Tripadvisor the world’s largest online travel agent recently conducted a survey that revealed some interesting information and reinforced the direction that social media is taking for hotels. This was their first annual survey and they asked questions to more than 1000 U.S accommodation, hoteliers, B&B owners and innkeepers. This is quite relevant for the hotel industry since tripadvisor is a major player in the hospitality business and has its pulse on the future of the travel business. I will be going over some of the more interesting findings from the survey.

Room rates are always a talked about topic for hotel managers. Should we raise them? Lower them? Keep them the same? Well the survey found that 51% of owners will be keeping the rates the same while only 4% will be lowering them and 45% are expecting to raise rates. Owners also talked about their investments back into the hotel. 61% are planning to renovate the interior in 2011 while 42% said they are planning to renovate the exterior of their property.

Social media was a popular area among the participants. The results revealed not only an increase in social media but also in digital marketing and sales. The following results are from the survey and are some of the more noteworthy ones regarding social media and digital marketing.

Social Media:

• 57% expect their social media marketing budgets to increase versus last year.
• 37% expect their social media budgets to stay the same and 6% expect them to decrease.
• An overwhelming 99% of respondents plan to respond to online guest reviews.
• 72% will respond to both positive negative reviews.
• 14% will respond to negative reviews and 13% will respond to just positive reviews.
• 26% increase among owners to post 11-20 photos per property on trip advisor in 2011.

Mobile:

• 27% for the first time will launch a program to reach customers through mobile devices.
• 27% have already offered mobile campaigns and will do the same in 2011.
• 46% have no plans to take on a mobile campaign.

Sales

• 61% plan to use discounts on rooms to attract guest
• 36% plan to use special amenities.
• 29% plan to use rewards points
• 23% plan to offer deals on nearby attractions.

So there you have it, Tripadvisors first annual survey from people within the travel industry. You can view full list of results here. I will admit there are not too many surprises here. Social media as we have known for some time is growing and continuing to become more dominant throughout the hotel industry. Are any of these results going to influence your marketing plans for 2011?