E-Marketing Associates

Room 77: Helping Guests Find the Perfect Hotel Room, One View at a Time

Jacquelynn Mendez by
on February 25th, 2011

When traveling, there is nothing like the initial joy of checking into your hotel room on the first day of that much needed vacation. There is so much excitement in the usual ritual of walking into the bathroom to check its size, lying on the bed to check its bounce and clicking the remote to see how many channels you have, that is until you anxiously open the curtains only to find that you have a spectacular view…of the hotel parking lot. Talk about disappointment. Luckily, Room 77 is here to prevent that surprise of a dreadful view from happening again!

Room 77 is a relatively new search engine that focuses exclusively on hotels. It is made to give travelers personalized recommendations and a detailed view (literally) into where they will be staying. Unlike most hotel review websites that give a few room details and a limited number of static pictures, Room 77 utilizes Google Earth enabled technology to show guests the view from the specific hotel room they are thinking about booking and provides details that typically can’t be found anywhere else. From the looks of it, Room 77 is on its way to becoming a one-stop-shop for travelers that are searching for the perfect room.

What the Visitor Gets?
If you log on today, you’ll see that Room 77 gives a lot of information guests typically want to know ahead of time, including room size, proximity from the elevator and hotel layout. Using the best of today’s technology, the creators even found a way to give a personalized ranking of each room using a sophisticated proprietary algorithm that is based off each visitor’s individual preferences, which can easily be inputted when entering the website. The site currently has over 400,000 images of individual hotel room views from 2,500 hotels in locations ranging from New York to Waikiki, and that number is expected to continue to grow. Additionally, the site gives tips from the people that know best, the concierges and staff members. Now reviewers are wondering if Room 77 will compete with major review sites like TripAdvisor.

Be on the Lookout
Being a start-up, there is still a lot more potential for growth within this website, and in an effort to gain more traction, executives at Room 77 are talking to companies like Starwood Hotels about plans on working together. With nothing available that compares to it, this savvy site is headed in the right direction to becoming the travel review site of the future, where guests can find out every detail of their room before booking.

What kind of information is most important to all of you when you’re booking a room?

Categories: Blog — Tags: , , , ;

Need to Book a Hotel Room at the Last Minute? There’s an App for That!

Jacquelynn Mendez by
on February 22nd, 2011

Hotel apps have been popping up everywhere! And although there are several mobile programs that are capable of helping travelers find a last minute room, not all of them have been given the same recognition as HotelsByMe. Its popularity likely stems from the fact that it’s a one-stop-shop for those looking to book a reservation, offering everything from reviews, real time availability and the fastest route. It’s like having the best of today’s technological advances rolled up into a handy mobile app.

The Features
As part of the Expedia affiliate network, HotelsByMe is able to offer users a comprehensive list of over 100,000 hotels from a variety of countries worldwide. With this application, travelers won’t be limited by brand, location or money since it takes over 16 different currencies. Not impressed yet? Well the feature that really sets this application apart from the competition is its ability to instantly search rates and availability in real time for hotels that are closest to you using geolocation technology, then plotting your results on Google Maps for quick, easy to follow directions. This handy application gives users exactly what they’re looking for…variety, value and convenience.

Going off features & benefits alone, HotelsByMe sounds like the ideal app for on-the-go travelers who make a lot of last minute trips and like to shop around before booking a room. It has nearly everything needed to make a quick decision, including pictures, reviews and detailed descriptions.

The Bigger Picture
Everyday I hear about new hotel apps offering everything from mobile interpreters to mobile keys and as technology continues to advance, hoteliers are finding new, extraordinary ways to wow their customers. Although the featured application in this post is an affiliate of a popular OTA (Online Travel Agency), which means that it caters to those who are in the research phase of the hotel reservation cycle, its existence should be an eye opener to hotels that are trying to find a way to appeal to today’s tech savvy travelers. In order to help keep business coming in directly to the hotel versus through OTAs, you have to be where the people are, online and available on-the-go.

Now if only I could find a hotel app that is capable of teleporting me straight to my hotel room from any location…that would be perfect!

Categories: Blog — Tags: , , , , ;

Google is Taking a Big Step Forward with Updates to its Social Search

Jacquelynn Mendez by
on February 18th, 2011

In an effort to continuously bring users more relevant, customized search results, Google just launched a number of major changes to Social Search. Through the integration of popular social networks Quora, Flickr and Twitter, Google search results will now feature an intermix of information shared or created by each individual user’s online community of friends.

What to Expect
There are 3 major changes that you can expect to see…

1. Social search results won’t be stuck on the bottom of the page – When Google originally introduced Social Search, results appeared at the bottom of the page. But with these new updates, relevant results will now be blended together with all the other links related to your search query. Additionally, these results will have annotations below them to show you who has shared that link, post or page. An example of this can be seen below:

2. There will be a noticeable increase in the amount of social search links found in search results – Google will include more social search links of pages that were both written and/or shared by the people in your online network. In addition, content passed on though Quora, Flickr and Twitter may appear with a visible tag letting you know which of your friends or followers shared that link and on which network. An example of this is below:

3. Users have more control over the content they want to share over Google – We all love choices, right? Knowing this, Google has re-designed its social settings option page so that users can decide whether to connect their social accounts either publicly or privately to Google. Also, if the search giant finds a public account that looks like yours (Determined through algorithms), they may send an invite to connect that page to its network….making the connection process easy for the user.

Why This Should Matter to You
These new additions should not be taken lightly because they are clear indications as to where Internet marketing is headed. With social media slowly integrating itself into every aspect of our connected lives, it’s extremely important for brands to see that their “social lives” will indeed affect other online efforts. The Internet is becoming a universe of interconnectivity where each platform talks to each other to spread information from one person to another.

What are all of your thoughts on Google’s new Social Search Updates?

Image Source: Google Blog

Categories: Blog — Tags: , , , , , , , ;

Opportunity through Foursquare: Who’s Checking-In to your Business?

Jacquelynn Mendez by
on February 17th, 2011

In January, Foursquare released an infographic that quickly circulated around social circles throughout the Internet. This informative piece of art cleverly displayed the company’s tremendous growth with specific details on check-in rates, consumer usage and unique Foursquare hot spots.

Within the infographic is a list of the three hotels with the most Foursquare check-ins (At least as of December 2010), which includes:

I immediately assumed that these hotels were probably deeply involved in social media, and therefore found a clever way to draw in a crowd through extra incentives for checking-in. Well…I was wrong! The only hotel on the list that is offering incentives and proactively marketing to their Foursquare followers is the Wynn Hotel & Casino.

Missed Opportunity
With such large Foursquare followings, I’m amazed to see that the Ace Hotel and the St. Regis San Francisco are not taking advantage of the huge marketing opportunity at hand. With the right strategy, incentive and execution, these hotels could easily lead these loyal followers into spots, within the hotel, where they are likely to spend money, including the bar, gift shop or check-in desk.

Likewise, these hotels could also use this platform to build upon their social presence through engagement both online and offline, and in the places that these fans are hanging out the most. Even if these properties are already actively engaging customers on Facebook or Twitter, it may not be the same crowd found on Foursquare. This is why it is important for businesses to research their opportunities, diversify their presence and find the platforms that offer the most opportunity.

What’s your Number?
As different social platforms gain popularity, every business should be aware of how many of its potential and current customers are interacting on these networks. Not every platform is perfect for every business, but not being involved at all could have negative effects on your overall bottom line. So now here’s a question for all the business owners out there, what’s your Foursquare number? If you don’t know, it’s time to find out!

Categories: Blog — Tags: , , , , , , ;

ROI Is Starting To Take Center Stage For Social Media

David Sotelo by
on February 14th, 2011

If there is one thing that I have heard over and over since social media was accepted as a viable medium for marketing is how do you measure the ROI? That was the million dollar question that was driving both marketers and businesses crazy and for good reason. Well it’s not exactly a question that gives a definite answer. ROI is not a constant, it is an ongoing process of learning, understanding, improving and fine tuning. There are several current surveys and reports that clearly state the importance of return on investment. For example the Altimeter group asked 140 corporate strategists about their 2011 planning. Almost 50% stated that creating ROI measurements was their internal social strategy they would focus on the most. They also found that over 65% of the strategist feel that engagement data such re-tweets, comments, fans, likes, followers, etc are most important when evaluating the success of a program. According to a report from Bazaarvoice ,74% of 175 chief marketing officers believe that they will be able to determine ROI from their social media efforts.  This is quite significant because just back in 2009, 84% of companies did not even measure ROI. So it’s very clear that measuring social media and spending money on it will be highly dependent on metrics.

The fashion industry is one prime example of an industry that is beginning to use social media effectively based of their ROI. Donna Karan’s bridge collection partnered with BigLive to bring the spring collection to their viewers through a new streaming chat room technology. They had over 1,200 viewers actively participate in the fashioncast. Marc Jacobs will be streaming both of their collections in high definition to highlight the Jacobs designs. Luxury brand are trying to reach out to their customers in new ways with social media and it can be rewarding. James Gardner, CEO of CreateTheGroup stated that “This year alone, our luxury retail clients saw an average 200% increase in mobile visits versus last year on our sites; they saw another spike after Christmas to about 230% year-over-year. Currently, mobile accounts [form] 10% of their online traffic and 5% of their sales; that’s a seven to twelve time increase over last year.”

So as you can see return on investment is a high priority this year and will continue to be. We all want to see where our dollars are being spent and what results those dollars are bringing us. It’s comforting to know that social media is such a high priority for marketers and businesses alike. We are only beginning to see the power of what social media can do and in my opinion ROI will become highly measurable and reliable for social media.

Categories: Blog — Tags: , , , , ;

Barcodes and Their Increasing Relevance on Hotel Marketing & Promotions

David Sotelo by
on February 8th, 2011

Barcodes have been taking on a more important role since the introduction of smart phones. I wrote a summary awhile back about mobile coupons and how more companies are using them in their business strategy. Barcodes have been around for a long time. We all know the 1d barcodes which store information horizontally and are used in just about every retail product you see. The newer generation of barcodes is two dimensional or 2D and can store information both horizontally and vertically.

Barcodes can be used in a number of different ways and there’s virtually no limit to how and what information can be shared. They have been typically used to share a video or landing page, you can also use them as point of sales receipts, event ticket stubs, brochures, marketing materials and many other uses. As far as the hotel industry is concerned 2d barcodes can be scanned at the concierge desk which then links to interactive map. This map can provide information such as historic sites, theaters, local restaurants and attractions. When a hotel guest goes to the front desk or walks by a restaurant they can scan the barcode and can give them the ability to access the menu or a video of the chef as well as ask questions and write reviews about their stay on facebook and twitter.

What most businesses want are results. What’s that saying actions speak louder than words? Well, Checkpoints is a mobile shopping startup that lifted their user base to over 500,000. They did this by encouraging users to scan products in exchange for points and rewards. They have had nearly 50% of all barcode scans take place in grocery store aisles. They have an application for both the iphone and android systems which according to CEO Mark DiPaola is “changing in-aisle user behavior”. They had a Frito-Lay promotion that that kicked off Checkpoints promotion and drove 10,000 users to pick up and scan Frito Lay products in less than four days. This is just one example of barcodes in action and part of a comprehensive mobile marketing plan, there are many other companies using them with quantitative success such as United Airlines, Google places, and the Cure Starts Now Foundation.

As you can see there are many uses for quick response codes and their role will be become more prevalent as smart phones continue to evolve. The marketing opportunities and growth potential are limitless.


Image Source

Categories: Blog — Tags: , , , , , ;

Using Mobile to Provide Great Hotel Customer Service

David Sotelo by
on February 2nd, 2011

Smartphones as we have mentioned before are being consumed at a blistering rate. The hospitality industry is a prime example of how to take advantage of mobile technology and apply it to your core business.  The hotel industry was one of the first to embrace the use of social networking, mobile applications and advertisements. Recently I had talked about IMGuest and Tweservation, both of which are start ups and have the potential to provide valuable customer service for both hotel travelers and guests. Last year Omni hotels executed a great customer service strategy using both Facebook and Twitter. They used twitter as a customer service tool that positively influences their marketing and sales. Now I want to introduce you to a mobile customer service platform called Air2Web’s Mobile Assist that many hospitality companies are using and I will show you how they are using it.

Air2Web’s Mobile Assist is mobile technology that allows businesses to use sms text messages to provide customer service for their customers. The use of simple messaging system (sms) is an integral part of their success because 96% of all mobile phones use sms. This means that you will not be limited to just smartphones and can reach a vast number of people. Many Fortune 500 companies have already been implementing the use of this platform as an innovating and convenient way to meet customer needs and wants as well as solidify a positive brand in the minds of their customers. So how does it work exactly? Well the Hard Rock Café is as great example of using mobile assist effectively. With this relatively new platform, they establish contact with the customer as the visitor enters the location. The customer of course has to opt in and give permission and by doing so Hard Rock has a profile of the customer that they then use to notify customers about offers and specials that they would be interested in. AnMarc Services is a company that handles travel planning for military personnel and their families. They use Mobile Assist by offering chat service that allows travelers to text a travel agent if their flight changes. The travel agent will then book another flight for the customer right then and there.

The use of mobile for customer service is effective as long as it’s understood and not abused or taken advantage of otherwise it will negatively impact your brand and reputation. It might not be immediate but over time it will turn people away. You need to make sure you respect people’s privacy and time. Using mobile as a marketing medium is fairly new but it is no different than many other marketing medium. You need to give people a reason for them to be willing to give you their mobile number and not only receive offers but to engage with them and provide value to them as a customer.

Categories: Blog — Tags: , , , , , , , ;