HSMAI Curacao

Source: HSMAI.org- By Brenda Fields

For hotel staff working on Christmas morning, either behind the front desk or in the housekeeping department, a rooms sales position may look like a pretty cushy job! Sales people usually don’t have to work holidays or weekends and seem to have the freedom to come and go as they please. But, in reality, a sales position bears it own challenge and responsibilities to the property.

Sales has the primary responsibility to generate room revenues for the property i.e. building occupancy in low demand periods and increasing average rates in peak times. But, in order to do this successfully, it is important that a sales person is at the top of his/her game.
An effective sales person should be able to produce results despite market conditions and product drawbacks and to develop existing business by taking one meeting and turning it into four.

It is also important to understand that “sales” is a skill, not a personality trait. Expert sales skills can produce business despite product deficiencies, rate structure, or market conditions. Since most owners and operators do not have perfect properties and supply/demand dynamics can change, it is even more critical to ensure that each sales person is highly skilled to generate business and to deal with client objections and problems effectively.
A dedication to expert sales skills, thru a formal training program, is the best insurance for market share and profitability.
Although formal sales training is necessary, it is not the entire solution to ensure that each sales person is effective. This article will address some important “habits” that are demonstrated by the most effective sales people, to assist owners and managers in developing a highly effective sales department. (more…)

Source: Marketingprofs.com

In the beginning, your company created a Web site. And it was good. But then it grew. And grew. And grew. Until it encompassed the heavens and the earth in content. Something for everyone. Everything for someone. And it ceased to be a coherent presentation to anyone. It became Encyclopedia Corporatica—a massive tome of information that includes press releases from five years ago. An impressive body of work, to be sure. But as a sales tool, as a marketing vehicle, it sags under its own weight. In the lightening-paced world of online marketing, your Web site has actually become less nimble. Before you can run with a daring new idea, you now have to make sure it fits with your existing information architecture, look-and-feel, and IT feature set. (more…)

Source: E-marketer.com

What’s the latest thing in online marketing for hotels?
Site design. Hotels have awakened to the challenge from online travel agencies, and they are shifting money into online marketing to meet it, according to a new study by Hospitality eBusiness Strategies (HeBS).
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The worldwide study of hospitality executives found that 68% of hoteliers plan to shift their budgets from offline to online marketing in 2007. Emerging media will not be part of the mix for most hotels, based on respondent opinions about what produces the best return on investment (ROI).
Web site optimization was listed most often (72%) by hotel execs, followed by search optimization and organic search (68%) and Web site redesign/design (62%). Only 17% of respondents named consumer-generated media, blogs and their ilk as bringing high ROI.
This is particularly relevant for online video, because individual hotel videos are a competitive advantage that many online travel agencies do not have. (more…)

Source: Hotelmarketing.com

Hilton Hotels relaunched two of the brand’s online channels – HiltonJourneys.com and HiltonToHome.com. I
in addition, the brand recently completed the translation of its Hilton.com booking portal into Spanish, and is in the process of completing a French version of the site. Hilton Hotels announced today the re-launch of two of the brand’s online channels – HiltonJourneys.com and HiltonToHome.com.

In addition to the two refreshed sites, the brand recently completed the translation of its Hilton.com booking portal into Spanish, and is in the process of completing a French version of the site. “The explosive and global growth of the Hilton brand has led us to rethink the way we use the internet to connect with our guests,” said Jeff Diskin, senior vice president, brand marketing and management – Hilton Hotels. “With these refreshed sites we have three unique touch points that allow our guests to connect with Hilton in ways that are most relevant to them.” (more…)

Source: HSMAI.org

NEEDHAM, Mass., TripAdvisor(R), the largest travel community in the world, now allows travelers to quickly and easily post their vacation videos. TripAdvisor also allows travel marketers to showcase their wares by uploading their videos. Thousands of TripAdvisor travelers already uploaded their videos and hundreds of thousands more viewed them, revealing a strong demand for ever more descriptive ways to tell a story or research a trip.

“If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video must be worth a million. Video can convey so much emotion so quickly,” said Christine Petersen, senior vice president of marketing for TripAdvisor. “We’re thrilled to offer the elegance of the written word, the power of candid photos and now the punch of video, so that whatever the experience, our travelers and the hospitality industry alike can share their information most effectively.”

(more…)