Are the Best Days Behind Us...or Just Ahead?
Hoteliers Need to Take Full Advantage of New Technology
by Neil Salerno
Once upon a time, the hotel industry
was much different than it is today. Gone are the days of random cold sales calls, bulging paper sales files,
trips to the library for lead research, and front desks deluged with information calls with phones busy or
ringing endlessly. It took forty years to see these changes.
Major innovations such as the personal computer, facsimiles, mobile phones, and of course, the Internet,
have influenced us to make many changes in the way we operate hotels. The greatest of these changes
came in the ways in which we market our products to the public.
If 'where we are today' provides any insight into 'where we're going', the hotel industry is in for some
exhilarating changes to come. Few people could have imagined how much new technology and the Internet
would expand the travel market and level the playing field for all hotels to compete in the new world
marketplace.
Personal computers enabled us to create and build data bases to maintain valuable information for customer
service management (CSM), sales lead follow-up, and front office/accounting/sales management, simplify
the budgeting process, and to reduce our dependence upon paper file records.
The Internet gave us the ability to communicate, computer to computer, around the world, in real-time. It has
become the greatest communication tool ever devised; a tool, which revolutionized world travel and hotel
marketing. Yet, there are still many hoteliers who are not taking advantage of the Internet's vast reach and
power to create reservations.
Once upon a time before the Internet, hotel franchises dominated the marketplace; they had sophisticated
voice and electronic reservations systems and the financial where-with-all to market their member properties
using all forms of broadcast and print advertising. Independent hotels couldn't compete with this power.
Franchising flourished during that time while independent hotels had to work harder just to stay in the
reservations race, at all. Many independent hotels were relegated to being satisfied with overflow from larger
franchised hotels. Marketing, even in simple terms, was an impossible dream.
That's all gone now; hotels, of all sizes, have the ability to attract travelers from all reaches of the world
market, effectively and affordably. Perhaps the most amazing fact is that there are still many hoteliers who
have not embraced the Internet as a viable and affordable marketing tool.
Unfortunately, many of these hoteliers became disenchanted with the Internet because of poor results from
web sites which were created by people with little knowledge of effective hotel web site design. Most of
these site designers just don't understand the design elements which make a hotel site functional and
effective; to both attract visitors through generic search and then, convert those visitors into reservations
with a properly conceived web site.
Many hotel web sites are still being designed like brochures; many designers ignore the need to conform to
search engine requirements and the fact that the Internet is a text-driven medium. First, an effective hotel
web site needs to be designed to work within search engine specifications; this is the primary failure of many
hotel sites. Second, the design must incorporate text which emphasizes the hotel's location, facilities, and
nearby attractions; sales text which clearly and distinctly emphasizes the basic necessities of consumer
hotel selection.
The biggest problem, that I see, is that there are many web site designers who don't understand how search
engines function and how consumers select hotels on the Internet. Their quest to be unique leads them to
design sites which have more images than text; they ignore the hotel's location, perhaps the most important
site element; they create strange and difficult to follow navigation schemes; and they write thoughtless,
poorly written, text.
The Internet is changing the way consumers select hotels. The Internet has become the most importanthotel search and find tool in the hotel selection process. Gone are the days of the dominance of offline hotel
directories and the need to call hotel 800 reservation numbers to gather information. Fading, also, is the
effectiveness of stars and diamonds to evaluate hotels.
Once upon a time, star and diamond rankings meant a lot to both hotels and travelers alike. Short of calling
or writing every hotel or franchise, it was the only tool travelers had to evaluate the facilities and services of
hotels of interest. The Internet is eroding the importance of stars and diamonds, since visitors now have a
simple means to visit hotels online.
On-line travel agents, in their attempt to build consumer loyalty, have created their own form of star and
diamond rankings to build repeat-traveler confidence in their service. In my opinion, they still don't get it.
Ranking hotels by facilities and services alone still misses the most important element of 'value'. Consumers
select hotels by overall perceived value; believe it.
Value is the relationship between rates and the location/facilities/service which is offered by the hotel. 'Value'
is still the most prominent factor in hotel selection. If someone can develop rankings based upon overall
value, that would be very effective; but it's not an easy task. Few travelers select hotels based solely upon
rates nor, most certainly, upon facilities/services alone. It is the relationship between the two that matters.
Once upon a time, individual hotels had no way to either establish or display their overall value; that is
before the Internet. A hotel's web site should and must do that in the most effective way possible. Carefully
written text is a critical key.
New technology is wonderful, but the tools, it creates, need to be used properly in order to be effective. The
Internet can be the most cost-effective tool in your marketing arsenal. Was your site developed to conform to
search engine guidelines? Does it emphasize your hotel's location; the most important element in web
search? Is the text properly written to sell your property? Is your site equipped to accept real-time online
reservations?
I believe that our best times are yet to come. There are many young brilliant minds out there creating new
technology to further change and improve the way we work. Who would have ever dreamed, just a few
years ago, consumers would have the ability to find a hotel and make a reservation on their handheld
computer/phone, in real-time online? Amazing!
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