Marketing Trends for Hotels in 2014 – Part 1

By the end of the second quarter of 2014, we would like to anticipate trends in marketing for hotels in 2014, according to the specialists of the industry.

Mobile is Growing:

Travelers are using mobile as the first contact with hotel’s websites increasingly. 50% of direct reservations will be through a mobile phone in 2017. Is your hotel ready? The trend of P2P places is growing in order to avoid all intermediaries. There are some places that have just a mobile version like Hotel Tonight. Other examples are Vajable, Airbnb, Eatwith.

Data:

1.      20% of reservations through mobile phone in 2013.

2.      37% of consumers connected to Internet by smartphones.

3.      63% of travel suppliers increased bookings by mobile phone from 2011 to 2013.

4.      43.8% of travelers will book at the last moment with mobile phones  by the end of 2014.

Videos that Transmit:

Videos are the way to transmit experiences – the special feature that makes your hotel unique. During 2013, 81% of bookings checked videos. Source: Eyefortravel “The 2013 Traveler”

From Organic Search to Hotel Finder:

Google controls keywords in organic search. It is important to not only have SEM strategies but to also be tagged in Google Places, and appear in Google Hotel Finder Lists. Everything seems to indicate that Google is interested in tourism business and hoteliers.

Retargeting:

Over 96% of people that visit one website, leave without buying. Retargeting strategies allow you to attract visitors’ attention, even days after, and bring them back.

OTA vs. Direct Bookings

OTA reservations have a cost of 15% or 25% for the hotel. A hotel, through its marketing strategies and brand resources can increase direct bookings without paying commissions. However, OTAs are an important platform and it will be important to be present on maximum of them. Combining it with a Channel Manager like SiteMinder that will make the optimization and multiple channel distribution easier.

You can read the second part of this blog here.

This post is contributed by Patricia Etchehun, General Manager of Axent. Read more about her on www.axent.com.ar. She is reachable at info@axent.com.ar or 54 11 4773 7264.