San Francisco Hotel Taking a Pro-active Approach to Social Media

Reasons Why Every Hotel Should Have a Blog

By Guest Contributor June 10, 2012 Leave a Comment

It’s as true of travel research as it is of Christmas shopping: more and more people are doing it online. That’s why, for companies in the hospitality industry, a solid online presence is crucial.

Hoteliers can now use the web to engage with users who are already interested in finding a place to stay.

And, through a blog, you can promote your brand, connect with guests and provide a wealth of information about your hotel and its location.

Are you taking advantage of this powerful marketing tool? Does your hotel have a blog?

Here key benefits of having a hotel blog, as well as tips for successfully maintaining and promoting it!

Key Benefits of Hotel Blogging

A hotel blog fulfills many different benefits:

Instant Feedback from Guests

Blogs allow for instant personal feedback—something that’s at the very heart of hospitality. With a blog, any of your past, current or potential customers will be able to read and respond to posts right away, giving you their thoughts.

Compared with typical ways of gaining feedback from guests—hotel response cards, market research, email surveys—blogging is faster, easier and more cost-effective.

What’s more, it allows you to create an online discussion that may clue you in to what your guests are wanting, helping you improve your service.

Online Concierge for Guests

A blog can enhance the services you’re able to provide guests, such as helpful information and resources about your accommodations and about the area. B

logging makes it easy to promote events, both at your hotel and in the community; to announce upcoming festivals or town activities; feature local businesses, from restaurants to shopping to entertainment; and more, all in a way that’s easy for visitors to find and to which they can relate.

Higher Search Rankings

Companies outside the hospitality industry understand this well—you don’t have to look hard to find quality blogs about obscure B2B topics. These businesses are regularly producing quality content. Why? Simply put, because it works, providing the kind of greater online credibility and authority that means higher rankings in search engines and greater exposure for related search terms.

How to Maintain and Promote Your Hotel Blog

Looking at all blogging has to offer, it only makes sense to get started. What do you need to know? And once you start posting, how can you promote it? Here are a few tips.

Post Regularly

Keeping your blog updated is key to keeping it interesting both to visitors and to search engines because every time you publish a new post, search engines crawl your blog.

Decide what kind of blogging schedule works for you—three posts a week? three posts a day? Establish a pattern and be consistent about it. Likewise, you may wish to enlist the help of a reliable Internet marketing agency in keeping your blog current.

Engage with Visitors

In the hospitality industry, it’s great when blogs can become places of discussion. Ask questions, encourage feedback and, whenever people comment on your blog, respond to them.

Likewise, hunt out people to initiate conversations with online—people who are Tweeting about your hotel, bloggers who’ve written about it, etc.

Promote Your Blog Offline

To make your online efforts most effective, you’ll want to let your guests know you’re online. Add links to the blog on marketing materials, info packets, sign-in sheets or anywhere else that guests could notice it.

Promote Your Blog Online

Create a prominent link from your main website to your blog so it’s easy for visitors to find it when they research your site. Likewise, link to your blog from your online profiles on Facebook, Twitter and other channels.

In the rapidly developing online world, there’s no better time to start a blog than now. How could blogging improve your business? And what are you waiting for?

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This guest post was contributed by Shanna Mallon. Shanna is a writer for Straight North, a Chicago Web design firm that specializes in social media, SEO, web development and other Internet marketing services. She writes for clients in diverse industries, from makers of rolled angles to the specialists behind a clean room pressure monitor. Check out the Straight North Blog, or follow @StraightNorth on Twitter.

Tagged With: blog, blogging, hotel, hotel blog

Major Hotels Collaborate on Search Engine

By Debbie Miller January 14, 2012 2 Comments

RoomKey.com is a new search engine exclusively for hotels.

A team of experienced hospitality management professionals have partnered with several major hotel brands to provide this new, unique search-and-booking experience.

Room Key was founded by Choice Hotels International, Hilton Worldwide, Hyatt Hotels Corporation, InterContinental Hotels Group, Marriott International, Inc. and Wyndham Hotel Group, part of the Wyndham Worldwide Corporation, or their respective affiliates, and Best Western just jumped on-board as well.

Room Key’s mission is to provide travelers direct access to a broad network of hotels around the globe, provide accurate and comprehensive information and make it more efficient for travelers to discover what’s right for them.

While the site has big goals, there are several reasons it may flounder a bit.

First, it only features results for the hotel brands it represents, leaving out many other plausible options a user may be interested in. This is a big deal considering there are numerous other hotel booking sites that aggregate a larger variety of hotels.

It also is currently only available for travel to the US, and doesn’t really incorporate any social components, which could be a mistake with the ever-increasing social media landscape broadening its inclusion of user reviews and friend feedback.

Would you use Room Key to search for a hotel room?

Tagged With: hotel, search

Surfing Social Networks for Unique Local Artists

By Debbie Miller September 15, 2011 2 Comments

Hilton Anaheim, Orange County’s largest hotel, and MUZEO, Southern California’s newest museum, recently joined forces to find and commission three talented muralists for the unique opportunity to have their work seen. A panel of judges led by MUZEO and Hilton Anaheim’s executive committee made the final decisions.

The stylized vacationers represent the brushwork of Apple Valley, California-based artist Robin Knilans Morrow, who has been working as a professional artist for more than 20 years. Los Angeles, California-based artist Gus Harper, who has been working as a professional artist for more than 12 years, painted the surfers. The talented muralist behind the realistic images of birds, shells and other life by sea is Anaheim-based Piccolo Batlle. He has been working as a professional artist for more than 20 years.

Located at the hotel’s main pool entrance, on the patio, and at the towel shack, the murals illustrate the theme line, OC Forever Summer , in keeping with Southern California’s mild climate and forever summertime attitude. Commissioning the murals also conveys the community’s welcoming spirit and reflects the Hilton’s efforts to develop a progressive community within the local arts district.

Brilliantly rendered images of seaside life, colorful stylized human figures actively enjoying their vacations and surfers riding the big waves now decorate the newly renovated outdoor pool area at the main pool entrance, at the Pool Bar and Grill wall plus the towel shack. More than $1 million was spent in renovating the area, including adding a giant water bucket, a poolside lounge, grilling station and more.

The hotel utilized social media to help draw entries for the contest via a custom Facebook tab outlining the initiative and allowed artists to download relevant forms and specifications. This help make the submission process easier and allowed entrants of those who might know some the ability to conveniently access all information from a single place. More simply, it also allowed further publicity of the contest.

What other unique contests have you seen hotels run online?

Tagged With: arts, Contest, hotel, OC

Win a Vacation with Your Awkward Family

By Debbie Miller July 28, 2011 1 Comment

Embassy Suites Hotels is currently running an “awkward family photo” contest offering a two-week vacation and $15,000 to the family that submits the most awkward photo. The winning family can stay at either the Embassy Suites Lake Tahoe, Embassy Suites Waikiki Beach Walk or Embassy Suites Charlotte Concord.

In a collaboration with AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com, the hotel brand is encouraging families to submit their most hilarious shots. The gallery is already full of 200 pages of laugh-out-loud submissions.

“The agency [Emanate, based in New York City] pitched the idea to me and I immediately thought it was a great idea,” Maggie Giddens, director of brand public relations at Embassy Suites said. “About 40% of our customers are leisure customers traveling with their families. It just seemed like a great audience to talk to during the summer travel months.”

Giddens said the tone of the promotion was consistent with other Embassy Suites promotions, such as the “Business Travel Blunder” essay contest in 2009.

Contests like this are great because they encourage “audience” participation, and people are going to share the link around simply based on the fact it’s entertaining.

What are other funny promotions you’ve come across online?

Tagged With: Contest, funny, hotel, promotion

Luxury Hotels Checking-in to Foursquare

By Debbie Miller July 3, 2011 Leave a Comment

The Ritz-Carlton hotel chain is now offering destination advice via Foursquare, making it one of the growing number of luxury brands jumping aboard the geo-location, social media bandwagon.

According to Mashable, “The Ritz-Carlton’s Foursquare profile now includes dozens of tips about local destinations and landmarks from concierges at its 75 hotels — extending advice previously available only to patrons to anyone with a Foursquare account.”

By doing this, Ritz is making convenient for guests to access a slew of information directly from their smartphones rather than waiting for the guest to seek it out. This is awesome customer service in that it demonstrates proactivity and care in regard to helping visitors get the most out of their vacations. There’s also the matter of exclusivity being broadened here, in regard to the hotel itself, which could aid in growing Ritz’s fanbase beyond its regular constituents.

This is also big deal in that it emphasizes Ritz-Carlton’s acknowledgment of growth of the decreasingly social and mobile customer. As was also demonstrated by Starwood Hotels‘ recent integration of incentives for Foursquare check-ins, larger luxury brands are no longer “too good” to partake in social trends.

Tagged With: brand, foursquare, hotel, luxury

Use Your Vocal Talents for Free Hotel Stays

By Debbie Miller June 18, 2011 3 Comments

Well, it’s that time of year. We’ve recently crowned another American Idol and fans have shown how passionate they can be cheering on prospective talents and casting their votes accordingly.

For singers who may not have the opportunity to make it onto a hit TV singing competition, there’s a unique new opportunity for travelers.

Joie de Vivre (which means “joy of life”) strives to create innovative hospitality services and products, and has designed numerous one-of-a-kind boutique hotels, restaurants and spas.

Their latest initiative, “Singing for an Upgrade,” transforms the standard hotel check-in process into a musical experience: At several Southern California hotels, guests are encouraged to sing in hopes of receiving an upgrade on their reservation as well as be put up for vote American-Idol style against other “competitors.”

Shorebreak Hotel in Huntington Beach and Pacific Edge Hotel in Laguna Beach are among participating Orange County properties, while Hotel Angeleno in Brentwood and Hotel Erwin in Venice are among the Los Angeles ones. Each hotel will offer a variety of songs and singers are allowed to read lyrics as they perform.

There will be a daily prize for the first guest to sing a specific song each day, and performances will also be captured on video then uploaded to YouTube and Facebook. There, people can vote for their favorites and the selected winners will receive a two-night stay. Even if an upgrade has already been redeemed for a specific day, guests will still be eligible to enter the video contest and will have the chance to win the grand prize, which will be awarded in October.

Would you sing for an upgrade?

Tagged With: hotel, innovation, promotion, video

The Live Concierge

By Debbie Miller May 16, 2011 Leave a Comment

Many travelers still depend on hotels themselves to tend to the intricacies of their vacations, and there’s a new service that’s taking the vacation-planning process online in an authentic way.

The Live Concierge provides hotels with the chat functionality and necessary labor to interact with each prospective guest who visits a hotel’s website.
The “tech savvy traveler” reserves their accommodations online and will now try to manage as many of the details there as possible. This attractive service allows for such a traveler to ask any questions they have regarding the hotel (general information, availability, room rates and area information, etc.) to a live person rather than having to call and wait on hold. With allowing their perspective guests to chat with an agent live, it heightens the likelihood that they’ll book at the hotel.

It’s also beneficial for hotels because very few have the associates to dedicate to such a task, and The Live Concierge provides the labor involved to engage in conversation via state-of-the art chat technology.

Hotels that have taken advantage of The Live Concierge have recognized an increase in sales and pre-arrival guest satisfaction. Should a hotel opt to utilize this service, it provides a live chat online for guests.

Contact The Live Concierge for more information.

Tagged With: concierge, guests, hotel

Roger Smith Hotel Creating a Culture of Content

By Debbie Miller May 11, 2011 8 Comments

Hospitality marketer Josiah Mackenzie recently posted an ReviewPro article about how New York’s Roger Smith Hotel has created a “culture of content and reached social media celebrity status.”

He notes that the hotel has created a culture where “everyone becomes a content generator.” They’ve done this via hosting events, participating in other local events, involving various people and brands, hyper-local stories and face-to-face connections.

The review is great and outlines the hotel’s specific goal and how it actively, continuously reaches it and engages other people. They’re strategies and aggressive inclusion of community is awesome.

The article, though, seems to focus on in-person happenings, and so I decided to peruse their online persona because, while they’ve set an excellent example, many hotels may not yet have the resources to go as “big” as Roger Smith has, and starting online would be a great first first step for those venues.

One of the first things I noticed about Roger Smith’s Twitter account was their description. Rather than highlight any specifics of the property, they list: “The Roger Smith Hotel is a hub for social media in NYC. People. Art. Food. Wine. For Special Twitter rates on Rooms: http://bit.ly/RSrooms.”

By identifying themselves as a hub for NY social media rather than an overnight stop for potential visitors, they’ve made themselves much more broadly appealing since there’s inevitably going to be more people seeking out general NYC news and happenings than there are going to be people specifically looking for hotel information. They also throw in the other topics they’ll discuss: people, art, food and wine. “People,” specifically, throws in a really human element. Plus, the other three are the kinds of widely adored interests are going to appeal to anybody and everybody. Then, to appeal to the potential traveler, they’ve created a special Twitter rate, thus blatantly offering an incentive for the potential visitor to follow the account. This is a great strategy!

They’ve also integrated their Twitter feed directly onto their homepage, illustrating to any site visitor how they’re actively engaging people online.

When I went over to Facebook, I noticed many of their posts linked to a special hotel blog, http://rogersmithlife.com/. The subsection of which is “The Life of a New York Life Hotel.” Again, this straightforward personification allows people to interact with the hotel in a very different and authentic way they would normally. There’s also a banner near the top outlining a special 10% off blog rate, again incentivizing those that partake.

They also offer a Facebook deal for those who check in, and their Facebook page is also replete with a “reservations” page where guests can make dining reservations right there, along with a Foursquare page allowing people to view a list of “tips” from peers who’ve visited the hotel and checked in on Foursquare.

There’s probably much more other hotels could take away from Roger Smith, but, from the previous article as well as just their Twitter, Facebook and Blog presence, they’re definitely setting a stellar example when it comes to authentically engaging consumers.

Tagged With: art, blog, consumer interaction, culture, destination, destination marketing, engagement, Events, Facebook, hotel, Twitter

Behind the Scenes at Cosmopolitan Las Vegas

By Debbie Miller May 3, 2011 Leave a Comment

Fascinating details from behind-the-scenes at Cosmopolitan Las Vegas. Photos of all mentioned details can be found on Facebook.

*This is only a small portion of their offerings. Visit their website for more information.

Hotel Background/General Info

Before opening, they kept a relatively low profile, leaving a lot of speculation in the marketplace.
The hotel is built vertically (Manhattan style) rather than horizontally (Vegas style), meaning a person can access their room, the pool, meeting space, etc., all from the same elevator.
The property took five years to build from original construction to completion. It was originally intended to be condos.
Despite hiccups in management, etc., during the erection process, the name remained the same, “Cosmopolitan,” which reflects “someone who’s at home anywhere, likes to travel, is socially aware, likes food and drink, etc.” It also signifies “the curious class” — digitally aware, fiscally aware, etc.
On March 15, 2010, they launched their website. In mid-June, they launched Twitter, then layered in Facebook, Foursquare and Flickr.
They never drove for numbers on these sites. Instead, they said, “let’s engage our audience and tell them about us, the world around us and what we’re interested in.” They talked about a lot of stuff happening in Vegas as well as art, technology, culture…
There was no self promotion, but instead giving people incite into the brand and what’s happening in town. They never mention rates. It’s not a sell.
Free wifi everywhere.

Focus on Art

They have an Art Director, Chris Burns, who directs the art in the elevators, pillars, etc.
Each level of their parking structure features a different kind of graffiti art. There’s a plaque featuring each artist’s information on each level.
Art-o-mat machines: five on property. Redid old cigarette machines to sell art from artists around the world. Within two weeks of being open, they’d sold more art than usually sold in a year, “making art accessible to the masses.”
P3 art studio hosts an artist in house each month.

The Casino Floor

As you’re walking through the casino, you hear the music and the people more than the machines. The machines are intentionally quiet, and automatically adjust based on how loud the room is.
The Chandelier in the lobby is composed of two million crystals.
The casino-level retail store, Droog, is extremely authentic and sells many unique items. They hosted their first tweetup there.
They have gaming cabanas throughout the casino floor which can be rented out. They contain digital art, which gets changed based on what’s going on. It will never be an advertisement.
They have a U tique vending machine (a “vending machine on crack”) which offers anything you may have forgotten.

Food, Beverage, Lounges, Entertainment

They have three anchor bars, each with its own specific vibe. All three are independently managed and have individual mixologists – all three of which finished 1st, 2nd and 3rd in a recent competition. Each bar has specific cocktails that are only available at that location. Fresh ingredients and hand-crafted detail goes into each beverage. Many of the bartenders have unique stylings and visible tattoos – encouraged amongst the staff as a form of artistic and individual expressionism.
Their Book and Stage area sets to “redefine the Vegas Lounge.” It regularly features great acts, some sort of entertainment seven days a week.
One of their restaurants, Holstein, makes alcoholic milkshakes shakes!
China Poblano restaurant, Mexican/Chinese fusion, has takeout windows, or they’ll bring to your room.
They have a hidden, unadvertised New York-style, hole-in-the-wall pizza place down a New-York style hallway.
Their buffet-style restaurant, Wicked Spoon, features individually-packaged items rather than everything clumped together.

Meeting Space

Very artsy. Colorful. High heels. Owls. Art put together from junk.

Pools

At the Blvd pool, bands perform. Cabanas have Play Station 3s, TVs, etc.
Their other pool has an attached bar and lounge.

“A lot of times in Vegas, the question is ‘why?’ Here, it’s ‘why not?’”

Tagged With: art, authenticity, hotel, travel, vegas

San Francisco Hotel Taking a Pro-active Approach to Social Media

By Debbie Miller March 10, 2011 Leave a Comment

Nestled in the heart of Union Square in San Francisco, California, The Parc 55 Wyndham hotel is doing a great job with social media. The hotel has been using Twitter and Facebook for a while but it wasn’t until Office Manager Julia Schurman came on-board last October did they revamp their approach.

They now use both sites to let fans and followers know about special deals, special rates strictly for them (which is great for both the hotel as well as the consumers) along with San Francisco news, events and facts. San Francisco is so full of history and action all the time, and it’s great for the hotel to have a direct connection with people to be able to share what they may be missing, and encourage those people to let Parc 55 host them so that they can have a great time in the city.

It’s been a perfect way for them, as a large property, to interact with guests, potential guests and any organizations who may interested in travel, hospitality or San Francisco on a more personalized level. They want that intimate connection – they want people to know about them, visit them, have an enjoyable experience and spread the word.

Recently, Parc 55 hosted their first tweetup. The hotel has gone through a huge renovation the past couple years and the property is very different, visually, to those who haven’t seen it since before the remodeling. They sought a way to entice guests to visit and check out all the amazing changes. They also just became a Wyndham in 2010, so they thought a tweetup would be a great way to draw in locals and visitors to see the inside of the hotel, the location and meet the team.

Unfortunately, rain and cold temperatures left most of the area inside to hibernate. This first attempt was definitely a learning experience, if only to take weather into consideration. In the future, they plan to offer a hotel tour and opportunity to meet the General Manager. The goal is merely to offer guests a good time so that they’ll hopefully come back themselves along with referring the hotel to friends and family.

The hotel’s big social media initiative now is their Number 55 Promotion. Once they reach 1,200 Facebook fans and Twitter followers, they’ll award a individual on each medium a three-night stay on club level (anyone who tweets “#parc55luckynumber” within the 55 days is entered to win). With stunning views of San Francisco, who wouldn’t want that prize?

Tagged With: Contest, destination, Facebook, hotel, san franscisco, social media, tweetup, Twitter

Key Benefits of Hotel Blogging

How to Maintain and Promote Your Hotel Blog

How it Works

Participating Hotels