Articles & Papers on Hotel, Hospitality and Tourism Marketing

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Articles & Papers

Critical Online Distribution Issues
This is an excellent article from Max Starkov, chief eBusiness Strategist at Hospitality eBusiness Strategies. It is a follow up to his 2002 article 'Brand Erosion or How Not to Market Your Hotel on the Web' (see below). Here Starkov gives an up-to-date and comprehensive overview of the current state of online hotel marketing and sales. He covers hotel branding on the web, hotel websites, search engines, online intermediaries, online advertising and more. In particular he looks at how hotels can use their own website to develop the business they receive from the Internet. more

Brand Erosion or How Not to Market Your Hotel on the Web
This is another, older article from Max Starkov. He looks at how the Internet has affected distribution for hoteliers and how intermediaries have eroded the brands of many hotels as a result. He goes on to examine what can hoteliers do to avoid brand erosion, focusing on hotel websites and marketing. He also gives a case study of a typical independent hotel's efforts in online marketing and sales. more

Electronic Tools – Websites, E-Marketing, and Third Party Distribution Systems
Websites, e-marketing initiatives, and alternate distribution systems have emerged with a vengeance in the last two years. Hotel, hospitality and tourism marketing using the Internet will not go away. We need to know how to use these tools, and how to focus on them even more-so than on the “traditional” ones. more

Travel agents still rely on GDS for hotel selection
Nearly 90% of travel agents say that they use the GDS and GDS shopping displays as much or more today than two years ago. Travel agents also report increased use of hotel property Web sites compared to two years ago. Travel agents are now less likely to use printed hotel directories, direct mail, fax, and the phone to gather information about hotels. more

Wresting Back Control from the Online Wholesalers
This article by Sharon McAuliffe, eDistribution Manager for PVI Hotel Group, gives a history of how electronic intermediaries became so powerful in the market for hotel rooms. Giving discounts to customers booking through an online intermediary will result in increasing pressures, McAuliffe argues. The key to controlling your prices is 'Rate Parity' - offering the same rates for the same rooms type on the same date on all your distribution channels. more

Hotels out in cold thanks to Web's popularity in booking rooms
Kathy Bergen of the Chicago Tribune gives an overview of why the Internet is so popular with customers, and the problems online intermediaries are causing for hoteliers. She examines key isues in online hotel, hospitality and tourism marketing and goes on to look at how several hotels are successfully dealing with these issues. more

Hotel's Efforts to Control Distribution Evaluated in New PhocusRight Report
This press release from travel research company PhocusRight. The report's key findings are that hotel bookings made online will increase from 9% of total bookings today to 20% within 3 years. There was a 49% increase in online hotel sales in 2002, and they are now worth in excess of US$6.3 billion per annum. Other key findings are that GDS systems and travel agents are losing market share, while hoteliers are increasing to their own websites for business. more

Have You Been Brand-Jacked?
Liz Craig from HotelInteractive.com looks at the problem of having your hotel's name hijacked by intermediaries to show up well behind them on Internet search engines. She advises optimising your search engine rankings, buy domain names using variations of your hotels name, and monitoring how your hotel is found on the web. She also looks at what you can do to directly tackle those who hijack your hotel's name. more

Online Hotel Hell
This article from Internet marketing agency a51 looks at why so many hotel websites failing their customers. It briefly covers website design, content, search engines, reservation systems, and marketing. Although its a promotional article for a51's services, it still gives a good overview of all-too-common problems. more

On-Line Marketing Strategies: Think Horizontally
This article by Richard Chambers, President of TravelCLICK interactive, argues that the various business units of hotels (restaurant, bar, meetings, banquets, spa, golf course, etc.) should have their own individual presence on the Internet, i.e. their own websites. He gives a good overview of why hotel internet marketing for business units is beneficial and gives good instructions on what to do. more

Using GDS systems to best advantage
This 1996 article from 'The Rooms Chronicle' gives a brief overview and example of how your hotel looks on a GDS system and examines ways in which you can promote your hotel on GDS, some of which are free. It covers descriptions, keywords and presentation. more

Building a Destination Web Strategy in hotel, hospitality and tourism marketing
This comprehensive Hotel-Online.com article by Jason Price and Max Starkov looks at how you can leverage the popularity of your local destination for the benefit of your hotel. They argue that you should make your hotel the “hero” of your destination by identifying your hotel with it online and they explain in detail how you can develop and promote this link. more

Increasing Hotel Internet Sales Is Not Rocket Science... And It Doesn’t Have To Be Costly Either
This Hotel Online Special Report by Neil Salerno gives a brief overview of online hotel, hospitality and tourism marketing on the internet and what hoteliers can do to increase their Internet sales. It touches on all the main points, including website development and promotion, online booking engines, links, eWholesalers, and more. more

Hotelier's 2003 Top Ten Internet Resolutions
Making direct-to-consumer online distribution the centrepiece of your Internet strategy, decreasing your dependence on online discounters, optimising your website and developing an effective search engine strategy are just some of the resolutions recommended by consultants Max Starkov and Jason Price. more