Our Top 10 Articles from 2016: The Story So Far

Our Top2016articles from

10

The Story So Far

Which topics are making waves and what are you, ourreaders, most interested in?

We’re a little over halfway through 2016, and we thoughtwe’d take a look back at some of our favorite pieces fromthe year so far. These are pieces that have generated themost conversations, turned the most heads and inspired us

to look at issues affecting independent hotels from newand interesting angles.

Individually, these articles give insights into the nitty-gritty details of revenue management, digital

marketing and driving direct bookings. Together,though, they’re a great look at which topics are

resonating with the industry as a whole.

Take a look:

The past few years have given birth to a wide variety ofrevenue management ‘best practices’ and tools. What’s theequation for success? These 10 key trends are the ones to

take advantage of if you want your profits to soar.

Direct bookings are no longer an alternative to third party sites andmore traditional booking methods. Instead, they're becoming a

major priority for multinational hotel chains. What can independenthotels do to build their direct bookings, though?

A good book direct strategy is near the top of most hoteliers' liststhis year. Booking direct is becoming the way to grow profit

margins. We’ve created an in-depth list of 4 areas your book directstrategy needs to pay attention to, including links to guides and

resources to help you get into the gritty details.

Net Affinity’s booking engine processes and analyses tons ofbookings every day.

These are the most interesting booking patterns from the lastquarter of a million bookings to go through our booking engine.

We’re telling you who books, how they book, and when they book.

The past two years have seen a relatively new product category hitthe market for hotels: price check widgets. They've come hand in

hand with the increasing move to direct bookings.How do price check widgets work? What are the benefits to your

hotel? Which ones are out there?

2015 came with a slew of changes, and as digital marketers focusedon new and effective ways to grow business for hoteliers, we put

some serious thought into what 2016 would bring.

Check out our predictions, and see how we've measured up so far.

How do you decide where to focus your efforts to fill yourhotel? And how do you optimise the elements you choose toinvest your time and money in? We developed 18 tips that’ll

help you get more bookings.

If you’re in the hospitality industry, you should know howimportant good, actionable hotel data is. Data is key to

making your hotel rock. We’re going to go over what kind ofdata hoteliers should be using, why it's so important, and give

you specific ways to use your data. Let’s get started.

Here are the statistics that we thought in January would bekey to business decisions in 2016. Most of these were focused

on the importance of mobile and the growing complexity ofthe customer journey. Here’s the numbers and how we hoped

they'd drive your success this year. How have we done?

With this guide, you’ll learn how to plan, launch and track amarketing campaign for your hotel. Marketing campaigns help

fill an off peak season, reward loyal customers, and buildbrand awareness. Here are the steps to help you create that

campaign, and a downloadable version to get started.

Focused exclusively on the hotel sector, Net Affinity is atechnology, digital marketing and web design firm. Wehave collated the brightest, most commercially focused,experienced and passionate team of online marketers,account managers, designers and developers whosecombined skill set ensures our clients' online success.