Social media and mobile have an increasing influence on the travel industry; it’s important for hotels to be equipped with the knowledge and tools to capitalize on the market. I recently attended Eye for Travel’s 2013 Social Media & Mobile Strategies for Travel Conference in San Francisco to hear what they had to say about [...]

Visually merchandising to create interest and a striking impression in the minds of online travel shoppers can inspire them to choose your hotel over others. ‘A picture is worth a thousand words.’ You’ve heard this cliché many, many times before. However, with the growth of visual communication in digital marketing; this cliché takes on a [...]

I recently had the pleasure of representing VFM Leonardo at a Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI) Chief Digital Officer (CDO) Roundtable, which focused on emerging hotel e-marketing challenges and opportunities. If you’re not familiar with HSMAI, they are a very well-established organization focused on identifying hospitality industry trends and educating industry professionals to [...]

Word of mouth marketing is even more critical in today’s marketing world than ever before.  Now you can tell hundreds of people about an experience you had with a brand in a matter of seconds and from anywhere in the world. We live in a world where people tweet what they ate for lunch and where [...]

Download PDF Version For hotel chains, maintaining consistent online visual content for all properties across all websites (proprietary and third party) is a top priority.  With the growing number of online channels and devices that travelers use to research and book hotels, ensuring consistency, quality, quantity and relevance of hotel images is a struggle many [...]

There are many industries (like retail eCommerce) that hoteliers can look to for ideas on how to develop successful marketing strategies. You may find it surprising, but educational institutions are a great place for hoteliers to look for content and visual storytelling strategies. There is one particular similarity between marketing universities and colleges and marketing [...]

This may not come as a surprise, but the new generation of business travelers are more technologically savvy, easier to reach and more social than other generations of travelers. According to research featured in this New York Times article – Young, Social and Paperless, this demographic (known as Millennials), is composed of young professionals under [...]

I recently read an interesting article by Max Starkov called 2013: The year of three-screen hospitality which has raised some questions in my mind. With the immense changes predicted for 2013 digital consumer behavior, it can be a challenge to know how to properly prepare. This article sparked my curiosity, in particular about mobile trends, [...]

Featured on Tnooz.com One question I am often asked by hotel emarketers: “Do we really need so much visual content to sell our hotel rooms?” I tell them:    “It’s not about the content, it’s about the story the content tells about the hotel.” Simply having visual content available to travelers online is not going to [...]

In preparation for the New Year we have created a special edition of our Hotel E-Marketing Minute where asked eight industry figures to answer the question, what should hotel marketers be focused on in 2013? Do your hotel marketing plans align with theirs? Watch here to find out!