Hotel Marketing
- All Blogs ()
- Content Marketing (54)
- Email Marketing (46)
- eTourism News (3)
- eTourism Online (19)
- Hotel Marketing (168)
- Industry News (23)
- Mobile (29)
- Online Reservations (11)
- Open Source (1)
- Published Articles (2)
- Search Engine Marketing (90)
- Social Media (186)
- Tech (4)
- Tutorials (27)
- Website Design (7)
Posted on Oct 26th 2018 by Bryan Marsh
The evolution of the digital landscape is rapid and unstoppable. As a marketer you either adapt to emerging trends, technology and strategies or your brand gets lost in the noise. Now that 2018 is drawing to a close, it's a good time to look ahead to the...
Posted on Oct 12th 2018 by Bryan Marsh
The ultimate aim of any hotel's website is to wrestle traffic away from the OTA's and drive direct bookings. Unfortunately, many properties are driving a steady stream of travellers to their websites only to fall at the final hurdle. If you're seeing high...
Posted on Sep 20th 2018 by Bryan Marsh
Competing against Expedia, Booking.com and the other major online travel agents for travellers' attention and bookings is an ongoing battle for all hoteliers. These OTAs are masterfully designed to convert holiday browsers into room bookers within just a...
Posted on Aug 6th 2018 by Bryan Marsh
No matter how much the rest of the digital marketing landscape evolves, Google's domination over search remains constant. As of last month, the company accounted for a whopping 90.20% of all mobile searches and 72.21% of those made on desktop. Google's un...
Posted on Jul 27th 2018 by Bryan Marsh
Online shoppers are notoriously impatient, in fact, even a delay as small as one second can cause a sharp decline in page views, conversions and consumer satisfaction rates. And since Google includes site speed among one of the many factors its uses to de...
Posted on Jul 10th 2018 by Bryan Marsh
No matter what stage of the holiday planning journey they're at, when guests land on your hotel's website, you want them to complete an action. Sign up for your property's email newsletter, make an enquiry, share your content or make a booking. When it co...
Posted on Jun 14th 2018 by Bryan Marsh
No hotelier really needs to be reminded of the essential role reviews play in the holiday shopping process. But just in case you do, the latest stats show that a massive 95% of guests browse the opinions of other travellers before booking a trip, with Tri...
Posted on May 19th 2018 by Bryan Marsh
What motivates travellers and inspires them to book? In the crucial early stages of travel planning it's not amenities, room sizes and air conditioning, but the prospect of exciting and enriching experiences; a break from the norm, an escape. During this...
Posted on May 8th 2018 by Bryan Marsh
From news to YouTube tutorials, Snaps to Instagram Stories, Vine and endless cat clips, video is the most popular form of content on the internet. In fact, it's expected to account for as much as 82% of all internet traffic by 2021. For marketers, video...
Posted on Apr 19th 2018 by Bryan Marsh
The seemingly unshakeable grip of the online travel agencies has long been a point of contention for hoteliers trying to maximise profits from online bookings. But how do they do it? Beside the obvious factor of low rates, one of the key reasons for the s...
Posted on Apr 3rd 2018 by Bryan Marsh
In an industry that's all about creating aspirational experiences, images sell better than words ever can. Investing time and resources to ensure your website features carefully selected, high quality photos of your hotel will pay dividends when it comes...
Posted on Mar 23rd 2018 by Bryan Marsh
Few can dispute the importance of social proof in the travel industry. When planning their breaks, almost all online holiday planners are influenced by the opinions of other travellers when it comes to choosing where to travel and stay. While review sites...
Posted on Mar 15th 2018 by Bryan Marsh
At a time when older generations are tightening their purse strings, adventure-hungry millennials are spending more on travel than ever. Unsurprisingly, it's OTAs that are seeing most of this increased spending, with data revealing that more than 50% of t...
Posted on Dec 1st 2017 by Bryan Marsh
Black Friday and Cyber Monday have come and gone in a whirlwind of consumer excitement and spending. It's now time to think slightly further down the road, adopt new tactics and target procrastinating guests still considering a last minute festive break....
Posted on Nov 3rd 2017 by Bryan Marsh
One of the biggest shake ups in SEO in recent years has been the arrival of voice search. Thanks to mobile personal assistants and technologies such as Amazon Echo and Corona, consumers can quickly and conveniently find what they're looking for online wit...
Posted on Oct 12th 2017 by Bryan Marsh
Making use of audience generated content on social media offers a uniquely compelling way to communicate your hotel's story, gain the trust of your guests and drive traffic and bookings. Thanks to Facebook's news feed algorithm update of 2016, it has also...
Posted on Aug 18th 2017 by Bryan Marsh
Repeat guests are your most valuable asset. They are cheaper to market to, provide a reliable source of revenue and are likely to provide plenty of word of mouth recommendations. So how do you turn more of the travellers checking into your property for th...
Posted on Jul 12th 2017 by Bryan Marsh
In an online market dominated by online travel agents with steep commission rates, every hotel wants to increase the number of bookings made directly through their property's website. Here are 5 ways to wrestle control away from the OTA's and maximise rev...
Posted on May 10th 2017 by Bryan Marsh
Representing the percentage of visitors who land on your website only to leave before checking out any other page, bounce rate is one of the few metrics you really don't want to increase. A high bounce rate often indicates that a page offers a poor user e...
Posted on Apr 20th 2017 by Bryan Marsh
Whatever else changes in the online marketing world, reviews will continue to form an integral part of the hotel shopping process for your guests. More than half of travellers around the world won't even consider booking a hotel before reading what previo...
Posted on Mar 22nd 2017 by Bryan Marsh
For most hotels, online travel agents are a necessary evil. Like it or not, they're the first port of call for most travellers researching their breaks online, and if your property is not listed you're going to miss out on a huge amount of exposure. But w...
Posted on Mar 15th 2017 by Admin
If you really want to capture your audience's attention online, you need to add video to your marketing mix. Few other forms of content have the power to excite and inspire your guests so effectively, with Google data revealing that up to 42% of online tr...
Posted on Feb 8th 2017 by Admin
The competition for your guests' attention online is fiercer than ever, and one thing's for sure; if other local hotels are doing a better job reaching them than you are, your booking rates are going to suffer. So, how do you know if your competition is s...
Posted on Oct 4th 2016 by Bryan Marsh
Large chain hotels have been using carefully designed loyalty programs for decades, and the OTAs have followed suit with their own discounts and promos designed to retain more guests. Yet, for small hotels and resorts with just one location, such schemes...
Posted on Sep 30th 2016 by Bryan Marsh
There are few better ways to show off the unique vibe of your hotel than a professionally shot video. Surpassing static image and text in terms of emotional connection, video has the unique ability to get travellers imagining their breaks and itching to b...
Posted on Sep 17th 2016 by Bryan Marsh
Since around 77% of travel consumers will check the feedback of other travellers before booking a hotel online, reviews have the powerful ability to pull in your guests in big numbers or drive them straight to the competition. Social media, blogs, forums...
Posted on Sep 14th 2016 by Bryan Marsh
Whether it's down to the cost of international travel, safety concerns amidst terrorist threats or changing visa regulations, holidays closer to home are more popular than ever. The rise of the so-called "staycation" is great news for your hotel; not leas...
Posted on Aug 23rd 2016 by Bryan Marsh
One of the fundamental rules of marketing is this: you need to understand your audience, inside out. Without this knowledge, how can you expect to create effective strategies to reach your audience and craft messaging that resonates and turns casual trave...
Posted on Aug 6th 2016 by Bryan Marsh
With so many other hotels and resorts vying for your guests' attention, one of the biggest challenges of any property's online marketing campaign is how to drive a steady stream of traffic to their website. And of course, not just any traffic, but high qu...
Posted on Aug 3rd 2016 by Bryan Marsh
Tech-savvy, socially aware and hyper-connected, millennials can be a difficult nut to crack. However, since they represent such a lucrative market, it's essential to get on the right side of this new generation of travellers planning their breaks online....
Posted on Aug 1st 2016 by Bryan Marsh
If you keep an eye on your website's analytic data, you'll have probably noticed your organic traffic fluctuates from time to time. While delving into Google Analytics and Search Console will often provide immediate explanations for a decline in traffic a...
Posted on Jul 21st 2016 by Bryan Marsh
If you want to maximise your hotel's online bookings, one of the most important elements to get right is your website photography. Industry research has revealed that travel shoppers are up to 150% more likely to engage with a website which features a min...
Posted on Jun 22nd 2016 by Bryan Marsh
Hoteliers spend millions of dollars each year on digital marketing campaigns designed to drive more online bookings. But even with this investment, 81% of travel planners will leave a website before finalising their booking, according to recent research f...
Posted on Jun 10th 2016 by Bryan Marsh
The TripAdvisor Popularity Ranking ranks hotels and other businesses based on the number, quality and freshness of their reviews. The more 'popular' a hotel is based on these factors, the better its ranking position whenever travellers search for properti...
Posted on Jun 8th 2016 by Bryan Marsh
The ultimate aim of every hotel's online marketing campaign should be to drive direct bookings made through their property website. True, the OTAs have a pretty strong grip on travel consumers, but that doesn't mean you should lie down and accept their do...
Posted on Jun 1st 2016 by Bryan Marsh
As every hotelier concerned with their online reputation knows, there is no site more powerful- and potentially damaging- than TripAdvisor. Now more than 16 years old, the platform has become the number one source of firsthand hotel, resort and attraction...
Posted on May 25th 2016 by Bryan Marsh
If you want to stand out from your competitors and ensure your marketing messages resonate with the right people at the right time, it's essential to get personal. In today's blog, we'll look at how using your guests' psychographic and demographic data to...
Posted on May 6th 2016 by Bryan Marsh
Google Analytics offers a wealth of data on the people who are landing on your website and how they're engaging with your content once they land there. But knowing which metrics to focus on and pulling all this data together into an actionable marketing p...
Posted on Apr 26th 2016 by Bryan Marsh
Encouraging reviews and managing online reputation is an integral part of any hotel's internet marketing campaign. Before parting with their money, your guests are seeking out the views and experiences of other travellers and using this information to dec...
Posted on Apr 15th 2016 by Bryan Marsh
Ever wonder who's really accessing your website? Google Analytics gives you access to a wealth of demographic data that can give you some valuable insights on the guests behind all those anonymous clicks. In today's blog, you'll discover how to tap into t...
Posted on Apr 8th 2016 by Bryan Marsh
Your website is your hotel's biggest and best selling tool, or at least it should be. If you want to beat the OTA's, showcase your property and drive more direct bookings than ever before, it's important not to lose your guests just when you get them wher...
Posted on Mar 2nd 2016 by Bryan Marsh
If you've been following travel industry blogs for awhile, there's a good chance you've heard of the so-called 'billboard effect.' In case you haven't, the idea is that OTAs such as Expedia can be used as a kind of marketing billboard for hotels that rath...
Posted on Feb 25th 2016 by Bryan Marsh
Online Travel Agencies can get your property's name in front of a huge market of travellers, drive last minute bookings and fill rooms that might otherwise go empty. But this increased exposure comes at a cost, and most independent hoteliers are strugglin...
Posted on Feb 3rd 2016 by Bryan Marsh
If you regularly check in on your Google Analytics data to see how your resort's website is performing (as you should), you're probably keeping an eye on your Bounce Rate. This much talked about quality metric represents the percentage of visitors who lan...
Posted on Jan 13th 2016 by Bryan Marsh
So, the tinsel is down, your cards have been recycled and the tree has been packed away for another year. Christmas is well and truly over. In fact, it's almost two weeks into 2016 already. But that doesn't mean it's too late to start thinking about your...
Posted on Dec 10th 2015 by Bryan Marsh
Most hotels have accepted by now that creating glowing reviews of their own business is not a wise idea. But what if your property is one of the many businesses unlucky enough to fall victim to malicious fake reviews? Whether they are posted by your compe...
Posted on Nov 25th 2015 by Bryan Marsh
Like it or not, Christmas is approaching fast and if you want to maximise festive bookings, you need to start preparing right now. Tempted to put it off a bit longer? Don't be! Take a look at our quick guide below and make the busiest time of year work...
Posted on Nov 16th 2015 by Bryan Marsh
Online Travel Agents have become the first port of call for guests searching for a great deal on their next night away. Sites like Expedia and booking.com allow consumers to compare and book the best deals on hotel rooms within a few clicks, which means f...
Posted on Oct 14th 2015 by Bryan Marsh
Travel shoppers visit your hotel's website to learn about your property and get a feel for the holiday experience you offer. In today's digital age, it's the virtual 'front door' your guests use to take a look around your resort before they book. Your web...
Posted on Sep 21st 2015 by Bryan Marsh
Search engines, and particularly Google, remain one of your guests' favourite tools for researching and planning their breaks online. This means creating and maintaining an effective SEO campaign is a huge component of building a successful internet prese...
Posted on Aug 17th 2015 by Bryan Marsh
Last month Facebook made some adjustments to the way they calculate cost-per-click (CPC) on their ad platform. Following the changes, the social media company will no longer include all click actions such as likes, comments and shares in its CPC calculati...
Posted on Apr 8th 2015 by Bryan Marsh
With a world of opinions and information right at their fingertips, it's now a given that your guests will check out a fair number of reviews before making a booking. So how can you make sure that you're using these reviews to your best advantage? Of cour...
Posted on Mar 12th 2015 by Bryan Marsh
Partnering with OTAs can be pretty addictive. After all, they get your property seen by a wide online audience and can generally be relied on to generate a steady stream of bookings with minimal input on your part. But as all hotel marketers know only too...
Posted on Feb 24th 2015 by Bryan Marsh
However many marketing goals you've made for 2015, chances are increasing the number of bookings made directly through your website, growing your online audience and increasing guest engagement are pretty near the top of the list. Let's take a look at som...
Posted on Feb 10th 2015 by Bryan Marsh
Valentine's Day happens this weekend, and according to some experts, the emotionally-charged occasion is second only to Christmas when it comes to consumer spending. If you haven't yet started planning how to capitalise on this year's event, it's not too...
Posted on Jan 27th 2015 by Bryan Marsh
Google has changed search dramatically in the last couple of years, transforming it from a system that could be 'tricked' with poor quality, keyword-stuffed content, into a personalized search engine that draws on semantics to deliver the most relevant re...
Posted on Jan 20th 2015 by Bryan Marsh
Marketers, much like almost everyone else, are under pressure to do more. Sign up to more social media platforms, publish more blog posts, create more email campaigns, drive more results. Often, doing more works. Emailing your guests on a more regular bas...
Posted on Jan 13th 2015 by Bryan Marsh
Now that we're nearly two weeks into 2015, take a moment to think about the marketing goals you hope to achieve in the year ahead. Have you identified what's already working for you and the areas you need to adjust to make this year's campaigns just as su...
Posted on Sep 24th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
There's no denying it: you need a mobile-optimised site. With global mobile internet usage expected to hit 90% by 2017, failing to make your content easily accessible across all devices won't just cause a headache for your guests, it'll lose you masses of...
Posted on Sep 15th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
Responding to your guests on social media is now an essential component of customer service and your online reputation hinges on getting it right. Are you delivering the best customer service possible for your guests on Facebook and other social platforms...
Posted on Jun 3rd 2014 by Bryan Marsh
Running a successful online marketing campaign is pretty demanding. Most of us are juggling multiple social media accounts, scheduling new content, creating email campaigns, optimising for Google, constantly analysing datathe list goes on. With so much to...
Posted on May 29th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
The power social media and blogs have to raise brand awareness is no longer disputed, but what about their power to inspire action? What is the value of all those impressions if your guests aren't following through and making a booking? Working a compelli...
Posted on May 27th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
Reviews have an immense impact on your online reputation and a knock-on effect on booking rates. According to recent research from TripAdvisor, as many as 93% of travellers around the world say their holiday decisions are impacted by the reviews they read...
Posted on May 14th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
Engaging with your audience is all about knowing your audience. By using data drawn from Google Analytics, you can find out the key information you need to create strong guest personas for your social media audience, helping you formulate content that is...
Posted on Apr 9th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
Google's accommodation search and comparison service Hotel Finder is slowly but surely gaining momentum in the US, and will create another valuable opportunity for you to promote your resort online when it gets rolled out fully over here in the near futur...
Posted on Apr 2nd 2014 by Bryan Marsh
You know that positive guest reviews are essential to your property's success, and as we covered in a recent post, the public is becoming increasingly savvy when it comes to spotting hotels' false attempts to accumulate this all-important feedback online....
Posted on Mar 31st 2014 by Bryan Marsh
How much value do your guests place on the opinions of others online? Have they lost trust in review sites or do they still form a crucial component of the booking process? A new study from ITB Berlin and the Worms University of Applied Sciences has looke...
Posted on Mar 26th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
Towards the end of 2012, Google began rolling out its one-stop accommodation planning tool Hotel Finder into standard search results worldwide. Two years on, let's take a closer look at how the service has evolved and its impact on the online travel secto...
Posted on Mar 5th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
With the online travel landscape only becoming more and more competitive, and an array of new marketing tactics appearing almost every week, how do you decide where to focus your efforts to get noticed by your guests in 2014? Here are 3 of the biggest tre...
Posted on Feb 26th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
Your website is your vehicle to showcase your property. It's likely to form your guests' first impression of your business and has the power to drive more bookings than any other component of your online campaign....
Posted on Dec 11th 2013 by Bryan Marsh
When your guests are scouring the web for the perfect property for their next holiday, great hotel photography catches their eye and gets them daydreaming about their break. But what visuals are most likely to get travel shoppers pulling out their credit...
Posted on Nov 21st 2013 by Bryan Marsh
Want to know what the online travel marketing industry has in store for 2014? Here are three key trends we think you should look out for Mobile Travel At the end of last year, Google Travel estimated that around a quarter of all search engine queries rela...
Posted on Oct 28th 2013 by Bryan Marsh
Thanks to TripAdvisor's Travel Affiliate Program, content from the world's number one travel site now gets in front of more than 300 million people worldwide, making guest reviews of your resort more readily available than ever. This easy access to a weal...
Posted on Oct 22nd 2013 by Bryan Marsh
Last month, Google created waves in the marketing world with "Hummingbird," its most significant algorithm change for over a decade. With the new algorithm, Google has shifted the focus away from a search system based almost entirely on keyword matching t...
Posted on Oct 16th 2013 by Bryan Marsh
One of the most significant changes of Google's recent Hummingbird update is that data scraped from websites is now being displayed on the results page alongside traditional search results content. Now, each time a user makes a search enquiry, Google will...
Posted on Oct 4th 2013 by Bryan Marsh
Fake online hotel reviews have been around as long as the web itself, fuelled by unscrupulous marketers seeking to drive bookings, or perhaps simply trying to stay afloat in the fiercely competitive digital world. But a recent crackdown by US authorities...
Posted on Sep 30th 2013 by Bryan Marsh
There's no denying the power of the online review. Travellers are actively seeking the opinions of former guests when making a booking decision, which means you need to get proactive with your resort's reputation management if you want to shine online. Ma...
Posted on Sep 16th 2013 by Bryan Marsh
If you want to maximise bookings this festive season, you've got to start now.With Christmas and New Year's fast approaching, here are some tips for making the most of the busiest booking period of the year. Get Ready Planning and preparation is the first...
Posted on Sep 6th 2013 by Bryan Marsh
Your resort's blog is the ideal platform to showcase your property, draw attention to interesting local events and demonstrate the more human, less corporate face of your business. By inviting comments from readers, a blog also opens up the lines of commu...
Posted on Aug 26th 2013 by Bryan Marsh
Is your resort visible in Local Search? If not, you better stake your claim fast. Every month, approximately 3 billion search queries are made using local terms according to data from comScore. Luckily, there's plenty you can do to improve your chances of...
Posted on Aug 23rd 2013 by Bryan Marsh
If you want to remain ahead of your competitors you need to be constantly creating, monitoring and managing your marketing content across multiple online platforms. So how can you be sure you're focusing your efforts wisely? Here are five current marketin...
Posted on Aug 20th 2013 by Bryan Marsh
The public's trust takes years to win, but in the age of TripAdvisor, a single bad review can shatter even the most glowing reputation in an instant. Where the review comes from is irrelevant. It might represent the genuine gripes of a dissatisfied guest,...
Posted on Jul 26th 2013 by Guest Blogger - Ashley Verrill
Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) and booking channels such as Booking.com, Webjet and Wotif.com have been a boon for the hospitality industry, providing a proven conduit for filling up rooms that would have otherwise stayed empty.......
Posted on Mar 14th 2013 by Ashlee Hume
When was the last time you heard someone say 'I really do love being marketed to'? Probably never. If you take a moment to think about the things you love...chances are your guests feel exactly the same. The idea behind this so called 'loveable marketing'...
Posted on Feb 19th 2013 by Bryan Marsh
Google has recently revamped the design of its Analytics interface, streamlining several features that were strewn across different tabs and making it a more coherent, easy to use product. Here is a run through of the most prominent changes....
Posted on Jan 30th 2013 by Bryan Marsh
Guest reviews are a hugely valuable way to improve your booking rate, with research showing that 61% of internet users seek out reviews before parting with their cash online, while as many as 63% say they are more likely to buy from a website that feature...
Posted on Jan 10th 2013 by Bryan Marsh
Until recently, good SEO has been all about implementing the same tried and test techniques to get your website noticed by the search engines. Moving forward, getting noticed will be less about keyword insertion and H1 tags, and more about capitalising on...
Posted on Nov 7th 2012 by Lee Tester
What makes a special attractive and sell to your audience? That is the key question. Is it price? Is it the inclusion? Is it the way it is presented? The answer is simple, it is all of them. There is no use advertising or promoting a special on your websi...
Posted on Sep 7th 2012 by Bryan Marsh
A new study has shown that the photos hotels choose to use in their OTA booking paths have a considerable bearing on click through rates....
Posted on Jun 25th 2012 by Bryan Marsh
You're probably aware by now that blogging is absolutely essential to the success of your online marketing campaign. Without regular fresh content, Google will no longer crawl your site, your search engine ranking will plummet, your social media community...
Posted on Jun 15th 2012 by Bryan Marsh
Social media may have stolen the limelight in recent years, but email marketing is going nowhere. Although most marketers recognise the ongoing importance of email, certain email best practices, such as Segmentation, have been slow to catch on. Segmentin...
Posted on Jun 15th 2012 by Bryan Marsh
Landing pages have become an essential component of every business's online marketing strategy, and your resort is no exception....
Posted on Jun 8th 2012 by Bryan Marsh
From online vouchers to emailed discount codes, the benefits of using discounts in your online marketing campaign should not be overlooked. Here's a look at how you can use this tactic to drive traffic to your resort's website, as well as a few of the pot...
Posted on Jun 5th 2012 by Bryan Marsh
A referral is the natural result of excellent customer service and surpassed expectations. Since people don't give referrals unless they are deserved, a referral is not a foregone conclusion unless you start every decision you make about running your reso...
Posted on Jun 1st 2012 by Bryan Marsh
Established in January 2012, RoomKey.com is designed to give travellers the security of booking their trips directly through a hotel-owned website. The site is a collaborative venture by Hilton, Intercontinental Hotels Group, Choice Hotels, Wyndham, Marri...
Posted on Apr 10th 2012 by Bryan Marsh
The results of a new survey suggest European hoteliers remain dubious of the value of discount websites such as Groupon and Living Social when it comes to driving room bookings....
Posted on Mar 16th 2012 by Bryan Marsh
The resort booking distribution process seems to get more complicated every day, and with so many platforms to keep an eye on, it's more important than ever to understand which elements of your marketing campaign are working for you, and which aren't....
Posted on Mar 14th 2012 by Lee Tester
TripAdvisor is one of the worlds largest independent guest review websites offering trusted advice from real travellers. Operating in 30 countries worldwide, TripAdvisor publicly displays over 60 million reviews and opinions on accommodation and more arou...
Posted on Feb 13th 2012 by Bryan Marsh
Experts have cast a critical eye over a recently published Distribution Channel Analysis study produced by the American Hotel & Lodging Association and STR. The 214 page report is the most extensive examination to date of the use of distribution channels...
Posted on Feb 10th 2012 by Ritesh Gupta
With TripAdvisor becoming less dominant/ reliable, brands are beginning to regain some lost influence and the correct management of both mobile and mapping technology will be key to increasing any brand's online reputation, says James Harrower, search mar...