Sales & Marketing USA & Canada External Articles - Hospitality Net

Advertisement

External Article

March 21, 2014

Facebook speaks: how engagement in travel is evolving | tnooz.com

Lee McCabe has been the global head of travel at Facebook, the social network with 1.2 billion users, since October 2012. A veteran of Expedia, he knows the travel industry well. McCabe recently spoke with Tnooz by phone about how travel marketers are getting better at using Facebook to gain transactions. He had a lot to say about mobile, particularly about how Facebook can help travel companies maintain engagement with their own branded mobile apps. He also thinks travel suppliers still haven’t fully grasped how mobile will upend their digital marketing strategies.

External Article

March 21, 2014

Hotel rate parity lives on

With the recent dismissal of an antitrust case accusing hoteliers and online travel sellers of price-fixing, the practice of hotel rate parity is likely to live on – for now. Rate parity is the industry-wide practice of hotel chains setting and controlling the “best available rates” offered through various distribution channels. Rate parity does not involve hotel companies setting prices in collusion with competitors. A ‘rational’ business practice Last month a federal judge in Dallas dismissed a consolidated class action suit brought against major hotel companies and online travel sellers, including Orbitz, Priceline and Expedia. The suit accused Starwood, InterContinental Hotels Group and Marriott, among others, of conspiring with OTAs to set prices.

Travel Market Report

External Article

March 17, 2014

inside Airbnb's Grand Hotel Plans | fastcompany.com

How Brian Chesky, the millennial impresario behind red-hot airbnb, teamed up with Chip Conley, the hotel industry's last black-sheep innovator, to reimagine the $6 trillion travel biz and, in the process, build the world's largest hospitality brand. When I first heard of "the sheet," I assumed it was bogus. Word was that Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky had boiled down his strategic road map--all of Airbnb's secret plans for 2014--onto a single piece of paper. Yet on an early evening in late January, I am sitting in a conference room at Airbnb's San Francisco headquarters across from Chesky and Chip Conley, Airbnb's recently appointed head of global hospitality, and Chesky is wondering aloud whether to show me the fabled document. Even as he's talking about it, I am still unsure whether I'm being punked.

External Article

March 17, 2014

Priceline CMO eyes bigger role in on-property purchases via mobile | mobilecommercedaily.com

Priceline wants a bigger role throughout the travel experience, such as enabling hotel check-ins or on-site purchases, and views mobile as essential to realizing these goals. One of the ways Priceline is building on its initial success in mobile is with more contextually-relevant features, including incorporating location into the company’s iPad application as well as two new products that are launching this week. Although the goal is to drive sales, Priceline’s initiatives are increasingly moving away from viewing mobile solely for last-minute to everyday transactions.

mobilecommercedaily.com

External Article

March 3, 2014

Benchmark Hotels Turns to Storytelling to Promote Its Brand | skift.com

Established over three decades ago, Benchmark Hospitality International (BHI) operates almost 40 individually-owned hotels, resorts and conference venues in the U.S., Caribbean and Japan. The Benchmark Resorts & Hotels flag flies over hotels more oriented toward business travelers and those in subsidiary markets, while its two-year- old sister brand, Personal Luxury Resorts & Hotels, is a collection of high-end boutique urban hotels and destination resorts from Seattle to Miami. Chances are, unless you’re in the hospitality industry, you haven’t heard of either.

External Article

February 25, 2014

Radisson to Launch Hotel for Millennials - Radisson Red Plans to Be Operating 60 Hotels by 2020 | wsj.com

"Several of the brands are trying to anticipate the future and are putting in a lot of time, resources and energy," says Cathy Enz, a professor at the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration. Some hospitality analysts say big brands face a challenge in trying to achieve cost efficiencies through scale and scope while also creating new hotels that feel local.

External Article

February 21, 2014

How Airbnb, Yelp Are Changing Hotel Marketing | adweek.com

As the lodging industry grapples with Airbnb, TripAdvisor and other locally oriented services, major hotel brands are increasingly taking a back seat to the surrounding neighborhoods. “Our facility is no longer the destination,” said one hotel executive. “Now we are a portal to the community around us.” About half of travelers want to explore the local area while on a business trip, according to a 2013 survey released this week by Millward Brown. For business travelers, “discovery” now ranks higher than “escape” or “indulgence,” per the survey.

Visit HITEC 2026 in San Antonio!

HITEC is the center for the latest conversations on hospitality technology. Come and see the technology shaping the industry.

Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP)

The next-gen metrics that move hotel P&L

Hotel tech has changed what's possible – and measurable. RevPAR and ADR aren't enough; discover the metrics that really matter.

External Article

February 20, 2014

Hotel Room Alerts Might Be The Best New Booking Service We've Seen Yet | hotelchatter.com

What do you do when the hotel you want to stay in is sold-out? You probably exhaust all the options you can--like hitting up every booking site known to man, constantly checking the hotel's own website and perhaps even begging the front desk to try and find you a room. But you can stop all of that busy work, thanks to Hotel Room Alerts.

hotelchatter.com

External Article

February 19, 2014

Starwood, Expedia Win Dismissal of Room Price-Fixing Suit | bloomberg.com

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. (HOT) and Expedia Inc. (EXPE) among other hotel and Internet travel agencies won dismissal of an antitrust lawsuit after a judge found consumers hadn’t showed the companies conspired to fix room prices. “The well-pled facts do not plausibly suggest that defendants entered into an industrywide conspiracy,” U.S. District Judge Jane J. Boyle in Dallas said yesterday in a ruling throwing out the case. The plaintiffs, who bought hotel rooms across the U.S., claimed in more than two dozen consolidated cases that the companies agreed to prevent consumers from getting lower prices. The companies denied any attempt to fix prices.

External Article

February 14, 2014

At New York Hotel, a Crowd-Sourced Lego Project | nytimes.com

In a lemonade-from-lemons move, Yotel New York, the capsule hotel near Times Square, has turned a construction-masking wall into a 30-foot collaborative art project using Lego building blocks. Guests are invited to embellish the 30-foot-long Lego wall with supplied plastic bricks, resulting in an ever-changing mural and a popular lobby activity. Some contributors have built replicas of city icons like the Empire State Building, others have depicted the flags of their country, including Canada and Japan, and more have written their names and initials in the blocks.

New York, New York, United States

External Article

February 5, 2014

Personalization equals loyalty for millennials | hotelnewsnow.com

Self-described “token millennial” Teresa Y. Lee didn’t waste time assessing the loyalty landscape for her notoriously fickle cohort. “Our loyalty is up for grabs,” said the senior analyst at HVS. “It’s up to you to design a program we want to be loyal to.” Thus began a rapid-fire breakout session on millennials and loyalty during the 2014 Americas Lodging Investment Summit. John Wallis said Hyatt Hotels Corporation, where he serves as chief marketing officer, is up for the challenge.

The next-gen metrics that move hotel P&L

Hotel tech has changed what's possible – and measurable. RevPAR and ADR aren't enough; discover the metrics that really matter.

External Article

February 4, 2014

Just So You Know, Hotels Are Probably Stalking You | hotelchatter.com

Is that our Facebook page you keep looking at? Last week, we let you know that hotels want to text us. If that seemed a little intrusive to you, then look away now. We've heard a few times recently that hotels are Googling you and checking out your social media profiles before your stay. Hmmm....on the one hand, we don't think that's too bad. The hotel is just trying to get a good idea of who we are, what we like and what we look like. Not every hotel can have a dedicated personal assistant so this is a good way to fill in that hole.

External Article

February 4, 2014

Peeping, Prying, or Pampering? | meetingsnet.com

We know that hoteliers have wanted guests to post their (positive) experiences far and wide in social media land. But did you know that some are now monitoring guests' Facebook, Twitter and other social media accounts to better personalize their experience? I did not until I read about hotel stalking on HotelChatter, and I'm not sure what to think.

meetingsnet.com

External Article

February 3, 2014

Google, Facebook, TripAdvisor tout benefits | hotelnewsnow.com

Representatives from three of the biggest disrupters in the distribution space on Monday pitched themselves as partners to the thousands of hotel owners and operators in attendance at the open general session at the Americas Lodging Investment Summit. The responses came after moderator Kathleen Matthews, Marriott International’s executive VP and chief global communications officer, asked whether Google’s, Facebook’s and TripAdvisor’s respective forays into the travel industry were done as a means of maximizing or “poaching” hoteliers’ revenues.

External Article

January 30, 2014

When Online Reviews Are Fake: Researchers Identify Which Hotels Have Incentive To Manipulate | forbes.com

A trio of business school professors — in trying to understand the potential effects on consumers and the economy by fake reviews — has identified which hotels are likely to generate or attract fraudulent reviews. Authors Dina Mayzlin (USC), Yaniv Dover (Dartmouth) and Judith Chevalier (Yale and NBER) don’t make overly broad claims. But by looking at the “differences in differences” of two travel sites with extensive hotel reviews, they have shown that certain hotels distinguished by geography, ownership or management will post more fake positive reviews for themselves and more fake negative reviews for their competitors.

External Article

January 30, 2014

How do hotels and resorts stack up on Facebook? | insidefacebook.com

We looked at 2,121 hotels and resorts on Facebook, covering 114,634 posts. Highlights: Scenery shots generate the most likes at 28.71 per 1,000 impressions — almost 5 times as much as link posts. People are more likely to comment or share on food photos (.99 comments per 1,000 impressions and 2.98 shares per 1,000 impressions). The destination, not the room amenities, drives interactions — less than 50% of engagement is on posts related to facilities.

External Article

January 28, 2014

Hotels seek the key to millennials | houstonchronicle.com

Between work and vacation travel, Rusty Ellett says he spent about three months on the road in 2013 and two months the year before. He recalls this as a series confined spaces: rental cars, airplane cabins, the back seats of taxicabs. "These cramped aspects of traveling are all unavoidable except for the hotel experience," says Ellett, a surveyor with the American Bureau of Shipping who lives in Houston. So at 25, Ellett already has definite preferences when it comes to accommodations. One of the most essential, he says, is an open, comfortable lobby where he can sit down and scroll through text messages, check social media and stretch out after a long day of traveling or working.

External Article

January 28, 2014

Airbnb's swank digs reflect growth, but controversy grows | sfgate.com

The conference rooms inside Airbnb's swank new San Francisco headquarters are inspired by listings from the home-sharing website. There's a Parisian pied-a-terre, an airy living room from Bali, a whimsical flat from Milan. Then there's a San Francisco bachelor pad with a leather sofa, blue-tiled fireplace and boxes of unusual cereal on display.

External Article

January 24, 2014

Super Bowl Hotels Up as Much as 550 Percent | abcnews.go.com

When a New Jersey Renaissance hotel charges almost $1,000 per night, things have gotten out of control. On the other hand, supply and demand, right? The National Football League estimates 400,000 people will descend on northern New Jersey during Super Bowl XLVIII. That anticipated influx has hotel and rental home prices skyrocketing. There's a home in North Caldwell, N.J. listed on HomeAway.com for 120k per week around game day. It has six bedrooms, five bathrooms and comes with a private chef and daily maid service. Luckily it does have 10 flat-screen TVs, because tickets to the game are not included in the 120k price tag.

New York, New York, United States

External Article

December 13, 2013

Expedia Partner Conference: innovation, technology, partnership | hotelmanagement.net

Howdy, partners! Exactly the sentiment executives from Expedia Inc. offered the audience at the Expedia Partner Conference here at Caesars Palace. The theme of the conference, “Travel Rising,” was based off of three main drivers, as Melissa Maher, SVP global partner group, Expedia Lodging Partner Services (pictured), outlined at the start of the show: innovation, technology, partnership. The key, she said, was partnership. “Without it, technology and innovation are meaningless.”

hotelmanagement.net

Las Vegas, Nevada, United States