Booking.com extends new commitments throughout Europe

As we have been discussing OTA and Booking.com on a number of times in the past the latest release in statement from Booking.com is interesting to say the least.

We felt that this is a very smart move from Booking.com, in which they are playing good cop to both the competition authorities and hoteliers. In summary of the announcement, Booking.com will not issue hoteliers’ with emails and phone calls when you infringe the parity rate code against other OTA but it will still put pressure on you if the pricing on your own website is not on parity with Booking.com.

What does this mean? and how is this going to affect my distribution strategy?

What it means is that Booking.com will still have the best rate available out there in the market. Most hotelier’s objective is to try and push their online business into their own website. Marketers will go as far as offer lower rate to drive this business as the commission level is lower on your own website. The domino effect is that Booking.com will benefit from this as what you do in your own website, will have to apply on Booking.com. You see the clearer picture now, this is the reason why Booking.com does not care about other OTA and focus more on your own website.

However, hoteliers should look at this from another angle. With this news, hoteliers should aim to dilute the business production from Booking.com and spread this across all different platforms. This will take the monopoly of production from Booking.com and hotels should target other lower commission cost OTA.

Have you heard of Tripadvisor’s new Instant Booking? We will have a look at this on our next post and we will explain how this will help in combating Booking.com

Please view below statement from Booking.com

 Dear GlobalPartner,

 We would like to inform you that pursuant to the recent agreement reached between the French, Italian and Swedish National Competition Authorities (“NCAs”) and Booking.com, we have committed ourselves to inform our hotel partners of our commitments (see attached letter). We can also inform you that we have decided to extend the Commitments to accommodations throughout Europe so that all of our accommodation partners in Europe can benefit from these changes. Therefore, the attached letter has been sent to all of our hotel partners (including your hotels) in the European Economic Market (including Switzerland).

 In line with the commitment obligations, all properties within the EU (including your properties) will be informed today using the letter and annex attached. The rest of your contract (including any more favorable provisions to your or your hotels’ advantage) have remained unchanged.

If you have any questions about the commitments or the consequences, please do reach out to your dedicated account manager.

Agreement Annex EEA_EN

MFN ACCOMMODATION PARTNER EMAIL

Source:
Andy Leung

Is TripAdvisor’s TripConnect worth the investment for independent hotels?

As the world’s largest travel site, TripAdvisor is the go-to source for people planning their travel arrangements. With this in mind, it is clear that the glorious moment all independent hoteliers have been hoping for is finally here – the ability to bid against OTAs for placement in TripAdvisor hotel price comparison search through the new TripAdvisor Connect A.K.A. “TripConnect”. Previously, this opportunity was only available to OTAs and large hotel brands. So, is TripConnect worth the investment? And with the constraints of a limited budget, is there any way for independent hotels to actually beat out OTAs which typically have much larger budgets to allocate to paid-advertising initiatives like TripConnect? In this article, I will explain the requirements for participating in TripConnect and weigh the pros and cons for independent hoteliers bidding on placement.

I need a TripAdvisor Business Listing to participate in TripConnect – What is this?

As an independent hotelier interested in TripConnect, your first step is to verify that you currently have a TripAdvisor Business Listing, a prerequisite for participation in the TripConnect self-service bidding platform.TripAdvisor Business Listings launched in 2010 and allow businesses to add key property information to standard listings. With a Business Listing, hotels can optimize their property listing with unique special offers and contact information. With such a monumental shift to mobile in recent years, TripAdvisor has also been encouraging hoteliers to opt into “Business Listings + Mobile”, which allows hoteliers to include a mobile-only special offer on their hotel’s listing.

The pros for independent hoteliers 

The features included in Business Listings allow independent properties to standout and compete against branded hotels, most of which have Business Listings. These listings include a link to your hotel website, contact information including phone number, special offers link, a special offers tag, photo slideshow, and an announcement. A link and phone number on your listing may not sound significant, but this is a simple way to drive relevant and interested traffic to your website or reservations center to increase non-commissioned bookings.

The cons for independent hoteliers

Most major hotel brands pay for Business Listings for all of the properties within the brand family as a means to increase traffic and open up new marketing opportunities. (The brands typically return on this investment by charging each hotel a commission for all bookings made on TripAdvisor.) However, TripAdvisor Business Listings can be extremely expensive for independent hotels that are not backed by a brand and are already investing their marketing dollars on other online channels. Pricing is tiered according to the location and number of rooms at the property. I ran a search for similar-sized properties in different markets and received the quotes below.

184 Room Hotel in El Paso, TX Business District	143 Room Hotel in Downtown Chicago Loop

There is a vast difference in cost for a hotel in El Paso, TX and a hotel in downtown Chicago. You can find the price to upgrade your hotel’s profile to a Business Listing online here.

What is TripAdvisor’s Tripconnect?

Still in its initial phases, TripConnect rolled out in October 2013 and allows independent hotels to compete for placement in the TripAdvisor price comparison search. In the past, only OTAs and large hotel brands were able to bid for placement in the pricing search results that appear on individual property listings, city hotel search results, and on the mobile app. Now, independent hotels that use a certified internet booking engine and are paying for a TripAdvisor Business Listing can also participate in this pay-per-click program. This bidding model allows the hotel marketer to control the ad spend. There is no additional commission to TripAdvisor, rather you are paying each time the ad is clicked and the annual fee for the Business Listing. This is important to keep in mind as you compare ROI with other paid-search advertising outlets that are both pay-per-click and commission-based, like Expedia TravelAds.

How does the bidding process work?

As an independent hotelier, you are able to completely control bids and budget on the TripConnect platform, including the ability to adjust bids for mobile and desktop searches. You are also able to view a forecasted number of clicks and click-through rates based on the market, position, and other circumstances. Your branded competitors do not have this control on a hotel-level as brands generally bid on behalf of hotels and charge commission for bookings.

Here’s what the results look like for an independent hotel bidding for desktop and ranking 2nd for designated date in the TripAdvior price comparison search. 

Because TripConnect is still new, it is difficult to gauge the ROI for independent properties and determine how they will be able to compete against OTAs. I ran some test searches on TripAdvisor to see how independent hotels, branded hotels, and OTAs were ranking comparatively in the hotel price comparison results. First, I chose four markets to run my experiment – Boston, San Francisco, Seattle, and New Orleans. Then, for the top ten hotels in each market, I ran a search for the exact same date to determine which independent and branded hotels had Business Listings, which hotels were bidding on those dates, and how the hotel’s ad placement was ranking compared to those of OTAs. My findings were as follows:

Side Note: TripAdvisor’s Jetsetter (members-only private sale site for hotel bookings) also bids on placement within the search results, but I did not notice any preferential treatment.

It will certainly take some time to assess the value of TripConnect for independent hoteliers and their ability to bid against OTAs. From my casual experiment, it appears that at the time being OTAs are still monopolizing the top 3 results on the booking search results page for desktop and mobile, consistently ranking above branded or independent hotels. It also appears that a majority of independent hoteliers have not opted in to TripConnect and if they have, they do not have someone actively managing their bidding strategies as OTAs and brands do. It is also possible that the brands are adjusting their strategy by running select experiments in various markets rather than for all properties, thus not ranking against OTAs for the cities tested above.

Considering investing in a Business Listing and bidding with TripConnect?

Let’s Recap Pros and Cons

Key factors to consider before investing in TripConnect

• Take advantage of the special offer space. If you’re an independent hotelier already investing in a Business Listing, you can highlight your lowest prices, or a “discount at hotel website”, in the Special Offers feature of the listing. By taking this route, your best price is featured at the top of the page, encouraging users to book with you rather than looking down the page at OTA prices. This can also eliminate the need to spend time with the PPC campaign. However, you will need to monitor this pricing to make sure it is actually more appealing than the OTAs which may be difficult if you have a dynamic pricing strategy.

• How are people are using the mobile app? If your location is in the city center, you may not be ranking #1 in TripAdvisor, but your listing could appear prominently based on how people are searching within the app. This can mean that investing in a Business Listing is worthwhile even if only to get your phone number at the tips of a nearby searcher’s fingers.

I’m a TripAdvisor user searching for hotels nearby…

Business Listing provides compelling call-to-actions and contact information.	Regular TripAdvisor listing provides very little information or incentive to book.

• What kind of partner is your booking engine? There are three tiers of TripConnect partnership – Premium, Plus, and Partner. It may not be worth investing in a Business Listing for the purpose of running a TripConnect PPC campaign if you can’t take advantage of the premium features.
  • TripConnect Premium Partners are able to bid for traffic, use automated review collection services, and take advantage of enhanced tracking features. Close to 90% of partners are signed up at the Premium level.
  • TripConnect Plus Partners are able to bid for traffic and take advantage of automated review collection services.
  • TripConnect Partners are only able to bid for search traffic.

See what level of partnership with TripConnect, if any, your reservation system has agreed to here.

Next Steps for Independent Hoteliers 

Now that you are more familiar with TripAdvisor Business Listings and the new TripConnect program available to independent hoteliers, I suggest first assessing your ability to make a monetary investment and time commitment to the program. There unfortunately isn’t enough data yet to determine the ability to surpass OTAs’ price listings, but if you’re able to take risks and try something new in your online marketing strategy, it is an interesting new opportunity for independent hoteliers to explore. If you do not yet have a Business Listing, you will want to consider your hotel’s TripAdvisor ranking, your booking engine’s partnership with TripConnect, and the number of OTAs currently bidding on your property. Find more information, check out the TripAdvisor Business Listing website, or reach out to your hotel’s online marketing expert for their insight on your website traffic trends and booking engine details.

Posted in Blue Magnet Interactive on December 06, 2013 by Brittany Aller

Is The End of OTA Coming Soon?

Dark days for online travel agencies

The days are getting darker for the mass-market online travel agencies (OTAs). The fundamentals of their business are weakening amid intense pressure up and down the value chain, especially in the mature US market.

How many times have people asked you: “Why should I book from Expedia or Orbitz?” In my world, that refrain is growing louder as more people are beginning their travel searches on metasearch engines and I have to admit there’s not much to say in response.

Expedia’s woes

The transcript for Expedia’s most recent quarterly earnings call read like a terminal diagnosis, with its own offspring as poisoner. TripAdvisor, once a loyal subsidiary, was no longer deferentially sending Expedia it’s lion share of traffic. The media giant was commanding the audience and Expedia was not the highest bidder.

The loss of traffic during TripAdvisor’s switch from pop up ads to hotel metasearch caused Expedia’s stock to plummet 27% in one-day; it’s now down about 20% on the year. The company is being attacked on all fronts, with its recently acquired metasearch engine Trivago the lone shining light.

The rise of metasearch

This pressure is not unpredictable. On one side we have the supplier brand.com sites, who have begun an aggressive campaign to build direct relationships with the consumer. The benefits to them are game-changing for both cost and revenue: A cheaper distribution channel and an increased opportunity to merchandise and upsell to consumers.

On top of that, direct relationships allow supplier brands more intimacy and brand engagement with the consumer, a boon to loyalty programs as they invest heavily in loyalty marketing.

Suppliers will try to exploit their stronger bargaining hand to haggle over commissions with OTAs and drive down distribution costs. Supplier consolidation has made air a zero-profit center for OTAs as it is, a trend we’re likely to see extended to hotels and wherever else possible.

On the other side, we have the major metasearch and media channels with Kayak (owned by Priceline) and TripAdvisor being the dominant players. The metasearch message has finally gone mainstream, and everyone from Kayak to Room77 to Trivago are reaping the benefits.

Metasearch offers a better search experience and make it easier to consistently find the lowest prices available online. Many of them now offer equivalently seamless booking for hotels. The line is blurred between metasearch and OTA for many consumers and it’s the OTAs who stand to lose.

Three things OTAS can do to stay relevant

Despite all this, I would argue it’s not the end of OTAs. There is still plenty of room in the market for them, but here’s what they need to do better:

1) Be a platform, not just a brand: Expedia with Expedia Affiliate Network (EAN) is probably the best example of this. Now all of the major OTAs have an affiliate network, which lets them distribute hotels through the major metasearch players as well as any other site that wants to sell travel in a plug-n-play way. It instantly expands their distribution footprint and scale, while forcing them to give up some margin.

Pros: Focuses on fulfillment value-add and scales easily
Cons: More of a commodity service; does little to reinforce a brand.

2) Improve the search experience: OTAs are getting killed by metasearch and media players in part because the search experience is just plain worse. TripAdvisor brings useful reviews to the search experience; Kayak has spent years perfecting its search technology and user interface. Start-ups like Hipmunk have built brands off of user experience and are iterating at a much faster pace.

These rivals offer better research and more consistent lower prices so it’s no wonder you’re better off starting there than going to an OTA directly. But there’s no reason the OTAs can’t compete. They have talent and resources and far more years of search experience.

Pros: Profit from the core, many been doing search for more than a decade.
Cons: Head to head competition with faster, more dynamic companies; UX superiority is unproven as a sustainable positive driver of return on investment (ROI) for the long-term.

3) Add value. Remember when Orbitz marketed its “TLC” service for better disruption support for their customers? Whatever happened to that? Maybe they couldn’t justify the ROI or perhaps they weren’t delivering on it effectively. But the point remains, for an OTA to be relevant they must do something better, faster, or cheaper than a supplier can direct.

Because they’re never going to be cheaper and probably never faster, they must do something better. To stay alive, they must differentiate one way or another and brand is not enough.

Pros: Holy grail of relevance. Cons: Margin pressure makes this challenging; Commodity rewards programs likely aren’t enough.

Channel vision

OTAs as marketing organizations are not sustainable for the long-haul. The brand message falls flat when consumers realize there’s no real advantage to using their products when metasearch offers a superior product and better prices, and transacting through supplier sites is intuitive and seamless.

The current plan of diversification through investment and acquisition up and down the value chain is a good medium-term solution, but for Expedia Inc. to thrive, it should find a path for expedia.com to have long-term relevance. I’m optimistic there’s a path to a durable business model here, but it won’t happen on auto-pilot.

Sources: Evan Konwiser of Tnooz, 13th August 2014

SEO best practices for Hotels

Is Hotel SEO Dead? Not By A Long Shot – More Than Half of Your Website’s Revenue Depends on It. By Max Starkov and Sue Wiker

Contrary to what some marketers may be saying, SEO is not dead. It’s not even close. Search engine optimization will never die, because it pushes hoteliers to continuously improve their sites.

The ongoing Google Panda updates (Panda 3.9 just launched) have made many hotel websites with thin content obsolete and have raised the bar for hotel websites, demanding not only unique and engaging copy. The Google Venice update had a heavy impact on the localization of search. In summary, it means that Google will try its best to serve you localized results based on your location, whether or not your search query is geo-targeted – you could type in ‘hotel’ and Google bases search results off of your location.

Hoteliers are also challenged to keep their hotel website consistently updated with fresh content as this significantly affects SEO. This means that budget dollars need to be allocated to keeping the website current or investing in a tool such as the HeBS Digital CMS Premium which – among other things – allows hoteliers to add and edit both textual and visual content on a 24/7 basis.

There is a direct correlation between the quality of the website SEO and the results from your paid search (SEM) campaigns. The better the SEO on the site, the better the Quality Index assigned to your paid search campaigns by Google, which means higher ad position, better conversion rates, higher ROIs and lower cost per click. A robust content strategy, supported by adequate technology and marketing funds, can make all the difference and allow the hotel to maximize its revenues from the search engines.

Marketers love exclaiming “SEO is dead!” and heralding the next big thing that will save your website – social media, retargeting, mobile, tablets, you name it. However, regardless of what some in the industry say, SEO is still alive and well. HeBS Digital’s own experience categorically shows that more than half of website booking revenue (56% to be exact) across our client portfolio comes as direct referral from the search engines, including organic and paid search.

The ongoing Google Panda updates (Panda 3.9 just launched) have made many hotel websites with thin content obsolete and have raised the bar for hotel websites, demanding not only unique and engaging copy.  The Google Venice update had a heavy impact on the localization of search. In summary, it means that Google will try its best to serve you localized results based on your location, whether or not your search query is geo-targeted – you could type in ‘hotel’ and Google bases search results off of your location.

Hoteliers are also challenged to keep their hotel website consistently updated with fresh content as this significantly affects SEO. This means that budget dollars need to be allocated to keeping the website current or investing in a tool such as the HeBS Digital CMS Premium which – among other things – allows hoteliers to add and edit both textual and visual content on a 24/7 basis.

Case Study: Hotel Search Engine Revenues

In spite of all the new and trendy digital marketing initiatives and formats that overwhelm hoteliers nowadays, reliable old search engines generated over 55.6% of website revenue for HeBS Digital’s client portfolio consisting of thousands of hotel properties.

Here is the search engine (Google, Bing and Yahoo) year-to-date contribution as percentage from the total website revenues, as of September 30, 2012:

• SEO revenues: 32.7%
• SEM revenues: 22.9%

There is a direct correlation between the quality of the website SEO and the results from your paid search (SEM) campaigns. The better the SEO on the site, the better the Quality Index assigned to your paid search campaigns by Google, which means higher ad position, better conversion rates, higher ROIs and lower cost per click. A robust content strategy, supported by adequate technology and marketing funds, can make all the difference and allow the hotel to maximize its revenues from the search engines.

All of this isn’t to say that SEO is exactly the same as it was when it started. Some optimization practices have kicked the bucket – and we were happy to see them go. Search engine algorithm updates have targeted black hat practices that generally bring down the quality and relevance of queries.

So what has changed as far as SEO in hospitality is concerned?

SEO Practices Laid to Rest (Forever!)

• Keyword Stuffing: This should have gone out the door a long time ago, but in case you were still holding on to it, Google Penguin put the last nail in the coffin in April 2012.
• Thin Content: Gone are the days of one or two-sentence websites. Google Panda stressed the importance of deep and relevant content that provides a helpful user experience.
• Link Farms: Also struck down by the Google Panda update, link farms shouldn’t be touched with a ten foot pole. Inbound links from these thinly-veiled sites will drop your site’s performance considerably.
• Exact Match Domains: While affecting a small percentage of searches, the Exact Match Domain (EMD) Update wiped out one of the last vestiges of old-school SEO.

What’s left? Strong editorial content. Web content has always been the king of SEO – the recent Google Panda algorithm updates turned website content into the emperor. Each of the updates that punished poor practices ultimately underscored one thing: relevant content is here to stay. Quality content has taken center stage over the past 18 months, making it imperative to have strong copy supported by a focused SEO strategy. We’ve put together our list of top ten recommendations for a well-optimized site.

HeBS Digital’s Top Ten Recommendations for a Long SEO Life:

1. Redesign your website. This may not sound like it affects SEO, but it does. Redesigning your site allows you, with the help of analytics, to develop an intuitive site structure that organizes relevant content. Using a silo strategy, each page contributes to the SEO of its parent page. Additionally, this is the time to button up things on the back end: XML site maps, canonical tags, robot.txts on minor pages, site load speed, and so on. Install a state-of-the-art content management system (CMS) on the website.

Another important reason for the hotel website re-design is the growing need for centralized website content and digital marketing asset management technology. Hotel marketers are challenged to create and manage fresh content; store and distribute the hotel digital marketing assets; and circulate special offers and packages, events and happenings, all through several distinct channels. Managing a desktop website, mobile and tablet websites, and social media profiles on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ can become overwhelming without a content management system.

Obviously, hoteliers need more than just a simple website CMS capable of adding and editing textual and visual content. For example, HeBS Digital’s  CMS Premium  offers all of the above capabilities and was specifically developed to accommodate the Google Panda and Freshness updates by allowing hotel marketers to maintain fresh content on the hotel website with no programming knowledge required.

2. Create engaging content on the hotel website. The ongoing Google Panda updates mandate that website content be deep, relevant, unique and engaging.  Any hotel website without sufficient depth of content would have hard time with search engine rankings. HeBS Digital recommends a minimum of 25 content pages for a select service property, and 35-40 pages of content for a full-service property website. A big full-service hotel or resort’s website should start with 75-100 pages of content. Utilizing the website’s CMS platform, create landing pages for each hotel special offer, package or promotion, as well as for events and happenings at the property or in the destination.

3. Use professional copywriting. You get what you pay for – cheap copywriters typically provide thin, lifeless content that does little more than take up space on a page. Take the time to find professional copywriters with both SEO and hospitality experience that can be called “travel writers” in their own right. These writers will be able to not only generate unique, engaging and quality content, but also help you brainstorm ideas and provide guidance how to best present the hotel product online. Money spent on lasting content is money well spent.

4. Develop a content creation plan. Building additional content does three things for your site. It creates deeper content, gives you more real estate to target segmented keywords, and it increases your PPC campaigns’ quality scores and lowers their cost per click. Capture incremental revenue by targeting events such as nearby colleges’ graduations or upcoming sports games. Knowing these events ahead of time will allow you to post them far enough in advance to gain traction by the time the event happens, and will prevent a last-minute rush. Develop content based on special offers related to local attractions, such as theme parks, museums, sporting venues. Ultimately, the goal is to allow the website content to grow by hundreds of content pages every year.

Now that you have done all this work on your website and its off-site extensions, set aside some money to maintain it. Having the flexibility to tweak your SEO strategy throughout the year is a great thing. Anticipate minor content changes, new landing pages, linking incentives and other recommendations your SEO team may have.

5. Implement mobile SEO. Quality content is the biggest “must-have” for a mobile site. The Google Panda algorithm updates favor mobile websites with rich visual and textual content that is fresh, engaging and optimized for the search engines. Having a hotel mobile website – even if developed according to industry’s best practices – is only the beginning. The mobile web abides by different rules that require mobile Web-specific marketing initiatives. Mobile search engines favor and predominantly serve local content; therefore, hoteliers need to optimize their local content and listings on the search engines, main data providers, and local business directories.

6. Create a blog on the hotel website. The Google Freshness update values – you guessed it – fresh content. This can sometimes be difficult to do for a static product such as a hotel, which is where a blog comes in handy. A branded blog can keep followers up to date on the latest happenings at the property as well as area events and, for strong brands, include a lifestyle element. Keep in mind that a stale blog is worse than no blog it all.

7. Bring local search listings up to date. Since the Google Venice update, local presence has become more of a focus. Over the past year or so, the SERPs have changed to allow for more local results, meaning that it is even more important to have strong local search listings. Be sure that you have uploaded quality photos, included accurate information, and written an optimized description. All this information will help you build a strong local presence and increase your performance in mobile searches, which are increasing annually.

Creating and maintaining a Google+ page is a vital component of any hotel’s SEO strategy. While Google+ may not be the sensation that Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest are, it is the most important social medium when it comes to SEO. Google+ essentially gives Google direct access to your browsing habits, what results you find useful, and what sites you give your seal of approval to. Once you create a page, put relevant users in your circle and interact with them. This will give you an opportunity to take up more real estate on the SERPs and show up more often in “personal results.”

8. Devise a quality inbound linking and citation strategy. The Google Webspam update further penalized link farms and purchased links. Generally speaking, paid links have very little SEO value. Go for unique “organic” links with relevant anchor text, such as editorial links and mentions of the property, listings on local CVB websites, local colleges, and nearby convention centers, theme parks and attractions. Remember: bloggers are your friend, so work with local bloggers to have your hotel mentioned and linked to in their blog postings.

9. Utilize online press releases to promote special offers. Press releases in the form of travel consumer deal alerts are an important tool for increasing traffic, awareness, and quality inbound links and citations. Use a distribution system that allows you to target specific geographic areas for the most impact, and don’t forget to include a few links back to your site. However, keep in mind that press releases should still be “newsworthy” items – announcing that your hotel is great for group travel does not warrant a press release.

10. Implement high-powered analytics and search ranking technology. Search engine result page (SERP) rankings are just one measure of success. Organic performance can also be measured by revenue, bookings initiated, time on site, and other metrics. Platforms such as Adobe Omniture can give detailed metrics on each keyword such as pages viewed, entry points, and revenue to help you make tweaks to your SEO strategy. Revenue attribution SEO analysis, complemented with search ranking and recommendation technology such as BrightEdge, provides hoteliers with a concrete action plan to improve SEO results.  When possible, analytics should be implemented prior to SEO work so you have a baseline to judge success against.

Conclusion
Contrary to what some marketers may be saying, SEO is not dead. It’s not even close. Search engine optimization will never die, because it pushes hoteliers to continuously improve their sites. The recommendations above are great for SEO, but they also improve the user experience – something all hoteliers should strive to do. When you search something on a search engine, you hope for relevant results that will answer your question quickly. When done right, this is the end goal of SEO. Properly and honestly executed, SEO will help you rank highly for relevant, targeted keywords with a high conversion rate. Everybody wins.

How to claim your Google Hotel Finder

How to claim your Google Hotel Finder page

November 27, 2012 | Hotel Marketing By Markus Busch

Now that Hotel Finder has become an official Google product that is currently getting rolled-out on a global scale, it is important that you spend time with your hotel’s Google Hotel Finder page. Here is how you can take control of your listing.

Google Hotel Finder’s initial feed of hotel data was obtained from many sources such as Google’s own data, OTAs, GDS representation companies, Yelp and many more. As such, the likelihood that your hotel is already listed in Google Hotel Finder is very high.

Getting listed

If your hotel is not listed in Google Hotel Finder, the first thing you should do is get a free Google+ Local page. Google+ Local is a powerful tool for destination based businesses like hotels and restaurants, because it combines customer reviews and local search into one platform. Think of your Google+ Local page as your brand hub within everything Google.

To find the Google+ Local registration page for your country, simply search “Google+ Local” on your local version of Google.

Once you completed the registration process, your Google+ Local page will hold all static information for your hotel, like name, description, images, and the official URL to your website – ready for Google Hotel Finder to retrieve and use for your hotel listing.

The second step is getting your hotel’s dynamic data such as room types, rates, and availability into Google Hotel Finder. Unfortunately, Google is not of any help here, as Google Hotel Finder is turning to its commercial partners – speak advertisers – for that part of its data feed.

You currently have two options to get your dynamic data feed into Google Hotel Finder: Getting your hotel listed with one of the OTAs that advertise with Google, or turning to one of the major GDS service providers, which already update Google Hotel Finder with their hotel feed.

Once you have completed both steps, Google Hotel Finder will find and add your hotel, taking the hotel description from your Google+ Local page, and your rates and availabilities from an OTA or your GDS service provider.

Controlling your listing

Although Google Hotel Finder initially retrieved your hotel data from different sources, one place overrides all your hotel’s static data in Google Hotel Finder, and that is Google+ Local.

Therefore, if you don’t like your hotel images in Google Hotel Finder (originally they have been provided by VFM Leonardo), would like to extend your hotel description, or have to correct your hotel contact details – just login to your Google+ Local page and correct your listing until it features the information you would like to communicate for your property on Google Hotel Finder.

So if Google+ Local is not already a tool in your hotel’s online marketing arsenal, with the offical launch of Google Hotel Finder this is definitely the time now for every hotel marketer to focus on making your Google+ Local page as informative and appealing as possible. This means adding your complete hotel information, including photos, videos, and encouraging reviews from customers, and make your hotel stand out in Google+ Local and Google Hotel Finder from its local competitors.

Googel Hotel Finder guest reviews is a topic we’ll cover in greater detail tomorrow as part of this article series on how to optimize your Google Hotel Finder page.

Google Hotel Finder goes global

Google Hotel Finder goes global, gets integrated into Google SERPs

November 26, 2012 | Hotel Marketing By Markus Busch

Google has finally activated its Hotel Finder product on a global scale, including support for local currencies. In addition, US, UK, India and New Zealand are the first countries that receive full Hotel Finder integration into regular Google search engine result pages – a move many hotel marketers were anxiously waiting for.

The company makes its Google Hotel Finder now available on all global Google domains via the URL ‘/hotels.’ In addition, most local versions (not all yet) show hotel rate information in the local currency.

What’s more, in the US, UK, India, and New Zealand, a Google Hotel Finder search box is now prominently featured on all search engine result pages (SERPs) for destination hotel searches.

The fact, that Google New Zealand already integrates Google Hotel Finder into its SERPs – but Australia not – could be an indication, that Google is rolling out SERP integration to all its local domains as we write this.

A move, every hotel marketer was waiting for, that Google Hotel Finder finds its way into Google’s regular search engine result pages, thereby increasing its user base and potential as hotel booking originator significantly.

Google Hotel Finder also introduced some new features, like a ‘Rooms’ tab, which now provides the consumer with the complete room type information of a hotel including rates (originally, that information was based on the least expensive double room the hotel had available).

As for Google ‘Hotel Price Ads’ and ‘Promoted Hotel Ads,’ nothing seems to have changed since we last reported on the topic (read “More on Google Promoted Hotel Ads”). Google Hotel Finder still shows four Hotel Price Ads per hotel – including one prominently featured as the ‘Promoted Hotel Ad’ – as well as the official link to the hotel website.

However, the extent to how hotels will benefit commercially from Google Hotel Finder is still largely unclear – especially when you find your hotels four Hotel Price Ads occupied by major OTAs, and you know for certain, that your CRS provider feeds Google with Hotel Price Ads directly.

But now that Google Hotel Finder is an official Google product, it will most likely not take long, until we finally receive some official signals from Google like “Google Hotel Price Ads: The official guide for hotel marketers.”

Only then, will we know for certain, if Google Hotel Finder is living up to its heavily hyped and hoped for expectations as a level playing field for independent hotels, hotel chains and hotel aggregators when it comes to where the customer eventually books hotels.

Related Links: Google Hotel Finder, Google SERP for “hotels new york”

Look at Google Hotel Finder

A closer look at Google Hotel Finder’s latest update

June 07, 2012 | By Markus Busch, Editor Hotelmarketing.com

The new version features a tighter Google+ integration, new booking user interfaces, and a new exclusive ad format, Google Promoted Hotels. The later gives consumers only one booking option, and could serve as a great tool for savvy hotel marketers on a direct booking mission.

Before we delve into the details of the latest version of Google Hotel Finder, lets keep in mind that the current state is still very experimental, and we’ll most likely see more changes to come before the service goes officially live.

Here are the major changes as of the latest Google Hotel Finder update:

User interface
The latest version of Google Hotel Finder gets a tighter integration with the Google+ interface, receiving some nicely polished usability features like the date picker opening by default when you launch the service, or the hotel shortlist bar now permanently visible on your screen. Note: The new UI is currently not supported in all browser, interesting enough Google Chrome still shows the old version.

New “Book” buttons
The old, unbiased “Book” button is being replaced with a branded version, that prominently features the top Hotel Price Ad bidder followed with a “more” button, that includes the additional bidders as well as a link to the hotel website like the old “book” button.

Promoted Hotels ad format
A new ad format, that lets hotels and OTAs bid to not only appear at the top of the destination search results page, but also as exclusive booking source, with no “more” button on the new standard hotel page.

According to a Google spokesperson, users may see (for some searches) one to two promoted hotels at the top of the search results page marked as ads with a shaded background.

Like Google AdWords, these hotels are chosen via a combination of bid and quality score as those which are most likely to be relevant for the user (similar to promoted ads on Google.com).

Google Places, Google+ Local
Both the new Google+ Local and the soon to be replaced Google Places pages are still featuring the old Price Ad booking button, with the drop-down list highlighting the price ad with the lowest hotel rate at the top, and the hotel website link at the button.

Verdict
Then new Google Hotel Finder update looks much more polished than its previous versions, and we wouldn’t be surprised, if the service will go live soon.

While the new Promoted Hotels ad format at first looks like the perfect tool for OTAs and their deep pockets to further increase their visibility on Google, it can also function as a great direct bookings catalyst for savvy hotel marketers. Especially when you consider the high margins hotels pay to OTAs, and that the consumer is given only one exclusive booking source. Leaving hotels not only with deep pockets, but long arms too.

Google Hotel Price (google.com/hotels)

Open Hospitality rolls out Google Hotel Price Ads with real-time pricing

By Nick Vivion.

Following a successful 50-hotel pilot program, Pegasus Solutions‘ Open Hospitality is offering Google Hotel Price Ads to participating hotels.

Slotting into Google’s Hotel Finder product, the ads will provide real-time pricing information to consumers, allowing them to book directly on the hotel’s branded website.

The solution is seamless: Hotels within the Open Hospitality reservation and bookings system opt-in and OH takes care of the rest via a campaign customized to the individual property’s needs.

In addition to the Google Hotel Finder, hotel clients will receive direct traffic from Google Search,Google Maps, and Google Places.

Advantages for the consumer are the branded experience, especially for those who would rather book directly with the hotel rather than with an OTA. In addition, the real-time pricing ensures that they get the same pricing information that they would get elsewhere.

The hotels, for their part, are able to not only benefit from the more profitable direct booking outside of the OTA ecosystem, but also have the opportunity to sell ancillary products such as dining, spa services and other activities, ultimately boosting their revPAR numbers.

David Millili, CEO of Pegasus Solutions and Open Hospitality:

“Google has emerged as a central channel in the hotel shopping process. It may be used for a quick reference or as the actual booking channel, but it can’t be ignored as one capable of driving valuable direct business to your website.

For a typical hotel website, Google’s organic search is responsible for generating 1 out of every 3 visits. Paid search programs from Google, such as AdWords and Hotel Price Ads, provide additional opportunities for generating highly targeted traffic that converts well into bookings. Actual results vary significantly from property to property, as they are influenced by both online and offline factors.

Many of the participating properties experienced double digit ROIs during the trial period, on par with or surpassing their standard search pay-per-click campaign returns. However, program returns are contingent on a number of factors, including the completeness of the property’s Google+ Local page, and both the quantity and quality of guest reviews.”

In their continued push into travel, Google has been tweaking the placement of hotels in search results.

Earlier this year, Google moved the Hotel Finder placement from the first postion above the paid results to the first organic position. Labeled with a white “Sponsored” box, this move might have been an attempt to placate advertisers who didn’t respond well to having their paid results usurped by Google’s own product.

Nonetheless, before Google moved the placement down beneath the paid results, Expedia had nothing but good things to say about participating in Google’s Hotel Finder.

In remarks at the Citi’s 22nd Annual Global Entertainment, Media and Telecommunications Conference in San Francisco on January 5, 2012, Expedia’s CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said,“We participate in every way with Google because it is a big channel and a growing channel.”

Previous tweaks include adding point-to-point transit data via Google Transit, and launching the full-fledged Promoted Hotels product that pits OTAs against hotels for direct bookings via the Hotel Finder listings.

Real-time pricing in Google products is getting international attention as well. Solare Hotels, which manages over 12,600 rooms in Japan, has also just announced technology that will allow its affiliates to place real-time pricing for hotel inventory on Google Maps and Google Places.

By Nick Vivion

Sourced from tnooz

OTAs under pressure for 2013

Online travel: It’s going to be bumpy

November 13, 2012: 1:04 PM ET

A look at the performance of several online-travel companies shows their fates diverging.

By Kevin Kelleher, contributor

FORTUNE — The past several years have been sluggish ones for the travel industry, and it’s unlikely to get better: Fiscal uncertainty in the U.S., a sovereign debt crisis in Europe, economic slowdown in China. In the online-travel industry, the sluggishness is separating the strong companies from the weak.

A look at the stock performance of several online-travel companies shows their fates diverging. On the happier side, Expedia’s (EXPE) stock is up 94% this year, while Priceline’s (PCLN) is up 31%. Among the less fortunate: Orbitz’s (OWW) stock is down 46% and Travelzoo’s (TZOO) is down 32%. Since the web began to make online bookings available in the mid-1990s, online travel has grown to account for a third of the global travel market. This year, global online travel bookings are expected to reach $313 billion, according to PhoCusWright, a travel-industry research firm.

For most of that time, sites like Priceline, Expedia and privately held Travelocity stole market share away from offline travel agencies as well as airlines and hotel chains. During and after the recession of the late 2000s, that trend has continued with travel sites like Priceline growing faster than travel-industry suppliers. But PhoCusWright sees that changing in the next couple of years as the travel industry pushes to reach travelers directly.

In numbers released Monday, PhoCusWright estimated that the U.S. online travel market will grow 11% in 2012, outpacing the 8% growth of the broader travel industry. Over the next two years, however, online-travel growth will is expected to slow to 7% a year, thanks to fiscal and economic uncertainty in the U.S. and slowdowns in Europe and Asia.

Even worse for booking sites like Expedia and Priceline, most of that online growth is coming from online bookings made through airlines and hotels directly, a segment that is expected to grow 14%, versus 6% growth for online travel hubs. That slowdown is likely to hurt some online-travel sites more than others. Analysts are expecting Priceline’s revenue to increase by about 20% this year as well as 2013. Expedia’s revenue, meanwhile, is expected to increase by 15% a year. Orbitz, by contrast, is forecast to see revenue remain flat this year.

Smaller companies are also likely to see mixed fortunes. Analysts expect Kayak (KYAK) to see revenue growing between 25% and 30% this year and next, faster than the anticipated growth of its new parent, Priceline. TripAdvisor’s (TRIP) growth will be closer to 19%. TravelZoo will see about 6% growth, in line with the industry forecast.

Increasingly, however, the online-travel market is turning into a two-way race between Priceline and Expedia. Both are making bold moves, albeit dramatically different ones. Last December, Expedia spun off TripAdvisor and has been focusing spending on technology investments as well as a push into Europe, a longtime Priceline stronghold. Priceline recently paid $1.8 billion for Kayak, giving it a strong presence in the meta-search industry for travel.

Analysts aren’t expecting a wave of consolidation to follow the Kayak deal. More likely is the occasional acquisition that has happened in the space: Google buying ITA Software for $700 million and TripAdvisor buying Holiday Watchdog for an undisclosed sum.

Future deals are likely to happen among companies active in the mobile space. Part of Kayak’s allure as an acquisition target comes from its appeal to smartphone owners. Kayak said queries on mobile devices doubled to 109 million in the first half of 2011, compared with a 30% increase in website queries to 505 million.

Mobile travel searches are currently seeing the same kind of growth that website searches saw a decade ago. And the market still has further to grow. In 2009, a quarter of business travelers used a mobile device to access travel information, according to eMarketer, a figure that will rise to 57% this year. Leisure travelers are following suit: Only 8% of them used mobile devices for travel information in 2009, versus 38% this year.

Online travel sites have room to grow even in a maturing market and a sluggish global economy. But no longer is the growth going to be across the board. Instead, it will concentrate among a handful of leaders like Expedia and Priceline, especially those that can make early inroads into new areas like the mobile web.

Petition against Online Agencies Practices

Booking, Expedia, Trivago…. the sequel

The numerous reactions to my previous editorial show that there is a real problem on the role of online booking sites for distribution, well beyond the case of booking.com, which focused the tension.

The exasperation that has been widely felt for some time should not hide the positive role that could be played by online distributors, nor the carelessness of many hoteliers in marketing. Third party sites have an undeniable commercial, promotional and technological utility. But at what price? Hoteliers who have agreed to contract with online partners now have the feeling of having put their fingers in a gear that gradually eats at them. The balance of power is no longer equal and the level of commitment that many have recklessly accepted put them in a situation of earthen pot against the iron pot. In many cases negotiating is limited to a simple choice: take it or leave it, not to speak of the climate of mistrust that settles.

Even beyond the commission rates, which are already perceived as a financial burden that is hard to bear, a more fundamental question arises now. Who owns the customer? To those who let him pass through their reservation system or to those who welcome him in their establishment?

Everyone has their interpretation and recent initiatives of online sites show that opinions differ on this subject. This is a critical issue because it can lead to a real transfer of goodwill and loss of property value at the time of resale or evaluation. Some are already talking of future loyalty programs, specific to each online site, which would decrease the direct relationship between a client and a hotel property even more. Each hotel will lose a little more of its identity by being one option among others in the vast portfolio of site.com. The return of hotel brands in terms of public communication is a healthy reaction to customers’ needs for a promise of quality and a need for security. Drowned in anonymity, an independent hotel will be even less able to exist and to distinguish itself vis-à-vis its customers.

The inability to compete with the global giants to buy keywords on search engines is even more frustrating when it is no longer possible to protect the name of one’s own property. The hoteliers are so puzzled by the disproportionate power of marketing they begin to ask for tariff disparity. They want to blow up the Best Available Rate policy to attract customers with promotions, re-opening the door to the tariff jungle. This is producing the rope to strangle oneself a little more. The battle today is to maintain control of its inventory and diversify distribution channels.

For all these reasons, it is urgent to correct the balance. It does not take a “crusade”, but just to regain territory. That is why Hospitality-ON is launching a petition among hoteliers to show their willingness to regain their place in the supply chain and their desire for new, more balanced and respectful relationships. We welcome your feedback of which to be the advocates.

To sign the petition again online agencies practizes, please follow this link.

Georges Panayotis Director of Publication 
g.panayotis@mkg-group.com
0033 1 56 56 87 87