Revinate. From the Sales Desk to the Front Desk. Best Practices for Utilizing Social Media in Hotels. Marketing. Knowledge Base

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1 From the Sales Desk to the Front Desk Best Practices for Utilizing Social Media in Hotels - Michelle Wohl, Vice President of Marketing Social media is changing the face of hotel marketing. No matter how beautiful the images are on your web site, one photo of a stained blanket posted to TripAdvisor can change anyone s mind about booking a room at your hotel. Like it or not, your guests now play the largest role in determining your brand persona. Before I begin, let me say that many of the examples I share in this article take time, energy, dedication and a laser focus on customer service. But with vacancy rates close to 50% nationwide and competition intense, it s worth the effort to make sure hotels do everything in their power to surprise and delight guests with thoughtful service and attention. Luckily, social media has created new opportunities for intimate interaction with customers and prospects. Following are some examples and best practices of how multiple departments within a hotel can use social media to drive loyalty and sales. Marketing By now I hope that every marketing department is closely watching the hotel reviews on the various travel sites such as Orbitz, Travelocity, Yahoo!Travel, etc. While many hotels are still gathering this information manually, partnering with a social media platform can help you get a leg up. Revinate, for example, collects all reviews and mentions of your hotel and delivers the information in a visually appealing format. Rankings and dashboards make it easy to distill and understand how people view your property. While properties might differ in how reviews are handled, most agree that it is important to acknowledge the review, when permitted by the site, whether it s positive or negative. With Revinate you can respond to a review directly so that you don t have to search for the correct Page 1 Revinate.com info@revinate.com +1 (415)

2 entry on the OTA (and Revinate will also track your responses). Thank the reviewer for taking the time to comment and assure him/her that the review will be shared with the appropriate team. The step that most marketers miss is they don t follow through. Make sure you send the review to the right department for follow up or nothing will be learned from the experience. Revinate allows you to forward any review directly from within the Revinate system so immediate action can be taken. Often, when situations are corrected and an apology is extended, reviewers will follow up with an addendum. Reviews can also be handy for determining where to spend ad dollars. If you re purchasing display ads on OTA s or review sites, look at your average rating and review frequency. You re much better off buying media on sites where you have frequent positive reviews. Your conversion rate will be much higher than on a site with just a couple of stale reviews. Using Revinate, these metrics can be monitored using the Frequency Trend Dashboard. Finally, online reviews basically allow you to view any hotel s Guest Satisfaction Survey. Rather than focusing solely on your own reviews, use competitive data to your benefit. Comb the reviews to see what people are saying about your competitor s hotel. Revinate allows you to view and monitor your competitors reviews in the same way you monitor your own reviews. Read reviews in their entirety. View reviews by positive or negative sentiment, or use keyword analysis to see what people comment on most frequently. Is everyone complaining about the small bathrooms? Launch a campaign promoting your palatial bathrooms. Do people rave about their Happy Hours? Invite your Twitter followers and Facebook friends to receive a free drink at your hotel between 5 and 7pm. Page 2 Revinate.com info@revinate.com +1 (415)

3 Social Media Marketing Once your organization is comfortable with the idea that the public plays a large role in your brand reputation, the next lesson you must learn is to embrace user- generated content. Elf Yourself, Star Trek Yourself and other insanely popular social applications have taught us that people are vane and love to see their names and faces associated with brands they care about. Let your brand advocates tell your story in a personal way. Create an RSS feed of your positive reviews and share them on your Web site. On your Facebook page, ask friends to tell you about their most memorable stay or to submit pictures of themselves at your property. Better yet, ask fans to post a review on a site that might not be getting a lot of reviews. On your corporate site, prominently display information on how to find your property on social networks and how to follow you on Twitter. Front Desk Front desk staff is often the recipient of hotel praise, especially upon check out. As a result, front desk staff can be instrumental in driving reviews. After receiving a compliment, a front desk staffer should smile and say, Thank you so much for the feedback. We work hard to make our hotel a great place to stay. I would love it if you would post a review when you have time to let others know about your experience. Or, take the next step and set up a computer in the lobby just for reviews and encourage people to use it. People want to help but often they need to be asked before they take action. The front desk can also be instrumental in driving buzz. Location- based- services are currently all the rage. Using GPS technology, applications such as Yelp, Gowalla and Foursquare allow users to check in from their phones to a business when they arrive. Stay on top of who is checking in at your property (or even nearby bars and restaurants, or even your airport). Surprise and delight your customers with a free room upgrade or drink to thank them for publicizing their hotel preference. I guarantee you they will be blown away, will Tweet about it and will stay with you again. Sales Many hotels are already using Twitter and Facebook to fill rooms. If you re not offering specials through social media channels, you re missing the opportunity to both sell unused rooms and reward loyal customers. Without having to buy media or air time, you can promote any offer in real time with Twitter or Facebook. Offer last minute specials or freebies to encourage people to stay with you. In addition to reaching your loyal following, many people are now searching Twitter to discover hotel sales so you can also reach people who have never stayed with you before. Page 3 Revinate.com info@revinate.com +1 (415)

4 Here s an example of a Joie de Vivre special run on Twitter. And, an ambitious and savvy salesperson can search Twitter to attract new guests. Search Twitter to find people stuck overnight at airports, or anyone looking for a hotel recommendation in your city. Providing a real- time solution can often make someone s day and a sale. Imagine responding to this traveler with a special deal for your airport hotel in Philadelphia. Sales Directors can also use social media to improve RFPs by sharing satisfaction scores or, when using reputation management solutions such as Revinate, sharing scores relative to competitors. Event managers will trust public opinion to get the real scoop on your hotel. So if you re beating the competition, let them know in the RFP by sharing scores and reviews. With Revinate you can export or PDF any dashboard or scorecard, allowing you to easily share the information with others. Human Resources HR should make it a regular practice to read reviews to get a sense of staff performance. Since Revinate aggregates all reviews for your hotel, it s quick and easy to read all your feedback in one place. Many reviewers will single out people who made their stay memorable. Here is an example from a Yelp review. Page 4 Revinate.com info@revinate.com +1 (415)

5 Reward employees that are called out in reviews for making someone s stay great and work with employees who were unfavorably mentioned. People will often put in writing what they would never say to your face so make sure you treat this feedback seriously. Housekeeping Housekeeping is a thankless task. When your room is clean and your bed is comfortable you don t think twice about it. But when the bed is lumpy or there s a hair on the water glass you will swear off the hotel for good. Real time monitoring of Twitter and blogs will allow you to see where your housekeeping challenges lie. With a nod to companies such as Comcast who uses Twitter for Customer Service, if you catch the Tweet in real time you can rectify a situation before it escalates and create a loyal customer. Imagine tweeting about a badly made bed and then getting a call a minute later asking whether housekeeping can come back up to rectify the problem with an ice cream sundae. While social media gave the power of your reputation to the people, it also gave brands the opportunity to easily reach customers and rectify situations that might otherwise fester and hurt your sales. Everyone in your organization can and should play a role in this new era. Let the adventure continue. About Revinate Revinate is the online reputation and social media management solution of choice for the world's leading hotels, brands, asset management and hospitality ownership companies. We help hospitality companies succeed in a rapidly changing industry, and we pride ourselves on world- class service. We look forward to discussing how Revinate can help you. Page 5 Revinate.com info@revinate.com +1 (415)