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.
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.
Today Amazon has approximately 200 million Amazon Prime members globally. To put this into perspective, if Amazon Prime was a country, it would be the 8th biggest in the world measured by population. With this enormous membership size, or 'captive audience', Amazon has the necessary market reach to monetize any travel-related product or service.
I laughed at first when I saw this topic, as I recall vividly having had this discussion in the past. In fact, I wrote a blog post titled Will You Book Your Next Hotel on Amazon?... back in 2014!! Amazon did indeed tip its toes into travel distribution but the journey was short-lived.
World of Hyatt is inviting guests and members to immerse themselves in memorable outdoor experiences and stays at Under Canvas’ 13 outdoor resorts, including Under Canvas’ new luxury outdoor resort, ULUM Moab. The new alliance provides members with unprecedented access to iconic, upscale experiences across many U.S. national parks and other notable outdoor destinations. World of Hyatt members can now book their stays at Under Canvas camps and ULUM Moab through Hyatt to start earning and redeeming points.
WorldVia Travel Group, a collection of leading travel companies in the United States, is set to host WORLD24, its premier annual conference, September 11-13 at Harrah’s Resort Southern California in Funner, California. This education and networking event is expected to draw hundreds of travel professionals from across the nation, offering three days of intensive relationship-building, learning opportunities and award celebrations.
The Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI) Americas, proudly concluded its highly anticipated first Commercial Strategy Conference which took place from June 25-26, 2024, in Charlotte, North Carolina. The sold-out event, an evolution of HSMAI’s Marketing Strategy Conference and HSMAI ROC, brought together a record-breaking 860 industry professionals from 152 unique hotel brands and management companies, and more than 40 partner companies, from across the hospitality sector to explore the latest trends, strategies, and innovations shaping the future of commercial success in the industry.
Owners looking to boost revenue, elevate their service to guests and make their day-to-day operations run more seamlessly can now take advantage of Wyndham Connect℠ in North America. First announced at its 2023 Global Conference, Wyndham's new guest engagement platform powered by Canary Technologies comes at no additional cost to owners.
The 4th of July sparks vibrant domestic travel across the U.S. Families and friends celebrate with fireworks, parades, beach outings, and barbecues. This holiday encapsulates the diverse beauty and rich culture of America, making it a prime time for exploring national parks, historical landmarks, and new cities. As Americans plan their vacation, here’s how the travel trends are shaping.
The Cornell Peter and Stephanie Nolan School of Hotel Administration held its annual Icon & Innovators Award Reception on June 4th at The Gotham in New York City. Cornell alumnus Keith Barr ’92, IHG’s former chief executive officer, was the recipient of the 2024 Cornell Hospitality Icon of the Industry Award. Chef José Andrés and Rob Wilder, co-founders of World Central Kitchen and José Andrés Group, were the recipients of the 2024 Hospitality Innovators of the Industry Award.