The Hospitality Show (The Show), the industry’s leading technology and operations event produced by Questex and The American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA), has revealed new highlights that have been confirmed for the 2024 program.
The Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI) 2024 Sales Leader Forum, will take place on Nov. 13, 2024, in Washington, DC. Organized by HSMAI’s Sales Advisory Board, this year’s event focuses on advancing the hotel sales discipline by providing off-property sales leaders with essential knowledge on top trends, strategic insights, and best practices in today’s evolving landscape.
Americans are notorious for leaving vacation days on the table. Despite the numerous benefits of taking time off from work, over half (53%) of Americans don’t plan to use all their paid time off this year. It’s a troubling vacation travel trend, especially compared to other countries where taking extended breaks is more the norm.
Hospitality industry veteran Wendy Hoekwater today announced the formation of Net Growth Marketing, LLC, a marketing and sales consulting firm specializing in scaling small- to mid-sized companies in hospitality, travel and tourism.
WISCO Hotel Group has made a strategic leap forward in enhancing efficiency and maximizing event revenue by incorporating cutting-edge technology from SalesAndCatering.com. The prominent Wisconsin-based hospitality company has successfully transitioned to the STS Cloud platform, incorporating advanced e-signature capabilities, ProposalPath proposal tools, and Visrez 3D table diagramming to enhance event sales opportunities, giving them a competitive edge. The group, which manages a diverse portfolio of 14 hotels, including the Radisson Fond du Lac, has reported significant improvements in collaboration, performance, productivity, and user engagement since the implementation.
Travly, the ultimate travel media network for social-first discovery and curated experiences, announced the launch of its proprietary Online Travel Agent (OTA) platform now available through both its app and website. Solidifying its place as the leading one-stop-shop for the modern traveler, Travly is the world's largest and fastest-growing cross-platform travel media company, with over 45 owned handles across Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook. With a network of 1000 content creators, this move into booking will allow their over 25 million followers to instantly access curated vacations.
Aloft Hotels is celebrating what could paws-ibly be the best day of the year for dogs with a new one-week only deal: buy one human drink, get one dog brew free. Dogs seem to always have a job to do, and whether it’s providing emotional support to those who need it or simply eating as many shoes as possible, Aloft Hotels is rewarding those working dogs with an extra treat this International Dog Day (August 26).
The Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI) is thrilled to announce the chartering of two new chapters – Tennessee Valley and Greater Denver. These new chapters highlight HSMAI’s strategic priority to broaden the association's reach, focus on developing new markets, and enhance member value proposition through localized engagement.
Are you getting ready for budgeting and forecasting for 2025? Are you concerned that fewer guests are finding your hotel online? Do you want to learn how to leverage consumer trends, market data, and your historical channel and audience information to develop a data-driven budgeting and forecasting methodology? In this webinar, we will share key market trends and demonstrate how to use AI as your secret weapon to forecast, allocate budgets, prioritize channels based on your business goals, and ultimately generate more bookings.
Resolute Road Hospitality and Choice Hotels International recently organized an Executive Investment Forum in Dallas titled "Exploring Extended Stay in Texas." The event drew approximately 100 hospitality executives who delved into best management practices, emerging market trends, and Choice's latest extended-stay brand, Everhome Suites.
An A-Town adventure awaits! Digital travel leader Booking.com has teamed up with legendary Grammy Award-winning rapper, actor and philanthropist Ludacris for an exclusive, once-in-a-lifetime, family-friendly experience at his iconic Atlanta mansion. For just $4.04, a nod to the renowned Atlanta area code, four lucky guests will have the opportunity to stay at Ludacris’ luxurious compound for a two-night stay starting on September 3, 2024, exclusively on Booking.com. This unique getaway offers an immersive experience into Ludacris’ world, featuring his personal touch and favorite family-friendly activities, with the added thrill of meeting Ludacris himself during the stay.
Guests are increasingly discovering amazing stays closer to home. Over the past five years, nights stayed by Airbnb guests within 300 miles of their home (which is about a tank of gas away) have nearly doubled.1 Although international travel has rebounded to pre-pandemic levels, the trend of traveling locally shows no signs of slowing. In fact, local travel is growing twice as fast as long-distance travel on Airbnb.2
The Washington, D.C., chapter of the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International today invited hospitality professionals from throughout the metropolitan area to attend its annual State of the Industry program Aug. 22 at the Hilton Washington DC National Mall The Wharf.
For 35 years, Polly PocketTM has always been, well, pocket-sized—that is, until now. This summer, Polly’s iconic home straight out of a ‘90s dream is now open for an adventure of life-sized proportions, only on Airbnb.
The Hunter Hotel Investment Conference (“HUNTER”), founded by Hunter Hotel Advisors and Georgia State University, today announced the dates and messaging for its highly anticipated 36th conference. The event is scheduled to take place from March 18-20, 2025, at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis. Registration for the conference will open on Monday, August 19, 2024.
Today's consumers expect online experiences comparable to top-tier eCommerce brands. The guest's first touchpoint with the hotel is almost always the website, and too often hoteliers overlook this digital real estate. Getting users to book direct requires a few different things: the website needs to provide relevant information and value, inspire trust and credibility, and reduce friction during the process.
There is no magic formula to drive direct reservations. There's no one, perfect booking engine that will immediately increase conversions exponentially. If there were a single, proven fix that works every time, you'd have done it by now. The truth is that improving conversion rate takes dedication. It requires focus. And, it takes a willingness to invest in your property's future.
Many hoteliers have adopted interactive widgets on their homepage as well as on pages deeper in the hotel booking funnel. The benefit of using widget technologies such as Userguest, The Hotels Network and TripTease (to name a few) is to attract and convert the website visitors into hotel bookers.
For those languishing under 2% CVR, the answer is usually pretty obvious. The best way to increase your conversion rate is to 'think like a booker'. Find ten minutes. Make a cup of tea, and before you pick up your phone or open a browser window, think about your ideal guest.
Improving conversion rates on a hotel website should ALWAYS be a priority, not just in 2024. Indeed, hoteliers invest quite a bit into SEO, paid search, paid social media as well as content strategies across various digital outposts (newsletter, blog, social media, SMS, etc.).
Amazon missed their one and only chance to enter the travel space by not acquiring Orbitz or Travelocity when these OTAs were for up for grabs. Now it is too late - the consolidation In the travel intermediary space has already happened. Unless Amazon acquires Expedia with its $18.5 billion market cap, I don't see Amazon entering the travel space organically, though many hoteliers would love to have another player in addition to the current OTA duopoly Booking-Expedia.
Two main reasons why Amazon will not become a major player in travel:
With its massive traffic, incredible insights into customer behaviour, and powerful consumer brand, Amazon has the potential to disrupt practically any market it chooses to attack. However, travel may be the exception given its unique double-sided natue. In addition to cost effectively finding customers (something with which Amazon should have had little problem, given its existing customer base to who travel products could easily and effectively be cross sold), to be successful a travel intermediary must also assure cost effective access to sufficient and suitable inventory to meet customer demand, with "full" coverage of the market a key success factor.