About this Episode
The internet has radically changed how consumers shop for travel. This has had a dramatic impact on the way hoteliers market and sell hotel rooms to travel shoppers. Due to the rapidly changing online environment, some hoteliers struggle with how to extract more value out of their presence online while others have found success.
Over the course of five specific topics, Henry Harteveldt, Vice President and Principal Analyst at Forrester Research, will discuss the impact of the internet on travel shopping and how hotels can turn the internet channel from pain to panacea.
1. How to Motivate the Content-Sensitive Traveler
2. The Role of Visual Content in Travel Shopping
3. The Pillars of Success in Travel eBusiness
4. OTAs and TPIs – The Gateways to Purchase Consideration
5. What Hoteliers can learn from Online Retailers
Click for Video Details
- Episode #17
- Posted on December 14, 2009
- Duration: 1:00:59
- Captions:
internet has impacted how consumers shop for travel
also impacted how hoteliers market, sell and transact the booking of hotel rooms
some hoteliers struggling with eBusiness, others have found success
content-sensitive travelers avoid hotels that don’t have visual and written content
38% of hotel guests avoid hotels that don't have adequate content
47.5 million US hotel guests are content-sensitive
content is critical to helping you be more successful
content-sensitive travelers…
travel more often
spend about 22% more on leisure travel each year
spend more than $7000.00 – that’s 22% above the average
more than half are between 18 and 43, 35% are baby boomers, 7% are seniors
have more travel ahead of them
are more likely to use the internet in everyday life
are less likely to want to call
are willing to consider trading up for added comfort or convenience
use written and visual content to merchandise your brand or hotel
content matters - it is critically important to putting money in the bank
get a professional copywriter to write content - short paragraphs and bullet points
video and stills should reflect the details of each room category
up sell consumers by showing and describing why one room type is better than another
good content shifts booking decisions away from price, more toward value
provide text info that helps travelers understand unique room features
don't hide the content in your website
brands - ensure your properties understand the value of content
properties - ensure that corporate is able to answer questions for you
content is king - involve consumers with brand/property using written and visual content
Ebusiness for Hoteliers - Panacea or Pain - The Role of OTAs
Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) act as lead generators for brand.com sites
OTAs and other third-party sites are the gateways to purchase consideration
OTAs are great sources of discovery, advice and learning
95% of Expedia.com visitors do not purchase on the site
66% use OTAs for research and planning and 39% book
Two-thirds of travellers do research on OTAs
OTAs are a source of discovery for budget-sensitive travellers
Hotels must have the right content on OTAs
Hotels must stand out from the many hotels listed on OTAs
Hotels cannot afford not to have an OTA presence
Hotels are required to conform to an OTA's rules but opportunites still exist
OTAs enable you to list multiple room types - so don't hold back
Let prospective guests know that you standard, superior and deluxe rooms
Have good written descriptions and the right visual content
Make sure OTAs use your visual content for consistency between the OTA and your own website
If OTAs have better content than you, you can lose bookings
Unmanaged business travellers act very much like leisure travellers
Managed business travellers make up a smaller proportion of business traveller bookings
Unmanaged business travellers are looking for specific types of content
Unmanaged business travellers are more career motivated, focused on efficiency
Contextual information is very important for the unmanaged business traveller
If you can show why your hotel is better, you have a better chance of winning that traveller
Take multiple pictures of details of the rooms considering the requirements and motivations of your guests
Think through the details that matter to the business traveller and the leisure traveller
Hotels can learn from retailers on how to market and merchandise online - Embed Link:
2 Comments
I was particularly intersted in the section that dealt with the relationship between hotels and OTA’s/TPI’s and in particular the fact that many customers are brand-neutral, brand-agnostic or brand-disloyal.
It is quite correct that OTA’s/TPI’s were the originators and developers of online travel booking systems and their revenues are only generated by customers booking via their systems.
These days however, as confirmed by the CEO of Expedia, 95% of visitors to those sites are now only researching and learning about hotels and not actually making their purchase.
In order to try to re-capture some of those ‘lost’ 95% customers – or even to prevent a total loss of actual bookers – these OTA’s/TPI’s are allocating huge budgets to invest in search engine optimisation (SEO) so that their site will always be in the top three on the first page.
I think a valid point that could have been made is that hotels will never be able to allocate similar budgets to SEO because of other demands on their finances. This would have reinforced the message that website content on the hotels own website must always be superior.
Hotels may never be able to oust the OTA’s from the poll-position on search engine results pages, but they can maintain that 95%.
By offering a “bookmark this page” option, they could even capture that remaining 5% too !
Best regards
Gavin M Smith
Hotel General Manager – London UK
It was an excellent video presentation. It is very helpful to hotel owners and staff and to learn how to market your product to third-party websites and all search engines.
Thank you for sending this e-mail to us.
Owner
Ashok Parikh
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