Q4 2016

HOTEL MARKETINGBENCHMARK

Compiled by Sebastien Felix @fleexit & Martin Soler @martinsoler

It’s been a while, but the industry has been busy.

We’re back with our collection of opinions, news, inspiration and tech for the hotel marketing industry.

We quite think this is the best edition of the Hotel Marketing Benchmark yet. Dozens of great and innovative tech and news that are changing the industry. The big shift in hotel marketing was undoubtedly the shift to online. But a big if not bigger shift is about to happen with the shift to artificial intelligence.

But we’ll let you read about that in the pages to come. Enjoy.

Sebastien Felix Founder and CEO of Buzz&Go - buzzandgo.com

Martin SolerHotel and Tech Marketer - martinsoler.com

HOTEL MARKETING BENCHMARK Sebastien Felix @fleexit • Martin Soler @martinsolerQ4 2016 Page 2

INTRODUCTION

RECENTADVANCES

HOTEL MARKETING BENCHMARK Sebastien Felix @fleexit • Martin Soler @martinsolerQ4 2016 Page 3

It is finally here: Facebook Workplace. After 18 months of beta (codename Facebook at Work), the service was just launched early october. The familiar Facebook interface but now for work. Can it help distributed teams, internal communications or reduce lengthy meetings? The jury is out on that. But it certainly could assist, not needing to teach teams to use other tools.

FACEBOOK WORKPLACE#work

HOTEL MARKETING BENCHMARK Sebastien Felix @fleexit • Martin Soler @martinsolerQ4 2016 Page 4

Pinterest launched the Pin Collective, a platform to reach out with influencers on Pinterest and have them create your publicity campaign for you. A novel way to give publicity a much more authentic feel and without the grey-zone of “sponsored influencers” that forgot to say they got paid a hefty check to post that picture. Honest publicity is the best publicity there it. And while we never advise to chase shiny object in marketing - being in the loop of those shiny objects is a good thing.

OUTSOURCING PUBLICITY?#publicity

HOTEL MARKETING BENCHMARK Sebastien Felix @fleexit • Martin Soler @martinsolerQ4 2016 Page 5

COMMUNICATION APPS#tech

HOTEL MARKETING BENCHMARK Sebastien Felix @fleexit • Martin Soler @martinsolerQ4 2016 Page 6

The facility with which guests can communicate has never been greater. Not just to each other, to hotels as well. They can log-on to a hotel’s Facebook page and instant message to the hotel, they can use WhatsApp to send a message instantly to a hotel and they can message through Twitter buttons on a hotel’s website. Even Google recently launched a similar service of their own. The question remains, are hotels listening? Is there someone to pick up all those instant messages? Do guests believe someone is listening? With tools like these, hotels have a unique opportunity to service guests and eventually remedy anything that isn’t going right, before, during and after the stay. So, no more excuses for bad reviews?

NEW RETARGETING CHANNELS#advertising

HOTEL MARKETING BENCHMARK Sebastien Felix @fleexit • Martin Soler @martinsolerQ4 2016 Page 7

Pinterest recently launched a retargeting program and it is good news for hotel groups, boutique and luxury hotels. The ability to retarget visitors who haven’t booked, either with an alternative hotel or remind them to stay with the hotel they just visited. Retargeting isn’t the new news but the fact that Pinterest offers it is. Pinterest is a great platform for travel inspiration and inspiration is the one part of travel advertising that still needs work. Retargeting isn’t the solution since it happens after inspiration but being able to get back there if a traveler may have forgotten is worth it.

OPINIONS& PREDICTIONS

HOTEL MARKETING BENCHMARK Sebastien Felix @fleexit • Martin Soler @martinsolerQ4 2016 Page 8

Trip Planning, AI and APIs#artificialintelligence

HOTEL MARKETING BENCHMARK Sebastien Felix @fleexit • Martin Soler @martinsolerQ4 2016 Page 9

Google Trips has the possibility of becoming the most intelligent online travel planner, with deep access to email for reservation data, pictures for all the moments that matter most (and this could be a huge factor in travel suggestions), location and history, coupled with some smart predictive algorithms. Google Trips’ potential for inspiration and online reservation is a force to be reckoned with and one that very few, aside from maybe Apple or Microsoft could compete with. The alternative of course would be that all providers create open APIs from which data could be shared, which wouldn’t be bad either.

DIRECT vs OTAs#directbooking

HOTEL MARKETING BENCHMARK Sebastien Felix @fleexit • Martin Soler @martinsolerQ4 2016 Page 10

Direct Bookings finally became a big deal in 2015. A big deal not because nobody was doing it before but because the media started reporting on it. The important point with direct bookings is what is in it for the guest. That OTAs take a commission isn’t much concern for guests and the facility to have a single place to check all hotels is a convenience that direct booking doesn’t have. It is no secret that OTAs aren’t too happy and some reports of penalized rankings are cropping up. Someone said rather than bickering over rate parity issues, if hotels really want to make a statement to OTAs all they’d had to do was end availability for a single day. Guests would book, but not through OTAs...

POST COST-PER-CLICK ERA #metasearch

HOTEL MARKETING BENCHMARK Sebastien Felix @fleexit • Martin Soler @martinsolerQ4 2016 Page 11

Meta-search platforms are continuing their shift from clicks based advertising to commission based models, blurring the lines between meta-search and OTAs. Two of the largest platforms have pretty much completed their shift (Google and TripAdvisor), Several others are bound to follow. Commission based models would be good for the industry once every platform has shifted. As discussed in a previous article on attribution models, travelers go through multiple sites before booking and hotels are liable to pay for clicks on each step for the way, whereas if they were all commission based - hotels would only pay for the one that brought the reservation.

BRANDS TO TECH CO.#tech

HOTEL MARKETING BENCHMARK Sebastien Felix @fleexit • Martin Soler @martinsolerQ4 2016 Page 12

In a previous edition we touched upon how hotel companies, the big brands, are turning into hotel tech companies. There is a huge opportunity for the industry there, if they can successfully merge between being a procedures company to a procedures, know-how and tech company they can bring great new opportunities for hotel owners. Most recently The Standard launched it’s own “last minute” booking app and opened it to boutique hotels. AccorHotels launched their booking platform and Marriott Hotels started their travel incubator/accelerator. Is this the future of hotel brands? It certainly has the potential of becoming that. [Image by Skift]

Google Assistant, Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri and Microsoft’s Cortana are the big ones. Lola, Facebook M and many others are being created through Chatbot platforms. The fact is the future of travel search is going to shift into a more narrative and artificially intelligent model. Fewer choices but more relevant choices. The platforms will shift, of course those who have availability, rates and inventory data (ARI) will be pushing through those platforms, but there will only be one spot available. Which is both good and bad for the consumer - faster reservations but the risk of less competition on commissions and distribution. So while OTA vs Direct is being “battled” don’t forget the whole system is about to change.

ASSISTANTS & BOTS#tech

HOTEL MARKETING BENCHMARK Sebastien Felix @fleexit • Martin Soler @martinsolerQ4 2016 Page 13

If you’re into Hotel Marketing (and we assume you are), The Definitive History of Online Travel by Dennis Schaal from Skift is a must read. Whilst we have passed the era of converting travel from offline to online, there are still many, many things that can be made better in travel. What will the next big shift in travel be? For example. could we use technology to change the industry from being the best “firefighters” to being able to predict trouble and errors before guests even notice them?

MODERN HOTEL MARKETING #history

HOTEL MARKETING BENCHMARK Sebastien Felix @fleexit • Martin Soler @martinsolerQ4 2016 Page 14

FUTURETECH

HOTEL MARKETING BENCHMARK Sebastien Felix @fleexit • Martin Soler @martinsolerQ4 2016 Page 15

VR (Virtual Reality) is booming and will be one of the key topics in 2017 and the years to come. With Samsung and now Google launching their mobile VR headset we can expect to see an explosion of new travel apps. Ascape.com aims to become the number one travel website dedicated to VR. You can already download the app on both Android and Apple appstore to start the experience.

ASCAPE#futuretech

HOTEL MARKETING BENCHMARK Sebastien Felix @fleexit • Martin Soler @martinsolerQ4 2016 Page 16

BEACONS IN HOTELS#tech

HOTEL MARKETING BENCHMARK Sebastien Felix @fleexit • Martin Soler @martinsolerQ4 2016 Page 17

Beacons, turning guest TVs into communication channel that actually make some sense. Beacon technology will most definitely help hotels - the larger ones at least - understand guest movement, assist operations to provide services and people in locations that need it. But what about communicating to guests things that are most relevant to them. It is nice when a hotel’s TV system knows one’s name. But that’s about all they know, how about showing the minibar prices when a guest moves there, or the room-service menu when going to the desk? And those are the easy ones.

Changing the business model of hospitality with a subscription model? This startup is trying. It’s only available on the French market for the moment but we really believe in this startup: Supertripper. Travellers pay a monthly subscription (starting at 139€/m) and have unlimited travel within the portfolio of hotels. Could this be the future for hotels?

UNLIMITED HOTEL STAY#businessmodel

HOTEL MARKETING BENCHMARK Sebastien Felix @fleexit • Martin Soler @martinsolerQ4 2016 Page 18

FRESHINSPIRATION

HOTEL MARKETING BENCHMARK Sebastien Felix @fleexit • Martin Soler @martinsolerQ4 2016 Page 19

Scandic-to-go, taking a part of a hotel to places around the world so guests can keep staying at the hotel, a brilliant brand awareness campaign by Scandic.

See more here: https://www.scandichotels.com/landing-pages/scandic-to-go

YOUR ROOM, EVERYWHERE#inspiration

HOTEL MARKETING BENCHMARK Sebastien Felix @fleexit • Martin Soler @martinsolerQ4 2016 Page 20

Don’t go to Paris, or Tokyo, or New York - Live there. Brilliant and simple ad by Airbnb.

Watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNCJh9WwU6w

DON’T TRAVEL!#inspiration

HOTEL MARKETING BENCHMARK Sebastien Felix @fleexit • Martin Soler @martinsolerQ4 2016 Page 21

A history of advertising for the French train system SNCF (in French). The love/hate relationship between the French and their (rather large) train system has gone on forever. Even their first commercial right after WW2 is

about someone complaining. Some great, some corny but all interesting ads. (12 minutes)

Watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkEvnrNPPps

LOVE/HATE FOR FRENCH TRAINS#inspiration

HOTEL MARKETING BENCHMARK Sebastien Felix @fleexit • Martin Soler @martinsolerQ4 2016 Page 22

This almost deserves a spot on Adobe’s Stock Photo T-Shirts, perma-smiles that won't wash off for a concept we still don’t quite understand (a stand-in for birth?!) but it is worth the watch just for the

weirdness of it all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbpunPd8PIw

WEIRD BUT WORTH IT#inspiration

HOTEL MARKETING BENCHMARK Sebastien Felix @fleexit • Martin Soler @martinsolerQ4 2016 Page 23

https://martinsoler.com/

About usMartin SolerA passionate marketing guy with experience in the hotel and travel tech sector, having brought to market multiple hotel technology products to market in record time. I work as an advisor and marketing agent to hotels and hotel technology companies around the world. Reach out on martinsoler.com

Sebastien FelixFormerly head of online marketing for a luxury hotel group, I co-founded Buzz&Go the first influencer marketing platform for hospitality. Currently building what will be the new generation of storytelling and content for travel brands. Reach out to me on my About.me/sebastien-felix page.

HOTEL MARKETING BENCHMARK Sebastien Felix @fleexit • Martin Soler @martinsolerQ4 2016 Page 26