Google Search plus your World

Bookassist's Ciaran Rowe talks about the recent introduction of Google Search plus your World and its impact on the search results page.

Google “Search plus your World”
Google recently announced the launch of a new feature on their search results pages, called Google “Search plus your World” which incorporates results from the user's Google+ network in addition to the existing results. This initiative is part of Google’s efforts to include more social content in their results. Since the deal they had with Twitter has lapsed, and they are not given access to Facebook content, the obvious source of social content was their own Google+ network.

Although the new look is available to users searching in English in the US, it is not available worldwide yet, but Google announced that it would be rolling out very soon.

The three key changes to the page are personal results, profiles in search and profiles & pages.

1. Personal results

The image below, which is a sample provided by Google, shows the layout of the page with the new elements.



The red arrow points to personal results which are taken exclusively from content that has been shared with the user in Google+. If the user clicks on this area it will expand to show the contents of the personal results from Google+.

The yellow arrow points to personalised content which is embedded in the page, in this example showing photos from the users Google+ circles, related to the search query.

The green arrow offers the opportunity to turn off search plus or to toggle between standard results and search plus results.

2. Profiles in search

This new element adds users from your circles to search results so if, for example, you start typing the name of someone in your circles, Google autosuggest will complete the name and display their content in the results. It will also show Google+ profiles related to the search results and provide a button to allow you to add them to your circles.So if, for example, you see a blog article or a news commentary that you like, you can add the author to your Google+ circles.


3. Profiles and Pages

This area allows users to connect with high profile Google+ businesses and people. In the example provided, if you search for a music related term, some high profile musicians profiles will appear on the right hand side of the page, giving you the opportunity to connect or find out more about them.


Some issues raised by the new Google page include:

Privacy - many users are concerned that the content of their Google+ pages is being shared in the results pages, but Google have emphasised that the new system is extremely secure and that content is only displayed to users that have previously had the content shared with them through their circles. An example would be, if a friend that was following posted photos of their trip to Thailand on Google+, I would see those photos in my search results if I did a search for Thailand, however, people not connected to my friend would not see his photos.The new page uses SSL encryption to ensure the security of the content when users are logged in to their account. An unfortunate side effect of this for marketing purposes, is that Google analytics no longer displays keywords that were used by visitors to your website if they are signed in. This information is now displayed as (not provided) for organic traffic, although adwords users still have access to the data for the moment.

Quality of results - the fact that Google are using their dominant position in search to push their own content to the top of the results page is felt by many to have a negative effect on the quality of the results. Googles priority appears to be showing results that are tailored to the users history and likes rather that displaying unbiased relevant results as in the past. An example would be breaking news which may become harder to find from sources that are not on Google+

Opt in/out - there is currently no way to opt out of having your content displayed in searches by users that are in your circles, so it is important to monitor what content you share. It is possible to opt out of seeing Google search plus by adjusting your search settings once the option becomes available.

This recent development emphasises the importance of creating your own Google+ business profile in order to maximise visibility in Google search.

As further information becomes available, we will update this blog, so check back soon.

For more information on Google search plus see the official Google post

For more information on setting up a Google+ page see our previous blog post

Share: Google Search plus your World

Tweet

Google Hotel Finder - Everything you wanted to know

Bookassist Search Marketer Martin Murray discusses Google’s latest experiment, the Google Hotel Finder.

The Google hotel finder is a very interesting development that has the potential to shake up the online market for hotels. As a service, it aims to allow you to search, compare and book hotels from all over the world. It can be accessed at: www.google.com/hotelfinder



Here are some of the key features in the service to date:

1. Search
The main feature of the Google hotel finder is its comprehensive search function. Users can search for hotels by location, price, hotel class and user rating. They can also limit the results shown by using the “shape” tool and specifying a specific region on the map.

2. Date Selection
The hotel finder has a standard date selection feature allowing users to select their check in and check out dates using a calendar.

3. Shortlist
When searching for hotels a user can add hotels to a shortlist and they will then be displayed at the top of the search results page until they leave the hotel finder site.

4. Compared to typical
The compared to typical feature allows a user to compare a hotels current price with its typical price. Google use historical price data from various providers to determine a hotel’s typical price.

5. Ranking
By default Google list the hotels in descending order of their user rating, although they term this “Magic”. The user rating is based solely on reviews and ratings left on various Google properties such as Google places.

6. Hotel Data
Your hotel’s description text, contact details and website address are all taken from the hotels Google Places page. Your hotel’s photos are provided through a partnership with VFM Leonardo and the reviews are taken from Google itself.

7. Prices
Google is partnering with several providers that can provide pricing information for the listed hotels. Google will not deal directly with individual hotels, but Bookassist is currently working with Google on integration so that Bookassist clients can also directly show their prices with expected completion early in 2012.

8. Book
When a user clicks the “Book” button they are presented with a list of prices for the specified hotel. These prices are provided by the various providers which have partnered with Google. Underneath the list of prices there is a direct link to your hotel’s website. This link is included for all hotels and is free.

9. Cost Per Click (CPC)
The current CPC cost is 0.2% of the total quoted booking value. The total quoted booking value is the number of days (taken from the date range selected by the user) multiplied by the price quoted (taken from the selected provider). If the user clicks on the link to your hotel’s website without any pricing information there is no charge for this click.

Appearing on the Google Hotel Finder

The majority of hotels are already included in the hotel finder but some hotels are currently missing and some hotels that are included are only shown if you use the shape tool on the map to include the area where the hotel is physically located. If your hotel is not currently listed please be aware that Google are constantly adding hotels to their database.



Analysis & Opinion

In our opinion, the main positives and challenges of the hotel finder for the online customer and the hotel are listed below.

Key positives
● Clean, uncluttered design.
● Shape tool is useful but only beneficial if you know the area you are visiting.
● Filtering options are useful and easy to use.
● Prices are listed clearly.
● The hotel website link is included automatically and is free.
● Hotels can now compete directly with OTAs.

Challenges
● A user cannot search by hotel name, specific address or landmark.
● Prices are currently displayed in US dollars only.
● English is the only available language.
● Only reviews from Google are listed.
● Some hotels are missing from the finder.
● Not all hotels can show their own prices yet.
● As of mid December, Google is placing its hotel finder as the first sponsored link in search results for hotels in the USA, causing considerable controversy in the PPC market.

Hotel Specific Challenges

Besides the challenges of the hotel finder product there are also some hotel-specific challenges which only you the hotel owner can overcome.

Rate parity – Up until now customers have had to go to multiple websites to check who has the best price. With services such as Google hotel finder they now only have to go to one website. As a result it is now fundamental that hotels have the same rate or better on their own website compared with the OTAs that are selling the hotel’s stock.

Availability – Allocating sufficient availability on your own website is essential if your hotel is to benefit from the hotel finder. Simply put, if Google “hotel finder” is to generate traffic to your website and you do not have sufficient availability on your own website then that traffic will be wasted as the visitor will go elsewhere.

Integration – In order to fully benefit from the hotel finder, full integration with the your hotel’s own booking engine is essential. This means partnering with providers like Bookassist that can provide such integration.

Reviews - At the moment the hotel finder only displays reviews from Google. You should make sure you are reading and reacting to all reviews on Google about your hotel. You should also try and encourage guests to leave reviews on Google to build content for the future.

Paid Advertising

Once you get your prices to display on Google Hotel Finder you are then signing up to a Cost per Click (CPC) advertising service so in certain respects the Google hotel finder is evidence of the shift to paid advertising that is currently taking place. As a result it is important that you are aware of this and ensure that you allocate sufficient marketing spend to paid advertising for 2012 and onwards. The key move in this area was in mid December when Google placed the hotel finder as the first advert result on search pages for hotels in the USA. Expect more moves in this area in the coming months from Google.

Conclusion

It is early days for the Google hotel finder but this combined with Hotel Price ads could be a game changer if this tool becomes popular with users. The main advantage for you as a hotel owner is that it allows you to compete directly with the OTAs without having enormous advertising budgets. In providing such a platform, Google is clearly encouraging more hotels to spend directly on online advertising, rather than letting those few OTAs that dominate the space right now be the only spenders.

Looking ahead it is up to Google to make this product as feature rich, relevant and as functional as possible and to create sufficient awareness of the product with the general public.

For your hotel to benefit as much as possible from the hotel finder it is important that you consider and prepare for the challenges outlined earlier.

--
Bookassist is the technology and online strategy partner for hotels.

Share: Google Hotel Finder - Everything you wanted to know

Tweet

Business Pages for Google Plus

Bookassist's Ciaran Rowe talks about Google+ business pages and how hotels should react to this new platform.

Following its initial limited release in June 2011, the number of users on Google+ rocketed, reaching 25 million users in the first 4 weeks and hitting 40 million in October 2011. The use of Google+ by businesses was banned until this week, when Google announced Google+ pages for business .

The approach taken by Google+ is different to that of Facebook & Twitter, but includes aspects of both. Users can +1 your page, which is similar to a Facebook Like, or they can add your page to their Circles as a page that they are following, similar to following in Twitter. Users can also share the page with people in their circles.



Creating a page

Setting up a page is very straightforward. The first step is to set up a Google+ profile. This can only be done by an individual rather than a business. You will need a Google Account which can then be used to access Google+ . At the moment there is no option to share or transfer access to the page, so be careful what email address you use to set it up.

Once the page is set up, the administrator will have the option of posting as themselves or as the page. You can then can start to create a new page through the set up page. Individual hotels should set up as a local business, whereas chains could set up as a Product or Brand.




Once you add your phone number (including the area code), Google should identify your property from your Google Maps listing, so you just need to select the correct listing if there are more than one, and enter your category (lodging for accommodation providers). From there it is just a case of adding your profile picture and information such as web address and contact details.
The next step is to post information, photos & videos and try to create interesting content that will engage users. As your followers grow, you will then be able to engage with the community and reply to comments and shares.

• Interface - So far the interface is quite basic, so their is no option to personalise your page like Twitter, nor to create landing pages as on Facebook.

• Automation - There are currently no tools to allow automation of posting such as Hootsuite & Tweetdeck etc.

• Multiple Pages - It is possible to set up multiple pages under the same profile, which could be a very useful feature. For example you could set a new page for a spa or leisure centre, or a page for your conference facilities, or even a page for an event such as a Wedding Fair.

• Vanity url - At the moment there is no option to create a ‘vanity url’ so the page names can be quite cumbersome - a long string of numbers such as this: https://plus.google.com/117945956773155200439.

Getting Found

Google recommend adding an icon to your website which links to your Google+ page. (Get the badge here.) This is worth doing, as soon Google will accumulate all your plus ones from various sources, so it is better if they associate your page and your website as one. It will also allow your page to be found using “Direct Connect” which is a new search operator on Google. It allows the user to place a + before a term and see the Google plus page appear in the suggestions, eg +Bookassist . This allows a user to connect directly with a brands page from Google search. (Note: this is feature is not yet available in Europe)

Summary

As the Google+ business page is in it’s early stages, it is difficult to ascertain how useful it will become, but as set up is relatively quick, it seems to be worthwhile starting a page as long as there is someone available to update the page. This is particularly true as Google will inevitably use information on +1’s and pages as a signal for ranking on Google search.

Follow Bookassist's new Google+ page

Share: Business Pages for Google Plus

Tweet

Referral Links - Tripadvisor Business Listing

Bookassist's Martin Murray discusses the use of the Tripadvisor business listing as a referral link.

When it comes to marketing your hotel online your main goal should be to drive as much qualified traffic and revenue through your own website as possible. One way to help with this goal is through the use of referral links.

There are many sources of referral links available and in this article we will be discussing the use of the Tripadvisor business listing as a referral link.

What is all it about?

With over 50 million reviews and an estimated one in every four travelers visiting the site before travelling, Tripadvisor has become the largest and most popular hotel review website.

Tripadvisor launched the business listing back in January 2010 as a way for hotels to promote their listing and to encourage direct contact between the customer and the hotel.

For many people checking hotel reviews is the final stage of their purchasing decision so having your hotel’s contact details present will help increase your chances of a direct booking which could otherwise be gained by a third party website.

Tripadvisor business listing features

There are several features to a Tripadvisor business listing. The main three are listed below.

Contact details displayed
Your hotel’s phone number, website link and email details are displayed under your hotel’s name on your Tripadvisor listing.

Create special offers
With the business listing you can create special offers for your hotel which are then displayed throughout the Tripadvisor website.

Mobile listing is enhanced
When you upgrade to a business listing, visitors viewing your listing on a mobile device will be able to call your hotel and visit your hotel’s website directly.

Cost

Tripadvisor charge a yearly fee to upgrade to the business listing and the cost varies depending on the number of rooms your property has. The average cost for a hotel in Ireland is €1550 pa.
It is worth noting that you can you can cancel your subscription at any time and get your money back for the remainder of your subscription.

So is it worth it?

We have measured two hotels in the study below. Hotel A is ranked in the top 10% for their area while Hotel B is ranked in the top 30%.






Visits – Hotel A received 6345 visits while Hotel B received 674.

(ROI) Return on investment – Hotel A had a return on investment of 44 (for every one euro spent on the business listing 44 was made back) while Hotel B had a ROI of 2.

There are several factors which could explain the large difference in results between both hotels but the main reason is because Hotel A has a much higher Tripadvisor ranking than Hotel B and therefore gets a lot more exposure on the Tripadvisor website.

If you are considering upgrading to the Tripadvisor business listing then we recommend that your hotel should be in the top 15% for your area for the business listing to be beneficial.

Conversion

Conversion rate from the Tripadvisor business listing was quite high for both hotels.
The table below compares the conversion rate from the business listing compared to the average conversion rate for referral links for each hotel’s website.



Is it worth it?

The simple answer is yes, if you have a high Tripadvisor ranking.
The success of the business listing will mainly depend on two factors.

Tripadvisor Ranking – This is by far the biggest factor. The higher your Tripadvisor ranking the more times your hotel will be displayed to visitors. Also, hotels with a high ranking are trusted more as they are seen be of a high quality and therefore visitors are more inclined to learn more about them.
If you are interested in upgrading you’re listing to a business listing but have a low Tripadvisor ranking we would recommend improving your ranking first.

Rate Parity / Availability – The business listing may generate traffic but that does not mean that this traffic will automatically convert into bookings, which is why having a least rate parity and good availability on your own website will help ensure that any traffic generated by the business listing will convert at as high a rate as possible.

If you are interested in upgrading to the Tripadvisor business listing then please contact us at ireland@bookassist.com


Bookassist – Technology & online strategy for hotels

Share: Referral Links - Tripadvisor Business Listing

Tweet

Explosive Mobile Growth in Hotel Bookings

Bookassist CEO Dr Des O'Mahony shares some data on hotel booking performance on mobile platforms, showing the clear and growing opportunities in the area and some surprises in the user patterns.

Bookassist launched its mobile web app solution for hotels in late 2009 (bookassist.org/mobile) and more than 150 hotels and hotel groups are now using the solution. We thought we'd share some of the results we are seeing with usage on mobile, whether regular hotel websites on mobile or mobile web app.

Growth Trends for Hotels
Trends in our data to date strongly indicate that city hotels perform far stronger on mobile than those outside cities, in terms of traffic and in terms of conversion of that traffic to bookings. Also, the lead-in time for bookings on mobile has proved to be very short, with more than 65% of all mobile bookings we track being for within 24 hours of arrival. The necessity of having last-minute availability on mobile is clear for city hotels given this trend.

While city hotels are performing much better on mobile, it is clear from our data that other hotels are also showing mobile business growth, though with a time lag compared to the city properties. We expect to see growth continue in all sectors on mobile, which represents a very real opportunity for hotels in the coming months and years, especially with over 100 million smart devices now being sold per quarter through 2011.

Traffic Growth and Conversion
The graph below shows an example of a small European city hotel group and the evolving mobile business it has seen through 2010 and on to today (the figures have been rounded for clarity but are otherwise accurate). During 2010, the hotel group did not operate a mobile-optimised web solution up to end July, but adopted our mobile solution from the start of August 2010 onwards.

The growth in traffic during the first half of 2010 (blue graph) is attributable to the general mobile traffic growth trend in society based on the explosive sale of smart devices in the last number of years. The standard website that this hotel group used was bookable on mobile, but was not especially optimized for it, and recorded a relatively poor conversion of 1.1% to 1.24% across the six month period.



We introduced the webapp solution and saw an immediate change in conversion from mobile devices from 1.24% to 2.31% in the weeks prior to and after the launch, a clear vindication of optimized mobile strategy. The hotel group also indicated the availability of a mobile optimized solution on its online and offline marketing, helping increase the general mobile visitor growth trend from that time onwards (blue graph). Mobile advertising was also initiated, though its impact compared to the general mobile traffic growth trend is hard to quantify. Critically, the conversion continued to grow to finish the year at an impressive 2.91% conversion across all mobile platforms.

Revenue Growth
More importantly, the combination of capitalizing on traffic growth and an optimized webapp to drive conversion has had a very significant revenue impact. Bookings revenue from pre to post webapp time periods has risen from about €2,500 per month for the group to over €20,000 booking revenue per month in 2010 (green graph). This now represents a significant percentage of the group's online revenue and by the third quarter of 2011 had reached €35,000 in monthly revenue, with a conversion creeping up to 2.99%, a very welcome conversion rate for any hotel on any platform.

Overall for clients with this profile, we are seeing up to 5% of online revenue now attributable to mobile devices in 2011, from basically zero at the start of 2010.

Platform Specifics - Usage
Market figures for device sales currently show that about 50% of smart devices sold are Android-based. Despite this, only 15% of our figures show traffic from Android devices (see below). This trend is reflected in general web access data that tends to show Apple's iOS devices taking up to 80% of all online mobile traffic. It appears that since the Apple iOS devices are more of a premium product, their users are more committed users and more internet-savvy, while many Android phones are being supplied by telecom operators as their standard phones, even to users who have no interest in internet access. While our webapp is optimized for both iOS and Android, it is vital that iOS is optimized for in the first case since it represents the largest market right now.




Platform Specifics - Conversion
When we look at conversion figures, below, an extremely interesting picture emerges. Android users are converting way below the average, at less than 0.8%. iPhone users convert more than three times better at 2.5%, while iPad users convert at a whopping 8 times their Android cousins, at 6.5%. The iPad conversion in particular is strongly surprising and again reflects the attitude of the iPad use to internet usage and engagement. It is clearly vital that hotels consider targeting this platform preferentially and ensure their websites are optimized for it.



Summary
Mobile is a very real opportunity. Volume is growing, conversion can often be higher than regular web access and is definitely higher when optimized mobile solutions are deployed. iPad stands out as a clear opportunity and with the rate of sales of iPads and their dominance among travelers, it is clearly a target platform above all others. Short term booking is dominating and last minute availability on mobile is critical for successful conversion.

Share: Explosive Mobile Growth in Hotel Bookings

Tweet

Mobile strategy push by Apple - it's the free one that counts!

There's been a lot of talk of "disappointment" at Apple's announcement yesterday of the souped-up iPhone4s. Industry watchers and punters alike were of course holding their breath for the mythical iPhone5.

But it was not to be, yet. And in the noise about what does and what does not constitute a major upgrade, the true strategic push was missed.

Apple has made major under-the-bonnet changes to the new iPhone4s to sell at the premium price point, and yes the current iPhone4 stays on the books and gets a big price drop when taken under contract. But the real game changer is that the iPhone3Gs will continue to be available and will now be offered for free from the carrier networks for contract or pay as you go customers.

Apple's premium products have not 'til now been considered accessible enough to ruffle the cheap Android market. The free iPhone 3Gs could well be the thing that does it, bringing a boatload more users into Apple's smartphone bracket that otherwise could not afford, but would have preferred, Apple.

The swelling of users on the platform is a good thing for the mobile sales potential for hotels through platforms such as Bookassist's web app which is already representing over 5% of reservations through Bookassist systems.

Share: Mobile strategy push by Apple - it's the free one that counts!

Tweet

Daily Deals Sites - Worth The Risk For Sellers?

Bookassist's Roshan McPartland discusses the pros and cons of flash sales for hotels and offers advice on best practice

We All Love Deals
We all love a great deal or bargain and the higher the discount the better. Gone are the days where 10% off a gym membership or 15% off a meal for 2 in a city centre restaurant will whet the appetite. Today people are hungry for more deals with bigger discounts and deals offering in excess of 50% are just a click away, thanks to the rise of group buying and daily deal websites.
There is a lot of hype surrounding sites such as Groupon and Livingsocial, the big two globally, and many believe that they are fundamentally changing the way that we purchase goods or services online. In Ireland there are other more local companies who have entered the market, all of whom bombard our inboxes (if we sign up) with daily deals selling anything from spa treatments to tickets to top visitor attractions.

It’s worth remembering that there is nothing really new or innovative about group selling or daily deals, they’ve been around in some guise for a very long time, though their move into accommodation is more recent. But the one key thing that is new is that they have been able to leverage their popularity on social media sites through people sharing their deals amongst their own connections. As a result of tapping into the social media phenomenon, these sites are growing and growing fast and millions of dollars have been invested into these companies.

History of Coupons
Let’s look at where the whole concept or idea of coupons or vouchers with discounts started. It is widely believed that as far back as 1887 Coca-Cola invented the first coupon. Coupons offering complimentary glasses of Coca-Cola were mailed to potential customers around the United States. Between 1894 and 1913 over 8.5 million free drinks were redeemed. This particular advertising technique certainly put Coca-Cola on the map.

During the 1930s and the Great Depression, coupons and their usage grew. By the late 1930s, supermarkets began opening up in most major cities across the United States. However they struggled to bring in customers, most of whom at the time preferred to shop locally. As a result, the larger supermarkets turned to “coupons” in an attempt to lure loyal customers away from their local shops and into the bright lights of larger supermarkets.

The Advertising Advantage
Fast forward to today and the internet and social media explosion have been the big drivers of huge growth and success of the group buying and daily deal sites. Whether you’re looking for a hefty discount off a 3 course meal in a top city restaurant or a weekend break away in a luxurious castle, the chances are you’ll be able to find one. Offers such as these don’t come around every day and you have to act fast. It’s creating this sense of immediacy that has also driven vouchers sales and smart marketers are tapping into the whole area of so-called “Flash Sales”.

Again, there is nothing new or novel about selling items for a limited time only. The idea of flash sales is fairly straightforward and it’s a selling technique that has been used over the years by many companies to sell distressed inventory or stock. Even Volkswagen decided to dip their toes in the water by teaming up with Gilt.com, an e-commerce company who specialise in flash sales. In the US, Volkswagen recently offered 3 Jetta Sedans for $5,995 (normal Retail price $15,995). The offer was only accessible through mobile applications on iPhone, iPad and Android devices. If you were one of the lucky ones, you walked away with a brand new car for less than $6,000. For everyone else that entered, there was a consolation prize of a voucher that could be redeemed in one of Volkswagens dealerships. This form of marketing created over 55,000 qualified leads for Volkswagen and in addition to that it generated huge PR for the company, for a three-car discount totalling $30,000 off the recommended retail price. So apart from trying to sell stressed inventory or stock, flash sales may be a good way to create some “buzz” about a new product and to gather qualified contact details, and it’s for this reason that the once-off approach of flash sales may prove to be more attractive for luxury brands than participating in group buying sites or daily deal sites on a more regular basis.

Daily Deals and Flash Deals in Travel
In terms of the travel industry we have recently seen moves by some OTAs such as Booking.com, Expedia and Orbitz beginning to move into flash sales. In June 2011 Groupon and Expedia shook hands to launch a new travel deals product. For both companies it makes sense as they now have one of the largest customer databases available with an extensive product offering as well as a truly global presence.

Forrester research expects that this particular partnership will be good for both companies. However for the suppliers in Travel Industry, caution is warranted and the flash sale approach might mean any or all of the following:

• Higher costs: Hotels that normally sell rooms at, say, €100 would have to discount down to €50 and then from the €50 give €25 to Groupon & Expedia. This equates to 75% discount off normal rates, and is clearly not a sustainable revenue model. It is however a viable short term marketing spend if used wisely, but the total advantage needs to be carefully scrutinised.
  
• Loss of revenue: Regular customers who would have bought anyway at regular price may switch to coupons, a loss that’s hard to quantify but could be significant in the overall scheme.
  
• Displacement: How many customers that would have paid full price cannot now buy because the rooms are already sold to coupon buyers?
  
• Revenue management issues: As with most daily deal sites, it’s difficult for hotels to use blackout dates or restrict offer to certain dates. Forrester feels that because of this lack of control over inventory this may place huge strain on accommodation providers’ revenue management models if they partake in deals too much.
  
• Negative impact on online distribution: To redeem the vouchers, buyers will have to call to book and for most accommodation providers moving business away from online to offline is not the preferred choice as it reduces the potential for lower cost repeat business online.
  
• Reliance: Hotels many years ago used OTAs to get extra occupancy, but became increasingly reliant on them, with many now over reliant on this high-cost channel. Likewise, in the recent recession, deep discounting was practiced as a quick cash earner but hotels became reliant on those price points and have found it hard to raise rates. The danger now is potential reliance on flash sales as a salve when things are not looking great, leading to a reliance on them and their high costs.

In effect, this is fast becoming another distribution channel but with far bigger discounts and much higher pressure on price, especially at a time where most hotels are fighting hard to protect their rate and more importantly protect their own online brand.

Winners and Losers
Hotels and other travel suppliers must tread carefully if they are considering using flash sales sites or group buying sites. While they may on the surface appear to provide extensive advertising for a new businesses or new products, the reality is that they may not generate revenue for everyone. Research carried out by Rice University in the US on 150 business across 19 cities and 13 product categories that ran a deal on a daily site found that 66% were profitable, 34% were unprofitable. Interestingly, over 40% of the business said that they wouldn’t run a daily deal again. According to the same research 80% of those who purchased vouchers were new clients and more significantly only 19.9% of the deal users later returned for full price purchases, showing little loyalty.
Statistics and facts aside, there is a battle being currently fought and there’s only room for one winner.

Tips to consider
If you are thinking of using a flash sale or daily deal site consider the following tips before you do the full cost calculation.

• Do you really need it? It can be a good advertising opportunity, but it does associate you with discounting, which can be a turn off for existing loyal customers. So think long and hard about the overall impact.
  
• Try to stagger your deal: Instead of giving away €60 worth of food for €30 for 1 visit, why not look at doing €20 for €10 but over 3 visits.
  
• Create a specialised and clearly differentiated package: Avoid creating similar offers with your normal services so that this is clearly a one-off special.
  
• Don’t cannibalize your existing base: Don’t forget about your existing client base. Reward these guests first before jumping into a deal.
  
• Offer additional service instead of a product: Offering a service is less costly than offering a product.
  
• Put a limit on the number of vouchers that can be sold: There’s no such thing as too much business but in this case there may be. Your inability to provide the product or service may result in hundreds of complaints or reviews and worse still these complaints/reviews may appear online.
  
• Focus on upselling and repeat business: Ensure that you have a plan of action for people who do arrive with a voucher on how to upsell other products or services and ensure you get these buyers back again in the future at regular price. Loyalty is difficult to develop in discount users.
  
• Build your marketing database: Collect as much data as you can from the people who purchase the vouchers, especially email addresses, for future marketing. Are you marketing properly anyway? If you are, this is valuable data to pay for. If you are not, this is less valuable than you might think.
  

Some good articles to consider are:

"The Math of Daily Deals"
http://blog.rushrez.com/post/10205052405/the-math-of-daily-deals-could-groupons-actually-be

"Doing the math on a daily deal"
http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/23/doing-the-math-on-a-groupon-deal/

--
Roshan McPartland is Senior Account Manager at Bookassist

Share: Daily Deals Sites - Worth The Risk For Sellers?

Tweet

Google+ and Hotels: What to do?

Bookassist's Paul Ferry talks about Google+ features and what hotels should be doing with the new social platform

Google+ looks like it has been created to compete with Facebook's global domination of social media market. When it first launched Google+ profiles could only be set up by receiving an invitation from another Google+ user but now anyone with a Google account can sign up. Google+ boasts features that are different from Facebook but some features are similar. From our initial impressions, it looks like Google have got the formula right this time around compared to their last failed attempt at social media, Google Buzz. But the correct formula is not a guarantee of success.

Google+'s main features include Hangouts, Circles, Sparks and Huddle, here is a brief explanation of each:

Hangouts allow up to ten people to group video chat and watch YouTube videos. When you start the video, the group chat mutes everyone by default and a ‘Push to Talk’ button lets everyone enjoy YouTube videos and discuss it with comments.

Circles enables users to create mini friend lists within a larger network. Easy customisation of groups with drag-and-drop actions to limit who's updating can be seen.

Sparks lets users organise their content according to their interest. Sparks delivers articles, blogs and other content from the entire web depending upon terms that users enter. They can save terms and return to them at any time when they want to browse new content and they can add circles or individuals to an item to share it.

Huddle allows users to easily stay in touch while they're on the go. Users can text groups of people or individual friends in Google+ Mobile. They can also receive a new message in Huddle, Google+ sends a push notification to their phone.


What should hotels do?

At the moment Google+ is for individual use only and Google are actively shutting down profiles that are being used by businesses or are not the user's real name. There has been an official statement from Google saying that they are currently developing a business account and have been Beta testing it with selected businesses.

So for now, hotels should not create a Google+ profiles, instead they should wait for the release of the Google+ business profile which Google says is coming in the next few months.

Google+ looks like it could rock Facebook's boat due to its innovative and easy to use functionalities. It will be interesting to see if be people will actually stop using Facebook and use Google+ for their social media conversations or they could start to use different services offered by each platform. Figures show that Google+ acquired 20 million users in the first 3 weeks of its full release but a more recent blog article (19th August 2011) stated that 83% of users are labeled as inactive. The lack of user engagement was also an initial problem for Facebook and Twitter.

It will also be interesting to see how they allocate advertising space on Google+, if the advert campaigns can be controlled from Google Adwords or will Google+ have a completely separate advertising platform. Currently there are no advertisements on Google+ in its present state but knowing Google there will be something soon on the horizon. Google have also integrated Google+ users' +1 button activities to display on the user's Google+ profile, very similar to what Facebook already does with their “Send” and “Like” buttons.

Google+ has some great new features but only time will tell the success of Google's latest venture into the social media arena.

Share: Google+ and Hotels: What to do?

Tweet

Fixing PPC budgets to previous revenue will fail - Part1

Bookassist's Ecommerce Project Manager Mark Dolan explains why fixing Pay Per Click (PPC) monthly budget as a percentage of the overall website revenue from the previous month is a mistake

Many hotels discuss a "lower risk" strategy of fixing their budget for the current month's PPC campaigns based on a percentage of the previous month's revenue. We don't consider this to be a sound strategy for online revenue growth. There are two reasons:

1. High performance in PPC will be restricted due to lack of budget
2. Low performing PPC is masked by overall growth and will be allowed continue to overspend.

To illustrate these cases I will use the following example:

Situation
Suppose a company had a revenue figure of €300,000 in July and currently has three salesmen: "direct", "organic" and "referrals". The MD hired a new salesman "PPC" in August who has promised great returns on investment (ROI) of greater than 10:1. There is a cost however of €100 per sales call. To minimise costs the MD set the salesman's PPC’s budget at 1% of overall monthly revenue, so his budget for August is €3,000 which works out at 30 sales calls.

Scenario 1
PPC salesman gets fantastic results, an ROI of 20:1 resulting in revenue of €60,000. Salesman PPC thinks he can double the number of sales calls for the next month and bring revenue generated by him up to €120,000. He will not get the opportunity. The other 3 salesmen didn't do as well so the overall revenue figure stayed at €300,000. The MD understood PPC performed very well but stayed with the formula of 1%. So PPC was restricted to just 30 sales calls for September instead of the 60 he had hoped for. This equates to a missed opportunity to have increased revenue by a further €60,000.
Result: High performing salesmen PPC is penalised by other poor performers and will be restricted due to lack of budget.

Scenario 2
PPC salesman was all promises and only brought in €6,000 from his 30 sales calls. The MD is obviously disappointed but has signed up for a contract so continues with PPC hoping the salesman improves. At the end of the month however the other 3 salesmen perform quite well so overall revenue grows to €350,000. This means that instead of reducing the budget for the PPC and taking time to fix the problem, he actually gets to increase the number of sales calls in the following month.
Result: Poor performing salesman PPC is masked by overall growth and will be allowed continue to overspend.

Solution
Set an advertising budget for your PPC (Pay Per Click) campaigns and vary those budgets depending on the PPC campaign performance to maximise revenue potential.

---
Mark Dolan is Ecommerce Project Manager with Bookassist.
He manages the Traffic Builder department that manages online marketing for hotels.

Share: Fixing PPC budgets to previous revenue will fail - Part1

Tweet

Using Browser Start Pages

Bookassist's John Braine discusses some better options for your browser start page to help you make the most of your browsing experience.

This is the first of hopefully many blog posts I'll be writing which aren't particularly related to hotels or hospitality but will still be useful for discovering general tech tips, productivity tips, and web design & development advice and techniques.

---

Having a good browser start page, for either your browser home page or a new tab, can bring you to your most frequently used web sites quickly, without typing into the address bar or browsing your favourites/bookmarks. I've toyed with a few start page options over the years but I've found a lot of them to be either pig ugly or not very useful.

In general, widget-based start pages like myYahoo, netvibes and iGoogle tend to be front-runners in the ugliness stakes. A page full of widgets can quickly turn into an an eyesore, and you get sick of starting with a page that isn't so easy on the eye. Unless you really want news, weather, and stocks every time you open your browser or a new tab (I sure don't) you tend to use these start pages to jump straight to your email, in which case they're not very useful either, and setting http://gmail.com as your homepage is a better option, which is what I often revert to doing.

Don't forget most browsers will give you the option of setting your browser start page and subsequent new tabs to different settings. So setting your homepage to gmail and subsequent tabs to a more useful start page, might be a good option.

One start page I did like for a while was http://myfav.es/ but it's just that bit too minimal, and lacking some functionality that other start pages offer. It started off as fav4.org, with only four favourites on the page, but now you can add lot more. Though you can only choose from their list of options, so it can be a bit limiting.

I tried symbaloo more recently but again I tired of the design very quickly, and Symbaloo is now on my ugly scrapheap along with the others. They really could do with a few themes to pick from rather then the one dated-looking design.

A very useful option that a lot of these Start pages miss out on is a dynamically generated set of your mostly used, or recently visited web pages. And that's where plug-ins tend to work a bit better. Which brings us to my current favourite choice for my start page - The Incredible Start page, a plug-in for Chrome. If you don't use Chrome, consider using it as I do; I use chrome strictly for personal use and Firefox for work. Many people assume they should only use one browser but using different browsers for different situations has many advantages.

The Incredible Start Page ticks all the boxes for me; it looks good, it creates an editable list of links from your favourites, it has a column of recently used sites, and another for external bookmarks like Delicious. And it loads very quickly in a new tab.



A similar plug-in available for Firefox is New Tab Jumpstart it has all the functionality, but unfortunately none of the eye candy.



So - it's useful to set for the home page / new tab, but only a bit better than what you get with a new tab in Internet Explorer, or Safari. And it just adds a bit more functionality to the popular Speed dial plug-in for Firefox.


Bonus: Minimal bookmarks

There's a bookmark hack I've been using for years now that I find quite useful to keep a big list of favourites on display. It works on all browsers and is very quick and easy. If your bookmarks/favourite toolbar is displayed, right-click one of your favourites and select properties or edit. Then completely delete the title/name. Most sites that you use regularly will have an easily recognizable icon.



So my recommendation is either use the Incredible Start Page with chrome, for your home page and new tabs, or in Firefox use my minimal bookmarks method above in combination with New Tab Jumpstart. And try to keep your personal browsing & favourites out of the way in a different browser.
John Braine

Share: Using Browser Start Pages

Tweet

Playing Catch-up - The Hotel Star System

Bookassist's Paul Dooley discusses hotel rating systems fit for the internet age

Irish hospitality operators, due in no small part to the celtic tiger decade, now preside over hotel stock that is of an exceptionally high standard and is rated as such. However service, delivery and the intangibles in many cases either exceed or fall below the hotels' designated star-rating. Far from being alone, worldwide the anomalies are even more stark. However Europe is playing a lead role in changing the status quo and seeking alternatives to the traditional approach to start rating.

The System Is Broken

The question of Hotel Star Ratings has always been a contentious subject among hoteliers and consumers alike. Too often the criticism from both parties relates to the fact that current star-ratings place undue emphasis on the physical product (buildings/facilities) and too little on subjective criteria related to ambience, charm and the service element.

Hotel star ratings are general quality indicators and should be regarded as just that - broad guidelines in measuring a hotel’s general quality, amenities, and customer satisfaction. Ratings are not meant to be perfectly precise critiques. All of the amenities and services that a property offers may not necessarily be reflected. Due to differing parameters and criteria from hotel to hotel, along with the incredibly wide range of customer preferences and individual expectations no system can guarantee exact accuracy in every element of all ratings.

A failure over time to fully appreciate the fact that consumer expectations have undergone a fundamental shift has led to the undermining of the current star rating system. A number of factors have contributed to this disconnect.

Consumers don’t understand how they are determined
The process behind hotels getting evaluated is not very clear and in most cases known only to hoteliers.

Many Ratings systems just tick boxes
Old habits die hard and hotel rating systems even now continue to put great emphasis on ticking off big checklists resulting in a star rating. What matters to today’s consumer is very different than what general factors ratings organizations assume will matter. The meaning of "standard" has changed. Arguably, free Wi-Fi has more appeal now than whether a property has two restaurants or a lift.

Ratings Systems are fragmented
Accreditation systems can come from a wide variety of sources, including the government, tourism bodies, commercial industry organizations and sometimes even the operators themselves. How and by whom the rating standard is applied varies widely as there is no global standard despite an attempt through the World Hotel Rating (WHR) project, which notably aims to set international classification standards and rating criteria along the lines of a world star-rating system.

For example, here is the state of play in some of the main world regions:
• Asia - No Common Rating system.
• Latin America - Government ratings in many cases are for life or hotels are self rating.
• USA - No national rating standard
• Europe - HOTREC as an umbrella organization in Europe has attempted to bring order in hotel rating to the continent through it’s European Hospitality Quality Scheme (EHQ) and has accredited the existing national inspection bodies for hotel rating. Under the patronage of HOTREC the hotels associations of several european countries have created the Hotelstars Union whose classification system has now been adopted by 10 European countries. The harmonized criteria set by the Hotelstars Union is based on customer research and combines traditional offline and modern online criteria. See http://www.hotelstars.eu

Disparate Specifics are used
While adherence by accreditation bodies to the general principle of written standards or established criteria regarding the property’s facilities and services is the norm, the specifics vary greatly.

Star ratings have been devalued
There is a recent worrying trend of hotel marketing departments trumpeting the fact that they are 6,7 star (or even one 10 star hotel in the Middle East) even before opening their doors. As no organization or formal body awards or recognizes any rating over five star deluxe such claims are meaningless and predominantly used for advertising purposes.

Service is not properly assessed
A lack of clarity in measuring the “service” provision by hotels has always been the failing of ratings systems. They usually assess service in a formal and out-of-date way. Fussy overly-attentive service standards have been exchanged in all types of hotels for informal, friendly, non-intrusive service. In most cases this change is being driven by a customer-centric focus from the hotel.

Guest reviews or a single inspection?
If hundreds of recent guest reviews tell you how a hotel is performing, isn’t that more convincing than the fact that an inspector ticks a checklist annually at best?

Social Media - The real game changer
Since the advent of social media, the way consumers make decisions has changed dramatically. Increasingly consumers are not accepting hotel marketers spin or officialdom (in the guise of hotel star ratings) at face value. Instead, they are turning to peers - other travelers and third party-retailers - for information and advice, particularly in relation to the “service” aspect of their hotel experience.

The void left by the undermining of hotel rating systems is increasingly being filled by the consumer. Hotels must now revisit how they are perceived and proactively manage their reputation through social media channels and review sites.

It’s not enough anymore to simply "Join the Conversation". Hotels should be tracking feedback, RoI and conversions with insight tools such as Facebook Insights, TripAdvisor’s Owners Center and Google Analytics among others. The next level up is a social media monitoring tool which collates and analyzes reviews across the web. TrustYou is one such analysis tool which Bookassist has integrated into its Reputation Alert suite of services. Used properly, a social media monitoring tool will help you turn guest feedback into a competitive advantage to be used to improve daily operations, organizational culture and best practice.

Conclusion
Where hotel star ratings certainly have value is in validating if a property maintains its quality standards or not over time. Whether this is aligned or otherwise with the new direct sources and weight of independent evaluation of services, facilities and most importantly user experience is the key.

The ultimate measure of a hotel’s quality may perhaps be assessed by posing the question "would you be willing to recommend it?". Are the current star rating systems best positioned to answer this or do guest review sites by their nature deliver a more compelling reply?

Star ratings may be outdated but that doesn’t mean that a better system could not be designed which incorporates the best of both worlds, merging objective criteria with user generated reviews. The industry body in Switzerland, Hotellerie Suisse, is already following this dual path. A radical overhaul announced only last month of the star classification system by the Organization of German Hotels & restaurants (DEHOGA) will now also include a mixture of expert opinion and customer reviews.

Earlier this year the UK’s Tourism’s minister stated that the UK Government is considering phasing out government-sanctioned star ratings of various lodging accommodation in favour of traveler-written reviews. The idea may be a little before its time but it's a clear sign of the change that’s afoot.

In today’s ever-changing competitive world, hotels need above all else to rapidly elevate the visibility (offline or online) of whatever credible ratings and reviews that do exist for their businesses, along with the established star-rating they have earned. The customer is no longer just assessing your rating, the customer is actively determining it.

---

Paul Dooley is Director of Client Services for Bookassist in Ireland

Share: Playing Catch-up - The Hotel Star System

Tweet

Why You Need Reputation Management

Bookassist's Des O'Mahony outlines why your hotel needs to think very seriously about Reputation Management software and why manual trawling of the web is no longer enough.

Restaurants have lived and died by critics' reviews for years. For hotels, reviews are relatively recent. And many hotels don't like them at all. But bemoaning online reviews by customers solves nothing. Hotels need to engage with online reviews for many reasons, not least of which is the incredible opportunity it offers for free marketing and influence.



Bookassist has launched the Reputation Alert service to help hotels deal with their reviews online, to show hotels how to turn information into corrective action plans for negative reviews, and into marketing opportunities for positive reviews. It is one of the most valuable tools available to hoteliers today, and only costs the equivalent of about one room-night per month.

Here are four simple reasons why you need this product.

It's not just TripAdvisor
The largest volume of reviews for your hotel may be on TripAdvisor, Booking and Expedia. But only concentrating on them is not a good idea. In fact, the sheer "size" of those brands has led many people to ignore them and instead seek what they consider to be more "genuine" or "considered" reviews on smaller specialist sites. After all, if you are a specific type of traveller, it is far more relevant for you to read reviews from like-minded people rather than the mass herd. As a result, these smaller more specialised sites, often in languages other than English, can also have a disproportionately larger influence on your potential guests. But are you monitoring them?

Bookassist Reputation Alert monitors hundreds of sites, not just the top ones, and delivers reviews from them all directly into your hotel administration system. It even trawls Social Media sites to see if there is mention of your hotel. It analyses the wording of the reviews, in multiple languages, and tells you whether they are positive or negative and what areas of your business they refer to. It saves you hours and hours of time, but more importantly it ensures that issues get to you fast so you can take corrective action before they damage your valuable business.

Time Is Money
Being able to assess all recent reviews from hundreds of sites in one single online area is a huge labour-saver. You can focus on action plans to correct issues raised in reviews, rather than spending that time trying to find and assess reviews online. With semantic analysis of the review language built into Bookassist Reputation Alert, you don't even need to read the reviews but can get an instant assessment of whether they are positive or negative. For any hotelier that values their time and their reputation, it's a no-brainer.

But you can also collect reviews on your top 5 competitors and see where they are slipping up, allowing you to jump in and fill the gap with website text or special offers directed specifically at their weaknesses. This is very valuable strategic information available at a click.


Actions Count, Not Words
There is little point in monitoring reviews at all if they are not going to lead to action plans. With automatic analysis of ratings and reviews to assess what your customers think of your services across areas such as staff, food and beverage, wellness, lobby, room decor, internet services etc, you can quickly focus on the real priorities and issue action plans to your responsible staff.

Because Bookassist Reputation Alert tracks your average score in these different service areas over time, you can see if your scores are improving or even set targets for scores to be reached by those staff responsible for different service areas in your organization. You can generate weekly or monthly reports on where you stand for use at staff meetings. Improving service levels based on smart analysis of priorities allows you to focus your spend and efforts on the right things, therefore reducing negativity online and increasing your potential revenue. It's like having an extremely meticulous and expensive brand consultant sitting there with you each and every day - without the associated cost.

Their Opinion Matters, Not Yours
With Bookassist Reputation Alert, you can also see what kind or category of guests are using your hotel. While you may consider yourself as, for example, a business hotel, or a family hotel etc, you may be surprised to find from detailed reviews analysis that the majority of your guests actually consider you to be a city centre hotel first and foremost, or a romantic hotel, or a great hotel for sports events etc. In other words, analysing the guest perception of your hotel from feedback can help you reposition your hotel online, offering packages that suit the majority of your guests and tapping into your real potential. This kind of invaluable insight into your true customer base can only be gleaned from analysing hundreds of reviews automatically and continuously, a critical but costly job to do manually but one which Bookassist Reputation Alert excels at far more quickly and far more cheaply.

If you're doing well, you should boast about it to your potential guests, by displaying a seal of approval showing your average rating right on your website, automatically updated as reviews are collected and analyzed.

These are just some of the reasons why reputation management can improve your bottom line quickly and effectively. To read more about Reputation Alert, see http://bookassist.org/reputation

Share: Why You Need Reputation Management

Tweet

Target Facebook Fans by Language and Location

Bookassist's Paul Ferry shows how you can make use of Facebook's location and language features to target more relevant posts to parts of your fanbase.

Facebook provides a useful feature in the Status box on your Facebook wall that allows you to target your fans with by location and/or language. Hotels may not be aware that they can use this to their advantage with their posts.

The targeting feature is extremely useful to hotels on the continent that would like to separately target their native language speaking fans and their English speaking fans from the one hotel Facebook Fan page. It can also be useful for hotels to directly target certain countries or cities where their Facebook Fans are located.

Before we look at how to use Status box feature to target your hotel's varied Facebook Fan base, we will analyse the hotel's Facebook Insights to determine the demographics of the hotel’s Facebook Fans.

1. Analyse Facebook Insights


To analyse your hotel's Facebook Insights simply visit facebook.com/insights or click the "View Insights" link on the right hand column of your hotel's fan page when logged in. Once you have accessed the Insights section for your page, click the "Users" link in the left hand column of the page.


Figure 1. Facebook Insights, Demographics graphs found in the User section.

From this data we can determine the demographics of your hotel's fan base. In this case, a quick look shows that the majority of fans are located in Ireland but there is a substantial amount of fans located in other European countries. English is the predominant language with an even split of Italian, Spanish and French speaking fans. Considering this information, posting in English will cover the majority of the fan base in most countries but posting in other languages to reach out to everyone would be highly recommended. Another additional observation is the town/cities column. Using this information your hotel can target specialised posts to smaller demographics.


2. Targeting Posts by Location



With Facebook Insights you have a better idea of who you should target with your posts. To activate the post targeting feature simply begin to type in the Status box and a drop-down button appears beside the "Share" button. By default this drop-down is set to "Everyone". Simply click on the drop-down and select "Customise".


Figure 2. Simply click on the “Everyone” drop-down and click the “Customise” option

Choose "Customise" and a pop-up window appears. In the “Location” field of the pop-up begin to type the country or countries you would like to target your hotel’s post. Facebook will automatically generate a list of countries to select from.

Figure 3. Facebook will automatically generate a list of countries

To further target your post to a cities or towns in a particular country, select the country first and then select the radio button "By City". Similar to the country selection field, Facebook automatically generates a list of cities or towns in your selected country so you can enter multiple cities.

Figure 4. Facebook will automatically generate a list of cities or towns

Once finished, click "OK". After you have finished writing your post click “Share” and only the selected fan base will see that post in their newsfeed. (The post will still appear to everyone on your own Facebook page.)

3.Targeting Posts by Language

Targeting posts by languages requires the same steps as targeting by location. Select the "Customise" option from the drop-down beside the "Share" button and the pop-up will appear. In the “Languages” field simply begin to type the language or languages you would like to target.

Figure 5. Facebook will automatically generate a list of languages

4.Targeting by both countries and languages



Follow the steps mentioned in the previous points to combine choices for location and for language.

Figure 6. Both language and location targeting

Different nationalities have different travel habits, and take holidays at different times of the year for example. They also have different interests in terms of what your hotel or location offers. The above steps can help hotels to more strongly target certain demographic groups with special offers or more relevant information rather than always using a “catch all” approach. This can increase interaction with your posts, and hence conversion.

Share: Target Facebook Fans by Language and Location

Tweet

Guaranteed Bookings on Facebook: 5 Tips on How To Succeed

Bookassist's Paul Ferry outlines a winning formula for guaranteed success in generating revenue through Facebook.

Bookassist Apps For Facebook were successfully launched at the end of April 2011. With hundreds of hotels worldwide already using the Bookassist Apps on their Facebook pages, it is now time to see how hotels can use the apps to their full potential and earn extra revenue using the power of Facebook.

At Bookassist, we have put together some tips to successfully generate a new revenue stream for your hotel on Facebook using the Bookassist Apps For Facebook. The following tips are based on research and tracking of revenue-generating promotional pieces on Facebook using only the hotel’s Facebook fan base and the Bookassist Apps For Facebook.

1. Get In Front Of Your Fans - When to Post

Remember that your hotel’s fans on Facebook receive your hotel’s posts in their news feed on their own Facebook page. They don’t need to be on your hotel’s Facebook page to begin interacting with you. The news feed is where your hotel can constantly get in front of your fans. The key to success is that your hotel needs to post their promotional content as frequently as possibly (but not overkill) to ensure visibility to all of their Facebook fan base. Without telling your hotel’s fans about the latest promotions regularly and at the right times, more than likely they will not interact or not even see the promotional text in their feed.

Remember this is free - there are no advertising costs, there are no pay per click costs, and it is targeted directly at people who have already expressed a direct interest in your product. This is an opportunity not to be missed.

From our research, posting between the hours of 7pm and 10pm will get a higher interaction from your hotel’s fans. Posting throughout the day will receive a substantial amount of views from your hotel’s fans but their interaction isn't as high as later in the day. Research has also shown that weekends can be a good time to post for higher post interaction, but the amount of views will be substantially lower compared to weekdays.

2. Strong Call To Action

Posts should always include links to wherever your hotel’s fans can buy the special offer or view details of the promotion. This includes linking fans directly to the Bookassist Apps for Facebook tabs on your hotel’s Facebook fan page. Adding simple and attractive special offer or promotion related images, or videos, will also improve your fans’ interaction.

Another powerful and simple way to raise your fans’ interaction when they visit your hotel’s fan page is to design a descriptive Facebook profile image that features a strong call to action. Your hotel should design their Facebook profile image to clearly indicate where the Bookassist Apps for Facebook buttons are located. Figure 1 shows two examples of simple but effective Facebook profile image redesigns that encourage interaction.

Figure 1. Making use of the profile image

Sending an ezine, newsletter or mail shot to your hotel’s contacts referring to your Facebook page’s latest additions (i.e. the Bookassist Apps for Facebook tabs) can also generate awareness of the apps tabs and the new buying facilities on your hotel’s Facebook fan page. It may not convert now but it plants the seed for future conversion.

3. Use The Full Power Of The Bookassist Apps For Facebook

Bookassist developed a suite of apps that hotels can use to gain revenue on Facebook. We have detailed how each app can by utilised to its best ability and functionality.

The Bookassist Special Offers App has shown itself to be the most powerful app of the suite to entice your hotel’s fans to buy. This app has the ability to either show all your hotel’s special offers, a few of your hotel’s special offers, or just show one special offer at a time. This can be extremely powerful if you are promoting the hotel’s latest special offers, trying to fill low occupancy dates with a special offer, or having a special offer sale. For help with setting up your Bookassist Special Offers, simply contact your Bookassist account manager.

Figure 2. Bookassist Special Offers App for Facebook

The Bookassist Book Now App allows fans to make reservations just like on your hotel’s website. This app should be promoted by you as a new facility to make a direct reservation. As mentioned previously, simply designing a new Facebook profile image for your hotel can be very affective way to make your hotel’s fans aware of the Bookassist Book Now App. The app can also be used in conjunction with Bookassist Promo Codes that can be entered in the check availability box to provide your hotel’s fans with discounted rates or special offers. We can configure the hotel’s promo code to be automatically displayed to your hotel’s fans in the check availability box, if the hotel wishes.

Figure 3. Bookassist Book Now App for Facebook

Another valuable attribute to the Bookassist Book Now app and Bookassist Special Offers app is that only people who “Like” your hotel’s fan page will see your hotel’s promo code or special offers. If they do not “Like” the page they will be greeted with messages encouraging them to “Like” the page before they can avail of offers.

The Bookassist Vouchers App can be used to sell and promote your online vouchers. This app can be particularly powerful to promote your hotel’s vouchers around peak voucher sales times, for example promoting online vouchers at Christmas time. Promote the new voucher buying facility by simply adding a link to the Bookassist Vouchers App to your posts.

4. Make it Exclusive

From our research, there are a few specific actions that contribute to converting your hotel’s fans from lookers to bookers. Actions such as constant promotion of the Bookassist Apps For Facebook in your hotel’s posts and redesigning your hotel’s profile image to indicate the location of the app buttons certainly work. But these are just steps to make your hotel’s fans aware of the apps. The next step is to convert the Facebook fans from lookers to bookers.

Our suggestion to achieve this goal is simple. Provide your hotel’s fans with the feeling of exclusivity. Providing them with an attractive special offer or promotion will best achieve the end goal of a booking.

Figure 4. Making Offers Exclusive

The special offer could be a simple reduction on a B&B rate by entering the promo code or an exclusive Facebook fan special offer.

5. Make it Compelling - Create Urgency

From research, our next suggestion for an effective way to successfully convert your hotel’s fans from lookers to bookers is to put a time limit on your exclusive offering, for example a twenty-four hour room sale or an offer with an expiration date fast approaching. As we have seen from the phenomenal success of daily discount sites, creating a sense of urgency certainly works and by using the Bookassist Apps for Facebook you can effectively create your hotel’s own mini discount site. You might not be reaching the same large audience as the daily discount sites, but neither is your hotel paying the large commissions charged by the daily discount sites nor suffering the significant rate reductions you must provide to have the opportunity to appear on those sites.


Finally, if you have not already installed the Bookassist Apps for Facebook and you use the Bookassist booking engine on your hotel’s website, you can install them today for free by visiting our Facebook page at facebook.com/bookassist and navigating to the “Bookassist Apps” tab for instructions or visit the Bookassist Apps For Facebook product page on our website. If you have any additional questions please contact your Bookassist account manager.

Paul Ferry is Senior Social Media Strategist at Bookassist (bookassist.org), the technology and online strategy partner for hotels.

Share: Guaranteed Bookings on Facebook: 5 Tips on How To Succeed

Tweet