Research by Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne (Switzerland) and RateTiger shows hotels going back to basics by increasing their focus on offline and direct sales in order to reduce third-party costs, instead of deploying new social media techniques.
In effect, hotels are putting social media on hold as a marketing and selling mechanism, while they focus on driving direct bookings in response to their continuous struggle for better margins with the Online Travel Agents (OTAs).
The six month qualitative study, ‘The Distribution Challenge 2012’, was conducted in five countries and found that while social networks including Facebook, Twitter, TripAdvisor and YouTube are recognised as new forms of digital marketing, hotels are still unconvinced about the impact these channels will actually have on bookings and are therefore deterred from implementing strategies in the short term.
One in three of the hotels have no social digital media strategy at all, and only one in eight use any form of social media as a marketing tool.
According to the research findings, while a few hotels have used travel deal platforms like Travelzoo and perceived it as an opportunity to stimulate demand, more hotels aim at optimising the use of Google (both PPC and Adwords) and SEO. Their goal is to bring more direct bookings and take potential bookings away from high-commission OTAs. Hotels are looking to reduce the cost of distribution by directing bookings to their own website but also by increasing the share of smaller third-party websites within their distribution mix.
Horatiu Tudori, Senior Lecturer, Revenue Management, Ecole hoteliere de Lausanne, Switzerland commented:
“We have found that hotels work with more travel agents and consortia contracts for the corporate segment, apply BAR to walk-ins, and develop special offers for returning customers, including the introduction of loyalty programmes.
This is an interesting turn-around from the unbalanced and heavily online-focused sales strategies of the past few years, which are not bringing the yields independent hotels so much need right now. We also found that hotels just don’t see the true revenue value in social networks, opting for more traditional methods to engage customers.”
RateTiger CEO, Michael McCartan added:
“We’re seeing hotels increase direct booking and create more relevant packages and promotions for their customers by engaging in social media. Hotels need to look at how they can save time through technology and not just see additional tasks as an uphill struggle. It’s time that hotels start to get the balance right and ensure the conversation is flowing between Revenue, Sales and Marketing managers.”
Methodology
The intention of the review was to collect feedback from 3-star and 4-star hotels evenly distributed in five geographical markets: France, Germany, Spain, UK and the USA. Among the 72 hotels participating in the survey, 65 per cent were chain and 35 per cent individual properties, with capacity spread between 25 and 392 rooms. All the interviewees are in charge of managing pricing and distribution, two thirds being Revenue Managers and the others General Managers or Directors in either sales or reservations.
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About EHL:
As the first hotel management school in the world, the Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne (EHL) offers a university level training to students who combine talent and ambition and who wish to have access to high-level careers in the hospitality professions at an international level. 1,830 students from over 90 nations currently enjoy the unique study and living environment that the campus and city provide.
About RateTiger:
RateTiger is a premium rate shopping and channel management solutions provider, a thought leader in online sales and revenue management. RateTiger’s Product Suite, security certified under ISO 27001:2005, empowers and enables the travel and hospitality industry to compare rates with competitors on a real-time basis and update a wide variety of distribution channels and travel portals easily and efficiently with the largest online channel management network (750+) and XML connections (150+) available.