Tips for developing a social media program as authentic and singular as your hotel

By Daniel Edward Craig

The travel industry is ahead of the curve when it comes to social media, but in terms of originality and meaningful engagement hotels are lagging behind. It seems like everybody is posting the same content, in the same perky, cloying voice. Want to stand out from the pack? Here are a few tips for strengthening your social program and developing a singular, authentic voice to evoke your brand.

1. Oh right … a plan. By now most hotels are tweeting and status-updating their hearts out, but many have only a vague notion why. A recent survey from HSMAI revealed that only 40% of hotels have a social media strategy. Oops. Without knowing where you’re going, why, and how you’ll get there, you’re wasting time and creating brand confusion. Relax, it’s not too late. Back up the bandwagon and prepare a simple plan that defines your strategy, objectives, resources, responsibilities, voice and frequency. Then you can put the pedal to the metal.

2. Yes, another meeting. Your social media platforms should have one distinctive voice, but behind the scenes it’s a group effort. Approach it like the revenue management function in your hotel: assemble a team, comprised of managers and frontline employees from various departments (ideally including the general manager and at least one social media whiz kid); appoint a leader; and hold weekly meetings to review feedback and analytics and to set messaging and objectives for the coming week.

3. Once upon a time there was a boring hotel. Traditionally, hoteliers are great storytellers. With all the comings and goings of guests, we have an enviable resource of content to draw from. And yet the majority of hotel content is trite and uninspiring. If your followers aren’t commenting on, liking and sharing your content, it’s a good indication they don’t care. Meaningful engagement means telling compelling stories that capture the imagination of travelers and make them want to be a part of your hotel experience.

4. Put your guests to work. Even better than hotel-generated content is guest-generated content. Hold contests to encourage the sharing of stories, photos and videos, and don’t be chintzy with prizes. Search YouTube and Flickr for photos and videos of your property and ask owners to share them on Facebook. Grab a Handycam and notepad and go talk to guests and staff. Et voila, fresh content and new connections.

5. We need to talk about your reputation. Yes, a lot of chatter is taking place on Facebook and Twitter, but the real decisions are being made on travel review sites. A recent study by PhoCusWright found that more than two-thirds of travel shoppers are influenced by ratings. It’s time to stop the finger-pointing between marketing and operations and to start taking joint responsibility for monitoring, sharing and responding to traveler feedback.

6. Drop the mouse and back away. Social media is like a new friend who’s super-cool but a bit manipulative and kind of needy. Don’t allow it to distract you into neglecting your tried-and-tested old friends in other areas of marketing. Be disciplined with your time, and constantly ask yourself, “Is this important and relevant?” If not, move on. And ignore those “Ten Reasons Why You’re a Social Media Failure” articles; they’re meant to scare you into buying services you probably don’t need. Only you know what’s right for your hotel.

7. Beware of the tweet factory. Some of the most inane social media content comes from outsourced social media companies who clearly don’t get the hotel business. The most compelling, authentic content comes from on-property, where employees have a finger on the pulse of operations. Hire a social media strategist to help put together your plan, train staff and provide guidance, but your ultimate goal should be to bring execution in-house and to find a voice, tone and vocabulary as singular and authentic as your hotel.

8. Memo to corporate office: loosen that death-grip. Second prize for inane content goes to corporate offices of chain hotels. Yes, it’s important for brands to have a social media presence, but travelers are more passionate about individual properties than brands. To complement brand platforms, corporate office should encourage properties to set up their own platforms, providing support and guidance along the way to ensure messaging is on-brand and on the mark.

9. Take the guesswork out. The success of your social media program is measured not by how many tweets and updates you issue but by meaningful engagement, conversions and reputation. Use analytics tools to evaluate your activities and a social media monitoring tool to measure market share of guest satisfaction. Take the time to understand the numbers, even if it makes your head hurt, and channel resources to where you’re achieving the best results.

A few examples of successful social media activities:
1. Contests. Joie de Vivre’s Road Trippin’ California video contest
2. Blogs: Pan Pacific’s A Room With a View in Vancouver and Red Carnation Hotels in London
3. Facebook: Best Western International
4. Twitter: The Iron Horse Hotel in Milwaukee
5. Reputation management: HKHotels in New York
6. Social media integration: Nickelodeon Resort in Orlando
7. And just for fun, a video from Prizeotel in Germany.

Does your hotel or a hotel you know do a great job with social media? Share it here by posting a comment.

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Seminar in Vancouver: Social Media for Hotels - Taming the Beast

I'm excited to announce that Katrina Carroll-Foster of WiseWinston Strategic Hotel Marketing and I will be holding our first Social Media for Hotels seminar at the Shangri-la Hotel in Vancouver on Thursday, September 16, 2010.

Seminar description: Managed well, social media can be a powerful tool for interacting with guests and strengthening your business. Managed poorly, it can be a drain on resources and even harmful to your brand. Developed by hoteliers for hoteliers, this three-hour seminar will help you understand and harness the powers of social media to strengthen brand, manage reputation and drive revenue.

Seminars are open to managers and employees responsible for social media for hotels. We are expecting them to be popular and registration is first-come, first-served, so don't delay.

For more details and to register:
Click here for the morning session
Click here for the afternoon session

We hope to see you there!

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A Ten-Step Program for Easing Your Hotel's OTA Dependency

By Daniel Edward Craig

These days, bashing online travel agencies has become a popular sport. The likes of Expedia, Travelocity and Priceline are being blamed for commoditizing hotels, for decimating rates, and for training travelers to demand deep discounts. We can probably find a way to blame them for that oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico too.

Not that OTAs need defending, but the reality is, we as hoteliers share the blame. It’s our signature on OTA agreements. We give them access to inventory at heavily discounted rates. And we’ve taught travelers to look for the best deals on OTA sites.

Case in point: While reserving a hotel in Chicago last month, I found six different rates for the same room. The lowest came from Expedia at $180. Inconceivably, the highest rate came from the hotel’s in-house reservations department at $229. Such rate disparity is rampant.

What started as casual use has become an unhealthy addiction. Meanwhile, while hotels are staggering toward recovery, the OTAs are boasting enormous growth. It’s time to take back some of the control we relinquished during desperate times. To that end, here’s a ten-step program for easing your hotel’s OTA dependency.

1. Admit you have a problem. The OTAs are not the cause of the discounting problem, but they are enablers and your competitor hotels are codependents. By advertising heavily that they offer deeply discounted rates, OTAs have contributed to the firesale mentality among travelers. Hotels have exacerbated the problem by being always on sale, by offering discount rates on discount rates, and by treating all inventory as distressed inventory.

2. Do the math. Yes, OTAs can move a lot of inventory, but at what cost? The terms of OTA agreements vary, but typical commissions range between 15% and 25%, with big-box chains paying the least and small independents the most. At $200 per night for a three-night stay, an independent pays $150 in commissions. Compare that to the low-to-zero costs of direct bookings. How could you use the difference to attract more lucrative direct bookings?

3. Don’t overestimate the billboard effect. No question, OTA business is an important part of the market mix. As Mike Nelson, president of Partners Services at Orbitz, explained on Tnooz.com, “In any economic climate, online travel companies are a strategic resource for hotels that want to stimulate demand, access a global distribution platform and benefit from vast marketing and promotional investments.” But to rank high on OTAs you must offer deep discounts. As powerful as the “billboard effect” is the “OTA effect” of training travelers to book via third parties.

4. Make direct the best option. Travelers should get the best deals by booking direct, period. Honor your rate parity agreements, but implement a best rate guarantee and clearly state the advantages of booking direct, like Marriott’s Look No Further™ promise. As an added incentive, offer value-adds not available via non-direct booking methods.

5. Be strategic. Instead of discounting across the board, forecast demand in each market segment and develop separate strategies. Reward travelers for advance bookings and build rate on that base rather than offering the best deals on last-minute bookings. In an interview with EyeforTravel, Kurien Jacob of Highgate Hotels argued that opaque sites “should be used only if the hotel needs to protect its overall retail rate to maintain brand image, prevent group room dilution or maintain corporate negotiated rate protection.”

6. Use social media to connect with travelers. Private sales via members-only sites like Jetsetter and Vacationist allow you to bypass OTA rate parity requirements, but the terms can be even less favorable than those offered by OTAs. Use them sparingly to create base and sell off distressed inventory. Focus your efforts on social media and reputation management to build your email database and Facebook and Twitter followers and save your best deals for them.

7. OTAs are partners and competitors. OTAs don’t care which hotels travelers book as long as they book through them. Traditional travel agents charge 10% commission and provide personalized service in bricks-and-mortar offices. How can OTAs justify such high commissions, and where does the money go? Seen the TV ads, the cost-per-click ads, the print ads and banners? They’re driving up your advertising costs and luring travelers from direct channels. Goldman Sachs estimates that OTAs generate 8% to 10% of Google’s gross revenue worldwide.

8. Leverage your power. Competition among OTAs is fierce, and they need access to your inventory at competitive rates to compete. In an interview with the Chicago Tribune, Priceline CEO Jeffrey Boyd said, “You've got to have the best rate, and the hotel has to be available when the customer is searching on it." Leverage this power by negotiating the terms right for you. According to revenue management consultant Jil Larson, that means “either block space or last room availability but not both.” If the OTA won’t come to terms, find one that will.

9. Loyalty means loyalty. Loyalty program members who book via OTAs must understand that they’ve forfeited their perks to the OTA in the form of a hefty commission. Stipulate that members must book direct to qualify for privileges. This is especially true of opaque sites; booking blind isn’t brand loyalty.

10. Make the booking experience seamless. OTAs are brilliant marketers and are constantly improving the consumer experience. How does your booking experience measure up? Is your website mobile compatible? Make voice reservations accessible, efficient and personal – an area where OTAs can’t compete. And invest in a two-way PMS interface to decrease time spent managing rates and inventory and free up time for strategizing.

As for that hotel in Chicago, I asked them to match the Expedia rate. They agreed, so like a good hotelier I booked direct. Don’t make your guests jump through the same hoops.

Comments or more tips? Post them here. 

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A Hoteliers Guide to Review Sites and Forums

By Daniel Edward Craig

In the past few months I’ve been collaborating with the bright minds at Revinate, the hotel industry’s leading social media monitoring tool, on developing tips and techniques for hotels to harness the power of social media and online reviews. Out of that collaboration comes the definitive guide to managing online reviews, the Hoteliers Guide to Review Sites and Forums, now downloadable for free.

You’ll be happy to find that this document isn’t crammed with self-serving corporate mumbo jumbo that has you yawning into your coffee cup. It’s informative and entertaining, if I might say so myself.

While you’re at it, check out the Revinate blog for the latest in social media news for the hotel industry. And see this Wired.com article from Eliot Van Buskirk entitled Social Media Doesn’t Have to Suck, an article I wish I had written myself - or at least came up with the title.

Enjoy, and if I can be of assistance with your hotel’s social media and marketing strategy, drop me a note.

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Is the Role of the Hotel Concierge Going Obsolete?

By Daniel Edward Craig

I can see dignified concierges everywhere clutching their golden keys and gasping in indignation at the title of this post. But hear me out.

Technology has placed a world of resources at the fingertips of travelers. Mobile applications allow us to walk out of our hotel, point our phone into the street, and find local restaurants and entertainment, peruse reviews, consult maps and make reservations. In a PhoCusWright survey last year, 67% of travelers reported having used a mobile device to find local services. Almost daily, hotels and travel companies are releasing mobile apps and mobile-compatible websites packed with information normally dispensed by the capable hotel concierge.

Where does that leave the concierge? Parking cars? Slinging drinks in the lounge?

Let’s hope not. As a traveler, I love having the services of a concierge. But I’ve noticed an alarming trend of late: the empty concierge desk. During the economic downturn, hotel managers were forced to find ways to cut costs, and many set their sights on the concierge. There he sat, primly at his desk, occupying prime lobby real estate and yet taking in no revenue. Compared to the back-breaking work of housekeeping and the frenetic work of the kitchen, the role of the concierge seemed a bit frivolous in such lean times. Out came the schedule, and concierge hours were slashed. In some hotels, a permanent “Off Duty” sign was placed on the desk.

How to tell compelling stories to engage and convert travelers

This is the third and final installment of my interview series with VFM Leonardo's VTV. I draw on my background as a hotelier and author of three hotel-based mystery novels to share tips on generating compelling content through social media and other marketing activities by using the principles of storytelling. We have much to learn from online reviewers, who color their stories with facts, trivia, tips and hooks for titles that make us want to read more.

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Toss that script aside: Tips for generating positive hotel reviews

By Daniel Edward Craig

So your hotel went through a rough patch – a bad hire, a small fire, an apoplectic bride with singed hair and a scorched wedding dress. That’s all behind you now, but there’s a problem. A spate of nasty reviews has toppled your ranking on TripAdvisor’s Popularity Index to just below a by-the-hour motel on the outskirts of town. Meanwhile, your closest competitor has soared to the top, buoyed by a series of glowing (and suspect) reviews. It’s like high school all over again.

What can you do? Well, you can wait for guests you didn’t set on fire to post positive reviews, pushing the incriminating ones down the list. But that might take a while, and in the meantime, those bad reviews are frightening travelers away like a foul odor in your front lobby.

Sometimes our guests need a little nudge to remind them to tell the world how fabulous we are. To that end, here are some tips for generating positive reviews.

Be remarkable. In the age of social media, remarkable means worth remarking about. Set realistic expectations of your property and empower employees to exceed them in creative and memorable ways. It’s the little details guests remember: the birthday cupcakes sent by the front desk; the extra bath amenities to replace the stash in the guest’s suitcase; the emergency tracheotomy performed by the concierge. Independent boutique hotels rank high on review sites because they provide unscripted, intuitive service. Toss that script aside and be spontaneous.

About that item you left in your room ...

By Daniel Edward Craig

A recent story about a hotel housekeeper in Miami who found in $6,000 in cash in a guestroom got me to thinking about items guests leave behind. As travelers, we’ve all experienced that sensation upon arriving at the airport that our luggage feels pleasantly lighter – only to realize we left half our belongings in the closet of our hotel room.

Curious, I decided to pay a visit to OPUS Hotel’s housekeeping department to see what was kicking around Lost and Found. There I found boxes and boxes of guest belongings. Most of it looked like junk abandoned by guests, but hotels undertake too many frantic dumpster dives to make assumptions about what guests may or may not deem as valuable.

While I was perusing the log book, a group of housekeeping staff filed in after their shift, and one of them deposited an item on the desk before me.

“A bra?” I asked, staring. It was one big bra.

“Happens all the time,” said Alejandro, one of the housemen.

“Usually it’s men’s underwear,” said Mila, making a face.

Social Media vs. Online Reputation Management

This is the second installment in a series of interviews I did with VFM Leonardo's VTV channel. Chief Marketing Officer John McAuliffe and I discuss how social media differs from online reputation management, the basics of a social media program, and effective strategies for social media and reputation management in the hotel industry. Trust me, it's more interesting than it sounds. (Then again, I had the wrong video posted here for weeks and nobody seemed to notice ...)

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Is Lifestyle the New Luxury? Emerging Trends in the Hotel Industry

This is the first of three interview segments I did with VFM Leonardo's VTV on emerging trends in the hotel industry. This segment was inspired by a tongue-in-cheek post I wrote about my predictions for trends in the hotel industry in 2010. Watch for me getting caught on camera sneaking a sip of a suspicious-looking liquid. It's water, honest. Click here to play.

Click here to play

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