If you travel at all, for either business or leisure, then you should join Twitter and start following hotels, airlines, and travel companies for up-to-the-minute offers and discounts. Perhaps you think you have traveled your entire life just fine without it so why bother now? The answer to that question is because the times they are a changin’ and so is the way that that the travel industry is connecting with its public. Now you may be thinking that these companies only want to bombard you with more advertising and you don’t want to open up more doors for that. Well of course hotels and airlines need to promote their brand but they are doing it differently now and in ways that can work to your advantage. Furthermore, you have the power to choose which hotels you would like to ‘follow’ and you can ‘unfollow’ any time you wish.

What is Twitter and how do I Start?

Twitter is a service that lets you receive and send short messages, called tweets, consisting of 140 characters or less. When you choose to ‘follow’ a person or a company you are choosing to receive their tweets. When you send a tweet it will go to all those who chose to follow you. You can also send direct messages which go only to the followers you select. The best way to learn how it works is to go right to the source at Twitter.com and sign up. As the famous Chinese Proverb says, “I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand.” In 5 minutes you can create your account and choose to follow your favorite hotels.

You can receive tweets on the Twitter website, software on your browser, instant messages, or on your mobile phone. It is a good idea to have the tweets sent to your phone if you are traveling. This can be done through ‘devices’ on the ‘settings’ page.

Receive Special Offers and Discounts

Hotels are using Twitter to send special offers that are often last minute and go quickly. Offers can range from special room rates to free appetizers at the bar. Affinia hotels (Chicago, Washington and NYC) frequently update their followers on special deals or run contests such as the following:

Some hotels send offers that are exclusive to their Twitter followers. Marriott International recently offered a two week Twitter promotion called ‘Deal of the Day’ which ran from June 1st to June 12th. Offers were announced every day with discounts up to 60% off Leisure Rates.

Enjoy Enhanced Customer Service

Hotels are using Twitter as a means to elevate their customer service and ensure their guests are taken care of.

Affinia Hotels offers a fantastic customer service program called ‘My Affinia’ which allows guests to choose items that that they would like delivered to their rooms which include special pillows, guitars, hair diffusers and even a rubber duckie.

Affinia uses Twitter as a means to relay this service to its customers.  John Moser, Chief Marketing and Brand Officer for Affinia Hotels explains, “ If we see that someone is staying at one of our properties in the near future, we send them information about My Affinia, our customer service program that allows guests to customize their stay online and in advance, as well as other fun events and promotions that they can take advantage of during their stay. The  feedback we have received from guests so far has been extremely positive.”

Be Heard

Twitter allows you to have direct contact with hotels which can be helpful if you have a question or request. Hotels will respond to you promptly and make sure that your need is met such as this case from a guest staying at Affinia.

Guest’s Question:

Response from Affinia:

The Hyatt has recently launched a Twitter-based ‘Virtual Concierge’ which will be staffed 24/7 by customer service agents who will assist with questions, reservations, complaints, and queries around the clock.

Get Tweets about Happenings Around Town

When you are traveling you don’t often have the time to look up events in the city you are staying in. Hotels take this into consideration and are now using Twitter to inform their customers of fun and unusual things to do in their city or town. If you have Twitter set up on your cell phone you will have instant access to this information and may join in on an event you may not have previously considered. Affinia Hotels inform their guests with tweets that often link to webpages with more information.

Be Entertained

Hotels are also using Twitter to entertain their followers. Some tweets can by comical, thought provoking, informative, or just quirky. Each hotel has its own personality and you may receive tweets that will be quite entertaining.

The Affinia hotel sends Tuesday Tranquility Tips with short quotes or sayings that help you feel relaxed and grounded in the middle of a busy day such as “The smallest events can bring the greatest joy if u are present in the moment, not worrying about the past/future”.  They also send Friday Fit Tips with advice on staying in-shape such as, “Perfect squats, push-ups, sit-ups and other stretches, and you can achieve a great workout wherever your travels take you.”

The Fairmont Hotel does a great job of sending out engaging tweets they called Suite Tweets. Followers receive tweets on industry news, Twit-pics, and special offers.

Expect the Unexpected

Hotels and other travel companies are still experimenting with Twitter and they are thinking of creative ways to use it that will benefit their followers. You never know what type of unexpected offer or contest may arise.

There are also pleasant serendipitous circumstances that can occur with Twitter. There are many anecdotes about Twitter when it comes to travel. One such anecdote mentions a traveler who sent a tweet out complaining that he had to wait in a hotel lobby for hours while his room was being prepared.  Supposedly a competing hotel that was in the same neighborhood sent him a tweet back and offered him a better deal. We can’t be sure these anecdotes are true or not but we are sure that through Twitter you can find yourself connecting with people you wouldn’t have been able to otherwise.

What are you waiting for?

As we mentioned in the beginning of this article, the best way to learn about the benefits of using Twitter for travel is to sign up for yourself. A good way to find interesting and useful sites is to go to http://wefollow.com/twitter/hotels and see a list of hotel related companies on Twitter which are ranked by the number of followers. Below is a brief sampling of some companies you could follow on Twitter.

Trazzler Buzz

Bio: Get the best travel deals of the day surfaced by Twitter users. Travel companies: visit trazzler.com/advertising to be included. It’s free.
Twitter:     http://twitter.com/travelbargains
Website:    http://buzz.trazzler.com/

Helicopter

Bio: Elevate your search. (Helicopter is a hotel search engine that compares pricing and availability in real time from over 30 different travel sites including travel agencies, consolidators, and hotel sites.)
Twitter:    http://twitter.com/hotelicopter
Website:    http://www.hotelicopter.com/

Luxury Travel

Bio: Blogging on anything and everything to do with luxury travel.
Twitter:     http://twitter.com/luxury__travel
Website:    http://www.aluxurytravelblog.com/

Fare Compare

Bio: CEO FareCompare.com, Passionate about helping people find air travel deals, owning the worlds largest database of current and historical airfares.
Twitter:   http://twitter.com/rickseaney
Website:    http://www.farecompare.com/

United Airlines

Bio: United Airlines; Global Airlines; Star Alliance; Public Relations; official twitterer; Hubs in Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington. (United Airlines also has an added feature for their Twitter followers called ‘Twares’ which are offers which only last for a very short time.)

Twitter:    http://twitter.com/unitedairlines
Website:    http://www.united.com/

Kayak

Bio: musings from kayak cto/cofounder; see also @kayakdeals

Twitter:   http://twitter.com/kayak
Website: http://www.kayak.com

Trip Kick

Bio: Your Hotel SeatMap. TripKick.com Tells Travelers Which Rooms Numbers to Request at Hotels & Resorts Throughout North America.

Twitter:    http://twitter.com/tripkick
Website:    http://www.tripkick.com/

Hotel Chatter

Bio: Where to stay when you leave.

Twitter:   http://twitter.com/hotelchatter
Website:   http://www.hotelchatter.com/

Have fun tweeting! If you are interested in learning more about social media and internet marketing strategies for the hospitality industry please visit www.orourkehospitality.com or call us at 978-465-5955. Thank-you!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 at 10:13 am and is filed under Social Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.