Why hotels need an individual website

Statistics show that travelers become ever more educated if it comes to their search behaviour.
According to a study by Ypartnership and Yankelovich, Inc. this is where travelers first go when looking for a hotel or resort:

Web site of online travel agency like Expedia, Travelocity 31%
Search engine like Google, Yahoo, MSN 26%
Web site of specific hotel chain 21%
Web site of individual hotel/resort 10%
Meta search engine that compares rates 5%

(See: Travelers' Online Search Behavior Evolves)

You may say that the figure for 'website of individual hotel/resort' at 10% is still quite low. However, what this statistic doesn't cover is what people do after their first visit.
I argue, that a large number of people after doing some research on the top three - online travel agency sites, search engines and even specific hotel chain sites - will search for the individual hotel/resort website of a property they have preselected. The reason being, that all of the above, in most cases, only offer very limited information about a property and show small or bad quality photos. A traveler cannot be certain what exactly to expect at the hotel and usually, this is not enough to make a buying decision. At least not for a leisure traveler who is about to book a hotel room, mirroring their lifestyle, for a very precious few days of their life: holiday. After all, successful hotels these days don't sell rooms, they sell an experience.
Take a look at the following two examples, favourite websites of the Hotel Magazine, and you see what I mean:

• MGMGrand.com


• AQUA Hotels

Neither of the top three places to which travelers initially go in order to search for a hotel or resort, could possibly cater for the experience an individual hotel website can and should create.

The second element to focus on is trust. As the above figures show, travelers have come to use online agency websites and do trust the big ones they know. Though they may not trust a site they have never used before, even if it sells rooms at a cheaper rate.
However, if they visit an individual hotel website which is professionally done, layed out well and maintained properly - i.e. they get the impression that the hotel staff is looking after it - they will probably trust this site more and prefer to cut out the intermediary. If the rate is higher on an online agency site because of booking fees or commission, the decision will be even easier.

This is exactly what I could see happening in my last position when analysing the website and booking statistics of our large network of chain, traffic and individual websites. The individual hotel websites brought in many more online bookings than for example the chain site or other sites with more than one hotel featured. Moreover, traffic very often came from the search engines where people were searching for a specific hotel name. It is unlikely that all those people would have known the hotel name from previous visits, offline marketing or friends and family. No, they have found the name on online agency, destination, review and hotel chain sites during the first step of their search and looked for a preselected property in the second step.

This is the reason why your hotel/resort needs an individual website. Create an experience, establish trust and you will increase your online revenue. - Plus, each booking will also come you much cheaper than any reservation made via a TPI (Third-party Intermediary) or OTA (Online Travel Agency) which usually costs you around a quarter of the value in commission.

What are the most important search engine ranking factors in 2009?

SEOmoz have just published their bi-annual study about the most important search engine ranking factors, i.e. the factors that decide over whether your website comes up on the first or last page of Google results when a user types in a keyword that is relevant to your site. The ranking factors were rated by their panel of 72 SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) experts. Obviously, Google can change its algorithm at any time. So even if you take all the factors into consideration and are doing an excellent job, you are not operating in a static environment in which that will necessarily be the case tomorrow.

I'm quoting the top five factors from the most relevant areas for SEO below:
(see full Search Engine Ranking Factors 2009 study)

On-Page (Keyword-Specific) Ranking Factors

1. Keyword Use Anywhere in the Title Tag
2. Keyword Use as the First Word(s) of the Title Tag
3. Keyword Use in the Root Domain Name (e.g. keyword.com)
4. Keyword Use Anywhere in the H1 Headline Tag
5. Keyword Use in Internal Link Anchor Text on the Page

On-Page (Non-Keyword) Ranking Factors

1. Existence of Substantive, Unique Content on the Page
2. Recency (freshness) of Page Creation
3. Use of Links on the Page that Point to Other URLs on this Domain
4. Historical Content Changes (how often the page content has been updated)
5. Use of External-Pointing Links on the Page

Page-Specific Link Popularity Ranking Factors

1. Keyword-Focused Anchor Text from External Links
2. External Link Popularity (quantity/quality of external links)
3. Diversity of Link Sources (links from many unique root domains)
4. Page-Specific TrustRank (whether the individual page has earned links from trusted sources)
5. Iterative Algorithm-Based, Global Link Popularity (PageRank)

Site-Wide Link-Based Ranking Factors

1. Trustworthiness of the Domain Based on Link Distance from Trusted Domains (e.g. TrustRank, Domain mozTrust, etc.)
2. Global Link Popularity of the Domain Based on an Iterative Link Algorithm (e.g. PageRank on the domain graph, Domain mozRank, etc.)
3. Link Diversity of the Domain (based on number/variety of unique root domains linking to pages on this domain)
4. Links from Hubs/Authorities in a Given Topic-Specific Neighborhood (as per the “Hilltop” algorithm)
5. Temporal Growth/Shrinkage of Links to the Domain (the quantity/quality of links earned over time and the temporal distribution)

Geo-Targeting Factors

1. Country Code TLD of the Root Domain (e.g. .co.uk, .de, .fr, .com.au, etc.)
2. Language of the Content Used on the Site
3. Links from Other Domains Targeted to the Country/Region
4. Geographic Location of the Host IP Address of the Domain
5. Manual Review/Targeting by Google Engineers and/or Quality Raters

Negative Ranking Factors

1. Cloaking with Malicious/Manipulative Intent
2. Link Acquisition from Known Link Brokers/Sellers
3. Links from the Page to Web Spam Sites/Pages
4. Cloaking by User Agent
5. Frequent Server Downtime & Site Inaccessibility

Factors Negatively Affecting the Value of an External Link

1. Domain Banned from Google’s Index for Web Spam
2. Domain’s Rankings Penalized in Google for Web Spam
3. Link is Determined to be “Paid” Rather than Editorially Given
4. Domain Contains Links to a Significant Amount of Web Spam
5. Domain Has Not Earned Trusted Links

How hotels improve their websites and service

A recently published article by Hotels Magazine looks at examples how hotels or rather hotel chains have improved their websites. The argument is that 31% of the people who visit an online travel agency site, book directly with the supplier and therefore the supplier websites need to be providing a good service. I've made a similar argument in a recent blog entry: Why hotels need an individual website.

The Hotels Magazine article explains how hotel chains start optimising search results, make download times faster and provide more graphics on their websites.

For example, the Sonesta Collection has moved images and flash content from its server to a content delivery network which makes their website download twice as fast. A content delivery network employs servers strategically in multiple geographic locations, each of them containing a cached version of the website, so that delivery time is speed up dramatically.

Another good example they give is the new E-Wave feature on the Paradise by Marriot website.
Marriott has created an interactive kit for the leisure traveler or meeting organiser, including maps and video. They thereby significantly increased the time people spend on their website (+25%). Moreover, users can upload their own video, generate their own itinerary and send it to a friend or travel partner.

To read the full Hotels Magazine article, please click here.

How does viral marketing work?

It is quite amazing what you can do with social media and viral marketing now.
Thinking back only a few years the possibilities for online marketing seem very limited indeed.

I undertook a small experiment a few months ago during the thunderstorm over Berlin. I posted a photo of the storm onto Twitter and wrote about it on some community sites. I wanted to see how much attention this gets. Remember, this was just a picture of an event that occurs rather frequently. However, only seconds after posting about 40 people had viewed that pic. Another push came when a local newspaper retweeted my tweet and published the photo to their followers. I'm proud to announce that the picture got eventually 170 views! Plus, the local paper is now following me on Twitter.

This is a very good example of viral marketing. Exposure is generated by people sending on or repeating your message to their friends or contacts. You have probably heard of pyramide schemes before - the fraud case of Bernard Madoff is a rather infamous example - or I'm sure you have received chain letters by snail or email before. Viral marketing very much follows the same principle but in the positive sense of people wanting to inform their friends. If a message is not interesting enough to be forwarded on, they won't do so. There usually is no incentive or threat to retweet a message other than compelling content. Now imagine using that for business! Social Media network friends are usually trusted more. We don't think of Tweeters as institutions or corporations but individuals. This is a huge chance for businesses that use Web 2.0 and viral marketing effectively.

You need to have a story, though in order to initiate a conversation with people.
And if you don't have one, create it!

What is Online Reputation Management?

After SEO, SEM and other abbreviations you've had to learn in online marketing, here comes another one: ORM - Online Reputation Management. But what exactly does it mean?

Most people and companies now have profiles on many social media sites: Facebook, Trip Advisor, Twitter, YouTube to name but a few. Often, posts on those sites are being picked up by Google. For example, did you know that your Amazon wishlist can be found in Google and usually ranks quite high? Just google yourself and see. Having so much information about you or your business on the web can pose a problem. Disappointed customers, an angry ex-partner or friends can post blogs and photos that portray you or your business in a negative light. This week's BBC fast:track programme talks about exactly that:

'Over the past decade, travel review websites have become a primary source of travel information, especially as the web has grown. Rajan Datar investigates this trend and looks into their vulnerability to deception. Fake posts, biased reviews and intentionally negative comments to rivals have become common, as well as questions about the kind of people who post reviews. fast:track talks to industry professionals including a traditional guide writer and the Director of Trip Advisor.'

Watch video

ORM is the attempt to control hotel review sites, travel blogs and consumer-generated content in the modern world of Web 2.0. Some companies have been offering solutions for a while, e.g.: Hotel Protect by TIG Global.

The other option is doing ORM yourself, for example by setting up Google alerts or run Twitter searches but managing hundreds of profiles could be overwhelming.

It is still early days for many hotels or chains but with Web 2.0 becoming ever more important for the success of your online marketing, I am sure ORM will have to be an element of your marketing mix in future.

Social Media: don't just be there - have a plan!

This is quite a good article from the Hotel Magazine: Social-Media Marketing for Restaurants: 10 Tips.

Even though this is meant for restaurants, I'm sure it applies to hotel marketing, too. The main point being that you actually think about how to use Twitter and Facebook before you start using them. Don't just create accounts because everyone else has one!

It should be pretty easy for you to determine your target audience. Choose the networks accordingly. Contrary to common believe, not everyone is on Twitter. In fact, it's only a geeky minority, although numbers are still increasing.

To find interesting topics and keep the news coming might be slightly harder. Tip number 2 from the article is essential - do some research before starting! Set up a research system for permanent use. The easiest and instant way of doing this is to use Google Alerts). Now you can react and respond if something is said about you. Responding to tweets for example is very important because Twitter and Facebook are conversational and not just one-way, even though that might be your first impression.
Respond to tweets in the way this blog describes it: Twitter's Real Value Is In Personal Connections.

Be visual! The number of tweets can be enormous if you follow more than a dozen tweeters. The most compellent tweets are those that have a link to click on. You are being led to a website with more information or even better something visual whether this is an image or short video. Images make your tweets personal, people love looking at them and they will also recall visual information much better when they come across another of your marketing messages elsewhere.

I also like point 5 in the article: create brand ambassadors. Let's be fair, there is quite a lot of work involved in keeping social media marketing afloat and it's taking up a lot of resources. Therefore, if you can find people who are passionate about your brand, utilize them. A good example are the Nike+ ambassadors who promote Nike events - and therefore the companies products - around the world.

Whatever you do with social media - and the possibilities are endless - do have a plan first!
You need to know what you are doing, put the necessary resources in place and last but not least measure the outcome of your social media campaigns.

Welcome to the Hotel Online Marketing Blog!

About the author:

For the past 10 years I have been doing e-commerce or online marketing for hotels and the tourism industry. This month, I have just set up my own consultancy business under the name of e-conceptory.

Until about 3 years ago, I have been working for a company called Open World in Bath, UK. Open World was specialised in publishing websites and doing online marketing for the luxury hotel industry. My clients were hotels and hotel chains from around the world, such as InterContinental Hotels Group, Hyatt Hotels and Resorts, Worldhotels, Swissotel, Small Luxury Hotels to name but a few. I moved back to Berlin, Germany two years ago, where I worked as Corporate E-Commerce Manager at a Hotel Management Company. I developed the company's online strategy, set up a large network of group, individual and traffic websites to generate and increase online revenue from all the company owned sites.
I finished this contract a few months ago and have been keeping busy since, preparing for my own e-commerce consulting company.

In short this is what I have to offer:

e-commerce, ecommerce, e-business, ebusiness, online marketing, internet marketing, new media marketing, web project management, web design, web programming, usability, accessibility, functionality, seo, sem, display advertising, affiliate marketing, web 2.0, social media marketing through blogging, micro-blogging, communities, online reputation management