Lodging Interactive, CoMMingle Adds Google+ Service to Enhance Hotels' Social Media Strategies

The social media universe no longer rests solely with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. Today Google+ is quickly becoming an important Internet marketing player. Lodging Interactive, a social media marketing agency exclusively servicing the hospitality industry, and its subsidiary CoMMingle, a social media consultancy, is now offering a turnkey service for creating and professionally managing Google+ Business Pages.

According to Ancestry.com and FamilyLink.com Founder Paul Allen in his Google+ blog, the Google+ network will hit 400 million users by the end of 2012. Facebook currently has more than 800 million users. Google+ is adding 625,000 new users per day or 20 million per month on average.

"Social networking continues to be the least expensive way for hotels to market their brand, engage guests and build loyalty," said D.J. Vallauri, Lodging Interactive and CoMMingle Founder and President. "Taking advantage of all social media channels is critical. Today, only a few hotel companies have expanded their inner circles outside of Facebook to include Google+. Failure to do so can be detrimental in the long term."

Google+ Business Pages are socially enabled and allow members (hotels) to organize people (guests) into social groups referred to as "Circles." Then, hoteliers engage with their own circles of potential guests and build larger circles through social networking and marketing.

"We understand how difficult it can be to keep up with this rapidly accelerating social media scene," Vallauri said. "As such, we are offering to leverage all the opportunities available from Google+ to engage with guests on a hotel's behalf so the likelihood of their content will be picked up on travel related searches."

Vallauri explained that Google considers Google+ 1's ("likes") as social signals within its Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). As the Google+ network continues to grow, the weight applied to +1's will receive more consideration, and the hotels with the most +1's will reinforce their search engine rankings.

Here's how it works:
Lodging Interactive will create a Google+ Business Page on behalf of its customers. Then, CoMMingle takes over. CoMMingle's fully managed social media marketing service ensures that each hotel is properly positioned on Google+ where potential and past guests "commingle" to discuss their destination, including the hotel. As an extension of a hotel's marketing department, CoMMingle takes a pro-active role in managing each hotel's online presence and communications to not only Google+, but to all social media networking communities.

"Lodging Interactive and CoMMingle work side by side to ensure maximum social media exposure for our customers," Vallauri said. "Think of us as a dating service. Lodging Interactive makes each hotel look good and lets travelers know that they are 'available.' Then it's CoMMingle's job to keep the conversation flowing and continually fill the date card. The more content created by Lodging Interactive and CoMMingle, the wider a hotel's social media circles expand. The end result is better exposure on Google and a much stronger overall social media strategy."

Report says hotels lose out with merchant sales on the Web - Travel Weekly

When U.S. hotels distribute rooms through online travel agencies (OTAs) in merchant sales, they give up twice as much in lost revenue as they pay out in commissions on standard agency sales, according to a new research report from Smith Travel Research (STR) and the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AH&LA). 

The report, presented at the Americas Lodging Investment Summit (ALIS) here last week, both reflects and supports hoteliers’ efforts to rein in digital distribution costs with initiatives such as the new RoomKey.com booking site. 

U.S. hotel owners collectively discounted their rooms to OTAs by about $2.7 billion, up from about $2.4 billion in 2009 and more than double the $1.3 billion in commissions paid to travel agents through GDSs, according to the 214-page report. 

via www.travelweekly.com

The Wilshire Grand Hotel Raving about Lodging Interactive's Guest Review System

The Wilshire Grand Hotel is taking control of its online reputation by implementing the new, web-based Guest Review System from Lodging Interactive. This tool enables The Wilshire Grand Hotel to verify, review and display customer comments directly on its Website, and instantly post management responses to comments for better hotel-to-guest communications and heightened customer-relationship management.

Lodging Interactive is an interactive and social media marketing agency exclusively servicing the hospitality industry. The company's Guest Review System posts traveler's comments and scores their hotel experiences based on service attributes. Hotel managers receive real-time alerts advising when pending guest reviews pop up, eliminating delays in addressing concerns and turning potential problems into new opportunities.

"I'm a big believer in soliciting guest reviews, but unfortunately, due to the nature of the Web, there's no real way to validate whether or not a person claiming to be a guest with a bad experience actually stayed at your hotel," said General Manager Ed Reagoso. "The Guest Review System from Lodging Interactive puts a stop to fake reviews posted by competitors or dishonest guests looking for refunds. This not only helps us to maintain our impeccable reputation, but it gives me an opportunity to interact personally with our guests. When travelers take the time to honestly talk about their experience, it should be recognized and rewarded with an immediate reply.

"Thanks to the automated GRS tool, I can personally post responses to comments quickly,"
he said. "Not every hotel review site makes that type of interaction possible. It's not only great customer service, but it gives me the chance to really sell our hotel. Almost daily our reservations agents hear from guests who say they read the reviews on our site and truly appreciate that we took the time to respond. We attribute it all to Lodging Interactive and the excellent training they provide to us as part of their service."

An added benefit of the Guest Review System is that it enables travelers to share their reviews on Facebook with their network of friends. Hotels are notified in real-time of new guest reviews and have the ability to validate guest stay information before reviews are posted on their website.

"Lodging Interactive does an exceptional job for The Wilshire Grand Hotel of optimizing our web presence and providing us with the tools and training we need to truly enhance our guests' experiences and keep them coming back again and again," Reagoso said.

 

 

 

The Continued Rise of Blogging - More than half of web users will read blogs this year

"Social networks and microblogs have in recent years nudged blogging off the social media pedestal. For some consumers, who have more communication tools at their fingertips than they did a few years ago, Facebook and Twitter have supplanted blogging as life-streaming outlets.

But blogs continue to be important. eMarketer estimates that this year more than half of internet users will read blogs at least monthly. By 2014, readership will rise to more than 150 million Americans, or 60% of the internet population in the US. One reason for the rise in readership is that blogs have become an accepted part of the online media landscape." 

Read more on www.emarketer.com

Yahoo Switches to Bing for Organic Search Results | ClickZ

Following the search alliance it formed with Microsoft last year, Yahoo has announced that Bing is now officially powering all of its organic search results in the U.S. and Canada, meaning webmasters and search-engine optimization professionals need only focus their efforts on one major engine besides market leader Google.

via www.clickz.com

Chatter Guard Social Media Monitor Report - June 2010 - Has been Published

Lodging Interactive, a leading interactive marketing agency servicing the hospitality industry and the publisher of the free Chatter Guard Monthly Benchmark Monitor Report has released its May 2010 report.

To receive the full report, sign up for our newsletter at LodgingInteractive.com.

Without May’s extraordinary performance for Extended Stay hotels, there wasn’t much left to buoy up the overall averages for June. Just as we saw in May, June saw a notable dip in almost every category. Hopefully, customer satisfaction will heat up with the weather. On a scale of 1-5, 5 being “fantastic” and 1 being “poor,” the average lodger indicated a 6.87% drop in Resultant Quality Score (3.64 to 3.39), a 12.57% decrease in Dining (3.74 to 3.27), and a 5.74% drop in Facilities ratings (4.01 to 3.78). The only improvement was in the category of Housekeeping (last month’s loser), which rose 3.52% (3.41 to 3.53).Room satisfaction saw an 8.55% decline (3.51 to 3.21), a 7.67% decrease in Staff reviews (3.78 to 3.49), and a 7.12% dip in Value (3.37 to 3.13).

To receive the full report, sign up for our newsletter at LodgingInteractive.com.

Google Launches July 4 Fireworks Early, Buys ITA Software | Forrester Blogs

In a move that had been speculated about since April, on July 1 Google announced  it had entered into an agreement to buy Cambridge, MA-based ITA Software for $700 million — thus launching its own round of business fireworks ahead of the US July 4 holiday.

via blogs.forrester.com

Travel Weekly - Hotels struggle to harness the power of social media

By: Jeri Clausing April 21, 2010

Chaos. For hoteliers, the word denotes not the elegant mathematical theory that's become a buzzword in high finance but rather the old-fashioned, general disarray they face as they struggle to remain competitive in an era when the tricks and tools of marketing are changing at warp speed.

It's been just a few short years since social media took the Internet age to another level, imposing on marketers a new and constantly growing list of questions that go far beyond whether or how to use Facebook or Twitter.

"We're in a really interesting period of upheaval and chaos within the interface between travel suppliers and travelers," said Douglas Quinby, senior director of research at PhoCusWright and author of that group's new report, "Social Media in Travel: Traffic & Activity."

via www.travelweekly.com

Google Exec Gives Desktops Three More Years | WebProNews

Never mind the associated cubicles, desks, chairs, and monitors that, for many people, have become part of everyday life.  A Google exec believes desktop computers will be irrelevant in three years' time.

No twisting of words or misinterpretations took place here.  John Herlihy, Google's vice president of global ad operations, simply said at University College Dublin's Digital Landscapes conference, "In three years' time, desktops will be irrelevant."

via www.webpronews.com

Google Apps Billed As Disaster-Ready Solution | WebProNews

We'll let you decide whether, given the recent loss of life in Haiti and Chile, Google's timing is a little off here.  But for better or for worse, the search giant picked today to promote Google Apps in a blog post titled "Disaster Recovery by Google."

A few points in Google's defense: it created a Person Finder tool in response to the earthquake in Haiti, which it pulled out again following the earthquake in Chile.  Also, the company used its homepage and official blogs to solicit aid donations and spread awareness both times around.

via www.webpronews.com