb. (Still crushing hotel brands.)

If the three original innovators are abandoning the boutique concept, I’d venture to say that the concept needs to change. This leaves us with only two kinds of hotels: those that are owned by a big brand (Brand Hotels) and those that are not (Independent Hotels). Soulfulness is no longer part of the equation. You just can’t be boutique and big brand at the same time.

Your call is important to us. Please stay on hold.

KimptonTweetsHow quickly things change! Check out the two standard tweet replies now going out from the @kimpton hotels Twitter account. These are used to reply to all tweets, no matter how positive or negative.

Moving forward, everything goes through IHG legal, no matter how “quirky” you say you are. Want quirky? Go to your local independent coffee house. With big brand comes bigger legal teams. No matter how you hard try and spin it, things are going to be different.

The fact is that IHG already owns two “boutique” brands: Hotel Indigo and Even Hotels. Don’t feel too bad if you haven’t heard of them. They are way under the radar, and IHG casts a pretty big radar shadow, making it hard for an independent concept to take off.

Culture Club

I love the typical response that a lot of big brands give when acquiring “boutique” hotels: “It’s the fastest growing segment in the industry.” The fact is that the best kind of independent hotel grows organically. Once under a big brand umbrella, it’s almost impossible to maintain its original culture. Reports of a big hotel company “nurturing” an independent brand are highly exaggerated. Keep it real: nobody spends $450 million and then doesn’t change a thing.

Keeping the culture of an acquisition alive is especially hard for brands because it almost never makes much business sense (at least on paper). Not that big companies are evil. It’s just that everything is based on maximizing efficiency. Culture is never given priority over shareholder value. Remember (and you can quote me): Big companies measure success in dollars and not smiles.

This trend can be seen everywhere. The technology world is riddled with small, amazing product companies that were slaughtered or ingested by larger corporations. Sure, selling to bigger brands makes the founders a lot of money. But in the long term it kills their product, which is what it was really about. I still remember when Google killed Sparrow, and when Yahoo killed Flickr. There are so many small fish (really cool ones) that will never be the same inside the belly of the big fish. Free market capitalism giveth, and free market capitalism taketh away.

What happens next?

IHG, with the limited success of its Indigo/Even brands, capitalizes on the established Kimpton brand. The focus will be on reproducing more hotels under the Kimpton banner, including sub-brands under Kimpton (Monaco and Palomar). There are already 16 Kimpton hotels in the pipeline that are going to experience the full force of IHG’s development team. Next, IHG’s owner connections, and their massive-scale distribution and procurement teams, are going to hit Kimpton, taking it beyond the US market to Europe and Asia. File it under the “big brand buys an independent brand and takes it global” storyline.

Conclusion

Independent hotels will always thrive with outside the box thinking, service and products, and a strong focus on guest experience. By contrast, a hotel brand’s focus is to have McDonald’s style efficiency and economies of scale. This approach is just not compatible with independent thinking. Sure, you can try and buy innovation, but maintaining it with your industrial-strength departments and strategies in place will be really hard, if not impossible.

The hotel industry today is ripe for innovation. As I have said many times, innovation will not come from brands, but from independent hotels and independent thinkers. We are ready for the next generation of hotel people like Kimpton, Schrager and Conley. We’re ready for the next concept. Who is stepping up to the plate to bat for innovation vs mass production? Maybe you?

 

Why You Shouldn’t Sell Rooms for $7 on Hotel Tonight

hoteldisounting

This Thanksgiving holiday in the US was an eventful one for the hospitality industry. What got my attention was the Black Friday offer of $7 rooms on Hotel Tonight (my favorite mobile travel app). Important: Before you read this – No matter who got paid how much in the end or what the real breakup of advertised rate versus actual payment made by Hotel Tonight was was like. The fact is that the guest paid $7 for booking those hotels and that is what he/she will remember.

Hotels all over the US participated in this spectacular deal. Based on my zip code, Hotel Tonight sent me an email informing me that the following hotels in the Midwest were participating:

  • The Godfrey Chicago
  • The Edgewater Madison
  • The Kinzie Chicago
  • The Pfister Hotel Milwaukee
  • The Hotel Minneapolis (a Marriott “Autograph Collection” hotel)

HoteltonightAll were all offering a $7 rooms for a limited time starting at 7 am.

In general, discounting your rooms is not a great idea. But this super-aggressive deep discounting is a whole new dark territory. It’s not a good place for the industry to be, especially at a time when hotels and brands are struggling so hard to define their value thanks to hyper-successful travel startups like Airbnb.  This is scary on many levels. I am talking Wes Craven* and Eli Roth level scary.

*Sam Shank, Founder & CEO of Hotel Tonight, was an assistant to Wes Craven on the film Scream.

No matter how bad the market is, I am not a fan of discounting and never will be. Sure, discounting will fill your hotel…but at what cost? Who is this guest checking into your hotel for $7? What happens to your value perception? The fact is that you are better off giving away a free room instead of attaching a $7 rate to your product. Hotels dropping rates might appear to be winning the occupancy battle, but it pretty much ends there. When it comes to long-term profitability, GoPar and RevPar growth favor hotels who protect the value of their product.

A Great Win for Hotel Tonight

As far as creating buzz, this was an absolute win for Hotel Tonight. Sam went all the way to CNBC with his amazing “Get your $7 hotel room now!” segment. Kudos.

I’m sure Hotel Tonight reached several hundred thousand new people who now know about their wonderful deal-generating, money-saving, last-minute booking app. Are they the “enemy” for promoting themselves? Absolutely not. Likewise, I have always admired OTA’s for focusing their efforts where it truly matters: Online. Besides, anyone who is making travel better and easier for customers is in my good book.

Hotel Tonight has indeed taken mobile usability and distribution to a new level; none of the established hotel brands like Marriott, Hilton, Starwood etc. have even come close. I strongly encourage everyone in the travel business to take note of how well the Hotel Tonight App functions.

Deep Discounting Damages Your Brand and Revenue
Mo’ Discounts, Mo’ Problems (RIP Biggie)

Deep discounting conditions guests to de-value your hotel product. Value, like beauty, is not just in the eye of the beholder…. it’s based on what the beholder paid for it. Here is a chart showing the average rates I found on the participating hotels’ websites (most basic room type, for one-night stay, December 8, 2015):

[table id=4 /]

A severely discounted room rate also has a negative impact on your ongoing marketing and brand building efforts. Once you make public that a room at your fine hotel can be rented for a rock bottom rate of $7, you have created a baseline expectation that is way too low. Boosting your perceived value from $7 all the way up to your regular rate is a mighty task that you did not need to add for yourself. You can quote me on this: It takes years to build your rate, and a moment to destroy it.

To further complicate things, you are not the only hotel in the market. People will associate your competition with higher rates and therefore better overall quality. You will have to deal with this brand erosion long after the excitement of your $7 discount offer wears off.

Healthy Alternatives to Deep Discounting

Got your back against the wall? Low occupancy got you down? Want to create “buzz” for your slow season/dates? Here are some better options for you to consider:

Offer value, not discounts.
There are many ways to make your guest feel all warm and fuzzy. How about offering something extra rather than a rate discount? Adding something extra makes your customers feel they are getting something special instead of attracting bargain-hunters; and it doesn’t cost you your dignity.

Reward loyalty.
How about a special value-added holiday rate plan for your most loyal guests? Create a rate tier for them that they can use during the holidays and lean periods at your hotel. They will feel pampered by receiving extra amenities, and you’ll fill rooms with customers who like you (and vice versa).

Shift your revenue model.
How about a revenue system based on your guests’ overall value? Nobody should ever be sold a $7 room. But a case can be made for offering extras and upgrades to your most profitable guests – the ones who stay with you frequently and/or buy meals, drinks, spa services, etc. Airlines and casinos do this every day. As an elite frequent flier, I love that my total value is considered even on a small flight that I’m taking from point A to point B.

Segment better.
Whom are you selling to? Have you created segments that are priced to trigger bookings? Mass marketing and discounting are so 2001. Every hotel should be working on better segmenting every year based on geographical, corporate, and income-based data from their online and offline analytics.

Conclusion

Discounting is dead. Granted, it’s a zombie that comes back to life every now and then when hotel owners, managers and marketers completely run out of ideas. But you don’t have to be a victim of zombie discounting. There are many other approaches that can help you through a slow season.

I hope that next year on Black Friday we do not see any more $7 hotel rooms. Instead, I would love to see hotels offering great value to their guests for the holiday season, through creative outreach, packaging and upgrades. Going after a sustainable revenue strategy is harder. But, as is often true in life, the harder thing to do is also the right thing to do.

 

 

Front Desk: Ground Zero for Hotel Profitability

Want to increase your profitability, while improving your online reviews at the same time? Then start paying more attention to an area that’s too often overlooked when discussing revenue: your front desk. You need to make the front of the house a solid outpost for your operations, revenue and profitability.

There is often a staggering amount of focus placed on online hotel marketing and reputation management. But these efforts are only effective if your operations – and your guests’ experiences – back them up. As one of the departments that operates 24/7, your front desk deserves a lot more attention and training than many seasoned asset managers and GM’s realize. That saying about making a good first impression? It’s not just a myth. It’s very relevant no matter what hipster, business, or Millennial (shrug) traveler is checking into the hotel.

So, how can you start running a more effective front desk department? Here are some strategies that can help you achieve the trifecta of streamlining profitability, increasing direct revenue, and improving your online reputation.

Hire for Personality

It all starts with hiring the right front desk staff. There are two types of people: those who should be standing at your front desk, and those who should not be anywhere near it. A pleasant personality, positive attitude, and ability to face challenges calmly go a very long way in this role. Cynicism, nonchalance and a negative attitude, on the other hand, are traits that are can drive your overall revenue to the ground.

There is a place for hipness, sassiness and aloofness (The Deuce Hotel perhaps?), but it’s not your hotel front desk. Having unhappy or unpleasant team members at the front of your house is a silent killer, like diabetes. Just because you can’t feel it (or see it on a spreadsheet) doesn’t mean it is not continuously eroding your brand and revenue.

Leave No Agent Behind

Here is a typical scene: A guest is trying to check in at the front desk with a package or promotion – but the front desk employees have never heard of it. This is a source of frustration for guests and employees.

Very early in my career when I was managing the operations at a well-known San Francisco hotel. One afternoon the sales and marketing people were high-fiving each other about an amazing “SF Jazz Festival Package”; but they neglected to tell anyone on the front lines. It was only after several frustrating and disastrous check-ins that the staff realized that there must be a special package in circulation. This kind of experience not only makes the front desk agent look clueless (which is not fair), but also gives your guest the impression that the hotel is disorganized or poorly run. Why make your guest angry at the first point of contact with you hotel?  It’s a terrible feeling on both sides that can be easily avoided by keeping all team members updated.

The same advice applies to revenue management strategies you have in place. If you are not training the front desk, then you are leaving revenue on the table… or shall I say, the front desk.

Empower Your Team

You have to give your front desk team the power to make decisions and solve problems. This is especially relevant when things go wrong for a guest. There will always be unhappy guests. But how you handle them can make an enormous difference to your bottom line.

Unhappy guests can be classified into the following categories:

  • Generally Unhappy People: Nobody can really help them, but your front desk can definitely try to provide some empathy and relief. The goal here is basically not to aggravate them further. Complete satisfaction for this particular group is never going to happen (therapy perhaps?) and should not be a goal for your front desk. However, reducing their pain by offering some incentives is a good way to earn their gratitude, or at least calm them down a little.
  • Good People Having a Bad Experience: These guests need to be the key focus of your (if I may borrow from Amazon) “delivering happiness” efforts. When bad things happen to good people, that’s when your front desk agents can step up their game to try and help out. This group of guests is most likely to appreciate their efforts and then recommend your hotel to their F&F. Front desk agent feels good, guest feels good, you get more business. Win-win-win.

If you just want your front desk staff to be key card slingers, then you might as well get a McDonald’s franchise. (Would you like fries with that?) But if you want issues to get resolved before they hit your hotel’s TripAdvisor page: give the your hotel front desk the power to make decisions without the paperwork and approvals that a Vogon would require.

Upgrade Your Upselling Plan

Every hospitality business needs to have an upselling plan in place. Rewarding your front desk for upselling is a great way to boost your ADR. The catch is that it needs to be done the right way. Identifying the right prospects for upselling is a big part of the game, which means that you have to hire well. Smart, well-trained people will generally pick the right targets for no-pressure upselling.

Not only you should be rewarding for upsells (at least 5% to 8% of the upsell), but also you need to reward agents for walk-in conversions. Sales and marketing should not end once the meeting over coffee and muffins is completed. The sales process should continue 24/7 for 365 days a year at your front desk.

Conclusion

With every asset takeover, I always make it a point to personally meet and train the front desk team. I need them to be my partners in reaching the common goal of increasing revenue and profitability. Marketing and revenue plans set by management are important, but they can never reach their potential without proper support for and from your front desk team. Implement a fresh approach to improving your revenue and reputation: commit to the proper hiring, training, and empowerment of your front desk staff.

Do You View Hotel Marketing as a Cost or an Investment?

I am often asked, “What is the most important factor in a good hotel marketing strategy?” One of the top factors (that no one likes to talk about) is how a hotel’s owners and management view their marketing budget.

Those who treat hotel marketing as an investment will be able to maximize their online revenue potential. They will keep spending investing online, as that is where their audience lives, breathes, researches and books their trips.

Those who view it as a cost will treat it like any other cost; they strive to keep costs down. This group is the one that gives away revenue and market share to the OTAs and their competitors.

Here is a detailed review of the two approaches.

Approach #1: Treating Online Marketing as a Cost

If you are treating online marketing as an expense in your budget that needs to be kept under control, you are very likely on the losing side of the marketing battle. When you apply the cost reduction approach, it puts tremendous pressure on your already limited budget to perform quickly, while limiting your ability to test and optimize your marketing efforts.

No testing or expansion of marketing => Stagnation and decay in your online presence and decline in direct revenue

(Let’s be clear: Your OTA-contributed revenue continues to increase. That’s because they never hold back, while you agonize over every cent you spend.)

Cutting costs might work when it comes to laundry, lotions and soaps that you use in your hotel, but it can hurt you badly when applied to digital marketing.

Here are some specifics on why your revenue will suffer in the long term:

Online travel is huge and getting bigger.

Yes, online travel is like the Beatles in the 60s or yoga pants today. In numbers, it’s going to be hitting $830 billion in 2017. The pace of growth in the Asia Pacific region is enough to make you dizzy. When it comes time for you to sit down and plan your hotel marketing budget for the year ahead, you have to know that online is where all the action is happening. Deciding to sit this one out because you are keeping marketing “expenses” in check is a recipe for disaster that has cost the hotel industry billions in direct revenue.

ROI is a deathtrap.

I have written in detail about this and have personally seen this tragic scenario unfurl like a bad dream. It’s like my own personal Groundhog Day. “ROI” is notoriously hard to track in this multi-device, constantly connected world. For many hotels, especially the ones struggling to meet their overall objectives, any unquantifiable expense can seem like the perfect candidate for a budget cut. So, hotels keep doing online cost-cutting and “vendor hopping“ because they are “not seeing the ROI” (cringe). Agencies who try to win your business based on 5700% ROI promises are always a bad choice. You’ll pay them a small fee, helping you balance this year’s budget; but when the contract is over, you’ll just limp into the arms of the next vendor. The big picture: your direct revenue continually declines, your brand suffers, and you have to start all over again every year. Meanwhile, your online competitors (particularly the OTAs) keep building their long-term strategy and converting the traffic that should be yours.

Google is still King, and it wants more money.

Google is still the king of travel marketing, and looks like it will be sitting on the throne for some time. The beauty of Google is that it has all the phases of the booking cycle covered: Discovery, Research, Rate Shopping, Getting to and From a Destination… all the way to the drive back to your home after the vacation. Google has it all. The SEO Bubble burst in 2013, so now you have a clear choice: pay to play.

Google will be your best friend as long as you are willing to pay for it. Hotel pay per click is one of the cornerstones for generating direct revenue. You want to reduce your marketing costs? Sure, go ahead. Google will be happy to sell its ads to willing and highly motivated online travel agents who make millions billions bidding on your name, location and destination. It’s great for them when you are not there to compete, especially on your brand name searches.

Cliché Alert: It takes money to make money.

It might seem easy to cut back on marketing expenses to save money, but you have to consider what else you’re losing. Example: Reducing your Google PPC budget from $10,000 to $3000 a month saves you $7000 a month. But at the same time, your ads don’t run, your revenue starts to decline, and your leads have been cut way back. No new leads and no new conversions are a lethal hit on your profitability and direct revenue. It used to take months, but now you will feel the revenue hit in a matter of weeks. That sinking feeling? Yes, it’s your revenue tanking because you stopped spending. Welcome to the reality of doing business in 2014.

Approach #2: Treating Online Marketing as an Investment

This is the winner’s circle. Online marketing really is an investment in your present and in your future. It cannot be thought of as an optional expenditure. Think of it as a paying career and a retirement fund rolled into one. Effective marketing pays your bills in the short term and sets the foundation for the long-term profitability of your hotel. The hotels who are doing it right will exponentially increase their profitability over time.

Here is how it’s done right:

Target the entire travel funnel.

The smartest hotel ownership companies and individual asset owners understand the dynamics of the entire sales funnel. Their investment in hotel marketing is targeted toward prospects in every part of the funnel (research, planning, booking). Efforts include:

  • Investing at the top of the funnel to attract prospective new guests (ie, Boston Vacation, Boston Hotels, Boston Things To Do)
  • Investing at the bottom of the funnel to convert prospects into guests (ie, Your Hotel Name)

Push the limits.

The most dramatic successes that my partners and I have achieved for hotel clients had one thing in common: We were asked to investigate and give them the dollar amount needed for total market domination. Whether they were rebranding, opening a new hotel, revitalizing a faltering asset, or preparing to sell the asset… they knew that the striking results they wanted required proper investment. Instead of racing down to the bottom, the owners were looking to make a lot of money. There was no room for light or smooth jazz online marketing. Done right, with revenue as the supreme goal, we’re talking hard core Spinal Tap style marketing, cranked way up to 11!

(Effective revenue management is also required, but that topic deserves its own blog post.)

Conclusion

Hotels who treat online marketing as a scalable cost are seeing a decline in their direct revenue and losing market share to their competitors and online travel agencies. A cost-based approach hampers your growth today, and prevents you from being able to build your brand online. Vendor-hopping toward low profitability and automated marketing platforms is a sure shot way to lose revenue. Let’s face the facts: Print media is not making a comeback anytime soon. Nor are carrier pigeons going to bring you your future reservations. If not online, where else should you be investing? If revenue is important to you… wake up, and put your money where your revenue is!

Reality Check: 7 Questions for Your Hotel Marketing Agency

Everything digital, including marketing, changes rapidly. Hotels know that online marketing is crucial, yet they take a back seat on innovations. Most of the hotel owners/managers I’ve met have been hesitant to do much more than hire an outside agency to handle all things digital. They lack the time, budget, knowledge or interest to get more involved.

Change is in the air again; online marketing for hotels continues to rapidly evolve. So even if you’re not one of those typical hands-off agency clients, there are some questions you need to ask the people you have hired to generate revenue for your hotel through your most profitable channel: your website.

Here are the 7 questions you need to ask to determine how well your digital revenue is being managed.

1. Who is doing the actual marketing work for my hotel?

This is the #1 question you need to ask. Is there a smart, experienced digital marketer looking at your campaign stats and strategy, or is your work being processed by interns in cubicles, or worse… by an automated system with no human oversight.

The large hotel marketing agencies use a factory style approach, which means that the Account Managers are handling several accounts. Your Account Manager is not conducting market research or studying your campaign stats. She is juggling hundreds of emails, chasing down questions and responses, and coordinating conference calls. Meanwhile, an army of task-oriented mass marketing drones report to her; their job is to execute the exact same “strategy” and tasks for every one of her clients. (Picture the factory floor of T- 800 in Terminator. Scary.)

Other than sounding pretty depressing, why does it matter so much to your bottom line? Because mass production cannot produce personalized strategies, and therefore can’t help you compete in today’s marketplace. Personalization has penetrated digital marketing in all industries. Only a thinking person who is setting up a custom strategy and implementing it for you can help you win.

I can’t lay all the blame for this trend on the agencies. Hotels have demanded lower and lower prices, while giving less and less attention to what the agencies are doing. They practically forced the agencies to compete on price, which requires automation and economies of scale. A classic “be careful what you wish for” situation.

Now it’s time to decide how important your online revenue is to you. If you’re ready to take an interest, start by making sure that you another are not just another cog in the nameless wheel of online hotel marketing. Pay a little more if you have to. But keep going back to question #1 – make sure you know what you’re paying for.

2. Are you using any proprietary technology developed by your agency?

If the answer is yes, this is a huge red flag for your online marketing future. There is no gentler way to put this: proprietary software developed by an agency kills innovation. Anything an agency designs and invests money in developing is always going to be focused on making the life of the agency simpler and more profitable. (See #1 above re: agency survival.) Agency software, such as their own content management system (CMS) or digital marketing system (DMS), is not going to help you be an outlier when it comes to online revenue optimization.

It is no secret that I am a huge supporter of WordPress and Google Analytics. As a hotelier looking to truly make a profit, you should be too! Set your priorities right. Build your own revenue, and not just the profitability of your online marketing agency. This is what your hired them to do…remember?

3. How many clients do you have?

Here is how to translate their answer into the level of attention your hotel marketing campaign will get:

• 10-15 – You have a decent chance of getting to work directly with marketing professionals.
• 15-50 – You have a slight chance of getting some personal attention.
• 50-100 – “Your hotel sounds familiar. Who are you again?”
• 100-500 – You are just an account number. No one knows anything about your actual hotel.
• 500-1000 – “Hello, this is Sam, your 14th new Account Manager. Thanks for continuing to send in your monthly check. We don’t have time to talk to you, so don’t even try calling.”
• >1000 – “Hello Client 98765, we have been acquired by a billion dollar company and we really don’t care what happens to you.”

More clients = more employees = more layers = more automation = more mass produced marketing = lower revenue for your hotel.

4. How many clients do you have in my hotel’s market?

Online marketing has a vast reach worldwide. In order for you to reach your full hotel marketing potential, your geographical location has to be a key factor. If your hotel marketing agency has even 1 or 2 other hotel accounts in the exact same market…guess what? The same team that is servicing your account is also working on your competitor’s websites, promotions, packages, PPC and SEO initiatives. That means that everything that has worked for you (specials, packages, promotions, etc.) is going to be used to benefit your direct competitor as well. This “communal” marketing costs you profitability. There are plenty of fish in the sea, but your hotel marketing catch of the day is going to be shared with every other hotel that your agency is servicing in your location. (Yes, sounds fishy, doesn’t it?)

5. Have you done anything other than hotels?

Working in multiple industries provides great learning experience. Throughout my hotel career, I took on interesting and challenging work from diverse sectors like health care, board games, web hosting, etc. If the people working on your account have never looked beyond the hotel industry (and perhaps never beyond their own agency), then you know that they are not going to bring anything exciting to the table.

Industry experience is great. But it’s disturbing to me that hotels are so much more willing to be a nameless, faceless client with an “established” agency rather then give an industry outsider a chance to help them make more money online.

Choosing not to ever work with someone who has outside experience is going to be your loss entirely. I know hotel marketing sounds really complicated, but in fact it’s not. It’s okay to consider letting a specialist from another industry help you out or bring your fresh ideas. Don’t fall for the “do you speak hotel sector language” trap. The language your agency needs to be fluent in is marketing. Besides, if they “speak your language,” remember that they are recycling the same marketing hype to everyone in your industry.

6. Are you a full-service agency?

If the answer is yes, then most likely you are dealing with the Wal-Mart of hotel marketing agencies. Generally, a company’s core competence cannot stretch beyond a few specialties. So how do you think they’re pulling it off?

Agencies often inflate and add services based on the latest buzz in the market. I have seen overnight additions of “Meta Search Marketing,” “Social Media Marketing,” and “Millennial Marketing” on so many agency websites. Every new travel buzzword is promptly packaged into the “full service” offered by hotel marketing agencies. Why don’t the hotels realize that they’re really not getting anything special? Because so many in-house hotel marketing professionals are not only outsourcing the strategy and the work, but they are also being lazy about having to talk with more than one person! C’mon! It’s only your must important revenue channel, right? Show it some respect and get yourself A-Team specialists in different fields, versus the average-performing C- and D-Team players that are conveniently housed under one roof.

7. How big (and how responsive) is your team?

This is the age of rolling out initiatives. Large teams do not translate into effective deployments. I have seen many examples where a 3- to 5-person team skated circles around big agencies. The bigger the ship, the harder it is for them to maneuver when the online market changes. Anyone who has ever dealt with a utilities company knows exactly why there is a phenomenon called “too big to care.” Working with layers upon layers is always going to slow you down. Time, money and online revenue wait for no one. Speed is key, and your hotel marketing has a need…a need for speed.

Conclusion

Google and the Online Travel Agencies (OTA’s) are gearing up for the next level of products: more ways for them to make a direct connection with your potential hotel guest. Also, with the cost of guest acquisition going up for hotels worldwide, it’s crunch time for owners and their marketing budgets. Basically, it’s time to start doing actual marketing versus having it served to you on a platter by a behemoth agency. Big agencies thrive in meetings, conference calls, and monthly reports…basically processes that streamline their lives and give you the illusion of work being done. Remember: Processes equals revenue for them, but not so much for you.

It’s time to focus on quality work from quality people. I recommend that you start by revisiting the budget restrictions you have set for online marketing. Consider how much more revenue you stand to make if you invest a little more in the right people, the right strategies, and the latest technologies. It can’t just be about the number in your expense column. It has to be about winning over your market, your guests, and your rightful share of the revenue pie. Make it about the future. Make it about getting promoted because you took the hotel into the next age of online marketing, and up to a new level of online revenue. Don’t make it about fear of getting fired for spending a little more than you did the year before. Because the future is already here. And in this industry, you can still be one of the first to arrive.