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Joao agrees with the vast majority of his travel colleagues when he says that it is crucial to have a modern online presence as the number of Internet users is increasing daily. Being online is their way to put their hotels in the upfront for a broader audience and be visible to potential clients.

Tivoli Hotel’s challenges this year are to reach as big a number of people they can. But their main challenge lies in the social networks, being the main ones Facebook and twitter, which they are already targeting. They have done some interesting experiences to increase their friend’s base on Facebook. By providing special promotions targeted for Facebook friends only, they were able to multiply by 4 their reach on Facebook. Big hotel chains will have dedicated teams to work on their social media but the reality of small independents is quite different. The good news is that shouldn’t leave you behind.
Another issue for them is to increase their presence on their business to consumer websites, where the product is sold. This is a common problem for many hoteliers that would like to sell their inventory on multiple websites. An increasing number is finding the solution to this problem with the use of the Portable Booking Engine.

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Jorge doesn’t doubt when saying that it’s “Paramount” to have a modern online presence. He explains that nowadays everything gets conducted online and says that if you don’t have a presence online you’re not competitive, although service and those who handle the service are as important as what you promote online. But it’s important to keep in mind that you do need to be competitive online to maintain your competitive stature.

Like so many industry players Jorge is worried about the current state of the international economy and predict that the challenge this year for him and his team is to remain competitive with their rates that they can promote online and keep their clients informed by keeping their website updated.

He adds that it’s vital to have a good product that you can display and promote online.

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Julio considers that having a modern online presence is more important today than ever before because of the amazing reach that the internet is providing, not only to the internal market as American hoteliers are used to, but also to the worldwide market. This means that we’re living now in an crucial time and this is especially true for the hotel industry.
The big challenge is really to stand out from the competition. Having a website that is professional and is able to correctly transmit the look and feel of your property. In Julio’s opinion, one of the most important things for this year is related with revenue management. Hotels in the past years have tried to stay competitive by lowering their prices to a point that has become somewhat unsustainable. The challenge now is not to undersell and to be able to generate the maximum profit for the hotel’s inventory at each specific season.
For the small hotelier, managing their online revenue hasn’t been easy. To make things worse today’s market is much more competitive and not having the right price at the right time could mean a lot of empty beds. Some properties were able to take control of their online business and had amazing results.

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How important it is to have a modern online presence? “Critical!” According to Phoebe, The Roger Smith is investing a lot of time and energy, not only in their property website but also on the social media of their hotel, blogging and video content. The challenge is to stay authentic, real and dynamic. Today’s consumer is looking for the hotel’s personality and what makes it different. To be able to have this conversation with your customer, to have interesting stories to tell could be the key to differentiate you in such a competitive market and get the attention of new customers.
To be able to have this agility and to create and publish this content fast and easily can make a huge difference in an hotelier’s life. Better yet, to know once you publish them, they will be spread into your social media outlets. WOW, wouldn’t that be great?

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It’s funny how the best examples for the small hoteliers come directly from the biggest guys in the industry. I mean, you can’t get much bigger than Vegas?!
The first thing that Larry points out is that most hotels had their budget reduced. What they found through the internet was the ability to reach more people with less money. Better than that, the web is a place where you can measure your reach so you really know what works and what doesn’t.
Larry gives a funny example about the mysterious ways of the web; over 25 years ago. Life magazine considered highway 55 as the loneliest road in the US. The State picked on that and developed a campaign where they created a survival kit with all the info needed to get to Las Vegas (http://travelnevada.com/documents/guides/survival_guide.pdf). Nowadays, 25% of Highway 55 travelers are Europeans that are discovering the survival kit on the internet. This is due partly because smaller independent properties are acquiring a strong online presence and promote the kit.
As far as the biggest challenge for this year, what Larry points out is really one of the major problems for the smaller independent hoteliers: to keep up with all the changes and to know how to maximize social media for their hotels. TripAdvisor is a challenge, Facebook is a challenge, Twitter is a challenge. The good news is once they manage to find their balance and leverage these tools and social media for their hotels, they can start filling those rooms. We totally agree!
Hope to see you soon Larry, but next time, let’s do this in Las Vegas!

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Regarding the importance of having a modern online presence for hotels, there are no doubts in Jacques’s mind; it is an absolute necessity. Having 65% to 75% of their business driven by the internet means that they are obliged to be modern, inventive and innovative online. Jacques knows that his viewers come from all different sources of online content, it may be from their website, their pictures online, their hotel Facebook page, their hotel Twitter page, from OTA’s content, from Trip Advisor or other sources of informative websites. That makes the internet their most important sales & marketing tool right know.
Because of all the different outlets available online, the biggest challenge for Jacques and many other hoteliers is to effectively combine all the content from the different outlets and provide some sort of continuity between all.
Informed people like Jacques know exactly where they are and where to move next and this is one of the key factors in today’s world. If you are not as informed as he is you could immediately conclude that all these things can only be achieved by larger hotels with dedicated teams for the job and therefore, you as a small hotel could never aspire to do all these things. The truth is that you can. It’s actually not that hard.
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Dieter’s job is to make the Austria brand unique and that poses some challenges that are very similar to the challenges that many hotels face every day; sometimes it is not only about pricing. It’s about the feelings and emotions that a country or a property can transmit on their website that can make the difference. Specially because a hotel website nowadays can provide good quality picture, great content and video and that can make a web visitor feel the property before arrival. Most importantly, all this information can and must be updated over time so that visitors know the hotel is ”alive”. How you present yourself online should always go accordingly to your brand.
As far as challenges for next year, no big surprises as Dieter faces the same challenges as many other travel industry players: to be found online and to have a website that attracts visitors. Now, when it comes down to how to make this happen, Dieter and his team have some interesting ideas. The area of social media has presented some challenges in the past year and they’re trying to overcome these by creating content that is not written nor posted directly by them. What they’re doing is to create collaborations with bloggers that write content independently, so this way all the content becomes very authentic. What they do afterwards is to share that content in their network and thus creating a multiplying effect with these good words.
Taking advantage of all these new constant tolls and channels seems quite the mission impossible for the smaller hoteliers, as they have something quite important that takes most of their time: running their hotel. So the big challenge is how to improve and gain visibility of your brand in a fast and modern way. This should be so easy that you could do it yourself.
Something that is really important is to monitor what these big companies with big budgets are doing and try to replicate the good ideas on your business. If you think about Dieter’s example, you probably could do something similar by asking your guests to write something about their stay and share it on their social network.

For Sonja there are little doubts regarding to stress that the Internet has become the most important channel to reach out to customers. Better yet, it is also the cheapest way to do it. Sonja didn’t forget about one important issue: to be visible on every search engine out there. This is really important as most travelers do start their search on OTA’s or on Google. One of the emerging trends however is that people are now asking their social network about a good place to stay before they actually start their search.

Despite the crisis people will still be traveling in 2011 and for Sonja, the big challenge for hotels next year is just to be visible. There is an increasing competition but if you are offering a good deal, good value for money and you are able to have it visible and bookable on your website, you’ll do well. It’s that simple!

Long gone are the times when there was the need of a large budget and a great deal of time to build a strong online presence. In fact, for most hoteliers, the development of the hotel’s website was almost seen (and felt!) like having a baby, due to the time they consumed and headaches involved. Speed is really one of the key points to create a strong online presence because it provides flexibility to test different approaches and see what works better with your customers. One question: Are you able to change your website and your offer quickly and by yourself?

Brendan was very clear about how important the online has become this days as the main tool to promote and sell. In the past there was some controversy specially surrounding social networking but now with the proven reach that the Internet provides it is absolutely essential that hotels have a strong and modern online presence. Nowadays Brendan is looking for more and more hotels to add them to Visit Scotland and empower the visitors with wider options.

Regarding next year’s challenges for hotels, Brendan hopes to see hotels turning their online presence bigger, better, brighter, using it to its full potential. If they can do that, they’ll do well. And it is that simple really. Today, contrary to what happened some years ago, it’s not that hard for a small hotel to excel online. In some aspects, smaller hotels can adapt quicker and test different options. Speed is really the key to adapt to the new online traveler. Are you ready?