Hotel Marketing Podcast

Awesome New Hawaii Promotional Campaign https://www.tnooz.com/article/smile-please-personalised-travel-itineraries-based-on-facial-expressionsa/ ======================== Show Notes: First Off, Why Video? 75% growth in users posting facebook video in past 12 months 100 million videos viewed every day Youtube is the 2nd largest search engine in the world Video in the travel space (according to a Goo...

In The News: Marriott / Starwood Merger Complete http://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/roadwarriorvoices/2016/09/23/marriott-starwood-merger-complete-and-loyal-customers-get-reciprocal-benefits/90885318/ Almost one year after purchase date $13 Billion Now Marriott owns 30 brands / more than 5,700 hotels / 1.1 Million Rooms / 110 Countries Big focus on loyalty program now - members of both programs...

Show Notes: Mobile Apps are all the rage, in this episode, we look at the good, the bad and the ugly app from the major travel industry players. Find out who’s doing it right and who’s doing it very, very wrong. Also, we look at some data from individual property’s mobile apps and what features are actually working for them. Check out the original blog post: We Tried Every Travel App Out There So...

Paying attention to your data is critical if you want to be a successful hotel marketer. The challenge is knowing which metrics to pay attention to and which ones are vanity metrics that can lead you to the wrong conclusion. In this episode, we look at 10 of the most important metrics and why they are important. The inspiration for this podcast came from this awesome blog written by our resident a...

The Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI) is one of the industry's leading advocates for intelligent, sustainable hotel revenue growth. The association provides hotel professionals & their partners with tools, insights, and expertise to fuel sales, inspire marketing, and optimize revenue. One of their recent articles, entitled 8 Essentials Every GM Needs to Know About D...

Show Notes: Chances are, if you have a product or service to sell, you are producing content in some form or fashion. From text, photos and videos to interactive widgets and downloads, the Internet is essentially a great big web of content. In order for customers to learn about your hotels you need content that provides them with helpful information that answers their questions and that persuades...

In this ultra-competitive hospitality industry, profitability is tough to maintain. Consumers have more research power than ever and have the tools and technology at their disposal to find the best available rate with ease. This, coupled with the ongoing battle between OTAs and hoteliers for the privilege of getting the booking and owning the guest, means that it’s a great time for hotels to get c...

In the inaugural episode of the Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast, we discussed the OTAs vs. Direct bookings and gave some ideas on how you can reclaim some of your guests. In this episode, we discuss the fact that the war is heating up. All the players are circling their wagons and preparing for a battle royal - potentially to the death. Who will win? Love them or hate them, OTAs are an important part...

In this week’s episode we analyze and discuss an article from Hospitalitynet.org by Sarah Came - a copywriter with GuestRevu. The article discusses ways that you can turn your guests into promoters of your property. Find the full article at http://www.hospitalitynet.org/news/4077315.html In The News Expedia Caught “Dimming” Hotels with Lower Book Direct Rates: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/h...

Despite search engines doing their best to push organic results down and replace them with more paid ads, every hotel still relies on a steady stream of free traffic from organic search engine results. SEO can be very daunting due to the vastness of what it entails. Search engines look at hundreds of factors when determining which results should rank at the top of the results page for any given ke...

Your social fan base can be one of your hotel’s best assets and word-of-mouth exposure can be priceless. However massive social exposure is not always a good thing… So what do you do when a guest tweets a photo of bedbugs, or someone posts a scathing review on TripAdvisor? In this episode we discuss the three tactics for mitigating the damage when the social stuff hits the fan (S-SHTF) and even tu...

Pokemon are everywhere and Pokemon Go is everywhere in the media right now and everyone is trying to get their own little piece of attention from this world-wide phenomenon by trying to newsjack these imaginary monsters. This is the inspiration for an episode dedicated to newsjacking. What is Newsjacking and how can your hotel benefit from it? In this episode of the Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast, w...

In this week’s episode of the Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast, we dig into the world of social media. What social media platforms are right for your hotel? What types of posts should your hotel be making? Which hotels are doing a good job on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and SnapChat? Find out below. Question: Which social media channels should my hotel be on? - Zoe C Facebook 72% of adult internet us...

In this week’s episode of the Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast, we keep it short and sweet. We’ve been a little distracted this week with our local college baseball team, the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers, winning the college world series and all that. It’s also a holiday weekend in the USA, so we’re looking to clock off early and go hang out on the beach with an ice cold libation. For that reason, we...

Your friends from the Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast took a trip to New Orleans this week for the Hospitality Industry Technology Exposition & Conference (HITEC). We met lots of neat hoteliers and showed off our mobile app, booking engine, eCRM platform and analytics dashboard. We also met lots of cool new vendors and are going to cover a few of them in this episode. SHOW NOTES: In The News: Google...

In this episode of the Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast, we discuss whether or not a hotel needs a blog. You’re already super-busy, should you spend some of your precious time creating and maintaining a blog? Should the blog be a part of your site or separate? What topics should you write about? Come find out with your Fueligan friends. SHOW NOTES: In The News: 1. Majority of Travelers Prefer to Book...

We get testy with each other this week, as we talk about how to effectively run tests on your website in order to increase conversion and revenue. The episode also features a super-secret special guest from a galaxy far, far away. Download the FREE guide to The A/B/Cs of Testing: How Smart Hotels Test and Grow at www.fueltravel.com/abc Please leave a review if you're enjoying our podcast! Show Not...

We get a little bit sneaky in this episode because we're discussing ways to take market share away from your competition with some very aggressive tactics. If your hotel is looking to experiment with something new, this episode is for you In this episode: News: Google is beta testing their new killer app, Google Trips. Does this spell doom for the OTAs? http://www.cnet.com/news/google-beta-testing...

Are you ready to drink from a fire hose? This is a fast-paced episode focusing on ways to influence your potential guest's decision making and increase your online bookings We cover a bunch of tactics that have a proven track record of getting people through the conversion funnel.

There's no denying the power and influence that TripAdvisor has on the travel industry. Yet, some hoteliers are still ignoring or refusing to accept the fact that TripAdvisor can help increase bookings and RevPar. In this episode, we discuss the good, the bad, and the ugly of TripAdvisor and give hotels some advice on how to maximize their exposure on the platform.

Everything you need to know about content, links and Google's RankBrain for your hotel SEO in one super episode of the Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast. What are the top 3 SEO ranking factors? What keywords should my hotel target? How can I make my hotel rank on search engines? Should I target Google or Bing with my Search strategy? Which hotel marketing agency is the best SEO firm in all the land? Th...

Should my hotel spend its advertising budget on Google adwords? Should my hotel bid on brand keywords? Is Facebook advertising right for my hotel? What is Google HPA? These questions and more are tackled in this episode of the fuel hotel marketing podcast.

Should your hotel have a mobile app? What are the benefits to your property from an operational standpoint? How can a mobile app make your hotel more money? What features should your hotel mobile app have? How do you get guests to download your mobile app? All these questions and more are covered in this episode of the Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast. If your hotel is interested in a mobile app, chec...

In this episode, the Fueligans dig into the subject of email marketing. Even some of the big hotels sometimes make mistakes. Be sure that your property isn't doing the same thing.

In the first episode of the Fuel Hotel Marketing podcast, the Fueligans discuss how Hilton and Marriott are offering incentives for guests to book direct in order to avoid paying the hefty commissions to the OTAs. The episode also offers some handy advice for independent hotels. Submit your questions on Twitter to @fueltravel. Download our leisure travel study at www.fueltravel.com/study/.