Marketing

🌎 Agoda's new initiative links with travel creators on social media to boost bookings. Participants receive unique promo codes, earning commissions per booking, plus monthly sponsored stays and activities up to £169. Rewards include Agoda swag and travel credits up to £755. Agoda features creators in campaigns to expand their reach. With over six million properties, 130,000 flight routes, and 300,000 activities, Agoda offers extensive booking combinations.

🌍 Great Britain’s “Starring GREAT Britain” campaign by VisitBritain capitalizes on the set-jetting trend, featuring locations like Bath and the Scottish Highlands. Directed by Tom Hooper, it generates £20 for every £1 invested in tourism. Malaysia’s “Selamat Kembali” campaign showcases diverse cultural and natural offerings. VisitOSLO’s campaign humorously contrasts Oslo’s perceived flaws with its real charm. Portugal’s “Futourism” emphasizes sustainability. Singapore’s campaign highlights its 64 islands. Switzerland’s “Bees & Friends” campaign emphasizes biodiversity, featuring replicas of Swiss hotels for bees and narrated by James Faulkner.

🗺️ Ryanair, Airbnb, easyJet, lastminute.com, and Booking.com are among the UK’s top challenger brands, as per the Trouble Making 100 Report. Ryanair ranked 3rd, easyJet 53rd, lastminute.com 70th, Airbnb 18th, and Booking.com 72nd. The report uses consumer perspectives, awareness scores, and ad spend data from the past 18 months, narrowing 400 brands to 100. Virgin also made the list, but not specifically for its travel brands.

📑 In a conversation led by Nancy Mendelson, Victoria Feldman de Falco of Redpoint emphasizes aligning marketing, PR, and operations to boost hospitality growth. Drawing on 40+ years of experience, Victoria suggests creative campaigns like "Cyber Monday for Hotels" and "Baggage Buyback" to illustrate effective collaboration. Key insights include fostering risk tolerance and protecting PR budgets. The conversation offers practical steps for enhancing team collaboration and driving brand value.

💰 Expedia Group's research reveals hotels lose 6% of revenue annually due to fragmented distribution. A survey of 2,000 hotel revenue managers across eight countries shows 98% experience rate leakage, with 52% using 4-6 distribution partners. Hotels spend an average of $40,100 annually on B2B distribution, with 25% spending over $50,000. The study suggests a centralized distribution platform could reduce leakage and improve revenue, as 99% of hoteliers agree on its benefits.

📈 OTAs, direct bookings, and GDS are crucial for a hotel’s revenue strategy. OTAs offer reach but charge high commissions (15-25%). Direct bookings maximize profits with zero commissions but need marketing investment. GDS targets corporate clients, offering higher ADRs and fewer cancellations. Balancing these channels enhances occupancy and profitability. STAAH technology centralizes channel management, integrating OTAs, GDS, and direct bookings for optimal results. Balancing these channels is key to a resilient hotel business.

🏖 The Surin Phuket leveraged its marketing strategy, aligning it with the natural traveler’s journey to boost presence in a competitive market. Collaborating with D-EDGE, the focus was on timing, relevance, and guest intent, not high-volume ads. This approach led to sustainable growth in visibility and conversions, aiding in attracting travelers keen on authenticity and beauty, while maintaining its quiet elegance and encouraging direct bookings.

💰 Hotels should focus on personalized incentives over blanket discounts to attract high-value guests. Generic discounts often attract low-spending visitors and fail to foster loyalty. Data shows that 61% of consumers are willing to pay more for personalized experiences, yet only 23% report receiving them during hotel stays. It's five to ten times cheaper to retain existing customers, who spend 67% more on average. Strategies such as segmenting high-value guests and offering personalized rewards boost revenue and long-term growth.

📚 Boston University professor Leora invested two years writing a book, released on September 15, 2024, focusing on marketing as critical and strategic thinking. She emphasizes education over selling, hospitality as marketing, and adapting to digital and physical visibility. Leora's teaching at ESSEC Business School involved practical marketing projects, and her students' input shaped the book. Her approach includes a scorecard for strategic and critical thinking, with her work even sparking job offers for students.

🏨 Grand Zuri, a prominent hospitality brand, delivers unique experiences and has received numerous accolades. D-EDGE, a SaaS company, supports over 17,000 hotels in 150+ countries with cloud-based solutions for hotel distribution, involving 500 experts across 25 countries. As an Accor subsidiary, D-EDGE's ecosystem includes 550+ partners. Accor itself operates over 5,700 properties and 10,000 food and beverage venues in 110 countries.