On the Web, on phones, on iPods—video is everywhere. There’s a common misconception that twenty- and thirty-somethings are doing all of the online video watching—but they’re not the only ones!

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Michigan State Professor of Hospitality Business, Bonnie Knutson, will talk about the explosion of online video and how the one-to-many model of mass media has been replaced by the many-to-many model.

Dr. Knutson will be joined by New Castle Hotels & Resorts Director of Media & Advertising, Bonny Pope, who will provide her insights and real world examples on the benefits of video. James Hackett, the general manager of Portland, Maine’s Hilton Garden Inn, will show you how his hotel is using New Castle ideas to bring travelers to his property and boost bookings.

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Online, most hotels appear undifferentiated to travel shoppers who want to know: what makes one hotel in their consideration set different or better than the other comparables?

“In a business environment filled with countless competing hotel brands, the only way you can really win big is by making an emotional connection with your guests. In other words, you have to capture their hearts. Lists of features and benefits alone cannot differentiate your brand and drive revenues anymore,” says Knutson.

Take Kimpton Hotels and Resorts, for example; their “Hosted Evening Wine Hour” is just one of their “feel-good amenities” that differentiates their trendy hotels from comparables. At the end of every day, each hotel’s General Manager offers guests a delicious glass of wine – a tradition started by Bill Kimpton back in 1981 when he made a point of greeting everyone with a glass of wine at the end of every day. The guests love it – check TripAdvisor!

“Consumers of the 21st Century are less motivated by the products and services than in the social links and identities that come with buying them,” states Knutson.

Starting in February this year, Kimpton introduced their “Wines That Care” selection featuring a different socially- responsible winery each month. Kimpton’s wine hour isn’t just any old wine hour; it’s one that supports a good cause – environmental preservation and sustainability. Cheers to that!

Like Knutson says, it’s not the lists of features and benefits your hotel offers, it’s the feel-good services and amenities that differentiate one hotel from another and make the emotional connection needed not only to win guests over, but to keep them coming back for more.

What are you differentiating on? Maybe it isn’t a socially-responsible wine hour… it can be anything, but it must be something. The possibilities are endless. Identifying your points of differentiation is the first step to better merchandising your hotel online.

Source: Knutson, Bonnie, Professor, The School of Hospitality Business/MSU, Make Your Guest a Member of Your Hotel’s Tribe.

Travelers have had enough of the generic, poorly organized, and confusing written and visual content on travel sites.

“Just half of US online leisure hotel guests are satisfied with the written descriptions and visual content they find online for hotel accommodations and public areas. This affects the bottom line: 38% of US online hotel guests say they avoid staying at certain hotels because the Web site lacks the photos, video, or written content that would make them feel comfortable.”

Who are these travelers?

They are considered content-sensitive travelers.

Here’s what Forrester knows about them:

• Represent 45.7 Million US hotel guests
• Young
• Quality-focused
• Take more trips
• Spend more on leisure travel

Give your online content a face-lift

Invest in rich visual content – photography, 360° spins and video. You need to have current photography and video on travel websites as they are gateways to your own sales channels. “According to Sapient, adding video to a travel client’s site more than doubled the number of people who went on to book the product.”

Marry your visuals with written content to provide context. “Context helps to shift decision making away from price and enables travelers to make better-informed decisions. Context means offering useful information and details and support making relevant comparisons between products and services.”

Ensure your content is reaching travel shoppers wherever they are and giving them the rich visual experience they demand. These days, travel shoppers use multiple websites while planning their trips including online travel agencies, social media and review sites, destination sites and more. In fact, a study by Google found that when planning a vacation, the average person spends 29 days doing 12 searches and visits 22 different travel sites.

Our VBrochure Online Merchandising System is the industry standard for delivering rich visual experiences to travel shoppers wherever they shop for travel online. Give your online content a face-lift today and stop losing bookings due to an undifferentiated, unappealing online presence. Visual merchandising with VBrochure is a proven way to increase conversions as much as 115% and drive more bookings. Contact us to learn more.

Source: Henry H. Harteveldt and Elizabeth Stark, Poor Content Could Cost Travel eBusiness Money, September 8, 2009.

Here’s a quick merchandising check-up based on industry best practices that will help you identify how well you are merchandising your hotel online. Answer the following questions in relation to your own website as well as your listings on third-party sites.

1. How current are your photos?

Having current visual content available online is important because travel shoppers rely on it to evaluate your hotel and determine whether or not it meets their needs. Outdated visuals not only prevent a good percentage of premium guests from booking your hotel, but those that do book may experience a disconnect between their expected and actual experiences, leading to low satisfaction and loyalty as well as poor online reviews that could harm your hotel’s reputation. Even if you haven’t renovated recently, you must have current photography.

2. Do you have rich media (video and virtual tours)?

Photos are absolutely essential and particularly useful at providing travel shoppers with a quick way to evaluate your hotel. But, to truly engage travel shoppers and inspire them to book, you need rich media. “According to Sapient, adding video to a travel client’s site more than doubled the number of people who went on to book the product.” A combination of photos and rich media that tell your hotel’s story and highlight its unique features and benefits is ideal.

3. Is your content available on all selling channels (not just your own)?

These days, travel shoppers use multiple websites while planning their trips including online travel agencies, social media and review sites, destination sites and more. In fact, a study by Google found that when planning a vacation, the average person spends 29 days doing 12 searches and visits 22 different travel sites. Third-party sites act as gateways to your own sales channels so your content needs to be there, period. No matter where shoppers view your hotel online, they should get the same visually compelling experience.

If you answered no to any of these questions, it’s time to give your online content a face-lift!

Source: Henry H. Harteveldt and Elizabeth Stark, Poor Content Could Cost Travel eBusiness Money, September 8, 2009.

A successful online strategy should be focused on both driving traffic to websites, but also converting it when they arrive. SEO, PPC and many Social Media activities are primarily focused on driving traffic and creating awareness online, while visual merchandising is what helps convert traffic and close the sale.

According to Forrester Research, 38% of US online hotel guests — 47.5 million people — avoid staying at hotels that they can afford because they don’t see photos, video, or written content that would make them feel comfortable.

These guests are considered ‘content-sensitive’ travelers. They are “young, quality-focused travelers who take more trips and spend more on leisure travel annually than other travelers.” You could be losing out on bookings from this segment of premium guests because your online merchandising efforts aren’t up to snuff.

What do these content-sensitive travelers want?

Well, the days of getting bookings by displaying a few still photos and standardized text are gone. Travel shoppers need to feel like they are getting to experience your hotel when researching online.

High-quality, large high-definition images, zoom, virtual tours with 360 degree spin and videos emulate the experience of actually being in the hotel. “According to Sapient, adding video to a travel client’s site more than doubled the number of people who went on to book the product.”

By delivering the optimal visual experience, hotels can differentiate themselves and increase conversions.

Merchandising needs to extend beyond your own website.

These days, travel shoppers use multiple websites while planning their trips including online travel agencies, social media and review sites, destination sites and more. In fact, a study by Google found that when planning a vacation, the average person spends 29 days doing 12 searches and visits 22 different travel sites. Third-party sites act as gateways to your own sales channels so your content needs to be there, period.

No matter where shoppers view your hotel online, they should get the same visually rich experience that inspires them to book.

Source: Henry H. Harteveldt and Elizabeth Stark, Poor Content Could Cost Travel eBusiness Money, September 8, 2009.

An interesting point is made in the TravelCom 2009 Keynote – “There’s No Room for Maybe”: “cross-selling isn’t merchandising” and for too long, the travel industry has been thinking of distribution as putting inventory into channels and NOT about merchandising. Stating that the travel industry could benefit from observing what is going on in other industries, citing examples of successful online retailers, particularly J.Crew.

When you explore the J.Crew website, you will see how they effectively merchandise even the simplest items. Take a men’s white dress shirt, for example. Click here to see how they provide multiple images showing specific details with the option to zoom in alongside a detailed written description that speaks to the differentiating details that cannot be conveyed visually.

J.Crew takes what seems like an average white dress shirt and merchandises it with visual and written content that helps the shopper understand what makes it better than the comparables and why it’s worth the price.

According to Forrester, 38% of US online hotel guests — 47.5 million people — avoid staying at hotels that they can afford because they don’t see photos, video, or written content that would make them feel comfortable. This is a testament to the need for the travel industry to shift its mindset from distribution to visual merchandising.

Your hotels may seem like the ‘average men’s white dress shirt,’ but to discerning, hesitant online travel shoppers they need to be much more than that. Travel shoppers need to understand what makes your hotel rooms worth the price through multiple images with zooms on specific differentiators, virtual tours and videos and written descriptions that provide context.

Hotels Need to Take Merchandising One Step Further

Visual merchandising on brand.com is an important activity, but because of the way travel shoppers behave, it’s not enough. Hotels need to be merchandised equally across multiple channels because most travel shoppers don’t go directly to brand.com to book a room – they research and compare their options on multiple sites first. According to a study by Google, the average holiday booked online takes 29 days and 12 searches on 22 different travel sites.

One brand that is doing a good job of merchandising their hotels on multiple channels is IHG’s InterContinental Hotels and Resorts. Check out one of their properties, the InterContinental Suites Cleveland on InterContinental.com, Travelocity, Yahoo! Travel and Priceline to see how their merchandising across multiple electronic channels aligns with the successful merchandising practices used by J.Crew.

Jean Francois reveals that:

- OTAs should be seen as “Googles” for hotels because travel shoppers use them like search engines
- Lowering prices to get to the top of the first page is not good for RevPAR
- Hotels listed at the top of the second page can get sales at higher prices

Watch this episode - Page Position: How to Optimize Conversions Online Using OTAs

Subscribe to VTV Channel to be notified when new interviews with Jean Francois and other industry experts go live.

Sincerely,
The VFM Leonardo Team

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Interview with Chris Anderson from Cornell University on VTV Channel

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Expedia’s Jennifer Davies on user-generated content and booking conversion

Hotel video review sites are emerging as a new tool in the online travel planning and buying process. Davies said video is a growing area, with strengths and weaknesses. “…there’s always that old saying that a picture speaks louder than words. The ability to share what a hotel actually looks like, what another traveller actually experienced, is incredibly powerful,” said Davies… Read more »

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We’re already in the third month of 2010, and so far, this is a list of things that WILL NOT happen in the hotel industry this year is accurate: consumers haven’t decided that value ISN’T the most important thing in choosing a hotel, social media sites haven’t died, and Expedia has not gone out of business… Read more »

By Jennifer Rodrigues, TravelInk’d

Travel shoppers use online travel agencies (OTAs) more for research and comparison than booking. Hotel listings on OTAs influence a much larger share of transactions. In fact, hotels that are listed on OTAs see increased reservations on their own sales channels (call centers, booking engines, etc.), according to the results of Anderson’s recent study The Billboard Effect.

Anderson offers tips on how to use these marketing vehicles to increase conversions. Learn the answer to the question: “What can I do to increase conversions?”

Watch this episode: The Role of OTAs in the Travel Planning Process

“As the ultimate online source for wedding planning, we are pleased to have multimedia content available on OneWed making it easier for couples to research wedding venues,” said Jennifer Napier, VP of Marketing, OneWed.

“With a niche website like OneWed.com as part of the VNetwork, we are giving hotels that invest in online merchandising the opportunity to attract more wedding and honeymoon bookings,” said Paolo Boni, President and CEO, VFM Leonardo.

Get the full story »