Thesis - A Direct Booking Strategy for Independent Hotels

INDEPENDENT HOTELS & ONLINE DISTRIBUTION

S u b m i s s i o n d a t e : N o v e m b e r 1 5 , 2 0 1 2 E m i l i e A L B A N I C O L A S S u p e r v i s o r : E l i z a b e t h C r a i g M B A 2 A + 3 3 1 8 4 1 6 7 2 6 3 a l b a . e m i l i e @ g m a i l . c o m

How Independent Hoteliers can Increase Direct Bookings and therefore Revenue, through a Strategic Use of Google, while Limiting Dependence on Online

Travel Agencies?

Academic Year 2011/2012

International Hospitality Management - MBA IEMI-CMH - Paris

THESIS

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HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT CENTER - PARIS

- Submitted on November, 15 2012 -

How Independent Hoteliers can Increase Direct Bookings and therefore Revenue, through a Strategic Use of Google,

while Limiting Dependence on Online Travel Agencies?

Compiled and Written by Emilie ALBA NICOLAS

Supervised by Elizabeth Craig

Academic Year 2011/2012 MBA - Hospitality and Luxury Brands Management

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- ACKNOWLEDGMENT –

This thesis has been realized within the framework of my MBA in Hospitality and Luxury Brands Management, at the Hospitality Management Center of Paris. It would not have been conceivable without the support and encouragement of my family and professional surrounding. I would like to thank Elizabeth Craig, CEO and Founder of the web-marketing agency Oneglobe Network, for the projects related to the thesis that she delegated to me. I also really appreciated her regular support, her wise advice, and all the practical documents and pieces of information she shared with me. Special thanks should be given to my husband Samuel Alba, Engineering Manager at DotCloud, who reviewed the technical part about the web pages optimization, which requires some basics in computer programming.

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- TABLE OF CONTENTS -

- ACKNOWLEDGMENT – 4

- TABLE OF ILLUSTRATIONS - 8

- LIST OF CHARTS - 10

- TITLES - 11

- THEORETICAL AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK - 12

- METHODOLOGY- 15

- ABSTRACT - 17

- CHAPTER 1 - THE LATEST TRENDS IN ONLINE DISTRIBUTION 20

I- PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN HOTELS AND OTAS: THE REPERCUSSIONS FOR HOTELIERS 21 A- THE DECLINE IN HOTEL REVENUE DESPITE THE INCREASE IN ROOMS SOLD 21 B- THE EMERGENCE OF “HOTEL-FRIENDLY” OTAS 23 1- “HOTEL-FRIENDLY” OTA: A NEW CONCEPT 23 2- OTAS’ ONLINE PRESENCE 27

II- OVERVIEW ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF ONLINE TRAVEL AGENCIES 28 A- THE VARIOUS FACTORS THAT CONTRIBUTED TO OTAS’ GROWTH 28 1- THE INTERNET BOOMING 28 2- SEPTEMBER 9, 2001 TERRORIST ATTACKS 30 B- THE RECENT CHANGES IN ONLINE DISTRIBUTION 31 1- HOTELS’ ONLINE ACTIVITY TO BECOME COMPETITIVE 31 2- OTA: THE BEGINNING OF THE END? 33 C- A MORE SEGMENTED ONLINE DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL 38 1- HOTEL COMPARISON SITES 38 2- ONLINE TRAVEL GUIDES AND RESELLERS 40 3- FLASH SALES / DAILY DEALS SITES 44 4- AUCTION AND DISCOUNT SITES 45 5- LAST MINUTES SALES 46

- CHAPTER 2 - INTERPRETING GOOGLE’S MECHANISMS FOR ONLINE SUCCESS 51

I- APPROACHING GOOGLE’S TOOLS FOR SUCCESSFUL ONLINE DISTRIBUTION STRATEGIES 52 A- INDEPENDENT HOTELIERS’ NEED TO TURN TOWARDS WEB-MARKETING STRATEGIES 52 1- THE CHALLENGES AND STRATEGIES OF HOTEL REVENUE MANAGERS IN 2012 52 2- THE DEVELOPMENT OF DISTRIBUTION STRATEGIES ADOPTED BY HOTELIERS IN 2012 53 B- GOOGLE’S RAPID DEVELOPMENT FRIGHTENS HOTELIERS 55 1- GOOGLE’S EFFORTS TO ALWAYS IMPROVE ITS SEARCH ENGINE 55 2- GOOGLE’S APPROACH TO OFFER A 360° WEB USER EXPERIENCE 57 C- HOW GOOGLE MANAGES THE ONLINE PRESENCE OF BOTH OTAS AND HOTELS 60

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1- ONLINE EXPOSURE COMPARISON OF HOTELS AND OTAS ON GOOGLE SEARCH 60 2- ONLINE EXPOSURE COMPARISON OF HOTELS AND OTAS ON GOOGLE+ LOCAL 61 3- ONLINE EXPOSURE COMPARISON OF HOTELS AND OTAS ON GOOGLE MAPS 62 4- ONLINE EXPOSURE COMPARISON OF HOTELS AND OTAS ON GOOGLE HOTEL FINDER 63

II- GOOGLE TURNS TOWARDS A MORE SOCIAL APPROACH 65 A- THE DEVELOPMENT OF GOOGLE+ PROJECT 65 1- FROM THE LAUNCH OF GOOGLE+ TO ITS ADAPTATION TO BUSINESSES 65 3- GOOGLE “+1” BUTTONS TO FIX SHARING ON THE WEB 67 B- OVERVIEW OF GOOGLE+ LOCAL TO UNDERSTAND THE GOOGLE+ PROJECT 75 1- GOOGLE+ LOCAL: EXPLANATION, DESCRIPTION AND DIFFERENCES WITH GOOGLE+ BUSINESS PAGES 75 2- GOOGLE PARTNERS WITH ZAGAT TO DEVELOP GOOGLE+ LOCAL 78 3- GOOGLE+ LOCAL EXPANSION 79 C- GOOGLE KNOWLEDGE GRAPH AND THE VALUE OF IMAGES AMONG SEARCH RESULTS 83 1- THE LAUNCH OF KNOWLEDGE GRAPH 83 2- A MORE VISUAL SEARCH RESULTS PAGE ON GOOGLE 84

-‐ CHAPTER 3 -‐ LEVERAGING STRATEGIES TO HELP INDEPENDENT HOTELIERS MEET THEIR GOALS 89

I- FACTORS TO CONSIDER IN THE OPTIMIZATION OF ONLINE VISIBILITY 90 A- UNDERSTANDING THE PRINCIPLES OF ONLINE VISIBILITY 90 1- THE ORGANIZATION AND INFLUENCE OF THE TOUCH POINTS FOR HOTELS’ ONLINE VISIBILITY 90 2- THE CURRENT OBSTACLES THAT PREVENT THE “WHEEL” FROM TURNING UP TO HOTELS’ ONLINE VISIBILITY. 93 B- UNDERSTANDING HOW GOOGLE SEES BUSINESSES’ PRESENCE ON THE INTERNET 96 1- HOTELIERS’ MISUNDERSTANDING ABOUT THE WAY TO TARGET AND ATTRACT POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS 96 2- THE STANDARDIZATION OF BUSINESSES’ ONLINE PRESENCE THANKS TO GOOGLE+ LOCAL 98 3- MAKING THE ONLINE PRESENCE OF A HOTEL COHERENT 100

II- ONLINE PERFORMANCE RECOMMENDATIONS FOR HOTELIERS 102 A- GOOGLE+ LOCAL MERGER PERFORMANCE: MAPS FOR HOTELIERS 102 1- STEPS BEFORE LAUNCHING THE VERIFICATION PROCESS OF THE GOOGLE+ PAGES 103 2- GETTING GOOGLE+ PAGES VERIFIED BY GOOGLE TO PROCEED TO THE MERGER 104 3- MANAGING GOOGLE+ LOCAL LISTING PROBLEMS DUE TO THE MERGER 107 B- WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA OPTIMIZATION 112 1- THE IMPORTANCE OF BACKLINKS AND SOCIAL MEDIA 114 2- THE NEGATIVE INFLUENCE OF ADVERTISEMENTS 116 3- THE IMPACT OF KEYWORDS 117 4- THE END OF TRADITIONAL SEO? 118

III- A REPOSITION STRATEGY TO GENERATE DIRECT BOOKINGS 119 A- ADAPTING TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF ONLINE TRENDS 119 1- THE INFLUENCE OF ONLINE CONSUMERS’ BEHAVIOR ON SOCIAL MEDIA, OTAS AND SEARCH ENGINES 119 2- ONLINE CONSUMERS’ BEHAVIOR GOES FROM “SEARCH” TO “DISCOVER” 123 B- THE ELABORATION OF A DIRECT BOOKING STRATEGY FOR INDEPENDENT HOTELS 126

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1- THE OBJECTIVES OF THIS INNOVATION CONCEPT 126 2- A VISUAL EXPLANATION OF THE STRATEGY 126

- DISCUSSION CHAPTER – DIRECT BOOKING STRATEGY: A 3-PRONGED ACTION PLAN 129

I- BETTER WORKING WITH OTAS 130 A- HYPOTHESES RELATED TO THE POSITIVE INFLUENCE OF OTAS IN THE DIRECT BOOKING STRATEGY 130 1- DISCUSSION RELATED TO HYPOTHESIS 1 130 2- DISCUSSION RELATED TO HYPOTHESIS 4 131 B- THE NEW OTA STRATEGY INDEPENDENT HOTELS SHOULD CONSIDER 131 1- A STEP-BY-STEP PROCESS TO A MORE BALANCED APPROACH 131 2- UNDERSTANDING OTAS’ BUSINESS MODEL 133

II- OPTIMIZING THE HOTEL’S WEB PAGES WITH SOCIAL MEDIA 135 A- HYPOTHESES DEMONSTRATING THE IMPORTANCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA INTEGRATION WITHIN HOTELS’ WEB PAGES 135 1- DISCUSSION RELATED TO HYPOTHESIS 1 AND HYPOTHESIS 3 135 B- THE SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY ON HOTELS’ WEB PAGES 136 1- WEB PAGES OPTIMIZATION THROUGH KEYWORDS 136 2- TUTORIALS FOR KEYWORDS MANAGEMENT WITHIN WEB PAGES 137 3- SOCIAL MEDIA OPTIMIZED WEBSITES THROUGH EFFECTIVE DESIGN 144

III- CULTIVATING AND PROMOTING BRAND VALUE VIA SOCIAL MEDIA 148 A- HYPOTHESES HIGHLIGHTING SOCIAL MEDIA POWER TO ENHANCE BRAND VALUE 148 1- DISCUSSION RELATED TO HYPOTHESES 2 AND 5 148 2- DISCUSSION RELATED TO HYPOTHESIS 3 149 B- BRAND VALUE PROMOTION STRATEGY ON SOCIAL MEDIA 150 1- THE USE OF ALL POPULAR SOCIAL MEDIA TOUCH POINTS 150 2- THE USE OF UPDATED HIGH VALUE SOCIAL OFFERS AND BENEFITS 151 3- SOCIAL OFFERS’ CROSS PROMOTION AND SHARING 154

- GENERAL CONCLUSION – 158

- WEB REFERENCES - 160

- LIST OF APPENDICES – 164

- APPENDICES - 165

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- TABLE OF ILLUSTRATIONS - - Page 24: Room Key’s Search System (July 2012) - Page 24: Expedia’s Search System (July 2012) - Page 25: MyBestHotelRate’s Search System and Home Page (July 2012) - Page 26: Global Hotel Exchange’s Search System and Home Page (July 2012) - Page 32: Genre Hotels’ New Booking Engine on their Website - Page 32: Genre Hotels’ New Booking Engine Announcement on Facebook - Page 39: Home Page of Trivago’s Website (July 2012) - Page 39: Home Page of Hotels Combined’s Website (July 2012) - Page 39: Home Page of Room77’s Website (July 2012) - Page 41: Optimized Home Page of Mr. & Mrs. Smith's Website (July 2012) - Page 42: Booking Platforms Comparison between Hotels Combined and Wanderfly (July 2012) - Page 43: Price Comparison on Hotels Combined and Wanderfly's Booking Platforms - Page 44: Groupon Getaways’ Optimized Offer - Page 45: Voyages Privé’s Registration System through Mailing - Page 47: Priceline's Tonight Booking Mobile Application - Page 47: Expedia's Hotels.com Booking Mobile Application - Page 48: The Strength of Design on "Hotel Tonight" and "Very Last Room" Mobile Applications - Page 50: The Five Hotel’s Last Minutes Offer on Facebook - Page 58: Google’s Enhancement of User Experience on its Search Engine - Page 59: Google+'s Contribution to the User Experience Improvement on Google Search Engine - Page 60: Online Exposure Comparison of Hotels and OTAs on Google Search - Page 61: Online Exposure Comparison of Hotels and OTAs on Google+ Local - Page 62: OTAs and Hotels' Direct Competitors Exposure at the Bottom of Hotels' Google+ Local Pages - Page 63: Online Exposure Comparison of Hotels and OTAs on Google Maps - Page 64: Online Exposure Comparison of Hotels and OTAs on Google Hotel Finder - Page 66: The Top of “The Landmark London Suites” Google+ Business Page - Page 67: The Bottom of “The Landmark London Suites” Google+ Business Page - Page 69: Google “+1” Button - A Recommendation Tool - Page 70: Facebook “Like” Button – A Self-Expression Tool - Page 71: Facebook’s New Sharing Feature to Compete with Google - Page 72: Google Officializes The Recommendation Function of its “+1” Button - Page 73: Google “+1” Button Optimization to Increase the Number of Shares through the Mention of Users’ Contacts - Page 74: Google “+1” Button Optimization to Increase the Number of Shares by Mentioning the Number of Recommendations - Page 75: Google “+1” Button Optimization to Increase the Number of Shares by Suggesting Additional Articles to Read - Page 76: CitizenM’s Permanent Google+ Local Page - Page 77: “The Landmark London Suites” Google+ Business Page - Page 78: Google+ Local is Adapted to Hotel Search - Page 79: Zagat Rating has been Extended to Hotels - 0: Google+ Local Integration into Google Search - Page 81: Google+ Local Integration into Google Maps - Page 82: Google+ Local Integration into Mobile Phones - Page 83: Google Knowledge Graph’s “See results about” box Improves Search by Keywords - Page 84: Google Knowledge Graph Appearance on Google Search - Page 86: Keywords Analysis on Google Search for C* House

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- Page 87: Keywords Analysis on C* House’s Google+ Business Page - Page 88: Keywords Analysis of C* House on Picasa - 5: The Enhancement of Third Party Sites’ Visibility on Google Search Engine - Page 104: Google Places’ Listing Management Page - Page 105: Google+ Page Verification Request Form - Page 108: Google Support for Listing Marked as “Needs Actions” - Page 109: The "Right Way" to Delete a Google Places Listing - Page 110: Google Support for Creating a Google+ Local Page - Page 122: Airbnb’s Wish Lists – A Discovery Oriented Social Platform - Page 123: Facebook’s “Want” Button – A Discovery Oriented Social Feature - Page 138: Hotel Sofitel So Bangkok & Bellagio Hotel Source Code - Page 139: Visual Tags Location on “Hotel Sofitel So Bangkok” Website - Page 140: Visual Tags Location on Bellagio Hotel Website - Page 142: Design and Content of a Hotel’s Website Home Page Enhancing Social Media - Page 143: Design and Content of Palms Casino Resort’s Internal Social Page - Page 144: Design and Content of Fairmont Hotel’s External Social Page - Page 149: Hotel Ares Eiffel – Example of an Optimized Facebook Page - Page 150: Hotel Ares Eiffel - Example of Communication Management on a Facebook Page - Page 151: Hotel Ares Eiffel - Ranked Among the Top Results on Google Search Engine - Page 152: Example of a Hotel’s Visual Facebook Offer Involving Cross Promotion - Page 153: The Sharing of Palms Casino Resort’s Offer on Twitter - Page 153: The Visual Result of Authorship Verified Google+ Profiles on Google Search

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- LIST OF CHARTS - - Page 21: 2011 – Percentage of Reservation on OTAs and Hotels’ Websites for Branded and Non-Branded Hotels - Page 22: 2012 - Percentage of Reservation on OTAs and Hotels’ websites for Chain Hotels and Independent Hotels - Page 27: Global OTAs & their Main Acquired Booking Site Brands - Page 29: Internet Users Trends Surveys - Page 29: Online Consumer Trends Survey - Page 33: 2007 – 2011: Percentage of bookings in Top 46 Hotel Brands via Computerized Reservation Systems - Page 35: Percentage of Travelers Using Mobile Phones to Access Internet for Travel Info - Page 35: Percentage of Travelers Using Mobile Devices for Travel-Related Activities - Page 36: Percentage of Travelers Using Social Media during their Travel Experience - Page 49: OTAs’ Presence on Distribution Channels - Page 52: Hotel Revenue Managers’ Main Challenges in 2012 - Page 54: The Percentage of Hoteliers’ Digital Marketing Practices in 2010-2012 - Page 56: Google's Major Changes Since 2011 - Page 68: Google’s Sharing Principle: Vote, Comment, And Share - Page 91: Pyramid Model - The Independent Relationship of Social Media, Website and Google - Page 92: Pyramid Model – Visibility Insights Wheel - Page 93: Pyramid Model – The Main Obstacles Encountered on Each Touch Point - Page 96: The Representation of Independent Hotels’ Online Visibility Strategy (Early 2012) - Page 97: Google’s Positioning Strategy to Target Businesses’ Online Consumers (Early 2012) - Page 98: Google’s Social Extension through the Launch of Google+ Local to Target Businesses’ Online Consumers - 0: The Update of a Hotel’s Online Presence According to Google’s New Requirements - Page 102: Instructions Before Getting Your Google+ Page Verified - Page 104: How to Request a Google+ Verification to Get Your Pages Merged - Page 107: Process in Case of Merging Failure or Data Issues - Page 112: Search Engine Ranking Factors in 2012 - Page 114: The Negative Influence of Advertisements in Search Engine Ranking in 2012 - Page 115: The Impact of Keywords in Search Engine Ranking in 2012 - Page 116: The Influence of Images and Text in Search Engine Ranking in 2012 - Page 118: OTAs’ Position in the Online Distribution System - Page 120: The Decline of Broad Search Terms According to Google Trends - Page 120: The Increase of Standard Search Terms According to Google Trends - Page 125: Direct Booking Strategy Visual Plan for Independent Hoteliers - Page 130: Top 10 Review Sites by Number of Reviews - Page 131: OTAs’ Main Revenue Streams and Costs Drivers - Page 136/135: The Strategic Use of Social Media keywords to Optimize the Description of a Hotel on Web Pages - Page 137: URLs Optimization through the Use of Social Media Keywords - Page 137: Links/Backlinks Distribution on Each Web Page - Page 141: Example of Tag Optimization through the Use of Social Media Keywords - Page 148: The Influence of Pinterest on U.S. Women Purchase Decision Process

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- TITLES -

- Thesis Title -

How Independent Hoteliers can Increase Direct Bookings and therefore Revenue, through a Strategic Use of Google, while Limiting

Dependence on Online Travel Agencies?

- Main Subsections Titles –

Chapter 1 – The Latest Trends in Online Distribution

I- Partnership between hotels and OTAs: the repercussions for hoteliers II- Overview on the development of Online Travel Agencies

CHAPTER 2 –Interpreting Google’s Mechanisms for Online Success

I- Approaching Google’s Tools for Successful Online Distribution Strategies II- Google turns towards a more social approach

CHAPTER 3 –Leveraging Strategies to Help Independent Hoteliers Meet their Goals

I- Factors to consider in the optimization of online visibility

II- Online Performance Recommendations for Hoteliers III- A reposition strategy to generate direct bookings

DISCUSSION CHAPTER – Direct Booking Strategy: a 3-pronged action plan

I- Better working with OTAs II- Optimizing the hotel’s web pages with social media

III- Cultivating and promoting brand value via social media

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- THEORETICAL AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK - 1- Definition of Terms “G”: on some graphs means “Google” “#-pack”: means “the number of Google algorithms updates” “rel=nofollow” is an indication that should be placed in the website or blog code right before the link of an untrusted website or blog. Thus, it prevents Google from associating your website with other untrusted sites. AH&LA: American Hotel & Lodging Association Airbnb is a community marketplace for people to book accommodations around the world, in local homes or in atypical places run by professionals. “Brand.com” refers to a hotel’s website. Backlink: a “link coming from another website to your own website”. Google Adlinks is part of Google Adsense but it may be assumed that it is less negatively valued than Adsense, in that Adlinks displays a list of topics that are relevant to the website. As a result each link points towards an advertisement in relation to the content of the website. Google Adsense is Google’s advertising tool that enables web publishers to earn money by displaying Google ads on their website. Google+: Google’s social platform that recently merged with Google Places to create Google+ Local. Google Places: Businesses’ “ID card” that displays all the information in relation to a company. Google Places was recently replaced by Google+ Local. Google+ Local: the merger between Google+ and Google Places. Google+ Local has been integrated on Google Search, Google Maps and mobiles, which gives more visibility to businesses. HeBS: Hospitality eBusiness Strategies Digital is a famous hotel Internet marketing firm. Mashable is a famous online news platform about digital innovation. OTA: Online Travel Agencies Personal travelers: according to Google Think Travel, are people having taken at least one trip for leisure in the past 6 months. “Permanent” Google+ Local page is the result of the successful merger between the Google Places Listing of a business and its Google+ Business Page. SEO: Search Engine Optimization “Stopwords” are all the articles and conjunctions belonging to a language (such as: a/an/the/ and/in/to/ etc.). They should not appear in a link because they weaken its value. STR: Smith Travel Research

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TravelZoo is known as the largest publisher of travel deals on the Internet, and is appreciated by hotels because it works according to a Pay per Click principle (each click costs around $0,15 to the hotel). It is similar to Google Adwords but with a bit less exposure. TripAdvisor is not an OTA. It is a local recommendation sites that works in partnership with OTAs. VCS Principle: is Google optimized sharing process, which consists in “Voting, Commenting and Sharing”. 2- Theory Integration and Application Web marketing is a new job in the hospitality industry that implies specific skills and knowledge in both digital technologies and lodging sectors. This is why hotel managers encounter difficulty in figuring out and monitoring the web marketing strategies suggested by marketing strategists. They end up validating or not strategies they don’t understand, with no idea of the repercussions their decisions might have on hotels’ revenue. Board members and stakeholders are in the same situation as hotel managers, they recognize that online visibility is essential, but they don’t realize what it consists of, and the time and money it involves. This is why many hotels don’t invest revenue in website redesign and optimization. Today, independent hotels are struggling to compete with World Hotel Groups, and are becoming ruined by OTAs. The need of a direct booking strategy is more than present. The direct booking strategy is aimed at leading hoteliers to rethink the way they used to generate revenue. Independent hoteliers will have to convince hotel managers and stakeholders, that the strategy is the solution to increase direct bookings and therefore revenue. This is why this thesis reviews the basics of web marketing before developing the strategy. Independent hoteliers will be very likely to adopt this strategy because they feel without arms, and keep working with OTAs even if the latter play a very little part in generating hotel revenue. Hoteliers will be interested in the way the direct booking strategy recommends to work with OTAs, namely by optimizing the hotels’ presence on their websites, and making the most of their billboard effect. Regarding social media, even if independent hoteliers are not very active on them, they start valuing the hotels’ presence on this touch point. The direct booking strategy will therefore convince hoteliers about the importance of being active through the regular publication of social offers. Concerning Google+, the direct booking strategy is in part aimed at showing the value of this new social platform for online visibility. The strategy makes hoteliers aware of the importance of having a coherent online presence, especially on Google, because the latter influences ranking on its search engine. As a result this direct booking strategy will enable hoteliers to generate revenue according to two ways. First, through the increase of direct bookings, and secondly

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through the update and optimization of hotels’ online presence, which will influence their visibility on search engines. To finish, OTAs, social media and Google have to be considered altogether because they all generate online visibility, and therefore have an influence on hotels’ revenue. OTAs are indeed favored by Google, which explains their high visibility on Google search engine, and Social media are also crawled by Google to determine websites’ ranking on its search engine. The direct booking strategy therefore consists in using and combining the forces of these 3 touch points to attract online consumers.

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- METHODOLOGY- The thesis was conducted in parallel of web marketing missions realized for independent hotels and apartment companies, in the framework of my internship at Oneglobe Network. This paper consists of 105 illustrations and graphs, that have been directly included within the document, because they give visual explanations of the theoretical and technical points developed. I created most charts related to hotels’ online presence and Google’s social development on my own, in order to help independent hoteliers figure out the new challenges of today, and to further communicate about Oneglobe Network and attract potential clients. These charts are therefore the results of Oneglobe Network’s view of the lodging market on the Internet, according to the measurements and analytics realized for our clients’ online presence. The other quantitative technics that influenced the carrying out of these charts were studies realized by research companies specialized in the marketing industry and in the hospitality industry, namely SearchMetrics, L2 Think-tank, Google Think Travel, HeBS Digital, eMarketer, Search Engine Land, Search engine Watch, Hotel News Now, SEOmoz and Tnooz. As for the qualitative technics, Google’s online customer service was also a main information source for the creation of the 3 Google maps made to ensure online visibility to independent hotels. The other charts were entirely made from the information found in the studies and analyses, made by the research companies previously mentioned. Regarding the illustrations, most of them consist of screenshots taken from: - Our clients’ social media accounts and website - World Hotel Groups and Independent Hotels’ social media accounts and websites - OTAs’ websites - Google’s tools and features (Google Search Engine, Google+, Google Maps, Google Hotel Finder) Screenshots are qualitative technics in that they are the visual proofs of the current trends in marketing and hospitality on the Internet. However, as web marketing and digital technologies evolves very rapidly, some screenshots will become out of date as time passes, and will no longer represent the platforms (websites, social media sites) they currently refer to. This is the reason why, some parts of this thesis have already been published online, so that hoteliers can use the content to solve the problems they currently encounter.

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Still about the qualitative technics, the thesis was made through a regular follow up of the new tools and platforms launched by digital technologies companies, and through the trial of these new tools and platforms for Oneglobe Network’s clients. Online consumer behavior is also frequently the subject of research, because it is the basis of web marketing strategies developed for independent hotels, and because it enables to anticipate the launch of future tools and platforms created by digital technologies companies. To finish, I chose to integrate the action plan of the direct booking strategy into the discussion chapter, because the hypotheses, whether validated or not, justify the choice of each action developed. As the actions are based on the researches and analyses conducted throughout the paper, I could explain why some hypotheses can be validated, why some other cannot, and why some others can still be questioned.

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-‐ ABSTRACT -‐ This thesis consists of real researches and analyses, made for the independent hotels and apartment companies that the web-marketing agency Oneglobe Network works with. The entire paper is therefore based on current troubles hoteliers encounter, and the solutions suggested are based on famous web marketing specialists’ analyses and opinion, and on my own experience in web marketing. The paper is therefore aimed mainly at marketing specialists working for a lodging company, and students in the hospitality industry, in that it consists in: - Developing a direct booking strategy, based on the actual online consumer behavior, that involves the use of social media and the partnership with OTAs. - Making hoteliers aware of the importance of a coherent and optimized online presence. - Sharing the necessary information to anticipate the future development of OTAs, understand their way of functioning and their evolving business model. - Tackling Google’s latest tools and features that influences businesses’ ranking on search engine, and sharing tips to enhance Google’s validation of hotels’ accounts. Throughout the thesis, I acquired many technical skills related to website and social media optimization for online visibility, but I also integrated many trends related to online distribution. I indeed realized that OTAs have a length ahead of hoteliers in terms of services provided to online consumers, and that hoteliers should therefore follow up their development and draw inspiration from them. However, unlike OTAs, I also noticed that independent hotels have the necessary resources to provide an online consumer experience, which is therefore a strength for hoteliers in their competition with OTAs. In addition, I noticed that Google evolves according to online consumer behavior, and that the ranking on Google Search Engine is therefore mainly based on the consumer experience that websites offer. With this finding, hoteliers can review their own website and make it more online consumer friendly, which will improve their online visibility. To finish, I realized that both online consumers and Internet companies (search engines, social media) are turning towards social environment, which forces hoteliers to reconsider their web marketing strategies to increase their number of online reservations. Online consumers indeed more and more discover products and services (hotels included) on social media, instead of making general search on search engines. This explains why Google developed its own social platform “Google+” and why social media are developing e-commerce features.

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- GENERAL INTRODUCTION – Generating revenue has become a real challenge for independent hoteliers, since OTAs’ online visibility has increased, and since they have raised the commissions requested to hotels. The solution for hotels would be to limit dependence on OTAs, and increase direct bookings. However, independent hoteliers have limited marketing and communication budgets, and have trouble remaining visible on the Internet. Google indeed seems to favor 3rd parties’ presence, and recently changed its criteria to rank websites in its search engine. Independent hoteliers feel helpless, in a compromising situation for their business, which raises the following question: “How Independent Hoteliers can increase direct bookings and therefore revenue, through a strategic use of Google, while limiting dependence on Online Travel Agencies?” After more than one year of internship at Oneglobe Network, a web-marketing agency for independent hotels, I discovered Google’s potential for businesses’ online visibility, and Independent hoteliers’ lack of skills in terms of online optimization. The more I learnt about Search Engine Optimization, the more the gap between Independent Hotels and Google became obvious. One year ago, Elizabeth Craig, CEO of Oneglobe Network, came up with the idea of working on a direct booking strategy for her clients. The strategy would be based on travellers’ online discovery journey, and would therefore involve skills in the use of Google, Social Media and website optimization. As a result, this strategy, whose main objectives are to increase direct bookings and lead independent hoteliers to rethink the way they generate online bookings, would also be the opportunity for hoteliers to update and improve their entire online presence, and therefore get the basics of web marketing. In order to answer these additional objectives, the paper therefore deals with hotel website and social media optimization, introduces hotel-friendly OTAs, tackles OTAs’ business model and insists on Google’s ranking factors on search engine. Regarding the hypotheses based on the research problem, I expect that the potential of Google’s social platform “Google+” will make independent hotels as visible as world hotel groups and OTAs on Google search engine, so that online consumers are more likely to visit their websites. Concerning online consumers, I expect that they will more and more refer to social media websites before, during and after their trips or vacations. They will also more and more trust booking systems embedded on social media to make hotel reservations. I also expect that Google keeps developing its search engine, and keep launching new tools and platforms likely to encourage businesses (hotels included) to be active on Google+. To finish, I expect that hotel-friendly OTAs become as visible as global OTAs on search engines, due to their efforts in providing an attractive consumer experience, and in requesting low commissions or no commission to hotels.

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This thesis would not have been conceivable without Oneglobe Networks’ clients that trusted us for solving their problems related to Google, and to their decline in direct bookings revenue. It could not have been carried out without Elizabeth Craig, who came up with the idea of setting up a direct booking strategy involving both OTAs’ presence and social media. My expertize being centered on Google and Search Engine Optimization, this thesis does not cover in details the business related to OTAs, nor provides technical aspects in relation to website and social media optimization. The study is limited to an overview of OTAs’ history, their main business model and the latest trends in online distribution channels. It does not provide information about the most efficient global OTAs to work with, and the strategies to develop so that hotels can reduce their commissions, because the needs and expectations of hotels are different in this area. As for social media and website optimization, the study tackles the elements to enhance that will improve the online consumers’ experience, and convince the latter to make reservations on the hotels’ web pages. No technical details are shared because:

• concerning social media - many guides on the Internet already explain the step-by-step processes to optimize hotels’ accounts.

• regarding website optimization - hotels should contact web developers because it requires a specific expertize that most web marketing strategists don’t have.

Throughout the study, more importance is given to Google+ Local because it is Google’s new social platform that is likely to increase hotels’ online visibility. In addition, Google+ Local was automatically generated on hotels’ Google accounts, and many hotels (Oneglobe Networks’ clients included) encountered problems that impacted their online visibility, it was therefore essential to cover this topic in details. Furthermore, in addition to the technical details that don’t belong to web marketing expertize, some elements the thesis involving digital technologies will be rapidly out of date, because of the constant evolution of the latter in order to respond to online consumers needs and expectations. To finish, the direct booking strategy is currently being developed for Oneglobe Network’s clients and no results in terms of direct bookings can be measured to date. As hoteliers closely work with OTAs but are short of time to follow their developments, the first chapter introduces the latest trends in online distribution, focusing essentially on OTAs’ segmentation and the impacts on independent hotels. One objective of the thesis being that Independent hoteliers become as successful as OTAs in terms of online visibility, the second chapter tackles Google’s latest tools and features, including its new social approach, that directly influences businesses’ ranking on search engines. The third chapter demonstrates the interdependence of online search, social media and websites for businesses’ online performance, which makes up the base of the direct booking strategy. The latter is finally developed in chapter four to help hoteliers optimize their online presence and generate revenue.

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- CHAPTER 1 –

The Latest Trends

in

Online Distribution

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I- Partnership between hotels and OTAs: the repercussions for hoteliers

Note - OTAs: “Online Travel Agencies”

A- The decline in hotel revenue despite the increase in rooms sold Over the past few years, OTAs’ strategies to increase turnover and sell hotel rooms turned out efficient. However, independent hotels can hardly be delighted about the situation. OTAs indeed enable independent to sell more rooms but they don’t play a part in increasing their revenue. In January 2012, the author of the article “Report says Hotels Lose Out with Merchant Sales on the Web” (made from data collected by Smith Travel Research and the American Hotel & Lodging Association) mentioned, talking about US hotels, that “when they distribute rooms through OTAs in merchant sales, they give up twice as much in lost revenue as they pay out in commissions on standard agency sales”1. The study based it results on more than 25000 hotels between January 2009 and June 2011. The main reason for the revenue decline of independent hotels is the commissions OTAs applies to each hotel room sold. According to Max Starkov2, President & CEO at HeBS the commissions applied by OTAs to hotels today stand for 20% to 30% over the room price, which represents twice or three times as much as the traditional travel agency commission (10%)3. Note – HeBS: Hospitality eBusiness Strategies Digital is a famous hotel Internet marketing firm.4 As a result, hotel groups and independent hotels’ sales have been impacted in recent years. Mark Starkov also shared the following figures that he got from PhoCusWright STR HSMAI Foundation, corresponding to the distribution of hotels’ total bookings in 20115. 1 http://www.travelweekly.com/Travel-‐News/Hotel-‐News/Report-‐says-‐hotels-‐lose-‐out-‐with-‐merchant-‐sales-‐on-‐the-‐Web/) 2 http://www.linkedin.com/in/maxstarkov 3 http://www.hebsdigital.com/blog/the-‐end-‐of-‐the-‐ota-‐merchant-‐model-‐%E2%80%93-‐this-‐time-‐for-‐real/ 4 http://www.hebsdigital.com/ 5 http://www.revenueyourhotel.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=402%3Athe-‐2012-‐dos-‐a-‐donts-‐of-‐hotel-‐distribution-‐part-‐1&catid=7%3Ae-‐commerce-‐gds&Itemid=14

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2011 – Percentage of Reservation on OTAs and Hotels’ Websites for Branded and

Non-Branded Hotels

OTAs Hotels’ websites Top Hotel Brands 8% (1) 18% Non-Branded Hotels 32% 10%

By Max Starkov, The 2012 Do's & Don'ts of Hotel Distribution, Part 1, (PhoCusWright, STR, HSMAI Foundation), Article, Revenue Your Hotel, 2012, Appendix 46

(1) % of total bookings The results of 2011 clearly show that the majority of non-branded hotels bookings come from OTAs, which explains the decline in revenue for independent hotels despite the increase in number of rooms sold. It is also important to point out that OTAs’ success is currently higher than what the table highlights, because a huge percentage of total bookings made on the Internet go directly in OTAs pockets. In fact, to compete with the growing success of booking sites, OTAs created or bought back many of the currently existing booking sites. The best examples are Expedia that owns Hotels.com and Hotwire; and Orbitz that owns HotelClub and CheapTickets and Priceline that bought back Pegasus’s Travelweb.com7. In addition, an EHL (Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne) and Rate Tiger study8 about the distribution channels, shows that independent hotels are much more impacted by OTAs than are Chain Hotels.

2012 - Percentage of Reservation on OTAs and Hotels’ websites for Chain Hotels and Independent Hotels

OTAs Hotels’ websites Chain Hotels 32% 33% Independent hotels 38% 31%

By H.Tudori and R.C. Haynes, The Distribution Challenge - A viewpoint of 2010/2012, Rate Tiger and EHL study, 2012, Appendix19

Although Chain Hotels have a balanced percentage of reservations made from OTAs and their website, the reservations for Independent Hotels through OTAs are higher than the ones made through their website. Independent hotels’ situation being more critical than the one of Hotel groups, this thesis brings analysis, strategies and solutions more adapted to independent hotels.

6http://www.revenueyourhotel.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=402%3Athe-‐2012-‐dos-‐a-‐donts-‐of-‐hotel-‐distribution-‐part-‐1&catid=7%3Ae-‐commerce-‐gds&Itemid=14 7 http://www.hotelnewsnow.com/Articles.aspx/7511/Low-‐commission-‐models-‐no-‐threat-‐to-‐OTAs 8 http://www.nihf.co.uk/DatabaseDocs/new_9521542__thedistributionchallenge2010-‐2012ehl-‐rt.pdf 9 http://www.nihf.co.uk/DatabaseDocs/new_9521542__thedistributionchallenge2010-‐2012ehl-‐rt.pdf

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Given the heavy competition on the OTAs market, in recent years low commissions OTAs (also known as “hotel-friendly” OTAs) were created in an attempt to seduce hoteliers.

B- The emergence of “hotel-friendly” OTAs “Hotel-friendly” or “low commissions” OTAs are actually OTAs requesting a commission around 10% or less, just like the traditional Travel Agencies.

1- “Hotel-friendly” OTA: a new concept Who are these revolutionaries of the online distribution, then? The first that made huge noise is Room Key, an attractive concept for hoteliers in that 10% commissions are requested. Room Key was launched in January 201210. Now the question is “what is their business model?” The answer is “the same as OTAs…” but the thing is that Room Key is on World Hotel Brands’ initiative including Marriott International, InterContinental Hotels Group, Hilton Worldwide, Choice Hotels, Hyatt, and Wyndham. Their objective simply was to take market shares back from OTAs. To achieve so, they differentiated themselves from OTAs by offering an easier and faster search system; along with loyalty program points, last room availability while reducing the commissions on room sold11.

a- The comparison between Room Key and Expedia The difference between Room Key and basic OTAs’ websites like Expedia is obvious. Room Key provides customers with a simple and fast platform, contrary to Expedia. We can notice this fact by simply comparing the search system of the two companies.

10 http://www.hotelnewsnow.com/articles.aspx/7927/Is-‐Room-‐Key-‐keeping-‐up-‐with-‐OTAs 11 http://www.travelweekly.com/Travel-‐News/Hotel-‐News/Report-‐says-‐hotels-‐lose-‐out-‐with-‐merchant-‐sales-‐on-‐the-‐Web/ http://www.hebsdigital.com/pdf/mag/12_HOTELS_Magazine_blog-‐Are_the_New_Anti-‐OTA_Sites_Ready_to_Take_the_Spotlight-‐HeBS%20Digital%20Blog%20Summary.pdf

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Room Key’s Search System (July 2012)

By Emilie Alba, Room Key’s Search System, Screenshot, July 2012, Appendix 712

Expedia’s Search System (July 2012)

By Emilie Alba, Expedia’s Search System, Screenshot, July 201213

12 http://www.roomkey.com/

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Expedia search system looks more overcharged than Room Key, in part due to the flight, car and cruise choice options. However, according to Choice Hotel CEO Stephen Joyce, Room Key will soon provide the same choice options (except cruises), the challenge will be therefore to keep the airy way and rounded design. In addition, according to Max Starkov, Room Key plans on adding “independent customer reviews, and the ability to compare, plan and share with friends and family”14.

b- My Best Hotel Rate, a similar concept to that of Room Key MyBestHotelRate is a reservation site operated by The Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA). AAHOA consists of 11000 members who run more than 20000 hotels. The organization was created in 1989 in order to join together under a reference brand aimed at inspiring confidence and increasing customer loyalty15. In 1989, this association was certainly created to compete with traditional Travel Agencies on the American and Asian markets. In 2011, to remain competitive with OTAs, they created MyBestHotelRate16, which enables the member hoteliers to increase direct bookings. Just like Room Key, they request a 10% commission and make the reservation process fast and easy for web users.

MyBestHotelRate’s Search System and Home Page (July 2012)

By Emilie Alba, MyBestHotelRate’s Search System and Home Page, Screenshot,

July 2012, Appendix 917

13 http://www.expedia.com/ 14 http://www.travelweekly.com/Travel-‐News/Hotel-‐News/Report-‐says-‐hotels-‐lose-‐out-‐with-‐merchant-‐sales-‐on-‐the-‐Web/ http://www.hebsdigital.com/pdf/mag/12_HOTELS_Magazine_blog-‐Are_the_New_Anti-‐OTA_Sites_Ready_to_Take_the_Spotlight-‐HeBS%20Digital%20Blog%20Summary.pdf 15 http://www.aahoa.com/AM/Template.cfm?Section=About_Us 16 http://www.hotelnewsnow.com/articles.aspx/6717/Can-‐niche-‐OTAs-‐compete-‐with-‐the-‐big-‐guys 17 http://www.mybesthotelrate.com/

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The screenshot above highlights a simpler search system than Expedia, and an attractive design for web users. It also inspires confidence in terms of price with the mention of “Best Available Rates” and makes itself different from competitors by ensuring the possibility to “make multiple bookings in one reservation”18.

c- Global Hotel Exchange: a no commission hotel-booking site Launched in 201119, Global Hotel Exchange’s search system is all about travelers and hoteliers’ well being. They ensure that travelers won’t have their credit card charged before their arrival, and will be able to change or cancel their reservation without any fees. Concerning hotels members, they won’t be charged with commission or distribution fees because they will control their own rates and allocations through Global Hotel Exchange extranet. Global Hotel Exchange only charges travelers with a 2,99$ service fee for each booking, in order to cover the costs of credit card processing, search engine marketing and the Global Hotel Exchange technology20. The search system’s design also highlights the Global Hotel Exchange’ philosophy.

Global Hotel Exchange’s Search System and Home Page (July 2012)

18 http://www.mybesthotelrate.com/ 19 http://www.hotelnewsnow.com/articles.aspx/6717/Can-‐niche-‐OTAs-‐compete-‐with-‐the-‐big-‐guys 20 http://www.globalhotelexchange.com/

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By Emilie Alba, Global Hotel Exchange’s Search System and Home Page, Screenshot, July 2012, Appendix 1021

What transpires from the screenshot of GHE website is the design neutrality and all the empty space, which conveys the fairness and simplicity of the booking site for both travelers and hotels. The emptiness of the page also conveys GHE’s effort in showing that their platform is easier to use than that of competitors, and that what matters is what travelers and hotels need and expect. Travelers’ search is made fast and easy through the search system, and hotels’ booking management is easily accessible at the bottom of the page. GHE clearly differentiates from businesses like Room Key and MyBestHotelRate although the aim for each business is to be hotel-friendly and to simplify the booking process for travelers. As a result, by the growing number of “hotel-friendly” OTAs, we can notice the real need for hotels to increase revenue through fairer booking practices. The arrival of these “hotel-friendly” OTAs is a hope of a better future for hotels. However hotels will have to make efforts on their own websites if they want to increase direct booking. For example, hotels should start by reviewing the booking engine displayed on their website. The booking engine should be as simple, visible and easy to use as the search systems displayed on “hotel-friendly” OTAs. This is why it is important to analyze the strategies of OTAs and hotel booking sites to attract customers. Although the arrival of the “hotel-friendly” OTAs might seem like a revolution for hotels, they will still have to work with OTAs. As these latter invaded the hotel booking space a few years ago, they have gained hotel guests’ confidence and are present everywhere through the creation of many brands.

2- OTAs’ online presence What most hotel guests ignore is that many hotel reservation sites belong to global OTAs such as Expedia, Travelocity, Priceline, Orbitz, etc.

Global OTAs & their Main Acquired Booking Site Brands

OTAs Corresponding Booking Site Brands Expedia Hotels.com + Hotwire +Venere Travelocity LastMinutes.com Priceline Booking.com + Agoda Orbitz HotelClubs + CheapTickets

By Emilie Alba, Global OTAs & their Main Acquired Booking Site Brands, Table, July 201222 This large presence on the travel market influences OTAs to request high commissions to hotels. According to Glenn Gruber 23 , a technology-marketing executive at Software Industry Insights who attended the Hotel Distribution Super 21 http://www.globalhotelexchange.com/ 22 http://fr.hotels.com/, http://www.hotwire.com/, http://www.venere.com/, http://www.lastminute.com/, http://www.booking.com/, http://www.agoda.com/, http://www.hotelclub.com/, http://www.cheaptickets.com/ 23 https://twitter.com/ggruber66

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Session at HITEC 2012 (High Impact Technology Exchange Conference), “OTAs think they still provide a strong value proposition alongside the hotels direct channel”24. As a result, in 2012, OTAs have no good reasons to reduce the commissions they apply to hotel partners. They were able to answer travelers’ needs and expectations at a time when hoteliers needed customers, and as time went by, they kept adapting to customers’ online behaviors. In my opinion, this is what Glen Gruber means by “strong value” talking about OTAs. Today, Hotel-Friendly OTAs are not as visible as global OTAs on search engines, because we could see through this chapter that they were launched very recently. However, if Hotel-Friendly OTAs keeps growing, it means that there is potential on the market. This doesn’t validate the hypothesis through which I expected that Hotel Friendly OTAs would become as visible as global OTAs, however independent hotels can consider working with them. Furthermore, as global OTAs are very present on search engines, we can think about including them within the direct booking strategy. But now, the questions are, how long the OTAs’ monopoly can last? Is there any possibility in the future that they will reduce their commissions? Do Independent Hotels have a chance to get higher revenue while still working OTAs? So far, no experts in the hospitality industry can predict the future of Independent Hotels in front of OTAs. However, getting interested in OTAs’ history can help independent hotels to anticipate OTAs’ future orientations or at least to become as attractive as they are for web users.

II- Overview on the development of Online Travel Agencies

A- The various factors that contributed to OTAs’ growth

1- The Internet Booming OTAs started to develop 15 years ago, with the access to the Internet for the general public. According to the chart below, in 1999, more than half of the people aged 35-54 already had an Internet access and in 1998, the Online Travel Industry was the most successful, after the book industry and the software and hardware industries. This encouraging activity from web users rapidly reassured OTAs regarding a potential success25.

24 http://www.tnooz.com/2012/07/02/news/what-‐is-‐new-‐in-‐hotel-‐distribution-‐not-‐a-‐lot-‐actually/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter 25 http://web.it.nctu.edu.tw/~etang/Internet_Marketing/eTravel.pdf

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Internet Users Trends Surveys

Online Travel Industry, Internet Users Trends Survey, Statistics, National Chiao Tung University,

Internet Marketing Class by Dr. Edwin Tang, Date Not Mentioned26

Online Consumer Trends Survey

Online Travel Industry, Online Consumer Trends Survey, Statistics, National Chiao Tung University,

Internet Marketing Class by Dr. Edwin Tang, Date Not Mentioned27 26 http://web.it.nctu.edu.tw/~etang/Internet_Marketing/eTravel.pdf 27 http://web.it.nctu.edu.tw/~etang/Internet_Marketing/eTravel.pdf

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2- September 9, 2001 terrorist attacks Soon after the Internet booming, the terrorist attacks of September 9, 2001 in New York, hugely contributed to OTAs expansion. The travel decline (especially in the United States) forced the hospitality industry to turn towards the OTAs in order to attract travelers and increase their number of bookings. According to the study from “Smith Travel Research and the American Hotel & Lodging Association” previously mentioned, in 2001, OTAs represented 1.4% of US hotel revenue; they doubled their market share in one year to 2.9%. Then, they kept growing up to 7.7% in 201028. Turning towards OTAs compelled hotels to provide OTAs with “the best access to inventory and rates possible” 29 along with “bigger discounts and attractive promotions like 24-hour sales30. This is why today, hotels, which used to be known for selling rooms at the highest possible rates, start communicating about the fact they provide the best available rates on their web pages (websites, social media sites, etc.), in order to increase their revenue through direct bookings.

3- 2008 world economic crisis In addition to communicating about their best available rates, hotels had to increase their marketing budget to get their website redesigned and their online presence optimized. These strategies were made still in the objective to increase direct bookings by being more attractive and visible than OTAs. However, the economic crisis of 2008 was another considerable challenge for hotels, especially for independent hoteliers. First of all, they were more budget limited than branded hotels, and secondly they were loosing customers. As a result, they had to rely a lot on OTAs to at least, increase their number of reservations. Given the massive demand growth that OTAs were benefiting, the latter decided to increase their commissions. In the HeBS study previously mentioned, Max Starkov reveals the following figures concerning OTAs’ market shares: - in Q3 2008: 25.4% of booking for the top 30 hotel brands - in Q3 2010: 37.5% of booking for the top 30 hotel brands Which represent an increase of 12.1 points in 2 years concerning hotel reservation through OTAs’ websites, namely a revenue loss for hotels of $5,4 billion in 2010 mainly because of OTAs’ high commissions31.

28 http://www.travelweekly.com/Travel-‐News/Hotel-‐News/Report-‐says-‐hotels-‐lose-‐out-‐with-‐merchant-‐sales-‐on-‐the-‐Web/ 29 http://www.travelweekly.com/Travel-‐News/Hotel-‐News/Report-‐says-‐hotels-‐lose-‐out-‐with-‐merchant-‐sales-‐on-‐the-‐Web/ 30 http://www.hebsdigital.com/blog/the-‐end-‐of-‐the-‐ota-‐merchant-‐model-‐%E2%80%93-‐this-‐time-‐for-‐real/ 31 http://www.hebsdigital.com/blog/the-‐end-‐of-‐the-‐ota-‐merchant-‐model-‐%E2%80%93-‐this-‐time-‐for-‐real/

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OTAs clearly took advantage of this demand growth because (except for online marketing & selling that represented 1/3 of their revenue) they did not have as much expense as traditional travel agencies have32. In fact, traditional agencies had to cover the costs of brochures, trade shows, print ads, etc. and they were requesting a 10% commission. As a result, the 20% or 30% commissions OTAs request is not really justified33.

B- The recent changes in online distribution

1- Hotels’ online activity to become competitive Many hoteliers ceased to wonder if the OTAs’ monopoly will stop someday and started to think about a way to increase direct bookings. For a long time, they remained focused on the objective to appear among the firsts on search engines. Then, they realized it was not sufficient and started considering investing in a new website or finding strategies to get potential guests to book on the hotels’ web pages (whether websites or social networks). From a personal experience at Oneglobe Network, last year most hotels we worked with, regularly requested an analysis of their ranking on search engines through the use of keywords. Then, from November 2012, with the arrival of Google +, Google algorithms that used to rank businesses on the search engine changed, leaving hotels and web marketing strategists in the uncertainty concerning the future of the online visibility of their business. Since the beginning of 2012, many hotels are present on Google+ (even if they doubt that someday they will be able to attract hotels guests from this social network) and have had their website and/or booking engine redesigned. The most recent example of website redesign was announced today (July 11, 2012), on Facebook by Genre Hotels. 32 http://www.hotelnewsnow.com/Articles.aspx/7511/Low-‐commission-‐models-‐no-‐threat-‐to-‐OTAs 33 http://www.hebsdigital.com/blog/the-‐end-‐of-‐the-‐ota-‐merchant-‐model-‐%E2%80%93-‐this-‐time-‐for-‐real/

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Genre Hotels’ New Booking Engine Announcement on Facebook

By Emilie Alba, Genre Hotels’ New Booking Engine Announcement on Facebook, Screenshot, July

11, 201234

Genre Hotels’ New Booking Engine on their Website

By Emilie Alba, Genre Hotels’ New Booking Engine on their Website, Screenshot, July 11, 201235

What can be inferred from Genre Hotels is its effort in simplifying its booking process, thus improving the online experience of its potential guests. Genre Hotels’ booking engine and airy website design reminds us of the ones provided by Room Key and MyBestHotelRate, the “hotel friendly OTAs” introduced earlier. 34 http://www.facebook.com/Genre.Hotels.Co?fref=ts 35 http://genrehotels.com/

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As a result, we can clearly notice the desire of hoteliers to beat the OTAs (who usually display overcharged booking engines and home pages) and increase direct bookings. The current harsh competition against OTAs in which hoteliers have entered, made them realize the importance of knowing web users’ online behavior, in order to give them the online experience they expect.

2- OTA: the beginning of the end?

a- A decline in hotel bookings for OTAs 2011 was the first year OTAs had seen a decline in hotel bookings. This light fall is certainly due to the growing competition with “hotel-friendly” OTAs and the strategies set up by some hotels (like website redesign) to get more direct bookings. According to a HeBS study based on Top 46 hotel brands, published in The Smart Hotelier’s Guide to 2012 Digital Marketing Budget Planning36, the figures for the online distribution industry are as follow:

2007 – 2011: Percentage of bookings in Top 46 Hotel Brands via Computerized Reservation Systems

By M. Starkov and M. Mechoso Safer, The Smart Hotelier’s Guide to 2012 Digital Marketing Budget

Planning, HeBS Digital Study, September 11, 201137 Between 2007 and 2010, OTAs kept gaining market shares (+ 8,6 points) while brand hotel websites were loosing direct bookings (- 8,6 points). However in Q2 2011 (which correspond to the period between April and June 2011), OTAs’ bookings had reached only 31,8%, which means that by the end of the year they would hardly reach 32,7 (the percentage they got the previous year). As for, brand hotel websites, in Q2 2011, they already got 2% more bookings than the previous year. 36 http://www.hebsdigital.com/blog/the-‐smart-‐hotelier%E2%80%99s-‐guide-‐to-‐2012-‐digital-‐marketing-‐budget-‐planning/ 37 http://www.hebsdigital.com/blog/the-‐smart-‐hotelier%E2%80%99s-‐guide-‐to-‐2012-‐digital-‐marketing-‐budget-‐planning/

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This change in the online distribution industry that hotels start taking advantage of, can be due to a change in the online consumers’ behavior. It is also certainly the result of all the efforts made by hoteliers on their web pages and on mobile, and of the growing increase of “hotel friendly” OTAs.

b- Online consumer expectations The way web users act on the Internet influences the creation or the development of new tools or platforms. When OTAs started to expand on the web, they were selling the simple possibility to make several reservations in a short time, all of it at the best available rate. Consumers are still looking for the most convenient way to make reservations. However, today they also value a memorable or unique online experience. This is why, more and more consumers want to directly deal with hotels’ manufacturers according to Max Starkov, in its HeBS study “End of the OTA merchant model – This time for real”38. This trend is certainly in part responsible of the increase (+2%) of brand hotels’ direct bookings in 2011, because hotels belonging to brands or chains usually provide attractive websites, entertaining blogs and dynamic activities on social media. As a result, Max Starkov’s assumption in 2010 that “we should be witnessing a decline in the indirect channel contribution” revealed true in 2011. Another trend in customers’ behavior is the quest towards a personalized price through a personalized reservation system39. Before the web became social, people used to make hotel reservations mainly through OTAs. Years later, web users started making only their first reservation on OTAs’ websites, then they would book directly with the hotels for future venues. This is why we can assume that occasional travelers will keep booking with OTAs (it is actually more convenient for packages) but on the other hand, regular travelers will get used to booking directly with hotels through their websites, mobile apps or social media sites.

c- The increase of mobile connected travelers Lastly, the Internet and mobile development have made travelers hyper interactive, which results in more and more reservations made from mobile devices. 38 http://www.hebsdigital.com/blog/the-‐end-‐of-‐the-‐ota-‐merchant-‐model-‐%E2%80%93-‐this-‐time-‐for-‐real/ 39 http://www.tendancehotellerie.fr/articles-‐breves/banque-‐finances-‐economie/2476-‐article/le-‐regne-‐des-‐otas-‐a-‐t-‐il-‐atteint-‐son-‐apogee

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Percentage of Travelers Using Mobile Phones to Access Internet for Travel Info

By Google, The Traveler’s Road to Decision 2011, Study, July 201140

Between 2009 and 2011, personal travelers using mobile phones increased 19 points (from 8% to 27%). Concerning business travelers, their number doubled in 2 years, reaching 51% in 201141. Note: Personal travelers: according to Google Think Travel, are people having taken at least one trip for leisure in the past 6 months. In regard to the number of hotel reservations made from mobile devices in 2011, about half the travelers (business & personal) now use these devices in a natural and comfortable way, as it is through desktop computers or laptops. 40https://docs.google.com/gview?url=http://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/insights/uploads/21396/&pli=1&chrome=true 41 https://docs.google.com/gview?url=http://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/insights/uploads/21396/&pli=1&chrome=true

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Percentage of Travelers Using Mobile Devices for Travel-Related Activities

By Google, The Traveler’s Road to Decision 2011, Study, July 201142

This graph also shows that the number of travelers using mobile devices to check in has increased (+ 6%) in one year. Mobile applications download also increased 6% as well. As a result, it is important to point out that the investment in mobile optimized websites and in mobile applications should be considered by hotels trying to boost direct bookings. The priority is currently given to computer websites optimization, but hotels have to start thinking about mobile development and optimization as a next step. According to David Millili, CEO of Pegasus Solutions, the world leader in technology and corporate services for the hospitality industry43, lately many hotels saw an increase in voice bookings, which is in part due to the development of mobile applications and mobile optimized websites44. Additionally, the popularity of mobile devices resulted in more and more activities from travelers on Social Media websites, especially Facebook and Twitter. This is why many booking engine applications are being developed on Facebook, and more and more promotional offers are being posted on these social sites. They all are additional opportunities for hotels to get direct bookings. 42https://docs.google.com/gview?url=http://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/insights/uploads/21396/&pli=1&chrome=true 43 http://www.pegs.com/ 44 http://www.tnooz.com/2012/07/02/news/what-‐is-‐new-‐in-‐hotel-‐distribution-‐not-‐a-‐lot-‐actually/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Tnooz+%28Tnooz%29

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The online customers’ behavior is especially observed on Social media websites, and from these observations, hotels and OTAs can adapt according to travelers’ needs and expectations. The graph below highlights the main social media activities travelers enjoy the most. It also shows how social media activities influence the consumers in their decision making process.

Percentage of Travelers Using Social Media during their Travel Experience

By Google, The Traveler’s Road to Decision 2011, Study, July 2011, Appendix 1645

The results on this graph show that almost half of travelers use social media websites before, during and after their trips, which partially validates the hypothesis through which I expected that online consumers would more and more use social media during their travel experience. As we don’t know if these figures will increase, the hypothesis can’t be totally validated. It can be noticed from the graph that there is not many differences in the use of social medias between personal and business travelers, which is a good point for hotels in that their social media strategies will be effective for both type of guests. Another important point is the importance given to pictures and reviews. With the recent launch of Google+ Local (the merging of Google Places and Google+), Google announced that more visibility on search engines will be given to reviews and pictures. It can therefore be inferred that consumers’ behavior also influences search engine development. As a result, the level of customer engagement a hotel can get is an indication of its chance to increase its visibility on search engines. 45https://docs.google.com/gview?url=http://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/insights/uploads/21396/&pli=1&chrome=true

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To sum up, as OTAs made the most of the Internet at its early stage, they were able to analyze and anticipate online customers’ needs and expectations. As time passed, customers became more and more active online, which enabled OTAs to get specialized and develop specific reservation sites for specific customers’ needs. This why, we saw the development of hotel booking sites (like hotels.com, HotelClub, booking.com, etc.), comparison websites (like hotelscombined, kayak, etc.), flash sales (Groupon, LivingSocial, etc.) or last minutes booking sites (likes hoteltonight, lastminutes.com). As a result, with the recent launch of Room Key and MyHotelBestRates (“anti-OTA reservation sites”, made on hoteliers’ initiative), we can notice that now hoteliers start paying attention to customers’ behavior. Hoteliers indeed realized that what customers want today is to start enjoying the hotel experience online, which consists in getting in touch with them directly.

C- A more segmented online distribution channel

1- Hotel Comparison Sites Comparison Sites exclusively for hotel rooms appeared around 2005 in order to make it easier for web users to choose the right hotel for the best price among all the existing OTAs. They obviously differ from travel comparison sites, such as Kayak or Liligo, that compare prices for hotels, flights, cars, etc. The newly hotel price comparison sites concept could not be ignored by OTAs because it was the opportunity to get even more visibility and additional chances to sell hotel rooms. However, price comparison sites increased the competition between OTAs and became an additional obstacle for hotels to get direct bookings. As time passes, price comparison sites are turning visual in an attempt to enhance the travelers’ experience, and the competition is getting harder and harder among price comparison sites. Note: Hotelscombined was launched in 2005, Trivago in 2006 and Room77 in 2011.

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Home Page of Trivago’s Website (July 2012)

By Emilie Alba, Home Page of Trivago’s Website, Screenshot, July 201246

Home Page of Hotels Combined’s Website (July 2012)

By Emilie Alba, Home Page of Hotels Combined’s Website, Screenshot, July 201247

Home Page of Room77’s Website (July 2012)

By Emilie Alba, Home Page of Room77’s Website, Screenshot, July 201248

46 http://www.trivago.com/ 47 http://www.hotelscombined.com/

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When comparing the home pages of the main comparison sites, it can be noticed that Trivago is the most overcharged site, Hotelscombined mainly attracts customers with a visible booking engine and many photos, and Room77 differs from the others with a visible booking engine and a strategic summer offer. As a result, it can be inferred that the customers’ need and expectations has changed since 2005. Room77 has launched a better-adapted site than its competitors, by highlighting the simplicity of booking through a well-designed booking engine, and also the assistance of an online room concierge. The customers’ experience is therefore more complete.

2- Online Travel Guides and Resellers From the years 2000, travel guide websites were being created to promote destinations. As they were well designed and very visual, people spent time on them to look for holiday destinations. They also made themselves different from OTAs and other booking websites by choosing attractive names. For example, we can quote “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” and “Wanderfly”. Nothing in these names refers to booking or hotel. However, as they became popular they ended up displaying booking engines by partnering either with hotels or OTAs. “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” became a specialist of boutique hotels, guesthouses and luxury spa hotels. They never involved OTAs and take care to visit each accommodation structure before accepting a membership. Partnering with “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” is a win-sin situation because the travel guide requests a 2 or 2.5% commission to accommodations structures49. In addition, Travel guides and resellers’ website is generally fully optimized for visibility, and inspires confidence and proximity with web users. The screenshot of “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” home page below highlights the elements that make the website’s strength.

48 https://www.room77.com/ 49 http://www.allaffiliateprograms.com/mrandmrssmith/

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Optimized Home Page of Mr. & Mrs. Smith's Website (July 2012)

By Emilie Alba, Optimized Home Page of Mr. & Mrs. Smith's Website, Screenshot, July 201250

Many hotel websites, especially independent hotel websites do not highlight all the elements framed in red on the screenshot, namely: - Business’ phone number, description, rewards, etc. - Booking engine, membership and social media boxes etc. As a result, people spend less than a minute on non-optimized web pages and go back on the search engine to click on another link, which most of the time belongs to an OTA51. Given the success of travel guides, OTAs indirectly found a way to position on this channel as well. For example “Wanderfly”, unlike “Mr. & Mrs. Smith”, is a more complete travel guide that displays hotel and flight bookings, along with local recommendations and all the possible leisure activities offered on each destination52. Wanderfly is also well designed and attractive but chose to partner with the price comparison site Hotelscombined to position on the hotel booking segment. When surfing the Wanderfly website, nothing indicates that Wanderfly uses Hotelscombined’s platform. However when comparing the 2 platforms, we realize that they are similar because it is indeed the same platform. 50 http://www.mrandmrssmith.com/us/ 51 http://www.allaffiliateprograms.com/mrandmrssmith/ 52 http://mashable.com/2012/03/07/wanderfly-‐relaunch/

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Booking Platforms Comparison between

Hotels Combined and Wanderfly (July 2012)

By Emilie Alba, Booking Platforms Comparison between Hotels Combined and Wanderfly,

Screenshot, July 201253 It can be noticed that the two web pages are organized in the same way and provide exactly the same offers illustrated with the same pictures. The screenshots below compare the prices. 53 http://www.hotelscombined.com/, http://hotels.wanderfly.com/

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Price Comparison on Hotels Combined and Wanderfly's Booking Platforms

By Emilie Alba, Price Comparison on Hotels Combined and Wanderfly's Booking Platforms,

Screenshot, July 201254 It can be noticed from these screenshots that the prices are exactly the same. As a result there is no doubt concerning Wanderfly’s partnership with Hotelscombined.

54 http://www.hotelscombined.com/City/Myrtle_Beach.htm, http://hotels.wanderfly.com/City/Myrtle_Beach.htm

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Hotelscombined’s partnership with Wanderfly is a way to convince OTAs to go through their price comparison site. With Wanderfly, Hotelscombined differentiates from the other price comparison sites because they ensure more exposure to hotels through the travel guide channel. However, given Hotelscombined has to pay for a commission to Wanderfly on all the bookings made via the travel guide site, OTAs have to apply a higher commission to hotels in order cover their costs. In summary, online travel guides entered the “OTAs vs. Hotels competitions” because of the attractive visibility they gave to destinations. As a result, online travel guides can be dangerous for hotels whether they decide to partner with OTAs. On the other hand, travel guide sites can be hotel friendly, if they partner directly with hotels. In this case, the online travel guides have to have an additional source of revenue to ensure the continued existence of the business. Concerning “Mr. & Mrs. Smith”, as an additional source of revenue, they sell gifts related to travel.

3- Flash Sales / Daily Deals Sites Flash Sales and Daily Deals Sites were launch between 2006 and 2008 to provide Internet users with exclusive and limited offers that can go up to – 70% off. Daily offers, such as the ones on Groupon and LivingSocial, first concerned products and services delivered by local businesses but it was then extended to travels. It is the reason why Groupon created “Getaways” in partnership with Expedia. These websites are usually well-designed, displaying attractive pictures and are not overcharged. The reduced prices are highlighted and the booking engines are fast and easy. The screenshot below from Groupon getaways is one of the best illustrations of the offers appearance online.

Groupon Getaways’ Optimized Offer

By Emilie Alba, Groupon Getaways’ Optimized Offer, Screenshot, July 201255

55 http://www.groupon.com/deals/ga-‐emerald-‐dolphin-‐inn?c=all&p=0

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Although these sites seem to provide the best product for the best price, they only target people whose main priority is too travel for the lowest possible prices. In addition, the emailing process (to benefit from deals, web users have to enter their email addresses knowing that they will receive offers every day or once a week) is less and less appreciated by web users because of the advertisements and spams received in large number on mailboxes. The screenshot below from Voyage Privé is an example of registration system through mailing.

Voyages Privé’s Registration System through Mailing

By Emilie Alba, Voyages Privé’s Registration System through Mailing, Screenshot, July 201256

4- Auction and Discount Sites The main OTAs (Priceline, Expedia through Hotwire, Travelocity) positioned on this segment because hotels can get good prices for their extra rooms. Moreover, these sites work very well for the hospitality industry because people in search of a good deal are ready to make concessions to get a good price. Concerning the air travel industry, people usually don’t feel comfortable if they get a “standby ticket”57. However, concerning hotels, auctions are much appreciated because people can get a very nice hotel room for a very low rate (up to 65% off). Nevertheless, on many auction sites (especially “opaque” auction sites) the customers are given the name of their hotel once the bid is accepted, which means that the booking is automatically done. Hotels are kind of this process because they often are reluctant to let the site know about how much they are willing to sell the room. On the other hand, discounts work differently. They often appear under a “book now” offer or a “buy now” package and are available at a fix price for a determined date. The booking can be refundable in agreement with the hotel, which is impossible through auctions58.

56 http://www.voyage-‐prive.co.uk/signup/step1 57 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/26/travel/26prac.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all 58 http://www.luxurylink.com/about/index.php/faq/

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5- Last Minutes Sales Last minutes sales are another way to get hotel rooms for a low price; and with the smartphone development, since 2011 we have seen the emergence of mobile applications offering the opportunity to make a “last minute booking”. However, the “last minutes booking” concept was not new and was pretty well known because of the success of lastminutes.com website since 199859. However, once again the hyper-interactive travelers’ behavior and the tendency to make reservations later and later have highlighted the need for very evening booking. Although, lastminutes.com’s principle is to sell travel packages only 2 or 3 weeks in advance for a low price, mobile applications recently launched are more creative and entertaining. For example, the VeryLastRoom App displays deals for the very evening based on a price drop concept. As a result, the later people book, the cheaper the price60. These booking apps often charge hotels with a commission that is lower than OTAs, namely around 15-20%, which is still high. For example HotelTonight app, which partners with hotels to provide last minutes deals, offers deals up to -70% off (just like VeryLastRoom) but charges hotels with 20% commissions61. In comparison, VeryLastRoom charges 15% commissions based on the final sale price62. These mobile companies strategically positioned below OTAs in terms of commissions but they are not as “hotel-friendly” as the recently launched hotel booking sites Room Key, MyBestHotelRate and Global Hotel Exchange. Requesting 15% to 20% on each room sold is taking advantage of the fact that hoteliers need to sell their extra rooms; because the costs of developing and maintaining a mobile application are not high. In regard to OTAs, more precisely Priceline and Expedia, when they realized that half the people who booked on mobiles made their reservation for the very evening, they decided to add the “tonight only booking” function to their mobile apps. As shown by the screenshots below, Priceline created an app only for tonight booking, which highlights the fact that the last minutes deals are worth 10% off. However, the former price is not clearly indicated, as a result, without doing the math, customers don’t really know how much they saved.

59 http://timhowgego.com/history-‐of-‐lastminute-‐com.html 60 http://www.tnooz.com/2012/06/28/tlabs/verylastroom-‐hitches-‐ride-‐on-‐late-‐hotel-‐booking-‐train-‐starts-‐with-‐france/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter 61 http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/hotel-‐tonight-‐a-‐lastminute-‐travel-‐app-‐11172011.html 62 http://verylastroom.com/hotels/

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Priceline's Tonight Booking Mobile Application

By Emilie Alba, Priceline's Tonight Booking Mobile Application, Screenshot, July 2012

As for Expedia, they simply made the “tonight booking” function by default when selecting the date of the stay, but they clearly mention the former price and the reduced price.

Expedia's Hotels.com Booking Mobile Application

By Emilie Alba, Expedia's Hotels.com Booking Mobile Application, Screenshot, July 2012

These apps are convenient for OTAs’ loyal customers but they present nothing as attractive and original as Hotel Tonight or VeryLastRoom. They even look as overcharged as their websites. As shown by the screenshot below, Hotel Tonight and

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VeryLastRoom pay attention to design in an attempt to provide travelers with an experience that start from the reservation.

The Strength of Design on "Hotel Tonight" and "Very Last Room" Mobile Applications

Hotel Tonight App Very Last Room App

By Emilie Alba, The Strength of Design on "Hotel Tonight" and "Very Last Room" Mobile

Applications, Screenshot, July 2012 As a result, it can be noticed that the competition between OTAs, “hotel-friendly” booking sites, mobile booking apps and all the other specialized booking sites is becoming harder and harder, in that they all try to position to target a specific type of connected travelers. The advance taken by OTAs enables them to position on all the existing distribution channels in order to target all types of connected travelers. The map below highlights OTAs’ presence on all the main segments, through the creation of specific brands. These brands enabled OTAs to position on each distribution channel, and target several different types of travelers. We can take the example of Expedia whose brands are Hotwire (discount), Hotels.com (hotels booking), Groupon Getaways (Coupons), Venere (Comparison Sites) etc.

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OTAs’ Presence on Distribution Channels

By Emilie Alba, OTAs’ Presence on Distribution Channels, Graph, July 2012,

Appendix 5 This graph also highlights the most successful online travel companies, namely Expedia (in red) and Priceline (in green). They are followed closely by Orbitz (in orange) and Travelocity (in blue) in terms of presence on the market. Hotels should also take into account the fact that the most successful distribution channels for OTAs are Comparison Sites, Daily deals and discount sites and Last minutes sales app. This means that travelers are currently looking for “best available prices” and promotions without having to make reservation far in advance. With this assumption, hotels can set up their own strategies to answer the consumers’ needs. Some independent hotels recently set up this strategy based on the current travelers’ needs. For example, The Five Hotel in Paris launched the promotion for August (see below) the 24th of July on Facebook, which means 7 days ahead.

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The Five Hotel’s Last Minutes Offer on Facebook

By Emilie Alba, The Five Hotel’s Last Minutes Offer on Facebook, Screenshot, July 201263

It can be noticed from the screenshot above that The Five Hotel respects all the criteria expected by travelers, namely a last minute offer that can be seen from mobiles. It is a strategic way for this hotel to increase direct bookings and sell extra rooms for a good price. Given global OTAs developed their presence on diversified distribution channels, it is another reason to include them within the direct booking strategy. Through their presence on diversified channels, they will answer to the needs and expectations of a high number of online consumers. This will be appreciated by Google that will keep ranking them on top of search results. As a result, global OTAs should definitely be part of the direct booking strategy, because of their exposure that hotels can benefit. We have seen that competing with OTAs is a hard task for hoteliers, and unfortunately it is not their only trouble. Hoteliers also have to constantly optimize their online presence, especially on Google, with all the recent changes that imply new criteria to rank websites on search engines.

63 http://www.facebook.com/Thefivehotel?fref=ts

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- CHAPTER 2 –

Interpreting Google’s Mechanisms for Online

Success

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I- Approaching Google’s Tools for Successful Online Distribution Strategies

A- Independent hoteliers’ need to turn towards web-marketing strategies

1- The challenges and strategies of hotel revenue managers in 2012 In 2012, most hoteliers have realized the impact of online visibility on their hotel revenues. Moreover, because the commissions requested by OTAs are still high, hoteliers start having no other choices than finding solutions to reduce their distribution costs. A recent study entitled “The Distribution Challenge”64 and led by Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne and Rate Tiger, provides detailed results about the biggest distribution challenges for hotels in 2012. These results were based on a survey led between September 2011 and February 2012, and dedicated to 72 three and four stars hotels located in France, Germany, Spain, United Kingdom and USA. Among these properties, 65 % were hotel chains and 35 % were individual properties. This study reveals that managing distribution strategies have become the most important priorities for hoteliers, after increasing RevPAR. The graph below illustrates the main challenges hotel revenue managers encounter.

Hotel Revenue Managers’ Main Challenges in 2012

By H.Tudori and R.C. Haynes, The Distribution Challenge - A viewpoint of 2010/2012,

Rate Tiger and EHL study, 2012, Appendix 1265 64 http://www.nihf.co.uk/DatabaseDocs/new_9521542__thedistributionchallenge2010-‐2012ehl-‐rt.pdf 65 http://www.nihf.co.uk/DatabaseDocs/new_9521542__thedistributionchallenge2010-‐2012ehl-‐rt.pdf

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Although increasing exposure and reducing distribution costs are among the top 3 issues challenging hoteliers, the graph shows that only an estimated 30% of the hotels surveyed feel really concerned by their hotel’s exposure and distribution costs, whereas we have seen in the first chapter that half the hotel reservations (a bit more for independent hotels) are made through OTAs. However, it is interesting to point out that roughly the same percentage of hoteliers mentioned exposure and distribution cost. As a result, it must be assumed that those hoteliers plan to reduce distribution costs by getting more direct sales through more online exposure. According to the surveys, the hotels interviewed indeed plan on controlling distribution costs “by increasing the number of booking on brand.com”. Note – “brand.com” means a hotel’s website. However, they especially rely on lower commissions with third parties (OTAs included) to reduce their costs. As for exposure, they plan on getting it increased through “the diversification of distribution channels, as well as new media and social promotional channels”. From these statements, which are probably coming from the 30% of hoteliers having mentioned exposure and distribution costs as a challenge, it can be noticed that the hoteliers interviewed attribute importance to their website and social media to reach their objectives. These hoteliers are on the right track but it is only the beginning. To fully succeed they now need to make sure that they have an optimized website for online visibility and a coherent online presence, in particular concerning the hotels’ business information displayed on each web pages (social media, local recommendation sites, review sites, etc.). It should be added that, from the moment when hoteliers have understood how Google works, they will rapidly notice all the details that might be harmful for their online visibility. Then, they will just have to find the people in the position to proceed to these changes, especially the ones concerning hotel websites. Before covering the way the main Google tools work, let’s focus a little on the improvement of hoteliers’ relation to web marketing.

2- The development of distribution strategies adopted by hoteliers in 2012 Online distribution strategies in the hospitality industry remained for a long time restrained to OTAs and booking sites. However, the “Distribution Challenge” study reveals that “more hotels are optimizing the use of Google PPC (“Pay per Click” via Adwords) and SEO to bring more direct bookings and take potential guests away from OTAs.” Turning towards Google is indeed recommended for the online optimization of hotels. However, PPC advertising is not the most profitable tool for hotels (especially for independent hotels) because it involves fees.

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Pay per Click advertising consists, for businesses, in paying only when web users click on an advertisement related to the business.66 Although Google Adwords enables businesses to set up a daily maximum numbers of clicks, which limits its costs, it is not the best use an hotelier can make of Google. As a result, thinking about Google Adwords as a strategy to get more direct bookings is not the best solution for hoteliers. Using Adwords also means that hoteliers see Google as a distribution channel and that they are ready to keep paying to get more exposure. Google Adwords will certainly give them more exposure but managing Google basic tools car bring more results for free. In 2012, along with the growing (but not the most efficient) use of Google by hoteliers, the use of social networks has become more important for them as well. The study states that “Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are recognized and implemented as new forms of digital marketing”. When we think that social media have been used in mass by the general public since 2008, hoteliers seem to realize its importance a bit late. The graph below shows the digital marketing practices of all the hoteliers surveyed.

The Percentage of Hoteliers’ Digital Marketing Practices in 2010-2012

By H.Tudori and R.C. Haynes, The Distribution Challenge - A viewpoint of 2010/2012, Rate Tiger and

EHL study, 2012, Appendix 1367 As strange as it may seem, when talking about digital marketing, a majority of hoteliers mentioned Google. This can be explained by the fact that the interviewees were mainly hotel chains (65%) probably using Google Adwords. The other 35% being individual properties probably do not invest their restricted budget in Google.

66 http://homebusiness.about.com/od/internetmarketing/a/pay_per_click.htm 67 http://www.nihf.co.uk/DatabaseDocs/new_9521542__thedistributionchallenge2010-‐2012ehl-‐rt.pdf

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Many of them probably count among the 32% having not set up any digital marketing strategies or among the 20% using TravelZoo. Note - TravelZoo68 is known as the largest publisher of travel deals on the Internet, and is appreciated by hotels because it works according to a Pay per Click principle (each click costs around $0,15 to the hotel). It is similar to Google Adwords but with a bit less exposure. Social media comes last, used by only 12% of the hotels interviewed. Such a low percentage is surprising in that 65% of the hotels surveyed are hotel chains. Hotel chains are usually comfortable with Facebook and Twitter at least to spread the word about the hotel activities. Therefore, it can be assumed that the use of social media simply to spread the word is not considered as digital marketing for hotels. As a result, the 12% of hoteliers who mentioned social media can be the ones who for example rely on Facebook to make additional sales (through a Facebook booking engine), better rates or discounts. To sum up, it is important to point out the big step forward hoteliers took lately in terms of digital marketing. They have realized that their online presence matters if they want to get more direct bookings and spend less money on OTAs. As a result, before paying Google to get more exposure, a simple use of Google’s main tool is top priority. However, hoteliers have reasons to feel left behind with the use of Google because many changes occurred lately in a short time.

B- Google’s rapid development frightens hoteliers Successful SEO practices are at everybody’s level. However, it is necessary for hoteliers to figure out Google’s approach with its users (professionals or not) and to keep abreast with its major updates and new tools.

1- Google’s efforts to always improve its search engine

a- An overview of Google’s products development since 2011 Over the last two years, motivated by competition and online web users’ behavior, Google launched many new tools, which encouraged the company to change the algorithms that determine websites ranking. All these changes overwhelmed most of the companies, which, as time went by, finally found successful SEO practices and got a satisfying ranking on Google. Such was the situation for independent hoteliers. Barely comfortable with Google algorithms, which enabled them to closely monitor their competitors’ online ranking, that they suddenly realized that new algorithms had upset the ranking on Google Search Engine.

68 http://www.travelzoo.com/about/

56

The graph below highlights the major changes Google made in 2011 and 2012, that especially impacted hoteliers and all the local businesses in general.

Google's Major Changes Since 2011

By Emilie Alba, Google's Major Changes Since 2011, Graph, August 201269

Note: - “G” on the graph means “Google” - “#-pack” means “the number of algorithm updates” This timeline shows Google development according to its: - new products launched: Google+, Search + your world, Google Knowledge Graph, Google+ Local. - Algorithms updates: Google Panda and Penguin that regularly generate “x-pack” of updates as indicated on the graph.

b- Defining Google algorithms to get the basics of SEO As any technological product, Google keeps improving its search engine, which requires the creation of new algorithms and the updates associated with. Hoteliers don’t need to become experts in Google algorithms to further make successful SEO practices; however knowing some basics will help to understand Google performances. First of all, it is important to know what really are Google Panda and Penguin.

69 http://www.seomoz.org/google-‐algorithm-‐change#2012

57

As already mentioned, they are algorithm updates that "scan" websites content and rank the sites according to the relevance of this content. As a result, Google acts in favor of web users, who need to find the best information corresponding to the key words they typed. However Google Panda and Google Penguin have specific functions. Panda especially focuses on SERP (Search Engine Result Page) and targets the high amount of advertisements on websites, duplicate content and page headlines that don't match websites content70. Penguin's function is to target more low quality links on websites in order to limit the spamming of the web71. All the websites that don’t fulfill the conditions imposed by Panda and Penguin are detected and ranked far from the top results on Google Search Engine. With this in mind, hoteliers can figure out the importance of displaying content related to their business, along with appropriate key words and good quality links. They can also realize the importance of limiting the use of online advertisements. Before analyzing Google’s latest products launched, a global vision of Google’s approach to satisfy users’ need is essential to understand what this world giant values.

2- Google’s approach to offer a 360° web user experience

Google users are the general public and businesses, that is to say individuals and professionals. In regard to professionals, we will tackle the ones related to the hospitality industry, namely OTAs and hotels. However, we will start by analyzing how Google enhances its search engine to entice web users. Google’s main objective is to lead web users to use its search engine. Satisfying individuals is Google’s first priority because with no users there is no business possible for Google at all. Therefore, in order to differentiate from competitors like Bing, Google is banking on the user experience. The screenshot below, taken from the Google Search “lutetia hotel paris” shows how the Google tools recently launched contributes to the users’ experience.

70 http://www.trackbusters.com/glossary/marketing-‐seo-‐glossary-‐1/G/google-‐panda-‐120.html 71 http://www.ronniedrew.com/google-‐penguin-‐update-‐definition/

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Google’s Enhancement of User Experience on its Search Engine

By Emilie Alba, Google’s Enhancement of User Experience on its Search Engine, Screenshot and

Analysis, August 2012, Appendix 1172 It can be noticed that Google tools are inter-related in order to provide the users with a complete range of information. We can indeed see that Google Knowledge Graph (the set of information framed in green) displays a Google map and a “direction” link, as well as Google+ photos, reviews and ratings. So far there is no need to understand what Google Knowledge Graph is to understand that it provides users with visual information. Additionally, even if the links towards Google tools (Google maps, Google+) are highlighted at the top of the page, links pointing towards the hotel website are emphasized as well (framed in purple). And thanks to Knowledge Graph, when placing the mouse on the hotel’s URL, an overview of the web page is opening on the right-hand side, so that the user can decide whether it is worth to visit the page. This function of Knowledge graph is further explained in this chapter. To finish, it can be pointed out how much Google+ contributes to the user experience on Google Search. Google+ is covered in details later in this chapter, however it is important to rapidly explain that it is Google’s social platform recently launched. It displays businesses or individuals’ complete profile and enable them to share and sort out the pieces of information they want to share with contacts. As a

72 https://www.google.com/search?q=lutetia+hotel+paris&oq=lutetia+hotel+paris&sugexp=chrome,mod=0&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-‐8

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result, Google+ contributed to making the search more personalized for its users. The personal results (framed in red and located at the top of the page) point towards a list of the people in my Google+ contacts who posted information about Lutetia hotel.

Google+'s Contribution to the User Experience Improvement on Google Search Engine

By Emilie Alba, Google+'s Contribution to the User Experience Improvement on Google Search

Engine, Screenshot and Analysis, August 2012 The “review” links, the ratings and the photos point towards the Google+ Local page of the hotel. Google+ Local is also discussed later in this chapter, but to rapidly explain, it is the merging of Google Places and Google+ Pages for business. It displays all the information related to a business, along with the possibility for users to share and rate reviews about businesses. As a result, without mastering Google tools, hoteliers can figure out what Google values, by simply looking at how the information are organized on Google Search. As a result, from the screenshots taken, it can be assumed that Google will rank higher hotels with a presence on Google Maps and Google+. Then, as Google highlights photos and reviews, hoteliers can assume that feeding their Google account with photos and setting up strategies to get online reviews are essential. To finish with, by looking at the hotel websites ranked first on Google, hoteliers take notes of what they think Google values.

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C- How Google manages the online presence of both OTAs and Hotels On Google Search, Google+ Local, Google Maps and Google Hotel Finder both OTAs and Hotels are present. However, according to the organization of the platform, sometimes either OTAs or hotels seem favored, especially with the implementation of the Google “hotel price comparison” feature on each platform. This system enables web users to see, according to their dates of stay, which OTA provides the cheapest rate. The following screenshots taken on each Google platform show how Google is an advantage or a disadvantage for OTAs and hotels. I first started looking for a hotel in San Francisco on Google Search with the key words “Hotel San Francisco”

1- Online Exposure Comparison of Hotels and OTAs on Google Search

Online Exposure Comparison of Hotels and OTAs on Google Search

By Emilie Alba, Online Exposure Comparison of Hotels and OTAs on Google Search, Screenshot and

Analysis, August 2012 I focused the analysis on the Google 7-box, which displays the 7 best hotels on Google Maps according to the key words typed in search. It should be mentioned that each result in the 7-box displays the best-guaranteed price each OTA can provides. When clicking on the price, as highlighted on the screenshot, Google “hotel price comparison” feature appears and display a list of OTAs classified from the cheapest

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to the most expensive. Only at the bottom of the window, a link towards the hotel’s website is displayed. As a result, on Google Search, although two links point towards the hotel’s website, OTAs seem favored because their price is mentioned. At this phase of the research, web users are making their choice according to their budget, then they are first attracted by prices. In order to continue the analysis, I let myself drive by Google. I decided to get interested in Argonaut Hotel. Then, when placing my mouse on the hotel name, Google opened a window in the right-hand column (it is a matter of Google Knowledge graph explained later in this chapter) with a map and photos of the hotel. By clicking on one photo, I was directed on Argonaut Hotel Google+ Local page.

2- Online Exposure Comparison of Hotels and OTAs on Google+ Local

Online Exposure Comparison of Hotels and OTAs on Google+ Local

By Emilie Alba, Online Exposure Comparison of Hotels and OTAs on Google+ Local, Screenshot and

Analysis, August 201273 Google+ Local seems to be at the advantage of OTAs because, just like on Google Search page, the “hotel price comparison” feature appears. However, at this phase of search, as web users will have already seen pictures of the hotel, they will be tempted to either visit the hotel website or watch the location of the hotel on the map displayed. If they click on the map, then the hotel will be favored compared to OTAs. We will see why, when analyzing Argonaut Hotel Google Maps page.

73 https://plus.google.com/u/0/113368929628901478858/about

62

However, the bottom of the hotel Google+ Local page is not at the hotel’s advantage, in that OTAs are mentioned again, along with hotel’s direct competitors. Whatsoever, Argonaut hotel doesn’t have to worry about the presence of its direct competitors, because the hotel is also mentioned on their Google+ Local page.

OTAs and Hotels' Direct Competitors Exposure at the Bottom of Hotels' Google+ Local Pages

By Emilie Alba, OTAs and Hotels' Direct Competitors Exposure at the Bottom of Hotels' Google+

Local Pages, Screenshot and Analysis, August 201274

3- Online Exposure Comparison of Hotels and OTAs on Google Maps Google Maps seems more at the advantage of hotels than Google Search and Google+ Local are. 74 https://plus.google.com/u/0/113368929628901478858/about

63

Online Exposure Comparison of Hotels and OTAs on Google Maps

By Emilie Alba, Online Exposure Comparison of Hotels and OTAs on Google Maps, Screenshot and

Analysis, August 201275 First of all, unlike Google Search and Google+ Local, it can be noticed that the Google “hotel price comparison” feature displays only the average rate of Argonaut hotel and a link towards the hotel’s website. This might be a Google attempt to encourage hotels in creating or updating their Google Places Listings and creating a Google+ business page, which would generate a Google+ local page. Note – Google+ Local is further explained in more details in this chapter. Secondly, it can be pointed out that several links point towards the hotel’s website, which is also in favor of the hotel. However, most of the other links point towards the Google+ Local page, where OTAs and the hotel’s direct competitors are present.

4- Online Exposure Comparison of Hotels and OTAs on Google Hotel Finder Google Hotel Finder is Google’s meta-search tool that displays and compares the rates provided by the main OTAs. As a result, it competes with price comparison sites like Hotelscombined or Kayak76. 75 https://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&cid=7413280154573704405&q=Argonaut&iwloc=A&gl=US&hl=en 76 http://www.xotels.com/en/distribution/2012-‐hotel-‐industry-‐outlook

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For OTAs, Google Hotel Finder is another distribution channel that is worth paying because it ensures visibility to the hotels they work with. Moreover, when comparing the links towards OTAs and hotels websites, OTAs seem more favored than hotels. The screenshot below shows the Argonaut hotel profile on Google Hotel Finder.

Online Exposure Comparison of Hotels and OTAs on Google Hotel Finder

By Emilie Alba, Online Exposure Comparison of Hotels and OTAs on Google Hotel Finder,

Screenshot and Analysis, August 2012, Appendix 377 It can be noticed that OTAs are given more visibility, through the presence of the “hotel price comparison” feature on the top of the hotel’s profile. A link towards the hotel’s website is present at the very bottom of the page, which is not at the hotel’s advantage. In addition, all the tabs on the hotel’s profile, which are “overview, photo, reviews and location” also favor OTAs rather then the hotel’s website. On the review tab, there is a link towards OTAs below the reviews list. On the location tab, a map is displayed but there is no link towards Google Maps, which would have been an advantage for the hotel given hotels are favored on Google Maps. On the photo tab, there are no links towards both OTAs and hotels. On the overview tab, as shown on the screenshot, there is a link towards the hotel’s site but it is located below a link towards the review tab, which is in the advantage of OTAs. To sum up, OTAs are more favored than hotels on a majority of Google platforms. 77http://www.google.com/hotelfinder/#search;l=Argonaut+Hotel,+Jefferson+Street,+San+Francisco,+CA;d=2012-‐11-‐01;n=1;h=15751763593913061514;si=312a1ba1

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OTAs are indeed enhanced on Google Search and Google Hotel Finder, whereas hotels are enhanced only on Google Maps. Google+ is the only platform that highlights hotels and OTAs in a balanced way. As a result, the hypothesis through which I expected that Google will make independent hotels as visible as OTAs, can not be validated. However, Google’s social approach with its Google+ project might make independent hotels more visible on search engines. Still in view of interpreting what Google values, hoteliers have to understand the basic use of the latest products launched by Google.

II- Google turns towards a more social approach Google remained for a long time a powerful search engine, whose main page and search results were displayed faster that the ones of its competitors. Google search engine also differentiated from its competitors by providing a clean white background without ads popping up, as it was the case for Yahoo search engine. Today, Google differs from the other search engines by providing an online experience to users. This is why Google turned towards a more social approach with the launch of the Google+ project, and highlights photos and reviews on each of its new features.

A- The development of Google+ project

1- From the launch of Google+ to its adaptation to businesses

a- Objective and description of Google+ project Google+ for business was launched in November 2011, 5 months after the launch of the Google+ project. This project was created “to fix sharing on the web”78 and first consisted of a profile page displaying information and pictures of its users. It differentiated itself from Facebook and Twitter by enabling its users to add contacts in different “circles” so they could share specific information with classified contacts in circles. Google wanted to make it possible for its users to share business related information only with a “colleague” and/or “business partners” circle, which in this case, enabled users not to share this type of information with a “family” or “friends” circle. Additionally, Google launched the “hang out” tool that enabled Google+ users to make videoconferences with several people at the same time. Google finally created its social platform in an attempt to evolve and provide web users with a social experience. The latter was different from the social experience provided by Facebook. 78 http://googleplusplatform.blogspot.com/2011/08/stepping-‐onto-‐google-‐platform.html

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In November 2011, the Google+ project was adapted to businesses, enabling them to create a business page from a personal/profile account. As Google+ had aroused the interest of most of Google users, hoteliers were advised to create a page for their hotel, even if the general public was not active on Google+ yet. As a result, although hoteliers were not against a Google+ Business Page, they were not confident about Google+’s real potential and remained pretty inactive on their page, in case it would be a waste of time. In addition, they became quickly confused with Google+ features. They were indeed often mistaking their personal account with their business page, were being frustrated of being unable to add contacts to their Google+ hotel page, were getting their hotel name refused by Google because it did not sound like a “real name”, etc. All these small “malfunctions” were time consuming for hoteliers when creating their page.

b- Content and organization of a Google+ business page After the launch of Google+ for Businesses, many articles were published to explain to businesses how to create a Google+ page. Many web marketing agencies specialized in the hospitality industry did the same for hotels. The purpose was to encourage them to create their page, because it could be assumed from Google that the hotels’ presence of Google+ would result in more visibility on search engines. I therefore created the first Google+ guidelines for Oneglobe Network’s clients. These guidelines were further used by Oneglobe Network team, to create the Google+ pages of our hotelier clients. The screenshots below represent the Google+ Business Page that I created to promote the suites of the Landmark Hotel in London.

The Top of “The Landmark London Suites” Google+ Business Page

By Emilie Alba, The Top of “The Landmark London Suites” Google+ Business Page, Screenshot and

Analysis, August 201279 79 https://plus.google.com/u/0/105686873950703683737/posts

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We can see that the Google+ Business Page enables hoteliers to display the pieces of information related to their hotel (framed in orange) and a link towards the hotel’s website (framed in purple). A map is also automatically generated from the street address inserted in the business information listing.

The Bottom of “The Landmark London Suites” Google+ Business Page

By Emilie Alba, The Bottom of “The Landmark London Suites” Google+ Business Page, Screenshot

and Analysis, August 201280 Recommended links (framed in blue) can be added; at Oneglobe Network we decided to strategically display the links of the other Google+ Business Pages of the hotel in order to generate more visits on the hotel’s pages. On the right-hand side, we can see the contacts who are in the hotel’s circles and the contacts who added the hotel in their circle (framed in pink).

3- Google “+1” buttons to fix sharing on the web Along with the launch of Google+, the “+1” button was created so that Google+ users can recommend and share online content with the people in their circles.

a- Google’s sharing process: the “VCS” principle Note – VCS means “Vote, Comment and Share”

80 https://plus.google.com/u/0/105686873950703683737/posts

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During the last think-tank organized by Oneglobe Network in April 2012, I introduced Google as a “Marketing Partner for Hoteliers” (thought out and supervised by Liz Craig, CEO of Oneglobe Network). I devoted a part of the presentation to explain Google’s sharing principle, which, it should be remembered, was created in an attempt to fix the sharing on the web.

Google’s Sharing Principle: Vote, Comment, And Share

By Emilie Alba, "Google’s Sharing Principle: Vote, Comment, And Share", Graph, March 2012

(Design created by E.Alba and produced by E.A.Lee) To get more online visibility from their Google+ Business Page, hoteliers have to understand the “VCS principle” (meaning “Vote, Comment, Share”) through the use of the “+1” button and the “circles”. By clicking on the “+1” button of an article, the web user “Vote” for the article, which gives him/her the possibility to add a “Comment” and then to “Share” the article in question with the people in their circles or publicly. The more an article runs through the VCS principle, the most visible it becomes online, and the most visibility the author of the article gains as well.

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b- The sharing process development: Google “+1” vs. Facebook “Like” When Google launched its “+1” button, its function did not talk much to people. Personally, I explain the “+1” button as a button allowing people to give “one additional vote” to online content. However, for people who have no ideas how Google sharing process works, the usefulness of “+1” button is kind of hard to understand. In a logical way, many people associated the “+1” button to the Facebook “like” button, although Google did many efforts not to be compared with Facebook. I also covered this issue during the last think-tank, and explained the difference between the two buttons as follow: The “+1” button enables web users to comment and share articles (or web pages) with people in their circles, through a window that opens directly on the article (as illustrated below). This process enables web users to quickly work out which people or circles they want to share their articles (or web pages) with. As a result, Google “+1” button appears like a recommendation tool.

Google “+1” Button - A Recommendation Tool

By Emilie Alba, Google “+1” Button - A Recommendation Tool,

Screenshot and Analysis, March 201281 The Facebook “Like” button also enables web users to let their Facebook friends know about an article (or a web page) they like, but it does not allow them to rapidly sort out which friends they want to share the information with. In addition, before sorting out the friends they want to share the information with, the content is first 81 http://allthingsd.com/20120416/viral-‐video-‐to-‐the-‐arctic/

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posted publicly. Facebook also made the creation of “lists of friends” (similar to Google circles) possible, but the concept is not as developped as Google circles are, and is not used much. As a result, the Facebook “Like” button is more perceived as a self-expression tool.

Facebook “Like” Button – A Self-Expression Tool

By Emilie Alba, Facebook “Like” Button – A Self-Expression Tool,

Screenshot and Analysis, March 201282

c- A never ending competition between Google and Facebook It can be noticed on the screenshot below, Facebook’s attempt to compete with Google. When clicking the Like button, a window opens and gives the possibility to web users to add a comment before sharing an article (or a web page). However, this new feature still does not enable Facebook users to sort out the friends they want to share the information with. 82 http://allthingsd.com/20120416/viral-‐video-‐to-‐the-‐arctic/

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Facebook’s New Sharing Feature to Compete with Google

By Emilie Alba, Facebook’s New Sharing Feature to Compete with Google, Screenshot and Analysis, August 2012

Still in an attempt to compete with Google, Facebook also created a “recommend” button but its function is similar to the like button. Furthermore, the recommend button is not used a lot by businesses because they don’t generate as many clicks as like buttons do. As Facebook is trying to compete with Google in terms of technical innovation, Google keeps improving its features in order to ensure the best possible online experience to its users. To this end, it should be pointed out Google’s recent attempt to give more influence to its “+1” button. First of all, Google highlights its recommendation function by changing its sharing message: “You publicly +1’d this” by “You publicly recommended this” (see the illustration below).

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Google Officializes The Recommendation Function of its “+1” Button

By Emilie Alba, Google Officializes The Recommendation Function of its “+1” Button,

Screenshot and Analysis, August 201283 Secondly, Google now encourages Google+ users to “+1” web pages by mentioning the names of the people in the users’ circles who already “+1’d” the web page. In the example below, I can see that 1 person belonging to my circle, and 2 other people already “1’d” the web pages of this hotel.

83 http://allthingsd.com/20120416/viral-‐video-‐to-‐the-‐arctic/

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Google “+1” Button Optimization to Increase the Number of Shares through the Mention of Users’ Contacts

By Emilie Alba, Google “+1” Button Optimization to Increase the Number of Shares through the

Mention of Users’ Contacts, Screenshot and Analysis, August 201284 On the example below, I can see that none of my Google+ contacts have “+1’d” this web page. However I might be encouraged to “+1” the page because it is indicated (framed in orange) that 7 people already did so.

84 http://www.landmarklondon.co.uk/en

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Google “+1” Button Optimization to Increase the Number of Shares

by Mentioning the Number of Recommendations

By Emilie Alba, Google “+1” Button Optimization to Increase the Number of Shares by Mentioning

the Number of Recommendations, Screenshot and Analysis, August 201285 Thirdly, concerning articles, Google encourages users to read and “+1” additional articles on the same websites that have been +1’d by people in their circles. For example, in the illustration below I can see that one of my Google+ contact has +1’d two articles on this very website. 85 http://www.chevalresidences.com/

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Google “+1” Button Optimization to Increase the Number of Shares

by Suggesting Additional Articles to Read

By Emilie Alba, Google “+1” Button Optimization to Increase the Number of Shares by Suggesting

Additional Articles to Read, Screenshot and Analysis, August 201286 To sum up it can be noticed from the examples above that the creation of the Google+ project along with its 1+ button and circles, can generate web users’ activity on hotels’ website and blog. It is therefore obvious that the Google algorithms mentioned earlier value article and web page with the most number of +1. In addition, through the development of Google sharing process, it can be pointed out that Google’s main priority is to always improve the online experience of its web users. As a result, hoteliers should assume that Google will value all their efforts adopted to improve the online experience of web users

B- Overview of Google+ Local to understand the Google+ project

1- Google+ Local: explanation, description and differences with Google+ Business Pages Google+ Local is the result of the merger of a Google Places Listing and a Google+ Business Page. More concretely, the merger consists in the transfer of a hotel’s business information (present on Google Places) on this hotel’s Google+ 86 http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33098/How-‐Not-‐to-‐Steal-‐People-‐s-‐Content-‐on-‐the-‐Web.aspx

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Business Page. Once the merger is done, the Google+ Business page of the hotel (or of any business) can no longer be found on Google+. Only the Google+ Local Page of the hotel is displayed on Google+. However, Google+ Local is currently confusing for hoteliers because, as long as a business is present on Google Places, a temporary Google+ Local page is generated for the business in question. As a result, this business gets a Google Places listing, a Google+ Business Page and a temporary Google+ Local page. We will further explain in more details why having so many Google pages turned out confusing for hotels. First of all, it is important to know how to distinguish a “permanent” Google+ Local Page from a Google+ Business Page. Note – it must be reminded that a “permanent” Google+ Local page is the result of the successful merger between the Google Places Listing of a business and its Google+ Business Page. The “permanent” Google+ Local Page of CitizenM Hotel Glasgow is a perfect example.

CitizenM’s Permanent Google+ Local Page

By Emilie Alba, CitizenM’s Permanent Google+ Local Page,

Screenshot and Analysis, August 2012, Appendix 2387 Unlike the Google+ Business Page of the Landmark Hotel Suites (re-illustrated below), it can be noticed that CitizenM’s Google+ Local Page is indicated as


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“verified” by Google (represented by the tick in the red circle next to the hotel name), and can now only be found under Google+ Local tab (framed in red). However, it should be pointed out that the organization of the page is exactly the same as the Landmark London Suites’ Google+ Business Page. The location of photos, website link, map, contacts is indeed the same. On the other hand, the “about” section of the Google+ Local Page has changed, and is filled with the information that used to be present on Google+ Places. The possibility of writing reviews (framed in dark blue) has also been added to Google+ local.

“The Landmark London Suites” Google+ Business Page

By Emilie Alba, “The Landmark London Suites” Google+ Business Page,

Screenshot and Analysis, August 201288 The Landmark London Suites’ Google+ Business page cannot be transferred to Google+ Local because no Google Places listing has been specifically created. This is also the reason why the Landmark London Suites cannot be found on Google Maps. However, The Landmark London Hotel, which is present on Google Places, got its “temporary” Google+ Local page generated, on top of its already created Google+ Business Page. As a result, it is important to keep in mind that only businesses present on Google Places got a “temporary” Google+ Local page generated on Google+. In order to get the “temporary” Google+ Local page changed into a “permanent” Google+ Local page, the Google+ Business page (of a hotel for example) has be “verified” by Google. Getting a Google+ business page verified is at the initiative of the business, which means that the business has to launch the verification process. This is where hotels got even more confused and seriously worried about the future of their hotel’s online presence. The Google+ merger concept and the verification process will be covered in details in chapter 3.


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2- Google partners with Zagat to develop Google+ Local To further describe what Google+ Local is, it is important to mention that it was first created for restaurants, providing Zagat’s scores and recommendations. Zagat being a famous guide created to display reviews and ratings about restaurants and being “internationally respected as a symbol of quality”89, it is not surprising that Google chose to partner with them. Google’s objective was to provide web users with information about the best places to go for breakfast, lunch, dinner etc. based on reviews and recommendations. As a result, Google created Google+ Local in an attempt to answer to web users’ current needs. As time went by, Google enlarged Google+ Local to hotels, because many of them have restaurants and are as concerned by reviews and recommendations as restaurants are. The screenshot below illustrates the search page of Google+ local

Google+ Local is Adapted to Hotel Search

By Emilie Alba, Google+ Local is Adapted to Hotel Search,

Screenshot and Analysis, August 201290 The screenshot shows that Google+ Local enlarged to hotels (framed in red) and provides a map for the businesses location (framed in blue). Concerning Zagat, it has to be pointed out that the total rate is based on the food, decor and service for

89 http://www.zagat.com/about-‐us 90 https://plus.google.com/u/0/local

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restaurant (framed in orange) but it has been adapted to hotels. The latter are rated on the business’ quality, facilities and service (refer to the screenshot below).

Zagat Rating has been Extended to Hotels

By Emilie Alba, Zagat Rating has been Extended to Hotels,

Screenshot and Analysis, August 2012, Appendix 2291

3- Google+ Local expansion Google+ Local was rapidly integrated to Google Search, Google Maps and mobiles. This integration to Google’s main tools and devices means that reviews and positive recommendations are valued a lot by Google, and that they will directly impact hotels ranking on Google search engine. In addition, it has to be pointed out that Google+ Local brings together Google’s main tools and devices, which enables Google to display a complete profile of each business on all its platforms and devices. As a result, it was becoming urgent for hoteliers to update and optimize all their Google accounts. In order to convince Oneglobe Network’s hotelier clients of doing so, I emphasized this Google+ Local expansion on the following slides:

91 https://plus.google.com/u/0/local/San%20Francisco%2C%20CA/s/Palace%20Hotel

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Google+ Local Integration into Google Search

By Emilie Alba, Google+ Local Integration into Google Search,

Screenshot and Analysis, August 201292 This slide clearly shows how much Google values the presence of photos, ratings and reviews. As a result, it can be assumed that Google+ Local improves hotels ranking on search engine. The map is also mostly enhanced, which means that hotels have to check out (and update if needed) their business-related information displayed on Google Maps.

92https://www.google.com/search?q=meritage+at+the+clairmont&oq=meritage+at+the+clairmont&sugexp=chrome,mod=0&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-‐8

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Google+ Local Integration into Google Maps

By Emilie Alba, Google+ Local Integration into Google Maps,

Screenshot and Analysis, August 201293 We can see on this screenshot, the presence of Zagat directly on the map but also in the left column of the page, which will influence web users to read reviews about hotels. As a result, Google+ Local’s social functionality is especially enhanced on Google Maps. In addition, it can be noticed that web users are more likely to be taken to the Google+ Business page or Local page of hotels than on the hotels’ websites. Only one hotel website URL is indeed displayed in the left column, whereas 3 links point towards the Google+ Business page of the hotel.

93 http://goo.gl/wmF4v

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Google+ Local Integration into Mobile Phones

By Emilie Alba, Google+ Local Integration into Mobile Phones,

Screenshot and Analysis, August 201294 Most independent hotels still do not have a mobile optimized website. Therefore, the integration of Google+ Local on mobiles emphasizes the importance for hotels to take care of their mobile presence in a near future. In the paper sent to hotels about Google+ Local, it was essential to highlight the fact that the launch of Google+ local was an opportunity for hoteliers to update their Google accounts, especially Google Places Listings and Google+ Business pages. To finish, the launch of Google+ Local once again validates the hypothesis through which I expected that Google would keep developing its search engine, and launching tools likely to encourage businesses to use Google+. The fact that Google+ Local is integrated into all Google platforms is indeed a chance for hoteliers to be visible online, which will encourage them to create a Google+ account.

94 http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/localnow-‐with-‐dash-‐of-‐zagat-‐and.html

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C- Google Knowledge Graph and the value of images among search results

1- The launch of Knowledge Graph Google Knowledge Graph was created in May 2012 to answer the need for web users to get specific results when searching with key words. Google’s objective was to improve web users’ search and make it a better experience for them. Google describes Knowledge Graph as a tool “enabling users to search for things, people or places (…) that Google knows about, and instantly get information that is relevant to the users’ query95. Knowledge Graph is therefore considered as the next generation of search. It can indeed narrow search results by suggesting to the users several answers that correspond to a same group of key words. This tool should not be ignored by hotels or serviced apartments companies because, according to their business name or the pictures attributed to their place, Google can highlight them better if they are related to specific key words potentially typed by web users. If we take the example chosen by Google96, when typing the key words “Taj Mahal”, we can see that a “See results about” box (framed in orange) opens in the right-hand column. This box suggests different meanings attributed to the key words typed. It can also be noticed that Google emphasizes a hotel whose name and photos are linked to the key words.

Google Knowledge Graph’s “See results about” box Improves Search by Keywords

By Emilie Alba, Google Knowledge Graph’s “See results about” box Improves Search by Keywords,

Screenshot and Analysis, August 2012 95 http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/introducing-‐knowledge-‐graph-‐things-‐not.html 96 http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/introducing-‐knowledge-‐graph-‐things-‐not.html

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2- A More visual search results page on Google Since the launch of Knowledge Graph, Google’s search results page has become more visual. From now on, web users no longer have to click on each search result to gain an insight into its content. Each search result indeed displays an overview of the website on right-hand column, and highlights the key words present on the webpage, so that the user can see if the result matches its query. Here again we recognize Google’s attempt to improve the web users’ experience. After the launch of Knowledge Graph, it was important for hotels to see how they appeared on search results, and where they were ranked on Google Search according to specific key words. As a result, the hypothesis through which I expected that Google kept developing its search engine and launching tools can be validated. The launch of Knowledge Graph will certainly encourage hoteliers to improve the design of their website and pay more attention to Google+. I ran some tests for a client, whose business is about serviced apartments. First, I compared the results I got on both Google Chrome and Safari (two different web browsers) with the key words “London Luxury Serviced Apartments”. In general, the results were the same, only the ranking was different. The screenshot below is an example of what happens when a user passes its mouse on a search result (framed in orange).

Google Knowledge Graph Appearance on Google Search

By Emilie Alba, Google Knowledge Graph Appearance on Google Search,

Screenshot and Analysis, August 201297

97 http://goo.gl/OEvxa

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As explained earlier, we can see an overview of our client ‘s website, as well as a few sentences highlighted by Google about the client’s business (framed in red). According to the specific key words used, our client appears first in natural ranking (the first three results in the pale pink background belongs to paid search), it means that the key words are appropriate for the business. As a consequence, the website is valued by Google and ranked first. To make sure our client really appeared first, I made the search on a laptop that I had never used before (because Google tends to display first the websites people are used to visiting, it is called “personalized search”) and the client appeared first as well. In addition to key words, we can see that choosing appropriate pictures is important for the business, because Google emphasizes them on search. The pictures have to be attractive enough so that the users fancy opening the page. By going deeper into the analysis of results on Google Search Engine, I realized that Google+ Business pages impact the business ranking on search engine. The slides below have been done in May, and were presented to our client. Among the following results, I analyzed the last one (framed in orange), which concerned our client’s property: C* House. At the time I did the research, I realized that none of the key words used in search, namely “London Luxury Serviced Apartments” were present on C* House’s website page. In addition, I realized that the text in “C* House” result (framed in orange), was not present on C* House page of the website either. Yet, our client’s website was displayed on Google Search. It is important to point out that at the time I did the research (in May 2012) I did not know that the texts in Google Search could come from the website’s page source. The text I am analyzing indeed comes from the website’s page source. However, I chose to keep this analysis because with the development of Google, it has been confirmed that Google values the keywords mentioned on all of its platforms.

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Keywords Analysis on Google Search for C* House

By Emilie Alba, Keywords Analysis on Google Search for C* House, Screenshot and Analysis, August

2012 I decided to analyze C* House Google+ Business page, on which I could find the key words “London Luxury Serviced Apartments”. These key words were used for several photo captions. And as C* House’s Google+ Business page pointed towards C* House’s website page, it can explain C* House’s ranking on Google Search.

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Keywords Analysis on C* House’s Google+ Business Page

By Emilie Alba, Keywords Analysis on C* House’s Google+ Business Page,

Screenshot and Analysis, August 201298 As I assumed that the presence of photos were valued by Google, I did a further analysis on the photos we published on C* House Picasa account. Picasa being Google’s photo sharing album, in February 2012 we created albums for our clients in order to see the impact they might have on Google Search. I realized that the key words we used on Picasa were closely similar to the one displayed on Google Search. To finish, as we shared the photo albums created for C* House on Google+, we assumed that the presence of C* House top ranking on Google Search could be also due to C* House’s presence on Picasa. 98https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/115615225788797359281/albums/5720445634610517521

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Keywords Analysis of C* House on Picasa

By Emilie Alba, Keywords Analysis of C* House on Picasa,

Screenshot and Analysis, August 2012 To conclude, this analysis reveals that the presence of businesses on Google+ and Picasa is very likely to be valued by Google. Although the origin of the text displayed on C* House’s result on Google search comes from the website’s page source, it does not justify the excellent ranking of the website on Google Search. However, the presence of keywords on Google+ and Picasa has certainly contributed a lot in the ranking on Google. As a result, the hypothesis through which I expected that the potential of Google+ would make independent hotels as visible as OTAs and World Hotel Group cannot be entirely validated, because we can’t measure the influence of Google+ in the ranking of our client on Google search engine. From this experience, hoteliers should keep in mind that photos and key words are essential elements that influence the ranking on Google Search engine. They should especially remember that the description of the business in the website’s source page is displayed on Google Search, which imply that the description has to be optimized (no more than 160 characters, filled with keywords and in relation to the business). Taking into account Google’s tools and features (which are being developed and improved according to online consumer behavior), and Google’s way of working with OTAs and hotels; web marketing solutions can be set up to help hoteliers to improve their online visibility and to increase their direct bookings.

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-‐ CHAPTER 3 –

Leveraging Strategies to Help Independent Hoteliers Meet their

Goals

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I- Factors to consider in the optimization of online visibility Independent hotels are mainly concerned with two things: being visible on the Internet and increasing direct bookings. They work in partnership with web-marketing strategists to improve their online performance and get revenue increase. In addition, in order to maximize the chances of success, time and regular work for both the hotel and the marketing agency have to be considered. However, some independent hotels tend to think that web-marketing agencies work for them instead of along with them. They think so simply because web marketing has become a new job in the hospitality industry. As a result, independent hotels often don’t realize all the steps web-marketing strategists have to come up with before results can show up online. Thus, the aim of this first part is to show hotels where are located the main problems that prevent them from meeting their objectives and how the online strategies are finally adopted.

A- Understanding the principles of online visibility Being present on the Internet consists in being present and/or active on three interrelated touch points: - Social Media - Websites - Search Engines Then, it consists in enlarging a hotel’s web presence through the use of another touch point: local directories. Maintaining coherent business information among all these touch points is essential for successful SEO. Each touch point requires specific and diversified knowledge, which implies the know-how of different persons. This is why it takes time to get and maintain a business visible online. It can also become expensive if the business doesn’t learn to manage their online presence on their own.

1- The organization and influence of the touch points for hotels’ online visibility Maintaining a hotel visible on the Internet works the same way as any other businesses, except that for hotels much importance is especially given to Social Media. As hotels sell intangible services, they have to communicate a lot about their services and the experience they provide, if they want to get online reservations.

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Social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, Tumblr etc. are therefore essential to convince potential customers to make reservations. The graph below highlights the importance of each touch point for the online success of a hotel.

Pyramid Model - The Independent Relationship of Social Media, Website and Google

Plate of the author, By Emilie Alba, “Pyramid Model - The Independent Relationship of Social Media,

Website and Google”, Graph, September 2012 The graph is organized according to the 3 elements previously mentioned: Social Media, a hotel’s website and Google Search Engine. They have to be considered all together to ensure the online performance of a hotel. Each touch point embodies one or several specific role(s), which explains their position on the pyramid: 1- Social Media is positioned on the top because good management influences the number of visits on a hotel’s website, which influences top ranking on Google’s search engine. 2- A hotel’s website is located at the center of the pyramid because it influences and is influenced by both the activities on Social Media and Google. As a result the website also needs to be perfectly optimized to exert an influence towards the top and the bottom of the pyramid. 3- Google is the base of the pyramid because its tools and features will influence the visibility of a hotel’s website and social media sites, which will increase the number

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of visits on the website, and finally result in a better ranking on Google’s search engine for the website. As a result, Google’s tools and features need to be optimized so that your hotel can be mentioned (through a link pointing towards your hotel’s website) on as many places as possible (Google Maps, Google Search, Google+ Local, etc.) The 3 touch points influencing one another creates a vicious circle that is at the origin of whether online performance or online disaster. This means that if a hotel is performing well on each touch point, then the hotel will be visible online. On the other hand, if a hotel encounters a problem on only one touch point then the two others will be affected and the hotel will lose online visibility. We therefore understand why Google is the base of the triangle. Google indeed embodies the role of a “provider of tools and features” (Google maps, Google+ Business page, Google+ Local, etc.) that exposes your hotel to the public eyes. But Google also embodies the role of a “policeman” with its algorithms that access all your social media accounts and websites, before deciding whether or not a hotel deserves to be visible on the Internet. This explains why web-marketing strategists give much importance to Google. It is indeed the beginning of the launch of a “wheel” that is going to turn until the hotel is visible on Google Search Engine.

Pyramid Model – Visibility Insights Wheel

Plate of the author, By Emilie Alba, “Pyramid Model – Visibility Insights Wheel”, Graph,

September 2012 The launch of the wheel consists in setting up Google accounts for each of its main tools. Then, so the wheel can continue its rotation, a hotels’ website needs to be optimized (web-developers have to intervene on this step). To finish, so the wheel can keep turning, social media accounts need to be created and regularly updated. At this step the “wheel” is turning, and to give it speed, hotels need to be active on social

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media. It will create more visits on the website and a better ranking on Google search engine.

2- The current obstacles that prevent the “wheel” from turning up to hotels’ online visibility. So far, we clearly understood that to get a hotel’s website reaching more visibility online and getting more visits, the wheel has to turn in the right direction (from right to left on the graph). But the wheel is heavy and therefore takes time before turning on and on towards its goal. Independent hoteliers often want the wheel to turn rapidly, which result in the wheel falling down and stopping rolling on. During the launch of the wheel, hoteliers will encounter many obstacles that will slow down the wheel. However, they will have to deal with these problems until they are solved, in order to maintain the wheel in its launch. The graph below highlights the main obstacles hoteliers were encountering in September 2012.

Pyramid Model – The Main Obstacles Encountered on Each Touch Point

Plate of the author, By Emilie Alba, "Pyramid Model – The Main Obstacles Encountered on Each

Touch Point", Graph, September 2012

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As indicated on this graph, the main problems hoteliers are encountering come from Google+ Local (the merger of Google+ and Google Places) and from the under or over optimization of their websites and/or social media sites.

a- Problems encountered at Google’s level The actual main trouble with Google is to get the Google+ Local page created, from the successful merger of the hotel’s Google+ Business page and Google Places Listings. The launch of Google + Local is confusing for hoteliers because, even before the merger of the 2 tools, a temporary Google+ Local page is generated. Hoteliers are therefore facing 2 Google+ pages (the business one and the temporary local one) and don’t not know what is going to happen next. They are wondering whether the final merger would automatically get done or whether there is something to do to get it done. Once the merger was done for some businesses (hotels included), many of them noticed data inconsistencies (wrong business name, phone number, photo missing, etc.) on their Google+ Local Page, or saw their hotel disappeared from the Google+ Local listing. These problems are due to the merger and will be discussed in more details further on.

b- Problems encountered at the hotel’s website level The problems with the websites usually come from an under-optimization or an over-optimization. When a website is under-optimized, it doesn’t have a performing content (wrong key words, not enough pictures, links missing or pointing towards under-optimized websites, business information not updated, etc.…). On the other hand, a website can not perform well when it has been over-optimized with for example too long meta-tag description, excessive use of the same key words or links pointing towards other sites of the same owner, etc.99

c- Problems encountered at social media level Too many independent hotels miss to update their social pages or to regularly post new content. This can directly have a negative influence on the ranking of a hotel’s website, in that Google can consider as “abandoned” a site linked to social media accounts (Facebook, blogger, etc.) that are not regularly updated. As indicated on the graph, the mistakes accumulated on each touch point have direct impacts on the website and on Google ranking. The website will register less visits,

99 http://www.brickmarketing.com/blog/over-‐optimize-‐site.htm http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2168809/Your-‐Website-‐Might-‐Be-‐Over-‐Optimized-‐If-‐

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which generally results in a loss of direct reservations. And in the end, the website will lose rankings on Google’s search engine and will be less visible. OTAs will therefore benefit from the situation because when a web-user types for example, “Hotel San Francisco” in Google Search, the first results that are going to appear are results from: - Google Hotel Finder - Local Directories (ex: TripAdvisor) - Online Travel Agencies (ex: Expedia) See the screenshot below:

The Enhancement of Third Party Sites’ Visibility on Google Search Engine

By Emilie Alba, The Enhancement of Third Party Sites’ Visibility on Google Search Engine,

Screenshot and Analysis, September 2012, Appendix 2 As a result, web-users are more likely to make a reservation on an OTA’s website than on a hotel’s website. To sum up, it is highly recommended to have each touch point optimized by getting rid of the problems when they show up. It is not a step-by-step process; hoteliers have to maintain their presence on each touch point as regularly as possible. Optimizing a hotel’ online presence doesn’t consist in dealing with Google for one month, with the hotel’s website the following month, and then with the social media sites the month after. It consists of dealing with the three touch points altogether, by: 1- solving in priority the most important problems (whether they appear on a social media site, Google account or a hotel’s website)

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2-updating the hotel’s information as soon as mistakes are noticed, and renewing the content as regularly as possible. To better understand how to sort out the most important modifications to bring online, getting back on Google’s online presence is necessary.

B- Understanding how Google sees businesses’ presence on the Internet

1- Hoteliers’ misunderstanding about the way to target and attract potential customers Many independent hotels do not realize the real impact Google has on the Internet, which explains why many of them do not use the right tools, or are not present on the right platforms. Moreover, as Google is moving quickly, hoteliers who are not comfortable with the new jobs in web marketing can rapidly get lost. In April 2012, at the occasion of the Think-Tank – Now for Next 2012, I covered this topic through the presentation “Google as a marketing partner for hoteliers”. The aim of this presentation was to introduce hoteliers to Google’s main tools (Google places, Google maps, Google+) but especially to show hoteliers how Google was visualizing the way businesses (hotels included) should position themselves on the web in order to attract potential customers. I realized that the visibility strategy of independent hotels was incoherent with the way Google was viewing the visibility strategy of businesses.

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The Representation of Independent Hotels’ Online Visibility Strategy (Early 2012)

Plate of the author, By Emilie Alba, The Representation of Independent Hotels’ Online Visibility

Strategy (Early 2012), Graph, March 2012

The percentages approximately represent the importance independent hoteliers attributed to each touch point (Social Media, Local Search Sites, Google Maps & Places). Many independent hotels were picturing their website at the center of the Internet, and were trying as much as possible to bring potential clients on their website through a limited use of Social Media (10%), Local directories (10%), Maps and Places (10%). This means that 50% of the touch points combined were not optimized to target and attract hotel guests. As a result, I created the graph below in order to change independent hoteliers’ way of thinking. The graph enhances Google’s positioning strategy last April to target businesses’ online consumers, and the importance Google attributed to all touch points to target and attract clients.

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Google’s Positioning Strategy to Target Businesses’ Online Consumers (Early 2012)

Plate of the author, By Emilie Alba, Google’s Positioning Strategy to Target Businesses’ Online

Consumers (Early 2012), Graph, March 2012 It can be noticed from this graph that, unlike hoteliers, in April 2012, Google was visualizing potential hotel guests in the center and strategically positioned itself on all the different existing touch points. As a result, I assumed that hoteliers had to be present on all these touch points (which are not distribution channels), and pay a particular attention to online influencers, because they are the ones who are the most likely to spread words about hotels online. In addition, I assumed that all these touch points had to display the main information about hotels, and bring potential clients to a bookable platform, because potential clients should be able to make reservations through the touch point of their choice. As a result, because independent hoteliers were not making the most of these touch points, I realized that Google had understood how hoteliers should proceed online, whereas independent hoteliers had not.

2- The standardization of businesses’ online presence thanks to Google+ Local Since last April, Google did not stop improving its online presence. The launch of Google+ followed by Google+ Local, brought considerable changes. We can see

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on the graph below that Google+ Local contributed to standardizing the web-user experience online, by making Google’s current tools and features more social.

Google’s Social Extension through the Launch of Google+ Local to Target Businesses’ Online Consumers

Plate of the author, By Emilie Alba, Google’s Social Extension through the Launch of Google+ Local

to Target Businesses’ Online Consumers, Graph, September 2012, Appendix 21 The graph clearly shows the impact Google+ Local is having online on each main touch point. The launch of Google+ Local strengthens Google’s position on Local directories (Local search sites like Tripadvisor), which provides businesses with another local search platform. This was made possible by Google’s partnership with Zagat. In addition, Google+ Local makes businesses more visual on Google search. We have indeed seen in chapter 2 that the photos of businesses present on Google+ Local showed up on Google search, and were influencing web-users to click on them. Google+ Local also contributed to making Google maps more social, by displaying “review” links pointing towards the Google+ local pages of the hotels. Furthermore, Google+ Local standardization has considerably reinforced the possibility for potential hotel guests, to have a direct access to booking platforms on each touch point, with the “hotel price comparison” feature already introduced in the previous chapter. This feature is also present on Google search, which means that Google has made of its search engine an additional touch point, where customers can have a rapid access to booking platforms.

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As a result, the launch of Google+ Local should encourage hoteliers to create a Google+ business page, a Google+ Local page and to link their website to Google+ by adding the Google+ button. However, with the launch of Google+ one year ago, most hotels are already familiar with Google+, and have already created their Google+ Business page and embedded their Google+ button on their website. Given the huge exposure Google+ Local gives to businesses online, it is the opportunity for hotels to make sure their online presence is coherent. It is indeed important that hotels make a list of all the sites they are present on, and check out if they display the right information about their business. As time passes, concerning hotels, sometimes the phone number changes and photos need to be updated. Google values a lot businesses’ information coherence online. If Google can rapidly identify a same hotel on several touch points, this hotel is more likely to be ranked among the top results on search engines. Updating its online presence is a long process, but it is easy to accomplish when we know how to organize and sort out the most important tasks.

3- Making the online presence of a hotel coherent Google+ Local having integrated all the touch points hotels are using to target potential clients, it means that Google values the hotels’ presence and activity on each touch point. As a result, hotels have to update all their listings and accounts on each touch point, in order to provide Google with coherent information about their business, so that Google can recognize a same business on different touch points. Google+ Local is therefore the opportunity for hotels to review their online presence and make it coherent. At first sight, updating a business’ online presence seems like a heavy task. However, by proceeding in an organized way, we can distinguish which touch point needs to be handled in priority, and what are the most important pieces of information to update. The update of a touch point consists in checking out and modifying (if necessary), all the points listed on the top left-hand corner of the graph below. The graph below highlights this process:

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The Update of a Hotel’s Online Presence According to Google’s New Requirements

By Emilie Alba, The Update of a Hotel’s Online Presence According to Google’s New Requirements,

Graph, September 2012, As notified on the graph, it is recommended to start by updating the business’s listings on Google Places, because Google+ Local is currently merging these pieces of information within the business’ Google+ page. This first step is easy because it only consists in verifying if the information concerning the hotel are correct, and if the hotel has only one listing created per street address (if the hotel is present on different locations). The second priority is to focus on social media because if this touch point is well maintained, hotels can gain visibility, which compensate the loss of traffic many hotels’ website affected by Google’s new algorithm (Google Panda and Penguin) experienced100. All the social networks mentioned on the graph are important, but starting by updating Google+ is essential for the merging reason explained above. The objective of being present on social media is to gain in popularity, because Google values the

100 http://www.brickmarketing.com/blog/panda-‐penguin-‐updates.htm

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web-user experience. The more a page is followed by web-users, the more it gives Google proofs of the real existence of the business. The third priority (and maybe the most time consuming one) is to update the hotel’s presence on local and recommendation sites. It consists in finding the sites on which the hotel’s competitors are present, and creating listings on these sites. It is important to be present on sites that are valued by Google. In general, the ones ranked on top results, and the ones who display Google features (like maps) or visuals (photos, videos, etc.) are efficient. To finish with, it is essential to review the performance of the hotel’s website. Google’s algorithms analyze every detail of the website to see if the business related to is still existing, and if it provides web-users with relevant information likely to enhance good consumer experience. As a result, a website has to be well organized, dynamic and interactive. The best way to improve a hotel’s website is to have a web-developer and a web-marketer working together on it. The optimization of each of these touch points will be further developed in the second part on this chapter, in order to satisfy the hoteliers’ need to visualize where they lack performance and how to relieve the situation.

II- Online Performance Recommendations for Hoteliers In 2012, Google brought many changes in its tools and features, and also launched new products in order to always optimize its search engine and improve the web-user experience. The main changes that impacted the online presence of businesses (hotels included) are Google+ Local and Google Panda and Penguin Algorithms. Although the previous chapter explained how Google+ Local was confusing for hoteliers, it did not cover all the issues it generated on Google+ and Google Maps. This part will therefore provide hoteliers with recommendations to perform on Google +. In addition, as Google Panda and Penguin affected many hotels’ websites, a lot of hoteliers lost online visibility and direct bookings. This part will also focus on websites optimization according to Google’s new requirements, and online performance strategies.

A- Google+ Local merger performance: maps for hoteliers All hoteliers must have noticed the Google+ Local “temporary” page that was generated with the launch of Google+ Local. Many of them don’t know what is going to happen next. They wonder if they have to “verify” their Google+ page and Google+ Local pages as suggested by Google, and what will happen if they “verify” these pages. They simply don’t know how to get their pages merged in order to

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activate their Google+ Local page. Today, these questions can be answered in a simple way, but the answers will differ according to the Google tools and platforms hoteliers are already using or not.

1- Steps before launching the verification process of the Google+ pages Before explaining all the possible cases hoteliers can encounter, it is essential to understand how the process of activating a Google + Local page works. In order to get a Local Google+ page activated (i.e. to get the Google places listing of a hotel merged with its Google+ Business page), the hotel has to get whether its Google+ Business page or its Google+ Local “temporary” page verified. Getting these pages verified consists in clicking on a button and filling in a form (we will see the latter on the second graph). The process takes 5 minutes to achieve, but if Google detects mistakes or inconsistencies, it can take several months to edit the data and get the pages “verified” again afterwards. This is why it is important for businesses to have no data issues on any of these two pages, or on their Google Places Listings before getting their pages verified. The graph below enables hoteliers to review their situation with Google, and help them to update their listings before launching the verification process.

Instructions Before Getting Your Google+ Page Verified

By Emilie Alba, Instructions Before Getting Your Google+ Page Verified, Graph, September 2012

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This graph analyzes the possible situations of a hotel on Google Places, Google+ Business Page and Google+ Local Temporary Page, no matter they are active users or not, or efficient users or not. First, the graph requests to choose among three possible situations on Google Places. - If the hotel has never created a Google Places Listing (which is rare) or created a listing but never had it verified, then the hotelier can create a Google+ Business page and a Google+ Local Page. - If the hotel has a verified Google Places Listing and a Google+ Business Page, then the hotelier can have the hotel’s Google+ Business page or Temporary Google+ Local page verified (if he/she is sure that there are have no data issues on none of these pages). - To finish, if the hotel has a verified Google Places Listing with no Google+ Business page created, this hotel will have a temporary Local Google+ Page that will be generated. So far, in September, it is recommended in this particular case to not create a Google+ business page, nor have the Temporary Google+ Local Page verified101. Google will probably automatically generate the definitive Google+ Local page, and will notify the users about the functions of the page. For the businesses that are recommended to create a Google+ Business page, they will have to create a Google+ Local page. The latter won’t be automatically generated as it was the case for businesses: - having created Google+ Business Pages before the launch of Google+ Local - being present on Google Places before September 2012 Whatsoever, creating a Google+ Local Page is only a matter of entering information about the business. Moreover, it is included in the creation process of the Google+ Business page102. To finish, only when there is doubt that the Google+ Business page, the Google+ Local Temporary page and the Google Places Listing of a hotel (or any businesses) have not data issues, and are filled in with the same business-related information, then the hotel can launch the verification process103.

2- Getting Google+ pages verified by Google to proceed to the merger As mentioned earlier, to get the Google+ Pages verified, it simply consists in clicking on the “Manage this page” button on the Local Google+ Page, or the “Verify now” button on the Google+ Business page. The graph below highlights the next steps of the process.

101 http://www.virante.org/blog/2012/08/21/google-‐plus-‐local-‐places-‐page-‐faq/ 102 http://support.google.com/plus/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1713911 103 http://www.virante.org/blog/2012/08/21/google-‐plus-‐local-‐places-‐page-‐faq/

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How to Request a Google+ Verification to Get Your Pages Merged

By Emilie Alba, How to Request a Google+ Verification to Get Your Pages Merged,

Graph, September2012, After clicking on one of the 2 buttons embedded of the Google+ Pages, hotels will get to the following page.

Google Places’ Listing Management Page

By Emilie Alba, Google Places’ Listing Management Page, Screenshot and Analysis,

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September 2012 By clicking on “continue” button, hoteliers will arrive to the “Google + page verification request” form104 (mentioned on the graph). See below how the form looks like:

Google+ Page Verification Request Form

By Emilie Alba, Google+ Page Verification Request Form, Screenshot and Analysis,

September 2012105 It can be noticed from this screenshot that before launching the verification process, Google informs businesses about its eligibility criteria. According to the criteria listed, a link to the business’ website is compulsory on Google+ pages, and the Google +1 button should be embedded on the website. As a result, it can be assumed that Google values links and +1 buttons for search engine ranking. Back on the graph, after this form has been completed, Google: - either sends a Pin that will have to be entered in the Google+ business page - or Google manually reviews the Google+ pages, and automatically verifies them (if they are eligible). 106 104 http://support.google.com/plus/bin/request.py?hl=en&contact_type=page_verification&rd=1 105http://support.google.com/plus/bin/request.py?hl=en&contact_type=page_verification&rd=1

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After this step, once the pages have been verified, the Google+ Business page of a hotel (or any businesses) can no longer be found; only the Google+ Local page is displayed online107. From this moment, the hotel should never update again its Google Places Listing (analytics data on Google Places account can still be consulted), all the updates have to be made directly on the Google+ Local pages108. However, after the verification process, many businesses never got their pages merged. After 3 weeks, hotels have to contact Google to solve the situation.

3- Managing Google+ Local listing problems due to the merger

a- Contacting Google for Google+ Listing problems Every problem has a solution. However when a business encounters a problem with Google it can take a long time before it gets solved. To solve problems on Google more rapidly, it is important to understand what and where the problems are, and contact Google through the right process. The Graph below lists the different problems that can be encountered on the temporary Local Google+ pages and on Google Maps, due to the launch of the verification process. 106 http://blumenthals.com/blog/2012/06/19/the-‐g-‐merge-‐has-‐started-‐google-‐now-‐processing-‐manual-‐merge-‐requests/ 107 http://marketing-‐blog.catalystemarketing.com/google-‐plus-‐business-‐google-‐places-‐merge.html 108 http://www.virante.org/blog/2012/08/21/google-‐plus-‐local-‐places-‐page-‐faq/

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Process in Case of Merging Failure or Data Issues

By Emilie Alba, Process in Case of Merging Failure or Data Issues, Graph, September 2012

The main problems that frequently occur are the merger failure of the Google+ pages, or data issues in the temporary Local Google+ page or in Google maps. The 2 causes of theses problems are mentioned in red color, and consist of: - “Multiple accounts problem”: it means that a same business listing has been created with different Gmail accounts109. It often occurs when a hotel has worked with different web-marketers. This problem can show up before the merger process, and in that case the Temporary Google+ Local page displays the data issues mentioned on the graph110. The solution is to edit the page before requesting its verification. On the other hand, this problem can show up after the merger, and in that case Google Maps can display the same data issues listed on the graph. Google therefore recommends filling in a reporting issue form named “Incorrect Data Troubleshooter”111.

109 http://marketing-‐blog.catalystemarketing.com/missing-‐google-‐places-‐google-‐local-‐images.html 110 http://support.google.com/places/bin/static.py?hl=en&ts=1386120&page=ts.cs 111 http://support.google.com/places/bin/static.py?hl=en&ts=1386120&page=ts.cs

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Once completed, Google support comes back to hoteliers by email to let them know what the problem is, and if they succeeded in solving it. In the article “Missing Google+ Local AKA Google Places Images?” by Linda Buquet, the latter suggests to also ask Google to “UNverify” all the listings belonging to other owners of the accounts, so that the duplication problem will not happen again112. - “The duplication problem”: it can also be the reason why Google+ pages don’t merge after launching the verification process. In that case, one solution is to contact Google by reporting the problem on the “Technical Issue” forum113. Google only will be able to solve this problem by gluing the duplicate listings together114. To finish, all the problems that Google+ merger created don’t encourage us to validate the hypothesis through which I expected that the potential of Google+ would make independent hotels as visible as world hotel groups and OTAs on search engine. However, Google’s merger process is still recent, they may solve these problems and encourage businesses to merge their pages or create a Google+ Local account.

b- What to do in case of “Google Places Account Suspension” When a Google Places listing doesn’t fit Google requirements, after the launch of the verification process, Google suspends this account. The question many hoteliers in this situation ask themselves is “Can we delete a suspended account, and recreate a new one without being banned if the new listing doesn’t fit Google requirements as well?” The answer is “Yes”, Google indeed advises to recreate an account when a previous one got suspended115.

112 http://marketing-‐blog.catalystemarketing.com/missing-‐google-‐places-‐google-‐local-‐images.html 113 http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!categories/youtube/report-‐a-‐technical-‐issue 114 http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!msg/business/YoBCFp7siWM/6zUrgk13qsUJ 115 http://support.google.com/places/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=176520

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Google Support for Listing Marked as “Needs Actions”

By Google, Google Support for Listing Marked as “Needs Actions”, Instructions,

September 2012116 However, since the launch of Google+ Local, it is no longer necessary to recreate a Google Places Listing. The process is therefore to erase the Suspended Google Places Listing, and create a Google+ Business Page and a Google+ Local page. To erase the suspended Google Places account, simply follow the process explained by Google, framed in red on the screenshot below:

116 http://support.google.com/places/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=176520

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The "Right Way" to Delete a Google Places Listing

By SEOmoz, The "Right Way" to Delete a Google Places Listing, Article, May 2011117

Once the Google Places Listing is erased, it possible to create a Google+ Business page and a Google+ Local Page. It should be reminded that the creation of the Google+ Local page is included in the creation of the Google+ Business page process118. 117 http://www.seomoz.org/ugc/the-‐right-‐way-‐to-‐delete-‐a-‐google-‐places-‐listing 118 http://support.google.com/plus/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1713911

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Google Support for Creating a Google+ Local Page

By Google, Google Support for Creating a Google+ Local Page, Instructions, September 2012119

Once the hotel-related pieces of information are coherent on Google pages, the Google+ Local page or the Google+ Business page can get verified. Once again, the pages will be “verified” by Google only if the content abides by Google+ policy, and if the business information abides by Google quality guideline policy120. All the steps to recreate an account have been explained in details above, because it is a real need in the hospitality market.

B- Website and Social Media Optimization Website and Social Media can be tackled together in this part because their optimization process is quite similar. This is why dealing with these two touch points separately would be too repetitive. Moreover, social media have become as important as websites for Google.

119 http://support.google.com/plus/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1713911 120http://support.google.com/business/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2566475&p=edits_policy

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In addition, the aim of this part is not to simply enumerate the factors (keywords, backlinks, advertisements, etc.) that Google values, because hundreds of articles already cover this topic on the Internet. This part is more about the impact each factor really has on search results, so that hoteliers can optimize the most important factors in priority and get results more rapidly. This part is also about the constant evolution of ranking factors on search engine, because it is important that independent hoteliers realize that website and social media optimization is a long-term project. It has to be regularly reviewed and adapted according to what Google’s algorithms value. A recent study by SearchMetrics entitled “UK SEO ranking factors 2012121”, provides a detailed analysis of the main influencing factors in search results, between February and March 2012. SearchMetrics searchers based their results on the analyses of “10000 selected top keywords, 300000 websites and millions of links, shares and tweets” present on Google UK. Focusing on Google UK enabled the searchers (from the UK) to get more complete results than they would have got on a foreign Google (Google US, France, Spain, etc.), especially if they based their research on UK specific topics. For example, if someone searches information about the Queen Elizabeth II, this person will have more results on Google UK than on Google US or France, because the topic is specific to the country. Unlike all the articles about website and social media optimization, SearchMetrics presented its ranking factors results on the detailed graph below.

121 http://www.searchmetrics.com/media/documents/whitepaper/seo-‐ranking-‐factors-‐uk.pdf

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Search Engine Ranking Factors in 2012

By M. Tober and S. Weber, SearchMetrics, UK SEO Ranking Factors 2012, Search Engine Ranking

Factors in 2012, Whitepaper, June 2012, Appendix 14122 The figures on the graph tally with “the correlations between each factor (listed on the left) and Google search result”.

1- The importance of backlinks and social media First, hoteliers should notice how Google highly values social media optimization and backlinks. Note: a backlink is a “link coming from another website to your own website”123. It is clearly showed on the graph that Facebook is the most valued social network. However, this does not mean that social networks like Pinterest or LinkedIn are not valued. They are valued, just like blogs (blogs being part of social media), especially if they contain backlinks and quality links in general. Every link on hotels’ website or on any other web page should be a quality link. It means that the links should point towards a quality website with relevant content. If a 122 http://www.searchmetrics.com/media/documents/whitepaper/seo-‐ranking-‐factors-‐uk.pdf 123 http://webdesign.about.com/od/seoglossary/g/backlink.htm

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hotel’s website is associated with a bad quality website, then the hotel’s website will lose ranking on search engine. Concerning backlinks, it is demonstrated on the graph that the number of backlink matters. It means that the more a hotel has its website URL mentioned on sites or social media, the better for search engine ranking. In addition, it can be noticed that the backlinks quality matters as well. It indeed appears on the graph that “backlinks with keywords”, “backlinks rel=nofollow”, and “backlinks with Stopword” tend to be affected by Google algorithms, and therefore lose ranking on search engines. Note: - “rel=nofollow” is an indication that should be placed in the website or blog code right before the link of an untrusted website or blog. Thus, it prevents Google from associating your website with other untrusted sites124. - “stopwords” are all the articles and conjunctions belonging to a language (such as: a/an/the/ and/in/to/ etc.). They should not appear in a link because they weaken its value125.

124 http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=96569 125 http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/S/stop_words.html

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2- The Negative Influence of Advertisements

The Negative Influence of Advertisements in Search Engine Ranking in 2012

By M. Tober and S. Weber, SearchMetrics, UK SEO Ranking Factors 2012,The Negative Influence of

Advertisements in Search Engine Ranking in 2012, Whitepaper, June 2012126 As indicated on the graph, any type of advertisements should be avoided because they negatively influence ranking (they have a negative correlation). However, this study reveals that Google Adlinks is not as negatively valued as Google Adsense in general. Note: - Adsense is a Google tool that enables web publishers to earn money by displaying Google ads on their websites for free127. - Google Adlinks is part of Google Adsense but it may be assumed that it is less negatively valued than Adsense, in that Adlinks displays a list of topics that are relevant to the website. As a result each link points towards an advertisement in relation to the content of the website128.

126 http://www.searchmetrics.com/media/documents/whitepaper/seo-‐ranking-‐factors-‐uk.pdf 127https://support.google.com/adsense/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=9712&ctx=cb&src=cb&cbid=1e1lhkqs6um17 128 http://articles.pointshop.com/ppc/20905.php

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3- The Impact of Keywords

The Impact of Keywords in Search Engine Ranking in 2012

By M. Tober and S. Weber, SearchMetrics, UK SEO Ranking Factors 2012, The Impact of Keywords

in Search Engine Ranking in 2012, Whitepaper, June 2012129 Surprisingly enough, according to the graph, keywords no longer appear among the top ranking factors. Whether they are found in backlinks, URLs, descriptions or titles, the presence of keywords seems to influence Google to rank websites lower in search results. This change in SEO value is certainly due to the numerous businesses that ended over-optimizing their websites with keywords, to gain rankings on search. Over-optimized websites most of the time results in providing a bad online user experience. Using too many repetitive keywords indeed makes the site more difficult or uncomfortable to read. As a result it seems obvious that Google algorithms would affect these sites. However, keywords should not be banned from SEO strategies. They remain very important, insofar as web users will find hotels’ websites from the use of keywords in search. Keywords just have to be used in reasonable quantity, and should


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refer to the hotel’s website content. Google also seems to negatively value unnatural keywords position in titles. Titles should be understandable for web users, thus keywords should be placed where they make more sense in the sentence.

4- The end of traditional SEO? Traditional SEO is way behind, because search engines keep evolving rapidly. SEO strategies have to be constantly adapted in order to keep businesses among the top results. For example, early 2012, web-marketers were banking a lot on “more photos/less text” strategy, because with the launch of Google+ and Pinterest, photos were highly valued by Google. Today, if we refer to the study, we realize that Google does not value photos this much any more, and neither the length of text.

The Influence of Images and Text in Search Engine Ranking in 2012

By M. Tober and S. Weber, SearchMetrics, UK SEO Ranking Factors 2012, The Influence of Images

and Text in Search Engine Ranking in 2012, Whitepaper, June 2012130 However, it might be reminded that the results of this study concern research made on Google UK only. Consequently, a larger study would probably give deeper positive correlations to the number of images and words in text. Hoteliers should maintain their efforts in preferring photos to long text, because their business depends a lot on visuals. “More photos / less text” strategy will always appeal to web-users, this is why the correlation is positive on the graph. In this study, even though the correlation figures don’t talk much to hoteliers, they enable them to visualize and remember which factors are valued by Google. When we compare the correlation of Facebook shares with the correlations of tweets, we realize that Facebook should be given more particular attention than Twitter. To finish, the study found a 0.37 correlation in analyzing Google+1, which is higher than Facebook shares (0.35). However this data cannot be considered as fully reliable, given the small number of Google+1 users compared to Facebook and Twitter.


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Whatsoever, hoteliers should give importance to Google+ because the results (even if they are not currently reliable) are rather promising. This study confirms the need of a reposition strategy that would generate more direct bookings to hoteliers, despite the huge online presence of OTAs. The idea is to slow down the online keywords competition between hotels and better work with OTAs, while banking everything on Facebook. It first sounds like a brutal change for independent hotels, but we will explain in the last part in what this reposition strategy will turn out efficient.

III- A reposition strategy to generate direct bookings Independent hotels can no longer let OTAs take a high percentage of their revenue. Recently, many petitions launched at the independent hotels’ initiative have been posted on the Internet to denounce the negative influence of OTAs. The latter make money on the backs of hotels, forgetting that their role is to help hoteliers to increase bookings and therefore revenue. One of Oneglobe Network’s clients who owns an independent hotel in Paris, did not worry about OTAs (even though it contributed only a little to the revenue increase of the hotel) until last year, when he realized that this time OTAs did not contribute any more to the revenue increase of the hotel. This is why the CEO of Oneglobe Network, Elizabeth Craig, started to think about a direct booking strategy for independent hotels. It took one year to set it up, after taking into account the development of all the factors intervening in the strategy, along with the latest trends in the consumer behavior on the Internet.

A- Adapting to the development of online trends

1- The influence of online consumers’ behavior on Social Media, OTAs and Search Engines

a – Social media: a solution to consider to increase direct bookings Today, independent hotels have reached a stalemate, because they realize that OTAs are expensive high commission channels, and are positioned on the 3 greatest emerging forces in online distribution. Independent hotels invest in SEO measures in an attempt to compete on a wide range of keywords, in order to drive more visitors to their hotel’s website. They hope that a certain percentage of these visitors will make direct reservations. However, they have trouble encouraging visitors to book through their hotel’s website, because OTAs’ rate parity agreements prohibit offering better deals on hotel brand sites.

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In addition, we should take into account the fact that more and more potential customers first discover hotels through their preferred social touch points, and then make a search from the hotel name on Google (to a lesser degree Bing). The solution would be to optimize Social Media, especially Facebook, which is already considered as a distribution channel by hoteliers (even if it is not), and convert Facebook visitors into buyers. Before going deeper into the new direct booking strategy, it is essential for hoteliers to be aware of the latest changes on the Internet.

b- OTAs’ position in the online distribution system OTAs are currently positioned on the 3 major emerging forces in online distribution, namely: Search Engine, Social Media and Mobile. The graph below clearly represents OTAs’ position and influence on Independent hotels.

OTAs’ Position in the Online Distribution System

By Emilie Alba, OTAs’ Position in the Online Distribution System, Graph, October 2012, Appendix 6

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According to an AH&LA and STR special report for hotels131, Google (with its elaborate search engine and meta-search platform “Hotel Finder”), Facebook, TripAdvisor, and Apple are “Well-positioned to control the traffic leading to the demand for hotel rooms”. They are also described as “volatile and dynamic”, and are therefore likely to change the overall distribution landscape. Note: AH&LA: American Hotel & Lodging Association STR: Smith Travel Research OTAs strategically positioned on these 3 major touch points, because, according to the same study, they are becoming “the preferred points of entry for consumers to do travel shopping and buying”. However, it can be assumed that Google, Facebook and mobile apps companies will end charging higher fees to refer hotels, which will oblige OTAs to increase (even more) the commissions to hotels. As a result, it is becoming urgent for hotels to reconsider the way they work with OTAs, and especially retain control of pricing, inventory and brand value as much as possible. In addition, to ensure direct bookings increase they should review their SEO strategies, and bank on OTAs’ billboard effect to bring travelers on their website.

c- The reason to review SEO strategies based on keywords Note: - SEO means « Search Engine Optimization » A Google Trends analysis, made by Elizabeth Craig for a client, shows that broad search keywords are in decline. It means that less and less web users type broad keywords in Google search, when they look for information. Broad search terms are specific description keywords related to a business category or to a specific piece of information.

131 Distribution Channel Analysis: A Guide for Hotels, by C.Estis Greens & M.V. Lomanno, January 2012 http://www.owners.org/Portals/1/Documents/NDP/DCA%20Summary%20Sm.pdf

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The Decline of Broad Search Terms According to Google Trends

By E. Craig, The Decline of Broad Search Terms According to Google Trends, Analysis,

September 2012 On the other hand, when analyzing standard search terms, it can be noticed that they are more used by web users than broad search terms. Standard search terms are basic keywords used by web users during their information search.

The Increase of Standard Search Terms According to Google Trends

By E. Craig, The Increase of Standard Search Terms According to Google Trends, Analysis,

September 2012, Appendix 17 Based on these results, it can be assumed that online consumers discover general information about the topic they are looking for, elsewhere than on Google search; and use Google search in the second step of their search. A possible explanation of the graph above would be that a web user got informed by family or friends that

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serviced apartments might answer his/her need for his/her future stay in London, which led this web user to directly type “serviced apartments London” in Google search. As social networks (especially Facebook) have become one of the main means of communication between friends and family members, it can be assumed that they are responsible of the change in the consumers’ way of looking for information. As a result, to build our new direct booking strategy, we started out from the principle that “online consumers discover brands on social touch points, and then search by “brand/property name + location” on search engines.

2- Online consumers’ behavior goes from “search” to “discover” Online studies prove that consumers’ behavior trend is more and more social media oriented than search oriented. Among the reports and analyses studied, the following quotes supports the direct booking strategy we are setting up: “48% of consumers reported that social media posts are a great way to discover new products, brands, trends, or retailers, but less than 1% of transactions could be traced back to “trackable” social links.”132 Forrester Research, Less Than 1% of Online Purchase Come From Social Channels, September 25, 2012 “Awareness of social network sites is very high. Facebook is close to 100%, Twitter reaches 80% awareness and Google+ is known by 70%. More than 7 out of 10 Internet users are member of at least 1 social network. This implies that more than 1,5 billion people social network sites.”133 InSites Consulting, Social Media Around the World 2012 - September 24, 2012 “Awareness of new social networks like Instagram and Pinterest is picking up. 25% know Instagram, 24% are aware of Pinterest. Further, users show a very high intention to use both sites more in the future.” InSites Consulting, Social Media Around the World 2012 - September 24, 2012 In addition, famous lodging and social media companies have already started to turn their platform towards a more “discovery” approach. Recently, Airbnb created “Wish Lists”, a social platform similar to Pinterest that enables web users to create boards, from the accommodations they just “discovered”. Online consumers can therefore gather the types of accommodations they are likely to book, and automatically share a picture, along with a description of the accommodations, on Facebook. Unlike common social platforms, Airbnb’s Wish Lists enable consumers to directly contact the hosts and make reservations. Airbnb therefore succeeded in generating business from its social platform.

132 http://www.forrester.com/Less+Than+1+Of+Online+Purchases+Come+From+Social 133 http://www.slideshare.net/InSitesConsulting/social-‐media-‐around-‐the-‐world-‐2012-‐by-‐insites-‐consulting

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Note: Airbnb is a community marketplace for people to book accommodations around the world, in local homes or in atypical places run by professionals.

Airbnb’s Wish Lists – A Discovery Oriented Social Platform

By Emilie Alba, Airbnb’s Wish Lists – A Discovery Oriented Social Platform,

Screenshot and Analysis, October 2012, Appendix 18 This new tool totally matches the consumers’ needs and expectations. In fact, according to Cliff Kuang from Fast Company134: “Since Airbnb released Wish Lists, 45% of their users have engaged with Wish Lists, and over one million have been created.”135 Fastcodesign, How Airbnb Evolved To Focus On Social Rather Than Searches, October 2012 In the same purpose as Airbnb, Facebook is currently releasing a new button: the “Want” button. 136

134 http://www.fastcodesign.com/users/cliff-‐kuang 135 http://www.fastcodesign.com/1670890/how-‐airbnb-‐evolved-‐to-‐focus-‐on-‐social-‐rather-‐than-‐searches#1 136 http://www.businessinsider.com/what-‐facebooks-‐want-‐button-‐will-‐look-‐like-‐2012-‐10

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Facebook’s “Want” Button – A Discovery Oriented Social Feature

By Emilie Alba, Facebook’s “Want” Button – A Discovery Oriented Social Feature,

Screenshot and Analysis, October 2012, Appendix 15137 Web users will be able to click on the button and explain why they want the item. In addition, according to Mashable138, the items will be attached to a buy link that will point towards a site on which it will be possible to purchase the product. Note: Mashable is a famous online news platform about digital innovation139. As a result, statistics show that consumers are turning towards social media to discover new products and services. According to this trend, social media are currently developing tools to make it easier for consumers to purchase these products and services. Consequently, it can be assumed that social media will keep developing the discovery process of their platform, in order to generate business but also to become the first step of consumers’ online search.

137 http://www.businessinsider.com/what-‐facebooks-‐want-‐button-‐will-‐look-‐like-‐2012-‐10 138 http://mashable.com/2012/10/08/facebook-‐wantable-‐pic/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29&utm_content=Google+Reader 139 http://mashable.com/follow/about/

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B- The Elaboration of a direct booking strategy for independent hotels

1- The objectives of this innovation concept Building a direct booking strategy is a long and complex project, because it implies many research and analyses, perfect knowledge of the hospitality and Internet market, and technical skills in web marketing. The strategy indeed consists in generating business from online search, social media activities and sharing methods, along with website optimization. In addition, as it is a real innovation concept for independent hotels, the latter will have to be convinced that this strategy is the solution to generate more revenue from direct bookings. Furthermore, independent hotels’ marketing specialists will have to be trained to efficiently provide the daily efforts the strategy requires. As a result, according to the development of OTAs’ online position and the evolving consumer’s behavior on the Internet, the 2 following objectives came up: “Influencing potential customers’ decisions in their discovery journey, by optimizing hotels’ visibility onto trusted websites.” “Limiting dependence on OTAs, and better competing with hotels by using the full potential of Social Media.” Determining these objectives for the strategy is a way to show hotels that we have understood their needs, and that our direct booking strategy is the solution for them.

2- A visual explanation of the strategy Through the strategy, we encourage independent hotels to rethink the way they manage their online presence and generate bookings. I created the graph below to help them to figure out how we visualize the new way of leading online consumers to directly book with hotels:

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Direct Booking Strategy Visual Plan for Independent Hoteliers

By Emilie Alba, Direct Booking Strategy Visual Plan for Independent Hoteliers, Graph,

October 2012, Step 1 & 2 – Consumers’ search on search engines and OTAs’ sites The first two steps represent the current online consumers’ journey, before making a hotel reservation. When searching a hotel, most consumers usually start by typing “hotel” + “specific location” in Google Search. Among the first results displayed 3rd party sites are present, which encourages the online consumers to reserve through OTAs’ websites. However, many consumers take a look at the hotels’ websites, before going back to OTAs’ websites to make a reservation. These consumers are potential direct hotels’ customers, in that they would be likely to make a reservation on a hotel’s website, but do not do so because the website is not optimized to. One of the main reasons why hotels should keep working with OTAs is because they are present and visible in large number on search engines. Trying to compete with OTAs is therefore a waste of time. As a result, our direct booking strategy highly encourages hoteliers to better work with OTAs, starting by considering the requested commissions as advertising expense. Step 3 – Consumers’ new way of searching on search engines

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The third step corresponds to the growing trend of consumers who, after having heard of a hotel on social sites, start by making a research through the use of the standard keywords “hotel name + derivatives + location”. These hotel websites will therefore appear in top search results. Step 4 – Consumers’ visit on the hotel’s website The hotel guest experience starts at this point. As soon as a consumer arrives on a hotel’s website, he/she should be attracted by something he/she is familiar with and enjoy, namely social media. This is why the second part of our direct booking strategy encourages hotels to optimize their web pages (website home page + social page + blog), by creating a “social environment”. The consumer will either visit the Facebook or the Pinterest page of the hotel. At this stage, the consumer should feel the hotel’s philosophy, and the general atmosphere conveyed by the social content and the design of the website. The first success of the hotel will be to have aroused the consumer’s desire. Step 5 – Consumers’ experience on the hotel social media pages At this step, it is important that the consumer find high value social offers because this will trigger his/her purchase decision. It should be pointed out that rate parity are not applied to password protected access or social media platforms. This is why our direct booking strategy relies on social media to convert travellers into buyers. If the consumer is an active social user, he/she will share the hotel’s social media page or a specific hotel’s publication to his/her social contacts, before making reservation. Step 6 – Consumers’ sharing actions and purchase process To finish, the consumer will either make reservation from the social media booking platform, or will go back on the hotel’s website and use the hotel’s booking system. Only consumers who need a travel package will look for an OTA’s site to make reservation. The entire strategy is therefore adapted to the 2 major types of consumers: - The ones who start by searching a hotel on search engines – step 1 to 6 - The ones who discover a hotel on social media sites, and type this hotel on a search engine – step 3 to 6 As their online journey consists in using OTAs, Search Engines and hotels’ websites, the action plan to set up for the strategy needs to be effective on each of these touch points.

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- DISCUSSION CHAPTER –

Direct Booking Strategy:

A 3-pronged Action Plan

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The direct booking strategy is aimed mainly at independent hotels because they are the ones who suffer most about OTAs’ monopoly, given they are budget limited to build a strong online presence. In Chapter 1, we were indeed amazed to discover that 38% of independent hotels' reservation are made through OTAs, against 33% of reservations are made through their own website (Appendix 1). This discussion chapter consists of the action plan independent hotels should set up, because each action has been determined according to the hypotheses explained in the introduction and to which we refer throughout the chapters. The action plan therefore consists in:

• Better Working with OTAs – to attract visitors on a hotel’s website • Optimizing the Hotel’s Web Pages for Social Media – to get visitors to

connect with the hotel brand • Cultivating and Promoting Brand Value via Social Media - to turn visitors

into buyers

I- Better working with OTAs Independent hotels have to understand how OTAs work in order to better work with them. The most difficult thing for a hotel is to find the right balance, which consists in providing OTAs with a limited percentage of annual occupancy.

A- Hypotheses related to the positive influence of OTAs in the direct booking strategy

1- Discussion related to hypothesis 1 Hypothesis 1 – “the potential of Google+ will make independent hotels as visible as World Hotel Groups and OTAs on Google search engine, so that online consumers are more likely to visit their website” Including OTAs within the direct booking strategy might seem audacious. However, we could see throughout the chapters, that Google favors OTAs on most of its platforms. As this first hypothesis can not be validated, because so far Google+ does not make independent hoteliers enough visible on its search engine, it was essential to use the potential of OTAs in the direct booking strategy. In chapter 2, we could see that Google was ranking third party sites (OTAs included) on top of search results, when searching for “hotel san Francisco”(Appendix 2). Moreover, the first result was Google Hotel Finder, which also favors OTAs’ presence (Appendix 3). As a result, OTAs benefit from large exposure on Google, and are therefore not encouraged to reduce the commissions they request to hotels. We

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indeed saw in Chapter 1 (Appendix 4) that in 2011, 32% of independent hotels’ reservations were made through OTAs’ websites, and only 10% of reservations were made through their hotels’ own website. Until then, Google has favored OTAs’ online presence to independent hotels’ presence, because OTAs’ business answers to online consumers’ expectations. This is why OTAs positioned themselves on so many diversified distribution channels (Appendix 5), on social media and on mobile as well (Appendix 6).

2- Discussion related to hypothesis 4 Hypothesis 4 – Hotel-Friendly OTAs will become as visible as global OTAs on search engines, due to their efforts in providing an attractive consumer experience, and in requesting low commissions or no commission to hotels” Today, in November 2012, Hotel-Friendly OTAs are not as visible as global OTAs on Google search engine. As a result, it is too early to validate this hypothesis. If Hotel-Friendly OTAs are not favored by Google yet, it is because they are too young to be referenced on Google. Global Hotel Exchange and MyBestHotelRate were launched in 2011, Room Key in January 2012 and Treovi in July 2012. However, we can consider that Google will favor them soon, because they provide the online experience that consumers are expecting (Appendix 7, 9, 10). We therefore encourage independent hotels to start working with Hotel-Friendly OTAs, because as these platforms usually let hotels manage their rates and inventory, it is a good way to prepare independent hotels to better work with global OTAs.

B- The new OTA strategy independent hotels should consider

1- A step-by-step process to a more balanced approach The first step of the direct booking strategy requires hotels to deal with the root of the problem: OTAs. We therefore recommend all hotels experiencing revenue decline to follow the 4 steps process below140: - Step 1- Hoteliers should examine all their current distribution channels, and pay particular attention to the third party sites that play a part in generating bookings.141 For example, hoteliers should make sure their hotel’s business information listing on TripAdvisor is updated, because reviews are highly visited on this site by online consumers. 140 http://www.owners.org/Portals/1/Documents/NDP/DCA%20Summary%20Sm.pdf 141 http://www.bluemagnetinteractive.com/blog/2012/09/06/124-‐top-‐five-‐tips-‐to-‐increase-‐your-‐hotels-‐exposure-‐on-‐otas.html

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Top 10 Review Sites by Number of Reviews

By Olery, The Naked Truth about Hotel Reviews, Top 10 Review Sites by Number of Reviews,

Infographic, Published by BlizzardInternet, August 2012142

Note: - Olery is an online reputation and social media monitoring company, for the leisure and hospitality industry.143 Note: TripAdvisor is not an OTA. It is a local recommendation sites that works in partnership with OTAs - Step 2- Hoteliers should stop partnering with OTAs that don’t generate many bookings, and furthermore request high costs (transaction fees, commissions, rate and inventory controls, etc.) - Step 3- Hoteliers should invest in low cost OTAs (also referred to as “Hotel friendly OTAs” in chapter 1) or no commission OTAs in order to save money, and retain control over rates, inventory and branding as much as possible. An example of no commission OTA is Treovi. It is a brand new online platform (launched in July 2012)144 that fully respects its role of intermediary between hotel guests and hotels. The latter can display their rooms for reservation with no commission requirement, because hotels have to deal with inventory, rates, and room description on their own145. - Step 4- Hoteliers should optimize the visibility of their hotels on OTAs’ websites by: - Updating content regularly - Opening up availabilities (inventory) - Ensuring rate parity - Considering vacation packages (air + hotels / hotels + car) - Advertising their hotels on OTAs’ devices (ex: Expedia TravelAds) 142 http://www.blizzardinternet.com/5963/hotel-‐reviews-‐infographic/#more-‐5963 143 http://www.olery.com/about/ 144 http://www.hospitalitynet.org/news/4057079.html 145 http://www.treovi.com/terms

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- Communicating with OTAs’ market managers Hoteliers who work fairly with OTAs’ market managers are more likely to be given more exposure.

2- Understanding OTAs’ business model Better working with OTAs also consists in understanding what are their revenue streams and cost drivers. As explained in chapter 1, independent hotels have to follow OTAs’ online development, because they rapidly adapt to the consumers’ behavior, and strategically position themselves where they are more likely to be visible. The graph below will enable hoteliers to figure out OTAs’ business model, but especially help them to determine which of their own revenue streams they should optimize to increase revenue as well.

OTAs’ Main Revenue Streams and Costs Drivers

By Emilie Alba, OTAs’ Main Revenue Streams and Costs Drivers, Graph, October 2012

It should be mentioned that all OTAs have not invested in all these revenue streams, and don’t have to cover all these expenditure. Many mid-sized OTAs (especially European OTAs) have indeed not invested yet in cost control and CRM systems, but they are likely to do so in the future.

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Some revenue streams and cost drivers deserve additional explanations146. - OTAs positioned themselves on non-air products (hotels, cruises, car rental, etc.) because they can apply high commissions, which are not applicable to air products. This is why OTAs benefit from higher margins with non-air products (especially hotels) than with air products. Non-air products are also likely to increase the number of cross selling (through the creation of packages), which enables OTAs to position themselves on price, and build loyalty at the same time. - CRM (Customer Relationship Management) Systems help OTAs to modify any type of information related to products and offers, and help to gain customer loyalty. It is difficult to determine how much of total costs it represent for an OTA, because the costs depend on the OTAs’ needs.147 - Cost control through automation and outsourcing enables OTAs to focus on their business, while costs are automatically managed with no risk of human errors. - Marketing for OTAs consists of Search Engine Marketing (10$/booking), Meta-search, banner & advertising, SEO, tracking & reporting methodology and affiliate marketing. The most important for hoteliers is to find where they can get revenue increase, and compete with OTAs. In the two previous chapters we have demonstrated that on search engines, it is impossible for independent hotels to compete with OTAs. However, hoteliers should rethink the way they way they use local recommendation sites and social media (highlighted in purple on the graph). Concerning local recommendation sites (like TripAdvisor, Yelp, etc.), hotels should optimize their listing as much as possible. Optimizing a business listing simply consists in making sure that the right pieces of information of hotels are displayed, and in uploading recent photos with captions containing keywords. We already explained this in details in chapter 2, but it is important to emphasize, because it brings high value to hotels brands. Social media will be further developed below, but it is important remind independent hotels to massively communicate about their best price guarantees, high value offers and loyalty programs. Many independent hotels do not provide loyalty programs yet, but they should use social media in the purpose of keeping their followers and customers’ loyal. A customer will become loyal if there is an interest to, namely entertainment, regular offers, travel tips, tourism related information, etc. To finish with service fees and markups, hoteliers now have the possibility to deal with hotel-friendly OTAs. We previously mentioned Treovi and Room Key, but we also introduced MyBestHotelRate and Global Hotel Exchange in chapter 1. In addition, it should be recalled that it is essential for hotels to keep working with global OTAs, because a large part of consumers will discover hotels on these sites,

146 http://www.amadeus.com/ro/documents/aco/ro/en/Show%20me%20the%20value%20-‐%20White%20paper%20On%20line%20Travel%20agencies.pdf 147 http://www.concentrix.co.uk/software/crm/knowledge-‐base/crm-‐price-‐cost/

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before visiting the hotels’ websites. For example, according to Chris Anderson from Cornell University, 62% of IHG InterContinental Hotels (IHG)’ consumers visited Expedia before booking on IHG’s website148.

II- Optimizing the hotel’s web pages with social media Hotel website optimization is an essential step in the direct booking strategy, because it is the intermediary step before consumers arrive to the hotel’s social media pages. According to the new direct booking strategy, the hotel’s website is aimed at capturing visitors in their preferred social media touch points, instead of only getting them to make reservations on the website. To achieve so, the hotel’s social media pages should be highlighted on the website home page, and an additional page (belonging to the website or not) should be dedicated to the social media environment of the hotel. It is essential that the social page: - Reflects the hotel’s personality, to draw the consumer’s attention, and make him/her want to visit the social media pages of the hotel. - Offer social benefits such as fan rates, early notification of exclusive deals, complimentary services (free parking, late check-out, etc.) Enhancing social media on a hotel’s website, therefore implies a “social media ” optimization of the website through SEO strategies.

A- Hypotheses demonstrating the importance of social media integration within hotels’ web pages

1- Discussion related to hypothesis 1 and hypothesis 3 Hypothesis 1 – “the potential of Google+ will make independent hotels as visible as World Hotel Groups and OTAs on Google search engine, so that online consumers are more likely to visit their website” Hypothesis 3 – “Google keeps developing its search engine, and keeps launching new tools and platforms likely to encourage businesses (hotels included) to be active on Google+” We demonstrated in the previous part that hypothesis 1 cannot be validated yet. However, based on the fact that Google developed its own social platform “Google+”, it means that Google values social media and the online consumer experience. This is

148 http://www.hotelnewsnow.com/articles.aspx/4860/The-‐benefits-‐of-‐using-‐OTAs

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why we decided to devote one part of the strategy to the integration of social media (Google+ included) within hotels’ web pages. Highlighting social media on a hotel’s web pages (home page and external or internal social page) will increase the consumer experience. As a result, the hotel’s website is more likely to be valued by Google, and ranked among the top results on Google search engine. We assume that Google values online consumer experience because, as introduced in chapter 2, Google launched “Knowledge Graph” (Appendix 11) along with the launch of Google+ Local, to make its search engine more visual (with photos, reviews, maps, etc.) and to encourage online consumers to visit Google+ Local pages. This fact obviously validates hypothesis 2. In addition, we assume that our direct booking strategy will convince independent hoteliers, because the strategy requests low costs, in that we especially recommend hoteliers to optimize their social media presence and their website (website optimization and partnership with OTAs are the only strategy’s cost drivers). We could see in chapter 2, that getting more exposure and reducing distribution costs are a real need for independent hotels (Appendix 12). It is exactly what the strategy is aimed at, namely: increasing exposure through social media and OTAs, to get more direct bookings and reduce distribution costs. To finish, independent hoteliers will be interested in adopting this strategy because it requires the entire update of their online presence (including the update of their Google accounts). In chapter 2, we noticed that more and more hoteliers started considering the importance of Google. According to the study conducted by EHL and Rate Tiger (Appendix 13) 30% of hoteliers (among 65 hotel chains and 35% individual hotels) mentioned the use of Google in their marketing strategy. Even if the use of Google can only be limited to the use of Adwords for some hotels, the fact that hoteliers start giving importance to the visibility on Google is encouraging. Moreover, knowing that creating and managing a Google+ account is free, hoteliers will be interested in the direct booking strategy.

B- The social media strategy on hotels’ web pages

1- Web pages optimization through keywords First of all, it is important to understand the following points: The web pages to optimize are: - Website home page - Social Page (internal or external to the website) - Social media pages

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The optimization consists in inserting social media related keywords in the following website component:

• “Hotel description” part – located in the website’s source code (Google often makes this description appear in the results displayed on Google search)

• Urls • Links / Backlinks - A backlink is a link coming from another website to your

own149. • Tags – they are keywords or terms attached to a piece of information (such as

a title, a box, a button, etc.) on the website. • Text + Photo/Video captions

Efficient social media related keywords would be: - Social Media - Fan Rates, Fan Offers - Facebook Like Rates - Social Preferred Rates - Social Fan Rates - Special Social Hotel Rates - Social Offers, Facebook Offers - Facebook Hotel Offers + destination

2- Tutorials for keywords management within web pages Optimizing a website through keywords management is the most technical part of the strategy. Hoteliers should understand the basics; even though their role is to know which keywords they want to use, and on which part of the site. The keywords insertion can be done by an IT professional. The tables below explain in details how the social media keywords should appear in each website component mentioned above.

149 http://webdesign.about.com/od/seoglossary/g/backlink.htm

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The Strategic Use of Social Media keywords to Optimize the Description of a Hotel on Web Pages

By Emilie Alba, The Strategic Use of Social Media keywords to Optimize the Description of a Hotel on Web Pages, Tutorial, October 2012 150

150 view-‐source:http://www.mandarinoriental.com, view-‐source:http://www.bellagio.com/hotel/social-‐media.aspx, view-‐source:http://www.everyonesanoriginal.com/, http://www.facebook.com/westin/info

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URLs Optimization through the Use of Social Media Keywords

By Emilie Alba, URLs Optimization through the Use of Social Media Keywords, Tutorial, October 2012151

151 http://searchengineland.com/seo-‐friendly-‐url-‐syntax-‐practices-‐134218

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Links/Backlinks Distribution on Each Web Page

By Emilie Alba, Links/Backlinks Distribution on Each Web Page, Tutorial, October 2012 *Backlink: a link coming from another website to your own152. Before getting to the tags table, it is essential to understand what tags are and figure out the importance of tags in a website. In information systems, different types of tags exist:

• Title tags - It is the descriptive name of a page that appears in the Header of HTML Source Code

• H1 tags - describes the page topic • H2 tags - corresponds to topical headings • H3 tags - corresponds to sub-topical headings • Strong tags - enhances a page key phrase

152 http://webdesign.about.com/od/seoglossary/g/backlink.htm

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Below is an example of the way tags appear in a website page source.

By Emilie Alba, Hotel Sofitel So Bangkok & Bellagio Hotel Source Code, Programming,

October 2012153

153 view-‐source:http://www.sofitel.com/gb/hotel-‐6835-‐sofitel-‐so-‐bangkok/index.shtml, view-‐source:http://www.bellagio.com/

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Now it is easy to locate each tag on the websites.

Visual Tags Location on “Hotel Sofitel So Bangkok” Website

By Emilie Alba, Visual Tags Location on “Hotel Sofitel So Bangkok” Website,

Screenshot and Analysis, October 2012154

154 http://www.sofitel.com/gb/hotel-‐6835-‐sofitel-‐so-‐bangkok/index.shtml

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Visual Tags Location on Bellagio Hotel Website

By Emilie Alba, Visual Tags Location on Bellagio Hotel Website,


155 http://www.bellagio.com/

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The “possible tags” table below is therefore easier to understand.

Example of Tag Optimization through the Use of Social Media Keywords

By Emilie Alba, Example of Tag Optimization through the Use of Social Media Keywords,

Tutorial, October 2012 These tutorials will enable hoteliers to review the keywords performance of their web pages, and start thinking about emphasizing their social media presence and activities on their website. Before inserting the appropriate social media keywords into their website, hoteliers will have to create the social offers and benefits they will want to communicate about in their web pages. They will also have to think about redesigning the social parts of their website in order to draw the consumers’ attention.

3- Social media optimized websites through effective design The home page of the website should emphasize the hotel’s social connection, because the aim of the direct booking strategy is to get consumers to visit the social media pages of the hotel. The latter will indeed convey the hotel’s philosophy and lifestyle, which will trigger the consumers’ desire to make a reservation. The screenshot below is an example of design that highlights the social environment of the hotel.

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Design and Content of a Hotel’s Website Home Page Enhancing Social Media

By Emilie Alba, Design and Content of a Hotel’s Website Home Page Enhancing Social Media,

Screenshot and Analysis, October 2012156 Palms Casino Resort’s website above is the perfect example, because the home page highlights:

• Social media buttons – on the top right-hand corner in pink color • Special offers – below social media buttons • Invitation to take part in a contest – central offer • Invitation to visit the social media pages – “get social” button, on the

bottom right-hand corner The design and the social content of the home page enhance the hotel brand value. It indeed conveys the dynamism and optimism of the brand, which is reassuring for leisure-oriented consumers. We can also notice the booking engine (on the top left-hand corner) that is simple of use and visible. Moreover, the hotel gives the possibility to book a package “flight + hotel”. The consumers interested in a package have, therefore, no reasons to go back to OTAs’ websites to make a reservation. The internal or external social page of a website should convey the hotel’s social environment. As the page is fully dedicated to social media, all the social touch

156 http://www.palms.com/

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points have to be enhanced. The content should also entertain the visitors, and perfectly reflect the hotel’s personality. The 2 social pages below are representative examples of effective social pages.

Design and Content of Palms Casino Resort’s Internal Social Page

By Emilie Alba, Design and Content of Palms Casino Resort’s Internal Social Page,


157 http://www.palms.com/social/

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Design and Content of Fairmont Hotel’s External Social Page

By Emilie Alba, Design and Content of Fairmont Hotel’s External Social Page,

Screenshot and Analysis, October 2012158 Palms Casino’s social page better encourages consumers to visit their social media pages through the use of the main social media buttons, and the embedding of Facebook and Twitter Live Post boxes (framed in orange). In comparison, Fairmont Hotel’s social page is more guest experience-oriented, through the use of a photo contest (framed in green), and sharing and comment features highlighted in the middle of the page. Unlike Palm Casino’s page, Fairmont Hotel’s page does not highlight enough the social media buttons. They are indeed located at the very bottom of the page, and the design does not encourage consumers to visit these social networks. Several world hotel groups recently decided to create an external social page, whose name does not refer to the hotel. Fairmont Hotel’s page “Everyone’s an original” is a good example, but Four Seasons’ “Have a family, Will Travel” blog is another excellent example. The aim of these external pages is to keep a close contact with hotel guests all year long. They display diversified content (travel, cooking, health, etc.) just like a cultural and lifestyle magazine, while communicating about the hotel in parallel. It is a strategic way to get hotel guests to share articles from the social page with family and friends, who are new potential guests.

158 http://www.everyonesanoriginal.com/

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Independent Hoteliers are therefore recommended to either create an internal social page on their website, or an external social page (through the use of a free blog or mini website for example) to communicate about their social activities and offers. Social pages are a way for hoteliers to retain control of brand value, and to make visitors adhere to the hotel brand (because they are convinced that they share the same values).

III- Cultivating and promoting brand value via social media The direct booking strategy is also mainly based on the creation of high value social offers. The latter will make the difference with the packages provided by OTAs, and will therefore turn visitors into buyers. To achieve this goal, the hotel’s presence and activities on social media have to be highly optimized, through the use of: - all popular social media touch points - updated high value social offers and benefits - social offers’ cross promotion and sharing

A- Hypotheses highlighting social media power to enhance brand value

1- Discussion related to hypotheses 2 and 5 Hypothesis 2 – “Online consumers will more and more refer to social media websites before, during and after their trips or vacations” Hypothesis 5 – “Online consumers will also more and more trust the booking systems embedded on social media to make hotel reservations” Hypothesis 2 can be validated because, as covered in chapter 3, through the study made by SearchMetrics about the influence of online factors on Google search results (Appendix 14), Facebook is considered as the most influential factor with its “share, comment, like” actions. As a result, if Google values Facebook’ factors so much, it is because more and more consumers refer to Facebook on their every day life. Hypothesis 5 cannot be validated because, we could see in chapter 3 that, according to a Forrester Research, “less than 1% of transactions could be traced back to “trackable” social links.” (c.f p.112) It means that consumers use social media platforms to make purchases, or prefer using e-commerce websites or brands’ websites. This fact explains why Facebook recently launched a “want” button (Appendix 15), that brands can embed and point towards their website or towards another e-commerce website. This is why our direct booking strategy encourages

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hotels to embed the link of their website’ reservation system behind a “book now” button on Facebook. We also bank a lot on Facebook offers in our direct booking strategy because, according to a Google study in Chapter 1 (Appendix 16) both personal and business travellers use social media in their travel experience. Between 40% and 57% of them are especially interested in pictures, reviews and web discussions related to travel topics. Throughout the thesis, I was not expecting that online consumers would discover brands (related to hotels or any other products or services) on social media, whereas it is currently the case. I realized this trend when Elizabeth Craig, CEO of Oneglobe Network, shared her finding about the keywords research she did on Google Trends (Appendix 17). The results showed that online consumers use more and more specific search terms involving the mention of brands on Google search. This means that online consumers discovered the brands before making research about them. We can therefore assume that they discovered the brands on social media. Two studies, by Forrester and InSites Consulting, confirmed this new consumer trend by revealing, in respective order that "48% of consumers discover new products or brands on social media", and that "awareness of new social network site is very high, with almost 100% for Facebook and 80% for Twitter" (c.f. p.111) In addition, I realized that Airbnb had developed its own social platform "wish lists" that is based on the discovery process. This platform, which is similar to Pinterest, enables consumers to add to their wish lists all the accommodations they are interested in, while "discovering" them. (Appendix 18) We ended up valuing Pinterest for the direct booking strategy because a research by eMarketer, reported that 47% of U.S are influenced to make purchases on this platform, against 33% on Facebook (Appendix 19)

2- Discussion related to hypothesis 3 Hypothesis 3 – “Google keeps developing its search engine, and keeps launching new tools and platforms likely to encourage businesses to be active on Google+” This hypothesis can be once more validated with Google’s launch of authorship for online publisher (Appendix 20), which will certainly display companies’ logo on Google search in the future. This tool will obviously encourage businesses to be active on their Google+ page in order to increase their visibility on Google search engine. As a result, Google is currently communicating about the value of its social platform Google+, which promotes companies’ brand value. However, Google also communicated about the value Google+ Local could bring to companies’ brand value. In chapter 3, we demonstrated that Google+ Local was included on each touch point (social media, website, recommendation sites and search) (Appendix 21). We also showed that Google+ Local was adapted to hotel

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search, along with Zagat (Appendix 22). As a result, Google wants to convince hotels that they will get visibility when actively using its new social platform. Furthermore, Google made its Google+ social platform visually attractive to entice both companies and online consumers. In analyzing CitizenM Glasgow’s Google+ Local page (Appendix 23), we indeed could notice Google’s efforts in optimizing its platforms with the ability to display photos, reviews, business information, etc.

B- Brand value promotion strategy on social media

1- The use of all popular social media touch points Independent hotels have to be convinced that they can generate business from social media platforms, if they strategically use the right platforms. The right platforms are the ones used by the general public, where information can be easily shared, and that are accessible from all digital platforms (smartphones, tablets, laptops, etc.). Social Media platforms have to be free from rate parity agreements for all the special offers published. It has to be reminded that all the platforms with an access code don’t require rate parity agreements. Lastly, the social platforms have to provide the ability to embed a booking system. Many hotels are not ready to trust embedded booking systems on social platforms, however a simple “book now” button pointing towards the booking page of a hotel’s website can be as efficient. The best social platform responding to the 3 criteria mentioned above is obviously Facebook. However, although Pinterest still does not enable the embedding of a booking system, it does not have to be ignored because, just like Facebook, it can stimulate growth for businesses. According to a February 2012 survey by BlogHer159, “Close to half of US female Pinterest users had gone on to make a purchase based on recommendations received on Pinterest, compared to around one-third of female users of Facebook or Twitter160.” Note: BlogHer is a news, information and entertainment community for women online, recognized as the largest community of women who blog, by Nielsen Site Census.

159 http://www.blogher.com/about-‐this-‐network 160 http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1009413#6LXQelbf4KEy13PO.03

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The Influence of Pinterest on U.S. Women Purchase Decision Process

By Emarketer, Pinterest Fosters Unique Shopping Behaviors,

The Influence of Pinterest on U.S. Women Purchase Decision Process, Study, October 2012, Appendix 19161

As Pinterest is being very successfully used by U.S. women, there is no doubt that the platform will provide e-commerce features in the future (just like Facebook “want” button pointing towards e-commerce websites).

2- The use of updated high value social offers and benefits Social offers and benefits are the trigger actions of the consumers’ purchase decision, since as previously mentioned, they will make the difference with OTAs’ rates and offers. This is why the social platforms have to display a visible booking system, or a visible link towards the website’s booking page. When consumers are ready to make a reservation, they should be able to do so from the social platform they are currently using. Having a booking system on social networks is part of the social pages optimization process. Before giving an example of effective communication on social networks, it is important to figure out what is an efficiently optimized social media page. The screenshots of Hotel Ares Facebook page below are a perfect example. 161 http://www.emarketer.com/(S(t1dbt545e1mlujiknbqcinbo))/Article.aspx?R=1009413

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Hotel Ares Eiffel – Example of an Optimized Facebook Page

By Emilie Alba, Hotel Ares Eiffel – Example of an Optimized Facebook Page,

Screenshot and Analysis, October 2012162 We can first notice the popularity of the page. It encourages visitors to “like” or “recommend” the page to family and friends. The more a page is “liked”, the more it triggers additional “likes”. Secondly, the personalized URL (also known as “Vanity” URL) makes the sharing of the page more efficient. Web users are indeed more likely to click on a “clear” URL, rather than on a “messy” non-optimized URL. Thirdly, the booking tab is visible and made of the 4 keywords “book, rates, special, fan”. It should be reminded that Google favors businesses that enhance consumer experience, by ranking them among the top search results. This Facebook booking tab is therefore perfectly optimized, because it makes the hotel reservation easier for consumers. Concerning offers and benefits, to be efficient, a repetitive communication is necessary, especially on social networks. Online consumers indeed watch only the latest posts published by hotels. Offers and benefits have to be among them. 162 http://www.facebook.com/hotelareseiffel?fref=ts

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Hotel Ares Eiffel - Example of Communication Management on a Facebook Page

By Emilie Alba, Hotel Ares Eiffel - Example of Communication Management on a Facebook Page,

Screenshot and Analysis, October 2012163 On the example above, Hotel Ares communicates about both its website and best guaranteed rates. Moreover, the hotel regularly publishes similar posts (the latest dating from the August 2 and October 19, 2012) to keep encouraging new consumers to visit the hotel’s website. The hotel also shows its proximity with the fans by addressing them with the phrase “dear fans” (it seems obvious, but many hotels forget such mentions, which moreover count as keywords). In addition, the hotel shares keywords optimized links that point towards its website. The keywords “4-star Luxury Boutique Parisian Hotel”, automatically highlighted on Facebook, will indeed draw the attention of consumers who are looking for a luxury boutique hotel. The Hotel’s effort in optimization earned it the second place on Google Search, when search is made with the terms “hotel paris facebook rates”, as we can see on the screenshot below. 163 http://www.facebook.com/hotelareseiffel?fref=ts

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Hotel Ares Eiffel - Ranked Among the Top Results on Google Search Engine

By Emilie Alba, Hotel Ares Eiffel - Ranked Among the Top Results on Google Search Engine,


3- Social offers’ cross promotion and sharing Cross promotion and sharing are all about communicating about the social offers. Cross promotion consists for a brand to communicate about its partnership with another brand or celebrity, in order to attract customers, so that the two parties can benefit from revenue. For example, when a hotel communicates about the reduction of a spa package including the beauty product of a famous brand, it is a matter of cross promotion. Palms Casino Resort recently communicated on Facebook about a show that is taking place within the hotel.

164 http://goo.gl/iJcwc

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Example of a Hotel’s Visual Facebook Offer Involving Cross Promotion

By Emilie Alba, Example of a Hotel’s Visual Facebook Offer Involving Cross Promotion, Screenshot

and Analysis, October 2012165 The following step, after the publication of an offer, is obviously the sharing of the latter. Palms Casino Resort tweeted out its offer, as shown in the screenshot below.

The Sharing of Palms Casino Resort’s Offer on Twitter

By Emilie Alba, The Sharing of Palms Casino Resort’s Offer on Twitter,

Screenshot and Analysis, October 2012166 Palms Casino Resort perfectly manages the optimization of posts on Twitter. The hotel indeed used the @ symbol that enhances people or brand mentions, the # symbol that highlights a keyword, and inserted a link pointing towards the offer.

165 http://www.facebook.com/palmscasinoresort?fref=ts 166 https://twitter.com/Palms

The offer is visual through the use of a picture, highlights the words « Presale », and shares the password « Reservations » to get reduced price for the show. The hotel therefore gives opportunity to its fans to benefit from a special offer, and increases its chance to convert this potential audience into hotel guests.

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Palms Casino Resort could have even more optimized the communication of its offer by sharing it on Google+ and Pinterest. Most hotels, whether they are world groups or independents, don’t use Google+ as regularly as they use Facebook and Twitter. Not giving importance to Google+ is a serious negligence; all the more so as Google+ has just released “Authorship” for the large public. Google Authorship feature enables online publishers to have their photo and a brief description of them, displayed next to each of their results in search. It is therefore an opportunity to get exposure and visibility. The screenshot below is an example.

The Visual Result of Authorship Verified Google+ Profiles on Google Search

By Emilie Alba, The Visual Result of Authorship Verified Google+ Profiles on Google Search,

Screenshot and Analysis, October 2012, Appendix 20167 It can be assumed, from the launch of authorship for online publishers, that Google will soon adapt the latter for businesses. Google indeed recently released a code that enables businesses to link together a Google Business Page and a Business Website, just like “authorship” links together online publishers’ websites and their Google+ Profile. It is therefore very likely that Google will soon display businesses’ logo and brief description next to each of their results in search. Consequently, as Google will require that businesses’ content should be linked to their Google+ account before validating their registration to authorship, businesses have to start optimizing their Google+ page. To finish, all social offers don’t have to involve cross promotion. Hotels can regularly communicate about simple offers and get profitable results. Eye catching and attractive design matters a lot because it is what is going to draw the customers’ attention, and make them want to share these offers. To conclude, the direct booking strategy consists in better using and optimizing the channels and platforms used by online consumers. By observing the consumers’ behavior, and adapting to OTAs’ presence, we were able to rethink the way independent hotels generate bookings.

167 http://goo.gl/4QjMm

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Social Media are the key elements of the strategy, because they seduce new potential hotel guests everyday, and because they don’t involve much marketing and communication costs for independent hotels. In addition, adopting this direct booking strategy is the opportunity for independent hotels to update, and therefore optimize their online presence, which is an important factor in revenue generation. The visibility of social offers and benefits will simply attract interested consumers, and potentially generate direct bookings. Some hypotheses concerning Google could not be validated because Google ranks websites on search engines through the use of algorithms. The latter being constantly reviewed, it is difficult to determine the factors that Google value more than others. This is why it is important in web marketing to follow Google development. Google is indeed aware of the online consumers behavior thanks to their advanced measurement tools, and therefore develops new tools and platforms according the new consumers’ needs and expectations. As a result, we were able to assume what Google values according to what they develop for web users. It is also important to follow Facebook development for the same reason as Google, especially as Facebook certainly has the most important number of resources to measure online consumers’ behavior. As a result, when a digital company launches a new tool, web marketers have to wonder why they did so, make research according to their assumptions and anticipate the beginning of a new trend to optimize their online presence. T o finish, I did not compare the direct booking strategy with the work of others, because it is an innovation concept that is about to be communicated on the hospitality market. It has to be reminded that this innovation concept has been thought out by Elizabeth Craig, and I made research to optimize and set up the strategy for Independent Hoteliers. While conducting the research, I was trying to find hotels (independent or not) whose website was optimized to social media, and whose social sites were communicating and cross sharing social offers. World Hotel Groups tend to have an optimized website, but don’t communicate about social offers and are not active enough on Google+. It is the case of Fairmont Hotel San Francisco168. As for independent hotels, they are more and more active on social media through the promotion of social offers, but ignore Google+ and have a non-optimized website.

168 http://www.facebook.com/fairmontsf?ref=ts&fref=ts

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- GENERAL CONCLUSION – The elaboration of this thesis shows that web marketing is a new job in the hospitality industry, and that independent hotels should closely work with web marketing strategists specialized in the lodging sector. Throughout the paper, we indeed realize that it is essential for independent hotels that web marketers are familiar with hotel guests’ needs and expectations, and are aware of the constantly evolving online consumers’ behaviors. They also should have good knowledge of OTAs’ business, but that of direct and indirect competitors in the lodging industry as well. To finish, they should be aware of Google’s emerging position in the travel industry, and should therefore anticipate the potential benefits for independent hotels of the latest tools, features and platforms developed by digital companies. The elaboration of the direct booking strategy thus implies the integration of all these skills and knowledge, which are related to two different industries that are now interdependent: the hospitality industry and the digital technologies industry. The direct booking strategy will enable independent hoteliers to generate revenue, if they rethink their online strategies. The Internet, consumers, technologies keep evolving. As a result, hoteliers can no longer be afraid of changing their strategies. It took time to hoteliers before they start getting interested in social media. However, we could see through this paper that social media is the solution to trigger online consumers’ interest, and convince them to make reservations. In addition, hoteliers should not ignore OTAs, because they can make the most of their billboard effect to attract consumers on their hotel’s website. To finish, they should pay attention to Google’s social platform, because, although today the general public is not using it, being active on it will enhance online visibility. When carrying out the thesis and before the elaboration of the direct booking strategy, I was skeptical about the way to proceed with global OTAs, which request the highest commissions, and about the effectiveness of Google + social platform. Concerning global OTAs, I was not certain whether independent hotels should keep partnering with them, especially as no-commission and low-commissions OTAs are emerging, and turn out to be profitable for hotels. However, the study of online consumer behavior and Google’s constant enhancement of OTAs, show that ignoring the latter could be harmful for independent hoteliers. It is worth learning to better work with OTAs, and especially making the most of their billboard effect. As for Google + social platform, before the launch of Google + Local in June 2012, the optimization of Google+ social pages had no concrete influence on hotels’ online visibility. We were therefore wondering if it was not a waste of time to keep optimizing the pages, especially as most online consumers don’t use Google+. However, with the release of Google+ Local that gives importance to customer reviews, Google+ social platform gained interest, all the more so as the platform was further integrated to Google Search and Google Maps.

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We also realized that, in 2012, online consumers were more and more discovering brands and products directly on social media platforms. It led us to realize that competing on broad search terms with hotels and OTAs was more and more useless, all the more so as Google favors third party sites’ presence on Google Search. This is why, for the direct booking strategy, we decided to optimize hotels’ websites and social pages with social media-related keywords, content and design. The suggested direct booking strategy is currently being tested on Oneglobe Networks’ clients, and should be the object of a press article on famous online news websites like Tendance Hotellerie and Tnooz.

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http://www.mrandmrssmith.com/us/ http://www.allaffiliateprograms.com/mrandmrssmith/ http://mashable.com/2012/03/07/wanderfly-relaunch/ http://www.hotelscombined.com/, http://hotels.wanderfly.com/ http://www.hotelscombined.com/City/Myrtle_Beach.htm, http://hotels.wanderfly.com/City/Myrtle http://www.groupon.com/deals/ga-emerald-dolphin-inn?c=all&p=0 http://www.voyage-prive.co.uk/signup/step1 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/26/travel/26prac.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all http://www.luxurylink.com/about/index.php/faq/ http://timhowgego.com/history-of-lastminute-com.html http://www.tnooz.com/2012/06/28/tlabs/verylastroom-hitches-ride-on-late-hotel-booking-train-starts-with-france/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/hotel-tonight-a-lastminute-travel-app-11172011.html http://verylastroom.com/hotels/ http://www.facebook.com/Thefivehotel?fref=ts Chapter 2 I-A http://www.nihf.co.uk/DatabaseDocs/new_9521542__thedistributionchallenge2010-2012ehl-rt.pdf http://homebusiness.about.com/od/internetmarketing/a/pay_per_click.htm http://www.nihf.co.uk/DatabaseDocs/new_9521542__thedistributionchallenge2010-2012ehl-rt.pdf http://www.travelzoo.com/about/ I- B http://www.seomoz.org/google-algorithm-change#2012 http://www.trackbusters.com/glossary/marketing-seo-glossary-1/G/google-panda-120.html http://www.ronniedrew.com/google-penguin-update-definition/ https://www.google.com/search?q=lutetia+hotel+paris&oq=lutetia+hotel+paris&sugexp=chrome,mod=0&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 I- C https://plus.google.com/u/0/113368929628901478858/about https://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&cid=7413280154573704405&q=Argonaut&iwloc=A&gl=US&hl=en http://www.xotels.com/en/distribution/2012-hotel-industry-outlook http://www.google.com/hotelfinder/#search;l=Argonaut+Hotel,+Jefferson+Street,+San+Francisco,+CA;d=2012-11-01;n=1;h=15751763593913061514;si=312a1ba1 II- A http://googleplusplatform.blogspot.com/2011/08/stepping-onto-google-platform.html https://plus.google.com/u/0/105686873950703683737/posts http://allthingsd.com/20120416/viral-video-to-the-arctic/ http://www.landmarklondon.co.uk/en http://www.residences.com/ II- B http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33098/How-Not-to-Steal-People-s-Content-on-the-Web.aspx https://plus.google.com/u/0/101764341418211581947/posts https://plus.google.com/u/0/105686873950703683737/posts http://www.zagat.com/about-us https://plus.google.com/u/0/local https://plus.google.com/u/0/local/San%20Francisco%2C%20CA/s/Palace%20Hotel https://www.google.com/search?q=meritage+at+the+clairmont&oq=meritage+at+the+clairmont&sugexp=chrome,mod=0&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 http://goo.gl/wmF4v

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II- C http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/localnow-with-dash-of-zagat-and.html http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/introducing-knowledge-graph-things-not.html http://goo.gl/OEvxa https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/115615225788797359281/albums/5720445634610517521 Chapter 3 I-A http://www.brickmarketing.com/blog/over-optimize-site.htm http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2168809/Your-Website-Might-Be-Over-Optimized-If- I-B http://www.brickmarketing.com/blog/panda-penguin-updates.htm II- A http://www.virante.org/blog/2012/08/21/google-plus-local-places-page-faq/ http://support.google.com/plus/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1713911 http://support.google.com/plus/bin/request.py?hl=en&contact_type=page_verification&rd=1 http://blumenthals.com/blog/2012/06/19/the-g-merge-has-started-google-now-processing-manual-merge-requests/ http://marketing-blog.catalystemarketing.com/google-plus-business-google-places-merge.html http://www.virante.org/blog/2012/08/21/google-plus-local-places-page-faq/ http://marketing-blog.catalystemarketing.com/missing-google-places-google-local-images.html http://support.google.com/places/bin/static.py?hl=en&ts=1386120&page=ts.cs http://marketing-blog.catalystemarketing.com/missing-google-places-google-local-images.html http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!categories/youtube/report-a-technical-issue http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!msg/business/YoBCFp7siWM/6zUrgk13qsUJ http://support.google.com/places/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=176520 http://www.seomoz.org/ugc/the-right-way-to-delete-a-google-places-listing http://support.google.com/plus/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1713911 II-B http://support.google.com/plus/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1713911 http://support.google.com/business/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2566475&p=edits_policy http://www.searchmetrics.com/media/documents/whitepaper/seo-ranking-factors-uk.pdf http://webdesign.about.com/od/seoglossary/g/backlink.htm http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=96569 http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/S/stop_words.html http://www.searchmetrics.com/media/documents/whitepaper/seo-ranking-factors-uk.pdf https://support.google.com/adsense/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=9712&ctx=cb&src=cb&cbid=1e1lhkqs6um17 http://articles.pointshop.com/ppc/20905.php http://www.searchmetrics.com/media/documents/whitepaper/seo-ranking-factors-uk.pdf III- A Distribution Channel Analysis: A Guide for Hotels, by C.Estis Greens & M.V. Lomanno, January 2012 http://www.owners.org/Portals/1/Documents/NDP/DCA%20Summary%20Sm.pdf http://www.forrester.com/Less+Than+1+Of+Online+Purchases+Come+From+Social http://www.slideshare.net/InSitesConsulting/social-media-around-the-world-2012-by-insites-consulting http://www.fastcodesign.com/users/cliff-kuang http://www.fastcodesign.com/1670890/how-airbnb-evolved-to-focus-on-social-rather-than-searches#1 http://www.businessinsider.com/what-facebooks-want-button-will-look-like-2012-10 III-B http://www.businessinsider.com/what-facebooks-want-button-will-look-like-2012-10 http://mashable.com/2012/10/08/facebook-wantable-pic/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29&utm_content=Google+Reader http://mashable.com/follow/about/

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III- C http://www.owners.org/Portals/1/Documents/NDP/DCA%20Summary%20Sm.pdf http://www.bluemagnetinteractive.com/blog/2012/09/06/124-top-five-tips-to-increase-your-hotels-exposure-on-otas.html http://www.blizzardinternet.com/5963/hotel-reviews-infographic/#more-5963 http://www.olery.com/about/ http://www.treovi.com/terms http://www.amadeus.com/ro/documents/aco/ro/en/Show%20me%20the%20value%20-%20White%20paper%20On%20line%20Travel%20agencies.pdf http://www.concentrix.co.uk/software/crm/knowledge-base/crm-price-cost/ http://www.hotelnewsnow.com/articles.aspx/4860/The-benefits-of-using-OTAs http://webdesign.about.com/od/seoglossary/g/backlink.htm view-source:http://www.mandarinoriental.com view-source:http://www.bellagio.com/hotel/social-media.aspx, view-source:http://www.everyonesanoriginal.com/, http://www.facebook.com/westin/info http://searchengineland.com/seo-friendly-url-syntax-practices-134218 view-source:http://www.sofitel.com/gb/hotel-6835-sofitel-so-bangkok/index.shtml, view-source:http://www.bellagio.com/ http://www.sofitel.com/gb/hotel-6835-sofitel-so-bangkok/index.shtml http://www.bellagio.com/ http://www.palms.com/ http://www.palms.com/social/ http://www.everyonesanoriginal.com/ http://www.blogher.com/about-this-network http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1009413#6LXQelbf4KEy13PO.03 http://www.emarketer.com/(S(t1dbt545e1mlujiknbqcinbo))/Article.aspx?R=1009413 http://www.facebook.com/hotelareseiffel?fref=ts http://goo.gl/iJcwc http://www.facebook.com/palmscasinoresort?fref=ts https://twitter.com/Palms http://goo.gl/4QjMm

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- LIST OF APPENDICES – Appendix 1 - 2012 - Percentage of Reservation on OTAs and Hotels' websites for Chain Hotels and Independent Hotels Appendix 2 - The Enhancement of Third Party Sites' Visibility on Google Search Engine Appendix 3 - Online Exposure Comparison of Hotels and OTAs on Google Hotel Finder Appendix 4 - 2011 - Percentage of Reservation on OTAs and Hotels' Websites for Branded and Non-Branded Hotels Appendix 5 - OTAs' Presence on Distribution Channels Appendix 6 - OTAs' Position in the Online Distribution System Appendix 7 - Room Key's Search System (July 2012) Appendix 9 - MyBestHotelRate's Search System and Home Page (July 2012) Appendix 10 - Global Hotel Exchange's Search System and Home Page (July 2012) Appendix 11 - Google's Enhancement of User Experience on its Search Engine Appendix 12 - Hotel Revenue Managers' Main Challenges in 2012 Appendix 13 - The Percentage of Hoteliers' Digital Marketing Practices in 2010-2012 Appendix 14 - Search Engine Ranking Factors in 2012 Appendix 15 - Facebook's "Want" Button - A Discovery Oriented Social Feature Appendix 16 - Percentage of Travelers Using Social Media during their Travel Experience Appendix 17 - The Increase of Standard Search Terms According to Google Trends Appendix 18 - Airbnb's Wish Lists - A Discovery Oriented Social Platform Appendix 19 - The Influence of Pinterest on U.S. Women Purchase Decision Process Appendix 20 - The visual Result of Authorship Verified Google+ Profiles on Google Search Appendix 21 - Google's Social Extension through the launch of Google+ Local to target Businesses' Online Consumers Appendix 22 - Zagat Rating has been Extended to Hotels Appendix 23 - CitizenM's Permanent Google+ Local Page

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- APPENDICES - Appendix 1

Appendix 2

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Appendix 3

Appendix4

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Appendix 5

Appendix 6

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Appendix 7

Appendix 9

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Appendix 10

Appendix 11

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Appendix 12

Appendix 13

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Appendix 14

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Appendix 15

Appendix 16

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Appendix 17

Appendix 18

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Appendix 19

Appendix 20

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Appendix 21

Appendix 22

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Appendix 23

Thesis - A Direct Booking Strategy for Independent Hotels

Technology

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