Laura Yee Kui Choi - Hotello

Adapting your social media strategy in times of post-crisis

Posted on 28 September 202029 August 2022 by Laura Yee Kui Choi

strategie-reseaux-sociaux — Adapting your social media strategy in times of post-crisis

Perform a post-crisis assessment

Before planning any post-crisis strategy, it’s important to analyze your social platforms and determine which ones are the most active, what types of content were used during the crisis period, which actions were most appreciated and created most interactions. Take advantage of your powerful tools to consult activity reports, statistics, results obtained from the crisis period and compare it with the pre-crisis period’s ones. For example, you can analyze several performance indicators such as the number of followers, impressions, visits, interactions and the engagement rate.

Adjust your social media strategy

Getting back to normal can raise a lot of questions. This is why you need to identify new travelers’ needs and expectations in order to redefine your goals and adjust your strategy accordingly.

Start by reviewing all planned posts and campaigns to adapt your communication in the current context. Make a distinction between content that is reusable and content which is better not to use anymore.

Furthermore, remember that you need to stay authentic and true to your brand identity and values. Your social media platforms are a showcase for your property. You need to be honest, transparent and must help your audience feel listened and reassured. As a matter of fact, if you want to win your audience’s trust, they must feel that you fully understand their current situation. To do so, your goal should not focus only on your social media traffic but on the level of interaction and engagement. Be innovative, agile and show that you can adapt quickly. Before creating content, ask yourself the following questions: Is it relevant? Is it adapted to my audience’s reality? Also, favor the creation of positive, useful and original content such as videos, lives, Instagram videos, stories and IGTV. Only refer credible and reliable sources to avoid misinformation. For example, you can post a thank you video highlighting your employees, guests, partners and everyone else who helped you through the crisis as well as people who encouraged you to move forward. You can also use Instagram’s IGTV lives, stories and videos to announce your resumption of activity. Enhance all the measures set up and efforts made by your teams not only to ensure your guest’ safety and comfort, but also that they get an outstanding customer experience.

Using influencer marketing is also a good idea for your communication strategy. Of course, influencers are great brand ambassadors and they will help you reach a larger audience, gain more visibility and quickly generate more interactions.

Set up a social media management policy

Even if the situation changes quickly and it is impossible to predict a crisis, you can always prepare your emergency social media strategy. Furthermore, make sure you have an updated list of emergency contacts in the event of a crisis: those in charge of social media, guests, partners and staff members. Prepare useful technical sheets in order to connect to these platforms promptly and identify main guidelines that define the extent of the crisis, determine the property’s operations that are likely to be most affected, as well as a specific communication plan dedicated to all of your employees.

Keep in mind that a property should not remain silent and inactive during times of crisis and post-crisis. Even in hard times you should keep informing, reassuring and listening to your audience and your team.

Track your social media regularly

Tracking your social media regularly will help you spot quickly good or bad reviews as well as comments. It is important to be very responsive and answer every comment, otherwise it could damage your property’s reputation. Indeed, not giving an answer gives the impression that you are neglecting your audience. To do so, do not hesitate to thank a guest for leaving a positive review on your page or offer him a solution in case of a bad experience during their stay.

Also, it is interesting to take a look at the different types of audiences you have on your social media and analyze it with different indicators, such as age, socio-professional category, location in order to compare it with your hotel PMS’ data. If there is a big gap between your audience and your guest’s profiles, a campaign adjustment would be recommended. Indeed, if the content you published interests your audience, but does not generate bookings, you should adapt your message or your offers in order to persuade your followers to book a stay.

Social media are not just simple communication channels, they allow a property to communicate and strengthen long-term trust with its community, particularly by informing them, reassuring them and offering them support.

Even if crisis and post-crisis periods are not the most profitable, they force hoteliers to adapt to the current reality and innovate. Therefore, forget about making excessive publicity and take this opportunity to humanize your brand and favor a strong relationship with your audience!

5 best practices for email marketing

Posted on 14 September 20201 October 2021 by Laura Yee Kui Choi

Thereby, email marketing is a powerful tool if used wisely and could be 40 times more effective than content posted on social media. This marketing strategy helps you communicate with a large audience in a targeted way and therefore, initiates, maintains and consolidates your relationship with your guests and prospects.

Moreover, email marketing is very popular, since over 280 billion emails are sent everyday. To make it effective, your message must stand out by being relevant and personalized. Finally, email marketing is an inexpensive solution compared to the cost of marketing actions such as Google Adwords, social media campaigns or even content creation used to improve your organic positioning.

After defining your objectives, your targets and your performance i ndicators allowing you to measure the effectiveness of your strategy, here are some good practices to follow!

Focus on content

First of all, you can use your Hotel PMS to better segment your database by targeting and personalizing your emails. You also have the possibility to create contact lists based on several criterias such as the language, the city, the amount of stays spent in your property, the number of points accumulated, the type of stay, the price of stay, the package purchased and many more.

Furthermore, it’s very important to focus on quality rather than quantity. To keep your reader’s attention, your message should take less than 1 minute to read. To be effective, your main message should be included in the subject line and the main title of your email. It is proven that 47% of readers choose whether or not to open an email, depending on its subject. This is why it is important to avoid excessively long email subject, exceeding 60 characters. In the case where your open rate is not as high as you would like it to be, you should try to change your email subject, do an A/B test or try to change your approach by adding something more original.

The most important information should be prioritized and placed at the top of your email. Good content is short, punchy, straight to the point and should encourage your customers and prospects to make a reservation at your property. For example, you could put the highlight on exclusive promotions, attractive activities’ discounts or interesting statistics that would pique their curiosity. Try to personalize your content as much as possible so your readers will feel privileged and special. Additionally, you can include personalized tags, emojis or references to a previous stay depending on your target.

Your content must be as easy to read as possible: favor a line spacing of 1,5, use bullets or dashes. Your font should be standardized and secured “web safe”, such as Arial, Times New Romans, Georgia or Verdana. For a property, keep in mind that you need to make your readers dream, most importantly by using good quality pictures. Readers should be able to imagine themself at your property. The content and images should make them want to be there.

Finally, remember that even if you have good quality content, if your email subject doesn’t interest your readers, they won’t open your email and never have the opportunity to read your content.

Make call-to-action buttons visible

About call-to-action buttons, they are used to encourage readers to act, whether it’s to make a reservation on your website or get more information about your services. Therefore, favor a simple, clean and attractive design that will highlight your property. Also, your call-to-action button must be clear, visible, easily clickable and should stand out from your content. Overall, the recommended size of a call-to-action button is minimally 44 x 44 inches. Moreover, the position and the text are also strategic and should encourage your readers to click.

Keep in mind that these buttons have to be correctly redirected to your website or to your booking engine, depending on the result you want. Since it is a web experience, putting a phone number inside your call-to-action will disrupt the user experience and often distract your readers’ attention.

Choose colors that catch the eye

Your design reflects your property’s graphic identity. It also makes it easy for your readers to recognize you. If you want to pique your readers’ curiosity in seconds, it is better to choose simple, non-aggressive and contrasting colors for the text and your email’s background. Note that there are two types of contrast: the positive contrast, which consists of having a light color on a dark background, and the negative contrast, with dark color on a light background.

Use animated GIFs

Your readers love to see beautiful images so why not use them for your newsletters? Indeed, animated images, also called GIFs, bring life to your emails. It is very representative, expressive and has the power to transmit a message immediately. Thus, make sure that your GIFs are not too voluminous so it won’t impact your email’s loading. Furthermore, avoid using an image in the background, so it doesn’t saturate your newsletter. Choose a plain colour to help your readers focusing on your content.

Promote mobile optimization

Over 50% of people use their smartphones or tablets to read emails. Thus, 80% of those same people will no longer open newsletters if they are not displayed correctly on their mobile phones. This is why it is essential to test and ensure that your emails are responsive and adapt to different devices. We recommend your newsletter to be no larger than 600 pixels in width, so it can properly be displayed on different electronic devices.

Keep in mind that the easier it is to open and read your newsletters, the more engagement towards your database you will get.

Before sending your newsletter, make sure to test on different messaging services, since they don’t use the same deliverability options. These tests will allow you to verify if everything is optimized and will prevent your readers from encountering challenges in viewing your emails. Otherwise, they could end-up unsubscribing from your newsletters. Making tests will also allow you to check links and make sure that each of them redirects to the correct page. Plus, you can perform A/B testing to find out which email subject line would get a better open rate. Isn’t it fantastic?

Using influencer marketing to promote your property

Posted on 20 July 202029 August 2022 by Laura Yee Kui Choi

Therefore, their role is to promote your property but also to influence the travelers’ purchasing decision while remaining transparent as much as possible. However, always keep in mind the main goal of using this new promotion method : increasing your property’s reputation and the number of bookings. To do so, be sure to calculate the return on investment you could get before starting this process.

marketing-influence-hotellerie — Using influencer marketing to promote your property

Why including influencers in your digital marketing strategy?

To start with, there are different types of influencers: nano-influencers (less than 10K followers), micro-influencers (more than 10K followers), macro-influencers (more than 100K followers) and celebrities (over 500K followers). They are considered as true experts specialized in a particular niche and also opinion leaders. Also, they use communication channels such as blogs and social media like Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and especially Instagram which has proven to be a very effective tool. Indeed, Instagram is the ideal social platform to highlight a concept of visual storytelling. In 2017, there were over 13 million of sponsored posts on Instagram.

Moreover, it is proven that 85% of consumers will trust influencers and follow their recommendation rather than those directly given by a brand. Same for Millennials, 8 out of 10 confirm the important role of influencers in their buying process. To do so, the influencers’ role is to enhance your property and to reassure individuals in their purchasing process. A good influencer is a spontaneous and authentic person who likes to share experiences whether good or bad. Seen as a real expert, influencers’ content such as blog posts, Youtube videos, Facebook and Instagram posts on several properties help travelers in their decision-making process. So remember to highlight your property’s overall experience with all services offered but also the experience lived by travelers either with the use of new technologies such as check-in kiosks, room service robot or even with personalized atmospheres using automation.
As a result, influencer marketing is a real advantage because it allows you to strengthen the e-reputation and visibility of your property, to increase your credibility, to engage your community on your social media, to generate traffic on your website and therefore to increase your sales via your online booking engine. Don’t forget that the best influencers are those who will succeed in having full confidence of their followers and those who will persuade them to change their purchasing behavior, therefore book a stay within your property. Finally, when an influencer stays at your property, it will be very important to identify him well, for example by using the VIP function of your property management system (PMS).

How to make sure you collaborate with the right influencers?

In general, partnering with an influencer isn’t free. Before offering a stay, free services or a financial compensation, you must plan your influence marketing campaign. Start by defining the campaign objectives and also the budget allocated. Furthermore, define the selection of criteria that will help you choose your brand ambassador. It is very important to favor partnerships with influencers who match your values and your target customers so people can identify to them. For example, you can ask yourself the following questions: Why would I choose this influencer? Does he share the same values as us? Does its audience match with our targeted clientele? Does the influencer’s content is suitable for our property? It is true that we don’t become influencers overnight, so make sure that the person chosen has an excellent reputation, a large audience on several social media platforms, a high engagement rate as well as excellent technical knowledge and technologies of social media. Also, choose an influencer who fits your property’s concept because it’s very important that his personality is in line with your concept if you want to get the most of your partnership and investment.

8 out of 10 consumers trust an influencer rather than brand advertising campaigns. Thus, 59% of companies plan to increase their marketing budget dedicated to influence marketing campaigns.

And you? Are you ready to use influencer marketing to promote your property?

How to deal with properties’ main environmental problematics?

Posted on 2 April 20201 October 2021 by Laura Yee Kui Choi

The hospitality industry ranks among the most energy-consuming sectors due to its use greater usage of air conditioning, water and heating. It represents a real issue for actors concerned. Thereby, more and more properties are going green, favoring the eco-tourism and a sustainable hospitality industry. Their main challenge? Successfully renewing themselves, especially by reducing their impact on the environment and their operating costs, all without impacting the comfort and quality of their guests: stay.

1- Reduce water consumption

As a responsible property, it is essential to monitor the water consumption within your establishment. Do you know how much water is used by each of your departments but also by your customers? On average, a guest uses 300 liters of water per night, twice his personal consumption at home. Indeed, there are several indicators that allow you to keep control over your consumption such as the total water consumption, the water consumption by department or per night in cubic meters, the percentage of water reused and the savings made on your bill.

Keeping control over your consumption is good but actions are better! Start by educating your staff as well as your customers, encourage them to minimize their water consumption whether it is to wash or change towels, the use of taps, showers and all of the household appliances. It is recommended to install water saving systems, to opt for water treatment plants in order to prioritize the reuse of water and to use household appliance with water savers.

2- Decrease energy consumption

Do you know the exact energy consumption of your property? Do you know that a property’s energy consumption is approximately 3% of its turnover? Therefore, there are several tips that allow you to align your energy consumption according to environmental and economic criteria that you have previously set. In order to measure your electricity consumption, you can use the following indicators : the total energy consumption used in the activities of your establishment and the consumption used by department in kilowatt-hour, the percentage of your quota by energy source or by renewable energy source and the savings on your energy bill. You can start by reviewing the thermal insulation of your property. You can also check your lighting, favor the use of low-consumption light bulbs or LEDs and use as much as possible devices and machines requiring lower energy consumption. Moreover, choose the installation of lighting systems with motion detector and solar panels.

Other technological and efficient option exists to help properties in their energy management. Many systems can connect to a property management software in order to identify rooms with customers and unoccupied ones. So when the software indicates an unoccupied room, the energy management system automatically turns off the lights and devices and heaters and air conditioning are turn on a minimum. In this case, the connectivity between a property management software and the energy management system is essential, the PMS has all the information about rooms and the energy system acts on the control energy savings.

3- Limit waste production

With nearly 2.5 million tonnes of waste per year, the hospitality industry and its catering generate a large amount of waste. Although sorting, treatment, recycling and reuse of waste is possible, it is important to look for other possible alternatives in order to face this massive production. To find out more about your waste production, you can rely on indicators as for example : the total amount of waste, the amount of waste per room or per department in kilos or tonnes, the amount of waste per type of waste, the recycling rate and the cost of removing waste.Thereafter, some concrete actions could help you to reduce your production of waste such as the establishment of vegetable gardens, containers for sorting and recycling within the hotel, the purchase of local, organic, seasonal and bulk products, the substitution of single-use products by distributors. What about opting for more responsible purchasing? Eliminate the use of plastic bags, plastic water bottles, individual packaging and individual coffee pods?

Waste reduction can also be done within your establishment, indeed several departments such as the reception, the housekeeping and banquets are using a lot of papers everyday. It would be a great idea for your reception to replace their registration card with solutions such as pre-check-in, check-in kiosks or even online registration. The housekeeping department could replace its daily reports with a mobile app, thereby significantly reduce paper prints and waste production.

Whether it is for a business trip or a relaxing stay, we all tend to indulge ourselves and overconsume. It is important to keep in mind that each action taken has a significant overall impact on the environment. To do so, highlight your actions so that your customers can understand some of your choices and your future customers can make a wise choice on the kind of establishment they wish to stay at. Highlighting your concrete actions will also be your main element of justification concerning a different pricing from your competitors.

Change is inevitable and it requires managers, employees and customers’ social behavior evolution. Indeed, everyone must be aware of the environment and must be responsible. As mentioned by Dr Willy Legrand : “ The sustainable hospitality industry isn’t represented by a company that tries its best on a chosen market but rather an entire sector who takes up environmental and societal challenges by exploring new ideas, new solutions and new strategies in order to develop new establishments and manage operations sustainably!”

The role of Instagram in the hospitality industry

Posted on 18 January 202030 March 2023 by Laura Yee Kui Choi

In fact, this social media platform provides a good opportunity for hotel managers to boost their popularity and engage with more people. First, they can use Instagram to instantaneously build and consolidate their online reputation, by using a “story-telling” approach centered around their brand. Then, they can use this social media platform to sell their services and build their own community using interactions (likes, comments, shares), stories, buzz-words and contests. According to Forrester Research (2014), using Instagram allows you to boost your engagement per follower 58 more times than by using Facebook and 120 more times than by using Twitter.

Building your online reputation (e-reputation)

The e-reputation is represented by the information provided by the internet about a person or a brand through social media, blogs, collaborative websites, online chat forums or knowledge sharing platforms. Nowadays, we live in a highly connected world where the e-reputation has a significant online word-of-mouth effect which is able to positively or negatively impact one’s opinion. We use social media to get information on a company, and immediately believe what we read online. Therefore, a good or bad reputation online will have a direct impact on a company’s sales and their clients’ trust.

Today, building one’s online identity is quick, whether it be by using search engines allowing the company to be featured on the very first page, by using social media to attract potential clients, by fostering a close-knit relationship with the clients and building loyalty or by starting open-ended discussions on social media through blogs and forums. You can also consolidate your e-reputation using online opinion websites such as TripAdvisor, Yelp and Google reviews or by reaching out to influencers.

You may be wondering what is an influencer. It is simply someone who has a large number of followers and who shares content on social media, such as photos, videos, articles or podcasts. Upon agreeing on a partnership with you, the influencer will create content on your behalf and boost your visibility, by talking about your products and services. This allows you to improve your image, your credibility and even your SEO if the influencer is present on multiple social media platforms. Influencers are therefore beneficial for companies, but it is important to only partner up with influencers who mirror the company’s brand and values.

A hotel’s e-reputation can be boosted if multiple influencers post about the hotel. This way, potential clients will notice that many influencers have stayed at the hotel and this will generate a notion of popularity and will trigger their wish to live this trendy experience.

Improving sales

Instagram also allows a company to improve their sales. A study showed that 8 in 10 users follow the account of at least one of their favorite brands and that 14% of users would buy directly from Instagram.

As a starting point, one can insert a link in the “biography” section which will redirect the users to the company’s own website. Additionally, users have the opportunity to reach the company using the direct message feature or by communicating using e-mail and/or telephone by clicking the call-to-action button located on the company’s profile. The company can also have an online shop allowing the users to browse through current offers and get information on rates and availabilities. For a hotel, improving sales can be done by using the booking engine. Instagram posts can feature a link redirecting to the hotel’s online booking engine. An active presence on social media combined with the opportunity to book online will incite customers to book directly with the hotel without having to go through OTAs, therefore maximizing your income.

Building a community

Instagram is undoubtedly a key tool when it comes to creating one’s community. Instagram encourages users to publish content, to share their personal experience and mostly to generate emotional interactions. Companies do not hesitate to repost the users’ content and create buzz-words in order to attract potential clients or engage and build loyalty with their existing community. Generally speaking, a buzz-word is short and easy to memorize to facilitate interactions between users. A community’s engagement is usually a key element when it comes to one’s perception of your popularity. This perception of your popularity is more often than not generated by the users than by you. Building a large and loyal community is crucial in order broadcast the diversity of the stays offered at your hotel and the overall experience you provide.

In a highly connected and fast-evolving world, every brand uses content to convince individuals to buy their products or services. It is therefore important for companies to publish high-quality, targeted, authentic and attractive content for their followers. It is also key to have a constant and active presence on social media such as Instagram by publishing content and interacting with your community on a regular basis.

Tips to reduce the online booking abandonment

Posted on 18 August 201929 August 2022 by Laura Yee Kui Choi

Justify your rates

Some potential clients abandon their online booking because your rates do not correspond to their budget. However, a potential client could have a large enough budget to afford to stay at your hotel, but they might not find added value by picking your hotel. With your marketing strategies, it is crucial to work on your hotel’s image in order to showcase what makes your hotel unique. Do not hesitate to share your story and show off the one-of-a-kind aspects of your hotel on your website. By doing so, potential clients will immediately notice this added value and will be willing to pay the price in order to stay with you. Thus, they will not abandon their booking at the last minute.

Improve user experience on your website

In order to avoid potential client abandoning their booking due to a long and complicated booking process, make sure your online user experience is clear and concise. In the hospitality industry, we always strive to provide the best customer experience and this should be reflected on your website. You should test your online booking experience to ensure it is simple, short and efficient. Online reservations through smartphones and tablets are on the rise, so make sure your booking process runs smoothly on these devices as well. First, ensure your “Book now” button is clearly visible and stands out. Then, your booking engine should only ask the potential client the necessary information in order to process the booking. Keep in mind that the more fields to fill and information to provide, the more likely this client is to abandon their booking. It is therefore important to keep the mandatory fields to a minimum and remove all the unnecessary fields. Every field removed will boost the number of bookings, and you can still ask your client some further information once their booking is complete. You can obviously test your online booking process yourself, but you might want to ask your friends and family to test it as well, to see if they find anything confusing or complicated. This will give you a better idea of the elements you need to improve on in order to provide a simple and smooth experience which will maximize your bookings. You can also add a live chat feature on your website. With this tool, you will be able to answer any of your clients question in real time, and they will be able to complete their booking without having to contact you by e-mail and then wait for your reply.

Use your booking engine’s features

Your booking engine certainly contains some features which you can exploit in order to turn website visitors into clients. For example, creating last minute deals could encourage a potential client with a small budget to stay with you at a low rate at an early date. The presale feature could encourage clients wishing to stay with you at a later date to finalize their booking by taking advantage of a discounted rate. Promotional codes may also trigger an impulse buy for a potential client. Booking engines also offer the option of displaying the number of rooms left available for their chosen date. This stress marketing technique can trigger potential clients to take a quick decision and finalize their booking.

Play with your cancellation policies

Some potential clients abandon their online booking as they have to discuss it with the people travelling with them first and see whether or not your hotel corresponds to their criteria. By offering a flexible cancellation policy, you could see your conversion rate improve. This will allow potential clients to guarantee their booking while they discuss it with their peers. It is likely that even if they find a cheaper accommodation, having to cancel their booking at your hotel will discourage them from booking another accommodation. Keep in mind that a more flexible cancellation policy does not necessarily mean that more clients will cancel their booking. It can simply give a peace of mind to indecisive clients and thus entice them to book. This technique will allow you to generate more bookings while maintaining a policy on the rooms you have left.

Many reasons can cause potential clients to abandon their booking. Make sure to avoid those on which you can act, especially by justifying your rates and optimizing your online user experience. You could be surprised of how simple actions like these could boost your direct bookings.

How to market your hotel at a low cost

Posted on 2 May 20191 October 2021 by Laura Yee Kui Choi

Newsletters

Email marketing is the method with the best return on investment (ROI). You should prioritize this method if you want to market your hotel at a small cost. In order to engage in email marketing, you obviously need email addresses. Your PMS software becomes your best ally as it continuously collects your client’s data. The only thing left for you to do is to use this data to segment your newsletters. Every piece of data collected by your PMS can be used for an email marketing campaign. The more segmented and personalized your newsletters are to meet your clients’ needs, the more efficient they will be.

By knowing who you want to send these newsletters to, you will be able to advertise your hotel easily by carrying successful email marketing campaigns. When the time comes to write your newsletters, make sure you have a catchy subject, carefully pick which pictures you wish to use and do not forget your call to action button (CTA). Your newsletter subject should be short and intriguing, while giving a good insight as to what the reader can expect to read in the email. Your pictures should be high quality and your call to action button needs to attract the reader into clicking and thus bringing them to the next step. You also need to respect email marketing laws, avoid spelling errors and make your newsletters responsive.

Social media represents an essential platform when it comes to promoting your hotel. Make no mistake: not only young people are using social media. While Facebook is present in every age group, Instagram and Snapchat are more commonly used by the 18-34 age group. On the other hand, LinkedIn is a social media aimed towards professionals aged between 30 and 64. In order for you to pick which social media are best, think about which clientele you are trying to reach. If you want to promote a deal for business travellers, LinkedIn could be a better platform than Snapchat.

Once you have decided which social media platform you wish to exploit, you need to decide which content you will promote. Social media posts tend to work better when they come with a picture. The hospitality industry is known to be a dreamy industry, so make that work for you! Show some pictures of your hotel and services, ask your employees to take selfies, and encourage your clients to share their pictures on their own social media. You can also post about awards your hotel recently won or share pictures of the fun activities available in your surroundings. All of this is free and easy to create content which can fill your profiles. You should also encourage your clients to follow you on social media. You can do so in numerous ways, such as in your thank-you email, on their bill or where you display the Wi-Fi password.

Do not forget to create some contests where one needs to like, comment and/or share your post in order to boost your number of followers. It is also crucial to answer any comment left by your guests and respond to all posts where you are mentioned. This way you will reach a broader audience and it will show your friendly touch.

OTAs

If your hotel is not present on OTAs (online travel agencies), you can be sure that your competitors are. People go on these websites to compare hotels, especially when they are looking for hotel somewhere they have never been before. You therefore must be on these websites, and also be able to know your competitors in order to be able to market your hotel better than them. Optimize your profile by picking high quality pictures, writing a hotel description that makes you stand out and keeping an up to date list of all you services. Your rates and availabilities need to be updated continuously. A yield management module and a channel manager can be of great help here. Potential clients often visit OTAs to read about other traveler’s comments. It could thus be of interest to ask your guests to leave reviews when you send out thank-you emails and/or have a contest for clients who left comments, whether they be positive or negative. Responding to these comments/reviews using your hotel’s account will make a good impression and show that you care about your guests’ opinions and well-being.

Search engines

Search engines play a great role in your hotel’s visibility. If you only appear on the third page when you type “Hotel Montreal”, you significantly reduce your chances of being seen by potential guests and thus you may be losing many bookings. Fortunately there is a free way to counter this: SEO (search engine optimization). SEO allows you to insert key-words throughout your website’s pages in order for you to be in the first suggestions in the search engines.

Google set up a free tool called Google My Business. This allows you to enter information about your hotel in a template created by Google in order for people searching your hotel to able to have a quick summary of any information they could need. Potential guests can book directly on your website, or call you by clicking on the Google My Business call to action buttons. It is therefore very important that your Google My Business page be optimized and up to date.

There are plenty of platforms for you to market your hotel on. However, by starting with newsletters, social media, OTAs and search engines, you will achieve the visibility that you need to boost your hotel’s presence without breaking the bank.

A receipt? By email!

Posted on 19 February 201930 August 2022 by Laura Yee Kui Choi

facture-email-hotellerie — Une facture? Par email!

A more sustainable solution

As a business, picking which values you stand for and respect is important. Sustainable development is a challenge you should consider, and limiting your consumption of paper when sending receipts is a good way to start.

By sending receipts and accounts receivable by e-m ail, you significantly reduce your environmental footprint by reducing the amount of paper you consume. The trees will certainly be very grateful.

While storing data in order to be able to send e-mails also leaves a noticeable ecological footprint, choosing to be a paperless business can be of interest. Taking into account the number of daily receipts that a hotel generates, the amount of paper, envelopes, stamps and transport needed to send these is significant. You also need to consider all the accounts receivables bills sent to your suppliers by your PMS System. In addition to the various uses one may have for this paper, you need to think of all the waste that it generates. Realistically, not all of this paper will end up being recycled. It is thus a waste of resources that could easily be avoided simply by choosing to send accounts receivable by e-mail.

A quicker solution

In addition to contributing to our planet’s overall health, sending receipts and accounts receivables by e-mail is quicker and much more efficient. When sending them by standard mail, you risk losing the bills, sending them to the wrong address or even damaging them during transport. When sending them by e-mail, you eliminate the risk for any potential error. Additionally, the person you are sending the bill to will instantaneously receive it, without the risking it reaching the wrong department within their business. It is also easier to store bills received by e-mail.

When they are stored on the Cloud or on a computer, they become protected from any potential physical breach. They can also be filed and recovered at any time. It goes without saying that in order to find a particular receipt, this is a much quicker task than having to go through numerous physical folders. You can notify the sender of the receipt if you spot a mistake almost immediately by answering to his/her e-mail. This is also much quicker than by standard mail. Finally, keeping track of your bills is easier and quicker when you use e-mails. You can store and file them in a single folder from which they can be found very efficiently.

A cost-efficient solution

By sending receipts and accounts receivable bills by e-mail, you will have less paper to purchase, and therefore all costs associated with printing, ink and shipping will be reduced. This way you will be left with more into your hands. It is also more cost-efficient as all the time allocated to putting the receipts in envelopes and shipping them can now be used for other important tasks.

Beyond receipts

You can also communicate with your clients by e-mail. For example, you can send them newsletters and booking confirmations, which they can then save and store on their computer. This way they will be able to look up any e-mails you sent them in an instant. When a client arrives at your hotel, an online booking record is a way to avoid having to print a new booking record for each client which can thus saves you a lot of paper. The online booking record allows clients to confirm all of their information before they arrive which then guarantees the data in your PMS System is accurate.

Within each department, the consumption of paper can be significantly reduced, if not completely eliminated. For example, with housekeeping, the list of the rooms can be found on a mobile app rather than on a printed sheet of paper. In addition to reducing your paper consumption, you also improve your staff’s overall efficiency as working with a mobile app is much quicker and easier.

When it comes to accounting, you can send different reports by e-mail via your PMS System or via the integration between your PMS System and your business’ accounting system. Adjusting the way you work with different ways of communications can have a great impact on reducing your overall paper consumption.

Social media and the hotel industry

Posted on 19 October 20181 October 2021 by Laura Yee Kui Choi

Since social media is well established in most people’s daily life, it offers a not-to-be-missed opportunity to attract new guests and retain those who are already loyal.

Newsfeed content is often a source of inspiration for users. Having a social media presence makes it more likely a potential guest will see a photo of your hotel and want to book a stay. Social media’s power also lies in its ability to provide visibility with people who don’t know about you or don’t follow you yet.

With social media, you can also set up contests and get greater visibility since users who follow you will share your posts with their friends and family. With contests, you get the chance to collect email addresses and improve the quality of your mailing lists.

Social media users like things to happen fast. Tap into their need for instant gratification by inviting them to book a room directly on your Facebook page.

When choosing an online booking engine, pick one that lets you use social media platforms such as Facebook. An online booking engine that offers a direct connection to social media is a must-have as you won’t need to connect online travel agencies’ (OTA) booking engines to these platforms. Seamless integration between your hotel PMS and online booking engine is key to displaying accurate room availability and pricing on social media.

your e-reputation is a vital asset

Internet users are mostly responsible for building your online reputation. When they share pictures of a vacation spent at your hotel, leave reviews and comments and tag your hotel in their posts, social media users project an image of your hotel that matches their perception. And their perspective spreads quickly.

Moreover, when you respond to user’s posts and thank them for sharing their thoughts and experiences, you feed the post and keep it active. As a result, the post rises to the top of the newsfeeds of the people you want to reach, and you boost your visibility.

Online review platforms also play an essential role in building and maintaining your reputation, and your revenues derive from your reputation. During the choice-making phase, a web user planning a trip is in the habit of reading the opinions of other travelers. These reviews can be decisive and may tip the balance in your favour if potential guests read positive comments about your hotel.

It’s essential to manage your online reputation astutely by keeping a few things in mind, including future guest reviews posted to platforms such as Trip Advisor.

If you consider your e-reputation a valuable asset worth investing in, software exists that can help you by serving as your social media information and processing hub.

Social media can help you reach your target audience with pinpoint accuracy. Posting exclusive promotions that feature a dedicated code is one of the best ways to leverage social media and give certain users precedence. Some booking engines even allow you to create user-specific codes that confer a special discount on guests who redeem them. Suppose you offer a promotion at your hotel in Montréal. You can offer a discount code to all people whose postal code falls within the Montréal area to encourage users to visit your direct booking site to book a stay at your hotel.

Social media can be incredibly useful for targeting initiatives because platforms possess a phenomenal amount of data about each user. Indeed, the display accuracy of your ads based on user profile data is unbeatable.

Sell the experience before selling the service

Photos and videos are the best way to share an experience on many social media sites. On Instagram, for instance, publications must include a photo or video, so you are selling an experience before a set of services. When web users see beautiful images that appeal to their emotions, they can picture themselves living the experience, which sparks their interest in booking a similar stay.

This approach works well to attract new guests and show off your services while enhancing your hotel’s reputation.

Using the right platform for each target audience

While it may be tempting to post identical content on all social media sites, doing so isn’t the most effective strategy as the average user age and type varies according to the platform.

The age of Facebook users falls mostly between 18 and 44. Keep in mind that users also connect more often to Facebook than to other sites, so they are more likely to see your posts. On Facebook, you can post links to your website and promotions and share photos of your hotel. If you want to post contests, Facebook is the forum you should use.

To promote your hotel’s aesthetics features, Instagram is the platform of choice. As you can only post photos and videos, you can leverage these to showcase your hotel’s atmosphere and charm. Hashtags are essential so that users who don’t follow you can find you easily. Most Instagram users are between the ages of 18 and 44, so keep these demographics in mind when you post to this platform.

The immediate, ephemeral nature of Twitter makes it your best option for some types of promotions. About 40% of Twitter users are between 18 and 29 years old, while 27% are between 30 and 49 years old. With a 140-character limit, Twitter doesn’t allow for lengthy posts. Make sure your offers are catchy, in your face and, most importantly, timely.

In addition to publishing content on your social media page, share posts and photos of your guests that also showcase your hotel. Doing so doesn’t require much effort and lets potential guests in on the guest experience at your hotel. This strategy increases your notoriety and credibility; you aren’t selling anything directly, only sharing in a transparent manner details of a pleasant stay at your hotel.

While it’s always great to attract new followers, don’t take the ones you already have for granted. Remember to post event reminders and create relevant content on a regular basis to pique the interest of your existing followers. Also, consider offering discounts to your most loyal guests or those who share your posts or tag you in their posts the most to cement your followers’ and guests’ loyalty.

Finally, be sure to respond to your guests’ posts and comments. Thank those who make positive comments and be understanding and receptive to comments that are more negative in tone. There’s always a way to work things out and make a bad situation better.

Hotello is committed to sustainable development

Posted on 20 July 201820 May 2022 by Laura Yee Kui Choi

Hotello is already committed to sustainable practices

As Hotello aims to improve hotel practices on a daily basis, it has also been committed to improving its practices for many years already. Hotello and all its employees are involved with the community. We organized a spaghetti dinner in our office building and raised funds to support an organization that works in schools to encourage children to adopt healthy eating habits. During the holiday season, Hotello employees collected non-perishable food items to help associations that serve people in need.

Our employees also benefit from these sustainable development practices. Each Hotello employee has the opportunity to work from home to better meet their needs. Employees also enjoy flexible hours to promote a health work and family life balance.

What is sustainable development?

The term sustainable development appeared for the first time in 1980 in the World Conservation Strategy, a publication of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). In 1987, the Brundtland Report took the term a step further at the World Commission on Environment and Development and from it derives the current definition of sustainable development: “Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” Sustainable development’s main purpose is to rethink the relationships between human beings and between humans and nature.

The three main sustainable development orientations are:

To maintain the integrity of the environment, ensure the health and safety of human communities and preserve the ecosystems that sustain life;
To ensure social equity and thereby promote the full development of all women and men, the growth of communities and a respect for diversity;
To target economic efficiency to create an innovative and prosperous ecologically and socially responsible economy.

Hotel management software and sustainable development

As the definition indicates, sustainable development applies to all spheres of society. Even if tech companies don’t produce polluting emissions like heavy industry does, they still have a role to play. Tech companies should choose their partners judiciously, opting for local hosting service providers or ones that have embraced sustainable development practices. For example, heat generated from some data centres is used to heat communal pools or city greenhouses. These centres can also recycle obsolete computer equipment and choose materials that are longer lasting than others.

Sustainable development is also a social equity issue, and tech companies have a great deal of leeway in the matter. As mentioned above, Hotello employees have the option to work from home. This initiative has an impact well beyond that of mere comfort or convenience. Employees who work from home don’t need to commute daily which saves on fuel and on transportation and infrastructure wear and tear. This simple flex benefit, which some companies offer, can have as marked an impact on employee development as it does on sustainable development.

Innovation lies at the heart of tech company concerns. At Hotello, we’re committed to grow our sustainable development initiatives. We have made greater integration possible between our hotel management software (PMS) and hotel energy saving systems. We’ve also integrated our PMS to check-in kiosks that free hotel employees from repetitive tasks.

Sustainable solutions are sometimes much simpler and more accessible than people think. We are proud to advise our clients based on the knowledge we’ve gained in this field to our mutual benefit and for the benefit of society at large.