Mobile marketing for hotel by Tine Thygesen

Tine Thygesen

- 5 easy steps to make your hotel competitive on mobile

Mobile marketing essentials for hotels

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Everplaces Global travel community, most

authentic design & foodie travel tips

TripTaleWorld’s best travel app builder

for brands and DMOs

We know a bit about mobile travel…

52% consumers used mobile device to book travel Laptop 48%. Mobile Marketer, March13

Why we are even having this conversation:

Setting the scene: The challenge that is OTA strength

What started as a great source of new guests has become a challenge:

- Transparent pricing squeeze margins - Very high commissions - Less direct relationship with guests

Status: Independent hotels online bookings: 76% OTA (70% average) 24% Own sites

On mobile it’s worse. Here most hotels are losing further ground to OTAs

- OTAs: 64% of mobile hotel bookings 2012

- Hotels: 36% on own mobile sites:

Source: PhoCusWright

This is a big problem because mobile hotel bookings are growing fast...

- 27% hotel bookings already via mobile on Orbitz (fifth OTA bookings by Americans)

- Mobile & tablet hotel bookings have risen 12 fold since 2010 (PCW)

- Las Vegas already gets 30% of all hotel bookings from mobile

Q4 2013

And here comes a multiplying factor Same-day bookings

29% now book within 24h of their stay:

Same day bookings intensify problem for hotels because same-day means mobile

- 65% of mobile customers on Orbitz are booking hotels for the same day

- 70% of mobile bookings are for same-day stays (PhoCusWright)

Purpose built apps

Example. HotelsTonight: - 5m downloads - 100 employees, - $45m investment In three years. Just opened Europe office

Around 20 similar apps

Same-day bookings includes whole new group of mobile-first OTAs

Conclusion: If hotels want to turn the tide. You need to fight back - wont be easy - wont be fast - not everything will work but it is your best chance for long term thriving

Action plan

1.Improve mobile landing pages 2.Encourage time spent on your own sites 3.Build more loyalty with existing guests 4.Make it easier to book and buy services digitally 5.Quality matters

30% of traffic on many travel sites come from mobile, serve this fast and accurately, or loose that deal.

Motivation 1. People stay 2.08 min longer on optimized sites (IAT) 2. Many booking decisions start on mobile and tablet, even if actual booking is on web.

Mobile-web specific behavior: - Be fast! You have 2.5 seconds for the page to load - People want to-the-point info: Booking, address, contact - Bring booking almost to the top & make easy to buy, use existing systems to avoid credit card entry

1. Optimize mobile optimized pages

The first step to grab more direct bookings is to encourage and reward people to stay longer on pages you control:

Web - Great, multiple visuals - Lots of detailed info incl. maps with local area - Review and UGC from TripAdvisor, Instagram etc.

Mobile web - See previous slide. Less images so its loads quick

2. Keep more traffic on own sites

Example of traffic retention: Use travel tips to make your website more interestingMaps and images with stories and tips for the neighborhood. Needs images or map, not just text.

‣ A content CMS (like Everplaces) can feed into content widget on your site

‣ Requires no technical skills ‣ Alter via mobile and

computer ‣ Updates every 24h

Use a CMS, then it’s easy to add content to web (and app)

Build on existing relations -guests -frequent guests -existing community and spread the word from there

3. Loyalty & secondary awareness from sharing of existing customersParadigm shift happening: from awareness, to inside-out marketing which is focussed on getting your existing relations to share the word. Because building awareness has become too expensive.

- Apps are a flexible format, yours can be made totally to your requirements

- Offline information, only digital communication which does not require roaming

- Ongoing dialogue with guests

- Multi language, fast and effectively

Why apps are the right tool for hotel loyalty

Trend: Right here, right now!

Apps work because people travel less prepared, therefore they need location based, practical info they can trust:

‣What’s near me now (eat, see, sleep) ‣How do I find it and get in contact ‣Map has become a platform where people search directly

Specific search after discovery stage. Percentage of smartphone owners that used it to look up:

• Hotel address/directions – 29% • Attractions/ things to do near my hotel – 23% • Places to eat near my hotel – 22% • Read a hotel review – 22% • Compared prices & availability – 21% • Booked hotel room – 18% • Received price alerts for hotels – 18% • Looked up ground transportation – 17% • Cancelled a hotel reservation – 10%

TNOOZ

What people do on mobile regarding hotels

Loyalty app functionality‣Personalized (remember their preferences) ‣Easy pay (pre-stored payment info) ‣ Info surrounding neighborhood ‣Maps (offline/ online) based on your location ‣ Info about hotel services ‣Time saving (check-in, check-out)

- Centered around exact location

- Personal tips (concierge in pocket)

- Tailored to target group (in this case design)

- Distributed like the map at reception

Customized guide app by Hotel Alexandra, a service extension

Measuring success of your appMost apps that fail, fail because they’ve got wrong, non-specific goals.

A successful an app doesn’t need 1m downloads, it has to solve a problem for you: - alternative to paper brochure/map - make important info more handy - speed up check-in etc. to reduce wait

So it’s ok if apps are deleted after stay (brochure would be thrown out too), ok with low download numbers (is a loyalty tool, not awareness) - As long as they serve a purpose first.

Up-sell with mobile payments‣Pay with mobile is now going mainstream (in-app,

proximity-based, mobile pay, wallets, skype)

‣ 26bn spent on mobile commerce in app 2013 (IAB)

‣Mobile ticketing to jump the queue (check-in)

‣ Apps can be used to sell more to guests (Book massage, spa, bike, tour, table in restaurant, room service, before dinner drink, toothpaste, late checkout, internet.)

Consumer side: Must be really really easy, to combat low trust barrier

Hotel side: Avoid expensive integration till you see it works. Start quick and easy to test: 1. Initially make system which just notifies your staff. Items goes on normal bill. 2. Later integrate with finance system, or use known payment (skype, google wallet,

Easiest way to start with mobile up-selling

Notifications to service & up-sell

‣ Send deals based on location (happy hour)

‣ Built-in automatic location-based notifications

‣ Future will enable more relevant messaging, less spam

Many early apps for hotels were too poorly made to be successful, this gave a false negative experience. To make guests use your app:

‣ Easy to use (not too much info)‣ Visual and nice design ‣ Actually solve a problem for guest

5. Quality required

Visual design example

Recap - mobile marketing essentials for hotels

1.Improve mobile landing pages 2.Encourage more time spent on own sites 3.Build more loyalty with existing guests 4.Make it easier to book and buy services digitally 5.Quality matters

The real purpose behind it all

‣ Creating great memories, and being a part of those positive experiences

‣ And nudging customers to book more, and book directly

What if it could also work for you?

Can we help?

App costs from €1500, incl. all technical management.

Everplaces will give 10% discount if you quote #epoque14

By Tine Thygesen, @tahitahi

Thank you!

Considering an app for your business? Contact [email protected] for great help!

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