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Archive for November, 2009

Prepare Your Hotel for Google Sidewiki Comments! Tips on What Your Hotel Should Do, and How to Monitor Reviews with RSS Feed

Wednesday, November 25th, 2009

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It’s been two months since Google introduced Sidewiki on September 23, but it hasn’t really caught fire . . . yet. When it was first announced, there was a lot of buzz on blogs and news sites, and it felt that the internet would be taken over by user-generated comments and opinions, but so far it hasn’t gained that much traction. We believe it will catch on soon, and that your hotel should be prepared for when it does.

What is Google Sidewiki and will it go mainstream?

Sidewiki is part of a Google Toolbar browser plug-in that allows users to open a sidebar on any website they are visiting and comment freely on anything they like; the website, the content, how they feel about the topic or the brand, or what they had for breakfast. These comments can then be seen by other visitors to the site (provided they have downloaded the Sidewiki toolbar) and they can leave comments as well. Users can also add links and videos, and share their comments through E-mail, Twitter or Facebook. (more…)

Tip 5: Install Analytics on Your Hotel Website

Monday, November 23rd, 2009

Are you tracking the return on investment from your hotel website? Do you know how many visitors your site receives every day? Are you analyzing the metrics on the pages viewed, the time spent on your site, and the exit pages? Do you know how visitors were directed to your site?

If you have analytics installed on your website then you have access to this information. However, our research this month revealed that 41.8% of New England first class and luxury hotels don’t have analytics installed on their website!


Analytics Chart C

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Innovative Hotel Website Ideas for 2010 – O’Rourke Interview With Chris Brogan

Tuesday, November 17th, 2009

‘In with the new – out with old!’ is a common phrase as the new year approaches. At O’Rourke Hospitality Marketing we believe this is especially true for hotel website design and the traditional ways of marketing.

We believe it is time to reinvent the standard hotel website, and we will begin with a quick comparison of a typical hotel website today, and our ideas of how a website should be for 2010.

A Typical Hotel Website Today:

• designed to promote hotel with emphasis on beautiful photos
• difficult to navigate, too many options, user gets lost
• static, no fresh content supplied
• designed from a template
• no links to social media sites such as Twitter or Facebook
• no blog
• no video
• no division between types of travelers (i.e. leisure, business)
• no calls-to-action
• no incentive for user to supply e-mail
• no reason for user to visit your site again
• no personal profiling
• no personal communication with guest
• no reviews
• not optimized for the search engines
• no analytics in place

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InterContinental Hotels Online Videos Prove More Effective Than T.V. Spot

Friday, November 13th, 2009

At Ad Tech NY this month we caught up with Jared Simon, V.P. of Corporate Development at TurnHere Internet Video, and we asked him to share with us his case study about InterContinental Hotels & Resorts.

Rather than produce one television spot, InterContinental Hotels & Resorts chose to produce online videos which showcase more than 150 cities where their hotels are located. Working with TurnHere, they were able to produce more than 700 stunning videos for the same price it would have cost to produce just one television spot.

These intriguing videos are narrated by the concierge of the hotel who takes the viewer on a tour of the city. The videos have been extremely successful and have been used across the brand’s online marketing initiatives. The videos have also been picked up by numerous editorial sites which is free publicity for InterContinental. Below is a video clip where Jared talks about the concept, process, and result of this innovative video project.

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New Email Marketing Tactics for Hotels to Use in 2010

Thursday, November 12th, 2009

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With the growth of email marketing bombarding inboxes, it’s time to get smarter and more creative as to how you use this marketing method. Here are a couple of ideas to think about coming into 2010 that will help you generate some other ways to look at this medium.

Promote Guest Reviews:

Travelers today are placing more value on user-generated content than ever before. This means they are spending more time on review sites like TripAdvisor to see what other people are saying about your property, and using this intelligence as the basis for making a reservation or not making a reservation at your property. As hotel email marketers, maybe it’s time to ask your guests what they thought after their stay, and use these results to build more targeted messaging as well as increase brand loyalty. (more…)