Weblog

Category Archives: eHospitality

How to organize a Facebook fanpage as a hotel?

20-01-'11

For hotel marketing managers social media is becoming the number 1 online marketing topic lately. Creating a Facebook fanpage only takes a couple of minutes and you have got one more social media channel in your marketing mix. But just creating a Facebook fanpage and filling out some basic information is just not enough to set your hotel apart from your competitors.

In this blog post I will show you some great opportunities to organize your Facebook fanpage (assuming you already have created one!!!). Read more »

Profile Picture
Milan Verstegen | Former E-business consultant | Comments (8) | In: eHospitality

Social Media Content for hotel marketing managers

08-08-'10

Last week we discussed the strategic topic on social media: the 24/7 social media economy. In today’s world you have to actively participate on social media sites 24/7 in order to fully benefit from the power of Twitter, Facebook and others. Last week I also gave some advice how to manage this difficulty and in which way you can use organizational and techological tools to address this issue.

Okay, I assume (if I may :) ) that you agree on the necessity of participating in the 24/7 social media economy. Good to hear!! But what in god’s name do I have to write about all day??? That’s a fair question which I believe is a question most organizations have when entering the social media platforms. In this post I will discuss the topic of Social Media Content and give you (hopefully) useful tips! Read more »

Profile Picture
Milan Verstegen | Former E-business consultant | Comments (0) | In: eHospitality

How to run a 24/7 social media machine

30-07-'10

In my last blog post I talked about the importance of not lacking a social media strategy. I showed a very popular business case concerning a hotel which took great advantage from having a firm social media strategy. This week I want to discuss one of the most frequently questioned part of a social media strategy: the 24/7 economy of social media.

At first glance, the social media 24/7 economy seems like a hard world to live in. How is it ever possible to actively participate 24/7 to update company news, respond to your guests questions, encourage interaction, sell rooms with a discount and still be able to operate a hotel. That’s why I’ll give you some basic steps to survive in the 24/7 social media economy…. Read more »

Profile Picture
Milan Verstegen | Former E-business consultant | Comments (0) | In: eHospitality

Social media strategy for hotels: The importance of not lacking one!!

22-07-'10

Recent reports Digital Brand Expressions (Social Media Without A Parachute) and R2integrated (Social Media Survey) in the US indicate that 50% of the investigated companies started with social media marketing without ANY plan or strategy!
I don’t know exactly the numbers for the hospitality industry but I’m afraid this percentage will be even higher. The main quesions that arise are: 1) why is there a lack of a proper strategy and 2) how can I determine a strategy before starting with social media. Read more »

Profile Picture
Milan Verstegen | Former E-business consultant | Comments (0) | In: eHospitality

Hotel Internet Marketing: use guest reviews to optimize online sales

10-06-'10

In the last few posts I talked about how to improve the usability of the homepage to increase the conversion rate. So by now you should have an optimally structured homepage, focused on the potential guest, with high quality images. This week I will give you more insights in the importance of using guest reviews on your hotel website.

Relation between reviews and online sales

Research indicates that consumers base their buying and booking decision largely on the reviews from peer consumers. Before booking a hotel room they want to know what experiences other consumers had with that hotel. Most of the times consumers value the opinion of peer consumers as equally important as information given by the hotel itself. But if you take a close look at the hospitality branche, most hotels don’t use guest reviews on their site! I’ll give you some advice how and where to start. Read more »

Profile Picture
Milan Verstegen | Former E-business consultant | Comments (0) | In: eHospitality

Designing an effective homepage for a hotel website (part 2)

27-05-'10

Last week I wrote about WHY you should pay a lot more attention to optimizing your hotel homepage and HOW you could do that. More specifically I mentioned four important tips for designing an effective hotel homepage: 1) communicate your brand message, 2) give plenty of information, 3) emphasize main user tasks and 4) maintain a unique homepage structure. So, I hope that you as a hotel marketing manager (or in another branche) already improved the homepage on one of those four factors.

This week I’ll give you more tips on improving the homepage and make more sales online! Read more »

Profile Picture
Milan Verstegen | Former E-business consultant | Comments (4) | In: eHospitality

Designing an effective homepage for a hotel website (part 1)

21-05-'10

Last couple of weeks I mentioned the importance of Google Local to attract more potential guests to your hotel website. In the coming posts I will give you tips how to convert these potential customers into real guests. Because website visitors who only stay on your website a few seconds and leave without booking a room or making a restaurant reserveration equals a lost in revenue. Let us begin with optimizing the hotel homepage!

The hotel homepage is the most important page of your hotel website. It’s one of the most visited web pages, and a first entrance to the rest of your site. You can compare the hotel homepage to a reception of the hotel. So a first good impression is a must! However, it is also one of the most difficult pages to design, for a couple of reasons: Read more »

Profile Picture
Milan Verstegen | Former E-business consultant | Comments (1) | In: eHospitality

Importance of Google Local for hotel marketing managers – Part Three (final)

06-05-'10

This is the final post on optimizing your website in local search results with Google Local. In the first part of the series I argumented the importance for hotel marketing managers to take advantage of a good ranking in the local search engine results. I recommended (and still do) to just take the simple step and create your own business listing. In the second part I gave the top 10 tips to optimize your Google Local business listing. Read more »

Profile Picture
Milan Verstegen | Former E-business consultant | Comments (0) | In: eHospitality

Importance of Google Local for Hotel Marketing Managers- Part 2

29-04-'10

Last week I wrote about the importance of setting up a Google Local listing for increasing traffic. I also promised you last week to give a bunch of tips so you can increase traffic right now! So I hope everyone who read’ve the first post has a Google Local account set up. Otherwise someone else can claim your business listing (and that would really be inconvenient!!)

Okay, so let’s begin with the top 10 tips and start increasing traffic! Read more »

Profile Picture
Milan Verstegen | Former E-business consultant | Comments (1) | In: eHospitality

Importance of Google Local for Hotel Marketing Managers

25-04-'10

Okay, as a hotel marketing manager you can decide to pay a large amout of money to third party booking sites and affiliate partners in order to sell rooms. It is the easiest way to attract guests to your hotel but unfortunately also the most expensive!!!

An increasing number of hotels are becoming aware of the opportunities to sell rooms via direct online channels and to avoid expensive sales commissions. In the short term you need to invest money in these channels, but in the long term you will have a smile on your face for your decision to do so :)

There are plenty of online channels you can focus on to attract visitors and new sales such as: Google Adwords (paid results), Google Organic (not-paid results), email marketing, social media marketing and mobile marketing. One of my favorite direct channels is Google Local (or Google Maps) because 1) it will get you a very high ranking in Google (non-paid results), 2) it is free and 3) it is highly effective. Read more »

Profile Picture
Milan Verstegen | Former E-business consultant | Comments (6) | In: eHospitality

ScanYours Weblog

ScanYours is your partner for internet consultancy. We focus on eStrategy, online marketing, design and creation, market research, and web development. Our goal: to increase online turnover and to improve online services. ScanYours works with motivated people, broad knowledge and effective tools. We combine fun and energy to deliver the best job possible.

On our weblog we write about the developments and stories that keep us inspired. Subscribe to our RSS-feed or follow us on Twitter or Facebook to receive the latest updates.

Recommendations

Categories

Facebook

Recent blogs

Archives

Expand »