Internet Marketing

The Brands Sell the Brand not the Hotel Property

Business Internet Marketing By Richard Walsh

At vSpring, Jeff focused on investing in software and Internet companies as well as the brand strategy and marketing of the fund itself.

Internet Marketing Strategic A recent article by TravelClick Inc. pointed out how online hotel bookings are shifting from the third party online channels to more direct channels, specifically the brand sites. Some of the third-party sites even had a decline in business in 2004, although the overall growth in 'Internet reservations increased by nearly 32%'

Internet Marketing Seo The one fact in regard to the TravelClick Inc. article was the reference to a brand booking as a direct hotel booking. An internet booking from the brand to the property is no different than a GDS booking through the brand or a booking from the brand call center. Hotel analysts or researchers may call this a direct hotel booking, but I am not sure a hotelier or general manager considers it a direct sale.

Menu Foods, a Canadian company, is recalling all dog food sold throughout North America under 50 brands and cat food sold under 40 brands including Nutro Iams, and Eukanuba..

Ebook Internet Marketing This market shift does raise some questions, Is the gain in brand online sales really good for the hotel properties? Clearly, the brands are getting better at marketing their brand, but how much will the added site traffic help a branded property? Added traffic has to produce more sales for some properties, but even the new business is diminished by the cost of the booking through the brand site. Can a hotel market direct at a similar cost per booking? The brand cost does of course vary by brand. In some cases, these online brand bookings are perceived as free by the hotelier. Nothing is free, the cost associated with the brand bookings are most likely bundled with other brand services.

We are very selective about the brands we feature. We test all of them. Every one of our employees is trained on the brands we sell, our customer service team, our warehouse team, our marketing team, our technology team, even our executives participate in the training done by each of the brands we sell.

Business Home Internet Another factor that may diminish the value of the brand sites increase in traffic is the fact that on the brand website there are other hotels of the same brand or same group of brands in your market. When a shopper goes to the brand site or even your hotels page on the brand site, they are generally offered links to see alternative properties of the same brand. The brand sells the brand not the hotel!

All trademarks and copyrights, including logos, images and brand names are the property of their respective owners. References to brand names, images and logos are for descriptive purposes and to illustrate compatibility of our products only, and their use does not imply endorsement by or association with the brand name owners. We do not sell OEM (original equipment manufacturer). All our inkjet and laser cartridges are of the highest quality remanufactured and new generic brands.

Internet Marketing Site Web There are benefits to having a brand, but Internet marketing is not one of the major benefits. In fact the brands are making more and more difficult for their hotels to capitalize on the Internet opportunities. All of the brands have instituted brand policies and conditions that make it difficult, if not impossible, for a property to retain the brand and promote the propertys unique assets. These policies most often prohibit the property from having their own website, especially a site with a direct booking engine. The brand does certainly have the right to set and protect their franchise standards. It also makes sense for them to protect their intellectual property and copy rights. But, why do they want to inhibit the properties rights to market direct if it is done within brand polices. Why do the brands want to limit the properties ability to close direct sales?

Based Business Home Internet The brands did not stop direct phone calls to the properties, why stop direct Internet sales? If the brands fees are tied to gross property revenues, doesnt the brand gain no matter how the property receives its bookings? You would think the brand would support a property that is willing to spend additional money attract more sales no matter how they get them.

Internet Marketing Web How can a hotel property ever out market its own brand or a third party site? Lets not overlook the search engines, when we are evaluating the various Internet opportunities. With a search engine involved in more than 80% of the online sales, you would think you would find more organic optimization of the brand sites to help improve the search engines listing of the brand sites or more pay per click advertising of the brand site. Nope! The search engines are still dominated by the big ad budgets of the third party websites. The brands must assume if a traveler wants a particular brand they know where to find it.

Estate Internet Marketing Real A recent research project by Accenture Consulting Inc. indicated that the top two hotel search elements were price and location. The third party sites clearly have the search engines when it comes to keywords promoting price, even if it is price parity with the brand. As far as promoting location on the search engines, we see vary little search optimization by the brands focusing on location because this is not to the brands overall benefit.

Engine Internet Marketing As Internet marketing continues to evolve, it is clear that the value of the search engines in the travel shopping and booking process will continue to increase significantly. The search engine value proposition presented to the properties can only help the branded properties who take the initiative to market their own website, whether the sites booking are direct or via the brand.

Affiliate Internet Marketing In summary, a brand booking is not a hotel booking it is a brand booking. The gain by the brands in their share of Internet traffic may not necessarily be the brands success, but rather the third partys decline. Both brands and third parties will be around for a long time to come and each has its own value to certain hotels in certain markets. The brand website has to be considered the same as the GDS, proprietary websites, wholesalers, travel agents and whatever other sales channel works best for the property.

Consulting Internet Marketing I dont believe how the hotelier chooses to market his or her rooms should be influenced by the brand. The brand should stand on its own merits and if the hotel is not getting business from the brand website, the hotelier should be allowed to market how they choose. The final decision will always come down to the hotelier and his or her ability to implement an effective and flexible Internet marketing plan.

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