Booking.com reports on US traveler demands

Report on more than 800,000 US traveler reviews confirms hotel marketers’ beliefs about what guests value. Booking.com recently released a report on the demands of US travelers, mined from over 800,000 reviews, and claim that their feedback, “will certainly surprise industry insiders.” Frankly, this claim is designed to capture media attention and drive eyeballs to […]

Why hotels are competing to attract customers who may never check in

Adding ‘life in the lobby’ to ‘putting heads on beds.’ Catching on to the trend set by boutique hotels, mainstream media has picked up on the fact that hotels aren’t just for travelers anymore. This Boston Globe “Style” article shows some examples of how hotels are hosting events to attract local customers.

Useful links F&B: May 5 – 11, 2013

8 Lessons For Innovation And Success – via Fast Company. A quick digest of lessons from restaurateur and chef Mario Batali, founder of Babbo, Mozza Restaurant Group and Eataly. Web page contains a video of the interview. Tim Hortons first LEED® certified Restaurant – via Yahoo! Finance. Restaurants have an environmental impact on their communities […]

Commissioning photography: comparing apples..

Photographs often are commodities… As a former management consultant, I participated in countless competitive bids over the course of 25 years. The norm in our business was to submit a proposal in response to a detailed RFP (request for proposals) that set out the client’s requirements, timing and expected deliverables. These projects spanned many months […]

Useful Links Marketing: 28th – 30th April 2013

Ernst & Young on social media and mobile technology trends in hospitality – particularly interesting are the sections on the power of TripAdvisor and increasing usage of mobile devices to enhance the guest experience. (article contains link to the full report) Leading Hotels revamps website – responding to these same trends, LHW has revamped its […]

Oreo: master of social marketing

Oreo and Kit-Kat play tic-tac-toe on twitter: Earlier this year, Oreo showed a flair for the immediacy of social media marketing with their ‘on-the-fly’ ad posted to twitter within minutes of the Super Bowl blackout. They followed up with this brilliant response in March, to Kit-Kat’s twitter challenge to a game of tic-tac-toe.