Louisville, Kentucky Nearly Doubles Year-Over-Year Event Volume, Hits 94.9 Percent Growth in July
Knowland | August 21st, 2024
Milestone CMS Delivers Record 30% Average Revenue Growth and 300% Average Group Booking Increases for Its Customers, Powered by a Unique Mix of Techno
Milestone | February 15, 2017
Santa Clara, CA – February 15, 2017 – Milestone announced another banner year for its customers as they achieved record results by leveraging Milestone's unique value as both a software developer and a design and digital marketing agency. New web sites on Milestone's Content Management System consistently experience a 25% to 40% growth in revenue. Hotels and resorts like the Tan-Tar-A Resort in Osage Beach, Missouri, for example, achieved year-over-year revenue growth in high double digits, over 57% with an increase in group bookings of 300%. Milestone achieved these exceptional results by leveraging our unique combination o...
Tambourine Shares The Hidden Chasm: Why Your Bookings Keep Falling into the Abyss...
Tambourine | February 9, 2017
The guest's road from your hotel marketing campaigns, to your website and finally to online booking is a delicate, razors' edge journey filled with several opportunities for the customer to bounce, turn back, and never return. However, many hoteliers assume a booking is guaranteed once a visitor is on the website and ready to buy. But, beware. There is a dangerous "chasm" between your hotel website and your booking engine, where potential guests can likely 'fall off" if you're not cautious. Here are the most common ways to lose potential guests transitioning from your Website to your booking engine: 1. Lack of Personalization Personaliz...
Fuel and Flip.to Reveal Key Components of an Effective Website in New Leisure Travel Behavior Study...
Fuel | February 8, 2017
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C., Feb. 8, 2017 – Fuel, the travel and tourism industry experts on driving direct bookings, has partnered with hotel advocacy platform pioneers, Flip.to, to create a behavior study that will improve hotel and travel websites. The research reveals key traveler insights, including who is visiting, how they got there and what they want. The study addresses many travel research behaviors regarding average booking times, influential sources, price factors and loyalty programs. The results are compiled from more than 2,300 respondents, all of whom planned and experienced at least one vacation in the past year. Among oth...
Tambourine Shares 10 Secrets of Luxury Hotel Websites (Part 2)...
Tambourine | February 1, 2017
Last week we covered the first five secrets of luxury hotel websites … Here's Part 2 and the final five tips for luxury hotels and resorts: 6) Luxury Hotel Websites Synthesize Design and E-Commerce Clearly, luxury hotels need to be vigilant about their online presentation and perception, but the savviest upscale properties understand that e-commerce tactics and visually arresting design CAN coexist beautifully … and profitably. A few elements to keep in mind: There is nothing inelegant about a clear and consistent call to action. A "Check Availability" button in a prominent location at all times can be designed in an und...
Tambourine’s Friday Freebie: Find Out What Your Compset Is Up To… Automatically...
Tambourine | January 27, 2017
Welcome to the Friday Freebie! Every Friday, we share one free impactful hotel marketing tactic that you can implement immediately to drive more conversions and more revenue. This Week's Freebie: Use free web-based tools to get instant updates on your competitor's moves and offers. Today's travelers are extremely fickle and can be easily swayed by the latest competitor promo. So, never lose track of what your comp set is doing. There are so many tools and tactics at your disposal, that you should never be taken by surprise when a competitor starts outperforming you. One of the easiest and most revealing ways to keep tabs on other hotel...
Tambourine Shares 10 Secrets of Luxury Hotel Websites (Part 1)...
Tambourine | January 25, 2017
Unique amenities, exclusive experiences and personalized service used to be the proprietary domain of luxury hotels … but now these offerings have become mainstream in hotels from midscale upwards. This means that high-end hospitality brands have had to raise the bar even higher to convey an extraordinary guest experience and differentiate themselves in meaningful ways. But this isn't easy in the online world, where pixels alone can't create a luxury experience. Making a webpage feel luxurious is indeed a challenge for many hoteliers. Whether they are appealing to young affluents or established wealthy travelers, here are the sec...
HSMAI Explores Innovative Solutions at Digital Marketing Strategy Conference...
HSMAI | January 25, 2017
The Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International (HSMAI) presents the 2017 HSMAI Digital Marketing Strategy Conference on February 22, at the New York Marriott Marquis. The industry's premier digital marketing education event convenes senior leaders in hotel marketing to connect and engage in meaningful, thought-provoking conversations about the most important strategic issues facing the business. HSMAI's 2017 Digital Marketing Strategy Conference is held the day after the HSMAI Adrian Awards Gala. "With the digital landscape evolving so rapidly, it's important to identify emerging trends in digital marketing and learn ho...
What Do Meeting Planners Actually Want? Here’s the Surprising Survey Results…...
Tambourine | January 19, 2017
Looking for the ultimate tip to booking more group business this year? Get inside the planner's mind to find out what marketing they prefer, respond to, and act upon. So, we decided to do just that. To help hotel sales managers win at various phases of the sourcing process, we partnered with EproDirect to collect insights from more than 83,000 meeting planners to find out what promos and incentives peak their interest, what marketing strategies actually influence them and what impacts their booking decisions. After analyzing the data, we discovered some things you might expect along with some surprises. Use this data to shape your sales...
Tambourine Shares 5 Hotel Sales Tactics to Jumpstart 2017...
Tambourine | January 13, 2017
A fresh New Year brings a new opportunity to delight ownership with big results in group/event sales…but only if you start off with velocity. Here are five proven tactics for jumpstarting your hotel sales performance in 2017 and establishing momentum for the next 12 months: 1. Have a Kick-Ass Kick-Off! Seize this moment to fire up your group sales team and send them off hustling, motivated and inspired to hit their revenue goals each month. An epic sales kick-off is your one chance to launch with real velocity and energize your team on a grand scale. The key is to get your team pumped and primed to kill it in the year ahead. So, ...
Now Available for Download: HeBStrategy Q1 2017 Hotel Marketing, Technology, and Trends Whitepaper...
HeBS Digital | January 12, 2017
As part of its position as a hospitality industry thought leader, HeBS Digital is pleased to announce the release of the first in a series of HeBStrategy whitepapers for 2017. The HeBStrategy Q1 edition highlights key developments in the hospitality, travel, and digital marketing spaces, their impact on hoteliers and hotel management, and their influence on trends into 2017. Download the HeBStrategy Q1 2017 whitepaper to learn about: What's Happening in 2017? Stay updated on developments that impacted hoteliers in Q4 2016 including changes in TripAdvisor search, Airbnb's continued growth, and new products from Google. Find out how the...
WHOEVER THOUGHT A SWEEPSTAKES WOULD BE A GREAT FIRST DATE?...
Lure Agency | January 12, 2017
So there's you, alone, hoping to find a match made in heaven. And then there's them, alone, also waiting to discover someone who can fulfill their needs. Now all you need is to meet, and have that first date, and the rest can, and will, be history. Are we talking about dating here? Or are we talking inbound marketing? One could argue – what's the difference? Ok, yes they aren't the same thing, but if we consider, for a moment, the similarities between the two, perhaps the path to achieving inbound marketing success will be clearer. The first date is the opportunity to plead your case, to start to build the foundation of the relati...
HSMAI to Honor HeBS Digital with Nine HSMAI Adrian Awards, Including Two Gold...
HeBS Digital | January 11, 2017
New York, NY (January 11, 2017) – The Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI) has recognized HeBS Digital for excellence in digital technology, innovation and marketing with nine Adrian Awards for 2016. Now in its 60th year, the Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International (HSMAI) Adrian Awards is the largest and most prestigious global travel marketing competition. The firm that has helped hoteliers drastically increase direct bookings and lower overall distribution costs has received the following HSMAI Adrian Awards in the Digital Marketing category: Gold Awards: Tsogo Sun Website Desi...
Tambourine Shares Recommended DOSM Checklist for 2017...
Tambourine | January 4, 2017
2017 is going to be a game changer for hotel DOSMs. This year, you need to maximize every advantage you have to meet your revenue targets and outperform your comp set. It's easy to start off the year with a burst of explosive energy, like a sprinter at the start line. But staying in front of the pack throughout the year requires you to maintain a disciplined daily routine of revenue-centric tasks. That's why we're bringing back our annual Tambourine DOSM Checklist, with suggests daily activities that will make it easier for you to achieve your revenue goals. Here are the 10 things we recommend to hotel DOSMs for 2017: 1. Assess Your Top...
10 Gifts Hotel Marketers Want For The Holidays...
Tambourine | December 21, 2016
'Tis the season to create your holiday wish list. However, a hotel marketer's wish list is unlike any other. Instead of asking for a new car or the latest tech toy, what you secretly hope Santa brings are all the assets you need to hit budget in 2017. So… deck the halls with these top wishes from every hotel marketer's holiday wish list: 1. Presidential Policies That Maintain Current Demand and Today's Steady Economy After two years of presidential election anxiety and uncertainty, hotel marketers are crossing their fingers that President Elect Trump and his policies will work in the hotel industry's favor. Despite the controvers...
The Crane Resort Taps Into the Power of Guest Storytelling to Boost Their Bottom Line With Flip.to...
The Crane Resort | December 19, 2016
Caribbean mainstay widens audience to the tune of 300K in first 5 months ORLANDO, FL — December 19, 2016 — Flip.to, the advocacy platform that helps hotels reach, inspire and convert travelers has helped amplify the marketing efforts of The Crane Resort. Just five short months since launch, the century-old Barbadian resort has been personally introduced 300,000 travelers worldwide with the help of their guests. "There's no better way to learn about a travel experience than from someone you know and trust. Our guests share everything with friends and family—from their excitement about an upcoming stay to their disappoin...
Hotel Marketing: 10 Things That Worked in 2016...
Tambourine | December 14, 2016
Marketing can often seem like a bottomless pit of possibilities. The days of investing in only a few marketing channels are long gone. Now, there are endless ways to reach potential guests and drive direct bookings, leaving some hotel marketers paralyzed or flustered over the overwhelming task of choosing what to focus on. So, we're here to narrow down the field. We've compiled a list of the strategies that have actually worked for us and our clients this past year. Call it our secret sauce, if you will. We fully recognize that there are no magic bullets that work for every property and market, but these are some of the consistently eff...
What Drives Guests to Be Promoters of Your Brand?...
Guestfolio | December 14, 2016
In previous research conducted, we've seen that the Net Promoter Score has a positive correlation to a hotel's TripAdvisor rating. Of course that makes sense, a positive review would hopefully tie in with someone willing to recommend your hotel to a friend or colleague but following from that, we decided to delve a bit further – what exactly is driving your guests to be promoters or detractors? Our analytics team looked into a huge number of responses and analysed their outcome to find some fascinating conclusions. Firstly, how do we find out if a guest is a promoter, passive or a detractor? Using the famous Net Promoter Score, ho...
Dual-Branded Aloft and Element Dallas Love Field Properties to Open with FlyteBoard in Both Lobbies...
the Aloft and Element Dallas Love Field Hotels | December 13, 2016
FlyteBoards Provide Airport-Bound Guests with A Smoother Journey CHICAGO, IL – December 13, 2016 – Flyte Systems® announced the new Aloft and Element Dallas Love Field hotels will provide guests with FlyteBoard digital signage airline departure schedule displays when they open in January 2017. The dual-branded properties are minutes from Dallas Love Field and will have a combined total of 224 rooms. The FlyteBoard digital signage displays will show airline departures with real-time updates, gate numbers and additional information in each hotel's lobby. Click here to request information on Flyte Systems' travel and gu...
Cutting a Bald Man’s Hair...
Georges Panayotis | December 8, 2016
by Georges Panayotis Franchise contracts are based on a reciprocal commitment between the investor-operator and the brand. Since investment funds set their sights on the hotel industry, such contracts have run into serious pitfalls. More concerned about seeing share prices climb on the stock exchange, financial shareholders have driven corporate communication to the detriment of brand marketing, thereby weakening awareness, the image and the attributes that make up the essential capital of any consumer brand. The marketing budget is already desperately tight in the hotel world and any slowing down is felt rapidly. Groups have contented ...
How to Find (And Keep) the Best Hotel Sales Talent Right Now: Tips From Tambourine’s DOSM-in-Residence...
Tambourine | December 5, 2016
Group and catering revenues often make or break your property's P&L and determine whether you outperform your comp set. Your sales team's performance is often the key to winning… so you MUST have quality salespeople. While most hotels have found a way to stay competitive in the transient space (with proper revenue management and smart hotel marketing), gaining a competitive advantage on the group side requires an enhanced commitment to recruiting and retaining sales talent. How to find and retain the best hotel sales talent right now: We asked our own Jeff Spaccio, Tambourine's DOSM-in-Residence, for advice on finding and ret...
Surviving ‘The Conversation Age’: 3 Ways to ‘Speak Human’ in a Content-Crowded World...
Kevin Lund | December 5, 2016
The new economy of conversation: How brands can make and maintain meaningful connections and create a lifetime value with customers in ways that'll set your brand apart in a crowded marketplace, tell an authentic story, foster maximized marketplace engagement and breed brand loyalty By Kevin Lund "Blah…Blah…Blah…" This is what most consumers hear when exposed to marketing messages no matter the medium through which it's delivered. Today's consumer demands more than catchy slogans and slick ad campaigns. But, in what's evolved into an overwhelmingly egregious disconnect, most companies struggle to communicate even th...
Cendyn Announces Acquisition of Guestfolio...
Cendyn | November 29, 2016
Boca Raton, Fla. – November 29, 2016 – Cendyn, the leader in cloud-based software and services for driving sales and marketing performance in the travel and hospitality industry, announced today that it has acquired Guestfolio Communications ("Guestfolio"), a leading CRM marketing platform for boutique hotels. With Cendyn's acquisition of Guestfolio, the company will offer an unprecedented ability for hoteliers to tailor their guest experience and digital marketing solutions to meet competitive marketplace demands and drive profitable revenue growth. Guestfolio's focus on guest engagement and marketing automation for indepen...
Hyatt Place Jacksonville Airport to Install FlyteBoard Digital Signage to Keep Guests On Time...
Hyatt Place Jacksonville Airport | November 29, 2016
Flyte Systems®' FlyteBoard Provides Airport Property with a Service that Busy Travelers and Flight Crews Value CHICAGO, IL – November 29, 2016 – Newly renovated Hyatt Place Jacksonville Airport will include a FlyteBoard digital signage flight information display among its upgraded guest amenities. Flyte Systems' FlyteBoard is a subscription digital signage solution that shows real-time arrivals, departures and gate information for one or more airports. The 127-room Hyatt Place Jacksonville Airport hotel is near the Jacksonville International Trade Port and close to companies that include Mercedes Benz, Coach, and BAE Sy...
Stop the Madness – Is Your Hospitality Email Marketing a Complete Waste of Time?...
Cory Falter | November 28, 2016
by Cory Falter You have merely seconds to capture the attention of your audience. Seconds. Email marketing is the norm now, everyone is doing it, it's not unusual or exciting, it's common. Even though it's commonplace, it's still essential to any hospitality marketing strategy. Without a doubt, you should be email marketing. BUT you must make darn sure that your email's are compelling, organized and genuinely interesting for your target audience, or all of the resources you've invested into the email campaign are for naught. HOSPITALITY EMAIL MARKETING Hospitality email marketing is essential for success. We all understand that OTA's ar...
