|
 9 February 2010
Online Merchandising: Best Practices for Marketing and Merchandising Your Hotel | By Paolo Boni
 Hotel chains, representation companies, travel intermediaries, thirdparty sites and guests all contribute to a hotel's online presence in their own valuable ways. They have their places and purposes. But hoteliers also have their roles in ensuring their hotel is marketed and merchandised effectively online.
One thing that the chains, representation companies, travel intermediaries and third-party sites do quite well is ensure that your property information, rates, availability and photos are available online -- an integral part of ensuring that your hotel can be found and booked online on a functional level. Guests, in turn, ensure that there are plenty of written reviews of your hotel and user-generated photos and videos of their experience available to their peers seeking real, unfiltered feedback straight from the mouths of guests.
But there's a missing piece to the puzzle. Hoteliers typically have the best knowledge of what makes their hotel unique. This is important knowledge to have, first and foremost, but also to capitalize on. This is why hoteliers have such an immense opportunity when it comes to marketing and merchandising online.
Hoteliers play a very important role: bringing the hotel's online presence to the next level. Not in isolation, but to complement the marketing and merchandising efforts already in place. Differentiating their hotel from the competition and connecting with consumers from the individual property level completes the hotel's online presence to increase market share and drive more bookings.
What can you actually do to extract more value out of your hotel's online presence? What are the best practices for marketing and merchandising your hotel?
- Ensure your photos and videos are pushed to social photo and video sites
- Develop and distribute visual content that tells your hotel's story
- Target your content to appeal to your guest segments
- ... and many more valuable tips
Download the article: Online Merchandising: Best Practices for Marketing and Merchandising Your Hotel
CLICK HERE to learn more about VFM Leonardo Inc.
representation companies, immense opportunity, hotel chains, target, functional level, information rates, visual content, hoteliers, video sites, missing piece, intermediaries, mouths, next level, market share, best practices, isolation, segments, peers, bookings, puzzle
VFM Leonardo Inc. www.vfmleonardo.com 111 Peter Street | 5th Floor Toronto, ON, M5V 2H1 Canada Tollfree: 1.877.593.6634 Phone: 416-593-6634 Fax: 416-593-7572 Email: info@vfmleonardo.com
Follow us on:
   
All Articles from VFM Leonardo Inc.
Educational Seminar for Tourism Organizations (ESTO) 201226 - 28 August 2012
Visit us at booth Speaking at General Session General Session: Download What?! Targeting Younger Travelers. Our panelists (including Paolo Boni) will introduce you to the savvy Gen X and Gen Y travelers: who they are, what inspires them to travel, how best to reach them and why they are important. Get connected by learning about the trends and growing influence of this often overlooked market.
More Information | Event Website

|
|