Marketing

🏠 Emerald Hospitality Group and Regis Group partner to open three dining concepts in London's Daily Telegraph building by late 2025. Casa Como, an Italian-themed ground floor space, includes a salumeria, restaurant, bar, and 60-seat terrace. The seventh floor will feature "Everything On Fire," offering a selection of premium meats prepared on an open-flame grill. An Asian fusion concept with Japanese, Thai, and Chinese influences, set across the eighth and ninth floors, will include a sushi counter, robata grill, and rooftop bar with panoramic views. Interiors designed by Lazaro Rosa Violan Studio.

💳 Payments in hospitality are transformative, impacting conversions, loyalty, and revenue. They've evolved beyond transactional to strategic, influencing guest experiences and impacting the industry's future. Mobile wallets, local payment options, and digital wallets are becoming mainstream. Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) options, currency localization, and frictionless check-ins are reshaping guest expectations. Payment strategies should align with market segmentation and leverage data to enhance pricing and upselling tactics. Embracing new payment trends can lead to higher conversion rates, increased revenue, and guest loyalty. Fernando Vives, an industry expert, underscores the significance of payments in hospitality's evolving landscape.

📦 Independent European hotels, often with around 30 rooms, struggle in marketing against giants like Expedia and Booking due to constraints in resources. Outsourcing marketing is common for these hotels and house owners to platforms such as Vrbo, Booking, and Expedia. The decision is tough, with financial management and guest services prioritized. Some hotels face issues with their homepages, including bugs in language, payment, design, and booking processes. Hotel types range from independent, passionate establishments to professional chains, each providing different levels of service and personalization. The influence of Expedia and Booking is significant, affecting both guests' choices and hotel operations.

🧐 Car buyers typically have a 3-5 brand shortlist pre-purchase, with 70-80% buying from that list and 20-30% going for other brands. However, a non-shortlisted brand with a 5% market share only has a 1.5% chance of being chosen, as they compete for a share of the remaining 30% proportional to their market share. This emphasizes the importance for marketers to ensure brand awareness and mental availability prior to consumer's active shopping phase. - Julia Kinner, JK & Associates SA.

📣 Over 80% of travelers read reviews before booking hotels. Key review platforms include Google, TripAdvisor, Facebook, and Online Travel Agents like Booking.com, Expedia, and Agoda. Effective review management enhances guest experience and can incentivize future visits. STAAH ReviewMinder provides a centralized dashboard for managing reviews, offering AI-powered responses and sentiment analysis to improve hotel reputation and drive bookings. Regular strategy reviews and leveraging new technologies are recommended for continuous improvement.

🔔 Sara Masterson, President of Olympia Hospitality, discusses onboarding four new hotels set for April 1st, focusing on seamless transition for field teams. Olympia's brand, encompassing Marriott, Hilton, Choice, Hyatt, and independent hotels, prioritizes culture and owner expectations over promoting its own brand. Sara emphasizes the importance of staff experience and transparency to uphold hospitality standards 24/7, 365 days a year.