A collection of

contributions from
marketing experts
at hotel chains,
properties, vendors
and consultancies
globally.

Curated by
W H AT ’ S I N S I D E

4 43
Welcome Chapter 4
Optimal Channel Mix &
9 OTA Strategy
Chapter 1
Education & Learning 55 Meet the Experts
Chapter 5
20 Storytelling & Social Media 7
Chapter 2
Marketing Performance 64
& Metrics Chapter 6
Targeting & Personalization
28
Chapter 3 72
Website Optimization Chapter 7
Technology Final Thoughts

88
 4

W E B E L I E V E that the major

changes in the hospitality industry
and the constant evolution of digital
marketing have created a demand for
a truly definitive guide to hotel digital
marketing, so we set out to create it.

To make the guide as valuable,

credible and definitive as possible,
we decided to source the content
from an elite group of experienced
hospitality marketers from different
areas of the hospitality industry around
THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO
H O T E L D I G I TA L M A R K E T I N G W el c o m e

#HDMGUIDE 5

the world. We can truly say that this If you’re a hotel digital marketer or A PREVIEW OF
guide has been created for marketers by eCommerce manager, you’re bound W H AT Y O U ’ L L
marketers as it is made up of advice and to be inspired by what you read in the LEARN
soundbites straight from the minds of pages that follow. To all of the experts
What hospitality industry
experienced hospitality marketers who featured, thank you for sharing your 1
experts believe today’s
have “been there, done that.” insights and advice to make this guide hotel digital marketers
come to life. must focus on to achieve
We asked each of the experts featured
success
in this guide one question: “If I were new John McAuliffe
to hotel digital marketing, what would How some of the top
President, WebCanada 2
hospitality brands are
you suggest I focus on for success?”
staying competitive in the
This question sparked many insightful complex and quick moving
conversations, unique responses and digital landscape

10,000+ words of valuable hotel digital

3 Best practices and ideas
marketing advice, which we’ve compiled
that will set you up for
for you. success in hotel digital
marketing landscape
THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO
H O T E L D I G I TA L M A R K E T I N G W elcome

#HDMGUIDE 6

HOW TO BY EXPER T SPREAD THE WORD

Turn to the next page and choose an expert. You’ll
READ THIS We would love to hear what you
see the chapters they’re featured in on their photo. think about this guide. Please use
GUIDE #HDMGuide whenever you mention
Click on the chapter numbers or flip through the
this guide online.
book to see what they said.

BY TOPIC
Choose a topic you’re interested in. Using the J O I N O U R P R I VAT E
LINKEDIN COMMUNIT Y
table of contents, click or skip ahead to the page
number indicated and enjoy the read. Then repeat Get answers to your most
pressing challenges
with another topic.
Learn from an elite group of
hotel marketing experts
FRONT TO BACK
Get comfortable and start reading. Network with successful and
like-minded hoteliers

JOIN US NOW
 MEET
THE
EXPERTS

DANIEL KERZNER

JOHN MCAULIFFE
Senior Marketing Leader
for Global Luxury Travel & President at
Hospitality Brands WebCanada

IN C H A P T ER S: 1,5, 7 IN CHAPTERS: 2,4,5,7

JOSH HERMAN
Director of Marketing & PR at
Fontainebleau Miami Beach
SERDAR KUTUCU
FLO LUGLI
Vice President Brand,
Marketing & Communications Principal at Navesink
at Design Hotels Advisory Group

IN C H A P T ER S: 1,3,6, 7 IN CHAPTERS: 3 & 6 IN C H A P T ER S: 1,3, 4 ,6

 MEET
THE
EXPERTS

MICHAEL BENNETT

Senior Vice President Global

Marketing at Cendyn

IN C H A P T ER S: 1, 2 , 4

MARK WONG
ALAN YOUNG
Vice President Asia
President & Co-Founder at Pacific at Small Luxury
Puzzle Partner Hotels of the World
MICHAELA PAPENHOFF
Managing Director at
h2c GmbH

IN CHAPTERS: 2,5,7 IN C H A P T ER S: 1,3,6, 7 IN CHAPTERS: 3,4,7

“An investment
in knowledge
pays the best
interest”

01
B EN JA MIN FR A N K LIN

CHAP TER 1

Education & Learning

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#HDMGUIDE 10

8
O N LY 8 % of Fortune 500

%
companies and digital
agencies identify their team’s
digital marketing skills as
OUR EXPERTS SUGGEST
strong across all areas. This
that in order to be successful,
comes as no surprise given
hotel digital marketers must
the lightning fast pace at
commit to continuous learning
which digital marketing evolves.
and education. What you will
discover is that, in addition to
learning new digital marketing
skills, there are many different areas of
education and learning to pay attention to.
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INSIGHTS IN THIS
FROM CH A P T ER YO U
WILL LEARN
Flo Lugli
Navesink Advisory
Group

Mark Wong
Small Luxury Hotels
of the World

Daniel Kerzner
Global Luxury Travel &
Hospitality Brands
Strategies to stay Hands-on ways to How learning from What you can learn
Michael Bennett current on hotel learn more about other departments from the customer
Cendyn digital marketing your hotel and your and industries can data you collect
guests give you an edge
Josh Herman
Fontainebleau Miami
Beach
THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO Chapter 1
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#HDMGUIDE
SUBSCRIBE Digital marketing is constantly evolving.
Google is frequently changing their
TO BOTH
algorithms and Facebook is regularly
INDUSTRY AND
changing what they’re offering, so you
NON-INDUSTRY need to stay up on what’s going on by
P U B L I C AT I O N S focusing on continuous education. The
FLO LUGLI hospitality industry is not known for
being the most innovative or forward
thinking. We tend to be followers and
not fast followers at that, that’s why I
suggest staying current on what other,
faster moving industries (like retail)
are doing. The retail industry
does a lot of testing on their
websites and there’s no
sense in reinventing the
wheel in our own industry.
12
You can do this by subscribing to
hotel industry publications as well as
non-industry publications about digital
marketing and consumer trends for
some of your insights. It’s also a good
idea to build up a network of folks to
interact with, compare notes and share
best practices, bounce things off of,
and basically debate what’s going on.
By networking and educating yourself
throughout your career, you’ll always be
learning more about digital marketing
and finding ways to apply trends and
initiatives in retail and other industries to
your marketing strategy.
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U N D E R S TA N D If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years, it’s

that you really need to understand the science
E-COMMERCE
behind the digital distribution channel and the art
AND
of hospitality. The ideal combination for success
H O S P I TA L I T Y as a hotel digital marketer is to have a good
MARK WONG understanding of the e-commerce eco-system,
plus customer service experience in the hospitality
space. But I understand that not everyone has
that mix and that’s why constant education on the
job is still crucial to success. This is particularly
true in Asia. Overall, we are trying to catch up to
the level of sophistication of the North American
space. There isn’t any curriculum that specializes
in hotel digital marketing. Hence, a lot of it is on the
job training or learn-as-you-go. As a result, many
digital marketers don’t have the basics down.
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LEARN THE
O P E R AT I O N S
AND THE PEOPLE
SIDES OF THE
HOTEL BUSINESS
D A N I E L K ER Z N ER

The hospitality industry is made up of etcetera. I seriously thought, ‘Do I have you really needed to understand the
people who have often been in the the wrong job? I’m actually here to work business in order to market it.
business for generations. I’m not one of in marketing.’ So, if you’re coming from
those people. To help get acquainted another industry, the first thing you The people have given me the greatest
with the business, I spent my first two need to do is learn the hotel business understanding of the industry. At the
weeks going from working at the front from the ground up and the inside out. end of the day, hospitality is a people
desk to housekeeping, to bellman It was ingrained in me from day one that business. If you don’t learn the people
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#HDMGUIDE L EAR N THE O PERAT I O N S A N D THE 15

PE O P L E S I D E S O F THE H O TE L B U S I N E S S

side of it, you won’t be successful.

When I first moved to London, I spent
two months living in the Sheraton Grand
Park Lane Hotel. I made it my mission to
sit in the lobby observing and talking to
guests in the evenings. The knowledge
that I gained was invaluable.

Still to this day, I try to connect with

guests no matter where I am in the
world. Whether it’s going for a coffee, a
drink, or breakfast, sitting in a lobby or
pulling together a casual focus group,
I’m constantly making a point to hear
what guests have to say and watch what
they do.
 16

I F Y O U O P E R AT E I N S I L O S T H E H O T E L I S
D E S T I N E D T O F A I L . A C T U A L LY, I T ’ S A L M O S T
G UA R A N T EED TO FA I L . I ’ V E S EEN I T H A P P EN .

When you work together with both revenue management and

sales, you can make smarter, better educated decisions about
how to spend your money and what type of business to drive,
which your hotel owner will love because it’s good, high rated,
more profitable business.

C O L L A B O R AT E Revenue managers have a wealth of data and successful

WITH REVENUE digital marketing is all about data. You need to get to know
MANAGEMENT your revenue manager because they will be able to share

AND SALES information about the rate, the demand, the market, who your
competitors are and what they’re doing. They can tell you
MICHAEL BENNETT
things like, ‘There’s x demand in the market so we think we
can charge x.’ Ideally, you want to leverage their data with
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#HDMGUIDE C O L L A B O R AT E W I T H R E V E N U E M A N A G E M E N T A N D S A L E S 17

what your agency is telling you. If you business comes from group sales, set agenda. That’s all it takes to get
can marry the two together, you can they’re going to lay it in and then they’re it started. You’ll develop a cadence
get pretty sophisticated and improve going to tell you where the gaps are. over time especially when the hotel
conversion. While there are some They will tell you things like, ‘We’re or corporate leadership is committed
very specific disciplinary things that slow in September. We’re slow around to holding the teams accountable. For
a revenue manager does in terms of Christmas. We’re slow around X.’ This example, at White Lodging, marketing,
turning the dials and a marketer does intelligence lets you build a marketing revenue management and sales had
in terms of creating campaigns, I see calendar around the right promotions to KPIs that crossed over and bonuses
the lines between digital marketer and fill these gaps. If all goes well, you fill the were impacted.
revenue manager becoming more and gaps and then everything on top of it is
more blurred. It’s really all about driving gravy.
demand and rate.
You don’t have to spend hours
You also need to talk to sales. Their and hours in meetings. Start a
job is to lay the base business in routine of getting together
the hotel. So, if 50% of your hotel’s once a week with a
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GET TO
K N OW YO U R
CUSTOMERS
T H R O U G H D ATA
J O S H HER M A N

Start by getting to know your customers. We see millions of

customers a year come through our doors at Fontainebleau,
but I bet if we lined up a dozen of our leaders and asked them
to describe our ideal customer, you’d get a dozen different
answers. Everyone would paint a different picture of the
customer – it’s impossible not to.

That’s why it’s so important to use our data to get a clear

picture not just of our customers, but our best customers.
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#HDMGUIDE G E T T O K N O W YO U R C U S T O M E R S T H R O U G H D ATA 19

I can tell you that for us, we focus on the The data really takes the guesswork
following: out of understanding our customer.
I’m a strong believer that you can’t
What kind of experiences does the always judge a book by its cover. The
guest engage in on property? customers that you may perceive or
assume to be the biggest spenders may
Where do they spend their money?
not actually be once you look at your
“The customers What do they like to do? data.
that you may
perceive or assume What feedback do they give us?
to be the biggest
spenders may not We assemble all of these data points

actually be once together to paint the picture of

our ideal customer which
you look at your
becomes the foundation of
data.”
every piece of marketing.
“Measurement is
fabulous. Unless you’re
busy measuring what’s
easy to measure as
opposed to what’s
important”

02
S E T H G O D IN

CHAP TER 2

Marketing Performance
& Metrics
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ACCORDING TO HUBSP OT 4 0% OF
MARKETERS IDENTIF Y PROVING THE ROI

40
OF MAR K E TING ACTIVITIES AS A TOP
CHALLENGE.

Based on our conversations with our experts, it’s

%
a challenge that hotel digital marketers need to
face head-on. Doing so requires keeping your end
goal in mind, continually measuring your marketing
performance and letting metrics be your guide.
When you take this approach, you have the power to
make more informed marketing decisions that maximize
your ROI.
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IN THIS
CH A P T ER YO U
WILL LEARN

INSIGHTS
FROM

Alan Young
Puzzle Partner What question you need How to evaluate your Why a metrics driven
to ask before you develop hotel and your agency’s approach to marketing is
Michael Bennett
a marketing strategy current marketing an absolute must
Cendyn
performance

John McAuliffe
WebCanada
 23

BEGIN WITH
YO U R END
GOAL
A L A N YO U NG

Digital marketing is multi-faceted and means different things

to different people and companies. Regardless of how you
define digital marketing, what really matters is that you know
what you want it to do for you. So, before anything else,
you need to figure out what your priorities are and be able
to answer this question: What is the end goal of our digital
marketing strategy?
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S I N C E T H E M A J O R I T Y O F A H O T E L’ S M A R K E T I N G
S P E N D T O D AY I S D I G I TA L , TA K I N G A L O O K AT
Y O U R D I G I TA L M A R K E T I N G P E R F O R M A N C E I S
Y O U R F I R S T S T E P.

I would assume your property has an agency partner because

they don’t have a brand supporting the marketing so you’ll
want to connect with your agency and get access to the ASSESS
digital media plans and results right away. YO U R
AGENCY
When I worked at KSL the properties were all independents. MICHAEL BENNETT
While I was on the corporate level, my property level
marketing teams were almost all teams of one. If this is the
case for you, your agency is your team.
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#HDMGUIDE AS SES S YOUR AGENCY 25

You need to know how the agency and industry is a 10 to 1 stabilized return
campaigns are performing right off the “You want to be in over time. It gives them confidence in
bat. If they’re underperforming, you a position where their forecasts and the ability to report
need to address that first and foremost. you can go to your out to their investors and/or the street.
It’s the peel-off-the-band-aid mentality. executive team You want to be in a position where you
It might hurt, but you just have to do it whether you’re can go to your executive team whether
fast. you’re at a property or a corporate
at a property or
and say, ‘We spent two million dollars
a corporate and
At the end of the day, you will be held this year and it
say, ‘We spent
accountable for driving business. So, generated 20
two million dollars million.’
if you have an agency partner that is
spending money and you can’t connect
this year and it
what they’re doing back to revenue, it’s
generated 20
time to find a new agency. million.”

The expectation of any owner in the

 26

PUT METRICS IN
THE DRIVER’S
S E AT
J O H N MC A U L I F F E

You need to understand what your costs to acquire a

customer are. Once you understand that, you can put
money where its best spent, where it’s most effective and
efficient. I recommend setting up a framework for acquisition
effectiveness and acquisition costs for both direct and
indirect digital channels and even beyond digital to front
desk, call center, etcetera.

It doesn’t have to be sophisticated but it does need to help

you understand the value of each channel, where you’re
spending your money and your return on that money.
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#HDMGUIDE P U T M E T R I C S I N T H E D R I V E R ’ S S E AT 27

Let the metrics drive your decisions. It
goes back the whole argument about
whether marketing is art or science.
I think that over the last few decades
“You need to the balance between art and science
understand, what has shifted—particularly for digital
are these things marketing. Digital is much more direct
measuring things you don’t know what
to do, you don’t know what you’re trying
to achieve.
The demise of any marketer is when
the CEO asks, ‘What’s our return
on marketing investment?’ And the

we’re doing response oriented than brand oriented marketer has a blank stare on their face.

actually costing in nature so the science side of it is

much stronger than the art side.
us? What are they
doing for us?”
You need to understand, what are
these things we’re doing actually
costing us? What are they doing
for us? It goes back to that
whole “what gets measured
gets done” so if you’re not
CHAP TER 3

03
Website Optimization
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6 1% O F U S E R S W E R E U N L I K E LY T O R E V I S I T A
MOBILE SITE IF THE Y HAD TROUBLE ACCESSING
I T, A N D 4 0 % G O T O A C O M P E T I T O R I N S T E A D ,
A C C O R D I N G T O M C K I N S E Y & C O M P A N Y.

Your hotel website needs to be mobile optimized, but mobile

optimization is only one small component of an effective
website today. As our experts reveal, a high performance
hotel website is built on data, provides relevant content and is
constantly tested and optimized for booking conversion.
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IN THIS
INSIGHTS
FROM CH A P T ER YO U
WILL LEARN
Michaela Papenhoff
h2c GmbH

Flo Lugli
Navesink Advisory
Group

Josh Herman
Fontainebleau Miami
Beach

What the basics of a Why data, analytics and Why having a website
Mark Wong
high performance hotel testing are so crucial to doesn’t guarantee you
Small Luxury Hotels
website are and how to driving direct business top rankings on Google
of the World
implement them

Serdar Kutucu
Design Hotels
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A L W AY S
S TA R T W I T H
A N A LY T I C S
MIC H A E L A PA P E NH O FF

“Once
Always start with analytics. Your website analytics
you’ve looked
tool and your booking engine analytics will provide
at the analytics
you with the information that you need in order to
understand: Is my website performing? How good
and have your
is it in terms of usability, information, revenue
action points
conversion and so on? Is my website responsive? generated, then
Is it easy to use? Is it fast enough? you can go ahead
hire a developer
Once you’ve looked at the analytics and have your or agency to build
action points generated, then you can go ahead your website.”
hire a developer or agency to build your website.
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#HDMGUIDE A L W AY S S T A R T W I T H A N A LY T I C S 32

I need to emphasize that before you start this HERE ARE SOME TIPS ON HOW TO
process, you need to do your analysis. We see it ME ASURE PERFORMANCE:
done the other way around too often.
Always define your website KPIs so you have
Website conversion rates differ depending on criteria to measure performance against.
the market, region, specific location and property
type. It helps to benchmark your Analyze your website reporting based on your
conversion rates with your pre-defined KPIs regularly.
competitive set (if it
exists). Use heat maps to understand how to improve
your website’s usability and where to position
your booking link.

Remember, ease of use is always more

important than sophisticated features!
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K N O W W H AT ’ S
HAPPENING WITH
YO U R WEB S IT E
FLO LUGLI

Just because you have a website doesn’t necessarily mean people will “If you don’t have
visit it. I always say if you don’t have budget to market your hotel, then
budget to market
having a website probably isn’t going to generate a big return. One
your hotel, then
of the reasons for this is because Google is pushing organic search
having a website
results further down the page and sometimes onto the second page
(the entire first page is typically ads and paid search). Even if you have
probably isn’t
a really great fully optimized website, it may never make it to the top of
going to generate a
the page. Plus, there’s no way an independent hotel (or a hotel brand big return.”
for that matter) can compete with the marketing dollars that an OTA is
spending.
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#HDMGUIDE K N O W W H AT ’ S H A P P E N I N G W I T H YO U R W E B S I T E 34

The only way you’re going to know what’s happening

on your website is by having a good understanding of
your website analytics tool. You also need to be able to
understand what the analytics are telling you. If you
don’t, I would look to engaging with a third party to
do a website assessment for you.

Once you’ve completed a website analysis and

can see the areas that need improvement, do
some very simple A/B testing to see how the
results change. You would be surprised how simply
changing the color of the book now button can
impact performance.
 35

B U ILD YO U R
WEBSITE ON
D ATA
JOSH HERMAN

The Fontainebleau website is built on data. We have so many

rooms and so many room types. Many of them are suites,
which carry a certain price point. We’ve built our imaging and
messaging around things that appeal to the type of customer
that is affluent enough to purchase suites and higher
categories of rooms as well as on-property experiences and
services. We know that lot of the beverage and wine and the
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#HDMGUIDE B U I L D YO U R W E B S I T E O N D ATA 36

high-end restaurant program really appeal to the

“Customers that we
affluent customer. That’s why you’ll see a lot of
imaging around dining.
target online produce
such a significantly
Using our data and really focusing our marketing higher ADR than
spend on the best type of customer for the hotel customers that
has allowed us to be so much more efficient with we’re not targeting
our spending and drive increases in market share. or customers that
Our digital marketing efforts and the customers book direct without
that we target online produce such a significantly seeing our ads, or
higher ADR than customers that we’re not targeting book through an OTA.”
or customers that book direct without seeing our
ads, or book through an OTA, wholesaler, or any
type of third party.
 37

D I G I TA L M A R K E T I N G H A S B E C O M E S O M U C H
MORE COMPLEX

In the past, it was just about having a website. Now, we need

an integrated approach to our digital assets. Our website is
just a starting point. As we learn something new, something
new always crops up. It’s a constant educational process in
this space.

I see that hotel companies are very attracted to “hot topics

G E T YO U R WEB S IT E and trends” in the digital marketing world and tend to forget
BASICS RIGHT the basics of good website design, search engine marketing,
and search engine optimization – the fundamental things that
MARK WONG
are taken for granted nowadays.

If you look at statistics year after year, they say that 70%
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#HDMGUIDE GE T YOUR WEBSITE BASIC S RIGHT 38

of website traffic still starts from in place so that 70-80% of the traffic
search. That’s significant. Yet search is coming from organic search results.
engine marketing and search We should only be paying for the
engine optimization are being remaining traffic, not the other way
de-prioritized in favor of “sexier” “The basics of around.
social media listening and the website need
reviews, programmatic media to be in place so Unlike the OTAs who have the
- things like that. We need to that 70-80% of the capacity to basically buy the
bring it back to the basics. traffic is coming whole search results page, most
hotel brands (even the luxury
from organic search
For example, when I speak ones) have very small marketing
results.”
about hotel digital marketing at budgets. So, a smart digital
conferences, I always cite the 80:20 marketer should focus on the basics,
or 70:30 rule. What I mean by that is: meaning a search engine optimized
the basics of the website need to be website before anything else.
W E B S I T E O P T I M I Z AT I O N 39

SELL THE
EXPERIENCE
SERDAR KUTUCU

We’ve built the Design Hotels website in a way that makes

navigation easy for the visitor. People don’t want to lose time
and you actually lose people if you don’t give them the right
guidance. We cluster the hotels into motives for traveling or
interests from our guests’ point of view, including city hotels,
modern hotels, beach hotels, etcetera. This way, we can give
them easy access to the experience they’re seeking.

You’ll see this on the homepage and the section called

“Original Experiences” where we actually present the
experience and not the product. When you click on
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#HDMGUIDE S E L L THE E X PER I E N C E 40

“Community” you can see our culture blog where we provide information
from the world of Design Hotels — it can be about a designer, it can be

“We don’t need about an owner, it can be about an event that happened in one of our
hotels.
to do everything,
but we need to do
What I am trying to say is that we’re not trying to punch people
something very
in the face with a discounted offer. We’re trying to sort the
well. We focus on products by motive for travel and give them interesting
what is key to us stories about our hotels.
and the right way
to position the Digital marketing has become so complex with so many
brand. It’s quality opportunities. It’s time for us to filter and focus. We don’t
over quantity. need to do everything, but we need to do something very
That’s our strategy well. We focus on what is key to us and the right way to
at Design Hotels.” position the brand. It’s quality over quantity. That’s our strategy
at Design Hotels.
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T E S T, T W E A K ,
R E P E AT
MARK WONG

Doing a deep dive into the analytics of
your website and the user experience
should really be the first step. I don’t
see enough focus on analysis
today. If your hotel information
is not properly presented,
your website takes too
long to load or the
user experience
is just poor,
you are
losing
potential business. All those things have
to be taken into consideration in your
analysis. Then you can map out the next
version of the website based on what
the analytics tell you.
As with any website, our website is
constantly being improved. We’re always
testing. For example, when we launched
the search bar on the homepage, we
tried many different placement and
design options to see which would help
visitors find what they’re looking for
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#HDMGUIDE T E S T, T W E A K , R E P E A T 42

more effectively. Adding new content is also not a random

process; it is a decision based on country-specific yearly
search patterns and trends.

We’re continuously experimenting different ways of

enhancing the experience including balancing the hosting
around the world so the website always loads instantly and
launching our new Chinese website within the China firewall
so that the Chinese audience can easily access it.

Again it’s going back to the basics of understanding who

the primary user of the website is and applying relevant
techniques to make the website more efficient and effective.
CHAP TER 4

04
Optimal Channel Mix &
OTA Strategy
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WHEN A GUEST BOOKS A ROOM This is true in theory, but it’s not always that
THR O U G H YO U R WEB S ITE , THE simple. Today, with the complex and ever-evolving
B O O K I N G I S M O R E P R O F I TA B L E T H A N hotel shopping journey and the numerous
A B O O K IN G M A D E O N A T HIR D - PA R T Y channels that play a role in it, digital marketers
W E B S I T E O R O TA . need to see the bigger picture in order to achieve
maximum profitability. Our guests explore a variety
of different scenarios and strategies for achieving
an optimal channel mix, even one where it may be
more profitable for all of a hotel’s bookings to come
through OTAs.
THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO Chapter 4
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#HDMGUIDE 45

IN THIS
CH A P T ER YO U
WILL LEARN

INSIGHTS
FROM

Michaela Papenhoff
h2c GmbH

Flo Lugli
Navesink Advisory Group
Why less is How building Why taking a Questions to ask that
sometimes more positive proactive approach will help you optimize
Michael Bennett
when it comes to relationships with to your channel your conversions on
Cendyn
managing multiple the OTAs can mix yields better all channels
channels benefit you results
John McAuliffe
WebCanada
 46

FO C U S O N YO U R
M O S T R E L E VA N T
CHANNELS
MIC H A E L A PA P E NH O FF

Talk to your OTA market managers, they have

access to data that can really help you understand
the dynamics of your market. This is one reason I
always advise clients to treat the OTAs as partners,
not enemies.

In working with chains, we often find that they’re

only managing content on three or four of their
most important distribution channels, while the
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#HDMGUIDE F O C U S O N YO U R R E L E VA N T C H A N N E L S 47

others are being left behind. We suggest (depending on how

that they focus on managing their content many room types
on the most relevant channels for them, you have) you could have
beyond the three or four major channels more than 4,000 - 5,000 different
that bring them revenue, ideally 10 or 12. fields that need to be updated. That’s
something that hotel chains simply don’t
Trying to manage content on more do. Neither do independent properties
than 50 channels is a waste of time, for that matter. It’s a lot of work, it’s time
mostly because there’s really no central consuming and there isn’t a technology
database for managing content on all of solution that does it for you yet.
the distribution channels. If you manage
content on 10 different OTA extranets
 48

BEFRIEND THE
O TA S
FLO LUGLI

I always tell people to look at what the OTAs are doing and
what they’ve done in the past. The OTAs were the first to
come out with strikethrough pricing. They were the first to
come out with things like ‘three rooms left at this price’ or
‘14 people have looked at this hotel today.’ Just like retailers,
they’re doing thousands of tests every year so there’s no
sense in trying to figure out the best way to optimize your
hotel website for conversions. If you see it on an OTA, you
can be quite sure they’ve done the tests to show that it drives
higher conversions.
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#HDMGUIDE B E F R I E N D T H E O TA s 49

I don’t subscribe to the theory that OTAs through the OTA. Regardless, I’m a firm
are enemies. Quite frankly, there’s a believer that having a strong, positive
lot of rhetoric out there from the major relationship with the OTAs is in your best
“It’s all about interest.
brands about the OTAs, but I know for
a fact that every single one of them
determining your
has commercial agreements with OTAs. optimal business You need to think of OTAs as channels
In fact, they have relatively cordial mix, perhaps to be managed just as you manage
discussions on a day-to-day working making OTAs a wholesale business, corporate
basis. bigger part of the contracts, and so
mix in low periods on. You
In your specific case, if you’re paying an and smaller in want
OTA commission of 18% (it’s probably stronger periods.”
higher for most independents) and your
effective commission rate on your digital
marketing is 30%, it may make more
sense to allow that booking to come
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#HDMGUIDE B E F R I E N D T H E O TA s 50

to think about what your optimal RevPAR is relative to

occupancy and rate and determine how OTAs can contribute
to that mix. That said, I don’t think it’s wise to base your entire
distribution strategy on OTAs and have them deliver 60%
of your business all the time. It’s all about determining your
optimal business mix, perhaps making OTAs a bigger part of
the mix in low periods and smaller in stronger periods.

Ultimately, you have to understand your cost of sale and the

ROI on your digital marketing. Only then can you understand
better what your optimal channel mix should be. Work
with your local OTA representative to help you identify
opportunities that can drive more business for your hotel.
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BE PROACTIVE I’d say you need to make sure you
understand your media mix and
M I C HAE L B E N N ETT
proactively look at your results. In most
agency situations, the hotel gives the
agency 10,000 dollars. They spend
that money during the month and they
come back 15 days after the month end
and say, ‘You got a five to one return on
that. You made 50,000 dollars back in
revenue.’
the return?’ Our account managers at
Cendyn look at our customers’ activity
on a weekly basis. Conversations with
our customers often sound like, ‘Hey,
here’s what we’re seeing—and by
the way we’ve moved some money to
TripAdvisor metasearch and we’ve seen
a massive increase so we’re going to
continue to shift until we see a

The first question you should ask

yourself is, ‘Is there anything
we could have done
differently with that
money to maximize
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#HDMGUIDE BE PROACTIVE 52

diminishing return. We’ll re-allocate the
budget from this other channel because
it’s not performing.’
The idea is to be proactive around your
media mix so there are no surprises
and you don’t have to sit in
front of an owner and say,
‘Sorry we’ve missed the
return estimations by
five points.’ Instead,
you can say with
confidence, ‘We did
everything we could
and we got to an eight to one return.
Now we’re going to look for additional
opportunities to try and get a couple of
those points back.’ That’s an example of
a conversation that inspires confidence
that you know your business, how
guests are booking, where you’re
spending your money, and so on. It’s
about being proactive.
 53

I know that direct bookings are all the rage today but I think
every marketer must look at their own hotel and determine
the best mix of direct and indirect channels to maximize the
effectiveness and cost efficiency of acquiring a new guest.
By understanding what it costs to acquire a guest you can
focus your efforts on those channels that are most effective.

OP TIMIZE Once you’ve determined the right channel mix (which you
CONVERSIONS should be continually monitoring and adapting), your next
O N YO U R TO P step is to optimize conversions. You want to maximize the

CHANNELS effectiveness of how your hotel is presented on its most

important channels.
J O H N MC A U L I F F E
THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO C h a p t e r 4O P T I M I Z E CONVERSIONS ON YO UR TOP CHANNELS
H O T E L D I G I TA L M A R K E T I N G O PT I M A L C HA N N E L M I X & O TA S TRATE G Y

#HDMGUIDE O PT I M I Z E C O N V ER S I O N S O N Y O U R T O P C HA N N E L S 54

O N DIRECT CH A NNELS , YO U WA NT TO O N D I R E C T C H A N N E L S , L O O K AT:

CONSIDER THINGS LIKE:

Is your story compelling? Are all your text descriptions complete and
up-to-date?
Is there a clear path to booking?
Are your photos current and compelling?
What are your conversion metrics?
Are you participating in the right programs to
What strategies and tests do you have in place drive appropriate rankings?
to improve upon those metrics?

Do you have a re-marketing program to

motivate visitors to return to your website?
CHAP TER 5

05
Storytelling & Social
Media
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W E U S E D T O C O M M U N I C AT E In fact, a study found that groups shown

BY PA IN TIN G T HE INS ID E O F
C AV E W A L L S . C O M M U N I C AT I O N
H A S C H A N G E D D R A M AT I C A L LY,
WITH THE EXCEP TION OF ONE
ELEMENT -STORY TELLING.
Today we post photos of our lunch on
Instagram, we tweet to express our
opinions on current events and we share
our travel photos on Facebook. On top
of that, we value the stories shared by
peers far more than brand stories.
the photo of a hotel room next to a story
from someone who had stayed in the
room thought it was worth 5% more
than a photo of the same room with only
a technical description. Our experts
explore how to leverage the power of
social media and storytelling for your
hotel.
THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO Chapter 5
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IN THIS
CH A P T ER YO U
WILL LEARN

INSIGHTS
FROM

John McAuliffe
WebCanada

How to uncover A great example of Steps to take to What happens when

Daniel Kerzner
your hotel’s story how to empower empower guests to you start sharing
Global Luxury Travel &
guests to tell your be spokespeople for stories about your
Hospitality Brands
story your hotel hotel and your
guests
Alan Young
Puzzle Partner
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H O T E L D I G I TA L M A R K E T I N G STORY TELLING & SOCIAL MEDIA
#HDMGUIDE
D EFINE YO U R Think of your hotel’s story as the
foundation of a house. Understanding
STORY
the attributes and benefits your ideal
J O H N MC A U L I F F E
guests derive from your hotel will
help you write your hotel’s story. This
story will drive how you “talk” in the
marketplace, what you focus on in your
marketing, how you present yourself and What it comes down to is that you need
so on. It sounds simple but in reality,
this is the hardest part of a marketer’s
job.
I like using a technique called
the Five Whys, which is
an iterative interrogative
technique used to explore
58
the cause-and-effect relationships
underlying a particular problem. As
an example, I have adapted it to
better understand things like why a
Tempur-Pedic mattress is important to a
guest.
to invest the time to define your ideal
guest and understand what value or
benefit that guest gets from staying
at your hotel that they are willing to
spend money for. Think beyond the
cursory features of your hotel to the real
benefits.
STORY TELLING & SOCIAL MEDIA 59

EMPOWER
GUESTS TO TELL
YO U R S TORY
DANIEL KERZNER

I would say empowering guests to tell your story is the

“must.” Guests’ social networks are often larger and more
credible than a hotel’s social network. I believe that our role
as marketers is to empower our guests to tell our story. The
reach and value that you’ll get through the guests telling your
story is much greater than telling the story from the hotel’s
perspective.

The Four Seasons at the Avenue George V in Paris is a great

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example of how to empower guests to tell a story. This hotel over invests
in their lobby flowers because they want people to be “wowed” and tell
that story. Guests (and people who walk in off the street) are always
“I believe that
sharing photos and videos of the flowers on social media as you can our role as hotel
see on the hotel’s Instagram. marketers is to
empower our
Every hotel has a unique selling proposition - whether it’s their view, guests to tell the
their food, their staff that come from around the world, and much hotel’s story.”
more. That unique selling proposition needs to be front and center and
guests need to know what that is when they walk in the door. I don’t
think that there’s a hotel in the world that doesn’t have a story to tell.
Know what that story is, tell your guests that story, and empower them
to be your spokesperson.
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#HDMGUIDE EMP OWER GUES TS TO TELL YOUR S TORY 61

FLO LUGLI

Today, guests start sharing stories as soon as they Help articulate the story for them with cues
arrive. They take pictures and videos and create and clues
content that they share with their social networks.
We can direct those conversations without the Leverage technology to measure and see the
guest knowing that we’re even directing them. impact

HERE ARE THE STEPS I WOULD FOLLOW:

Know your unique selling propositions

Put them out there front and center

Enable and give connectivity to your guests to

share with others
 62

TURN GUESTS
I N T O A D V O C AT E S
A L A N YO U NG

I suggest using social media to empower your guests to

become advocates of your property by sharing their photos,
videos and stories.

“When you use Our industry looks at guest engagement as being a

your guests’ communication methodology and they’re not really engaging
photos to tell your with the guest, they’re talking to them not with them. Digital
hotel’s story, you marketing is not about servicing guests, it’s about engaging
start creating fans them. We’ve forgotten how to engage with guests.
of your brand.”
What’s the difference between a standard room in a Marriott,
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a Hilton, a Hyatt and a Starwood? They’re all 350 their brand or property and start encouraging and
sq. foot rooms. They all have flat screen TVs. embracing it - good, bad or indifferent. It’s one
They all look basically the same. So how do you thing for someone to rant or rave about a hotel in
differentiate your hotel? a written review, it’s another to post a picture that
says it all.
By telling stories. Very few hotels post guests’
stories on their websites but it’s stories that help Kimpton has always been great at telling stories
build relationships and engagement between the about their properties and guest experiences.
brand and the guest and differentiate the hotel Progressive hotel companies like Two
from the rest. Roads Hospitality are much more
“open” while public companies
The hospitality industry as a whole needs to never want the truth to be out
start sharing stories about their hotels and their there. No matter how big
guests. When you use your guests’ photos to tell your brand is, we live in
your hotel’s story, you start creating fans of your a world where the
brand. This only happens when hotels stop being information will
fearful about what guests are going to say about get out.
CHAP TER 6

Targeting &
06
Personalization
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W H O I S S TAY I N G I N Y O U R H O T E L? W H Y It’s a marketer’s job to know the answers to all of these

A R E T H E Y S TAY I N G AT Y O U R H O T E L?
W H AT L E D T H E M T O B O O K Y O U R H O T E L
OVER THE ONE DOWN THE ROAD?
questions, and more. Making assumptions or asking your staff
isn’t the right way to get the answers. Your data is. It will give
you the intelligence you need to deliver targeted, relevant,
personalized messages to your target guests, resulting in
better conversions. Our experts share their opinions and
experiences on effective targeting and personalization.
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IN THIS
CH A P T ER YO U
WILL LEARN

INSIGHTS
FROM

Josh Herman
Fontainebleau Miami
Beach

How to make sure your Tips for keeping your Why you need a
Serdar Kutucu marketing is appealing to content relevant and 360-degree view of your
Design Hotels the right types of guests interesting to your target customer journey
guests
Mark Wong
Small Luxury Hotels of
the World
THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO Chapter 6
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#HDMGUIDE
TA R G E T Y O U R Fontainebleau has a young, hip, ‘cool
place to be’ image in the marketplace.
MESSAGING
It’s a true celebrity “see and be
JOSH HERMAN
seen” destination, and an image
we’ve worked extremely hard to
build. I was surprised that our data
told us that certain times of the year
we do a significant amount of family
business. Or, certain times of the year
our customer base can really vary in
age or geographic location. So, we
adapt our marketing programs and
messaging accordingly.
It’s our job as marketers
to make sure that we’re
appealing to the right
67
types of customers and its data that
helps us allocate our marketing budgets
toward targeting the guests that have
the highest propensity to book and
have a great experience. Everyone has
a target customer base, regardless of
property size, image, etc.
As a luxury property, if we attract
customers that can’t afford to be here
or are not going to take advantage of all
the great amenities then shame on us
because we’re not doing our job from
a marketing perspective. The same
applies to any property.
 68

B E R E L E VA N T
AND INTERESTING
SERDAR KUTUCU

I think the most important thing today is that consumers

become part of the business. We need to start seeing
consumers as partners and look for ways to collaborate with
them as opposed to market to them. We can see clearly that
consumers have a very high influence on public perception
of brands, products and services across the board. This is
a signal that we as marketers need to engage consumers in
different ways than we have in the past.

There’s no button you click to change your entire digital

strategy. As an example, we’re really focusing on engaging
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consumers through meaningful and know what’s important, interesting and

relevant communication. There’s so helpful to them.
much information available to people
today. Your message needs to be Our next step is to improve the
meaningful to peoples’ lives and “We need to start relevance of the content in our
relevant to them personally in seeing consumers email marketing. This is a very
order to capture their attention. simple example I always use: It
as partners and
This implies that you need doesn’t make sense to send a
look for ways to
to know who you’re talking newsletter offering weekend
collaborate with
to. We’re always working on getaways in South America or
creating more relevant content
them as opposed to Europe to someone living in
for the consumer and talking to
market to them.” Tokyo. Instead, offer a weekend
them about what we believe will getaway in their region. This is just
interest them. To do this, we invite one example that involves information
them to participate actively in letting us about the consumer’s country or city of
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residence. The more information we can gather, which rates they book, how often they book, how
the more relevant the message can be. long they stay and which destinations they travel
to. We’re currently considering data warehouse
Going back to what I said in the beginning, as long model where we can feed and actually
as you receive meaningful and relevant information enrich profile information from
for your individual needs, you will engage with that other data sources.
channel. The more information we have about the
people we’re talking to the sharper we can be in
our content and communications. That’s how we
earn their engagement with our brands, products
and services.

One way is to do this is by tracking user habits

through the website and booking engine. At
Design Hotels, we see the behavior through the
customer journey on our direct channels. For
example, we can see which hotels a person books,
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#HDMGUIDE 71

CONSIDER THE
COMPLETE
CUSTOMER
JOURNEY
MARK WONG

I think e-commerce has evolved from just being an online

booking platform to more of a customer relationship
management (CRM) channel. This is because we need a “E-commerce has
360-degree view of our customer journey and the website is expanded beyond its
only one touch-point to interact with our customers. The way transactional purpose
I see it, e-commerce has expanded beyond its transactional
(from an online store) to
purpose (from an online store) to a more customer-centric
a more customer-centric
relationship tool where we know every contact point and
relationship tool.”
interaction our customers have with our brand.
CHAP TER 7

Technology
07
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J U S T G O O G L E “ D I G I TA L M A R K E T I N G T E C H N O L O G Y ”
A N D Y O U ’ L L Q U I C K LY B E C O M E O V E R W H E L M E D B Y T H E
N U MBER O F S O LU TIO NS YO U FIND.

There’s a technology solution for just about anything you would ever
want to do from a digital marketing standpoint, with new solutions
hitting the market daily. Which technology do you actually need? There’s
no easy answer, except that no matter what it is, it needs to serve your
marketing strategy. You might not need to invest in six-figure marketing
software in order to achieve the results you desire, whether it’s guest
engagement or acquisition, it could be as simple as downloading a
free app. Our experts weigh in on the role of technology in hotel digital
marketing and the guest experience.
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INSIGHTS
FROM
IN THIS
Josh Herman CH A P T ER YO U
Fontainebleau Miami
Beach WILL LEARN
Daniel Kerzner
Global Luxury Travel &
Hospitality Brands

Michaela Papenhoff
h2c GmbH

Michaela Papenhoff
h2c GmbH

John McAuliffe
WebCanada
How technology should Why a positive mobile Which technologies can
Alan Young
Puzzle Partner serve your marketing experience needs to help you enhance the
strategy be number one on your guest experience
Mark Wong
priority list
Small Luxury Hotels
of the World

Michael Bennett
Cendyn
 75

C O L L E C T, O R G A N I Z E ,
A N A LY Z E A N D A C T O N
Y O U R D ATA
JOSH HERMAN

Almost everyone wants to talk about data, but I’d say the vast
majority of people are overwhelmed and don’t know what to
do with it. I suggest setting yourself up for success by finding
a technology tool that can help you collect, organize and
analyze your data so you can take action on it.
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EN A B LE YO U R
GUESTS
THROUGH
TECHNOLOGY job building their marketing around
As marketers, we need to see the
DANIEL KERZNER their guests. One thing they learned
world through the guests’ eyes. If
the guests’ eyes are on WhatsApp, about their guests is that they’re

Instagram, Snapchat or on a mobile always on Instagram and they take

device, we need to make sure that and share photos of their food in the

our marketing is built around that and hotel’s restaurants. So, they created

certainly built for that. an Instagram page for each of their

restaurants and posted photos of the
food and pricing. Their Instagram feed
I’ll share an example. When
was essentially their menu, only better.
I was working with the
W Doha, I always found
they did a really good They also noticed their guests use
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#HDMGUIDE E N A B L E Y O U R G U E S T S THR O U G H TE C H N O L O G Y 77

WhatsApp to talk to colleagues, friends and family and “If the guests’ eyes are
wondered, ‘why can’t they do the same to speak with the
on WhatsApp, Instagram,
hotel?’ So, they launched a service called Let’s Chat, a
Snapchat or on a mobile
text-based guest communication tool where they were able
device, we need to make
to better service their guests needs, and upsell/cross-sell
through effective dialogue. When a guest wanted to book a
sure that our marketing
wakeup call, they would ask over WhatsApp. This real-time
is built around that and
interaction gave the hotel the opportunity to ask, ‘Would certainly built for that.”
you also like to arrange breakfast in your room?’ or ‘I see
you’re leaving tomorrow. Would you like a car transfer?’ Most
importantly, it was about speaking with guests on their own
device, on their own terms.

Let’s Chat was later rolled out to hundreds of hotels and tens
of thousands of guests. A great sign of a best practice!
 78

Individual properties rely on the technology that is available to

them from industry vendors, which can have its challenges and
limitations. Meanwhile, chains have the freedom and budgets
to build their own technology and tools, but doing so takes a lot
of time and effort – it’s just not fast enough.

What success really comes down to is how technology serves

the marketing strategy. Bringing technology and marketing
strategy together has always been a challenge in our industry,
BRING TECHNOLOGY although in different ways for individual properties and hotel
chains.
AND MARKETING
TOGETHER
We’ve done several studies with independent properties
MIC H A E L A PA P E NH O FF at h2c and we consistently find that their websites and
internet booking engines are not performing well in terms of
conversion, on both desktop and mobile.
THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO Chapter 7
H O T E L D I G I TA L M A R K E T I N G TECHNOLOGY
#HDMGUIDE
INVEST IN Marketing is still marketing and to be
successful you need to get the basics
TECHNOLOGY
and foundation right. Technology is
TO S CA LE YO U R
an enabler and when used effectively,
MARKETING it can help you scale your marketing
ACTIVITIES activities.
J O H N MC A U L I F F E
Technology allows us to interact with
our customers, talk to them, and engage the performance of your efforts (your
them more than ever. We can have
one-to-one conversations through
social media channels, and give our
customers a more personalized
experience in multiple ways
and with many devices.
79
Take email for example. While it’s no
longer “new technology,” I defy any
marketing person to say that email
marketing programs don’t work. I highly
recommend investing in a good email
marketing tool that has solid analytics
so you can send relevant personalized
content and messages and know
open rates, your conversions and your
returns, etc.).
Technology in marketing boils down to
helping marketers get a better grasp on
customer preferences, their behavior
and purchase trends, and to design the
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#HDMGUIDE INVES T IN TECHNOLOGY TO SCALE YOUR MARK E TING ACTIVITIES 80

most effective marketing strategy based on this intelligence

Marketing success will depend on how well we can leverage mobile as the customer’s
most preferred method of consumption; how we can make sense of Big Data and pull
“Technology is an out from it everything that relates to our business; how we use social to listen, learn,
enabler and when and have better conversations that lead to happier more satisfied customers; and of
used effectively, it course, how we utilize the cloud which is becoming the center of marketing automation,
can help you scale and the connective tissue between an organization’s
your marketing automation platform and their communication to

activities.” the world.

Software, tools, and new technologies

help marketers devise new ways to
engage customers.
THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO
H O T E L D I G I TA L M A R K E T I N G
#HDMGUIDE
BUILD REAL
R E L AT I O N S H I P S
WITH GUESTS
A L A N YO U NG
Digital marketing needs to become
more personal. That’s something you
want to keep top of mind as a hotel
digital marketer.
We believe that technology will take
care of engaging with guests for us.
Yes, technology can and does facilitate
guest engagement but in an industry
Chapter 7
TECHNOLOGY
81
where customers take up residence foremost, meaning the conversation
in a room that’s owned by a company, should be two-way. Hoteliers tend to
a relationship actually needs to be forget that digital marketing is not about
developed. sending someone an offer and hoping
they take it.
In terms of mobile, everything you
do needs to have a mobile capability.
To take that a step further, mobile
engagement needs to be first and
 82

Mobile optimization is one of the basics of digital marketing.

The online experience has evolved so much that it’s no
longer a laptop environment. Meanwhile, agencies are
still presenting laptop versions of website wireframes.
They should really be presenting a website from a mobile
perspective first, followed by the laptop. It’s kind of a

SHIFT TO A MOBILE shame we’re stuck in this desktop/laptop mind-frame

when the consumers are already progressed to the mobile
FIRST MINDSET
environment.
MARK WONG
 83

COMPLEMENT
TECHNOLOGY WITH
HUMAN INTER ACTION
MICHAEL BENNETT

We like to think of a technology platform that complements

digital marketing as a seamless customer relationship
management (CRM) solution that resides in a hotel to manage
what the human layer of CRM simply cannot, including:

Communicating with guests online, on mobile, or email

when they’re considering booking

Catering to guests while they’re in residence at a

property
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Delivering targeted and personalized marketing campaigns

Encouraging guests to book again

Ensuring data privacy across all technology systems

unique records. What is important however, is to

All in all, CRM plays a big part in completing the guest journey
not only use the data captured to entice guests
and making the unnecessary, clunky aspects of travel,
with seamless technology, but to also provide
seamless and a delight to experience.
personalized human interaction at the right time,
with the right information for every guest to create
The sheer amount of data that can be collected on each guest,
those unique, unforgettable moments.
multiplied by the thousands of guests that may pass through
the doors of a large hotel in a given year will always call for a
CRM software system that can handle this huge number of
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T H I S G U I D E has touched on so
many significant points that must be
considered as a digital marketer in
the hotel industry, and all should be
taken on board. From staying on top of
industry trends, understanding digital
marketing advancements to fine tuning
your strategy based on your marketing
analytics and data, we’ve covered it all.

Two fundamental aspects of this guide

however should be considered at the
very basis of your digital marketing
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strategy before getting started; know your brand
and your audience from the get-go; understand
your guests’ journey - from path to purchase right
through to their return to your property. These
two aspects of your strategy will flow through
everything you do and enable your guests to
understand, through whatever marketing mediums
you use, who you are and why they should pick
your property.
Technology has an incredible
way of complementing these
strategies too. From
understanding data, to
team collaboration
to guest
empowerment,
we see day-in-day-out that hoteliers are able to
learn more about their guests, communicate with
them using the right message, at the right time,
through the right channels and learn from their
results and data. This in turn, allows for more
surprise and delight moments for guests during
their stay or during those important moments
before they decide to book with you again. You
know when you’re on the right track when those
moments start turning your guests into brand
advocates.
Michael Bennett
Senior Vice President, Global Marketing, Cendyn
NEXT STEPS

We invite you to join our mastermind

community on LinkedIn, where you can learn
from an elite group of hotel marketing experts
and get answers to your most pressing
challenges.

If you liked this book, which we hope you did,

we’d love for you to share it with your friends
and colleagues on Facebook, Twitter, and
LinkedIn using #HDMGuide.
 A BO U T CENDY N
ABOUT WEBCANADA
Our 20 years of success in the
For over 20 years, WebCanada has
hospitality industry shows that we
been helping hotel brands grow
don’t just have innovative solutions
online commerce with affordable,
– we have products that are tied to
easy to use, comprehensive digital
proven revenue producing business
marketing tools that really work.
models. That means we understand
We are a group of experienced
your struggles. We’ve been on
technology and digital professionals
your side of the table and we know
focused on empowering people
how to make your life easier and
everywhere to achieve.
more successful. We know what is
Do you have a question, comment working, right now. Just ask any of
or compliment? Contact us at our over 30,000 hotel clients.
marketing@webcanada.com
Do you have a question, comment or
Learn more at webcanada.com compliment? Contact us at
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