Since becoming an integral, almost essential aspect of daily life, social media has grown into a force with such powerful influence that business reputations can either be made or broken on the whim of a single comment. This is due in part to its ability to instantaneously spread the opinions of countless users to both existing customers and prospects. Far from being an uncontrollable force however, for hotels the ability to influence the nature of social media posts goes hand-in-hand with the quality of services that are offered, along with the level of value that guests associate with a given service. For hotel team members, the objective is therefore centered on the ability to effectively match individual guest needs with amenities that provide the most value. By understanding and applying effective up-selling strategies, hotel employees not only foster guest satisfaction while guests are on-site, they also create a positive experience that, when shared on social media by their guests, serves to strengthen brand loyalty while alerting future guests to the advantages of opting for enhanced value services. READ MORE

How can we increase guest satisfaction scores in our establishments? The following article touches base on an opportunity that will help your establishment increase your guest satisfaction scores not just from a macro-perspective, but also from a departmental point of view. What we observed is that educating your staff and involving them in these guest satisfaction scores in more detail, will actually be able to engage your employees better and also they will be able to understand a lot of correlation of what they do, in conjunction with guest satisfaction and the service experience. By doing this, you may be able to increase guest satisfaction scores by an average of 5% overall, annually. READ MORE

Revenue Management has been defined as ensuring the sale of the right room to the right customer at the right time for the right price. While the hotel industry has made strides in achieving the goal of revenue and profit optimization at a faster and more methodical pace than before, today's guests have a greater influence on pricing and revenue management tactics thanks to the abundance of information and tools via social media. The following discusses the growing correlation between online guest reviews and rate positioning. READ MORE

As technology is rapidly evolving, the hotel industry is fighting an ever-changing battle to keep up, working to bring an ease of communication with travelers and maintain a positive image with customers. Heightened dramatically in the last several years, social media has become more prominent with guest reviews, ownership and content. Typically, a hotel's senior leadership is focused on overall reputation management, with the revenue management team optimizing all user-generated content, including social media outlets. READ MORE

For the ninth year in a row, HeBS Digital announces the launch of “The Smart Hotelier's Guide to 2015 Digital Marketing Budget Planning,” just in time for the 2015 budget planning season. This article outlines how to structure your budget so that you can shift more bookings to the direct online channel, better utilize your marketing dollars by increasing campaign effectiveness, and generate the highest returns possible from your property website and digital marketing initiatives. READ MORE