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Luncheon Program
Date: 5/18/10 Topic: Revenue Opportunities Utilizing Social Media! Location: Le Merigot - A JW Marriott Hotel and Spa Luncheon Program Date: 6/23/10 Topic: Developing a crisis communication plan - is your hotel prepared? Location: Kyoto Grand Hotel & Gardens 
Revenue Opportunities Utilizing Social Media! 11:30 AM - 1:30 PM Le Merigot - A JW Marriott Hotel and Spa 1740 Ocean Ave. Santa Monica CA 90401 
With 70%+ of the hospitality revenue originating from the internet this places “Social Media” marketing in the forefront when it comes to public relations, developing / managing your guest’s experience, and improving your customer loyalty Your HSMAI Greater Los Angeles Chapter is taking no chances when it....
Michael Albrecht
Crowne Plaza Beverly Hills Spencer Yeo Raffles L'Ermitage Kevin Kim Fairmont Miramar Jay Smith Hotel Maya Long Beach Diana Wickline Loews Hotels Ana Maria Iregui Starwood Hotels Atlanta Jeff Mayo Copper Hospitality Sandrine Sai Thompson Hotels Tohnia Miller Orlando Beverly Hills Pete Sanchez Shangri-La Hotel Derik Emmersen Marriott Burbank Airport Greg Velasquez L'Auberge de Sedona Pamela Hirneisen Holiday Inn LAX HSMAI is pleased to present an exciting new member benefit that will help members fuel sales.  Through a new partnership with The Salesman's Guide, qualified* HSMAI members receive a complimentary personalized search of at least 100 meeting planners per year. Also, all HSMAI members and exhibitors at HSMAI's Affordable Meetings events will receive a 10 percent discount on additional searches and on all Salesman's Guide products and services. HSMAI has partnered with The Salesman's Guide® to co-brand www.MeetingPlannerLists.com - the largest online source of qualified meeting and event buyers. Hospitality sales and marketing professionals visiting the site can search a database of more than 50,000 meeting planner contacts online to create a customized list. Qualified planners can be segmented by: Geographic Location, Meeting Location, Group Size, Type of Facilities Required, and Speakers/Entertainers Hired. The database is segmented four ways, allowing sales and marketing executives to target the market that most satisfies their needs. Meeting planners listed are categorized by corporations, associations, medical groups, and religious organizations, and are guaranteed to be accurate. The Salesman's Guide® editorial staff conducts extensive research to confirm every listing, including mailing address verification, Internet research, third-party databases, and confirmation calls to the listees. The listings are verified for deliverability at least once every three months, and postal deliverability is guaranteed. To take advantage of these new member benefits, follow these steps: 1. Go to www.MeetingPlannerLists.com, 2. Search the database of more than 50,000 qualified meeting planners. 3. In the shopping cart, sign in using your member number as your password to receive your free listings and/or your 10% discount on any purchase. *All new, renewing or current members paying $350 or auto-renewal rates are eligible for the 100 free listings annually. Primary member for multiple memberships and corporate memberships receive additional listings based on number of memberships in their account. 
FEATURED ARTICLE
Selling Value Over Price  By Burl Hutchison, CRME, Manager of Revenue Optimization, Sabre Hospitality Solutions, and member of the HSMAI Revenue Management Advisory Board
. | From HSMAI's Revenue Management Advisory Board -- Customers want the best price they can get in any economy, but that statement
holds particularly true in a downturn. Looking at many industries today, one may be left to believe that offering a low price is required
to be successful. That works well if you can stand on the fact that you are the lowest cost provider and that you are willing to go to
the lengths necessary to remain in that position. Selling on cost is an uncomplicated form of marketing. It doesn't require much thought
or effort and it's quick to market, but it's not typically sustainable, nor do most of us strive to be the low-cost leader. Anyone can
lower their price. We've probably all done it in one form or another in order to win business or gain market share, however it simply
doesn't work well as a long term strategy.
View article...
ECONOMIC INSIGHTS  Comparing top US markets' peak to trough | By Jan Freitag29 April 2010 | As the economic recession eases and travelers return to the road, let’s take a look at the performance of the 25 largest hotel markets (excluding Las Vegas) to see how much or how little these markets have recovered. View Article | Send to a Friend SAS and CHR Webcast to Focus on Key Issues in Hospitality 28 April 2010 | Registration is now open for the "The Things that Matter Most; The hottest trends and biggest issues for the hospitality and gaming industries" scheduled for 11:00 a.m. on Friday, May 14, 2010. View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend New Portrait of American Travelers Reveals "Staycations" Are on the Rise27 April 2010 | One of the consequences of the Great Recession was the emergence of a new form of leisure travel called a "staycation," or the propensity of individuals to select a vacation destination closer to home as an alternative to traveling to a more distant destination, presumably as a result of budgetary constraints at the household level. View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend WTTC: Travel and Tourism demands 21st century thinking for future sustainability27 April 2010 | The voice of the world's 100 foremost Travel & Tourism leaders, the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) is calling for governments and organisations such as the United Nations, European Commission, G8 and G20, to re-examine the way policies that affect global Travel& Tourism are co-ordinated and implemented. View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend Global Hotel Investment Levels up 53% Year-on-Year in Q1 201023 April 2010 | a 53% increase on the $1.8 billion transacted in Q1 2009. Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) remained the most active region recording $1.1 billion of hotel sales, a 46% year-on-year (y-o-y) increase for the same period, while the Americas and Asia Pacific regions recorded Q1 sales worth $991 million (+70% y-o-y) and $736 million (+43% y-o-y) respectively. View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend Hotel Chains Struggle Under Debt Burden | wsj.com23 April 2010 | More than $60 billion of hotel buyouts during the recent real-estate boom saddled several name-brand hotel chains with mountains of debt. Now, many are finding it tough to restructure and reduce those complicated debt burdens with the hotel industry mired in a downturn. View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend STR reports first-quarter results for 2010 22 April 2010 | The U.S. hotel industry reported mixed results in the three key performance metrics for first-quarter 2010 in year-over-year measurements, according to data from STR. The industry’s occupancy was up 2.3 percent to 51.9 percent, average daily rate fell 4.3 percent to US$96.27, and revenue per available room decreased 2.1 percent to US$50.01. View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend How To Recover In 2010 | By Robert Mandelbaum20 April 2010 | The March 2010 edition of PKF Hospitality Research’s (PKF-HR) Hotel Horizons® report predicts hotels in the U.S. will suffer a 1.1 percent decline in RevPAR for 2010, which will translate into an estimated 5.3 percent drop in net operating income (NOI) for the year. This will represent the third consecutive year of decreases in these two important performance measures. View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend
FEATURED REPORT  " Inside-out brands " | By James StuartWhat is it exactly that a hotel brand represents? As JAMES STUART, Managing Partner of THE BRAND COMPANY in Hong Kong, explains, it’s not about the name and the logo but has everything to do with the customer experience. The CEO, he argues, must become the Chief Brand Officer.
HOTEL HIGHLIGHTS & OPENINGS Home2 Suites by Hilton Approves Six New Locations in First Quarter 201030 April 2010 | Home2 Suites by Hilton, a mid-tier extended-stay hotel concept targeting the savvy value-wise extended-stay guest, announces an additional six locations and reports a total of 60 application approvals at the end of the first quarter of 2010, further building on its strong franchise momentum. View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend Holiday Inn launches £65 million global advertising campaign30 April 2010 | Holiday Inn is launching its biggest ever advertising campaign this week to support the £650 million ($1 billion) global relaunch of the brand. The £65 million ($100 million) Stay You campaign is designed to show how guests can relax and be themselves when staying at a Holiday Inn or Holiday Inn Express. View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend Ain't Nothing But a G-Thang: G Worldwide Plans Hotels for the LGBT Community | hotelchatter.com30 April 2010 | With New York due to get its first gay hotel--Out NYC--sometime next year, we sensed that this would be the start of more hotel and travel options for the gay community and indeed G Worldwide is getting the ball rolling. The company officially "came out" yesterday, describing its identity as the "first ever luxury resort brand catering to the LGBT community and their friends, families and supporters." View Article | Send to a Friend The Newest Amenity in High-End Hotels: Real Art | huffingtonpost.com30 April 2010 | Along with the high room rate, there are certain characteristics to be found in luxury (increasingly called "boutique") hotels these days: The mattresses are Tempur-Pedic; the thread counts of the sheets are 180 or higher; the shower has a deluxe nozzle, and the bathroom has a telephone; the televisions are 54-inch LCD flat panels; rooms are wired for high-speed Internet access; the contemporary artwork on the walls is original. View Article | Send to a Friend
BUSINESS/MEETINGS Making Meetings Work - A Step by Step Guide | By Robert Woods and Florence Berger26 April 2010 | Meetings occupy 50 to 60 percent of the average manager's workweek. Although many managers regard meetings as a waste of time they can be a useful way of accomplishing several desired activities at once " disseminating information, bolstering morale, identifying problems, and reaching decisions. View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend Meet Market: Grand Hyatt New York City Luxury Hotel Launches Innovative Grab-And-Go Restaurant Concept To Reinvent Room Service 29 April 2010 | " Grand Hyatt New York is changing the face of hotel room service and dining with the launch of Market, its new instant-gratification food and beverage venue slated to open on Monday, April 5. Situated in the New York City luxury hotel’s lobby, Market will bring the best of New York’s tastes and treats to the Grand Central neighborhood including Roasting Plant, Tisserie, Chickalicious and Macaroon Café NYC. View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend Business Travel: Buyers Assess Costs, Lessons From The Ashes | btnonline.com22 April 2010 | Almost all restrictions on air travel in Europe were lifted today, leaving travel managers attempting to clear a huge backlog of displaced travelers and starting to count the cost of the chaos caused by the Eyjafjallajokull volcano eruption in Iceland. In a poll of travel buyer members released yesterday by the Association of Corporate Travel Executives, 71 percent said the crisis caused a major economic hit to their travel spend for 2010. View Article | Send to a Friend UniFocus’ MEETINGScope" Quantifies Revenue at Risk28 April 2010 | UniFocus today announced the latest version of its industry leading Meeting Planner Feedback system, MEETINGScope 3.0, the most powerful web-based system available for producing actionable intelligence for venue providers, has been enhanced with the following new features: View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend
INTERNATIONAL European Chain Hotels Market Review " March 201030 April 2010 | Barcelona enjoyed a staggering 170% increase in Gross Operating Profit Per Available Room (GOPPAR) in the month of March, according to the latest figures from TRI Hospitality's HotStats. This was thanks to a revenue uplift and a tight control over costs, including a reduction of 9.8% in payroll. View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend Park Plaza Hotels Partners with Elbit Imaging Ltd to Acquire the 342-room Holiday Inn Amsterdam Schiphol 30 April 2010 | Park Plaza Hotels is pleased to announce that it has successfully acquired one of the largest Conference Hotels in the Netherlands, located near Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. The property, currently operating as the ‘Holiday Inn Amsterdam Schiphol’, opened in 2007 and offers 342 contemporary guestrooms. View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend Vienna International announces Grand opening ceremony for angelo Katowice30 April 2010 | Following the opening of the new angelo hotel in Katowice for the first hotel guests in early March, real estate developers Warimpex and UBM and hotel management firm Vienna International have officially celebrated its opening in Katowice, one of the most important commercial and industrial cities in Poland. View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend Peter Bierwirth Elected President Of EHMA29 April 2010 | During the 37th Annual General Meeting of EHMA (European Hotel Managers Association) held in April in Biarritz, France, Peter Bierwirth, National Delegate Germany, was elected President of the Association. View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend Designer Hotels: Will the Wealthy Pay to Sleep With Armani or Versace? | bnet.com29 April 2010 | Fashion designer Giorgio Armani recently opened his first hotel in Dubai and plans another in Milan. Both are part of trend among designers to extend their brands through hotels " while making big money along the way. (Rooms range from $1,100 to $11,000 a night.) After all, the wealthy always need a place to stay, so why not in a designer hotel? View Article | Send to a Friend 2 Dec 0 | No summary available. View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend Jumeirah Group sees sales soar, reaffirms growth strategy and names new brand 29 April 2010 | Jumeirah Group, the Dubai-based luxury hospitality company and a member of Dubai Holding, reported high occupancy in its Dubai hotels in the months of February-April 2010 maintaining a robust average room rate. View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend FEATURED DOWNLOAD  STR projects better-than-expected 2010 The face of the U.S. hotel industry’s recovery is taking on a different look. According to STR’s revised forecast for 2010 and 2011, recovery could be influenced by things such as tax changes and health-care reform. The means a rebound will come quicker in 2010 but could get slow as 2011 unfolds.
TRAVEL INTERNET MARKETING FOCUS Expedia 1Q Profit Jumps 51% As Bookings Increase; Shares Rise | wsj.com30 April 2010 | Expedia Inc.'s (EXPE) first-quarter profit rose 51% as bookings increased for both hotels and airfare, leading to increased overall revenue even as each transaction brought in slightly less revenue. View Article | Send to a Friend Gen Y and the Online Travel Marketer | By Caroline Gates29 April 2010 | Anyone with children these days is fully aware of the impact that technology has had on every aspect of their lives. Kids are no longer matriculated into their tech savvy ways; they practically have them handed over as a birthright. From a very early age, today's children are immersed in a society that lives in the online world more than ever before. View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend Finding ways to meet consumers in emerging spaces 29 April 2010 | Loyalty-based CRM can’t simply be pushed from a brand; it has to be pulled through from associates. Travel businesses continue to gather customer preferences and have been looking to provide improved personalized features. Significantly, there is a continued struggle as consumers have moved away from traditional digital assets and moved to social space. View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend Leveraging the “always on, always tethered” nature of the mobile device | Interview with Bill Keen, director of product development, IHG27 April 2010 | View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend Speed - Google’s New Ranking Factor | Learn how speed and website download time can affect your website ranking22 April 2010 | A new ranking factor will be added to Google's Algorithm in 2010 -- SPEED -- and the download time of a website. Google's innovative Webmaster Tool will help webmasters assess and improve their website's speed and performance. This unique new feature will help you assess how your website is performing in terms of speed. View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend
HSMAI TRAVEL INTERNET MARKETING WHITE PAPER SERIES  Web 3.0: Emerging Insights for Travel MarketersPublished by the HSMAI Foundation, this report, "Web 3.0 and Marketing: Ten Emerging Insights," is a resource for hospitality marketers grappling with the emerging technologies that are making up the next generation of the Web. From semantic technologies and real-time data to artificial agents and 3D, they will all ultimately play a role in our ability to fuel sales by reaching current and potential customers.. Click here to download... REVENUE MANAGEMENT FOCUS Cornell Hotel Management Study Finds Discounting Did Little to Offset Revenue Loss During Economic Downturn22 April 2010 | Hotels worldwide faced a difficult decision regarding which hotel marketing tactics to apply when travel levels plummeted in 2009. They could try to drive room-nights by matching competitors' discounted rates, or they could hold rates steady and watch occupancy drop. View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend Harnessing the power of the value proposition | By Patrick Mayock30 April 2010 | When most consumers shop for a new car, they don’t just shop on price alone. Some drivers like certain makes and models, some prefer different features over others, and some buy based solely on reliability ratings and performance reviews. “It’s the same thing when you purchase anything,” said Jon Eliot, director of revenue optimization for Carlson Hotels Worldwide. View Article | Send to a Friend Segmentation yields dividends for revenue managers | By Patrick Mayock29 April 2010 | Not all guests are created equal. In fact, almost none of them are. Travelers have their individual likes, dislikes and preferences, more and more of which are being used by revenue managers to maximize yield at thousands of hotels throughout the world. View Article | Send to a Friend Tipping Your Cap (Rate) | Why hotel owners need to pay attention to RevPAR | By Jean Francois Mourier28 April 2010 | We're going to change things up a bit today and write directly to all the hotel owners out there. So all you GM and revenue managers- or all of you that don't want to own the place someday- go ahead and put this down, or minimize this window. Oh, everyone's still here? OK, let's get to it then. We want to talk about RevPAR (no surprise there), but specifically how it pertains to the capitalization rate of the property. View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend Revenue management: Selling value over price | By Burl Hutchison21 April 2010 | Customers want the best price they can get in any economy, but that statement holds particularly true in a downturn. Looking at many industries today, one may be left to believe that offering a low price is required to be successful. That works well if you can stand on the fact that you are the lowest-cost provider and that you are willing to go to the lengths necessary to remain in that position. View Article | Send to a Friend
RESORT MARKETING FOCUS Economic Cycles Affecting the Difference Between Top Caribbean Lodging Facilities | By Andrew W. Reed26 April 2010 | This article discusses the differences between two of the highest-yielding segments of the lodging market in the Caribbean. Smith Travel Research (STR) classifies branded hotels into one of the following tiers: Luxury, Upper Upscale, Upscale, Midscale, or Economy, from highest to lowest quality. View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend Carlson Hotels Announces Signing of Premier Resort in Martinique 26 April 2010 | Carlson Hotels today announced the addition of the Radisson Hotel & Spa Martinique, a 175-room beachfront hotel located in Schoelcher, Martinique, on the Eastern side of the island. The resort will undergo a USD 10 million renovation beginning in mid-June and is expected to join the Radisson brand by the end of 2011. Radisson currently has three world-class resorts in the region in Aruba, Grand Bahama Island and St Martin. View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend Sol Melia Announces Two New Flagship Paradisus Resorts in Mexico, Paradisus Playa del Carmen and Paradisus Xaman 30 April 2010 | Sol Melia's existing property, Paradisus Riviera Cancun sold to accommodate bold new vision of all-inclusive luxury in Mexico's most prestigious resort destination - The Spanish hotel company, one of the market leaders in Latin America & the Caribbean, sets its sights firmly on the future expansion of its Paradisus brand View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend HOTEL DIRECTOR OF SALES & MARKETING Is Hotel Packaging Becoming A Lost Art? | By Neil Salerno 27 April 2010 | With the multitude of limited service hotels out there, I'm afraid that many hoteliers are losing the art of creating and marketing packages. After-all the typical hotel package consists of a room, meals, and other amenities. Without a restaurant or bar, you might think that packaging opportunities for limited-service hotels are too limited. Actually, this could not be farther from the truth. View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend Keys To Success | Effectively Interacting with the Media | By John Hogan, CHA MHS CHE22 April 2010 | About six months ago, I authored a column in this publication titled: Recognizing the many ways to reach and influence potential guests. The article generated strong reader interest, which prompted me to follow it with a related topic that continues to grow in significance, as global communication shares information at lightening speeds. View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend TIG Global Releases Third Report in Destination eMarketing Best Practices Series21 April 2010 | TIG Global, subsidiary of MICROS Systems, Inc. and leading interactive marketing company for hospitality and travel, has released its third e-marketing report specifically written for destination marketing organizations (DMOs). The series is designed to serve as a collection of educational tools for destination marketers that can be directly applied to their online marketing programs. View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend SALES & MARKETING FACULTY Center for Real Estate Finance Welcomes LaSalle Hotel Properties to the Industry Fellows Program30 April 2010 | Leading real estate investment trust, LaSalle Hotel Properties, has joined the Industry Fellows program at the Cornell School of Hotel Administration's Center for Real Estate Finance (CREF). As an Industry Fellow, the company will provide financial support to the center, benefit from the research findings of CREF faculty, and inform the development of CREF programming. View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend The Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management’s new Masters Programme now open27 April 2010 | The Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management, one of the world’s leading hospitality management schools and part of Jumeirah Group, the Dubai-based luxury hospitality company and member of Dubai Holding; is now recruiting for its new Master of Science Degree in International Hospitality Management - the first of its kind in the GCC region. View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend NYU Tisch Center’s Lalia Rach to Get Her “Just Desserts” at 2010 NYU Hospitality Conference 21 April 2010 | Lalia Rach, longtime divisional dean of the NYU Preston Robert Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism, and Sports Management, will finally get her “just desserts” during the upcoming 32nd Annual NYU International Hospitality Industry Investment Conference in New York City. View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend Educational Institute’s Hospitality iCoach Brings Training Tips to Your Phone21 April 2010 | Hospitality professionals can receive training tips on their iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad with a new, free application developed by the American Hotel & Lodging Educational Institute (EI). The Hospitality iCoach delivers concise training advice in five different areas: front desk, housekeeping, food and beverage, maintenance, and leadership. View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend
COLUMNS How to get your staff Upselling | By Caroline Cooper28 April 2010 | Upselling is something we are all exposed to from time to time. And whether you sell meals, bedrooms or widgets, it's a technique that can not only help your bottom line, but done well can give your customers an all round better experience. Here are some of the things to consider in getting your team to upsell effectivley. View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend In a Flash | By Peter Yesawich27 April 2010 | One of the more controversial marketing techniques to emerge from the challenging business climate that prevailed last year is "flash selling," or the blasting of time-dated offers to targeted prospects via email. The technique started in the airline business as a way in which to liquidate unsold inventory on selected routes. Hotel companies trying to pump up occupancy on otherwise slow dates were quick to follow. View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend Making Hay When the Sun Doesn't Shine | By Bert van Walbeek27 April 2010 | Evil Erik is having a ball, he loves all the present crises! As a man from hell, he is not afraid of hot ashes and has firmly told his Front Office Manager to have no mercy with the guests stuck in his hotel because of a flight ban in Europe and a " demo-crazy " elsewhere. " This is the time to make money ! View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend A Social Media Refresh for Hotels | By Daniel Edward Craig27 April 2010 | Social media programs tend to start with a flurry of activity and then either take over our life or fade into obscurity. At one end of the spectrum is the coordinator who’s issuing updates every thirteen seconds and neglecting her other duties. At the other end is the manager who resents social media’s insatiable appetite for time and creative energy and is neglecting it in favor of other duties. View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend Luxury Marketing in a World of Tweets and Texts | By Karen Weiner Escalera22 April 2010 | May I have your attention? Please?? | Not too long ago, only birds tweeted. Now, Twitter, that tiny cousin of the text message, is becoming a preferred public forum. Not only are people tweeting personal tidbits among their "followers," but so are business owners discovering this newer marketing tool. View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend
THE LATEST ENTRIES FROM TOP HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY BLOGS This Blog consolidator provides summaries of entries from Blogs by industry insiders and publications, including USA Today Hotel Hot Sheet, HotelChatter, Revenue Management Forum, and Tourism Internet Marketing. It will appear in each issue of the eConnect Industry Trends Update and is always accessible on the HSMAI Foundation's eConnect site. If you have a Blog to recommend for inclusion, please use the online form to do so or to provide feedback on this new feature.  Pros and Cons of Dynamic Hotel PricingYesterday I attended a lively debate held by BAHA (the British Association of Hospitality Accountants) on the pros and cons of ‘Dynamic Pricing’.Dynamic Pricing is what you see airlines using with their fares. It is based on the principle that the r... posted on Caroline Cooper | Zeal Coaching  Sonesta CEO: Why hotel owners must share blame for sinking room ratesThis is Sonesta CEO Stephanie Sonnebend's fourth guest-CEO blog post written exclusively for Hotel Check-In. Here, she takes a frank look at how the tough economy has affected hotels. posted on Hotel Check-in | By Barbara DeLollis | USAtoday.com  Revenue Management Strategy Plan - Step 9How do consumers look at my hotel vs. the competition? You need to create some tools to define the difference between your hotel and your competitive set. Check out step 9 in our revenue management strategy plan.... Step 9 of our hotel yield and re... posted on Xotels Blog | By Patrick Landman  Some sobering thoughts on hotel pricing trendsWhen it comes to setting room rates, hotels are in the process of losing control, says Roman Peskin in this important article from the Hotel Yearbook 2010. He explains how guests (and even previous guests) are gaining in influence. This is a soberin... posted on Hotel Yearbook | The Blog | By Woody Wade  The Future of Marketing Starts with Publishing Part 2As social media moves from the edge to the center of adoption and practice, the future of marketing hinges on the ability for brands to evolve from the broadcasting of one-to-many sales and marketing messages to an authentic media company that creat... posted on PR 2.0 | By Brian Solis  Social Similar to Search a Decade AgoA look at the similar patterns of how companies are treating social media as they did when search engines started to appear. posted on clickz.com  The social networking habits of AsiansMore than half of the total online population in the Asia Pacific region visited a social networking site in February 2010, reaching a total of 240.3 million visitors. The latest report from comScore Inc on social networking activity in Asia Pa... posted on Web In Travel (WIT) | Yeoh Siew Hoon  What Hotels Need To Know About Twitter AdvertisingTwitter has finally begun to gradually introduce an advertising platform - Promoted Tweets " allowing businesses to publish promotional tweets. Since Twitter has revolutionized how we communicate online, it only makes sense their advertising program... posted on Hotel Marketing Strategies Blog  Will Social Strategizing Bring ROI?A majority of US marketing professionals claim social media is now “invaluable” to their business, according to April 2010 research from online marketing firm R2integrated. posted on eMarketer All Blogs ECONNECT RSS FEEDS  Stay on top of what's happening in your city and the industry. As an HSMAI member, you can now customize your eConnect news and information to include daily
news from your choice of more than 40 city Business Journals. The HSMAI Foundation's eConnect research
and resource site now gives you the choice of adding news feeds (via Real Simple Syndication, or RSS)
that are updated throughout the day from Business Journals as well as the top hospitality industry and
consumer publications. Just click here, log in to eConnect if you aren't already, and choose from the
list of available feeds. Click here to learn more...
HSMAI UPDATE Social Technologies and Cost Efficient Planning Hot Topics at HSMAI's Affordable Meetings© Mid-America22 April 2010 | Social technologies and budget-friendly planning were among hot topics at the 10th annual Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International’s (HSMAI) Affordable Meetings® Mid-America Exhibition and Conference at Chicago’s Navy Pier April 14-15, 2010. View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend HSMAI Conference Focuses On Optimizing Revenue Through Revenue Management And Internet Marketing20 April 2010 | As the digital realm becomes increasingly integrated in day-to-day business practices, the revenue management and Internet marketing fields become more closely connected. On Monday, June 21, 2010, hospitality sales and marketing professionals will gather at the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI) Revenue Management & Internet Marketing Strategy Conference at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla. View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend Planners Under Increased Pressure To Show ROI For Meetings | HSMAI's Affordable Meetings Pre-Show Survey Respondents Cite Measurement As Key Focus In 20107 April 2010 | Nearly half (49 percent) of the meeting planners attending the 10th Annual Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International’s (HSMAI) Affordable Meetings® Mid-America Conference & Exposition at Chicago's Navy Pier, April 14-15, 2010, stated that they feel increased pressure to show metrics/statistics that attest to the success of events. View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend Pricing Expert to Keynote Revenue Management & Internet Strategy Conference26 March 2010 | Just-announced: Best-selling business author Rafi Mohammed will deliver the keynote address on "How Successful Companies Use Price to Profit and Grow" at the HSMAI Revenue Management & Internet Marketing Strategy Conference, co-located with HITEC, in Orlando, Florida, June 21. View Article | Print Article | Send to a Friend FEATURED EVENTS  HSMAI Resort Business Summit & Customer Connection 3 - 5 May 2010 The HSMAI Resort Business Summit & Customer Connection is brought to you by the thought leaders of emerging resort marketing best practices " the HSMAI Resort Marketing Advisory Board.Palm Beach Garden, FL  HSMAI’s Affordable Meetings® West 201016 - 17 June 2010 HSMAI's Affordable Meetings® West is the ideal forum where planners, properties and suppliers come together to do business " attracting motivated planners from all sectors of the industry who attend looking for quality resources to enhance their meetings and events. Long Beach, CA  HSMAI Revenue Management & Internet Marketing Strategy Conference21 June 2010 HSMAI’s Revenue Management & Internet Marketing Strategy Conference, held just prior to HITEC, is brought to you by the thought leaders at the forefront of the increasing convergence of the revenue management and internet marketing fields within the hospitality industry. Orlando, FL  HSMAI’s Affordable Meetings® National 2010 8 - 9 September 2010 HSMAI’s Affordable Meetings® National is the ideal forum where planners, properties and suppliers come together to do business " attracting motivated planners from all sectors of the industry who attend looking for quality resources to enhance their meetings and events. Washington , DC All HSMAI EventsAll Upcoming Industry EventsFEATURED HSMAI UNIVERSITY PROGRAMS 
HSMAI University programs for 2009 are aligned with HSMAI's Special Interest Groups to offer specialized content
to support business needs in revenue management, Internet marketing, hotel director of sales & marketing and
resort marketing. Every aspect of the content and support material included in the HSMAI University program has
been specifically designed and developed for those involved in sales and marketing, including an inventory of
subject matter appropriate to individuals with responsibilities ranging from entry-level to advanced.HSMAI-U offers workshops and seminars in various cities, and "Webinars" incorporating 60-minute presentations conducted "live" via the web with audio conference linkage. Upcoming HSMAI University Programs:  Revenue Management Webinar Series - Grow RMs Knowledge of Internet Marketing25 May 2010 There is no area in which it is more crucial to revenue management teams to partner with their CRM, digital marketing, distribution, and ecommerce teams than in the fast paced world of Internet marketing. Your online strategies contribute significantly to your hotel’s ability to capture demand and book business. Revenue Management Webinar Series - Use Data to Drive Revenue Management Decision Making27 July 2010 Revenue management is part art and part science. All too often the practice of managing revenues, setting prices, and using rate and inventory controls is done based primarily on intuition, gut instinct, and "knowing" the hotel and market. These methods, the art, have validity but should be backed up with data and facts, the science. HSMAI University Webinars are recorded and archived. To learn more and purchase archive copies, please click here. HSMAI's eConnect Industry Trends Update twice-monthly newsletter is an exclusive benefit of membership in HSMAI. It is a compilation of news briefs from around the media on the state of the hospitality, travel and tourism industry, with access to in-depth articles, columns, reports and multimedia on eConnect: a one-stop portal to global information and resources on hospitality sales and marketing topics provided by the HSMAI Foundation. Click on item headlines below to read the entire article. We welcome your comments and suggestions regarding this newsletter at info@hsmai.org, or use the online form.
With the multitude of limited service hotels out there, I'm afraid that many hoteliers are losing the art of creating and marketing packages. After-all the typical hotel package consists of a room, meals, and other amenities. Without a restaurant or bar, you might think that packaging opportunities for limited-service hotels are too limited. Actually, this could not be farther from the truth. The traveling public loves packaging; packages provide creative reasons for travel, convenience, and the perception of added value, which provides the purchase incentive. Part of the great success of online travel agents has been their ability to package air and hotel. One-stop shopping is convenient and people love it. So, what about packaging for a limited service hotel? If one only focuses within the four walls of your hotel, packaging can, indeed, be difficult. But, for years, I have been urging hoteliers to think destination, first and their hotel, second. People do not travel to stay in a hotel; they decide on a destination, then choose a place to stay. Packaging can combine the reason for travel with a housing solution. Creative packaging can provide reasons for people to visit your destination and, subsequently, stay in your hotel. This is the primary reason why your hotel's location is the most important attribute in marketing your hotel, but it's important to understand that your hotel's location is not its address. Location consists of where your hotel is, in relationship to, room night generators in your area. If you haven't already done so, determine the most popular room night generators in your location. Besides the obvious attractions and tourist destinations, drill down to all the other generators such as city-wide events, conventions, sports events, and even major companies with high in-coming visitor counts. You don't need a negotiated contract with a company to create a good deal for their visitors. The next step is to create ways to incorporate these room night generators into a package or packages. It may require a little work, but, you can partner with a local spa or, if you don't have a restaurant, see if you can cut a deal with a good quality restaurant in your area. A little imagination can go a long way. Marketing Packages Perhaps the biggest obstacle to packaging has always been "how do I market my package to the public?". In the past, we had no choice other than to buy space on print or broadcast media. This, of course, meant that we had a lot of upfront expense with no assurance that we would sell even one package. Most of the time, we had no way to even measure advertising success. The Internet changed all that; the upfront investment is very small, packages placed on your website get lots of relevant exposure, and results are completely measurable. Oh, I know what you might be thinking; "packages have never been popular in our market". Even if this is true, there is another reason for advertising destination-oriented packages on your website; creating additional website traffic. If you are fortunate enough to have a webmaster who understands hotel marketing, placing packages on your site, will give them an opportunity to further develop relevant traffic through optimizing search content on your site. This allows your webmaster to add pertinent search terms focused on your destination as well as your hotel. Create a good collaborative relationship with your website's manager to find and utilize creative ways to display packages on your site. The proper use of website real estate can make a great difference. Change and Adding Content Improves Website Sales You've heard it many times before, but I'll say it again; "content is king." Your webmaster should be keeping your site current and clean. If you are using social media like TripAdvisor, FaceBook, and Twitter, links to your comments on these sites should available from your website. As I have said in previous articles, the TripAdvisor Widget, providing third-party endorsements of your hotel, can be a great boost to bookings. Social media is a wonderful way to promote destination-first packages. Travelers may not know your hotel, but they certainly recognize major attractions and destinations. Packages are an excellent way to link your hotel to these more popular room night generators. People talk about destinations much more than individual hotels. It may take a little thought and work to develop packages for your online marketing program, but they could improve the popularity of your hotel's website, link your hotel with local room night generators, and you may even sell more rooms.
If it seems like Facebook is doing everything in its creative power to cement its place at the center of the social media universe, that’s because it is. Their latest cutting-edge development brings the same social experience to any website that features real-world products, services, events and reviews–basically anything that can be bought, sold or experienced, and thus shared. This is another huge step in the direction toward creating a semantic web, i.e., one that is powered by the people. The Open Graph API Facebook now automatically logs you into websites with their Open Graph API. This new application programming interface enables sites to interact with other software, and makes connecting to your site via Facebook possible. Allowing users to see what their friends have shared, purchased, and/or what reviews they’ve posted, Facebook will be able to cultivate richer and more useful data–all while getting us closer to making “social” the new default search on the web. Thank You, Facebook Not only has Facebook just made it significantly easier to reach their 400 million + users, your site will now be able to provide a constant flow of content to the people (and all their friends) who like (or dislike) what they see. It’s now more important than ever to manage your identity within Facebook, because with their size and reach, businesses that aren’t keeping up with these changes will continue to lose market share to their more social media savvy competitors. Success in the Coming Years Creating a rich social experience is the key to online marketing success in the coming years, and businesses need to build their web presence with these constantly evolving developments in mind. 2010 is the year of social optimization, and Facebook is essentially giving you the tools to make your own destiny. Even Twitter’s @Anywhere platform is now live, so anyone can integrate Twitter onto their website. The more engaging social media experience you create, the more your content will be disseminated to its most relevant demographics. To Learn More To learn more this and other social media applications, contact Josh Grieve of E-Marketing Associates at (626) 444-9111. |
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