Augmented reality - a new luxury experience!
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lundi 18 avril 2011
lundi 4 avril 2011
dimanche 20 mars 2011
Hotel reputation procrastination hurts profit!
“Hotel reputation management sounds interesting, but we need more time to think about our strategy.”
So many hoteliers say that,and it is a shame that they still don't understand that Online reputation IS the key to success today.
The fact is that more booking are driven by reputation than either location or price today. The potential guests will automatically rely a review website, or a friend, than just the hotel website. And this because we are all living in an information society. Old times are gone, today, hotels need to manage their reputation.
A source from Expedia says that “Good reviews of 4.0 or 5.0 generate more than double the conversion of a review of 1.0 – 2.9” - this shows us how hurt the profit can be, if hoteliers delay or neglect their reputation management
The article states also that in most of the cases, “A 1-point increase in a review score [on a 1-5 scale] equates to a 9% increase in average daily rate.”
That is impressive!
So now, I just don't get why so much hoteliers don't monitor at least their reputation, we have so many tools today to work on it, (social medias, influence marketing, review platforms...)
Sure, it can take time, and/or money, but it definitely worths it, and it can give a hotel a competitive advantage if he takes the lead now.
mercredi 16 mars 2011
mercredi 2 mars 2011
What will delight today's customers who are mobile lifestyle travellers?
DDiH, Think Tank 2011, CMH Oneglobe, hotel think tankAroundU - Application Imagined
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dimanche 27 février 2011
Loyalty Program : Welcome to the new generation!
The article I wanted to comment today is about Carlson and the upcoming launch of their new guest Loyalty program. But let's just remind us what represents this Company:
- More than 1070 hotels worldwide including Radisson, Country Inns, Suites by Carlson, Park Inn, and Park Plazza
- More than 900 TGI Friday's Restaurant
- Main stakeholder in Carlson Wagonlit Travel which is a leader in travel management.
- About 150 000 employees
- Present in more than 150 countries
So now let's talk about their novelty:
The company has presented in last hospitality conference in Washington DC what is to be their new rewarding program, and ambitions.
Talking about this, Carlson is willing to double the current loyalty program size to 10 millions members in 2013, and a major revenues growth for 2015.
The pillars of this new program are as follow:
- Strengthening the network by the possibility of redeeming points accross all the 1070 hotels worldwide and 42 resorts
- Enhancement of partnerships, with diverse suppliers such as: Itunes, Amazon.com, BestBuy, but also with 80 ClubMeds and hundreds of independent hotels, ski resorts, and even cruises, thanks to Carlson Wagonlit Vacation's partners
So members would be enabled to earn either points or discounts in as much retails spots as possible.
On the other hand, the benefits for the guests are:
- Automatically complimentary early check-in, late check-out and continental breakfast for members
- Special online Concierge service dedicated to theater, sport tickets, and best-rated restaurants all over the world.
- No blackout dates warrant
- Development of a mobile application for i phones and android for express bookings, to attract the Mobile users audience
- Insurance of a fast and enjoyable way to reward (if you spend 2 night in a Radisson hotel in LA, you immediately get one night for free in the Park Plazza Prague, and you can use it at your best convenience)
This new generation loyalty program has been designed to be one of the most rewarding programs, but we might wonder if it is gonna have good economic fallouts for the company. In my point of view, the answer is Yes. The investment for launching this is about 10 Millions USD, but from now to 2015, the extensions objective must be reached, and the company will built a very strong core consumer relationship, which is the best way to gain profits in this business.
The last point to me is that they absolutely have to maintain a good quality of service, because they may reach 10 millions members of the Club Carlson, but if the quality offered is not satisfying enough in the next years, the members will be less and less loyal, and their number will decrease a lot as well in the future.
ps: The new loyalty program website is to be launched in the end of March 2011, starting from this date, you will have access to full program details on www.clubcarlson.com
Hope you find it as interesting as I did.
Have a great day, sunny Sundays are rare in Paris!
- More than 1070 hotels worldwide including Radisson, Country Inns, Suites by Carlson, Park Inn, and Park Plazza
- More than 900 TGI Friday's Restaurant
- Main stakeholder in Carlson Wagonlit Travel which is a leader in travel management.
- About 150 000 employees
- Present in more than 150 countries
So now let's talk about their novelty:
The company has presented in last hospitality conference in Washington DC what is to be their new rewarding program, and ambitions.
Talking about this, Carlson is willing to double the current loyalty program size to 10 millions members in 2013, and a major revenues growth for 2015.
The pillars of this new program are as follow:
- Strengthening the network by the possibility of redeeming points accross all the 1070 hotels worldwide and 42 resorts
- Enhancement of partnerships, with diverse suppliers such as: Itunes, Amazon.com, BestBuy, but also with 80 ClubMeds and hundreds of independent hotels, ski resorts, and even cruises, thanks to Carlson Wagonlit Vacation's partners
So members would be enabled to earn either points or discounts in as much retails spots as possible.
On the other hand, the benefits for the guests are:
- Automatically complimentary early check-in, late check-out and continental breakfast for members
- Special online Concierge service dedicated to theater, sport tickets, and best-rated restaurants all over the world.
- No blackout dates warrant
- Development of a mobile application for i phones and android for express bookings, to attract the Mobile users audience
- Insurance of a fast and enjoyable way to reward (if you spend 2 night in a Radisson hotel in LA, you immediately get one night for free in the Park Plazza Prague, and you can use it at your best convenience)
***
This new generation loyalty program has been designed to be one of the most rewarding programs, but we might wonder if it is gonna have good economic fallouts for the company. In my point of view, the answer is Yes. The investment for launching this is about 10 Millions USD, but from now to 2015, the extensions objective must be reached, and the company will built a very strong core consumer relationship, which is the best way to gain profits in this business.
The last point to me is that they absolutely have to maintain a good quality of service, because they may reach 10 millions members of the Club Carlson, but if the quality offered is not satisfying enough in the next years, the members will be less and less loyal, and their number will decrease a lot as well in the future.
ps: The new loyalty program website is to be launched in the end of March 2011, starting from this date, you will have access to full program details on www.clubcarlson.com
Hope you find it as interesting as I did.
Have a great day, sunny Sundays are rare in Paris!
jeudi 10 février 2011
mercredi 9 février 2011
samedi 5 février 2011
dimanche 30 janvier 2011
What Road-Warriors want in hotels?
The article of today talks about the businessmen stays, and the features they may want. The author talks about road warriors, representing the always-on-the-road businessmen.
the article states what this specific segment is really looking for when they arrive for a week night in the Hotel. And we can read that many hoteliers think that a bed and a bathroom are enough.
But we must not underestimate their needs, it is not because they arrive late, and leave early that they don't want to have special features!
A representative of Best Western Hotels has well understood the stakes. And I agree with what she says.
It is normal and obvious today to provide automatically a High-Speed Wifi access, breakfasts facilities, but also a Parking, a TV channels program, the seep timer on the remote..
There is an other thing that will seduce businessmen, that almost spend 300 nights per year in hotels : is to have a microwave, cutlery, a plate and a glass.. without being an apart-hotel, provide their business guests these things can change their life because they will feel like doing something normal, something they would do in a normal life!
I think that businessmen take what they are given without always shilly-shallying, but that Hoteliers should be more comprehensive, and provide them tho more amenities they can in order to reduce the prejudice of "not being at home".
the article states what this specific segment is really looking for when they arrive for a week night in the Hotel. And we can read that many hoteliers think that a bed and a bathroom are enough.
But we must not underestimate their needs, it is not because they arrive late, and leave early that they don't want to have special features!
A representative of Best Western Hotels has well understood the stakes. And I agree with what she says.
It is normal and obvious today to provide automatically a High-Speed Wifi access, breakfasts facilities, but also a Parking, a TV channels program, the seep timer on the remote..
There is an other thing that will seduce businessmen, that almost spend 300 nights per year in hotels : is to have a microwave, cutlery, a plate and a glass.. without being an apart-hotel, provide their business guests these things can change their life because they will feel like doing something normal, something they would do in a normal life!
I think that businessmen take what they are given without always shilly-shallying, but that Hoteliers should be more comprehensive, and provide them tho more amenities they can in order to reduce the prejudice of "not being at home".
vendredi 21 janvier 2011
OpinionWell, another free resource for tracking your hotel’s reputation online
I have just read about that new tool, OpinionWell, which is a very interesting tool to observe your online reputation as a Hotel, or a customer.
Since we are studying digital marketing in hospitality, I though that it was appropriate to share with you reader my founding.
So Opinionwell is a specific search engine that uses semantic analysis and opinion mining technologies to extract consumer preference data from hotel reviews. It is more targeted than a regular reviews website.
It aggregates and analyzes hotel reviews from across the Web to give in-depth and unbiased hotel recommendations.
OpinionWell is the first travel website to provide a hotel review keyword cloud, which highlights what people are talking about - good features, problem areas, and common complaints.
It also allows users to ask questions and post comments for each of the 40,000 hotels in its database. So far it is only accurate for Hotels in the USA, but I am certain that such a website will be soon existing in Europe.
The main advantage for hoteliers is that for a fee, they can check exactly what is mainly said about them, so they can monitor their online reputation. So now I am just hoping that Hoteliers will use these new tools wittingly!
Thank you for your time,
Alia
samedi 15 janvier 2011
Almighty Tripadvisor
I want to show you today what Tripadvisor has done to be even more efficient and reliable.
Tripadvisor has added in its website a flight ratting system, when looking for a flight.
It is based on the following criteria:
Tripadvisor has added in its website a flight ratting system, when looking for a flight.
It is based on the following criteria:
- Baggage Handling - do the luggages get often lost in the shuffle, or will they arrive smoothly at their destination?
- Check-in Experience - Is check-in a 2minutes dill or a daunting experience?
- In-Flight Amenities - Can travellers expect seatback entertainment and in-flight Wi-Fi or hours of checking their watch?
- In-Flight Service - Is flight staff friendly and attentive or rude and neglectful?
- Punctuality - Are flights often on time or delayed?
- Reasonableness of Fees - Does the airline make fees clear and reasonable or do they add a though hidden cost to the price of a ticket, as 10 bucks for a small bottle of water?
- Seat Comfort - Can travellers expect a comfy ride or will they arrive with aches and pains everywhere?
- Value - Is the total flight cost worth the value of this?
Each one of these criteria is rated by travelers themselves, on a scale from one to five.
It is an great tool in terms of customer relationship management, and it offers transparency because there is apart from the rating system, the possibility to add regular comments.
I think that Tripadvisor strives to give customers and advisors for their site, as much information as possible, so they can do their choice avoiding disappointment or mistake.
The other effect of this is that major airline companies will feel watched, so it reenforce again the customers' rights. If a company has a very bad rating, it will give her the opportunity to progress.
I hope that you find this article as interesting as me, thank you for reading it!
mercredi 12 janvier 2011
dimanche 9 janvier 2011
A new application with a huge potential: Hotel-Tonight
The article of today explains a new application for iPhones (and soon for Androids), that allows people to book a "hotel for tonight". That's the name of the App, and so far, it is only available for New York, San Fransisco, and Los Angeles, and it offers only 3 categories of Hotels in these towns: Hip, elegant or basic.
But can you imagine if this app is more developed?People who don't have the time or patience to comparison shop but still want a deal on their room will use it. The best target market might be businessmen, often in business trips for instance.The way the service works is you are only able to book a hotel the same night, and for that reason, their prices seem to be better than many travel sites, and its much more hassle free to book.
Personally, I think that this kind of App will totally change a certain way of consumption people have today. If you try a booking for tonight in popular websites, most of them could not offer you that, and it is a shame!
Hotel Tonight sell hotel ONLY for the same night, and ONLY trough its iPhone app. Don't try to book a hotel on their website, it doesn't work!
Moreover, the app is very clever and fast to use, because it assumes that the reservation name is the iPhone's owner's one, so it permits to skip all the tedious steps of a regular booking.
I really hope that Hotel-Tonight will be extended to more cities in the world because it does sound promising!
mercredi 5 janvier 2011
mardi 4 janvier 2011
The new luxury landscape
The article I have chosen this week is about the impact of the Crisis on the Luxury business, and its way to be purchased and consumed.
Before that terrible economic crisis that has hit the hospitality industry these 2 years, the luxury consumtion was quite showy, and purchasing an expensive good was seen as valuable.
Nowadays, consumers seek more significance on what they purchase, than a certain standing of wealthiness. They think differently!
I can understand what the author of this article wants to explain: 2 years of crisis and economic decline have rang everybody's bell about value of thing, the meaning of "affordable" has been redefined, and even rich people think more and buy with conscientiousness.
The moral of this is that every Cloud has a silver lining: even if the crisis was terrible, it helped to keep some consumer's feet on the ground!
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