GCommerce Partners With Jonas Chorum as Its Preferred Metasearch Provider
Jonas Chorum | April 17th, 2024
5 Sales Strategies to Win More Business in 2022
Amadeus | January 20th, 2022
The Top 5 QUESTions Your Reservations Team Should be Asking in 2022!
Doug Kennedy | January 6, 2022
By Doug Kennedy Are you ready to help your reservations team maximize the contribution of the voice booking channel in 2022? If so, it is not going to be easy. As we look ahead to the coming year nothing is certain. Well, actually one thing is certain: there will be continued disruption in the lodging industry! One small but important sales habit you can do now to help in your reservations team’s QUEST to be the BEST in 2022 is to update your list of QUESTions that should be asked as part of your sales “flow” criteria. Why do lodging industry reservations sales agents need to update the questioning process? Today’s callers ...
GM’s and Corporate Leaders: Let’s Keep Hotel Salespeople Focused on Selling!
Doug Kennedy | November 9, 2021
By Doug Kennedy As I make the rounds with my contacts on the buyer’s side of the hotel sales equation, I’m once again starting to hear comments starting to surface about their biggest frustrations with hotel salespeople, especially these three: Slow response times – and non-responses to RFP’s. Receipt back of generic proposals that miss key details mentioned in the RFP’s. Being spammed by generic prospecting messaging received from hotel salespeople from hotels that have no reason to think they would even be a prospect. Now, on the surface, it’s so easy to blame today’s hotel salespeople for ...
Marketing: From Brand Multiplicity to Brand Authenticity
Dr Elisa Chan | October 26, 2021
By Dr. Elisa Chan Before the pandemic, hotel brands were at a crossroads with increasingly brand agnostic consumers and ever-expanding brand portfolios. But there is evidence that the pandemic may have led to consumers’ renewed appreciation for a well-recognized brand name that assures quality and instills trust. This change in consumer behavior will impact brand management strategies in several significant ways. De-emphasizing brand-proliferation strategies In 2010, room demand jumped 6.5% as the industry emerged from a recession. This marked the beginning of a decade-long, demand-fueled brand proliferation that now provides...
How to Tailor Your Hotel’s Social Media Presence to Entice the Right Demographic
Julian Seepersaud | October 6, 2021
By Julian Seepersaud More people from more age demographics are using social media, especially when it comes to booking travel — but not everyone uses it the same way. Learn how your hotel can engage the right age group with the right content on social media. Social media has revolutionized the way people interact with each other and with companies. It has created an entirely new world for marketers, one where there are deeper, more organic relationships between consumers and brands. In this new world, it is not enough for a consumer to simply know about a brand — they need to know about that brand’s mission and culture,...
Hospitality Financial Leadership – Rooms Market Segmentation
David Lund | September 28, 2021
By David Lund One of the most overlooked tools hotelier have is the ability to create and use rooms market segmentations. Market segments are customer types not geographical. In the manufacturing world, like the old days with VCRs, you have one company making several differ lines of VCRs because they cannot sell all of their manufacturing capacity to just one segment. There are different types of VCR customers. The same goes for hotels and that is what this piece is all about: customer rooms market segmentations. The reason why we do not use geography for rooms market segmentation application is we want to know the different primary rea...
GCommerce Adds Google Analytics 4 Reporting Product to Its Hospitality Digital Marketing Offering
GCommerce | September 21, 2021
Google Analytics 4 will be a vital component of any business’s marketing foundation in a cookieless world. Park City, UT – September 21, 2021 – GCommerce, a leading, hospitality digital marketing agency, has announced its newest offering, a customized, proprietary Google Analytics 4 report. In Q4 of 2020, Google released Google Analytics (GA4) as its latest iteration of the analytics platform. GA4 primarily focuses on measuring a website’s engagement versus volume and visitation metrics. Knowing that the industry will need and want to see consistency in its marketing reporting, GCommerce has created and launched the first GA4 rep...
The Art of Upselling
PolyU’s School of Hotel and Tourism Management | September 17, 2021
Online upselling is an ever more popular way for hotel companies to bring in revenue. However, it remains unclear whether online upselling complements or replaces in-person strategies such as front-desk upselling. In an important exploratory study, Professor Basak Denizci Guillet of the School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM) at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University sought to answer this question. Her findings generate crucial insights for hotels in volatile and challenging times, while also providing an “upselling model for the industry that considers the complexities of today’s multifaceted ecommerce environment”. Hotels can ...
How to Set Hotel Sales Team Goals and KPIs in a Time of Unpredictable Demand
Doug Kennedy | September 14, 2021
By Doug Kennedy It’s the time of year when hotel sales leaders are finalizing their budgets for the coming year, and 2022 is certainly a challenging one to set sales goals based on KPIs. First, let’s look at what has been done historically and then explore alternatives. For approximately 10 years leading up to the recent pandemic era, budgets were increased each year, divvied up, and turned into individual sales goals that were then tied to bonuses. With the seemingly endless string of years of an up market, sales bonuses became an expected part of the compensation. Were these sales bonuses truly justified based on performance? O...
Google Hotel Ads, The OTA Disrupter Your Hotel Needs Now
GCommerce | September 7, 2021
September 7, 2021 by Lisa McGivney Back in July, we shed light on how direct bookings can be more profitable than OTA bookings for hotels, even when you factor in media costs. The development and execution of a superior direct booking strategy for our hotel clients has always been GCommerce’s mission. Why? Because we were born out of a hotel management company which means we’ve always tried to focus on what’s best for the hotel. It’s in our DNA. Now, what if I told you that there was a risk free direct booking channel that can drive an average of 8% of total web bookings at an average 5% conversion rate? One that only incurs ...
Q : What is E-Marketing?
Ana McFee | August 18, 2021
By Ana McFee There are over 27 million hotels in the world, which means that organizations interested in capturing the attention of customers will have to find a way to differentiate themselves from others in the industry, particularly those around their precise location. Not only does this require an intimate understanding of the target audience and what appeals to them about the hotel experience, but it also requires an understanding of the latest trends in marketing in the industry and where customers go to learn more about companies that can help solve their pain points and provide them with comfortable lodging when they travel. H...
Clairvoyix and UpMail Partner to Bring Additional Automation to the Group Sales Process
Clairvoyix | August 17, 2021
Leading hotel marketing automation system provider partners with UpMail to bring highly effective personalized one-to-one emails to the group and event sales process. LAS VEGAS, NV – August 17, 2021 – Recognizing that hoteliers are facing the recovery with reduced staff and reduced budgets Clairvoyix has partnered with UpMail to bring additional automation and capability to the Clairvoyix group and event sales and marketing automation solution. The partnership is truly complementary as the Clairvoyix solution will produce highly qualified meeting planner leads for the property or hotel organization, and the UpMail tool will allow for t...
How Google Hotel Ads is Penetrating the Hotel Distribution Vertical, and the Opportunity This Presents for Hotels
Patrick Landman | August 13, 2021
By Patrick Landman Google is taking the hotel industry by storm to gain market share and grow their advertising revenues. We will take a look at how Google is penetrating the hotel distribution vertical with Google Hotel Ads, and what opportunities this gives in terms of hotel revenue management and marketing. From Hotel Finder to GHA Exactly ten years ago, Google launched what Andrew McCarthy, at the time Software Engineer for the Mountain View’s company, described as an “experimental search tool designed to help users locate and book hotels.” We’re talking, obviously, about Hotel Finder. In that d...
The Brave New World of Booking Direct
Grace Azcarate | August 11, 2021
By Grace Azcarate Over much of the last decade, OTAs (online travel agencies) have become the most common way that people book hotels. These companies streamlined the booking process and added convenient features (such as easy price comparison) at a time when most hotels lacked an effective digital presence. As the OTAs’ share of bookings grew, they were able to charge higher commissions, meaning less revenue for the hotels themselves. In response, many hoteliers took a stance to win business back and reclaim direct bookings. However, the COVID-19 pandemic prompted a huge shake-up in the travel industry. While travel came to a halt ar...
Your Hotel Has No Vacancy, What Is the Best Digital Marketing Strategy?
GCommerce | July 29, 2021
By Lisa McGivney and Michael Orrison Many hotels are seeing a huge bounce-back in demand and occupancy this summer as travelers take advantage of openings from restrictions and take those long-awaited trips. If you are a fortunate hotel that currently is at full occupancy, what should you be doing with your marketing? Should you decrease your budgets? What type of messaging should you be focusing on? In this article, we will talk about some relevant examples from the past and provide some suggestions on how your hotel can best market at times with full occupancy. Examples From Seasonally Closed Hotels In thinking about this, it see...
Email Ideas That Turn Lookers Into Bookers
Nicola Graham | July 20, 2021
Effective ways to drive email conversions on your campaigns Email is no doubt one of the most effective marketing tools for hotels to connect with past, present, and future guests. We’ve seen that even during a global pandemic, email shines through as one of the strongest, most reliable forms of communication. With recent privacy changes affecting targeted ads, the importance of email marketing is poised to increase even further. More than ever, hoteliers must maximize the use of this channel to ensure they stay consistent with their brand and share relevant, personalized information with their database. However, simply sending emails t...
The Elephant in the Room: Guest Review Responses
Lodging Interactive | June 8, 2021
As consumers begin to travel in larger numbers, hotels are facing a new challenge: responding to guest reviews in a timely manner. This is an increasingly important task as social media platforms and consumer review sites like Google My Business, TripAdvisor and Yelp have made it easier for customers to share their experiences with others. The vast majority of consumers turn first to online reviews before making any decisions about where they want to stay when traveling. “As the hospitality industry continues to recover from the Global Pandemic, responding to guest reviews has become an essential part of keeping guests happy and key to a...
Vizergy® Named Partner of the Year for Its Leading-Edge Digital Sales and Marketing Platform
Vizergy® Digital Marketing | June 3, 2021
Hospitality marketing leader recognized for its continuous commitment to excellence in driving mutual success. JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – June 3, 2021 – Hard Rock International (HRI) presented Vizergy® Digital Marketing with their prestigious Partner of the Year award. Vizergy received this recognition for its excellence in overall performance, brand involvement and collaboration. “Hard Rock International’s partner in the hotel and cafe website platform, Vizergy, showed a relentless commitment to excellence throughout the global website project,” said HRI Vice President of Operations Andrea Melotti. “Unintimidated by the complexi...
Tips to Make Your Hotel Instagram-Worthy
CICERO CONSTRUCTION GROUP | June 1, 2021
PLAINFIELD, IL, JUNE 1, 2021 -- As a hotel owner, it’s essential for you to follow design trends in the hospitality industry. After all, a guest’s stay in your hotel isn’t just to sleep, it’s also to have an experience. By making that experience memorable and “Instagram-worthy,” a hotel creates a deeper connection with that guest, plus gives you free social media promotions. Making photo-friendly elements a central part of a hotel's design will boost the chances of attracting new guests and maintaining repeat business from Instagram's one billion users. "On Instagram and other visually-driven social media platforms, hotel ...
Nemacolin Selects Knowland to Expand Lead Volume and Increase Meetings and Events Revenue
KNOWLAND | April 29, 2021
Forbes Travel Guide and AAA award-winning resort turns to Knowland to proactively uncover new business and connect with meeting planners and prospects ARLINGTON, Va. — April 29, 2021 — Today Knowland, the innovator of AI-powered group data analytics for hospitality, announced that Nemacolin has selected Knowland to give its sales team the leverage it needs to be more proactive and productive in uncovering meetings and events business through recovery. As corporations begin to lift restrictions and pent-up demand for travel grows, resorts and luxury hotels are rebounding at a faster pace than other hotel segments – especially for ...
Introducing Pre-Made Social Media Posts for Hotels & Restaurants
Pipeline Social Media | April 26, 2021
By Maiya Wall / Pipeline Social Media The Pipeline team is excited to offer a new product to hospitality professionals—Social Media Post Packs: Ready-made posts for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or wherever you share posts! Our May Holiday Pack features 27 complete social media posts, including graphics, animated graphics, and captions, for the top holidays in May. What’s Included in the May Social Media Holiday Pack? Cinco de Mayo: 3 captions / 2 graphics / 1 animated graphic Memorial Day: 3 captions / 3 graphics / 1 animated graphic Mother’s Day: 4 captions, 3 graphics / 1 animated graphic National Armed Force...
Gillis Disrupts Traditional Sales Model With Dynamic Sales Solution
Gillis | April 15, 2021
Company invests in people and technology to provide support to hotels during recovery resulting in $12 million in actual revenue for its clients in 2020 DALLAS — April 15, 2021 — Gillis, a consulting, training and sales performance partner organization for hoteliers, announced today that key investments in its employees, training programs and technology resulted in $12 million in actual revenue for its clients while maintaining a 95 percent retention rate since the pandemic began. Its Dynamic Sales Solution (DSS) provides a full-service, turnkey virtual sales team that flexes to meet its clients’ relevant needs while actively pursuing ...
ProfitSword Partnership With Event Temple Offers Full Real-Time Insight Into Hotel Group Sales, Event and Catering Performance
ProfitSword | October 20, 2020
ProfitSword integration with Event Temple’s hotel & venue management software provides hoteliers with visibility over group, catering and event sales performance activities for entire business portfolio. ORLANDO, Fla. – (October 20, 2020) – ProfitSword, a premier developer of hospitality-related business intelligence and data integration software, has announced a strategic partnership with Event Temple, a leading provider of hotel and venue sales and catering software, to provide hoteliers with seamless and complete visibility over group, catering and event sales performance activity. Through the integration of Event Temple’...
GCommerce Adds Metasearch to Its Hospitality Digital Marketing Services
GCommerce | September 29, 2020
Adding metasearch to the company’s repertoire will complete the digital media mix for independent hotels and resorts Park City, UT, September 29, 2020 - GCommerce, a leading, hospitality digital marketing agency, has announced its newest offering, metasearch advertising. “Metasearch advertising has continued its rise in importance for hotels and resorts. Our clients are dedicating a higher percentage of their marketing budgets to Metasearch because of its premium returns” says Lindley Cotton, President of GCommerce Solutions. “Our goal is always to generate premium digital revenue for our clients, and metasearch has become an in...
Hotel Sales Skills for Selling Remotely: Mastering Virtual Meetings, Screen Sharing, & Personalized Video Emails
Doug Kennedy | September 22, 2020
By Doug Kennedy As hotels bring their sales teams online, sales managers have plenty of work to keep them busy with managing date changes for previously booked groups and events, yet the most vital task is to bring in new business. Meanwhile, the previously reliable flood of inbound RFP’s has slowed to a trickle, so the hotel sales culture needs to make a major pivot from “sales fishing” to “sales hunting.” During the last 10+ years of growth in demand, most hotel sales teams could drop their digital “bait” into a river filled with hungry “fish” and then reel-in new business. Now it is time to strap-on orange vests and go...
